[G] Synystyr's TvP Anti Colossus Build

DISCLAIMER: I don't recommend this build to any players below High Platinum/Diamond level. Timings are very very finicky and you need to know how to survive by the skin of your teeth. Players who do not have good unit control and/or have subpar macro will most likely be crushed convincingly.

http://www.gomtv.net/2011gslsponsors3/vod/65132

Update 3; 12/2/10: The build order has changed. Now, three mandatory bunkers for defense have been added to hold off early pressure. I've also updated a lot of out-of-date points for a cleaner and more up to date post!

Update 2; 12/1/10: Revamped the replays! These are much much cleaner replays against better players with lots of different scenarios! Also includes my first loss replay! Check em out! Also added a Applying Early Pressure tab for those of you who love to be aggressive the entire game.

Update 1; 11/27/10: Added a Transitions tab and a Response to Early Pressure tab. This should hopefully answer any questions with defending a 1 Rax FE.

I am current a ~2400 pt Masters League Terran. I've played Starcraft 2 since launch, and a bit of Brood War (mostly Fastest Map Possible xD), so I know my way around this game well enough.

With this build, I have 95% win rate against Protoss and recently won the Giantbomb Community Tournament with heavy usage of this build

I created this build because I, just like every other Terran player, despise something when we play against a Protoss. This something, is that ONE UNIT that Protoss have that we hate to go up against! You guys know what unit I'm talking about.



THE COLOSSUS

As Terrans, we HATE to go up against this bad boy. With it's 9 range, and excellent mobility, it is the weapon of choice for Protoss to slice through our bioballs with ease. What I hate most about going up against these is how to kill them. You might think, "Well just get vikings and kill them HURRDURR". Well, in my experience, vikings don't kill colossi NEARLY quickly enough, and just a few shots on your stimmed bio wipes it out almost instantly. Literally one misclick and lose your entire army. Stalkers standing in front of the colossi and under the vikings can easily snipe those precious Colossi-killers. I wanted to find a way to deal with these monsters of a unit, without having to lose my entire army in the process.

After much TL lurking, I came across an interesting thread with a very interesting point:

Banshees do more DPS to Colossi than Vikings

Hmmm....interesting! I read on further about this, and saw the argument that vikings are more cost-effective, as they have a longer range than banshees and can be reactored out of a Starport to quickly mass numbers. The consensus among the posters was that Banshees were not the answer to Colossi.

I disagreed. And after playing a few games with this point in mind, I created the FE 4 Starport Banshee build, better known as THE ANTI COLOSSI BUILD.

Well, this isn't a very conventional build is it? Let's dissect it!

The heart of this build is to get a critical mass of banshees out against your unsuspecting Protoss opponent in a quick and safe manner. Everyone fears the banshee. I mean EVERYONE! These cloaked killers can wreck a mineral in seconds if left unchecked. What people fail to notice however, is their above average air-to-ground DPS!

Banshee:
140 HP
12 Dmg x 2 Per attack
0 Armor
150 Minerals, 100 gas to Make
Light Classification
3 Supply
17.6 DPS

Well, as many of you have tried, when you go 2 Port Banshee, those stalkers rip through your banshees easily. However, en masse, these maidens of the sky are UNSTOPPABLE! Instead of using them as a harass unit, I added these as a part of my main army. In 12 minutes of game time, I can spit out 8-10 banshees. What's going to kill that?! Of course the obvious answer is the staple unit of the Protoss.



Stalker:
80 HP 80 Shields (160 EH)
10 Dmg (+4 vs armored) per attack
125 Minerals, 50 gas to make
Armored Classification
2 Supply
6.94 DPS (9.72 vs armored)

Simply put, the answer to banshees as Protoss is the stalker. However, there is one VERY crucial thing to note about this unit matchup.

The Banshee is a Light unit!

As a light unit, the banshee only takes 10 damage per shot from the stalker, which allows the banshee to take 14 hits before dying to one stalker, whereas it only takes a banshee 7 shots to kill a stalker. In a one-on-one encounter, the banshee flies away with half its health left. Unmicroed, A Protoss would need twice as many stalkers as there are banshees to win an encounter. Very reasonable for a Protoss, as mass banshee is not part of the current PvT metagame, and stalkers are very easily spammable. But when faced with 8-10 banshees 12 minutes into a game, this changes up VERY quickly!

An average midgame Protoss army against a Terran consists of a mixture of Gateway units, 2-4 colossi and 1-2 observers. This build will give you a sizable army of combat shield marines with stim (~30), 8-10 banshees, and a raven. If you know anything about the Polt Timing attack, you can already tell this is that composition on steroids. Eat your heart out.

Also, if you deny scouting well by using your Thor, your opponent makes Immortals! I've had quite a few opponents go mass Immortal Zealot after scouting Marine/Thor. Guess how well that works against Banshees =]

Refer to this thread on how to open 2 Rax FE with Bunkers (which is what this build uses)

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=185963

10 Supply Depot
12 Barracks
14 Barracks
15 Orbital
15 Marine
16 Supply Depot
CUT MARINES AT 13 (Fills 3 bunkers + 1 scout), Nonstop SCVs
26 CC @ Natural
26 Supply Depot
27 Refinery x2 ---> 3SCVs on each gas
30 Bunker x3 @ Natural's Choke
(Numbers are inconsistent at this point, will just lay basic building timing out)
Orbital @ Nat
Double Gas @ Nat -> 3 SCVs on each gas
*Important* Factory -> Tech Lab -> 2nd Tech Lab when first finishes.
Armory + Starport when Factory finishes
Starport -> Move onto empty tech lab when finished
Cloak + Raven + Thor
Get 2 Thors and start Banshee production

At this point, you have to deny scouting with your Thor/Raven. After;

Build Barracks #3, Add 2 reactors + tech lab to Barracks
Starport x3 ---> Tech Labs when finished
Make Banshees, Marines, Stim + upgrades. Push at ~11 Banshees.
Start 3rd Base, build a Fusion Core and get Ship Plating upgrades

10 Supply Depot
12 Barracks
13 Refinery -> 3 SCVs
15 Orbital
16 Marine -> Tech Lab on Barracks after Marine completes -> Stim + Constant marauders
16 Supply Depot

(Numbers irrelevant from here on out)

Research Stim -> Conc. Shells after Stim
2nd Barracks -> Constant marines
Command Center at Natural once minerals build to 400 (~35 supply)
Take 2nd Gas + Factory
Orbital at Natural once CC completes -> CUT MARAUDER PRODUCTION -> Constant Marines.
Double Gas at Natural as soon as CC finishes, maynard ~10 SCVs.
Add 1-2 Bunkers at easiest choke to defend.
Starport after Factory completes -> Tech Lab on Factory -> Hotswap Starport onto Tech Lab
Raven -> Deny scouting
Start 3 additional starports + 3rd Rax, Reactor on both barracks.
Constant Banshee production.

This is a macro-based build. I prefer to do this build on maps with an easily defendable natural, so I chose to exempt Delta Quadrant, Scrap Station and Blistering Sands from my map pool. I am also explaining this build with the assumption that you looked at the build order and can refer back to it.

We open with a 2 Rax CC at 26 supply. The reason we do this, is because this is a VERY gas intensive build, and we'll need those extra geysers the expansion to fund production from 4 starports, as well as having 2 Rax to fast expand allows for a very solid early game defense. Scout with your SCV that made the depot and look for any signs of cheese or deviation from the standard. Deny scouting as much as possible with your marines.

As soon as your command center finishes, you'll want to start rallying your marines in front of the natural to defend any pushes. Get those bunkers up ASAP! Bunker at the choke to COMPLETELY wall it off, and fill with marines ASAP. Create a control group of auto-repairing SCVs in case you need a fast pull. Cut marines when you have 13.

The build is focused on teching fast while defending early pushes. Your starport should follow immediately after the factory finishes, and you'll want to get that factory shortly after your bunkers go up. The build is focused on teching fast while defending early pushes. Your starport and armory should follow immediately after the factory finishes, and you'll want to get that factory shortly after your bunkers go up. Thor/Raven is a great combo for killing the observer quickly and allowing you to at least get your starports built without being scouted too quickly. The next step is to add another Barracks while you put two reactors on the other two, and then grabbing a Tech Lab on the new one to research Stim/Shields. Now, with your newly finished Starport, you'll want to get cloak researching and make a raven along with a Thor from your factory. Get 2 Thors for optimal observer sniping.

I cannot stress how IMPORTANT the raven is to this build

Get it first, get it fast. This will help you deny scouting as much as possible. Loop around your base to clean out any observers with your marines and raven so that you can hide your tech as much as possible. Scouted, this build loses potency but is still EXTREMELY powerful, but unscouted, YOU WIN.

Make sure you take advantage of any watchtowers on the map, extra scouting is key. It's helpful to sac a marine or two into the enemy base to get a better idea of the army composition you'll be facing. Constant scans help extremely well also. If the enemy went Colossi, you are almost guaranteed TO WIN.

You'll want to grab those 3 starports shortly after killing the observer. Once those are finished, add tech labs and crank the banshees out. At this point, your marines + raven should be plenty to hold off any Gateway aggression. Once you have 6 banshees, you can salvage the bunkers for money back. Now is the fun part. After three rounds of banshee production, you have your army and are ready to move out.

GRAB YOUR THIRD AND A FUSION CORE AS YOU PUSH OUT.

Continue non-stop production of banshees, marines and scvs. Make sure to rally your reinforcements to your army.

You'll engage the Protoss force with your marine/banshee heavy army against what is likely to have 3-4 colossi and a mix of gateway units. Perfect. With the raven, you will want to throw down a PDD (or 2 if you have energy) asap and look around for the observer that's floating in the enemy army. Cloak your banshees right away and stim your marines for fast dps. Snipe the obs with your marines/Thors. THIS IS YOUR #1 PRIORITY. No detection = autowin. This allows your banshees to do INSANE damage to everything! Because the Protoss invested in colossi, they will not have enough stalkers to deal with your banshees. Your marines are only a meat shield for the banshees, expect the colossi to melt them away. In case your raven dies and you managed to save a few marines, keep a few scans handy. You don't need the extra minerals from the MULE. Use scans to snipe obs!

If the Protoss scouted you correctly and went Phoenix, your Thors should do very well against those, as it only takes a few volleys to kill them. If it looks like you will lose the battle, salvage the banshees you have and prepare for a BC transition (Discussed farther in the post).

The dust clears, and all that's left are 8-10 cloaked banshees wreaking havoc in the enemy base. The engagement should last literally 20 seconds tops. GG. More banshees are marines should be following this up for a quick and easy clean up. Colossi problem solved.

With this opening, you are opting for a 2 Rax Stim Expand, which will give you a very mobile bio army to defend any 1 base pushes with. Your scouting needs to be a little better with this opener than the other, because it isn't quite as durable as the 3 Bunker Marine expand. If you scout early stargates or Immortals, you need to get as many marines as possible to deal with Void Rays and Immortal, as marauders will get destroyed.

This opener also allows you to apply early pressure if you choose to do so. More information regarding this push can be found in the Applying Early Bio Pressure tab.

You also will not be able to get two Thors out with this opener as your gas will be spent teching faster than the other opener because you will not have the luxury to bank gas, but rather spend it on early defense via Marauders + Stim/Shell. However, MM + Bunker will give you a solid defense that you can constantly add units onto, rather than sit on only 12 marines with the other opener.

You transition out of your Fast Expand just like you would in Build Order 1. Get the Raven out first to deny scouting, and then add on the additional three Starports to begin Banshee production. The rest of the build flows just as it should as soon as the Raven pops.

Defending 1 base pushes with this opener will be very similar to the other opener, as you will still have a couple of bunkers to help defend, but a sturdier army to defend with. Stim+Shell will give you a lot of defensive power early on, especially if your micro is good. So long as you constantly push units out and don't get caught off guard because your scouting was poor, then your Stim Expand should be more than enough to hold off anything.

The point of this thread is to give Terran a lategame that holds up against the massive AoE that Protoss gets which demolishes bio. No matter how you open, you can transition into Banshee play and I believe that should be the goal of all Terrans, as I feel that it is the most powerful option against Protoss.

The two options of early pressure I like to use to do damage and expand safely are:

2 Rax Stim Timing Push
Concussive Shell Rush

With 2 Rax Stim, you open standard, grab a tech lab after your first marine, and begin stim while making a second barracks. Produce constant Marines and Marauders and push when stim finishes. Your push should consist of 5 Marines + marauders. DON'T OVERCOMMMIT. This is not a game ending push, but rather one to do a little damage and let you expand safely. Snipe what you can, retreat if you get overwhelmed. Use your remaining bio to defend your expansion and add bunkers as necessary while teching for Banshees. You probably won't have the income to support Thors with this, so skip them and go straight for mass Banshee play.

Concussive Shell Rush is a quick push with 2 Marauders and 1 Marine with the slow as your weapon. You can win games with this quite early if you have the micro to kite zealots and pick off the stalkers quickly. Again, don't overcommit, pick off what you can and then get out. Same deal as a 2 Rax Push really.

The great part about these pushes are that they force the Protoss down the Robo tech tree, as they most likely expect the standard mass bio transition, which you totally dominate with Stargate tech. Good use of mindgames

Once you have your army and are ready to push, it is very important that you micro your army properly, because this army is not very easily replaceable, due to the high cost of the core of your army.

When you engage, you should already have a general idea of what kind of army composition you should be facing. If your scout denying went well, then you should be looking at a Colossi + Gateway army mixture. Otherwise, you may see Stargate units or fast Templar tech.

The general rule of thumb when engaging is to follow three simple steps:

1. Double PDD from Raven
2. Stim Marines and snipe Observers
3. Cloak Banshees and spread/micro

When you push into the Protoss base, you should have capped out the energy in your Raven. This allows for two PDDs and really helps you shut down the AA of the Protoss.

By far the most important part of this push is to snipe the observer as fast as possible. No detection means you can take out the entire enemy army. Banshees are faster than all of the Protoss ground units and can give chase and snipe any fleeing units.

Against Colossi + Gateway

When facing Colossi + Gateway, be prepared to lose your entire ground army to the push, as the Protoss will have built an army for that purpose. Your banshees will automatically focus fire any stalkers or sentries in that army, and should easily clean up anything left behind. This is the ideal situation.

Against Stargate

When facing a Stargate composed army, it is important to note what is there and if you can win the fight. If the composition is Phoenix heavy, RUN AWAY. It is absolutely not worth it to trade your Banshees for killing the Protoss ground army. His army is much more easily replaceable. However, if you were able to take out the Observer, kill everything you can, but do not chase into the Protoss base. Pull back, get your BCs out and push back in. If you can do some harass with a Banshee or two, go for it.

If the Stargate composition is Void Ray heavy, then judge if you will be able to take them out with your Marines. Take out as many Void Rays as possible, then fall back if you were not able to deny detection. This army composition isn't nearly as scary as Phoenix based one, but you still do not want to overcommit in the slightest. Pump out a couple rounds of Vikings to deal with them and then get BCs with Yamato. Yamato is a huge game changer vs Void Rays.

Against Templar Tech

Engaging against HTs is completely dependent on your storm dodging skills. Banshees have a nasty habit of stacking on each other when they engage, so you need to be very wary of storms on top of them. The best way to handle this is to split your banshees up as much as possible to mitigate storms. It takes 2 full storms to kill a banshee, so keep moving as much as you can to try and soak three storms or more.

Feedback is not an issue simply because there are too many banshees to feedback. If the Protoss decides the Feedback your banshees, then he sacrifices storms and your marine army will be much more powerful. This is by far the most dangerous composition to face because you can lose all your banshees very quickly if you mismicro. However, if you can dodge storms, this should be a very easy composition for you to face.

Protoss Early pressure can come at you in a few ways, mainly the 4 Gate timing push, 3 Gate Robo push and 3 Gate Stargate with void rays. In order to deal with these in an efficient manner, you need GOOD SCOUTING! More will be explained in detail below....

4 Gate Pressure

4 Gate used to be a solid counter against this build. That is no more. Now this build opener destroys it. With 2 barracks, you instantly fill all three of the bunkers right at the 4 Gate timing, which is all you need to crush this push. When the push arrives, simply pull the SCVs from your natural (which you have in a control group with auto repair enabled), and repair the bunkers. I have yet to have a 4 Gate get through my bunkers. Beat the push and you have a HUGE lead with a high chance of a win.

What you want to scout for when looking for a 4 Gate is:

1. Saved Chronoboosts!!! This is the largest implication of a 4 Gate
2. 1 Gas for an extended period of time. 4 Gate only needs 1 Gas to be effective.
3. No sentries. Sentries are usually not mixed in with a 4 Gate as they cut away from the DPS of the push. If you see a sentry, expect an expansion rather than a push.

You'll want to be looking for these key features when scouting/scanning. A proxy pylon is also very common. Some locations may be your gold expo on LT, the outside ledge, or just outside your back door rocks or ridge on Jungle Basin. Patrol marines in this area to deny proxies.

3 Gate Robo

We're talking about a fast and early zealot/stalker/immortal push here. This push will hit when the Protoss has 1-2 immortals, and depends on how quickly they built their Robo, whether they went 1Gate-Robo-2Gate, or 3-Gate-Robo. Either way, defending this push is very similar to holding the 4 gate off.

You're going to want to focus fire the immortals as fast as possible to minimize the damage against your bunkers. Immortals aren't too great against marines, which your army will already be heavy with, but they do a number to bunkers. Superior focus firing and clutch SCV defensive pulls are what will help you stop this push. This push comes later than 4 Gate, but has more potential to break your line. Be wary!

3 Gate Stargate

This build focuses around Void Rays doing the majority of the damage. What the Protoss wants to do here is use the Void Rays to spot into your base and warp past your bunkers using a proxy pylon. You NEED to have a Marine patrolling the edge of your base so you can stop any possible proxies, otherwise your defense will be bypassed and you'll be in big trouble.

On 2 barracks, you can make plenty of marines to deal with the void rays, but you need to scout for the Stargate since you will have already cut marine production prior to the push. Force engagements at your bunkers, or pick off stray Void Rays and you'll be in great shape going into the midgame.

Any form of a Fast Expand

A fast expanding Protoss is a non-aggressive Protoss in the early game. Expect thorough scouting of your base however. You'll both be on even level in terms of economy, so getting your tech to go unscouted plays a huge role here. As long as you have solid macro and can deny scouting decently, you should be just fine. 6 Gate Allins can be tricky, but you deal with it as you would with a 4 Gate, and you'll have your tech to back you up here.

DT Rush

A very fast DT rush (8 minutes) comes just before a Raven is available. They won't be able to bypass your wall if you're repairing however, so as long as you get a Raven immediately following the Starport, you'll be able to take of any DTs quickly.

Blink Stalker Rush

Aye....this push is by far the most difficult to deal with. The blink stalkers bypass your bunkers without too much trouble and can kite marines infinitely. The best thing you can do is skip your raven for a cloaked banshee and hope that you can minimize as much damage as you can while your thor and banshee build. The best thing you can do is try and get surrounds with your SCVs, which you HAVE to pull, and pick off as many stalkers as possible. It's nearly a hard counter here, so do your best with micro and stall for your banshee.

In the strange case that you trade armies with the Protoss, you'll be forced into an awkward position, where your number of banshees isn't as effective anymore, and you have barracks only really suited to pump marines. Where do we go from here?

Battlecruiser Tech

When you move out with your initial push, you're grabbing your third and throwing a Fusion Core down. Upgrade Ship Plating as well, as this is the most useful upgrade for your BCs as they'll mainly be there to tank damage more than deal it out.

A third base with Gas allows for constant BC production out of 4 Starports. However, you don't want to mass BCs too heavily because of their subpar DPS. It's all about finding the right mix of BCs to Banshees. I've found 2 BCs out of 2 port and 2 Banshees out of the other two works perfectly.

Protoss Anti-air is subpar when dealing with BCs. Stalkers en masse can deal with them, but with banshee and marine support along with MULE calldowns for repairs, stalkers are hard pressed to kill these bad boys. The second response is Void Rays, which can be dealt with by the Battlecruisers themselves, or with supporting marines. Make a couple rounds of vikings if you opponent invests heavily in Void Rays to take them out quickly. Either way, a Battlecruiser transition brings out the biggest weapon of destruction against Protoss and can swing battles into your favor.

A fast Stargate with lots of Phoenix do very well against this build, along with either chargelots or Colossi to clean up the marines. However, with two Thors in your initial push, Phoenix can get shut down very quickly as long as you snipe the obs and let your banshees reign free.

High templars are either hit or miss, depending on how storms land. The AI of the banshee will make it so that they stack quite a bit while hitting their targets, so try your best to spread your banshees as much as possible to mitigate the AoE. Once the initial storms are used though, the remaining banshees will usually be able to take care of everything.

Feedback is a non-issue. There are just waaaaaay too many banshees to feedback effectively, shutting down one of the avenues a Protoss might try and use to beat the banshees.

Anything that bypasses the bunker wall hurts a lot. The worst is a Blink Stalker Rush. Be diligent about scouting for warp prisms/proxies and get a cloaked Banshee out ASAP if you scout Blink.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1VXb_DoHfc&feature=player_embedded
TLO vs Farmer (EPIC!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxIM6IZ-rSU&feature=player_embedded
TLO vs Socke

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXaaB46dtAg&feature=player_embedded
TLO vs Grubby Game 1

http://day9tv.blip.tv/file/5097368/
Mass Air Funday Monday (Watch Game 1!)

http://www.gomtv.net/2011gslsponsors3/vod/65132
Jinro playing Sky Terran in GSL Code S vs San


Myself playing at PAX East against a Master Protoss named Thomas!

Live Cast from JP McDaniel in the Giantbomb Community Tournament! (Game starts at 2:00)
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/12361326

Battlecruiser Replay Pack: http://www.mediafire.com/?7n2jrj6rt2abo

Standard 2RaxFE+Bunkers:
http://www.mediafire.com/?wq4gns2v8bmw3ou (MASS BC vs HT/Stalker!! MUST WATCH!)
http://www.mediafire.com/?11fd1lm6akc5kdf (vs 3 Gate Sentry Forcefield push)

http://www.mediafire.com/?q8z7yniqhc9idv3 (vs DT Rush)
http://www.mediafire.com/?o6ekblh96jpaugb (vs HT Rush)
http://www.mediafire.com/?myhb67vvt4bk7dv (vs Gateway+Storm)
http://www.mediafire.com/?6sn5gw29na5m9pk (vs Gateway+Storm)

+ Show Spoiler [old] +

2RaxStim into 4 Port Banshee Play:
http://www.mediafire.com/?t6waq1w2y860gpl (vs Phoenix/Colossi ft. BATTLECRUISERS!)
http://www.mediafire.com/?2sl7gr66j9g6mq3 (New Map)
http://www.mediafire.com/?542dsk9knvy66lf (New Map2)
http://www.mediafire.com/?p129g9sg7x22w89 (beating 4 Gate)

http://www.mediafire.com/?biegq7bqeqra6s3
http://www.mediafire.com/?vdb363i5kja8537
http://www.mediafire.com/?jgqq5cfn6g3lk50
http://www.mediafire.com/?wxns928xnr1bbod
http://www.mediafire.com/?fy4qlhv9445ki8t

+ Show Spoiler [old] +

Losses:
http://www.mediafire.com/?x5s7r3f8c9p2nbm (maphacker, but shows proper unit counter)
http://www.mediafire.com/?3c4k8a6tlca0ph4 (how NOT to dodge storm and throw a win away)