tvt help plz..

I know at least one of you is looking to improve your TvT game so I will try to help by giving you some high level ideas of what goes on in my head in this match up.

There are several different build orders and the builds themselves aren't as important. You can watch replays and experiment to find them all out and how to react properly. I don't want to cover build order at all.

TvT is about map control and PATIENCE. I know many of you think TvTs are drawn out (and they can be) but for me they usually dont last any longer than vs zerg or toss.

There are several key areas on the map that you have to try to control. Try acquiring these one at a time depending on how your opponent is playing.

Key areas (in priority order):

1. Your main base!
2. Enemy choke
3. Your choke
4. Enemy ledge
5. Your ledge

1. Your Main Base

I list your main as #1 because too often terran players are over extended or plainly too agressive and weak at home. I often see expansions being better defended than the main base. This is very bad and an experienced player will scan multiple spots for a landing spot. Having an expansion or two wont matter if you lose all your factories and supply depots!

Make sure you always have troops at home. Don't leave your base undefended unless you are certain you cannot be dropped.

2. Enemy choke

The idea here is to restrict your enemy's movements. He will be forced to try and break your containment which is almost never cost effective or to use drop ships. If you have forced your enemy to move about the map using drop ships then you should be able to track his every attempt to attack. You do this of course with turrets and frequent scans. Build turrets EVERYWHERE you think a drop ship might want to go.

The best way to protect an area is with a few tanks and a few turrets. Use goliaths for offense along with tanks and for defense tanks plus turrets. Make sure your tanks are always separated for maximum efficiency. Reinforce positions as needed.

3. Your choke

For the same reason you want to control the enemy choke, he will want to control yours. You have to try and deny him setting up a containment but dont worry too much if he initially sets one up that would be too costly to break at the time.

If you are contained, you HAVE to use drop ships to return the favor. Control his choke immediately! This will keep him from reinforcing his position at your choke unless he uses drop ships. You should then be able to break the containment with a larger force.

A few tricks on breaking containment:

a. Use a few SCVs to get slaughtered by tanks while you get close enough with your army to siege the position.

b. Use an ebay or barracks to float into turret range and draw fire while you use drop ships to land on top of tanks.

4. Enemy ledge
5. Your ledge

Depending on the specific game these could be important. I would say early in the game they are relatively important because it is an easy way to slow a player down. If you are controlling the enemy choke and he is not controlling yours then it is very easy to expand anywhere on the map with just a few tanks and scvs to make turrets while the command center is building. That is why the ledges are so low on my priority list.

I normally dont bother too much with taking the enemy's ledge. It is low on priority. I much rather take his main if I can. His ledge is more of an opportunity scenario. If I see it open I take it.


Misc:
Most of the time you can win the game with some good drops and initial choke(s) control. When it is clear that the enemy base / expansion are too heavily defended then you just continue with denying the enemy expansions while continuing to build your map control and expansions. I find it easiest to win TvT's where he is turtled in with BCs + tank support.

Don't forget your main task at hand is to control as much of the map as possible. Soon his main and natural expansion will dry up and is forced to sacrifice large numbers of troops simply to break containment, much less to actually hurt you.

Early in game dont bother with a 1 or 2 tank drop! SCVs alone can kill 2 tanks. If you are going to drop, use goliaths or vultures.

Vultures are awesome btw. Use them as much as you can. Spider mines can delay enemy expansions and if you get them into their base can kill SCVs very fast. Also, placing mines around factories is good so anything that comes out is killed immediately.

Always produce tanks / gols at home and keep a control group of dropships. Use drop ships to attack and to defend positions.

In the end the player with the extra gas mine should win the game.

On March 28 2005 21:11 mahc wrote:
thx for reply..is 1 fact 1 port not so good?

On March 28 2005 21:11 mahc wrote:
thx for reply..is 1 fact 1 port not so good?

On March 29 2005 05:14 ToKoreaWithLove wrote:


I love that build. If you go gas before rax you can get cloak and siege fast. The only thing that really owns 1 port 1 fac is 2 port wraith.

On March 28 2005 22:41 randomKo_Orean wrote:
btw, I aim more for longer games (my strategy is to contain and take the map and then go mass wraith or osmething

On March 29 2005 09:21 EAGER-beaver wrote:


I love 1 fact 1 port because nothing owns it, it's so versatile and can be instantly used to go on the offensive vs any build. Not even 2 port wraith really bugs it, you should scout and see the double port which gives you plenty of time to switch to goliaths or research really fast cloak (depending on what your opponent does) to buy time for a quick expo + turret/academy cover. This build is just dificult to pull off effectively because you have to micro your wraiths and tanks very precisely and know exactly what your opponent is doing early on.