[G] TvZ 3OC Mech into bio end game

this build focuses on opening with 3 orbitals very early which will send your economy sky rocketing and at the same time allows you to turtle and amass a very strong mecharmy before you push out and totally annihilate the zerg player.

You will go from this:


To this:


And in the next minute or so, this:



this is absolutely NOT for someone who wants to go marine tank so do not attempt at all to get 3 orbitals if you plan to go marine tank

Your army will comprise of very heavy mech from start and possibly end game. Why I say possibly end game, because how you use your army, as well as how the zerg player will attack you will possibly lead to you having a bio army in the end game. I will touch on this later in the guide

Units that you will use:
Helions (Blue Flame of course)
Siege Tanks
Thors
Vikings
*Marines
*Medivacs

*these units come into play if your mech army gets obliterated

I tend to favor mech more because it gives me some form of control over the game
- helions give me early scouting and harassment potential
- thors will help reduce the effectiveness of muta harass, couple with vikings and turrets render mutas inert
- the power of siege tanks are just so overwhelming there isnt a reason why not to go mech

-one of the stronger reasons why i favor mech over marine tank is that i dont have to get 2 separate upgrades. Vehicle weapons increase the power of my entire army compared to having to upgrade both marine weapons and armour + siege weapons

- marines although they do high dmg, do not entirely prevent mutas from doing harassment dmg. also, marines are extremely weak to ling bane

this will be your standard reactor helion expand

10 Depot
12 rax
13 refinery
factory at 100 gas
*build 3-4 marines depending on the pressure youre applying (see pressure section)
add a reactor to your barracks
swap factor to reactor
drop a CC after the first 4 helions
drop a second factory
tech lab on rax
swap factory to tech lab
research blue flame or siege mode depending on scouting information (I'll get back to this later)
3rd OC goes down
make an armory
+1 vehicle weapons when armory is done

Here's the tricky part, how do you get the third OC without falling to roach pressure or baneling busts?

And how soon do you get it?

The keyword is pressure.

This is very light pressure that will force a few extra lings and maybe delay mining time for a few drones
if the zerg overreacts and makes a spine or possibly sends all his drones to attack, the dmg has been done

What you do:
After your refinery drops down @13, send your next SCV thats in production out to scout

now once your barracks is done, build a marine ASAP and rally it to where the zerg base is, or where it might be

depending on the map size you may either find the zerg base before or after the hatchery is done building (assuming they 14hatch before pool [which generally they do])

if your SCV reaches the base while the hatchery is half way done, you can drop a bunker like this:


usually the zerg will send out 4 drones or more the second they see this to take out that SCV, however due to the placement of the bunker, sometimes your SCV might move into a position where he cant get hit at all like so: (unfortunately this is a game with a friend just to show the bunker placement so thats why theres no reaction)


and finally if the bunker completes, get your marine in and leave your SCV behind the bunker to repair like so


this will end up forcing a lot of lings and maybe some spines, if they send their lings with the queen, focus fire down the lings which will in turn cause them to make a few more for safe measure after the bunker is removed

before the bunker is destroyed, get your marines out and salvage it, making the pressure even more cost effective for you

*even if the bunker doesnt complete, you would cost the drones a lot of mining time and maybe forced a few units, and in that aspect, the dmg has been done*

** in some cases, a good player will use his drones and his lings to intercept the approaching marine and kill it, so even if your bunker completes, you wont be able to put anything inside. this is fine because you would have still forced the drones to lose mining time as they intercept your marine(s)**


if your SCV reaches the base when the hatchery is complete, you can still do minor pressure like so:


effectively it wouldn't a very heavy economic impact, but you would have done some dmg, like drones losing mining time and a couple of extra lings:


and any dmg done is good

This can may seem a bit cheesy but really if your opponent has been careless with his overlord placement or does not have a drone patrolling his ramp, you are gonna inflict some very heavy dmg to his economy which will set him back very far.

basically the same thing applies, you send the SCV scout out to look for his base, but you also check for his overlord placement by the natural

if its placed in a bad spot, you can pull off a double bunker at the ramp

example being:




i noticed his overlord in a bad spot which makes him unable to see the first bunker


i drop down my second bunker


by the time he reacts my first bunker is complete and my first marine is on approach


this is what I've forced


and the amount of dmg ive done, one queen goes down as well as few lings and a spine


but the major dmg has been done

now because I know the amount of pressure I've done has been sufficient I can move on to this safely without worry of much pressure




Following your initial pressure, you can send in your helions (reactor factory opening) to do some scouting, catch a few drones if you're lucky, stop creep spreading(because you have 3 orbitals you can scan at least 2-3 times if you want), and kill lings

As you send your first scouting SCV into his base, check his for his gas:
- does he have 3 drones on gas?
depending on the amount of dmg you did, you can expect a baneling bust (has yet to happen) or fast roaches (happens most of the time)
- 1 drone on gas?
he maybe make a few roaches and send them to your base
- no drones on gas?
you dont have to worry about roaches or banes for awhile
- has an overlord scouted your base? did it catch sight of the 3rd OC?
- you drop a scan (because you have so much energy from 3OCs) and spot a roach warren building or being built


Why its important:
- If the overlord has scouted the 3rd OC very early, there is a strong chance that he might hit a timing with some roaches because he knows that all you will have are BFH, which do nothing to helions

- If you see him continue collecting gas with 3 drones, either:
1. expect a baneling bust (which should be no problem because they usually follow with lings that get roasted by BFH
2. he sends about 10-12 roaches which will end the game if you made no siege tanks or do no not have siege mode, if you made a thor it can be helpful but if the roaches break past you wall and get into the base, expect the game to end or heavy dmg to your economy.

- If you scan and spotted the roach warren, you'd better have at least 2 siege tanks with siege mode ready or the game WILL end, I guarantee it

*what you get from your tech lab-ed factory is entirely based on what you have scouted

You have 3 OCs now, 2 factories, and an armory. What do you do?

- Drop 1 more factory
- Get an engineering bay
- Keep producing SCVs from each OC until you're 100% sure its safe to move to your natural*

*You do this by scouting with your helions and scanning
if you see him making a lot of roaches, you might not want to move out until you have 3-4 siege tanks maybe a thor, and a bunch of helions to buffer.

once you've safely expanded to your natural, you need to start walling off different sections so that zerg has:
1. one point of entry to you natural
2. to run into your wall and take siege first

This is extremely important. Not only do you need to wall off your main, you have to wall off your natural as well, because a if a big clump or roaches come, even with 3 tanks you're going to get rolled over as they right up in the face of your tanks.

However, if you've walled it off, even if the roaches do approach, they have to get through the wall, and while doing so take so much tank dmg that they will either:
- all be wiped out by the time they approach your tanks
- or retreat after the first shelling


here's a few different ways you might want to wall off on different maps:

Xel'Naga Cavverns
some may know this as Tasteless' Secret Hallway, or even John's Common Knowledge Hallway, either way, wall it off to prevent ling runbys or sneaky banes blowing up your SCVs


Also on Xel'Naga Caverns
There are 2 entrances to your natural, its personal preference which side you wall off, personally, I wall off the one closest to my ramp so that if any attacks come they have to go around as well as engage my army before they even attempt to get into my main
this also a good preventative measure for mass ling runbys


Antiga Shipyard


Shakuras Plateau


Tal'Darim Altar

- After you've moved over to your natural, you need to constantly produce tanks as well as 2-3 thors (to defend against mutas) drop down more factories if need ( i have 4 and very rarely 5 at the most)

- Make a starport and attach it with a reactor
this is EXTREMELY important, after your 4th factory you should have this up immediately

- keep upgrading vehicle weapons

- You have a reactor-ed factory, always make sure to make a couple of helions and move them out to do harassment, prevent creep spreading, and if you see an opportunity to roast some drones, do it

- Stay on top of your unit production.

- Make sure to be making 2-3 depots at a time (with the amount of tanks and thors you're making you HAVE to make this many, or you can always supply drop because you will have a LOT of energy)

- Scout for the third, and any hidden expansion,

- Harass the expansions with helions if you can

- Scan for what tech hes going for, infestors, etc.
- Scan for spire
if you spot the spire, research turret range and start making a couple of turrets to defend your important structures or your mineral line



refer to my turret guide here:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=277047

You've expanded to your natural, and you've walled it off. Now you need to continue making either siege tanks or thors depending on what unit composition your opponent is going for. If you see heavy muta (and by heavy i mean from 20 onwards) you need to start making a more thors and less siege tanks, and a some vikings, 8 at the most

Your economy is going to be booming, with 3 OCs, you can have 5-6 mules going at a time, and even on 2 base you will see you mineral income hit around 2k per min

because of this high income, you are going to be producing units, constantly but at the same time build up a huge bank

if you have over 1000 minerals and have units producing, make another CC in preparation for your 3rd expansion, once its done, float it over and turn it into a planetary

if you have over 1600 minerals or more, you can drop 2 CCs down and keep producing units

Here is where you decide to build what to counter what the zerg player makes

- if you scan and see the infestation bit, and you've been seeing heavy roach play, make lots of tanks, have at least 3-4 thors

why:
- thors are not really effective against roaches even with mass repair, seriously do not bother making more than 4 thors. they are just here to act as a buffer and a sort of shield so that your tanks can take out the roaches and infestors,

- having too many thors may lead to them being neural-ed and thats bad

- your siege tanks will be doing so much dmg that roach armies of up to 50-60 roaches will melt away instantly, if you've kept up with your weapon upgrades which you should have, your siege tanks will do 65dmg vs armored, thats 2 hits per roach if you factor in splash dmg


-if you spot your opponent going heavy muta ling, you want to get a lot of thors, upwards to 6 and some vikings, but keep at least 6-7 siege tanks and make lots of BFH


why:
- if you opponent is muta heavy, he is going to magic box you VERY often, and even with 6 thors you will lose to 30 mutas

- thats why you have the vikings to come in, you need 8 -10 vikings at this point so that when against the mutas, you will have the better end of the trade off

- you need at least 10 BFH if you see the opponent going heavy ling to compliment his mutas, this way when they attack, your thors wont sometimes bug out and waste their slow attacks on lings, the BFH will take care of it

- the siege tanks are there in case of any heavy banelings. sometimes the zerg makes about 15 - 20 mutas, lots of lings and of upwards of 30 banelings, this will definitely roll over your army if you do not have siege tanks in siege mode target firing the banes



- if you spot the greater spire, start making vikings if you haven't already, and if your army is attacking make, sure by the time the brood lords reach your tanks that you are unsieged,

- if there is not ground army to compliment the corruptors, send your ground army to take out his bases, even though you will lose the air battle, he will lose his production and eventually, the game.



why:
- the best counter to brood lords are vikings of course, you wont need to make too many vikings but 8-10 is a nice number to make depending on how many corruptors or mutas are out

- the thors you have will help deal some extra dmg to corruptors


- if you spot the ultralisk cavern, immediately start mass producing marines as well as medivacs and siege tanks

why:
- it might just be me but i find that a lot of marines do very well against ultra's especially with + 3 upgrades
- siege tanks do surprising well against ultras with marines as well, and if the zerg makes some mass bane transition with the ultras, you wont have to worry about gosu splitting as much

**refer to a later section of this guide when we talk about the bio transition
- if you see you opponent going mass infestors, (like upwards of over 9-10), don't worry, you dont need ghosts, but you can make them if youre comfortable. just make lots of siege tanks

why:
- siege tanks will destroy infestors before they even get in range to neural, and if they try to mass fungal, they are probably going to splatter all over the place.

You will almost never attack until you hit around 170 supply. this is when your army reaches nearly its highest efficiency, and most tradeoffs against zerg will end up in your favor heavily

Focus heavily on turtling and inch out slightly to cover your third expansion depending on the map type.

Scout frequently to find out where his army is so that when you move out, you will never be caught off guard.

Scan for the ultralisk cavern. Generally if you spot the ultralisk cavern and following that there is a battle, you can expect ultra's very soon, if thats the case, you can collect your whole army and when you engage the ultra's you wont even need to siege, just focus fire and watch them splatter 1 by 1. Thors and tanks with + 3 weapons do an insane amount of dmg.

Scan for the greater spire, if you spot it, being made, or already made, you need to start viking production asap, if the brood lords ever reach your ground army, never siege up and never try to engage it with your ground army (mainly the thors). move far away from the brood lords and attack his base

When it gets to the late game, do not ever.. EVER go for the zergs main base. you might think, "but all his tech is in there if i destroy it he cant make units."
NO. just NO.

attack his expansions instead, slowly starve him to the point where he can't make heavy gas units like brood lords and ultras, and then end his suffering. You can usually hit and expo or 2 after engaging an army cost efficiently.

if you end up having not as good of a trade, depending on your location, you can snipe a base, take out the retreating drones ( with BFH) and then retreat and regroup

because you are playing a very heavy mech army, generally most engage are going to be extremely cost efficient for you (if you kept up with the upgrades)

however in the case you do lose a large chunk of your army, you want to be able to replenish it ASAP to continue your assault on the enemy base

i will explain how i achieve such quick replenishment (as seen in the introduction pictures)

Because you have such a high economy from 3OCs off the bat, and because you will be turtling a lot, you are going to have banked up a lot of minerals. by a lot, i mean up to 3000 or more. making more than 5 orbitals would be useless, so instead i throw down 6-8 rax with reactors

Since you also have 3-4 factories with tech labs, just pump out siege tanks from them, you will have enough anti air with marines and vikings (for brood lords) so you wont need any thors from here on out

This is how replenish my supply extremely quickly and often times this will win you the game

***Some extremely important things to note:

- after you research turret range, immediately begin researching + 1 weapons for your marines, drop another ebay and start researching + 1 armor if you want your marines to be even more overpowered.

- make sure to get a rax with a tech lab and research stim + shields as well.

- all this is done even as you're meching, so even if you have 1 rax, you are preparing for the transition to bio as a safety measure, and when you do transition over, you will have 3/3 or at least + 3 weapons marines and you will be unstoppable

- always make sure your natural is walled off

- make sure to keep your base safely turreted to prevent muta harass from doing any significant dmg, some proper turret-ing will go a long way in saving you grief ( you will have the minerals to be able to do so)
refer to turret guide:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=277047

- always scout out the zerg tech and produce the right units accordingly

- have a turret at the front of your natural and you wall offs, any sneaky burrow roach or infestor play could have a very heavy impact on your army or economy.

- always remember to turret up your 3rd and your expansions, i forget to, sometimes and take some heavy SCV deaths

- keep on top of your mech upgrades, getting + 3 weapons is always top priority over armor upgrades. You can get armor upgrades to make your mech army super beefy but i don't usually find the need to

- make sure to always expand from your 3rd onwards with planetaries and have your 3rd OC kept in your main base as a back up incase your 3rd gets baneling busted or destroyed one way or another.

- if you have a lot of minerals in bank make at least 2extra CCs (you will hardly ever need more than 5 CCs in a game)

- make sure to get your marine upgrades (stim,shields) as well as weapon upgrades as soon as turret range is done. BUT dont do so if it hinders your mech production / upgrades in anyway.

- stay active with your helions, do active scouting for hidden bases, clear creep and roast drones at every cost efficient opportunity you see

- you can send about 10-12 helions to an expansion to roast drones, this may sometimes distract the entire zerg army and make it easier for you to move out

- always have at least 4-6 helions with your main army in case of any heavy ling play, these will take care of the lings leaving your thors and tanks to destroy other important things

- never get caught unsieged when moving out

- stay on top of your scouting, scan for important structures like ultralisk caverns or greater spire.

-never use all your OC energy on mules, a nice rule to follow is to keep at least 150 energy in total, or 50 energy on each orbital for scans or supply drops

- if you do pull off a double bunker at the ramp, never over commit to it, remember its just pressure play.

- if you see some heavy broodlord - infestor play, make sure to start making more vikings, get 2 more starports with reactors up.

micro is key here, continue to use your vikings to snipe the broodlords. Split them up into small grps to minimize the effectiveness of fungal/fested terrans.

while your vikings distract the infestors, you can position your tanks into a more favorable position and use the vikings to bait the infestors to get splattered

- do the same thing if you see heavy corruptor broodlord play, 2 more starports and drop more vikings, send you ground army away from the broodlords and take out some extra bases. if you lose a lot of your mech army like the thors etc, replenish with mass marines, tanks and vikings.

- if you do transition over to marines after you lose all your thors, up against infestor play, split your marines into small grps, stim and send them forward to sniper infestors and minimize fungal effectiveness.

here are some replays of me using this build on the ladder

Repaly 1
+ Show Spoiler +

Replay 2
+ Show Spoiler +

Replay 3
+ Show Spoiler +

Replay 4
+ Show Spoiler +

Replay 5
+ Show Spoiler +

I believe that this build is extremely powerful when you keep on top of you macro upgrades and proper scouting.


I never need more than 60SCVs
Watching the replays, you can see that my income is always around 1.2k and shoots up to 2k at some points

I also believe that the end game bio transition is a a good counter for the dreaded broodlord into ultra combo that was often seen ripping through many terrans

Foresight and preparation is key in this build. Preparation for harassment and the foresight for marine transition or quick army replenishment will help turn the tide for you

Finally, the comparison for units lost is always way higher for zerg compared to myself. The cost effectiveness of the mech army is just too devastating.
let me know what you think of this build after trying it out and discuss