I'm stoic (my current b-net nick is eterNo), a dedicated 2v2 gamer from team Megashock, always trying to find new builds and strategies for the PT and TT teams, that are struggling with the mobility of Zerg and especially the dominating position of the TZ lineup. Usually I play with my Protoss ally Luisbor (we are ranked #1 worldwide on blizz ladder at the moment) but the following I developed together with my friend Lukking, a mid diamond player and the inventor of the so called "Falcon Punch"
Now I want to present you a specific 2v2 build for double terran teams. What makes this build viable, interesting and also fun to play is that you'll improve as a team every time you perform it. It contains harassing, mapcontrol and especially both players microing the same army at the same time.
The Basic Idea ex ante:
The goal is to get 4 medivacs before the 7 minute mark and a Bio Ball with Combat Shields done and Stim research at about 60%. That's possible, if one player rushes to medivacs and shares control. This is a build that makes you commit to some point but should not be regarded as an all-in. There are several ways to follow up.
But first of all the Build orders. For reasons of simplicity we call player one "bio" and
player two "medic/medivac".
There are 2 different build orders for every player, you will have to decide on your own which ones you might use/combine considering maps and matchup. You gain some insights into our thoughts and decisionmaking if you continue reading.
bio1 (pretty standard 2rax with addons)
10 depot
12 rax - build one marine - add reactor after asap - constant rine production
13 gas
15 OC
16 rax - add techlab when finished - constant rauder production
17 depot - this scv keeps making depots
26 combat shield - start stim shortly before CS finishes
~40 rax - add techlab - constant rauder production
bio2 (reaper into 3 rax)
10 depot
12 rax - instant techlab - one reaper - two marines - then constant rauder production
13 gas
15 OC
16 add 2 rax - produce one marine out of each - add 2 reactors
18 depot - this scv keeps making depots
21 combat shield - stim after
medic1 (standard hellions into reactored Starport)
10 depot
12 rax - build two marines - add reactor asap after starting the factory
13 gas
15 OC
16 depot
18 factory
20 depot - scv keeps making depots
21 gas
23 swap factory and rax - make 4 hellions
27 starport - swap with factory after the 4 hellions are made - make 4 medivacs
~32 build 2nd reactor at the factory - constant hellion production
medic2 (low eco hellions into reactored Starport)
10 depot
11 gas
12 rax (cut one scv here) - add reactor asap after starting the factory
16 factory - use the worker that made the rax if possible
16 reactor at rax
16 OC
16 depot
17 swap factory and reactor - make 4 hellions
22 gas
22 depot
23 starport - swap with factory when finished - produce medivacs
28 add another reactor at the factory - constant hellion production
From this point on the build order will differ from game to game. You should push
(or at least start poking/harassing) before the 8-minute-mark. The 4 hellions should provide mapcontrol before, therefore have to be microed properly. Stim might not be finished yet, but that shouldn't prevent you from moving out. Based on the damage you can do, you'll have to decide either to go into a macro-orientated game or gear up for a second, bigger, all-inish push.
Before we come to some thoughts on how to play this strategy, we'll eventually need the map discussion first:
We veto
- Scorched Haven
- Ruins of Tarsonis
We are still arguing about vetoing either Molten Crater or Tyrador Keep. Anyway one of these maps has to be included. Reaper helps a lot on these maps so I'd always choose the reaper opening for player 1 (bio2) on these maps. All other maps are quite okay for "non-zerg Teams".
Next thing i want to do is to state some points that might help you get into this build.These may even make you recognize the viability and variablility of this build:
- Never (!) open fast hellions AND reaper against ZX teams on maps that are not
Molten Crater or Tyrador Keep. Cannon rush and/or 6/8/10-pool, which is quite common in 2v2, would kill you right away
- The medivac player has to share control before the first hellions are coming out. This helps to keep the hellions alive, which is quite important. The bio player might also share control, but that's a matter of taste, some people may experience this as hindering.
- Scouting has to be done by the medivac guy, send out an scv early enough to detect early aggressions/allins like Baneling bust, Cannon rush, early pool etc. You have to rely on bunkers and adding more marines than given in the bo's above as a response.I feel like sending out the scv after the first depot done is the righttime to scout. Check for pool, gas timings/skips , expos (in exactly this order). Also the reaper often provides useful scouting information.
- Once the medivacs are on the field, try to keep "in contact" with your opponents army, get advantage of the fact, that your army is healed and his is not. Try to poke here and there, get an edge in army supply, stim and stomp him only when you feel confident, very often it makes no sense to commit, even with medivacs behind you :-).
- Notice that you cannot load your bio army in "foreign" medivacs, this would make it even more ridiculous. Players might need time to get used to it.
- We use the reaper opening primarily against PT and TZ teams on maps with big cliffs. Those teams are playing quite greedy these days. one reaper is often not just able to scout their tech but also to kill a bunch of workers. It also has a good synergy with the initial hellions, since you can poke at two fronts at the same time
- Always try to wall off, even though there can be problems with adding techlabs and reactors. It denies scouts sometimes and helps against early aggression with offgates, lings or/and CR involved.
- You can almost instantly switch to vikings if they go Air or Colo. Use your scans to find out. You should switch to vikings anyway after 6-8 medivacs since you will be running out of gas then. But try to refill the medivacs that got lost.
- This does not rely too much on the income of the mules, so save at least one scan for moving out, burrowed
banelings and dts can be hard counters to this build if you don't pay too much attention to it.
- The medivac player is the one to expo first, he usually expos right behind the first push with 4 medivacs. The Standard transition should be Hellion+Tank+Viking. The bio player usually expos later at about 70-80 supply.
- While keeping the pressure at the front up, load up 4 hellions in one medivac and drop in their eco line.
- I'll add more and more points to this list over time
Replays:
This is a collection of replays containing all matchups and all maps, victories and defeats. Most interesting are those, where we delay/change our gameplan due to early aggression or the ones where we get punched very hard because of not sticking
consequently to the rules we imposed ourselves.
http://drop.sc/238997
http://drop.sc/238998
http://drop.sc/238999
http://drop.sc/239000
http://drop.sc/239001
http://drop.sc/239002
http://drop.sc/239003
http://drop.sc/238996
http://drop.sc/239112
http://drop.sc/239115
http://drop.sc/239114
http://drop.sc/239113
http://drop.sc/239111
http://drop.sc/239400
Enclosed, the visualization via YT:
And finally some related stuff:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=359497
- well written thoughts on gameplans and safe openings for PT/TT Lineups, thanks to Vega62a
Stream:
See us perform the build on Lukkings Stream :
http://www.teamliquid.net/video/streams/2Vs2Lukking
Lukking and I had a great time working on this strategy and writing this guide, hope you enjoyed reading it. We are thankful for any criticism and suggestions on how to improve this. You can also message us on EU server. Add eterNo#285. Greetz to Geiko, Luisbor, Richy, xeno, killver, EnDeR, Gaemtoss, aNai, seedor, ManBearPig, doLife, TaShadan, atan, Prochobo, West and PYMPLee.
regards, stoic1987 & Lukking