Terran Basic Strategy

The Story:

Although all races follow some similar basic ideas in SC, each race has some things they're exceptionally good at. Therefore, they each have a set of basic strategies that they need to follow.

Some basic Terran strategy templates:
"The minister of defense":
Terrans have the best defensed in the game hands down. Bunkers are your first measure of defense. They alone will save you from zergling and zealots rushes. As soon as your first barracks finishes, you should be building a bunker for your marines. The more the better- but make sure they cover important areas and cover eachother. Early on you'll want marines in them, but later on it's good to have a mix of 3 marines and a firebat (or even all bats against zealots). Some players put ghosts in bunkers, but this is a waste.
Against air targets, terrans have their missile turrets. They're cheap, easy to get, do good damage and have a very fast rate of fire. Plus, they're detectors. They're a very important weapon against cloaked wraiths and mutas.
To make terran ground defense even better, they have siege tanks and siege mode. Their massive damage will wipe out a ground force with ease. Always remember to put tank in front of bunkers, too.  A web of siege tanks is very difficult to power through.
So, use these great defenses, but don't rely on them to win you games.
Oh, and again, firebats in bunkers fry zealots!
Don't play "Sim City":
Far too many terran players simply sit in their bases and build up their defenses. This will never win games. You may fend off early and mid-game attacks, but you won't stand a chance against late-game weapons. You'll be stuck at home, while your opponett is expanding everywhere. In the end, you'll simply be starved of resources.
You need to go on the offensive! Terrans pack a punch! You may think a marines and firebat rush would be stupid because they're generally "weak" units. The stim pack upgrade is a wonder of the game and something that isn't matched in any way in SC. Stim roughly doubles marine and firebat (after 1.04) attack rates and increases movement rates by 50%. Large groups of stimmed marines crush zerg, and swarms of stimmed firebats are a major problem against the protoss.
In mid-game, you'll began to get the siege tanks. Ok, so you park them behind you're all-important bunkers. They wipe out anything that attacks you by ground with amazing efficiency. Why not put them on the offensive? When backed up by marines and better yet, goliaths.
Don't think that you can win every game by going on the offensive- it takes time and practice to master these skills. But, in the right hands, terrans are a force to be reconed with.
You're underestimated:
The Terrans have very little respect amongst many players. They believe that they have no real offensive power and can't defend them in late-game. Prove them wrong! Use your defenses to hold them back... and when their army is defeated, strike back at them! A good terran siege is hard to beat. In the air, cloaked wraiths are very effective. Players may say that they'll always have a detector around, but they rarely do. And you've forgotten the amazing nuke... they'll hurt even the most experienced players. There's far more to the terrans that most players believe.

More coming soon.

Back