TvP

If you didn't set an SCV on a Probe Straight Away then you Notice that they've built Probes/Cannons/Gateways in your Base, first thing to do is to stay Calm (Keep building SCVs, Depots, etc). Build a couple of spaced Bunkers (to Contain them) facing them, just out of Reach of the Cannons. Also don't let them build a Cannon within Range of your Mineral Line, this is very Important, take it out straight away if your see them try too! While all this is going on you should have still Built 2 Barracks w/ Tech Labs. Have a couple of Marines Defending your Bunkers/Base, then Spam Marauders at their Base. (They Spent a lot of Early Minerals Building a Base in your Base, which was a Waste 'cause you Contained it, leaving their Main Base very Vulnerable, especially to a 2 Rax Marauder Push, take out their Probes First).

 

MMM: Early Marauder Aggression - Step-by-Step
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOiAy9HOuX8

 

Ok again, I struggle so hard against toss. My problem is, that they always seem to outproduce me. When they attack they always have many more units. I attach two replays. In the first (Steppes) one sees that especially in the beginning that I cannot immediately break his contain because he simply has more stalkers. I know that I make many more mistakes, that I sit on minerals and that he is outexpanding me and so on and so forth. But my problem is especially the beginning where it seems that I can never get enough units out. I lose so often against toss pushes with zealots and stalkers. From this follows the rest: If he doesn't push I sit in my base, get outexpanded and then lose to a massive army.

In the second replay (Jungle Basin) I try to avoid the mistake of the first and get many more production buildings - and lose to his army because I mostly built buildings instead of units.

What do I need to alter?

 

Remember to keep building SCVs and don't get supply blocked. Try an MM ball with Siege Tanks (~5), Banshees (~5), and a Raven.

 

I faced an interesting strategy in TvP. The opposing protoss went colossi, phoenixes, and void rays, with only very few gateway units. The idea was that colossi quickly kill all my marines, and then the phoenixes and void rays are completely uncontested and destroy everything else. I couldn't think of a proper counter, I tried spamming vikings but I just didn't have enough starports to keep up with the void rays and phoenixes, and making marines out of my 8 barracks was pretty much wasted minerals.

So after thinking about the game, I thought of three possible counter strategies.

1) Get 3+ reactor starports and spend all gas on vikings, and any remaining minerals on marines. The idea is if they have lots of colossi but only a few air, the vikings can win the air battle and then pick off the defenseless colossi. This I feel is the weakest option, because if the opponent has more air forces (extremely likely considering the only reason to go vikings is if you scout him massing air for this strategy) then all the vikings die while the marines cannot participate, which is essentially why I lost the game in question.

2) Get 3+ tech lab starports and make battlecruisers. This is very similar to option 1, but slightly better as phoenixes deal very little damage, void rays get one-shotted by yamato, and BCs are much stronger against all ground units. Still, it has the same problems as option 1, in that the enemy has time to mass enough void rays that there is no hope to counter it with just battlecruisers.

3) Get mass thors and marines, research 250mm strike cannons for thors, and use that to stun and destroy the colossi while the marines fight the air units. This option sounds the most plausible as it doesn't rely on trying to beat a mass air protoss at their own game, and the whole terran army can fight at the same time. Void rays could possibly kill the thors before 250mm strike cannons finish off the colossi, but that can be somewhat remedied by bringing SCVs to repair.

What are your thoughts on this unorthodox composition?

 

Could someone please give me feedback (esp on the first one)?

 

Hey man, I've been busy as hell recently with mid-terms and tons of studying to do, so didn't really have times to watch too many reps, or even devote any time to things starcraft-wise appart from trolling around here..

Anyway, just watched your first replay and have some comments to make... Generally it's the other way around, btw... Protoss are the ones who have problems with early marine-marauder pressure as MM balls obliterate early protoss gateway units.

Anyway, what you did wrong:
One thing is that you cut worker production early. At 26 workers you just stopped producing them when a single base needs 30 for saturation and if you plan to take an expo then you need another 30 for that. Your opponent on the other hand had more than double your amount of workers.

Thing about expos is this: You can only produce so many units from an expo. For a protoss it's generally around the number of units 4 warpgates can make per production cycle. For a terran I'm not compeltely sure, but I guess it should be around 4 barracks with their respective addons or something similar?
Which means that expo timing is a very delicate matter. Having 2 bases saturated means that you can double your unit production buildings and keep producing out of all but then when you have all these buildings it'd be a waste no not keep expanding since they will become unusable once one of your 2 bases gets mined out(so you're back to the income of a single base).

Working of one base(which is what you did) is good for games that are aimed to end fast, and that means lots and lots of aggression. If you don't manage to make considerable damage to your enemy and he out-expands you with few losses then he gains a significant advantage(like your protoss opponent did relatively early in-game).


In your game you ended up with 6 unit producing structures all with their addons, which is too much for a saturated base to support, and you'd also cut worker production before saturation. So even if you tried to you'd be unable to keep producing due to lack of resources.

Also early on, you didn't keep building stuff from either your CC nor your barracks. Which lead to both a weak economy and in turn a weak army. If you kept making those scvs you'd have a much bigger income, and if you used that to keep making marines and marauders and teching their upgrades you'd be able to make a very good timing push as soon as stim popped out, allowing you to take your natural expo. Then you'd strengthen your economy, increase your production capabilities and keep producing more units per cycle.

Also when you encountered those stalkers that raven could have helped a big deal with a pdd.

Now on taking expos: You knew that the enemy had a robo so you should suspect him having good scouting with a couple observers, so trying to ninja an expo you are completely unable to defend was a really bad idea. Another bad idea was taking that leftmost expo. If you needed to defend it form an attack you'd have left your main completely vulnerable. So you should always aim to get expos alongside your attack path so you can defend them while being aggressive.


You should generally practice your macro for now, and that is building your economy and keep the stuff you make active(keep your buildings producing workers/army/upgrades, keep your army scouting and poking etc). After these there are other stuff you can work on, but they are secondary at this point, so I won't add them. Focusing on too many things is generally not good for learning...

Hope this helps! Send more replays when you think you've worked on these and need anything else,
cheers!

 

What does MMM stand for?

 

Marine Marauder Medvac

 

Stirlitz mate, thanks a lot for your long and deep analysis!
Sorry it took me so long to reply, have a busy week behind me.

I think, the first thing I have to work on vs toss is getting more early units out. I have realized that normally toss feel at a disadvantage against an early mm push, but with me it's always that I have fewer units. And I think the problem starts even before one has normally saturated the main. Prolly I have to learn some build orders...

 

Don't touch build orders at this point, they'll do more harm than good... Refine your play by trying to maintain awareness around these things:
-Resources
-Map
-Supply
-Map

and have a few units take forward positions like Enemy ramp and xel'naga towers, and leave the rest of your focus to simcitying...
Hell, if it becomes confusing doing all these, just focus on macroing up and building a basicly solid army that can do well against a mix of units, but without spreading your tech tree too far and your forces too thin