Terran Strategies
General Strategies and Tips
- Hotkey the Comsat Station (yes, you can do that) to 9 and 0. This way you can get a Sensor Sweep quickly without having to click on your Comsat Station. You can get a sweep on demand by pressing the station key and then S. Getting a Sensor Sweep can be critical if your troops are under attack from cloaked units, because the sweep will reveal enemy unit locations.
- For defense, build Bunkers (filled with Marines) and Missile Turrets together and place Siege Tanks beside them. This combination provides an extremely tenacious defense that's very difficult for the enemy to penetrate.
- When both Comsat Stations and Yamato Guns become available, use them together to take advantage of the Yamato's superior range. For example, when you want to take out a Missile Turret, sweep the Missile Turret area with a Sensor Sweep and then target it with the Yamato strike. The Battlecruiser will move in to take its shot but it will still be outside the Missile Turret's range.
- This is a little underhanded, but it can be very effective: Build a Factory or Barracks behind the enemy's position and start cranking out units for a back-side attack. If you can't afford to build there, or can't get an SCV to that position, fly an existing structure into position and then begin building.
- Use the Scince Vessel's Irradiate ability on biological units. This can be very effective, even against Templars or Defilers.
- Use Bunkers to prevent enemy movement. Place them at any choke point the enemy must squeeze through to advance. Before it's destroyed, a carefully placed Bunker can do huge ammounts of damge to the advancing enemy.
- Use Bunkers in a "leapfrog" tactic (as (+)FIRST-KNIGHT puts it), building them one after another, ever deeper into enemy territory, with the previous Bunker protecting the Bunker under construction. This method is particularly useful against the Zerg.
Against the Zerg
- Build lots of Firebats. The Zerg are an organiz race with mostly ground-based attacks. Firebats are always a cost-effective unit to use against Zerg ground minions.
- Use Battlecruisers more for defense than offense, especially in multiplayer games. This is because the Zerg Scourges can take out a Battlecruiser for half the cost. In a resource battle, you'd lose.
- If a unit becomes infected with a Parasite, the enemy can see everything it sees, so use the infected unit to fight the enemy. Never keep it around your base. Only when you play (+)LordVanquish, or esspecially (+)FIRST-KNIGHT, keep it in your base, other wise, don't keep the infected unit in your base.
- Take out enemy Guardians at all costs. A group of Gaurdians can reduce your base to rubble very quickly. Keep Wraiths or Battlecruisers around for this purpose.
- Whatever you do, don't leave an outpost Command Center for the Zerg to infest. If this happens, you'll quickly have Infested Terrans blowing up around you, and that isn't pretty, really, it isn't, hehe.
- When attacking a Zerg base, always take out the underlying tech-tree buildings first. You may be tempted to go for the Hatcheries, but you can cripple your opponent more by taking out the structures necessary for building advanced units. Take Zerg structures out in this (or any) order: Spire, Ultralisk Cavern, Hydralisk Den, Spawning Pool, and Queens Nest.
Against the Protoss
- Again, Firebats are important, but only against Zealots, so don't go crazy building them. Make just enough to keep Zealot groups at bay.
- Build Ghosts for defense. They're a little too expensive to produce in bulk for offense. However, when an enemy Carrier or Reaver comes by, you can use the Lockdown ability to neutralize them.
- Use Science Vessels. Their EMP ability is especially effective against the Protoss (it removes their shields). The EMP is as effective for attack as it is for defense.
- If the Protoss and employing Arbiters, use a Yamato Gun to take them out quicky and reveal cloaked units.
- Watch out for Observers. They cloak and will locate your own cloaked units. Use a Comsat Sensor Sweep to check for Observers in areas where you plan to use cloaked units.
- Keep Missile Turrets around your entire base as an early warning system. If this technique prevents just one shuttle from dropping a pair of Reavers, it's worth it.
