PC - Starcraft 2

By: Furious Paul - October 31, 2013

Starcraft 2 Terran Units Strategy Guide

Starcraft 2 Terran General Terran Tips:
You should always build your first supply depot and barracks at your chokepoint, and your second supply depot at your choke point to totally block it off. You can raise and lower supply depots so your units can move past them. You will need to do this to stop any kind of rush, especially zealot or zergling rushes. So totally blocking your choke point as Terran is an important thing to do.

Sometimes if the opposing protoss player is building gateways just right outside of your base, you will be flooded with zealots quick. In order to stop that, you will NEED to build bunkers and quick. If the protoss player has his gateways inside your base, then build a bunker right next to your command center. If it's right outside of your base, then build a bunker right behind your chokepoint. Remember, you can have your rally point for your barracks go right into your bunker.

Remember if your choke point buildings are being attacked, quickly send an SCV (or two) to go repair it.

You should generally always upgrade your first command center into an orbital command. And I recommend doing that when you have about 15-20 SCVs out. You will want to start getting energy built up on your orbital command so you can crank out MULEs. MULEs bring in 30 minerals each time they mine, so you can gather resources very quick with them. I would only use the Extra Supplies on your orbital command if you are running out of resources to mine, or if you need farm space really QUICK, such as you are about to be under attack soon and need the ability to be able to build more units like right there at that instant. And of course the scanner sweeper comes in handy a lot, especially if you need to use it to reveal cloaked or burrowed units. Using the scanner sweeper on your opponents base to see what they are building occasionally is a wise thing to do as well. I would focus more on MULEs early on, then once the game gets going more switch to use the scanner sweeper more often to spy and see what units they are building.

TIP: When getting MULEs out working quicker: After clicking on your command center, press "E", then simply click on a mineral patch, the MULE will start mining immediately. A MULE and an SCV can both be mining the same mineral patch at the same time, this makes MULEs really efficient at mining minerals.

The command center can be upgraded to a Planetary Fortress rather than an Orbital Command. A Planetary Fortress turns it into a big defensive tower. I would only upgrade to a Planetary Fortress for your expansion bases, only if you know it might get attacked.

Remember every unit producing building the terrans have can all lift up and fly, and then land somewhere else. Here are a list of reasons why you would want to fly your buildings:

1. When expanding, you can build your command center behind your choke point inside your base, and then once it's built, just fly it to the expansion site and land there.

2. If your buildings are being attacked by units that can only attack ground, you can raise your buildings up so they cant get hit. Remember though to keep your barracks at your choke point still so the enemy can't get inside your base.

3. You can transport your buildings to an area where you have built better defenses to protect them better.

4. You can fly your buildings close to your enemy to get units out faster to attack them.

5. You can load units into your command center and then fly it to an island to create an expansion base.

6. You can fly your buildings to different "attachment buildings". For example, if you have a Starport and have created a Tech Lab, and now you want a Reactor instead but don't want to build another starport, you can simply lift up your Starport, land someplace else and then build a Reactor. You can then always fly back to your tech lab if you need that.

Keep in mind any reactor can be used on any barracks, factory, or starport. So if you built a reactor for your barracks early on, and then later want your factory to have a reactor, you can simply lift your barracks up, and then fly your factory down on that reactor.

Remember that Terran buildings will keep burning if they are in the "red" zone and then explode if you do not repair it in time.

All mechanical units can be repaired by SCVs, so any unit produced by the factory or starport can be repaired by SCVs. Sometimes it's a good tactic to bring a few SCVs with you in your army to repair units when they get damaged during battle. Just right-click on the repair button to put it on autocast, and they will automatically repair units when they get damaged.

TIP: Remember MULEs can also repair mechanical units too. During a battle, simply call down a bunch of MULE's and set repair on autocast, and let them repair any mechanical units that are damaged or getting damaged.

Reaper Rush

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg	Brood Lord, Mutalisk, Ultralisk	Baneling, Roach	Hydralisk	Zergling
protoss	Carrier, Mothership, Void Ray	Archon, Colossus, Immortal, Stalker	Dark Templar, High Templar, Sentry	Zealot
terran	Banshee, Battlecruiser	Marauder, Siege Tank, Thor, Viking	Ghost, Hellion, Marine

Reapers are great harassing units in the early game. They have the ability to walk up and down cliffs, and do bonus damage to light armored units. They are relatively quick, and can be even quicker with the Nitro Pack upgrade from the Tech Lab. They are great at hitting-and-running vs melee units such as zealots, but not so much of zerglings due to the fact that zerglings can be faster then reapers. They have a secondary attack that is very strong against buildings, which makes them even better at harassing in the early game.

When harassing early on, your prime targets should be first their worker units, then I would go after weak buildings such as farms, or you can even try to take out their "town hall" building (nexus, or hatchery, but no so much the command center, I explain why below), if you can manage to do that then it's GG for you.

Although reapers are great early on, they are generally not a great unit to mass out, or even build at all in the mid-to-late game. They are generally only used to harass early on, the Marauder is much more cost effective and a better all around unit to have in the mid-to-late game.

I generally start all my terran builds with a few reapers, send them right over to your opponents base and keep harassing. I generally do not mass reapers out, I only recommend getting a few at the very start of the game to harass. If the harassing is working for you, then keep sending more reapers. All through out the game, you can have a couple reapers for scouting purposes and to harass even more to throw your opponent off track, but I would not build reapers to include them in your ultimate army.

I have won a few terran games with reaper rushing. But it can be easily countered. Here is a rundown of reapers vs different races:

Vs Protoss: Reapers are great against protoss if they are building zealots in the early game, because the stalker is the best counter to the reaper early on. If you see they have a stalker, then you need to stop harassing with reapers and move on to something else. But if they have zealots your in luck. With some skill you can harass with reapers against zealots all day without getting hit from the zealots (as long as they do not have the charge ability), just keep hitting and running from them. Keep trying to take worker units out, or even their zealots out. You can even try to take some pylons out as well.

Vs Terran: Reapers are okay against harassing another terran early on. Try to take out as many worker units as you can, or even supply depots. I would not bother to try and take out a command center or barracks, simply because the terran player can lift them up and then reaper wont be able to hit them then. So focus on worker units and supply depots the most. Watch out for marauders, or a pack of marines. They can easily take the reapers down. Just keep hitting and running, attacking anything they got to throw them off track.

The best way for a terran player to counter the reaper early on is to have fighting units guarding the worker units, marauders work best since they do not take extra damage from the reaper. Marines in numbers also work okay against reapers. I would also consider building a bunker at your choke point to protect that as well.

Vs Zerg: I generally never send reapers over to a zerg base. Zerglings can easily catch up to reapers and take them down, especially when they have the movement speed upgrade. Roaches will also take down reapers quickly as well. Reapers cannot kill their overlords either since they are air units. Queens pose a big threat to reapers as well. Plus the zerg can get spine crawlers quickly which will pose another threat to them. If you see you are playing a zerg player I would not even bother with reapers.

Super Reaper Rush Build Order

If you want to get a reaper out ASAP, here is the best way to do it:
7 - SCV
8 - SCV
9 - SCV
10 - SCV - Barracks - Refinery
11 - SCV - Depot
As soon as the refinery is done make sure 3 SCVs are mining it.
As soon as the Barracks is done build a Tech Lab.
As soon as the Tech Lab is done build a Reaper.

Hellion Rush

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg	Brood Lord, Mutalisk, Ultralisk	Baneling, Roach	Hydralisk	Zergling
protoss	Carrier, Mothership, Void Ray	Archon, Colossus, Immortal, Stalker	Dark Templar, High Templar, Sentry	Zealot
terran	Banshee, Battlecruiser	Marauder, Siege Tank, Thor, Viking	Ghost	Marine, Reaper

The Hellion is a new unit in starcraft 2 which is designed to function similar to the firebat in starcraft 1 (even though it does look a lot like the vulture from starcraft 1). It is a fast moving unit that can be produced from the Factory without any other requirements, and can be built 2 at a time with an optional attached reactor. It does bonus damage to light armored units. The Hellion is a great harassing hit-and-run unit early on and is great for killing worker units, even better than reapers in that case. They do not cost any gas, so if you have a lot of minerals but low gas, then consider building a lot of hellions.

IMPORTANT: I would not just start a game with the plan on rushing with Hellions. The best way to stop a hellion rush is a blocked off choke point. So as you scout out early on and see that your opponent is not smart enough to block off their choke point, then hellions could be a wise choice to get. However if the choke point is blocked, then don't bother rushing with hellions. There are other factors involved too, with specific races, in which case hellions are worth getting or not. Here is a rundown of why you would want to build hellions vs specific races:

Vs Protoss: Most protoss will go with stalkers right from the start vs terran, and stalkers are a huge threat to the hellion. And most decent protoss players will have their choke point heavily guarded. So hellions are not a wise choice against them. If you see they are building zealots without a blocked choke point, I would definitely go for hellions. Remember the worker units should be your number one goal when attacking, if the zealots come, just keep hitting-and-running from them. If they start getting stalkers, use marauders to take them out.

Most terran vs protoss battles in mid-to-late game will usually involve mass zealots (with some back up units) vs marines/marauders/medivacs. You can trick your opponent by massing out a bunch of upgraded hellions with your army to take out the zealots quickly, especially with the Infernal Pre-Igniter upgrade from the tech lab. Hellions are also very quick to dodge the PSI storm from the high templar, which the protoss should have against the Marine/Marauder/Medivac army.

Vs Terran: Hellions work great against marines, however getting through the terran's blocked off choke point makes rushing with hellions not worth it. However hellions are great to include in your army mid-to-late game for backing up your other units, and dealing massive damage to light armored units. Watch out if the opposing terran is massing marauders or siege tanks, in that case, don't bother building hellions since those units are a big threat to them.

Vs Zerg: Hellions are okay against zerglings, but in larger numbers, zerglings can out match hellions with little problem at all. The biggest threat early on for the hellion is the roach, or spine crawlers. Hellions are about an even match against hydralisks. If the zerg player tries a fast expansion with massing zerglings early on, it will not hurt to try a hellion rush against them. In that case you will want to use a reactor and crank them out in masses. In mid-to-late game hellions are generally not worth getting vs zerg.

How to effectively do a Fast Hellion Build Order:

The best way to get a lot hellions out quick, is to start off building a barracks with an attached reactor, then once you get your factory up, swap your barracks for your factory, so your factory has an instant reactor. Then you can immediately start cranking out hellions 2 at a time.

Hellion Drop (Very Effective Strategy.)

One of the best ways for terrans to quickly take out worker units, is to do a hellion drop. Hellions can take out worker units QUICKLY, so if you load up a medivac with hellions, and then drop them off at your opponents workers, you can easily take them all out fast. This is a very effective strategy and I have seen a lot of people do this in the beta and it's hard to stop. I've had people do this on me, and in an instant I have no workers. So I started doing this myself, and yes it does work. And yes the hellion is definitely the ground unit of choice the terrans have to take out worker units the quickest.

Hellion's also make for decent scouts, since they are very fast, you can scout around very quick with them.

Hellions VS Reapers

Both of these units are great hit-and-run units that serve similar purposes, but which is better? In most cases reapers are actually more useful early on. They are better at harassing thanks to their ability to walk up and down cliffs, and to take buildings out quicker. Hellions are better in masses for battles vs light armored units. Hellions don't cost any gas, so if you have a lot of extra minerals to spare, consider building a a bunch of hellions.

Marine Rush

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg	Ultralisk	Baneling, Brood Lord	Hydralisk, Mutalisk, Roach, Zergling
protoss	Colossus, High Templar	Archon, Zealot	Carrier, Dark Templar, Mothership, Sentry, Stalker	Immortal, Phoenix, Void Ray
terran		Hellion, Siege Tank	Banshee, Battlecruiser, Ghost, Marauder, Reaper, Viking	Thor

Marines are great units to have throughout the whole game. They can attack both ground and air units, and have several upgrades to make them even more effective. Marines by themselves are not that great but when combined with marauders they work synergistically together to create a powerful army (more on that later). They can also be teamed up with medivacs for constant healing.

Marines can be loaded into bunkers for protection and an additional +1 to attack range.

Here is some notes on their various upgrades marines have:

Stimpack: Researched from the Tech Lab. This increases the movement speed and firing rate for both the marine and marauder for the cost of 10 HP for marines and 20 for marauders, and lasts 15 seconds. When used right the stimpack can be very deadly and worth the minus 10 hitpoints it does. It basically doubles the amount of damage and movement speed the marines and marauders do for 15 seconds. Which could very well mean the tide of the battle for you.

Here are some tips for using the stimpack:

The main purpose you would want to use stimpacks for is the start of a battle, you will get the most use out of stimpacks during battles. Think of it this way, if you feel you can get use out of stimpacked marines for their full duration of 15 seconds, then it's worth it.
Stimpack does not stack. This means casting it twice in a row does not quadruple the firing rate or movement speed, the only result is losing twice the health.
Upgrading the Combat Shield ability at the tech lab adds an additional 10+ hitpoints to all marines, which then pretty much puts the marines at their default hitpoints when using a stimpack.
When combined with medivacs, they can be constantly healed, thus countering the loss of hitpoints they take from the stimpacks. Keep in mind you want to save most of your medivacs energy during main battles so they can be healed during battles, so use stimpacks wisely.
Remember, when you cast a stimpack, a green lightning bolt will flash on each unit, and when it runs out and red lightning bolt will flash on each unit to tell you it's over.
In 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4 games, you can use stimpacked units to run where the battles are at quicker to help your allies out sooner.

Combat Shield: This is a great upgrade that gives an additional +10 hitpoints to all marines, and it's definitely worth getting if you have at least about 10-15 marines out.

General Weapon and Armor Upgrades: Upgrades from the Engineering Bay dramatically help marines out a lot, since they are only 1 farm space unit, and have a good attack rate, weapon and armor upgrades are well worth it.

Like I said just rushing with marines alone is a bad option, you are better off getting a mix of marines, marauders, and eventually some medivacs in your army. Here is a rundown of their effectiveness vs different races:

Vs Protoss: Marines are great support units to have against the protoss. However the protoss have many ways to counter the marine. You will have to watch out for colossi, which can take down marines very quickly. You also have to watch out for high templar using PSI storm, which is also very deadly against them. Zealots with the upgraded charge ability work great against them as well, as long as it's in the open and marines can't hide behind something from the zealots. If you see the protoss is building colossi, high templar, and zealots, then you will be better off switching to hellions and vikings. Marines work great against immortals and stalkers.

Vs Zerg: Marines are a must vs zerg, and can work great against any zerg unit. When you combine marines with marauders, and even some medivacs, and you will generally always have the upper hand against the zerg. The zerg actually have a very hard time stopping the marine/marauder/medivac army. The best way for the zerg to stop it would be for them to simply tech up quicker to units like the ultralisk, or go a brood lord/hydra build. The zerg may also try to stop you with banelings (with upgraded movement speed), which can work as well.

Vs Terran: This is probably the least case where you would want to build a lot of marines against, simply because siege tanks can rip marines apart like nothing. Marauders can take them down as well. Hellions can melt them away too. Marines are effective against vikings though. You generally only want to get marines in your army as support units to back up your siege tanks and marauders.

Marauder

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg	Brood Lord, Mutalisk	Hydralisk, Zergling	Baneling	Roach, Ultralisk
protoss	Carrier, Mothership, Void Ray	Archon, Dark Templar, Immortal, Zealot	Colossus, High Templar, Sentry	Stalker
terran	Banshee, Battlecruiser	Siege Tank	Ghost, Hellion, Marine, Reaper	Thor, Viking

An armored ground unit that can attack only ground, can be built from the barracks after a tech lab is built. Does good bonus damage to armored units. They can take advantage of stimpacks and also have the Concussive Shells upgrade which slows the movement speed of any unit (besides massive units) they hit by 50%.

The Marauder works very well in conjunction with marines and medivacs. Marauders have to watch out for light armored units early on such as zealots or zerglings.

Vs Protoss: Marauders work great against stalkers, immortals, and colossi. They need backup against zealots and zerglings though, usually from marines or hellions, and later medivacs. The use of the Concussive Shells upgrade works extremely well against the protoss, especially when they try to retreat from a battle, they won't get away.

Vs Terran: Marauders are the least used against the terrans, they have no prime targets worth getting for early on. Plus siege tanks can take them out quickly. Marauders work great against Thors later on though.

Vs Zerg: Marauders will be very important for your struggle to fend of roaches. Marauders work great against roaches, but will fall short to zerglings. It is best to use the famous marine/marauder/medivac army to take out any combination of zerg armies..

Marine/Marauder/Medivac (MMM army)

Sometimes people refer to this as MMM for short. This is the basic army the terrans usually build in most games. It is a very powerful combination and is hard to stop. I recommend using this strategy a lot. I have won a lot of games thanks to these combination of units. There are some decent counters out there to stop it however.

Vs Terran: This can be very deadly against another terran player, but in most terran matchups you are better off getting more siege tanks in your army relative to marauders and marines. Siege tanks can stop this build, so you need to be careful about that.

Vs Zerg: This is probably where this strategy is best against. The zerg have the hardest time stopping this build. The zerg would have to get a lot of upgraded zerglings, and try to get hydra out to kill the medivacs. Roaches aren't too effective against this since the marauders will take them out like nothing. The best way for the zerg to stop this is a combination of hydra and brood lords, but that is more costly and time consuming to get than the terran army can get the MMM army early on. You can try a muta/zergling build against this. If the zerg can manage to kill the terran's worker units with the mutas, then it could be GG for the zerg. If you see the zerg getting a lot of zerglings, then get a bunch of hellions in your army to burn them up.

Vs Protoss: This can be very deadly to the protoss if the protoss is going just zealots and stalkers. The protoss can easily counter this with halting the stalker production and saving their gas for colossi and high templars, along with a lot of upgraded zealots and maybe a few sentries for the Guardian Shield. The high templar can use the FeedBack ability on the medivacs to take out their energy and PSI storm the marines and marauders, then the zealots can eat up the rest. If you see the protoss switching to colossi and high templars, then get a lot of hellions in your army relative to marines and marauders, that will work much better against the zealots. If they are going with a lot of high templar, then get some ghosts to join your MMM army (more on that below)..

Ghost and Nukes

The Ghost requires a Ghost Academy and an attached Tech Lab on a barracks. The ghost is not built for his regular attack, but for his special abilities. So I would not "mass" these units out. The Ghost has four special abilities, here is some notes on them:

Snipe: The Ghost snipes a single target for 45 dmg (ignores all armor), and has a long range of 10 . This ability can be queued for multiple instant snipes. When microed right, you can do a lot of "sniping" damage thanks to the queuing up of multiple units to snipe.

Cloak: The unit becomes invisible until it runs out of energy or the player cancels Cloak. This works very well with the rest of his abilities, especially for launching a Nuke.

EMP Round: The Ghost fires an AoE EMP Round that removes 100 energy and shields from any unit within the AoE. EMP Round also reveals cloaked units. This is the ghost's most overall useful spell in my opinion, especially vs the protoss (more on that below).

Tactical Nuke: The Ghost launches a nuclear missile at the targeted spot that deals 300 dmg (+200 to buildings) in a 10 range radius. It does more damage in the center, and then less outwards from the center of the strike. You need to build a nuke first at the Ghost Academy before a ghost can launch a Nuke. Nukes can be very powerful, but can also be countered decently by good players. You should always get the cloak first before launching a nuke to reduce the chance of it being countered.

Here is how ghosts work vs different races:

Vs Protoss: This is where Ghosts shine the most. Ghosts supplement your MMM army very well by pretty much making high templar useless. Simply cast EMP on the high templar, maybe twice, and the high templar will then have no energy to cast feedbacks or PSI storms. Get enough ghosts in your army to cast EMP on all of the protoss's units to get rid of all their shields, and to prevent the high templar from doing anything. Make sure you target any immortals as well to get rid of their (hardened) shields. Every time I start a terran game vs protoss, ghosts are the first thing that pop in my head. Ghosts are almost a must against them in most games.

Vs Terran: Ghosts have little use here, I would only consider building ghosts vs terran for nukes.

Vs Zerg: Same thing as terran, I would usually only build ghosts for nukes. However, if the zerg is not going for roaches, I would consider building ghosts for the Snipe ability, and snipe any hydralisks you see. You will also take advantage of the ghosts bonus damage to light armored units (like zerglings, hydras, and mutas). Snipe works well on mutas too. And later on snipe works well against units like brood lords or ultralisks. Remember to get snipes out quickly, just highlight all your ghosts and hold down the "shift key" and then press "R" on a bunch of units, and your ghosts will snipe them all doing a bunch of damage.

Viking Rush

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg		Hydralisk, Zergling	Baneling, Corruptor, Roach, Ultralisk	Brood Lord, Mutalisk, Overseer
protoss	Immortal, Stalker	Zealot	Archon, Dark Templar, High Templar, Sentry	Carrier, Colossus, Mothership, Void Ray
terran	Marauder	Marine, Siege Tank	Ghost, Hellion, Reaper, Thor	Banshee, Battlecruiser

The Viking is a great all around versatile fighting unit, and they are the best anti-air units for the terrans. They have two different modes of attack, fighter mode, in which they become an air unit and can only attack other air units. Or Assault mode, in which they become a ground unit and can only attack ground units. They are more useful in the air to attack other air units, but still have the option to go on the ground to attack only ground units.

While playing in the beta I have seen a lot of terran players rush with vikings, and only vikings. It is an effective strategy, but I can't really say it's a really effective strategy. If you rush with Vikings you will be well prepared for any air units, but you would be in trouble if the enemy goes with a mix of ground support units, such as an army of stalkers and zealots, or zerglings, roaches and hydra, or marines and marauders. Viking rushing comes in handy when teamed up right in 2v2 games.

I suggest only build vikings to counter air units. If you know the enemy is building a lot of air units then it will not hurt at all to mass vikings out. Even if they do get some ground units, it wont be enough to tackle an army of grounded vikings in Assault Mode since they are spending a large portion on air units.

TIP: During a battle, simply call down a bunch of MULE's and set repair on autocast, and let them repair any damaged vikings.

Vs Protoss: Vikings can take out Colossi very well (since air units can hit Colossi). Vikings also come in handy to kill Phoenixes. One strategy you can do against the protoss is start off harassing with banshees and then the protoss player may go with Phoenixes to stop the banshees, you can then counter that by getting a mix of banshees and vikings to easily counter the Phoenixes, and you can continue to harass with no problem.

Vs Terran: Vikings aren't used a whole lot during a terran game, however they do become useful later on when high tier units come into play. If the opposing terran player decides to go mass thors and battlecruiser, then you can go mass vikings to counter it. If they have a lot of thors, then it wouldn't hurt to get some siege tanks in your army to help fend them off.

Vs Zerg: Vikings aren't used a whole lot against the zerg, the zerg can easily take them down with hydras. It wouldn't hurt to get a few vikings out to fend off zerg players harassing with mutas. Mutas are very fast, but vikings can shoot a VERY long distance, they can act as moving air towers against mutas to help protect your worker units. Vikings also make good scouts against the zerg, just have a viking or two fly around the map and pick off overlords everywhere to put the zerg's farm count in a hole. You can even fly around their base and try to kill any overlords there, thanks to their long range you can stay out of harms way, plus they even do bonus damage to overlords.

Banshee

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg	Corruptor, Mutalisk	Hydralisk	Queen	Baneling, Roach, Ultralisk, Zergling
protoss	Carrier, Mothership, Phoenix, Void Ray	Archon, Sentry, Stalker	High Templar	Colossus, Dark Templar, Immortal, Zealot
terran	Battlecruiser, Viking	Ghost, Thor	Marine	Hellion, Marauder, Reaper, Siege Tank

The Banshee is a light armored air unit that can only attack ground units, it has an optional upgrade for cloaking. The Banshee is mostly used for harassing purposes, for killing worker units or to catch your opponent by surprise when they do not have detection to detect them when they are cloaked.

TIP: You can hide your starports somewhere on the map where you think your opponent would never look, build a small army of banshees with the cloak upgrade you can even include a few vikings for backup support, then move over to your opponents base and take them out. I would first try to take out anything that would create detection, such as a protoss's Robotics Facility or photon cannon, terran's command center or starport, and zerg overseers or spore crawler.

Banshees work well when combined with vikings, you will have both ground and air covered pretty well, they are especially great against the protoss.

Vs Protoss: An army of banshees backed up by vikings are very powerful against the protoss. The only way for the protoss to stop that would be for them to go mass stalkers. Another way for them to stop it would be for them to go mass carriers.

Vs Terran: Banshees are used less often vs another terran. They can be effective really only for harassing worker units. The terran can easily get missile turrets up to stop them, or even vikings can take them out with no problem.

Vs Zerg: Pretty much the same as terrans, the zerg can get hydras and spore crawlers up quickly which can take the banshees down. They can quickly get overseers to get detection, and mutas can fend them off quickly as well.

Siege Tanks

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg	Brood Lord, Mutalisk	Zergling	Baneling, Roach, Ultralisk	Hydralisk
protoss	Carrier, Mothership, Phoenix, Void Ray	Dark Templar, Immortal, Zealot	Archon, Colossus, High Templar, Sentry, Stalker
terran	Banshee, Battlecruiser		Ghost, Hellion, Marauder, Reaper, Viking, Thor	Marine

Siege Tanks are built from the factory after a tech lab is built, and the siege tech must first be researched in order to be in siege mode. Siege mode, plants the tank to the ground and becomes extremely deadly doing massive splash damage at a long range, but it cannot shoot up close, so units that stand right next to a siege tank will not get hit by it. Siege tanks provide excellent support for your bio army (MMM army).

Siege tanks can actually shoot a little further than their own vision, so having support units in front of your tanks to reveal more of the map becomes useful, or using a scanner sweeper helps too. Tanks can also shoot up on cliffs provided that they can see up there, so using an air unit or scanner sweeper to reveal up cliffs so tanks can shoot is a smart idea. If you are next to an Xel'Naga tower, you can use it to increase your tank's field of vision to shoot further as well.

Siege tanks are great for killing other ranged units, but fast melee units are their greatest ground threat, and of course tanks cannot attack air, so any air unit is a threat to them.

Vs Protoss: Tanks are very powerful against stalkers, you just have to watch out for stalkers blinking right up next to your siege tanks to hit them without being hit. Siege tanks are great for killing colossi, high templar, and sentries too. Siege Tanks are not that great against immortals, because immortals have the hardened shields which prevent any damage over 10 to revert to 10. You can counter that with ghosts to use EMP to take out their shields, then have your tanks hit their "hitpoints". The main counter to siege tanks are zealots with charge, immortals (if you can't get EMP out to get rid of their shields), and void rays of course.

Vs Terran: I usually always get tanks vs another terran player, they become very useful for killing MMM armies. They support any combination of terran units. Tanks can kill Thors very easily, and they also support your own thors very well too.

Vs Zerg: Siege Tanks work very well against the zerg, especially if they are building a lot of hydra, or even roaches. You have to watch out for speedlings though. One combination I like to use against the zerg who is going for a zergling/muta build is vikings and siege tanks, this way you are covered if they go mutas and you can land your vikings on the ground to stop the zerglings from getting to your siege tanks, and you will be well prepared for any roaches or hydra they build. Plus you will not get hurt too much if they get a lot of banelings to try to blow you up.

Raven

The raven is the unit that replaced the Science Vessel from starcraft1, it has a ray of abilities that can be very helpful for many situations.

The Raven has 4 special abilities:

1) Detector: The Raven comes with detection to see any burrowed, invisible or hallucinated units.

2) Build Auto Turret: Drops an Auto-Turret at the target location, last 180 seconds (can last longer with an optional upgrade from the Tech Lab, and another one that increases it's range from the Engineering Bay). Auto turrets can also act as walls to block your enemies temporary.

Vs Protoss: Great against zealots, but will get killed quickly to immortals and colossus. I generally don't use auto turrets against the protoss.
Vs Terran: Not used a whole lot here. They can be used to drop on siege tanks so other siege tank's splash damage will hit it and kill it.
Vs Zerg: You are better off using Seeker Missiles against zerg, but you can use a few auto turrets to provide extra damage against them and to draw fire from units such as banelings.

3) Build Point Defense Drone: Drops a Point Defense Drone at the target location that lasts 180 seconds and starts with full 200 energy. The drone cannot move or be controlled by the player, it simply sits there and will stop most ranged attacks at the cost of 10 energy each, which will stop 20 ranged attacks before losing all it's energy. This drone is especially useful against units that do a high range attack damage like battlecruiser, but not very good against a carriers interceptors. The drone does regenerate energy about twice as fast as any other energy containing unit in the game. This drone has several upgrades:

Hi-Sec Auto Tracking (at the Engineering Bay), to increase it's attack range by +1.
Building Armor (at the Engineering Bay), to increase it's armor.
Durable Materials (at the Tech Lab), to increase it's duration to 240 seconds (from 180)

Here are the units these are best against:
Protoss: Photon Cannon, stalker, Phoenix
Terran: Battlecruiser, Thor, Missile Turret, Marauder
Zerg: Corruptor, Queen, Spore Crawler, Hydralisk

4) Seeker Missile: This is a very powerful projectile that flies towards a target and explodes dealing splash damage. Very useful against:

Protoss: High Templar, Observer, Carriers, Mothership
Terran: Thor, Battlecruiser, MMM packs.
Zerg: Queen, Broodlord, Overlord, Roaches, and Hydralisks

Battlecruiser

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg	Corruptor	Hydralisk	Mutalisk	Baneling, Brood Lord, Overseer, Roach, Ultralisk, Zergling
protoss		Archon, Stalker, Void Ray	Carrier, High Templar, Mothership, Phoenix, Sentry	Colossus, Dark Templar, Immortal, Zealot
terran		Viking	Ghost, Marine, Thor	Banshee, Hellion, Marauder, Reaper, Siege Tank

A Battlecruiser is the highest tier unit a terran can produce, it is a slow moving air unit that does a lot of damage to both ground and air. It has a lot of hitpoints and armor, so it takes a lot to take one down. It can use the Yamato Cannon (after you research Weapon Refit from the Fusion Core), which fires an intense blast of concentrated energy at the target, dealing 300 points of damage. The Yamato Cannon has a range of 10, so it can be used to break through defensive structures, and is very powerful for units that have a lot of hit points like carriers, thors, or other battlecruisers.

The Battlecruiser is rarely used is SC2 since it is a very slow moving unit and is very costly to get out. I think it has better usage in FFA games, where you can secure enough expansions to mass these out.

TIP: During a battle, simply call down a bunch of MULE's and set repair on autocast, and let them repair any damaged battlecruisers.

Vs Protoss: Battlecruisers are very effective against the protoss. The protoss does not have many choices to counter it, they would have to get stalkers and voidrays to counter them. If they see they are going mass stalkers, then get some marauders to help counter the stalkers. If you see they are going mass void rays, switch to vikings to counter the void rays. The protoss can also attempt to vortex your battlecruisers with their mothership. If you see they use a vortex on you, simply fly the rest of your battlecruisers into the vortex where they will be safe until it wears off.

Mass Battlecruisers with the Yamato Cannon will beat mass carriers as long as they get enough Yamato Cannon shots out. Yamato Cannon also works well against colossi.

Vs Terran: Battlecruisers are not seen a whole lot vs another terran, because vikings can take them out quick. Sometimes in FFA games, a mass Battlecruiser vs mass Battlecruiser battle may arise, in this situation, whoever gets the most out of the Yamato Cannon will come out victorious.

Vs Zerg: Battlecruisers are not that effective against the zerg. The zerg can get hydras, which is a good counter to them. Or worse the zerg can go corruptors, which does bonus damage to massive units like Battlecruisers. Battlecruisers work well to fight off mass brood lords and ultralisks though.

Thor

race:	Super Weak against	Weak against	Okay against	Strong Against
zerg	Zergling	Brood Lord, Hydralisk, Mutalisk	Baneling, Roach, Ultralisk
protoss	Immortal, Void Ray, Zealot	Carrier, Dark Templar, High Templar, Stalker	Archon, Colossus, Mothership, Sentry
terran		Banshee, Marauder, Marine, Siege Tank	Battlecruiser, Ghost, Hellion, Reaper, Viking

The Thor is a high tier unit that can attack both air and ground, has high hit points, and is the single most powerful unit in the game. It is very strong against other single strong units (except the Immortal), but is very weak vs a lot of weaker units. It has a special ability called "250mm Strike Cannons" that does 500 damage to a single target over 6 seconds, and stuns them for 1 second. This is of course is especially used for units that have a lot of hitpoints, such as other high tier units. It can also be used on buildings.

TIP: During a battle, simply call down a bunch of MULE's and set repair on autocast, and let them repair any damaged Thors.

Vs Protoss: I would never recommend building thors vs a protoss player. The protoss player can use immortals to take them out quick. A bunch of zealots are a big threat to them, and thors have problems getting to colossi thanks to the colossi's long range. However thors "250mm Strike Cannons" can be useful for killing the following protoss units or buildings in just 1 hit of the cannon: pylon, photon cannon, colossus, immortal, archon.

Vs Terran: Thors can work well in a Terran match up, they can be used to kill siege tanks, since they are so large the splash damage will not effect a group of thors. Thors combined with siege tanks works well too, you will be well prepared for air attacks from banshees, and can fight off an MMM army okay. One shot of the "250mm Strike Cannons" is useful for taking out the following units or buildings: supply depot, missile turret, bunker, or thor.

Vs Zerg: The Thor isn't used a whole lot against the zerg due to the fact that they can get a lot of small units out like zerglings and hydras to quickly take them down. However the thor can be used to support your MMM army against the zerg to act as cannon fodder or to take out spore crawlers quickly with the "250mm Strike Cannons". Thors do work well against mutas, however so do vikings.

TIP: 4 Thors can be loaded into medivacs and then taken over to your opponents mineral mining bases to quickly kill their town hall buildings.

Disclaimer: The following sections will describe the Terrans in typical matchups vs different races and type of games. Please keep in mind that this information may change over time as new strategies will develop and new strategies will come into play. This section will be expanded more over time with replay commentaries etc. Also please keep in mind most of the information below is already covered in the information above, but I have it organized if you need to quickly learn what it takes to do the various matchups without reading ALL the info above.

Terran vs Protoss

Opening Strategy:

The Terrans have several opening options to chose from. They could go into a super reaper rush, and get a reaper out ASAP to go harass the protoss workers. They could also try a proxy rush against the protoss, which involves building a barracks at the protoss base and send a flow of marines in to attempt a quick win. If the proxy rush fails, you can always try to fly the barracks back to your base. But first, here are some things to watch out for that the protoss may do to you:

You have to watch out for the protoss proxy rushing you, which means the protoss will build 2 gateways next to your base and send a flow of zealots in, this is very deadly and sometimes hard to counter. You need to scout extra early to make sure the protoss does not build inside your base, if so kill the probe immediately before it builds a gateway. If the protoss builds the gateways inside your base, then quickly get a bunker up next to your worker units with marines in it ASAP and keep repairing it as the zealots are hitting it. Keep sending wounded SCVs back to the minerals or even inside your command center for safety, and fresh ones to the bunker to repair it. I would highlight all your SCVs and turn repair on autocast so even your SCVs will get repaired as they are getting attacked. If the zealots attack your barracks or command center, simply lift them up before they hit into the red "zone" so they cannot be hit by the zealots.

If the protoss builds 2 gateways just right outside of your base, then you need to make sure your choke point is blocked completely and you build a bunker behind it with marines, and keep repairing all your buildings with SCVs. With little skill you can easily stop a protoss proxy rush, it might take a little practice however.

If the protoss builds 2 gateways in their base and attempts to zealot rush you, you should be okay as long as your choke point is blocked and protected by marines/marauders.

Here is what you can do against the protoss early on:

Reaper Rush: You can try a super quick reaper rush, which can be very effective agasint the protoss as long as they are not teching quick to stalkers. Just one stalker is enough to stop reapers. One photon cannon is also enough to stop a reaper rush as well. But you can hit-and-run from zealots without getting hit, so if they are building only zealots you will be fine with a reaper rush. I would build no more than 4 reapers, after that you need to change strategies depending on what the protoss is doing. With little luck you may beat them with just a reaper rush. Remember to try and kill any worker units with the reapers as you can.

Hellion rush: If you scout out their base early on and see the protoss does not have his choke point blocked good and you see they are massing out zealots, it is to the best of your abilities to mass out hellions to counter the zealots. Remember Hellions are the best ground units the terrans have to quickly kill worker units as well. If they get stalkers then cut off your hellion production as stalkers can take them out easily.

Proxy rush using a barracks: This strategy is not as effective as the protoss proxy rush, but it can be effective, especially if the protoss is teching to stalkers. Simply send an SCV over to the protoss base right at the start of the game and build a barracks with an attached reactor and crank out marines and send them in to kill them. If it doesn't work simply fly the barracks back to your base to save it.

Mid Game Strategy

In the mid game, you can rush them with an MMM army, you should beat them with that as long as they are building a lot of stalkers. In order for the protoss to counter an MMM army, they will want to make sure their army is comprised of mostly zealots (upgraded with the charge ability). Instead of them spending gas on stalkers, they would have to switch over to getting high templar. The protoss will use the High Templars to first use the Feed Back ability on the Medivacs to drain their energy out, then followed up by PSI storm on your MMM army. They might also get some Colossi in their army, as they work VERY well against an MMM army.

In that case you will have to change strategies to compensate for all the zealots. I recommend massing out hellions to counter the zealots.

If you see they are still just cranking out stalkers, it is best to build a lot of siege tanks to counter them. Although watch out, the protoss may get Immortals to take out the siege tanks. The immortals will take a lot of reduced damage from the siege tanks with their hardened shields. The Terrans may counter that by going with a bunch of ghosts to use EMP to take out the Immortals hardened shields. The protoss can recounter that by simply not producing immortals and instead just massing out zealots with charge. The protoss may also get a few Phoenixes and beam up the siege tanks to disable them. Use a few vikings to take out the phoenixes.

Banshee Rush: You can attempt to rush them with a pack of cloaked banshees. Try to kill workers units first, if the stalkers or void rays come turn on cloak field, if you get detected just run away quick, then keep harassing with the banshees while focus on your main strategy. You can get a raven in your army to kill any observers, or even try to quickly take out their Robotics Facility so they can't build observers.

Viking Rush: I generally do not recommend viking rushing a protoss player, they can get a mix of stalkers and immortals which will easily stop vikings. Although it doesn't hurt to mass these out if they are going mass void rays, vikings should be able to counter the void rays. If you do go mass vikings even though they are not going void rays, then you could use a small pack of them to harass, simply fly them into their base, land and kill anything you see, when they come lift up and fly away. You could also get a mix of vikings and banshees to harass as well.

Vikings can take out Colossi very well (since air units can hit Colossi). Vikings also come in handy to kill Phoenixes.

Late Game Strategy

Thors: Read Vs Protoss above.

Battlecrusiers: Read Vs Protoss above.

Terran vs Zerg

Opening Strategy:

You can start off with a proxy rush vs the zerg, or attempt to stop a zerg rush at your base.

Proxy rush using a barracks: Simply send an SCV over to the zerg base right at the start of the game and build a barracks with an attached reactor and crank out marines and send them in to kill them. If it doesn't work simply fly the barracks back to your base to save it. This strategy is not very effective against the zerg. The zerg can quickly get zerglings out to kill the marines, or even spine crawlers. So I actually never proxy rush a zerg player, but it can be attempted, you may win if the zerg tries to fast expand and get his economy going hard core.

When the game starts make sure you quickly build a supply depot, barracks and another supply depot to block off your choke point to prevent zerglings from rushing you early on.

Reaper Rush: Please read Vs zerg above. Generally this is not recommend vs zerg.

Hellion Rush: Please read Vs zerg above. This generally works well vs mass zerglings.

Vs Banelings: If you see the zerg getting banelings, you should counter them with marauders. If you see them burrowing banelings, you should quickly tech to ravens to detect them before they explode your army when you walk over them.

Mid Game Strategy

In the mid game going with an MMM army is generally very effective against the zerg. The zerg have very little choices to counter it. Their best chance to counter it would be for the zerg to go for a muta/zergling build or tech up to brood lords and corruptors. The zerg may also try to stop you with banelings (with upgraded movement speed), which can work as well. In that case, simply get more marauders rather than marines to handle that. You can read more about this in the MMM section Vs Zerg.

Against Roaches: If you see the zerg player going mass roaches, then use marauders to counter them, just watch out for them to recounter you with zerglings, in that case, use hellions or upgraded marines to help take out the zerglings. You can also back up your marauders with siege tanks to help kill off the roaches, or even hydras as well.

Against Hydra: Siege tanks or hellions can take them out quick. But hydras will take down an MMM army decently. Hydras will also take down vikings, marauders, reapers, marines, and thors with no real problem.

Against mutas and zerglings: Mass marines is a decent counter to this, but the terran player will have to try to get a bunch of hellions to support the marines to take out the zerglings and to protect the marines to take out the mutas. I would also consider getting some vikings to protect your base from muta attacks, along with a few missile turrets to protect your workers.

TIP: I would consider flying a viking or two around the map to kill off any overlords that are hanging around. Just hold down shift and press "a" at each mineral site location and they will kill any overlords in their way. This could really hurt the zerg's food supply.

Viking Rush the zerg? I generally do not recommend this, please read more about this at Vikings Vs Zerg.

Ghosts and Nukes: Please read Ghosts Vs Zerg above.

Banshees against zerg: I generally do not recommend this vs zerg. The zerg can get hydras and spore crawlers up quickly which can take the banshees down. They can quickly get overseers to get detection, and mutas can fend them off quickly as well. You can attempt to bring some vikings along with you to kill any overseers they have then let your cloaked banshees lay waste to their worker units.

Late Game Strategy

Against Ultralisks: Ultralisks can chew up marines and hellions easily. But they can be taken down quickly with marauders and siege tanks.

Against Corruptors: Corruptors cannot attack ground, so if you have marines you will be good against them, however if they morph their corruptors into brood lords, you will want to get vikings to counter that. Vikings are also okay against corruptors, it's about an even match. I would not want to use battlecruisers against corruptors or brood lords, since they can get corruptors to quickly take down the battlecruisers.

Should I build Thors against the zerg? Please read Thor Vs Zerg above.

Against Brood Lords/Hydra: This is a tough one. Hellions and Siege Tanks on the ground, to handle the Hydras and Broodlings, with Vikings in the air. Just have your Hellions guard your Siege Tanks from the broodlings while they lay into the Hydras then have your Vikings deal with the broodlords. Mass battlecruisers could also deal with this as well, but in most games it's hard to get enough of them out quick enough to be effective.

Hydras will be too worried about all the splash damage from the siege tanks to hurt your Vikings while they have free reign of the air at the Brood Lords.

Mass battlecruisers against zerg? Battlecruisers are not that effective against the zerg. The zerg can get hydras, which is a good counter to them. Or worse the zerg can go corruptors, which does bonus damage to massive units like Battlecruisers. Battlecruisers work well to fight off mass brood lords and ultralisks though.

Terran vs Terran

Opening Strategy:

I generally would not proxy rush another terran player, they can get bunkers up quick to kill off the marines, however a reaper rush works good against them. I generally start all my terran vs terran match ups with sending a few reapers over to harass early on.

Reaper Rush: Please read Reaper Rush Vs Terran above for all the info you need.

Hellions vs terran? I generally do not build hellions vs another terran, only unless they are massing out marines, but that usually never happens. And even if they mass out marines, siege tanks are a better alternative to take them out.

You could consider loading up a few hellions into a medivac and drop them on the enemies worker units to take them out quick, other than that I would not build hellions vs another terran.

Mass marauders vs terran? Marauders are the least used against the terrans, they have no prime targets worth getting for early on. Plus siege tanks can take them out quickly. Marauders work great against Thors later on though.

As you can see most early terran matchups involve a quick reaper rush, followed by fast expanding as soon as you can.

Mid Game Strategy

Terran vs terran in mid game can get confusing. An MMM army is okay against another terran, however siege tanks can rip them apart. And yes if you see another terran going with an MMM army against you, then fight back with siege tanks. I generally always focus on getting siege tanks in a terran match-up, as they prove very useful for just about everything.

Are ghosts useful against another terran? Ghosts have little use in a terran matchup, I would only consider building ghosts vs terran for nukes. However nukes can quickly be countered with the scanner sweeper, so I personally never bother with ghosts in a terran match up.

Viking Rush? Vikings can be useful during a terran game, however they do even more useful later on when high tier units come into play. If the opposing terran player decides to go mass thors and battlecruiser, then you can go mass vikings to counter it. If they have a lot of thors, then it wouldn't hurt to get some siege tanks in your army to help fend them off.

TIP: Vikings can also take out siege tanks okay by landing on them and attacking them then.

Harass with banshees? Banshees are used less often vs another terran. They can be effective really only for harassing worker units. The terran can easily get missile turrets up to stop them, or even vikings can take them out with no problem. You can try a mix of banshees and vikings to harass with, which could work very well.

Late Game Strategy

Battlecruisers? Battlecruisers are not seen a whole lot vs another terran, because vikings can take them out quick.

Thors? Thors can work well in a Terran match up, they can be used to kill siege tanks, since they are so large the splash damage will not effect a group of thors. Thors combined with siege tanks works well too, you will be well prepared for air attacks from banshees, and can fight off an MMM army okay. One shot of the "250mm Strike Cannons" is useful for taking out the following units or buildings: supply depot, missile turret, bunker, or thor.

Terran FFA Strategy

In FFA games, camping in your base while teching is not a bad strategy at all. Unlike Warcraft 3, where if you camped in a FFA your heroes will be far behind in level and you would probably lose. Well in Starcraft 2 there are no heroes or upkeep, so camping is okay in starcraft 2. I know this I have played over a 100 FFA games in starcraft 2 beta and my record is about 90 wins, 10 losses.

You should start off every FFA game with a fast expansion. build supply depots and bunkers at your natural choke point and get your second base going pronto.

From there you will be safe from any rushes while teching to higher tier units and upgrades while your economy is jump started. Then you can get a 3rd expansion later once you get your army going strong.

I recommend trying a reaper rush in FFA games, just don't go crazy and spend a lot of money into this, just get a few reapers and harass early on to throw your opponents off and to scout and see what they are doing. While you are harassing with a few reapers focus on expanding your base and teching to higher tier units.

Here are the build order options you can do in FFA with terran, starting with the least overall recommended strategy to the most powerful overall strategy in my opinion:

4. MMM Rush: This is okay, and you might kill off a few players with this, but you will probably lose to someone who is teching to even higher tier units.

3. Mass Viking with some Banshees: I think this is a better overall FFA strategy the terrans can do, it can stop more higher tier units in starcraft2 more effectively than an MMM army. You can harass very well with this and stop a lot of stuff in this game with this combination.

2. Mass Vikings with Siege Tanks: This can be very deadly, you have both ground and air covered nicely. If the enemy has a lot of ground units, just land your vikings in front of you siege tanks, and let your siege tanks fire safely from a distance dealing a lot of damage to them. Just make sure you scout and see what the enemy has. If they have 100% all air units, then don't bother with siege tanks, just go mass vikings instead.

1. Mass Battlecruisers with the Yamato Cannon: I think this is overall the most powerful strategy the terrans can do. This strategy is only effective if you have the Yamato Cannon and your battlecruisers have their armor and weapon upgrades going. This can stop most things in this game with very little problem. The major drawback to this is that the battlecruisers are VERY slow moving, so you will need to have scouts around the map so you are aware of where your enemy is at all the time. If come across a zerg player going mass corruptors, then I would switch to mass vikings.

I would also throw in a couple of ravens for detection and support.

TIP: During a battle, simply call down a bunch of MULE's and set repair on autocast, and let them repair any damaged battlecruisers.

NOTE: Once you get your economy going good, it will not hurt to build ghosts for the purpose of nukes, you have the potential to do a LOT of damage with nukes and when you have a lot of money to spend it doesn't hurt to keep trying to throw nukes out in FFA games.

Terran Team Games

(2v2, 3v3, 4v4)

In team games it is recommend that you focus on rushing as much as possible and keep your enemies from reaching your base. You ultimately want to try to kill off worker units to put their economy in a hole.

In team games I recommend getting a plan going right from the start, communicate with your allies and ask them what they are building. Focus on massing out only like 1-2 units only, have your ally do the same, get a good mixture and you will be good. For example, you can have your allied zerg player go mass zerglings with some mutas later, while you go with an MMM army. You got both ground and air covered nicely.

You can take a risk and tech up in 4v4 games as long as your allies are not teching too. By teching I mean fast expanding while having the focus on skipping zealots/stalkers and go into something else such as mass void rays, which can be a very powerful strategy, but you will be weak early on, so you will have to rely on your allies to protect you for awhile.