Need Feedback on Strategy (Gold)

Terran Discussion
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Have you ever opened with this? (TvX)

1 Rax Reaper SE (Safe Expands, so basically high ground CC). Into a 1-1-1 Medivac, 4 marine, 1 siege tank drop into the main). Probe/drone/SCV snipers, I usually get 6-8 kills every time. Siege tank is a huge threat. And this drop returns home in time to defend against counter play with the next batch of army queued.

  • Forces a recall. Or Enemy panics F2 Army back home to enemy base.
  • No one leaves a siege tank un attended if its in their main.
  • Delays opponents push while you set up your natural.

Pull out very quickly and boost to natural, or to a position where you can siege up and delay opponent’s advance to their third. This is meant to buy time against the enemy.

Works well in TvX* so far in Gold, and sometimes against Platinum Players. I am kept in Gold because Gold-Platinum is a battle between multitasking macro and micro, the winner is the one with the superior abilities. This I aspire to improve on.

What are your thoughts on this kind of drop? Because I don’t make the reactor until my next batch of 4 marines, 1 siege tank, and 1 medivac is out.

I create mobile forces that can poke or reinforce a position quickly. Of course bunker is on natural while you are eco-ing up. After 8 marines on first barracks that is when I get a reactor, then after the 1-1-1 I get second rax and slap tech lab on it.

I don’t get reactor because I need that quick factory, tech lab, and then starport. Then I have that 1 medivac, 4 marine, and 1 siege tank squad at home, and 1 dropped in the enemy (the first batch). Then I get the reactor on that first rax after I get 2 medivacs, 2 tanks, and 8 marines.

Its fun build! I wonder if higher levels tried this and what they have added to it.

The strategy is to keep the opponent busy on the field and their home while Terran catches up in economy by mitigating theirs, then it evens out with 2 base vs 2 base, and terran has a third on the way after going into a 4-2-1 Then when the third is up I go 6-3-3.

I do a 6-3-3 (i don’t know if that is a thing). Because it is enough to have good Bio with medivac support, or viking cranked out against colossus, or a raven out incase of DT’s and anti armor. Against Zerg its versatile enough to split drops everywhere while push with an anti-creep clearing Hellion/Marine medivac hellbat push due to armory coming out.

TLDR

What should I expect from platinum players going into P2 and P1? P3 I have faced as a gold player, but I get out macroed. But I know the Macro part and multitask is my own problem, yet I am kindly asking what to expect from enemy’s strategy going into that level. Thanks!

Also I always have 4-6 marines before I get my third, to patrol the battlefield, 2 midlane, 1 on each mid-flanks, and 1 on each flank, mid route to the enemy. One of them always catches enemy army movement. The the last 2 will check additional army movement.

Up until 6 minutes my spending is pretty good, but then i bank up because I usually wait to see what the opponent has then I build multiple buildings as a response. This way I don’t blind build into my death.

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Hey, fellow gold player here (Gold 1, 3200 mmr) so take this with a grain of salt.

I think this is where you mess up. Generally, I would keep producing units till you’re maxed because it doesn’t matter what they go for if their army is 50% larger than yours. The classic marine/marauder/tank/medivac is good against pretty much anything that isn’t mass baneling or mass AOE.

Some things to consider when playing bio

  • Are your upgrades rolling? After stim get shields asap. In the middle of getting 1/1, build armory and instantly go into 2/2

  • Going for an early drop is HEAVILY reliant on how fast you can get it out (while still producing SCVs ofcourse), really try to finetune the first 5 minutes of your build if you’re going to do that

  • Army control is huge with bio, if you don’t stim or siege up as a fight starts you lose a lot of your power. At gold I don’t think you can split well (I can’t either), but going vs banelings/storm/disruptor shots, you’re going to lose hard if you don’t split.

When does this drop land? I think this kind of drop is good if your enemy is unprepared, but if they’re playing efficiently it’ll likely get crushed. 4 marines is not enough to defend a tank.

For instance, when I go for an early drop, i have 2 medivacs and 16 marines leaving my base at around 4:45 - 4:50, it hits around 5:20-5:30 I think. If your drop arrives at a similar time it’s much weaker than the 2 medivac 16 marine drop, and is harder to pack up and leave with (have to unsiege tank).

You might be better off doing a timing outside their base. If you can get like 10 marines, 2 tanks, and 2 medivacs (or something like that) outside their natural/somewhere near the third, you’d be in a much better spot to actually use the siege tanks.

Anyway that’s my thoughts on it.

1 Like
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Thanks for input. I’ll keep them in mind.

My drop lands before 5 minutes in the enemy main, its only one medivac with 1 tank, 4 marines and 1 tank; it forces the enemy to come back with his units or spawn units giving away his/her tech. I kill around 6 workers during the drop, then depending if they are caught off-guard I alternate with the same medivac drop group between main and natural and send it back home. The game either is won or lost by a follow up macro. I usually win a littler more than half.

My macro up until 6 minutes is on point, because I haven’t had games that last 30 minutes. The average length is about 12 Minutes. These games end around that time due to these 2 base timing attacks from both sides, or one of us is too greedy for a third and/or forget to macro up afterwards.

But I agree with you on the upgrade spending. Stim then combat shields in that order actually makes sense. And getting 1/1 should it be done before the drop or during the drop?

And I will keep in mind to go Bio in TvP more often. I usually have a bio/mech mix, but I think leaning more on Bio is better with the stim.