Stukov composition

According to the (outdated) TL guide, Stukov’s best comp is siege tank/bunker. I’m finding this build to be entirely impractical. Units like siege tanks (immobile ones) are already a pain to use because of the speed and mobility typically required for co-op, but adding bunkers on top of it is proving awful for me. Bunkers are slow, expensive, and enormous. Leaving them in walking mode often means they get overwhelmed, and rooting them means I have another unit that can’t move - not to mention the rooting time is prohibitive.

So, I’ve found on most maps that mass cyclones are just the more practical, manageable comp. The most obvious answer is “duh, use what works for you,” but I’m curious to know what other people use with Stukov. Rather uniquely, I don’t really notice what ally Stukov’s are doing; I just see the spawned horde + calldowns.

his best strategy seem to be diamondbacks. their fungal snare enables them to pull down air units, making them vulnerable. their bile cannons does a lot of damage.

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Whoops sorry, meant diamondbacks.

It highly depends on the map and mutators.

For example on Dead of Night bunker and tank are essential. The same setup is also useful on other defensive maps like Oblivion Express, Void launch or Temple of the Past.

I love to make banshee+queen, but I rarely get to do it. I once had a beautiful game with this setup on Rifts to Korhal.

If you have propagator mutator, you might as well turn off all infested autocast and concentrate on diamondbacks. Or queens and snipe them with spawn broodling ability.

Against big enemy fleets liberator choice is the winner with their reduced damage taking and cloud form area damage.

If black death mutator is active, pure zombie is the least riskful strategy.

If you have cloaked ground enemies, the diamondback’s slime is very helpful.

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Stukov siege tanks are very good tho, the lack of mobility is solved by it’s burrow ability to go anywhere you have vision, so they can be played like normal siege tank but also react to attack wave, huge range as well.

The bunkers is where it gets tricky for offensive maps, they do work(aka bunkerlisk strat) but banelings, mech terran and protoss makes short work on them, and it is too expensive to lose those bunkers.

At most maps I prefer mech Stukov over bunker, but any defense-oriented map the bunkers/tanks really shines.

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Mass Diamondback is my favorite strat.
On defensive maps - Siege Tank + Bunker.
Against heavy air comps - Liberators + Infantry.
Against dangerous ground comps (Reaver-Disruptor, etc) - Banshees + Infantry.

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Infested Siege Tanks get a nice little boost in mobility versus their contemporaries though, thanks to their ability to use deep tunnel.

iDiamondback seems to me to to be the more jack of all trades build for Stukov these days, though I haven’t had enough play with the new-ish scale back on the Bunkerlisk nerf to say how they stack up these days.

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Yeah to clarify, bunkers and tanks are solid defensively (though not as dominant as I expected them to be, actually), but on the attack they are extremely cumbersome. The deep burrow is good for responding, but the cooldown prevents it from being used as part of a push all that well.

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Tank bunker works best offensively if you just make a habit of timing pushes with the spawns from civilian compound, and emptying a few bunkers that you aren’t pushing with/using your barracks for a better meatshield.
When pushing with bunkerlisk just set them down when they start taking damage, don’t just amove them.
And tunneling tanks into position.

The easy way when assaulting bases is probably to just put them down near the edge of a base and aggro enemy units with tanks.

The very easiest though slower is to not engage directly with bunkers at all just have them in forward positions, and then emptying all of them when you want to push, then tunnelling tanks to a safe position, such as right behind your swarm, or behind wherever you ally is pushing.
Basically just using bunkers as unit spawners and as a forward defence.

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Definitely inf dbs are his best and ultimate build for all situations.

But his itanks and air is good too. I go full air con ME and VL.

I’ve always made a few barracks, than bunkers with piling up extra minerals.

If I wanted to make tanks I’d be playing Swann. With that said, Stukovs tanks can relocate with some upgrade if you want more mobility.

When get some free time might be the time to try his other units.

His tanks also have an immense 18 range, which I believe only Nova’s tank can reach with graduating range.

I generally leapfrog Swann’s Siege Tanks, and those have longer siege/unsiege times. For Stukov, I don’t mind doing the same micro dance with moving them further and further into enemy territory. However, more times than not, I just leave them in “sieged” mode/rooted, and just move them around with Deep Tunnel. It has a 1 minute cd which is relatively high, so I don’t always have them exactly where I need to, all the time, but I let that slide.

At most, I typically move my Bunkers closer to the frontline so they can support my Missile Turrets, Barracks, and ICC (infested Civvy Compound), but not actually into enemy territory. One last note is that you can cast Infested Structure on a rooted Bunker, then uproot it, and move it along to get the best of both worlds.

Mass Db’s have been my go to comp. Only exception is Void Launch since shuttles have a hidden, “unstoppable” tag that makes them immune to Ensnare. Having 8 range gives them enough breathing room to safely pile on DPS from afar, while your infested walkers (that’ll die to timed life anyways) tank the damage.

I also have 2 to 4 Rax on standby so that I can get a burst of Inf. Marines as needed. I make a few if needed early on. Later in the game, I tend to float mins that I’m not really cash strapped.

If I need to go heavier on AA, I make Infested Turrets. They don’t get the “+100% regen when rooted” and “+3 armor” upgrades for Bunkers, but they only cost 100/0/0, and take up a 2x2 grid space when rooted. Oh, and yeah, they can uproot like Bunkers. You can get 4 of these for the price of 1 Bunker!

I generally don’t make Banshees. They’re a good unit, but other comps above usually have it covered. These did save my hide when Protoss sent Colossi, Reavers, Disruptors, Immortals, and Adepts. The first 3 easily dispatch swarmy units. Immortals would make short work of Db’s. Adepts are the only AA and there weren’t enough of them to be a threat to my Banshees

Between Libs and Queens for air-to-air, I go for the former to “play it safe”. Queens are VERY powerful, and can also hit ground with Fungal and Spawn Broodling, but they’re very reliant on energy. Occular Symbiot is nice on certain mutations, or if your ally or yourself is lazy about bringing detection with them.

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Best deal for me is go 3-4 Barracks and that’s it.

The Bunker is only important in DON or Temple and even with those i still find his Turret + Infested Marines better and cheaper.

Stukov has a hard time to eco himself due to restricted SCV and Overlord charges. DB or any other thing are way into mid or late game.

I always
Barrack first
1 Gas
Upgrade infested compound lvl 1 + jump
set up 1 Engineering bay as fast as possible to set infantry weapon + armour queue line
Gas 2
CC 2 for expo
Infested compound lvl 2 + Broodling spawn after dead
Factory
Armory
More broodling from Infested buildings
This build have never failed me and allow me to take out every single base on the map by the end of the game

If need then a Starport later on

In fact, sometimes i was almost everywhere and take out enemies left and right.

So you really just use the horde + calldowns. Do you reposition the barracks as the map progresses?

Yep, it helps bringing your infested closer to the enemies.

I moved the compound too.

Usually have barrack in place that i expect enemies will pass through.

Mass rax is just waste of resources. I mean that works but it’s not as good. Even full marine Raynor army is not cool for me, but these have lesser dps so no see the point in spending minerals on temporary units. Mass bunker became slightly weaker now so i don’t use pure mass bunker. The go-to comp for me is getting map control with camping spawns or wave walk routes with overseer + rockets + bunkers + tanks, the same comp constantly burrows and unburrows, moving together with civilian compound, gnawing enemy base defenses. Stukov tanks are pretty powerful - long range, broodling distraction and deep tunnel. These units just annihilate any ground but hybrids, that need some love from my bunkers or/and infested. You can always make some of these temporary marines if it’s really neded asap, but main guys here are tanks. When i face heavy air i make few tanks and bunkers then go mass inf liberators. After overlord creep spread patch it’s even easier to pay maps such as Malwarfare and Miner Evacuation, so trench warfare overcomes everything,

Yes, you would reposition. No point making an army walk across the map if you can produce units where needed. Make a turret and move it too, a portable detector sort of speak which you can’t F2 move to death.

I also move compound to expo at the start to break rocks with infested, not walk infeated to expo.

I would adjust the build recommended by Cerebrate:
15 workers => expo CC => 1 barrack => 2 gas
I squize an overlord after 15 workers to help me with timing - when overlord is done you can send a worker to build CC and will have enough minerals.

It is probably more efficient to delay the overlord, but than you have to remember when to build things.

The barrack goes towards entrance, you defend 1st wave by infesting the barrack.

The reason for expo 1st is because infantry costs minerals. You can saturate two bases before any fighting begins and move out at 4ish minute and focus on the map instead of the base.

P.S. Also, split and move infantry. It is redicilous to see a hundred Marines stuck at the ramp with only front line shooting and the player watching that. Select them and move up the ramp, or on plain surface - split left/right/center to create a concave.

Don’t need Maru’s level of micro, just ruffly move a third to left and a third to right and attack.