Tip for <GL2 Terrans to defend against early T&P harass

Terran Discussion
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I’m a Gold League 2 Terran player, and I’ve recently discovered an early-game strat which I think GL2 & below Terran players almost always overlook, which is very helpful defending against early-game Terran & Protoss harass (not Z).

The simple strat is: build a raven as your first starport unit (unless your going for super early aggression yourself), and then hotkey it to (say) 3, so you can call it over immediately as soon as needed, and/or pull it away from front lines if you F2 your army.

Ravens are seriously underestimated by lower-level players as a defensive resource. Here is how it works:

V. Protoss:

*Ravens have detection. They are therefore very effective against early-game DT warp ins, if they do happen to get into your base. Missile turrets are not as effective as they can’t shoot up and the first thing DTs in your base will do is kill the missile turrets.

*Ravens can help defend against oracle harass. You can drop an autoturret in your mineral line to ward them off, or use interference matrix, giving you time to get your units into position.

*Ravens can be used to clear out any observers lurking in your base to deny your opponent knowledge of what you’re doing.

V Terran:

*Raven’s detection helps defend against early game clocked banshee attacks, eliminating your need to build missile turrets early and/or expend CC energy on scans, which sometimes won’t be available.

*Ravens can help defend against liberator harass. You can use interference matrix, allowing time to bring units across, and/or drop and autoturret.

*Ravens are very good at dealing with enemy siege tanks as part of an early game drop/harass. Fly over, interference matrix the tank and then fly away. You can then push your marines/tanks forward and take out the tank.

*Ravens can also interference matrix an early game battlecruiser warp in. By disabling it, you can use your marines to take it out.

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More generally speaking, a Raven also spares you the need to build missile turrets too early. Many lower-level players build missile turrets to defend against early harass, but do so too early. Missile turrets are expensive early game - it takes 100 minerals to build an engineering bay, and another 100 minerals for each turret on your main & natural mineral lines. When you add up the time SCVs take away from mining to build these, that’s nearly 400 minerals - enough for a fast 3rd CC or 8 additional marines.

Furthermore, two turrets is not enough. One turret will not defend your mineral line against a liberator, which can be angled in out of turret range and still hit your SCVs. Same with banshees to a lesser degree. And it won’t prevent drops, which can be done outside of turret range. Turrets are too expensive and not effective enough early game. You need to wait until your economy is ramped up.

Ravens are an excellent substitute (coupled perhaps with a cyclone as well) to the role often played by turrets, and are much less expensive.

Try it out. I think it will help a lot.

Warning - make sure you hot key it so you can separate it from your entire army if you F2 in an emergency. It’s very important not to fly your raven headfirst into an oncoming army an lose it.

Cheers,

2 Likes
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PS this is an example of a game where a single Raven saves me from multiple DT warp prism drops. I went on to comfortably win. Without a Raven I was super dead (remove space after h below as forum blocks links including replay links for some reason).

h ttps://sc2replaystats.com/download/15687621

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Whenever I have ravens out, I find myself winning more mid game. They are a great swiss army knife imo. Nice Post.

1 Like
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Raven is a great unit, which helps u a lot in few moments, but it has also some problems:

  • u need time to build starport, tech lab and raven himself
  • raven needs a lot of gas (always problem at start of the game)
  • u start to play too defensive mode (ofc u can try to harass with turret, but it’s not so effective as banshee)
  • u need micro and apm for raven - can be a problem for gold2 players (turret is a passive defense)
  • ur starport is busy. U could make Viking, banshee or even start BC. I won many games or got a huge advantage with early banshee harass (especially vs Protoss), while got 2 turrets in my base.

First of all, u need to scout and understand what u see at enemy base.
If u see macro-start from ur enemy - u don’t need early turrets or raven.
And if u see early 2-gas and 1base openening - prepare for aggression.
U have reaper and scan at least. Always scout for proxy or ninja-base with ur SCV and reaper. It will save u many games and mmr. If ur scouting is good - u don’t need overdefend.

Also u need to know timings. For example u don’t need turrets ready at 4-30 vs banshee harass with invis, cuz it’s too early.

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The nice thing about a Raven is if you need a tech lab for your Raven you don’t have to build another, just lift buildings and switch them around once your starport is done. Less building time.

If a Raven is your go to strat for this type of aggression, it helps to plan ahead.

  • Simply by switching out a building you aren’t using to produce upgrades for. Such as that tech lab you built for your factory. Delay that tank you might want for a widow mine. In the early game every unit counts and widow mines don’t need a tech lab to make.
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Yzer - agree on all that. Nothing is always optimal regardless of what your opponent is doing. I think many GL players (esp 2-3) lack a sufficient understanding of the game though & skills at scouting & adapting there play in this manner. Those are the skills that get u into Platinum and beyond. Gold Leagues are usually stuck with standard builds and all-purpose strats/defense. I think ravens are underrated (GL 2-3 Terran players almost never use them).

You can also use a raven for early game harassment for mineral line turret drops also, which you can use against more passive opponents.

Cheers,