Hello. Bottom part of “C” league there - so big noob. Excluding my late game VS protoss (which is like 10% win) I would like to ask you how should I defend against early reaver harass drop? It strikes very fast and Protoss always is doing some damage to economy with it (even when you split your workers). So I’m behind. When the drop is coming my army is like 10 marines and 1 tank (standard 1/1/1 opener). How I’m supposed to defend that? He just kills all of the marines and few scvs, then retreat for a while and coming again. I don’t have enough army to defend the second coming OR even if I do I’m still extremely behind due to workers and units lost and game usually ends in next 5 minutes. Any tips?
put pressure on him ?
With 1 tank and 10 marines? If I will leave the high ground he will just kite me to die with few dragoons.
what opening did he/she use ?
Reavers are pretty high up the tech tree:
Pylon -> Gateway -> Cybernetics Core -> Robotics Facility -> Support Bay
Time: 30 + 60 + 60 + 80 + 30 = 260 game seconds (4 min 20 sec)
On fastest: 18.75 + 37.5 + 37.5 + 50 + 18.75 = 162.5 seconds (2 min 42.5 sec)
Tanks are much lower:
Baracks -> Factory -> Machine Shop
Time: 80 + 80 + 40 = 200 game seconds (3 min 20 sec)
On fastest: 50 + 50 + 25 = 125 seconds (2 min 5 sec)
(Supply depots can be built at the same time as Barracks, but a Pylon is needed for the Gateway.)
Basically, you should have more than 10 marines and 1 tank before they Reaver drop, especially considering they need to fly over.
Options:
- Bunkers with Marines, to shoot down the shuttle.
- Missile Turrets (although this will completely change the build order).
- Build a second Factory as the first is being built, so that as a Machine Shop is being added, you can build Vultures, then research Spider Mines from the Shop. With 3 Vultures, that’s 9 mines which can nicely defend your base. The extra advantage here is that your opponent won’t know about the mines until the Reaver is down, and they will likely lose the Reaver, giving you an advantage.
- Get 2 Factories as above, but both with Shops and churn out Tanks.
- Could also go with Goliaths, but an Armory takes as long to build as a Factory and can’t be built until the Factory is done. A few Goliaths can take out the Shuttle before it drops.
Those are just a few ideas.
@BaggyT, Just want to mention that:
All Protoss buildings have +3 seconds to be actually ready.
, so Gateway takes ~41s (not ~38), Pylon ~22s (not ~19s), etc.
That’s interesting - I didn’t know that!
Well, it only further proves the point I was making!
Tank positioning is very crucial. Try to split SCVs when he arrives too early, afterwards you should have more than 1 tank, 1 needs to be sieged near SCVs, others need to chase shuttle. Watch some FlaSh VODs on Youtube to see a clear picture.
I would look at your build order and optimize it. Dont ever go for many marines, unless you actually want to attack the Protoss. The marines buffer for the Tanks in the back.
Only build a Marine before the Factory when the Protoss has a scouting Probe in your base. Then get Siege Tanks ASAP and if you want to FD push him, you build additional Marines. If you play a normal Factory Fast Expansion, you usually only build 2 Marines to hold your ramp, but you can build up to 4.
Dude… Read the title.
My build order is: depot > rax then taking gas (constantly producing marines when finish to defend from early game aggression until I get 10) > second depot and factory (+instant techlab and instant tank) > starport (+instant techlab for vultures and dropships harass) > command center
And at this time when I start produce dropship (when starport finishes) I also produce first vulture and the reaver drop is in my base. Killing some SCV (I split them) then killing the marines. Then he fly away for few seconds and coming back with another shots while I got 1 tank and usually 1 vulture that was in production. Meanwhile sometimes few dragoons are at entrance and the game is over.
It always looks the same.