Contents



Introduction



Openings Reaper Fast Expand

CC Rax Gas



Transitions to the Mid Game Reactor Hellion and Fast Third CC

Tanks Before Hellions

Starting the Mid Game

Other Mid Game Transitions



Reacting to the Zerg Zergling/Baneling/Mutalisk

Infestor Based Play

Roach/Hydralisk

Hive Rush

Roach/Baneling

Aggressive Play



Conclusion And Replay Pack

Introduction

Marine, marauder, medivac, mine, also known as 4M, is the standard in the Terran vs Zerg matchup. It was first seen near the launch of HotS and is now the go to macro style of professional players. This guide covers the two most common openings that lead to 4M and two possible ways to enter the midgame with 4M. The guide goes into detail on how to handle Zerg play styles at all stages of the game. This style of play is both fun and demanding. Good luck to everyone as they attempt to learn it!

Openings

Reaper Fast Expand







Because of the Reaper FE, many Zerg players will elect to take a very early gas and mine just 100 gas in order to get zergling speed. This allows for them to shut down the reaper if it is still on their side of the map when it is finished. The standard Reaper FE that leads into 4M play moves straight into hellions and then into 4M. This allows for the Terran player to deal easily with the speed zerglings that he forced while he is powering up to his mid game of choice.



Reaper FE is a very map dependent opening. Map features to look for that enhance the build are cliffs that you can jump up into the main without having to be in the natural (Neo Planet S or Star Station), naturals with both a cliff and a wide normal entrance (Bel'Shir Vestige), or other features that allow multiple paths of attack for the reapers. Maps that are not very good for Reaper FE include those with no jump-able entrance to the main from outside the natural and a single path into the natural (Whirlwind).



Some Zerg players will send two zerglings to your natural while you are harassing them with your reaper(s). The goal the zerg has with this move is to kill the SCV building the command center. If this happens and you do not have anything at home to repel it, you will be at a disadvantage. To prevent this from happening, either leave one reaper at home near the building command center or build the command center inside your main base.



10 Supply Depot

12 Barracks (small SCV cut)

12 Refinery (end SCV cut ASAP after this starts)

15 Orbital Command

15 Reaper

16 Supply Depot

17 Reaper (Barracks will not be making units for a small time after this)

19 Command Center

21 Factory

22 Reactor on Barracks

Swap Factory onto Reactor (Make 6 total Hellions and then 2 Widow Mines)

Bunker Your first reaper should harass any drones in the Zerg natural and then find a way into the main to check the Zerg's extractor timing. It is important to note that zergling speed can be finished as soon as three minutes and 15 seconds after the extractor is done. You want your reapers to be gone before this time is up. The primary goal is not to kill drones or cause damage, but to force the Zerg into getting very fast zergling speed or to punish him for not doing so. Make sure to check for the amount of gas he has mined before ending the harass. Common timings for zergling speed to be completed are 5:50-5:55 with hatch gas pool play or 6:05-6:25 with hatch pool gas.



At least 10-20 seconds before zergling speed can possibly be done, your reapers must vacate the enemy base. If all went well, you forced out an early extractor, several zerglings, and maybe even netted a few drone or zergling kills. Maybe he even wasted money on an early spine crawler. Things can only go horribly wrong if you lose one or even both of the reapers. The retreated reapers can safely clear out watch towers and check for isolated units around the map if you desire. Their current goal is to join up with the hellions that are going to be coming out of your factory. It is very advisable to join the reapers up with your first hellions in a defensive formation at your ramp to defend possible speedling aggression (in the form of 15+ speedlings). This is necessary as you presumably will not have a wall at this point.



The placement of your first bunker should be a map-dependent choice. Maps that have a larger opening (11 squares wide) to the natural expansion favor a bunker that is placed near or adjacent to the ramp leading from your natural to your main. Depending on the map layout, you will be very uncomfortable if the Zerg decides to hide a pack of speedlings on the map and uses them to back stab you as you move out with reaper/hellion. On maps with a smaller opening to the natural (9 squares), you can wall off in time (reactively if needed even) without too much worries.



When the first four hellions come out of the factory, join them up with the two reapers to check around the map for a third Zerg base. If you find a third base, you do not need to prepare for a two base tech play and can exercise map control. Kill anything at the watchtowers and stop any tumors on the edge of creep while you wait for your fifth and sixth hellion to join up with the other hellions and two reapers. Once you have all six hellions and the two reapers, you can hit a timing where you can be more aggressive onto creep than would normally feel safe (this timing ends once the Zerg has some kind of tech besides zergling speed, usually banelings, mutas, or roaches). This aggression must been done cautiously as speedlings can surround your force very quickly when you are on creep. If you feel like taking a risk, you can poke onto creep to attack queens or kill drones if he has any at his third base. Focus on not allowing a zergling surround to occur and do not try to trade units at this time. Realize that you should be aggressive and that if he does not have a scary amount of lings, you will need to punish his greed in order to not fall behind. A great way to judge how aggressive to be is to check the drone count at his third base. If he seems to have too many drones, you can count on him being low on zerglings; this is an opening to punish his greed. As his tech comes into effect, pull the units back to help defend your third. This is the final and most important purpose of the six hellions. These hellions are the only thing you have to stand on when trying to secure your third base. If you lose the hellions before this time, you will run into a lot of trouble (and probably lose the game) trying to establish your third vs speedling or baneling play by the Zerg. Ideally, this force of six hellions (and the two reapers, though they are not as important after this timing) can join up with your marines and medivacs as +1/+1 and stim come into play to execute a 11:30 creep clearing poke as you transition into the mid game.



If at any point in the opening you spot roaches, cut hellion/marine production and focus on mines/marauders. Add one to two additional bunkers over the standard single bunker. If the Zerg goes for aggression of the speedling or baneling variety, do not stop making hellions. Mines are simply not the answer to such play and you will need the splash damage of the hellions in order to deal with the swarmy nature of such plays. Keep in mind that scouting such attacks before they hit is the most important part of defending them. Any aggression that does not include banelings should prompt you to pull SCVs before he arrives in order to land a strong repair on your defensive structures. Consider emergency placement of wall-off buildings and bunkers (most Terrans seem to favor a total of three bunkers when facing early one or two base aggression). The most key part of defending aggression is positioning of all the critical units. You do not want to lose bunkers or hellions because SCVs were not pre-pulled or hellions were out on the map and have to fight their way home. Look at section 3.5 for more exact examples of Zerg aggression and how to play vs them. The Reaper FE is one of the most popular openings in any matchup as Terran. It allows for both early aggression with a highly micro-able unit, thorough scouting of an enemies base (and of the map in the case of TvT and TvP), and an elegant balance of early gas spending and mineral saving which allows for a relatively fast command center.Because of the Reaper FE, many Zerg players will elect to take a very early gas and mine just 100 gas in order to get zergling speed. This allows for them to shut down the reaper if it is still on their side of the map when it is finished. The standard Reaper FE that leads into 4M play moves straight into hellions and then into 4M. This allows for the Terran player to deal easily with the speed zerglings that he forced while he is powering up to his mid game of choice.Reaper FE is a very map dependent opening. Map features to look for that enhance the build are cliffs that you can jump up into the main without having to be in the natural (Neo Planet S or Star Station), naturals with both a cliff and a wide normal entrance (Bel'Shir Vestige), or other features that allow multiple paths of attack for the reapers. Maps that are not very good for Reaper FE include those with no jump-able entrance to the main from outside the natural and a single path into the natural (Whirlwind).Some Zerg players will send two zerglings to your natural while you are harassing them with your reaper(s). The goal the zerg has with this move is to kill the SCV building the command center. If this happens and you do not have anything at home to repel it, you will be at a disadvantage. To prevent this from happening, either leave one reaper at home near the building command center or build the command center inside your main base.Your first reaper should harass any drones in the Zerg natural and then find a way into the main to check the Zerg's extractor timing. It is important to note that zergling speed can be finished as soon as three minutes and 15 seconds after the extractor is done. You want your reapers to be gone before this time is up. The primary goal is not to kill drones or cause damage, but to force the Zerg into getting very fast zergling speed or to punish him for not doing so. Make sure to check for the amount of gas he has mined before ending the harass. Common timings for zergling speed to be completed are 5:50-5:55 with hatch gas pool play or 6:05-6:25 with hatch pool gas.At least 10-20 seconds before zergling speed can possibly be done, your reapers must vacate the enemy base. If all went well, you forced out an early extractor, several zerglings, and maybe even netted a few drone or zergling kills. Maybe he even wasted money on an early spine crawler. Things can only go horribly wrong if you lose one or even both of the reapers. The retreated reapers can safely clear out watch towers and check for isolated units around the map if you desire. Their current goal is to join up with the hellions that are going to be coming out of your factory. It is very advisable to join the reapers up with your first hellions in a defensive formation at your ramp to defend possible speedling aggression (in the form of 15+ speedlings). This is necessary as you presumably will not have a wall at this point.The placement of your first bunker should be a map-dependent choice. Maps that have a larger opening (11 squares wide) to the natural expansion favor a bunker that is placed near or adjacent to the ramp leading from your natural to your main. Depending on the map layout, you will be very uncomfortable if the Zerg decides to hide a pack of speedlings on the map and uses them to back stab you as you move out with reaper/hellion. On maps with a smaller opening to the natural (9 squares), you can wall off in time (reactively if needed even) without too much worries.When the first four hellions come out of the factory, join them up with the two reapers to check around the map for a third Zerg base. If you find a third base, you do not need to prepare for a two base tech play and can exercise map control. Kill anything at the watchtowers and stop any tumors on the edge of creep while you wait for your fifth and sixth hellion to join up with the other hellions and two reapers. Once you have all six hellions and the two reapers, you can hit a timing where you can be more aggressive onto creep than would normally feel safe (this timing ends once the Zerg has some kind of tech besides zergling speed, usually banelings, mutas, or roaches). This aggression must been done cautiously as speedlings can surround your force very quickly when you are on creep. If you feel like taking a risk, you can poke onto creep to attack queens or kill drones if he has any at his third base. Focus on not allowing a zergling surround to occur and do not try to trade units at this time. Realize that you should be aggressive and that if he does not have a scary amount of lings, you will need to punish his greed in order to not fall behind. A great way to judge how aggressive to be is to check the drone count at his third base. If he seems to have too many drones, you can count on him being low on zerglings; this is an opening to punish his greed. As his tech comes into effect, pull the units back to help defend your third. This is the final and most important purpose of the six hellions. These hellions are the only thing you have to stand on when trying to secure your third base. If you lose the hellions before this time, you will run into a lot of trouble (and probably lose the game) trying to establish your third vs speedling or baneling play by the Zerg. Ideally, this force of six hellions (and the two reapers, though they are not as important after this timing) can join up with your marines and medivacs as +1/+1 and stim come into play to execute a 11:30 creep clearing poke as you transition into the mid game.If at any point in the opening you spot roaches, cut hellion/marine production and focus on mines/marauders. Add one to two additional bunkers over the standard single bunker. If the Zerg goes for aggression of the speedling or baneling variety, do not stop making hellions. Mines are simply not the answer to such play and you will need the splash damage of the hellions in order to deal with the swarmy nature of such plays. Keep in mind that scouting such attacks before they hit is the most important part of defending them. Any aggression that does not include banelings should prompt you to pull SCVs before he arrives in order to land a strong repair on your defensive structures. Consider emergency placement of wall-off buildings and bunkers (most Terrans seem to favor a total of three bunkers when facing early one or two base aggression). The most key part of defending aggression is positioning of all the critical units. You do not want to lose bunkers or hellions because SCVs were not pre-pulled or hellions were out on the map and have to fight their way home. Look at section 3.5 for more exact examples of Zerg aggression and how to play vs them.

CC Rax Gas

Transitions to the Mid Game top

Reactor Hellions and Third Command Center

Tanks Before Hellions

10 Supply Depot

12 Barracks (small SCV cut)

12 Refinery (end SCV cut ASAP after this starts)

15 Orbital Command

15 Reaper

16 Supply Depot

17 Reaper (Barracks will not be making units for a small time after this)

19 Command Center

21 Factory

22 Reactor on Barracks

3rd Command Center

*Scout the Zerg's main and check to see if he is still mining gas with 3 Drones, if so, continue*

2nd Refinery

Tech Lab on Factory and Marines out of Reactor Barracks

Tank

Swap Factory and Barracks

Stim and 2x Hellions

2x Engineering Bay

2x Barracks

2x Refinery

Starport

2x Barracks



**Keep in mind that this build is best used when scouting a ground based all-in from Zerg and as such the build will get 'disrupted' at some point. Favor units over add-ons once his attack hits but do not lose sight of playing for a 3 and 4 base aggressive 4M mid game.** One interesting trick that Fantasy used vs TRUE is to scout the Zerg's main again to check the gas just after he starts his factory, but before he has started the reactor. Seeing that TRUE was indeed mining gas and had not just gone for fast speed, he started a tech lab instead of a reactor to add a siege tank before going back into reactor hellions. This proves to be crucial in holding the two base speed zergling plus baneling attack that TRUE does shortly afterward. While the siege tank makes on the tech lab that the barracks donated, the barracks produces the reactor. It makes for a very seamless transition right back into the Hellion into 4M play that Fantasy wanted to do from the start of the game.



Fantasy pulls his reapers back then until around seven minutes and then he suicides them to scout the tech choice of TRUE. From there, he follows a very standard mid-game build, getting a very fast third command center and fast two engineering bays. He positions his units to deal with the attack before it arrives. He uses the four hellions that he has - numbers five and six still in production - to scout out the area outside his natural looking for zerglings and banelings (he sadly loses them to a surround but that should not have happened). Important to note, he has his siege tank on the high ground and every marine in his main behind raised supply depots (he does leave four marines in the bunker at his natural). After crushing the attack, he executes a double pronged attack with eight marines in a medivac and six hellions. He takes his third behind this and plays out much like any other 4M game.



Taeja goes for a similar concept against KangHo. He does not get a scout off on the Zerg's gas, but I believe he was metagaming KangHo's style and planned to make the tank regardless. He actually just makes a reactor on the barracks and builds marines out of it and the factory makes its own tech lab. He switches them after having a tank finish.



To execute this transition, simply get a tech lab onto your factory to make a tank and have a reactor on the barracks before that tank is done. You can opt for the faster reactor and slower tech lab as Taeja did or for the faster tank and the slower reactor as Fantasy did. Start a third command center as the tank is building. Once you have the tank complete, swap the barracks and factory add-ons, begin reactor hellions, and start stim when gas allows. Take a second gas after you start stim and then add two engineering bays. Once you start +1/+1, you will want to add two more barracks, two more refineries, then a starport, then two more barracks. This brings you to the very standard mid game check point in the 4M style. Keep in mind that you invested more in your defense early on so your play will be slightly weaker vs a standard Zerg while slightly stronger vs aggressive ground styles.



In WCS Korea Season 1 Code S Ro4 STX_INnoVation vs AZUBU_Symbol Game 6 INnoVation and Symbol face off in cross spawns on Whirlwind. INnoVation had just lost to a few all-ins and modifies his play with an interesting combination of standard hellion play and a siege tank. His build looks very normal with the factory taking the reactor and pumping out four hellions and the barracks making a tech lab. Once the first four hellions are done and the tech lab completes he swaps the buildings and makes a tank. I love this adaption to the map and starting positions and it easily helps INnoVation to hold the very late roach/bane bust that hits his third base at ~12:30.



Sources









One interesting trick that Fantasy used vs TRUE is to scout the Zerg's main again to check the gas just after he starts his factory, but before he has started the reactor. Seeing that TRUE was indeed mining gas and had not just gone for fast speed, he started a tech lab instead of a reactor to add a siege tank before going back into reactor hellions. This proves to be crucial in holding the two base speed zergling plus baneling attack that TRUE does shortly afterward. While the siege tank makes on the tech lab that the barracks donated, the barracks produces the reactor. It makes for a very seamless transition right back into the Hellion into 4M play that Fantasy wanted to do from the start of the game.Fantasy pulls his reapers back then until around seven minutes and then he suicides them to scout the tech choice of TRUE. From there, he follows a very standard mid-game build, getting a very fast third command center and fast two engineering bays. He positions his units to deal with the attack before it arrives. He uses the four hellions that he has - numbers five and six still in production - to scout out the area outside his natural looking for zerglings and banelings (he sadly loses them to a surround but that should not have happened). Important to note, he has his siege tank on the high ground and every marine in his main behind raised supply depots (he does leave four marines in the bunker at his natural). After crushing the attack, he executes a double pronged attack with eight marines in a medivac and six hellions. He takes his third behind this and plays out much like any other 4M game.Taeja goes for a similar concept against KangHo. He does not get a scout off on the Zerg's gas, but I believe he was metagaming KangHo's style and planned to make the tank regardless. He actually just makes a reactor on the barracks and builds marines out of it and the factory makes its own tech lab. He switches them after having a tank finish.To execute this transition, simply get a tech lab onto your factory to make a tank and have a reactor on the barracks before that tank is done. You can opt for the faster reactor and slower tech lab as Taeja did or for the faster tank and the slower reactor as Fantasy did. Start a third command center as the tank is building. Once you have the tank complete, swap the barracks and factory add-ons, begin reactor hellions, and start stim when gas allows. Take a second gas after you start stim and then add two engineering bays. Once you start +1/+1, you will want to add two more barracks, two more refineries, then a starport, then two more barracks. This brings you to the very standard mid game check point in the 4M style. Keep in mind that you invested more in your defense early on so your play will be slightly weaker vs a standard Zerg while slightly stronger vs aggressive ground styles.In WCS Korea Season 1 Code S Ro4 STX_INnoVation vs AZUBU_Symbol Game 6 INnoVation and Symbol face off in cross spawns on Whirlwind. INnoVation had just lost to a few all-ins and modifies his play with an interesting combination of standard hellion play and a siege tank. His build looks very normal with the factory taking the reactor and pumping out four hellions and the barracks making a tech lab. Once the first four hellions are done and the tech lab completes he swaps the buildings and makes a tank. I love this adaption to the map and starting positions and it easily helps INnoVation to hold the very late roach/bane bust that hits his third base at ~12:30. SKtelecom_FanTaSy vs 8thTEAM_True Set 2. From WCS Korea Season 1, Code S Ro32 (Terran Win). SKtelecom_FanTaSy vs 8thTEAM_True Set 2. From WCS Korea Seaon 1, Code S Ro32 (Zerg Win). Liquid_TaeJa vs LG-IM_KangHo Set 2. From WCS Korea Season 1, Code S Ro32 (Zerg Win). Liquid_TaeJa vs LG-IM_KangHo Set 3. From WCS Korea Season 1, Code S Ro32 (Terran Win). STX_INnoVation vs AZUBU_Symbol Set 6. From WCS Korea Season 1, Code S Ro4 (Terran Win). Innovation vs Soukey on Gwangalli Beach Set 3. From WCS OSL Ro8.

Starting the Mid Game

Your opening will provide you with many crucial pieces of information, but in the case that you have not completely pinned the Zerg on his mid game style of choice, proceed with caution but determination. Focus on a 11:30 timing that is opened by you getting 1/1 and stim. These upgrades line up with your production kicking in and is a crucial timing with the 4M playstyle. Be wary of any Zerg that has shown you roaches before this timing, or that was harvesting an usual amount of gas in the earlier part of the game. Special attention needs to this style of Zerg. Use your hellions, without losing them, to scout out his third base and to see a drone count there. If there are no drones, or very few drones, at his third by 8:00, you should be very concerned about an aggressive play coming from the Zerg. If there is still few or no drones at 9:00, it is certain that aggression is coming.. If you feel that an aggressive play is coming, you will need to deviate from the goal of the 11:30 timing and focus on reacting to the Zerg's specific flavor of aggression. Do note that if the Zerg is committing to some kind of aggressive three base all-in this can be a game ending move. Pay attention to what your hellions are able to see. In extreme cases, you can attempt to scan for a tech building or to to measure his economy. This is unreliable and should only be done when you are completely blind and do not want to make a blind decision.



Assuming that you have not seen signs of an aggressive style coming from the Zerg, you will push out at the 11:30 timing mentioned above. The goal of the 1/1 stim timing is to contest map control. Behind every action you do during this push, keep the true purpose of map control in mind. Do not sacrifice or trade units. Doing so will leave you without any map control, and therefor, is counter productive to your goal. Your main targets will be creep tumors, stray overlords, and queens that have overextended. This push will force the Zergs hand and he will have to show you his unit composition at this point. At this point you can modify your play and mindset to better match his playstyle.

Other Mid Game Transitions

Two other mid game options that have popped up recently include banshee openings and two-base bio mine push openings. Both of these will be covered in a later guide.

Reacting to the Zerg top

Zergling/Baneling/Mutalisk

Infestor Based Play





Keep in mind that the strengths of infestor based play include the ability to defend pushes that run onto creep and a faster-than-normal hive. The answer to both of these items is drop play. With drop play as your focus, make the rest of your play support that idea. Adding a single viking in the early mid-game can be extremely effective in reducing spotting overlords that will help him defend drops. Use small portions of your army to kill creep and force his main army to show itself; this will allow you to drop the best positions when he is vulnerable.



Some Zerg players will mix in a massive amount of static defense in order to counter the intuitive response of drop play from the Terran. Against such players, you should hold off on the drop harass and instead focus all of your energy into a pre-hive-tech timing attack. Once the Zerg has finished his hive, it will be about two minutes before hive units are in play. This is the time to attack. Ling/bling/infestor is much less robust at holding a large push at this timing than muta/ling/bling, so as long as you push carefully you should win or trade in such a cost effective way as to hurt his hive tech timing.



Korean Terrans seem to favor a fast second factory once their third base is up vs this style of play. Many Terrans will normally make barracks six through eight before the second factory, but when facing infestor play, this is not the case. Also note, marauders are much more useful here than against a muta/ling/bling player, as they can be used to snipe infestors before a battle.



Sources

You will be focusing much less on pushing and much more on dropping (and scouting) when the Zerg goes for an infestor style. Use small groups of marines to push out and kill tumors at the 11:30, 1/1 stim timing, but be ready to flee at a moments notice. Eight marines and one medivac is a great group to do this with. Keep your army active on the map but not on creep. On creep you are very vulnerable to infestors that just out of vision. Be wary of moving up mid-map ramps as they are another location that infestors can abuse a clumped up army due to vision created by the high ground mechanic. Each time you see his army, back off and send a medivac drop into one of his bases. Keep your harass units alive while active (run when he comes and go back in when he leaves). Once 2/2 kicks in, you can begin to do double medivac drops and/or drops in multiple locations. Expand behind your harass and be prepared to deal with hive tech level aggression.Keep in mind that the strengths of infestor based play include the ability to defend pushes that run onto creep and a faster-than-normal hive. The answer to both of these items is drop play. With drop play as your focus, make the rest of your play support that idea. Adding a single viking in the early mid-game can be extremely effective in reducing spotting overlords that will help him defend drops. Use small portions of your army to kill creep and force his main army to show itself; this will allow you to drop the best positions when he is vulnerable.Some Zerg players will mix in a massive amount of static defense in order to counter the intuitive response of drop play from the Terran. Against such players, you should hold off on the drop harass and instead focus all of your energy into a pre-hive-tech timing attack. Once the Zerg has finished his hive, it will be about two minutes before hive units are in play. This is the time to attack. Ling/bling/infestor is much less robust at holding a large push at this timing than muta/ling/bling, so as long as you push carefully you should win or trade in such a cost effective way as to hurt his hive tech timing.Korean Terrans seem to favor a fast second factory once their third base is up vs this style of play. Many Terrans will normally make barracks six through eight before the second factory, but when facing infestor play, this is not the case. Also note, marauders are much more useful here than against a muta/ling/bling player, as they can be used to snipe infestors before a battle. Liquid_TaeJa vs LG-IM_KangHo Set 1. From WCS Korea Season 1, Code S Ro32 (Terran Win). STX_INnoVation vs StarTale_Life Set 1. From WCS Korea Season 1, Code S Ro16 (Terran Win).

Roach/Hydralisk





If you have the multitasking and feel good about your defense, you can opt to do some drops. This is, however, risky as, unless the Zerg overextends, the opponent will be able to take advantage of some mid-game timings where his army is able to either break your third base or force way too much to be lost in holding it.



Your overall goal is to build an extremely cost effective army and hit a timing while he is transitioning to hive. Once you have acquired around 170-180 food and six or more tanks, you can begin to push out. If he has not started a hive yet, do not push even at this timing. Keep the goal of hitting him before hive tech in mind at all times. An army based around six to ten tanks is simply impossible for a roach/hydra army to fight on even terms. Do not get out of position and make sure to hit before he is able to change his composition, but not a minute sooner.



If, for some reason, you enter into the mid game with a sizable advantage and the Zerg goes for a roach/hydra play, you can transition into pure bio. Pure bio is very strong vs this kind of play as long as you fear no timings that the Zerg might use against you.



Sources

The normal 11:30 push out with 1/1 and stim will not work vs this style of play. You want to play the role of the defender more so than usual. In an ideal world, you should know that the Zerg has chosen to go roach/hydra well before you have made too many widow mines. In that case, begin making tanks out of two (or even three) factories. Realistically, you will often have to switch your mindset very quickly in a game when you find out he went for this composition. In such a case, do not hesitate! Switch your factory to a tech lab and get a second factory started. It is a good decision to go more marauder heavy in a situation like this (up to four tech lab marauders instead of the normal single tech lab barracks).If you have the multitasking and feel good about your defense, you can opt to do some drops. This is, however, risky as, unless the Zerg overextends, the opponent will be able to take advantage of some mid-game timings where his army is able to either break your third base or force way too much to be lost in holding it.Your overall goal is to build an extremely cost effective army and hit a timing while he is transitioning to hive. Once you have acquired around 170-180 food and six or more tanks, you can begin to push out. If he has not started a hive yet, do not push even at this timing. Keep the goal of hitting him before hive tech in mind at all times. An army based around six to ten tanks is simply impossible for a roach/hydra army to fight on even terms. Do not get out of position and make sure to hit before he is able to change his composition, but not a minute sooner.If, for some reason, you enter into the mid game with a sizable advantage and the Zerg goes for a roach/hydra play, you can transition into pure bio. Pure bio is very strong vs this kind of play as long as you fear no timings that the Zerg might use against you. KT_Flash vs Woongjin_Soulkey Set 1. From WCS Korea Season 1, Code S Ro32 (Terran Win). TaeJa vs Goswer Set 3. From ASUS ROG Summer (Terran Win).

Hive Rush





Yoda needed to identify the strategy of RorO by around 12 minutes at the latest and do doom drops and/or multi-pronged drops. Denying the fourth over and over is not enough to hold back the surge of army power that the Zerg will get by around the 18-19 minute mark. The conclusion to my theorycrafting here would be if you see a Zerg on mass upgraded speedlings with an extreme absence of gas units to scan for a hive or use a medivac to scout for his hive. Just after 12 minutes Yoda spots a huge army of zerglings and has seen RorO attempt to take a fourth over and over. His conclusion should be that RorO is saving gas and not trying to win on three bases. The only time that mass dropping will not work very well is if they have added a lot of static defense. In the case of that, simply deny his fourth base as much as possible, and add on your extra barracks with tech labs as soon as possible (you want four total tech lab'd barracks).



In general vs this style, it is ok to fight small battles but avoid big fights in the mid game. Once you have 3/3 and a good mixture of marauders in your army, you can be more aggressive and push in a more direct way.



Sources To better understand this strategy we will take a close look at a game of Yoda's. Yoda vs RorO from WCS Korea Season 1 Code S ro16 2013 to be exact. RorO skipped infestors and went straight to hive tech and ultras. His hive started at 11:45. He used mass speedling and a few banes to hold the 11:30 timing from Yoda, and more importantly, counterattacked constantly as his hive built to keep Yoda on the back foot. Yoda denies the fourth of RorO over and over but never hurts the three base economy before ultras are already on the way. As soon as he spots the ultra cavern, he attempts to do mass drops, but by then it is too late and RorO begins to get a return on his risky investment into extremely fast ultras.Yoda needed to identify the strategy of RorO by around 12 minutes at the latest and do doom drops and/or multi-pronged drops. Denying the fourth over and over is not enough to hold back the surge of army power that the Zerg will get by around the 18-19 minute mark. The conclusion to my theorycrafting here would be if you see a Zerg on mass upgraded speedlings with an extreme absence of gas units to scan for a hive or use a medivac to scout for his hive. Just after 12 minutes Yoda spots a huge army of zerglings and has seen RorO attempt to take a fourth over and over. His conclusion should be that RorO is saving gas and not trying to win on three bases. The only time that mass dropping will not work very well is if they have added a lot of static defense. In the case of that, simply deny his fourth base as much as possible, and add on your extra barracks with tech labs as soon as possible (you want four total tech lab'd barracks).In general vs this style, it is ok to fight small battles but avoid big fights in the mid game. Once you have 3/3 and a good mixture of marauders in your army, you can be more aggressive and push in a more direct way. LG-IM_YoDa vs SAMSUNG_RorO Set 2. From WCS Korea Season 1, Code S Ro16 (Zerg Win).

Roach/Baneling

Aggressive Play

Hatch Tech

Lair Tech

Conclusion and Replay Pack top