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    StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

    Game » consists of 10 releases. Released Jul 27, 2010

    The first chapter in the StarCraft II trilogy focuses on the struggles of the Terran race, as seen through the eyes of Commander Jim Raynor, leader of the rebel group Raynor's Raiders.

    TvZ Matchup

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    wunder_

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    #1  Edited By wunder_

    Hey guys, I've been maining Terran for a while but I've branched out into Toss a bit, and I find toss really handles zerg macro alot better than terran... Is there anyway to solve a Zerg player's macro? I've tried timing pushes but it's usually a gamble because they may have gone roaches or hydras or even mutas! I can't seem to get good scouts off and all my scans don't show that much information. Do you guys have any solutions? Or as a zerg player, do you specifically do something against a Terran player?
     
    Thanks!

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    thatfrood

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    #2  Edited By thatfrood

    You should watch the recordings for the recent 1v1 tournament. The final fight was actually Terran v Zerg, and Terran won! It was very sweet.

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    Rayeth

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    #3  Edited By Rayeth

    As a Terran player you should never be walking blinding into an early push.  You should either scout it with air units of some type or scan it.   When I play Zerg, I know that the onus is on me to be aggressive early or the terran player will quickly ramp up to air tech and Thors and destroy my ability to use Mutas.  
     
    Roaches are an early unit that you could potentially scout with your first SCV if they are rushing it.  Otherwise, you need to use that scan right as you are about to attack (they will expect an attack once you scan them so don't let them prepare), and if you see something you can't handle pull off and tech switch.

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    KaosAngel

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    #4  Edited By KaosAngel

    Wall up your bases and expect the balings to break them open, so go mass Marines or Muradors, or Hellions.
     
    You gotta send that SCV out ASAP and see if he's going Pool or Roach.  
     
    There's too many variables to look at to give a basic outline...that's the beauty of SC, can't pre build...gotta go with the flow.

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    Nusse

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    #5  Edited By Nusse

    My TvZ is my most solid matchup, what I do is go Hellions + Thors and if they go infestors I get ghosts. 
     
    You are a little weak at the start but the Hellions should defend you against the baneling bust.

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    aTeddyBear

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    Sporkbane

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    #7  Edited By Sporkbane
    @Nusse said:
    " My TvZ is my most solid matchup, what I do is go Hellions + Thors and if they go infestors I get ghosts.  You are a little weak at the start but the Hellions should defend you against the baneling bust. "
    As someone who has played a lot of zerg, I can say with certainty that Hellion/Thor pushes are extremely annoying. Hellions RAPE hydras, and Thors rape everything else it seems.
     
    To  keep a zerg player from macroing is to just get map control early. Hellions are amazing for this, as they are super fast and can faceroll all the drones at an expansion in seconds. As long as you can keep the Zerg player contained within 2 bases, you have a pretty strong shot as a terran player. You can expand and contain his ground forces with the hellions/thors, and mutas can't do anything against thors, and are easily warded off by a few cheap missile turrets.
     
    It really helps to scan a lot, and flying in with a medivac/thor combo can cause a lot of damage and give you good scouting in the process. There are a few things you need to watch out for though.
     
    1. Banelings--These guys, especially with speedlings for surround, will melt your hellions in seconds, leaving your thors undefended against lings/banes/hydras/roaches. If you see a baneling nest you need to consider getting some siege tanks out to kill them with splash damage. Combined with your hellions and Thors this should prevent a zerg player from just facerolling your army with banes and then squashing your thors. Marauders with conc shells help too, as they give your hellions time escape/kill off the lings/banes.
     
    2. Burrow--Combined with the banelings this can lead you to some nasty instances of losing all your hellions trying to move through the Zergs choke or to take out an expansion. As soon as you see something burrow get a raven out for detection, you'll want to be using your energy on your orbital command as much as possible for mules, especially if you're having trouble with the Zerg out macroing you.
     
    Roaches with tunneling claws after burrow is researched can be a major problem. If you don't have detection, they can sneak right under your hellions and marauders and pop up to snipe thors before burrowing again. If the zerg is allowed to get a bunch of roaches (which isn't hard, considering how little they cost) he can seriously damage your army. Remember--Thors are really expensive units, and the zerg can afford to lose a few roaches if he manages to take out a thor or 2. 
     
    3. Infestors--Even after the recent neural parasite nerf in patch 11, infestors are still really powerful casters. If you watch the HDH invitational, TheLittleOne DESTROYS Cauthaunluck with mass fungal growths, Which as it turns out are really damn effective against hellions. If the infestors FG your hellions, you probably are going to lose them to lings and roaches, or at least have them damaged for the next battle. Try sniping infestation pits with a marauder drop if you can.
     
    Really the key thing to do is to maintain map control with hellions if you can. If you let the Zerg get away with expanding everywhere, he can tech and mass wayyyyy more than you can keep up with as a terran player. If you can keep him locked up with hellions and thors, you will have a huge advantage.
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    wunder_

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    #8  Edited By wunder_

    Hey, thanks guys! Really helped my TvZ games! Are there any solutions to fight ultralisks? I tried to fight them with Thors and 250mm Strike Cannons but that didn't work really well... Also, what if the Zerg player turtles up with tons of spine crawlers? How do you push in if you're trying to do a timed push? My best bet so far has been to do some Siege tank + rines push with some marauders but my tanks get overwhelmed by zerglings before I can take them out. =[

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    Nusse

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    #9  Edited By Nusse

    Thors are your counter to ultralisk, don't know if this has changed with the buff they got last patch though... 
     
    And if he goes lings, spine crawlers and mutas like so many zerg likes to do your counter is hellion and thors, you just need to position the hellions correct. 
     
    With marauders + stim with a little micro you should be able to kill ultras fast.

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    Sporkbane

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    #10  Edited By Sporkbane
    @Wunder_ said:
    " Hey, thanks guys! Really helped my TvZ games! Are there any solutions to fight ultralisks? I tried to fight them with Thors and 250mm Strike Cannons but that didn't work really well... Also, what if the Zerg player turtles up with tons of spine crawlers? How do you push in if you're trying to do a timed push? My best bet so far has been to do some Siege tank + rines push with some marauders but my tanks get overwhelmed by zerglings before I can take them out. =[ "
    Skip marines and just go hellion marauder thor. I find it odd that you lost to Ultralisk, especially with the 250mm strike cannons as these stun and kill the ultras at the same time. If the rest of the zerg army flattened the thors after that I can understand, but that's why you get hellions with Infernal preigniter :)
     
    Yeah, siege tanks aren't so great against zerg when you already can get splash damage much cheaper from hellions, and hellions hard counter hydras banelings and zerglins pretty good. With thors and rauders on backup you should be able to faceroll the zerg. 
     
    If he goes ultras, marines are def not the way to go. Ultras can rape light tier 1 units, especially when upgraded. There's even a video on youtube of 1 ultralisk killing something like 400 zerglings without dying. Also burrowed roaches with tunneling claws backed up by speedlings make MMM+siege useless, so stick to the mech build.
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    wunder_

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    #11  Edited By wunder_
    @Sporkbane:  Hmm, don't you think that's pretty risky? Usually the zerg friends I play with end up teching to mutas, given Thors do cut up mutas pretty badly, they can snipe my thors and I'll be left with Hellions and Marauders... Also, do you or does anyone else have any suggestions on how to micro a good mech build? I find them extraordinarily hard to micro as their speeds are completely off and all of them seem super fragile. Maybe I'm not making enough of them?
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    Sporkbane

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    #12  Edited By Sporkbane
    @Wunder_ said:
    " @Sporkbane:  Hmm, don't you think that's pretty risky? Usually the zerg friends I play with end up teching to mutas, given Thors do cut up mutas pretty badly, they can snipe my thors and I'll be left with Hellions and Marauders... Also, do you or does anyone else have any suggestions on how to micro a good mech build? I find them extraordinarily hard to micro as their speeds are completely off and all of them seem super fragile. Maybe I'm not making enough of them? "
    It's a tad risky in the beginning, but once you build about 4 thors mutas get FACEROLLED by them. Since they added AoE to the missiles and 99% of zerg players don't bother spreading their mutas out, so they get raped.
     
    I usually have everything in a control group tied with 1, but I like to keep my hellions on control group 2 as well. That way I can keep them from getting head of my  slow thors and marauder's (those guys must eat a lot of twinkies to get that fat)
     
    I think it's really important if you're playing mech, especially when doing thor/hellion against Zerg, to repair your Thors should they get damaged. They're super expensive, and losing 1 thor puts the zerg player in a pretty confident lead.
     
    The reason I tend to not go for MMM with siege tanks is that siege tanks slow your army down a lot, and if the zerg gets banelings it's pretty much GG if he catches your tanks sieged. You're forced to retreat with your marines and marauders, and the siege tanks take too long to change modes to get out of there before they can get destroyed by speedlings/roach/hydra. Throw in some infestors and you've lost your entire army.
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    wunder_

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    #13  Edited By wunder_
    @Sporkbane:  Ah... Okay, awesome! I think the main problem with the thor strat is repairing them, should I pull like a scv for each thor? I was just concerned about Siege Tanks as I might still be stuck in the BW mindset of siege tanks being amazing. To be honest, there aren't that many great Terran players so I haven't managed to find decent replays of strats; perhaps I'll pick up Terran again once it hits retail and more pros start to play Terran!
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    Sporkbane

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    #14  Edited By Sporkbane
    @Wunder_ said:
    " @Sporkbane:  Ah... Okay, awesome! I think the main problem with the thor strat is repairing them, should I pull like a scv for each thor? I was just concerned about Siege Tanks as I might still be stuck in the BW mindset of siege tanks being amazing. To be honest, there aren't that many great Terran players so I haven't managed to find decent replays of strats; perhaps I'll pick up Terran again once it hits retail and more pros start to play Terran! "
    No problem. If you want we could run some TvZ custom games for you to practice. Just PM me your identifier and stuff and let me know good times when you can practice. I won't be on much this weekend probably, but in the next few weeks I'll have plenty of time.
     
    Yeah I usually pull about 4 or 5 scvs for repairs once I have 4 or 5 thors. If you've ever seen LZgamers 1 thor rush against protoss, you should know just how powerful thors with scvs for repairs can be.
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    StarvingGamer

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    #15  Edited By StarvingGamer

    If the enemy is going ground forces build 4-6 Tanks, protect them with an MMM ball, and you're set.  Zerg ground is the worst equipped of all the races to respond to a Tank push with proper support, especially if you can force them into a choke.  Hellion/Thor or Marine/Thor vs Muta/Ling, MMM/Tank vs Roach/Hydra, and Vikings if the game goes late because you will be seeing Broodlords.

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