I'm still playing Terran this season, but I just can't seem to get out of the Silver division. I have been using the builds that LGRipper had taught me, along with the ThorZaIN build from Day[9]'s video. Last night, after I lost a number of Terran vs. Terran matches, one of my opponents suggested that I look at this Team Liquid forum thread by filter: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=330787I didn't have time to look at it that night, but I did take a look later the next day. I read the thread and watched the first few of his YouTube videos.
The thread stresses that macroeconomics ("macro" for short) is more important than micromanaging your units ("micro") in StarCraft. The idea is that groups of well-controlled units might perform marginally better than a like number of units, but overall, it's more important to have a bigger army. Ignoring the battles to create a stronger economy can actually end up winning more games than really good micro.
The build he shows isn't hard - basically you build as many marines as you can, and you do a basic 1 barracks fast expand. You should start building your expansion by 3:45 in the game. After the game, you need to look at when you expansion was started and check how many SCVs you have at the 10-minute mark. Sounds easy, right?
Then he showed his build. He's a Master division player, and was able to make 52 SCVs and 49 marines by the 10-minute mark. He was actually attack-moving directly into his opponents base without micromanaging his units, and managing to win against most Bronze and Silver opponents.
Since I already had 20 replays from Season 7, I started by looking at my old replays to see what units I had and how many SCVs I had built by the 10-minute mark. I also listed what my opponents had at that point.
The results were surprising. For my "best" 1/1/1 build, I was able to make 17 marines, a hellion, 4 siege tanks (without siege researched), a banshee, and a raven. My "ThorZaIN build" got 11 marines, 4 siege tanks, and 2 medivacs. The best Protoss opponent I played has 7 zealots, 4 stalkers, 3 sentries, and an immortal. An army of 48 marines looks a lot more impressive than any of these.
I also looked at my SCV count. Apparently, I'm forgetting to keep building SCVs. I don't know when I start to forget, but when I looked at my replays, I usually only had 28 SCVs at the 10-minute mark. I didn't think I had awful macro, but I thought it was a lot better than it was. The 50-SCV benchmark 10 minutes into the game started looking really difficult.
Instead of playing against the computer like filter suggested, I went straight into the ladder games. By ignoring the other building types and building a command center much earlier than I was used to, I managed to make 43 SCVs by the 10-minute mark on my first try. I had 32 marines as well, but I might have lost some to banelings earlier in the game. I played six more games after that. I would regularly get more than 40 SCVs by the 10-minute mark, but getting to 50 proved to be sort of difficult. I managed to do so on my seventh try. (Note that, according to filter, you are supposed to be able to get 50 SCVs every game.
Of the seven games that I played, I won four games and lost three. I lost one to a quick baneling/zergling bust. I lost another when I sacrificed a lot of guys to cannons as my marines attack-moved into his base. He eventually built enough collosus to be able to counterattack and kill my entire army. I lost another game because my army kept moving into siege tank fire. (I gave up on the no-micromanagement thing. I'll move my marines around to avoid photon cannons and siege tank fire, but I'll still concentrate on macroeconomics over micromanagement.)
Some of my opponents quit the game without a polite "gg" ("good game") and some raged that Terrans are overpowered. I have to say that I found it hard to defend against mass marines, but there are good counters - banelings, infestors, collosus, and siege tanks. It's possible that it's just hard to get enough of those units by the 10-minute mark to mount a good defense.
We'll have to see how this build does in the long term, but at least for right now, it seems like it's working. I'm playing (and beating) more Gold division players. Maybe this will be enough to promote me before the end of the season.
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