Leveling Down

When I play Terran in team games, I love using the Siege Tank + Marine combo for mid-game.

Up next in my series of Starcraft 2 strategy articles is how to play Terran’s mid-game effectively for team-based play. Back in the beta, Terran was the hardest race for me to learn, since I felt that the Terran units changed most considerably from the first game to the second compared to the other races. I also didn’t quite embrace the power of tanks back in the beta. But now in retail, playing as random, I think I have more wins as Terran than either Protoss or Zerg, so I have to say I’ve come along way. Hit the jump to read up on the viable strategies for the Terran mid-game.

When Does Mid-Game Begin?
This particular text I will most likely paste into each one of the three races’ mid-game entries since it’s important to know when mid-game has begun. Early game consists of the initial quick rushes, followed by a build-up of initial mineral only and minor gas requiring units: Zealots and Stalkers, Marines and Marauders, and Zerglings and Roaches. Once one side has felt that they have built up enough of this early game force, that side will attack the other. If the attacking side is stronger, they will win the game right then. However, if the attack fails (both sides are even, the defending side has too much defense, etc.), that is when the mid-game begins.

The Primary Characteristics of Mid-Game
Unlike the early game when all three races basically have one conservative build to make it into the mid-game, mid-game is where strategy comes most into play. Early game was all about execution: who could rush the best, who could defend the rush the best, etc. The variety in unit types was very little and therefore made the early game more predictable.

The first thing you need to be aware of for mid-game is securing an expansion. This is vital because you should have an excess number of workers by this point as well as a need for more gas to start producing more powerful units and upgrades. Therefore, the first order of business once the final attack of early game fails is to expand.

Terran have one of the easiest times expanding due to two reasons:

1. The Command Center can be built at home, loaded with some SCVs, and flown to an island expansion or your natural. Being able to create an expansion Command Center in the security of your own base is a definite bonus. Just don’t forget that you can load a few SCVs into the Command Center as well if you are flying it to an island expansion.

2. The Terran have a very strong defensive upgrade for the Command Center. I highly recommend that the first thing you do when you land/build your expansion Command Center is start the Planetary Fortress upgrade (an Engineering Bay is required). This upgrade makes it so you can no longer lift your Command Center, but it outfits the Command Center with a defensive turret that attacks ground-based enemies. If your expansion gets attacked, you can take all of your SCVs mining and repair the Command Center and you can enjoy watching the turret plow through enemies. Of course, it’s not impervious, but it may buy you just enough time to get your forces to your expansion.

Carrying from where we left off in the Terran Build
At the end of the Terran early game, the Terran player has walled off his choke, bunkered his mineral line, started on gas, and has two barracks. You’ve either successfully held off a rush with your marines behind the depots, sent your marines to protect one of your teammates, or your team was unsuccessful in defeating your opponent in the early game. Unlike Protoss where you can easily transition into Stalkers, the Terran player must decide very early on (before mid-game even starts) whether to go mass infantry or marines and tanks. Allow me to explain why as I step through the various Terran mid-game armies, in order of viability/popularity.

1. Mass Marines, Marauders, and Medivacs (3 Barracks, 1 Factory, 1 Starport)
This the most popular Terran army type for those inexperienced with Terran and commonly referred to as “MMM” or “bio”. For new players to Terran, this is also the build that I recommend. Marines are weak yet ranged units, while Marauders are armored ground-only range units that can slow opponents down (with the applicable upgrade). Both units compliment each other strongly, and researching the Stim Pack upgrade allows for both the Marines and Marauders to attack and move faster at the cost of losing life. With no medic infantry units in Starcraft 2 like the first game, the Terran infantry is healed from a Starport unit called the Medivac, which functions as both a dropship and a healer, which also allows for the Terran player to do MMM drops on unsuspecting opponents’ bases/expansions.

After the initial Zergling/Zealot rush period wears off, you should add one of each type of attachment to your two barracks. Pump out Marauders out of one barracks and double the marines out of the other while researching Stimpack, the Marauder concussive shells, and the marine HP upgrade. Once you’ve massed a decent sized army, create a Factory so you can create a Starport to make Medivacs. With excess money, consider starting on a third Barracks as well to pump out more infantry. I recommend about a 1.5 to 1 ratio of Marines to Marauders.

This build is strong in the early mid-game, as it can beat the Protoss Gateway army and Zerg ground units. It is highly recommended if you want be aggressive in early mid game. However, as the game drags on, the infantry units lose their luster due to the introduction of mid-game and late-game units that destroy them. One thing is for sure though: pumping mass Marines, Marauders, and Medivacs is still the most well-rounded and newbie-friendly Terran strategy. It is recommended if you believe that you are going against opponents that are sticking with only early game units for the mid-game such as mass Stalkers.

2. Marines and Siege Tanks (2 Barracks, 2 Factories)
This is my current Terran bread-and-butter build for team-based play, and it is generally what is expected among Platinum and Diamond level Terran team players. Unlike the first army type where you are using gas to make Marauders, researching infantry upgrades, and wasting gas on making a Factory just to get the Starport for Medivacs, this second army type is all about tanks and ground control.

For this build, you will have two barracks with no attachments in the early game. As soon as you save up 100 gas, build your first factory, followed by a second one after that if possible. Then build the attachments for both factories, research the siege mode upgrade, and begin pumping out tanks. With extra gas, build the attachments to your barracks to allow for two marines to build at once. Tanks are very gas heavy, so your excess minerals will be spent simply making marines. The combination of tanks in siege mode and marines surrounding them make it difficult for melee or air to attack this army type since the marines will handle anything air or up close while the tanks destroy any ground forces within range. The extra marines can also defend your main against Mutalisk harassment and such.

I consider the Terran Siege Tank to be the best ground unit in the game. Its range and powerful damage in siege mode allow the Terran player to assert ground control for nearly all of mid-game. Pumping tanks out and having marines cover them while in siege mode makes this particular army type very very difficult to beat for any ground-based army.

The biggest issue with tank usage is that they are an advanced unit that requires pre-planning. Due to the time spent getting them into siege mode, Siege Tanks are not ideally meant to be moved around all over the place. Your goal as a Terran player that makes Siege Tanks is to have them in the right place at the right time in Siege Mode. This means you need to be able to predict the enemy attack patterns and movements so you can have your tanks already sitting in Siege Mode before the enemy gets there. (This may be why tanks aren’t used as often among newer Terran players – they don’t have enough experience with the multiplayer game to have a good grip on timing and attacks.) Tanks on ledges are extremely deadly.

One of the major negatives that can sometimes be a positive is that the Siege Tank has greater attack range than its visibility. It can shoot further than it can see, and therefore, you want to have spotters that extend its visibility. Even a simple scan from your Command Center can give it that extra visibility needed. The reason why this negative can be a positive is that because if your tanks can’t see far enough, they won’t attack, which in turn allows you to set up all of your tanks in siege mode and position your army before you begin attacking – very useful for attacking a defending opponent since your scan or scout determine when you wish to actually begin firing with your tanks that have completed setting up in siege mode.

The strategy of “tank stepping” or whatever it was called in the first Starcraft still remains here. If you are in territory where you feel that you can be attacked at any time, keep half of your tanks in siege mode, while unsieging the other half and moving them forward. Then put those tanks in siege mode, unsiege the other half and move up. You are basically advancing with at least half of your tanks in siege mode to protect your army. Also keep in mind that siege tanks do bonus damage against Armored units (like Stalkers) when they are not in Siege Mode. Sometimes it’s worth it not to siege them up (i.e., if Stalkers get the jump on you before sieging up, don’t go into siege mode, but rather, just attack.)

With two factories, this army type is VERY tank oriented – your goal should be to make around 8 tanks, and set them up with your marines (don’t stop building marines) in key areas that you want to defend, or to simply push into opponents’ bases to blow away their fortified choke points and defensive structures to win the game outright. Anything more than 10 or so tanks that are actually in combat is overkill. (10 tanks is enough to assert ground dominance – after that, you should probably move to air units for the end game since your opponents will probably go air if they can’t go up against your tanks.)

Once you know enough about the game to use Siege Tanks effectively, there are very few joys you will have in life as your Siege Tanks completely devastate armies of infantry units. My favorite is when you can find an unsuspecting enemy with his army grouped and you go up close enough and go into siege mode without your opponent aware. Then you scan to get yourself that extra visibility so your tanks can see, and your tanks obliterate half of his infantry in that first round of shots. THEN the enemy’s infantry moves towards your tanks to engage because they were fired upon, so your tanks get a second round of shots in. All that’s left of the enemy’s army is a gaping hole in the ground.

3. MMM & Tanks (2 Barracks, 1 Factory, 1 Starport)
This third army type is a combination of the two army types above, and while it seems like this would be the best of the three, it’s too gas intensive to allow you to do much. You honestly have to make a decision between tanks or infantry. Not being able to come to terms with marines not getting healed while still wanting tanks is what I consider this build for. Yes – I am making fun of this army type because in the heavy tank build, marines are fodder and should be a mere after-thought compared to the tanks. As a Terran player who masses tanks, I’ve come across Terran opponents who will drop some infantry and two tanks at my base. Then I blow them all away with 5-6 tanks. “Thank you, come again!”

You have to think with this army type: you’ve basically spent several hundreds more gas just to research siege mode and pump out two tanks for the mid-game. Two tanks is not going to make a major difference going against another ground army, and the two tanks will only slow down a more nimble MMM army. You will definitely be gas choked if you want siege tanks, Marauders and infantry upgrades. I don’t really recommend this army type, since it lacks the effectiveness and direction that either of the first two Terran army types provide. With reduced infantry, the enemy forces can swarm your tanks before you kill them, and with reduced tanks, your tanks won’t be able to kill most of the enemy forces before they rush into the tank’s “blind spot” when in siege mode. However, those that are good at doing drops may welcome the range that a couple of Siege Tanks can provide for surgical strikes. This unit combination would probably excel in 1v1, but team games is a different story.

4. Mass Vikings (2 Barracks, 1 Factory, 2 Starports)
This build is situational, but less so than the Protoss’s mass Phoenix build. The Viking is a new Terran Starport unit that is air-to-air only, but can transform to a ground unit for ranged ground-to-ground only damage. With the ability for them to transform to ground-based attackers, it is not the end of the world if you get a Terran teammate who decides to mass Vikings (certainly better than the Terran player who decides to mass Ghosts).

Vikings are a fantastic air-to-air based unit. With the Starport attachment that allows the Starport to pump out two Vikings at once, two Starports will get you 4 Vikings at a time. It is very easy to mass 20+ Vikings in a short period of time and gain air superiority in the mid-game. With the quick ability to pump them out, it is also recommended for the Terran player to switch to mass Vikings if the team is caught with its pants down against opponents massing Mutalisks or Void Rays in mid-game. Vikings will easily tear them apart with enough numbers.

Of course, by going mass Vikings, your role is to dominate the air and land in opponents’ unfortified expansions to shut them down The opportunity cost of losing the ability to have ground control through Siege Tanks is major though, and therefore should be carefully considered before massing Vikings.

5. Banshees (2 Barracks, 1 Factory, 2 Starports)
This particular army type is even more situational than mass Vikings – and by more situational, it means basically limiting your scope considerably in order to take apart a Zerg base. Banshees are Starport units that are only air-to-ground, but you can research Cloaking for them. Their damage is actually pretty good, but again, the problem is, anything air will destroy them, and if anyone has detection, their use drops dramatically.

However, they can be quite effective against Zerg main bases though. Often times, Zerg will not have detection at midgame, because early game they made spine crawlers for defense – which only attack ground. Most zerg players are lazy and will not also put down anti-air towers as well going into mid-game nor with they spend 50 minerals and  100 gas to upgrade an Overlord to an Overseer. Therefore, it is quite possible to send in 6-8 Banshees to destroy all the Drones and even the Zerg player’s Lair before they finish upgrading their Overlord to an Overseer. The problem with this build is that once you’ve done it and the enemies decide to build air and/or detection to counter this, you probably won’t be making many more Banshees and your current Banshees will become useless. In big team games – would you rather have 8 Siege Tanks on the ground or 8 Banshees in the air? If the Zerg player still has an army, he can go with his partners and just overwhelm your side’s land-based army because all you have are Banshees.

6. Mass Marines (4+ Barracks)
Believe it or not, this army type can be effective at times. Since marines are ranged and so cheap, they can be produced by the dozen and can, to a degree, handle opponents that decide to mass Void Rays, Mutalisks, or Stalkers. I’ve played matches where I’ll make tanks, and a smart Protoss opponent will mass Immortals to counter the tanks, and Stalkers to provide the Immortals with support and anti-air. I would have to counter that counter with mass mass marines, since Immortals don’t do bonus damage against Marines, nor do they have bonus defense against them. You primarily need to watch out for tanks and Collossi.

7. Mass Marauders (4 barracks)
Mass Marauders is even more situational than massing Marines, only because Marauders are ground attackers only so you are just asking for an air-based army to attack you if you go that route. However, with them doing bonus damage against armored units, they would be good against opponents that continue to mass Roaches or Stalkers well into the mid-game. Some Protoss players do nothing but power Stalkers out of 4 gateways, so if you have a partner or two that is making air, you may want to consider massing Marauders to simply combat the mass Stalkers while your partner handles anything air-based.

8. Mass Hellions (2 barracks, 2 factories)
Like the Roach’s Lair upgrades, the Hellion unit comes out too late to really be a viable unit in team-based play since most players already move away from light infantry units once the mid-game begins. The Hellion is a Factory based unit that has a flamethrower with pretty good range and excels against light units such as the Zergling, but does not do well against anything else such as Stalkers and enemy buildings. The Factory also allows for an attachment that lets you pump out two Hellions at a time, so it’s possible to mass them. But why would you?

The main reason I would ever go mass Hellions is if I went up against a team consisting of opponents that continue to just mass Zerglings, Zealots, and Marines all the way through the mid-game. Since the Hellion is strong against light armored units, it’s strong against workers as well. Good Terran and Protoss players will wall their choke so you won’t be able to run them into the mineral lines, but you may have success against Zerg if you drive your speedy Hellions into Zerg mineral lines to take out the Drones. But why not just Reaper rush instead of making Hellions to attack your opponents’ mineral lines instead?

Summary of Terran Mid-Game for Team-based Matches
0. Early game draws to a close with a stalemate
1. Decide whether to make Siege Tanks or not – and if not, have a good reason why not.
2. Create required buildings to form your mid-game army
3. Expand
4. Protect expansion
5. Research upgrades
6. Attack!
7. If unsuccessful, read my future article on the Terran End Game

Remember that as Terran, you start the early game by walling off. This buys you the time you need to tech to whatever mid-game strategy that you want to do. On top of that, you are able to scan opponents’ bases if you want to sacrifice some bonus income (from using a M.U.L.E. instead) in order to determine what to mass. Tanks are strong against all early game units. It’s the Immortals and Mutalisks that you need to be more worried about.

Your mid-game as Terran should be to assert ground dominance with tanks and then from there, see if you can win by pushing into your opponents’ bases with them. If it’s not possible, you will have to wait until end-game when you gain the power of Thors or Battlecruisers to give your tanks some massive escorts. Stay tuned for my end-game article to see what to do as Terran if you’ve gone through mid-game and still haven’t won the match yet.

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