Starcraft 2 Terran Strategy

This is the Starcraft 2 Terran Strategy Guide. Terran is probably the most popular race of Starcraft 2 these days. It has both to do with this edition of Starcraft 2, which focuses on terran, and that terran is one of the easiest races to learn. However, mastering terran takes a lot of practice, and I’m going to give you some pointers to that strategies you can use and what is special about the terran race.

The Command Center

One of the special abilities of terran is the Orbital Command, upgradable from your Command Center. You want to get your orbital up as soon as possible, to start using the abilites. All the three abilites, Scanner Sweep, MULE and Supplies, have their uses, but the ability you want to use most is the MULE. The MULE is a special worker which can harvest about 300 minerals while it is active. This gives a great boost to your early economy. Using the energy of the orbital on the two other abilites means you are missing out on these extra minerals, so use them with causion.

Orbital Command: Getting an Orbital Command early means you will get MULEs early. MULEs are superworkers, boosting your economy greatly.

But as I said earlier, they have their uses. If you find yourself supplyblocked, and do not have a Supply Depot under construction, use a Supply. Otherwise you will be losing out on at least 40 seconds (units of time) of unitbuilding, since that is the time the Supply Depot takes to build. Of course, try to make sure you are never supplyblocked, but use Supply if you need. Supply can also be useful after losing depots and towards the end when the bases are starting to run dry of minerals. The energy of the Orbital Command is renewable and never runs out.

The last ability, Scanner Sweep, is also very useful in some situations, but don’t waste it when the energy can be used on MULEs instead. Scanner Sweep reveals a selectable area of the map, showing you everything in that area. It also shows invisible and burrowed units, so if you are expecting harassment of these types of units, make sure you have 50 energy in your orbital. Keep your Orbital Command hotkeyed, so you can quickly scan if your forces run into cloaked units. If you are not able to scout your opponent, the scan is also a very easy way to know what your opponent is doing, and the only type of scouting that can’t be prevented by defending well.

You can also construct a Planetary Fortress from a Command Center, which is a heavily fortified building with splash-damage. It can be useful in hard-to-defend-expansions, or even as a wall. If the Fortress is being attacked, you can use your SCVs to repair it, while you are moving you forces there. The Planetary Fortress does not hit air, so if you are expecting air units to attack the base, you might want to put down some turrets as well.

Planetary Fortress: By building a Planetary Fortress at your expansion, you can protect it while your army is making it's way over there.

Flying buildings

All the productionbuildings of terran has the ability to lift off and fly. This means you can move your buildings around, save buildings if you are attacked or use them to wall off you front door to prevent the enemy from getting in. When you are ready to build your expansion, you can build the Command Center within your walls and fly it out when you are ready. You can also save the Command Center or Orbital Command if your expansion is attacked.

Productionbuildings

Terran has three buildings for producing combatunits, Barracks, Factory and Starport. In addition, each of these buildings can have a Reactor or Tech Lab attached. The Tech Lab allows you to produce more advanced units, while the Reactor allows you to produce two units at once. Since you can’t have both a Tech Lab and Reactor. The advanced units can only be produced one at a time.

As you know terran buildings can lift off and fly. This means you can attach the Tech Lab and Reactor to a new building if you want. A typical way to do this is when you have produced your Factory, start making a Tech Lab to it and make a Starport. When your Starport is finished, switch the Factory and Starport. This means you can start pushing out Banshees or a Raven early.

Tech Lab-switch: Building a Tech Lab on your Barracks while you are building your Factory means you will get those Siege Tanks out earlier.

This allows you to switch unitproduction quickly too. If you have been harassing with Reapers and Hellions, you might have Barracks with Tech Labs and Factories with Reactors. If you switch them, you suddenly have the ability to produce quickly an army of Siege Tanks and Marines. That way you can keep using the productionbuildings you have, instead of making new.

Don’t be afraid to make units with a naked productionbuilding, that is a building without an addon. Making a Tech Lab and especially a Reactor takes time, and sometimes it is better to produce units instead of making an addon. Also don’t be afraid of making basic units from a building with Tech Lab. If you are expecting Void Rays and only have a Barracks with Tech Lab, make Marines even though you feel you want to make Marauders.

Walling off and defending

Terran is the best race at defending. With Siege Tanks you can attack at long range, and you have a few buildings that make defending much easier. The concept of walling off means that you completely block your entrance with buildings. Usually you want to use the Barracks with either one or two Supply Depots. Supply Depots can be lowered, allowing your units to get in and out when you need. This makes sure no units are able to enter your base, and an attacking army will be standing on the ramp.

Walling off: This is the most typical way to wall off your base. This makes sure no units are getting into your base without first destroying your buildings.

Walling off is most important against zerg, who can attack you very early with quick Zerglings. Zerg can do a banelingbust, which means sending Banelings to destroy your wall. If you are expecting this, you want to make a stronger wall with either productionbuildings or bunkers. Walling off can be useful against protoss too, but most terran players will not wall of against other terran. The reason is that they can also have Siege Tanks, and start attacking your buildings without you being able to defend.

Bunkers are so far an underused building in Starcraft 2. Constructing a bunker costs 100 minerals, which you get back when you salvage the building. If you are expecting an attack, use a Bunker to make sure your Marines and Marauders are safe. Bunkers are beefy units with 350 hitpoints, allowing your infantry to shoot safely at the enemy.

Scouting as Terran

The Scanner Sweep from the Orbital Command is naturally one of the most powerful scouting abilites in the game. However, you need to sacrifice a MULE to scan, so use it wisely. Other units that work well for scouting are the Reaper, Hellion and all flying units. The Reaper are able to jump up and down cliffs, and the speed of the Hellion can make sure they are able to see what they need before they die. Both of them can also be used as harassment as you scout.

Early Reaper: An early Reaper can be good for both harassment and scouting. It is very effective on maps with a lot of cliffs around the bases, giving the Reaper a lot of room to move around.

An underused building is the Sensor Tower. While it doesn’t scout in the traditional sense, it is a powerful tool to know when the enemy is attacking and what he is doing. A well placed Sensor Tower can make sure you are not being scouted, and know about any attack before it happends. This is especially important if you are using a lot of Mech-forces from the Factory, that are slow.

Harassing as Terran

Terran has a lot of options when it comes to harassing, and most units are able to do it. Early Reapers and Hellions can take out a lot of workers if the opponent isn’t prepared. Cloaked Banshees are also deadly early if the enemy doesn’t have anti-air and detection. One of most deadly harassments later in the game is drops of Marines and Marauders in Medivacs. If you are are going for an infantry-heavy army anyway, there’s no point in not trying to harass with them. Just make sure you are not surprised by air-units taking down your Medivacs.

Raven: The Raven with their Point Defense Drone can be good in any army. The Drone can force the enemy into retreating, allowing you to move your Siege Tanks into position for your next push.

The Raven is also a powerful unit. They can harass with Auto-Turrets or Hunter-Seeker Missile. If the army of the enemy is far away or he doesn’t react quickly, you can take down a lot of workers and deny mining. The Hunter-Seeker Missile can also be used on the main army if he doesn’t react quickly. The Point Defense Drone from the Raven is also a powerful addition in a fight. It shoots down projectiles from many of the ranged units in the game.

Rushing as Terran

There are a few ways to rush as a Terran. Some of the harrassing units mentioned above, Reapers and Hellions, work well, but usually doesn’t win you the game. Cloaked Banshees however can win you the game if the opponent isn’t prepared. The most typical strategy when rushing is using a mix of Marines and Marauders. With the StimPack and Concussive Shells-upgrades, you can attack and overwhelm an opponent.

Rushing with bunkers: Using bunkers to protect your units when you rush can work great against an early expanding zerg, forcing them to cancel or even lose their early expansion.