How to improve on your Terran vs Zerg matchup

Alright guys! You’ve heard the Terran cries echo around the famous forums of Team Liquid and r/starcraft. Their tears spilled down after hearing the horrible news of the new range 5 Queens. “What will become of us?” the Terrans cried, “our hellion build does not work anymore!”. Well, I’m here to present to you guys a couple of solutions that will help you face those tricky zergs and dominate them just like we used to.

Before we start I’ll give you a general sense on what this guide is aiming to achieve. After the Queen patch it became almost impossible for Terran to punish the zerg efficiently and safely. The build mostly affected by the patch is the Reactor’d Hellion expand because it is now impossible to micro hellions against Queens without getting hit. Creep is now very hard to deny and this is why you see crazy creep spread in most TvZ games. What I aim to do here is to show you that Zergs are now very greedy (at least in the current meta-game) and you should punish them with early pressure while being greedy yourself. The aim is to cripple them early and focus on your late game, since creep spread makes it difficult to end the game in the mid game.

The Opening

First steps first, I’ll focus on how to open. This of course depends on the map size and the spawn positions. For mid to large maps like Antiga Shipyard, Metropolis and Tal’Darim Altar you can go 1 rax expand or even command center first if you so desire. Just to be safe, always build your expansion in your main, this way the zerg will not know if you are teching or expanding. If you decide to 1 rax fast expand and if you scout the zerg is close to your spawn position, make a bunker on his expansion and send your first marine there.

For small to medium maps such as Shakuras Plateau and Ohana, you should open 1 rax expand by building it on top of your ramp and do not skip on your first marine and keep producing until you have 3 or more. This is important because you want to pressure the zerg with a forward bunker while expanding behind it. Also note that you should send the scv building your first supply depot on top of your ramp to scout, this is so that you can hopefully block his expansion. If you do succeed in doing so, build an engineering bay on his expansion but don’t let it complete.

the infamous engineering block

The Bunker Pressure

You are not aiming to kill him here. You just want to stall him as much as possible, so that he builds zerglings instead of drones. Find a spot where the surface area is minimal and most maps will have this just behind one of the vespene geysers.

where to place your bunker

Send only 3 marines to your bunker and rally the others at home in case he counter attacks. Remember, zerg is already behind if you do succeed in building your bunker, so play safe since you are already ahead.

3 marines and a bunker forces 10 zerglings

His attempt at countering to my base

Approach to the Mid Game

There are quite a few ways to approach the mid game after you have pressured the Zerg early game. The overall composition you want to end up is Marine / Tank / Medivac with a sprinkle of marauders. The marauders are important, since zerg can tech switch from Brood Lords to Ultralisks simply by clicking ‘S’ and ‘U’.

One way is to tech hard, meaning going all the way to cloaked banshees, in the hope that the Zerg is skipping defenses (Spore Crawlers / Additional Queens) to favour drones. This approach is most effective in maps where his main and third is close in air space (for example Cloud Kingdom) where you can bounce your banshees to his third and main constantly. However, if the zerg does have spore crawlers immediately stop producing banshees and start your double upgrades and produce medivacs. Also remember since you are teching to banshees, you will have less tanks and medivacs meaning your eventual push will be delayed, so be careful.

Drones!

The second approach is to tech to medivacs and start to drop him to death, MMA style. I personally like this method since it requires less gas and your upgrades / tank count will be significantly higher than the first approach. You should aim to drop him in multiple places at once with single medivacs, and if infestors start to pop out, stop harassing. This requires a lot of micro/multitasking, so don’t forget to keep macroing behind it.

MMA style

Another more ultra passive style is to just tech to Siege Tanks, be defensive and be as greedy as you can be. I’m talking about having three Command Centers at the 10 minute mark while pumping out double upgrades. This method can be seen in the largest maps (for example Metropolis) because of its large distance and thus rendering early pressure void. Just be careful if the zerg is aiming to end the game early by a baneling bust or 2 / 3 base aggression with muta/ling/bling. You cannot push out with this style until you reach about 170 supply or the zerg will overrun you.

The final way I want to discuss is the hellion / banshee aggression that has become very, very popular lately. Major has 3 times in a row vs Hyun used hellions extensively to take the series 3-2 in TSL 4 after going down 0-2. Again, this approach is designed to punish greedy zergs (early third / skimping on Spine and Spores) and has been shown to be very effective. Basically you go late Reactor’d Hellions (after you place down your Command Center) and create 6-10 hellions to harass him. After that tech straight to Cloaked Banshees. This build is of course vulnerable to early mutas (remember early 2 base mutas pop out at around the 10:00 mark) so be sure not to be caught off guard. This build is a very good opening to mech and it may be awkward to go back to MMM after this type of harass (see Major vs Hyun TSL 4 games 3-5).

 

The Late Game

You will already have 3 bases mining and getting your 4th secured or building. Your upgrades will most likely be ahead than his. Your early-mid game harass with drops / hellions / banshees should have crippled him.

This is your likely scenario. If you do feel that the zerg feels overwhelmed just go and attack him, hopefully before Brood Lords come out. Get 2+ Reactor’d Starports and also start pumping out marauders.

Gas becomes very important as resources become depleted, so choose wisely in building of units.

If the Zerg is going the dreaded Infestor/Corruptor/Brood Lord combo, you have to drop him in multiple places while positioning your main army for the eventual battle. Do not engage in creep, get a Raven to kill tumors and let him choose the engagement and attack to your concave. Once you reach this stage just keep denying his expansions using drops and you should eke out victory!

To summarise

- Bunker Pressure

- Mid game harass: Cloaked Banshee, Multiple Medivac Drops, double hellion and banshee or 

- Stay passive and focus on upgrades and economy

- Push towards center as you take fourth and let Zerg engage you if you are not confident in ending the game right then and there.

In the super late game (50-60+ in-game minutes) you may want to slowly transition to Sky Terran (Raven/Viking/Battlecruiser)

Of course these solutions are not the only ones out there. There are quite a few more out there that I have not discussed. However, I feel that these approaches are the best since they are very safe and does not rely on you dealing significant damage to be ahead of the zerg.

Thanks for reading,

GL HF!