Terran bio and its new strength

Terran players are dominating the first big Heart of the Swarm tournaments, but how? is Terran really overpowered right now? Let's start from scratch.

In the early game, Terran players have a lot of more options to explore the map and to secure space. The reaper buff, which now allows to build reapers without a techlab, is a great scout. Combined with the buffed movement speed and 10 more HP than in Wings of Liberty, he can cause a lot of trouble for an unprepared opponent, especially if the first baracks is build proxy. It requieres an early gas, but since it perfectly lines up with more opportunities in the midgame, it became common to at least build the early gas, and keep the opponent in the dark about its usage. He will think a reaper or any kind of tech will follow it up, while you have the option to proceed a slight delayed 1 barracks fast expand.

The next step differs now for the special matchups. TvT hasn't evolved that far yet, the standard openings from Wings of Liberty like the 1 barracks fast expand are still viable. Widow mines haven't found their way into the game, since Terrans can scan anyways, and even if it looks like a nice trade (widow mine for a scan), the widow mine production blocks the factory, which results in a lower siege tank count. For now it's still leading to the old known Marine/Tank/Medivac battle. 

The most evolving matchup seems to be the TvZ.  Widow mines are able to deal a huge load of damage against light units, which includes zerglings, banelings, mutalisks and hydras - some of the most popular zerg units in this matchup. In addition, they are a great instrument to gain and secure mapcontrol. Some Terrans are using them like creep tumors, this way they can control important choke points or narrow places, and force the Zerg to rely on detection when he wants to move out. There is one big disadvantage which you should have in mind, when you are replacing your tanks with mines: widow mines are cloaked and give you a great control, but they have a 40 seconds cooldown, while siege tanks are forced to stay with your army, but once you want to engage, they can deal significant damage each 3 seconds, and you should apply the unit which fits your playstyle the best.

Widow mines needs a lot of bio harass around the whole map, to keep it on cooldown as much as possible and to abuse the mapcontrol in your favour. Mines which idle +80% of the time are mostly wasted potential damage, and the mapcontrol you gained won't help you when it comes to a straight up fight. If you are less active on the map and prefer to push more in waves than in a consistent stream of units, you should stick to the siege tanks when you attack. A few are still useful to secure your ecolines from mutalisk harass, but keep in mind not to place them directly in your mineral lines, else your own workers will be harmed by the splash damage.

 

On the other hand, TvP  is the most changing matchup. Basically everything can happen at any time, until Protoss players have figured out the best approach to face Terran, the most important factor at the moment is scouting. If you found his base, stay there as long as possible. Try to get a look on the core and following stalker timing: if the core has finished, and you see the gate starting its work, you have 42 seconds left before it will spawn. Subtract 10 seconds for each chronoboost you see. This time period seems to be important in the early days of HotS, because Protoss players tend to proxy stargates or datk templar techs. If there is no third pylon in the base, there needs to be a proxy pylon somewhere on the map. If the third pylon is placed in his base, but separated from the other structures, it may be because he want's to tech something which he wants to hide from scans, prepare for everything.

Possible openings are currently the old 1 barracks fast expand into 2 additional barracks,  or a straight tech to 1-1-1 (barracks-factory-starport) which adds the possibility to start the game with an early widow mine drop, containing 2 widow mines and 4 marines. However, an early stargate denies this aggression and will place you immeditaly in a defensive spot. Therefore you should not stick to it, unless you are 100% sure that he won't open with a fast stargate. Fast 2 gas or missing pylons may be indications for it. Keep in mind that a mothership core can visit your base at any time,  and if you see an oracle, do not fight it with less than 6 marines - an oracle survives and wins a fight against 5.

The old bio play stays as strong as it was in WoL. If you don't face a stargate, execute your harass with medivacs between the 7-11 minute mark and abuse the new boost spell.  It is extremely hard to defend for Protoss, because many are not used to it, so even if your first drop attempt may not deal any damage or fails, don't hesitate to try it again, it's nearly impossible not to deal any damage against a 3 base Protoss. 

Overall, bio play got a few nice add-ons, which makes it even stronger than in WoL, at the same time, the way of playing the race is nearly exactly the same. The other races have to restructure their builds and unit composition, which gives Terran players a small advance in the metagame development, and THIS is why Terran seems to be unbeatable at some stages of the game for some races. If you struggle against Terran in the Ladder, stay cool, or try out new stuff. The time will come when Zerg and Protoss will find the right answers.