Updated: 14/01/2012. Added transition and more replays.
I made an in-depth guide on youtube for low level Terran players. I present you:
Simple Starcraft: Terran tutorial. 3 Rax Build. Get out of Bronze! Dominate in Silver and Gold!
Introduction:
A bit of a cheesy name, but whatever I am teaching the 3 rax opening here. And I know it is outdated and all-inish, but the main idea behind is that for low level players the problem is poor mechanics and the goal here is to work on that. In this build I am trying to remove some big (and no doubt important) aspects of this game out of the equation. Dumb Starcraft down for the sake of quick improving one's mechanics before he or she gets to play "for real". In addition this will hopefully help you to learn how to analyze your replays and help to learn some other builds in the future.
You dont have to worry much about what your opponent is doing. Hell, you dont even have to think what you are doing either, just follow the steps. It is just a fact that any solid opener being well executed can straight up win you a game in the lower leagues. I list some benchamrks and timings -literally minutes and the amount of buildings\units you should have - and you should be fine as long as you follow them. If you do all this, but the opening leaves you significantly behind and you are STILL stuck somewhere below plat - you are welcome to come and bash me in this thread as well as showing the replay so I can give some pointers I missed out. But I really tried to take away all the excuses I heard when I helped my friends to get better and I am trying to do the same to you :D
Oh, btw, since you are reading this on TL I assume the very basic knowledge of the game: unit and building selection, unit movement, attacking (a-move), production, hotkeying. While we are on this topic and in case you did not already, then take a look at Day[9]:
Now back to me. Sadly ... nah I'm fine But seriously if you havent heard about Day[9] before you should definitely check him out.
3 rax build order:
10 Supply Depot 12 Barracks 13 Refinery 15 Orbital Command, Marine 16 Supply Depot Techlab on your barracks after the 1st marine Start Marauder and Stim research Another Supply Depot around 24 food, constant Supply Depot production after that At 300 minerals build 2 more barracks When these barracks are done add reactors on them Get concussive shells after stim Move out when concussive shells is almost done Cut army production and get a command center, then go back to army production
The benchmarks:
- Start stim at 3:50 - 2 x barracks at 4:15 - 2 x reactor at 5:20 - Move out at 7:30 with ~7 marauders and ~13 marines - Command center at 8:00 and you should have ~30 scvs at this point in time
You should really focus on getting this right. It is okay to be off by ~20 seconds and 2-3 units, but not more. This push has a high chance of winning the game in the lower leagues. However you should have a sense of who is going to win the engagement. Dont be silly and run into bunkers\spine crawlers\cannons on the ramp. Sentries and banelings can cause a lot of trouble. A well positioned siege tank (by the 8 minute mark I doubt there will be multiple tanks with siege) with marines can hold it. Do not try to break things like that. Instead flot your new command center to your natural and continue from there.
Dont think too much about scouting info or your late game. Instead try to never get supply blocked and try doing that imba stutter-step micro you see pros do. Most importantly, keep building reinforcments and scvs while you fight. USE HOTKEYS!
When you lose a game, watch the replay. Ask yourself why did you lose. Dont ever blame balance. Check the timings. Check the engagement. Could you have macro'd \ micro'd better? If you could, could you have won the game? I bet you could!
Transition:
So for marine tank transition (TvT, TvZ) you want start combat shields immediately after concussive. Build a factory and 2nd gas. When shields are done, give techlab to factory and start tanks. Build a rector on that rax. Get starport and double ebays. 3 rax with reactors, factory with techlab, starport with reactory and 2 ebays. Never stop making scvs.
For TvP get combat shields, factory, put reactor on factory and get starport, swap them. 2 more rax, 2 ebays. 3 rax with techlabs, 2 rax with reactors, starport with reactor, 2 ebays. And again, never stop making those scvs.
What if ... ?
Some people might be worried about various cheeses and all-ins. And again you will face a good allin in the lower leagues very rarely, meaning you met someone doing a placement match, smurfing or something like this. All the other variations of allins are poorly exectured with timings completely off and you should be fine. Here is a quick rundown:
- Worker rush. The proper response is to box all your workers and a-move. Simple. Well if you notice your opponent is doing some cool micro - he aint no ordinary bronze player. If you wanna be fancy as well try to get good concave, use mineral walk and hold position to save low hitpoint workers. But that's pretty advanced micro.
- 6 or 7 pool. As soon as you see lings from the highground finish the walloff, halt building the barracks if necessary. Then pull scvs to repair and wait for your marine. This I would say is the worst that can happen in the lower leagues and it is your fault if you did not react when you saw the lings coming. A good zerg will try to delay the wall and you need to get suspicious about that. Anyway, if they somehow managed to get in your base run with scvs, wait for the marine and PROTECT the marine, surround it. Try to get good concave, use the mineral line.
- Cannon rush. As soon as you see a probe enter your base, make one of your scvs follow it, so that you can see if he is trying to put down some cannons. Dont leave probe unatteneded in the dark corners of your base. If he starts to put down cannons pull the scvs to kill them, but do not pull them all, leave some to mine. And again I highly doubt you meeting this on the low level of play, but a good cannon guy will put the pylons and cannons behind the mineral line, restricting the access to your scvs. As a response Terran can just float buildings to the natural and be relatively okay.
- Proxy gates \ proxy barracks. Once you scout no buildings and no expo - build a bunker on the ramp, you should be good. If you see incoming forces before you finish your bunker - pull scvs. Remember: it is okay to lose some scvs (not too much) when fighting cheese, because your enemy sacrificed economy to do this.
- Any type of early roach pressure either 1 or 2 base. You just laugh at it and win, because you have marauders and they completely shit on roaches.
- DTs, banshees. Okay. These would actually kill you if done right. They can hit you around 7:00 and according to our plan we move out at 7:30. However, again, and I can not emphasize this enough - people who can do a banshee build by 7:00 probably wont be playing you in bronze. In the unlikely scenario that they do you best response would be to take all of your guys, all of your scvs and counter going for the base race, dont forget to float your buildings because both banshees and dts cant hit air. If you wanna be cool you can start saving energy for scans at 7:00. And the realistic scenario is your enemy is trying to do his DT rush and then just dies to your attack because he didnt have enought units and he didnt have DTs out yet, because he doesnt know or cannot execute a proper build.
- Void rays. I actually do not know the right timing for this as I have not seen one in quite a long time. Anyway I think you should have enough marines to deal with it. Or your enemy dies to your attack even before he gets his voids out, just the way he dies when he tries to tech to DTs.
- Baneling bust. 2 base baneling bust usually comes later than your attack timing, so we would not worry about them. 1 base baneling bust ... watch the video, I went over some replays. But basically you either scout it and build bunkers or if the zerg tries to hide it then he has to delay it and you will have enough forces to deal with it.
- 4 gate. And again ... the ultimate 4gate with good protoss micro would kill you. Normally you must scout it and the way you do it is by looking at the chronoboost energy saved up. However I had absolutely no problem whatsoever at holding silver level 4gate and I did a decent job (and won the game) versus platinum level 4 gate by using this build. Watch the video.
I cant come up with anything else at the moment.
What's next?
Try doing the phase 2 and phase 3 exercises from this thread:
What happens when you hit platinum and above? I am pretty sure you can do the same build till masters, but that would be wasteful. Your mechanics should be more than enough for 1 base play. You should switch to something different. I suggest strong 2 base timings that are not all-in. Marine Tank push in TvZ in TvT. Fast medivacs and push\drop\both at the same time in TvP.
You should learn some real openings. More on that a tiny bit later. Scout more, scout actively, scout smartly. Learn timings of other races. Control watch towers. Learn scan timings and best locations to scan. Constantly work on your stutter step, this makes or breaks Terran. Incorporate upgrades in your builds. Multitask harder, be more aggressive. In my personal opinion ability to make good drops makes the difference between Master and GrandMaster terrans and sadly I am not GrandMaster yet.
Back to builds. You can either go for various 2 Rax openings - there is a different one for each matchup. The idea is pretty much the same - pressure and expand behind it, but you get your expo much earlier.This is slightly behind current metagame as people tend to do 1 rax FE TvP, TvT is crazy and TvZ is reactor hellion FE. 1 rax FE is much more defensive and you have to scout really well. There are different variations in rhellion and once again, tvt is crazy - so you have to pick something for yourself. Good stuff you can read here on TL:
To learn about 1 rax FE just watch any macro Terran these days. My favorites is qxc and sometimes you can really see him drill out his builds on the stream, like covering all possible timings and transitions.
My god it's hard to post replays. Drop.sc is good, but I hate that it renames replays >_< Anyway ... the first push rarely wins the game in gold+, but the build should get you ahead. Here we go:
TvT:
3 rax vs gas first hellion Here I pressure with marauders from the start because I know he is gonna low on units (he's going gas first, I can see that because his barracks are later than mine and his factory is uber fast).
He defends with A LOT of spine crawlers and lings. Notice how I am AHEAD on workers at this point in time. Late game he gets lots of mutas so I get thors. Rage\qq in the end.
Notice how I try to hide what I am doing. Catching zerg out of guard. After killing natural, dont walk up the ramp and lose all your army. Expand, play macro, kill later with 100% guarantee.
Good zerg. Somewhat tough game. I'd say here 3 rax put me behind, zerg was droning like crazy after my first push (which is right thing to do). Won thanks to drops sniping tech buildings all the time.
One more diamond level 4 gate. I like the way he sneaks in his 4th gate, but the way he tried to put up offensive pylons so early made me cautious. But eventually I just had more army than him.
Actually, this is a great first build to learn to execute well. It's great for bronze/silver/gold and for rapid improvement in basic micro/macro/multitasking! Good luck to those who use it
Coaching TangStarcraft.com | Team All-Inspiration.com | Stream Twitch.TV/TangSC
Tried your benchmarks against a random very easy AI and they were finesee edit. The thing here is you have a pretty delayed first expansion and that can set you back late game if you are not able to do damage with your initial push. I think it could be wise to scout if the opponent has early expanded and maybe push a bit earlier if so (even if you have to bring 2-3 scvs). The way you talk about it.. people seem to all-in quite a bit in lower leagues.. Also, I don't think grabbing all SCVs and doing a base trade is really good for improvement in the banshee scenario. I think if a player is up against that he could try different things as drop a scan against a walled-in terran at # minute mark or just save a scan for the 7-8th minute mark and have your marines positioned around the mineral line with marauders in front of your base, if a banshee comes defend with marines in group 1 and attack the front with marauders in group 2.
Another point would be fighting a protoss on a map with a tight ramp that's easily forcefieldable. Gotta be careful when moving up there because if you get your army split in half, you're cooked. I think if you are up against a one-base protoss by the time you reach his natural expansion, might as well just back to your base and drop a bunker or two. I think you need talk about this scenario a little bit more. Other than that it's a pretty good guide, straightforward, a bit all-inish for me but three rax timing sure can be strong at times.
Hope this completes/helps a bit!
edit: actually I was ahead in the benchmarks by quite a few second except for the stim;; I guess that's fine for lower leagues. barracks at 4:00 and 4:04 Reactor at 5:10 and 5:11 CC at 7:35
3 raxing past gold/platinum won't get you far, but I used it in order to develop my mechanics when I first started playing. I think this guide is a great idea.
iAmJeffReY United States. January 03 2012 02:28. Posts 3385
On January 03 2012 02:22 subV wrote: 3 raxing past gold/platinum won't get you far, but I used it in order to develop my mechanics when I first started playing. I think this guide is a great idea.
Why do retards say this? I bet I could go on bnet right now at mid high masters and 3 rax 3 games in a row and win 1--2 easily, even if I drew a zerg.
It's just hard to transition out of, and you are behind on your expo.
Quite a solid guide though, on a short run through it. Just skipped through the video a few steps, it actually isn't bad.
On January 03 2012 02:22 subV wrote: 3 raxing past gold/platinum won't get you far, but I used it in order to develop my mechanics when I first started playing. I think this guide is a great idea.
Why do retards say this? I bet I could go on bnet right now at mid high masters and 3 rax 3 games in a row and win 1--2 easily, even if I drew a zerg.
It's just hard to transition out of, and you are behind on your expo.
Quite a solid guide though, on a short run through it. Just skipped through the video a few steps, it actually isn't bad.
You can make your point without being so rude...
But yes, a three rax with good execution will get you very far into masters. Very nice guide for beginners, and a good build to works on execution.
geiko.813 (EU)
Khazidhea Kazakhstan. January 03 2012 02:49. Posts 65
The benchmarks arent exact and you can be faster if you stack scv on close patches. But I dont expect and I dont ask low level players to do this. Just have constant production and dont float loads of minerals. Stim timing depends depends on whether you float your barracks for the techlab or not and do you get marauder first or start stim.
I observed around 20 games of players in bronze-gold and the thing is they just never have enough units and always float minerals. The openers like 3 supply depos for instant wall make a me die a little inside.
Names, I like your additions. Yes, it is close to impossible to break ramp of a semi-decent protoss due to sentries and forcefields. But
1) As far as I can see low level protoss players favor stalkers over anything else. 2) Again, low unit count. You would see something like 2 sentries, 2 zealots and 2 stalkers and they will melt 3) Most of the time they are dont react quickly enough to forcefield natural ramps like antiga\taldarim 4) If its the ramp of the main you can safely fall back and you are at least even, because you already started your expansion CC and protoss didnt.
If you are feeling you wanna do something fancy - the best would be to poke up with 1 unit to see what are the defenses. It takes experience to figure out can you win a battle or not. As a rule of thumb lots of sentries, lots of zealots, low on stalker = hard to break. So you better go back, put down a couple of bunkers for safety and macro. Repair the bunkers, when repairng put the scvs in front - it makes it harder to forcefield the bunkers. The way I would play after this is probably get combat shield after concussive. Add factory, then starport and reactor on factory. Swap, get medivacs. Get ebay for upgrades.
ReallyBigShark United States. January 03 2012 05:00. Posts 81
You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. This guide is exactly what I've been looking for and it helps newbs like me by giving us an actual plan of attack. Thanks a ton! Time to go take some poor bastard's ladder points!!!
mothergoose729 United States. January 03 2012 05:08. Posts 598
I like it. There is a supring lack of simple build order guides on TL that cover anything in any depth. You would think this is the opposite... but people just assume you can find it someplace else or are too afraid to post their interpretation of standard builds because all the negativity that exists on these forums. Its simple. helpful, and detailed. Well done. I really hope more guides like this pop up.
Alvalanker United States. January 03 2012 05:13. Posts 253
On January 03 2012 05:13 Alvalanker wrote: So what happens when I get in to Plat and I can't use this strat anymore? lol
Use something else. Get better at this. Better yet, don't shit on threads if you have nothing constructive yourself to contribute.
I know I am kind of blowing up on you, but posts like this are the reason, I feel, why there is a vacuum where there should be a wealth of information in build order guides.
.Sic. United States. January 03 2012 05:52. Posts 492
Thank you sir! I decided to register after reading your post. I just got out of bronze doing a variation of 3 rax in TvP and TvZ but I never had success with it in TvT. After reading your 'what if' the fear of getting rolled by banshees while I'm approaching the opponents base is gone. But what if there's a tank and bunker at their walled in ramp? Scan, decide you won't make it, go home and get Medivacs?
In TvP i used to get two tech labs and stim, conc and shields. I'd push around 8:30 9. No expo, just rally rax near opponents base. Often the marauders would be the last left after the first few waves of units. I'm wondering how having fewer marauders will affect this?
In TvZ it's same as above but with ebay and +1 attack without conc shells. I'd have a slight smaller army but I felt it helped against lings very well. Your thoughts on this? Thanks again for a solid BO, I can't wait to try it out
IRL_Sinister Ireland. January 03 2012 09:07. Posts 598
I have final year exams next week, Sinister. Maybe after that
Tiotion, you can try doing an earlier attack in TvZ and TvT - dont research concussive shells and go for the stim timing. This should hit before the siege upgrade is done. If he or she is going banshees the first banshee would just pop and he must use it to defend. You dont have to scan, just send one unit forward.
I dont feel getting ebay and +1 fits in this build, you would have to delay barracks. And in any case it would delay the push for far too long. I feel more marines are better. Say you have 5 marines with +1 in your build, but it is much better to have 13 marines without upgrade. More hp, more dps.
2 marines have more dps than a marauder against armored target. Marines are awesome :D
Try this build and tell me how it goes. Post some replays if you think you followed the build by the letter but still lost.
Zariel Australia. January 03 2012 09:30. Posts 958
Good guide on a revival of a build made for low level development.
When I taught my friends on how to play, i used the same build but I always make them to get an ebay as soon as 6:30 hits the clock and make sure they have 50-100 energy on the CC when they push out.
sup
MstrJinbo United States. January 03 2012 09:52. Posts 777
- 4 gate. And again ... the ultimate 4gate with good protoss micro would kill you. Normally you must scout it and the way you do it is by looking at the chronoboost energy saved up. However I had absolutely no problem whatsoever at holding silver level 4gate and I did a decent job (and won the game) versus platinum level 4 gate by using this build. Watch the video.
I don't understand. How does someone going for a 3 rax ever lose to a 4 gate? 3 rax is pretty much the opposite of what 4 gates are trying to exploit. You might not be able to kill a 4 gater like you could somebody going a more tech oriented play, but 3 rax should fair pretty well especially once stim finishes.
Also you might want to put something in on how to react if a zerg just builds a ton of speedlings.
Khazidhea Kazakhstan. January 03 2012 10:06. Posts 65
MstrJinbo, stim wont finish in time for the 4gate timing. Watch the 4gate #2 segment in the video. The 4gate hits by 6 min, my reactors production did not kick in yet. If I havent build a bunker, repair depos, kill the probe and pylons I would've died.
A ton of speedlings? I dont think you can adjust your play. You wont suddenly get blue flam hellions or anything. You do the same thing. That's knda the point. You pretty much always do the same thing but do it better each time. The ladder game in the video zerg made quite a few lings followed by some defensive banelings and died. You will be far above gold level by the time you face a zerg who can comfortable 15 hatch, identify this push is coming and build enough lings to hold it off.
CCalms United States. January 03 2012 10:14. Posts 341
Store
I am teaching the 3 rax opening here. And I know it is outdated and all-inish, but the main idea behind is that for low level players the problem is poor mechanics and the goal here is to work on that. In this build I am trying to remove some big (and no doubt important) aspects of this game out of the equation. Dumb Starcraft down for the sake of quick improving one's mechanics before he or she gets to play "for real". In addition this will hopefully help you to learn how to analyze your replays and help to learn some other builds in the future.
But seriously if you havent heard about Day[9] before you should definitely check him out.
Geiko France. January 03 2012 02:33. Posts 1601
Alvalanker United States. January 03 2012 05:13. Posts 253
