[G] Playing Mech in TvZ - No more banelings.

The essential goal of a meching terran player in TvZ is first to survive against the zerg, and eventually to overwhelm them through the extreme cost efficiency and balanced composition of a mech army.
The benefits of a mech army are numerous: attack power, survivability, ease of micro, ease of macro, high potential for harass in the form of hellions and extremely good defence in the form of tanks and thors, very good synergy with vikings and even battlecruisers if you really can’t force the Zerg to gg.
With Mech it is often cited that a Terran player is too immobile to defend adequately from harassment on multiple fronts simultaneously, but I feel that this just isn’t the case. The incredible strength of the mech army means that even if you have to split your army into a few pieces, with forethought you can easily protect yourself from any attempt of harassment by the zerg.

I should also mention that while I haven't yet updated my guide to include discussion on ravens and banshees, I don't want to discourage you from using them. They are definitely an option you have, hunter seeker especially in the late game, and if you feel comfortable mixing them in then do. The only reason they're not yet discussed is that I haven't played enough games with them to feel happy giving you advice on how to use them or when to incorporate them.

I have two standard mech build orders, this first one is much more difficult to pull off as it requires high multitasking to control the hellions, do damage with banshees and keep them alive, and macro back at home (if your armory is late you can straight up die to mutas), however it is more reliable than my second BO, which if you can deny scouting can kill zergs outright, also leaves you in an awkward spot if they go roaches.

NEW1rax FE -> Double gas -> Reactored Hellions & Banshees
10 depot
12 rax
15 orbital
@100% rax ONE marine
16 CC at natural
@100% orbital, 1 scv, double gas
When your 17th scv is building, rally it to your natural and wall off
@100 gas factory
@50 gas reactor on barracks, swap over when done
Build two hellions and then your depot (30/32 or so), as you're building a lot of food heavy units that build quick.
@100% factory, starport. Use barracks to build a tech lab
@100% Starport & tech lab - cloak and banshee
Constant depots
When you have the money (around 8 minutes), build a third CC.
Double gas
8:30~ - two more factories and an armory. Build tech labs on both and then double thor, a standard response to banshees is often mutalisk so you have to be prepared immediately.

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Reactored Hellion --> Three fact blue flame timing -> Thors & Third after

1. 10 depot
2. 12 rax
3. 13 gas
4. 15 orbital
5. 16 depot
6. @100 rax 2 marines, send to zergs base and try to snipe 1 or 2 drones
7. @100 gas factory
8. @50 gas reactor on rax
9. 20/21 command centre
10. 21/22 (BEFORE HELLIONS) 3rd depot
11. @100% fact start 2 hellions (constant production)
12. @100 vespene gas 2nd factory
13. @100% hellions x2 more
14. @100 vespene gas 3rd factory
15. - next 50 gas is for 2x tech labs, one on barracks (swap it onto third fact) and one on 2nd fact
16. orbital on expo
17. 2nd gas
18. @150/150 blue flame
19. 40 supply depot (x2 if you want)
20. continuous hellions
21. When blue flame is done, walk into his base and win.
22. at around 8 minutes you want to add an armory and make 2 thors as soon as blue flame completes,
23. Normally I go up to 4 thors and then stop if he isn’t building mutas.

There are several scenarios during this standard build order, which I shall explore during the guide.
- Baneling bust
- 7 roach rush
- Early warren for defence
- You completely cripple the zerg and win the game simply after taking a massive economical lead
- The game transitions into a LONG game, be prepared to be patient and calm


In my TvZ games, the game goes through several simple phases:

First, there is the opening stage. This is the part of the game where you want to safely establish your expansion, but must always be on the lookout for cheese. I’m going to focus on one opener for this section, though there is a variety of builds you can do. But for me, and many top terrans, reactor hellion FE is simply the best go-to build versus Zerg. Even when it seems your hellions do nothing, they stop creep spread, they force him to be wary of run ins, and often you can trade them for drones – and they transition wonderfully into my follow up. Recently, and definitely since the Queen buff, simply opening reactor hellion isn't enough. You have to sacrifice scouting for economy, but 1rax FE -> Reactored Hellion is a more useful build. It's still reasonably safe, but getting that faster orbital is more useful than getting limited info with the hellions - you'll still be just about in time to scout anything, as long as you play properly. But with a stronger economy, you'll be better prepared to defend. Four hellions just don't do enough against two queens now - you can't even kill one before you have to retreat, and more and more zergs should be doing the four queen opening on ladder so if you're going to reactor hellion expand, I really reccomend only building two to scout and then just getting out your tanks (if you're not going mech). 1rax FE -> Reactor is much better as you can commit to more hellions with your faster eco.

However, you can be threatened when you reactor FE. It isn’t a catch all build, but it is a scout all build.

Let’s talk about a baneling bust first:

In this game, vs another masters zerg, he tries to baneling bust me on Shattered Temple. You can look at the replay here if you want. http://drop.sc/101023

I want to talk about scouting at this part. While it is true that you can stop a baneling bust even without scouting with this build, I was tipped off to his plan extremely early on and was mentally prepared for the bust. Here is the moment where I knew there was something fishy going on, and most likely a baneling bust as he wouldn’t have wasted larvae on lings if it was anything else.

The next thing you have to do is try to whittle down his ling count, hellions are basically the perfect counter to a baneling bust and you can defeat the entire army with just pure micro.

The game goes on for a few more minutes but I continue with my build and eventually he has to gg after going completely all in. You might point out that this baneling bust was later than usual, on account of him taking his natural first. I would say yes, it is, however you have no chance of losing to a one base baneling bust either. Firstly, he has far less production so your hellions have an even easier time, secondly when you scout with your scv you can realise what he is attempting purely off the fact that he takes no expansion and has gas. This situation of course also points to roaches too, which is why you should save your two marines and build a bunker at your wall. If you’re blind, it’s important to play safe so you must forgo blue flame to get one tank out first, because without it the chances of you pushing roaches out of your natural anytime soon are slim.

Another cheese you’re likely to face is 7 roaches after expo, which is tougher to deal with but not too bad. The key thing to remember is that even if you lose some scvs, he had to cut drones for a while and mined loads of gas.

In these screenshots I scout his roaches at 6.37, after I already have three factories up. In my build, there is a tech lab built onto a barracks which gets switched onto the third factory normally. However, upon scouting the roaches I change course and just build two straight marauders. This isn’t all I do.

First of all, cut all hellion production as they will not save you now. Build a bunker in range of the top of the ramp, but out of range of roaches. Put your marine in the bunker, and pull scvs to defend.

I lose 8 scvs, but I hold off the attack and have my tech and second command centre. I’m behind, undoubtedly, but mech is cost efficient enough that this shouldn’t be an issue as long as you maintain scouting and prepare adequately. In the resources lost tab, I’m barely behind him. This, and the investment he put into the roaches means any tech he tries to get is delayed and any third base is too. Early roaches can be trouble, but they can be held as long as you scout it and have a bunker ready. As a follow up to early roaches, you want to delay blue flame and get siege mode and siege tanks out faster in case of a follow-up bust with banelings. In this scenario too, you must still be careful of mutalisks so don’t forget to continue scouting in any way you can.

Easily the most dangerous cheese you’re likely to face is a roach/bane/ling all in, hitting at around 8.45. How can you scout this? The biggest tell is the number of units and drones he has.

In this picture I want to point out three factors. First of all, he has both roaches and lings – a significant investment for just 6.55 minutes into the game. I could understand if he had maybe zerglings alone, or roaches alone, but the fact that he has speed AND roaches means he has mined more than 100 gas and I immediately need to prepare for an attack. Secondly, he has a limited drone count. There are just 13 drones at this expansion, and logically he should be on a 50/50 split so he only has 25 drones. This means larvae is being used on things which aren’t drones. Thirdly, you can kind of infer from the placement of his spine crawler that he isn’t relying on it defensively. Normally a zerg would be building more queens and pushing your hellions back, and placing the spine crawler more towards his ramp to create a wall with evo chambers. A further back crawler, with less queens, means his resources are being spent on aggressive units and not defensive units like buildings and queens.
Once you’ve scouted the possibility of aggression, you should scan his main base to check and immediately get siege mode and siege tanks.
Of course, there usual scenario is simply of a zerg macroing up and preparing to go mutalisks, unaware that you’re going mech.

In this picture, you can see how zerg has more queens, an evo chamber to wall and a lot more drones than in the roachbaneling one (even though it’s 15 seconds later). The lack of spine crawler is more zerg being greedy than anything else, in my opinion.

Often enough with my opener I get a free win at around 9-10 minutes. This comes in the form of blue flame hellions. For this to work, several factors are necessary. Number 1 – you don’t forget gas or blue flame, and your blue flame SHOULD finish on round about 9 minutes. Number 2 – you use four hellions, and four hellions only, to deny him vision; try and use one or two marines that you built at the start of the game to patrol your base to deny overlords – if you sent both marine to the zergs base and they died, then build another after you’ve built the reactor on the barracks: denying scouting is imperative - and use your hellions to stop him running any lings past you and scouting your hellions. Not only does him scouting your base alert him to the blue flame invasion, but it also will show him that you’re going mech. The later a zerg finds out your plans, the harder it is for him to adjust.


What you may notice in these screenshots is 11 roaches, and it’s true I take some damage, but ultimately I stabilise having lost much less than the zerg. Furthermore, it's not normal for a zerg to get as many as 11 roaches but it happened in this case because I forgot to protect my base, and he scouted my factories and responded with a roach warren at 8 minutes. This is an example of what happens if you allow him to scout you too early.
If you let zerg scout you then you’re going to find yourself at a large disadvantage, and occasionally zerg will do something which makes you pull your hair out in frustration

After you establish yourself with 4 thors, blue flame and consider yourself safe from any aggression (don’t be afraid to delay your build in order to get siege tech and siege tanks faster than originally planned if you think he is going heavy roach or something similar), then you can transition into the mid game. After you build your first two thors you want to take your third and fourth gases at your natural, start your third command centre and build two more factories (taking you up to 5, and put tech labs on the new ones so you have four tech labbed factories). When you can afford it, you definitely want to start plus one vehicle weapons as there’s no question that upgrades are what turns a mech army from beauty to beast. Throughout this time you want to be making as many siege tanks as possible - a high tank count is essential to establish yourself safely. When your third CC is done, morph it into an orbital and float it over to your third. Once mining, take your fifth and sixth gases and smile, for you are exactly where you want to be now. Because it’s quite likely that you’re going to be spread quite widely, you have to position your tanks perfectly to defend from any aggression, using cliffs and ridges to give your army the defensive edge that it needs.

You want to defend your base by using ridges to get potshots off, and you can react quickly enough that you will take minimal damage while destroying vast portions of his army.



When positioning your tanks, you want to take care to cover the minimum area of land needed to defend your base. This means extending as little as possible, while overlapping tanks as much as possible. While you don’t need to put tanks right next to each other, don’t be afraid to put more siege tanks in a location that you feel is more likely to be attacked.
You also want to use buildings to protect you as much as you can, this includes depot walls, spreading out production facilities to create chokes. That kind of thing.

The goal of your midgame is simple. Build more things. I consider the end of the midgame to be when you are on 7 factories total (6 w/ tech lab), double armory and have a fourth orbital ready to be floated out. This time is usually around 15-16 minutes if you are macroing to your full. You don’t need to apply any pressure, other than sending pocketfuls of hellions down flanks to try and kill some drones and keep him on his toes. There are VERY few ways you can be broken during the midgame, and each of them is only due to a lack of scouting.

Because of mech’s tendency to be slow to react, it’s important to maintain scouting throughout the game. Major changes to the game are these;
A fast fourth [Hellions]: There isn’t actually that much you can do about this. Some players, like MMA, like to incorporate an early starport to get banshees. Banshees are pretty much the counter to a zerg forgoing tech and taking fast fourth/thirds because zerg cannot shoot them down before they force a cancel on the hatch. It is possible to force cancels with just hellions if you build enough – they do enough damage once their numbers are 15+ (easily achievable). In the end, if he takes a fast fourth you can afford to be greedier. You can make that fourth orbital faster, you can skip tanks in favour of upgrades and more hellions to harass.
No third base [Hellions]: in 90% of situations this means he is going to attempt to bust you VERY soon. In this situation you want to play calmly and wait until he takes a third. There’s no need to over extend and try to take your third before his, because mules mean you mine more efficiently than a zerg. Prepare with turrets and tanks, and scan his tech to find out if he is going air. Once he lays down his third hatch, you should feel comfortable floating to your third as well.
Two base Spire [SCAN – post hellion invasion]: This is almost a free win. With the four thors you should be building blind then you’ll be completely safe from his muta harass. Make sure to get turrets too however, as you don’t want to be leaving Thors in your base the entire game.
Roach Warren and offensive roaches [SCAN and Hellions]: In this case you have to cut Thors immediately – siege tanks and siege mode are vital in holding off an early Roach bust. Some early indications of this are more than 100 gas, and especially if the zerg mines more than 200 (speed + lair + extra) then we can assume a heavy roach attack is incoming. Again in this situation, it’s highly unlikely he will be droning enough to build a third base so you can sit tight and play defensive while gaining a macro advantage.
Late game – Ultras or Brood Lords? [Scans, Hellions, anything]: Because with mech, you’re limited by your gas count, mules aren’t as important in the late game as they are with marine/tank. This means you shouldn’t worry about wasting a mule via a scan ever, and you have to find out what tech he is going immediately. If you build 20 supply in Vikings and he doesn’t build a single brood lord, you are in deep trouble to an ultralisk army. Once you’ve scouted his tech you can adjust comfortably. Vikings for air, no vikings for ground (simply).

There are perhaps three units that could possibly deal a killing blow during the midgame, and those are roaches, infestors and broodlords, if he rushes to them and you aren’t prepared with enough anti-air.
To be safe from roaches there are just a few important things you can do to prepare. First of all, you absolutely require an engineering bay so you have access to turrets. You should always have at least one turret at your front to protect you from burrowed roaches. Burrowed roaches in your front are the first way that you can die, the second two are overextension and the third is a roach drop when you’re severely out of position. To defend from overextension we simply don’t overextend. There’s no need to take a third base until you’re maxed out, and even on only around 100 supply, or at about 12 minutes time on most maps you have enough tanks to comfortably take a third while having ample coverage of your entire perimeter.
Roach drops can be potent, but rarely will they do damage to you unless you allow them to take out your production. The simplest way of defending from this kind of economic damage is to spread out your factories. Normally I have three in my main, two in my natural and two in my third. This also has the added benefit of meaning there is a chance that reinforcements will arrive where you need them slightly quicker. Second, the earlier you know about a drop the better you’ll be at defending it. Try to scout his composition often, if he is building large numbers of roaches and not drones at around 11-12 minutes you should make a guess of some kind of large roach attack. I also like to put up turrets along the cliffs of my main. Some will argue that this won’t make much of a difference, as overlords have high survivability but the early warning is useful, and they will distract roach fire for precious seconds. Lastly, you can if you choose leave two tanks by your main orbital and they will do heavy damage on a zerg, especially if you build your buildings so they are walled in from roach fire.
Even if you make mistakes and don’t prepare for a roach drop at all, as long as you set up your buildings adequately then you can decimate any roach army. In the picture that follows you can see how his army is stacked up behind my factories – admittedly this is his own choice, but most zergs will go straight for your mineral line when they drop creating this scenario. My tanks decimate his roaches without any trouble at all.

Mutas are a conundrum. Zerg gains much from going mutalisk against mech, but loses much too. The true way to use Mutas to counter mech is by tech switching in and out of them often. The optimal mech composition is basically pure tank, especially in the early game before you are maxed out, as roaches can overwhelm Thors in small numbers easily.
Until you see zerg committing to infestors, ultralisks or brood lords it’s imperative that the meching player remains diligent. This means constant scouting of your opponent with scans and hellions. Scan his tech to try and spot a spire, and use hellions to gauge how much he is investing into his roach army and whether you think there is a lot of resources “missing” (not in bases, drones or roaches).
When facing mutas, Terran should be even more confident turtling on three base than before. Because mutas are simply awful in a straight up fight, once Terran is maxed out then you can simply roll over the zerg like he is nothing, so long as you a) protect your economy from harassment and b) continue to harass zerg as best you can. It may sound hard to harass the zerg, but hellions are good enough even with mutas out, so long as you use routes which could be considered safer. An example of this is going around the raised platforms on Shattered Temple, and using the grass to hide your hellions attack path.

Thanks to 4Servy for suggesting using medivacs in order to move hellions around the map. It's certainly something to consider when you're facing mutalisks, however for me the earlier investment into starports doesn't make up for the added bonus of skirting even further wide. Most of the time you're able to find a hole in the zergs vision and drive your hellions through there. By all means however, try it.



Against a player going Muta, don’t be afraid to go up to very high Thor counts. Because his army will be so weak on the ground, even just 5 to 8 tanks will be enough to decimate any roach army if he has a reasonable number of mutalisks. Consider that a mech army beats a pure ground army by zerg without question, when he sacrifices food into harassment then he is even weaker in the final confrontation.

So this is essentially *the* composition for Zerg (each unit of this composition on its own is not a hassle at ALL for a mech army) – but do not ever be afraid of it. In IMMVP vs FXOLucky on Bel’Shir Beach, the game came down to late game vs late game and MVP lost – but not because the zerg composition was unbeatable, he simply had too many tanks. He threw away all his tanks in a base trade – the correct decision, but his mistake was in allowing the zerg to get such an army and not adjusting in time. When Zerg initially makes his transition to this army, there is your chance to strike and win the game. After my seven factories are up, usually around the 16 minute mark, I make two starports with reactor and crank out vikings with attack upgrades (3/3 should be done by this point, near enough). Do not take 16 minutes as 100% though – you must always scout his spire to see when it is morphing. Brood lords can decimate a mech army when you are caught unawares.
When you engage this composition, you want as wide an arc as possible and to use sieged tanks to kill infestors from range, or else all your vikings will die. You can afford to lose tanks now, as Thors become the most important factory unit.
Do not throw away your tanks however, as they are still vital if the zerg makes a roach switch. With that said, Thors are actually better versus Ultralisks.
The main thing you want to do when facing this composition is exploit its immobility – a mech army is slow, but Brood Lords are even slower. You can take large chunks of tanks across the map to where his far reaching expansions are and force his brood lords out of position, then simply skirt around his air army and join your forces together, then delivering significant damage while he desperately moves his Brood lords back to the fight.

Doom drops can cause damage if you are caught off guard and don’t have anything prepared, however I want to show you how some simple forethought when you’re building your base, as well as reasonably quick reactions can turn a doom drop into a massive win for Terran.

This is a game on metal, and as you can see I’m currently behind at the start of this drop, and while I definitely should point out my hellions are doing a runby into his natural mineral line, even without that I would come out ahead because of how many units he throws away for just some turrets and a barracks. In this picture I’ve drawn in the choke that I created with my buildings, and you’ll see below the effect it has on his army.

There are a few steps you should take when defending a doom drop. Firstly, you need to siege in a location that is slightly out of range on the roaches, and then lift up the buildings that they are attacking. You can see my factory and orbital floating in this engagement. You want to lead with a thor as much as possible, as they draw aggression and can take a lot of hits, allowing your siege tanks more time to land their shots. You also have to be very quick to pull scvs, as keeping those alive is important.

Again, you can see how I’ve pulled scvs, lifted the buildings in immediate danger and sieged up some of the units who are just out of range. I clear up the attack with no trouble.

First I have to apologise, much of this guide gives you info that is GOOD, but not info that is brand new and up to date. I don't mean that this guide is wrong - obviously I'm still happy with it, but going a sky terran style is definitely a brand of mech that I think greatly improves your chances of winning a drawn out game against the hive composition of zerg.

Many people who commented on my guide told me the value of ravens - I acknowledged it, but I thought vikings was enough, at in the middle of masters, they are, generally. But as I get higher and higher (I got owned by TLO a few weeks ago!) I've realised that they simply aren't. What I've developed recently is a style of mech that's lighter on factories, but heaver on starports. Having a flying spellcaster means that Terran air is pretty much never going to lose to zerg air, and if you're fighting ultras well... they can't shoot up.

To take a look at some replays of me playing this style, please check the replay section at the end of the guide.

A simple description of my plan is after a 1rax FE, my production is a reactor factory and a starport with a tech lab - building banshees. If you go up to five or so banshees, then the DPS of those banshees means you need far less tanks to be able to hold a zerg roach army. By using the defensive strength of banshees, you can take a third with only thors. As long as you maintain map control - use your banshees to deny the third for as long as possible, and help hellions hold watchtowers, zerg is FORCED to go mutalisks (they can go infestor if they really want - but banshees actually trade really well with infestors). If the zerg goes mutas, they have denying your third much harder because thors are so strong against any muta ball as long as you both keep building them up. Furthermore, by keeping your starport tech lab building, you may as well make use of it and get the raven ugprades, as they are vital in a long game. You want Corvid Reactor (energy upgrade) and Seeker Missile, you can get durable materials too but it's not so useful when you're going to be gas starved.

Once you take your third, you want to go up to five factories. By now, it's probably more or less 13-14 minutes in the game, and the zerg has two options to respond. He can either go for a massive roach muta attack, which you should be able to hold as long as you position your units properly - after you get out some thors, unless you scout a ton of mutas, you should build tanks immediately. You want to have sieged already researched by the time you build your first tanks too, don't forget it! The other option is that he says okay, I'll stay on three base against your banshees and tech really fast to hive, or at least the situation where he takes a fourth and then a hive. So what should you do against hive? Starports, at least four.

Usually I build three extra starports, one with a tech lab (to have two) and two with reactors. This means you'll be making ravens two at a time, and vikings four at a time. You have several things to remember once you begin your air transition - first, you want to keep SOME tanks but not tons. I often end up saccing two or three tanks, you want to have five or six, enough to threaten any infestors but not enough that you are wasting food in units that can't shoot back. Likewise with Thors, for a six supply unit, I don't rate them very highly against a zerg with a high corruptor count. They do such minimal damage to corruptors that you can't rely on a high thor count to make up for low vikings. It's much better to have 20 vikings and 5 thors, than 8 thors and 11 vikings. They aren't really efficient.

And you want a ton of ravens. I like to have 15 or so, because they can only cast one hunter seeker each (you an also use PDD if you like, but HSM is WAY cooler). They easily make up for their cost and lack of attack because one hunter seeker hitting a clumped up zerg army can DEMOLISH any number of corruptors. If you can hide your ravens too, then zerg won't realise he has to split and will just amove, stacking up his corruptors and making them die to four or so Hunter seekers. Then your massive viking count can clean up the air, and guess what cleans up the ground?

3/3 Battlecruisers. Tech to them, slowly and patiently.

Replays at the end of the guide

A genuine concern of a meching terran is a base trade. Because of how immobile our army is, zerg can draw Terran out of position and then simply skirt our army and go for our buildings. The most important thing to do in this situation is not to panic, because base trading a Terran is a terrible decision and one usually taken out of desperation.
First, we should always consider the possibility of a base trade when we move out and even when we’re building our base during the game. This means placing your buildings well, and investing in static defence where it is likely to be cost effective. Simply, any bases after your fourth should be a planetary fortress, with the exception of bases that are going TOWARDS your opponent. These should be built in your already established base, morphed into an orbital and landed at the expo when it is safe. Furthermore, missile turrets can be incredibly useful and especially vs a zerg player going mutalisk, they must be considered invaluable.
A very simple but effective option is simply to leave some tanks behind. If you leave just 3-4 tanks behind you are almost assured victory in a base trade scenario as he simply won’t be cost efficient enough to have a large enough army surviving to kill the reinforcements from your factories – especially if they are spaced out, and he can’t simply camp all of them.

Once you realise the zerg has gone for a base trade – by which I mean, you can see his army and it is IN your base, then you can throw caution to the wind and chase down the zergs expansions extremely aggressive. You want to siege your tanks in groups of four to five and use unsieged tanks to take out his hatcheries as quick as possible – this both limits his income and larvae, meaning that his army won’t be able to remax, which is absolutely necessary to defeat mech.

Once your mech army is out of position and he is trying to flank, you are committed. You must never turn around once you’re maxed and moving out, since it simply gives zerg too much time. Because of how mobile he is, he can pull back as soon as you turn around and take no damage while doing free damage to you. Remember that with a base trade comes the end of the game – and if you play it properly, you will basically always win.

When you are moving across the map, you need to scan constantly and as soon as you touch creep you must start sieging chunks of your army at a time and moving forward slowly. You can be confident of your army decimating his, so taking the time to make sure you engage properly is 100% worthwhile.
There are two situations where you’ll be engaging. Against a ground based army, or against an air based army. If you’re fighting a ground based force you want to have as concentrated army as possible, preferably in a choke or somewhere with a small area for flanking. Think of location’s like metalopolis’ two channels as the perfect example. This forces his army to stack up much more, and your splash does even more damage than allowing the zerg to get a large concave where your splash only hits one or two units.
However, against an air based composition you want as big a concave as possible. This means you can fight at maximum range with your thors, and your vikings are as spread as possible to minimize fungal damage.

Of the current maps in the ladder pool, you can mech comfortably on all of them. The only one with some difficulties is Tal’Darim Altar, because of how spread out your front is, and perhaps Shakuras, where the wide area between your third and your natural can be exploited if you’re too greedy. I’m going to provide a little bit of help for your placement on all maps, minus Xel’Naga Caverns and Arid Plateau as those maps are hardly worth bothering with, sadly.

This map is pretty much my favourite to mech with. It provides a very easily achievable split map scenario and you can use cliffs to great advantage allowing you to be extra greedy with your expansions.

This picture is taken 12 minutes into the game; after my hellions have done no damage, and I have I scouted him going roaches. I circled tank placement, and the fact that your third command centre should be building by now. Also note that I have the armory despite him building roaches, as it’s always important to be ready for a muta switch.

This is just a few moments later, but I’ve taken my third and have added on factories 6 and 7 – perhaps a bit prematurely, I could have cut those for two siege tanks and been safer. I highlighted the contour of your third which is where you want to place your tanks, as it’s this location that they have the greatest spread. You want to have generally at least two to three tanks in this location until you take your fourth base to the side.

This screenshot is later in the game, but shows you better the “ideal” defensive preparation. Three tanks, a sensor tower and turrets to stop burrowed roaches ruining your day.

This siege position is pretty much why this is my favourite map for mech. The two narrow pathways mean that roaches are pretty much useless because you can position your tanks like this and have no chance of being flanked. I’ve also circled my two turret lines, and they pay for themselves in the loaded overlords that they drop. I should point out that overlord drops are extremely common on this map because of how chokey the middle of the map is - zerg has no option but to try and take another route.

This map is again good for mech. The ease of which you can take your third base means you can macro extremely quickly, and a fourth isn’t hard to hold either. The only negative is how wide open the map is, it can make moving across quite dangerous and the two side paths allow zerg fantastic opportunities to counterattack, meaning leaving tanks behind for defence is crucial.

This map is very straight forward, once you’ve made a depot wall you can basically siege your tanks behind it with no problem due to the ramp making your second base almost invulnerable.

Likewise, your third is easily defended by a tank line. No ground army can break you. That’s pretty much all there is to defending on that map, and like I talked about with metal, because of how easy it is to defend those three bases you should be aware that an air attack by zerg, either through drops or brood lords, is much more likely than a ground based roach army trying to overwhelm you. This advice doesn’t take the place of scouting however, as every game you play is different.

This map is in theory good for mech, it’s easy to split the map and zerg has trouble taking bases past his fourth, which means far less gas for his hive units. However it’s also very easy to be overran when you try and take your third on Shakuras, which means you have to be very careful when you move out.

My screenshot is rather poor, as the circled high ground doesn’t have a tank in. This is one of the best spots to place a tank because it can’t be hit from the low ground. I have however pointed out the choke between the two bases, this is where you want to siege your first few tanks. By putting them in the choke you force the zerg to either funnel his units underneath the rock and by the xel’naga tower, or make him take a longer route.

This is when you can start to feel safe – usually, because of how narrow a choke the xel’naga tower route is, zerg will go through the middle and attack you in the gap between your second and third, so you have to prepare for this by tanks. Use hellions to scout his army and be ready to move your tanks into another position if it turns out you need it. Don’t forget your turret for detection, and once you’ve got this position established you can make your fourth command centre.

This is less about defence and more about the best locations to attack. Just as attacking through a choke is bad for zerg, it’s good for you as it means zerg can have far less of a concave on your tanks. Be warned that if he has brood lords and you’re in a choke however, you’re going to take more damage than normal.

Once you’ve established your fourth (and sometimes fifth) base then you want to set up more in the middle so you can cover your northern or southern bases. The arrow I’ve drawn indicates the wide area of attack, which against an air based zerg is exactly what you want. You need your thors in the front, and while I haven’t shown it in this picture, it’s good to spread your vikings prematurely so that you can avoid sneaky fungals.

This map is very good for a Terran who is planning to take it late game. You have an even either gold to take than on metal, and split map is once again a likely circumstance to happen.

You can see my depot wall here, which is always a fantastic thing to have against zerg to stop runbys. I want to point out that I’ve numbered the bases, you should try to take the gold as your third if you can because it’s closer to the zerg yet still within a defensive location. It’s almost a pocket gold compared to the gold base on metal. There isn’t much to say on Shattered, other than make sure your tanks cover the entrance to your gold and that you have turrets in your main to stop a doomdrop.

My least favourite map to mech on because of the difficulty in taking a third, not only does it have rocks but the large distance between it and your natural means you need quite a few tanks to be safe from aggression.

Don’t forget your depot wall, and make your command centre, very standard stuff. Note also in this game the food counts – I’m able to be greedy because my hellions killed a lot of drones. If your hellions get denied you want to only take your third when you’ve got something like 7 tanks.

Here we have four tanks defending our natural choke, which is adequate. You could also put the tanks on the cliff of your natural, but I find that they’re more vulnerable to being picked off by mutalisks in that location.

Again the depot wall is a valuable defensive tool. You should have by now noticed the running theme of the terran defence – a wall, detection, at least one thor and tanks covering the approach.

Like on Shakuras I included this to show you where you want to be engaging as a mech player – not in the wide open middle, but through any choke you can find. Tal’darim is especially nice for this because the xel’naga offers you good vision.

Famous for being the map of choice for MVP in TvZ, this map is again pretty excellent for mech. Defending your natural is easy, especially when you place tanks on the high ground. Make sure that you have your standard defensive setup.

Taking the third doesn’t pose a problem if you position your tanks on the low ground so that they can hit the raised area at your third.

You want to establish your bases, and then when you move out take the middle and build your fourth either underneath the middle, or in the main base/third of your neighbouring bases. You should try to get as much vision as possible as it’s very easy on this map, simply place a hellion on the other side of the smoke that’s in the middle of the map but out of range of the xel’naga, and you can be aware of any flanks the zerg tries to make.

This map is awesome. It's long, but not wide so you can't be flanked or counter attacked easily, and best of all you get five bases pretty much for free. Your natural has rocks at it that makes it much easier to defend from early attacks, and the area infront of your third defends your fourth and fifth as well. The fact that you can get five bases so easily also means that air play is strong on this map, and it's one of the maps where it's very easy to start incorporating ravens. Here is a vod of MorroW playing Leenock from NASL, it's not mech play but you can see how he uses ravens to great effectiveness late in the game.
When I was taking the pictures it was in the morning and I didn't have anyone available to practice with, so the optimal set up is shown. In a real game you may need to adjust slightly for what your opponent is doing but I hope the pictures can help you out.
An important aspect of opening mech on this map is preventing scouting. For this reason, if you're using my build or any build where you throw your marine away, don't. In all three TvZ's i played on the ladder yesterday, my marines spotted and overlord in time to stop him seeing my factories and my opponents weren't able to react correctly to my blue flames when I revealed them.

Defending your nat is really simple as I said. Use the Thors at the front to take any damage if banelings bust your wall, and use the architecture nicely to place your tanks.

You can take the third quite happily, as the natural doesn't require much babysitting at all, compared to a map like metal. Your first two rounds of tanks is more than enough to defend your third so you can take it by around 11-12 minutes, or earlier if you feel like being greedy or you did damage with some early attack.

Don't forget to stop drops. Because this map is so large, and your eco spirals out of control so quickly, it's actually okay to overspend on turrets.

When you take your fourth and fifth, move your army forward. A trick I like to do is to build the remainder of my depots out in the front, as they act as a wall to stop ground forces like roaches or ultras, and it doesn't matter if they die as you'll be making macro orbitals later anyway.

Have fun with your insatiable economy.

This map is actually kinda hard to mech on. It's two attack paths are so far apart that zerg has quite an easy job of counter attacking you, and the fact that zerg can take 4/5 bases so easily and defend from your harass with creep+speed roaches means that you're risking facing a maxed out corruptor/bl/infestor ball. With that said, the size of it means you can get your third quickly and safely, and you can have a really strong economy in the midgame benefitting a mech army. I'm sorry to do this to you but if you bought MLG Arena then you can watch this really good game by ThorZain vs Sheth demonstrating the power of mech on this map. http://www.twitch.tv/mlg_arena/b/309664958 (I didn't buy it myself but I saw it live at a barcraft!!)

Many z will be tempted to go for mutas on this map, especially if you successfully use marine to hide your mech. This means you can get your third up very fast. Scout as best you can with your hellions and if you spot mutas then put your third up immediately (and get turrets)
This is from a masters tvz, a custom game between me and a friend. Make sure you wall off your nat to prevent ling runbys in the late game, and don't kill the rocks as the more narrow choke helps you out a lot.

Like Metro, it's unlikely they'll try to bust your front as long as it's walled and has some tank coverage, so you want to focus your defences at the third. In this picture you should note the turrets, because I had scouted mutas. This means the game will play out quite differently from mass roaches coming earlier, as you can be more greedy, but generally it's the same idea. You'll want to have tanks regardless, as an unscouted roach attack can really screw you over if all you have is thor and hellion and he has too much. In addition, a depot wall and I like to use my barracks here after using it to spot. (You'll want to kill the overlord on the high ground at your natural choke)

Daybreak is a map that makes you very open to counter attacks. What I like to do is move out with most of my army,
and simply use reinforcments (or leave tanks behind if youre maxed) to prevent a counter attack. Turrets also help tank damage so the tanks can get off more shots. If you leave 3-6 tanks here, they'll kill enough roaches that your reinforcing units can kill an army while your main force rampages the map.

Again, with your fifth try to make it as safe as possible plenty of turrets, and you can even make that orbital a planetary to feel super safe. The best way is to control the area I highlighted (red crazy lines) on the map, keep vision of that and then you know when you need to move to defend your fifth.

When pushing, try to be decisive and take your main army forwards to pressure him, especially if you have an army advantage, simply use small numbers of tanks to take out expansions while you cover them with your main force.

And that's Daybreak. Don't expect to get it right first time as the map is really large and can be hard to get the hang of, but when you get it right it will feel really good.

This map is a bit of a conundrum. It has pros and cons for mech, making it both advantageous and disadvantageous. The positives are that it's linear, narrow, your third base is very close to your main and the fourth isn't that hard to hold, however the fifth is. It's also quite easy to deny bases and to scout on the map as it's so small.
The negatives are the fact that it has such massive ground blockers in the middle, meaning it's easy for you to be flanked. There is also a ton of space at the third, meaning heavy roach attacks before your tank numbers are up can cause a lot of trouble. I played a game vs another masters Z to try and show you how to play this map.

Again, don't forget to use your marines to block scouting.

When you take your natural, it's set up perfectly for tanks to defend you.

Defending the third can be done early if you place your tanks where they defend each other. You should be willing to lift your orbital if too many roaches come in, as it's risky to cover the entire entrance because then your tanks will be too spread and Z can get a bigger concave. The area I circled is an example of using the terrain to defend your tanks - it creates an obstacle between the tank firing range and the tank itself.

Don't forget your turrets! Even if the turrets only kill one overlord of roaches, that's actually a profit, so if they get more than one then it's even better.

Use the sides of the map to scout with hellions, use the wide third against the Z by sidestepping spines to roast drones if you can.

Taking the fourth is again complicated, if you move too many tanks to cover it then you risk opening up your third. My tanks are actually poorly positioned here as I was reacting to a roach attack and had to hurry, the red boxes are ideal locations.
When you try to take your fifth, the best way to defend it is with high map vision. Here in the minimap you can see me on the xel'naga tower, and I'm also using a group of hellions on the left and vikings on the right to maintain vision so I can quickly react to any zerg attack.

NEW REPLAYS!

15 cc replays
a la flash...
http://drop.sc/200136
http://drop.sc/200135
http://drop.sc/200134
http://drop.sc/200132
http://drop.sc/200131
http://drop.sc/200130
http://drop.sc/200129
http://drop.sc/200128
http://drop.sc/200127

replay pack of TvZ from the last week http://www.mediafire.com/?l1c7lgfem8qi6p5

http://drop.sc/181362 - 1rax FE -> Banshees -> Thor, hellion banshee hold vs Ling Muta Baneling three base all in.
http://drop.sc/181094 - The same build, 63 minute game that you should only watch to see how I tech up to my air army. Once I'm stable on the five bases of Daybreak and getting my air, zerg has no chance. Sorry for the chat. Notable for double thor drop to kill a greater spire.. so cool
http://drop.sc/179662 - hellion build, my opponent does a roach opener which throws me off. Very calm 37 minute game where I hold off continued doom drops on the five bases of Metropolis to grind out a win in an important tournament game at an event.
http://drop.sc/179661 - Winning a 17 minute game by delaying the third with hellions and banshees. This is how you want to play vs a Zerg who doesn't respond well to your harass
http://drop.sc/179659 - Another game vs my teammate PAD where I win with Sky Terran
http://drop.sc/181364 - Hellion build after 1ra FE vs a zerg on metal, I do such damage and really should've killed him earlier but didn't think.
http://drop.sc/181365 - I lose after a long game where I stay in it because Thors are cost effective against ultras, and then try to make an air transition but my fumbly play bungles the game. Without getting a critical mass of ravens, you musn't engage. An interesting game if you want to see how a terran can lose if they don't get the right composition.

Older replays

+ Show Spoiler +

Daybreak (the one I used to make screenshots)(ignore chat!!) http://drop.sc/157448
Shakuras - 52 minute game. Late game compositions engaging each other over and over. http://drop.sc/157443
Metalopolis - using early aggression once you have a lead to end the game sooner (risky) http://drop.sc/157442
Metalopolis - I lose this game, despite being in a great position, because of bad micro. My army was shredded by zerglings after I moved too many tanks forward at once, on too low supply, and after wasting all my hellions so that I had nothing to stop them. http://drop.sc/157440
Antiga Shipyard - benefits of suiciding your hellions in a wide natural vs a greedy zerg is shown here. http://drop.sc/157438
Antiga Shipyard - an early third OC and suicidal hellions catapults me to a massive early lead which I nearly throw away by not having detection and roaches burrowing under my army. Use of banshees to punish expansions.
Ohana - a very scrappy game. http://drop.sc/157436
Cloud Kingdom - http://drop.sc/157424
Metropolis - Blue Flame Hellions win the day. http://drop.sc/158516
Metropolis - again, blue flames get me an advantage and the map plays out simply for a win. http://drop.sc/158514
Shakuras - BFH wins (lol) http://drop.sc/158515