Supply # What to Do at This Supply Between 7 and 8 Build a supply depot at your ramp. 10 Using the scv that built your supply depot, build a barracks adjacent to it. 12 Erect a refinery. 15 Using the scv that built your barracks, build a supply depot. Scout with this scv. 17 Erect a factory. Build a machine shop on this factory as soon as it's done. Use this same scv to build a supply depot. 19 Build another factory. Forgot the machine shop on this one for now.

Wall-in:

You can't just make any old depot/depot/barracks wall-in...at least not at ramps. You'd be surprised what kind of holes zealots can squeeze through. A good indicator of a solid wall is if an scv can't get through it. Marines and zerglings can get through any kind of wall, so don't get too careless...Now, here are pictures to illustrate what wall-ins at both types of ramps should look like.

Early Game

There are a couple of strategies protoss players like to employ. The most popular of these is a quick dragoon rush to get you while you still only have vultures. However, there are more...

Zealot Blitz

Sometimes, the protoss player will try to take down your supply depot wall and squeeze through in hopes that you were careless and have no marines. This problem is easily rectified. Simply have an scv repair the building under attack. Also, build a marine if you don't already have one. If they have multiple zealots, repair your depot with multiple scvs. It's quite simple. They should never be able to break through your wall with zealots alone.

Quick Dragoon Rush

This is the most commonly employed strategy, and yet for some terran, it always seems to be the most alien. It shows when they get killed time after time by it. There are two things you need to do to counter a dragoon rush. Scout, then respond. So how do you know if they're going quick dragoon? First of all, they'll have a cyber core going up the same time as their second gateway.

If you can't get to their base because they're blocking their ramp, assume they're going dragoon contain. Yes that's how pitiful terran are. If you're not sure whether they're going to do it or not, construct a bunker in place of your barracks (lift off your barracks) and research spider mines first. You can beat the quick dragoon rush. However, after the dragoon rush, if they decide to contain you with dragoons, you're stuck for a little bit. Not to worry though...I'll talk about that later.

If you're sure they're going dragoons, there's a much less costlier way to deal with it. Just go tanks right off the bat. Have scvs repair your depots if they attack them. In the following pic, you see how badly 1 sieged tank and a bunk with 2 marines owns up some dragoons.

Four dragoons didn't even stand a chance. You see the power of range and sheer power in the siege tank. You don't even need to worry about reaver drops or dark templar for a while. Throw up three tanks and build a command center on your plateau to float down as an expansion soon. Keep pumping tanks...

Early Expansions

Some protoss players are insane enough to early expand. There are two very easy ways to stop this. First of all, do a very quick vulture/tank push with scvs building turrets. You can also go along a quick tank drop, which also works. I like going along with the tank drop because it keeps your options open. You can invest a minimal amount of cash into the push and still come out on top. However, if you want to go all the way and kill everything he has, the quick vulture/tank push is for you. Just lay down mines in front of their base asap. Research siege mode. Build a 3rd factory and an armory soon after. Then pump everything you got and shove it down his throat. The main thing that can stop tank pushes are templar or mass melee units (zealots/dt). As long as you have good tank support in the goliath and vulture, the latter shouldn't be a problem. Since they early expanded, they should be no where near getting psi storm by the time you commence your push. Just watch the counterdrop, because they've killed me before when I've tried the quick-tank push. You can't tank push and then just stop mid-way through because drops will kill you.

Some protoss players go directly for shuttles in anticipation of a ridge drop. That's why you need some defense. Bring a wraith with your attack and shuttle in an scv and vultures with your second load. Construct turrets to detect dark templar and have wraiths patrol the ridge perimeter to watch for shuttles. Later on, move those tanks over their choke point to restrict their movement and expansion horribly...There'll be more on expansion prevention later. It's all about micro when they drop. I can't help you with that. Just try and take out the shuttle above all else. Even while they have zealots killing your tanks, take out the shuttle. If they don't rebuild their shuttle, follow-up ridge drops can kill them. Also, if you're lucky, there'll be some cargo in the shuttle while you take it out.

Mid-Game

Now, some players say that terran strength is all in their mid-game power. That is true...to an extent. You have to know how to employ terran troops correctly, or a decent protoss player can roll right over you.

The Build-Up...

If you didn't face an early expander, there is a simple build you can follow. With your factories, once spider mines has been researched, build a machine shop on your 2nd factory. Send a vulture out to each expansion spot and plant mines where they would build their nexus if they were to expand (at all 3 spots). This will force them to build a cannon to destroy the mine, wait for observers, or run a unit over it. Either way, they will have to reveal the fact that they are expanding. I'll tell you how to deal with that later...However, you will delay their expanding severely. There is no doubt about that.

Now after you've begun construction of a command center to float down to your expansion (click on the link way above), build an armory and a 3rd factory. Upgrade attack from the armory and begin constructing goliaths. After your expansion, add a 4th factory and a starport. Pump tanks from your two factories with machine shops and goliaths from the other two. Get an academy for comsat and start pumping dropships. Tech up to build a science vessel or two for mobile detection. Now, how do you employ your units?

Terran Defense

Because of the multitude of attacks a protoss executor can employ on a terran player, there needs to be some kind of overall terran defense that can stop them all. Just note that if they went quick dragoons, this will delay any kind of tech attacks horribly and you can set up this defense after you expand. Otherwise, do it before you float a cc to your expansion. If I know they're teching, I like to build starport as soon as possible and fly a wraith into their base to scope it out. Often enough, they're going quick reaver drop, or quick drop or some sort, in which case wraiths can take out the shuttles in short order. Then I commence the constructions of dropships which I can use later.

Now, they may try the drop of gayness on you. Yes, it's the dark templar drop of gayness...However, fear not. There is a simple way to stop this menace. In fact, I wrote a scip's tip on it. It's a defense that will stop any kind of dark templar drop that will cost 400. You can read it here. If they try dropping regular infantry in on your base, simply move over troops from your ramp to defend against their attack. If you have to, use scvs to defend against their attacks, although I doubt you will ever have to do such a thing. If they try this on you, build a turret at the point closest to where they drop. That will delay and discourage any kind of drops from them. Build turrets spread out over the perimeter of your base just in case they try to drop their entire army on you...After all this has been done, float down a command center to your expansion...

Once you expand, build an engineering bay and float it above your ridge to watch for that templar drop on the ridge, or whatever the protoss player might try up there. Also, constrict your choke point by flying down your barracks and building a supply depot(s). Look at the pic below.

You can always lift off your barracks to get your troops out. Essentially, melee units can get through that little hole in a straight line only, so you can kill them one by one, and goons can't get through at all. Repair depots if the protoss player decides to attack them manually. Also, watch the drops. Those are deadly to a terran. Build turrets along the perimeter of your base for the sole purpose of watching for shuttles gathering troops at the edge of your plateau. Also, the turrets can somewhat deter careless shuttles. When you do see the drops coming, respond by moving your troops to the main...Keep some tanks at your ramp just in case they decide to attack you up the front.

A complete command center defense is easily complete well under the cost of complete defenses for the other races. Protoss and zerg defensive structures are there merely to delay until your real defense (your units) can get there. After all, since when could four cannons stop 24 mutas? A full blown attack to an unready base defense can spell doom. This is more so for terran because their recovery rate from attacks compared to other races is horrible. That is why it is essential to defend your command center and miners to the fullest. Often, a bunker, a tank and two well-placed turrets is sufficient to defend against most protoss drops. You should detect any kind of larger with the turrets you built around the perimeter of your plateau. Always remember to move your scvs away or to your expansion (if you have one) the moment you see that shuttle. They may manually target your scvs with their kamikase reaver or templar and you will be one unhappy terran player.

Sometimes, I like to put two tanks spread apart in my scvs and have them surrounded by three or four turrets. If they drop any ranged units, the tanks will outrange them. Their shuttles should never get in range to drop their ranged units close enough for them to be too close. If they drop melee units, use your scvs to defend yourself. If they start abusing your outer structures, just bring in your cavalry to deal with them. One shuttle-worth of protoss troops should never be able to take down your structures before your troops can get their to defend against them. Just remember to have those turrets on the perimeter of your plateau.

If you ever face carriers, goliaths are there. By the time they have carriers, you generally want to be on the offensive so they can't use the cheap ridge/carrier thing to destroy you. The moment you see them going carriers, get an academy for the sole purpose of comsat. Use air units to spot, and try not to get them killed. Always watch your goliaths because their pathing is really screwed up. Once they pull the carriers out of range, pull your goliaths back from the ridge or they'll start walking around aimlessly. Target carriers as they come. I'm not saying carriers aren't a problem, but if they're in a position that they can toy around with you with their carriers, then you were probably dead to begin with. On the offensive, they shouldn't be able to use ridges so abusively since you can always lure them away from their ridge. Just pay attention and you should be ok.

Also, spread apart your tanks such that no more than one dweb can affect each one...I'll talk more about this later. Also, move your goliaths out of dweb if they're under one. If they catch you in a choke point with dwebs, it's generally a better idea just to move back your attack to the center of the map or away from the choke point. They will have wasted most of their dweb and you will have much better position in the open. If you bring scvs along with your attack, quickly build supply depots in their choke point to give time for retreat of your troops. It's sounds silly on paper, but it really works...really. It'll buy you plenty of time to retreat your troops.

Terran Offense

Terran offensives are a little more difficult to pull off than othe rraces. They don't have the brunt force of protoss nor do they have the sheer speed of zerg units. They have a lot of power in a little space...the problem is that it is slow. All terran units are slow as hell. Tanks siege slowly, they move slowly...the same goes for goliaths. That means you have to be prepared for a counterattack because there's hardly any chance that you can pull back your troops from your attack to save your base...by the time you get their, it'll be half dead. So always leave your barrack grounded (read above about choke point defense) when you're not moving units out of your base.

Keep about 4~5 tanks on your ridge sieged and make sure they're spread apart such that no more than one tank can be hit at a time by psi storm. When you get attacked, use your scvs to block all units from getting to your tanks. Target any templar you see and keep pumping troops. Never stop pumping troops. It hurts terran more than any other race. You always have to be pumping troops. Terran attacks are 40% timing, 40% position, 5% macro, 5% power, and 50% micro (that'd be 150%...I guess my math ain't too good...stfu, I know that wasn't funny). Just keep that in mind. Terran troops are not at all expendible. Losing your entire force will lose you the game. You can't rebuild your entire force within seconds like you can with zerg, nor defend yourself with a few units like protoss (templar and reaver). Keep that in mind.

Most people don't know how to tank push properly. They just slap all their tanks together and hope that enemy templar won't come close enough to psi storm. That's not the way to play. Always spread apart your tanks!!! I can't emphasize that more. When you siege your tanks, siege them individually and manually. Often, you can have them move to a spot in your enemy's base. As they get close, siege them one by one. Since you're not sieging them all at once, the ones you siege first will typically be at the back if you group and the once you siege last will be at the front of your group (I know that isn't always true wise ass...stfu). They will be spread apart just fine. It's ok if you have some of the tanks at the back of your group clustered because they most likely won't get stormed. However, just keep in mind that you never want your tanks clustered. Also, always have 4~5 vultures with every attack resources permitting. These buggers can take out templar in one volley. Don't rush in with those vultures as you see their goons coming. Once their troops have engaged your troops, send in the vultures. The vultures most likely won't be targetted for a few seconds, giving you time to take out all their templar.

What if they go dragoon contain? I made a little tip a while back on beating dragoon containment. Let me elaborate a little bit more on it. Dragoon containment is when they park a bunch of dragoons in front of your base with templar. Seemingly, this minimal force wouldn't be able to stop the big terran army, but because terran don't have the position (their siege tanks aren't sieged as protoss troops run in, but the tanks are sieging as the protoss troops come in), they don't have the time to separate siege tanks, and they're often caught at the choke point right in front of their base, it all spells doom for the terran player. You often don't want to face dragoon containment head-up as you can often lose many times more money than the protoss player does, and more often than not, your entire force. Rather than wasting your money on trying to penetrate their goon containment, or pushing all the way across the map, you can circumvent their entire force.

If you sense the goon containment early, or even if you don't, commence construction of dropships as soon as you get your starport. The protoss player usually plays by expanding to different plateaus early on while dragoon containing you. They do not expand to their natural until they have shuttles to deal with ridge drops from you. If they didn't dragoon contain, they would never have enough dragoons at all their bases to defeat a head-on attack from you when you have the positional advantage. That is why dragoon containment was made basically. Some protoss player found that it was very difficult for terran to deal with dragoons when the tanks were sieged prior to engagement.

Anyway, use dropships to deal with this. Dropping in a payload of tanks and goliaths will not only ensure the positional advantage, but surprise, and added bonus that can pay big dividends. 3 dropships is ideal early on. The ideal payload is 8 goliaths and 2 tanks. Just take out all the defense they have near their nexus (shouldn't be too much if they're dragoon containing you) and then destroy the nexus asap. EMPing the nexus really helps if you have it. Below is an animated GIF showing how to kill a protoss base quick. Lots of EMP and troops did the job in 30 seconds. It's a little more than you need, but I hope it gets the point across...

Click on the picture to see the animated GIF.

After they lose an expansion, I like to keep my forces there and take the expansion as my own...But I'll talk about expanding later. After your initial drop, they'll be thrown in chaos...if you destroyed their nexus that is (which you should have by all means). Just constantly drop different bases until they drop their goon contain or stop pumping reinforcements to their goon containment. Then, you can just attack them head-up. Just remember, it's all about timing. You may be wondering why I'm emphasizing goon contain so much. Goon contain is the strategy that protoss players employ on me when I'm terran 90% of the terran, Korean or American. If they don't goon contain you, you can attack them head-up, which I'm sure anyone reading this can do.

Now, I can't emphasize the importance of goliaths. They are great support units. They can easily dance out of storms without taking too much damage, they are carrier-killers (and shuttle killers), they have decent attack power, and they are cheap. As long as you constantly pump goliaths from two factories and tanks from the other two, you should maintain a good ratio. Also, when you're up against mass zealot/dt, keep your tanks unsieged for chrissake. I've seen people essentially kill half their own force with their own sieged tanks. If you encounter a mix of zealot/dragoon/dt, siege your tanks, but manually attack their dragoons. Zealots are only there to make you damage yourself. Your support should take care of any melee units easily. You have to manually target dragoons. They are the real damage dealers and the ones you want to deal damage to.

Also, you can use a decoy to really throw them off. Instead of overlords, use dropships of course. You want to use at least four to make it seem threatening enough for them to move their troops from their entrance. Once you feel like they have moved their goon contain, scout with a vulture to check if it's true. If they haven't budged, it's most likely because they knew your dropships weren't loaded and that they hack. (This is what happened...this guy who will remain nameless didn't do a thing about the dropships, although he obviously saw them...I didn't say anything about it until I shared vision with him for 2 minutes and he hadn't noticed. Anyway, back to strategy.) If the coast is clear, send out an attack on a different base from the one you sent your dropships too. They most likely will be caught with their pants down. I liked to siege up all my tanks in front of the base where their goons went to rescue and then have a couple of tanks and goliaths kill another base. The point is that dragoon contain will be temporarily dropped. This is the time to act. Remember, timing is everything.

Also, you can go marines. If you sense they're going heavy goon contain from the moment you expand, throw up two engine bays and 6 barracks. Just don't let them see your marines until the second you're ramming them down his arse. Also, have vultures to take out the templar. Suicide your vultures if you have to, because with psi storm or two, those marines can become a lot uglier than they already are. Then, after that, tank push him immediately. You can most likely kill an expansion with 12 marines, a couple of medics, and 2 tanks. Never stop pumping troops and get science vessels asap. The key to going marines is surprise. Once you take down their goon contain, as long as you don't act retarded, the game's all yours. Expand all over as soon as their goon contain is down and do whatever you want. I like to constantly pump marines and build battlecruisers, just like the vanilla days. But that's just a suggestion. Just remember that the point of going marines is to take down their dragoon containment. Constantly build vultures to take down their templar, some tanks to take care of reavers, and your marines can take care of anything else. I don't suggest going marines otherwise.

I'm sure everyone here knows how to pull off a ridge drop. I like to hold off my ridge drops until I have goliaths to deter shuttles and act as support. My suggested payload for ridge drops is 4 goliaths (or more...the more goliaths the merrier) and 2 tanks. Just have a set of 4 goliaths patrol each side of the ridge and have them act as support if any shuttle actually manages to drop their payload. Also, have comsat handy just in case they drop dts. Science vessels aren't that important against protoss (when going heavy metal) as long as you have good micro. They're usually only good for detection and EMPing structures. EMP on units is inaccurate and has a relatively small effect radius for the actual effect the spell has.

Don't worry about them. Spend your gas on troops. If you haven't noticed thus far, all these terran attacks are conservative quick-strikes that are intended to have a lot more output than input. Executing these attacks with proper timing is 80% of it. Timing is something I cannot write a strategy about. Just attack the base with the least defense and the most valuable structures. Whichever one you find more significant. Remember one thing. If they're not goon containing you, don't drop them. You're wasting your time dropping them. Hit them head-up.

Expanding: The Big

I have noticed that terran players don't like to expand. Why is it? I don't know. With terran, you have to expand like a wildfire. The problem with expanding is that they can't have a dynamic mobile defense like the other races. They aren't going to be able to unsiege all their tanks, move it to their expansion under siege, and siege up all their tanks before half their expansion is gone. They have to have a solid defense there and ready. Here's the quick solution. Question, how do you beat 24 dragoons with 5 tanks and 12 goliaths? I've done it before...Two words: Supply depots. Build lots of supply depots. I'm not kidding here. Ever seen 24 dragoons try to squeeze through supply depots? Unless you have a different Starcraft than me, it ain't pretty. The AI screws their pathing up as they all try and jam into one hole...Until they can, you will rape any dragoons. Manually target templars as always, and your goliaths should easily take care of any melee units. Also, send your troops back at home to the rescue just in case Always leave tanks at your main to serve as defense against counterattacks. Sieged tanks with the position can kill many more times the units than they are. After they attack your expansion, it's usually a good time to begin a push because they have just lost all their troops. It's always good to hit them while they're weak.

Usually, you want to send goliaths to your expansion the second they scout it because they often enough attack it soon afterward (have 5 tanks at your expansion at all times, bring in the goliaths only when you think they're going to attack it). You often want to expand as you pull off a drop because that's when they usually drop dragoon contain. Expand to a different starting position. I usually prefer expanding to natural expansions rather than plateaus because that's a lot less space to defend than an entire plateau. If they didn't drop their dragoon contain, you can always drop in an scv and then float a command center down to your expansion as outlined in the tip earlier. They shouldn't be able to catch it with a scouting unit if you build it in a remote area of their plateau. You can fortify island expansions by building turrets, dropping in a few tanks and goliaths. It's not too hard. Remember, terran can't do wild counterattacks like the other races. They will not be sacrificing their expansion so they can tank push another base because they simply cannot do it fast enough. You need to fortify your expansions. Turtle if it means you have to. You need to do everything you can to get the terran resource machine rolling.

Late Game

Coming to think of it, there's no real mid-game for terran. It's all one big late game. In the late game, you should have already laid the smackdown on some expansions and given yourselves a boost. If they aren't dead by now, simply finish them off. You should have at least four bases or you don't have enough. Start pumping battlecruisers and keep up your tank/goliath production with any spare cash. If you find you can't build any tank/goliath, you're probably spending too much on battlecruisers. Have battlecruisers serve as heavy support for your force. The goliaths will deter any scouts they may have. After this, it's all up to your micro. Always spread apart your battlecruisers to minimize the effect of psionic storm and repair them with scvs between battles at all times. Battlecruisers are too big an investment to lose because they were in the red hp zone when they went into battle. Also, you can substitute battlecruisers with wraiths, or just go mass factories. I like battlecruisers simply because they're damn fun to use. However, I'm sure fully upgraded tank/gol ramming down their throat will perform equally as well.

Remember that your late game depends on how you performed in your mid-game. If they are still controlling the map by the time you hit late game, you're dead. It's that simple. Unless you can do something freakin' spectacular, you're dead. Well...dat be my guide to terran vs. protoss. I hope you enjoyed, and that maybe one of you readers can end my streak with terran. Good luck and have fun!

Winning with Mekanikal Terran:

• Goliaths are the essential support unit for the tank. Never stop building goliaths. Goliaths aren't only good against carriers after all.
• Always micro your attacks. Dance your goliaths out of storm and manually target templar with 2 tanks each.
• Always have a few vultures handy to assassinate templar in the heat of battle.
• When you are in battle, always manually target their dragoons. Don't let the AI hit their zealots and such. The zealots just absorb fire and deal damage to an extent. Also, hitting them will damage your own units. Shooting them will only be shooting yourself in the foot. The goons are the life of a protoss force along with templar. Your goliaths should easily take out any melee units they have.
• Always be prepared for attacks. Always have a fully functional defense at all your bases.
• Supply depots aren't only good for keeping up with supply. They can serve as expansion defense.
• Don't be afraid to expand.
• The focus of early drops is to take out the nexus as soon as possible.
• If you ever sense that you can break through their dragoon containment, it's probably because they're expecting drops, so just attack them up the gut. Use your discretion.