Moving onto the Mid Game
So you’ve got an idea on what your opponent is doing but now the question is what now? You’ve got this sweet economy going and you’re going to use it to macro your opponent into oblivion. Lets start with the bread and butter build of TvP, the 3rax into reactor starport:
- After getting both orbitals and your bunker up, throw down your depot around ~24 supply
- Start 3rd barracks with next 150 minerals while keeping non-stop marine and scv production.
- Take two gases
- Get another depot, should be around ~33 supply
- Get a tech lab ASAP and start either combat shields or stim
From here there’s a slight variation that has become quite popular for Terran players, and thats the bio timing right when stim or combat shield finishes. Usually though I would only consider it if I’ve scouted 4 gas from the Protoss player, or if you see he has late gateways. If going for a bio timing then continue on the build order otherwise skip this part:
- After starting techlab research, begin marauder production as well as non-stop marine production
- If going out with combat shield, push out when the 2nd marauder finishes otherwise push out with 3 if going for stim timing.
- While pushing out you want to start a factory and throw down add-ons for your barracks.
The difference between stim and combat shields is a slight timing window where you can either hit with stim+2 extra marauders, or hit sooner with a slightly beefier army thats nice for dealing with the planetary nexus.
If you choose not to go for the bio timing you can instead opt for a faster +1 and starport by following this order:
- After starting techlab research, keep up constant marine production
- Start a factory, engineering bay, and 3rd gas as minerals permit
- Another depot if you haven’t already
- Start your +1 when ebay finishes, then starport + reactor
- Get barracks addons after starport is started
- Put starport on a reactor and build 2 medivacs
During all this you want to try and send another scv scout out to peak by his 3rd and then try and sneak into his natural usually around 6-6:30 mark, or before you start stim/combat shields.
Concluding The Mid Game and Moving on
After your first two medivacs are out, you should scout to see whether or not the toss player already has colossi, in which case you should start viking production asap while throwing down a 2nd starport. If the opponent is still teching up, you can instead opt in for a 3rd CC before you get your 4th and 5th barracks unless you see that they have a sizable army or more warpgates being built. After getting your 3rd CC and additional production buildings started if you’re planning on going for a long game you definitely have to make sure you continue your upgrades by adding an armory and a 2nd engineering bay to work on getting +2 upgrades.
Final Thoughts
I think that CC first is an excellent build to know because, at the same time it manages to give an early economic edge, its also quite easy to transition with added possibilities for aggression or a late game strategy in mind.
On the other hand the riskiest part of going CC first I feel, is the early game when you’re most vulnerable to proxy’s and other cheeses that you haven’t scouted. I think a big factor in helping to reduce this risk is mostly by limiting this build to maps that are 2 or 3 player maps, since 4 player maps are to large and you run the chance of scouting the Protoss opponent last. Other then that though, trying to stay flexible and actually reacting to what you scout from the Protoss player is very important in making sure you don’t lose to a blind all-in.
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