Essential Terran SC2 Playing Tips

Aug 16, 2010

I honestly believe Terran is the most powerful race in Starcraft 2 because of the diversity of the units, and the different strengths & weaknesses they bring to the table. Now playing Terran to the best of your ability is very, very, difficult. It involves a mixture of intense micro and macro. Although if you check out some of the simple tips listed below you could improve your game sense 10 fold.

General Tips

Don’t forget that you can lift off buildings. Remember that you can safely fast expand to a island or build your Command Center in your own base and land it at your expansion whenever you see fit.

Turtle meat tastes good. As much as I hate saying this, but turtling can be a very effective way of building up your army and crushing whoever you may be playing against. Just watch to make sure they dont mass expand or atleast keep some pressure on them with drop ships. If you plan on turtling check out “how to beat a turtled terran” and watch out for the counters.

Don’t throw away Reapers. Even if your reaper harass failed , keep um as scouts and use the Xel’Naga Watchtower Trick.

Terran v Protoss Tips

Marauder’s completely own Zealots… I strongly recommend you learn how to kite Zealots. I play alot of Protoss myself and the one thing that pisses me off more then anything is well micro’d marauders. You simply cant kill them with zealots.

Always keep DT’s in mind. I cant tell you how many games i’ve won from a single dt destroying a one based terran who forgot to add missle turrets or ran out of scanning energy. So remember to atleast build a few turrets near your mineral line to help defend against DTs, Drops, and many other types of harass.

Learn to spot a rush. When you scout and only see a nexus and a forge then most likely your about to get cannon rushed. If you see the gateway getting chrono boosted then your probably in for a early zealot rush.

Terran v Zerg Tips

Run Ling Run. If you see a ton of Zergling’s being produced don’t be afraid to produce hellions if you are going a biotic build order. If you see lings during mid game then most likely they are going ling muta so make sure you have enough anti air.

Don’t let Zerg Expand. Turtling can be great but if you decided to turtle against a zerg player then you have to make sure that you constantly harass making it difficult to mass expand. Otherwise they can easily overrun you in the near future.

Stop the Creep. One trademark of a good zerg player is one who spreads the purple gunk across the map. I keep a handy raven with my army to kill the creep tumors to stop the spreading.

Terran v Terran Tips

Mindsets. Before you even start playing look to see who is favored. If your opponent is then he will more likely feel confident and play more aggressively.

Scan bunches and bunches. Scouting in general is extremely important in starcraft, and even more so in a TvT matchup. Hiding important buildings is much more difficult for terran players so scan will reveal exactly what your opponent is doing. Make sure to counter their strategy aswell.

Here are some great terran counter matchups…

1. Marine vs. Marauder/Thor
2. Marauder vs. Hellion/Thor
3. Reaper vs. Marine
4. Ghost vs. Marine
5. Hellion vs. Marine
6. Siege Tank vs. Marine/Hellion/Thor
7. Thor vs. Viking/Banshee