The Terrans, the powerful human race in Starcraft 2 are the most flexibile in the game, with limitless numbers of unit compositions and build orders available to them.
The main starcraft 2 terran strategy choice revolves around whether you’re going to produce biological or mechanical units.
Biological units (Marine and Marauder) are produces from the Barracks whereas Mechanical units (Hellions, Tanks) are produced from the Factory. Both units require a different playstyle.
This Terran starcraft 2 guide will teach you about the 3 Rax Stim expand – a powerful build order that relies on building Marines, Marauders while upgrading the Stim Pack and Concussive Shells upgrades to make these units more powerful, especially in the early game. Additionally, this build allows you to expand to your natural expansion while attacking with a deadly army.
Most of the time, this attack (or ‘timing attacks’ as they’re more commonly known) will destroy your opponent leading to a win, but even if it doesn’t, you will inflict a ton of damage and inevitably find yourself ahead of your opponent.
This opener works against Zerg, Protoss and Terran opponents and is still used even by the Professional players on the tournament scene.
The build order is as follows (numbers in brackets indicate what food/supply you should be at – you can see your build/supply in the top right corner) -
(10) – Build Supply Depot (12) – Build Barracks (13) – Build Gas Refinery (15) – Upgrade Command Center to Orbital Command (15) – Build a Marine with your Barracks; As soon as it finishes, build a Tech Lab; Research ‘Stim Pack’ upgrade with Tech Lab as soon as possible (16) – Build Supply Depot (19) – Build additional Barracks; build a Tech lab; Research ‘Concussive Shells’ upgrade with Tech Lab as soon as possible (22) – Build additional Barracks
With your first two Barracks, you will want to produce Marauders continually while you produce endless amounts of Marines from your third Barracks.
When you reach 50 food, your upgrades will have finished – now is the time to attack. Select all your units and send them to the enemy base. While doing this, start building a Command Center by your natural expansion.
If your attack succeeds, celebrate! And then hit the ‘find match’ button again and destroy your next opponent with the 3 rax.
If your attack fails, you will be in an advantageous position and will have the upper hand over your opponent, still.
Against Zerg opponents, after expanding, build another Refinery in your main base and then drop a Factory and a Starport. Add a Tech Lab to your Factory and research the Siege Tech for the Tank while adding a Reactor to your Starport. Start producing Tanks from the Factory and Medivacs from the Starport. This will leave you with a unit composition of ‘Marine, Medivac, Tank, Marauder’ – this is a very strong unit composition that is capable of destroying anything the Zerg opponent can throw at you.
Against Protoss players, add an additional two Barracks, both with Reactors, and add a Factory and Starport. Use the Barracks to produce Marines and use the Staport to produce Medivacs. This will give you a ‘Marine, Marauder, Medivac, based composition. It is capable of winning against all Protoss unit compositions.
Against Terran players, swap the Tech Labs on your first two Barracks with Reactors and add a Factory and a Starport. This will give you a ‘Marine, Tank, Medivac’ composition. These units are strong against any and all units your Terran opponent may send your way.
This is just one of the many Starcraft 2 Terran strategy options available in the Shokz Starcraft 2 Guide. If you want to learn about the powerful ‘1/1/1′ or 2 rax openings, make sure to check out the shokz guide. It now features a comprehensive starcraft 2 campaign walkthrough so you’ll be able to collect all the achievements and portraits available in the game!