Life in the Middle 12/11/2011

Just a short update this week as I haven't had much time to play since Tuesday when I wrote about my experiences trying out the 1 Rax fast expand. Since then I have been trying to improve at it but have been struggling with both early pressure and long macro games; so far I have the timings and production down I just need to work on scouting more to know what I need to react to and learn to take a third sooner. With fast expands I often lose to early pressure as I simply can't get out enough units to defend myself quickly enough. The mid game is where I excel most if I can get past the early game though then I have to avoid the last game as I struggle with engaging late game armies even if we are at equal supply. This week I have dropped a rank so I am a 35 Gold.

My proudest point this week; a counter drop destroys the opponents main as I repel an attack.

If I go for a fast expand I find Protoss the hardest to defend against in the early game because they can get out so many units off of four gates and with the addition of force fields they can be very hard to stop from rolling over you. I lost twice today against early gateway armies, so I need to work on getting out units quicker, though both times it was on maps where the natural is hard to defend because it is so open. After that I was in no mood for early expands so I did a 3 Rax before expanding and did much better eventually winning the game with some doom drops into the main. I like fast expanding, I think it's really important to do, but at the moment I'm loosing too much, I think that I need to expand a bit later so that I can get some more units out first . If anyone would like to suggest a build for that it would be greatly appreciated.

Way outnumbered.

My favourite match-up is still TvT as I often find that other Terrans don't know how to abuse Siege Tank placement, drops and run-bys effectively so don't play as cost effectively as me; I'm not saying I don't lose but my TvT play is definitely my most solid by far. The one Terran strategy I consistently lose to is cloak banshees because I mostly make mech armies and forget to build Missile Turrets; this needs improving. Recently I have been using Siege Tanks in TvP and having quite a bit of success with them; I thought you weren't meant to use mech against Protoss? Or have I been doing it wrong this whole time?

Superior placement is everything in TvT.

The oddest game I played this week was against a Zerg opponent who went for a proxy Hatch inside my base; I didn't realise this was a legitimate strategy and was ever actually used. I killed the Hatchery no problem but with his last larva he built six Roaches that caused a lot of damage before being killed. We were still about even on workers after that but he had three bases to produce Drones off of, so his economy soared, whilst I struggled to get up a second and fight off constant attacks. In the end it was poor decision making by me to move out before I could catch up that led to my demise.

I didn't realise people actually did proxy Hatcheries.

Overall I don't enjoy playing Terran as much as I enjoy playing the other races. With Protoss I like the advanced technology aspect of their race; blink Stalkers, Colossus and High Templars. When I played Protoss my favourite unit was the High Templar as storms annihilate bio , feedback can kill units instantly and after using all their energy they are still useful as Archons. I found Zerg thrilling to play as your army is so weak so you have to choose your engagements carefully and really think about when to attack and when to sit back and Drone. As a Zerg my favourite unit by far was the Infestor as there is nothing more satisfying than fungal growthing a large clusters of units. I used to play a lot of 4v4s with friends and often the enemy would go for mass air and there is nothing better than using chain fungals on a group of twenty Void Rays.

 It's Skyrim's fault I didn't play more.

If you liked this post then please follow me on twitter; @RobinTerran. Also check out my other articles, including the aforementioned 1 Rax FE article and my review of Modern Warfare 3. Thank you for reading and please feel free to comment below. Tomorrow I will be writing about my first 24 hours with Skyrim so check back then if you are interested.