Emperor Pan I
Respected Member
TVT is my best match-up. There are a couple reasons why I win so much in these. First off, I'm playing against morons. Secondly, everyone builds marauders. Of the replays I'm posting, Incineration Zone is the one replay that I want to highlight. There are five units you build in a TVT. You get marines as your core unit. Back marines with tanks. If your first push fails, you get vikings. If the game lasts long enough, Banshees help break ground stalemates. Since dummy's like to cheese with banshees, Ravens round out the last of the unit mixture.
Units that don't work: Reapers - Pretty much like any match up, they aren't too good after an initial harass. I use them on Incineration zone. They are easy to counter, and cost too much gas to get more than 1 or 2.
Marauders - I hate this unit. They also suck in this match-up for a few reasons. Tanks provide great splash damage, especially at 3-3 with 75 each hit. They also do additional damage to armored units. Marauders are armored, so each hit is doing upwards of 80+ damage. "But Pan, you brilliant strategist", you say, "Marauders do extra damage to tanks too!". Yes, except tanks are going to be protected by marines. Keep a strong position, tanks in the back, marines in the front and marauders are going to be a waste of 100 minerals and 50 gas.
Hellions & Thor - To easy to take down with focus fire. Waste of minerals.
Battlecruisers - Vikings take these downs way to fast. If your opponent gets them, you've already let him macro too well.
Pro Tips:
Upgrade: This holds true in every match up, but upgrade your damn units. In TVT it makes the difference since you will both have identical units. The first Terran to upgrade will have their units survive skirmishes. Get Marine's riot shield, that 10 extra HP is important. Upgrade the range of Turrets, they do wonders against fools that go banshees. Unit mixture means you have three sets of upgrades. Marines armor is important, as is Tanks damage is vital. Both sets of air means vikings can survive air battles, and banshees do additional damage as an AtG.
SCV: Keep making SCVs as much as you can, the more you have the better off. Know when you have to many SCVs. Expansions are vital when the game goes into mid to late game. That gas adds up, since tanks literally eats huge chunks. I would argue getting a third expansion is priority to get up refiners before getting mining done. You can always mule, but you need SCVs for gas.
Rally point: Make sure you don't attack, and leave your rally points in your opponents base. Like I did in the one replay ><.
Medivacs - Usually left clicking one unit onto another is a "follow command". Left clicking a medivac on a unit loads that unit into the medivac. The move command(m) has the medivac follow that unit.
Orbital command - There are three abilities. You are going to use MULE for the first part of the game, to get your economy booming. If you have a gold expo, you want to try and get MULEs on that as well. However you never ever want to forget about scanning. In that way, it is good to use the first energy on MULEs, second on scans, and all subsequent ones should alternate where you are checking your opponent and boosting your eco. This is helped by expansions. Your natural always has an orbital, because of the ease of expansions. The more orbitals you have, the more scans/mules, the better your economy, and the more useless banshees become.
Call down supply is iffy. A regular supply depot takes up space, and costs 100 minerals and 30 seconds of an SCVs mining time. However a mule can harvest close to 250 minerals each call down. In a sense it is a question of mining faster, or saving 100 minerals. For the most part call down supply is useful to get out of a severe supply block, usually when transitioning into bigger units.
Orbital vs. Planetary Fortress - The PF is not as useful in TVT, especially in higher levels because tanks out range the It is kind of a waste if you can't even attack the artillery with it. In that way the orbital command can always keep you ahead with all it's abilities. That being said, it is very useful at delaying an attack on a vital expansion, and can buy you the needed time for your army to reinforce. It is a toss up about what you prefer. If you watch the games, I use a PF when a gold expansion has been taken out 3 times, and realize I need to harvest.
So here are 3 TVT replays. Just a couple notes.
First off since Blizzard just announced a database wipe, I've been waiting around to start laddering. So the games on Scrap Station and Desert Oasis were largely a "**** it" game. So for anyone looking on a "what to do", DON'T DO WHAT I DID. Against anyone with skill I'd have been screwed.
Scarp Station:
What I did was mass marines, to see if I could. I really wanted to stick with marines, and I did for the most part. At the end I switched it to BCs, because I thought it would be just as funny to throw in a few when he thought I was gonna lose, but that never happened.
What I should have done: To stay with mass marines, I should have built bunkers. Looking back, Marines are really good, they just die way to fast. They literally have second or third highest dps in the game. That is why armor and health are important upgrades, and throwing them in bunkers is vital. Otherwise, Tanks should have been added to make it viable, with a natural progression to vikings.
The direct counter to mass marines is Marines w/tanks. There is no way to hit a defended position with marines in front.
Don't ever: Build marauders. Naturally if I built marauders, it would make sense to counter my MMM with MMM. Except, marauders are terrible in mirror games.
Desert Oasis: That long ass game had so many problems on my part. First off, I played in windowed mode, as I was watching TV at the side. I tried to drop Thors/Tanks and marines. Terrible Idea, don't do it. Marauders do stupid damage to Thor's, and you lose 300 minerals and 200 gas in one shot. Floating expansions save my ass. Battlecruisers are insanely good, and after a specific number, almost impossible to beat. For the reason, my opponent threw in Vikings, and that is why you never really bother with BCs in TvT.
Incineration Zone: As close to what you should do in any game. My first TVT after getting beta. Reaper opening did good enough damage. I use marauders, because I didn't really know any better. It set me behind, and I should have had more tanks with the wasted resources. Banshees aren't used too well in this against me. The resources used to build them need to come from a third expo, otherwise I'm going to have too many vikings.
Units that don't work: Reapers - Pretty much like any match up, they aren't too good after an initial harass. I use them on Incineration zone. They are easy to counter, and cost too much gas to get more than 1 or 2.
Marauders - I hate this unit. They also suck in this match-up for a few reasons. Tanks provide great splash damage, especially at 3-3 with 75 each hit. They also do additional damage to armored units. Marauders are armored, so each hit is doing upwards of 80+ damage. "But Pan, you brilliant strategist", you say, "Marauders do extra damage to tanks too!". Yes, except tanks are going to be protected by marines. Keep a strong position, tanks in the back, marines in the front and marauders are going to be a waste of 100 minerals and 50 gas.
Hellions & Thor - To easy to take down with focus fire. Waste of minerals.
Battlecruisers - Vikings take these downs way to fast. If your opponent gets them, you've already let him macro too well.
Pro Tips:
Upgrade: This holds true in every match up, but upgrade your damn units. In TVT it makes the difference since you will both have identical units. The first Terran to upgrade will have their units survive skirmishes. Get Marine's riot shield, that 10 extra HP is important. Upgrade the range of Turrets, they do wonders against fools that go banshees. Unit mixture means you have three sets of upgrades. Marines armor is important, as is Tanks damage is vital. Both sets of air means vikings can survive air battles, and banshees do additional damage as an AtG.
SCV: Keep making SCVs as much as you can, the more you have the better off. Know when you have to many SCVs. Expansions are vital when the game goes into mid to late game. That gas adds up, since tanks literally eats huge chunks. I would argue getting a third expansion is priority to get up refiners before getting mining done. You can always mule, but you need SCVs for gas.
Rally point: Make sure you don't attack, and leave your rally points in your opponents base. Like I did in the one replay ><.
Medivacs - Usually left clicking one unit onto another is a "follow command". Left clicking a medivac on a unit loads that unit into the medivac. The move command(m) has the medivac follow that unit.
Orbital command - There are three abilities. You are going to use MULE for the first part of the game, to get your economy booming. If you have a gold expo, you want to try and get MULEs on that as well. However you never ever want to forget about scanning. In that way, it is good to use the first energy on MULEs, second on scans, and all subsequent ones should alternate where you are checking your opponent and boosting your eco. This is helped by expansions. Your natural always has an orbital, because of the ease of expansions. The more orbitals you have, the more scans/mules, the better your economy, and the more useless banshees become.
Call down supply is iffy. A regular supply depot takes up space, and costs 100 minerals and 30 seconds of an SCVs mining time. However a mule can harvest close to 250 minerals each call down. In a sense it is a question of mining faster, or saving 100 minerals. For the most part call down supply is useful to get out of a severe supply block, usually when transitioning into bigger units.
Orbital vs. Planetary Fortress - The PF is not as useful in TVT, especially in higher levels because tanks out range the It is kind of a waste if you can't even attack the artillery with it. In that way the orbital command can always keep you ahead with all it's abilities. That being said, it is very useful at delaying an attack on a vital expansion, and can buy you the needed time for your army to reinforce. It is a toss up about what you prefer. If you watch the games, I use a PF when a gold expansion has been taken out 3 times, and realize I need to harvest.
So here are 3 TVT replays. Just a couple notes.
First off since Blizzard just announced a database wipe, I've been waiting around to start laddering. So the games on Scrap Station and Desert Oasis were largely a "**** it" game. So for anyone looking on a "what to do", DON'T DO WHAT I DID. Against anyone with skill I'd have been screwed.
Scarp Station:
What I did was mass marines, to see if I could. I really wanted to stick with marines, and I did for the most part. At the end I switched it to BCs, because I thought it would be just as funny to throw in a few when he thought I was gonna lose, but that never happened.
What I should have done: To stay with mass marines, I should have built bunkers. Looking back, Marines are really good, they just die way to fast. They literally have second or third highest dps in the game. That is why armor and health are important upgrades, and throwing them in bunkers is vital. Otherwise, Tanks should have been added to make it viable, with a natural progression to vikings.
The direct counter to mass marines is Marines w/tanks. There is no way to hit a defended position with marines in front.
Don't ever: Build marauders. Naturally if I built marauders, it would make sense to counter my MMM with MMM. Except, marauders are terrible in mirror games.
Desert Oasis: That long ass game had so many problems on my part. First off, I played in windowed mode, as I was watching TV at the side. I tried to drop Thors/Tanks and marines. Terrible Idea, don't do it. Marauders do stupid damage to Thor's, and you lose 300 minerals and 200 gas in one shot. Floating expansions save my ass. Battlecruisers are insanely good, and after a specific number, almost impossible to beat. For the reason, my opponent threw in Vikings, and that is why you never really bother with BCs in TvT.
Incineration Zone: As close to what you should do in any game. My first TVT after getting beta. Reaper opening did good enough damage. I use marauders, because I didn't really know any better. It set me behind, and I should have had more tanks with the wasted resources. Banshees aren't used too well in this against me. The resources used to build them need to come from a third expo, otherwise I'm going to have too many vikings.