Nathanias' Battle Cruiser Harass (TvZ Timing Attack)

Description

Reaper fast expand into 1-1-1 infrastracture with a Polt Viking and double hellion production into early fusion core with Yamato research. The first BC pops around 5:30. Yamato will funish soon after that.

Can build a banshee instead of a viking to hold off early aggression

Hellions are used for map control and to force out zerglings and stagnate zerg economy

VOD

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Analysis

You may want to SCV scout before the reaper if you think your opponent will proxy hatch or 6 pool.

Make sure you wall off.

If your reaper sees a wriggling spawning pool and no 2nd hatch you have to abort this build entirely and get bunkers and a tank.

If your reaper sees 2 hatcheries and 2 or more saturated gases, expect roaches so build a tank instead of a starport. You might need to pull several SCV's to repair the tank as it fights.

Keeping up with your hellion count and putting on pressure is the most challenging part of this build. Nate usually sends out his hellions in waves (usually 4 to 6 in a wave). If you can clear creep, do it without blowing scans. Drones are the priority though.

Blue flame becomes useful when you float your 3rd as you can clear creep from the middle of the map.

The Polt Viking is also crucial for killing overlords and stopping your opponent from seeing your Fusion Core. If your opponent sees your fusion core, all is not lost; however, you will need to fly your 1st battle cruiser into the zerg main and save your teleport for retreating.

Time your 1st Cruiser's attack so that it shows up (via flight or teleport) and can immediately Yamato a queen. If you can Yamato a queen and kill at least 5 drones (or delay all mining on the main), the BC has done its job and you can pause your harass and resume when you get your second BC. If you lose your first BC without delaying mining at all, you pretty much lose the game because your opponent will continue to drone up and complete their (probably) hydra build and a-move you.

After you drop your 3rd, you will have an excess of minerals. I suggest saturating all 6 of your gas geysers before saturating your mineral lines if you want to play a defensive mech game. If you are going bio, build several barracks. If you want to go with an eclectic comp of marines and mech units, build one factory and start two e-bays after taking your 3rd. As you saturate all of your minerals lines, build one more factory, an additional starport, and several barracks (around 4 or 5); start build a few tanks, several window mines, start the 1-1 bio upgrades, and eventually build thors and ravens as you saturate your gasses. The goal is to max out by the 11 minute mark on 4 bases (take your 4th whenever you think you have enough tanks or bio).

You may need to spam missile turrets with that extra cash if your opponent commits to a muta counter-harass. Switch from hellions to window mines as necessary.

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Details

• Created by: Anonymous_Amon
• Published on: Dec 15, 2016
• Modified on: Dec 15, 2016
• Patch: 3.8.0

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