Gasless 2 Barracks expand into 3 Barracks timing (TvP Timing Attack)

Description

Off-meta build that exploits weaknesses in the standard Protoss opening book and catches them off guard.

• wall our ramp at 18 supply so Protoss doesn't know what we are doing
• open with no gas and two Barracks, pure Marine production, to safely out-DPS proxy locations
• transition into a 3 Barracks setup to get Stim and Combat Shields for a potential timing
• follow-up with Factory and Starport, third Command Center, fourth and fifth Barracks
• set up for our next potential timing with our first two Medivacs
• transition into a 3 base macro setup to do whatever you want after that!

Replay - Jordan's gasless TvP expand into 3 rax timing

Build Order

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Analysis

Some benchmarks and mental triggers to help you learn the build:

natural CC @ 2:00

first and second Refinery by 2:22

Engineering Bay by 3:00

Factory by 4:35

When Factory starts: third Refinery

When Factory finishes: Starport & Factory Reactor

The gas that we mine must be spent in a very specific order to set up this timing. Every drop of gas is very important with this build, so make sure to make each of these as soon as you have the gas for it.

first 100 gas: addons for your 3 Barracks (2 Tech Labs, 1 Reactor)

next 100 gas: +1 Attack

next 100 gas: Stim

next 100 gas: Combat Shields

next 50 gas: EXACTLY 2 Marauders (Until this point in the build, make Marines from your Tech Lab'd Barracks.)

next 100 gas: Factory

Another important detail is that we must cut SCVs at 46 while we set up our infrastructure. (That's 2 base saturation, plus two SCVs to make Supply Depots.) This allows us to build our fourth Refinery, third Command Center, and fourth and fifth Barracks relatively early while maintaining constant unit production. After we reach this setup, resume SCV production.

Decision making and unit usage:

SCV scout and opening Marine usage

The SCV that makes the Supply Depot walloff should go scout after partially constructing the Supply Depot. (Aim for ~100 health on the Depot.) If Protoss is gearing up for a standard game, this SCV should see a Nexus, two Pylons, a Gateway, and a Cybernetics Core before being sent back home. If not, we're getting attacked.

If you see no Nexus: check the main base. If there's less than 2 Pylons, you're being proxied; fan out Marines across your side of the map (the highest priority to check for is proxy Stargate locations, like near your main base cliff, so scout those zones first.) Once you find the proxy: if it's close to your base, just attack it with all your Marines and kill it. They can't possibly have enough units to beat your mass Marine. If it's far from your base, bring your Marines home, keep up your macro, and defend with Marines and Bunkers (and Missile Turrets if it's proxy Stargate.) It's often good to try to get Stim ASAP to go for a counter-all-in.

Otherwise, if we're not getting attacked, we want to use our extra Marines to do some damage. Send the first 5 Marines out onto the map on a side path -- both Adepts and Stalkers can escape Marines, so we ideally want to dodge any Protoss unit if it is being sent to our base. Sneak into the mineral line and kill as many Probes as you can; we don't really need these Marines, so it's fine if they die.

Defending while we power up towards our first power spike

We'll use our next few rounds of Marines to defend:

If you haven't seen the tech structure, keep 5 Marines in each mineral line to defend against a potential Oracle. If you saw anything that made you suspect Dark Templar (e.g. a very fast Robotics Facility, or only one unit) with your Marine runby, make a Missile Turret at the front of your base and save a scan until 5:00.

Choosing which power spike to attack with

Next, we want to identify whether we should attack with our first power spike, or wait for our second power spike to move out. Send out some spotter Marines to check possible third Nexus locations by 4:15 or so. If they arrive and see a third Nexus started, we are economically behind, so we take the role of the aggressor; attack with Combat Shields, Stim, and +1, and do as much damage as we can. If there is not, we take the role of the defender: scan the Protoss natural or main to see the tech choices and units they have. Calmly wait, build up our huge army, and use our next power spike with the first two Medivacs to take map control, start denying Protoss vision, and get aggressive.

Transition into midgame

After this point, do whatever you want; the most typical thing to do would be to tech into either Ghosts or Vikings, depending on your opponent's tech choice, while getting a fourth Command Center and an Armory for +2/+2. One thing I like to do personally is to skip the Armory, skip +2/+2, and skip the fourth Command Center, in favor of getting _both_ Ghosts and Vikings for a huge 3-base all-in.

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Details

• Created by: alephnaut
• Published on: Mar 21, 2021
• Modified on: Mar 21, 2021
• Patch: 4.11.0
• Difficulty: Medium

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