{"post":{"id":"9944","title":"ST.Bomber vs. SK.MC: A Solid TvP","content":"##Taken from the Red bull Battleground LAN Grand Finals\r\n\r\n**[Replay found here](http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/001243035003218)**\r\n\r\n##Remember ST Bomber? (Harris)\r\n\r\nBomber's performance at the Red bull LAN turned quite a few eyes in his direction. For quite some time, the once dominant Terran player has gone under the radar, not really achieving much in terms of tournament wins or GSL results. \r\n\r\nHowever, I think it is safe to say that the macro beast has not lost his magical touch on the ‘a' and ‘d' keys. His ability to overwhelm with massive numbers of Marines and accompanying units is scary to say the least. \r\n\r\n![image](https://s3.amazonaws.com/scvrush/uploads/image/image/normal_Bomber.jpg)\r\n\r\nHere we have Bomber at his prime, against the Boss Toss, President Toss, Suicide Toss himself: MC. In this first game of the series, everything opens normally with both players going for their respective FE builds (1 Rax cc vs. 1 Gate Nexus). \r\n\r\nBomber does a standard 3 Rax follow up, adding 1st and 2nd Gases when he can afford to. This allows Bomber to get a balance of both tech and a good standing army, usually getting the Medivacs around 10mins. \r\n\r\nThis timing lines up just before a lot of Protoss tech is done, whether it be 1-1 upgrades, Colossi range, or Templar/Charge. The only tech that you'll probably face is Blink or naked Charge when going up against the standard 1 Gate. ,\r\n\r\nIt's a standard timing that many Terran bank on doing some form of damage to the Protoss in order to stay even or get ahead. With Bomber's control, multi-pronged harass and perfect stutter step has proven to be lethal and horrendous to deal with.\r\n\r\n### Execution\r\n\r\nThere a couple things with Bomber's build that should be pointed out. \r\n\r\n* Bomber delays his 2nd Gas, getting his first at 4:40, and lines up his second at 5:50 with a Tech lab.  This allows Bomber to keep maximum mineral saturation as well as time out Stim just a little bit after the Tech lab is done rather than right on the dot. The extra mineral income allows Bomber to constantly build Marines/SCVs as well as an extra Bunker in the event of some sort of crisis. \r\n\r\n* Stim starts at 6:30, finishing at 9:20. Though Bomber doesn't start Combat Shield with a 2nd Tech lab, you can hit a nice timing with pure Marines, Stim, Shield, +1 and Medivacs at around 10:30. Bomber opts to get some Marauders instead.\r\n\r\n* Bomber begins his factory and Engineering Bay at the *same time* around 7:10. +1 will finish at around 10:30, the time when he pushes out. To continue upgrades, you can also plant your Armory at 8:50-9:00 and 2nd Engineering Bay around 9:10-20 to work on 2-1.\r\n\r\n![image](https://s3.amazonaws.com/scvrush/uploads/image/image/normal_Screenshot2012-05-28_19_25_27.jpg)\r\n\r\n* 3rd Gas at 7:50 to support Medivac production\r\n\r\n* Starport goes down at 8:10\r\n\r\n* Bomber delays his 2nd and 3rd Rax add-ons until 8:40, focusing more on straight up Marine production to get a nice standing army in the event of an all-in. However, it means Bomber has to delay Combat Shield until Stim is done. He gets a Reactor and additional Tech lab on the Rax for Marauder production. \r\n\r\n* Essentially, Bomber is catching up on Marauder production as he has been producing only Marines for his army. Also, note that with the delayed add-ons, Bomber will lag behind in the unit count later in the game, but will have a higher count early on. This also means that he'll have enough funds for... an earlier CC and the 5th Rax\r\n\r\n* Bomber begins building a Command Centreat at **9:30**, followed by 2 additional Rax at 9:50. I love this. Not only is Bomber going to expand behind pressure, but this is also a great economical timing as it will always nearly be ahead of the Protoss third. \r\n\r\n* All of this is possible not only to the building Rax add-ons that Bomber cannot macro out from anyway, but also due to his emphasis on minerals at the beginning. Having maximum mineral saturation allows for more economical and production capability, while Gas can only improve your tech or army composition. \r\n\r\n* Bomber moves out at **10:20** with a couple of Medivacs, 24 Marines and 5 Marauders.\r\n\r\n![image](https://s3.amazonaws.com/scvrush/uploads/image/image/normal_Screenshot2012-05-28_19_25_56.jpg)\r\n \r\nThis is an incredibly solid way to open up TvP, especially if you are having difficulty doing damage in the mid-game. The quick +1 adds some much needed benefit to overcoming vanilla Gateway units, or negating a fast Armor upgrade that is usually associated with a Blink or Charge defense. \r\n\r\nMore than anything else, I love the timing on the 4th/5th Rax as well as the economical Command Centre timing. If you are able to do damage, you are easily ahead of the Protoss and can dictate the flow of the game from there. But even if you don't, the addition of the Command Centre will make sure you don't fall too far behind in economy. \r\n\r\n##Transitioning\r\n\r\nUpon seeing no third from the Protoss, Bomber simply backs away. This is a very safe choice from Bomber with which I'm quite surprised. I would've expected him to at least poke at the front to do some damage, but he doesn't even do that. \r\n\r\nHe respects MC's ability to punish an over-aggressive move and is content with his economic advantage in the form of an earlier third. Bomber now has more workers than MC, which if you don't already know, is really really bad for the Protoss with the MULE mechanic. \r\n\r\n![image](https://s3.amazonaws.com/scvrush/uploads/image/image/normal_Screenshot2012-05-28_19_26_51.jpg)\r\n\r\nBomber stims a Marine to the front and spots the Templar archives, a grave mistake from MC who didn't deny the scout. Now Bomber only has to worry about getting Ghosts and he'll have a firm grip on taking the game. \r\n\r\nIn fact, Bomber starts a Ghost Academy just as he moves out. Though this may be considered a \"blind\" move or counter, it really isn't the biggest deal even if it's not used at all. 100 mins and 50 Gas is hardly anything to reduce the delay between no Ghost and Ghost production. \r\n\r\nJust having the Ghost Academy idle allows Bomber to start the energy and Ghost production half a minute earlier for minimal investment. However, it should be noted that Bomber would be in a bit of trouble in the event of a Colossi all-in. \r\n\r\nHis 2nd Starport would be incredibly delayed, and his lack of a Marauders will come back to bite him. That being said, getting the 4th and 5th Rax means he has some chance of producing enough to hold off the doom push, granted he gets a good arc of fire.  \r\n\r\n##Base Trade Galore\r\n\r\n![image](https://s3.amazonaws.com/scvrush/uploads/image/image/normal_Screenshot2012-05-28_19_25_03.jpg)\r\n\r\nMC catches Bomber off guard with a Warp Prismdrop and attack at the natural, forcing Bomber to decide between falling back and behind in economy, or going for a base trade. *IMMEDIATELY*, Bomber pulls SCVs to build proxy Rax. \r\n\r\nThis guy knows how to win a base trade. He knows that it'll take a while to set up add-ons and production, so the sooner the better. This way, he can disable MC's bases while taking advantage of the lift mechanic to float his OCs away from harm. As a result, Bomber was able to take the game easily with a couple of clutch EMPs and overwhelming forces.\r\n\r\n![image](https://s3.amazonaws.com/scvrush/uploads/image/image/normal_Bomber2.jpg)\r\n\r\n5 more Roaches? What a handsome devil.\r\n","image":"/assets/post_default_image.png","tag_list":["terran","protoss","tvp","pvt","Bomber","MC"]}}