10-Rax Marauder Opening

Hey there! I'm a Diamond league Terran player named Crimson, formerly played as JohnHognic in beta phase. I introduced couple of new strategies for TvZ during the beta, and I think I made a pretty sweet opening for Terran that works on both TvT and TvP. Enjoy!

A Guide to 10-rax Marauder Opening

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Just another day at work for this god of destruction

Table of Contents
1. Problem of standard 12-rax Marauder
2. Build Order
3. Adaptations
- vs. Terran
- vs. Protoss
4. Counters
- For Terran
- For Protoss
5. Replays

1. Problem of standard 12-rax Marauder

When the first phase of beta started back in February, everybody learned to love and hate Marauders immediately. Marauders were sturdy, packed quite a punch (especially structures), and most importantly, had an ability to slow non-Massive type units. Pretty soon people started to rush Marauders with 10 supply/12 rax/13 techlab build order, and this became standard for Terran players for quiet some time.

However, people prefer Marines over Marauders nowadays as a standard build order, as they have found some flaws with 12-rax Marauder build. What are the flaws? 2 things pop up in my mind right now;

1. It was too predictable: by the time you have made your barracks, the opponent's scout will almost certainly at your base, which gives the opponent a plenty information (eg. techlab) that you are going for Marauder.
2. It was too late to do significant damage: the reason 9/10 rax Reaper build is so scary is because the opponent will not have enough time for a perfect defense, leaving you an opportunity to do moderate damage to make up for the lesser economy of yours. Marauders, however, gave you enough time for the opponent to get units to counter your first Marauder, even without a proper scouting. His Stalker/Marine/Marauder will be ready at the choke for your Marauder.

Then what kind of opening is needed to make Marauder more useful than the standard build? Simple, just make them faster, at 10-rax timing like 10-rax Reaper build that everybody loved to use!

2. Build Order

*Note that purpose of this opening is to strongly pressure your opponent to even out the economies which you were initially behind against standard 12-rax or 12-gateway build. Because you are the initiator, the flow of the game goes into your hand.

10 Barracks - Scout with this scv upon completion
10 Refinery
10 Supply Depot
*Upon completion of Refinery, put total of 3 scvs mining the gas
12 Techlab on Barracks
*Upon start of construction for Techlab, take away 2 scvs in the gas (1 scv mining the gas)
13 Marauder - Continue pumping Marauders
* Stop scv construction at 13 and begin pumping Marauders until 19/19
17 Orbital Command
17 Supply Depot
*Upon completion of Orbital Command, calldown MULE and put 2 scvs back in the gas (3 scvs mining the gas)

The 10-rax Marauder opening is very similar to 10-rax Reaper build, but with a little tweak - you take away scvs mining the gas to boost your mineral income, which gives you exactly 100 mineral and 25 gas for your first Marauder, and continue to give you at least 100 mineral and 25 gas for the continuous production of Marauder until the Orbital Command is completed!

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Pull out 2 scvs from your Refinery around this timing

Notice how short the build order is - this is because it is only the opening build order and after 19 supply or so, you have number of different route you can take with. You may expand, build more Barracks, or build Factory and Refinery for higher tech-line. The strength of this build is the flexibility for easy transition to any other build, while your Marauders can pressure the opponent extremely well.

*Please note that you can proxy this build order as well to give even bigger window of opportunity, but use it at your own risk as this becomes more like all-in than an opening!

3. Adaptations

As the title says, this build works surprising well for both Terran and Protoss match-ups.

vs. Terran

If Terran is going for a standard 12-rax build, he will most likely have 1 or 2 Marines at the entrance, possibly 3rd one coming, while building a Factory for a Tank. A single Marauder can take out 2 Marines quiet easily, and with continuous flow of Marauders, your Marauders can overwhelm his Marines pretty soon. Now you have a window of opportunity to deal some serious damage to his economy. Either kill off as many scvs as possible, or destroy some of key buildings like Supply Depots or Techlabs to delay his production line.

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Deal as many damage with your Marauders until solid defense is made

If Terran is going for a 10-rax Reaper build, his Reaper will arrive when your Marauder is already completed! Since your scouting scv will likely find an empty base when your Marauder pops out, you can simply wait for few seconds for his Reaper, punish him for being so late, and rush to his base while stationing 1 Marauder at your base to possibly end the game!

But wait, Terran can build bunkers upon scouting your techlab, can't it? Why of course, but here is the dilemma Terran faces; he needs to figure out whether you are going Reaper or Marauder;
- If the opponent thinks you are going Reaper, the bunker will be built near the mineral line, giving you an opportunity for your Marauder to run to his ramp and start the bunkering of yourself!

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Building a bunker at mineral line to defend against what seems to be an imminent Reaper rush backfires Terran

- If the opponent think you are going Marauder, the bunker will be built near the entrance, which gives you an opportunity to build 1 Reaper and attack his mineral line for diversion! If he pulls out Marines to kill your Reaper, rush with your Marauders (which will be around 3 or 4 by then) to quickly kill off empty bunkers!

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Terran may turtle up with solid static defenses

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Use 1 Reaper to pull out Marines out of bunkers...

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And take this opportunity to break his frontal defense!

After heavily pressured by Marauders, Terran will usually tried to use his technological advantage to build Banshees, as Marauders cannot attack air. In fact, if you can save more Marauders from the initial attack and return them to your base, he is force to go for Banshees because any other ground units will be destroyed by your superior number of Marauders. If you think he is surely going for Banshees, simply tech up to Starport while building Turrets around your base, and greet him with Vikings and Turrets. =)

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Opposing Terran's last effort to win is denied by preemptive Viking and Turrets

vs. Protoss

Against Protoss it is a bit more tricky, but same method can be used as shown from TvT.

If Protoss is going for standard 12-gateway build, he has a choice of getting Zealot before Stalker, or rush to Stalker to save 100 minerals. Again, upon seeing your Techlab on Barracks, Protoss will choose either Zealot or Stalker.

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Believing the imminent Reaper rush, Protoss skips Zealot and gets Stalker first

If he gets Stalker first, your Marauder will have overwhelming advantage. If you can spare minerals, try bunkering with your scouting scv and you might deal some deadly damage on his production lines.

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A heavy damage has dealt on Protoss's production line

If he gets Zealot first, it is wiser to strike with at least 2 Marauders to take advantage of your superior range. Try to put scvs back on the gas to get Concussive Shells upgrade as soon as possible to exploit the range difference even further. This will be almost even match, so the outcome depends on your micro against his. Just like against Terran with bunkers on the entrance, getting a single reaper to make a diversion is also a viable strategy.

If Protoss is going for fast proxy-gateway build, you just need to switch to reaper and deal with the incoming Zealots. Since this is 10-rax rather than 12 rax, you can get Marauder or Reaper before his Zealots can arrive, which gives you much easier time to handle the rush.

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A Terran player is happily greeting this Voidray

Just like Terran, if you did significant damage on the Protoss and has ample number of Marauders and/or Marines left, he is forced to get Voidrays to hard counter your Marauders. Build Turrets and Marines (or Vikings) preemptively to punish his tech-choice if you think he has no choice but to go for Stargate build.

4. Counters

Of course, this is one of the many openings Terran can use, and some counters are always presented for any openings. Since this opening is aimed to punish standard 12-rax and 12-gateway opening, any non-standard openings like below gives an opponent advantage.

Terran
10-rax Marines: with this build, initial Marines can overwhelm your first Marauder candidly. Unless the opponent sends the scout extremely early, chance of having this build against yours is completely random.
12-rax Marauder: this isn't as strong counter as 10-rax Marine, but Marauder vs. Marauder gives you completely equal footing, rendering this opening useless. You will still have few seconds of opportunity before his first Marauder comes out, so use it to pick off his scvs. If you can get 2 scvs, both players' scv count will be equal, giving you an equal footing in terms of economy. Because your 2nd Marauder comes much earlier than his, you can still continue to pressure the opponent, but not as strong as standard build.

Protoss
10-gate Zealots: similar to 10-rax Marines, the opponent will have at least 2 Zealots when your Marauder arrives, assuming you did not go for a proxy. Again, having this build will be completely random unless your opponent sends very early scout.

In conclusion, because standard builds are so much popular (albeit named "standard") than others, you will likely have more chance to be matched against standard build than the build orders mentioned above.

5. Replays

Here are some of demonstrations I did against Diamond level players.
Patch 1.01

Source:

http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=140827

10-Rax Marauder Opening

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