StarCraft® II

Im posting this in the General Section since I think all races should have a comment on how to stop this monstrosity.

I recently played with a Terran player who used nothing but marines! Mass zergling doesnt work since half of your lings are already dead when you reach/surround the bioball. Banelings will actually slow ZERG down since banelings uses gas (and we know getting capped on gas is really really bad.) Roaches may work, but still uses gas (which I prefer using for mutas or teching up). Terran actually delayed me for 8 mins just trying to survive wave after wave of marines.

I think he had 2 CC which kept spamming MULES.

I also would like to hear how Protoss can stop a pure marine ball since they can stim-kite your units to death. Making stalkers may help but that will delay your tech.

I would like to stress that the amount of mariners he was able to pump out during the 5-6 mins is amazing (well...amazing for a Silver dude like me).

Anyone who wants to bounce ideas on how to stop this is more than welcome.

12/06/2010 7:05 PMPosted by SiopaoAsado

Banelings will actually slow ZERG down since banelings uses gas

Not true.. just get that baneling speed and spread your creep..

Sac an overlord or send a zergling up his ramp to take a peek. If you see mass marines, throw down a roach warren ASAP.

I'm not sure on the timing of this because I'm not a Zerg player and I'm not the kind of Terran who goes pure marines against Zerg, but roaches are incredibly resilient against marines. Use transfusion on roaches if necessary. Hold off with roaches until you can get baneling speed, and then it's pure ling/baneling from there.

i use my first 100 gas on speed, then leave 2 guys in gas while I either drone up or get lings depending on the situation. Then as soon as I have 50 gas I build a baneling nest. I don't care if I get a couple less lings because of it, you need banelings, period.

it takes 6 and a half minutes to get banespeed at the earliest... thats the problem.

zerg - banelings &/or roaches, then keep producing zerglings as you are fending off the attack (if necesarry)

terran - bunker with scvs to repair

protoss - forcefield

Depends. Zerg - If you can hold your defense.. get banelings. if the ball is damn big, do not use bane to attack.. instead scare them off with it while you get infestors.. get +1 attack too..
use ling - baneling - infestor. Fungal growth when the marines are attacking the lings.
Muta is not viable i think. it takes to long to get and u need at least a handful of them to be useful for base harass. and flying into marine ball = sucide.

I do agree with you guys that Banelings are the best way to deal with marines. But using a one-time suicide unit which uses gas against a pure mineral unit like a marine is....you know...not cost effective. I think Banes should be used only when you are getting overwhelmed.

For now, Ill try roach/ling to repel this kind of attack...

I still think a ling surround with Banes is your best bet for the start of the game, then tech to infestors. the best way I deal with MM balls is lings, banes, infestors and hydras at the back.

yeh u need melee to block the marines & range units to attack from behind. thats the best way

baneling its not easy to spread and micro like foxer using pure marine.

and dont expect to baneling click a to win u need to micro a bit if not it will become like you said not cost effective.

try to mix with roacher if marauder front marine behind let roacher tank 1st then try to surround the marine behind with bane.


it should work if silver terran can micro like foxer then i have nothing to say.

When I do terran and spam marines against zerg, 2-3 spine crawlers plus banes mostly puts me off till I can tech up. You don't even have to use the banes, just place it near the spine crawlers where it can be sighted will be a good deterrent. At least for me.

Just to note. Only a handful of people will micro properly while attacking while avioding while sacrificing while macro-ing while dealing with your def. But a moving your banelings is not the best way to go too. 1 bane for 1 rine/ling/zealot is definetly not worth it. What you want is to charge your baneling head on with the main force. Deflate his bball.

I agree it is not cost effective but it will reduce the ball size by alot. We all know bunch up rines are impentratable, that is what the banes are for. If that person got rines rally to his ball its even better, you can pick them off with your lings while you get ready another small force of banelings for his balls.

12/06/2010 7:34 PMPosted by SiopaoAsado

I do agree with you guys that Banelings are the best way to deal with marines. But using a one-time suicide unit which uses gas against a pure mineral unit like a marine is....you know...not cost effective. I think Banes should be used only when you are getting overwhelmed.

For now, Ill try roach/ling to repel this kind of attack...

Banelings are cost effect if all his troops are dead and you're swarming over his base. Banelings cost like 50minerals 25 gas and if you kill 4 marines with it, it already pays for itself

If you want an alternative to banelings get infestors.

Someone in Silver league will NOT be able to micro their marines, monitor counter attacks on their base AND macro. Just throw up a Roach Warren. While you're using the Roaches to hold the Marines, sneak a pack of Zerglings past and tear up the incoming marines that haven't made it to the ball yet. Continue on to his mineral lines and destroy all his workers.

Someone in Silver league will NOT be able to micro their marines, monitor counter attacks on their base AND macro. Just throw up a Roach Warren. While you're using the Roaches to hold the Marines, sneak a pack of Zerglings past and tear up the incoming marines that haven't made it to the ball yet. Continue on to his mineral lines and destroy all his workers.

Its a bit extreme to say that noone in Silver can micro their marines =) who knows...with a population of 2 million SC2 players, some Silver player might just suprise you

I do feel that I made a mistake on making too many banelings to kill off his marines. I will probably shift to Roach/Muta in my next builds and see how it works.

And if you do come across someone who can micro their marines properly with stim, try and spread your creep so you have as much room to maneuver as possible. Run for the marines, then when they stim run away. And do this as many times as you can (hence why its good to have a decent distance of retreat on creep) to wear down their health while you're buying time for bane speed or whatever. This is what I've noticed the top zergs doing in GSL.

been playing in the NA ladder, and mass marines abound there. my personal preference is Roaches + good micro, early on.

when they reach critical mass tho, lingblings are the way to go. good ling surrounds prevent him from moving around too much, then micro the blings to hit big clumps.

i personally dont use infestor a lot. might be a better option.

roach muta will be harder to execute, because of gas. your gonna need at least 2 bases early.

EDIT: creep spread!!!

You could always set the Banelings to auto-unburrow scattered all the way around the approach to your base, or even the whole map. He can use scan, but if you spread them out enough he won't be able to move without wasting all his scans.

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