Blue fire = BAD.
First of all, Rush is a great Canadian band. Weird as hell, but great all the same. One of the few bands out there to have a drummer as their lyricist, this shows through in a number of their songs in which listeners may wonder just WTF they’re talking about.
You may also be wondering just WTF we’re talking about.
Well, if you’ve been here before or read any of our articles in which we attempt to draw the reader in with both clever titles and those that seem simply incomprehensible, you may have deduced that we are, once again, going to be talking about the early-game Starcraft rush. If you came here looking for Rush songs, you will be sorely disappointed.
In fact, if you found some, you’d likely still be disappointed. Way to never be satisfied.
Now that that’s over with, let’s talk Starcraft.
More specifically, let’s talk about three early rush options for the good ol’ Terrans, who are tired of getting their tidy campground overrun by loud and obnoxious Protoss, clearly off on a long weekend of some kind, and who have had enough with all of the bugs this year – some of them which seem big enough to destroy the trailer..er…Ortbital Command Center itself.
So throw another Brat on the BBQ and grab a cold one, because it’s time to learn about the all-important Terran rush.
Although the rush can happen at anytime in a SCII match-up, it is most important at the beginning for one simple reason – economy. With only 10-12 SCVs, Probes, or Harvesters operating, a swift and precise attack can cripple an opponent’s income supply and make them vulnerable to even they weakest of attacking forces. You know, the guys who barely scraped through basic training and are pretty sure that the “part with the open end” of their rifles goes toward the bad guys.
The first rush strategy should be obvious, but actually took some time to catch on in th community – Marines. They not only offer one of the best cost/damage ratios, but can shoot both air and ground targets and have a decent range. To do an economy-crushing rush with these little fellas, the Barracks needs to get built even before the supply depot. You can’t wait until you have 10 or 15 – you need to go when you have 5 or even 4 Marines up and armed. Your goal is not to kill the enemy base, although that’s a nice bonus, but his or her workers. No workers = no minerals = no pew-pew.
The second rush is to do a quick Factory build. First, build a Barracks, then a Reactor. Next, crank out a Factory and fly your Barracks away from the Reactor. Land that Factory at the Reactor and start pumping out Hellions. With a bonus against light units, a quick Hellion rush can leave an enemy’s base in smoking ruins and you doing donuts on their front lawn and whacking down their mailbox with a bat. You jerk.
The last rush is one of the most dangerous, but can yield excellent results. It involves the use of the Terran Reaper unit, which, when micro’d correctly, can be a force of truly destructive power. This used to be the rush of choice, but most players can now see it coming a mile away, and building a Barracks, Tech Lab, and several Reapers takes time.
So, instead, build one Repear. Yup. Just one. Reaper 001. The Reapster. The Reapmeister. Makin’ the copies. Or not, actually.
As soon as you have a Reaper, go hunting. His incredibly quick move speed and rate of fire means that he can destroy almost the entirety of an opponent’s infrastructure inside of a minute, and take virtually no damage. This is not only hilarious for the Terran player who does it, but so aggravating that for your opponent, they will want to rip their monitor free of their computer and bash it against their face.
The Reaper – promoting harmony and good feelings since March 2010.
When the dust settles and your epic Rush mix-tape grinds to a halt, there’s no guarantee you’re going to come out on top. A clever player Terran that walls in thier base and builds two Marines may beat your one Reaper rush, and a Protoss Photon Cannon in the wrong spot might just send you packing, but these strategies do have the potential to work, and work very well, if you concentrate on getting the units as quickly as possible and not waiting for the “perfect” moment.
You wouldn’t want to disappoint Neal Peart, now would you?
Damn right.
