The Terran race is probably the most powerful race if you know how to use them. They are the easiest race to learn, but by far the hardest to master. I will try and go through this race by what I know. Terran buildings are great–they can be repaired, lift off, they can be built anywhere without anything. Just a lone building anywhere on the map. The Terran’s have the ability to repair their units also. You can repair all the mechanical units… (Tanks, Goliaths, Wraiths, Battlecruisers, etc.) You can’t repair Marines, Firebats, or Ghosts. By using the advantage of being able to lift off your units, You can expand in no time. You could also lift off your barracks and land in someone’s back yard.

Terran units also have the most technical power. The Ghost can lockdown, nuke, and cloak. The tank has the best ground distance shooting. And the marines are cheap and if used right, can be leathel. Terrans have the most defensive and offensive choices as well. Terrans are the most mobile race in the game. All these things put together make a master race. If you can master terran, you will be an expert at Starcraft.

Terran: Buildings

Terran buildings are the complete opposite of zerg. They have the ability to be built anywhere, and in addition to that they can also lift off and fly. The terran ability to build anywhere makes them the best race to build bunkers and turrets all over the map, because it doesn’t require anything extra (pylon for protoss, hatchery for zerg). If you play terran, try to use this to your advantage. If you play against terran, watch out for early bunkers right outside your base. Terran buildings, in my opinion, are the best. With the ability to be repaired, you can keep a bunker longer in a battle. Always have 2-3 scvs near your bunkers to repair them in the case of an attack. You must be careful, because once a Terran buildings gets damaged, it begins to burn. If your building’s life points are red, then it will slowly burn down until it destroys itself, so you need to make sure you repair damaged buildings so they don’t burn down.

Terran Units

SCV The Terran worker, they can repair, build, gather resources, and scout. SCVS are unique because they are the strongest of the workers, with 60 hit points (to the probe & drones 40), which makes them tougher than a marine. Use them as a last ditch effort against Zerglings and if your opponent has siege tanks you can take them out even with scv’s.

Marine The marine is cheap, fast mass unit. Once available always get the U-238 shell that increases their range, and the stimpack (increases speed and firing rate). The marine (fully upgraded or not!) is a versatile unit with many roles in the Terran army. They can be dropped into a base, fire support for siege tanks or any other unit for that. Marines in large quantities are very dangerous. In my opinion, you should always have plenty of Marines sitting around, and upgrade them ASAP.

Firebat Firebats are the Protoss worst enemy. It’s quite tougher and harder hitting than marines however not quite as versatile. Their flame-throwers carry about as much damage as a zealot does and they do splash damage. Although the flames do have a limit of reach everything close to it is toast. Always have marines accompany these guys because they can’t hit air units. The strength of the Firebat is its usefulness against melee units. Let Firebats soak up damage (and deal some of their own!) while your marines support them from the rear.

Ghost Given its light armor, relatively low hit points, and unique skills, you’ll rarely produce extreme amounts of these units. However, it’s one of the games most important units, especially if you’re fond of nuclear weaponry. Its most versatile feature is its ability to cloak. This makes the ghost an ideal unit to wonder into enemy territory to scout or paint a target for a nuke. But be weary of detectors. Ghosts are great because of lockdown — very useful against carriers!

Vulture Its speed is its greatest asset as it can travel quickly from spot to spot, making it a great recon unit. With the ion thruster upgrade, they’re even faster. This unit is not used very much, but it’s not too bad because it’s only 25 minerals more than a marine (no gas!), and comes equipped with spider mines if researched.

Goliath The Goliath’s power full air strike makes them perfect for supporting siege tanks. Their powerful ground attack makes them the most feared infantry unit. En masse, Goliath’s can knock any enemy unit from the sky in seconds and are most formidable as marines on the ground. Their anti air hellfire missile system does 25 percent more damage than the wraiths air-to-air attack. Their bulk renders them vulnerable to melee enemies. With the Charon booster packs (Brood War) they make a good substitute for missile towers.

Siege Tank Ahh the siege tank. Much hated by all players, This weapon, with the proper fire support, can tear apart any base. Their major downfall is the inability to hit air units and melee units that are right next to them. One thing you must always be careful of is letting your tanks farther back chew up the front line ones that are being attacked by melee units. It’s best to put them up on cliffs or in valleys where the pesky melee units can’t get to them. Seige Tanks have the longest range in the game — but make sure you keep plenty of stuff around them to kill air/melee units, because tanks suck on their own.

Wraith Used in force, it offers a viable alternative to ground-based attacks. When cloaking is researched a very good way to utilize its relative toughness and good fire power is to charge a group of cloaked ones along with a drop ship or 2 filled with marines straight into the center of the base killing all peons and other units. This is particularly hard to defend against because most people rely on their front line defense not putting any near their command center. Wraiths are also excellent for defending, because you will force your opponent to bring along a detector. A useful but weak unit. If your wraiths can be seen, it’s best to pull them out because they die easily.

Dropship The Dropship is the Terrans’ air transport unit. They are best used accompanied by wraiths or other units to form a landing party on a beachhead or right in the heart of their base next to the Town Hall. They can ferry units from place to place over cliffs, water and all other obstacles and are very good at speeding up expansions. They can hold 8 marines, Firebats, medics, or ghosts or 4 vultures, or Goliath’s, or 2 tanks. While not the best transport unit in the game, Dropships are always useful.

Battle Cruiser These massive gun platforms are virtually flying fortresses. They make a good reliable addition to every attack force but their power does not come at a cheap price. This unit is definitely the most powerful Terran unit, so the cost is well worth it. With the long range Yamato cannon you can take out pesky air defenses without even getting touched. They are best used in mass groups to make up for the large cool down time. They are extremely slow so be careful of sending wraiths and battle cruisers to one place from a distance because the wraiths will outrun the BC’s and possibly meet an early demise without their fire support. These behemoths are excellent at taking out all types of units.

Science Vessel These vessels by themselves are sitting ducks, only good for detecting and having no way to protect themselves they need support. After you sufficiently upgrade them though they become a very useful asset to your fighting force. Defense matrix for the front line units will lengthen their lives sufficiently, EMP to further hurt all protoss units by destroying their shields, and they are detector’s which will prevent ghosts or wraiths from destroying your force. Irradiate can also be useful on masses of units.

Expand

Now with the Terrans, it would be easier to expand to a base that is very close to your main base. Basically you want to extend your choke point, and build your expansion there. Now you shouldn’t wait till the last minute. Try taking control of the area by building a bunker and use tanks and marines to hold off. You should do this by the around the time you acquire tanks, since it becomes very easy to defend choke points with the combination of tanks and bunkers.

Don’t be satisfied with just two bases. It takes a while to get used to being greedy, but that’s part of the game. Be greedy, take any more bases next to yours by using a combination of 2-3 SCVs, 8-12 marines, and 1-2 tanks. You want to close off any entrance, and build two bunkers backed up with tanks before starting on a new base. You can start one at the same time, but I don’t advise building one at the new expansion, try floating it from behind your defenses. You want to take as much territory up as possible, so building this new expansion should be as close as possible to your opponents main base. This is to prevent him from advancing closer to you, and makes it easier to siege his base in the future.

Now to take future expansions are harder than your first expansion. Prefferably use the same tactic, except bring more units as goliaths and tanks. You will want to scout any area before you make your long trek to the new expansion, so use a vulture or wraith to scout. You should also bring at least 3-4 SCVs, to set up a defense faster. But try not to shy away from your opponent by building it the corner, you want to seal him off from anymore bases. So take any islands, which should be easy to defend with wraiths and turret. After you sealed off one side, try to expand to any other side that your opponent can still expand freely.

Once you manage to get your expansion, you must build another barracks and factory at the new base, just to produce goliaths, tanks, and marines which are cheap and effective anti-air units. Make sure you get enough turrets around to push any scouting units away, especially queens, observers, dark templars, and wraiths. But just use turrets for detectors as they should be. Now after thinking about it, if the other race is Protoss, we all know that they will build dark templars, so send out SCVs to turret the new base first, instead of building bunkers. Lurkers are also a problem, yet comstats and tanks can stop that.

Now if you are able to hold onto the three bases, you should be able to produce a lot of goliaths and battle cruisers, making any other base easy to take or takout. If you do a good job of containing your opponent, you can easily take any bases that you have behind your front lines. As to finishing your opponent off, try using masses of tanks and goliaths, and use a tank push.