Marauders and what they bring to messing up my table...!

After a few more 1 on 1's it feels like Marauders are the way to go for Terran against Protoss early game, along with marines (The new m&m's and if u got some medivacs latter in the game u got m&m&m's and that I tell you is a deadly combination!), but for this post I am going to manly focus on Marauders since they are really the ones making early game challenging as Protoss.

First let’s take a look at the units stats (for this patch at least)
Cost: 100/25
HP: 125
Type: Armored / Biological
Dmg: 10
+ 10 Dmg to Armored units
Range 6

With the extra passive ability
Concussive shell: Target hit by the Marauder is temporarily slowed

I'm not going in depth with the numbers or any of the math or nothing like that on my blog, I am sure you can find better blogs for the math-crafting, and besides the numbers are more then likely going to change in the coming beta months.

So Marauders are one of the units in the game right now I find dealing with especially.

A match against a “decent” Terran player would usually go like this:
I go for 2 gates getting some zealots and in time some stalkers to provide some defence against a possible reaper harassment and if there is a ramp for high ground defences
Then the Terran decides to attack and I get pummelled like there where no yesterday.

But why am I getting pummelled?
Well if we take a quick look at the Protoss early game units we got.
Zealots:
This unit is very much kite able especially with the slow attack of Marauders
So an all zealot army won’t stand a chance
Stalkers:
are Armored units and therefore take a huge amount of dmg from Marauders and goes down really fast, all though they also deal extra dmg to armored themselves but Marauders seems to have the upper hand especially with marines backing them up.
With a mixed army og zeals and stalkers they will just keep kiteing until my zealots are down and then finish off my stalkers.

I’ve yet to find an easy counter for this that doesn’t leave me vulnerable early game
But I have managed to eat it down a few times, but those games where just a straw away from toing the Terran’s direction when the push came.

The 3 plausible solutions to the Marauder marine rush:

1: The Choke!
Trying to keep a really tight choke (only doable at a ramp where u can use the advantage of higher ground (on low ground it gets quite a bid more messy.)
From there you can go in some different directions the immortal being the "secure choice", but you have a few other options here as well, but I would suggest getting the robotics no matter what direction you take.

2: Fast teching to Immortals
If you expect a marine & marauder rush (and well I can’t remember a Terran game where he dident go for the m&m rush)
You do have some free time at the beginning focusing really hard on your economy and teching straight for immortals only getting 2-3 zeals for the choke and 2 stalkers for an anti reaper safety and as soon as your robotic gets warped in use you’re chrono boost to get the immortals out fast because at this point your opponent will most likely be knocking at your front door.

3: Zealot Charge!
Another way to go is to get the speed upgrade for your zealots, this includes getting quite a bid more zealots then you usually would, but you shouldn’t forget your stalkers because if the timing push comes before the charge upgrade is done you want them to hold them back just a little until the charge upgrades finishes especially if u have a ramp stalkers will make the difference
This tactic requires quite a bid of gass upfront compared to going for immortals but if u get the charge before he can push in you are in a really good position to get in and win the game right there.

Well at least I have had some luck with these 3 tactics, but bare in mind that it’s only my own experiences and I am by no means a good player so I might be completely off here.

I however, even with the 3 strategies, do tend to lose quite a lot Vs Terran opponents, but then again I tend to lose quite alot to all my opponents, no matter the race :-)