This week TopStarcraft has some tips to share about Siege Tank usage!
Introduction:
Hey there everybody, TopStarcraft here to help all you Terran players out with one of our best units: the Siege Tank. I do a lot of mentoring and there seems to be a common fear of using Siege Tanks in any match-up. While most players will use them in TvZ and TvT, Tanks can also be good against Protoss. Still, there are definitely some tips and tricks that will help make you much more comfortable with Tank usage in all match-ups.
The Siege Tank:
Tank Mode<===============>Siege Mode
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Positioning:
When using your Siege Tanks, it is important to always look at your positioning. I like to look at 3 main positions that will benefit your tanks.
Take the high ground so your tanks can attack but will not take return fire...
Xel'Naga Watchtowers will also afford you vision if you siege up there
Keep units ahead of your tanks so they are not vulnerable to a surround...
Don't leave your tanks out in the open because they are very vulnerable to air units such as the Mutalisk or Banshee
Spread your tanks out so they are able to cover your entire position...
Spreading your tanks will also allow your units to maneuver around and through your position
Early Pushes:
Getting early Siege Tanks is great for both offense and Defense. In a TvT match-up, you can abuse an early tank push to decimate his bio force.
Dropping a Siege Tank along with 4 marines can make a drop much more effective
Conversely, you can hold early expansions against a rush if you have a Siege Tank with Siege Mode much more easily. These roaches were no match for Siege Tanks in siege mode.
Siege Tanks do 35 damage with +15 to armored targets like these roaches
Moving Your Tanks:
There comes a time in every game where a Terran will need to move his tanks. It seems simple, but tanks out of siege mode are very vulnerable to an attack so you will have to leapfrog them in order to stay safe. This is done by using a [shift]+e command. After you un-siege a tank, click on the position you want each tank to siege and then hit [shift]+e. This will make each travel to the location and go into siege mode automatically. Just keep doing this for each tank or in groups of two or three. It takes a while but will be worth it not to lose all of your tanks.
Practice, practice, practice... this takes a little getting used to and it will help if you put the tanks on a separate hot-key from your main army
As you can see the two tanks are individually rallied to different positions as this Terran moves to secure his natural expansion. This is so important because it allows for the methodical pushing that lets a Terran take a third base and limit the opponent's expansions.
Tanks and Vikings:
The standard for TvT is a tank/viking battle for one reason, tanks have thirteen range and only eleven sight. Thus the Vikings are used to spot for the Tanks as the opponent can not attack at full range where you are able to. Here we see that the tanks are afforded vision on the high ground because the viking flower is spotting for them.
The Viking flower was removed in patch 1.30 but you can still use patrol to keep the vikings together, just hit patrol a few times in the same place until they clump up
Production:
Finally we will talk about production. Now off of one base you can really only support one Factory making Siege Tanks as well as a Starport for Vikings. As you expand however, you will want to invest in more Factories so that you can continue to make more Tanks and keep your minerals and gas as low as possible. Each time you expand remember to keep putting up production and adding them to your control groups so you can make use of them.
Keep your production buildings on one hot-key and cycle through them using the [Tab] key or you can have all Factories on one, all Barracks on another, and all Starports on a third.
Closing:
When you are using Siege Tanks, it all comes down to position. They can be your best weapon if they are in siege mode at the right time. However, they can really mess up a push if you are caught with your pants down. Just take your time and remember to walk those tanks. Soon you'll find that a few tanks are great for holding a key position, pushing a base, or even defending against a drop. Now get out there and use what you've learned!
