Polt pulled out a very unique build against Dear in MLG, which consists of three factories with reactor on two bases. He rolled over Dear with Hellbat, Marauder and Medivac.

Overview

Terran start to mix Hellbats into their composition as they move from two bases to three bases. As the Marines die off, the main army composition is Hellbat, Marauder and Medivac. Ghost and Viking still get mixed in accordingly.

However, Polt’s build is totally out of the box. It has three factories with reactor to produce six Hellbats at a time on two bases.

Build order

10 – Supply Depot
12 – Barrack
15 – Orbital Command and a Marine
@400 mineral – Command Centre (@100% Orbital Command)
@100 mineral – Supply Depot
Constant Marines production and build Supply Depot accordingly
21 – Bunker

@150 mineral – 2x Refinery
@150 mineral – Barrack
@100 gas – Factory
@100% Factory – Widow Mine and Starport
Add a Tech Lab on one Barrack (@100% – Stim)
@100 Widow Mine – Tech Lab on Factory
@100% Starport – Medivac
@100% Tech Lab (on Factory) – Siege Tank, Engineering Bay and Refinery
Constant Tank production (stop at three)
@100% second Tank – 2x Factory, then Armory

@100% third Tank – Lift up Factory and add a Reactor. Land the Barrack without add on onto the Tech Lab
Constant Marauder production
@100% 2x Factory – 2x Reactor on Factory and 1x Reactor on Starport
Constant Medivac (get Vikings if needed) and Hellbat production. Stop Scv production.

Research Concussive Shield
@100% first 6x Hellbat – Push out with Marines, Marauders, Hellbats, Tanks and Medivacs at around 12:00

Explanation

I cannot stress more how unique this build is.

His production infrastructures consist of two barracks (tech lab), three factories (reactor) and one starport (reactor). It is like having five barracks and a starport on two bases for a two base oriented TvP approach. Polt simply swap Hellbats for Marines.

There was a time frame when Polt had floated more than 1000 mineral and had less than 100 gas. Intuitively, I was critical of it as that is really poor for a progamer. However, those floated mineral was spent once the production of the first six Hellbats start along with Marauders and Medivacs.

He added an engineering bay and an armory along the way. Although no upgrade was started, the engineering bay is a necessary prerequisite for turrets. But I do not understand the purpose of that armory. It does not exactly have a place since Polt has no intention of taking a third and gets upgrades.

The Tanks are important as the build is vulnerable to mass gateway attack. Another interesting aspect of this build is that the first factory has a tech lab on it to produce three Tanks. Opponent will definitely scout it with Observer, hallucination or Oracles. Protoss player will not dare to attack or expand. This is because the infrastructures look like it is a two base Marines and Tanks timing.

In this game, Dear’s answer to Polt’s potential two base Tank timing is psi storm, chargelot and Immortal. This composition is relatively less effective against Hellbats, Marauders and Medivacs. What if Dear went for Colossus tech instead? I doubt Polt’s build would be as effective as it demonstrated. However, Polt had been active with his first Medivac to keep track of opponent’s tech. Thus, I guess he would mix Vikings in accordingly.

A very interesting build.

Summary

It is an unorthodox two TvP base build with three factories (reactor), two barrack (tech lab) and starport (reactor). The main aim is to overrun opponent with Hellbats, Marauders and Medivacs.