TaeJa’s Hellbat with Medivac and Banshee

hellbat

TaeJa did a very strong Hellbat build against Sacsri in Home Story Cup 10.

Background

Hellbat builds have become a big part of the TvZ metagame after the last patch. There are many different variations but they all either go with Medivac or Banshee. So the builds either attack with

The one with Banshee usually hits at around 8:30, while the one with Medivac hits at around 8:00.

Build order

10 – Supply Depot
12 – Barracks
12 – Refinery
15 – Reaper and Orbital Command
@400 mineral – Command Centre (@100% – Orbtial Command)
@100% Reaper – Reactor
@100 mineral – Supply Depot
@100 gas – Factory
@100% Reactor – Marines (2 production cycle – 4 Marines)
@75 mineral – Refinery (2 Scv*)
@100% Factory – Starport, and switch Factory onto Reactor for Hellions, then Supply Depot

Build Supply Depot accordingly hereafter. Constant Marine production.

@100% Starport – Medivac
@150 mineral – Armory
@6th Marine – Tech Lab
Load the 6 Marines into Medivac and move across the map
@100% Tech Lab – Switch Starport onto Tech Lab and produce Banshee

Constant Hellion and Banshee product and rally across the map.

Get 3rd Command Centre and Stim to converge back to standard macro game set up.

*TaeJa has 2 workers mining gas for the 2nd Refinery, and I am not sure if this is intentional.

Explanation

It is quite a straight forward build. The interesting thing is that it uses both Medivac and Banshee for the Hellbat timing. The first push with 6 Hellbat, 6 Marine and 1 Medivac hits at around 8:00, which is the same as the standard Hellbat with Medivac timing. The hidden strength of this build is the Banshee follow up. As you execute the first attack, you rally your Factory and Starport to reinforce with Hellion and Banshee. Reinforce with Hellion not Hellbat because of the movement speed. The Banshee will arrive a minute after the first attack. During this minute, you should prioritise killing the Queens as this allows your Banshee to be unopposed later.

Timing hits at around 8:00