I don't see the point of making marines in the early game.

Hellions are better at killing small units like zerglings or zealots and Marauders are better at killing larger units like stalkers or armored.

The only use I see for them is anti-air which shouldn't be useful until the mid-game.

With the removal of the medic they seem so much more useless until you get the medievac dropship to start doing drop harassment, which should be done with tanks anyway.

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Q u o t e:
I don't see the point of making marines in the early game.

Hellions are better at killing small units like zerglings or zealots and Marauders are better at killing larger units like stalkers or armored.

The only use I see for them is anti-air which shouldn't be useful until the mid-game.

With the removal of the medic they seem so much more useless until you get the medievac dropship to start doing drop harassment, which should be done with tanks anyway.

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Marines are much more useful than the original StarCraft, mostly because they have more hit points now. Even in mid game, they can be armed with Combat Shields, giving them a whopping 55 hit points. That combined with Stim Pack and Medivac Dropships healing, is quite a formidable force.

Nonetheless, in early game, it is a must to combine them with Marauders, to slow Zealots and force fire Roaches.

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Q u o t e:


Great. I look forward to seeing maruaders being used by nearly every Terran player, and being forced to use them early on myself lest I get crushed by my opponent.

I dislike hearing something is a must in any build order.

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Having a diverse group when pushing out early is important. This strategy of course is not the only way to play Terran. There are plenty of other units to play with - including Reaper harassment, standard Tank pushes, offensive bunker pushes, Marine/Hellion pushes, etc.

But in dealing with Zealots and Zergling offensively as mentioned in the first post,

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Q u o t e:
Hellions are better at killing small units like zerglings or zealots

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well Hellions are tier 2 and you won't have them. If you want to push out, using both Marines and Marauders is definitely the way to go, especially since 1:1 at cost in the open, Zealots will tear through a group of Marines if not slowed.

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Q u o t e:
I can understand that you can mix in Marines along with Marauders Karune. But why not just mass Marauders?

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Mass Marauders unfortunately would lack the dps that a combo Marauder + Marines group would have. Also Marauders don't have Stim Pack, which also makes up a great deal of extra dps. The Marauder early game could kite a few Zealots well, but their fire rate is much slower than a Marine.