Starcraft AI blog

The last couple of posts were time-consuming, so here is data I can gather with much less effort: The frame when the first terran marine completes, given a barracks made with a given SCV count and assuming the marine is started as soon as possible. A bot can use these timings to judge whether a terran opponent rushed an early barracks. And a terran bot author can use the timings to help decide whether a rush is worth it. Bear in mind that even 8 rax, the most standard terran early pressure build, sets terran far back economically compared to an economic barracks timing; the attack has to make up the difference in damage done.

If the fast barracks is a proxy, the marine will not have as far to walk, but in return terran must send an SCV earlier and will be lower on minerals. Also, if the opponent defends, the proxy barracks may be far out of position, and terran will be a sitting duck for the counterattack.

To make constant marines from 1 barracks, you only need 3 SCVs. A double proxy barracks starts to be feasible with 7 or 8 SCVs total, accounting for sending out 2 SCVs to build, plus occasional supply depots and a possible offensive bunker.

The last build here, 9 depot 11 barracks, is the most standard barracks timing. It’s not slow at all. You can even delay the barracks a little more, to gain resources to do something else faster, and I think it is rarely dangerous.