Starcraft – Why do Terran players bring SCVs with their main arthe so often

starcraft-2

It is quite common to see games where Terran players start moving aggressively across the map with their army, and bringing about 10-15 SCVs with. You however never see Protoss bring probes, or Zerg bring drones.

What causes this phenomenon?

Best Answer

In StarCraft 2, units will automatically target the closest attacking enemy unit. This is a change from Brood War, where worker units were ignored by the targeting AI.

This allows players to use workers to tank damage, whereas otherwise they would just be used to clog space. Since Marines have very high DPS, but low health, they are very strong when kept alive. Since there is a barrier of SCV's soaking up enemy hits during these attacks, they live longer and have significantly more damage potential. It is difficult for opponents to focus down Marines without exposing their units to being surrounded by the SCV's and then killed off.

Other races have other units that fulfil the often necessary role of soaking up damage- Protoss can use Zealots for the same function (for much greater cost-effectiveness than Probes) and Zergs can use both Zerglings and Roaches, depending on the stage of the game. Terran doesn't really have a unit like this except the Marauder, which has a high cost due to the necessity of a Tech Lab, gas, and production time. A Terran is always going to have plenty of SCV's, so if he sees an opportunity to gain an advantage by sacrificing them, it's worthwhile.

SCV's are also naturally tough- they have 45hp (which had to be reduced from 60 early in the game because of exactly this phenomenon) whereas the other races' workers have only 40 converted health.

Much later in the game with Mech armies, Terran players will bring SCV's for repairing, but these are generally much slower and more deliberate assaults.