When I create bunkers, I randomly put infantry in it. The only discrimination I make is to put wounded units in the bunker. But should I favor putting marines over marauder? And why?


It depends on what race you're facing and what their army composition is.

Generally though, marines are your best bet as the bunker increases the marine firing range by 1 for a total of 6 (it actually increases range for all units inside by 1).

Marauders are a good choice if they are protoss or zerg and have a lot of stalkers/roaches. The bunker will give you marauders (the hard counter to those types of units) extra hit points and give them more time to deal their extra +damage to armour.

Don't forget, you can stim inside a bunker too.

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  • I feel like another good reason to put marauders in bunkers is to free up some APM from kiting against zealots. I wonder if there's a way to unify the logic into a rule of thumb, like many have for the question of "which upgrade do I research first?" – tenfour Nov 28 '11 at 10:38
  • I think if we go with the "unify logic" then the answer will always be marines. They are the best all around unit to have in there. Highest DPS and 6 range is much more helpful than 5. We could say that 1 Marauder + 2 marines would make for a better all around distribution if they have a mixed army composition. Of course there are exceptions, 4 marines > 1 marauder + 2 marines in the case of mass zerlings or mass zealots. – Sorean Nov 28 '11 at 16:16
  • Really good point about range. In terms of increasing the area of attack, 5->6 is much more of an upgrade than 6->7. – tenfour Nov 28 '11 at 16:54

Put your most important and vulnerable units in the bunker.

  • Marines - Have high DPS and are very fragile, usually the best option
  • Marauders - Have high HP and are very good vs armored. If you are facing many Stalkers and you have only 1 or 2 Marauder, just put the Marauder in the bunker.
  • Ghost - If enemy has High Templar and you still need Mana for EMP, put your Ghost in the Bunker. This way he shoots but cannot get attacked by Feedback.

Otherwise I would put wounded units in the bunker.

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When watching pro replays I'm noticing that units are almost never just sit inside a bunker. Then jump there when it is needed and are out to counter attack. And during defense just fill it with someone.

The main strength of bunker is that you are able to fix it with SCVs and there can more then one fixing it. That increases your defense potential significantly. If you see the attack roll at least 4 SCVs right away to your bunkers.

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  • I am not looking for "it doesn't matter". In sc2, it always matters. For example I can think of one rule of thumb: If you have concussive shells against protoss but no stim, favor marauders in the bunkers to protect them against zealots, make it more effective to target units with the bunker, and maximize the range of the concussive shells. – tenfour Nov 28 '11 at 10:31
  • But you don't need stim to kite zealots if you have concussive shell. You need stim to kite zealots if you only have marines. – Sorean Nov 28 '11 at 16:11
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    @Sly The reason pro's don't keep them inside and keep them mobile is because they have the APM to control it like that. They can load/unload attack move faster than us regular folks. – Sorean Nov 28 '11 at 16:13
  • @Sorean what I mean is, if you are marauder-marine balanced, and Protoss is zealot-heavy (+ some stalkers / sentries), I feel like I should put marauders in the bunkers because they are expensive and super weak to the zealots. But I can see the alternate argument that this emphasizes the value of marines, thus they should be protected and made as effective as they can possibly be. So I don't really know. Maybe I should just use a unit tester for that specific scenario and see what I find. – tenfour Nov 28 '11 at 16:58

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