Often when I’m matched against a higher skill player that has a UNSC leader (usually Kinsano or Cutter), marines and hellbringers are pumped out en masse. Sometimes snipers are thrown into the mix. I play a lot of Cutter, and I do this too depending on what leader I’m up against. If I scout and see this I feel like I have two options. I can do the same thing and hope I get some sort of an advantage in a head on battle or go straight to their base to prevent an attack on mine. Or I can prepare for a rush on my main base and build turrets with anti-infantry, turtle, and hope I can out-tech my opponent to get better units.
I’d prefer to avoid a head on battle as I’m usually behind in army composition after scouting this. I constantly pump marines from the main base and mini expo as I tech up, but this will be beaten by someone who has marines with hellbringers and snipers. I avoid building units that require energy unless I’m going for a rush.
If I decide to turtle and build turrets, I have to use valuable resources to build the turrets and upgrade them. And when I do this, I think a good player will scout this out first and not attack. They will instead go for map control by capturing nodes and expanding. I can’t do anything because I built turrets instead of an effectively sized army. I’m now behind in army size, resource income, and I can’t expand because a good player will just harass and contain with his now large force of marines and hellbringers. I eventually get outpaced and isolated.
My question is: how do I effectively counter someone who masses marines and hellbringers while also setting myself up for the mid and late game strategies? Do the same from the start instead of as a reaction? Do I just need to git gud?