Rushes and cheeses can be very effective against your opponent, being able to slow down their economy or put them out of the game for good. Also knowing what rushes and cheeses there are can make a player a better defender when it comes to rush time and can turn the tables on the rusher/cheeser.This page is all about the pros and cons of each rush or cheese and how to defend against it.
Rush Strategies
Reaper Rush -
This can be a very deadly Terran rush tactic if the defending player doesn't scout or is unprepared. The goal of this type of tactic is usually to destroy the other players' line of workers in order to collapse the enemy players' economy, (usually by using 2-6 reapers. More can be used but the effectiveness goes down considerably due to the amount of defense the enemy player has been able to create by that time.) This buys more time for the rusher because now the other player not only has a decrease in the amount of minerals over time, but also has to replace the workers they lost.
Very much like the Zerg 6 pool, the Terran player sacrifices early minerals in order to create reapers quickly, but instead of holding off on creating workers the Terran reaper rusher will build more SCVs to go gas heavy because of the 50 gas price for reapers. Also like the Zerg, what the reapers lack in health they make up for in speed. But, unlike the speedy zergling in mind, the reaper has the unique ability to jump up and down cliffs making this even more of a hazard to the unsuspecting player as the reaper doesn't have to knock on the front door. Because of the reapers' ability, rushers will hop the closest cliff-side to the enemy players' mineral line and attack the workers there, only leaving when military units appear. The problems for the defending player now is how to get their economy rolling again, and how to divide up their military units in order to protect against future attacks.
What's good about this kind of rush is the amounts of damage it can cause early on especially if the opponent isn't scouting, and it can also keep your opponent on their toes as they try to counter any future reaper attacks. So you can be sure they are taking precautionary measures, such as placing units near cliffs or by their mineral line, (which is a plus for the rusher because now the defenders army is divided somewhat.) Another good thing about this rush tactic is that it's quite easy to transition into higher tech builds, due to the amount of gas income the rusher is getting early on. Even if the rush fails, the player can recover quickly by queuing marauders, or through changing out those barracks for factories and getting siege tanks.
Defense - When it comes to defense there is nothing better than awareness. Being unaware of what your enemy is doing is always a bad idea. Make sure to scout out your enemy Terran player, if he's gasing up early in the game it is a telltale sign that he is going to go reapers or tech fast, both meaning that his base is poorly defended. Another thing to be aware of is where the reapers could come in from. Any cliffside is essentially flat land to the rusher so make sure to post units near any cliff that reapers could hop. Also, don't be afraid to move your workers off the mineral line, its better to have a halted economy than to have no economy at all.
Cheese Strategies
