When should wall off my Terran base and when should I not?

When playing with Terran in ranked in any mode (1v1 or 3v3). I learned that against Zerg the base should be always closed. I do the same against Protoss or Terran, but I was told by some players that against Protoss or Terran, the base should not be walled off.

So in which cases should the Terran base be walled off?

Solution 1:

Walling is very popular as Terran and clearly makes defending zergling and zealot rushes significantly easier. It can also be helpful against Terran matchups to help prevent scouting and to delay an army pushing up into your base (where you might have siege tanks etc... set up)

It does however have some disadvantages, specifically

Enemy units that have equal or greater range than your own units can safely attack the wall itself, while your own units cannot attack back from behind the wall.

If your wall of Supply Depots is breached, you can become supply blocked, rendering you unable to reinforce or produce more units during the attack.

Although your wall can be very useful at defending against some attacks, in other situations it can also be fairly vulnerable until you are in a position where you can push out past the wall with your main army.

I have seen some high-level players in matches where they didn't wall off (even against Zerg) My understanding is that its possible to hold off early zergling etc... pushes with good building placement around your CC instead of a wall-off, however this seems very micro-intensive - I'm sure that anyone other than pro-level players would be much better off just relying on a wall-in and focussing their attention on more important things.

My advice would be to just wall off every time, especially against Zerg. Although it can be a disadvantage in some situations, its a very minor disadvantage when compared to the advantage it gives in other situations (e.g. Zergling rush).

Solution 2:

AS terran player, I ALWAYS wall my base. This helps you a lot (as mates told before). You can protect from fast rushes of every race, using 2 depos, and 1 barrack. Behind the barrack you put 1 bunker. This gives you a early defense from attacks and scouts.

Obviously if you have scouted, you can see if your opponent is going to rush you or not, so you can wall only with the depos and rax.

But once you have expand for first time, you can wall your exapand to protect better your base.

Edit

Vs Protoss you have to take a lot of care than before, because now they have the new unit called Oracle. This unit can kill 1 vce for every 1 second... So just think.. you take away your vce when have passed 4 seconds.. these means, 4 vce's less!!!! Imagin when they send you 2 oracles... I recommend a lot to put 1 or 2 torrets behind minerals... These can help you to bring rines to mineral lines ;)