Thinking Strategic: Choke Points and Wall-ins; Part 2

Hey everyone! First of all, I'd like to apologize for not posting for a while. I started playing this game called minecraft and it totally engulfed my weekend. @.@ By now though, I think I can handle myself well enough to be able to play during my leisure time and get other things done.


Now that that's taken care of, let's continue with the topic at hand.


Part 2!


So like I was saying before, building placement really is key, and is something often overlooked by newer or less experienced players. If you watch more experienced players, usually building placement is key, especially for zerg and protoss since they don't have that easy wall in. Many players may see it as sort of a cheese or lame tactic to use your buildings to block off your ramp or workers or something, but it is far from it. It is cheese to early mass marines and go slaughter someone, but it's not cheese to use strategy and think of where to build your key structures.


In this section, like I said, I'll go more in depth and tell you exactly what it means to place structures strategically.


Terran


Terran players have the easiest time with structure placement as they can very easily hit the "redo" key and lift and replace. This brings up some key points though. With terran, you can place your first barracks in a good location, then build a tech lab/reactor and later on as soon as your first factory/starport is done, move it over to that first addon and start building later tier units much faster. In case you couldn't figure it out, this is how many players are able to get that quick banshee rush or tank up. Also, it's important to note that you can build and lift your command center. Many players build the CC initially behind their wall in and pump extra scvs to bolster their economy. Then lift it into the natural expo with protection.


Protoss


Protoss players have a bit tougher of a time with building placement, but have a lot of possibilities like terran players since they are only limited to the pylon power. For the initial choke point, what is very common (and works very well) is to build your pylon a bit behind your ramp then place the gateway in front. Now this can go one of two ways: first is to build a second geteway next to it leaving only a 1 square space. This is for general 2gating and helps to choke in your base as well. Another idea is to put up your cybernetics core next to it leaving again, one square. 


Both the gateway and core are very strong and are much too heavy of structures for early units to take on. But what do you do with that little hole? You fill it in with a single zealot on hold position. This makes an impassable wall until the buildings or your zealot is killed. A good follow up is to have some more zealots in reserve, or better yet, put a sentry near so you can easily use a forcefield and block the ramp entirely.


Another interesting thing about protoss is that you can build structures anywhere and easily walk away. This is especially useful for hiding buildings like a quick dark shrine or stargate. This is also useful for placing proxy pylons near your enemy. As scouting is very key, this can completely throw your enemy off guard if he thinks you're going for a land based army some phoenixes appear out of nowhere.


Zerg


And finally that brings us to the zerg. The zerg have arguably the toughest time with building placement, yet they also have a lot of interesting options open to them that the average player would not initially think of. In the beginning game, I seem to notice that most novice players either put their pool in a completely random location, or hide it behind the hatchery. This may seem like a good idea at first as you need to protect it, but it can in fact be detrimental. If the pool is placed alongside the gas and hatchery, it blocks off easy access to your workers and a quick rush in that is preventable by guarding the other side. Granted, it's not too common to run into a very early rush, but it does help. Also, when placing the second building, whether it be a roach nest, baneling nest, or even an evo chamber, it is wise to place it on the other side of your workers to really protect the mineral line.


Next what you have to think about is the creep limitation. Obviously, the zerg can only build on creep (except the hatchery). This becomes key as it forces you to spread creep more evenly and quickly. This is all very possible with overlord creep drop as well as queens pooping out those creep tumors. What you might not expect, but is a good plan in a pinch, is to move your overlord to a place away from your main then placing a quick spire underneath its creep. Like the protoss move this keeps your opponents in the dark if they scanner sweep your base.


One more specific point I want to make about the zerg is their ability to move the spine/spore crawlers. This is a very important thing to realize in the early game. As you can build some spines to stop an early rush, you can then move them out into your natural expansion as some early defense. Don't forget about spine crawlers in your main if your natural is now your main line of defense! With overlord movement upgraded you can bring in overlords to drop creep and even advance with your spine crawlers and keep your opponent in his base.






So to wrap things up, you just have to keep in mind how important buildings are and building placement is. They are more than just the places you need to build better units. They can easily be utilized to help with base defenses or even trick/harass your opponents. It's worth it to experiment with different implementations of your buildings and placing them in different locations.

Thinking Strategic: Choke Points and Wall-ins

Hello! How are you today?

Today I'm going to be taking a bit of a different approach. No replays, no specific strategies or tips, but rather an overall mindset in starcraft. I find that many of the worse players I've come across really drop the ball when it comes to wall-ins or overall base protection and the better players have exceptional strategies for keeping enemies out of their base. This brings me to my point, if you want to get better at starcraft, you must have some semblance of how to build defensively. This is especially true with protoss and zerg, as it becomes much harder for these races to build defensively as compared to terran who can lower supply depots easily.

Today I'll talk about the overarching strategy, and for tomorrow I'll go into more detail on how to exactly go about building in this fashion. Most lower tier players see buildings as merely that, just buildings. Cybernetics core leads to stalkers and higher tech, engineering bay is good for upgrades, etc. This is much different from the more experienced player. The more experienced player will see buildings as opportunities. They take up a large portion of land space and have high amounts of health and/or shield. 

Generally, all maps have some very specific choke points at or near the base, and most have ramps up into the base that becomes the main danger to the player. This is where one should focus down on their defense.

Terran is obviously the easiest in securing the ramp with a barracks and a couple of supply depots. It is important to note, though, that the wall can easily be interchanged later on in the game due to the nature of the terran buildings and their ability to lift off. This is something important to keep in mind in securing the terran wall.


Protoss is a bit more difficult as there is no supply depot doorway, but the gateway and cybernetics core have a wealth of hp and armor that can defend well against early attacks, especially when used in conjunction with a couple of units to seal off the entrance.

For zerg of course, buildings becomes exponentially more important as they are the one thing keeping you between only building drones, or building end tier ultralisks. With zerg, the early buildings are much often better placed around the mineral line, blocking a quick entrance into the workers and the later tier buildings should be protected as much as possible, especially the spire. Zerg buildings are perhaps the most dangerous to play around with as they are the hardest to rebuild and leave the player the most vulnerable if they come down.

The main point of this post is to make you think more thoroughly about how to set up your buildings. It actually is important in where you place your buildings and it would do you well to play a few games and discover where it is most effective.

To be continued in pt. 2 tomorrow.

Terran - Basic Wall

I'm going to lay down another basic strategy today. It is the simple terran wall and how to put it up effectively. The first thing to do is to build an scv and make sure you mine the minerals. Around 8 food you should send an scv out to the choke point of your base and lay down a supply depot right on the edge. Make sure you always have an scv in your queue so that you can keep mining constantly. A little bit after the depot finishes you should be able to get 150 minerals in which case you should put down a barracks next to your depot.


With these two buildings, you now have a choice. If you are going to go defensive, then it would be in your best interest to wait for the barracks to finish and put a bunker to fill in the last slot. If not, then build another supply depot to close off the hole as soon as you can. This is crucial if you're playing against a zerg player as an early ling rush can easily be fended off with a supply depot wall and one or two marines chipping away at the zerglings. Against another terran or protoss though, the bunker is a safe move to make. 

As with any wall, putting stronger buildings will yield a stronger wall, so if the choke is larger such as in a 2v2 or 3v3 map, it would be worth your while to put another barracks or even a factory in your wall. Later on, be sure to add a tank or two for added ground support.