StarCraft/Protoss strategies

Terran Defense

Fastest Map Possible

When playing fastest map possible, it is good to line up bunkers, turrets, and tanks all along the side of your land. Start by putting four tanks along the inside of your land/base: two on the inside, two on the outside. MAKE SURE you are not blocking your entrance and that the bunkers are on the wall of the base. Now, put one turret on one side of the wall in front of one bunker, and one on the other. Put a tank in front of the turret on one side, and one on the other. Now, start again with the bunkers and repeat until you get to the top of your entrance. Keep at least two scvs down by the entrance of your base to repair and rebuild after attacks.

Normal Maps

When playing on a normal map, be sure to protect your perimeter with bunkers and turrets, but make sure you don't block any area so your armies and troops can get out. One thing is certain, do not focus on a defense. Look towards evening out your defense with your offense.

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Terran Rush Attacks

Marine Rush

When playing, at the beginning, start with creating one extra scv. Collect minerals until you have enough (150) to create a barracks. DON'T make another scv yet. When the scv is working on the barracks, focus your mineral usage on two or three more scv's. When two or three more have been made, concentrate one on making two or three supply depots. While that is going on, watch your scv making your barracks. When he is done, create two more. You can create more with other scv's at the same time. MAKE SURE you are making enough minerals per second. You should be getting about 50 minerals every 10 seconds or so by this time. THROUGH ALL OF THIS, make sure you always have one slot being used to create a marine. When you have three or more barracks up, you can make three marines created at a time. When you have a troop of 16 marines or more, go attack. While attacking, always be making marines. If your marines go down, you can send more.

Vulture Rush

In the fastest possible map, concentrate on building the factories instead of any other buildings. Build at most two barracks, and quickly transit to factories. It's crucial to continue the SCV production, and have as many workers as possible collecting resources. Build at least three factories, and build vultures with two of them, while building a machine shop with other. Attack the enemy with the vulture, and initiate the tank production while the attack is commencing. Reinforce your attacking force during the attack with additional vultures and tanks. It's a good idea to build goliaths also.

Bunker Rush

In a low mineral map, this is very common to see in maps such as Lost Temple or Luna. To do this, the player needs to scout early with the 7th SCV and while doing the basic build (8 SCV supply depot then barracks), the player needs to build a bunker near the enemy base (usually an expansion) and the barracks should already be finished and the player needs to make a marine as soon as possible and rally point near the bunker in order to arrive and go inside the bunker. If the plan succeeds then it should be a high advantage and this is great against a zerg player or a teching protoss player.

Long-Term Attacks

Upgrade

During a game, you can always upgrade!

Protoss Strategy

Second Round / Post-Opening Strategies

• Dragoon charge — Similar to the Zealot rush, but requiring more time, a group of 4-12 Dragoons can wreak havoc in the early-middle stages of a game. In addition to the Zealot strategies, the long (upgraded) range of Dragoons often enables them to hit key targets with impunity, especially if the enemy is overly reliant on static defense. This is particularly useful versus Terran, if the opponent's Refinery can be taken out before Siege Tank production starts. Counters to this include the wall-in, strategic Bunker placement, Stimpacks, and U-238 Shells. It should be noted that mass (24+) groups of Dragoons are often effective, but are terribly vulnerable to both Siege Tanks and Zerglings.

• Mass zealots — A surprisingly effective maneuver that maximizes the ease and simple power of persisting with a lower-tech approach, this strategy focuses on simply accumulating a large number of gateways and pumping out more and more zealots - although crucial mid-tech advantages to be sought with this strategy are the zealot speed upgrade, available from the Citadel of Adun, and Forge upgrades, particularly for ground unit attack and defense. Some complementary dragoons may be mixed into the zealot hordes, or better yet, this strategy is coordinated with a teammate who focuses on complementary units, such as dragoons, marines, mutalisks, reavers, or even high templars; corsairs are a particularly effective complement. But even if the zealots must bear the brunt of air-to-ground attacks with no anti-air, their sheer numbers make it difficult for an enemy to cut their numbers quickly (unless a splash or area attack is used), and the mass zealots can often inflict serious damage before they can all be taken down; and the robust simplicity of this approach means that by this point, you have probably had plenty of time to produce another wave of zealots, and potential complementary units. This approach is not without its limits, however; groups of Terran Vultures with Spider Mines, Zerg Lurkers or Protoss Reavers, as well as heavy static defences, can hold off mass Zealot attacks indefinitely.

• Cannon Rush— This strategy requires a lot of luck, but highly effective when successful. The trick is to discover your enemy quickly and secretly, and build a pylon in a position good to attack the enemy. Once the pylon is warped, call couple photon cannons in, and watch the enemy building's ruins.

Mid-Game Strategies

• Combined Carrier-Arbiter Attack — Although Carriers are relatively expensive and quite vulnerable on their own, combining them into a single group (not spread out) and adding the cloaking ability of the arbiter, they could easily be used to destroy entire defensive formations and bases of any of the 3 races with minimal loss of units. The key to this tactic is to never use Carriers on their own, but to always combine them with at least one “Arbiter”. In order for this tactic to be successful it requires constant intervention from the player in order to maintain the very fragile formations in this method. 4-12 Carriers are grouped and then sent towards an enemy base (or large formation). As long as the Carriers are within the effective range of the Arbiter, they cannot be targeted effectively (as they destroy all detectors close enough to reveal them).
• By far the best defence against this tactic would then be to try and destroy the Arbiter behind the line of Carriers, this can be done by flying/moving units (Corsairs, Scourge, etc.) around the offensive line and concentrating all fire on the lone Arbiter. This needs to be done quite quickly, as a group of carriers can quickly cause enormous amounts of damage. Once the Arbiter is destroyed, the remaining force is vulnerable and can be picked off more easily.

Zerg Strategy

The Zerg excel at quick generation of armies, making them highly flexible. Each Hatchery produces a maximum of 3 larvae and a new one every 20 seconds, making it easy to grow new units, and every Hatchery can create any available Zerg unit, unlike the specialized factories of the other races.

Their return cost is building expenses. Each Hatchery/factory is extremely expensive (300 minerals and 120 seconds of build time, compared to for instance the 150-mineral 80-second Terran Barracks), and furthermore, each new structure must be grown from a Drone (50 minerals, 20 seconds). Defensive structures are even worse: the Drone must be hatched and then turned into a Creep Colony, and then the Creep Colony must be turned into a Sunken or Spore colony (for a total of 175 minerals and 80 seconds). A lost building is worse for Zerg than 10 lost units.

Because of slow building and Drone sacrifice, and moreover because of the need to build drones with the same limited early larva supply used to build attack units, Zerg have the weakest starting economy. They make that up with their Overlord, which can be immediately sent to scout, and the serendipitous discovery of an enemy base can lead to an early attack, something the Zerg excel at. An early-game strike at the enemy's mineral line will usually even the odds, if it doesn't hand the Zerg the advantage. Since Hatcheries allow the building of 3 units at once, if the Zerg survives to mid-game, they tend to catch up and even push ahead of the other economies. Their cheaper hatcheries relative to the other race's "town center" buildings also makes it easier for the Zerg to take multiple expansions.

Zerg are particularly weak against well-defended choke-point unless you use a trump strategy. Due to the cheap cost of units, Zerg fighting power cannot be concentrated onto one choke point efficiently. 24 Zerglings can be stopped on a cliff, blocked by 3 Zealots. It would be much wiser to attack from a different angle. In general, fighting in open space is best for Zerg.

Against Zerg

When Zerg face off against each other, the game gets fairly predictable. Zerg vs Zerg games usually involve only three types of attack units: Zerglings, Mutalisks, and Scourge. This is primarily because Hydralisks are not effective against combined Zergling/Mutalisk forces. Devourers are also sometimes used if the game lasts a long time. The Queen's Ensnare spell, though rarely seen, can also be very useful in Mutalisk air wars.

Another advanced tactic would be to "nydus" your enemy base using the Nydus Canal. Although, very hard to pull off and would give away your tactic (ie. ground units, zerg race), if achieved, could hinder your opponent to a significant degree. This tactic requires early scouting to first know that the opponent is indeed Zerg and would also require exposed creep in your opponents base that isn't defended so the Nydus Canal can spawn successfully. Of course, one may go to the extreme and construct more than one Nydus Canal, then try to make exits for each one.

Against Terrans

When the Swarm confronts Terran foes, it usually faces one of two main tactics. The primary strategy employed by Terrans, the dreaded tank push, is as effective against Zerg as any race. A prepared Cerebrate has several effective counters. Burrowed Zerglings are capable of lying in ambush for approaching tanks and emerging practically on top of them, too close to hit. When protected from Marine fire under the cover of a Defiler's Dark Swarm, Zerglings can quickly surround and destroy enemy tanks. Tanks can also be neutralized by a Queen's Spawn Broodling. This is especially effective if the enemy deploys tanks in small groups: a tank that is suddenly turned into Broodlings will attract the fire of other nearby tanks, distracting them, and damaging tanks or infantry close to the Broodlings. This can also be used in the middle of a group of Marines, or as a cheap way to damage Bunkers prior to a base assault.

In the Brood Wa expansion, Zerg face an additional threat: pure infantry armies of Marines and Medics, affectionately nicknamed M&Ms. These can deal significant damage to Zerg forces while sustaining frustratingly few losses. Fortunately, the Zerg now have Lurkers, which are especially good at countering large groups of infantry. Lurkers benefit especially from good unit control: a cunning Cerebrate will note the approach of infantry and continually order his Lurkers to hold their fire until the enemy troops are right on top of them. This will greatly increase splash damage, and, when combined with surface troops, makes it difficult for the Lurkers to be targeted, even after being detected.

In extremely long games, Terrans sometimes opt for a large fleet of Battlecruisers. These intimidate some Zerg players, as they have no equivalent capital unit, and large groups of Hydralisks will be quickly mown down. Queens and Defilers are the answer here, as Ensnare and Plague will cripple the enemy and render them unable to escape. In Brood War, Devourers and Mutalisks are a highly effective combination. Scourge also show their quality in this situation, as they can take down expensive Battlecruisers for much less cost. However, one must remember that, if unescorted and unaided, no amount of Scourge can score a hit on groups of six or more upgraded Battlecruisers. Their upgraded weaponry will take Scourge down in swarms.

Terrans have few special abilities that are trouble for the Zerg. Irradiate can be highly annoying, as a single use will destroy an Overlord or Lurker and can massacre a clump of Mutalisks. It is largely ineffective against other units, however, due to the extremely long time it takes to work. Burrowing the affected unit is the best defense when it is used on a pack of Hydralisks. Nuclear strikes should not be a problem as long as you keep Overlords in every base.

Finally, although Infested Terrans are entertaining to use, their effectiveness should not be overestimated, as they are rarely able to reach their targets without dying. Dark Swarm can be used to prolong their lives, but it does not effectively protect units from splash damage. In allied or team games with a Terran partner, however, Defensive Matrix can drastically alter that.

Against Protoss

Zerg players have a bit of an advantage against Protoss, due to the fact that Protoss have no reliable early scout (Probes die in two hits from Sunken Colony, Corsairs are a bit late, and Zealots have a hard time making it into a good Zerg's base). For this reason, Protoss players have to play a guessing game regarding the Zerg's strategy until they have reliable data. Generally, Zerg players pick a strategy at the start and later on change it to throw the Protoss off balance. Mutalisks, due to their small size, are fairly resistant to Dragoon fire, and of course are completely safe from Zealots. High Templar, however, will decimate them if they pause in mid-flight. Hydralisks, if micromanaged properly, can defeat Zealots without taking a single hit. Zerglings destroy Dragoons due to their small size and speed.

The Zerg will typically have massive numerical superiority against a much smaller army of far tougher units. The clever Cerebrate will turn this into an advantage by dividing his forces and attacking from multiple fronts. This has the added benefit of dispersing your troops, providing some protection from psionic storm -- vital in Zerg vs. Protoss matches. A well placed storm can destroy a dozen or more clustered Hydralisks in seconds. Individual High Templar can be destroyed with Spawn Broodling, but an intelligent Executor will trick you with hallucinations while hiding the real Templar in Shuttles. The best solution is simply to prevent large groups of units from piling up in the first place through constant harassment.