My own "Cheesing" intervention.

Greetings people, I've just joined this forum and I apologize that my first post is going to be mostly to my benefit but I dont think my posts would be much help to anyone til I learn some things and I'll be happy to contribute however I can in the future.

So I've been playing this game since its release and I played the first game as well, but I was even worse at that one than I am at this one. But, determined to climb the ladders I found myself coming up with incredibly clever and undiscovered ways to beat other players, or so I thought. As it turns out these ideas were so unoriginal and apparently not all that clever most players disdainfully call these strategies "Cheesing." Despite that fact I've used refined versions of various rush and Cheese tactics and landed myself in the Platinum league. Much to my dismay however, the average player in the higher leagues is very much so better than me and furthermore, seems to pride himself in decimating poor people like myself who never learned how to actually play the game. So, turning to strategy guides to save me I found most of them saying things like "Do this to give you the edge, then continue with a regular game." The "continue with a regular game" part being the part I cant seem to grasp I thought I'd ask for some help. I thank you all in advance and I plan on being an active member of these forums and hopefully, even nice to have around. So thanks in advance and these are a few questions I have in specific:

The first is regarding Stalkers and the Blink ability. I've seen videos where players will take masses of them and Blink into the unsuspecting enemies base and and lay waste to their harvesters. But I cant seem to make this technique effective and I'm wondering just what do you do exactly to make use of Blink Stalkers.

The second is about the Sentry unit. These little guys make just about 0 appearances in my Starcraft 2 games because I can't seem to make use of them. I realize this is to my fault, and so I was wondering how do I use them effectively and how often do you guys use them?

And lastly about how many harvesters should I have on my first Nexus, and in general how quick should I have an expansion?

Any help would be really great guys and I appreciate any response, hope I didn't bother anyone with the lengthy post right off but I had to ask.

 

First I wanna join one of your questions: how many harvesters per mineral patch? An ingame tip says 3, but I read here in the forums that's just to transfer them once on ehas an expansion. Does it make sense otherwise? To answer your question partially, you need 3 workers per gas.

When you get an expansion depends on race and what your opponent does. Zerg need one very soon, about 16 or 22 supply. Generally, expand after winning a battle and when you have the advantage. Also expand if your enemy does and he defends his expansion too well.

Blink stalkers are excellent for many things. Abuse cliffs to get free shots or retreat, but mind, to get UP a cliff, you need vision by having a unit up there or a flying unit nearby. Also, they can catch fleeing units easily and counter air harass.Vs siege tanks, blink them right next to the tanks so tanks kill themselves with splash damage. Also, when engaging in a firefight, blink nearly dead stalkers to the back of your army, the AI will target another unit so your stalkers shields can regenerate and not too many stalkers are destroyed.

Sentries are very important. Early rushes by melee units are easily countered by placing ranged units at the choke and place a forcefield so the enemy units can't advance. Also, use guardian shield against enemy ranged units to minimize the damage they deal. Forcefields are also great in the open to prevent lings from eating your stalkers and other units. Also very important vs. banelings. When you place the forcefield, the units have to go a long way while your stalkers/immortals/colossi get free shots at them.

 

3 a patch is ideal. However, the third worker mines at half speed, so you may want to get an expansion so you can pump more scvs and stay at 2 workers a patch via the transferring of workers. If you play Terran MULEs do not interrupt other workers.

Expo timing widely, widely varies, but the best rule of thumb is that at the latest, you want an expo up by the time your workers are saturated.

If you want specific information, which i assume considering your experience, a BO or replay would be helpful.

 

First off, I wanna say that u sound cute. >+d

aaanyways...
welcome to tehz f0aru4mz
1) REGARDING STALKERS AND BLINK! Micro. run away. hunt down. protect cliffs (like ones next to an expansion)
2) REGARDING SENTRIES! Guardian shield is immensely effective against groups of ranged units that have somewhat low damage per shot, or are massed. Marines, Marauders, Stalkers, Hydras, Mutas, Colossi (Kinda but not really), etc. Force field is somewhat useful, but I would only use it to block chokes.
3) HARVESTER COUNTS!! 3 per min node/ gas. After I move most of them to my expo, i keep pumping moar. I think I got over 100 works created one game. (112 i believe). AND YES I WON.

AwesomeSauciness4)
CHEESING?!?!?!
HAVE NO FEAR! First! Play some computers on Insane difficulty. Second! Don't worry too much, I was once a very heavy cheeser. But! this was because I put absolutely no thought into the game -- just went with w/e I went with.

HOWEVER!!! This all changed....when I made my own build order! I was so proud... (Of keeping tru to it that is)
It is this (BEHOLD!!):

9/10 Pylon !!!!!! , then Probe
13/10 GATEWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11!
15/10 Pylon (Note!: I always place this pylon so that part of the circumference reaches the edge a place or two where I can place tech buildings -- It's become a habit)

then I do watever the hell I want.

 

You are quite an awesome gamer, placing a 15/10 pylon. How do you do it?

 

One of my favorite uses of forcefield is to separate an army kill half of it then kill the other, youd be surprised how easy it is to kill an army divided!, also in 2v2 a tactic me and my friend use is use forcefields to block off one of our opponents bases stopping reinforcements while we attack the other player, making it an easy victory and we can probably get out before they have a chance of fighting back!

 

I'm best friends with the laws of Starcraft.

 

Hey thanks Domanz and 1n5an1ty! Exactly what I was looking for. That makes since with the stalkers, I tried going up without vision a couple times and it didn't work out haha. With what you said I can definitely put them to better use. Hmm, now I wonder how you pull that build order off? 13/10 gateway, I shoulda thought of that =P

With the Sentries I see people use them against melee units in the open to like pick them off, is that what you were talkin about Domanz?

Also Seradin, thats the most awesome team tactic of all time.

 

Yes that's what I was talking about. Either make them run around your army by placing forcefields beside melee units/short range units like roaches, or trap them in the choke or somewhere else when they try to retreat for easy pickings. I really hate well microed sentries, very powerful.