Phase Cannon Transport Strategies

Normally a Phase Cannon is used as a static defense for Protoss Bases. New information however has changed that arrangement and has now made it possible to include Phase Cannons on the battle field.

This is an excerpt from Q&A session Batch 24:


5. Is it possible to build Phase Cannons, turn them into energy and then move them across the map to your opponents base or an expansion, redeploying them using a Phase Prism? (www.starcraft2.com.au)

Yes, this tactic will be possible.

So now we know that we can actually energize Phase Cannons and move them in using Phase Prisms.

In my opinion there are 3 main ways to utilize this new tactic:

(1) You can transport in the phase cannons first to have a static defense that enemy units will focus on instead of the phase prisms/units that are being warped in.

(2) Finishing off an opponent's expansion. Lets say you finish off most of an opponent's expansion but he begins to move with a frontal assault. While your units engage his units you can still transport in your phase cannons and have them finish off the rest of the expansion.

(3) Defending an ally. Your units are in battle and your ally's base defense is under attack. By transporting in a few cannons for your ally you can help deal damage and also shield him from losing critical expensive defenses. Obviously this strategy can be implemented in 1v1 as well by protecting your expansions via the same method.

Overall being able to transport phase cannons gives you the ability to provide extra fighting units to the battle field which gives the Protoss a new advantage. 50 zerg units vs. 25 protoss units could be a bad place to be in but teleport in 10 phase cannons and you've upped your troops to 35 units. An interesting new strategy to deploy.

Post your views on the strategies above or add in any other strategies you think could be viable in relation to the Transporting of Phase Cannons

 

You won't actually be able to bput them inside the prism so you will have to leapfrog with prisms all the way to the base.

It would be easier and quicker just to build cannons inside the enemy base.


Where this comes in handy is not moving cannons across the battlefield from one base to another itcomes in handy if you build cannons inside the enemybase and then using prisms you can move them around the base

 

I'm not quite sure what you mean? In the reply it says you will be able to deploy them in an enemy base by transporting them across the entire map. As in turn them into energy and then redeploy them. Why would you have to leap frog?

 

I herd the cannons can movie free they cant reform with out the pylon energy field tho so they can come and float right into some ones base but u cant transpost a cannon thats obserd and really annoying.

 

Yea, Blizzard said the Phase Cannons in energy form can go outside the Pylon power but obviously they'll be vulnrable due to low HP in energy form.

This will be an interesting tactic.

 

This will be fun. Nice way to make the protoss more mobile by allowing them to move thier defences around the entire map.

 

I wonder how the whole wall of turrets you see in some matches will be affected, im seeing walse 3 ranks deep with a "gatehouse" of sorts. (this is on those fast money maps). allowing units to walk past and then seal up when an enemy is around. Im certain im not the only one who thought about this. Am I?

 

Protoss tower rush vs another Protoss... hehehe. You could hover/fly your towers into their power field and deploy them, without risking them being destroyed during the warp in (that you instead do in your base.
But maybe you can't position them in enemy pylon power, and maybe it takes too much time?

 

I'd think if your opponent saw a bung of glowing balls they would shoot at them, and don't the cannons loose their shields when in "Warped" mode?

 

Probably. I of course don't think that this strategy would be generally effective. As you said, a few static defences, or in fact anything, could probably blast them in time. I was just wondering if it is possible at all, since it might be fast and fun to pwn noobs like that. The game would take less than 5 minutes.

 

Its the perfect way to backstab lol. But yea I agree, it wouldn't work against most people with the cannons coming in first, but with the enemy fire concentrated on Zealots the cannons could move in and thats when the enemy is in deep psi.

 

[qoute]thats when the enemy is in deep psi.[/quote] haha
however if you could move them it would also give you a good beachhead, like the terran barrax drop, scoot some cannons up there and you got fortress warfare and your invading army has the support fire of turrets.

 

I feel moving cannons is a little too over powered. All they have to do is send them to choke hold points and lay them out. He will always see you coming and have that unit( i cant remeber the name) post up over water or an unreachable space and have the cannons cut off need walk ways, all while the protoss are constantle assulting you, yeah thats not really fair.

 

um i dont get it what exactly are you saying here?

 

Then you defend the choke pointslike you should, and the water umm ok?

 

The problem is that cannons will be EXTREMELY vulnerable when they are moving, and if caught by a very small group of enemy units, and I mean very small, they could likely all be dispatched due to slow movement, and very low hitpoints. I think they could however be used an effective moving front that compliments your main forces, or for re-organizing defenses at an expansion. However, the cannons themselves will be normally useless on their own.

 

What do you mean extremely vulnerable when they are moving? That is true of any unit that you transport. It is not like you are moving the buildings themselves by uplifting them. You are energizing them as you would energize any unit to transport. And then you are simply un-energizing them where you want to drop them off. I don't understand what you mean when you say extremely vulnerable as though you are moving the cannons on their own. And why do you say slow movement? The phase prisms move fairly quickly as any transport unit would be expected to do.

 

Well I mean't that in energy form they move slowly, cannot reform unless they are inside a pylon field, and if I am not mistaken can take less damage then when they are in real form, meaning if they are caught out in the open by ANYTHING, you would likely loose all of them. Thats why you woul dhave to have a force with them in order for them to be effective. Not to mention all it would take is ONE siege tank and a moving front of cannons would be almost useless. (unless you had like 30 of them or something).

If I am not mistaken, the phase cannons can't be transported via phase prism, as they are not units, but buildings.

 

You can't put phase cannons inside prisms. The strategy Karune was refering to was the proposed strategy of building cannon elsewhere then putting them in energy mode and moving them to the enemy base and the phase prism is put in phasing mode to provide a power filed for the cannons to reform

 

I'm not sure what you mean. As to my understanding. When you put something into energy form you place it inside of a phase prism as a transport unit.

The protoss use these "phase prisms" in several ways. The primary function of a phase prism is to transport protoss forces on the battlefield. Living and inorganic subjects are transformed into energy, and their unique signature imprinted into the prism's crystal lattice core. On reaching the desired destination the operation is reversed and the stored energy signatures are reconfigured into matter in proximity to the phase prism.

The way the question I saw was worded it appeared as though you could build a phase cannon. Turn it into energy and transport it via a phase prism. You would allow the phase prism to provide a power field and then you would unload the cannons a.k.a. "un-energizing" them.

Are you saying that the cannons on their own can enter energy form and then move freely on their own? And then as a result you have to move them "solo" across the entire map? If thats how the tactic really is it doesn't make sense to me. As an energy form you would think that you would be able to "load" the energy form into a transport. Like I thought what this meant was you can turn the cannons into energy, and then load them into a transport unit (the phase prism) and bring them across the map.

If this really is how it's suppose to be then i apologize for my mis-interpretation. I took what they were saying the wrong way.