Hiya guys, I know this topic has been done to death. But i would like to still hear it from people. Here's the scenario, its a 3v3, all 6 of us are Protoss and 2 out of the 3 opposition team decide to utilize Cannon rushing. My ally and i both were cornered and caved in early game. The remaining one, was stuck in the center, unable to leave his base as the Cannons crept into his boundaries. Despite cannon rushing being a legitimate tactic, i still can't help but feel the frustration of falling victim to such an attack. Rebuilding my base at a different area was not an option as they spotted me running away. Scouting and spotting an early rush are solutions to the problem. That much i do know. But what if the situation is already midway through and the encroachment is starting to threaten your gateways and pylons? Is it still possible to escape from such a situation? I appreciate all replies, many thanks to anyone who will provide some advice.
I havn't played with protoss yet but i think you can get thru a cannon rush if you mass a few immortals.just remember to pull those back that have most of their shields depleted. P.S Have you finished the challenges yet?,you can learn alot.
Well really there are two types of cannon rushes. 1. The "true" cannon rush, where the enemy builds his pylon and cannons inside your base and tries to get in range of your workers or buildings. In this case, you should have a worker and pylon at each ramp or choke point so you can see the enemy probe enter your base. If it does and you don't see it for a few seconds, you need to scout around for a pylon. If he makes a pylon and a cannon, immediately send 4-5 workers to kill his cannons while they are warping in. (Ignore the pylon, it is inexpensive, has high HP, and builds so quickly that it's not worth it) Sure he can keep canceling them to warp in more cannons, but it's still good for you because you are delaying him until you can get fighting units to stop it completely and then counterattack his base (or expand and tech up). 2. The cannon contain, where he builds his cannons outside your base, so you can't get out. In this case you have more time to tech up to counters. Stalkers, immortals, hydralisks with range, and marauders are all very capable of breaking down cannons, and then your opponent is down a whole lot of minerals for nearly no damage.
Mmm.... i would have considered that option if it weren't the rush weren't so early game. I've finished some of the Challenge missions already, somewhat useful i guess. Thanks for the advice. Thank you my good sir/ma'am, your advice is really informative and i believe it'll help me in the long run. I have not seen the 2nd scenario you placed out before, however i have lost quite a number of times to the first option. In that 3 v 3 scenario that i played prior to putting up the trend, i believe the 2 Cannon Rushers from the opposition team were being fed by their 3rd team member. With their combined resources, i doubt 4-5 of my probes would be able to take so many at such short notice. Once again, many thanks for your sound advice.
its a cannon Rush, you will not even be close to a robo by the time the cannons are killing ure base, the best counter is to scout the rush, people are so dumb when it comes to scouting there own base, they think losing 5-10 seconds mineing time on 1 probe will cost them the game, so untrue, even if the guy has 1-2 cannons up when u scout ure base the counter is to build cannons ureself, also use 1 gateway and 4-5 zlots will rip his base apart as its usually empty.
Do you guys ever build your own cannons to prevent your opponent from building cannons in your base for example if it was a "cannon contain" and your enemy slowly builded cannons further and further in your base... then you really should build your own cannons as they have the same range and cannons cant move so he cant attack your cannons with his own unless he builds like 2-3 cannons at your cannon but they never really do that ^^ as zerg or protoss i dont really have any problems with cannon rushes because i usually just build my own defenses if i forget to scout :3
a cannon contain and a cannon rush are 2 diffrent things, contain is not an all in strat, 90% of the time a cannon rush is, the whole point of the rush is to eventually kill ure oppenents nexus/hatch/CC and therefore destroy his econemy very early in the game, a contain is just to stop someone leaving there base for somtime, another example of a cannon contain is when u contain ureself ( wall ureself into ure own base ) with many cannons, ive seen this work very well as i lost a game due to it, He built around 15 cannons at the front of his base and teched to carriers, i couldnt get an observer anywhere into his base as he had alot of cannons, by the time the first 3-4 carriers were out it was gg.
That's why people spam hallucinations to scout. You'd need a couple of sentries anyway. Also, please no 'ure'
Mmm, i have considered playing mind games with my enemy utilizing hallucinations at one point. I haven't found the right opportunity for that as of yet though... Thanks for the suggestions. If anyone else likes to drop a suggestion or 2, i'd be very happy to listen to them. Many thanks once again everyone.
The best way to win battles like this is to send your units to your opponent's bases and take out the mineral line. No mineral line, no minerals for cannons. The cannon rush forgoes anything but a forge and probes to harvest.
What race are you using? It matters since the PCR varies in effectiveness. Obviously the best defense is to scout it out early, and that has been mentioned here and on other threads. But let's say you were lazy or your scout missed it, and the first thing you see is cannons being build right by your line (they are already backed up by pylons and cannons out of site). This situation is still quite winnable, and every race has ways of dealing with it. I'll try to break down what I do against an unscouted PCR as each race. 1. Zerg - This is fairly trivial. The PCR should be no problem, the creep prevents them from making cannons too close anyway, and with queen/spinecrawlers/lings - which all come out pretty fast - you should own. Because of these reasons and more, no decent player will ever try to PCR a Zerg. 2. Terran - a little tougher, but still should never lose to PCR. If there are cannons in range of your production buildings, fly them away. Continue to build units our of range of the cannons, focus on marauders since they will eat the pylons and cannons later. If the cannons are in range of your CC, DON"T PANIC. harvest as much as you think you can and then fly your CC away, land in your natural or the next nearest spot and continue as normal, pretend that the old base is just his now. I realize you will take a hit on econ here, but it's ok since he has taken a hit by building all those cannons and pylons which are essentially doing NOTHING (as long as you're not trying to fight by them, NEVER fight by them). once you have a small to mid size army hit his main, he will have at most 2 cannons by his min or entrance. 3. Protoss - by far the toughest. The best luck I've had here is just harvesting as much as I can, i'd even wait until there is actually a cannon hitting your nexus before moving (you'll need at least 400 min), and then just save your probes and rebuild another nexus in a far off spot, continue to pump units, and ofcourse DON"T PANIC. once you have a small/mid size army attack their main, you should be ahead. One main point again - Most losses to PCR are because of panic, not because of some great Econ advantage your opponent has created. If you mantain your calm and continue to pump units, you should be ahead. Remember, your opponent has put himself behind intentionally to fortify area in your base, by simply moving your base, all his efforts will be for fortifying nothing important.
As much as I hate losing to the occasional cannon rush, it's still an awesome strategy against a lot of players.
Cannon rushes are kind of a double-bladed sword. They can easily get the upper hand on you if you don't spot it early enough, but if they fail, the Protoss player will be severely behind on unit production and teching. I've found that the most surefire way to stop a cannon rush is to kill the probe. However this is difficult if you don't have any ranged units. In this case, the only real way to stop them is to spot them as early as possible so you can destroy the cannons as they are warping in; once they get 3 or 4 cannons active it's pretty much over (in an early rush, that is). I'm no expert or anything, but that tends to work for me.
