Hi there, Just started playing SC2 and in the last few days have started playing protoss. I aim to build carriers asap and to defend while working to this goal I build loads of turrents. This is working for me at the moment. I used it in 5 practice matches and won all of them. I then skipped to placement matches and have won my first 2 of them. I just wondered if you thought this was a decent strategy or not as I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere. The reason I went for this is carriers seem v OP and once you have 3 or 4 they seem almost ustoppable.
A very dangerous counter would be the building of reapers/zerglings for you. Or in general; every unit that could avoid a static defence or is that fast that it would run past it. The reaper unit can be build relatively quick. So when you are blocking off your chokepoint or front base, they will sneak arround the flanks and break down your whole mineral line. Zerglings the same story. If you build those lovely photon cannons, you had to research: A pylon: 100 A forge: 150( If im right) and then ur first photon cannon will be build with an expense of 150. thats 400 minerals total. and you have to build workers as well. The zerg unit could have done: No workers: Spawning pool: 200 6 zerglings: 150 and he would be there before you even saw your pylon come up. My advice: dont focus on specific tactics! be versatile! scan him and watch him with detectors/probes/a dark templar or dont and control the xel'nage towers for some kind of map control. and just begin steady with ur favourite build, and after that phase you transfer to the best counter you can give your opponent! Good Luck!
Thanks Mystery I will bear that in mind. As a Protoss what is a good defense against a Zerg rush? At the moment I have only played against Terran and they all seem to turtle.
Protoss can block their ramp with a pylon and a gateway leaving a small gap to fit 2 zealots holding position next to each other.
That's very interesting. I was told by someone that it's only Terran players that should block on their ramp. Is it as important for Protoss players to do it as well?
It's not about which race should block, it's about how you should do it. Blocking is useful irrespective of the race you play. With Terran it's the easiest and most effective, with Protoss it's a bit more tricky and only partially useful (as after the zealots die the enemy is free to come visit you), with Zerg it only goes as far as creating chokes around your mineral line and barriers in front of your spine crawler. But theoretically speaking, all races should block as they only benefit from it. There is no benefit from placing your structures scarcely (barring nukes but those rarely come).
the answer to your question is NO, you will not be able to perform this strategy throughout, I would never get caught by a carrier rush, this will NOT work in platinum or diamond, probably not even gold league. you have been playing against inexperienced players. if its not a heavy rush that's gonna stop you, its gonna be a good ground force that will take out your carriers. mass marines with stim pack> carriers mass hydras > carriers mass stalkers > carriers mass vikings > carriers couple thors > carriers void rays + phoenixes > carriers mass corruptors > carriers unless you made carriers AND stalkers/zealots if you are looking for a fast super tech, you should consider battlecruisers which are more effective, but still not the best strategy. LiquidTLO tried this, and still lost.
Yeah, I don't even know if this would work in silver. Typically if I see a turtle strategy I back up and tech to muta. This doubles as a scout/harass tactic. As soon as I see that you're teching air I'm going to mass corruptor, expand like crazy, and tech to broodlords. By the time you get out 4 carriers I'm going to have at least 12 corruptor, and that is all I need. Shortly after broodlords will crush your base. This is likely to work well in practice matches simply because of the lack of normal rush time.
yes carriers are awesome and beastly and all that good stuff the unfortunate part is they cost lots of money time and tech, now if you 1 base 3 stargate you can make some carriers, but if i go 2 base 7 warpgate i can make alot of stalkers and when they die i make more, when you lose a carrier its outa the game for a good min or so, this also assumes that a person lets you get that far, yes you can have as many cannons as you want but static defense is never a replacement for units if i bring in 7 upgraded sentries with guardian shield i can break down alot of cannons and they are not fighting units. the key thing is you will not be able to get to carriers fast enough to fight off early timing pushes in higher leagues 1v1. also rushing carriers is not a strategy it is a tactic, as strats have as beginning middle and an end build carriers has either a beginning or an end not sure which. a tactic on the other hand is something you do to get a result. such as harassing with immortal drops (which cause him to have less stuff), but rushing an immortal drop will lose you a game vs anyone willing to continue
That's true.If you want to rush with carriers you must support them with stalkers or zealots (i think stalkers are better option).If you are playing 2vs2 and your partner is terran ask him to support you with thors.This is power
first off theres is pretty much no such thing as a carrier "rush" they just take too long to build and so on.. but if you want to use a strat like this you will need 3 bases with mineral deposites and gas geysers to never be starved and waiting around for mineral or gas with your wang in the wind.. (this is what has worked best in my exp ) 1. 1 pylon 2. 1 forge and 1 gate 3. cybernetics core then 4 stargates 4. once first stargate is done building get right on the fleet beacon 5. when thats done train the catapult for the carriers (makes them leet) all while massing carriers asap 6. once you have 4 out and on defence train mothership so you can hide most of your fleet ppl are always like wtf where are all these fighters comin from (and be prepared on the ground later) this is all for the longer games and this strat rapes zerg if you can hold them off in the mean time if you have 5 cannons on a swarm they dont stand a chance this has worked for me on a ton of players but doesnt always work.. just gotta adopt a strat and mold it to your play style
