A tightly done build order vs. Terran and Harrasment Part 2
Okey so I'm not blind, I've seen the threads on the forum about Terran being OP and so forth. What those threads lack is ANY discussion to what to do against a Terran, its just rubbish trash talk to each other which might strengthen your internet peen a bit but does not help anyone being better at beating Terran. I won't take a discussion in this thread about whether Terran is OP or not, I don't want you to start flaming about this either in here.
Now I have a good friend who play Terran and we have practice a lot against each other over the last weeks and days just to see how OP Terran is.
I'd say we are both at the same level, so it isn't Diamond Protoss against Bronze Terran.
And in this scenario I'm going to use 4-gate as what I did against the Terran MM and MMG.
There is no relevance for me to talk about late game at the moment because I somewhat did that when talking about Colossus vs. High Templars.
The thing I started noticing when I got my 4-gate perfectly timed was that you can sneak in a upgrade in there so it just gets done before you attack (using metalopolis as a map)
I started theorizing about which one was the best and realized that when doing a 4gate push against Terran you really want that +1 Armor upgrade.
Because when you have that, all your units (Zealots, Stalkers even Sentries) have +2 Armor.
This along with that every Terran unit is ranged makes Guardian Shield godly in this perspective.
Every marine does 2damage against all our units. Do you know how big a difference that is? Usually every marine does 5damage against your units (since they have +1armor from start) that makes a 60% damage reduction against his marines. A marauder does 9damage against zealots and 19 against your stalkers.
That's a 40%damage reduction against zealots and 20% against stalkers (6/16 respectively).
Now this makes so that you loosing your shield against early ghost makes almost no difference in the early fights because he won't have enough firepower to stop you, specially if you add in a pylon close to the front and just continue pushing as soon as you breach his wall.
The thing with concussive shell came into our mind but the fact that I had enough sentries to force field his marauders so my zealots could deal with them made it impossible for him to cling on just because I took such minimal damage against him.
This is just one way of beating a Terran, but as I wrote earlier on in my first post, Protoss is a race that requires you too use a lot of abilities to win. They are strong without them but the synergy between your units abilities makes them unstoppable, specially early game.
When you get to the point where you can have a crisp build order and macro you can start seeing how that makes the big difference between you crushing him early on and not.
I then tried doing 2-gate robotics build and its just so powerful I can't even believe it. But the thing that will happen on lower level of play is that they won't keep their macro up, keeping to build pylons so their money just skyrockets and they feel they need to add another robotics facility, more gates early on and so forth.
I can tell you that if you just keep pumping immortals and more gateway units from those two (exception for a Observer) you won't have money for a second robotics facility and your army will be so big and scary
A thing about playing this game most seem to forget is that it is a strategy game. Strategy does not just mean that you have counter for his units, but it means that you have to be tactical in your decisions against him.It's the foundation of winning. If you just keep hitting the front of his army with your army he's probably going to win because Terran has it easier setting up a front line than Protoss have.
And that's the second point I want to make. Many get frustrated with silence. If you know you are on the same amount of bases as he is, there is no reason to worry about what he is doing. Because there are just 2options.
* He is macroing just like you
* He is planning a harass
This is why scouting is such a big part of the game. Because if you can keep vision of most of the maps key locations you can anticipate drops, stimed marauder rush by or troop movement.
If you can do this it's going to feel like you are map-hacking for your opponent.
And you have the best unit in the game for controlling this: The observer.
And don't worry about getting out-macroed. Really. If you can just keep using your chrono boost on your warp-gates an robotics facility then you produce at such a higher rate than him even if he spams marines.
Do not neglect the warp prism (NO I did not take my name from that, I have been using it since before World of Warcraft was released) It such a strong unit.
Lets compare a medivac drop and a warp prism attack;
The Terran will bring somewhere between 1-5dropships, but its just a static amount of units that will dwindle as you kill them off, there is no way for reinforcement. And if you feedback the medivacs there isn't even a way out for them, you can send as much troops you think is necessary and no more.
But with a warp prism drop, the Terran HAVE to send bigger part of his army or you will just keep warping in units in his base until there is no base left. Mid/late game most Protoss have 8+ warp gate. For every warp in he has to reinforce more or risk being overrun. The fun part of this is, you don't have to micro that attack that much, if he have to move his army into his base you can snipe of his expansion with your real army and now you have pulled ahead with a lot, because you still have you expansion up and running, you have lost a couple of units that have been warped into his base, but surely they outlived their purposes haven't they?
Besides, the cost for a warp prism is just nothing compared to that of a medivac. Since you want to use that gas on units that fight and not carry people around. ^^
[Side note: When harassing, especially against Zerg, get his gas killed! Zerg without gas only produces zergling, and that's nothing!]
And that's the best part of going down the robotics tech. You have acquired the awesome tech to build units wherever your army moves with that prism.
Incredible isn't it!
This is the most effective type of harass Protoss can throw at an enemy in type of ground forces. If you already have a star gate up, it gets easier and makes him focus his minerals on AA-turrets or vikings.
2-3 Void rays moving in from behind on his base can just kill EVERYTHING if he isn't quick enough to move his army there and take them out. Its kind of costly but they are fast and can move out fast if they get detected. The same goes with Phoenix harass (even though Phoenixes are bugged at the moment they are still useable)
If you have a star gate out then why not throw down some cheap phoenixes and harass his mineral lines. Late game, phoenixes are great for protecting your colossus so having a few earlier on helps you not only ruin his economy but builds up your late game units, AHA! We start to think ahead and have a plan thru out the match! : ))
There are many many more ways of harassing your opponent, you only need to be creative in thinking them out. And if you scout this is so easily done because you will see where his defenses falters and you can use that to your advantage.
Every game is different and you should always, no matter how tedious these tasks are, scout, macro and keep building your build order correctly.
Responding to early harass/cheese or Pressure
Actually a lot asked me how to respond to early pressure such as reaper harass, cannon rush, proxy barracks, 2gate zealot push etc. etc.
Aside from the obvious changes in your buildorders you MIGHT need to do (not going into specifics on how to counter every cheese known to man, that would be to long)
there is a mental list you should have when playing on the ladder, since cheese never will be forbidden and only works when you are not aware that it is happening.
Check your base:
Are there any probes inside or outside your base close to the mineral lines that you should be aware off? Any Bunkers inside your base being built that will ruin your day?
What does he have in his base?
Check early against your opponent, you can't know if he is going to do any cheese or not and not checking is just like playing the lottery. You can't have those odds, you need to KNOW if he is going for it or not. If he has 2early gateways and no cybernetics, you will probably face a lot of zealots. If he has a barracks with tech-lab on very early then you will see reapers pop up in your base.
Do not Panic!
Whatever you do, when you detect his cheese/Rush/pressure, Do not loose your grip of the game. If you see it early on he can't do anything to you if you start countering it.
If you see a probe in your base starting to set up pylons and cannons, just pull your probes off the minerals for a second and start cutting away on those cannons before they get built.
You need to know what the counter is to different cheeses and that's how the game is played, prior knowledge to whats happening and you will win.
Keep Macro up!
This is essential to stay alive, to not let your build order slip because someone is knocking on your door, unless you really have to, if you can survive and still have your macro alive as if nothing have happened you will be so much further ahead its almost GG right there for him.
Do not be afraid to do anything needed to win!
Yes, do not be afraid to use your workers, put down a cannon if things look really grim for you. Anything to win right?
Even if you win by just using 1worker that is left to kill his last pylon its a victory and you shouldn't be afraid to get your hands all dirty from war.
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