Thursday, March 1, 2012

Learning Starcraft 2: Knowing When to Run, or Unit Comps & Avoiding Fights

I thought this was an interesting game.  And good example of a critical mistake causing the loss, my comments, with spoilers below the VOD.





I am going to focus on only one fight near the end of the game.  For people that are wondering about why Protoss went with Shield upgrade over Armor I suggest looking at my post Starcraft 2 Thoughts: PvZ dealing with Mutas with Gateways units.


At 18:34 game time (13:28 VOD time) Zerg is maxed out with 10 Mutas + 10 Corrupters=40 supply of little use in fight vs ground Army, yes they will help vs Colossus but they can't kill them in one shot, it will take 2 Volleys.  The Mutas/Corrupters are at +1 Attack.

[The +1 Air Attack doesn't affect this equation at all, that is why I suggest 6-8 Corrupters with Armor upgrade first for Zerg, that would kill Colossus in 3 volleys, and they have native 2 Armor, so with +1 would have 3 Armor total, making them a lot harder to kill, and it would have saved twenty four food for the Ground Army!]

With 42 lings + 30 Roaches=81 food ground army, but Roaches while good damage are low DPS units.

The Roaches were at 2/2, and the Hive is still half a minute or so away.

Prooss was already at +3 attack, with +1 Shield done before fight starts and Dark Shrine about half done when fight ends..

Protoss had 2 Colossus=12 food that is good vs whole ground Army, but made for killing lings instantly, a +3 Attack Colossus 1 shots +2 Armor Lings.   With 3rd Colossus done and on the way to the deathball, joins the fight around the middle of the fight.

Six(!) Immortals + 31 Blink Stalkers= 86 Food ground Army made for killing Roaches.   As well as  3 Sentry + 1 Zealot=8 food that didn't matter much, other than Guardian shield.

18:41 game time (13:33 VOD time) Zerg moved out with Muta & Corrupters, no Broodlords, because Hive wasn't done yet and Zerg also didn't have the food for Morphing Broods.

Zerg just didn't have the unit comp need to win straight fight, so Zerg should have been avoiding a fight and working on delaying Protoss.

How to delay Protoss deathball?

Any of the following would work, ideally some combination.

Harass with Mutas, don't try to kill with them, but poke at mineral lines or structures.  Note, Protoss' shield upgrade helps defend vs this.

Send lings out for run by or just to threaten them.

Even better coordinate the Mutas and Lings!  Either have them both attack same location together, or have one go north and the other go south.

Build some spines, Stephano does this on some maps vs Protoss, Spines also work well with Broodlords for defense or slow creeping offense.

Buld a Proxy Hatch, with or without Spines on the road near one of the Xel Naga Towers, like Terrans do with PF's or Toss do with Cannons sometimes.

Your not looking to stop the enemy with it, just slow them down, it works as a speed bump or delaying attack.

Another thing you could do is just dance your army away, and posture like your going for a base race, though that is more dangerous, cause Toss might call your bluff, and with all those +3 Immortals they will have high DPS, which is an edge in a base race.

These are just some suggestions, there are certainly other ways to delay.

The important point to learn, is that Zerg couldn't win a fight with the unit comp he had, so he needed to avoid a fight at all costs, since that was a guaranteed loss if he had a real engagement.

I will end with a simple Maxim:  When you have superior Army to your opponent, then kill his Army.  When you have an Inferior Army to your opponent, DON'T fight his Army!

That doesn't mean you can't attack, his workers can't beat your army, neither can his structures, so attack them or threaten them!

GL HF,

Cliff

No comments:

Post a Comment