Starcraft 2 Protoss 3v3 Strategies

When you're looking for a 3v3 Strategy in Starcraft 2, it's important to realize how difficult it really is to wipe out three separate opponents when they have the defender's advantage.  Thus, you really need an overwhelming force that's strong against some of the toughest units in the game, which the opponent could field en masse.

If you've read my other 3v3 strategy, you'll note that specializing and making the big damage-dealing units for your team is a great way to use Protoss.  If you can get a teammate to feed you gas, you can get Colossus or Immortals out before the opponents will have enough of the counter units.  Chrono-boost allows you to get these units out even more quickly as well.

I suggest that the Protoss player go Immortals when you see mass Roach, mass Stalker, or Mech.

This unit hard-counters most big units, and many tough, mass-produceable units like Roaches and Stalkers.  Let your allies go with Colossi or Siege Tanks or Banelings/Infestors to counter mass-zealot or marine, while you annihilate pretty much everything else.  Mix in a few anti-air units, and you have quite the killer army.




Shutting Down Mass Muta
The other function of the Protoss player is to shut down Mass Muta strategies by threatening mass Phoenix.  Mass Phoenix can actually be better than you might think, even in straight-up army battles, because they can lift and kill high-dps units, such as Hydras, Templar, Ghosts and Infestors.  While this requires a lot of micro, it CAN turn the tide.  However, you should avoid such scenarios whenever possible, and instead use Phoenixes to snipe Overlords or other scouts, to discourage further Muta production, to maintain air dominance, and to protect against drops.

Photon Cannons
The Protoss player also has another item in his arsenal that can be overlooked:  Photon Cannons.  This single building can be placed virtually anywhere (except on creep), and can also defend against nearly anything (or at least slow it down).  Use Photon Cannons liberally at expansions (yours and teammates'), and you'll find that enemy harassment dries up quickly.  What you must be careful of is not to overbuild cannons before you have the economy to support it, otherwise you won't have much of an army, and you or your allies can be hit where you don't have cannons.  Cannons can't counterattack, either.  However, because team games tend to be longer than 1v1's, your side will eventually have the resources to cannon up key expansions and choke points.

Chargelots
I also think Chargelots are among the best meat-shield that you can get in almost any race.  They are fairly tough, small enough to be fielded in large masses, aren't worth using Neural Parasite on (unlike Archons) and only cost minerals.  Better still, they move in quickly and chew up other players' meat shields quite well (even Roaches, which are usually thought to be their counter unit).  Because of the mass of units in a big 3v3 battle, the Zealots will not be able to be kited, and will do great damage for their cost, especially with attack upgrades.  However, Zealots can also suck when faced by enemy Colossi and Infestors, so their use can be limited by the opponents' unit composition.  Yet, in 3v3, it's not as likely that the enemy army will be able to micro well, if only because of the sheer amount of stuff on the screen, and then Zealots can perform uite well (it doesn't matter if they are Fungal'ed if they are already doing damage!).

Dark Templar
Protoss also have the most annoying unit in team games:  Dark Templar (DTs).  Almost every player has lost a game to the sudden appearance of 5+ DTs in their main base, and a team game gives a Protoss player the ability to mass Dark Templar without the risk that their own base will be flattened by a counterattack if the DTs are spotted early.   If you aren't facing any Protoss opponents (i.e no enemy Observers), I recommend throwing in even 4-5 DTs at the front of your army.  They will prevent enemy melee units from reaching units directly behind them, and many opponents won't realize they even exist - stuff is dying so fast that they won't notice the extra damage from the extremely-powerful DTs.

Mass Blink Stalkers
Last, you shouldn't ignore the possibility of going mass blink-Stalkers.  Stalkers are a fast unit with decent damage, and should be used in packs to continually harass enemy locations.  Because they can stand up to or run away from many enemy units, and have the speed to run away from many more, Stalkers are great for harassment.  I recommend accompanying them with an observer, so they can blink to high ground when pursued by their one counter:  mass upgraded Speedlings.

Scouting: Rushes, All-Ins, Timing Pushes, Tech Switches and Macro Battles

Scouting really is the secret to the game.  You've passed Gold league, you know your macro.  You've learned the basic "elite" micro moves.  You know how to pick your battles.  Now... what the hell is my opponent doing?

The better you know the game, the more you will pick up from clues about what the opponent is doing based on the amount of time that has passed and what he would be able do have done in that time.

For example, if you scout the enemy base, and you know that a Terran opponent should have been able to make at least three barracks by the 4 minute mark, and only has one, chances are good that he has a hidden expansion somewhere.

I recommend sending a scout to the enemy base when you've hit 9 or 10 supply.  That is, you'll have 9 or 10 workers at this time.  The reason you send one so early is that some early strategies, such as the 6-pool, will require you to change your build order quite early to defend against the early attack.  Furthermore, your opponent can wall-off his base such that your worker scout cannot enter the base, thus denying you ANY scouting information.

You should check the following things with your early scout:

1. Gas, present or absent
   
2. Number and/or timing of Barracks, Gateways, or Spawning Pool
3. Number of Workers

It's important to know that the ABSENCE of any of these is as significant as multiples of them.  If you don't see a Barracks and you really should be seeing one by this point in the game, check near your base for Proxy Barracks.

No gas for Terran and Protoss usually means an early attack or expansion, because they are forgoing tech in exchange for a fast expand or a low-tech rush.

The number of workers is also important, because early in the game, it is difficult to afford both workers and a constant production of attack units to offset the defender's advantage.

Starcraft 2 Strategies: The Defender's Advantage

New players to Starcraft 2 may not know the term "defender's advantage", or how it applies specifically to Starcraft 2.

In short, the defender's advantage is usually one of position or the ability to reinforce more quickly than the attacker.

Positional advantages:

• Vision / Sight
• Choke points near your base, either existing or made with buildings

Reinforcement Advantages:

• Combat will be close to your unit producing structures
• Structures are well protected behind a choke

What does this all mean?

It means that if your opponent builds mostly army with his resources, and you build your army and go attack him, by the time your forces get there, he'll have more stuff than you.  Thus, your only chance against his army happens if he decides to expand or tech rather than build attacking units.

And this, of course, is where scouting comes in...

Starcraft 2v2 Strategy: Don't Overcommit Your Early Attack

Starcraft 2v2 Strategies usually involve either an early wall with fixed defenses, or an early army to either attack, or defend-then-counterattack.  If you're the one on the attack, and you notice that your opponent has built an early army, you are far better off doing a bit of scouting and then retreating rather than going head-to-head with his army, when he has the defender's advantage.

A common mistake when early-attacking is to bring your combined army into one opponents' base, but then get pincered into the base by his ally's army.  That army, plus any reinforcements the first opponent may field, might be enough to hold you off and have enough for a counterattack.  I've lost many games doing this.

The other important factor, which I've mentioned in another blog post about 2v2 macro, is to continue to macro when attacking, such that if you DO lose your whole army on the attack, then you have enough defending units to fend off the counterattack.

Starcraft 2: Macro is key to 2v2

The key to winning Starcraft 2 2v2 matches is macromanagement.  My recent realization, which should probably be accompanied by a "duh", is that what wins you games is the ability to macro as your units are attacking.  Why?  Well, if you lose the battle, you still have units coming to defend you. 

I really recommend attacking first in 2v2, especially when the bases are separate, not shared.  It's not very common for players in the lower leagues especially to set a common rally point for their units, and if you can take your combined army and hit half the opponents' army, you are going to simply roll them over.  Granted, they will reinforce, but so will you, and if you manage to do economic damage (which you should), then the game is yours.

For the sole reason that you have TWO players' combined income against you, I don't recommend "all in" type of strategies in 2v2.  It's far better to have that multiplicative-macro bonus working for your side, rather than trying for the quick kill and have your opponents possibly get ahead of you.  It's even possible for ONE of your two opponents to beat you if they are left to build up and tech up fast enough.

Day9 coined an interesting phrase in his podcast on 2v2 strategy.  He called it "die slowly". He implied that in some games, where you and your ally are separated by a fair distance, it may not be possible to save your ally's base, while still being possible to win the game.  Simply put, the more time it takes for your ally to be finished off, the more time you have to tech up, expand, and put down fixed defenses.  Meanwhile, you opponents have likely sunk a great deal of resources into their attack, at the expense of economy.  This sacrifice of theirs allowed them to destroy your ally's base, but should also have given you time to create an army capable of defeating the remainder of their COMBINED armies.  And thus, back to the idea of macro winning you games - if you can't build up in the time your ally gives you, you need to work on your macro.

Starcraft 2 Strategy: How to Practice

A lot of people like to play Starcraft, and want to improve their Starcraft 2 strategy, but they keep doing the same things every game.

Here are a few pointers to improving your game while still having fun:

1. Go into each game with the idea that you're going to do your best, but you are there to lose.  Losing means learning, and it takes the pressure off.  If you win, bonus.
2. Pick ONE thing each game to work on.  This could be your marine-splitting (slicing), your baneling-dropping, or your force field usage.  No matter what, do that one thing at least a few times that game.  If you improve, you can consider that a win.
3. Work on one build at a time.  Granted, you may have to pick a few different builds to suit different races your opponents play, but try to narrow it down to one per enemy race.
4. Make sure you scout and macro, no matter what.  I've lost SO many games due to lack of scouting or massively high minerals in the bank.

Can't Sleep After Starcraft

I've heard from a few friends that not being able to sleep after playing Starcraft is not an uncommon problem.  It happens most to the more intense people who really want to do well, and tend to over-analyze their losses while trying to get to sleep.

That would be me, in a nutshell.

It's fine if I win all night, or have losses that are understandable and clear, but how often does THAT happen?  All it takes is some repeated stupid mistakes, or some jerk who mouths off and pushes your angry buttons, and BAM - no sleeping until 1 a.m.

So... what to do?  I've often wished for a great big hammer to put the lights out at night.  One whack, and I'd be down for the count.  That'd be nice - except for the bruising.  Drugs are right out - who wants to be addicted to sleeping pills, brought on by too much Starcraft before bed?  No thanks.

My solution is a poor one - don't play past 9 pm, and don't make Starcraft 2 the last thing you play before you go to bed.  If a game is bugging me, I go watch the replay until I understand what happened, so I can let it go.  Alternately, do something else afterwards that requires an active brain, and at least you might be kept awake thinking about THAT, which is hopefully more productive to your life...