Daily Ladder-age #15: How to handle 4-gate

Up to the point at which I scout my enemy's base, I proceed in the game as if I'm following a phoenix build order; 13 gate, 15 double gas, 17 pylon and cybercore while keeping 2 probes in gas.



The best and fastest ways to scout a 4-gate are 2 key elements; does the enemy have lots of chrono boost saved up, and does the enemy have a good probe count? Chrono boost is a very easy criteria for even the lowest level of players to identify, and is most often a common tell-tale sign. A skill that may take a little bit more time to acquire is seeing if the enemy has enough probes as he should. If he doesn't have a 2nd gas by the time you're at 20 supply, he is very likely to do a very aggressive build. If you look at his probes in his mineral line and it looks like there's less than there are in yours, that means that he's saving up money so that he can make more gateways... like, maybe 4 of them.


1, 2, 3, 4.... less than me.

My particular scout, Johnson, moved away just before he could actually catch the 4-gateways going down.


Protoss only needs to know 2 numbers; 1, for control groups, and 4, for the 4-gate.

Even without having confirmed the 4-gate, since I saw the undeniable evidence of early aggression, I delay my stargate to get an earlier robo. This is CRITICAL. No matter how much you want to play stargate, you need to put down your robotics facility before your stargate, because immortals were made to creme Protoss ground units.


A robo opening in PvP? What is this, WoL?

At this point I've managed to confirm the 4gate coming in, so I begin to chrono boost my warpgate tech, and with my next available 100 gas, start warping in good gal Emily (MSC). You may also notice that I never put the remaining 2 probes into my gas geysers; if you know an attack is coming, and you need money to build up more gateways for defense, it's never a bad idea to only keep 2 probes in each assimilator. Make sure not to over-mine gas, while it's still ok to over-mine minerals.


Lets go Emily, it's time to get your ass to my base!

Chrono boost out immortals ASAP, and prepare for impact. You need to play it safe until you have about 2 or 3 immortals, although if you're able to get up to that point you've just as good as won the game. Because I was able to start immortal production so quickly, I neglected some earlier sentries; if you don't scout it as soon, your build order should always make sure to have at least 1 sentry fairly early on to prepare for such problems that may arise. Remember, your freezer can hold off the 4-gate until the microwave arrives.


Don't forget about your refrigerator too!

Build up 3 more gateways to warp in sentries/zealots while never halting your immortal production. Immortals will counter gateway units so hard that once you have 2 or 3 you can begin confidently fighting towards enemy armies.


Cute taktiks of "force field half their army out" also is a great plus.

Your probe advantage should now be able to let you run ahead of your enemy in production, resulting in a subsequent rofl stomp that I won't even bother posting here.

Potential threats (rare, but none the less dangerous)!!!
PROXY IN YOUR FACE PYLONS

This can be annoying as all hell, with a suicide probe running down placing pylons like a maniac. Make sure you scout around the inside of your base as soon as your first unit is out, and keep and eye on your ramp for incoming probes (make sure to also scout around your base to make sure probes aren't hiding). If they do get in, calmly assess the situation by using your zealots to focus pylons that are closer to completion while using other units to take down pylons that are further from completion.


Calmly slice shit up.

Remember, always, that enough immortals will blast shit up so fast.