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

Blogs > Sir.Phalanx
Post a Reply
Sir.Phalanx
Profile Blog Joined April 2012
Japan195 Posts
May 23 2013 13:26 GMT
#1
Ick I didn't have time to actually play a game today... (my parents freak out if I even just use the computer past 9 pm >>)... So i'll cheat a bit and write up about a game that I played a couple days ago instead. This write up will probably be pretty boring for anyone who's not lower league, but for anyone who struggles against a 4gate this may be a good learning experience. My long promised proxy-tempest rushes will definitely be done tomorrow, when I finally have a day off of school.

Lower league players; struggle with the 4-gate? I honestly had such a hard time dealing with 4-gates in PvP during my WoL days, especially because I was a die hard phoenix opener. Sometimes I just wouldn't have the firepower to hold off the 4-gate... Oh the tears I wept!

I feel that to properly learn how to defeat a 4-gate, first you must understand what exactly the situation you're put in is; I've come up with a handy dandy metaphor to guide you little sheep along.
A 4-gate, in it's core element, is comparable to a man who doesn't own a microwave purchasing frozen food products for his meal.
Allow me to elaborate. A man who doesn't own a microwave purchases a choice frozen food product from the store. Without a microwave to cook his frozen food product, the food is doomed to slowly thaw and eventually turn into a puddle of mush, inedible to the poor man who wanted to enjoy a meal. How can this man avoid the terrible fate he would have to meet? Well, there are 2 steps to it; delay the thawing process, and go buy a microwave. The thawing process must be delayed by the man through usage of a freezer and/or refrigerator, buying time for him to run to his nearest Walmart to purchase a microwave. Now he can take out the frozen food and cook it up with his microwave, enjoying a great meal.

I'm sure that anyone who's followed along by now should be an expert in the theory of stopping a 4-gate; delay the 4-gate (mushy food) with a freezer (force fields) and refrigerator (photon overcharge) until a robotics facility (microwave) can be purchased. I compare force fields to the freezer because as long as the force field is on the ramp correctly it will completely deny entry into your base; however, in case the freezer runs out of energy, the refrigerator can be used. The photon overcharge ability can still allow the enemy to get a tiny bit of damage in, but for the most part it will be unable to truely commit to an attack without the risk of losing everything. Finally, the robo facility will be able to churn out immortals once purchased, cooking up his 4-gate into toast.

Here's an analysis of me holding off a 4-gate after planning on opening stargate; the most important part to this is to plan ahead and get your sentries/MSC out. Scouting a 4-gate is really easy, and even if you're not completely sure that it's a 4-gate that's coming at you, you still should change plans ASAP to get a robo before your stargate (if, like me, you just feel the need to still go stargate).

replay : http://drop.sc/336636

The Frozen Food Product
+ Show Spoiler +

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.

[image loading]

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.

[image loading]
1, 2, 3, 4.... less than me.

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

[image loading]
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.

[image loading]
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.

[image loading]
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.

[image loading]
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.

[image loading]
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.

[image loading]
Calmly slice shit up.

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


I hope, that now a few of those who read my post may be a little better at PvPs! Knowing the struggles of fighting 4-gates, the least I can do is to bring some more enlightenment on how to destroy them. Happy laddering folks, and I hope to actually do the promised proxy tempest rush tomorrow! GL, HF, QWERTY, ASDF!!! Thanks as usual for checking me out!

P.S.
www.facebook.com/DarkOnyxFTW
nothing witty to say today

P.S.S.
Corgi rush.

****
Go to school - Laddder - Sleep - repeat. Who needs a social life anyways.
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