Cannon spots S3 2014

Duckvillelol

Australia1253 Posts

July 20 2014 10:56 GMT

A short look at a few of the new maps, and how to cannon rush them - as requested (yes, I'm serious) by a few people in the SC2 community.

Last time I did a cannon rush guide, I made a video (here) that kinda went on a bit long because I tend to rant a bit and obviously it showed through. So this time I'm just going to show some pictures and some basic tips. We won't be going into fully extended cannon rush techniques - that's something that would take a lot longer, not to mention if you want some real cannon rush guidance I'd speak to Ninja or Gaulzi about it, I'm not as good as those guys.

So we'll be just looking at the placement of certain blocks - fancy stuff only - and just some basics. Techniques and such; ask me directly or go ask Ninja/Gaulzi.

Bear in mind; if you're not a Protoss and/or you're a purest who likes to pretend cheese doesn't exist - this guide actually does help you; just remember to be careful with these spots.

Quick notes:

3-pylon blocks are the limit. 4-pylon blocks generally aren't worth it, unless you're 100% sure you'll kill or severely maim the opponent. 2-pylon blocks are obviously super awesome, however I couldn't find any (discounting cancel-blocks)
Natural rushes I've shown below are of course mainly for PvZ
In PvZ if you're cannoning the main you really need to be doing one or both of these things: blocking the main ramp down to the natural, or stopping gas income (completely) otherwise it's sometimes just not worth it at all, and you could have just sat on the natural hatch instead
Main base rushes I've shown below are mainly for PvP/PvT. In PvZ there are a couple of slightly complex cannon plays you can do, but I'm not showing them all here
TRIANGLES ARE YOUR FRIEND (You'll see why)
Unless specifically stated, these positions are mirrored on all mains/nats, however the position may be slightly different based on the rotation of the base, obviously

FOXTROT LABS LE:

This one is quite a dastardly map when it comes to cannon rushing, mainly because of this triangle position:

These triple blocks are really frustrating to deal with (or easy to do, depending on the side of the coin you're on) - because you can triple-pylon to create a tight wall, and you can position your probe close to the middle pylon and then build the cannon - while clicking outside the pylons and glitch the probe out. So in theory you can just send one probe around and not waste mining time on a second probe like you would normally if you had to do a full wall-block.

There's this at the natural (can be done at each natural):

Just build up the wall safely, then glitch out by building the assimilator and clicking out.

NIMBUS LE

A full block on the high-ground "backdoor" natural, primarily for Zerg:

Use the same assimilator trick from Foxtrot Labs to get the probe out.

Nimbus also has the fun triangles like Foxtrot, so beware of these:

Against a Zerg you can possibly do this, but I think it's a little risky and I don't like it because it doesn't really follow the rules for cannon'ing a Zerg main (see notes above):

If you want to cannon rush a Zerg (or just be extra sneaky) do this instead:

CATALLENA LE:

Apart from a committed cannon rusher, this map offers virtually nothing compared to the other new maps, the only real "nice" spot was this, only on the top base:

This is a 3-pylon block glitch-out position. The other bases don't have this, and I successfully did it against a Terran, quite hilariously.

DEADWING LE:

Another map that offers very little in the main apart from the adept cannon rusher; this map has some cool spots in the nat which don't look like full blocks, but the Zerg you cannon will find they actually are. These two pics are mirrored vertically so just keep that in mind:

Doesn't look complete, but it is. No 2-pylon blocks at all that I could find.

CONCLUSION

It's important to consider that when you're cannoning you really do need to make sure you're not investing in more than you can safely guarantee you'll be able to destroy + extra. If you're cannoning and you're not constantly blocking an active mineral line; you have to be hitting something else, killing workers, or blocking the main base exit ramp, at a minimum. This is why the Frost LE cannon-rush was so awesome; because not only could you glitch out, but you could block the ramp and kill the nat all at the same time.

Just make sure, whatever you do, you don't waste resources getting nothing for it. Check out this replay of me vs some guy on ladder who made the most uneconomical cannon rush ever. Watch the resources lost tab, and keep in mind that it doesn't count buildings lost, and it doesn't including the mining time lost. I'm actually terrible at Zerg and I was able to deal with it, then deal with him, so yeah.

Cheers,

PS: Shoutout to Probe

KalWarkov

Germany4126 Posts

July 20 2014 13:41 GMT

never understood why ppl try to block in cannons so badly, its enough if theres very little surface are around it to be successful almost always. so many different ways to cannonrush when ur clever

Dingodile

4137 Posts

July 20 2014 18:56 GMT

I am not sure about 2v2 maps, but yesterday I saw cannons-festival (8game in a row), especially vs double protoss.

Ninjastarcraft

United States8 Posts

July 23 2014 00:01 GMT

Hey thanks for the shoutout.

This is a great guide, although I do feel like you're missing some of the better pylon blocking positions. Regardless, I really came here to comment on this.

3-pylon blocks are the limit. 4-pylon blocks generally aren't worth it, unless you're 100% sure you'll kill or severely maim the opponent.

Aren't cannon rushes only successful if you at least maim your opponent? I find that most pvp cannon rushes require at least 4 pylons, but that's because it's all in and the plan is to completely eliminate the other player from the game. It just seems weird to suggest that people should stay away from 4 pylon cannon rushes, because most maps don't have 4 pylon blocks that can kill the opponent. You can usually 3 pylon a nat if you're facing zerg, but tbh I feel like most of the 3 pylon blocks you put above are counterable by probe pulls, although I haven't tried them yet, so it's very possible that I could be wrong. Anyways, thanks for taking the time to screenshot and write all of this content. It's always really helpful to get a look at other peoples cannon placements, because it's easy to stop experimenting with new placements once you find a few which work.

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