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(dear mod, could you move this post to the strat section. I made a mistake in my excitement)
http://bwreplays.com/6n80m
Words cannot describe how I feel right now. After getting my ass kicked by Tank pushes, even during the times when I was ahead in bases, I finally won a legit PvT that went all the way to arbiters. The game before this, I was also ahead and winning, but I suddenly dced and it just made me miserable. I felt so close to winning and I thought my opponent was at my level. Sometimes after you lose like crazy, you don't think you will win or meet someone that is new like yourself. But I entered another game and just got back in it. I am glad I did.
In previous games, I had no idea what I was doing or how to contain Terran (see here: http://bwreplays.com/9abgi and here: http://bwreplays.com/j6iij). Now, I have a better idea of what happens due to the fact that that f10 helped me out.
Things I learned so far by watching my own replays of losses:
1. Never ever attack that perfectly fortified minefield ridden tank line. NEVER. Always attack when he is on the move or BETTER: DON'T ATTACK THAT BUT ATTACK ELSEWHERE!
2. Delay his third as much as you possibly can. His tank count will rise but early on he will not have enough tanks to hold you if you are ready for him.
3. Zealots are meat shields. You will need a shitton of them. Don't lose all your goons mindlessly.
4. Lastly, arbiters...you really need them to exploit the terran tank immobility.
5. Vultures are pussies, don't be scared of them. Use goon/zeal groups with obs to clear out all expansions.
I finally have a good replay to post that I think is my best play so far. I believe it was not too weird of a game or abnormal in terms of meta. And so, I believe it could be a good chance for me to receive help and add to what I have learned so far. Could you please take a look at the replay (http://bwreplays.com/6n80m) and tell me things I can improve? I wasn't as flustered or panicking in this game. I think I am numb to losing and accept it in good fun. In BW you lose because it's WAR and all is fair in war.
1. Question I would like to ask is: Is it possible to have all your gates in one base? I only had gates in my main, is that okay? I also double queue because it just doesn't seem like a good use of time to check my gates after 1 round of units.
2. Also, regarding arbiter: What do you do with the arbiter during the time where you have one but you are waiting for energy. and do we get the freeze ability for arbiters as well or can we skip that?
3. Terran is on 2 or 3 base and won't push out from the natural yet. I had my goons and zealots denying his third. Do I also keep an army blocking the front? Or can I just have obs there and have the goon group moving around each base and clearing mines? Is it imperative to blockade his front? I felt like that goon group i kept in front of his main was a waste.
4. Is it better to go straight to arbs or get HT? I guess it would depend if he pushes after 2 base vs 3 right? Skip HT if he goes for third, get HT if he is doing a 5 fac push. How many should I make?
Thank you so much! Especially to f10 who taught me a bunch.
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Thank you Ty2. That is a great idea in using arbiters with zealots and poking in spots he might not have detection and get the jump on the enemy. And you are right, I should not double queue so much since I could probably have taken every base on the map if I didn't double queue. But since he was on 2 base and I was delaying his 3rd so much, I thought it would be okay to focus on units only and just stay 1 base ahead.
I watched the replay and what he did was 5+ fac on 2 base before he could get his third. With this information, did I react correctly? well to be honest I never saw it and should have scouted his main but I just assumed he would try to kill me with a mass tank push on 2 base so I just massed units as well. In my low rank games, terrans usually go 5 fac and go all out in hopes to kill me. Every single time.
Usually what happens is they try to take 3rd, I deny. They just mass and push out and kill him. But this time I got arbs quick enough to do some diversion attacks.
4) So you are saying that if he isn't going for his third, I should stay on tech 2 and just beat him with zealots and goons? I don't need to rush to arbs? Like if he shows zero signs of taking third and goes 5+ fac on 2 base, I mass speedlots and do some shuttle drops with goons coming in the 2nd wave? Kill his push and then tech. Got it.
But if he goes for 3rd, I can relax and tech up and it's a bonus if I delay his third. Got it! Thanks!
Oh and another tip that is super good: keep an obs on the path to from the natural to the third. You can see his tank movement and act accordingly. there was one point where he moved ALL his tanks to his third after i denied it for the 2nd time. he got pissed and moved every single tank to the third. if i saw that with my obs, I could have literally walked into his main instead of suiciding into 20 tanks...
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sorry could a mod move this post to the bw strategy forum? thank you.
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I think you hit on all the main points. I would work on taking your 4th and 5th when Terran takes his third (as you were killing his third would have been a great time to do this). You can add gateways at your 5th (one of the unoccupied starting positions).
You don't need 18 observers lol- just 1 per group of 11 goons (shift deselect it when you're attacking into turrets) and spread the rest out. There's no reason not to have your first observer sitting directly on top of his factories keeping an eye on his production (he won't have a complete turret ring by this time unless he's doing some kind of allin) and your 2nd at his choke to see when his army moves out. You can sit an observer over his third as well or even build a pylon there with your initial scout.
Lastly, like Ty2 said, you don't really need to queue until you are maxed and have all of your 5 base+ economy and production/upgrades set up. At one point you had 4 arbiters queued in one stargate and 0 in the other when it you could instead make 1 in each and have spare money to build your 4th and 5th nexus.
Regarding whether you should have an army at his natural when you're attacking the third- all that you really need is an observer. Like Cryoc said, just abuse your mobility, back up from the third, and force him to siege while retreating and continuing to get reinforcements, tech, and an economic advantage.
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I think it's ok to queue units a bit if you want, it would probably help you macro OK until you reach higher level. Like if you're below C queuing 2 units per gate is not going to lose you games I think. But maybe bad habit to take on dunno. I mean you probably don't know how high you want to reach so it's ok not to play the best way from the start^^
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PS Arbiters are 4 supply.
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First of all congrats on your game  it feels awesome to play a good game and win!
I will give you some general tips and I will try to watch your rep tomorrow.
You always want to know what T is doing, if you can't sneak an obs inside the T's base due to turrets at least scout its surroundings, sometimes you can see a CC being built to float to his 3rd, for example. Keep in mind that usually 4/5/6 facts means 2 base push, this means you can take a third as usual, but you will need to add a lot of extra gateways and get a lot of units (usually cutting probes and tech in the process) As a general rule you want to have facts+2 number of gates and +1 exp.
Regarding Arbiters: If T is doing a fast 2 base push, you won't have your tier 3 tech in time to help you defend, even less if you took a 3rd so you need to focus on tier 2 units as stated before, once you deny the push you can tech to Arbiters, since getting a 3rd should be harder for the T now.
In case you are interested in playing faster arbiters you can check Best games to see how he goes every game for fast arbiters, but he delays his 3rd.
And related to their spells, most of the time Freeze is better to get at first than recall (it requires less energy and has a direct impact on a fight). Recall is better on multiples, a single recall against someone who is prepared won't do much to win you the game (turrets+vessels+mines).
As a tip I always start researching freeze when the first Arbiter is queued and then recall/extra energy when it is finished, like this you should be able to adapt to any scenario.
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EPT
