Fake leaving your base as if you're going to rush his. When he surrounds your nexus, then attack him. You'll have all of your probes in force while he's surrounding your nexus. You will have the advantage 100% of the time in that scenario.

Yoshi Kirishima

United States10346 Posts

November 05 2010 23:07 GMT

#22

lol interesting never heard of this! yeah pulling workers away til you can get more probes or better position seems to be the best way, like the others have already said

thanks for sharing though interesting strategy xD

Xapti

Canada2473 Posts

November 05 2010 23:22 GMT

#23

Only-worker rush has been absolutely terrible since SCV had health reduced. I don't see how anyone could possibly discuss this in strategy section unless they were below platinum., and in that case they just need to learn better micro.

And the game I saw Cella worker rush he got completely dominated due to plain old mediocre common-sense micro/defense.

febreze

167 Posts

November 05 2010 23:43 GMT

#24

Isn't 12 drone really late? (ie, your opponent will have their first tier 1 unit half way completed)

Anyways, I believe stalling by running away your workers should win you game outright. A-moving your workers will get you into a >60% win rate, depending on surround and map distance. Either way, you will outnumber the worker count of the rusher.

DreamSailor

Canada433 Posts

November 05 2010 23:56 GMT

#25

On November 06 2010 08:43 febreze wrote:
Isn't 12 drone really late? (ie, your opponent will have their first tier 1 unit half way completed)

Anyways, I believe stalling by running away your workers should win you game outright. A-moving your workers will get you into a >60% win rate, depending on surround and map distance. Either way, you will outnumber the worker count of the rusher.

12 drone you use double extractor trick to get 2 extra drones making your supply 12/10

michaelhasanalias

Korea (South)1231 Posts

November 06 2010 00:14 GMT

#26

all you need to do is delay and keep mining with 1-2 workers. Once he realizes he can't stop you from mining, the game is over. Any time your opponent does some kind of all-in, the proper response is to delay him as long as possible from engaging you, thereby increasing your own numbers and odds to succeed.

edit: I don't actually agree with this logic anymore. "all you need to do" actually requires an incredible APM, and much higher than the zerg opponent's.

NikonTC

United Kingdom418 Posts

December 19 2010 13:28 GMT

#27

I thought I'd bump this thread as opposed to creating my own, we've seen this strat in TvZ twice now in competative play, and have a 100% win record vs Strelok and Painuser! Which sort of rules it out as being an easily beaten bronze league strat.

Strelok panicked a bit admittedly, but painuser did exactly what I would have done: pulled his workers and a-moved, assuming that i'd have more scvs than he has drones, and his SCV line got absolutely destroyed, it wasn't even close.

Is the absolute best way to win this REALLY by running around with your workers? What about day9's suggestion of loading up and floating off to the island? (im assuming this strat would really only work on Steppes).

Has anyone got a replay of holding it off convincingly? I don't have a practice partner so I'd love to be able to get the strat down before heading out onto the ladder!

Shikyo

Finland33997 Posts

December 19 2010 13:51 GMT

#28

I can't get a replay right now because this place doesn't have a computer good enough for SC2, but you need to 1. bring your scouting SCV back asap 2. bring your SCV building the barracks back asap. After that just cancel your barracks and keep building SCVs while microing all of your workers. The canceled barracks will give you enough for like 2-3 more workers and you already have the advantage, so you should just engage and always pull back the 5 hp SCVs and micro well. a-moving never works, I've won 12 vs 12 workers when the opponent has a-moved so that I've had 11 workers left afterwards. You need to micro super well, but you should have the advantage so it shouldn't be too difficult to win if you do it properly.

If you scout it fast enough, you can wall off with 3 supply depots asap and then repair them while building your barracks, that's a 100% autowin if you manage to pull it off.

(I'm currently like 34-2 on Steppes with 12 drone rush, against all sorts of opponents[only beat by 2400+ Diamonds])

netherDrake

Singapore1831 Posts

December 19 2010 14:02 GMT

#29

Engage in spots where not all the drones can hit the scv's and use the scv's auto repair function.

e.g. in between mineral patches and the command centre.

Fruscainte

4596 Posts

December 19 2010 14:29 GMT

#30

This will not work against Terran due to auto repair but against Protoss and Zerg it's Golden

Shikyo

Finland33997 Posts

December 19 2010 14:42 GMT

#31

Actually, it only works against Terran. Zerg gets workers too fast, just like Protoss with Chrono Boost.

FuRong

New Zealand3089 Posts

December 19 2010 14:46 GMT

#32

Can we get a replay up in this thread? If it's as easy to stop as everyone claims, it's baffling that I can't find a single replay of someone defending this rush anywhere on the internet =/

5ahj4g

72 Posts

December 19 2010 14:50 GMT

#33

guess no one thought defending it was replay worthy

wonder why

Igaryu85

Germany195 Posts

December 19 2010 15:12 GMT

#34

Dunno I got rushed by 6 lings + workers lately while I 14 hatched 14 pooled(I believe). If you guys want that rep I could try finding it.

michaelhasanalias

Korea (South)1231 Posts

December 19 2010 18:04 GMT

#35

The only way to beat this without absolutely insane micro is to put all but a few probes/scvs on the ramp while you complete a wall behind it. This forces equal numbers engagement of 4v4.

And who is going to think to do this at first?

12 drone rush on a map like steppes is pretty imba, and even though people say "oh, just wall off" a properly timed rush is going to leave you with a half-completed barracks or 30% gateway, and absolutely no money for a wall off.

Try a stream of custom games on steppes and 12 drone rush. It's pretty amazing how difficult it is to defend, and how easy it is to a-move win.

I like reading responses in this thread like "oh this is easy to deal with by only probe micro for ez win." I'd like to see your replays because I call BS.

If you're stopping a 12-drone rush with only probe/scv micro, I'm highly impressed.

edit: I noticed this thread has my response in the 3rd post or so echoing exactly what I'm criticizing. Once I actually tried this I understood how devastating it really is. It's just too fast and takes way more APM to counter than to execute.

holynorth

United States590 Posts

December 19 2010 18:13 GMT

#36

On December 20 2010 00:12 Igaryu85 wrote:
Dunno I got rushed by 6 lings + workers lately while I 14 hatched 14 pooled(I believe). If you guys want that rep I could try finding it.

I don't think that counts as 6 pool would already slaughter a 14 hatch even without drones supporting it.

SouL_sc2

United States90 Posts

December 19 2010 18:14 GMT

#37

Use mineral walking/Dont let them get a surround Every time you see one of your workers get to orange health select it and click some minerals in your base tat should keep them alive till the attackers are dead. OR if your terran just lift off and go to a different expo

stanik

Canada213 Posts

December 19 2010 18:31 GMT

#38

People say lift off as terran and fly to a walled off section (there is no island) but they are forgetting 2 things.
1) command centers fly really slow
2) you'll only be able to take 5 workers

you may be able to ferry workers over the rocks using your CC as a medivac but the CC is really slow.

I dont see what is stopping zerg from going back to his base and starting to mine for 2 game minutes while you float over to the island.

Seems to me floating over to the rocky area is theory craft.

in my theory craft adopting the quick walloff at the bottom of the ramp as your default build vs zerg is the best value. 1 vulnerable supply depot at the expense of not losing to 12 drones or 6/7/8 pools. Keep in mind it might not be possible to wall off with rax/sd in 1.2.

To those saying the rax wont be finished by the time the drones reach your base. This is true but you can spam right click as well as halt to keep your worker on the safe side. whilst having 3 or 4 scvs repairing the supply depot.

heyyouyesyou

United States323 Posts

December 19 2010 18:41 GMT

#39

Ok im gonna make a list for you to follow
1- cancel your gateway
2- engage the army but then back off so they cant freely attack the pylon
3- build probes until 14-16
4- have half your workers hotkeyed to 2 and the other to 3
5- surround and destroy the drones
6- start mining again until you can start your gateway
7- chrono boost a zealot
8- and destroy the zerg
9- if hes knows what he is doing he will have a good count of drones to fight off your zealot but he wont be able to do it 2-4 times

EliteGaming

Dominican Republic97 Posts

December 19 2010 18:48 GMT

#40

as a terran myself i always wall.. 12 rax 12 scout if i see drones coming put down the second suply.. i u get that wall u win. in stepes is very common. so thats my advices scout more early if u fear.