EPTReverse that shit!
![[image loading]](http://trustypony.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/reversible-jacket.jpg)
This guide will describe a style of play that quickly gets upgrades, charge and templar tech on 2 bases, ramping up to an offensive macro mid-game with a guerilla style pressure that starts around 13 minutes and can last the rest of the game. The goal is to simultaneously attack multiple positions, taxing Terran's APM, and punishing him for every tiny mistake he makes. In other words, the goal is to do to Terran what Terran loves to do to Protoss.
Please note that this style is supposed to be fun, and while I think it can also be very strong at high levels, I don't intend for it to be an every-game strategy. It will take some silly losses against ghost timings and faked expansions, and if T knows what you're doing, he can preemptively build vikings to prevent your drops. This is good against standard play, but there are counters.
Build skeleton:
-FE
-defend with zealots and sentries while teching storm and chronoboosting upgrades
-multi-pronged attacks with warp prisms and pylons while taking bases
-templar-focused late game
This style can be played with a wide variety of build orders, but I'll share the one that I prefer.
Opening build order:
13 gate
15 gas
18 core (3 chrono on probes by this point)
19 zealot
22 pylon -- scout! (yes, it's delayed. More on this in a bit)
23 stalker and WG tech (4 chrono total on WG tech)
27 nexus
28 gateway
28 sentry
31 pylon
32 forge
32 zealot (1 chrono)
This is a variant of my 1 gate FE with an early forge. Tho it has only 2 gateways, it's safe against all early pressure, and it gets you more economy than any other safe 1 gate FE.
Because there are no scouting-based deviations in the BO until the forge at ~5:20, there's no need to send an early probe scout. This is great because early probe scouts don't usually get much information anyway, and delaying the scout gives you a mineral boost to hit timings you otherwise couldn't. We'll get all the scouting information we need by parking a probe in Terran's natural by ~5 min, and if the probe confirms that it's safe, a zealot+stalker poke. On some 4 player maps, I scout after core to make sure I find their position early enough to deal with quick marauder pressure and marine+SCV all-ins.
Scouting cues:
-This build is designed to be played against 2+ base Terran bio. It's nice to actually see the command center, but you can't always confirm an expansion because Terran is bullshit and they can deny scouting no matter how early you send your probe. You'll have to make a read if you want to play this style. If your read is wrong, you'll sometimes lose to a fake expansion into cloaked banshees. It happens to everybody.
-See when T leaves his base. There are 3 common early bio pushes that Terrans will do.
#1: 2 marauder pressure. Grab 4 probes and kill this when your sentry pops. If you wait longer, he might get a bunker which will cost you more to kill.
#2: Reactor 2-rax. This attack has ~5-9 marines and 1-2 marauders. It hits your base at ~6 minutes. Kill it after you warp in your 2 units at 6 minutes. Just hit your warp-ins on time and make sure T doesn't sneak a bunker before his army shows up and you'll handle this fine.
#3: Stim timing. This comes a little later than the reactor 2-rax. It's the most all-in of the group, and it's not very scary as long as you've been hitting your warp-ins on time.
-If there's no sign of pressure or expansion by 6 minutes, you should deviate from this build and prepare for banshees and hellion drops. You probably already have a forge, so you might want to get a cannon in each mineral line. If you start your robo a little after 6 minutes, you'll have to run your probes away from a cloaked banshee rush for a few seconds before your observer pops if you don't have cannons. It's not a big problem, but I think the cannons are good if my robo is late.
Teching up:
Build 2 more assimilators (total of 3) while your 2nd zealot builds. WG tech and your 2nd zealot will finish at 5:50, and at 6:00, you will start +1 armor and warp in 2 units. Usually, this will be a zealot and a sentry, but if T is doing a reactor-first 2-rax pressure, you can get a zealot and a stalker or 2 stalkers.
Fill your 2nd and 3rd assimilators ASAP, and constantly produce off of your 2 gates. Unlike most builds that get 3 or 4 gates and warp in units when they see T pushing out, we don't have burst production capacity. Don't skip production rounds! You want to get 3 sentries and then pure zealots. After 3 sentries, this portion of the build assumes constant probe and zealot production.
-twilight @100 gas (you actually have the gas before the 150 minerals if you're macroing well)
-templar archives @ 100% twilight
-+1 ground weapons
-robo
-storm
-observer
-2 templar
-charge and +2 armor
-more gates, a third, and a warp prism (order will be game-specific)
-dark shrine
Chronoboost the crap out of your forge as well as your storm and charge upgrades.
At this point, you want to get to 8 gates and a third base. I recommend adding gates 2 at a time--go to 4, then 6, then 8. How quickly you can take your third will depend on the map, what your opponent is doing, and how favorable any early trades were.
Terran usually waits for medivacs before starting his mid-game aggression which means he typically won't attack before you have storm. If he does, your upgraded zealots and 3 sentries can usually handle the pressure fine. You should know when Terran moves out, so if you're worried about a push (ie a ghost timing), just spam a few cannons. You'll need those cannons (paired with some templar) in the mid- and late-game anyway.
At roughly 13 minutes, you should have 3 bases, +1/+2 upgrades, storm, charge, a dark shrine, a bunch of gates, a robo, and a warp prism. Your base might look something like this:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/PBZEg.png)
You're well positioned to head into a late-game fight, and you don't have to attack and do damage. But you will!
The fun part:
This is the stage of the game where you can turn this:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/nFhwa.png)
Ho-hum even game
Into this:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/XmNSO.png)
Past performance does not necessarily predict future results
Put a probe and a high templar in a warp prism, and fly it around to some remote part of Terran's main as far from his 2nd and 3rd bases as possible. Cross the map with your main army leaving 2 templar at home for defense. You should be a little cautious crossing the map at this point since Terran is likely to be out on the map as well, and you don't want to be caught off guard. Park your prism in T's base, warp in a full round of zealots, and drop the probe to start a pylon while the zealots are warping in. We'd like to have pylons at every corner of Terran's base. Pull the probe back up and convert the prism to transport mode.
When a small army stims in to kill the zealots, you have the option to reinforce either the drop or your main army with your next warp cycle and you also have an option to pop the templar out of the prism to lay down a storm to support your drop. This puts the Terran in a really tough spot. He knows you have an army waiting to attack his front, but he doesn't know how many units he needs to split off from his main force to defend your drop. Is he defending against an 8 chargelot drop or a 16 chargelot drop with a storm or 2?
To make matters worse (for him--awesome for you), your observer should spot how many troops he sends to deal with the drop, and by abusing the warp-in mechanic to pick which position you reinforce, you can make sure that he has always sent too much or too little.
Better yet, Terrans can't kite in multiple positions at once, so by splitting your forces, you actually make his army much weaker in the spot(s) that he's not actively microing. And that's all BEFORE you start warping in DT's to force him to micro scans in addition to moving SCV's, kiting, killing prisms and pylons and lifting buildings.
This multi-pronged attack can be extremely deadly if Terran doesn't nip it in the bud by denying the first warp-ins. I've played games where Terran's were hitting 300 APM and still falling apart. It's great fun.
Transitioning:
This attack is great and it will win a lot of games, but sometimes Terrans will defend. On a map like Entombed Valley, there's not much space to warp in, so your attack might never get off the ground. In those cases, you'll just go straight into a macro style late game with upgraded chargelots and templar tech.
A full discussion of how to play late-game PvT is beyond the scope of this guide, but you can check out Welmu's great guide here. http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=298060
In other cases, you will trade a lot of army for economy, and you'll need to defend 1 big Terran push in order to win. Here, cannons and storms are your friends. By this point, you should have 6+ or so templar spread across your bases gathering energy. Just keep storming and camping near cannons to wear him down and buy time. Eventually, your reinforcements should match his army strength.
If things are still pretty even at this point, head into lategame as discussed above.
Maps:
This build isn't great on all maps. Pro-features include long rush distance, a natural that's easily defended with forcefields, large mains with plenty of air space around the edges, and spread out expansions. Basically, Tal'Darim Altar is the perfect map for this build.
Replays:
http://drop.sc/113174 -- fun win against #70 ranked Season 5 GM
http://drop.sc/101068
http://drop.sc/103641
http://drop.sc/103640
http://drop.sc/103700 -- defending 3 rax all-in with 2 gates
http://drop.sc/103949 -- close loss. my drops got foiled early but did damage later. wound up 1 storm short of a win in the end
http://drop.sc/103948 -- missing early forcefields put me in a bad spot, but we dropped each other all game and I managed to do a little more damage for a narrow win
http://drop.sc/103947 -- solid loss. pro tip: don't lose 10 probes to a reaper backstab. pro tip #2: drop first, then attack front.
http://drop.sc/103946 -- solid win. Terran player after game: "I couldn't kill the damn pylon fast enough"
http://drop.sc/106066 -- better execution than I usually pull off, but DT shrine was late
http://drop.sc/106204 -- fun game. Shows army splitting to defend 10 minute medivac timing, tho I did screw it up a bit. Also shows a good defense after trading army for economy (I killed 40+ workers, but his army was 4x the size of mine afterwards)
http://drop.sc/106564
I'll add more when I get a chance.
