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Hello everyone! I've lost way too many games to improper walling, and I've observed even more where other Terrans mess up their walls. Now that you can raise and lower supply depots, walling is painless and won't trap your units later in the game. The only reason I've found to not wall is against reapers in TvT because they can pick off your buildings if you're spread out. Other than that, walls are very useful for surviving early rushes, proxies, and all-ins which are fairly common on Battle.net right now. Terran needs all the help we can get in the current state of the game so don't throw a game away due to poor walling.
Walling Basics
First, all Terran players should turn on "Display Build Grid" in the Gameplay Options. It is off by default. Being able to see the grids will help you immensely in placing buildings correctly. Yellow squares on the grid are unbuildable, and you may only place a building on white squares. If the square is a valid spot for your building, it will turn green; otherwise, it will be colored red.
Unlike Starcraft 1, small units are all the same size. It's impossible to create a wall that blocks zealots but not zerglings, for instance. Marines, scvs, zealots, zerglings, ghosts, etc. are all the same size. Also unlike Starcraft 1, all sides of a building are treated equally: barracks above depot and barracks below depot are treated identically. If two buildings are aligned either vertically or horizontally, no units may pass between them. If there is a one square gap, small units may pass through. Larger units, such as tanks and thors, require two squares or one square plus a diagonal (all wall examples in this post should allow tanks and thors to exit your base). Diagonals, however, do not wall!
Here you can see a diagonal which small units can pass through. In order to make this a wall, an add-on must be placed on the barracks. This is especially important when walling near cliffs.
Another important point to note, units spawn in the direction of your rally point! Always make sure to rally inside your base unless you want your units spawning outside your wall.
General Walls
This image shows the easiest wall placements for the most common ramps. These ramps are used on Lost Temple, Metalopolis, Shakuras Plateau, Blistering Sands, and Steppes of War. If you know these 4 positions, you'll be set on all those maps.
Barracks add-ons can be replaced by supply depots, of course, if you intend to lift the rax later or never make an add-on. The bottom right-facing ramp can also be constructed with all buildings shifted left and down one square, which may be easier to defend in certain positions.
Map Specific Walls
Here are a few map specific walls and chokes you may find useful. Desert Oasis has a cliff that allows better walling placement than the standard, Scrap Station has a huge ramp (both spawns identical), and Kulas Ravine can be walled on all positions with just a barracks over depot.
Sorry, none of these are cropped.
+ Show Spoiler [Blistering Sands Chokes] +Vertical positioning of the rax is not important.
+ Show Spoiler [Steppes of War Naturals] +These might not be worth using, but are surprisingly easy for such a huge ramp.
+ Show Spoiler [Desert Oasis] +Alternate chokes if you want to move out without lifting the rax.
+ Show Spoiler [Scrap Station] +These ramps are identical so you can use either variant at both spawns. The little choke can also be walled with a single rax.
+ Show Spoiler [Kulas Ravine] +
No walls for Twilight Fortress, the 2v2 shared bases map. Have fun on your own.
Any questions, comments, or corrections are welcomed.
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Wow. I don't have the Beta yet but very cool that you've allready made this thread. I hope that you will keep updating it as new maps are added / optimal walls are found out.
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he only thing that doesnt wall in is a diagonal.
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Very informative. You can wall Twilight Fortress if you open up 2 rax, the wall gets out later than normal, but its a wall nonetheless.
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awesome man. thanks a lot.
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On February 25 2010 09:37 endGame wrote: Very informative. You can wall Twilight Fortress if you open up 2 rax, the wall gets out later than normal, but its a wall nonetheless. Do you mind posting a picture of that? It seems that people tend to get punished for not doing it in streams.
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For twilight lol I seen someone wall it off with a Main rofl..upgraded to a Fortress ahaha so epic.
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On February 25 2010 17:57 G4MR wrote: For twilight lol I seen someone wall it off with a Main rofl..upgraded to a Fortress ahaha so epic.
That actually sounds like a really good idea.
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On February 25 2010 18:57 ShadowDrgn wrote:Show nested quote +On February 25 2010 17:57 G4MR wrote: For twilight lol I seen someone wall it off with a Main rofl..upgraded to a Fortress ahaha so epic. That actually sounds like a really good idea. Does anyone know if the Fortress detects? Because then it is a HUGELY GOOD IDEA! repair it+ huge damage+ enemy says ROFL Fortress wall?
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Bump for all the new people in the beta.
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This is really useful for anyone who wanna play terran in beta :D
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*rages about how walling used to take skill and how now anyone can do it*
+ Show Spoiler +actually, thank god. terrans currently need every advantage they can get :D
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United States47024 Posts
On March 08 2010 07:19 majesty.k)seRapH wrote:*rages about how walling used to take skill and how now anyone can do it* + Show Spoiler +actually, thank god. terrans currently need every advantage they can get :D I'd hardly call taking 2 seconds to look at a picture on Liquipedia a crucial skill.
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is it a good idea to use a two supply depot thick wall instead of only one supply depot thick (aka: put some extra supply depots in the wall off infrount of the normal wall)?
here is a quick model of what i am thinking:
(_=cliff, l= side of ramp, x= suply depots, H = other[two naboring is likely one structure], . = space filler):
__xHHx__ ...lxxxxl ...l.......l
or
__xxxx__ ...lxxxxl ...l.......l
or variations
against how most people do it. like:
__xHHx__ ...l........l ...l........l
or the rare
__xxxx__ ...l.......l ...l.......l
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i wouldnt use two depots, because thats lowering the amount of units behind the wall that can shoot out, which matters a lot early game. mid/late game if they're at your wall you're probably dead anyways.
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On April 12 2010 10:43 majesty.k)seRapH wrote: i wouldnt use two depots, because thats lowering the amount of units behind the wall that can shoot out, which matters a lot early game. mid/late game if they're at your wall you're probably dead anyways. When you use 2 depos you have the ones in your base lowered and your units standing on it. As the first ones go down or you see a baneling bust incoming you raise them.
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A habit I'm attempting to do is always reinforce my tech lab side w/ another depot or two behind it to help prevent baneling busts in TvZ. Granted, it is somewhat map specific as to when I can have a depot ahead/behind the lab directly, but a good thing to consider regardless.
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ok, so it's a "depends but often good" answer. i did understand you corectly, right?
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On April 12 2010 12:53 peckham33 wrote: ok, so it's a "depends but often good" answer. i did understand you corectly, right? I'd be more likley to lean towards 'depends and sometimes good'.
There are many situations where putting a rax/fact/port behind the initial depo is better (much better against baneling bust than 2 rows of sup) or worse (less range for your units to attack busts).
A bunker behind the supply is another good choice because it prodivides the units within it with an additional 1 range (cancelling the loss from the depo wall-in) and can provide a better defense than 2 row depo in some situations.
There is also the don't use any depots on your wall at all and only use rax/fact/port/engi style. Which again can sometimes be way better than depo.
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