EPTWritten by Iamke55 and CecilSunkure
Overview
By utilizing chronoboost it is possible to finish +2 Weapons and +2 Armor early in the game at a time when Terrans can only have +1 Weapons and/or armor. The combination of upgrades and Guardian Shield makes gateway units incredibly durable against the ranged attacks of Terran bio units.
With this build you will open up with a standard 2 or 3 Gate Robo expand followed by two Forges for access to quick upgrades. The strong foundation you have in upgraded Gateway units gives you several options in the mid game.
This build was created by TLAF-Liquid`Tyler, who recently defeated TLAF-Liquid`Jinro with it at PAX East.
Cecil's notes for this build:
+ Show Spoiler +
9 Pylon
13 Gateway
15 Assimilator
16 Pylon
Zealot + Assim @ Core Finishes
Chrono Stalker @ Core Finish
Sentry
Robo @ 100 gas
Gateway
3rd gate @ robo finish
Warp in 2-3 sentry
Nexus @ 400 minerals
2 forge @ nex 50%
Nat assims + twilight @ 50% upgrades
Support bay after 2-2
colo + range immediately
Add 2 gateways (might need these earlier if macro is poor)
*Units should constantly be being produced from your gateways with no down-time.
If you cannot do this on your own, add on one or two more gateways
when you money gets high.
Opening Build
You start with a 3 Gate Robo expand.
- 9 Pylon
- 13 Gateway
- 14 Assimilator
- 16 Pylon
- @100 Gateway: Cybernetics Core
- @100 minerals: Zealot
- @75 minerals: 2nd Assimilator
- @100% Cybernetics Core: Stalker, Warpgate
- 25 Pylon
- 2 Sentries from 1st Gateway
- 30 Robotics Facility
- 2nd Gateway, Pylon, 3rd Gateway all when you have enough minerals
- @100% Robotics Facility: Observer
- Warp in 2 Sentries once Warpgate research is done
- 44 Nexus
- @300 minerals: 2x Forge, make sure to stop boosting probes
- @100% 2x Forge: +1 Weapons, +1 Armor
You can do a double Forge build off of any fast Robo opening, so I’ll use a 3 Gate Robo in this guide because I already wrote one about 2 Gate Robo and this is TLAF-Liquid`Tyler’s preferred opening. By getting a Zealot before the Cybernetics Core is done and getting a 3rd Gateway, you will be able to expand pretty early without getting an Immortal**. The 2 Forges are made when you would normally tech to Colossus: your observer has enough info for you to know that you won’t die to a 1 base all-in. Incidentally, getting 2x Forge and +1/+1 is actually cheaper than getting a Robotics Bay and 1 Colossus by 200 gas. The disadvantage is that the going double Forge takes about a minute longer to finish 1/1 whereas an early Colossus would come about a minute earlier.
**I advise skipping Immortals entirely; getting more Gateway units is far better against drops, as splitting an army in half when Immortals are being used harms a Protoss army much more than splitting one up into several places if it relies on numerous Gateway units -Immortals need support or large numbers to be effective.
Once you’re almost done with this part of the build, your Observer will usually see an expansion and Bunkers (if not then you may have to abandon the build). This is your cue to take map control with your army and secure watch towers.
Midgame Build
- Constant Chrono Boosts on upgrades
- @8-10 gas units, produce exclusively Zealots
- 70 Twilight Council, expansion Assimilators (upgrades should be at 70%)
- @100% upgrades: +2 Weapons, +2 Armor
- 90 Robotics Bay
- @100% Robotics Bay: Colossus, Extended Thermal Lance
- 4th and 5th Gateways, can start making stalkers again
- From here, you need to pretty much never miss a Chrono Boost on Colossus
On 2 bases, the most efficient probe count to income ratio is between 48 and 52. It’s not necessary to create more probes until you are building a 3rd Nexus, at which point you Chrono Boost them and probably get +3/+3 as well to prepare for the late game.
+1/+1 upgrades tend to finish at 10:00. If you can it's best to engage after these finish!
The Robotics Bay can be gotten earlier if you make fewer gas units.
At 14:30, your 3rd Colossus should pop and Extended Thermal Lance is done so this is a good time to attack. From here you either win the game outright as in TLAF-Liquid`Tyler vs TLAF-Liquid`Jinro, or put on enough pressure to get a 3rd base. If you attack any later than this timing, then you should be taking a faster 3rd base and getting charge/blink, and even +3/+3 upgrades if you attack significantly later.
Once you get past mid game, you’re in the same position or better compared to standard play so refer to my PvT guide for late game play, engagement tactics, and defensive positioning.
Variations
You can skip the Robotics Bay and just mass Gateway units while getting charge/blink and +3/+3 upgrades. You add a 2nd Robotics Facility for Colossi once you have 3 bases running. Doing this and adding Immortals is pretty strong against 1/1/1 expand builds.
You can go double Forge from any opening as long as your opponent isn’t doing a 1 base all-in, so 2 Gate Robo, 3 Gate openers, and 1 Gate Nexus can all work.
There is also the option to just do a standard Colossus build and just make two Forges when you would normally make one. It’s slightly less safe than standard Colossus play and this build, but it gives you the strongest army later on for sure. Open up the spoiler on greedy variation in my thread to see how this works. This is the preferred build of WhiteRa and ZeeRax.
Strengths
- Focusing on early upgrades and delaying your tech sets you up for late game incredibly well.
- Having really buff Gateway units quickly make warp-ins much stronger against drops.
- Upgrades are very effective against 1/1/1 expand openings as they often go biomech, which is too diverse a unit composition to match your upgrades.
- The +2/+2 upgrades finish early enough to do a very strong mid-game push with Thermal Lance, as seen in our VOD of Liquid Tyler.
- If a Terran blindly guesses that you’re not going to be aggressive, he can skip Bunkers and possibly take advantage of a lack of aggression on part of the Protoss.
- The delayed Colossus means you might have trouble holding off Ghost timing attacks where the Terran expands and then makes 5 Barracks. Again though, the Terran has to guess you’re doing this instead of the standard fast Colossus build.
TLAF-Liquid`Tyler vs TLAF-Liquid`Jinro - Double Forge vs MM fast expo
- EGiNcontroL vs Fenix - Double Forge vs 1/1/1 expo into biomech
i've been messing with stuff like this, but having a more direct list of how tyler is doing it is nice and would help people who haven't tried it before. 
