EPT3/18/12 added recent replays
Join me in fleeing the hapless [D] and [H] threads in the strategy section qqing about macro and why I shouldn't tell them to do it.
Intro
[spoiler]Here, we have a build that gets WG faster than the FASTEST 12/16 4gate that can be used to punish every build's WG timing (other than a 3 stalker rush simply because you can't force good pylons against a good player if they CB'd their additional 2 stalkers unless you are quite sneaky). And surprisingly enough, it is economical enough to stay on pace once the rush is over.
FXOz used this build in the 3rd match against Sage in the code A ro4. Here is the link for those who have a pass this season:
http://www.gomtv.net/2011gslsponsors6/vod/66335
The brilliance of this build unfortunately flew right over the heads of Wolf and moletrap and they scratched their heads and spoke of lollipops and other trifles as FXOz began warping units right into Sage's base though Sage was not playing particularly greedy. Thankfully for you, the godliness of this build was not wasted on me.
10 gate and 11 gate builds have pretty much fallen off recently as players began to react to them more appropriately, but this build falls right in the middle of "what the hell is this where is his 2nd pylon and why is his core halfway done already" of a 10gate and "oh ok that was a 12 gate I know what his timings can be."
Caveat: this is a VERY mechanically rigorous build. In order to get the WG timing you need to make your 11gate worthwhile, you need to put all your shit down ON TIME, mine efficiently enough and CB your core 5 times with no overlap nor waste due to completion. But if you don't have great mechanics, you can use this build and practice it very closely (I think I ran through it 30 times before I got the timings I wanted on everything in one single trial run), you will be a better player at the end of it. No joke; if you execute this build perfectly by the end of practice, you will actually have improved mechanically as a player.
[/spoiler]
Build
[spoiler]
I hereby dub this build The Tin Man (after oz, though idk the TRUE inventor of this build), The 11Probe Puncher, the 1zealot-4stalker-wtftiming, as well as The Tasteless Build
9 Pylon
11 Gateway (don't chronoboost until after you put the gate down and start your 12th probe; don't scout quite yet)
12 Chronoboost probes
14 Gas (15 Gas runs the risk of having just under 100 gas upon the completion of core)
14 Pylon (15 is fine as well)
15 Core, scout (if you scout earlier you won't be in a position to execute this at all)
16 Zealot
20 Stalker/WG research (CB WG until completion; you need 5 of these independently to hit our desired timing. This will come with practice. don't CB the stalker)
23 Gas (this prevents a gas steal if they take their 2nd gas after a 21 stalker which is the typical timing. This also feints a lack of press to some degree. Don't mine from this geyser until I say so!)
23 2 Gates, simultaneously
24 Pylon (in base)
24 Make a probe (Don't make a 2nd stalker)
25 2 proxy pylons (One at the bottom so that you can warp up and then mineral walk through whatever is on the ramp and make a 2nd one above the ramp. If your probe takes a zealot punch, pull it back and put a 2nd one on the low ground. It's feasible that he has a sentry out at this point, so if you get hit by a sentry on the way up or you see one come out, bring your zealot to the high ground. If he ffs behind it, put the 2nd one at the bottom of the ramp as well and target the sentry with your zealot (and stalker from the low ground if possible).
** Make another probe, or don't after the 2 pylons. You should have exactly 375 mins for the 1st warp-in if you made a probe but sometimes your mining wasn't as efficient that game so you can err on the safe side and cut this probe
** Make 3 stalkers. He can force you to warp on the low ground with good micro, but ideally you want these on the high ground. Resume probe production and you can even chronoboost probes as you wait for your next warp in
** Warp in 3 more zealots once WG cooldowns are back up. Constant probe production with a CB should NOT stop you from having 300 minerals when this happens. Once you warp these zealots in you can start mining from your 2nd geyser.
The aggressive warp-ins end here unless you judged for certain that you can kill your opponent or trade for probes cost effectively with additional warp-ins
Mental triggers for chronoboosts
[spoiler]
On January 16 2012 04:15 Jaeger wrote:
...
gateway -> start probe : chronoboost nexus
core finished -> start warpgate : chronoboost core
23 probe -> 2nd gas : chronoboost core
23 2nd gate : chronoboost core -> 3rd gate
24 pylon : chronoboost core
start low ground proxy pylon and mineral walk up ramp : chronoboost core -> 2nd proxy pylon
[/spoiler]...
gateway -> start probe : chronoboost nexus
core finished -> start warpgate : chronoboost core
23 probe -> 2nd gas : chronoboost core
23 2nd gate : chronoboost core -> 3rd gate
24 pylon : chronoboost core
start low ground proxy pylon and mineral walk up ramp : chronoboost core -> 2nd proxy pylon
[/spoiler]
Why it works
[spoiler]
With near perfect execution, you can hit the following timings with this build:
Cybernetics Core: 2:31
1st Warp-in (3 stalkers): 5:22
2nd Warp-in (3 zealots): 5:54
Compare these timings to the FASTEST POSSIBLE 12/16 4GATES
1gas:
Cybernetics Core: 2:39
1st Warp-in (4 stalkers): 5:34
2nd Warp-in (4 zealots): 6:07
2gas (fake 2nd gas, no cancel, no mining; gas is taken after 1st stalker queued)
Cybernetics Core: 2:39
1st Warp-in (4 stalkers): 5:35, 5:35, 5:37, 5:39
2nd Warp-in (4 zealots): 6:10, 6:10, 6:12, 6:20
I know that's a lot of numbers and I'm sorry for that. But this is what they mean: Against the fastest WG timing your opponent can muster off of a 12gate, your warp-ins come 12 seconds before his do. Put simply, he cannot warp-in offensively despite what pylons he got up by your base without forcing a base trade situation in which you are hitting his probes before he is hitting yours.
Use these 12 seconds to target down probes and pick off his units if he is actually trying to engage you. In the meantime, you have a 2nd gas up as well as more probes (even if you haven't killed any!).
If he in fact 4 gated and you have 12 seconds, I recommend only warping in the stalkers aggressively unless his WG is slow because of CB inefficiency. You can gauge this by seeing when his gateways begin to transform into warpgates; you have 11 seconds from when you hear that sound and when his units are actually fully warped in. Once his first warp-in is complete, you will have 4 stalkers and 1 zealot to his 6 stalkers and 1 zealot if he hasn't yet moved out and hasn't lost any units to your pressure. Get the hell out of there if all the stalkers are getting warped in. I advise warping the zealots into your own base at this point. If he is 4gating you and he is smart, he has a proxy pylon up somewhere by your natural and will most likely use his zealot warpin there. Your zealot warp in is faster than his, but he'll most likely get 4 up against your 3. Nothing huge to worry about as long as you warped in your zealots defensively.
Against some builds you straight up win after your first warp in. These builds include any kind of 1 gate robo, any fast expansion, or pretty much any build that gets less than 3 gateways before putting up a different tech structure.
In the case that you don't kill him, continue to make probes. You will have enough gas for 2 sentries after your zealot warp-in so counter-attacks after you retreat will fall flat. From here you can go up your tech tree of choice knowing you have a probe lead.
En re Geiko:
Apparently, there's a 12/16 4gate that you can do that only cb's the nexus one time. The result is they get WG 7 seconds after you do with an 11gate, instead of 12. This does not worry me, however, because your earlier WG still forces them to warp in their stalkers defensively, which was the goal of the build to begin with. However, you are most likely not really going to be able to do a whole lot with 7 seconds. So if you happen to come across this (you'll be able to tell by how much cb they're saving.. if they have as much as you when their core is building, they only used 1 cb on probes), simply warp in your stalkers aggressively and then fall back while warping in your zealots defensively. In the meantime, you have your 2nd gas up and you have a probe lead!
You can read his post and watch his replay here: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewpost.php?post_id=11740700[/spoiler]
How the build factors into these timings
[spoiler]The goal of this build is to force aggressive warp-ins 12 seconds before your opponent can. Here are the points where we shave seconds off of our WG timing
We make the 1st gate earlier! We make it on 11 at 1:25 as opposed to on 12 at 1:33.
We designate our 2nd CB to our WG instead of our nexus. This combined with the 11 gate nets us one less probe once the 12-gating protoss has finished his 2nd chronoboost on probes. But fuck'em because these 2 small sacrifices net us at least 12 seconds of free punches to the face.
We sacrifice an early scout to get the core up on 15, but we have already committed ourselves to the 11 gate and there is no information you can gather with an earlier scout that would change what you are doing.
I want to stress this point again: You will not be able to get these precious 12 seconds unless you put everything up on time, scout on 15, mine decently efficiently, and put 5 separate CB's on WG before it finishes. Practice, practice, practice.
[/spoiler]
A word on maps
[spoiler]I don't recommend using this on maps that have significantly far away proxy locations that you really need to scout before 15 food to be safe. I also advise against using this on maps that have a secondary ramp at the natural, as your opponent can set up a defensive position there and you HAVE to go through one specific zone in order to get to the ramp. That being said...
Maps that are good for this:
Metal
you can scout your natural 3rd base and the gold in time with your 15th probe, and scout for cannons with good building placement and perhaps a small deviation from the natural scouting pattern by your nat just to be safe)
Xel'naga
You can spot cannon rush with your building placement. I prefer to scout my base for in base proxy on twelve then send the probe back to mine. Just scout your nat and behind the grass on 15 and take the farther path from your nat to the tower to scout for proxy gates there).
Shattered
You can scout your gold and through the tower for proxy gates on 15 safely. doesn't hurt to send your gateway probe to the edge to check for cannons, though no one has done this since piqliq was still playing..
Maps that are not as good for this:
Antigua
2ndary ramp, though you can still do it if you're very careful with your approach as you should get up the 2ndary ramp before a 2nd stalker is out vs 1 gate openings. Make sure you scout cross spawn first to check the tower and consider checking your 3rd as well, though this is very uncommon. Always spot for cannon rush with your initial pylon + gateway)
Entombed
See Antigua
Maps that are bad for this:
Shakuras
Need to scout whole base + in between your nat and close spawn nat and your tower to check for proxy/cannon rush, and has a 2ndary ramp
TDA
No ramp so you can't hold a counter with ff's unless you over-invest in sentries, at which point your transition is late and therefore tremendously weaker)
**I'm not quite sure about arid. I don't play it so much. I'll give it a shot though.. no secondary ramp so that's good. 2 spawn locations which means proxies will be slightly more common. Ideal spots for the proxy would be in base or slightly beyond your nat. I'd scout for in-base on gateway then the nat on 15[/spoiler]
Soft counter: 3 stalker rush
[spoiler]The three stalker rush can create for you problems I find quite interesting and unique. With a 15 scout, you will be able to scout the 2nd gateway before the first stalker is out on 2 player maps. However, on 4player maps, you won't be able to get this scouting information if you scout your opponent last.
Don't fret; your first proxy pylon begins at 4:45 at the base of their ramp, and their 2 additional stalkers are not out. They will be close to coming out if they CB'd them, and if they CB'd them, their WG is even further behind than in the 12/16 4gate situations I outlined above. In this case, force them to shoot at your zealot thus keeping fire off of your 2 pylons.
If you scout them last and thus can't get info into whether or not they are 3stalker rushing, I advise you not to try to force an above ramp pylon; put 2 on the lower ground just to be safe. If you scout the 3 stalker rush, put the 2 pylons on the lower ground, as well.
If your probe is late because he zoned you out with his initial units and you can't get the proxy pylon started by 4:50, you may want to abandon the attack altogether. You're only a probe most likely, and you already have a gas up that you can saturate.
Essentially, you commit yourself to some extent when you don't CB your first probe. Don't let 3 stalker rushes nor somewhat cryptic builds derail you from this yellow brick road 11probe smack down. You get better by committing to something and executing it perfectly, not sitting on top of your ramp pondering the spelling of "the lollipop guild"
Alternatively, you may steal the 2nd gas and play defensively with a sentry or 2 if they don't kill your gas. Just make sure they don't 2gate expo on you without you knowing about it.[/spoiler]
Cannon rush defense
[spoiler]on metal you want to get the most vision possible with your pylon. with your gate you want to seal off the space between mins and the side of your base so the probe can't zip through for vision/building
[spoiler]
![[image loading]](http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n536/alej15/Screenshot2012-01-0917_05_45.jpg)
[/spoiler]this is the tricky one:
[spoiler]
![[image loading]](http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n536/alej15/Screenshot2012-01-0917_05_56.jpg)
[/spoiler]this pylon sees the cannon rushes that kill you when you put your pylon farther to the left.
for the 9 oclock spawn, you will probably have to run your probe through there regardless just because there's so much area.
for antigua, you can wall the space between the geyser and the side of your base with a pylon in every position while getting good vision where the cannon rush would come from. however, many people will start the first pylon out of sight of even these pylons, so I recommend scouting with a probe anyway.
[spoiler]
![[image loading]](http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n536/alej15/Screenshot2012-01-0917_09_28.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n536/alej15/Screenshot2012-01-0917_09_26.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n536/alej15/Screenshot2012-01-0917_09_20.jpg)
[/spoiler][/spoiler]Replays
[spoiler]As always, I'll first provide a skeleton replay of the build performed to the best of my ability. Check your own timings against the timings in this replay, or the timings I extracted from it above in the Why it works section. I think I got everything down quickly enough, but if you can do it faster please post the replay here.
Tinman
Here is the link to the GSL vod I mentioned earlier. You can check it out if you have a pass
oz vs sage; click 3rd set for game
here's some more replays (3/18/12)
http://drop.sc/135995
should have lost this one, really. the rush does not damage but a few favorable engagements get me the win
http://drop.sc/135996
rush nets me a 3 probe lead. he expands and we go for a 1 colo push sans range to end it
http://drop.sc/135997
proxy gate into base trade situation!
http://drop.sc/135998
opponent goes 2nd gas then 2nd + 3rd gate on 25 food. just kills
http://drop.sc/125841
vs aggressive 4gate. faster wg timing helps me kill it with a defensive warp-in
http://drop.sc/125735
vs risky/shoddy 2gate stargate build. just kills
Here are 2 replays of defending 2 gate proxies using this build:
[spoiler]This one is on antigua. Always place your first pylon to scout for cannon rush, of course. But also always scout through the middle first or you'll lose to this kind of thing immediately.
http://sc2rep.com/replays/download?id=16031
This one is on xel'naga. I've been able to use the 11g build by using my gateway or 2nd pylon or 1st gas probe to scout for in base proxies as well as checking the nat and behind the smoke before returning it to mine before actually scouting on 15.
http://sc2rep.com/replays/download?id=16030[/spoiler]
text book tin man. at the end of the rush i'm up 7 probes. from here on its ezpz if you don't fuck up too bad
alejP v ninjaP
clean kill vs a greedy 3 gate build
http://sc2rep.com/replays/download?id=16309
here's a pretty interesting one. it's against a double proxy after a 1 gas opening.. i guess 2 wolf gates? thankfully this build gets out wg so fast that you can hold off these pre-wg busts without sentries.
http://sc2rep.com/replays/download?id=16310
against a semi-safe 3 gate. i probably would have got 6-7 probes, but he just gives up once the warp in is over
http://sc2rep.com/replays/download?id=16311
against 3 stalker rush. time suggested this earlier in the thread-- steal their gas and get a sentry or 2; prepare for 4 gate if they ignore your gas while keeping some kind of scout for a 2g expo
http://sc2rep.com/replays/download?id=16312
vs a greedy 3 stalker rush that went into 2 sentries
http://sc2rep.com/replays/download?id=16313
clean kill vs delayed 4gate
http://sc2rep.com/replays/download?id=16315
opened 11gate, but had to deviate once i saw a very fast 3 stalker rush and that i couldn't take his gas.
http://sc2rep.com/replays/download?id=16316
Here is a vod with 2 games in it with the build. go to 11 mins and 58 mins of part 2
http://www.twitch.tv/alej691/b/299074003
I will upload more soon now that I have actually practiced the build haha[/spoiler]
Until next time
[spoiler]If you plan on using this build, I recommend you practice it a lot against the AI. I know it took me a long time to get all the timings and sequencing down correctly. And it only "works" once you have achieved that end. By "work" I mean you actually get your warp-in 12 seconds before a cutthroat 4gate and can force defensive cool downs and/or a probe-pull.
I hope you all study this build as hard as I did and continue working on your mechanics. I'll keep this thread updated as need be.
Thanks for reading!
-aLeJ[/spoiler]
thanks for a new build 
