EPT
NOTE3: If anyone feels like making a snazzy protoss themed banner/header picture (maybe just a modified screenshot of one of my sim city-walls or whateeeeeeeever you can think of) or knows of a good pic, pm me (I feel it would be nice to have a header/banner pic
).NOTE2: Updated after some feedback from Knicknack.
Added a section on probe micro, clarified some things and brought up some things you might like to do differently from how I do them.
NOTE: A lot of code is going to be wrong, I just had to post it to see where. First order of business: fix the thumbnails
EDIT: The slideshow isn't working the way I wanted (flipping through pictures), maybe I can make a gif out of it instead.
Btw, I wrote this in one 6-hour sitting (with one break for dinner) wee.
Word tells me this is 13 pages long, with the pictures included =]
Introduction
First of all, who am I? Well, if you are a TL.net regular you know me as 'that guy with 20 000 posts', if not, you might have seen me around west as Dream.t)PltO, or most recently in the Blizzard teamleague Sandlot, where the build and style I'm about to detail was used in 3 of the games (total score for me was 2-0, 2-0, 1-2, with this build going 2-1).
So, that's me - now, what's Sim City Toss then? It's really just a nickname based on the way I build my bases - in particular late game. I try to make efficient, good looking bases that are easily defensible. The 'style', if you can call it that, began to take shape when the map Rush Hour (now Rush Hour 3) was introduced. As I watched replays and played many games here, I grew increasingly frustrated with the way protoss players kept on attacking, only to have their entire expo raised by a counter, again and again, so, I started playing this way, tight building formations and defensive play with the aim being a long game win.
Basically, it's payback for every time a zerg player created a wall of sunken colonies and turtled for 30 minutes
Click!
![[image loading]](/staff/FrozenArbiter/faskillk.gif)
Before we start I would like to mention that playing this way is going to, eventually, get quite old.
I have played hundreds of games on Rush Hour this way, to the point that I literally dislike playing the map at all (it used to be my favorite).
This guide is going to deal with one build, my trademark Rush Hour build; 1 Gate Sair/DT, how to play it in early, middle and late game and how to deal with common counters.
I'll link to/upload several replays illustrating my points whenever possible.
Before we start, a glossary;
![[image loading]](/staff/FrozenArbiter/rushour20img.jpg)
Starting locations: 11, 3, 7
Red : Natural, nat. Expansion belonging to one of the mains.
Blue: 2nd gas multi/expo + position (1, 5, 9)
Green: Mineral only.
Cyan: Center multi/expo + top/bottom.
In the beginning..
Alright, first of all let's get a few basic details about rush hour out of the way:
* There's 9 minerals at each main, 8 at each nat, the 2nd gas expo has 6 and the mineral only 7. The center expos have 6 each.
* There's 5000 gas in the main and nat expansions but only 2500 at each of the 2nd gas expos.
So basically, whoever controls the empty main will control more gas than the other player, even if he lets his opponent take control of all the other expansions, as the main will presumably be mined out gas-wise by the time you are likely to secure another main.
Ok, so your options on Rush Hour in terms of opening strategy are more or less the following;
2 gate (but due to the distance this is generally not a good build on Rush Hour)
1 gate
Fast Expansion
This guide will deal with 1 gate, specifically a fast corsair and dark templar build, just wanted to mention the other options, especially fast expansion, since it's the by far most popular build on rush hour PvZ. I dislike this build because of the difficulty that lies in defending your natural vs hydras on rush hour, I still use it every now and then but it's not my personal choice.
It is a very strong build if you get it down perfectly tho.
The basic build
Because there's only 3 starting locations on Rush Hour, you don't need to scout after pylon but can safely wait until your gateway, unlike on maps like luna where you might want to use a different build order if he's across the map or right next door. Also, 9 pools and the like are found in time for you to not send your zealot to die, so this is basically why I prefer scouting at gateway, not to mention the huge economic boost. Consequently, the basic build should look something like this:
* 8 Pylon
* 10 Gateway (send this probe to scout)
* 11 or 12 gas (assimilator)
* 13 zealot (
* 15 Pylon (16 pylon if you don't like skipping probes for 2-3 seconds)
* Cyber when you can afford it (17 if you want to stop probe for about 2-3 seconds, 18 if you dont, out of habit I prefer 17 but you decide for yourself as it's really only a habit), unless you have scouted a 9 pool or earlier (and even then, if his lings follow your probe, you can cyber safely).
* Zealot (or cyber, if, as mentioned above, you scout an early pool)
* Pylon around 21( or 22, again one of those habits) followed by a stargate (22) and a dragoon (23).
* Citadel at 26.
* Make templar archives and your 2nd gateway simultaneously (this is so you can make 2 dark templars as soon as the archives finish, I like this for the added aggressive, defensive and scouting possibilities).
Now, these Psi numbers I put down for the buildings are absolutely not set in stone - don't follow them blindly. If you need a forge, GET ONE. Likewise, it's also possible to get a cyber before your first zealot but I don't like this much.
If you need to make more than 2 zealots, make more than 2 zealots. If you've lost a few probes in whatever way, obviously adjust to take this into account (for instance you might not need a pylon quite as early etc).
I could here, put down many different scenarios when I would make more zealots (actually, I'd have to think, I usually just react to what I see or feel in the game) etc but it's better to know by experience I think, so you don't have to stop and think 'hm.. what was it he said about 9 pool speedlings again!?'.
The difference in timing between making 2 zealots before core and one zealot before core should be off-set by what the zerg did to cause you to do this, at least I've never felt any real difference.
I generally don't cyber before zealot on this map, I like to have a zealot for harassing purposes if he's pooling late and for defence if he's not. Find a variation you like tho, it's possible to make more than 2 zealots before your core and being aggressive etc.
Your probe should be alive until zerg either 1) Gets speed upgrade for his zerglings. 2) Your corsair is finished.
Sending a second probe, if the zerg did not make a sunken, by ordering it to mine his mineral line as you micro your initial probe, is often a good idea. I'll write more about how to keep your probe alive in the next section.
Staying alive
Probe micro. You see me saying 'the probe shouldn't die before your corsair gets there' and think 'oh shit, how??', never fear - all will be revealed!
Probe micro requires a lot of multitasking and a lot of focus, it's one of the main reasons why I consider PvZ to be more exhausting than PvT, as you have to focus 100% from the start to the finish.
Anyway, some helpful tips:
*Use his drones against him, lings are mobile but even they get trapped easily when running through a line of drones, but you, right clicking every mineral after the other, will speed right through.
Walk behind the minerals, go through the small holes, slide through the drones, slide towards home, and repeat. Make sure you check out his nat too (from above) so you can see if he got an extractor or a lair there.
*Eat a mineral! This way if you ever find yourself in trouble and can't go to your own base to find a mineral to click, you just need to click 'C', and the worker will slide right home with the cargo (which you can abort as soon as he's out of harms way, of course).
* Dance, dance dance! You know the cutesy worker dances you see observers do sometimes? Just clicking left-right quickly making the probe sort of half spin? This is a good thing to do every now and then, especially if the zerg is good at chasing the probe (if the zerg is a good chaser, keeping the probe alive is very tiresome, more on this later) as it will make it harder for him to predict which way you go.
* Distract him. If he's made like 6 or 8 zerglings, sending a zealot doesn't sound so great, yeah? But if they are all chasing your probe, showing the zealot / attacking a drone might either give you a drone, or half the lings off your probes back (and onto the zealot, but he should be far away enough to run away, and perhaps you have a second zealot coming, in which case if he only sent half his lings, you can fight).
* Watch out for spawning pools. Spawning pools are good at trapping probes, don't ask me why, they just are -.-
The first zealot
Some people, like me, love using the first zealot to harass the zerg even with a 1 gate opening. Personally I usually rally my first zealot to the zerg base even if my probe has not yet reached it. If the zerg 9 pools I will either retreat or hide my zealot out of the 9 pool path while making a 2nd and 3rd at home. Watch out for the zerg putting a drone on your ramp to make your zealot turn back trying to find another way, it's not as big an issue on rush hour as on other maps (big ramp) but still, I think it can happen.
You should be able to hold his lings with your zealot at home and some probes until a second zealot arrives, and if you can get a few drones/disturb the zerg with your zealot it's well worth it. However, it is risky, but fun so
Feel free to see if you can get away with!If the zerg has lings in time and is using them to chase your probe, you might sometimes be able to kill a drone at his nat, but often your zealot will get trapped by lings as it flees home so I would advice against being aggressive when playing a zerg that doesn't use his lings for aggression.
If the zerg makes just 2 or 4 lings, feel free to use your zealot to attack drones at his nat, usually 1 or 2 lings will be busy chasing the probe (if not all) and therefore your zealot can fight without risk of being surrounded by 6 lings.
Just make sure you retreat your zealot in time or things can get very messy if he decides to mass lings.
What does the probe see?
So you've got your probe out and found your opponent, what can you expect to see?
* Pool first, hatch at nat.
* Hatch first at nat.
I don't see hatch in main used much on Rush Hour, actually almost never. Now, the different pools behave differently obviously, if it's a 9 pool or earlier you'll probably want to make a 2nd zealot before you get your cybernetics core, but otherwise don't bother unless you want to be aggressive, you can get it in time anyway. If he does hatch in main, it's not that different - just be more vary of him going all in ling (early gas and no expo would be an indication that something is wrong).
If he 12 pools he'll have a second overlord, or you can just check his drone count/timing on the pool, I mostly go by feeling here.
If you find him first you should definitely be able to either seriously delay his natural hatchery with your scouting probe or make him place it out of place (which will almost force him to 3 hatch hatch), just don't lose your probe
If you find him second the hatchery should be in place, and you can sometimes tell if he pooled first or not depending on the hatchery hitpoints but you'll still want to enter his main (obviously).
From here he'll either 3 hatch or 2 hatch tech/all-in ling.
If you scout an early gas and no 3rd hatch yet, you can always afford to be a lot safer, because he'll either be teching quickly (worse eco) or rushing (worse eco) so just play it safe and monitor his ling count closely.
If he 3 hatches you'll want to cut as many corners as possible, generally. You should definitely be able to keep scouting him until your sair comes out or a den is placed.
Basically you'll just have to use your judgement, but I'll write more on how to adapt later on.
If you scout an evolution chamber instead of a hydra den, getting a scout can be very effective. The zerg will either be forced to make hydras or make a second spore colony, in both cases this is very annoying for the zerg.
What does the corsair see?
So, you've gotten your first corsair out without trouble, your probe is still alive or only recently dead.. Well, his lair wont be done, he'll most likely have a hydra den (in some cases an evolution chamber and a spore starting soon/started) started/finished. Head straight for his base, try to get an overlord, and see what he's up to.
Note: the corsair should head for the zerg base immediately in almost every case, as it is important to see what the zerg is up to and the later you arrive there, the more time he'll have to secure his overlords. The stray ones are as good as dead anyway. If you already know he's massing hydras (from your probe scout) or doing something else that involves him rushing you and ignoring his eco, kill the overlords around your base first so your dts can defend safely.
Check for a quick second gas (mutalisks are much more likely when one is present), and monitor his hydra count + annoy his overlords.
If there's no lair morphing you have to kill any overlords around your base as soon as possible, if there's no lings below your ramp or if they don't have speed kill them with your goon/zealots (unless there's too many, but often zergs will back off when units descend a ramp, presumably because he can't tell how many there really are) and use them to help search for overlords.
After you are confident you have found all hidden overlords (based on how many there were in his base) you will want to make sure you check the area surrounding his natural as zergs often send them from there over to your nat;
![[image loading]](/staff/FrozenArbiter/overlord20test28129.gif)
If everything in the zerg base appears to be progressing normally, but you have a bad feeling (there's too many larvae, his tech is late, there's not enough drones/units..), make sure you check the 2nd gas expos, some zergs like to expand there very quickly (and at great risk obviously), some of the time you'll just have to accept that he got away with it, but often your initial force of 2 dts, 2 zealots and a dragoon is enough to make him pay for the early expansion, perhaps not kill him, but still; it will be worth it more often than not.
Also scout the empty main, although much rarer, occasionally a zerg will try to get away with an early expansion there (your dark templar/s should be able to stop this as long as you find it).
Time to expand
Yes, time to get that nexus down, how do you want to do this tho? Before your dts are out? After? Do you want to make a cannon first? Should you upgrade storm before or after?
Everything will be answered here.
If you are playing vs a 3 hatch techer who has not invested in lings, you can expand before your dark templars are out, indeed, you can probably get away with expanding even before they are started but it's up to you to judge, the safer option is to expand just around the time your dark templars get out.
Your forge should be completing around this time as well (making the forge before you make your nexus means surprise speedlings or other unpleasantries can be dealt with a little bit easier, but if you can get away with making your nexus first it's of course good for your economy).
Put down a pylon, followed by a nexus, followed by 2 cannons (unless you are sure you don't need them, which is rare). Make sure you place them carefully - you want to deter mutas, lurkers and hydras all at once (the cannons you place after this will be more specialized) but often that's not possible, just try to place them in as neutral and flexible a way as possible unless you know for sure what he's doing. The reason I put down 2 and not 1 or 3 is that 1 doesn't have enough bite (ie a few hydras can kill it quite easily, or a few lings) even with your units present, and it doesn't cover enough (detection wise), 3 is a bit overkill unless he does something sneaky (more on this below).
The order you want to get these in, typically - nexus, cannon, storm, templars (at least 3, personally).
For examples of how to place them, refer to the building placement section.
Next up, 2 hatch lurker. Vs a 2 hatch lurker player you'll want to get your cannons up before your nexus (at least 2) and probably research storm first as well. Make sure you always hit his lurkers (once or twice each) with your units/cannon so that you can kill them with 1 storm.
The main priority is that they cover as big an area as possible detection wise, your dts can fight quite well.
Also, practice your Archon+zealot lurker killing technique (more on this in the Early game fighting chapter). You might have to make an archon with your first two regular templars as well, again, use your judgement.
If you are playing vs a 3 hatch hydra rush you will want to make cannons before your nexus, and storm too. The only difference between this and the 2 hatch lurker is how you place them pretty much (and how many). Vs a really dedicated hydra user just pump out templars cannons and then expo, later than usual.
Refer to the game between me and Reason (link in the replays section).
Now you'll be asking 'But when do I make cannons in main if he's making mutalisks? Before or after I expo!?'. Unless it's a 2 hatch mutalisk opening, you make them after you expo.
Get the 3 cannons just around the time his spire finishes and they'll be in time. 3 cannons + 1 corsair can hold him long enough for your hts to have storm ready. Generally you won't need an archon.
If it's a 2 hatch mutalisk opening, an archon is most likely desireable, and making a second sair can be forgiven if you need it! Vs a 3 hatch muta build I try to avoid making an archon (at least not before I've used my high templars) or 2nd sair unless I have to.
If he's not making mutalisks you'll want to get cannons in main once you can afford it without hurting your economy/macro unless you think you need them earlier.
Early game fighting
You know when to expand and how, this is the most important part. This chapter won't be very long as fighting is quite micro dependant, and micro is a skill you learn by applying not reading.
Anyway, in the early game using this build there's a few different possible skirmishes;
*Zealots/goon vs small ling groups, really not much to it - don't let him surround your dragoon, keep backing up so that the lings can't fight all at once, try to get a drone or two before the lings arrive, your dragoon and zealots can hole up nicely behind the bottom most mineral at 3 o clocks nat for instance, just don't overstay your welcome. Sometimes you can be aggressive with your zealots (2-3) and dragoon at the same time as you send out your corsair. Many zergs choose not to make a sunken when facing 1 gate builds, and vs these you have a good chance of doing damage.
If he starts using alot of larvae on lings you need to back off - mission accomplished, if he has a spore, attacking it will scare him into making lings, maybe even sending drones to fight. If he has no spore, target his hydra with your goon, and dance around with the zealots (if he has too many lings you shouldn't be here in the first place). If he has more than 1, maybe 2, hydras you should retreat. During all this your corsair should be attacking his overlords, and depending on what the situation is like, you might want to use your goon to speed up the killing.
If you are fighting at your ramp, backing a zealot up a step that's being attacked will help a lot, it's just practice. Try to not let him take your ramp, unless you have cannons in your base and not ramp, use probes (sometimes a shield battery.. but this is when you are faced with all-in lings and similiar stuff).
*Slowing down his lurkers as they descend on your natural. Try to get in as many hits on as many different lurkers as possible when he moves towards your base, 1 hit with a dt or two with a goon/zealot and you can kill them with one storm.
Aiming your cannons to help with this is good too (not sure if I do this personally most of the time or not actually, maybe it's something I do without thinking about it or maybe I don't)..
*Archon + zealot lurker killing.
Sometimes he'll have just one damaged lurker (maybe two, maybe 1 undamaged) hitting your nexus out of cannon range, if this happens, and your templars are out of energy (and presumably already morphed into an archon), just place the zealot on top of where the lurker spines are coming from and order your archon to attack.
If you do it right, the lurker will die (good skill to have, I realize it's very basic to some but it's a life saver in many situations).
If the zerg is not being aggressive, at least one of your dark templars should be trying to prevent him from taking the 2nd gas expo (most likely the one furthest away from you), and if that fails it should guard the ramp to the mineral only.
Making raids at his nat is also a good idea, as they are often only lightly guarded (1 sunken perhaps, meaning you can get 1 or 2 drones without getting hurt too bad).
After the expansion is finished..
Once your expansion is finished you will generally want to add many gateways (around 5 new ones, maybe 6) almost at once, and yes, provided you kept up your probe production and continue to do so, you can afford 7-8 gates off one expo. Making units like zealots (slow zealots) will be quite useless at this point, so I tend to wait until I have all my gates and tech started before I start massing.
You should also make an assimilator quickly (on your nat, duh). You might have a lot of gas now but you'll quickly run out as you need to get robo (200), 1+ (100), zealot speed (150), dragoon range (150) and observers (150+ 75).
I personally keep on making probes for quite a long time into the game, as this is not a timing build but more long term, but after you get your mineral only your main should be running dry, so ideally you wont have to make more at this time, obviously if you've lost several probes earlier, you might have to.
As you add gates you want to get a robo and start 1+ (at almost the same time as the robo if you enjoy seeing things finish simultaneously, which your 1+, zealot speed and dragoon range will, and you'll get an observer around this time as well) followed by zealot speed and dragoon range.
If this was a game where your opponent hydra rushed, faster zealot legs might be desireable, or a very fast templar drop. As the zergs lair was really late and he opened with hydras, he is highly unlikely to have a spire and therefore no scourges, so templar drops are devastating.
A second forge should be added eventually.
During this time it's a good idea to constantly pester his drones with your dark templars (if they are alive) or at least checking for over-expanding (the mains) with your probe. The zerg will, almost regardless of how the early game looked, have either expanded or be expanding to the 2nd gas and mineral only. The mineral only at 1 is particulary sensitive to dark templar harass as you can come from the main at 11.
If you arrive at the ramp of the mineral only before he's sent a drone there, posting a dark templar on the ramp is a good idea.
When to move out?
I move out as I get my first observer, at which point I'll probably have something like 10 zealots 10 goons, maybe an archon and 3-4 templars (of which I'll take 2 or 3, leaving one at my nat and possibly one in my main).
This force should, generally, be accompanied by a probe and be heading towards the zerg 2nd gas expo (which means you'll probably be leaving via the bridge pointing towards the empty main). Expanding to the 2nd gas between you and the zerg is, in my opinion not that good of an idea, although I have seen progamers do it (in conjunction with an attempt at a timed rush to kill the zerg natural, but that is not the point of this build, the point of this build is to reach the late game).
Expanding there will leave you open to counter attacks and means you'll have a harder time preventing him from taking the empty main or taking it yourself, so in my opinion you should take the 2nd gas expo closest to the empty main.
As you clear out the area around your 2nd gas you'll probably want to take a stab at his 2nd gas expo, as you do this I suggest you send a probe or dark templar (or a zealot if no dark templars are left) to the center of the map and to the 2nd gas expo between you and the zerg, this is done to spot for zerg counter or flank attempts (useful trick I learned from boxer vs jju actually
).This is even more important if you attempt to attack his 2nd gas later in the game, around the time when he gets hive.
If you can't do any damage with your army I suggest you take your mineral only immediately and start one of two things:
1) Reaver tech. If you choose this there's two options - getting speed shuttle and some reavers and trying to break down his expansion with your force+reavers, or getting a 2nd robo at your 2nd gas exp and preparing for a reaver push to the empty main. The reavers from your main will serve as excellent protection from counters (together with an effeciently built base around your natural) as well as your 2nd gas, if need be.
In either case, get the damage upgrade for the reavers.
2) Corsairs / DTs.
Highly effective if the zerg has only been making lurker/ling into ultra/ling, I advice against it if he's been doing a 3 evo strat (quite popular in rush hour). You can do a 4 dt main drop and later stop him from taking the empty main for a while. The corsairs are also very helpful if he's fond of guardians or if you want to storm drop.
I like to phase in reavers even when doing this however, because defending is a lot harder without them. They help a lot vs drops (the corsairs) but ultimately I think I prefer going straight for reavers on Rush Hour, as you don't need to be as mobile as on luna or other open maps.
Mid-game drops are relatively popular on rush hour, so leaving a high templar in your main is a good idea, and a pylon above your nat prevents such disasters as not seeing the lurkers burrowing there and your cannons not reacting.
Moving into late game
Late game - where this build shines. As the middle game progresses the zerg will do one of 4 things most likely -
1) Attempt to overrun you from his 2nd gas and mineral only, massing hive units.
Reavers are quite good at dealing with this, and since you won't be fighting him much in the open, this works in your favour as he won't be getting the extra gas/eco as quickly.
2) Expand to the natural of the empty main - this is by far the most common, and also what I believe this build does best vs. As long as you are able to hit him right before it goes up, your reavers will enable you to kill it. Depending on how early he took it, it might not be time for you to expand there yourself just yet, but make a pylon there anyway as by this time you should have a lot of minerals.
3) Expand directly to the main, place MANY lurkers/scourges on the ramp - I think the corsair/dt option might do a little bit better vs this, ideally you'll intercept the lurkers before they make it up the ramp, but with storm and your army you should be able to break the ramp in time.
Watch out for counters tho, the zerg is very likely to try one since you will have to commit such a large part of your army to breaking the main. Also keep an eye on the bridge, you dont want to be caught out of position if he decides to send the rest of his units to flank your attackers.
4) Expand to the empty 2nd gas. Again vs this, sair dt might do better when it comes to stopping it, but it's not that important that you do. Let him have it and take the main, but not too quickly.
On Rush Hour, in a long game, it's very likely that you lose your main.. Now, normally this would be quite a scary thing, but here it hardly matters as long as you lose it for the right reasons. If you lose it without securing the empty main, you were outplayed or had poor luck earlier on, as long as you secure the natural of the empty main losing your main is not that big a deal.
The zerg has no choice but to attack your main as you now have more gas than what's left on the entire map, and the many reavers you've made + the robo and your standing army will help keep your new base safe until you have gateways and templar tech ready again. So basically, don't waste your army trying to save your main, not for too long at any rate. Save it as long as he's only dropping small forces or countering, but once he commits to it, let him have it - use this time to consolidate your position at the natural of the empty main and prepare your endgame.
The zerg player will typically have mined out his 2nd gas expo by now, his mineral only will either be dry too or on its last legs, he is likely to have taken the other 2nd gas expo (which you might choose to harass while you still have your main) and perhaps the two center mineral onlies.
What does this leave him with? It leaves him with 3 depleted gases and one with 2000-2500~, most likely a depleted main, nat and almost depleted mineral only/2nd gas nat, an almost fresh 2nd gas and an almost fresh mineral only + at best, 2 center expos (but usually only 1).
Why only 1? Because if you started at 7 and took the empty main at 11, you can storm any drones mining the center expansions with ease, rendering them effectively useless until he kills your main. If you have the bad fortune to start at 11 and your opponent at 7 or vice versa, he will get both the center expansions, however, it's easier to kill the top center expo from the 2nd gas at 1 (where you have a robo, remember?).
Building placement
Here's an example of how I place cannons and other buildings:
Generic placement for 3 o clock:
![[image loading]](/staff/FrozenArbiter/3_o_clock.jpg)
Vs Aggressive zerg (fast overlord speed upgrade and hydra rush, with a lurker follow up), 3 o clock:
![[image loading]](/staff/FrozenArbiter/3_o_clock__agg_z.jpg)
If the zerg isn't being aggressive, add one cannon close to the gas instead of 2, the cannons added the nexus below are meant to deter hydras and the one at the top to help in case he tries to go after the broadside.
Generic placement for 7 o clock:
![[image loading]](/staff/FrozenArbiter/7_o_clock.jpg)
The zerg was doing a 3 hatch lurker build, so I wanted the cannon on the outside to be as far out as possible, so as to prevent him from hitting my nexus, sometimes placing it more to the left is better (for instance vs mass zerglings).
3rd cannon @ 7 o clock:
![[image loading]](/staff/FrozenArbiter/7_o_clock_3rd_cannon.jpg)
Adding another pylon is generally needed I find, although, perhaps the first pylon could be better placed.
11 o clock placement:
![[image loading]](/staff/FrozenArbiter/11_o_clock.jpg)
3rd cannon:
![[image loading]](/staff/FrozenArbiter/11_o_clock_3rd_cannon.jpg)
Anti-hydra:
![[image loading]](/staff/FrozenArbiter/antihydra.jpg)
Note: 11 vs 3 anti-hydra, as if he was at 7, they'd be coming from below not the side.
Example building placement 3 o clock:
![[image loading]](/staff/FrozenArbiter/buildings_3_o_clock.jpg)
Example building placement 11 o clock:
![[image loading]](/staff/FrozenArbiter/buildings_11_o_clock.jpg)
Note the surrounded Templar Archives, a favorite target of zerg players as they drop or sneak lings.
![[image loading]](/staff/FrozenArbiter/buildings_11_o_clock_2.jpg)
Notice the pylon at the lower most mineral - this improves mining by a little. It can be done at 7 o clock as well, but not at 3 (at 3, the probes start going on the outside of the pylon instead).
Replays
I'll put more of these here eventually, but for now (I want some more permanent hosts than yousendit or sendspace):
http://www.teamliquid.net/replay/download.php?replay=841 - Vs istyle[gm] (needs BWLauncher)
EDIT: There are some more replays of this build here:
http://www.battle.net/tournaments/sandlot/schedule.shtml
I used it in all 3 weeks games (vs active, vs reason and vs s2[fou], going 2-1. It should be noted that I was fairly nervous vs active which led to me playing extremely safe).
In closing..
The templar mana upgrade is very good - get it once your eco is strong, very helpful. Screenshots of more building placements (particulary of how to secure the empty nat) will be posted later, as will some replays illustrating why I suggest you get storm before expanding vs all-in hydra.. And some more regular replays as well.
I might add a section on another 1 gate variation, and perhaps write a bit on azalea if anyone wants me to (would be much shorter tho, but since WCG is over and I don't think they'll use these maps for a 3rd year, I don't mind sharing =]).
Finally, when things seem to be going badly - don't give up. Really, as long as you hold on to the empty main, anything is possible! The massive amount of gas the zerg will get midgame is deceptive, it will run out
Keep in mind this goes for you, the protoss player, as well!Thanks to Knicknack for suggestions and a different point of view (a more analytical one) on some aspects of PvZ.
- Jonathan "FA" Walsh
(it just didn't seem right to put nothing at the end)
PS: Knicknack, if you are still interested in hosting a PvZ guide let me know, I'm not sure if this format is suitable for your site but I guess I could re-do it if need be! D.S
NOTE:
The guide, and all its pictures, is also available here:
http://www.freewebs.com/iamknickknack/faspvzrushhour.htm
