EPTI made this guide just for fun and tried to put as much knowledge as I knew into it. The way this is written, it's assumes that the reader is around C+ level or so. Hopefully you like it.
Protoss: The Purity of Form
Introduction
So what is Protoss all about? I would say that Protoss is all about adaptation, patience, being cool under pressure and most importantly; scouting. I will attempt to teach the readers of this guide how to be a safe and conservative Protoss; methodical and sharp. A lot of being a good Protoss has to do with being able to gain small advantages throughout the game and than completely taking over.
What I am NOT going to do is teach you to proxy 9/10 gateways in the middle of the map, cannon rush (vs terran) or DT drop. These are not in my mind conservative builds; they are risky. They are risk/reward builds that are fine vs higher skilled players because with a little luck, you might be able to abuse the builds in a way that will make up for your lack of skill. I want to stress that I want the readers of this guide to be standard Protoss players, with solid macro and understanding; for this is a great, fun way to play and most importantly, it's the best way to improve.
A lot of people accuse the Protoss race as being easy to play so I will go over what the strengths and weaknesses are of Protoss in my mind:
Strengths:
+ Powerful individual units
+ Arguably the most powerful spell in Brood War; Psionic Storm
+ The best defensive structure in the game; the photon cannon
+ Many rush possibilities
+ Easy macro
+ One unit builds your entire infrastructure
Weaknesses:
- Scouting is most important to a Protoss, as we rely on adapting. Failure to scout properly can end in early games
- Positioning is key in PvT
- PvZ will be difficult to understand to first
With all this in mind, let's get started.
Protoss versus Terran
Protoss versus Terran is all about macro. Your ability produce and position are the key in this matchup. Your goal is to deny/slow Terran expansions while expanding and growing yourself and your economy, which is mostly a good strategy in any game, but it has special importance in PvT. Let's go over some basic builds.
1 gate goon / tech:
8pylon -> scout
10gateway
12assimilator
14core
15pylon
dragoon & dragoon range when core finishes(*)
robotics facility when you have the money -> observatory
(*)The reason I don't give an exact time for dragoon/dragoon range and the robotics is because you essentially make them when you have the money. You will continuously pump probes and dragoons one at a time and it's possible that your timings can get screwed up with some sort of harass. That is why I do not like to give exact build orders. Had I said 22 robotics, a player might be confused when at 22 supply they don't have the sufficient resource to pump one down and the reason could be because he had to stave off a quick attack or rush.
Now the point of this build is to continuously pump dragoons and probes and than use your quick observers to see what he is doing and than adjust accordingly. If he happens to be rushing, you will need to add two more gateways. If he is FDing (attacking with 5-6 marines, a vulture, one tank and possibly a few SCV) than you will just pump dragoons until his attack is nullified; than expand. Lastly, if your opponent is making siege tanks and a command center, you can expand immediately; but more on this later, as there are tips that can help you decipher what your opponent is going to open with: FD, Siege expand, Rush.
In short, this build is very flexible build, but has some weaknesses.
Strengths of 1 gate tech
+ Good economy
+ Fast observers; useful for detecting unorthodox builds and rushes early
+ Flexible
Weaknesses of 1 gate tech
- You will be short on units, micro is key for defeating an early Terran attack. It won't matter if you can see the attack, when it will kill you regardless.
- Some rushes will come faster than your observers, this build isn't going to spot everything. You will need micro; much like weakness one.
- Not the best choice on specific maps. I won't name the maps, but you will be able to tell when this build is applicable or not by the end of the guide.
2 gate goon - slower tech
8pylon -> scout
10gateway
12assimilator
14core
15pylon
second gateway after your first dragoon is building, dragoon range is upgrading and whilst making probes continuously
(Nexus)(*)
robotics facility after both your gateways are actively building goons and you have the money -> observatory(**)
(*)I put the Nexus in brackets because it is reactionary. You would skip this step if you think or know your opponent is rushing. There is more on rushing and scouting tactics later in the guide.
(**)The important thing to note here is that you may need to make a zealot at one point in order to save gas. The dragoon range, dragoons, robotics, observatory and observers will drain your vespene gas quickly, so keep this in mind if your a little short on gas, but still want to produce units.
The purpose of a two gate goon opening is that you will be safe versus almost kind of rush early on as it will allow you to continuously pump dragoons and still have a superb economy.
Strengths
+ Good economy
+ Strong versus most kinds of rushes
+ Slightly flexible
Weaknesses
- Slow observers - You will be weak versus mines early on
- Some sort of three factory attack will be able to kill you - this build doesn't trump all rushes
- Must be able to micro to be able to take out gundam rushes or strong two fact attack that involve SCVs (Information on how to do this later in the guide as well)
- Predictable(***)
(***) I put predictable because it's quite obvious what your doing when you do two gate goon. They will see your spinning cybercore, they will see your goon pump and will react accordingly. This is unlike one gate tech in which you could have followed up with dark templar tech somewhere or your robotics might be for a reaver, it's unsure to them.
2 gate goon; aggresive style
8pylon -> NO scout
10gateway
11assimilator
13core
14pylon
15gateway-> scout
16dragoon RANGE
Now pump dragoons and time pylons.
Move one probe to your natural so that when you have 400 minerals (even while pumping probes/draggons) you can add your natural quickly.
I haven't seen a build quite like this one, but I don't watch a lot of replays. I basically made this build up myself, but if it's also used by someone else, maybe they came up with it too, who knows. Anyways, the point is that by delaying your scouting, your going to get money minerals earlier and you use this to ensure a quick double gate AND quick dragoon range. Your goal is to rally your goons outside his choke and the second range finishes (you should have two or three goons ready) you attack and micro.
Now this build is special because you have to do a few things:
1) scout late and by late, I mean after your gateway at 15supply (you may have to skip a probe at 15)
2) place your buildings close to your nexus, you want your probes back mining ASAP, so don't put your 8pylon all the way at your choke, that's too far, I put mine touching my nexus, just make sure you don't block your gas in any way if your on a unique position; like 5:00 on Tau Cross for example
I would only recommend doing this build on a map without a ramp; longinus, tau cross, wuthering heights and the like, the lack of ramp is what makes this build powerful.
This build I'l explain a little more since it is unique. It's a powerful/aggressive macro build and what you'll most likely encounter when you attack are either:
1) A wall
2) No wall and just some marines
If you encounter 1) all you need to do is start hitting a supply depot and when he SCV's come to fix it, target them; if they start to run, move forward and target again, you should be able to kill a few this way since if they don't come to repair you'll kill the wall and that's gg. What he will most likely do is repair the wall, lose some SCV's and than come with his tank. Now if your opponent walled, he was either rushing, in which case your build will take care of it quite easily and you can expand and play normally (which I will explain further on of course; general PvT). If your opponent walled and was looking to fast expand, he would be doing siege expand.
So to recap your situation thus far, you have rallied your gates to outside his natural, you are targeting his supply depot/SCVs and he comes with his tank that we will assume can siege, because frankly if it can't, it won't have the range to hit your goons unless you move too close to the wall. The build ends if he sieges his tank a proper distance away from the wall because you can no longer hit the wall safetly and you cannot move close to the wall to target the tank, in this case you run back, re-rally your gates to outside your choke and play normally. If he carelessly sieges his tank too close to his wall, you can simply move your goons forward against the wall, target the tank in one to two volleys of goon fire and than continue firing on the depot. If you do this, you are greatly ahead. and might just win the game.
Now let's say you encounter 2) you get to his natural, your range finishes and you attack. This usually the best situation because his tank won't be out yet or would have just come out and all he will have is marines. Ranged goons absolutely destroy marines, all you do is fire on them and step back, they will chase you and you fire again, you may take a few hits here and there but you will decimate them and than there is nothing standing in your way. Keep your rallied production and target tanks when you see them.
If for some reason you were delayed slightly and he has a tank, it's no problem, just focus fire the tank and micro out the marines. You shouldn't have any problem at all.
This concludes the build order portion of PvT. There are many builds orders such as 9/10 gate, 10/12, proxied variances, proxy techs and drop builds, but those are not really conservative builds and besides an island map or a map that is very, very specific, any build I mentioned above will be fine to do.
Now what I am leaving out are reactionary builds, such as third gate before nexus. This is a defensive build for versus Terran rushes and I will cover that in my general PvT play section.
General PvT Play
Early Scouting
Now that the safe build orders have been covered, we can begin to talk about the meat of PvT. The most important thing in any Protoss game is scouting. As a Protoss, you need to know what your opponent is doing or plans to do, and this will help you defend and take an advantage.
Besides the last build I mentioned where you scout very late, you should scout after your eighth pyon every time. Scouting early is very important because you can tell exactly what a Terran plans to do by seeing what they have in their base.
Now, most Protoss will enter the Terrans base with their probe, go around the base in large circles the whole time and perhaps see a factory go down before their probe is killed by marines. Now how did that help you? You know he isn't going to go M&M versus you now, but that happens in maybe 1% of PvT's, so you could have even assumed that from the start. If you read that and that sounds very similar to your play, than your in luck. What you need to look for with your scout probe is the number of SCV he keeps on gas. Once the Terran throws down his first factory, look at the SCVs. Does he keep three on gas? Does he remove one? Does he remove two? This is what you look for. Let's go over what it means.
1 ) The Terran keeps all SCV on gas while the factory is building; you keep the probe alive as long as you can but he never removes any. This means that the Terran is going to add a second factory and/or a Starport. Either one of these is quick pressure or a quick attack, so you must prepare. I usually prepare by adding my second gate (if it's not built already) and my third one and than waiting until six goons to expand. This will let you be very safe versus almost anything. Keep a probe halfway in between your base and his, so you know when he is on his way to you. The reason you do this is because your going to keep two to three goons inside your main, in case of a drop. Now if your in your base and that probe is destroyed by oncoming units, you can bring all your units to your choke because you know it isn't a drop, it was a fast attack/push. How do you engage and fight his army? I'l explain that later.
2 ) The Terran removes one SCV from gas. If the Terran removes an SCV from gas, he plans on fast expanding with the support of sieged tanks. This is very common and is actually the most common build. You won't be able to move in with goons or zealots to harass his base and also reaver dropping might be difficult if he sets up his turrets and tanks well; so that's something to remember. Your reaction should be to expand after three or four goons and than continue as normal. What is normal? I'l explain that later in the guide.
3 ) The Terran removes two SCV from gas. If the terran does this, he plans on fast expanding with the aid of mines. Generally this build will be the FD rush. FD rush stands for Fake Double and is basically an attack consisting of 1tank, 1-2 vultures, 4-5 marines and possibly 1-2 SCV. It's fairly weak and doesn't take much micro to destroy. The purpose of the rush is to do a few things.
i. Crudely scout the Protoss, getting a sense of what your doing by your goon count and if your expansion is up.
ii. Possibly gain a small advantage by killing a goon or two if the Protoss is careless.
iii. Set up a distraction while he places his CC right at his choke
iv. Place mines in between his base and yours, so if you try to follow up and counter his weak attack, you'll run into mines and lose/damage most or all of your goons, thus being at a disadvantage.
For a decent Protoss, your only going to need four goons to fight this off and if you have some good micro, you won't lose a goon. I'l explain the specifics of goon vs quick rush micro later on, but suffice to say for this situation, you just move the injured goons back so the opponents units re-target another unit and than you move it back now that it isn't in danger of dying (unless he manually re-targets that goon). Back to the build, your going to be allowed to expand around four goons and neither side will have an advantage. I'l explain defending this later on as this part of the guide is just telling you what your up against. So expand at four goons, setup your goons in straight line perpendicular to his line of units coming at you and continue normally.
Now there are two other options: One is that the Terran is smart and knows that your looking at his SCV count and will therefore try to trick you. Perhaps, removing an SCV until your probe is dead, thus allowing you to think he is expanding with sieged tanks, but than re-adds the SCV and makes a slightly slower second fact or starport, looking to take advantage of the fact that you think you know what he is doing. The other option is that the Terran isn't very good and isn't aware that removing SCV's helps his build. Thus, you will think he isn't going to rush or attack you soon, but he actually just FE'd slightly slower with a surplus of gas. There isn't much you can do about either option. For situation one, his attack will be slower so that even though you didn't add your second and third gate before expanding, by the end of this guide you should know that you add that second and third gate right after your Nexus; this combined with the fact that his attack will come slower, should mean you shouldn't be at too much of a disadvantage. If it's situation two, you can take comfort in the fact that if the Terran doesn't know how to get the most out of his build, hes most likely not a better player than you and thus you'll win with superior strategy and mechanics.
This takes care of the situations of if you get into his base, but it doesn't really answer the question of what to do when the Terran walls off. Since this is the scouting portion, I won't exactly get into what you need to do in terms of build order, but in this case, just try to see if his barracks is making multiple marines or not and than once your probe is in danger of dying, just bring it down the ramp and near the end of his choke. Thus if the Terran moves out, you will have a decent amount of time to react, since you won't be able to scout him otherwise until he moves out or observers. What should that reaction be if he moves out? I'l explain later.
After Scouting
Now that the scouting portion is over, you should be in one of three positions. You got into the Terrans base and have made an intelligent guess of what you think the Terran is doing; you got into the T's base, but your probe died early, or you have reason to suspect that your guess isn't accurate and thus you aren't quite sure of what hes doing or lastly, you didn't get in his base and have no clue whatsoever of what he is doing.
If it's the first situation in which you are quite sure you know what he is doing. Do the reactionary steps I outlined above. Which should be either expanding at four goons and continuing into midgame or adding your second and third gateways and than expanding; also putting a probe in the middle of the map to tell when he is committed to going to your base, meanwhile setting 3-4 goons up in your main in case of a drop.
Now if you have no idea what the Terran is doing, you just have to play safe. This isn't a very good situation to be in because you can't possibly prepare for everything. For example, the Terran could be doing some sort of three factory all-in push. To prepare for that you would need four gateways and a very late expansion, so if you were to do that and later find out he FE'd, you would be terribly behind; thus you can see why it is difficult if you can't get the probe in. So what can you do? Well, the best idea would be to do a flexible build, something where you alter your build one way or another based on what he did when you finally do find out. The only things can kill you really than are the two extremes. Something like a really ballsy FE with no protection (such as no marines made beforehand and CC made before the Fact) or some sort of All-in push such as three factories. Now it's not like you cannot beat either of these, it's just that if he is close to the same skill level as you, chances are he won't give up such a huge lead.
But back to the 'game'. So you have no idea what the Terran is doing. He is walled in or you can't get a probe in because of marines on the ramp. What you need is as much information as possible. The build you should be aiming for at this time is two gateways and a robotics. The first two gateways come first and than the robotic with getting observers being an immediate goal, without having to slow down your probe or dragoon production. (As a protip, leave a probe by your gateways in this situation so if he pushes out all of a sudden, you can immediately throw down your third gateway without wasting precious seconds.) Like I said you want to get as much information as possible and usually the only thing you can go on is marines. Suicide a probe to his ramp, does he have many marine or few? If he has one or two, send your first goon to him and attack the marines. See if he brings any other marines he may have had hidden somewhere. Eventually you will need to back the dragoon off after it loses all of it's shields as you don't want to be unlucky and lose the goon due to your shots being misfires (which I believe is 25% of the shots when they are on a cliff.)
Now if he has many marines, keep up with your goon production until you have around eight and your robotics coming and than expand. Throw your third gateway down immediately and make sure you have a probe outside his choke (not outside the ramp, or else it will die over and over.) If the Terran doesn't have many marines, only one or two, than you can expand at six goons while your robotics is coming, than add your third. I'd like to point that there are a lot of external factors at play here. If your on a map with long rush distances, like diagonally facing each other on Andromeda, you can cut a few dragoons because he has to go quite a ways until he is at your base. Another factor would be ramps, on a map like Longinus for example, your going to be able to put your goons in the middle near a ramp and than he will have to either fight you uphill, which is trouble for him or back off and siege or maybe go around; all of which waste time and give you more opportunity to get more dragoons out and for your third gate (which always comes after your expansion) to warp in.
This should wrap up most, if not all of the major instances that will occur when you try to scout. This covers what you should do when you got a scout in, what to look for and how to react as well as what to do when you don't get a scout in, or aren't sure of what he's doing for whatever reason.
The Midgame
The mid-game is the most important part of PvT. This is where your macro goes against his and your decision making and positioning really become a key part of your game. The immediate goals of the mid-game are to gain map control and positioning yourself. Now you want map control for a few reasons:
1 ) Map control is going to limit his movement of vultures. Which in turn means less harassment on your probe line and less mines to deal with later.
2 ) Speaking of mines, isn't it annoying when you are trying to flank but you keep running into mines? Wouldn't it be great if you had cleaned those mines out beforehand or they never had the chance to be placed at all? That's what map control provides.
So how do you gain map control? Ranged dragoons and speedy obs. If you notice the walking speed of dragoons and the flying speed of observers, they aren't the same. In fact the observer is quite a bit slower, thus if you have a group of dragoons and an observer and if attack move across the map and there are mines in the way, your observer won't be able to catch up in time in order to detect the mines. Speed upgrade on observers increase the movement speed to that or dragoons, or very, very similar, thus you can 'A' move all over the map and not be caught without the observer. There is plenty of talk on whether or not speedy obs are worth it, but let's be realistic. Most of the readers of this guide are less than B+ and in my opinion, that is the rank where 150/150 worth of 'wasted' minerals and gas are going to affect the outcome of the game. Many people say it isn't necessary, so to avoid argument, let's just call it a nice luxury that does benefit the clearing of mines and the money you spent on it won't affect the outcome of the game 99% of the time, so who cares.
Gateway timing
Before I talk about when I get my observer speed, I just want to talk about the timing of gateways and expansions. As a general rule, three gateways per your first three bases are ideal. What I mean is, you expand off either one or two gates, than add enough so you have a total of three. Remember that it's only three at this point because you are not mining off the expansion. When your expansion warps in and your able to mine off of it, you gradually add three more gates (I usually wait a minute or so after it warps and than add all three at once, even if I have to cut dragoons off the original three gateways for a moment or so.) So in PvT, you ideally want to have:
1 ) Three gateways warped or warping in while you first expansion (natural) is warping in.
2 ) Add three more gateways for a total of six when your first expansion is complete and you are mining off of it.
3 ) Add three more gateways for a total of nine when your second expansion is completed and you are mining off of it.
Now back to Observer Speed
With this in mind, I like to upgrade observer speed before I put down my third base but after I have my first six gateways warped in or warping in. There are a few reasons I pick this timing.
1 ) This is generally the time where Terran has to make the choice of what to do. He can either push you or turtle longer. You don't really know what hes going to do, but you can make things easier on yourself by not allowing him to have map vision. Map vision are generally his mines, so let's take a look at a situation:
Let's say the Terran left his base earlier with some vultures and planted some mines just outside your base, not directly outside your choke, but about three quarters of the way to your base. When that Terran leaves to push you, he doesn't have to siege his tanks until he is right behind those mines, because he knows you haven't left yet, otherwise the mines would be destroyed. Thusly, if you can destroy those mines, he has no idea where your army is, you could have a flank setup halfway in between his bases. In this case the Terran has to slow himself, go ahead with vultures and lay mines whilst trying to find you; in short it slows him down which is better for you.
This relates to observer speed because it's about this time, right after your third base is warping that Terran's usually decide to push, so by making observer speed a little before this point, it gives you time to EASILY gain map control and take out his mines.
2 ) The second reason is that there just isn't a better time. Earlier than this isn't necessary because the Terran wouldn't have sent vultures out to mine the map. Basically, the best time is the time I said; right after your six gateways are warping and before you throw up your third base.
Now speaking of your third base, you have an option of two base play or three base play, i'l quickly go over both, but just in advance; I will generally always advocate three base play over two base.
Three base vs. Two Base Protoss: Differences?
Two Base Toss vs Three Base Toss is alot like two hat or three hat in Zerg. Your going to have a lot of units earlier, but later on it's just going to hurt you. What two base essentially does is allow you to cut probes earlier because you don't need to keep producing them. You do have to always produce probes in a three base build because when you maynard (bringing probes from an already established base to a newly constructed one) probes, you want to have good saturation; but since that third base isn't coming, you can stop early and save money. With that saved money, you can afford two extra gateways and you can pump, pump, pump. What your essentially hoping with two base is that the Terran decides to push out to your base and than you can easily surround and kill him. A good Terran will be able to tell when your doing two base and when you aren't, but you can occasionally catch a Terran off guard and get an easy win. Needless to say, since this is a conservative guide advocating mechanics and safe play; always try to go three base.
There are some good two base builds, like fast carriers, but that's a special build that I will talk about nearer the end of the PvT portion when I discuss Arbiters vs. Carriers
Now what is three base all about? Three base is a standard macro build. Your going to create your third, which sacrifices pure mass advantage to the Terran, but with the reward of having a better economy four or five minutes later. Terrans know this, so this is where timing pushes get involved:
What's a timing push?
A timing push is an attack made by the Terran to ideally hit the Protoss before he reaps the benefits of his third base, but after he has already committed to it and spent money. Therefore, right after the third base warps in or slightly before is when the Terran will attack. You want have a mass advantage and generally you won't even have speedlots, so his attack is especially deadly. There are a few ways to tell if your opponent is planning for a timing push and it's important to know these:
How do you know if your opponent is going for a timing push?
The most effective way to determine if you can anticipate a timing push is if the Terran stops SCV production. SCV production is like probe production, you always want to be building them before your fourth base, at which time it changes, which we'll discuss later. The Terran wants to kill you outright with a timing push; or contain you in your natural, which means your as good as dead anyhow. So if you notice both CC's are not building any SCV for a prolonged period of time; ~15seconds or more, but he is still producing units, you should know hes going to try to push you.
Now what good is it knowing if a timing push is coming if you cannot stop it? Well you can't stop it outright, but what you can do is slow the push and that's where the art of mid-game PvT comes into play and is arguably the most important part of PvT.
Overview up to this point
I'm just going to review what should be happening up to this point. You started off with a build listed at the beginning of this guide and scouting him, revealing whether or he was fast expanding. Depending on what you saw (or couldn't see, due to a Terran wall), you did the reactionary strategy also outlined above and continued into mid-game. Next, you have your expansion up and have your six gateways built or building and your looking to take your third base. This is the most important part of the game because it's often the part where one side gains the advantage, it isn't often when you exit mid-game completely even. Usually you decisively defeat his push or you are steamrolled and killed. Now the order in which you proceed is very important.
1) Upgrade observer speed
2) cut unit production (other than probes) and throw down your third base
3) create a shuttle as your very next unit
4) your next four units built, are four zealot, one from each gateway and than two goons from the other, continue creating goons.
5) warp a citadel of adun when you have the money, but keep probe and gateway production up.
6) cut production slightly in order to add next three gates as your third warps in.
Now the reason you do this in this order is as follows:
1 ) Your upgrading observer speed first because if your playing a good Terran, it's like that he has put mines all over the map. You want to start clearing these out immediately because they helps the Terran know how far they can push before sieging and also make flanking quickly difficult.
2 )Next is your your third base, you want it ASAP, so I cut some production in order to make it.
3 ) Oh the shuttle. The single most important piece of the puzzle for defeating timing pushes. If you often lose to the first Terran push and you don't make a shuttle, this what you've been missing. I'l touch on the ridiculous impact of this unit in a bit.
4 ) Get these out ASAP... to put in your shuttle!
5 ) While you stall the push (which we will get to) your going to want to have your zealot speed upgrade coming, because while pure goons and a shuttle can stall a push and maybe even defeat a weak one, your going to need speedlots for every attack here after. I noted keeping production up because you will need a lot of goons.. many many goons.
6 ) As your saturation at your main and natural begin to pile up, six gateways become too few. You will have surplus that you can spend on gateways and than units.
Now I am going to assume the Terran does a fast push or attack on you. The other option is obviously turtling and taking his third base very quickly instead. This type of strategy is pretty straight forward to beat and it really doesn't involve midgame. A Terran that does this is basically saying they want to skip mid-game and transition into the late game quickly.
The Terran Push
The Terran push vs the Protoss stall is the most intriguing part of PvT for me. Heres a brief overview of what each side plans to accomplish in an ideal game:
Terran
i ) By using previously laid mines as guide to where the Protoss army is, attempt to cross the map towards the Protoss base as quickly as possible before having to engage.
ii ) Overwhelm the Protoss army and continue towards the Protoss natural.
iii ) Contain the Protoss in his natural while taking a third base myself.
iV ) Using reinforcement to kill the Protoss third base, while using my contain to ensure that the Protoss loses more then myself during battles.
Protoss
i ) Clearing out mines before the battle to not allow the Terran the luxury of knowing where my army is and possibly how large it is.
ii ) Force the Terran to siege and unsiege by attacking his attack, than backing away while he sieges, thus slowing him down
iii ) Stall the Terran long enough to reap the benefits of my third base
iv ) Overwhelm the Terran with the now acquired benefits (more money = money units & gateways) of my third base
An advantage for Protoss during this Terran Push vs Protoss Stall battle is that a lot of what happens depend on the Protoss. Clearing out mines is dependent on the Protoss, either you do it or you don't. Backing away in time to avoid sieged tank fire is dependent on your speed and awareness. The only thing the Terran really has control over is his macro versus his opponents. Thus if you can do what you need to do well, he doesn't have much of a chance.
Now before this even happens, you need to position yourself. All before this time you should have observers in key areas. One over his factories, one outside his choke and one another near his main CC are ideal places. You should be able to tell if he is going to slow push by the SCV production mentioned earlier (if he stops for extended periods of time, he is cutting economy in order to get more units out). The benefit this grants you is just that when it happens, you should already be in position to deal with it. Now by positioning I mean having your dragoons outside his choke. You want to do this so that the first time he needs to do is move up a bit, siege his tanks and than you'll have to back off. This is essentially what you do all the way back to your base. The Terran unsieges, you attack, his tanks will move up a bit, than he'll be forced to siege, than you retreat. You have to move back the second his tanks begin to siege, if you wait too long they will get one or two shots off and you'll lose goons. Sometimes it's impossible to avoid as a goon will get caught up on something and you'll lose it, but just try to keep these loses to an absolute minimum. Keep on reinforcing your goons (hotkeys help immensely with this, as you can quickly 1a2a3a and than 1click2click3click away as well as easily add new goons to your hotkey.) and while doing this you want to upgrade your zealot leg speed, have you probes transferred toy our new third and adding the three new gateways. Usually his attack will come after you have done all this, but if it comes a little earlier, just remember to add it.
Now the shuttle you created should stay at home, near your choke. The reason it stays there is because it serves no purpose atm. You aren't going to drop on his siege tanks at this time, so just leave it out of harms way. It's so essential you don't want to lose it.
As you zealot leg speed is upgrading, you can start to mix in dragoons as well as zealots to your production. Zealots build quicker and you will already have a tidy sum of dragoons, so I usually mass up a small force of zealots, then just continue on a 1:1 ratio of goon to zealot production (which because of build times works out more like 1.5:1 zealot to goon). The moment you attack is when he is closing is on your choke. You want to split you units and hit him from two sides. I often keep my new reinforcements rallied somewhere to the right and than as I am in closing in on my choke, move the dragoons that are stalling the Terran to the left and than 1a2a3a4a his army. Please make sure your shuttle is one units, for it will turn the tide in your favor.
How to use the shuttle?
Using the shuttle is quite easy, you simply send the shuttle in towards the tanks first, than 1a2a3a4a or if you are lazy and don't hotkey; send in the shuttle than drag box; attack move, drag box; attack move. As your zealots and dragoons engage, drop the zealots over top of the tanks. This ensures that the zealots first of all attack the tanks, which are your main priority, as well as draw fire from other tanks that are perhaps further away and the splash of other tanks hitting your zealots will hurt the tanks that you originally dropped on... hopefully that makes sense. So by drawing fire and thusly killing the tanks that you dropped on, your goons and other zealots will hurt his army badly.
Does this sound like you? General attacking
Does this sound like you? You attack move your army and use your shuttle to drop zealots, perhaps run the zealots nearer to tanks to target them and than watch the battle as if it's some sort of movie? Hopefully not, because there is a lot of micro that needs to be done and a lot of Protoss just don't know it! When your attacking a Terran army, there is plenty of things you can be doing to make sure you army is the one that emerges victorious. Let's go over a few of these:
1 ) Manually control your zealots - You want to attack move with your army, but than control your zealots and make sure they target tanks. This is difficult if your attacking only from one side, but that is why you flank.
2 ) Using the shuttle - You want to drop on top of tanks, but spread them out a bit, if there are a clump of four tanks your dropping on, drop one above, below, and the sides, don't drop them all in one exact spot, this ensures that they all don't take splash damage from one tank and die earlier than they need to.
3 ) Micro the dragoons! - Yes! Your dragoons need to be microed as well! Attacking vulture is a waste of your time. Vultures do damage yes, but it isn't the damage that kills you, it's the tanks. With any spare time/micro you have left, you should micro your dragoons towards tanks. How do you do this? easy. If your out of range of tanks, attack move, than as your firing, move forward a bit than attack move again. It's called animation cancelling. Dragoons that fire on a single target will stand there, plant their legs and fire. This is fine, but with the cooldown in between the time they can fire another shot again, you are able to move your goons. Use this to get closer to the tanks and than when your in range, continue to fire and move, but this time, instead of attack moving, right click on the tank to tank it. These forms of micro will result in much better results.
If you want to test this out, all you need to do is play with a friend and let him use 5 tanks and 10 vultures and you yourself use an army of your choosing. First try with attack move, than try with attack move + the micro steps above, the difference should be clear.
Late Game - Or if the Terran decides to turtle
Both of these are the same. Whether the Terran decided to turtle a third base and slow push with turrets and mines to his third base or whether he attacked and you defeated it, but he had built a third in the meantime, the situation is the same. What you need to make sure of at this point, as with midgame is that you are watching all expansions; not allowing him to sneak anything without you knowing about it; hotkeying all your units and creating a large semi circle out of range of his tanks, but enough so that he could not advance on you.
Once again, let's look at the goals of each player:
Terran
i ) Now that the third is up, make more factories and start or continue dual upgrades. Terrans with 2-2 upgrades or 3-3 will be much harder to take out.
ii ) Continue expanding under the protection/distraction of my attacks which will take out and limit the Protoss expansions
iii ) Control middle
iv ) Possibly tech to some higher unit combinations or units such as Goliath/Tank/Vulture or Science Vessel.
Protoss
i ) Take more expansions
ii ) Limit the Terran expansions
iii ) Tech (a) higher unit(s); carriers, arbiters, dt, ht or a combination of any of those.
iv ) Upgrade
Let's talk about upgrades firstly. A lot of Terrans are going to aggressively upgrade and the reasons for them doing so are rather clear. Let's do some number crunching:
A Siege tank does 70 damage sieged and has 1 inherent armor point with a possibility of 4. Why is this important? Upgrading to +3 attack increases a tanks damage output by around 17%, that's a big deal. Also, consider a zealots attack. A zealot does 16 damage regularly between two hits, so that one inherent armor point bring the damage of a zealot to 14. Consider a +3 armor siege tank being hit by a non-upgraded zealot. The damage would be 8 because two hits of 8 for a total of 16, but each is decreased by four because of the inherent armor. So where a zealot would kill a +0 tank with 11 hits, it takes 19 hits if that tank has upgrades.
The same applies with a vulture, it doesn't have inherent armor, but +3 would really limit a zealots effectiveness and +6 damage it gains from +3 weapons would injure the zealots that much faster.
This explains why weapons upgrades are important, but what about armor upgrades for Protoss. A lot of Protoss don't get armor upgrades because damage output from Terrans are either 20, 30, 70 or 125, too large of numbers for +1, +2 or +3 armor to make a difference. While this is true, it isn't exactly useless. I often upgrade my shields because they regenerate. Think of it this way. If you have +3 shields and your shields are depleted, every hit to your main hit points will be -4 because that one shield point that continually regenerates has the inherent +3 on it. I feel that it it adds up, especially with vultures versus dragoons where a vultures damage is quartered against a dragoons hit points (not shields, which always take full). If you didn't really understand this, I am basically advocating weapons and shield upgrades, but not at the same time.
OK, so when do I upgrade?
I like to make my forge once my third base is up, but things change if you know they will timing push you. If I am anticipating a timing push, I will delay my forge until that attack is dealt with an than I will make it and start +1 on it immediately. Your second forge upgrading armor or shields is really your discretion, I would advise you create it after you have four bases and at least three gas, any sooner than that is a bad idea because it would be too costly on your gas intake.
What about cannons?
Unless your opponent is a heavy user of drops, your never going to need cannons in your main or natural, where you may perhaps need them are at your bases thereafter. But it's important to note what your trying to protect. The point of cannons isn't to kill vultures, it's to deter them with the threat of losing them if they proceed. Thusly, it isn't often versus a good player that you will lay down four cannons at a base and he will suicide seven or eight vultures into it, thus covering the cost of 600 minerals that you just spent. You just want to stop him from getting to your probes. The best way to do this is pylon walls. Pylon walls are just walls of connecting pylons that block off an area (in this case your probe line) it prevents vultures from getting in range of probes and if they want to get in range, they either drop vultures (rare) or try to destroy a part of the wall. The problem is that vultures do 5 damage to a pylons hit points (full to shields) so they probably can't kill it before you bring units to defend and since you need pylons regardless to increase your psi capabilities, it's a worthwhile tactic.
I usually do three to four pylons to wall off the choke or the access point to my mineral line and than put a cannon a couple matrix spaces behind. This ensures that even if they do decide to try to break through with vultures, they will lose a lot of them before they even break through and than they still have a cannon to deal with.
So basically, one cannon per base with pylons making a makeshift wall keeping vultures out will suffice at all your bases except main and nat, which need nothing; UNLESS:
i ) They are a heavy drop user
ii ) You hold an expansion that you absolutely cannot lose
iii ) You really can't afford to be harassed at all
in these cases you can add more, but I like to think of it this way. Each cannon you can save from making is one more gateway you can add (same cost and you need pylons anyway).
Back to lategame
Lategame at this point should include perhaps a couple attacks being made by either player but no game ending damage done and the Terran having a third base, while the Protoss looks for his fourth and fifth.
The timing of your fourth and fifth base is really subjective to you. It's impossible to state exactly when you should create it, suffice to say, it should be made when it can be defended. If your army would get steamrolled by his if he decided to move out, it's generally not a good idea to try and take an expansion. Ideally, if you defeated an attack of his, it is a fine time to expand, also if the Terran is trying to expand, you can expand yourself. I always like to take two bases at a time. If the map is python, I will often take both the main and natural of another base while controlling the middle with my units.
I'm not a fan of a lot of static defense, so I often just take both bases, wall off with pylons + a cannon and maybe put one-two in the the upper base in case of a drop. This way I can take two bases and incurr the same cost as a player who took only the natural of another base and put four cannons at it.
Now at this point you should know how to engage a Terran army. You have read the micro tips, you know that flanking is important and always try to have a shuttle with some zealots in it ready to drop on tanks on top of mines, or just tanks that will draw fire. Yet, you will come to a point; especially if the Terran is upgrading where flanks and micro just won't get the job done. Either the Terran has a critical mass of tanks or his upgrades are just too superior, it's at this time you need a higher tech, something to tilt the advantage in your favor and luckily you have a lot of options.
Higher tech vs a Strong Terran army
1 ) Arbiters - Arbiters are usually my tech of choice, they usually require around four gas, but can be done off three (but you will be tight on gas the whole time.) I would suggest after acquiring four gas you put two star gates down and an arbiter tribunal (remember, you will need templar tech in order to make the arbiter tribunal.) The first thing you upgrade is the Arbiter +Energy upgrade. Why this? Well, if you upgrade the energy upgrade because it doesn't slow down anything else at all. Let's assume you started stasis first, your stasis will finish far before your arbiter is out or even has enough energy to use it, so that isn't needed first. So why energy though? Energy upgrade increases the maximum energy of an arbiter to 250, but also increases the energy that a arbiters spawns with. Usually an arbiter spawns with 50, but with the energy upgrade, they spawn with 67.5, which will allow you to stasis that much sooner. So in short, if you upgrade energy first, than stasis, both upgrades will be finished before or right at the same time you have the energy to stasis.
Using arbiters is also quite easy to do, you can just hotkey them with your regular units and use their abilities when necessary. Let's just quickly go over what the arbiter has and when you should use their abilties and how.
i ) Recall - Recall is the last upgrade you get, after energy (first) and stasis (second). Recall is useful for finishing off a Terran. Recalling on top of their factories is usually an excellent way to give yourself a distinct advantage as your cutting off their production - recalling on supply depots gives a similar effect. What you need to watch out for is Terrans that will place mines in the empty areas of their base, in which case your entire recalled army will most likely melt upon warp in. Just make sure you scout out the area beforehand and you should be fine. As a note, obviously don't recall very few units or recall an army to your opponents main when you could have used that army to defend a critical expansion.
ii ) Stasis - Excellent upgrade, stasis field will freeze enemies in their place preventing them from attacking or being attacked and lasts for fourty seconds or so. The best use of this is on big clumps of tanks nearer the back of a Terran's setup. Why the back? If you freeze clumps of tanks at the front of a push, it's just creating an obstacle that inhibits your armies movement as they try to reach the tanks nearer the back that are still able to fire on your army. By freezing the back of his army, your stopping damage being doing and your army is still able to quickly kill the front of his army, which is where you will be closest to.
A nice 'finishing move' if you will against Terran would be when you have all the upgrades of arbiters and recall your army into the Terran's main and stasis freeze a dragoon on the ramp. The Terran army will be unable to retreat back to his main and protect himself. This gives your thirty to fourty seconds to do as much damage as possible and usually invokes a gg from your opponent.
2 ) Dark/High Templar: Both templar can help out your armies effectiveness and both require the use of the secondary unit; the shuttle. The way both these units work are simple. Dark Templar are simply a more effective zealot drop. They will drag mines the same as a zealot, but without the risk of being sniped off by vultures because the mine can explode. Also, Dark Templar will cut up tanks rather quickly if not scanned and dealt with. In the heat of battle it's easy for a Terran to be unaware you have dropped DT until he hears that distinct 'slice' of Dark Templar attack, which can be drowned out by the sounds of goons dying, shells exploding and vulture fire.
High Templar are also pretty straightforward, you place them in shuttles and after you are engaging with the enemy, you drop a high templar and storm the biggest clump of units close to you. Whether it's vultures or tanks it's effective, the key is to storm quickly and accurately on big clumps. The reason for the shuttle is two-fold:
i ) He will be unaware you have HT until you actually storm him
ii ) You will be able to use them you YOU want; usually they are slow and lag behind the main army
iii ) No risk of them being picked off by vultures prior to a large battle
3 ) Carriers: The infamous carriers. Carriers are one of the best tech choices when certain conditions are met and have the micro. As long as you know these conditions and realise how to micro, you will do quite well. So when do you tech carriers?
i ) Your sure that the Terran plans to turtle and that you have time to build the buildings necessary and the tech.
ii ) You have a sizable advantage and are looking to capitalize.
Now point i ) is simple, if your opponent is making his third and is making a lot of turrets and mining up, he is turtling. This would be a fine time to start Carrier tech and take your fourth and later on; fifth base. Point ii ) is the important one. If you happen to damage a Terran early on, with either Reavers, DT (both of which I didn't cover in this guide, due to the subtitle being; "Conservative Play") or if you soundly defeat the attack of a Terran, but want to play safe instead of following up with a counter, carriers are great. The reason they are great is because a damaged Terran will almost always turtle up. They will turtle and amass units while teching to science vessels perhaps and getting upgrades. They know they cannot beat you right now and they know that you can't attack them without losing a whole lot more than they would, so they are going to turtle and wait and hopefully they upgrades and mass will be enough to even out the advantage you had. What carriers will do is make this decision a terrible one. By waiting it out and giving you time, you can usually amass four or six carriers which with proper micro are deadly.
How to micro carriers?
Carrier micro is rather simple. The first thing to know is to stay above cliffs or highground. This will ensure that the enemy units (most often goliath) will have a hard time keeping sight of you. While staying above the cliff, you need to know how a carrier works. If you have a carrier and right click on a target, the carrier will move into range, stop and unload it's inceptors one by one. The inceptors will fire on the target while the carrier stands still. Once the target is dead, the inceptors will begin to return to the carrier until a new target is found. The problem with this is that your carriers are standing still, making them easy targets and also that the inceptors start to re-enter the carrier, both problems can be fixed.
If you have your carriers and click, "A" and than left click a target, the carriers will deploy inceptors on that unit and the carriers will be free to move around while the inceptors do damage. There is a limit to how far away your carrier can move, but the important thing is that it can move, thusly you can move back and forth a bit and also side to side (within reason, if you go to far the inceptors retreat). This is important because no longer are your carriers sitting idly by waiting to be targeted, but that when a carrier is in movement, inceptors cannot return. If you destroy a unit, but the carriers are still moving, the inceptors will just stay behind the carrier, unable to enter. This is important because if you move forward and target something else now, all the inceptors are already out, you do not need to wait for them to deploy, so it increases your burst damage. So the main things to remember are.
i ) Attack by hitting "A" and than manually left clicking a target, this will allow the carriers to move away within reason while the inceptors attack.
ii ) Always keep the carriers moving, it doesn't really matter where as long as you are making yourself a difficult target to hit and you don't stray too far from the inceptors.
So that covers your end game tech choices. Arbiters are best used in conjunction with your main army, while Carriers are often more effective on their own. A powerful strategy is to manually targets siege tanks and than when the number of tanks your opponent has is low, rush in your ground army (which you are still creating the entire time) and clean up his vultures/goliaths/few tanks that he has left. Another tip would be to create a few hightemplar and a shuttle to keep with your carriers. If a lot of goliath come at you, you can unload the high templar and storm them, helping out your carriers immensely.
If there is anything unclear or something I didn't really touch base on (besides the lack of DT/ Reaver/ Fast nexus builds; read the subtitle) than just ask I will respond in a timely fashion and perhaps add it to the guide. PvP and PvZ coming soon.
