Surgical Strikes vs Massing: Raids are Pointless

Again, raids are a thing of the past. It's just not worth it. The time you spend microing raids will cost you so much in terms of macro, and bases are so well equipped to handle mass production of units that can make your time invested on raids pointless.

A human being cannot possibly make 5 effective actions in 2 seconds at two different locations, and since Massing is so easily accessible, where econ and production times are high, fast raids to kill a few probes or a single structure isn't worth it anymore.

If you can run over someone's base in 6 mins, why spend 30 seconds losing much macro to deal a very slight if not senseless effect to your enemy?

Killed 4 probes? He can reproduce that in a few sec without much impact on his economy.

Want to really do some damage on your opponent's economy? Drop all your massed units at his econ line and set the battle there.

And to add, there are no real base raiders present in the game. If there was one, the real time they are useful are at mid-game, where battles can be joined and would yield so much you can run over an enemy's base instead of harassing it.

How economy and production works now has made raids something you can ignore and be better off not doing.

Most of the time sc2 is just a rush then turtling till you mass fun stuff....not

Though I've seen many a game lost due to ineffective raiding, I think that the game just needs a bit of time and exposure in order to have players develop highly effective raiding methods. Most raiding that I have seen sucked not because of the pointlessness of raiding but rather due to the player's poor form.

Surgical strikes are different in SC2. It's much harder to make them worth the cost and the effort.
However, they are possible, like dropping Siege Tanks at your enemy's higher ground expansion on Kulas Ravine. Two or three tanks can wreak havoc if they have a spotter.

Maybe all these replays, tourneys, and shoutcasts had me believing otherwise.

I don't see those guys raid that much. It's pretty boring actually to see how they macro, dance, and clash to GG.

Raiding is important, but not on someone's main. Raid the virtually undefended expansions instead.

Crota's gotta have some replays back there with active raiding to ownage.

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Originally Posted by Ghost_828

Surgical strikes are different in SC2. It's much harder to make them worth the cost and the effort.
However, they are possible, like dropping Siege Tanks at your enemies higher ground expansion on Kulas Ravine. Two or three tanks can wreak havoc if they have a spotter.

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Holy shit, that is ingenius man. Why didn't I think of that?? Dropping siege tanks onto the high ground on Kulas Ravine.

A possible solution:

When they first nerfed SCV health, I always thought they should have nerfed Probes and Dones with the change.

-5 ~ -10 HP nerf on Probes and Drones?

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Originally Posted by don

A possible solution:

When they first nerfed SCV health, I always thought they should have nerfed Probes and Dones with the change.

-5 ~ -10 HP nerf on Probes and Drones?

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The workers' health isn't the problem...the problem is that they can be replaced so quickly that raiding doesn't matter that much.

That's the original poster's argument, anyway. Not sure that I agree. Wiping out most of your opponent's workers early in the game or even mid way through the game can have a huge impact, and you can accomplish it with just a few air units if you backdoor them into your opponent's base during a battle.

You guys are all on crack if you think workers need a nerf.

If anything all workers hp and dmg should be buffed.

Ling and muta harassment is far too good. Reapers are right where they should be.

If anything economy is too strong and it's too difficult to comeback. If you lose like 4 workers it shouldn't be gg, that would be the stupidest thing ever. Good thing blizzard would never sink that low.

But back to the OP - yes I agree massing units is too easy and too good. Hell most 1v1 play games with zerg and protoss are nothing more then zergling or zealot mass rush. This game is not ready for release.

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Originally Posted by Drkie

Most of the time sc2 is just a rush then turtling till you mass fun stuff....not

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From playing the game myself and watching others, if you get too gun-shy after t1 it could cost you the game. And how is utilizing all of your tech in the same game not fun (if your massing a single unit ur doing it wrong)?

I would suggest a reaper nerf because static Ds are currently useless against them, but thats about it.

Raiding is awesome. For example, one of my main openings against Zerg is to go 1 gate stargate, pump 4 phoenix out as fast as possible and then graviton beam as much as I can before getting chased out. Depending on how the other guy opened, I can kill between 3-5 drones and a queen. In that early game (~7-8 minutes), it's a devastating loss.

Against Terran, it's a bit more tricky because they are more gas-blocked than mineral blocked, but I like doing 2 void rays to robo and pick off any buildings that I can. Even the best of players will have a depot or two undefended. Killing depots is a double whammy because they need to rebuild it (duh) and also because they can no longer build any units. This gives you a minute or so to jump ahead, so to speak.

Raiding is not going to be a finishing blow, but it's a bunch of body shots that soften up the enemy.

What is your definition of raiding? Because harassing, stopping workers from mining, and the like can really push you ahead in the game. It will not win you the game, but when you start to add up your advantages it will make up in the end.

An example, is harassing with mutas, I head to the main base and start to kill his working, his amry moves back to his base (that is a big advantage), then i fly over to his expansion and harass those, he has to yet again move around, eventually i have to leave, he builds AA def and the like, and I start to make roaches to overrun his ground force. I hurt his econ which is bad, and he then used it to build something that is not as effective.

I feel raiding is important, massing up units and watching 1 big fight... is like playing rock-paper-scissor. Mini raids will help you in the long run. and its not hard to macro up when your fighting, just hot key your production buildings. =\

Nice way to over-simplify things.

Its not as simple as you are trying to describe it and by raids, it can mean go in the enemy mineral line with 3 colossus and kill all probes in 1 second.

So, stating the obvious raids are not useless.

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Originally Posted by GnaReffotsirk

Massing is so easily accessible, where econ and production times are high, fast raids to kill a few probes or a single structure isn't worth it anymore.

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If massing is easy, just mass while harassing. You'll gain an edge. If you can't handle the multitasking and lose that way, you might just be the weaker player (or make bad decisions and aren't harassing well).

And then you say you should drop in his mineral line.... well drop strategies require dropships...

I'm sure you've noticed that pretty muc everyone disagrees with you... You really don't raise any valid points... Especially that you don't even mention the skill level you're talking about.

About the 5 actions in 2seconds.... 300APM isn't unusual among BW pros... and that's an average over the whole game except the two first minutes. Whether it's useful or not is another question (there's a thread for that). About the "on two different locations", well try to find Nada reassigning his waypoints and you'll be impressed.

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Originally Posted by Ghost_828

Surgical strikes are different in SC2. It's much harder to make them worth the cost and the effort.
However, they are possible, like dropping Siege Tanks at your enemy's higher ground expansion on Kulas Ravine. Two or three tanks can wreak havoc if they have a spotter.

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I started doing this recently... it works amazingly well against Terran. The distance from the edge of the cliff to were a normal wall-in occurs is perfect. I actually brought along an SCV for repairs and tore him up with with just two tanks. Then after the wall-in came down, I came in with a small MM ball and finished him off.

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Originally Posted by Hammy

If massing is easy, just mass while harassing. You'll gain an edge. If you can't handle the multitasking and lose that way, you might just be the weaker player (or make bad decisions and aren't harassing well).

And then you say you should drop in his mineral line.... well drop strategies require dropships...

I'm sure you've noticed that pretty muc everyone disagrees with you... You really don't raise any valid points... Especially that you don't even mention the skill level you're talking about.

About the 5 actions in 2seconds.... 300APM isn't unusual among BW pros... and that's an average over the whole game except the two first minutes. Whether it's useful or not is another question (there's a thread for that). About the "on two different locations", well try to find Nada reassigning his waypoints and you'll be impressed.

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Indeed. I admit you speak the truth about my skillz. But I hope they can pull off what they're talking about as easy as they are saying it.

And I am eagerly in anticipation of these pros doing what in theory is very viable, doable, and even affordable.

I'm sorry, but I don't buy it. Try dropping a colossi at someone's base. When? you ask. When do you think an colossi raid is good? Rushing it ofcourse.

But is it really viable? Is it a good strat?

edit: Oh, yeah. I've seen a FPVoD on youtube. It was a Korean tourney, and man those guys can play. :) Well, maybe this game was made for them.

While I'm just a Copper level player, I find that raiding expos is invaluable. It keeps the other player off balance and not quite sure what to expect. I think the best scenario is when you have the ability to harass a player's expo and his main at the same time. This forces him to split his defenses and his attention. You make him choose which is more important...does he defend the expo and a continuous economy stream or the main, with all of its tech buildings and supplies?

Two drop ships, each loaded with a tank, a couple of marines and an scv is devastating if dropped behind a player's main mineral line. One or two Banshees as cover and it might even be a gg.

So you mean dropship raiding? Or harassing in general? Hellions are used to harass to great effect, as are reapers in the early game. Zergling raids are very effective to backstab when your opponent's army is out of position.
What about blink stalkers jumping to high ground? Or tanks dropped on kulas ravine/LT naturals. HT warped in behind mineral lines?
Ever seen a thorship? (even post-patch thorships are good)
And viking raiding? Voidray/phoenix/muta/banshee harass?

All of the above are used outside of a "big army clash" situations.

Why do you only talk about collossi drops? The whole collossus concept is about moving up and down cliffs. Maybe it sucks that they aren't a viable harassing tool in warp prisms, but it's not like they're the only option. That argument makes zero sense...

Btw I wasn't at all trying to comment on your skill. I'm just saying that it's not because something doesn't work for a player once, that it's a bad strat. It's like when I try a great build but get owned just because I was paired against a much better player.

Yeah, I've seen some do that. But the point being that it takes a whole lot to harass than to just macro up.

While your thorship is on the way, I'm at your door ready to pounce, and got some units ready to fend off your thorship or what not in just a few seconds.

Do you really think it makes such a huge impact to harass vs an opponent who knows what he's doing? I think not. I'd rather be on the macro than save those few hellions for a counter maneuver while my opponent is moving in.

When I harass expos, my goal is to completely neutralize the entire thing. Kill all the workers and then destroy the CC, Nexus or Hatchery and finally the refineries. Not punch at the workers only. Four Banshees can do this very quickly, especially with a viking or two for cover. Cost for cost, this is a good thing for you and a bad thing for the other guy. He'll lose around a 600 or 700 minerals worth of units and buildings and some of the force that he will inevitably send to thwart your attack not to mention a vital portion of his economic stream.

It's funny; at almost the same time you were writing the OP, Day[9] was busy doing analysis on a couple of matches, one of which was TheLittleOne harassing a player to death.

Watch that and tell me that "surgical strikes" mean nothing in SC2.

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Originally Posted by GnaReffotsirk

Yeah, I've seen some do that. But the point being that it takes a whole lot to harass than to just macro up.

While your thorship is on the way, I'm at your door ready to pounce, and got some units ready to fend off your thorship or what not in just a few seconds.

Do you really think it makes such a huge impact to harass vs an opponent who knows what he's doing? I think not. I'd rather be on the macro than save those few hellions for a counter maneuver while my opponent is moving in.

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Unfortunately that's just crazy talk :/ As bolas said, you could watch the Day9 daily, or the HDH vods with TLO or Nony for example.
Harassing is a key component of SC2. Perhaps not as often as you'd like, but if done right it can be much more beneficial than just macroing up.

A surgical strike is never a best response strategy. Sure they might work sometimes but in the long run against decent players you'll be behind.

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Originally Posted by GnaReffotsirk

Yeah, I've seen some do that. But the point being that it takes a whole lot to harass than to just macro up.

While your thorship is on the way, I'm at your door ready to pounce, and got some units ready to fend off your thorship or what not in just a few seconds.

Do you really think it makes such a huge impact to harass vs an opponent who knows what he's doing? I think not. I'd rather be on the macro than save those few hellions for a counter maneuver while my opponent is moving in.

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The thing is, you have been watching too many mediocre streams. And that's almost all. They are rank 1 platinum playing house with a spot on macro but not enough skill to micro a raid at the same time.

The reason is simple, good micro takes much more practice than the macro in SC2 and in the start you rake in many more wins of you just learn to macro up. I watched some Chinese stream that was incredible recently. Many small skirmishes and food barely over 100 at any time because they constantly fought. This also makes raiding much better since being able to push ahead with units for 30 supply thanks to a good raid is much better when both sit at 80 instead of 140.

Kinda like our national football (soccer) team. We do great in under 21 leagues. But our grown up team... yeah. The reason is because we focus so much on defense, at lower skill level that wins a lot of games. But later on the other guys catch up there and THEY have good offense players which also take longer to mature in their skill.

So you'll have to wait for the micro players to finally get to grips with their macro and then you'll start to see some very interesting things :)

sidenote: It's much more fun being the one trying to harass and raid and be one on the move all the time. And yeah, I have eaten some nasty losses from that. But it's a much more interesting learning experience than " damn, my curve was behind". Of course, without mastering the curve, my micro means little. But I have time. Years of time :D

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Originally Posted by GnaReffotsirk

Yeah, I've seen some do that. But the point being that it takes a whole lot to harass than to just macro up.

While your thorship is on the way, I'm at your door ready to pounce, and got some units ready to fend off your thorship or what not in just a few seconds.

Do you really think it makes such a huge impact to harass vs an opponent who knows what he's doing? I think not. I'd rather be on the macro than save those few hellions for a counter maneuver while my opponent is moving in.

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Dropping in some MMM in your base at the mineral line can do a lot of damage, if your saying that your at my door, which would question my drop, but in any case, its gonna hurt, your gonna have to base race or retreat to defense, both not a very solid strategy. I dont even need to send my whole army, just 1 ship with a few MM will do a good job hurting you econ. Remember you cant marco up if you dont have the econ to support it.

It still is a huge impact to harass. Just like in any game such as this, you will a larger advantage when your attacking or doing the offense, if your caught at the wrong time marco-ing up you will lose, if your caught expanding, your troops caught while moving, and more. Harassing can keep your opponent contained, allowing you to be more flexible.

What are you marco-ing up too? you can be countered as easy as you can be mass up as well.

Your always going to be in the long game i suppose, personally if i can end a game faster i will, the long you stretch out a game the less chance you have of winning, in term of it being played out to more random variable.

I'm sorry, but Demaga could have nullified TLO's 10:00 siege tank, blown up that wall at 8:30 with 24 banelings and 12 lings with another 12 on the way.

TLO loses the supply depot, the fac, rax. Leaving only the Thor at 60% HP, the Hellion, the Dropship.

What Demaga's base would have looked like after this is:
1. Ready for Lair Tech
2. One base, one queen.
3. Expo at 20%.

TLO could have attacked with the Hellion + 4 rines early right? You'll have 24 lings at that time. The key is to not engage the hellions off-creep.

TLO's task would have to find the banelings as they morph. Attack while they're in transit, or lift-off as the banelings come in. That would lead to:
a. Intact Wall, but no CC, only the under construction.
b. Lose Thors, rines, and hellion, with base and wall intact.

That drop attack was at 9:00, a lot of units could have been out by that time.

This is why I frown at hiding the replay progress bar.

My point is if Demaga massed, he would have won. So, that video just proved my point all the more.

And, I just had a ZvZ, we both went for one basing. He went for the fastest muta possible (8:00), and I went the massed bane/ling. His Lair kaputs, I had one expo, hes got 4 mutas. And mutas are the only, and I must emphasize, only harass unit for the Zerg.

Lings? No, they're attack forces. Sure, you can make them suicide for 3-4 workers by focus attacking, but it won't work.

I've seen one Ling early harass that worked. But it only worked since the toss foolishly FE's on LT. His cannon was barely up, and a huge hole was there. The Zerg went 10pool lings first.

edit:

But I hear you guys. I'm not saying one cannot use the mobility in sc2, but it's a secondary option. Against a passive player, it will work, but when? at around 10:00. That's the safest way to strike at econ. And the best way is to fake an attack, to lure them forces out. But by that time, again, there's waaay too many units you can make that you can just clash then do the harass after.

So, if this is the way SC2 works, then it's almost impossible to harass without having so many units in your raiding party. Which is no longer a raiding party, but an attack party.

Wanna drop 6 rines? Your dropship will go kaput to the standing army even before they can arrive.

DTs? Works if the opponent doesn't have detection which is so much easy to get than the DTs.

You say harass at 12:00? Nevermind, just attack his forces with superior composition.

I like the fact a group of people say that APM is loosing importance while another group says "you can't effectivly give 5 meaningfull instructions in 2 different places in 2 seconds"

Give it some time...There's no way people have enough practice yet (and that includes pros) to do everything at once. Nor has there been enough time to discover all the possiblities of the game yet. The game already evolves at tremendous speed but people forget we're barely into beta (it's been like what? 3-4 months?) and compare it with a game people had 10 years to practice on. Watch some very old BW matches and you'll see how much poorer they were than even SC2 now.

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Originally Posted by Sigel

I like the fact a group of people say that APM is loosing importance while another group says "you can't effectivly give 5 meaningfull instructions in 2 different places in 2 seconds"

Give it some time...There's no way people have enough practice yet (and that includes pros) to do everything at once. Nor has there been enough time to discover all the possiblities of the game yet. The game already evolves at tremendous speed but people forget we're barely into beta (it's been like what? 3-4 months?) and compare it with a game people had 10 years to practice on. Watch some very old BW matches and you'll see how much poorer they were than even SC2 now.

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I know, and I admit my ignorance. A lot to be honest. But it shouldn't be so hard. It's not like this is a completely new game. And to try if a strat works or not, one doesn't need to do a lot yet or go for the win. All one has to do is dedicate his attention to his plan of action and see how much it can do for him.

Multitasking is only at its greatest when you begin to include everything into the equation. Preparations, keeping up, etc.

But, hey, what do I know...

And, to note, taking for example SC1's reaver harass, it all started as a reaver drop. It was actually a game ender, when everyone had no choice but to grab expos at great distances. Naturals wasn't there yet. So execution-wise, everyone knows what a reaver harass is, but no one did it (yet) while keeping his base busy and working, multiplying his advantage along the way.

So, the point being, that like the example above, the strat is already there. How to execute it while still doing other things than it is something else.

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Originally Posted by GnaReffotsirk

I'm sorry, but Demaga could have nullified TLO's 10:00 siege tank, blown up that wall at 8:30 with 24 banelings and 12 lings with another 12 on the way.

TLO loses the supply depot, the fac, rax. Leaving only the Thor at 60% HP, the Hellion, the Dropship.

What Demaga's base would have looked like after this is:
1. Ready for Lair Tech
2. One base, one queen.
3. Expo at 20%.

TLO could have attacked with the Hellion + 4 rines early right? You'll have 24 lings at that time. The key is to not engage the hellions off-creep.

TLO's task would have to find the banelings as they morph. Attack while they're in transit, or lift-off as the banelings come in. That would lead to:
a. Intact Wall, but no CC, only the under construction.
b. Lose Thors, rines, and hellion, with base and wall intact.

That drop attack was at 9:00, a lot of units could have been out by that time.

This is why I frown at hiding the replay progress bar.

My point is if Demaga massed, he would have won. So, that video just proved my point all the more.

And, I just had a ZvZ, we both went for one basing. He went for the fastest muta possible (8:00), and I went the massed bane/ling. His Lair kaputs, I had one expo, hes got 4 mutas. And mutas are the only, and I must emphasize, only harass unit for the Zerg.

Lings? No, they're attack forces. Sure, you can make them suicide for 3-4 workers by focus attacking, but it won't work.

I've seen one Ling early harass that worked. But it only worked since the toss foolishly FE's on LT. His cannon was barely up, and a huge hole was there. The Zerg went 10pool lings first.

edit:

But I hear you guys. I'm not saying one cannot use the mobility in sc2, but it's a secondary option. Against a passive player, it will work, but when? at around 10:00. That's the safest way to strike at econ. And the best way is to fake an attack, to lure them forces out. But by that time, again, there's waaay too many units you can make that you can just clash then do the harass after.

So, if this is the way SC2 works, then it's almost impossible to harass without having so many units in your raiding party. Which is no longer a raiding party, but an attack party.

Wanna drop 6 rines? Your dropship will go kaput to the standing army even before they can arrive.

DTs? Works if the opponent doesn't have detection which is so much easy to get than the DTs.

You say harass at 12:00? Nevermind, just attack his forces with superior composition.

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Wait so now you're reenacting the game? You're assuming TLO plays the same way even if Dimaga were massing? What kind of reasoning is that? "oh yeah look, in this game the Z went for roaches and the T made marauders. Dude if the Z had made mutas instead of roaches he would have owned the marauders!!". This is kind of what you're saying.

Harassing isn't always a good option, but in this case it was a damn good one. Nobody is saying you should always harass. You're trying to say that it's always better to mass than to harass, and a bunch of people are trying to show you that it's not always the case.

Other example: following your reasoning: if you fall behind in army count: you lose. Well that's obviously not the case since you can go for the opponents expansions without engaging his army and gain another type of advantage. You won't be able to out-tech him or out-expand him once you've lost a battle if he's any good.

I don't get you. He won that game because of his strat. So if Demaga had used a different strat, it would have been a completely different game all together.

Honestly, how much do you harass? When? And how has it proven to be?

And it's not just army count, it's always a given that one is able to make the right composition of units out of one's production capacity and economy.

Nicol posted that to show SC2's harassment potentials. And I respond by saying his TLO's base is quite empty and could not handle a massed attack, because he decided to go dedicate to harassment first, and so my point stands.

If demaga massed, would you think TLO would continue his harass or made units first then harass?

Oh, and reenacting to find the counter to a strat is not evil or moronic. It's how you learn to counter a strat thrown at you, wouldn't you agree? It's clear going for an econ build, against TLO's strat is terrible. So Demaga will reenact, watch the replay, or have TLO throw the exact same thing at him again, and both of them finds the solution.

Next games, when someone copy's TLO's? They'll know what to do and what not to do. Then the variations stream in. He starts with this, opponent does this, I transition to this, he should do this. If he doesn't, I do this, then that, etc, etc.

Nerfing peons would do nothing to alleviate the problem. Raiding is pointless because your time is CLEARLY better spent elsewhere. With the pace the game is currently at, and how good the pathing is, it is virtually impossible to make a raid worthwhile. High level replays are boring. I would take an SC1 replay any day of the week.

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Originally Posted by Operatoring

High level replays are boring. I would take an SC1 replay any day of the week.

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Like I said earlier..."high level" SC2 replays are no more than people who didn't have 4 months to practice (also beeing beta and all changes every week it doesn't help) while SC1 actual players had years and years to research the best ways to play the game...how can you even begin to think they are the same level of play. Because someone practiced ping-pong for 10 years at competitive level and trys tenis he should be of the same level within 4 months? (or the other way around)...you need to get perspective.

Yeah, and I'm really tired of defending my position.

I accept that raids and surgical strikes are worthwhile, and are not as intimidating, unless by some technique one can catch the opponent off-guard. Which is beautiful, I must say.

So, thanks guys for your insights. I've learned from your points that surgical strikes can strengthen one's position, but is rarely something so dramatic that it makes massing units useless. That surgical strikes are not the go to strat always, but are as well part of the equation.

They're not as popular now, as you guys mention, and I'm hoping to see some awesome multitasking a few months or years from now.

edit:
I hope deckard's not reading this. And hammy that you don't surgical strike me in the party tourney. :D You've been awesome, btw. We should do practice matches like me and Deckard, and I could watch you and deckard have at it.

What exactly are raids and surgical strikes if I may ask? I have to say SC2 raids and surgical strikes are nearly debilitating. I dunno what kind of raids you're talking about.

Small forces you make while there's not much units out yet, which with proper deployment, positioning, or moving about can cause so much damage. Much like how reapers perform when rushing them, but they rarely are that effective unless it's a cheese reaper rush.

Basically, you insert small forces into undefended areas to destroy key elements of your opponent.

I call it surgical strikes based on the idea that no defense or army can respond to it quickly enough, and as hammy said, because they're out of position. But since, it's quite easy to move from main to nat, excluding 3rd expo since it's very late, and since one basing can provide mass number of units, it's quite difficult to pull-off a surgical strike against someone massing and chilling in their base.

To add, units that can do surgical strikes do not come early, and counters are easily accessible before these units can be reached.

So, yeah, they're secondary in nature, and rushing to get them can get one owned by someone who masses for a push. Therefore, I learn that to do these stunts, one has to develop his army first, then use what he has to hit the enemy here and there without committing to an army trade.

Maybe the spawn distances and map sizes also factor into this effect. You can compare sc1 maps to the current sc2 pool, and what we have right now are really quite small.

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I'm sorry, but Demaga could have nullified TLO's 10:00 siege tank, blown up that wall at 8:30 with 24 banelings and 12 lings with another 12 on the way.

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Coulda, woulda, shoulda, but he didn't, did he? Dimaga is about 100x better than the both of us put together and he was being harassed to death.

And that's just one game. There have been many, many other high-skill games where a player is substantially damaged if not killed by harassment. So your premise is simply not supported by the evidence.

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But it shouldn't be so hard.

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Yes, it should. Harassment should always have a downside. Technically, everything should always have a downside. You should not be able to, risk free, do X damage to an opponent's economy. And if you can, it had damn well better require oodles of skill, and failing to macro properly while doing it should cost you the game.

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Originally Posted by GnaReffotsirk

Small forces you make while there's not much units out yet, which with proper deployment, positioning, or moving about can cause so much damage. Much like how reapers perform when rushing them, but they rarely are that effective unless it's a cheese reaper rush.

Basically, you insert small forces into undefended areas to destroy key elements of your opponent.

I call it surgical strikes based on the idea that no defense or army can respond to it quickly enough, and as hammy said, because they're out of position. But since, it's quite easy to move from main to nat, excluding 3rd expo since it's very late, and since one basing can provide mass number of units, it's quite difficult to pull-off a surgical strike against someone massing and chilling in their base.

To add, units that can do surgical strikes do not come early, and counters are easily accessible before these units can be reached.

So, yeah, they're secondary in nature, and rushing to get them can get one owned by someone who masses for a push. Therefore, I learn that to do these stunts, one has to develop his army first, then use what he has to hit the enemy here and there without committing to an army trade.

Maybe the spawn distances and map sizes also factor into this effect. You can compare sc1 maps to the current sc2 pool, and what we have right now are really quite small.

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Ah yes, in that case very much so. Raids are so completely useless in SC2 and are pretty much cheese tactics. Even siege tank drops are incredibly hard to do since units just dash back to base so quickly (unless you can find a spot to get high ground advantage quickly.