Protoss Strategies

[Rabiator]

I am new to this forum and dont have a beta key, so I couldnt test these two strategies I came up with, but maybe those with playing experience can give their opinions on them.

One small warning: I do like complicated plans and these "tactics" are just that.

1. Hallucination + Void Ray
Sentries can be built relatively fast, but getting to the Void Ray takes a little time. Void Rays can take down the opponents main building pretty fast, but it sucks when they are shot down, so why not get two Sentries and group one real Void Ray with four fake ones (assuming the Sentries have full energy) to lessen the chance of getting damage on the real one? It is a gamble, but youre taking only a 20% chance of taking damage on the real one and might get out alive if you pull him back if he gets targeted first. Also the shock of seeing five VRs shooting (at a very early time) might give you a second or two if people dont expect it. One thing that would screw this tactic would be having no animation for the VR-Illusions shooting.

Using illusions would lessen the risk AND might be able to lead your opponent in a wrong direction in his tech if you fake one attack with a few VRs and your opponent frantically starts switching to anti-air. The threat needs to be big though to bring a terran to spam his base with missile turrets and so on.

2. WCIII Tower defense (kinda)
In many Protoss videos the buildings are spread somewhat randomly, but some players like to place them in straight lines. Since one of the more important things in a game is to get to the workers of your opponent AND many matches are resolved with ground assault, why not try to make him run a zigzag in a nice and open path by placing your buildings in a way to lure him inside? Obviously this only matters for ground combat, but it might make the most of your photon cannons. Immortals and Colossi would be harder to get to with opposing zerglings and zealots and even marines would have to bunch up nicely in the narrow path. If your opponent chooses to shoot the buildings, you can run up and start shooting with stalkers. Another "tactic" might be to leave no visible defenses and simply put a few Dark Templars on the path which all the troops have to pass.

Protoss cant really wall off their base, but providing a detour for enemy units might help. Stalkers can blink across, so that would not hinder as much as pure walkers.

[Todie]

i dotn paly eitehr. but the first one might work, although it takes some time for just one WR to make significant damage. but im sure a variation of it should have a chance of sucess. idk if halucinations have attackanimations either :S

as for the otehr thing. remember how fastpaced starcraft (2) is ... even small units kill buildings sort of fast. unless its dedicated anti-light units, you can rarely be sure they are heading in & going for the workers - if they're doing that its more often a drop (or a cliff walk) than not anyway.. the way i see it, you kind of either hold a choke-point at the entrance, or you dont (and rely on generally securing the area ahead isntead, by army presence / vision of the area + a mobile reactionary force.

[Rabiator]

i dotn paly eitehr. but the first one might work, although it takes some time for just one WR to make significant damage. but im sure a variation of it should have a chance of sucess. idk if halucinations have attackanimations either :S

Hallucinations can do all sorts of nifty stuff, like making the defender scramble his troops to the back after you "accidentally" let two VRs be spotted by him on their way towards the back of his base while your true force is waiting to knock on the front door ... and you dont need to have one yourself. Obviously this works best if your opponent sucks at scouting your tactic AND if he plays without hit point bars.

as for the otehr thing. remember how fastpaced starcraft (2) is ... even small units kill buildings sort of fast. unless its dedicated anti-light units, you can rarely be sure they are heading in & going for the workers - if they're doing that its more often a drop (or a cliff walk) than not anyway.. the way i see it, you kind of either hold a choke-point at the entrance, or you dont (and rely on generally securing the area ahead isntead, by army presence / vision of the area + a mobile reactionary force.

As I said its just a way to slow down the enemy while he tries to get to your workers or defending troops. The point is to spread out "low damage ranged troops" (one unit deals low damage and they usually arrive in swarms) in a single file while they attempt to walk through the maze OR they bunch up while shooting a building or melee units (if melee units can only reach one or two sides of a building its a little harder for them to take it down compared to the "surround") while they attack you. Its not really meant as a wall, but rather an attempt to be able to defend with fewer troops. Hardly anyone keeps shooting a building while being shot himself and just a few stalkers with blink might be enough to deter an attacker who is knocking on such an "open door".

It probably doesnt matter for a mid/late game, but in the early/mid game you might want to be somewhere with your mobile troops and leave only a few units for defense ... just when youre trying to attack yourself or set up expansions.

[Todie]

As I said its just a way to slow down the enemy while he tries to get to your workers or defending troops. The point is to spread out "low damage ranged troops" (one unit deals low damage and they usually arrive in swarms) in a single file while they attempt to walk through the maze OR they bunch up while shooting a building or melee units (if melee units can only reach one or two sides of a building its a little harder for them to take it down compared to the "surround") while they attack you. Its not really meant as a wall, but rather an attempt to be able to defend with fewer troops. Hardly anyone keeps shooting a building while being shot himself and just a few stalkers with blink might be enough to deter an attacker who is knocking on such an "open door".

It probably doesnt matter for a mid/late game, but in the early/mid game you might want to be somewhere with your mobile troops and leave only a few units for defense ... just when youre trying to attack yourself or set up expansions.

its quite obvious you can make chokepoints more narrow using buildings, and many people do that (i see DS do it all the time) .. but it seems like your suggesting something more.

...i just dont think that would be practical. protoss buildings all serve a purpose and yes, people do stop to take em out if not sufficiently provoked. also, what is cumbersome for the enemy to get around is also cumbersome for YOU to get around, and in the long run that matters a lot; you will make many units that you want to smoothly move out of your base.

i dont think its practical and im pretty sure any tester would agree. thats all i can say, im not arguing over this any further.