Radical use of the MULE

[Gryzzly]

Hello

I've been a long time reader here ever since beta began, but just registered I don't have a beta key, but I've had an odd idea bugging me for awhile.

Suppose you are Terran vs any other race. It is late game, and you are both down to 1 base. If you find his expo (cloaked banshee or scan), with all the Orbital Commands you would have, Calldown MULE your little heart out on his expo. And there, you are at a huge advantage! Is this worthwhile, however, since you could just use those mules for yourself(but depleting your mineral patches yourself), and this could backfire against another Terran player. If anyone tries this, I'd love to hear it!

[Mandilorordo]

Err I don't understand what you're saying. Why would you call down mules at your enemies base?

[Hav0x]

Err I don't understand what you're saying. Why would you call down mules at your enemies base?

To deplete his minerals thus leaving him unable to produce. Though it would only really work against an undefended expansion.

[imdrunkontea]

the MULES need to drop off though, or else that's only 30 minerals per MULE.

[Blazur]

It's a bold plan, especially if the bases are in close proximity. But mules are fragile and defenseless, so any workers can easily turn and kill them.

[Drake Clawfang]

I'm going to be blunt, by which I mean I'll be mean.

Why would you call Mules to his base if you know where it is, why not destroy it outright? If you can't destroy it because it is too well defended, then your Mules can't mine from it for the same reason. What are you doing if you have the energy to calldown multiple Mules at once? Why would you want to use them on his base, Mineral Fields have thousands of Minerals, considering they'd have to run back and forth between your bases how many are they gonna steal, a few hundred? You'd be better off calling them to your own base.

Simply put, this is a very, very stupid idea. I have no idea why you would even think of such a thing in the first place.

[ZealotPowerade]

I'm going to be blunt, by which I mean I'll be mean.

Why would you call Mules to his base if you know where it is, why not destroy it outright? If you can't destroy it because it is too well defended, then your Mules can't mine from it for the same reason. What are you doing if you have the energy to calldown multiple Mules at once? Why would you want to use them on his base, Mineral Fields have thousands of Minerals, considering they'd have to run back and forth between your bases how many are they gonna steal, a few hundred? You'd be better off calling them to your own base.

Simply put, this is a very, very stupid idea. I have no idea why you would even think of such a thing in the first place.

aw come on man he's trying. After all the reason why he thought of such a thing in the first place is because he doesn't have a beta key. :P

[Quirel]

A slightly better harass I've seen is to take a Probe and warp in Assimilators over the enemy's geysers, early game. He has to wait until he's got a barracks, spawning pool, or Gateway going to make a serious attempt to destroy them, and that'll hurt him if he's rushing Reapers.

Works best against lower-level players.

[TheEconomist]

Those MULES would get destroyed before they got any worth while minerals. It would be a complete waste and would put YOU at a severe disadvantage.

[Crazy_Jonny]

The only viable use I found for the MULE other than it's main use is repairing your mech, which can useful if say, your SCVs assisting your mech army died (or you forgot them), and your forces are on the other side of the map away from scvs, so you call down 1 or 2 MULES for a quick repair.

Other than that, this plan wouldn't really work unless the conditions are very specific - meaning the map is almost out of money and both you and your opponent need the last scraps asap, and you and your opponent are completely broke. There's almost no chance of this being viable.