How to put early pressure in LotV?

Question

With 13 (or 14) workers on start, early game of StarCraft has been changed significantly.

If early Zerg could choose to do 7(6)- pool, now the best they could do is 13-pool... Is this still strong opening?

In my game style (top Gold, random race) I see that the best opening for any race is early expansion. And early I mean that CC/Hatchery/Nexus should be the very first building build (with exception of pylon/supply depot for food).

This way I have early economic advantage and so far no players were able to punish such a greedy expansion.

Please advise, how would you recommend to put early game pressure in LotV in order to prevent opponents early expansion?

For each race please.

Thanks!

P.S. I do realize that as time progresses, new meta game will be discovered, but what is the option now?

Answer 1

• Scout. Any early pressure can lose it's potency by not knowing where your opponent is.
• Delay gas. Most early pressure units do not use gas. The bulk of your army will be mineral heavy. Unless you are Protoss and are going for a higher tier units or upgrades, you'll want to use all of your workers for minerals.
• Make sure you build enough production facilities. With the increase in workers, the amount of early Barracks, Gateways etc... that are needed is increased. I've seen up to 4 early Barracks for pressure into Medivacs for easy wins in ladder all the time.
• Zerg is the hardest for early pressure. You are most likely going to have to go with something that LOOKS LIKE an early expansion, only produce one queen and use some saved up larva for zerglings. I suggest getting gas for zergling speed in this case only.
• Some players are sending a scout at the beginning of the game, finding the base and leaving. Then at the ~1 minute mark they are sending the scout back in to see if their early pressure will yield any good results.

The best early pressure builds right now are:

ZERG: Early expand (for larva production when ready for zerglings), build 1 gas for ling speed. Build 1 queen for injects on main hatch. Save enough larva for all of your minerals for zerglings. Even 6 marines will have a hard time shutting down 20 zerglings with ling speed.

PROTOSS: EARLIER 4 gates! You can even add 1 weapon upgrade if you want to refine this. Remember to bring your probes for the proxy pylon. Zerg has a hard time holding these off if you can keep the proxy alive. You can even bring your mother ship core along if you don't need it back at base and have the resources to produce it if you lose it.

TERRAN: Bunker rushes are a little all-in for me. It's not really pressure, although it usually outright wins if it goes correctly. I've seen things range from 4 barracks into medivacs, total marine armies, marine marauder with combat shields...terran has the most early game right now.