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So my favorite 1v1 strategy anytime im favored in a 1v1 match is a one base fast tech attack. This strategy works very well against opponents who dont scout or try to expand right away.

My 1v1 strat in play

I tend to go undefeated in bronze and silver but once i hit gold its a bit ify and platinum I dont even bother as I usually get scouted and they counter it immediately.

What im really asking is, if this strategy fails me what can I switch to make it work? Depending on how bad it fails with my first attack I usually just GG. I really like this strategy and its something ive seen the pros use and it gets me more wins then Marines & Thors or MMM

  • 10 supply
  • 12 Racks (marines constantly)
  • 14 Refinery
  • 18 Comm
  • 19 refinery
  • 19 supply
  • 21 fact (tech add)
  • 21 supply
  • 25 Starport (give fact addon to starport)
  • banshee cloak
  • seige upgrade
  • banshee harass
  • 3 seige tanks a couple banshees and a mess of marines and i usually attack.
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    Could you post a build order instead? Youtube is being uncooperative with me today, and it's generally easier to skim a few lines of text than to watch a 7 min video.
    – Fadeway
    Apr 2, 2012 at 11:10
  • alrightie gimme a minute
    – Paralytic
    Apr 2, 2012 at 12:03
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    Your Orbital is late and that slows down your build a lot, you want to get that as soon as possible after your Barracks finishes. Basically, you're doing a very tech heavy 1-1-1 timing attack with not a lot of units and against a Terran with a Viking or some Sieged Tanks it's not going to be easy to kill them or to follow up. The traditional all-in following cloaked Banshee harass works better against Protoss, but is still viable against Terran if you execute correctly and do damage with your Banshees. Here's a link to a decent guide to the build order: bit.ly/HDC4My
    – Decency
    Apr 3, 2012 at 6:04
  • yah ive never been sure how fast i should get the orbital up and it usually depends on the game as to when i throw it up sometimes early sometimes way late, thx for the link
    – Paralytic
    Apr 3, 2012 at 6:06

4 Answers 4

9

No good player fails to scout, and information is one of the few staples needed to secure a win. Even gimmicky strategies benefit from scouting, so you should learn to deal with it, and do it too, especially when doing one-base tech - don't want to hit a turtling fast expander, do you?

I watched the video and saw no (well-executed) strategy. You went 1-1-1 and fast cloak, but then the harass failed. If the win was supposed to be a good example of the strategy at work, the harass should've worked, as that is apparently the goal. From there, you proceeded to make a tank-marine-banshee army and push, and frankly, the only reason you won was that the enemy sacrificed his army early on and didn't compensate for the ensuing disparity.

As day9 says, solid wins are granted more through solid play than through gimmicky strategies. Thus, although slightly irrelevant to the question, I'll advise you to improve your scv timing - the queue was empty for a few seconds, at least once in the video. You should strive to always have workers in production, and even a single second lost is a flaw in you macro. Additionally, especially by the end, your resources were overflowing. More than 100 is OK if you're about to finish a tech building and pop a tech and a unit at the same time, more than 250 is not good, 500 means that your expo/second production building is long overdue. And if you're passing 1000, you're having serious trouble macroing.

On to a tip about your particular build. I didn't see when the turrets started being built, but it was around the time of the red push, and I'm almost certain it happened in response to you showing your banshee. You basically showed your hand to him. Considering that the tech was almost done, the banshee shouldn't even have been in your base, it should've been in or near his, waiting for cloak to finish, starting the attack as soon as possible.

Generally, your response to being scouted depends on the time of being scouted. Your strategy is only 100% discernible at its later stage - a ling wandering in as you're making a factory on double gas tells the zerg nothing. If the enemy saw a banshee though, you can be sure they're taking steps to defend from cloak. Those countermeasures cost money, meaning that the enemy is already recouping your losses from having the strategy busted. Save the banshee, poke a bit if you have time to, don't research cloak if you don't have it already. Make a raven or two (for PDD) with the lab and swap to MMM/whateveryouwant, expanding and generally going for a solid game. If the enemy got two turrets or an overseer to counter cloak, they just spent about as much money as you did for the banshee, so your resource loss is nil. Enough banshee action might convince them to devote even more resources to the perceived threat of cloak harass.

And if the enemy spots the factory in production, and for some reason you're absolutely sure they're going for anti-banshee, just go MMM or blueflame hellion rush.

TL;DR: Banshee - 150/100. Turret - 100. An enemy building two turrets means you aren't behind at all, just don't sacrifice the banshee by using it as a normal marine, harass with it for the entire game if you can. Aside from that, play normally, shifting to MMM and getting a reactor on the starport - you should always have enough units to survive a desperate all-in push when going for a harass strategy anyway.

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  • Can't say I disagree with anything Fadeway said... very nicely put together answer.
    – Nick122
    Apr 2, 2012 at 19:27
  • thanks awsome answer, definately wasnt one of my more recent games just the only one i recorded with that strat.
    – Paralytic
    Apr 3, 2012 at 4:11
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The key is information and reacting on time. You want to know what he is doing and whether this means trouble to you. Know your attack timing and what each race can do by that time to counter you.

The hardest counter to one-base fast tech build, is a very fast expand, the earlier the better. If your rush fails, you will be behind your opponent in economy. But if he also has an expansion running, it's pretty much game over for you. The correct response to a fast expanding opponent is denying his expansion, and applying some pressure to force him to build combat units instead of workers. If you fail to deny his expansion, you should fall back and expand yourself.

A big key point to early timing pushes is the surprise factor. Most of these are easily countered if your opponent knows what you are doing. As such, if you can deny early scouting, things will tilt further in your favour.

Also, if you arrive at his door, and his defense will evidently stomp your push, don't fight him, and go back home. Use your units for defense, and tech. If he has expanded, expand yourself. Expand twice. Tech more. But do not engage if it looks like you won't win.

In the lower leagues, people rarely have much of a plan, and will just build some units, and hope they work. Once people start organizing and executing builds properly, they quickly move up in the ranks. These players are easy to counter if you scout properly. Don't be this kind of player. Scout your opponent, know what he's doing, and react. Don't walk blindly into a trap and then go "oh my god, my push is gone, what do I do now!?". Always have a plan, and always have a plan B.

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  • I don't understand why many people beleve the lower ranks just build units and throw them around. I recently purchased the game and go demoted from Silver to Bronze and am now in Bronze constantly fighting Gold league members. I macro, micro, and have specific strategies and reactions to my scouts. So to say that all lower level leagues do something is to be a huge misconception. Others in my league also do similar things.
    – Nick122
    Apr 2, 2012 at 19:32
  • I don't know what people in Grandmaster think about Bronze players, honestly. I'm a Bronze player myself, and I believe what I see in my own matches against fellow Bronze players. Also, the concept of generalization exists to allow making broad statements while allowing for exceptions. I'm perfectly aware that not everybody plays the same way.
    – mkaito
    Apr 3, 2012 at 4:30
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Have you seen the Day9 daily about "Next steps"?

http://blip.tv/day9tv/day-9-daily-435-p1-stephano-vs-polt-zvt-6054295

Every good strategy has a next step, something you want to achieve with what you do now. Your strategy doesn't.

What you do is basically:

  • Do fancy harass
  • Get a lot of units
  • Attack
  • If the army wins, great, if not, panic

It's bad to focus too much on winning now, which is why you can't get past the skill level where people can defend your opening. Try to find a put a purpose other than "win now" in everything you do.

What do you want to achieve with the harass?
You usually want to use the harass to force the opponent to stay in base so you can be greedy now and have better tech and a bigger army later. Deny his expansion, keep his defense in base while you expand and get your eco going. Doing economical damage with the harass is great but not losing your banshee is even better. If he has turrets up, attack the add-ons of buildings not covered by turrets, supply depots or if neccessary, any other building your banshees can safely get their hands on and retreat as soon as vikings are out.
Harass has the added advantage of being a free scout, take advantage of that and use your orbital energy for mules instead of scans.

What do you want to achieve with the attack?
Don't answer "kill him". Attacks are meant to force the opponent to defend so you can get another expansion up behind it. As soon as you notice that you can't do any (significant) damage, either contain him or just walk home. You should have an eco advantage at that point, so you can just get a lot more units while continuing harass and then attack as soon as your army is stronger - and of course expand behind that.

Tech Transition
As for buildorder transitions, i think mech would be the easiest transition from there. After expanding behind the harass, get 2 factories, swap one on the starport techlab, get a reactor on starport and third factory and build hellions, tanks and vikings as much as you can afford. Get more production facilities as needed to keep your money low and don't forget to get upgrades.

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It is very important to understand who has map control in the different stages of the game, because only with map control you can easily secure an expansion.

Take your big push. Your army is between him and your base / natural. Once you push just build your expansion. You had the money plus usually the reinforcements are not that important if you engage, as they need to be build and then to run all the way to your army.

Once you see your push does not work as expected, do not force it. Just pull back and contain. You will have your expansion, he will not. Build a new / bigger army, expand again and crush him with more stuff. Up til platinum you can easily win with just solid macro.

Another way is to scout and react accordingly, but this is way harder to do than just expand behind your attack.

I would suggest you learn a few other builds, like 2 rax, 1 rax fast expand, and marine tank viking. But you can also try to make your strategy work.

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  • i dont like fast expanding on 1v1s
    – Paralytic
    Apr 3, 2012 at 9:24
  • This is not a fast expand. I would consider a fast expand getting a 2nd base before 24 supply. And your push timing is definitely not that fast if you go for tech.
    – ayckoster
    Apr 3, 2012 at 14:03
  • telling me my push timing isnt fast does me no good, telling me when i should be pushing helps telling me how to push faster is even better.
    – Paralytic
    Apr 3, 2012 at 16:19

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