Leveling Down

As Terran, my wall-in is used here to prevent an initial Zergling rush.

In previous entries, I have advocated how important it is to rush or prepare to be rushed in team-based games. I will continue to reiterate that here that if you want to get good at Starcraft II in 3v3, there’s actually a pretty standard defensive build with each race that you should follow for the most conservative opening in 3v3. I’m not a 1v1 player, so some of the more hardcore strategies that apply there don’t necessarily work here, but if you want to get good at 3v3, this is the right place to begin reading. For today’s entry, I will focus on the early game and specifically, what you should build if you want to go with the tried and true.

[Updated 8/30/2010 with revised Protoss opening]

First off, let me discuss a couple preface tips before getting into the specific builds for each race:

Cute Stuff Only Works Against Weaker Opponents
There are some builds out there that I would call “cute”. They are considered “all in” type strategies that will cause your team to lose the match in early game because you don’t have an army to go against the 3 opponents’ armies that are attacking you or one of your partners in the early game.

Examples of cute stuff are skipping infantry units as Terran and quick teching right to Banshees (the cloaked air-to-ground helicopters) or skipping Gateway units as Protoss just so you can mass Void Rays. These types of tactics work against weaker opponents, but against stronger ones that actually build defensive structures on their mineral lines, it means your quick tech did not provide your team an advantage if for some reason or another your team was able to withstand the rush from your opponents.

Of course, sometimes these types of strategies work, but if you plan on making it to the big leagues, you should consider playing more conservatively. What does that mean? Allow me to get into the details below.

Major Early Game Threats
There are three major early game threats for team-based games: the 9-pool Zergling rush, which is the fastest assault on your base (consisting of 6 Zerglings), the double-Gateway Zealot rush, a slower, yet more deadly attack (consisting of 4 Zealots), and Terran’s Reaper Rush (2 quick Reapers that jump a cliff to go after your workers before you can make ranged units).

Conservative Terran Early Game
What does it mean to play more conservatively as Terran? That basically means, no early gas. As Terran, your wall-in is the most effective of the three races, so you can potentially cheat to make a Refinery after one Barracks if you spawn on a map with a small enough ramp that two Barracks aren’t needed to completely wall yourself in.

But I am going to assume that you are spawning on a map that has a ramp that would require something like 1 barracks and 3-4 supply depots to wall yourself. Good luck getting all of those up in time before the initial Zergling/Zealot rush and only 1 Marine pumping out at a time from your single Barracks all because you just wanted gas earlier.

In any case, let’s take it back a notch. What is a wall-in anyway? If you note in Starcraft 2, Terran’s supply depots can be raised or lowered and their unit producing buildings can be lifted into the air. Completely blocking your choke with supply depots and barracks at the beginning of the game prevents the quick Zerglings and Zealots from rushing into your base and overwhelming your 2 marines. The wall allows your marines to sit behind the depots and fire upon the quick Zerglings and Zealots. Then when you are ready to attack, you simply lower your depots to leave your base. Having a gate works wonders for Terran in the early game. Therefore, you should always wall.

My recommended early game build is the following: Supply Depot, Barracks, Barracks, Supply Depot, Refinery, Refinery. The combination of Supply Depots and Barracks should be enough to completely block your entrance. It should not matter that you cannot build the attachments to your Barracks in the early game. Those 4 buildings are meant to stop any early Zergling or Zealot attack as you continue to pump Marines from both barracks. Once you start harvesting gas and actually have enough to build the attachments, you can lift your barracks up and fly them a bit further away from the choke. Note that the wall-in is primarily to deter the early game rush. At that time, once the Barracks have been moved back, you can build supply depots at the choke if you still want to feel comfortable about closing off your entrance.

Both refineries should pretty much go up at about the same time, and around then, you should also stop SCV production in order to do the Orbital Command Center upgrade (you should be around 18 or so food). After the Orbital Command Center is upgraded, the first thing you should do is create a M.U.L.E. These orange workers are temporary, but harvest at a much faster rate than the SCVs so you should always be using the 50 mana to create them to give your minerals a major boost. In Starcraft 2, it is commonly accepted that you should not be using the scan, because you could be calling a M.U.L.E. down instead to get more minerals. Continue to pump SCVs until you start building your expansion. This way, you can ferry half of your SCVs from your main to your expansion after it is built.

With regards to the attachments to your Barracks, I recommend building one of each type of attachment on the two barracks. Then you can pump out Marines from one and Marauders from the other. Continue to pump them out and research Stim Pack. Also build a bunker at your mineral line as early as you can in case a Terran opponent is going to try to hit you with Reapers. You do not need to fill the bunker with 4 marines – 1-2 is generally enough to handle the Reaper rush (consider filling it later though to handle drops, Mutalisk harassment, or an early Void Ray). At about the time when you have a good number of Marines and Marauders, your team will either be ready to attack or be attacked. Carry on with your army and once that bloodbath is over, you have made it into the mid-game as Terran!

Major Points of a Conservative Terran Early Game Build:
- Wall-In with Supply Depots and Barracks (to defend Zergling/Zealot Rush)
- Two Barracks Before Any Refineries (to defend Zergling/Zealot Rush)
- Put marines in a bunker at Your Mineral Line Early (to defend against Reaper Rush)
- Upgrade your Command Center to an Orbital Command Center and build M.U.L.E.s.

Conservative Protoss Early Game
The conservative Protoss early game is also very similar to the Terran conservative early game: walling in, two unit producers before any gas, and putting a defensive structure at your mineral line.

My recommended build is: Pylon at your choke, followed by two Gateways at the choke. Ensure that there is a 1 gap space for your units to get through. What you are going to do with your Protoss wall-in is use a Zealot to close that wall by moving him to the spot and telling it to hold position. The Zealot will function as your “gate” against an early Zergling or Zealot rush. Once the initial rush stage is over, your Zealots and Stalkers can easily fit through that 1 unit space to exit your base when necessary.

Anyway, back to the build. After your second Gateway, you want to build a pylon next near your Nexus, followed by a Cybernetics Core and then an Assimilator. It’s your choice whether you want to build a second Assimilator or not at that time, but after the first Assimilator goes up, you will want to get a Forge out along with a Pylon behind your mineral line. All this time, you are pumping Zealots from both Gateways. As soon as the Assimilator completes, harvest gas and when the Forge warps in, create a Photon Cannon behind your mineral line and a second one by the pylon near your Nexus to get good coverage. By now you should also have enough gas to start warping in Stalkers, so switch to them. At this point you should have about 6 Zealots, and then you can just keep pumping out Stalkers after that.

If you get rushed, your Zealot at the choke will hold but if for some reason he doesn’t and the Zerglings slip through (this happens if you do not tell your Zealot to hold position at the choke spot), no problem – two more Zealots should be warping in on both of your Gateways, so they can go and dispatch the Zerglings easily.

With regards to workers – make sure you continue to pump out probes all the way until you expand. That way, once you expand, you can ferry half your Probes to the new expansion as soon as it warps in. Also make sure you consistently use the Chrono Boost ability of your Nexus on your Nexus to pump out Probes faster.

Unlike Terran who has to use the conservative build option to simply survive the early game rushes, the Protoss player makes several Zealots to survive the rushes but then can turn his Zealots into a rush himself. Once you’ve created several Zealots and you have a cannon protecting your mineral line, you can send those Zealots at your opponent to see how they handled their early game. If you come across another Protoss player who decided to go early gas, your Zealots will overwhelm his one Stalker.

In any case, as your Zealots defend or attack the opponent, you should keep pumping Stalkers so by the end of early game, you should have a good mix of Zealots and Stalkers to attack or defend with. This takes you into midgame.

Major Points of a Conservative Protoss Early Game Build:
- Wall-in with a Pylon, 2 Gateways, and a Zealot set to “Hold Position”. (to defend Zergling/Zealot Rush)
- Two Gateways Before Any Assimilators (to defend Zergling/Zealot Rush)
- Use Chrono Boost to keep making Probes
- Get a cannon on your mineral line early (to defend against Reaper Rush)

I have revised my Protoss 3v3 opener due to the amount of grief Terran players can give to a Protoss player that goes 2 Gateways early. The previous Protoss opener I wrote about works very well against Zerg and Protoss, but Terran will make things very difficult for that build due to two units: the Reaper and the Marine. Both of these units are ranged, and therefore, if you were to mass Zealots early on, the right micro from those ranged units would be very difficult for you to handle. Therefore, it is imperative that you get Stalkers. This new opening can handle the Terran reaper rush, and also works fine with the initial Zerg and Protoss rushes as well.

My new recommended Protoss opening for 3v3 is actually the AI’s Protoss opening: Pylon,1 Gateway, Cybernetics Core & Assimilator, Pylon, second Gateway. I don’t recommend the wall-in choke any more, since many of the platforms are so large that your Gateways up front could be powered down with the loss of a Pylon and your probes will be too far to help. Instead, I recommended as Protoss to build a very tight base with your Gateways near your mineral line and Nexus. When the first Gateway is up, you should be able to pump out two Zealots before you can start making Stalkers. Those two Zealots should be enough to handle any initial Zergling or Zealot rush. If you need help, your Probes are right there and can help since your Gateways are now close to your mineral line.

Your priority in a defensive 3v3 Protoss opener is to get 1 Stalker out to handle any Reapers that show up, but never neglect making a couple Zealots first in case of early Zerglings. Once you have a few Stalkers out and the initial rush period is over, rally your Gateway units to the ramp, make a couple Pylons and maybe a cannon at your ramp so that you can close the choke and detect for cloaked units. Don’t forget to also make at least a cannon or two at your mineral line for the mid-game drops/air harassment.

Major Points of a Conservative Protoss Early Game Build:
- 1 Gateway, and 2 Zealots (to defend Zergling/Zealot Rush)
- Cybernetics Core and Assimilator as soon as you can after Gateway warps in (to make Stalkers to defend against Terran Reaper rush or Marine rush)
- Get Stalkers and a second Gateway up Cybernetics and Assimilator are up
- Use Chrono Boost to keep making Probes
- Get a cannon on your mineral line by the end of early game (to defend against mid-game air harassment or drops)

Conservative Zerg Early Game
Zerg is very different than Terran or Protoss, and therefore a conservative build for the Zerg player is not quite the same. For one thing, the Zerg cannot wall-in. However, there is a conservative initial build that will prevent you from becoming a team liability in the early game if you do the following.

The first thing you should build as you get close to your initial food supply is a Spawning Pool. Do not build an Overlord before that Spawning Pool. Once the Spawning Pool has started, next build an Overlord, and then a Drone to bring you back to the 10 food cap. As the Spawning Pool builds, you have a decision to make: Zergling rush or not? If you Zergling rush, you will hurt your economy but you have a chance to attack an unwary opponent early. If you do not Zergling rush, you can harvest resources faster to have a stronger army earlier.

I personally used to use make Zerglings (called a 9pool rush), but I’ve since stopped due to the fact that I’m playing better opponents these days and I don’t want to take the risk of hurting my economy because my opponent(s) can easily withstand the 9pool rush. If you want to 9pool, use 1 Larvae for a drone and you should have 3 Larvae as soon as the Spawning Pool is complete. Once it is complete, create the 6 Zerglings and build a Queen. (You should build a Queen at every one of your Hatcheries because she has the ability to not only heal your buildings, but can spawn more Larvae at the Hatchery, and hold out against a Reaper rush) Once your Zerglings are out, hit an opponent’s base, but at the same time, make a Spine Crawler in front of your Hatchery to protect your base from an offensive Zerg Spine Crawler rush (where the Zerg opponent creates a Spine Crawler on your creep within range of your Hatchery). If the 6 Zerglings are successful, you can decide at that time to make 12 more Zerglings (sacrificing economy) to finish off the opponent, or make 6 Drones instead if you don’t want to push the attack any further.

If you don’t want to rush with Zerg, continue to build Drones as the Spawning Pool is building, and make a Queen when the Spawning Pool is done. As soon as you can, make sure to build at least 1 Spine Crawler in front of your Hatchery. Your Spine Crawler needs to be built before you build an Extractor. This is true whether you decide to rush or not. Since Zerg cannot wall-in, they must have at least 1 static defense structure to combat the early rush. This static defense structure will protect you against a Zergling rush and a Spine Crawler rush. The Queen will protect your mineral line from a Reaper Rush that comes a bit later, but consider a second Spine Crawler for your mineral line for extra security.

Regardless of whether you rush or not, after the first Spine Crawler is out, you can build Extractors on one or both gas, and at that point, decide whether you want to mass Zerglings and get the Speed upgrade for them or to make a Roach Warren and mass Roaches. As you mass this army of Speedlings or Roaches, make another Spine Crawler if you feel you will be targeted in a rush (Zerg often is due to the lack of a wall), upgrade to Lair and consider expanding to take you into the mid-game.

Major Points of a Conservative Zerg Early Game Build:
- Make a Spawning Pool Before an Overlord
- Make a Spine Crawler in front of your Hatchery as soon as your Spawning Pool completes
- Make a Queen whenever you can no longer make drones and have 150 minerals.
- Rushing with Zerglings is optional
- Make a second Spine Crawler to fortify your wall-less base more if you expect to be the target of a rush (and consider putting it at your mineral line)
- Get the Zergling speed upgrade and make a lot of Zerglings or build Roaches to round out your Zerg early game army

Next Time: Mid Game Strategies for Team Based Starcraft II Matches
Hopefully you’ve learned from reading this how to not only survive, but excel in the early game for each of the three races. I’ve gotten Zerg partners that like to build gas early and skip Spine Crawlers altogether, Protoss partners that make just 1 Gateway and early gas to skip to Stalkers or Void Rays, and Terran players who want to mass Marauders only so they skip making Marines early. These major “skips” set the player up for potential failure in the early game. Don’t let player be you! Once you learn these defensive openers, you will most likely not be a liability in the early game, and from there you can decide if you want to continue opening 3v3 games with these traditional conservative builds, or to take on more aggressive offensive minded openers. It’s really up to you.

Stay tuned for my next Starcraft II strategy article that discusses how to handle the mid-game with each of the three races for team-based matches.

Be Sociable, Share!

•