GT001
Egg block. Submited by Scolio
How it works: send your hydras to block your ramp or small choke point, then morph them to lurkers when opponent attacks. it works early/mid game very well, seeing as nothing can really do dmg to the eggs (they have 10 armor). This prevents units like zealots or marines from walking up your ramp, making it easy to stall time until your lurkers hatch and burrow, then rape =]
Replay: Download here [name of replay is GT001]
Time: 9:50 - 10:20 into the game.
Place: 12 oclock main ramp.
As you'll see, this trick is the only thing that wins the game for me =.~
GT002
Scan Saviors, Repeatable Scan. Submited by Scolio <sorry for cheesy names =] >
How they work: Scan savior is when you use your scvs to surround your scan station or turret that's being contstructed during a dt drop for obvious reasons (preventing the dts from killing your shit). The repeatable scan is when you desperately need to scan for lurkers or dark templar, so you use your own units to kill your scan and rebuild it, giving you the needed 50 energy faster. I dont know exact numbers here, but if you build a scan station, scan, kill it, and rebuild, you save a lot of time. I should go figure out just how long it takes to build scan station and shit, but you guys can get the numbers yourselves T_T
Replay: Download here [name of replay is GT002]
Time: about 8:00 into the game.
Place: 6 oclock main base.
(its a pretty bad example, but you get the idea =] )
Found in this rep (Repeatable scan) @
Time: about 9:10 into the game.
Place: 6 oclock main base.
(again, not the greatest example, but this trick is OFTEN useful)
GT003
Trick: Stasis Block submited by Scolio
How it works: This trick involves the abuse of the infamous arbiter ability "Stasis Trap" and the ramps or small chokes most maps are filled with. All that's required is to block a ramp or choke point with a couple units (usually just a goon, sometimes 2 or 3) and then you stasis them, so that units can't get in.
Now, though its not very often you'll be able to use it, this trick is useful in two ways: Offensively and Defensively. If he's taken a second main as an expansion, which at this stage of the game is very likely, the main goal is to either kill it, or match the amount of expos (generally). The stasis block is an easy way to take out his expansion at a main base with relatively few units. you merely send in enough zealots to kill cannons or sunkens or whatever, stasis a goon or two on the ramp just as units are running in to save it, and bam. free time for zealots to rape that expansion.
The problem with using this offensively is that you most likely won't be able to save your units afer you kill the expo, seeing as its all his units vs about 10 of yours. You can prepare for this by planning on using a lot of storm while his units are bottled up below the ramp and then flank his units after your stasis wears out (your main group of units plus the units used to kill expo) or you can try to save as many units as you can with a couple shuttles.
The other way, using it defensively, is an even more excellent way to abuse the trick. Simply send almost all units to attack his expo or somewhere which will instigate a counter-attack on his part. Then, as he tries to walk into your expo, stasis the units on YOUR ramp, finish raping his expo, then come in from behind and hit his army. Seems kinda basic, but you'd be surprised how much more useful you'll find arbiters, and how much more your opponents will hate them =]
Found in this rep @
Replay: Download here. Name of rep GT003
Time: 17:24
Place: 6 O'clock ramp
GT004
Trick: Defecting Spider Mines
How it works: This trick works on the principle that turns newbies off from using spider mines; Spider mines will damage your own units! Of course, this is obvious, and the trick of using your units to cause his mines to explode near his tanks (doing mucho damage for little cost) is fairly obvious too, but there are different ways about abusing it that I'm sure many aren't aware of. So we'll start with the basics:
The zealot, generally with leg speed. All you do when the terran is tank pushing you, supporting it with spider mines, send in some zealots, semi spread out to attract more mines and to last longer from splash damage, and as they're running in ahead of your army you tell them to target different tanks. The mines will follow the zealot next to the tank, and if your zealot is able to get a hit or two off, and the spider mine explodes, that right there pretty much kills the tank. However, make sure that terran takes a fair bit of ground before you start trying to use his own mines against him. Remember, there are very few terran that will tank push and lay mines in the middle of it. They all lay most of the mines in front of the tanks, take more ground with a seige push, and end up with their units right over top of the spider mines that are supposed to do damage to units before they reach the tanks. Attacking too soon is no good. =]
The second way is for midgame when sending a few zealots ahead of your army will be pointless, as they die from tank damage before they make it even relatively close to the terran units. To avoid this, simply use a shuttle, again preferably with speed upgrade. You load it up with 4 zealots, and drop one or two zealots on large congregations of tanks, which serves for two purposes; one) you do a little damage to the tanks with zealots, also from tanks firing at the zealots which will again splash adjacent tanks, and two) spider mines come trying to kill those one or two zealots and fuck his tanks up.
However, sometimes even shuttles don't allow the zealots to last long enough to get the mines to explode, so you need to use your almost best friend, the dark templar. As long as you're in an area with no turrets you'll be able to have that suicide templar do a ton of damage from the defecting mines. Getting the hang of this trick is more difficult than it seems, but you will use it no matter what level of skill you play at. So learn it now!!
Found in this rep @
Replay: Download here. Name of rep GT004
Time: 11:30
Place: 6 o'clock start position natural expansion.
Time: 14:32
Place: 6 o'clock start position mineral-only expansion.
(not really the greatest examples, but they're still very helpful, even when not very successful)
GT005
Trick: "Mining the workers" Submited by Scolio
How it works: You lay a spider mine in somebody's mineral patch and lure an enemy unit near the mine. The mine attacks that unit, but does splash damage to all the workers (which kills them in one hit, needless to say). However, the premise is simple, but executing it is generally onerous. This is due to the fact that you have to get an enemies unit into a mineral field, hard enough in itself, but the minerals must be unprotected by cannons. So as you can generally tell, this is very dependant on how the game is going, and there aren't many excellent opportunities to pull it off, but I have a few tips to make it easier.
This trick becomes less and less useful as the skill level of your opponent increases because he'll have better control over his units so that they wont slip where they're not supposed to be by an unfortunate accident, and sometimes he'll make damn sure his zealots go nowhere near the mineral patches just in case. However, if you leave a mine at his minerals before he actually expands there, then walk in with a couple vulture after its up and running, he'll see that you haven't laid any mines, and may not bother being cautious about his zealots or other units. Becuase of that mine you layed to scout when the toss expands, he may lose 6-14 probes!! definitely worth exchanging a pair of mine-less vultures for, in my opinion.
Also, you could avoid laying mines until units are too close to the workers to run away in time, and then lay a mine at the last second and hope for the best. This is kind of tricky to do, because you need to send vulture in behind the expo so that when units come they have to move into the mineral patches. Once they move close enough to the mineral patches, lay mines and rape the workers.
One last sneaky thing with this is to send vulture to his workers, pick off a couple until he runs all his workers back then lay your mines. Keep the vultures alive as long as you possibly can, and you delay his mining (he wont send workers back to get raped by vulture). If he doesn't delay his mining you merely run your vultures back to the minerals and pick off some more until he NEEDS to send units to that exact location.
Found in this rep @
Replay: Download here. Name of rep GT005
Time: 12:05
Place: 2 o'clock start position main base.
