Zerg Build Orders for Rushing

From poster Nicholas over on the Starcraft Forums

The Zergling Rush

Ah, the Zergling rush. Probably the most standard rush the Zerg have, not to mention the most infamous. I'll post the build order that I personally use for this rush, and it works great for me.

Drones until 10
10 - Extractor (put three Drones on when it finishes)
9 - Drone
10 - Spawning Pool
9 - Overlord
10 - Drone (use him to scout)
11, 12 - Drones
13 - Zergling Speed upgrade (the Pool should finish around now, and this upgrade is CRUCIAL to the rush)
13 - Queen
14, 15, 16 - Zerglings
16 - Overlord

After this, mass Zerglings until the speed upgrade finishes. When it does, set your Hatchery's rally point to just outside your opponent's ramp, and send 'em in. If your first push fails, don't worry. This is supposed to happen. During the first push, run past any units or buildings you see - go straight to his mineral line. Take out as many Probes or SCVs as you possibly can. Continue to Spawn Larva with your Queen, and just continue to make Zerglings. Somehow, the 12 Drones seems to be enough to provide an endless supply of Zerglings, so you can go on like this indefinitely. If your opponent is walled off and you can't get in at all, you have two options - cut your losses, and try to play the game out, or go for a Baneling Bust. See below.



The Baneling Bust

This is a build that incorporates Banelings to take down your opponent's wall, so your Zerglings can stream in and take out his harvesters.

9 - Overlord
14 - Pool
13 - Extractor
15 - Overlord
15 - Queen
17 - Zerglings

At 17, just start pumping out the Zerglings. You'll need quite a few, because a lot of them will have to morph into Banelings. With your first 100 gas, buy the Zergling speed upgrade, and with the 50 after that, throw down your Baneling Nest. After that, stockpile gas so you can morph a lot of Banelings. Once you've got about 25 Zerglings, move them to your opponent's ramp. If he walled off with a Barracks and a Factory, you'll need to morph about 10 Banelings. If walled off with a Barracks and two Supply Depots, you only need 6. Send them right at a building, and make sure the Zerglings rush in on their heels. Proceed to his mineral line first.



The Six Pool

This build is kind of cheesy, but it's a rush nonetheless. It's really simple.

6 - Harvest until you can afford a Spawning Pool, then throw it down
5, 6, 7 - Zerglings

Move your first six Zerglings to his base and go straight for his SCVs or Probes. The idea is to get your units to his base before his unit producing buildings are even finished. If you can manage to wipe out his SCVs or Probes before he builds a unit producing structure, you win. If you can't, you'll probably lose.

Note - A lot of players tend to get disheartened if they don't win with a rush. If you take out his entire mineral line, or most of it, keep playing, because you're at a significant advantage. If he totally shuts you down, you're at a disadvantage, so you have to expand and get back to par as quickly as you can.

Blocking the Photon Cannon Rush

Yesterday I provided a video of how to correctly do a cannon rush. It is only fair that today I provide strategies for how to counter a cannon rush for each of the races. So here are videos from ForceSC2Strategy again with all the counters you need.

Countering as Terran


Countering as Zerg


Countering as Protoss

Protoss Cannon Rush

One of the most annoying cheese tactics to fall to is for sure the Photon Cannon Rush. It entails getting a pylon, and forge down asap and then scouting a probe to your opponents base only to then turn around and start constructing pylons and photons in their base effectively boxing them in and hopefully forcing them into quitting.



This video strat comes from ForceSC2strategy over on YouTube

Zero Hour Hard Achievement

Zero Hour the 3rd level of the campaign is in general a pretty easy mission. You hold up in your base, repair your defenses and finish it off with no problem. At least that is so for the first two achievements on any, and normal difficulties. When it comes to the hard achievement The Best Defense that takes you out of your comfort zone and into the enemy base to destroy their Hatcheries.

It took me a lot of effort to break through the Zerg's tough defenses with a force made of strictly Marines, and Medics. Eventually I gave up on figuring out the assault on my own and resorted to looking up the answer and was quite surprised to find how simple it was.




The video may be a bit hard to understand with his accent but I will highlight the key points to succeeding here.

1. Defense - Make sure your base is always being repaired
2. Supply - Constantly make supply depots, you will want around 125-175 supply
3. Make 2 more Barrack's 3 with reactors, 1 with tech. (I went 2:2 but wasn't as successful)
4. Attack the northern base - The base right above the third group of survivors is the least defended
5. Recuse survivors - They are free units! Rescue the first set, and the third set of survivors. Most likely going after the second set will lose you more units than you will gain.
6. Keep building units! - Even when you are out assaulting the Hatcheries keep making more guys! it is always nice to have a big group waiting when you check back at your base. 

Here is the real trick to beating the achievement and unlocking that final Mar Sara achievement. The northern base though it is the least defended it only has two hatcheries. This is half of what you will need to get your achievement. Simply rush in killing the spine colonies, units, and the two hatcheries. Once you have that done just back off. I chose to sit in the choke point between the east base and where the third group of survivors was found. After a few seconds (I waited 30-45) head back in to find the drones have started rebuilding complete with two easily killed in progress new hatcheries to destroy! That is it! You shoot those two down while they are in progress and you will have your achievement.

A couple notes though. When I did this I went back and only one was being made. Destroyed it, backed off, again came back and the other one was being made. Also I have come up with a much more easily managed way of defending your base. If you are going strictly for the hard achievement this will work best but cause you to lose some buildings and not get the normal achievement.

This defensive setup will make the best use of your bases high-ground, and allow for the least number of SCVs needed to repair the bunkers. When the swarms come they will always be hit by at least 4 of the bunkers and depending on the unit and where they attacks from can sometimes be hit by all 6. This along with a few extra towers for the flying on each side pretty much guarantee a win while only using 4 SCVs to repaid.

Hopefully that will help you grab that last achievement. If you have any other comments or questions feel free to ask.

Protoss Build Orders - The Four Gate

Poster Sirix on the official Starcraft II forums has put together a guide to help players master different build orders for the early to mid-game Protoss players. There are many different ways the game can be taken so I will start with my favorite and one of the most versatile builds he has to offer The Four Gate.

Things to note in these Sirix made posts CB means Chrono Boost the time speeding ability at your Nexus, and build steps with a * highlight possible different steps depending what race you are playing against.

Also for those who are unfamiliar with how build orders are written the numbers 12, 13, 14/15 and such represent the amount of supplies used you should have when going to complete the specified action.

Opening #1 - The Four Gate

The Four Gate is the bread and butter of the Protoss starter package, every Protoss should know and master this as it can be used in almost all scenarios and provides you with an easy tech path to whatever you need to counter your opponent. It is strong against nearly every opening expect perhaps 6 pool (depending on when you get your Zealot), and neutral against a mass Marine/Marauder build (you will stalemate and take it into later game).

Build Order:

1. 9 - Pylon
2. 10 - 2 probes (CB)
3. 12 - Gateway (at 150 minerals, may be before 12)
4. 12 - 2 probes (CB)
5. 13 - 1st Assimilator (3 probes on it immediately)
6. 16 - 2nd Pylon
7. * 16 - Zealot if playing Zerg, save for the Stalker if not
8. 18 - Cybernetics Core (Spend further CB's on Warpgate, research as soon as Core finishes)
9. 18/19 - 2nd Assimilator (I use 2 probes here for now, your call on unit composition)

Post 20 estimates (these are rough as you are leaving the rigid early phase):

1.  * 19/20 - Stalker (T or P) / Zealot (Zerg)
2. 22 - 2nd Gateway
3. 23 - 3rd & 4th Gateway
4. 24/25 - 3rd Pylon
5. 26 - Warpgate finishes, transform your Gateways and build a 4th and 5th Pylon, you will now be using up exactly 1 Pylons worth of supply each warp in (4 units x 2 supply = 8 supply) so it is important to be planning ahead with your Pylons.
6. 26+ - Warp in your first set of 4 units (sentry, zealot, 2x stalkers is a good start). Mix your composition up, don't go sentry heavy, 2 is a good number.

The push: After your second warp in you should be at 42-45 supply (10-12 army units), take a probe with your army and start moving across the map. Create a proxy pylon near their base, if you are certain begin pushing before the pylon completes, if not, wait for wave 4 of units (wave 3 should have been created back at your base and should be moving to reinforce your army, do NOT WAIT to use your warpgate cooldowns).