Dealing with Hotoss – Platinum Terran

Posted by Lipton on February 28th, 2010 filed in StarCraft News

So recently players have been asking me how to deal with Protoss, and to post some replays. Well, I've got a very special replay for you all right now. As well as some tips.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MSGJZLPK

First and foremost, always scout. Period. If you're not scouting that is your first mistake. In this game for example I go down to check if this guy is teching, rushing, or expanding. Quickly I find that he is teching, probably trying to get quick collossus. Note the two fully filled gas, one gateway, and a cybernetics core.

What should you do in response? Against protoss specifically, I'd recommend going straight to air. Why? Because collossuss will DECIMATE any sort of marine army you have. You simply cannot stand up to a collossus on the ground. So, build tech labs at your barracks and factory, lift them off while buildings starports. Afterwards, lift the starports onto the tech labs and begin your banshee harrass.

However, if the protoss has 2-3 gateways early on, you can be assured that he is going to hit you hard and early. If he were to do such a thing, I would keep a tech lab on my barracks and possibly make a second while making many marauders. I would still continue my tech to air in case of collossus, but marauders are an extremely good counter to an early protoss ground attack.

You may notice a lot of players saying BUT WHAT IF HE GETS AN OBSERVER IN MY BASE? Well, as you can see in this replay, I noticed the cloak graphic and scanned and destroyed the observer, followed by building a raven. Following this, seeing that I have the advantage over the player, I build a command center and expand to one of the islands. To ensure my victory, I eventually begin making bcs.

The protoss player attempted to adapt to my strategy by making stalkers, phoenixes, and collossus, but it did not work very well because he failed to expand and he attempted to attack me too early when he did not have the necessary forces to fight back. As you can see in the screenshot below, this attack was doomed to fail. None of his units save the lone phoenix would be able to defeat my air units.

This strategy is of course perfectly beatable. What could the protoss have done better? Played more defensively, built stalkers more heavily early on, expanded earlier, and built photon cannons to deter aerial assault. Late in the game it can be assured that observers are not good enough detection, because I have a raven and will shoot them down instantly while cloaking my banshees. As you can see in the final battle here, my expansion has secured me a victory as my army is far more advanced than his.

PS: Remember, vikings are extremely useful versus protoss. They can hit collossi, phoenixes, and most importantly, they can change into ground afterwards. Whenever engaging collossi you must be sure to decimate his collossi FIRST with air before charging in with marines or marauders.