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Blue Goon:
Version: BW 1.07
Skill Level: Experienced
Game Type: Melee/FFA
Best Against: Terran
Ideal Map: 128x128 Land, Low to Medium Resources (Lost Temple)
Author: Tom 'Zileas' Cadwell
Objective: A New Weapon Against Terran Heavy Metal
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Having to play and think about Strifeshadow a lot has been working my strategy-generating neurons lately. I played a few games of Starcraft last week in a fit of nostalgia, and came up with this strategy just tonight when explaining to someone on ICQ that, yes I do in fact not play Starcraft much at all anymore.
There's no guarantee this strategy works at "very competitive levels", but I'm relatively certain it will fare pretty well against heavy metal (mass tanks + vultures and maybe goliaths/marines too). There are other potential uses, but they aren't as good. This strategy isn't an end-all and it doesn't revolutionize Protoss, but it can get you out of some nasty situations when used as part of your strategy, and possibly get you out of a nasty heavy metal more easily than usual.
Typically, players apply large amounts of Dragoons in Protoss games. However, sometimes you are using so many Dragoons and other troops that Templar
management becomes increasing difficult in combat. What this strategy does is to use the inherent versatility of the Templar against your foes. This strategy is STRONGLY NOT recommended against Zerg (since psi is better against them), and somewhat not-recommended against Protoss (Since the extra gas of having to get observers against DTs "just in case" slows this down too much). However, this strategy is a strong play against Terran, particularly those that use 'heavy metal'.
The core of this strategy is as follows:
Use hallucination well before battles to increase the "size" of your force, putting damage-soaking hallucinations in the front to absorb damage from static defenses, as well as enemy spells and melee units. Protect your Templars by keeping them far away from the battle. You can't just hallucinate up in your base though, since although hallucinations last a while they don't last forever. You probably want to just keep them away from the main battle early on, and then later on, keep them in shuttles. This means you get to use your Templars abilities, but at minimal risk to your Templars. No other unit in Starcraft is capable of this, save the science vessel and the ComSat building attachment.
Build Order
Play your favorite Goon or zealot/goon build with 2 gates, but start teching to Templars pretty early, such as after you've made four or five combat units (Zealots, Dragoons). This strategy works especially well on maps with chokes, because you can use Dragoons (and maybe a few zealots) for a solid choke defense while you are at a lower offensive potential (before you
get to Templars).
Possible Variants
1) Apply hallucination to archons, in order to counter a mass Crackling situation. Obviously, you wouldn't be teching to it in this case, but just using hallucination. In general, "Blue Goon" isn't very good against Zerg.
2) Try deploying the partially-empty Templars for 1 psi storm. This incurs risk to the Templars, which you wouldn't otherwise have, but may draw fire. If you find them drawing fire, try hallucinating Templars and running them around. Templars can eat a lot of damage from things like hydralisks, and make much desirable targets than Zealots. Plus, you can keep them in the back and still attract attention with them. This mixed commitment strategy can be ok against Zerg, but is STRONGLY dis-recommended against Protoss since your gas will be already spread thin (robotics bay, more dragoons, observers)
3) Ever have trouble psi storming those pesky Terran Marines up there with tanks and mines? No problem. Make a bunch of hallucinated Goons, run them up, and run behind them with a temp with psi. Shoot off your psi, eat the mines, lose the hallucinations, and get out with the Templar alive! Then run in with more hallucinations(optional), and eat the remaining forces alive since they have no Marine support (And probably have damaged Vultures and Goliaths if they built those)
NOT Recommended Variants
1) DO NOT hallucinate Reavers. I'm pretty sure that hallucinated Reavers do not shoot.
2) DO NOT hallucinate in battle. This gives away the fact you are using hallucinations, and also reveals the created hallucinations as fake.
3) DO NOT rely on hallucinations for defense. The preparation time is too slow for most defense purposes. If you REALLY have to, hallucinated zealots in your choke would theoretically work pretty well, but beyond that, it's a dicey move and you are probably better off using psi-storm.
4) DO NOT play this against a heavy Hydra/Zergling player. In fact, playing Blue Goon as a primary strategy against Zerg is very much NOT RECOMMENDED.
5) DO NOT hallucinate only Archons against Terrans - I'm pretty sure hallucinated Archons don't set off mines. Hallucinating a few Archons to go with goons or zealots is a great idea, however.
But Zileas, they are eventually going to catch on!
That's right, and when they do, you've got them where you want them. The best ways to counter this are EMP, Ensnare, Plague, Psi Storm and Stasis. I think its pretty safe to say you won't see stasis used against it much. And if you are playing a zerg that tries to counter this with ensnare and plague rather than mass Hydralisks and Zerglings, something is wrong. So that leaves out Zerg. However, you are only dealing with spellcasters here, and the Protoss have a unit that absolutely massacres spellcasters. "What unit???", I hear you ask! Why -- the unit deemed most useless of all! The Dark Archon. Shift-queuing feedback on the oppositions' spellcasters is a lot like Corsairs shredding Wraiths, except your opponent won't call you a newbie.
If they aren't deploying spellcasters, don't worry. Mixing up your groups so that each group has hallucinations AND units will prevent them from picking out targets. Sure, you'll lose some effectiveness as opposed to sticking hallucinations in the front, but it will still work pretty well. And the best part still is -- your Templars are at ZERO risk using this strategy in its "primary" form. Changing to a psi-dependant strategy (such as, I'll grab the islands on LT and power to carriers since I've just about lost the land fight) is as simple as researching psi storm for 200/200!
I don't get it! How do you stop heavy metal exactly???
To beat the ever-so-hard to beat Terran 'heavy metal' strategy (lots of Vultures, Siege Tanks, etc): Use hallucinated units to eat vulture mines, and hallucinated Dragoons to eat tank fire (not Zealots, because Zealots aren't spread out and will get hit by splash worse). Without the Vulture mines support the tank push, it can typically be overwhelmed by other troops. Also, the extra damage soakers give you the ability to charge through to the tanks more easily without heavy losses. It's important that when you do make your charge, you do it with everything, hallucinated units in front. Attacking piecemeal will reduce the overall effectiveness in most cases. Try making several unit groups, some real, some not.
Additional Tips:
Consider getting gas especially early (around 11 or so) if you choose to deploy this strategy. The reason is that you'll want a lot of Templars to have enough hallucinations to make the difference, and you won't need as many minerals (since your spending some unit production time on Templars rather than Dragoons). That's why this strategy is not good for high resource maps as they tend to have a higher mineral to gas ratio. Don't apply the 4th probe to gas though until around 17, however, otherwise your economy may suffer a bit too much on smaller land maps.
Summary
- Use extensively vs Terran players, especially if they are a heavy-metal player (most good ones are to some extent)
- Do not use against Zerg except maybe for limited deployment for the "Zealot-Wall/Friendly-Fire Storm" trick.
- Sometimes use against Protoss, but this strategy isn't innately better than a lot of the other techniques, just different (which is an advantage in and of itself, people don't expect hallucinations). Also it is highly risky if they DT rush - if you get observers, you stop the rush, but are low on gas. If you don't, you get contained and die. Lovely huh?
About the Author
Tom Cadwell, also known as Zileas, was one of the earlier Protoss experts, and has won several significant Starcraft awards, including being the victor of the Brood War Beta tournament. In addition, Zileas is currently developing a Real-Time Strategy Game by the name of Strifeshadow. Zileas encourages questions and comments and can be reached at Zileas@ethermoon.com. More information on Strifeshadow can be found at Ethermoon Entertainment's website.
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