[Starcraft] 1v1 Dummy Siege

[riptide]

Here's a basic outline of a strategy I'm testing against AI at the moment. In theory it should work against human players as well, depending on how they play. Although it can be pretty much used by any race, I've been playing Zerg these days, and so will outline this build using them as a base.

Please note that in order to play this strat well, you'll need to have a good idea of the map, and the location of mineral and vespane deposits. The basic premise here is to build a dummy base close to your opponent's starting position, and have him/her aggro that position.

Early Game

• Build -  8 drones, 1 Spawning Pool.
• Spawn two sets of zerglings (this should be enough to keep any marines/zealots at bay for now).
• Go near his/her base and spawn a hatchery at what we will now call your dummy base. Keep your zerglings around and micro them carefully to keep attention away from the hatchery until it evolves.
• As soon as your hatchery is ready, create more zerglings. Repeat till you have a sizable force.
• Build creep colonies and convert to sunken. Repeat till you have 8 - 10 of these facing his/her base.
• Build a hydralisk den at your main base, and start spawning hydralisks at your dummy base.

You should now have enough firepower to keep him/her focused on you for quite some time. AI will usually pump out siege tanks and go for the sunkens, so make sure you have enough zerglings to counter them. Either way, you're probably going to lose this outpost, but it's your job to make sure that that happens later rather than sooner. AI will consistently throw marines and firebats at the sunkens, and with a little zergling micro, they'll be toast everytime. This is basically where you win or lose. A seasoned player will simply spot the dummy, avoid the outpost, and goliath/dt drop your base. If that happens you are pwnt. :-)

Mid Game
Find the secondary mineral and vespane deposit and build a hatchery. Make sure your dummy base is doing ok, keep pumping out zealots and hydralisks there.

Build another 8 - 10 drones and go crazy on the secondary mineral deposit. Backup with creep, then sunken colonies. Upgrade your main hatchery to a Lair, and proceed to build a Spire, and Queen's Nest. Now it's tech time - tech your zergligs, overlords, hydralisks to make sure they're all running at their maximum potential.

If you've still got your dummy base by this time, that's great, but usually your opponent has thrown a sizable force at it and destroyed it. That's ok. He/she just wasted a lot of money and got a lot of his infantry units killed. Sit back and prepare, repulsing the attacks he/she will make at this point. Make sure that you sufficiently defend both your primary and secondary mineral deposits at this point. A starving opponent just may throw everything he/she has at you in the hope of securing resources.

Late Game
Pump out zerglings/hydralisks/mutalisks and queens. If you're playing Broodwar, go for lurkers too. Once the speed upgrade on your overlords is done, you can prepare for a drop, along with a land rush. By this time your enemy should just have a few bunkers/photon cannons and a few infantry units. You have effectively starved him/her of resources.

I usually do a drop behind the static defences, and sandwich them between a bazillion zerglings, backed up by hydralisks. Once AA defences are taken out, I bring in the mutalisks/queens. The Queen's ensare is pretty useful, but it's doubtful that you'll need it at this point. Just sit back and watch your zerglings go bonkers. :-)

Caveats

• Like I said earlier, seasoned players will just avoid the dummy and throw everything at your primary early on. If it's not well defended, you will be pwnt.
• I have not tested this against Protoss or Zerg yet, but in theory, it shouldn't matter either way. Let me know if any of you try this out with those two races.
• It's not as quick, or as easy as Photon Siege, but is generally more  robust, and can theoretically be used by any race.

Well, thanks for reading, and note that I'll be updating this post as I use it more, and get more feedback on it.

[Rav]

Shhh, don't reveal your l33t str4ts to Oblivion xD

jking