Starcraft II Rush Strategy Guide Starcraft II Rush Strategy Guide for use against Insane AI -Guide written by James Hague; aka Jimmy =============================================================================== Table of Contents =============================================================================== 01) Useful Info 01a) Practicing these strategies 01b) Achievement info 01c) Human opponents 01d) Speed victories 02) IMPORTANT INFO FOR ALL STRATEGIES 02a) Common sense efficiency 02b) Map choices 03) Protoss vs Insane Terran AI or Insane Protoss AI 04) Terran vs Insane Zerg AI 05) Zerg vs Insane Zerg AI 06) Zerg suicide rush vs Insane Zerg AI or Insane Terran AI =============================================================================== 01) Useful info =============================================================================== 01a) Practicing these strategies: --------------------------------- You may want to practice each method by playing through "Versus A.I." in the Single Player category so you can pause the game in between reading my directions. However, you can only get the Crusher achievements through "Create a Game" in the multiplayer category but can't pause the game this way. So if you want your practice to count for achievements in multiplayer you could set the game to run on slow speed but this might not be as convenient as being able to pause so you can take your time reading and then play with the game running at a faster speed when you're actually playing. 01b) Achievement info: ---------------------- I'm sure this guide isn't perfect but it should be pretty helpful for anyone who wants to get the Insane AI Crusher achievement. Even the AI on insane difficulty isn't as resourceful as a human can be and taking advantage of the limits of the AI can make getting the Crusher achievements a whole lot easier and quicker. Just make sure you create your games through "Create a Game" in the Multiplayer category as this is the only way to get credit for the Crusher achievements. Keep in mind the AI specific Crusher achievements are for 1v1 solo play so doing cooperative play or working on the Outmatched achievements will not count for the Crusher achievements that are based on AI difficulty. If you do try to get the Crusher achievements I recommend going straight for Insane AI crusher as any wins you get against the insane AI will also count as wins against the lower difficulty AIs. If you want to get the Medium AI crusher achievement you may want to use random for your race selection because the medium Crusher achievement requires winning at least 100 matches with your race set to random. The medium AI Crusher achievement also requires 100 victories using each race so medium Crusher requires playing a lot more games than any of the harder difficulties. For example, if you get 100 victories using random race against insane AI with 34 wins as Terran, 33 wins as Zerg, and 33 as Protoss you will get the achievement for completing 100 victories as random against medium AI but will still need to complete 66 more wins as Terran, 67 more wins as Zerg, and 67 more wins as Protoss against an AI of at least medium difficulty. Because of this you might want to instead get 100 victories against insane AI with 50 as one race and 50 as another race if there is one race in particular you don't want to play with and you're more comfortable controlling what race you will use against the Insane AI instead of using random. Then you could do all of your random matches against the medium AI and by the time you get 100 wins using random races you would have approximately 83 wins for each of the two races you used against the insane AI and approximately 33 matches as the one race you didn't use against the insane AI. Then you would just need to finish off the remaining needed wins against medium AI opponents to get the medium AI Crusher achievement. You don't have to do it this way but it might be a more comfortable method for people who want to control their race matchup against the insane AI instead of using random. 01c) Human opponents: --------------------- While these strategies probably won't work very well against human opponents they might work on some inexperienced players who get caught off guard and haven't had to deal with being rushed before. But for the most part, don't expect these strategies to work on human players. 01d) Speed victories: --------------------- The zerg suicide rush may be the fastest path to victory out of my strategies but I haven't timed the typical times of each strategy so I don't know for sure. However, unlike the other strategies, the enemy AI doesn't always surrender to a zerg suicide rush so you may have to destroy every enemy building sometimes. =============================================================================== 02) IMPORTANT INFO FOR ALL STRATEGIES =============================================================================== 02a) Common sense efficiency: ----------------------------- As soon as any game starts you should of course immediately send your workers to gathering minerals and start producing more workers as soon as you can. Unless stated otherwise, all workers you produce should go straight to gathering minerals so it's wise to set the worker rally point for your Nexus, Command Center, or Hatchery to a mineral field. If you have an scv building supply depots make sure you have it set to return to harvesting minerals after building by holding shift while the scv is selected and right clicking on a mineral field. 02b) Map choices: ----------------- While I worked out all of these strategies using the Steppes of War map they should also work fine on any small two player map where you know exactly where your opponent's base will be located (Except for the Novice maps; These strats will work on "Steppes of War" but not "Novice Steppes of War"). =============================================================================== 03) Protoss vs Insane Terran AI or Insane Protoss AI on Steppes of War map =============================================================================== (A similar strategy can be used against insane zerg and may even be easier against the zerg as they seem to be slightly slower in producing their military units as they usually focus on making roaches, however zerg may take longer for you to defeat because you can't build your structures on their creep and may have to build a gateway and send in zealots to finish off their base, although attacking the zerg hatchery with your probe will sometimes convince the AI to surrender sooner if you've done enough damage to the zerg base with your cannons.) -At 8 supply used be ready to send your 8th probe to the enemy base as soon as it comes out of your Nexus (produce another two probes right after the 8th probe is produced so you will have 10/10 supply used before your probe arrives at the enemy base) -Make your first pylon at enemy base just above the ramp as soon as your probe arrives -After pylon warps in immediately start warping in a forge next to the pylon -Keep producing probes and using chrono boost on your Nexus until you have 20 probes harvesting minerals. -As the forge is close to finished warping in cancel production of probes as necessary to ensure you have at least 150 minerals for your first photon cannon. -After forge warps in immediately warp in a photon cannon near pylon (two if you have enough minerals) -Keep creeping cannons and pylons towards enemy base until the enemy surrenders. =============================================================================== 04) Terran vs Insane Zerg AI on Steppes of War map =============================================================================== (A similar strategy can probably be used against insane terran and protoss but you may have to send an scv to enemy base at 8 supply used instead of 9 to start building soon enough.) -At 9 supply used be ready to send your 9th scv to enemy base after it's created. -As soon as you send your 9th scv to enemy base start building a supply depot at your base. -Keep producing scvs until your scv headed to the enemy base starts getting close. -As soon as your scv arrives at the enemy base build a barracks just above the ramp. If you have to wait a few seconds to get enough minerals to build a barracks that's fine but if you have to wait any longer than a few seconds you spent too many minerals on building scvs and need to cancel one or more scvs. -After barracks is built immediately start training a marine and have your scv start building a bunker but not too far from the ramp. If you start building too close to the enemy base before you have any marines inside the bunker the enemy may attack your defenseless bunker. -After you start building the bunker que a couple more marines to be trained at the barracks. -After the bunker is built have the scv build another barracks and set current barracks rally point to the bunker and move in the marine that has already been trained. -Send 3 or 4 scvs from your base to your proxy base outside the enemy base and make sure all scvs you have at the proxy base have repair set to autocast. -Keep producing scvs until you have 20 scvs harvesting minerals and don't stop training marines. Don't forget to keep building supply depots as needed and a total of four depots should be sufficient. -If you followed this guide well the zerg will usually attack your first bunker when you only have two or three marines in it and you need to be ready to have enough scvs to repair it and to repair eachother. -Make sure zerg don't get a drone outside their base to build a hatchery at the nearby expansion area as they may be able to overwhelm you if they can produce units both from inside and outside their base. -Keep creeping bunkers filled with marines towards enemy base without too much spacing between each bunker or the bunker being constructed could be attacked without any nearby bunkered marines to kill the attackers. Also, try to keep scvs behind the bunkers that are closest to enemy base as they are likely to be attacked and will need repairs. -It may be useful to take a couple marines to try to lure the zerg forces to your bunkers to keep their numbers thinned. Also, if you get a chance to attack one of their hatcheries for a couple seconds it should get the attention of any zerg queens and you can easily lure the queen(s) to be taken out by the marines in bunkers. -When you're sure the zerg have no military units or very few military units it should be safe to unload all your barracks and send all your marines in to finish off the enemy. You should probably have at the very least 12 marines before sending your marines in but I usually wait till I have 16 or more. =============================================================================== 05) Zerg vs Insane Zerg AI on Steppes of War map =============================================================================== (For obvious reasons this strategy won't work against Terran and Protoss opponents as they won't have creep at their base for you to build upon.) (For any of the circumstances listed below, after you get a foothold in the enemy base, you may want to send in two or three more drones to the enemy base to morph into spine crawlers to help speed up your victory.) -Just focus on making drones and having them harvest minerals until you have 10/10 supply and wait till you have 200 minerals then immediately build a spawning pool. -Create another drone as soon as you can to replace the one morphing into the spawning pool. -Wait until that drone is created and then send three drones to the enemy base and have them create spine crawlers on the enemy creep. Details about where to build and what to do are listed below based on difficulty level: [Very Hard] If you're playing against very hard or less difficulty you should be able to build your spine crawlers within attack range of the hatchery without the enemy sending its drones to attack the spine crawlers as they're morphing. [Insane] Beating insane zerg with spine crawlers can be tough because the insane AI will attack the spine crawlers that your drones are trying to morph into. At first I had to develop two different strategies for using zerg to beat insane zerg which is why there is an extra section below labeled "Alternate possibility strategy." As long as you master this first strategy you probably won't have to perform the strategies listed below that vary based on how the zerg AI could retaliate. Have your drones morph into spine crawlers at the edge of the enemy's base to distance you from the drones that will come to attack. Try to be quick in getting all three of your drones to start morphing into spine crawlers because the enemy will come to attack as soon as you start morphing the first one. Having all three drones selected at once and holding the shift key to place the locations for all three spine crawlers quickly works well. If you get all three morphing before the drones are able to attack they may just change their mind about attacking and head back to gathering minerals making your job easy. After they finish morphing into spine crawlers, if they aren't close enough to attack any enemy units you will need to uproot them and have them move closer. Then just let them do their business till the enemy surrenders. However, after your drones are morphing, if the enemy drones keep attacking, you can follow the complicated directions listed below: ------------------------------ Alternate possibility strategy Cancel morphing into the two spine crawlers that are being attacked by the largest numbers of drones. (If for some reason only one of your morphing spine crawlers is being attacked then only cancel morphing that one.) If you cancel building the spine crawlers the enemy drones sometimes go back to gathering minerals but sometimes they also attack your drones and you will need to have your drones run away to survive. *[(Possibility A) Enemy drones attack your drones] If the enemy drones try attacking your drones then have your drones run around in a large circle to keep the enemy drones distracted by chasing your drones while your remaining spine crawler continues to morph. (If there's a single enemy drone attacking the spine crawler that is still have morphing in it should be able to finish morphing but it will have reduced health when it finishes.) After your spine crawler finally morphs it should start attacking the drones that are chasing your drones which should give your drones a chance to start morphing into more spine crawlers. *[(Possibility B) Enemy drones attack the remaining spine crawler instead of chasing your drones] If this is the case then you can simply get the enemy AI to waste its time that it could be gathering minerals by doing the following. Cancel the remaining spine crawler from morphing, when the enemy drones turn around to start gathering again wait for them to get close to their minerals, then morph in a spine crawler again, wait for the enemy drones to get close to it again, then cancel building it, and keep repeating the process while you continue to gain resources at your base. Some time during this process start creating zerglings and a couple overlords. Eventually the drones may stop trying to attack your spine crawler as you morph it. If so then go ahead and start creating all three spine crawlers. Otherwise you can eventually send zerglings in to take out the enemy. ------------------------------ =============================================================================== 06) Zerg suicide rush vs Insane Zerg AI or Insane Terran AI =============================================================================== (As far as I can tell this strategy can't be used successfully on insane AI Protoss but probably would work against protoss on some of the lower difficulty levels) (This strategy probably isn't a good idea in anything other than a 1v1 fight) -Just focus on making drones and having them harvest minerals until you have 10/10 supply and wait till you have 200 minerals then immediately build a spawning pool. -Create another drone to replace the one morphing into the spawning pool. -As soon as you have 100 minerals create an overlord. -Keep harvesting all the minerals you can until the spawning pool is finished. As soon as the spawning pool is finished quickly start morphing all three of your larva into zerglings. -Set the rally point (not the worker rally point) for your hatchery to the middle of the enemy's base so any further zerglings you make automatically head there. -As soon as another larva becomes available morph it into another pair of zerglings. -After starting to morph another pair of zerglings select all your drones and have them return any minerals they've gathered to your hatchery and group them up near your morphing zerglings. -Be ready to select all your zerglings and drones as soon as the zerglings from the first three larva hatch and then send all of them to your enemies base with the attack command. Using the attack command is important because when your units get there they will likely encounter at least one enemy military unit. -While your drones and zerglings are heading to the enemy base morph two more larva as they become available into more zerglings. -Just basically kill all enemy units including workers before focusing on destroying structures and be ready to take control of your additional zerglings that you started morphing earlier as they arrive to the enemy base. You should continue morphing zerglings if you have enough minerals. -Prioritize killing military units before workers and prioritize destroying structures that provide military units such as a gateway or roach warren before other structures. -If you have difficulty killing all the workers that's fine, don't waste too much time having your units run around chasing workers. If there's only a few workers left then just ignore them and focus on destroying the most threatening military building. If you're fighting zerg that would be a roach warren first and then the spawning pool second. You need to be quick as additional enemy military units will be produced before you can cripple the enemy's ability to produce military units. -In this type of rush don't expect the enemy AI to always surrender so sometimes you will have to destroy every enemy structure to win.
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