Macroing while using phoenix for harass

Hello all -

I've been very successful in managing a good phoenix harass in many of my PvZ matchups. I find this a good opening that serves dual purpose. It does one of many things. It allows me to disturb the zerg's economy by either killing queens or drones (or both), it allows me to force additional resources spent on queens for the ant-air, or to get their economy back up and running, and usually I can kill a lot of overloards for the supply block. All good things.

Even better, I can deter mutalisks, and can have a mild contain where the zerg feels obligated to stay in-base to defend, rather than expanding. Also, since I can contain a bit, i can get the colossi or templar for the inevitable hydras.

Usually when I harass I try to expand if I dont see too many roaches or lings. My biggest problem is when I harass with phoenix, somehow I manage to accumulate approximately 1 BILLION minerals. but not always. I just dont want to throw away an advantage due to bad macro. I think the hardest thing is to try to use my gateways when Im away using my phoenix.

any suggestions for keeping my monies lower when away?

 

Well I can't give you any advice because I just started practicing with Protoss (love'm), plus you're leagues ahead of me, but thanks for the post, that seems like a very nice strategy, will have to give it a go. I feel sorry for Zerg players, after practicing with them I realize that it's the race that probably takes the most skill to be successful with (I can see why they are the least favourite, they definitely need a few more units and queens are underpowered imo).

 

I completely agree with you, I had a game where it was PP vs PP (Mirror), they both went void rays so my friend went blink stalkers and I went Phoenixes, I was like woohoo 16 phoenixes then kablaam 23 billion minerals. Put every group of buildings that produce units on a control group and as you get better you'll macro automatically like that. Just keep training

There's NOTHING to feel sorry about Zerg players. As a random player who loves zerg utterly, they're so awesome. Yes. Phoenixes are a bloody nightmare. Only corruptors or LOTS of Hydras can counter them. Early game they're a pain in the rectum. Everyone say you need to be pro to play zerg. I say not. It's not even close to be as hard as everyone says. I hardly play 1v1 but I spam 2v2 and 4v4, and I'll tell you as a noob gold leaguer, Zerg are easy.
Although infestors are SO underrated, they're potentially the strongest units in the game! With Fungal Growth and Neural Parasite, and Infested Terrans in some situations, they're SO awesome. People want pure damage units and not potential damage units, so they go roaches and hydras and mutas.
About queens, well, you can't make them as good as an offensive unit, after all they take a huge role of giving you more units, that's good enough, why make them OP by making them pro offensive units? I say the only air unit they own is void ray. 1 to 1, they demolish them.

TvZ they can block ramps against early hellions and support zerglings against early marines.
PvZ you can micro them on creep against zealots.
ZvZ it supports your zerglings against other zerglings.

 

i hate this dam strat when i play zerg it cause me great agro. as for macroing protoss warpgate it sucks, so you need a pylon to be kept in a ctrl group i like 1 this way you can warp in units, also have a probe be ctrl grouped so youi can build pylons and collosus dens and temp archives ect.

 

thanks for the suggestions guys. I normally hotkey:

1 -main army
2- colossi, templar, or important units - sometimes units in my ctrl grp 1 (units i want to kite with or keep alive or use for specific purpose)
3- observers
4-- nexi
5 gatewy
6 - robo
7 - stargate
8 - forge
9 - scout probe
10 - 3 probes to build things quickly.


I suppose once my scout probe is dead i could use that hotkey for a pylon. I've only done that 1 time before and it worked alright - I guess if I just get used to it more, I'll be in good shape.

 

What toochaos said is a very good thing to do(hotkeying a pylon to help with warping) but since you don't really need your army to reinforce you when harassing with phoenixes another way you can keep warping in units is would be double tapping your nexus key(4) warping in all you can in the closest pylon and then double tap again your phoenix key. An extra gateway than your bases can support would also be a good idea to help dump a little extra money in case you slip. And upgrades are always a good idea... If you're using phoenixes, go grab that +1 dmg too if you see your money piling...


One thing that I think can help you a lot is a multitasking map released by teamliquid for training such things.
Go to http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=124983 and download the map and launch it from the editor, or just look it up in the custom games and download it in-game...