Try this build out 9 pylon at natural choke send scout probe 12 gate starting wall as well as a probe, 13 pylon and then forge, drone to 15 then make another gate and 2 cannons behind the wall put pylon and assimilator in base right after that, make more probes and make sure you are also making zealots as well at around 21 supply make a cyber core and two more pylons, make more probes make more zealots, after core is done start warp gate and make another assimilator, get 2 stalker and 2 zealots, more probes then make a robo continue building army and econ until robo is done, then make an observer for another scout this should be between 7 or 8 game minutes in, based on information do as follows, if going air heavy (void rays, mutas, banshees) make some cannons to defend minerals, an immortal or two and stalker up, if he goes damage heavy ground units ( roaches stalkers marauders or tanks) get a good zealot stalker mix with2 or 3 immortals thrown in, micro as follows: zealots in front as meat shield, immortals next as tanks, and then stalkers as the dps dealers. I find that if your push doesn't destroy your enemy outright then you can expand and tech more until you get the right comp for whatever he does next, post feedback on how this works for you I will post replay soon and give me tips on how to improve this build.
Why are you using a forge to defend your natural if you aren't getting a fast expansion. You should never build cannons to defend yourself for a 1 base tech. A roach rush, 4 gate, baneling bust, marine marauder timing push would destroy you because your scouting occurs so late. You are investing so much money in defense, which will delay your army production. However if you expanded you could produce an even bigger army faster. If you want to use a Forge effectively at start: - 9 pylon - 12 forge - 14 nexus - 14 cannon - 14 gateway keep making workers and 1-2 more cannons as needed while getting your cybercore asap for warpgate. Get sentries out asap, to defend your wall with forcefields. Once you have semi-saturated both bases, you can either drop 5 more gateways and go for a strong timing push with a bunch of gateway units; OR you can drop a stargate and harass with a void ray and 3 phoenix while you tech to colossi and 4 more gateways. Continue making probes.
I don't expand usually so I can use those minerals for army right then, I tend to macro a lot so I have an economy backing up my army every time. Plus I expand after a successful push just in case I need the mins for army.
that's not the right way to think about it a good defense, is a good offense. The more you spend on your defense (cannons) the weaker your army will be. Yes the minerals you save on that nexus goes towards your army, but the same goes for the minerals you wasted on your cannons. Telling me that you macro a lot on 1 base, makes me cringe. On 1 base, having 30 workers doesn't get you more economy than if you have 22 which is the optimum saturation. Or are you telling me you get 6 gateways on 1 base? you don't have the economy to support that. Don't wait to do a successful push to expand, you expand when you have a window of opportunity, such as right before you attack, when you see that you missed a round of warp-in units so you have an extra 400, when your opponent is turtling (like your cannon defense), when you know you have taken the upper hand in any way. Waiting for a successful push to expand... means you will keep pushing until you've done a lot of damage and only then you will expand? No, you expand when you have a window of opportunity, which expanding right before you attack is a window.
I have thought a lot about what you have said and have started to get the expand and to macro a lot, I have also learned a lot about macro from playing Zerg. So I will post a game of mine for you.
cool stuff... expanding is a very hard aspect of the game. As you get better, you can tell when you can expand based on the unit composition of your opponent thus knowing his possible timing pushes. Took me a whole season experimenting when expanding, theres no real time when you should... you just gotta feel it, and know when you are ready to take a risk. A little thing that has worked in the past, is showing my build to my opponent, such as a 2 gate opening. The zerg starts to get spinecrawlers, cuts drones, and makes lings. But I actually just expand or double expand. and get a 1-2 void rays, harass until i have colossi.
re I get cannons up ASAP to defend the opening to my base and build a couple around my mineral line. Then I start bringing in Voidrays. You may say thats a lousy strategy but it works for me most of the time. Zerg and Marine rushes dont work early because when they see I have 2 or 3cannons at my entrance they run. They try to get behind my mineral line butwhen my cannons open fire they realize that wont work either. So by the time they get a large enough army out to overrun my defenses I've got my Void rays at their base.
That's not macroing well...using 1 base. But then what is the best way to FE? If I follow your example you xpand at 14 psi. How many workers do you have when the natural is finished? If this around 22 then I think it will be ok to send all new probes to your natural ..looking at saturation. I think I'm 8-10 probes short when I expand. am I not building fast enough then? Untill when is saturation an issue? I can never tell, and I have no time to check al the mineral patches, so I go with my feeling and watch the time. I tend to scout instead of defense early so FE most of the times. Maybe someone can give me some timing on this?? So at x minutes 2nd Nexus should finish and at x minutes both bases will be semisturated (with x amount of workers) etc. thx in adv
