"Trust me, I could have hidden nude in the grass with my member poking up, and it would have been more tower presence than what was in his base."
- CattleBruiser (as Bob_The_Nude)'s The Warcraft Report
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| Mind Control: The Strategy | | | Author: | | | IP: | AC9CBCEDXXXX | | Date: | 06/01/02 09:06 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 6, Min: 6
Lifetime Rating for terrannewb: 6.0000 |  |
Now, before barging into the comments section flaming me, saying Drefsab already did a report on using DAs and how godly he is compared to me, I urge you to first hear me out. While the Dark Archon's Mind-Control ability has its uses, it is very limited. The stronger the unit stolen, the more beneficial the spell becomes. For example, a single Battle Cruiser stolen could very well turn the tides of a hard-fought battle, while a zergling would be lucky to produce a single additional kill. And obviously the strongest, rather, the most important unit in a field of battle is the leader, in the case of Starcraft, a player. A commander skillful in this form of mind-control can easily manipulate the opponent into playing into his hands exactly how he plans.
I'm not saying that I am a good player, but I do enjoy psyching out another player who is my equal in every other aspect of the game (multi-tasking, unit micro, macro, etc). While designed to be a real-time strategy game, I find that it is often reduced to a simple matter of following a repetitive order, reacting (without thought), and throwing units blindly into the fray, much like a hack-and-slash game like Diablo. I find myself falling into this pattern time and time again, sucking the fun out of an amazing game. Like in chess, this game is more engaging when acting upon a thought-out plan and having it come to fruition, rather than blind reaction, hoping for the best. So, the mind-controlling aspect of the game comes to play, a complex network of deceit, induced fear, and stealth.
The first step in this strategy is to determine the mindset of the opponent. This initial stage of the battle begins before the start button is pressed, and in some cases, even in a channel. There are two ways of finding the mindset of an opponent. The first and easiest way is the more generally accepted term of the word. Listen to you opponent speak. If he is a loud-mouthed juvenile prick, then you will find him easy to sway. Just stick that carrot in front of him and watch him follow your every whim. If, from your questioning, you find that your opponent is cool and collected with a clear head, then move to the second part of the word determine.
This is where YOU determine the mindset of your opponent. An emotional strategist is a weak one, and it is your job to make him so. When roused to anger, and acting on a vengeful rage, a player will often forget important aspects of the game, such as detection. It is important to scout and probe for such blunders, after you have broken his mental defenses. "Talking smack" is very vital to this strategy. As previously stated, the average immature player is easily led, needing just the nudge of something to the extent of “yo momma” to incite them to an unforgiving fury.
You might think that "trash talking" would not have the same effect on more mature players. Well, you’re right, it doesn’t. It actually has the opposite effect. Acting childish and immature yourself, will often lead this type of player to an overconfidence and condescending approach that will give you the edge necessary to win. Mind you, this is acting. Do not become so absorbed in the role, that you do become that 14-year old you pretend to be. Again, take advantage of the blunder of overconfidence, constantly reminding your opponent of your “immaturity,” sending snide comments his way. This usually makes the player forget a major part of the game, scouting. This gives you the opportunity to send a peon to a random location and start naked expansions with little fear of attack.
One of the best ways to break a player before the game is to deceive him with your words. One of my favorite tactics is to pretend to be new at the game. I even take it a step further by having the word newb in my name. This causes the opponent you assume your incompetence even if only on a subconscious level and thus approach you with the overconfidence discussed earlier. Another fun tactic is to use a string of questions and answers. When playing a person who chooses his race before the match, I approach him in this manner.
Me: Oh, so the Protoss must be your strongest race. (This is to probe and get an initial reaction).
Opponent: I’m ok with them. (If this response comes quickly, then it usually indicates that that race is indeed his best race.)
-OR-
Opponent: No, this is just my favorite race. (This case is very rare, and thus I haven’t been able to catch the major trend of this answer. However, I will go ahead and argue that most people have fun more when they win. And their favorite race is usually reflected on their ability to play that specific race.)
-OR-
Opponent: Yes, it is. (I’ve never heard this response before. Added merely for completeness.)
-OR-
Opponent: No, I’m just trying to improve my Protoss play. (This is a most prudent response and should set off warning lights to prepare yourself for a good game. If he is actually telling the truth, then you have the advantage of being wary and using a race that you are good with.)
Then he would take his turn to question me:
Opponent: How about you? What is your strongest race? (I random and so have the advantage in such interrogation.)
Me: I actually don’t know. You tell me, I’ve beaten you with all three. (You can’t say this unless you’ve actually beaten him three times, each with a different race.)
Me: I actually don’t know. I play with all the races evenly. (I retain my advantage, not giving away what race I actually am forcing my opponent to build against a random. In addition, sometimes not answering their questions while posing your own is the best route. This annoys even the calmest of player, as they think themselves and their query more important than they really are.)
I think you get the general gist of the strategy by now. Instead of continuing to explain it, I’ll now show the strategy in-game. The Zerg vs. Terran match-up is probably my worst, considering I’ve been beaten by players far inferior to me in game play. Wanting to keep the number of variables in the game to a minimum and thus show this strategy more accurately, I chose the well-balanced and well-known map of The Lost Temple
So, my opponent, Craz-X, came into the game room I made. Without even a quick “gl hf,” I immediately pressed the start button. Now, this may seem like a bad manner thing to do, not giving my opponent a fair chance to get prepared, because it is. Bad manner or no, I find that, in some cases, I actually do catch my opponent off guard, and thus give myself an advantage in the mental battle. Many times this does not leave enough time for my opponent to recover and choose the race that he desired. And if I am lucky (I usually am), he tells me of his failure but stays in the game anyways. Unfortunately for me, this opponent was on his game and chose his race, Terran.
I, personally, had a favorable mind-set going into the game, as I had much time to mentally prepare myself before my opponent even came in. I also had a high probability of receiving a good match-up of pvt or tvt (67% for those of you still wondering), both of which I am fairly good at. My heart fell at the sound of the familiar gurgling of the various Zerg units. I sent my drones to work, recovering my near mental collapse. After I queued up another drone and sent my first Overlord to scout the 12 o’clock main (I morphed at the 3 o’clock main), I uttered the word “damn.” Uh oh, looks like I messed up and showed him my weakness, right? Nope, this is just another way I try to play with my opponent’s mind.
That single word (the f word for you more vulgar people) will unleash multiple emotions from the enemy, usually ones that lead to their downfall. First, it gives them confidence. They automatically assume the worst for you: maybe you didn’t send all your peons to separate patches at the same time, maybe you forgot to cue up an additional peon, and maybe you got a race you are not good with. Their mouths start to salivate over these luscious possibilities. As I didn’t tech my opponent to over-confidence earlier, opting for the rush build of breaking his mental defenses faster, I use this technique to bring them to the same state in-game as the other strategy does before the game (pretending to be immature, insulting, etc.). Again, over-confidence that that one word breeds can cause multiple oversights that these players would originally not make.
Second, it gives them curiosity. The more wary ones reach this state as they want to find the extent of the damage done to you. They will start to question you pretending to be sympathetic. I usually don’t answer preferring to use the time they spend typing and repeating questions to manage my base and units. If you do want to string them along deep into your web of deceit, use short and simple replies such as “nothing” or “forgot drones.” Such answers are designed to keep them talking while spending little time typing yourself. They try the wolf in a sheep skin routine which is obvious, as they empathize to your problem reminiscing the times they were confronted with the same problem. As they drone on and on, it gives you an advantage. When they type, they become limited. It throws off their timing as they forget to queue peons on time and make buildings on cue. It also cripples their ability to use hotkeys and dulls their response time.
Anyways, in this game, I chose the silent technique, leaving him to wrestle the burning question in his mind. Soon after, an scv came rolling into my base. It should have clicked in my head that he was in the 6 o’clock position, as my Overlord did not find a trace of Terran life at the 12. Oh well, at least it didn’t affect my game plan. I decided to tech quickly to Lurkers rather than expanding or putting a hatch at my ramp. I find that all too often, my Terran opponents tech to a drop and destroy my natural expansions, making the loss greater than the gain. So, I sent a drone to the empty 12 o’clock main to expand there instead. I started to morph my Lair while his scv was still running around in my base. A newly morphed sunken and a drone chased him off. I started the Lair first on purpose so that he would think I was rushing to mutalisks. I started a den after his scv left.
Meanwhile, my opponent had blocked off his ramp with a zergling-proof wall-in, got early gas, and started to make double factories. Fearing mutalisks, he immediately threw down an armory, instead of a second machine shop add-on. The game was going as I planned, with Craz-x reacting exactly the way I tell him to. I started to morph my expansion, giving me only enough money to make a single hydralisk and a pair of scout zerglings. I sent the zerglings out to the two un-scouted areas, but on their way out, they found an scv building an engineering bay near the ramp. I killed the scv first, not allowing Craz-x to run his scv away for future use. He was forced to cancel his engineering bay as my zerglings whittled away at the building. The zerglings were sent to complete their initial initiatives. Unfortunately my aim in the mini-map was a bit off as the ling sent to the 6 o’clock main ended up in the valley between the 6 and 9 plateaus.
At this time, he had a tank and two goliaths en route and a completed armory researching tougher armor. By the time my zergling finally reached the ramp, it was slaughtered by the units he had been making. He rebuilt an engineering bay, sending it immediately towards my base. Meanwhile, he had been constantly pumping goliaths and had made an academy for scan. My expansion hatchery was finally done and I started to pump drones from that location (maynarding right now would have wasted precious time). Back at my main, I plopped down another hatchery and a couple of evolution chambers for double upgrading.
After nine goliaths were made, he decided to bring them and the tank to assault my base. I sent a hydralisk to take care of the floating menace, but it did little damage, as the goliaths trampled my scout ling and ambushed my hydra. They continued onto my base waiting at the base of my ramp for an additional tank and couple of goliaths. My hydra had tried to run away, but it was too slow. This reminded me to upgrade hydra speed. I pumped hydralisks and an extra sunken in anticipation of the attack.
Perhaps confused as to why I had not expanded to my natural, he made his way onto my ramp. Meeting no resistance from either location, he let down his guard probably assuming I was a newb. Still he approached with caution protecting his lead tank well with his goliaths. My hydras were within range and were tempted into fighting by the arclite fire. I let him kill all of my hydras without pulling them back I even sent in a couple of lings after my hydras died to show my newbieness. He was now fully convinced, from his sloppy formation and lack of flank protection, it was obvious he no longer took me seriously.
As my forward sunken took siege fire, I prepared my real assault. At this point he felt he had the game at hand and made several mistakes: his attack formation was pathetic, his reinforcements were milling around in his base as he forgot to lift the barracks, there were no additional factories or command centers made, and he stopped pumping his scvs. While one of these mistakes is not a big problem, all of them added together presented him a great disadvantage. He sat content taking potshots as my upgrades were nearing completion, my hydras were pumping, and lurkers morphing. I took a few hydras harass, as all my upgrades had finished. I flanked his troops and hit his left tank, killing it. I picked up the fleeing hydras so they wouldn’t be killed by the remaining forces. I now took my combined forces and targeted the remaining tank taking a few losses. Now the main threat was out of the way. His range advantage was taken out of the picture for the moment. I continued my harassment, destroying turrets, and drawing goliaths into lurker and sunken range.
He was taken aback as he reeled from the losses. Now he was in a uphill battle. Metal requires a lot of gas, but since he didn’t think it necessary to claim his expansion, he found he had an over abundance of minerals and no gas. While he had a substantial standing force of goliaths, he could not afford both mobile detection for the newfound lurker threat and maintenance of goliath production. He decided that his forces were sufficient for the moment, as he constructed a science facility. His six goliaths at my base continued the assault going straight for the drones. I run my drones to the furthest mineral patch avoiding major damage, losing only 7 drones. I hit those goliaths with six of my own hydras and sunken support, constantly reinforcing them, showing the home-court advantage. I beat the initial attack, but with greater loss than anticipated. He used his scvs to repair his mechanical units letting them last longer than normal.
He tried to get back in the race, doing his best to correct his mistakes, using all his multitasking skill. He queued more scvs and units, he teched to science vessels, sent an scv to expand, and sent second attack force consisting of 11 goliaths and a tank. I was alerted of this, as a scout, was killed en route to Craz-x’s base. I was not lazy, however, as I constantly pumped hydras from my 4 soon to be 5 hatches. I sent my hydras out of my base wanting to fight on open ground as, I would have the advantage of mobility and use hit and run tactics. Unfortunately, I met up with his goliath force at my ramp. He gave way, and let my hydras down. Thinking I had the upper hand in this battle, I continued the assault. It appears two can play the game of deceit, as he ran over my forces as his tank and additional goliaths rolled in. I sent reinforcements from my 12 o’clock expansion, hoping to catch his units by surprise. As his tank seiged up, I took my remaining forces in the main and focus-fired on the tank. Looking back, I find that I should have made queens, but it’s a little too late for that now. My reinforcements arrive and I finish off the tank. There are 4 goliaths left, but my hatchery has enough hit points to hold out until I am able to build enough hydras to overcome them.
Realizing his need for additional gas supply, he had made a command center in his base and was now, currently floating it to the bottom right island expansion. He also started construction of another command center in the 9 o’clock main, but I was aware of this because I had sent a drone there to expand myself. Seeing that his second offensive failed, he now sent a rather modest force consisting of 2 tanks, 3 goliaths and 2 scvs, apparently trying to keep the pressure on. I was constantly producing hydras from my hatches in both bases, and moved out of my base for my first real attempt at an offensive this game. On my way to his base I met up with his strike force. Doing well initial, he tried to run his surviving tank back to his base, unfortunately my much faster hydra chased him down.
Now it was basically a matter of massing a large attack force and running my opponent over. I squashed all hope of a comeback by destroying his 9 o’clock expansion, and hitting him with a large force of hydras. His modest force of tanks, vultures, and goliaths were no match for the masses of the swarm.
Well, go and have fun with this strategy. It works even better late at night when players are generally tired and their minds are dulled. And remember to keep a level head. I hope you’ve enjoyed my first battlereport.
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