Hello World,

Just thought I’d write a little bit more about my impressions of the Starcraft 2 beta before the beta goes away for a few weeks.  Okay, yes, the beta has been extended until 7 June, but my brief time with it is just about up (at least for now). 

In any case, I’ve been playing some of the 4v4 league matches to get a taste of what it will be like when the game comes out. I have to say that I enjoy the larger matches.  A part of that is due to the fact that I tend to get very excited when I play 1v1 games, to the point where I shake a little just before and sometimes just after.  I find the 4v4 to be much more relaxed.  I recently completed my placement matches and got into Platinum, which is the new Gold given that Diamond is the new Platinum (well that made sense).  

I try to play my 4v4s like I play my FFAs: I try to be as annoying as possible and do as much damage to the enemies’ economies as possible with quick strikes. 

I typically go 14 pool, 15 hatch (into the front-center if I’m in front), and then grab Zergling speed.  Right about the time I get 10 Zerglings, I take them on a little journey toward the enemy base(s).  I take a peak up the first ramp and see if the player has walled off or has a signficant defensive force.  If they don’t, then I order my Zerglings to eat their workers or snipe Queens.  If they do have a significant defensive force or have walled off, I simply back the Zerglings off and go around to the next ramp.  The players in the back tend to not wall off as much, which makes their workers ripe for the nom nom noming!

This strategy has worked well for me for a number of reasons.  The first being that it involves a minor amount of micro of the Zerglings, which is something that I like to practice.  Second, Zerglings are freaking fast, which allows you take advantage of weak points in the defenses and feast upon workers.

Sometimes you can win a game outright.  I played a game a few days ago where my Zerglings, combined with a few Zealots from an ally crippled one player and then moved on. The player, Pink (color) eventually built up some defenses, which is great, because all that money was in static defenses that couldn’t move around and help his teammates, whom we slowly tore apart.  He dumped at least 1000 minerals into the cannons, and by the time they came into play, it didn’t matter.

It may not be the most eloquent method for getting victory. but it can be quite satisfying none-the-less.

More often than not, I find that I can do enough damage to get my team the win.  It’s not a great build if the game goes longer than about ten minutes, but it feels good to harass so many players and to cause them turtle up, which ends being death for the rest of the team. 

Anyway, I just thought I’d share a little about my 4v4 experiences.  Next posts will most likely be about Battle.net 2.0 or my recent 1v1 experiences.

Until next time,

-S