Counters 101: Timing

Let’s talk about counters. Starcraft II has a myriad of different units, and some of those units work better based on the composition of your opponent’s army. It is tempting, therefore, to select your units based on what you see your opponent building. To a certain extent, this is effective. If you see your opponent only building Marines, for instance, you might want to build some banelings. If you see a Protoss going for Colossi, then you probably know enough to get some Vikings.

How do I know these strategies are effective? Well, check out the Battle.net website and look at the unit descriptions. Vikings are good against Colossi because Blizzard says so. Plus, the Colossi can’t attack them, so what’s there to think about?

Brilliant.

 

This sort of thinking is marginally useful. If nothing else, it demonstrates an understanding of attack mechanics. But as you might suspect, it is also overly simplistic. Starcraft II does have “counters”, but only a small part of a counter lies in the units you’re using. Timing, economy, and tech path all factor in as well. Though what I really want to look at today is timing.

What Can’t Hurt You Can Hurt You

In the early days of Starcraft II, one of the most basic and silly strategies available to Protoss was rushing to Void Rays on one base. It was especially frustrating to Zerg, as both Zerglings and Roaches can’t attack flying units. The idea is simple enough: with a few of Voidrays out, the only thing the Protoss has to worry about are Queens. If they manage to kill the Queens, they can harass with impunity.

Changes in the metagame have rendered this strategy all but obsolete. Openings with more than two Queens are common now, and just about every Zerg player knows how to counter a few Voidrays.

Quickly! Run to Battle.net and tell me what Zerg unit counters Void Rays. Mutalisks! Zergs must have learned to build Mutas, right? Wrong. Voidrays are supposed to be effective at harassing Ling / Roach armies, but it turns out they lose to . . . larger Ling / Roach armies.

 

My Void Ray can kill them all . . . eventually.

 

It’s just that simple. With all his resources sunk into Voidray tech on one base, a Protoss going fast Voidrays can’t defend against any sizable ground army early in the game. Ask any Protoss and he will tell you about the time he was swarmed by Zerglings while his three Voidrays did almost nothing to save him.

This “counter” has a few mechanics at work, but principal among them is timing. The attack hits before there are enough Voidrays to stop it. All the Zerg has to do is make sure is building an army at the right time, and it hardly even matter what units he goes for. The protoss can’t fight back.

Standard counters

So fast Voidrays is an example of a gimmicky or cheesey play that is easily countered (albeit in a counter-intuitive way) by a player with a sense of timing, but now let’s look at counters as they apply to more standard play.

In a typical Protoss vs. Terran match, you would expect to see Zealots, Templar, and Colossi from the Protoss while the Terran would be going for Marines, Marauders, Medivacs, and Ghosts. If you just look at the units themselves, this lineup would appear to favor Protoss. The large amounts of AoE damage from Templars or Colossi would “counter” the relatively fragile bio army. Ghosts help mitigate this advantage, but in a straight-up battle, Protoss would probably come out on top.

So why do Terrans continue using bio armies? Wouldn’t it be easier to switch to mech? Well, not exactly. Protoss might have the advantage in a straight-up battle, but Terrans have the timing advantage. Because their army is mostly low-tier units and those units have superior speed, the Terran player can basically move about the map with impunity until the Protoss gets his real heavy-hitting units on the field (the Templar and Colossi). In this time, the Terran can harass with drops or runbys and safely place down expansions in order to build up a superior economy.

 

Terran Bio: Not as mobile as Zerg, but more mobile than Protoss.

Once again, our unit-only analysis has failed us. This matchup is the way it is because timing and tech interact to make the matchup even. Specific units are secondary.

If you look at standard play in this way, you’ll find that most types of “standard” strategies are are the same. The speed with which you get units is just as important as the units themselves.

So What?

I see you out there on the ladder. You’re trying to play like the pros. You make the right choices. You get the right number of expansions. You make the right units. You research the right upgrades and you even scout. And you still lose.

“I countered what they were doing!” you exclaim, and you wonder how your build order failed you.

Yes, you technically built everything in the right order. But the replay reveals all. You were slow. You remained still when you could have moved.

I’ve seen Zergs sit on their half of your map with an army of Zerglings and Mutalisks while I threw down seven Orbitals. I’ve seen beautiful Protoss macro go to waste when an all-in arrives just after I get Broodlords instead of just before. I’ve even built up worker leads against Zerg players because they hesitated to drone up their second expansion.

What do all these examples have in common? They are ways that we half-ass our counters. They are ways we work to get the upper hand, then lose that upper hand because we throw timing out the window.

The Quick And the Dead

It is as true in Starcraft as it is in any other competitive game: you are far better off perfectly executing a poor choice than poorly executing a perfect choice.

Take, for instance, a two-base Protoss push against Zerg.. You build up your economy on two bases and build up an army, all the while defending your base from Mutalisks or what have you. You’re sitting there with your amazing Immortal/Sentry army, ready to take down as many Roaches as you see. Then you sit there, just in case there’s more harassment you need to fight off. You’re frozen in place for two minutes while your opponent throws down some spine crawlers. By the time you’re finally ready to move out, it’s too late. He is prepared.

 

Your army is not a defensive structure. Move out!

 

Sound familiar? It’s happened to me more times than I care to admit, but you learn from it fast.

You run risks when you counter. Misreading the situation usually means instant death, and so you are tempted to hedge your bets to keep yourself safe. You build some early Roaches before droning up. You build some extra Zealots in case those dreaded banelings knock down your wall.

Yes, these things can happen. You try to scout and catch them before they’re upon you, but no one is perfect. Don’t let the fear of a missed counter convince you to execute bad counters every time.

What to do about it

Don’t hesitate. It’s that simple. Whatever you’re going to do, whatever plan you have lined up, execute it. Don’t listen to that nagging voice in the back of your head. Hell, don’t even listen to reason. Just get to the next phase of your build as fast as you can. Attack as fast as soon as you can. Put down your expansion the moment you can.

Adapt, of course. If you see something that makes you think your counter is no longer a viable course of action, then switch your focus. But do it quickly.

Once you’ve made your decision, There’s no point in waiting.

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