KCDC's PvT FE

Apparently, a lot of P players struggle w/ PvT. I'm about ~1k diamond right now, and PvT is my best match-up. Sure, T units seem to be a little bit more efficient with stim, medivacs and tanks, storm not being what it was in SC:BW, and collosi getting rocked by vikings. But with this build, you can keep a base advantage throughout the game and use your mobility advantage to prevent T from building up the critical mass of tanks he needs to finish you.

Here's my opening: 9-pylon followed by scout, 14-gateway, gas, pylon, cybercore, pylon, pylon, nexus. I constantly produce probes. The key to making this build safe is (1) building a zealot while the cybercore is warping in, (2) chronoboosting your single gateway, and (3) delaying your second gas. This allows you to get the maximum amount units out of your single gateway (I've actually killed overaggressive T players with my single gateway army) and to redirect the minerals you would have spent on gas and production capacity into your expansion.

After I start my expansion (I don't always execute cleanly, but I typically start the expo between 28 and 30 food), I start at least 2 more gateways (unless I see T turtling with a bunker), and warpgate research finishes right about the time that T can mount a real push that would threaten my 1-gate army. The extra 3 units from this instant production cycle makes these early pushes pretty easy to hold.

Now here's the part that can get a little tricky. If T is going for a bio or mech all-in to break your FE, you really want to cut probes to get your 4th gateway up ASAP. Cutting probes and getting the 4th gateway will get your stalker count high enough that you'll be very safe from any ground-based attack. If you go straight for 4 gateways with constant unit production, however, you won't get detection in time for a cloaked banshee rush. So you need to scout whether cloaked banshees will be a threat in the early game ASAP so that you can plan your defense properly. I recommend poking your first zealot and stalker up to T's base and then constantly trying to scout his composition as often as you can before you have to decide between a 4th gateway or robo. If you see marauders or any gas unit that's not a banshee, cloak will at least be delayed, and you're safe to go for the 4th gateway before robo. When my robo finishes, I always chronoboost at least one observer--usually 2.

Once you've reached this point, you'll have at least a small economic advantage since you'll have had your expo up earlier than T. Feel free to try whatever transitions suit you. I like to keep adding bases while abusing the mobility of blink stalkers to wear down T's economy. Chargelots are essential against bio compositions. If you can build a substantial economic lead, a mothership is a great piece to finally break the T's defenses. I should make more use of storm drops.

As for defending against all-ins, I've started using several techniques since I originally posted this thread. The replays won't necessarily show them.

-The first pushes that can threaten you are rally-across-the-map conc shell marauders with maybe a marine or 2. For this, you want to use zealot(s) as a meatshield while focusing down the marauders with your stalker(s). As your zealot is about to die, retreat with your stalkers until you have another zealot to use as a meatshield. This attack is very easy to hold IMO.

-The next timing window you need to be concerned, you may be attacked by either stimmed marauders or marine-mech pushes. For both of these, you'll want to have cut probes to get 4 gateways ASAP, so hopefully your scouting was good. Stay on the high ground in your main until you're ready to fight. It takes a long time to kill a nexus with an early-game force, and your opponent would be foolish to stim to try to take it down more quickly. Lead with a couple zealots, but use mostly stalkers, and abusing high ground to get a few extra shots can help a lot. If T's army is looking too strong, pull 5-7 probes. You should prioritize building stalkers over zealots because probes still make a decent meatshield for your stalkers should your zealots fall.

-The last scary timing window against a 1-base T before your economic advantage secures your safety is a MMM push. This is scary because it hits before you can safely get charge, and the medivacs allow the marauders to stim continuously meaning he'll be able to kite down your zealot meatshield over a round or two of stim and then make quick work of the soft stalkers. The best way to handle this attack is to start adding sentries to your composition in the mid-game. I believe a safe timing is after you start your observer. If you can forcefield behind the marauders, T won't be able to kite down your zealots and you'll hold easily.

So, to hold all attacks against a 1-base T, you need to (1) determine whether cloaked banshees are a threat ASAP and respond accordingly. (2) Start with a zealot and then produce mostly stalkers. They're more tactically versatile, and you can always warp in a round of zealots for meatshield as needed. (3) Abuse high ground, allow nexus to tank shots until you're ready to fight, and pull probes to tank for your stalkers if necessary. (4) Start adding more zealots and sentries after robo if you're concerned about bio-medivac attacks.

As for the replays, they're a little older now, so they might not show everything I've talked about. Check them out if you want. It's a really easy, strong build once you get the hang of it, so give it a shot and let's make T's start complaining about imbalance like they did back in the days of void rays with 7 range.

Replays against early barracks pressure:

(New replay 8-26-2010. I was at ~900 diamond and opponent was slightly favored. T brought SCV for bunker but failed to deny my FE. He later brought SCVs for an all-in, it wasn't really that close. You'll notice that my timings were slightly off--late on gateway, and forgot to start warpgate when cybercore finished, but the pressure wasn't anywhere close to breaking my FE)

Older replays:

I'm not a particularly good player, but this build has held against almost everything I've run up against. If you really can't micro/macro at the same time, then this expansion will be tough to hold. In the hands of a good player, however, I think T's only good response is to expand as well.

Here's a replay of me playing incredibly poorly and still beating a cloaked banshee rush:

IMO, this build hard counters cloak rushes.

And for those of you who are concerned about how a 14-gate will deal with cheese, here's a replay of a 14-gate (it was even late) against a proxy reaper cheese from a 1200 Terran:

It's about to get a whole lot easier to hold that cheese with the nerfs to reaper and bunker build times.

KCDC's PvT FE

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