Army Positioning (PvP)

[e][h]Army Positioning

Zealot Meatshield, Goon Arc, and a Storm.

Technique Information

Matchups:

PvP

Type:

Opening

Overview

Positioning your army well is especially important in PvP, since you will likely be fighting with a similar army size. Some additional Dragoon shots, well-placed Psi Storms and Reaver targeting can change the flow of the entire match.

The Battles in PvP

Once you have decided where your army should be placed there is still a question you must answer: how should your army be placed? The answer is quite simple depending on if you are attacking or defending a location and your army composition.

Defending

As a rule of thumb while defending dragoons should be always placed in arc formation facing the most likely direction where your opponent may attack. Zealots, High templars, Archons, Dark templars and Reavers should be mixed next to Dragoons making the ranged units act as protection for the rest of your army. Most of the time it is wise to leave one or two zealots in front to enlarge minimap vision to the side where the attack may come, this will give you a small reaction time to an incoming attack. Once the attack has began use your Zealots, Dark templars and Archons to engage in combat before your enemy melee units reach your own dragoons and cast storm over the incoming attackers as you micromanage your reavers/shuttles and other units as well.

Attacking

Attacking is quite similar to defending. However most of the time when you are attaking a heavily defended position you should stop your army some small distance away from the defenders, organize your army in a similar manner to a defensive position and then give the attack command to your units micromanaging them as well. The reason behind this is that, while moving from a distant location the army is more likely to lose its formation making the attack less effective as units come to attack separated and not as a whole army.

Example A

This example is from the Incruit 2008 OSL Quarterfinals that took place on 2008-10-10. Stork vs Bisu on Chupung-Ryeong Game 3. This example, while simple in terms of type of units, is really good because:

• It is a very important game (score is 1-1 in a BO3 series).
• Both players went for almost the same build making the game even from the start.
• They were the best PvP players in progaming displaying the highest skill level in the match-up.
• The fight is incredibly balanced; neither player can afford 400 minerals to take a third.
• The end shows how devastating control over certain key points of the map is in a StarCraft game.

Detail of the main battles Map Army Positioning during Battles

As a Summary:

• During the game the battles take place on the key spots: the hills next to the Naturals which give the defender a high ground advantage.
• After gaining a small advantage Bisu is forced to retreat, giving place to more local battles.
• Stork manages to secure the hill next to Bisu's natural after a series of very close battles. This single position gives Stork the victory.
• Note that Stork didn't try to advance from that position, also note the control this position has over all of Bisu's army movement marked by the colored arrows.
• Stork never had a real economic or military advantage. Note also that in terms of distance this spot is barely ahead of the center of the map.