With the advent of the StarCraft II Beta comes talk of strategy. Many fans of the series we know (and who have not yet been fortunate enough to receive a Beta key) are keen to watch streaming videos of the matches currently being played.
They discuss APM and the best way to “build” your forces so as to handily crush your enemy, and wonder why so many people make such foolish mistakes.
Many of those in the Beta are trying to find the quickest way to climb the ladder and shatter the glass ceiling between the gold and platinum leagues (tip: it’s not a short skirt and a saucy attitude).
It’s an obsession with numbers, with perfection, with getting it right from the very start. This is what makes a good, observant StarCraft player, and one who can adapt to a game that changes from second to second.
On the other hand, it’s nice to know that there are still some people out there doing totally ridiculous things, and posting videos of them on YouTube.
One interesting map in the game is an abandoned space station map, and in 1v1 mode places the two opposing bases quite close to each other, but separated by a bottomless gap. While it is certainly possible to take the long path around with ground forces, an aerial assault, especially at the very beginning of the match, can be an excellent path to victory.
We say this partly to brag, as this was one of the only maps we had success with.
Moving on…
Some industrious fellow playing the Terran side decided to do something a little different, and captured a movie of it, which we found kicking around at CreepColony.com.
You see, many Terran buildings, including the all-important Command Center, can use the lift-off ability. This changes the building into a flying unit. The building can’t shoot or do any other neat tricks, but it’s handy if you want to avoid the costs of a realtor.
These Command Centers also have the ability to upgrade in to two other types of buildings. One of those is the Planetary Fortress. The Fortress cannot lift-off, but has a sweet dual gun turret on top of it and enhanced armor.
Our clever Terran friend fired up his Command Center’s lift-off jets and brought along his Barracks just for fun. He flew them across the gap in the map to his Protoss’ opponents base, and then set them down. He had sequestered a few units in the Command Center that he quickly released to protect his base while he started churning out units from his barracks.
Then, he upgraded his Command Center to a Fortress.
All of a sudden, this poor Protoss has a fully functioning, fully armed Planetary Fortress starting him in the face. He sent everything he had against it, but it was too early in the game for him to mount enough of a concentrated attack to destroy it.
In short, he lost. To a building.
What’s great about this is that it shows the strategy of StarCraft is still evolving. Will the Planetary Fortress rush become common? Probably not. But it’s nice to see someone thinking outside the traditional, and not being afraid to try something totally ridiculous.
If nothing else, it will catch your opponent off guard.
And really mess with the FAA.
