How to stop arbiter recalls

[DragonPaladin]

Well, today I'm only going to focus on destroys arbiter drops. I learned this in a game with Unholy the other day. Any toss player likes to zoom in maybe 4 arbiters w/o halluncinations. Ya missiles turrets can't really stop them. They move too fast for you to respond. In a sec, they're in your mining area, recalling all sorts of Protoss units. Ya might be able to kill them, but no doubt your scvs and cc are heavily damage or destroyed. Well, the ways to stop this require vigilance and fast response.

Here's what you do.

1. Have scouts and info. Tactical info is always valuable in Starcraft. Is your enemy massing carriers or dragoons? High temps or dark temps? You can post a wraith at the outer skirts of your base to watch for incoming.

2. Mine your mining area. Let's say ya see your enemy coming. Means ya should evac your scvs STAT. Don't let them sit there getting slaughtered. At least spider mines should do it. Now what happens is if the Toss gets of a decent shot at warping in a bunch of ground units like reavers, they're sitting on a hell of a bunch of mines. They don't even have reaction time. They drop, mines pop up and blows. Great against Toss ground, except archons. It also works on Zerg drops with hydras/lurkers. Lurkers are a bit more defenseless so the mines just pop up and blow. And a note, in case you didn't evac your scvs...I'd like to point out the splash will torch them.

3. Now, the provention part. When you see a bunch of arbs come over the horizon, EMP them. Not just for the shields, but also for the energy. No energy = no recall. Ya have to act fast, but sci vessels move fast. Without energy to stasis or recall, what you have as an arbiter is not very very good attack unit. Hell, a missile turret would kill it.

Now, I know this might be obvious...but just pointing this out to some people.

[MidnightGladius]

DP, I'm telling you. Do not mine your mineral mine. It's stupid because a mine cannot kill a reaver, yet it can kill untold numbers of scvs...

[UnHoly-Assassin]

Yes, DP did that to me a couple of times, and annoyed the hell out of me too. I tried going in from different directions, but that only meant that my hallucinations had to be split up. So in the end, I sent in four carriers and the interceptors served as distraction, and since he instinctively EMPed my carriers (i think) that left my arbiters ample opportunity to sneak in unnoticed and recalled a whole bunch of zealots, high templars, and bunches of units inside shuttles.

[DragonPaladin]

Yes...it CAN kill reavers. 2 mines will kill a reaver. Obvious, you're taking a RISK. If you're vigilant enough, you can try evacating your workers before they drop down. You could also put tanks behind the buildings around the cc, effectively trapping the units in some sort of hell-hole. Plus, if you have only a few workers there, then you haven't lost much. I stressed constant vigilance for this point.

[UnHoly-Assassin]

DP, you forgot that I had infantry inside my shuttles that came along with the recall. So it'd be 2 waves; first waves are the zealot meat shields, then I drop down the goons while the surviving zeals distract your fire. I managed to wipe out most of your main base this way, before I discovered you building bcs. But those didn't last long after I figured out what you were planning :P.

[DragonPaladin]

bah, wasn't expecting shuttles. I'd scatter tanks around the building, so your zealots and goons are now in one big hell-hole.

[MidnightGladius]

Ok, I just remembered something: Arbiter recalls are late-game. Therefore, your main should be dried out, so yes: you can mine what was once your mineral line.

[DragonPaladin]

Yea, it should been dried out.

[UnHoly-Assassin]

Yet dp chose to leave most of his production buildings in his main base, minorly defended even though he was aware of what I was up to. I thought it'd be an easy target, as his minerals were stretched thin as it was and he couldn't afford to build another decently-fortified base to house more production buildings.

[ReD_ICE]

actually...i wouldnt have done recall if i were the protoss...cuz arbs are damn ass expensive, and they take longer than any single unit to be built in the game...i'd rather go carriers...since u have the econ to get arbs, why not go for carriers?

[Cpt.Chronic]

Arbs don't cost as many minerals. You don't need as many as you would carriers. And you don't have to cut back on ground production like you do with carriers.

[ReD_ICE]

wouldnt ur economy already've been steady enough to go carriers? we're not talking about building a few with little money here, we're talking about thousands of minerals + gas u would usually have by 20+ minutes of the game, and if the terran doesn't have goliaths (likely he would've gone vulture-tank), u have advantage. Even with goliaths, u could win with good carrier micro.

[MidnightGladius]

You can steadily build zeal/goon and arbiters off of three mining bases.

[DragonPaladin]

I'm talking about BGH here.

[MidnightGladius]

That explains quite a bit.

[ReD_ICE]

i still dont think u guys get what i mean...all im saying is, switching from goons+zeals to carriers would also be an alternative, other than arbs....but i guess the thread focuses on arbs huh, guess i should shut up

[UnHoly-Assassin]

DP had tons of gols and wraiths, and while there is still a possibility to wipe them out, I'd rather not risk it since carriers are much more expensive than a few zealots and goons that would do as much damage if not more.

[MidnightGladius]

Why in the world would you make Carriers against gol/wraith? Zeal/Goon all the way on that matchup.

[ReD_ICE]

wtf...why the hell would terran go goli + wraith against zealot + goons, seems like a bad counter to me..

[MidnightGladius]

ReD_ICE, what's even more strange is why someone would go carriers against goli/wraith...

[UnHoly-Assassin]

Because I had a bunch of corsairs with d web? and a few obs? and arbiters?

[MidnightGladius]

Cost for cost, goli/wraith will still pwn you.

[DragonPaladin]

Gol has explosive damage.

[MidnightGladius]

So? Corsairs, Arbiters, and Carriers are all large targets. Or they were the last time I checked...

[Ahzz]

arbiters? Gols definately. Maybe missile turrets, well, they allow arbs to do recall, but not more than once. In middle of a battle? Goliaths usually. They work fine to ground too, and if you're not prepared already when they come, they will be mostly the best choise

[DragonPaladin]

Unholy went zeals and carriers, not goons. Geh, I hate carriers.

[UnHoly-Assassin]

Well, I had a few goons inside dropships that went along with the recall :P

And the carriers' interceptors were merely a distraction for my arbiter to get through admist the chaos. The d web served to disable the tanks too, as well as the bunks and some clusters of gols.

As for the cost, I found it to be quite worth it judging from the situation we were in. DP turtled, and I wiped out his expansions. I went virus on the rest of the mineral deposits, so even if my carriers were wiped out I had about 8 stargates standing by.

[MidnightGladius]

Well, if you turtle, you deserve to lose. At that point, you can just throw troops at him endlessly.