Vulture Rush
Bill Skokie
cheaper. I have had success on a large open map versus protoss -
Get about 15 vultures together with the mine and speed upgrade and rush into
the protoss base and drop a volley of mines - the zealots will follow the
vultures as they leave and set off the mines. Cleans out their base pretty
fast if repeated. After all the mines are used - the vulture is kind of
worthless except if you can line them up behind a row of supply depots or
something. Oh and the mines detect dark templars too. Funny to see them
blown up before they reach your base (same goes for mines placed where a
protoss might try to drop reavers into your base) I know this is kind of a
stupid way to try and win but its fun to try if you are bored with the
traditional rush/reaverdrop/cloaked unit attack. Anyone else experimented
with these shitty units in any other way?
The ERK
rush in the game. If you haven't seen the power of vultures, you haven't
played against the really good people. Out of some 50 vulture rushes I've
done, I've lost about 4. That's no hyperbole. Here's my method:
Up to 8 or 9 SCVs, supply. (Note: CONSTANT SCV production throughout this).
Refinery when 100 is available. Barracks next, 3 SCVs on refinery. Supply
during barracks build. As soon as barracks is done, you should have some 170
minerals. Wait for the 200, factory. Start second factory.
During this, you may need a marine--a mere distraction to a lowly one zealot
rush. Run it around a bit. Start pumping vultures and one SCV making supply
at a time. If the player is protoss, make about 10 vultures. If terran,
ditto. If zerg, make 6 or so, then start with the machine shots. I can almost
GUARENTEE this will work: not only does concussive damage rule the early game,
but noone expects this. From there, build depending on the game--usually a
third or fourth factory is in order. An armory will do for early rushers, and
most important, spider mines for DT rushers (mines DO detect, BTW...). Good
luck, have fun =)
YoungBeard
>the protoss base and drop a volley of mines - the zealots will follow the
>vultures as they leave and set off the mines. Cleans out their base pretty
>fast if repeated. After all the mines are used - the vulture is kind of
>worthless except if you can line them up behind a row of supply depots or
>something. Oh and the mines detect dark templars too. Funny to see them
>blown up before they reach your base (same goes for mines placed where a
>protoss might try to drop reavers into your base)
Funny, I've been re-playing the original Terran campaign which should be
called, for the first half at least, "Fun with Vultures". (The second half is
"Fun with Tanks"). And I'm discovering that they aren't such shitty units.
They're very cheap: for 75 minerals you get 3 mines plus a unit that dishes
out 20 concussive, and can outrun anything. Throw some mines in your choke and
delay building tanks for awhile. Put mines all over the map in both expected
and unexpected places and your opponent will get really paranoid.
Vultures are murder on Protoss. Your mine tactic is good. Even when their
mines are used up, they can hit-and-run zealots, striking a few times, then
zipping away before the zealots can close in. When you've killed off most of
their zealots, run in and kill all their probes. A pack of vultures will
slaughter probes really fast -- two hits kills one probe. Remember that
Protoss shields take full damage despite the size of the unit. So a
combination of Vultures and Marines will work well against Protoss ground
forces.
The only problem with vultures is they use 2 supply, making them very
inefficient in terms of supply depots. But they're so cheap you can use them
as suicide troops once they've dropped their mines, freeing up supply for tanks
and stuff.
Chris
---
meow.
Gamma
>Has anyone had any luck with a vulture rush now that 1.5 makes the mines
>cheaper. I have had success on a large open map versus protoss -
>
>the protoss base and drop a volley of mines - the zealots will follow the
>vultures as they leave and set off the mines. Cleans out their base pretty
>fast if repeated. After all the mines are used - the vulture is kind of
>worthless except if you can line them up behind a row of supply depots or
>something. Oh and the mines detect dark templars too. Funny to see them
>blown up before they reach your base (same goes for mines placed where a
>stupid way to try and win but its fun to try if you are bored with the
>traditional rush/reaverdrop/cloaked unit attack. Anyone else experimented
>with these shitty units in any other way?
You might not realize this, but vultures are very effective against
small units. Namely, zealots. Eight vultures will kill a zealot
in a single attack. Compare with a large dragoon; only 20 more hp,
but it takes 24 vulture hits to kill one.
Given this, you might consider starting with the mine field to
clear out the first wave of zealots, then go in an pick off any
remaining zealots with ordinary firepower. For dragoons, drop more
mines. Meanwhile, kill off the probes. Then mop up the proton
cannons (another problem). This should effectively shut down the
base, since your vultures can now plink the buildings, picking off
any drones or anything coming out of the gateway before it can get
more than one attack off. You can probably even kill reavers if
they have them, by jumping in, firing, then outrunning the scarab.
You'll probably want to bring in tanks to help, however. Even 15
vultures will take FOREVER to kill a nexus. :-)
--
Paul Brinkley
ga...@clark.net
Adam Smith
> Funny you mention vulture rushes--indeed, that is probably THE most
> powerful rush in the game. If you haven't seen the power of
> vultures, you haven't played against the really good people. Out of
> some 50 vulture rushes I've done, I've lost about 4. That's no
> hyperbole. Here's my method: Up to 8 or 9 SCVs, supply. (Note:
[good tactics snipped]
I've often looked at vultures and wondered why more people don't use
them. Once you get spider mines, it's very difficult to not get your
money's worth out of them. After all, if your three spider mines kill...
(pick one)
2 marines
1 hydralisk
3 zerglings
1 zealot
...they've paid for the vulture. The downside, of course, it that
they require micromanagment to fight effectively -- you can't just
give them an attack-move command and forget about them -- and
micromanagement for terrans is already pretty demanding.
But if you can deal with the added micromanagement, they can't be beat
for recon, harrassment, and fast rushes into the opponent's worker
line.
Also, I don't really think that lowing the cost of spider mines to
100/100 in version 1.05 will have any real effect on the game. It's
only fifty minerals and fifty gas -- about half a tank. Rather, I
think that this is Blizzard's way of dangling a little carrot in front
of the eyes of terran players -- sort of a "new user discount" to try
to get more people using the vulture.
--
Adam Smith
Boston University
Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
"In theory there's no difference between theory and practice, but in
practice there is."
Joan Riley
good players on bnet using vultures against toss, for example I beat
~lone~dragon~ ~Gold~dragon~ ~King~Dragon~ CoP~Dope ALL useing vultures
against their toss on Lost Temple. I have a build order that gets me
Vultures before they can get 1 zeal in my base. And then just hit and run
and i can kill as many zeals as he sends without losing ONE vulture. See
the lovely thing about vulture rushing against toss is that after they see
what you can do with them they have to go either cannons or dragoons and its
funny how well Tanks can take both of those out =] and they by the time
they get Dark Templers you can get mines and mine the hell out of the place
till you get a better detector (Sci Vessels) You should try it some day 8D
PxSx25h
1v1 is significantly better.
Jay
decently against a gorup of zealots when they go up against dragoons their
12 damage a hit is reduced to about 4. In the meantime zealots are doing at
least 16 or dragoons doing their X damag. not to mention while your trying
to drop those mines your bring attacked, very few vultures make it out
alive, even with the speed upgrade. Vultures suck. You mine the enemy choke
and then just send them in as a distraction backed up with marines to
backup a row of siege tanks.
Gibster
Bill Skokie wrote:
> Has anyone had any luck with a vulture rush now that 1.5 makes the mines
> cheaper. I have had success on a large open map versus protoss -
>
> Get about 15 vultures together with the mine and speed upgrade and rush into
> the protoss base and drop a volley of mines - the zealots will follow the
> vultures as they leave and set off the mines. Cleans out their base pretty
> fast if repeated. After all the mines are used - the vulture is kind of
> worthless except if you can line them up behind a row of supply depots or
> something. Oh and the mines detect dark templars too. Funny to see them
> blown up before they reach your base (same goes for mines placed where a
> protoss might try to drop reavers into your base) I know this is kind of a
> stupid way to try and win but its fun to try if you are bored with the
> traditional rush/reaverdrop/cloaked unit attack. Anyone else experimented
> with these shitty units in any other way?
Well, if the computer sends in hallucinations to get rid of mines first, your
pretty much screwed. Right up the jacksy.
Gibster
Rygard
Bill Skokie wrote:
> Has anyone had any luck with a vulture rush now that 1.5 makes the mines
> cheaper. I have had success on a large open map versus protoss -
>
> Get about 15 vultures together with the mine and speed upgrade and rush into
> the protoss base and drop a volley of mines - the zealots will follow the
> vultures as they leave and set off the mines. Cleans out their base pretty
> fast if repeated. After all the mines are used - the vulture is kind of
> worthless except if you can line them up behind a row of supply depots or
> something. Oh and the mines detect dark templars too. Funny to see them
> blown up before they reach your base (same goes for mines placed where a
> protoss might try to drop reavers into your base) I know this is kind of a
> stupid way to try and win but its fun to try if you are bored with the
> traditional rush/reaverdrop/cloaked unit attack. Anyone else experimented
> with these shitty units in any other way?
If I were you, I'll mass up firebats. Their flames can hit multiple targets and
shields take full damage too. Add with stimpak n marines and protoss will find
it hard to defend. (they can take out cannons rather quickly with stimpak).
Anyway, vultures have lousy refire rate and they're a bit late in the game too.
Use them for the mines, but not for rush attacks.
Anyway, if zealots are chasing you, the mines u drop may not activate that soon
enough.
--
"Keep peace along the Starcraft Sector"
Klaus
across a map like a Vulture can (with speed upgrade). Plus the mines are
great detector/killers for dark temps. and zealots. Early game vulture
rushes can work - best used if a protoss player attacks your partner - hit
that now rebuilding player hard with vultures and lay mines in his mineral
field and around his gateways - then run if he gets some zealots out. Always
repair! Late game vultures are pretty weak but can be used as a distraction
to attack an enemy expansion (they hear blah blah blah is under attack and
look there to defend) then hit their main base at the same time and they
won't even know what is happening until they deal with the vultures.
Tobias Reckhard (jester)
>If I were you, I'll mass up firebats. Their flames can hit multiple targets and
>shields take full damage too. Add with stimpak n marines and protoss will find
>it hard to defend. (they can take out cannons rather quickly with stimpak).
Firebats can take out the cannons' shields pretty quickly, but they do
much less damage against their actual hitpoints. With medics healing
them, though, I suppose they could be able to do it. Can photon
cannons be set to target individual units? That'd make infantry
attacks on them a lot harder, if the cannons are being controlled by a
fast clicker. Firebats really shine against zealots, but I prefer
marines against cannons. They don't have to run into the range of as
many other cannons, they do normal damage, they scale better. They die
faster, though.
>Anyway, vultures have lousy refire rate and they're a bit late in the game too.
>Use them for the mines, but not for rush attacks.
Oh, they're not much later than firebats, are they? You need barracks,
refinery, factory for just vultures. The machine shop add-on to
research mines and thruster upgrades, but if you're after just
vultures at first, to harass peons and zealots, you can research those
later.
Firebats require barracks, academy, refinery, plus you want to
research stim pack at the academy. The academy takes ages to build,
less now, with the 1.05 patch, but before that I was under the
impression that it took way longer than a factory to be built. Not
enough to make vultures available sooner, also because you can start
building the academy sooner than a factory, because you don't have to
wait for gas. But vultures don't cost any gas themselves, so you can
save up on that for tanks or air.
>Anyway, if zealots are chasing you, the mines u drop may not activate that soon
>enough.
But vultures don't fare too badly against zealots. Their attacks do
full damage, as zealots are small, and they can run away from the
zealots, too, to be repaired in the cover of a bunker. They're cheaper
than zealots, too. Hey, I use them way too little, so I can't say if
all my suggestions or points are actually valid in practise, but it
seems worthwhile to give them a chance.
Tobias / jester
webrunner
Tobias Reckhard (jester) wrote in message
<36f0ae9a...@news.mainblick.de>...
>On Thu, 18 Mar 1999 13:28:52 +0000, Rygard <ry...@pd.jaring.my> wrote:
>
>>If I were you, I'll mass up firebats. Their flames can hit multiple
targets and
>>shields take full damage too. Add with stimpak n marines and protoss will
find
>>it hard to defend. (they can take out cannons rather quickly with
stimpak).
>
>Firebats can take out the cannons' shields pretty quickly, but they do
>much less damage against their actual hitpoints. With medics healing
>them, though, I suppose they could be able to do it. Can photon
>cannons be set to target individual units? That'd make infantry
Yeah, but you cant mass select them, and units will always be selected in a
box over a building.
dom
dom
Klaus heeft geschreven in bericht <7cr8mb$a...@bgtnsc03.worldnet.att.net>...
webrunner
dom wrote in message <7ctpfu$7si$1...@enterprise.cistron.nl>...
Klaus
the map - especially if it is a large map - use two and have them follow
each other. This renders their mini-map useless because they always see
blips all over the place. Oh and if they finally kill the piece of shit - of
well it only 75 minerals. j/k
PxSx25h
upgrade will take em out. Another thing that sucks is that once a mine is
harmlessly destroyed, i believe that other mines near it take damage while even
if a zealot is right next to it, it does not take any damage at all. But think
of it this way, its 25 minerals per mine plus a speedy scout that can mow down
infantry in numbers.
I only use it to try to contain opponents early and kill off zealots in a
hit-and-run. Another idea is to place them surrounding siege tanks (spread out
the mines though) in an open field. That way, opponents will have to deal
with mines with detectors and units while your tanks are blasting away. Works
well against zerg and protoss. Just make sure you have some air protection and
you don't rely on it for too long since the opponent will have likely conceeded
land superiority.