[Benji]

I cast quite a few games, and every now and again I see players end up in a basetrade situation and its astonishing how well and how poorly some players end up after the mains and expansions are killed, so I thought I’d do a write-up to maybe get players thinking when put in this situation.

Firstly, when to basetrade?

You should be looking to basetrade when you have a significantly more mobile army, but weaker army than your opponent (eg: Ling Muta in ZvP) If you engage his army, you'll lose but you can use your speed to win the game. Wait for him to move halfway across the map with his deathball and go and attack his natural. If he turns around, kill a few tech structures and probes and pull back, you'll come out ahead as you've done free damage, turning around is usually a poor decision.

So what do you do in the basetrade scenario to ensure you win?

The first thing I do is Pull drones from bases not under attack and expand on my opponents side of the map, forcing him to move back across the map after he deals with my pre-existing bases. Having a hatchery and 3 drones, or a hatchery and 30 drones is a significant difference. This gives you a macro advantage when everything is dead, and puts pressure on your opponent to react.

Next I ensure I kill off my opponents probes/drones/scvs for the exact reason I am saving my own, it also slows down the rate he can hide buildings around the map.

I then use my units to showdown his production, pylons for protoss, tech structures for zerg and factories/rax for terran. You can't let him continue macroing.

After cleaning out his bases, and he has finished cleaning out yours, you need to scout your opponent and evaluate the game and base your decisions based on that, for example:

- I have a base up and running, he has a pylon and an extractor defended by his army.

In this situation you win in the long game, so you need to threaten to kill his remaining buildings (without losing your units obviously). If he moves out, kill them and win, if he stays put, just macro and tech up and win in 5 min time. Why dive in and grab the last few buildings when you win in the long run?

- Neither of us has a base up and he has the larger army.

Here you cannot engage his army, you need to avoid it and destroy his remaining pylons, if you engage, you lose.

- Your opponent has a base up and you don't, but you have a stronger army.

This situation is difficult, the longer you wait, the more ahead your opponent gets, you need to push out asap and hit your opponents army, or if you have quite a few pylons/depots/extractors spread around the map you can just try to kill his remaining buildings before he does yours.

Few final pointers:

When basetrading, if you can get a few defences up to pick off a few units, it can be useful in the long run, but also consider the cost investment, your first goal should be setting up another base.

Never split your army. Unless you have a mobility advantage (Mutas) keep your army together, if you split it, one half will get crushed. The only exception to this is when you are 100% sure that each half of your army can take on his full army.

Make sure you don't run out of buildings :P Extractors/depots/pylons are cheap, but don't spam them, your goal should be setting up a new base. If you have a mining base, you have many more options than your opponent and it forces him to react.


If you have anything to add, post below and I’ll edit/add, also ask questions ^_^

Quick Comments

	breadfan:	great read, thanks
	Nemo:	Usefull
	Rageboredguy:	well written