[OxygeN]

Cheesing is defined to me as a cut in economy to gain an offensive advantage. This takes form throughout the game, in the early game as 6pool, proxy gateways & terran barracks, and mid-game with potential utilization of workers to build offensive structures, or just to deal additional damage/tanking.

Before I begin, let me state by saying I am writing this from a Terran perspective, as Terrans have a very useful spell called "MULE" which allows the maximum utilization of any creative strategies, and innovative aggressions.

So what constitutes a cut in economy? When you can't produce off all your production structures, the loss of potential for expansion and additional production structures. However, there is potentially an optimum level of production off of 1 base, if you are looking for an early push. Potentially in any match-up, because of the structure of the game, it does not really matter if you have 1 more barracks, or 1 more factory. The idea is if you get a better unit mix than the opponent, all you have to do is to make him engage you before he gets a better unit mix than you, and you would win.

So what do I then mean by optimum level of production? And where do the cheesing vs All-In strategies come in? In a very simple analogy, you decide to go Marine Maruaders Medivac Ghosts vs an 3 gate robo strategy. Simply put, MMMG with at least 2 emps with kiting would decimate any similar food army once the Terran reaches his critical mass. Here comes in another concept of critical mass, when and how much is enough? Its really simple, when you hit about 20ish units of infantry, it is a very good time to consolidate a mid-game position. Also, because at 24ish units of infantry,he would probably have like 14-16 units of zealots/stalkers/sentries/immortals.

In a straight up fight, with some insane micro from the Protoss, he may still be able to beat you! You mis-timed your EMPs, or he split his sentries, and well, good luck to your MMMG ball when 5 zealots are in your face with guardian shield, immortals slaughtering maruaders at insane speed. However imagine now, if you brought 10 SCVs along*, if you have the micro to carry it out, all you have to do is to alternate moving infront of your army at first, "creep-blocking"** the zealots to slow down their charge, and later on attack when they are beside your ranged units. What you are doing here, is effectively slowing down the duration the zealots are beside you by at least 2 seconds, which is HUGE when it comes to the amount of DPS a marine/maruader can do in 2seconds with stim. And later on with the attack click it soaks up 450 damage from stalkers/sentries. Which is equivalent to 4 more maruaders being able to attack... about 9 marines... u do the math. the additional DPS is essentially FREE! Why? Because MULES essentially cover up the losses from your SCVs, and if you over-saturated your mineral line by like 3 or 4 before moving out, you essentially have the same amount of workers as a protoss fully saturated.

Hence, you are losing ZERO economical advantage, as a matter of fact, you could even expand, continue SCV production, and even unit production off all your buildings! Of course you are losing the opportunity cost of getting another expansion, but as I stated earlier its the idea of using your early unit mix to beat his unit mix than to wait later on and keep on countering each other repeatedly.

Essentially even if you do fail the push, and you lose all your SCVs and most of your units, you are still in a good position for a comeback and expansion if you have been producing SCVs all along as you pushed.

What appears as cheese to other players may actually work for you, as you can develop strategies to make people build whatever you want them to build(natural reaction), and not build whatever is not viable while you do a 360 Degrees tech switch. That is actually in my opinion a display of sheer strategic genius, but I haven't been able to utilize that to much success! So do not be daunted by the calling of cheese as long as you know whats the follow-up plan.

Still, 6 pool games are still incredibly funny, if you take things on the lighter side! HAHA!

Hope this was worth a good and informative read for all Terran players! :X

*1 Starport - Medivac 2 Raxes with Tech labs - Maruder/ghost 1 Rax with Reactor - 2 marines, SCV.
** Term adapted from Warcraft II, essentially blocking the unit pathing