[Zanderax]

When an opponent scout your base by running a unit into the front, he gets an idea of what you have by what kills the unit and the small amount of vision that the unit has before it dies. This is a lot of scouting information and can win and lose games. Fortunately what he see doesn't always have to be accurate. Giving an opponent false scouting information can be good but give them the wrong type or amount of wrong information can instigate an attack that will lose you the game.

There are 3 main types of false information you can give, they are listed in difficulty to execute.

1) 'Smaller'
2) 'Tech'
3) 'Bigger'

'Smaller' involves not only not allowing the opponent to see your army but also making him believe that you aren't hiding your army but simply don't have it. If he senses an opportunity then he will do one of two things. Attack or Macro. If he chooses macro then you continue to play your game uninterrupted but if he chooses attack then you better be ready to defend against all he has. Making your army look smaller is only good if you are ready to deal with their entire army.

'Tech' involves either hiding your tech tree branches or creating fake ones. This is harder to pull off than hiding your army because it means that you have to build mostly useless buildings and units. However this can be worth it's cost. Consider this scenario: you are a Zerg player who runs a zergling into a Protoss players base around the 9 minute mark. You see a stargate, it gets chronobosted and your zergling dies. You build a spore crawler at each of your bases, you build 2 new queens, you may even go further and get a hydralisk den. The protoss player used 150 Minerals, 150 Gas and 25 energy from his Nexus to force you to do all of that. Alternativly you can use halucination to

‘Bigger’ is very hard to pull off and generaly is not worth the effort. Though good placement of your units and halucination you can make your opponent believe that he is facing an army that is bigger than you have. Used properly you can stop a big push and keep macroing or catch up on your army.
Also be sure to be aware of these things that can happen when you scout yourself.

[Muldeh]

Hmm I was playing a game recently where my opoonent would send in a probe/zealot to check out my army occassionally, but because i saw it coming on my creep i just sent out a few speedlings or a handful of roaches to shut it down before he reached my base, are you saying I should have sent a few more guys to make it look like a realistic army, but still small? Or do you think denying any scouting is fine itself?

[|Erasmus|]

Originally Posted by Muldeh

Hmm I was playing a game recently where my opoonent would send in a probe/zealot to check out my army occassionally, but because i saw it coming on my creep i just sent out a few speedlings or a handful of roaches to shut it down before he reached my base, are you saying I should have sent a few more guys to make it look like a realistic army, but still small? Or do you think denying any scouting is fine itself?

Generally, denying scouting is good... but you can also allow them to 'scout' your unit composition or army to gain an advabntage. Like in ZvT if you just scout a bunkered up terran with only marines you are most likely going to assume banshees... probably cloaked ones. But if I'm just hiding the rest of my units instead of rallying to my front, and get you to invest in an evo + spores and a faster lair so you can get an overseer and hydra den/mutas... then that is a big investment and I could just go and kill you.

You can do other things in TvZ by building a tech structure where a scouting ovie can see it, then cancelling and going your real tech route. Of course, making it too obvious that you are starting it right under the overlord is a bit obvious... but starting it out of range and just being a bit slow to spot that scout and chase it away () can work against a lot of zergs. (I've been going for a one rax expo, had it scouted, then just cancelled and gone for 3 more rax immediately and gone for the kill while the zerg was droning really hard).

He's just saying that there are tricks you can play with scouting... just hiding info is the easiest and most common, but you can also try and sell the opponent on the wrong info. Like as protoss, if there's a scouting unit without detection... hallucinate a bunch of templars and move your whole 'army' to kill it while hiding the fact you're actually going robo/colossus tech.

[Doctor]

But for Zerg , it's more like reacting to the oppo , where even if he/she saw our units' composition , he/she still can't do anything about it right ?

[Next_rim]

Been there, done that. Especially the "smaller" one. Like you are on two bases in PvT, and have 10 gateways ready. He scans natural ramp, sees 3-4 sentries and a handful of zealots, and moves out. By the time he arrives, you have 2 full rounds of units ready, and 3rd on the way. BOOM.

[SuperHero]

A good example of mind games is the 4gate nexus cancel that was used in a GSL and has become more popular. you let your opponent see your expo but also build 4 gateways. then just as the nexus is about to finish you cancel and do a 4gate push.

this type of play is mindgames and is very useful, but not nearly as useful as good macro, micro and decision making.

Quick Comments

Zanderax:

Mind games are a lot more fun though