Starcraft Strategies & Tips - Fastest Possible Map
Basic Starcraft Strategies & Tips for Fastest Possible Map
Miner Stack
To move your miners in a stack as if they are a single unit, select a group of miners then right click on a vespene geyser. Straight after this, hold down shift and right click on the geyser again. Then while still holding shift, right click the spot you want the miners to move to. They will move as if they are floating so they won't get in each other's way. This can be useful if a drop comes and you want to move your miners quickly.
If you want the miners to attack in a stack then instead of right clicking a spot to move to, tell them to attack a unit or building or you can tell them to attack move to a spot.
Dodging Drops
You can use the miner stack tip above to quickly move your miners out of the way when a drop comes. Another way to dodge drops is to send your miners to the geysers next to your main. The miners will move quickly because they are in float mode so if the enemy psi-storms the mineral stack then the miners will be safely out of the way.
Another method is to have a unit or building in another base location with vision of the mineral patch or geysers. When a drop comes tell your miners to move to the minerals or geysers in the other base and they will quickly dodge out of the way of the drop. You'll need to set a few groups of miners to hotkeys so you can quickly dodge many miners out of danger.
Hit Main
Don't ever lose your main nexus/command center/hatchery or your income will be a lot slower than your enemy's and you will probably lose the game. Build enough defence around your main so your opponent cannot kill it. Likewise if your opponent's main is not well defended then try to take it out. If you manage to kill it then you should be able to win by outmassing him.
Triple Up
Once the opening-game rush stage is over build one or two extra nexuses or command centers. If you build an extra nexus or two and your opponent doesn't build any then you will produce many more miners meaning you get money faster and therefore you will outmass him.
Starcraft Strategies for Protoss on FPM
The usual strategy for Protoss on Starcraft Fastest Possible Map Ever in 1v1's begins with zealot rushing the opponent. If the enemy survives the rush then the Protoss player masses units and attacks while continually templar dropping the opponent to send them broke. A good player can drop about once per minute while continually attacking the opponent with maxed supply.
Templar Drop
Set a high templar to a hotkey (eg. group 1). Load it into a shuttle along with three zealots. Fly the shuttle to your enemy's mineral patch. When your shuttle comes near cannons or enemy units drop a zealot as a decoy to take the hits. When you get to his minerals drop the templar and psi storm his mineral patch (eg. press "1", then "t", then click on the mineral patch). Any miners on the patch will die, hopefully leaving him broke. Send extra shuttles or corsairs with your drop if you need some more cover to keep your shuttle alive. You can also use two templars instead of one if you like.
Stasis their Drop
In late game keep an arbiter above your main nexus. If a templar drop or recall comes use it to stasis the enemy shuttle. If you don't get the shuttle in time you can still stasis your own probes instead which will protect them from being psi stormed.
Recall
Select an arbiter with enough energy for a recall and get high templars to make a good number of hallucinations of it. Send the hallucinations and the real arbiter towards your enemy's main, keeping the real arbiter towards the back of the group so that the hallucinations take the hits. When you are at your enemy's main recall units (eg. reavers) onto it and kill the main.
Starcraft Strategies for Zerg on FPM
On Starcraft Fastest Possible Map Ever Zerg is at a disadvantage at the start of the match so the usual strategy for Zerg is to turtle (defend hard) at the beginning of the game with lots of sunken colonies at the choke while building many hatcheries and teching. Besides protecting their choke, Zerg also needs to defend their miners from drops. Once Zerg is set up they pump out mass units, continually attacking their opponent.
Lurkers and Spores
Put the lurkers defending your base near spore colonies so that it will be hard for the enemy to fly their observer units close enough to see them. Often the enemy will fly too close and lose their observer units.
Guardians on Main
Keep any spare guardians above your mineral patch. When a templar drop comes if there is enough guardians they will often kill the templar before he has time to cast a psi storm.
Nydus
Build a nydus canal at the front of your base and put the other end at your main. When a drop or recall comes put all the hydras defending the front of your base through the nydus so they can own the drop.
Starcraft Strategies for Terran on FPM
Against Protoss, Terran generally has to defend the first attack and then try to kill the enemy by countering using tanks and marines/goliaths. Carriers are particularly difficult for the Terran to defend in late game.
Against Zerg, the Terran usually tries to rush them as fast as possible using a tank push on their choke or a marine rush. If they can get in before the Zerg is ready they will win. Usually in late game vs Zerg, the Terran uses goliaths + tanks + about 12 science vessels.
Block Minerals
Against Protoss or Zerg in early game float a barracks or engineering bay over their minerals so that the opponent can't send miners to the mineral patch. You can also use it to scout their tech.
Toasted Miners
Near the beginning of the game you can run a firebat or two into your opponent's base and torch their miners. Because the firebats do splash damage you can often take out all the enemy miners in a few shots leaving the enemy broke and easy to finish off. If the enemy has blocked their choke so you can't get bats in you can try floating a barracks into the enemy's base in a spot they can't see and then build the bats inside.
Floating Buildings
Float buildings such as engineering bays off the edges of your base to give you vision of incoming drops.
Irradiate Miners
Fly one or more science vessels into an enemy terran or zerg base and cast irradiate on one of the miners on the mineral patch. Because irradiate does splash damage it will also kill the rest of the miners on the stack.
Increase Tank Range
Tanks have a longer range than their sight so floating a building (eg barracks, engineering bay) or science vessel ahead of them to give vision will mean they can shoot further.
Float Building at Choke
It can help to float a barracks in front of your choke. When you are attacked units like hydras or dragoons will stop to attack the barracks instead of attacking your units and the enemy's mass will get clogged. Meanwhile your tanks (which are also given extra range by the barracks's vision) will be sieging them to death.
Upgrade
The terran upgrades are the most powerful in the game so make sure you upgrade your units. If you are going metal (goliaths and tanks) prioritise upgrading the vehicle upgrades at the armory, making at least two armories so you can upgrade weapons and armour at the same time. If you are going for mass infantry with some tanks thrown in then focus on the infantry upgrades from the engineering bays, building two bays so you can upgrade weapons and armour at the same time.