Starcraft Brood War: Shuttles in Protoss Versus Terran
A short discussion on their uses. Tactics and strategies associated with them will also be highlighted.
As a side benefit, the reaver requires only a single additional building (the robotics support bay) to make. It’s a very streamlined tech choice. Even the robotics support bay itself can help the tactic by offering the speed upgrade for the shuttle as well as improvements to the reaver. Unless the opponent commit to lots of turrets, goliaths or some wraiths, the shuttle reaver will continue to plague the terran. For the moment though, we’ll delay looking at specific games and talk about shuttles as…
SHUTTLES AS TRANSPORTS??
It may seem silly at first sight, but consider the previous cargo of the shuttle. They tend to be rather lone rangers that aim for a quick hit and run. Sometimes they’ll be used in a battle to abuse spider mines or the splash damage of a siege tank.
Think about how Zerg players sometimes use overlords early in the game for a surprise drop into the Terran base. Done correctly, it can catch the Terran player completely by surprise. Yet the shuttle can generally be acquired earlier than the overlord drop upgrade. While not necessarily useful in all games, it can prove deadly when used to capitalize on an advantage at times. The game below shows how Movie kept the pressure up by sneaking a small strike force while Fantasy is still reeling from his earlier attack.
As Movie’s fans may say, it’s just like a Movie!
Defensively, shuttles can be useful when facing a Terran opponent where there are a lot of cliffs. Terran players love to abuse this aspect of certain maps and place annoying siege tanks and other units on the high ground. The shuttle comes in handy at countering such tactics.
SHUTTLE’S FULL POTENTIAL?
We’ll end this short article by highlighting a famous Ever 2008 OSL game between Nada and Best. Here, Best uses the shuttles almost as a mass transport. Instead of priotizing on gas and getting very quick arbiters, Best placed a lot of faith in his shuttles and made very extensive use of them.
Best showing an uncommon style. His play is an argument that perhaps the potential of the shuttle may not yet be fully realized by Protoss players in PvT. Best’s opponent Nada finds the argument a difficult one to resist.
