the end of the rushbots: rushes and how to defeat them
Today I have a guest post by none other than Martin Rooijackers, on fast rush strategies and how to beat them. The rest of this post is written by Martin Rooijackers, author of terran bot LetaBot.
This Saturday (28 January) will be the last time that my bot will go for a rush strategy. The reason for this is simple, rush strategies will stop working against almost all the top bots. Already most top bots can hold just about anything you can throw at them off 1 base. There are a few holes in their play that I managed to exploit this SSCAI, but after those are patched, any bot will be forced to expand in order to win a game versus a top bot. In the case of my own bot: even with the suboptimal building placement, it can already hold zergling rushes more than 50% of the time. With that improved, Zerg bots will (almost) always lose if they open spawning pool first.
The only use that rush strategies would have after that would be to defeat a bot that rushes to a resource depot (14 CC, 14 Nexus and 3 hatch before pool come to mind). But you can play slightly from behind and still win with better tactics. So I prefer to go that route.
Anyway, here are the rush builds that are still effective, along with some information as to how to stop them
Worker rush
Bots that used it: Stone (predecessor to Iron bot), LetaBot. Any bot that lets its scouting unit attack the enemy workers.
The earliest rush you can do. You take your worker units and let them attack the enemy base. In the early stages of Brood War AI competitions, it sometimes happened that the scouting worker would attack the workers at the mineral line. Since some bots didn’t have any worker defence code, the scouting worker unit would simply destroy the entire work force of the opponent.
After a while, most bots would pull a worker off the mineral line and send it to attack the scouting worker. The problem with that solution was that the opponent could send more than just the scouting worker to attack the opponent.
An example of this happening in a human vs human game is Idra vs AllAboutYou (in SC2).
The first bot to specialize in the worker rush was Stone by Igor Dimitrijevic. Besides the usual attack move and retreat to repair that LetaBot was capable of before in its worker rush, Stone also prioritized SCVs that were building buildings. It got 3rd place in the SSCAI 2015. However it did get defeated by LetaBot (who had a worker rush strategy in it since its very first tournament in CIG 2014).
In 2016, LetaBot used the same strategy to defeat several bots (BeeBot, XelnagaII, Iron Bot, Krasi0). Krasi0 has already improved its worker defence in its latest version.
There are many ways to stop it. The main key is to keep on building worker units no matter what. After all, with this your production of worker units will be at the same rate as your opponent, ensuring that you will always have numerical superiority with which you should be able to hold easily. Don’t rush for a tier 1 combat unit, that only plays into the hand of the one that worker rushes you.
Terran: Watch the LetaBot vs Stone video above. You simply pull back workers that are on low hp. Just follow the regular build order (9 supply, 11 barracks) and pump marines. You will hold it easily
Protoss: Just like terran, pull back worker units that are damaged. Build a pylon when you have 100 minerals, and a gateway when you have 150. You should have a zealot out before the opponent has a critical mass of worker units.
Zerg: Go for a spawning pool when you have 200 minerals, and build a zergling when you have 50 minerals. If you went for a 4 pool, cancel the pool and build 3 worker units immediately.
Bunker Rush:
Bots that used this strategy: LetaBot
The favorite strategy of Boxer.
LetaBot is known for doing this rush back in 2014. But in the case of LetaBot, it was the proxy 5 rax variant instead of the usual marine rush:
• Proxy 5 Rax from Liquipedia
• Krasi0 vs LetaBot (2014).
To stop it, you shouldn’t go for a fast expansion, since the bunker rush hard counters such a build order. Pull workers to destroy the enemy bunker. More specifically
Terran: Pull SCVs to destroy the enemy bunker and get a bunker of your own on your ramp.
Protoss: Photon cannons out-range bunkers, so get them up asap in case the opponent managed to finish its bunkers. See Bunker Rush (vs. Protoss) from Liquipedia.
Zerg: Zerg Counter to Bunker Rush from Liquipedia.
Barrack Barracks Supply (BBS)
Also known as a marine rush.
Bots that used this strategy: LetaBot, Tyr
Example, LetaBot vs IceBot in SSCAI 2014.
Liquipedia has more information on this one. See Barracks Barracks Supply.
How to counter it:
Terran: Pull SCVs to force the marines back and build a bunker on the ramp. Terran Counter to Barracks Barracks Supply on Liquipedia.
Protoss: Protoss Counter to Barracks Barracks Supply on Liquipedia.
Zerg: Zerg Counter to BBS on Liquipedia.
4 pool
Bots that use it: ZZZKbot, way too many other ones to list here.
A popular strategy where you try to get zerglings as fast as possible. Could be considered the “Hello World” of Brood War Bot programming.
Example, Iron bot vs ZZZKbot in the SSCAI 2016.
counters:
Terran: Terran Counter to 4 Pool from Liquipedia.
Protoss: either 2 gate zealot, or Forge Fast Expand with 2 cannons and probes to block the opening.
Zerg: open with 9 pool and build a sunken colony if needed.
Cannon rush
Bots that use this: Aiur, Jakub Trancik
Example game AIUR vs Bakuryu (human player).
How to stop:
Terran: Make sure to chase the scouting probe to catch any pylon building in the main base. If outside the main base, build a wall and repair it till tanks with siege mode are out.
Protoss: go for a zealot rush.
Zerg: Go for a spawning pool. Then sunken colony or mass zerglings.
Zealot rush
Bots that use it: WuliBot, Dave Churchill, several other protoss bots
Example game: LetaBot vs WuliBot (Ro8 game 2 SSCAI 2016).
counters:
Terran: Terran Counter to Early Protoss Pressure on Liquipedia.
Protoss: 3 Gate Speedzeal (vs. Protoss) on Liquipedia.
Zerg: An overpool is a safe zerg build vs protoss. See Overpool (vs. Protoss) on Liquipedia.
safe build orders
So, with proper scouting, a bot should be able to stop any rush build if it starts out with a safe build order. There are many choices, but my suggestions for each matchup:
TvT: 2 factory build
TvP: Siege expand with a wall
TvZ: 1 rax FE. Build barracks at 10 supply.
PvP: 2 gate. start out with a zealot before dragoon
PvT: 1 gate Core
PvZ: Forge Fast Expand with 2 cannons, or 2 gate zealot
ZvT: It is usually best to go 12 hatch, but if you expect a rush go for 9 pool and put on pressure to come back from behind if terran plays standard.
ZvP: Overpool.
ZvZ: 9 pool into 1 hatch spire.
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Jay Scott on :
LetaBot on :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategy_(game_theory)#Mixed_strategy
Although in Brood War you can still win with a safe built even if your opponent started more greedy. For example, Terran can go for a greedy double expand himself after seeing a greedy 14 Nexus:
http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/1_Factory_Double_Expand_(vs._Protoss)
In general though, greedy builds soft counter safe builds. So you will have to play with a slight disadvantage (but definitely not game losing)
Jay Scott on :
LetaBot on :
My bot also played like one against certain opponents in the SSCAI 2016. But against all other bots it goes for its macro build order.
A bot that can switch between safe,rush and greedy based on previous results (like AIUR does with its "mood" system) isn't a rush bot.
LetaBot on :
The latest version of krasi0 isn't uploaded to the SSCAI yet, since uploading is disabled while the tournament is running. So this saturday 28 January 20:00 CET (on https://www.twitch.tv/certicky ) krasi0 bot will have to make do with the worker defence that was in his bot when he uploaded his tournament version to the SSCAI.
Jay Scott on :
LetaBot on :
Jay Scott on :
AIL on :
Would like to give some input from the Zerg point of view.
You say: "Zerg bots will almost always lose if they go Spawning pool first" but later you show that any of the Save builds require to go spawning-pool first.
If both it's true, it means Z is in a tough spot. ^^;
As I may have mentioned before, my bot rolls a random number and then goes for anything between 4pool and, well, theoretically 24pool. However, I changed it so that the pool will always be built when the 2nd hatch is on their way because delaying it further would just lose too often. And against Z the roll is from 4-16 pool instead as there's no way to survive against any early pressure with a later transition into units.
My experience is: Against Z any of the Only works to a certain extend, eventually the zealots overwhelm them
Expand => No way to bring it through, the double expand as mentioned on Liquipedia seems especially impossible to survive
Sunkens => Weakens eco quite a lot
Teching => weakens eco and army-count at the same time
The only thing that kept me alive was building massive amounts of zerglings and camping in my own base near a sunken.
But eventually UAB expands, adds Dragoons and kills me anyways.
Is there any Z-Bot that consistently beats UAB-Protoss? I really need some inspiration for that. I mean I don't mind losing to sophisticated Bots like Ironbot but losing to a bot that does one thing over and over while not even knowing how I can counter it as a human frustrates me.
Jay Scott on :
LetaBot on :
In general though, ZvT is very tricky for zerg, because Terran can go for a semi-allin sunken bust (sparks, 4 rax timing push etc) and even if the attack fails, Terran is still not much behind because Terran forced Zerg to spend minerals on sunkens.
Jay Scott on :
AIL on :
Does that post mean:
"We know the finals will be LetaBot winning via SCV-Rushing and because that is so lame, we do a showmatch with newer version of both bots right after where there is no SCV-Rush"?