Starcraft AI blog

Tanks have long range. Tanks cannot shoot up. Dropping stuff on tanks is a standard way to fight them without getting blown to bits on the way in.

Protoss usually drop zealots: “zealot bombing.” Dark templar are also okay, and they’re especially okay against bots which are quick to scan when a dark templar walks into range. Zerg usually drop zerglings or ultralisks. (Fancy twist: Add a defiler for swarm. Drop other units first to soak up shots.) Terran can go with whatever mech units are convenient. But any units threaten to wreak havoc—probe bombing can be effective.

Here are IceBot’s undefended cliff tanks all but calling out to be bombed.

Sieged tanks have a minimum range, so drop right on them, ideally spreading your units to drop one or a few on top of each tank. The terran will be faced with a dilemma: Unsiege and lose defensive power, or stay put and let the tanks inflict splash damage on each other. Either way, this would be a good time for the rest of your army to rush in and break the push (a more advanced skill).

Terran has defensive options, of course. Anti-air can make drops impossible (you could go drop on an expansion somewhere instead). If the terran mix is tanks and vultures, then it may be inefficient to drop zerglings, but you could try ultralisks. If the terran mix is tanks and infantry, as LetaBot often favors, then dropping on the army may be a bad idea. But notice: Even the threat of bombing the tanks constrains the terran’s play. Anti-air and tanks must stay together for the defense to work. Whatever gives the terran enemy fewer choices gives you more.

The idea behind the protoss bulldog opening is to defeat rear tanks with zealot bombs while dragoons overrun frontal defenses. Bulldog would be a difficult opening to code because of the army coordination it calls for, but it would be cool to see a bot play it. Bulldog counters LetaBot’s siege-expand opening.