Your questions are too generic and generally don't involve concrete examples. Saying "I can't defend 3 bases because I don't have units" is not a helpful way to ask for advice, because there are so many variables.

You could be losing because you aren't macroing/building enough units, you could be losing because you aren't always making probes, you could be losing because you aren't responding properly to the zerg's strategy or your timings are off, you could be losing because you build cannons too early and turtle too hard so you don't have units to make map presence, you could be losing because you aren't cutting gateway production to get your tech going faster, you could be losing because of a suboptimal build order, you could be losing because you pick poor engagement locations, you could be losing because your unit control is not great, you could be losing because you don't have enough unit producing structures, you could be losing because your scouting is insufficient, you could be losing because you didn't build enough cannons to defend when you move out, you could be losing because you let zerg drone too much by not pressuring (or feigning pressure), you could be losing because you build too many sentries and not enough stalkers, etc etc

No one is going to read that wall of text ak, sorry.

The ideal response to a fast hatchery is an extreme response imo. I look at most openings on a scale of economic--------aggressive. The zerg is choosing the most economic build he can. If you picked something middle-of-the-road like a 3gate expo, I feel you will fall significantly behind in economy, while not having a big enough military/aggression advantage to justify the loss in econ. On the other hand if you respond with a really fast nexus, cannon rush or cannon+zealot rush I feel you're in much better position to even the game out. Both the aggressive and econ routes are viable.

If you feel uncomfortable, or just don't want to play late-game against zerg though, maybe focusing on the more aggressive responses would be best.

gospy: just grabbed the first rep I saw lol

So I take it you didn't watch the other 2? lol

AK, with regards to getting into large long battles vs. zerg, you really have to do some harass vs. them. their goal is going to try to limit you to 3 bases and not any more, your objective should not necessarily prevent them from expanding to x bases (this is impossible on huge maps) but to do some harass.

so my advice would be to always try to build a warp prism and try to do some zealot or HT drops, if your micro can handle it. you can do alot of damage and if you have some upgraded zealots, they can snipe an unprotected hatchery pretty quickly. another option is to send a DT to every base right before you get into a main engagement. i've won a few games in this manner despite being behind up until that point.

if you let zerg get to like 6 bases unmolested, you probably won't be able to match the resources/production. the same can be said for you if you get up 5 bases untouched, that death ball will be replenished too quickly. so yeah, try to do more harassing throughout the game.

Didn't even watch the one I posted, I just made up a generic battle report and made raffy lose it because lolraffy.

Actually nevermind, you picked a good one.

I will no longer seek advice here. I can improve by just watching replays and looking for areas to work on. I need somewhat of a break from 2+2 anyways, not because anyone here has slighted me or anything of that sort, but just that 2+2 in general has become a generally pointless timesuck for me. As far as improving at this game goes, I need to stop posting and reading about it and just play more. And conflict like this makes me want to post horse porn in the 'ban me!' thread...

/this discussion

FYP

I see what you did there and I like it.

All this @AK stuff was making me really concerned for aK13 until I read more of the thread. lol

i love you too

i guess maybe it'd have been a good idea to check what the hotkeys are, one would assume the natural p for probe and p for pylon would carry over from brood war. oops.

It's difficult to assess the amount of truth your claim has without replays. Instead of defending your unseen sim city, macro, etc., saying that they're all fine, consider posting a replay & letting others give unbiased opinions.

Naw, everyone loves AK. Plus, I think he's too laid-back to ever make a hostile post. Pretty sure I've never even seen em type anything mean on bnet either now that I think about it.

Hotkeys on the left side of the keyboard are easier to hit imo.

It's rare that I stop my funny trolly jackass shtick (yes, believe it or not, that's not so indicative of my 24/7 real personality!) and even rarer that I post in OOT, but that thread just hit me unlike any other I've ever read. I've been through something REMOTELY similar (I stress remotely as it was just a 2 year dating relationship, albeit a very serious one contemplating the M-word, not a 6 year relationship + 2 year marriage), but I can't even imagine how he feels. It was just brutal to read through, and he was clearly being taken advantage of in his weakness. It's understandable, but the dude needs help. It's just so sad.

ill try and remember this next time a 3-base deathball is loling up and down the map on my 6-base face like tim "the tool man" taylor and his supercharged lawnmower attacking a golf course.

then ill curse your name.

well hopefully you'll have harassed him decently enough to hurt his economy before hand. if you let him get up 3 super easy then gg yo life!

Ha, I remember playing the protoss missions in the campaign and instantly making my nexus hot key "0." Quickly learned I can go back to the standard "5" for it.

Read the manbearbig thread after figuring I was missing out on something. I'm now completely on lifetilt.

Also, did anyone really think that Karak was not at heart a completely reasonable poster? I mean he trolls often, but I mean... he's done some good stuff for the community as a whole

*raises hand*

there's a few posters who vehemently dislike me. im not sure why. most people have fun with it and poke fun at me back (see: SE), but for some reason a few guys just take me deadpan 100% seriously all the time and, understandably, this causes them rage. im not saying cueball did this, but they fail to see that im leveling or being coy and think im just a bumbling, arrogant ******.

their personalities are almost all entirely the same, though. there's a poster in student life who is so like cueball in every single way it's scary. i thought they were the same person running some sort of intricate level for a while (not really, but it's just amazing how similar they are), but apparently they aren't! cueball is more intelligent than the other guy too (obviously!).

The main thing that tips people off to those kind of attitudes toward you is that you don't ever change gears. I've never been around reasonable Karak, hence, I had no clue it existed.

Yeah you need to see non Sc2 fourm Karak where he appears to be at his trolliest (or perhaps that would be reserved for the Yankees, I dunno)

Its best to just assume that Karak is a selfish ******* who is out for himself and is overall just a prick.

Thats what I do.

you lie!

needle lurrrves me. we spend long nights on skype chatting. dont try and cover us up, bro!