hello,

i started playing starcraft about 3 month ago, and i really like it but discovered some problems, and now like to ask you if you use houserules changing these things.

after about 30 1on1 sctbg games we discovered that most of the times we ended up building mostly air units (especially with the new broodwar planets). imo the problem is that "anti-air" units like dragoon (goliath since broodwar is more potent) are too expensive and weak (compare dragoon and wraith, same costs both air and ground attack but wraith is flying, has slightkly better values and imo the better tech...). so its almost impossible to tech the non-air buildings only while your opponent builds air couse you dont have a lot of chances to counter. did you make the same observation regarding this aspect?

different thing: do you use the defend-order? we decided to make a houserule: if you use the defend order you may not move the units, you put in the defend-token area again during this round. problem was, when we played the original rules, defend order wasnt used to defend an area but to get out of an planet your opponent wanted to attack, with the possibility to reattack if he moves in anyway or to collect units for an attack from another planet. so you dont have to take care not to leave precious units in a planet your oponent may attack if you caN get them out easily before normal orders are executed... also alot of times we used defend orders instead of mobilize orders just to get the token..

bye

Air units have advantage especially in BW, due to areas that only they can move to (and in result - control, attack). Those areas are often combined with those which are "ground only", so that blocking air-only areas will hold construction of air units on such planet for a long time. In BW, having air units gives just too much benefits:

- additional CP points / strategic areas

- safe hideouts for your units

Despite the fact that air units have some serious cons:

- no Ground Splash Damage (except Mutalisks, but it's limited, really harmful only for Protoss due to Zealot's cost)

- most (often cheaper) anti-air units have bonus to attack vs air

- high price comparing to their strength in combat (vs ground)

Unfortunately, Air Splash Damage is not balanced, what can be seen especially for Terran (Valkyries + Irradiate/EMP are devastating for Zerg/Protoss air units) what makes capturing air-only areas even harder.