As you know, Blood Bath is one of Brood War's most notoriously small maps that formerly had a small following of dedicated players. The small size of the map encouraged constant micro intensive engagements and fast paced action. Along with the small, dedicated fanbase came a plethora of strategies of large diversity and depth fleshed out as time grew every corner was searched for the ideal playstyles that today have been unearthed.
For the guide I'm going to focus on one race's perspective of the three matchups and provide the early game strategy, mid game strategy, and late game strategy as well as a basic overview/basic flow of the different matchups and how they should be played and covering some basic scenarios that might occur and possible ways to respond. Different playstyles I might mention for the same matchup so I'll mention those and provide some great tricks/tips. Different strategies to play the same matchup will be labelled numerically. Unit compositions will be provided for each stage of each matchup.
Disclaimer: I felt impatient so I posted the guide without the Zerg and Protoss segments. Take my advice partially because it might be wrong.
Terran BB Guide
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Terran vs. Zerg
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Terran vs. Protoss
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Terran vs. Terran
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The flow of the matchup doesn't differ far too differently from more modern maps. While openers are far more adaptive the general stages of the game go from the Zerg getting 2 hatch Lair tech, making some sunkens to defend against Sunkens, and then doing a tank push hoping to kill Zerg off before Hive tech. The power of Defilers and Tanks are compounded greatly by the short rush distance between bases. Marine, medic, siege tanks, vultures, and science vessels will be your primary units throughout the game.
Early Game
8 rax is the safest opener for the matchup and can successfully defend against 4-9 pool. The first scout should be sent around 9 supply. You then tech to two rax academy most commonly to force zerg to make sunken colonies which are, as I've mentioned before, all the more earlier due to the small map size.
Unit comp: Marine, medic
Mid Game
At this point you've gotten yourself a hefty army of siege tanks+science vessels to start pushing out against the Lurkers. The Zerg will most likely try to clamp on your push by having army units spread out in the 2 other bases in the map for a chance to surround your army. Start incorporating several vultures+mines at this point due to having only one refinery. Constant vulture production will be necessary to successfully defend against incoming swarm sieges!
Unit comp: Marine, medic, siege tank, science vessel, vulture
Late Game
Keep your boot straps to the floor cuz u arrived to the late game, yayyy. Spider mines+irradiate, and maybe some firebats thrown in will establish the necessary strength you need to defend and split the map acquiring the ever valuable 2nd gas. Science Vessels, especially due to the sparse gas income are ever more valuable at this critical stage of the game!. Turtle until you starve out the zerg, and splitting the map is easier because of the two choke points.
Unit Compositions: Marine, medic, vulture, siege tank, science vessel
Early Game
8 rax is the safest opener for the matchup and can successfully defend against 4-9 pool. The first scout should be sent around 9 supply. You then tech to two rax academy most commonly to force zerg to make sunken colonies which are, as I've mentioned before, all the more earlier due to the small map size.
Unit comp: Marine, medic
Mid Game
At this point you've gotten yourself a hefty army of siege tanks+science vessels to start pushing out against the Lurkers. The Zerg will most likely try to clamp on your push by having army units spread out in the 2 other bases in the map for a chance to surround your army. Start incorporating several vultures+mines at this point due to having only one refinery. Constant vulture production will be necessary to successfully defend against incoming swarm sieges!
Unit comp: Marine, medic, siege tank, science vessel, vulture
Late Game
Keep your boot straps to the floor cuz u arrived to the late game, yayyy. Spider mines+irradiate, and maybe some firebats thrown in will establish the necessary strength you need to defend and split the map acquiring the ever valuable 2nd gas. Science Vessels, especially due to the sparse gas income are ever more valuable at this critical stage of the game!. Turtle until you starve out the zerg, and splitting the map is easier because of the two choke points.
Unit Compositions: Marine, medic, vulture, siege tank, science vessel
Terran vs. Protoss
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Terran vs. Protoss in my experience has been tough from a Terran perspective, but not impossible. Terran is going to have to play it safe and turtle style. The overarching goal in a long term game is to obtain another gas expansion and turtle until the end of time. A legitimate strategy of play in maps is to only defend and split the map in half. On Blood Bath the task becomes easier with only 4 main bases. The second strategy is a quick Siege tank medic marine bust all in. You're going to heavily focus on slowly adding Siege tanks to extend your territorial grip. The surplus of minerals is best used to create several vultures, marines, and medics, and a command center or two. Vessels are low priority. Protoss with its great mobility may have two bases as you push out, and even three.
Early Game
1)You're gonna want to wall in. It's kinda simple ish. These should be zealot tight wall ins that you can find with a bit of scrolling down in this thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/57264-blood-bath-tipstricks-and-strategies. This is great for meching. Of course, the danger of close rush distance Dragoons forces you to make a bunker after your refinery. Get siege mode asap to fend off Dragoons. Dragoons will be able to attack the wall off buildings even with the bunker so be prepared to repair. Make an Engineering Bay shortly after your first factory in case of DT's or Reavers. You don't really have much choice in the matter unless you've managed to hide an SCV somewhere on the map to scout what Protoss is doing. Get siege mode asap to fend off Dragoons. After your engineering bay is done place some turrets down.
Unit comp: Marine, Siege Tank
2) In the second strategy you can open 2 rax academy to put the pressure on Protoss. In my experience this is susceptible to 2 gate cannon rushes but if you manage to get it off the ground you can put on some early pressure to the Protoss from the get go. Protoss in their defense will have to make some cannons. You want to make sure your buildings have a good anti zealot sim city.
Unit comp: marine, medic, firebat
Mid Game
1)Save money up for a CC. Along the way I like to get some infantry upgrade while constantly producing off of the rax and Factory. Add on a second factory with some additional barracks and an academy. Begin the slow crawl to an adjacent base to establish your second gas and completely fortify the choke points with plenty of bunkers and siege tanks. Expect a mix of Dragoons, High Templar, and Zealots
Marine, medic, vulture, siege tank
2) Get out your siege tank to apply some pressure. Some players have gone for a marine/medic/vulture build sometimes that can crush Protoss! Do your best to Boxer split for the incoming psionic storms. Hopefully you win the engagement soon enough. It's an all in style of play that really won't survive past the mid game if you don't do something awesome. The focus is to slowly creep into the Protoss' base and kill off cannons.
Unit comp: Marine, medic, siege tank, vulture
Late Game
1)At this point Protoss has most likely teched to mass Carrier. If you can, start using your Siege Tanks offensively before the Carriers start to snowball in numbers. Otherwise, if Protoss is still committed to ground units he's probably gonna try everything they can within their power to break your defense. Continue turtling until you feel confident that you can knock out their bases! Terran's nature of being a cost effective race will benefit you in this scenario and is the overall emphasis of the split map strategy.
Unit Composition: Marine, medic, siege tank, vulture, goliath
Early Game
1)You're gonna want to wall in. It's kinda simple ish. These should be zealot tight wall ins that you can find with a bit of scrolling down in this thread: http://www.teamliquid.net/blogs/57264-blood-bath-tipstricks-and-strategies. This is great for meching. Of course, the danger of close rush distance Dragoons forces you to make a bunker after your refinery. Get siege mode asap to fend off Dragoons. Dragoons will be able to attack the wall off buildings even with the bunker so be prepared to repair. Make an Engineering Bay shortly after your first factory in case of DT's or Reavers. You don't really have much choice in the matter unless you've managed to hide an SCV somewhere on the map to scout what Protoss is doing. Get siege mode asap to fend off Dragoons. After your engineering bay is done place some turrets down.
Unit comp: Marine, Siege Tank
2) In the second strategy you can open 2 rax academy to put the pressure on Protoss. In my experience this is susceptible to 2 gate cannon rushes but if you manage to get it off the ground you can put on some early pressure to the Protoss from the get go. Protoss in their defense will have to make some cannons. You want to make sure your buildings have a good anti zealot sim city.
Unit comp: marine, medic, firebat
Mid Game
1)Save money up for a CC. Along the way I like to get some infantry upgrade while constantly producing off of the rax and Factory. Add on a second factory with some additional barracks and an academy. Begin the slow crawl to an adjacent base to establish your second gas and completely fortify the choke points with plenty of bunkers and siege tanks. Expect a mix of Dragoons, High Templar, and Zealots
Marine, medic, vulture, siege tank
2) Get out your siege tank to apply some pressure. Some players have gone for a marine/medic/vulture build sometimes that can crush Protoss! Do your best to Boxer split for the incoming psionic storms. Hopefully you win the engagement soon enough. It's an all in style of play that really won't survive past the mid game if you don't do something awesome. The focus is to slowly creep into the Protoss' base and kill off cannons.
Unit comp: Marine, medic, siege tank, vulture
Late Game
1)At this point Protoss has most likely teched to mass Carrier. If you can, start using your Siege Tanks offensively before the Carriers start to snowball in numbers. Otherwise, if Protoss is still committed to ground units he's probably gonna try everything they can within their power to break your defense. Continue turtling until you feel confident that you can knock out their bases! Terran's nature of being a cost effective race will benefit you in this scenario and is the overall emphasis of the split map strategy.
Unit Composition: Marine, medic, siege tank, vulture, goliath
Terran vs. Terran
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This is a matchup I have little experience playing. However, it is by all means ever the more intense with tight chokes and close distances between bases. Most of the fights are going to be who can contain who. If it gets into the late game it becomes a scrappy cost efficient game of who can get the better spellcaster/spell trade offs in delicate skirmishes.
Early Game
1) Safest bet is to go for mech. It does wonders. Make sure to make a bunker after your refinery in case of any marine aggression from constant 1 rax or 2 rax production.
Unit comp: marine
Mid Game
Once you've made your factory go for some Tanks. Get siege mode preferably. The game can become hectic from this stage and all sorts of zany confusing.
Unit comp: Siege Tank, vulture
Here are some optional tech paths:
second factory
Starport
Command Center
It's tough to decide. With dropships you can do a lot of marine drops on entrenched Siege tank positions to have them fire at each other while your siege tanks close the distance. It's also really good for leap frogging between bases because the air space is incredibly small. You can circumvent really good contains too.
However, with that second factory you might just be able to work some magic somehow, posture yourself for that second base perhaps?
I think the command center idea is really bad. Don't do it. You get maybe 3 more additional mineral patches because the other in base expansions suck. You won't have enough units to get a gas base.
Late Game
It's a tough world. If you've managed to split the map and/or contain the opponent, then you're already transitioning into the spellcaster/special abilities phase of the game. Battlecruisers, Ghosts, Science Vessels, anything is possible. Nuke is really good because the range of the blast can kill off siege tanks just barely at the edge of it without having the ghost deploying the nuke dying to siege tank fire. Yay Ghosts. BC's are super imba for their Yamato. You can counter the yamato by defense matrixing the unit that is getting yamato'd before the ya ya yamato goes off...Lockdown is also really good. It's all about applying constant attention to all areas of the map so your opponent doesn't start Yamato'ing your units without you noticing. A second of oversight can cost you several hundreds in resources and possibly the game. Hover dem raxes over the tanks.
Unit comp: Marine, Ghost, BattleCruiser, medic, siege tank, science vessel
Zerg
Early Game
1) Safest bet is to go for mech. It does wonders. Make sure to make a bunker after your refinery in case of any marine aggression from constant 1 rax or 2 rax production.
Unit comp: marine
Mid Game
Once you've made your factory go for some Tanks. Get siege mode preferably. The game can become hectic from this stage and all sorts of zany confusing.
Unit comp: Siege Tank, vulture
Here are some optional tech paths:
second factory
Starport
Command Center
It's tough to decide. With dropships you can do a lot of marine drops on entrenched Siege tank positions to have them fire at each other while your siege tanks close the distance. It's also really good for leap frogging between bases because the air space is incredibly small. You can circumvent really good contains too.
However, with that second factory you might just be able to work some magic somehow, posture yourself for that second base perhaps?
I think the command center idea is really bad. Don't do it. You get maybe 3 more additional mineral patches because the other in base expansions suck. You won't have enough units to get a gas base.
Late Game
It's a tough world. If you've managed to split the map and/or contain the opponent, then you're already transitioning into the spellcaster/special abilities phase of the game. Battlecruisers, Ghosts, Science Vessels, anything is possible. Nuke is really good because the range of the blast can kill off siege tanks just barely at the edge of it without having the ghost deploying the nuke dying to siege tank fire. Yay Ghosts. BC's are super imba for their Yamato. You can counter the yamato by defense matrixing the unit that is getting yamato'd before the ya ya yamato goes off...Lockdown is also really good. It's all about applying constant attention to all areas of the map so your opponent doesn't start Yamato'ing your units without you noticing. A second of oversight can cost you several hundreds in resources and possibly the game. Hover dem raxes over the tanks.
Unit comp: Marine, Ghost, BattleCruiser, medic, siege tank, science vessel
Zerg
Zerg BB Guide
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Zerg vs. Terran
Zerg vs. Terran is a delicate matchup of patience and deterrence. Gaining an advantage through defending while getting quick tech or massing Lair units is vital for defending the inevitable mid game push that Terran will pose. Defend the Terran's attacks until you slowly build your economy with drones. In the momentum breaking point you can quickly overcome your opponent pumping out units nonstop.
Early Game
1) Economic Strategy:The best build is to go overpool in my experience. Most Terrans will go 8 rax to defend the possibilities of a 4 pool and at least be able to heavily punish 12 hatch. Overpool is a middle of the road build but is still vulnerable to a bunker rush. The next direct tech path is to go for the 2nd hatchery at the natural+2 hatch lair of either mutalisks or lurkers.
2) Fast Tech Strategy: A lot of players due to the fact it's a small map try to 1 hatch but it becomes a very all in build and the large window of time when you're vulnerable has to be made up by putting down 2 sunken colonies to cover the perimeter of your base because your creep from 1 hatch is nowhere near the choke.
zerg vs. Protoss
Zerg
zerg vs. Zerg
idk....too fast...too micro
Zerg vs. Terran is a delicate matchup of patience and deterrence. Gaining an advantage through defending while getting quick tech or massing Lair units is vital for defending the inevitable mid game push that Terran will pose. Defend the Terran's attacks until you slowly build your economy with drones. In the momentum breaking point you can quickly overcome your opponent pumping out units nonstop.
Early Game
1) Economic Strategy:The best build is to go overpool in my experience. Most Terrans will go 8 rax to defend the possibilities of a 4 pool and at least be able to heavily punish 12 hatch. Overpool is a middle of the road build but is still vulnerable to a bunker rush. The next direct tech path is to go for the 2nd hatchery at the natural+2 hatch lair of either mutalisks or lurkers.
2) Fast Tech Strategy: A lot of players due to the fact it's a small map try to 1 hatch but it becomes a very all in build and the large window of time when you're vulnerable has to be made up by putting down 2 sunken colonies to cover the perimeter of your base because your creep from 1 hatch is nowhere near the choke.
zerg vs. Protoss
Zerg
zerg vs. Zerg
idk....too fast...too micro
Porrolocotoss
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PvP
Mind Control
PvT
Just be really good about Dragoons and Dt's and yah...
PvZ
Don't die. Mass reaver. Good.
Mind Control
PvT
Just be really good about Dragoons and Dt's and yah...
PvZ
Don't die. Mass reaver. Good.
Thanks for reading the guide ladies and gentlemen. Please critique the thing and I love yes thank you.