Starcraft 2 Cheese Tactics

[GammaZord]

For those who don't know, a cheese tactic is a very unconventional, somewhat all-in play in a strategy game. Actually, "Cheese" can be in any game (esp. figthing games) and is basically considered a cheap way of playing.

Anyway, I wanna talk more about the common SC2 (or SC/BW) cheese strategies and what you think about them.

Personally, I have no problem with them and think they are a necessity to keep players on their toes. In fact in the final match of The King of the Beta tourney I saw a professional (TesteR) use a cannon contain and I've seen plenty of gateway and rax proxies in pro games as well. So I don't think these strats can be just "noob shit" because these players are anything but.

Very Basic examples of "Cheese:"

Toss:
Gateway proxy (build a gate and pylon generally outside or near opponents base--hopefully keeping them from seeing it)
Cannon Contain (build cannons outside opponents main in early game)

Terran:

Rax proxy(similar to gate proxy, but Barracks can also be flown into opponets base)

Zerg
Very early spawning pool (devote all resources to a few zerglings hoping to get them out before opponents combat units--totally an all-in move)**The only one that I really don't like**

So, what do you guys think about these and similar strats?

Edit: I know there's been threads about Zerg rushes and other specific strats, I want this to be a more general thread about unconventional tactics. It doesn't have to be just about the Starcraft series either.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

A "cheese" strategy is almost always born in the top-tiers of play. The very idea with them is to abuse a single imbalance, bug or flaw in the game to maximize your gain. It is not nooby, but it is certainly not good for the game as a whole, because it develops the metagame towards maximizing the abuse of the system.

The example I am most familiar with was the Pio-Spam of Company of Heroes. As a strategy, it required quite some micro but it was also nigh on unstoppable due to how cheap Pioneers were and how effectively they could quickly gain territory and demolish bases.
Was it stoppable? Yes, but often it snowballed the game out of control even if your base wasn't ruined by pios. Eventually, patches were made to make massive amounts of pioneers less feasible.

Compared to other tactics around at the time, Pioneer Spam required far less invovelment in macro strategy, as you only had to build one building (the Kampfkraft Center to buy Veterancy for your Pios) and call in one support unit (Stormtroopers to equip with Shrecks) and move your pioneers around in roving groups. There wasn't any decent counter apart from "if you get lucky and your opponent screws up, you can do this...". As far as I am concerned, cheese tactic are legitimate in so far as they aren't downright cheating. But I also find them highly unsporting, kind of like the internet-version of aiming your tackle for the opponents legs instead of the ball in Soccer.

 

[JLML]

On Age of Empires III you can, if your hometown is high level enough and you're playing a map with the right natives, almost insta-build cuirassiers as the french. In a matter of minutes it's possible to have a big army of the heaviest cavalry units in the game. Actually, it's one of the heaviest unit in the game. With an AoE attack. (when playing against a friend that showed me this tactic it took about 3-4 minutes for him to spam up about 50 of them, wiping my base at once EDIT: those 3-4 minutes included wiping my base, just so you know. The cuirassiers (almost) build faster than you can click the icon for them)

Almost impossible to counter (only counter I know of is to do the exact same thing, or play a really large map so the one using the tactic won't find you fast enough) it's lucky it's only usable in a deathmatch. (deathmatch = start with shitloads of resources)

 

[Rusty Bucket]

Personally can't see anything wrong with the Terran/'toss examples. If you're ballsy and lucky enough to get cannons, pylons, gateways or a barracks up outside the enemy's base, and they're bad enough to let you, then well done.
Still can't stand the 6-pool though. There's nothing really technically wrong with it, it's just really annoying. I don't like the stigma that surrounds these sorts of tectics. They're almost always all in, so if it fails, you're fucked.

 

[The Electro Gypsy]

Cheese tactics do tent to be durty and I do oppose them personally. I appreciate the argument of "It's a tactic that works" but I like my games to be fun and not about winning in under 3 mins...

 

[BlackCandleLight]

the zerg cheese is incredibly risky because if you can't finish your opponent with it the you are economically screwed and will be far enough behind that your base will be easy pickings.
if you zerg cheese and win then it is the other guys fault for being too slow to get units out,
if you lose its your fault for killing your own economy

 

[krikkitelder]

Just thought i'd add one quick thought about the various cheese-tactics in SC2 and why they are skewed against the zerg (both in executing and countering them). One of the most important factors involved in cheesing/countering is scouting, if you scout a player's cheese early that enables you to modify your build order to attempt to counter it.
A zerg must build all their structures on creep, so if you get a semi-early worker scout into their base you've instantly detected the early spawning pool. The terran and protoss cheese-tactics involving proxy structures can be placed virtually anywhere, so even if you detect something fishy going on in their main, it can take you that much longer to scout the cheese. Additionally, when it comes to countering cheese, terran and 'toss can wall-off their ramp in order to hold-back incoming cheese, the zerg unfortunately do not have this early-game option .
Personally I think cheese takes the fun out of the game.