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Isolation

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Isolation

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I'd say almost certainly the toughest matchup for khral so I'll start here with tips and tricks I've been using and maybe add to them later, and yes I am Solitary. This is my khral account which I assume people suspected I was building and which I kept secret until I was verging over 1900 so hopefully I'll be pushing through the 1900 ranks by the time people see this :p. Anyways, enough rambling and on with the section!!!

1. Know your maps. There's a lot of maps where the odds are heavily tilted against khrals in this matchup and where you might as well just save your rating points and not bother playing. The maps I have been favouring as khral are: hurtgen forest, montevideo, gold rush and chato hill (although I don't play chato hill as blue because I think red is advantaged).

2. Get buried units. They are better if they don't get hit by helis before you sink them but as you'll be facing down marine spam on almost every map then you need units in place to combat it and sorry, but everything else is too expensive to fight marines.

3. Make sure your buried units are well placed. This means a whole load of things really so I guess I'll summarise some of my general ways of positioning buried units :o. Taking the movement range of a marine and placing the buried unit just outside if means you are likely to have a nasty surprise for anyone advancing at maximum movement and has the advantage they can't see it. Also mix in mid distance units as well to allow combination attacks and prevent yourself being predictable, and also prepare combinations. For example, if there is a critical unit like a battery then as well as placing one unit beside it then it is also very powerful to place one underneath it as well (so that when the battery dies from the underling next to it then you not only have a second resurface hit but also a better shield for your expensive units). If the enemy allows you enough underlings for all distances before advancing then you should have advantage when it comes to trading punches as the underlings will cripple any marines next to them (and can render a battery useless with one hit, or kill it).

4. Don't build pinzers or infectors. There's rare occasions when that rule is safe to avoid but in most cases the infector won't pay for itself and pinzers will just sit there eating hits from helicopters while you watch unable to move or counterattack because you spent all your credits on pinzers and an infector to heal it.
Isolation

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Isolation

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5. Don't go in with a set build and hope it will work. It's very important to watch how many helis and how many marines or even maruaders are being built by the sapien as if you have the wrong unit mix you will get slaughtered before you can even say "damn I wish garuda did more damage to marines". And contrary to other advice in the khral section I believe buried underlings or underlings on terrain to be great against marauders.

6. Be wary of jumping into the fight too fast. If your units aren't placed correctly the sapien will run you over in 2-3 turns so don't be afraid of backing up even if it costs you a unit or two as you should be able to make it back if your underlings are at least placed with potential to improve. It is literally a minefield for sapiens to advance against ninjalings and especially as they get close to your base the underlings which fall behind the advance can block support or hinder safe retreat of the sapien units.

7. Don't chase small advantages too hard. Even when it looks like you're getting the upper hand then khral strength is in healing and positional attacks mostly rather than brute force and if you are not careful then you can easily snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Garuda heal 2hp each a turn and taking that before swooping in with the higher health garuda plus one you made subsquent to gaining a superior unit count is a more solid way of converting advantage.

8. Use swarmers and wyrms sparingly. Both those units are very powerful but only with large amounts of protection from other units. Garuda is your main meatshield with underlings popping up from strategic locations!!! My main use of wyrms and swarmers is to target units on hexagons where I've buried an underling as when the underling resurfaces to strike at another unit, you gain an additional shield as well.

That's my learnings for the moment so hope you enjoyed the read, and good luck .

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Nov 15, 2010 10:24

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nfong

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nfong

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Lol I get it. Solitary is like a synonym of isolation.

When life gives you lemons...

"TAKE YOUR DAMN LEMONS BACK, LIFE. I DON'T WANT YOUR STINKIN' LEMONS."
Solitary

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Solitary

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And trying to represent khrals as they still don't seem to have any prominent players :o. One loss heading my way but mostly still wins as I work through the 1900 levels and my win/loss ratio is surprising even myself xD. Think I'll slow down once I get to playing more 2100 players though as whilst I am a 2100+ sapien I'm not quite there yet with khral :o.

I was quite pleased with 30 wins against 3 losses (one of which testing out the 3 minute game cheating victory thing) though so hopefully khrals will get their advocate shortly!
Xenai

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Xenai

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Nice stuff in general, but I somewhat disagree with the point about not building Pinzers, I find them very useful as a meatshield because saps don't really have anything that can take them down in anything like good time.
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Nicko

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Nicko

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No prominent khral players? I'm offended Krhal is my main race after all...
And yeah, pinzers qualifies for me as meatshields, swarmer as surgical striker, underling as cannon fodder unless buried which makes him a deadly weapon.
Then comes the wyrm and the infestor, only built if I want to make some pressure on the opponent and be able to make a constant offense. I learnt the hard way that going after all the minor advantages is bad, especially as khrals ^^
But don't build pinzers? Well I dunno it depends on the map, if it's to control a choke point sure but against saps he isn't that useful. More like an anti eclipse if you will.

"I hate the world's population, it's too large and getting larger. People need to slow down on the sex!"
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Solitary

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Solitary

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Xenai, this thread is about beating sapiens not about surviving as long as possible against them :p. Pinzer doesn't beat sapiens, in 95% of cases all it does is stall inevitable defeat which is not the object of this guide and not the object of my play xD.

And lol Nicko, I must confess I forgot about you although you I had the idea you mix it up with sapiens pretty regularly when you're playing 1v1? My isolation account is exclusively with khral although it's getting interesting now I'm over 1900 I'm getting games against the 2000+ players so will see if I can keep climbing!
Isolation

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Isolation

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And current ranking/stats for this account is as follows xD.

Isolation

Score: 1963
Victories: 38
Losses: 3
Preferred race: Khraleans

Average points per win: 13

I have 2 likely losses pending but nothing that will drop me in ranking too much. I'm posting this because I want it clear to anyone starting debates with me on this guide that I've trashed almost every single player I've gone up against below 1900 rank, so please think before you post.

Highest ranked sapiens I've beaten are over 2100.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Nov 19, 2010 07:06

Xenai

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Xenai

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Your statement that there are no prominent khral players seems strange, since there are many in the top 100. If in some way they didn't get there legitimately, I've played at least 1 khral ranked over 2300 myself. Pinzers are quite effective as a meatshield for your Wyrm, and as an anti-marine later on, particularly on Piriapolis. Infectors are also very good on closer maps like Jungle. If we must bring rank into this, I'm 2075 as a sap player who recently switched to Khrals (on the same account).
Solitary

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Solitary

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Most of the top 100 are cheats, there's maybe 10-20 legitimate players in there. I was 2200 as sapiens until I started trying to learn khral with this account and playing people a little too high ranked for me to be able to beat with a race I'd never played. Nicko is one of the highest ranked khral players and he's not exclusively khral and you just said you got that ranking with sapiens. My isolation account is going to pass 2000 soon, that's only playing as khral and hosting 90% of the games so players of either race can challenge me.

If you look for khral hosted games you'll find virtually none compared to all the titan and sapien hosted games and most of the khral hosts will abandon if you join as sapiens. Pinzers don't win games as khral though is the central point. They are too static and will just get mowed down by helis and a couple of marines by anyone who knows that full health marines on terrain can finish off a damaged pinzer pretty easily.

Depends who you've been playing I guess :o.
Xenai

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Xenai

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Hmm, seems little point to arguing stats on the forum, I'll invite you to a set of Khral Sap games on Piralopolis complete with Pinzer if you're willing. I know that lesh who's a 2303 Khral and Arrow who's a 2237 Khral are legitimate players however.
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Swarrrm

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Swarrrm

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Thanks for posting this.
Solitary

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Solitary

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You're welcome swarmmmmm :o. And make it games on three different maps Xenai as Pirapolis is pretty much the only map where I can see pinzer might possibly be useful because there's no terrain at all in the centre. If we're taking pinzer to generally not be useful against khral then we should be playing a range of maps to establish that .
Xenai

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Xenai

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"Don't build pinzers or infectors."
"Pinzer doesn't beat sapiens."
"Pinzers don't win games as khral though is the central point."

I am not arguing whether it's general useful, merely that the above statements are wrong. And since you only play 4 maps as Khral, adding pirapolis to that pool would expand it by 25%, which is rather substantial. If you're willing to build infectors you can even expand it to 6 maps, as infectors are very powerful on jungle.
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nfong

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nfong

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I find infectors useful on small maps. Your sap opponent will have nowhere to run, and you can spread plague easily, without endangering your infector.

Solitary, are you only playing against saps with your isolation account?

When life gives you lemons...

"TAKE YOUR DAMN LEMONS BACK, LIFE. I DON'T WANT YOUR STINKIN' LEMONS."
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