Players who have difficulty manipulating the sheer numbers
of the other races should take a look at Protoss.
Instead of the Zerg approach of swarms of weak units,
Protoss typically have only a few strong ones.
This makes the Protoss more manageable, but you must know how
to use these few units well to fair well against other races.
One thing the Protoss can do well is rushing.
Zealots are the strongest infantry units available;
early on, as few as four of them can win a game.
Moreover, they do not need Vespene gas, so a refinery can
be neglected until later. To rush with Protoss, wait until the eighth
Probe is in being constructed, then build your first Pylon.
After that, build two consecutive Gateways, immediately followed by another Pylon.
From there you build a third and possibly a fourth gateway,
making Pylons as needed. Remember never to interrupt your
production of Probes until your influx of crystals is high;
even though you are rushing, you'll need the income.
Once you have five or six Zealots, send them over.
If you can't wipe out the enemy defenses, go around them and start
attacking their peons; a setback there will magnify itself as
the game progresses.
The primary weakness of the Protoss opening game is
the lack of air defense. This can be exploited by Zerg players
who move up the technology ladder quickly and attack with Mutalisks.
If you are playing a Zerg opponent, scout their base to see if they
are building an air force; if so, stop making Zealots and mass
produce Dragoons and Photon Cannons.
If you decide not to rush, the third and fourth Gateways can be
foregone for awhile, but you still should build some Zealots for
early defense. Before any more advanced building is constructed,
build an Assimilator and start mining gas. Zealots don't need
Vespene gas, but almost every other Protoss unit does.
There is one additional topic regarding Zealots. To use ranged units
effectively, select them all and have them attack one target at a time.
This is not the case with Zealots. Doing so in a large battle
will have half of your force running around being shot.
Instead, keep the Zealots in a line and order them to move
towards your opponent. This way, all of them will be attacking
instead of just a few.
Here's a strategy for all you nostalgic Warcraft II fans:
the use of defensive structures to kill enemy peons is alive
and well with the Protoss. It only works on small maps, but try this:
abandon the build order I described above and build a Forge
right after your first Pylon. Send a Probe out to scout.
Once you find the enemy base, build a Pylon and keep building
Photon Cannons closer and closer to the enemy peons.
It's certainly cheap, but can be quite effective. To counter this,
simply scout around your base regularly.
One of the great advantages of Protoss is their shields.
To make use of this, Shield Regenerators are needed.
Build these early so they can be fully charged when you need them.
A great defensive tactic is to surround a Shield Regenerator
with Dragoons, Reavers, or Carriers and recharge them whenever needed..
Another option is to build a couple of shield generators near
an enemy base and position a group of Carriers over them.
While shields are important, one must keep other priorities in mind.
Many players upgrade their shields early in the game. Don't do this;
it is not the most cost effective upgrade early on.
The shields on early troops aren't as critical as those on more
advanced units. Focus early upgrades on improving attack capabilities;
defensive needs are secondary for the already strong Protoss.
One advanced unit that does not see enough use is the Templar.
Use hallucination to decoy the enemy and use Psionic Storm on an area
where you suspect cloaked units to be; you can kill them without a
detector. (A good joke to pull on newbies playing Terran is to create
a hallucinatory Siege Tank and convince them you captured one of their
units.) Psionic Storm also works great on tightly packed groups of
weaker units. Players also have the option of combining them into
Archons. These can be devastating in groups; simply march them
forward and kill anything in your path. Their major weakness is
the Terran Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) from the Science Vessel.
If they lose their shields, they are extremely vulnerable.
One solution is to create hallucinatory Archons to trick
Terrans into wasting their EMP.
In a long battle, the Protoss player can dominate the skies.
They have the most powerful air units in the game.
With the speed and vision upgrades, the Scouts are great, well,
scouts, as well as attack units. Observers are great scouts as well;
place one at every potential expansion location on the map
and attack enemy expansions as soon as they show up Use Carriers
as stand-off weapons, with Scout escorts to absorb damage
and diminish the air threat. Remember to return your
fleet to base regularly to have their shields recharged.
Perhaps the most powerful unit in the game is the Arbiter;
it's ability to cloak nearby units is powerful.
It can lock units in stasis, rendering them helpless
(although they cannot be harmed while the spell is in effect).
If you have some valuable units in danger, cast Stasis on your
own troops; they will be invincible, hopefully long enough for
reinforcements to arrive. While these options are nice, the most
powerful ability of the Arbiter is Recall. Group a bunch of Reavers
together, slip an Arbiter into the enemy base, and beam the Reavers
over. If the enemy air defenses are too strong, use Templars to make
hallucinatory Arbiters to draw the enemy fire. When you drop a bunch
of Reavers in the enemy base, you can almost feel the
panic over the modem.