When Ladder Season 3 rolled in, Blizzard had taken out most of the undesired maps, including Scrap Station. However, they also did away with Metalopolis, which is arguably the most balanced map in the beta and the first two seasons. What replaced them were maps that drew mixed reactions from players, among them is Antiga Shipyard. Between the new maps, Antiga Shipyard seemed to be the most balanced one by far.

Map Description

Official: “Taking the correct 2nd expansion is the main difference on this map. Choose between the safer, high ground normal expansion or the more dangerous but more rewarding high yield expansion.”

This has been used in GSL August and has been included in the map pool of MLG as they had removed Testbug, which was the wild child among them in that circuit. With Antiga Shipyard, it’s a 4-player map, so there are cross positions unlike in Testbug which is quite a whirlwid of a 3-player map. However, the positions of the main bases are along the sides and not the corners, so you get more of a 12-to-6 and 9-to-3 in cross positions, which is different from the other current maps.

Features

There’s a backdoor from the third base where the destructables rocks are. It’s a good distance away from the natural, so it may require some constant scouting to defend that position while still covering your natural and main. If you’re going through here into your enemy’s base, it’s best to do so as a counterattack when your enemy is at his weakest.

There are a lot of ledges and spots in the main base where line of sight can be blocked, like rising smoke. Beware of things like proxy buildings and harassment units in these locations as they can be ignored quite easily when positioned there. This is especially true with elevator play, where warp prisms, medivacs, or overlords can transport units like tanks or zerglings from lower to higher ground quite easily. Make sure to have a unit there to keep watch.

Just like in Backwater Gulch, there are two gold bases in the middle of the map that can taken for a significant boost in income, but they’re as exposed as newborn babies. There are also high ground behind the mineral lines, so ranged units can easily perch up there are kill enemy workers down below, so these gold bases are definitely very risky.

The third base is so close to the main base that you can take tanks, colossi, or infestors to the edge of that third near the opponent’s main and just attack him from there. You can throw down some infested terrans from there or just siege up to kill as many workers as you can from that position. As for you, it is important to keep mind of this position as it may cost you the game if you’re unaware of your opponent taking it to his advantage.

Strategy

This map isn’t bad at all for Protoss, particularly in macro game. The map size is not really for cheesy play, so it will take some time to get an advantage. Among the new maps, this is the only one big enough for openings other than 4-gate. While it’s still not recommended to take expansions early, you can at least go with 3-gate robo or 3-gate blink stalker easily enough.

Blink Stalkers are particularly effective in this map due to the various features in thsi map. You can blink quickly between your natural and mainand defend both easily enough. If you’re attacking someone’s base, having an observer with you will let you blink up to the main and cause significant damage before you blink away for a tactical retreat. You can also make dark templars and split them up for some chaos in PvP and PvZ.

There are gaps in the map that can be reached by blink stalkers. If you know how to shift-blink, which is basically holding the shift key to move to the edge of the side you’re on, the queueing up blink to let multiple units get to the other side without difficulty. This lets you hit enemy bases quite easily with a lot of blink stalkers. It definitely helps to have good blink micro at this point.

The Protoss will have a hard time against Terrans in a macro game with this map since Terrans will always come out on top when games drag on. The best bet for Protoss is to take the Terran out in the early to mid game. If the game drags to the 20-minute mark, the Protoss player will have to say his prayers as Terran consolidates a huge force to strike hard. Terrans can get siege tanks and hit lots of spots hard, especially right over gaps and ledges. Terrans are also great with elevator play, so look out for sudden drops when you’re playing against one.

Other things can also be used by Terran to gain some advantage. Hellions are fast enough to cover large distances in a short enough time, while Banshees can also do nicely due to how this map is laid out. There are no close air positions though, so banshee harassment can only be feasible in mid to late game. This map leans more towards upfront positional play, so macro comes up in the priority list here.

For Zergs, this map is very good for them. You can drone up quite nicely here due to the size of the map, so you can end up with these gigantic armies that is fit for the Zerg swarm. As games get longer, the Zerg can only get bigger and scarier. With matchups with the other races, you may want to take out the destructible rocks right away so that you’ll have an open field to expand and spread your Zerg influence all around with expansions.

Get Zerglings out early to scout and take down rocks, letting you establish map control early in the game. As for your Overlords, there aren’t a lot of places to hide them, sadly enough. The only places available are the gaps in between the bases that show outer space, so you might want to keep an eye on them to see what your opponent is doing. Everything else should be about building your economy and making your opponent screw up with theirs while you’re doing it.

The only time you don’t get to drone hard is in ZvZ, wherein it’s all about chaos and mayhem with early attacks, all-ins, and other such silliness. Speedling-baneling is especially good in this map, and infestors can turn the tides of battle with lots of fungal growths and infested terrans in enemy expansions. The only question at this point is who can get that first.