Between different tiers of cards, radically different heroes, and wildly diverging creatures, there are dozens of different strategic plans to deploy if you want to win in PvP.
That classic “zerg rush” of StarCraft fame is a completely viable strategy here for anyone who has unlocked the goblin card. Let’s dive into how it works!
Castle Burn Quick Win Goblin Rush Strategy
If you aren’t familiar with the strategy, this is based on very quickly pumping out zerglings in the original StarCraft so that a mere three tiny, weak units could disrupt your opponent’s economy and prevent them from every regaining the lead. It was a cheap, lame way to win when playing as Zerg – and it worked.
In a Castle Burn PvP match, goblins are the way to go for a quick rush win, since they have one of the lowest mana costs to summon at Tier 1 and can be pumped out in large quantities to swarm alongside your higher powered hero unit.
When the battle starts, don’t construct a mana sanctum at all. This is an all-or-nothing strategy where you either win soon enough that you don’t need extra mana production, or you miscalculate the time and get annihilated before you’ll have the opportunity to build anything.
Instead, immediately place exactly one camp at the outer edge of your blue sphere of influence. Now you play a tense waiting game where you don’t spend mana on anything and wait for around 10 seconds.
When you hit around 100 - 105 mana (after the cost of building the camp), drop your hero and all the goblins you can buy for your entire mana pool. Commence with the rushing by sending them straight to the enemy castle.
If your opponent was thinking of the long game and spent their mana to construct a sanctum and camp, they won’t have the time or the mana resources necessary to counter with an effective defense.
Employing the goblin rush strategy (thanks to killdoom1 for the screenshot).
Countering The Goblin Rush
This is a strategy that only works if your opponents doesn’t see it coming and hasn’t properly prepared for it. This is all about speed over strategy or resource management. If you time it right, you will get there first and take out their castle before they can mount an effective defense.
There are several major foils to this strategy to look out for if you want to consistently win with the blitzkrieg goblin rush. In particular, be wary of these strategies:
If a player can drop an upgraded archer tower fast enough, that one building can chew through enough of the goblins to negate the rush. The fire pillar or poison mist spells will chew through the goblin horde. Bombs combined with even a single archer or cat mage can annihilate your goblins, leaving you without enough resources to get back into the battle effectively.
If you are worried another player will employ this strategy and want to defend against it, there’s another Starcraft-inspired counter to employ.
Just like the pro players used to send out one probe or SCV to scout the enemy camp and see what build order they are employing, you can create one goblin and send him over to scout the other castle.
Your single goblin scout will almost certainly die, but you will have a close up view of what the other player is spending their mana to construct. If there’s a sanctum being built, you know they are planning on defense for a long game. If there’s nothing, or only a camp, then expect a sudden rush.
Have you devised a strategy to make this rush faster, or found a better way to counter the goblin rush? Let us know your Castle Burn battle tactics in the comments below!
