Here's the strategy:

Load five SCVs into the Command Center.
Lift off.
Move the CC to a an island. (Alternatively, move the CC to a nearby high-yield mineral area and proceed with your normal build.)
Use the remaining SCV to scout.
Tech straight to Banshees or plan to drop ground units.

Has anyone ever done this? I've found limited success with this method, but it only works against noobs who don't scout (and thus get heavy ground defenses instead of anti-air).

Wouldn't that really slow down your eco? Even on something like Scrap Station, it would take a while for the CC to travel.

Yes, but you are protected from early rushes. Also, noobs freak out when they scout the enemy base and find nothing.

And if you fly to a high-yield mineral field, your economy actually is better. Presuming you don't get rushed.

Biggest problem with this is that your opponent is going to have income for the first thirty or sixty or ninety or however many seconds of the game while you float your CC to wherever. Sure, he ain't gonna rush you, but he'll be able to pull out something fast that is the equivalent of a timing push = your new base gone before you have any men at all. This strategy will never work (or almost never) in any league higher than gold, I can almost guarantee it.

This strategy guarantees a huge difference in economy between you and your opponent, mainly because your income graph is not linear, but rather, roughly exponential. Take a look at this:



x-axis is time while y-axis is economy. Notice the two lines are exactly identical aside from a small shift in time.

You will notice that, while the difference in time (green) is constant for all points on the graph, the difference in economic strength (red) increases substantially as time goes on. This is why the stretegy will fail most of the time, because your opponent will have vastly more money than you do.

This might work... in bronze... where the economy roughly equates to a root x graph.

I think hdstarcraft made that. At least I've seen a game with that tactics).
He won that game, but a better opponent would have been known what he was doing when all 3 other bases were empty.

Usually this is the kind of thing you want to combine with some sort of rush or proxy tactic. I've won a few games combining proxy reaper with a float to high yield on incineration zone, but they removed that map from the pool for a reason.

This kind of thing would probably work best on up to hard computer.

Since a lot of players scout early, they will probably find you and rush you.
I guess this will have better success at an island.

Just putting up with some defense is way better.

Yeah, this doesn't work in leagues higher than gold. Last time I saw a guy do this, I was able to contain him early on and take several expos. I learned the mindset of the relocating cheese noob from my time in the beta, and now I've risen up to the diamond league

Won't work cause once you float to an expo, you won't be getting a natural any time soon..

Overall, you'll just lose expo.

I dont know about pvp, but this is quite effective for a 7 insane comp FFA game. On the lava flow map, you can immediately relocate to the island (which is actually a double expansion) and let the AIs kill each other, saving you the trouble. When the fighting is over, you just need to fly in and mop up the last comp.

Damnit. I had to mass siege tanks and vikings, but your idea was a lot simpler.