The Complete Starcraft Strategy Guide.©
Table of Contents
The Races
Links
Introduction
Hello People. I have noticed many people out there playing SC who seem caught in between being a Newbie and an Expert. This is not good. I think I am pretty good (please, I do not flatter myself). At least with the bgh map, ladder games are another thing entirely. So, to help you Intermediate people out, I am going to make some rules to follow for your and me. Dont just think 'aw, I already know these things,' Knowing about them is one thing, using them when you play is something else. Lets try to beef things up here. If your looking for strategies related to starcraft 2, just go here: starcraft 2 strategy
1. Scout
The first thing that you should do in a game is scout.
I like to send my first barracks or gateway unit out,
but a probe or scv work better. Why? Because you get
them at an early stage. Early enough to see the roots
of there strategy. If you are too early however, then
you only see where he/she is, not what strategy they
are using. Sometimes The enemy is in the last place I
look, and that is very dangerous. When I find him I
see his mutas, tanks or whatever and its too late to
stop him. if you are scouting with a probe, scv, or drone,
it won't hurt your economy too much If you decide to scout
early. I don't care how you scout, but if you don't you'll
surely regret it.
2.Keep an eye out.
You will want to know if your enemy has expanded. Make
sure you know the map. If your opponent gets an
expansion then he/she will be twice as hard to kill.
Send units to the mineral places to keep watch. Zerg
are nice because they can burrow. Also, keep an eye on
your opponent's base. This is easiest with Terran
because they have comstat. If you are not Terran just
send some units into your enemy's base, regardless of
weather or not they get killed. If he is building
Carriers I think you will want to know about it.
3.Use magic units.
This is my weak point. I get lazy and say he's dead,
I'll just use brute force. I can think of soooo many
games when some Psi storm would have won me the game.
Get magic units quickly, for example, Psi storm for
Protoss, science vessels and Ghosts for Terran, Queens
and Defilers for Zerg. If you rush to get them,
however, you might regret it. Just make it a priority.
You probably all know how important irradate and psi
storm are. they stop almost everything. Always have
spare temps or a vessel around to use them. It's
always nice to have Broodling as well. How do you stop
Tanks or Templar? Broodling their guts out so they
have to replace them like mad. Don't save making them
to the last minite or you will be sorry.
4.Tanks/Reavers/Guardians
In most games, these are essencial to winning. This is
alot more of a strategy than a tip. sheer numbers
doesn't always do the job. These units are too
important to just ignore. They are great because of
their range and power. You have to spend alot of time
teching for Guardians so they are a bit less
important. The infantry for terran is very weak. If
lurkers, reavers, or hydras are dropped in your base,
you may be in trouble. To solve this problem have a
couple tanks spread in your base along with missle
turrets. Tanking an enemy is very important as well.
It will stop large armies of zerg or protoss and will
kill lurkers and other things. They out range every
other unit. It takes two Psi storms to kill a tank. It
takes two tank hits to kill a templar. This is very
important to know. When large armies come to kill you
make sure you get some tanks to hit the mixed in
templar. Reavers do MEGA damage and nice splash. If
you have alot of them, Zerg will wince every time he
attacks you with ground. Personally if I saw a
Protoss player with Reavers, I would be sweating it
out. Use ground units for scouting and defending.
Keep in mind a Zerg player can easily out number a
Protoss player so you need Reavers!
5.Upgrade
I used to ignore this rule. I have changed my ways
since then, and I understand the importance of
upgrading. During a very close match, the upgrades
will be the deciding factor. If you both have the same
amount of units, but you do a slightly larger amout of
damage because of upgrades, you'll have a much better
change of winning. It takes two hits for a Cannon to
kill an unupgraded marine or zergling(ow). If you
upgrade, it'll take three hits to kill them. things
are looking better already. One thing that bugs me
about upgrading is if you're in a game where you don't
have many minerals to spare and if you upgrade that
means that you'll get less guys, especially in the
beginning. Is it worth it? Depends on the game length.
Personally, I think it's up to you. But upgrading is
very important and it should be done in every game.
6. Micromanagement
This is what seperates the good players from the
ordinary. It is early in the game, you and the enemy
each have three dragoons. How do you win? You guessed
it, micromanagement. Highlight all three of your Goons
and hold shift. Right click the enemy dragoons one at
a time, and they will each be attacked more
efficiently. Note that the shift command is very
important. Of course, upgrades
will help you win too. If a stray SCV comes to your
base, you can use micromanagement to minimize the
losses. SCVs are strong. If you don't micromanage, you
could lose the drone it's attacking. Get two drones
and run the one being attacking around the second
drone, and it will survive. Say you are attacking a
missle turret with three wraiths. If you move the
wraith that is being shot at and about to die out of
the turret range, the Turret will automatically attack
another wraith. then you can send the hurt wraith back
in and continue with the attack without loosing any of
your units. you can do this multiple times if you need
too. Micromanaging can be used in a variety of ways.
One of my favourites is 'luring'. If you have a huge
army in front of your base, run your fastest moving
unit close the the army and then back to your defence.
A some of the enemie's units will follow. This is fun
to do against air units. What I have told you are just
some examples. Another example: you are building a
wall of cannons. Do you really wanna bring your
cursor to the build button then click the cannon
button and place the cannon where you want it? Very
time consuming. Instead put your cursor where you
want the cannon to be and press 'b' for build then
press 'c' for cannon. This works not only for cannons
but other things as well. Micromanaging can be used
in many other situations. See the bottom of the
protoss strategy for more.
7.Be aware of cluttering
Cluttering is when you keep all your units really
close together. This has its advantages and
disadvantages. When you are tanking you should
obviously keep your infantry close to your tanks. But
what happends if they get in a Disruption Web, Psi
Storm, or Plague? Ouch. If you clutter your buildings
together it'll be a nice place for your opponent to
launch a nuke or plague. If you have a fleet (12) of
Reavers in your base, you may think 'oh nice no ground
is gunna kill me'. Once again a good psi storm,
insnare, plague, or emp could get past your clutterd
reavers. Maybe you should spread them out.
8.Go to the next level
Don't stick with one particular strategy for too long.
If you decide to use mass Zerglings it may work well
for you for a while but eventually they'll figure it
out and go "hey! I'll make Firebats". If you are smart
you will switch to Hyrdas and those Bats will get
toasted.
9.Defense
In a well defended Terran base there should be Tanks
scattered throughout, not just at your choke point.
Use their range to protect your whole base. If you
clutter your Tanks and your enemy drops, it will be
easy for him/her to find a place to drop outside of
your tank's range. If they're scattered, however,
there will be no where for the enemy to land without
getting hit. If you're not Terran, many people will
drop you. When they do you'll want to have lots of
movable units to attack them with, and be sure to put
some defence by your mineral line. You won't regret
it.
10.Countering
This may seem stupid to some people but it can be
helpful in some situations. if you're playing an
allied game against an opponent, you may want to
consider counter attacking as a option. You're playing
a game where everyone has a big army. Your enemy sends
his army (and his defence) to kill your allie. He he
he, don't bother saving your allie, KILL YOUR ENEMY.
Allie can run for all you care. If you're in the other
position, don't depend your on your allie. In most
games they suck. If you're attacking, make sure you're
prepared incase your victim's allie counter's against
you. This is why you should always keep some units
behind for defence. Don't ever waste your attacks.
Wait until the time is right.
11.Expand
If you expand then the game will be yours. You will
have twice the rate of mineral intake then you had
before, and you can support more units. Should you
defend a new expansion? It depends. I don't usually
guard expansions because I'm lazy. If you're playing
with Zerg, Nydus Canals make expanding much easier.
12.Keep the pressure on
Don't stop attacking your enemy. Force hm/her into
playing defencively. Keep pushing at the entrance
until you see an opening. Eventually the enemy will
crack. In my experence the person who's playing in a
more offencive style normally wins.
The races:
I'm going to take this time to discuss the advantages
and disadvantages of each particular race. each one
was carefully designed to have just as much potential
as the rest, but your individual playing strategy may
be better matched to a certain race.
TERRAN:
For me, I sometimes prefere to play with Terran. I
think that they are the best to use in multiplayer
games. In the beginning of the game, build a Bunker as
soon as you can so you can stop any early attacks.
This is important. Early Zealots can kill Terrans, but
if you have a bunker it can save you. Is it a problem
if Zealots run into your base past your bunker? Not
really, get marines out of bunker shift click zealots.
If they turn back to attack your marines, run them
back to the bunker. (for additional information,
relate back to the Micromanagment section). Tanks have
the most range in the game. They can stop drops,
Lurkers, Reavers, Psi Storm, and lots of other things.
If you avoid using tanks then you will be seriously
restricting your gameplay. Be sure to keep some units
close to your Tanks so you can defend against short
range units. Tanks cannot attack things that are too
close, and if other tanks hit the unit, your tanks can
be dammaged by the splash. If you are tanking and
moving tanks to get closer to an enemy, they will be
more vunerable because they are unseiged. Keep your
infantry close to them. A lone Tank can get killed
fast. Medics are also very important. They can heal
stimed and damaged organic units, and the Flare
ability they have is usefull if used on lone observers
or overlords. If you use medics in your infantry
attacks will be much stronger. Goliaths have very nice
range too, but it is not something I would give that
much value to. Irradate baby. It kills zerg fast. What
will you ever do if you are going to be attacked by
two fleets of guardians with devourers? Irradate. It
works incredibly well. Keep in mind that you don't
have to use it defencively. Ghosts are very important
as well. One of the only things that can stop fully
upgraded Carriers is Lock Down. It's a very nice thing
to have. It will stop reavers as well. If there are
any annoying observers in a battle, lock them down and
you can get a free cloak or nuke. I cannot stress how
important this lock down is. I almost never see anyone
use it. Defencive matrix weak units in battle, EMP
Protoss units or buildings (especially before you
nuke). Irradate templar. Be annoying. Good Terran
players are the kings of being annoying. Firebats can
kill every meele unit except for ultras. Nice to have.
Comstat is good as well. If you need to quickly scan
for detection, or if you just want to see what your
enemy is doing you can. Two Comstats is twice as good
as one. Keep in mind that Drones, Probes, SCVs,
Vultures, and Archons do not get hit by spider mines
since they hover.
Weaknesses: Builings burn when the life level
indicator is red. plauge really hurts. Be ready to
fix with an scv. Beware of early Zealot rushes,
Carriers and BC attacks, psi storm, and Lurkers. Use
tanks to stop the lurkers and use lockdown for the
carriers/bc.
PROTOSS
Zealots are very strong for beginning units and they
are nice for rushing people. Once you have scouted
your enemy, you can deceide if an attack would be
worth it. Dark Templar are very important. Use them to
scout. They are permanently cloaked, and they can kill
marines and zerglings in one hit (unless they upgraded
and you haven't). If you are playing a Terran who is
relying on comstant then send one Dark Templar at a
time until their comstat runs out. Use them for
defence. keep in mind of other people's lazyness.
Since many people are lazy, you can use this to your
advantage. If you are attacked by another player who
is too lazy to send a detection unit, you're Dark
Templar will do lots of damage. The most important
unit for Protoss is High templar. You've all heard
about Psi Storm. It can kill almost anything. Abuse
it. Get it fast. *Note the new patch has totally
weakened psi storm. But this does not make it
useless. Corsairs will rock most other air units.
Disruption web is very useful. If a Terran player is
attacking you with Tanks and there is nothing else you
can do, get a dis web in there and storm those babys.
If you cant break an opponent's defence, the Dis Web
probably can. Reavers are one of the best ground units
in the game. They have good splash and range. it will
kill any large Zerg meele army. I really like using
Arbitors. If you ever have to transport a large army
fast to another spot on the map use Recall. this can
be done very quickly by using shortcut keys. click the
arbitor and press ctrl+1. highlight the army to
transport and press ctrl+2. then press 1-r-2-2 and
click, and the army will be transported to the
position of the Arbitor. Put cannons throughout your
base. they serve the same purpose as Tanks. Scatter
the Templar amongst the cannons.
Weaknesses: beware of Lockdown, Tanks, EMP.
Hehe psi storm stops all
ZERG:
I like to use zerg because they are fast and easy to
use. They require you to build less buildings and at
the same time they let you produce more units. You can
do this because Hatcheries can produce three larve each,
so your don't need to build lots of buildings to
produce lots of units. As well, to get food you use
Overlords instead of Suplly Depos or Pilons, so you
build more units instead of more builings. Zerg is the
best race to preform a drop with. You use Overlords,
so you have lots of food, they are detectors, and can
be used as dropships. Always have Sunken Colonies or
Spore Colonies with your units for defence. If your
units get stormed they will have colonies to hide
behind. What about a pesky Zealot rush? Colonies are
the answer. Zerglings can be useful in a rush if they are properly upgraded. A fully upgraded zergling is cheap, fast, and deadly. Lurkers will kill all meele units, even
the firebat. Be sure to have lots of these if you can
supply the amount of gas needed to support them. Mix
Lurkers into your attacks. This is very effective. you
should get Queens every game too. With a queen, you
can Broodling pesky Tanks, Ensare groups of units, Or
parasite lone detectors. Unfortunately Reavers or
Probes can't be broodlinged becase they are
mechanical. Dark swarm is super important. It stops
all air and range attacks. Sometimes the only way to
win is to use this. This is true for most magic
attacks. Dark swarm is nice when used offensively and
defencively. To stop carriers or BCs you can darkswarm
your hydras and get devorers. It is also important to
get expansions so you can keep your armies big.
Weeknesses: Zerglings get toasted by firebats. beware
of reavers, psi storm, tanks, irradate, lurkers, and
other Zerg players building on your creep
Wow big list...........
Remember I will awnser anything I get. Don't hesitate
to ask how to stop a particular strat, or for me to
tell you a build order.
***Feed back makes me very happy. If I get enough of
it I will definitly add more to this and make it
better. My email is jinwgf@gmail.com
Links
starcraft 2 strategy
