Tactics
Sections:
The Three Most important Aspects
of Gameplay
Strategy provided by: Starcraft
Millennium
The three most important aspects of gameplay that
distinguish intermediate, good, and great players are continuous activity, a
generally offensive attitude, and reconnaissance. Very briefly, their
importance to success:
First, continuous activity. While playing a game of Starcraft, one must constantly monitor their bases and units, continuously produce units, and search for new possible expansions. Many times, during an intense battle, or while carefully micromanaging some units, a player will neglect base management. Resources will begin to stock up, and buildings will be left inactive. Obviously, when two people are playing, the one that converts their resources into units will defeat the one that just has resources left collecting dust in the basement of their command center. There is nothing wrong with careful management of units, but putting a few units in queue will keep buildings productive, rather than idle and useless. Also, by continuously monitoring one's base, losses can be minimized, or even completely avoided. We have all seen or played games where someone gets dropped at their mineral line, and before they notice what's going on, all of their workers have been destroyed. By keeping a careful watch over one's base, workers can be commanded to flee at the sight of a transport, and other units can be immediately brought over to fend off the dropped units, possibly even before the entire drop is complete. Consistent monitoring of units would prevent units from getting drawn into ambushes, as well as getting slowly decimated by cloaked or other attacks that the unit AI can't handle. Never in a game should a player feel as if there is nothing that they could be doing, other than sitting and waiting for an upgrade to complete, or watching their workers mine. There are always things that require attention, be it an idle factory, a comsat station with full energy, a dwindling mineral source, or an attack force.
Second, an offensive attitude. Melee Mission Objective: Destroy all enemy buildings. You don't win by defending. Of course it may be beneficial to build an efficient defense, hold off an attack, and then countering, but that IS an offensive attitude. By building the defense, you were planning for your future attack. Outside of a few mineral line defensive structures, the bulk of one's "defense" should be comprised of units that have the advantage of mobility, moving from one spot to another, wherever the threat may be. Also, beyond the "defense" for an early rush, the attitude should be directed to attack. There are too many ways someone can attack, be it with a drop, ground units, air units, or even capital ships. It is impossible to defend against them all. In addition, the offensive player will always lead in their economy. By attacking and forcing the opponent on the defensive, one will be able to openly expand, produce even more units faster, continue to put on the pressure, and eventually overwhelm the defending player. The bottom line: Don't just sit and fend off enemy attacks; be the one that forces the other player to fend off your attacks. Expand, produce, and dominate.
Third, reconnaissance. Starcraft was designed to make every race as even as possible, and every race has a counter for anything any other race has to throw at it. You can't counter an attack that you don't know is coming. Always find out what your opponent is up to. Commonly, an early worker can search out enemy bases, discover the race of the opponent, possibly catch a few tips on the tech path to be taken, and also harass workers mining and building. Recon should never stop at the initial probe probe. Terran players: hotkey your comsat station. The comsat station is one of the best tools of recon, as well as for detection. Use your buildings' advantage of lifting off. They may be slow, but they have a ton of hitpoints, and are always available to use. Zerg players: Use your overlords for recon, but carefully. Overlords are extremely slow before being upgraded, but are abundant. By placing them in key locations, like above a cliff or at a choke can provide you with key information. Burrowed units are nice if you get around to using them. Burrowed units can be placed in key locations to prevent the construction of buildings, are great for surprising an opponent, and are useful when just left underground, for a small radius of sight. Protoss players: Observers. They are permanently cloaked, and can detect cloaked units, so your opponent won't even know that they're being monitored. Still, use them wisely, because they have very little hit points. Also, sometimes building a pylon at certain locations can be very beneficial. All it takes is 100 minerals, and within seconds, you will have a 600 hp building with a pretty good sight radius. Remember: Always find out what your opponent is doing, so that you can efficiently counter and destroy them.
Air Power
Strategy provided by: Starcraft
Millennium
Air units in Starcraft are extremely important in Starcraft, particularly towards the late game. This article should serve as a basic guide to using air units effectively in Starcraft and also underline the importance of maintaining an air force, no matter what race you play.
Part One: Importance of an Air Force
Mobility-
Perhaps the greatest aspect of air units in Starcraft is the simple idea that
they can fly... This usually means quick movement, and also flying over many
obstacles or defensive positions. Rather than attempt a brutal head-on assault,
often it is advisable to sneak around your enemy using transports, and drop your
troops in a less fortified area. Air units can also be effective at hit-and-run
attacks, making enemy ground defenses scramble in confusion as you hit different
positions around the map.
The second main aspect of mobility is for alliance play. Often, you and your allies will want to establish a mobile defense, capable of helping each other and then massing your own troops for a counter-attack. The best way to do this is with air units. It doesn't matter which member of your team they assault, because you will be able to send a flight of carriers to support him instantaneously.
Power-
If you are able to establish an air force quickly in the game, you may be able
to attack your opponent before he has sufficient air defenses. Air units are
perhaps the most powerful units in the game, if used wisely. Guardians,
Battlecruisers, and Carriers can truly make your opponent miserable if he did
not bother to make an air defense. I believe that the best air defense is an air
force of your own, supported by your own ground units of course. This offers you
mobility to hunt down the enemy squadron so hit-and-run attacks won't be
possible. A lone turret or bunker isn't usually enough to stop a full-force air
raid, though with air units of your own, they will provide valuable support.
It should also be considered that air units are expensive... Therefore, an attack with Wraiths against a group of Hydralisks would be inefficient. Rather, air units should be used for strategic strikes at the enemy mineral line. Until higher-end air units are made, air units should avoid confrontation with units such as Dragoons, Hydralisks, Goliaths, and Marines. If you attempt to fight an enemy using basic air units against air defense units, you'll probably lose. Once higher-end air units are made, your opponent will be forced to maintain an air force of his own to combat your air supremacy. While Wraiths can be stopped using Hydralisks, Carriers and other advanced air units have an advantage over ground-based air defenses.
Part Two: Unit Tactics
Basic Air Units-
Mutalisk... The ability to conduct a quick air assault in mass numbers makes the
Mutalisk a deadly adversary. Zerg can easily produce these flyers for a
relatively low price, and often they can provide an easy victory against a
Protoss concentrating on Zealots. However, once a Protoss gets Corsairs, these
flyers will start falling out of the sky. Corsairs OWN Mutalisks.
Also, going Mutalisks can prove disastrous against a Terran going mass infantry or a Zerg going mass Hydras.
Scourge... Not much to say. They should be micro-managed carefully, and can be quite useful against Carriers in particular. Using them to kill enemy transports or even Overlords can also prove successful. You might consider putting them on patrol around your base, and since they are cheap, they make good scouting units.
Wraith... The main advantage of these guys are that they can cloak. They can also pop Overlords or scan and destroy Observers if the enemy attempts to get detection. However, they should not be used for a direct assault. Hydras, Photon Cannons, and Turrets waste Wraiths quite easily. Wraiths have a weak ground attack, and so this should also be carefully judged. Since Wraiths cannot be easily mass produced like the Mutalisk, it is advisable to use Wraiths as support for dropships rather than making them the main focus of your arsenal. If Wraiths lose their ability to conduct hidden attacks with their cloaking, they will essentially become worthless. Perhaps the best strategy to use with these is taking out Overlords or providing air supremacy in island maps.
Corsair... This is a very powerful anti-air unit, and can be DEVASTATING against the Zerg if they try and go early mutalisks. Corsairs own Mutas, and they are very useful for popping Overlords. With their production ability limited, a Zerg will be forced to spend money on more Overlords and Spore Colonies while you can strengthen your army. However, if a Zerg goes Hydralisks, the Corsair build will probably be a disadvantage.
Once Corsairs get Disruption Web, they can be very effective to support your Zealots by neutralizing bunkers/sunken colonies.
Scout... This unit is very controversial. Although stronger than the Corsair, and possessing the ability conduct a ground attack, I find Scouts ineffective on ground maps. Hydras can easily stop them, and Scouts are very expensive. Scouts are very useful on island maps however, where they dominate against battlecruisers and also provide a good way to attack expansions.
Advanced Air Units-
Valkyrie... Like the scout, this unit is very controversial. Many people say
simply that Valkyries suck, and that's that. I however, disagree. If you intend
to go Overlord hunting, you are much better off with Wraiths. However, many
Terrans find themselves frustrated by Corsairs casting D-Web on their bunkers
and Siege Tanks. Recently I started experimenting with Valkyries, and I found
them to be remarkably effective against Corsairs!
While Corsairs really hurt Wraiths, Valkyries tend to dominate against Corsairs, IF USED PROPERLY! The stupidest thing to do is bunch up all of your Valks, which will receive massive splash damage from the Corsairs. Instead, spread the Valks out, spaced evenly. I like to use Valks as "mobile missile platforms." I'll put hold ground for my Valks, and any Corsair that attempts to breach my defenses will instantly receive a massive beating.
Devourers... This guys are VITAL for the Zerg if they wish to combat Corsairs. Devourers have a special acid attack that slows the enemy firing rate, and quite useful against Corsairs. If you are having problems with Protoss air, Devourers is the key. Use them to combat Corsairs, and using Scourge to support, you shouldn't have much trouble killing Carriers either.
Guardians... Very useful in mass numbers, they can render an enemy base lifeless in a matter of moments. Make sure you give them air support, and they should be fine. The best way to stop them is with range-upgraded Goliaths, or with a superior air force capable of killing the Guardians and the supporting Devourers.
Carriers... These guys are very, very powerful and most Protoss players try to tech to Carriers at some time in the game. They should be protected from air units though, and Scouts and Scourge can really hurt them if you don't support your Carriers. Also be aware of various spells that can render your Carriers useless... Dark Swarm with Hydras, Plague, Psi Storm, EMP, Lockdown, and Stasis can take a heavy toll on your Carriers if you are not careful. Also be aware that air units, although excellent at offensive capabilities, do not often provide good defense. I played one game where my partner had a force of 3 Carriers, but minimal ground defenses. Enemy tanks and Dragoons rushed right into his undefended base, even with his Carriers constantly attacking. Every single building was razed and his Carriers where worthless. If you intend to go air, always remember to have a ground army in case the enemy should try to counter.
Battlecruisers... The most powerful air unit, though with many disadvantages. First of all, they are very slow and can be hurt a lot with Psi Storm. Also, unless you have an abundant source of Yamato Cannon, they do not have the good ranged attack offered by Carriers and Guardians. As a supporting unit though, they can be quite effective and allow your dropships to get through untouched. I honestly believe that Terrans should concentrate on air forces as their main arsenal, but rather use air units to support their ground forces. Just an opinion though.
Special Units-
Arbiters... Extremely powerful, and definitely useful for your air force. Using
recall to warp in Carriers or mass Zealots is quite useful, and Stasis is also
excellent for neutralizing defenses while you raze the enemy base. With
Cloaking, your air units will be very hard to kill without taking out the
Arbiter first, and this makes the Arbiter very effective when used wisely.
Science Vessels... These are EXTREMELY useful for Terrans. EMP is great for attacking the Protoss, and Irradiate can make a Zerg's life miserable. Defensive Matrix is also a great spell, adding hit points to your Battlecruiser or the unit you choose to cast it upon. Since the Science Vessel is also a detector, you'll need it for stopping those pesky Dark Templars and Lurkers. Science Vessels aren't cheap however, so be careful not to have a group of Scourge blast it from the sky.
Queens... Although not as powerful as the above units, they are useful with parasite to spy on enemy troops movements. One guy accused me of hacking when I put a parasite on an Overlord. That Overlord was part of a 20 Ovie convoy, all loaded up with troops, and ready to make a drop. Of course, I quickly made around 30 Scourge, and wiped out the majority of his attack force. Broodlings is also another spell, useful against High Templar and Siege Tanks. Ensare should be used on speed upgrade Zealots and Stimmed Marines. If you're lucky, you may find use for the Queen's final spell and infest a Terran Command Center.
Other-
I am well aware that there are other air units, though they are not quite
significant in this report. Observers are great for spying on the enemy without
letting them know that you are spying on them in the first place. I also love
Overlords, since the Zerg use them as both Detectors, Transports, and for unit
production. Of course, this could be a weak point for the Zerg, but having a
ready supply of Transports and Detectors is something I find very useful.
Sprites, Turrets, and Their
Effects
Strategy provided by: Starcraft
Millennium
Now I know what you're thinking. "Man, this NobleHelium dude is not only lazy, he's weird. He writes a single strategy every two months and it always has a stupid title." Right? No? Then I assume you understand the title. I'm writing about little fairies with wings that fly around, and those missile turrets you always build to prevent from getting killed by dark templar, eh? Uhm, no.
Yes, sprites are little fairies with wings that fly around. But in the world of computer gaming, sprites are little icons on the screen that do something. In this case, I am talking about the icons that do damage. Yeah, those missiles that the "useless" wraith fires out, and the spines that spurt out of the ground when you finally learn to burrow your lurker without getting it killed.
"Hey NH, why the heck are you talking about sprites then? They kill the enemy base for me and that's all I care." I suppose the average gamer that plays SC a few hours a week does not care. But for one who plays SC a lot, they should know something about sprites if they do not already. Sprites do have an effect on the game.
There are different types of sprites. StarDraft's Arsenal II provides a list of all existing sprite behavioral patterns in the game. There are the types of sprites that simply appear on the enemy and do damage, such as the bullet from a Gauss rifle of a marine, or the photon blaster from a scout. Not that anyone uses scouts but... Anyway, the other main type is the missile type. The missile type occurs very often, and includes two main subtypes: the homing type and the direct course type. The homing type will chase the target until it hits it, then do damage, but the direct course type will always travel to the spot that the target was occupying when the sprite was fired and do damage. The mechanical differences are very minor, even though cosmetically they are different. This will explain why you often see a vulture seeming to miss, however the targeted unit still takes damage.
"All right, NH. So there's different types of sprites. So? I really don't care if the fragmentation grenade hits the target or not, it still does damage." Correct. Thus, I will not go further about the visual effects of sprites. However, there are some units that fire more than one sprite on an attack. These units are: the firebat, goliath (air attack only), valkyrie, zealot and scout. All of the aforementioned units fire two sprites on an attack, besides the valkyrie, which, as you should already know, fire 8 HALO missiles per attack.
"Okay, dude, you're getting pointless now. So the firebat fires two sprites when it roasts them zerglings. So what?" Well, armor is applied every time a sprite does damage. Thus, a firebat, while seemingly doing six damage against the ten armor of an egg, actually does a total of one damage...since it is doing eight points of damage twice. Eight is less than ten, thus .5 damage is applied, and that doubled is one damage.
But that's not all. There's more complications. Acid spores are also applied every time damage is taken. Thus, a devourer/scout combination would be more effective than a devourer/wraith combination. Sprites also create the deadliest anti-air combination known to terran, zerg and protoss alike - the devourer and valkyrie. Pick your units wisely.
"Okay, get on with the article now. I'm tired of hearing about sprites. I want to hear your elite turret placement skills, since I always build too many every time I see a templar archives, and then they go mass dragoons and I don't have enough minerals for M&M!" Patience is a virtue. I have to talk about the sprite overload bug. "Sprite overload bug? Oh, that thing I always hear about from people who play Defend the Temple. Hah! I don't play UMS. Skip it." Although sprite overload does not occur very often in regular play, it can occur. Thus, you should be informed about it just in case. The sprite overload bug, as you should know, occurs when too many sprites appear in the game. The main effects are massive lag and the inability of some sprites to appear. Some of the main victims to this unfixable bug are UMS maps such as Evolves Madness and DTT.
I played a game a few months ago that made me realize that the bug can more likely occur in regular play than I had previously thought. It was a UMS map - but not madness or DTT, it was a WW2 map. The new [OpG]Rocket one, in fact, "Death in Europe", but that's beside the point. Anyway, I went massive American Mustangs (Artanis scouts) after my cowardly Russia ally left and my two German enemies went massive German Messerschmitts (Mojo scouts). East Germany left after I pummeled his scouts with my superior upgraded ones, but West Germany remained and still powered scouts.
What surprised me in the game was that the sprite overload bug occurred in the two major aerial scout battles between West Germany and myself. I had not expected the bug to occur with such small numbers of scouts (100-), and the absence of valkyries. But alas, it did occur. "Dude, no one builds scouts, and even if someone does, no game is going to have a hundred of them." Yes, of course. But factoring in the other units in the game - and the fact that FFAs can have multiple large battles occuring at once - the bug could very well occur in the game. The increase in the power and popularity of valkyries in 1.08 only adds to this possibility.
The key to the sprite overload bug is that sprites are generated from top to bottom, and left to right. Therefore, in a large battle involving lots of sprites, should the overload bug occur, the units closest to the top and left will generate more sprites than those to the right and bottom. Thus, if you are certain that the bug will occur, do your best to keep your forces to the left and above your opponent's forces. This will allow your units to do as much damage as possible, while lessening the damage taken. It is quite possible to defeat a more powerful force by taking advantage of the sprite overload bug.
Okay, I'm done with sprites now. On to turrets. I am speaking about the turrets in tanks and goliaths, of course, not missile turrets. Although missile turrets have turrets too...heh. Turrets are "subunits". If you are familiar with Arsenal II, you can clearly see that the tank and goliath, as well as the reaver and carrier, do not have attacks of their own. To attack, they use "turrets", which, in turn, fire sprites. The turret of a tank is the barrel that turns. Everyone should know that when a tank is in siege mode, the body of the tank is in a fixed position, while the barrel can turn in any direction and fire. If you look closely, the goliath acts in a similar manner. This explains why the tank and goliath can sometimes fire even while moving. This is a rare occurrence, however, since the "move" command is issued to the turret as well as the main unit. However, the turret sometimes does not receive the command instantaneously and as quickly as the main unit, and thus will fire a sprite even as the main unit moves. Reavers and carriers use subunits to attack as well. While these are technically not turrets, since they are separate from the main unit, they still are subunits.
"Why should I concern myself with these subunits? Whether they exist or not does not matter to me." Not quite. Ensnare is the main complication with turrets. The reason ensnare does not affect the attack rate of tanks, goliaths, reavers and carriers is due to the fact that they do not do the actual attacking themselves. When a tank is ensnared, for example, the main unit is the one that is clogged with the green goo. Thus, ensnare will lower the attack rate and movement rate of the main unit. But the main unit has no attack! The turret attacks. And the turret is not clogged with ensnare. Thus, the attack rate of the unit as a whole is unaffected.
But what about interceptors? They're totally separate from the carrier, and, unlike scarabs, they are not invincible. However, they still qualify as turrets, and even if they have slowed movement rate due to ensnare, they will still attack at the same frequency. This also explains why you cannot mind control an interceptor. Acid spores, like ensnare, also do not affect the attack rate of an interceptor.
The First Few Minutes
Strategy provided by: Starcraft
Millennium
The First Five Minutes
In the first five minutes of a game of Starcraft, everything happens. You develop your strategy, your opponent develops his strategy, you develop your economy, he develops his economy, etc. The first five minutes of a game of Starcraft can 90% of the time tell you who is going to win the game. You need to be able to execute things in the first five minutes without a hitch. If you don't, you start yourself off behind the Eight Ball a large amount of the time. You will then be behind economically and you will be behind in the game and forced to mount a comeback. The best way to think about this is as in a baseball game. Your opponents score 3 runs on you in the first inning. You are then for the rest of the game forced to mount a comeback. There are some tips that I will be giving that should be able to help you out in your early game.
Cloning:
I would like to use some information from Dhavok's strategy on Automated Starcraft for this quote to give you a good general outlook about what Cloning is:
This is the very first automated command in every game. As soon as the game begins, select all four of your peons and right-click on a mineral patch. Hold down the SHIFT key and click on one of the wireframe portraits (this will deselect one peon) and right click on another mineral patch. Repeat this twice more and you’ll see that all four of your workers started moving towards the minerals at the same time, but each headed for a different mineral deposit. This will save you a little time because you don’t have to select each peon, and they don’t all go to the same deposit before they start harvesting rock. In the earliest seconds of the game, time is most important, so if you can start mining a little faster than your opponent, you may be able to build your first offensive unit quicker than he can.
Dhavok hit the nail right on the button with this description. In a game of Starcraft, seconds are VITAL to your success. If you expand just 20 seconds later then your opponent later on, you will feel a slight disadvantage. Using Cloning is something I will admittedly not do that often, because I don't think about it. However, don't be as stupid as me in this situation. Use Cloning!
Scouting:
Scouting is vital in the early game. It gives you an opportunity to locate your opponent and get a feel for what type of strategy you will be seeing from him. There are two commonly accepted theories for scouting that players will use. They are:
5th/6th/7th Probe- You will use one of the first probes that you build and send it on a nice search for your opponent. The idea is that you will be able to catch your opponent early and be able to guarantee a successful run against their strategy. However, you also have to consider that the opponent at this stage of a game will not commonly have their strategy shown to you. It will give you a slight peak but not a very worthwhile look.
First Military Unit- The scouting method I will "generally" use is the first military unit theory. Once you have your first marine, zergling or zealot built you send them out on a nice run to find your opponents. Again, depending on the speed of when you built this unit you might not get a nice look at your opponents base. No matter though. The first military unit if microed a bit can give you a nice look for a decent amount of time.
Overlord- Most zerg players will send the Overlord on a scouting run right at the beginning of a game of Starcraft. Do you blame them? This gives them the chance to use the Overlord as a very powerful weapon. Against another zerg/protoss player, they will have to tech to get to a unit to counter your Overlord(hydras/goons). Cannons will work, but consider the idea of the Overlord being microed just a little??
When you scout your opponent, micromanagement is the key. You will want to concentrate slightly on your probe moving around their base and analyzing what you see. Do you see 3 Barracks?? Do you see 1 Gateway, 1 Cyber, 2 Robotics Facilities? You can then assume that there is a possibility for rushing or massing in the first situation and clearly a quick tech to Reavers. You then use this knowledge on your side to figure out how the proper counter. Scouting will develop your strategy through countering your opponents and by giving yourself a comfortable attack that will annihilate your opponent.
Teching Intelligently:
There are some factors involved with teching to higher units in the game of Starcraft. You don't want to do it too early, because you will then be concentrating your economic details on those units and leave yourself open for a rush. However, if you do it too late, your opponent will be able to use better units then yourself to destroy your base. You will want to tech when you feel that you have a time of security or a time in the game when you can afford it. If you don't, you'll experience what I experience on an almost daily basis at least once. I will commonly tech too early to give me a chance to go to my "go-to unit" the Reaver. I feel like I have a better chance when I'm playing Toss to get to that stage and use my reavers as a nice attacking form. However, when you have 5-6 zealots and they have 10 before you can get to this stage?? You are then forced to use the probes as a means of countering the offensive in your base? Usually, a failed attempt. However, I've done it before in a game of SC and have actually rebuilt enough to demolish an opponent once. Embarassing for the poor soul. =)
Defense? Offense?:
It's a matter of style and the pace that you want to set to the game of Starcraft. If you want to slow down the game and turn it into a technology war you might want to set a false attitude against your opponent. To set a false attitude, send in a rush or two but be sure that your defense is not "terrible" or "as close to a turtle without being a turtle." Then start to tech. However, some players prefer a game that is much faster paced and turning it into a quick war by attacking quickly and often. You want to turn the game of SC into something that you feel you can manage and that your opponent cannot manage. I will not lie and tell you that taking one means or the other is better.
The early game is vital! You must be able to scout well, tech intelligently and turn the game into something that you can manage and eventually win at.a game of Starcraft. Just remember the first few minutes are your source of your future position.
Introduction to a Team Game
Strategy provided by: Starcraft
Millennium
The way a team plays as a whole determines its success.
You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they
dont play together, the club wont be worth a dime.
--Babe Ruth
When you are involved in a team game of Starcraft you are placed into one of the many difficult situations that SC can bring you. Players of the game of Starcraft in my opinion are judged on two levels. The first level, is through 1v1 battles and the second level(and the level I value higher) is their ability to play well on a team. Personally, I find that 2v2's usually develop into more interesting games then 1v1's although exceptions do arise.
Team Games Involve More Strategy
Now perhaps it might not seem true from a base level, but considering some facts
about a team game, I might be able to change your mind. In a 1v1, you have two
things to worry about. These details are yourself, and your opponent. In a team
game, one person working alone against an opposing team will rarely have any
success against a team who works together well. The strategies are endless.
However, some people will agree with one other fact. The hardest part of a team game is working with your own teammates. There is some truth in this. Normally a player is too above themselves to discuss any details during a game of Starcraft. In a team game, a team that decides to build their own way and go their own seperate roots are technically playing a 1v1v2.
What are the five main factors to a team game?
#1: Communication- It's not like I actually implied this fact in my previous statements. When you and your partner are playing against another team, your objective is to come up with a stronger plan to defeat your opponents. However, if you don't talk to each other, it's difficult to plan anything. Consider a team game like a large scaled war. Let us assume that you and your partner are two generals of the army, but command different sides of the field. The one general decides to attack the left side of the much stronger army, while the right general decides to push back because he is more conservative. Of course, this maneuver ends up failing miserably. However, had they communicated and agreed to one plan of action they could of been placed into a better position to set up their next move.
#2: Positioning- It seems interesting how I led right into this one. In a 1v1 game, positioning is very important because it will allow for you to do some certain manuevers. However, in a team game you have to be a bit more creative with the positioning. However, to compensate you also have the opportunity to do more with the troops you have.
The positioning on the map also can be useful for determining some future strategical manuevers you encounter. With superior positioning you can put yourself into a position to gain an economic advantage by taking expansions which are easy to defend. However, with inferior position you will either be forced to go on the agressive to gain back some positioning(and spend most of your effort doing this while they build up) or forced to go into a shell and defend to get to a point where you can break out. In a team game, containment is very difficult. However, if done? It can be one of the most effective moves to 100% annihilate an opponent.
#3: Coordination- Even though communication is vital, another key thing is through the execution of the manuevers that are discussed in your communication. You will want to coordinate everything. You will want to be able to support each other at any time throughout the game. You will want to be coordinating attacks so they are the MOST efficient. A flanking attack is more efficient then nailing the choke point if they play like most standard SC players.(Remember, flanking is attacking the outsides and squeezing in on their forces.)
Expansions and every move that you execute should be detailed. If you agree apon a plan at the beginning of the game and agree to stick with it, stick with it. DO NOT Change unless your opponents completely understands the thought. If forced, tell them. This will allow for both of you to readapt quickly and easily instead of causing headaches at a point when he expects you to have something.
#4: Economic Superiority- I also hinted a little at this one. In a team game, minerals and gas become much more valuable. You will need to fight to gain the most minerals and keep hold of this major point. If you do not, your opponents will gain a better position on you(sound familiar) and ultimately own you. Keeping yourself in a position where you can have minerals constantly flowing and yourself constantly teching/building/doing something, will keep you ahead.
#5: Execution- Some teams are better off at executing certain manuevers in a game. A team needs to execute their strategy without a hitch, which also means that they should be prepared to put themselves into a position in the case of failure where they will still survive. Just last night, an example of this came to me. I was playing against [OBK]Nightcloak and FatBoySr(two friends of SC:L), and I decided to be sneaky and use my entire force to attack [OBK]Nightcloak. However, I didn't have any troops remaining in case of a failure. Of course, the attack failed and Night(being a smart player as he is) counter-attacked and destroyed me. You must consider all of the alternatives of a game of SC, you cannot neglect anything!
Automated Starcraft
Strategy provided by: Starcraft
Millennium
Did you ever get involved in a game against a computer opponent and just wind up stunned by the way that the comp would be dropping on your expansion at the same time it was locking down your carriers and attacking your main? Did you just say that that’s one of the advantages that the comp has? Did you ever get into a game with a good human player and then wonder how he managed to do the same thing to you?
Well, here’s news for you newer players… You can do the same thing.
There are some very basic command shortcuts that you should know to speed up your builds, and there are also other tricks that can speed up your response times during a game. I’ll touch on these, but the one I want to focus on is the fact that Starcraft actually allows you to automate actions, so all you have to do is decide what you want to do, and then put those actions together in the proper order. But first, let’s take a look at the really simple stuff.
Basically, Speed Kills
Being a real time strategy game, the difference between good and bad Starcraft players is often speed. If you can build faster and attack quicker (with more force), than your opponent, you’ll win more games than you’ll lose. Here are a couple of simple things to keep in mind.
Shortcuts
Use shortcut keys as often as possible. There’s a pretty comprehensive list of keyboard shortcuts available at http://www.angelfire.com/sc/starcraft98/hotkeys.html. The most important are probably the "B"s; "V"s; and "A" versus "M". When you have a peon (SCV, probe or drone) selected, you can use your mouse to click on the icons in the lower right-hand corner of your screen to build a structure. However, you can also use shortcut keys to do the same thing. Let’s say that you’re playing terran. You can have your SCV selected and you want to build a supply depot. You can either: Click on the build structure icon; then click again on the supply depot picture; and then click on the map t show where you want it placed.
Or:
Hit the "B" key
Hit the "S" key
And then click on the map where you want that depot built.
The "A" and "M" keys are the shortcuts for the Attack/Move and Move commands. Make sure you know the difference and use them accordingly. Trust me, keyboard is quicker than clicking all over the screen. Learn the shortcuts and use them as much as possible, particularly in the early game where seconds count. Once again, it’s just a matter of saving a second here and there, and they rapidly add up. Also, if you know your shortcuts, you’ll be able to use some of the tactics that I mention later, much more effectively.
Rally Points
Another fine feature. This is your chance to tell your units where to go. Use that little icon with the arrow between the two dots to send your units from the structure to a particular place as soon as they’re created. Rally workers to mineral patches or building sites. If you’re putting together a drop, set your starport, barracks, and factories to all rally to one area of the map. Then, when it becomes time to load up, everything will be in one place.
Hotkeys
The simplest and most basic automation "trick" is hotkeying. After selecting a unit, group of units, or a structure, hold down the CONTROL key and hit a number between 1 and 0. The next time you strike that numeral key, you’ll be controlling that group or structure. (If you hit the key twice, your screen will center on the structure or group of units.) This is why some players are so much better at keeping their unit production going than others, and why they are so quick to respond to any threats on their bases.
For example, as soon as I start to build unit-producing structures, I assign them hotkeys. As soon as my first offensive units come out, I’ll hotkey them, too. If I’m playing Protoss, my first gateway is 0. My second gateway is 9. My robotics bay is 5. My first starport is 6. More gateways become 8 and 7, and my next starport is 4. Why these numbers are assigned in the order they are, I don’t know. But every time I play Protoss, I use the same numbers for the same structures at the beginning of the game. Usually, I’ll save the numbers 1,2, and 3 for my offensive groups. With Zerg, I’ll usually only hotkey my hatcheries and offensive units. With Terran, 0 is always comsat. Barracks are 9 and 8. Factory is 7. Starport is 6. Additional starports or factories are 5 and 4. (1, 2, and 3 are either for combat groups or nuke silos.) Once my economy is thriving, I can create units without looking for a particular building, or even think about what I’m doing. The secret is consistency. Find a numbering system that works for you and stick with it. Try to always use the same hotkey number for the same thing and you won’t get confused in the heat of the game.
Patrol
This is a nice little command, and it also fits into the automation category. It allows you to keep a unit moving between two points on the map, attacking whatever units or structures that it runs across. For information gathering, I actually like using this command best with units that are unable to attack. Patrolling observers, medics, sci vessels and overlords allows you to keep the map under surveillance, and these units will flee instead of fight once they’re attacked. Another great usage is on island maps. If you want to contain your opponent on his island or to a particular part of the map, set scourge, valkyries, or corsairs patrolling on the edges of the area that you want to deny him access to. You can cover a greater area with less units when they’re patrolling. Whenever you set a unit to patrol, keep in mind that it will follow any enemyunit it’s capable of attacking, and try to destroy it. (So you may have to replace your patrolling units fairly regularly.) A specific "dirty trick" to apply with the patrol command is to have dark templar wandering about the map when you play toss vs. terran. Until he gets sci vessels moving with his forces, he’ll burn a lot of his comsat energy just trying to find out why his marines keep turning into bloody smears when they leave his base.
Yeah, yeah, yeah all those controls are nice, and I can see how they can help, but you’re not really automating anything are you?
You want automation? Well, let’s talk about waypointing, command queueing, and cloning then.
Waypointing
This is one of the first "automated" commands that I use in almost every game. When I’m ready to start searching for my opponent(s), I’ll select the unit that I want to scout with, hit the M (Move) key and click on the minimap to send him to his first destination. With the scout still selected, Ill hold down the SHIFT key, hit M again and click on the next point I want him to go to. I’ll repeat this until all of the start positions have been pointed to. Using this method, you can send your scout to move through all of the start positions on the map without having to wait till he checks one, then selecting him again and sending him to the next one. If you’re playing in a 1 v 1 game, you may want to use the A (Attack) key instead of M. When your scout finds the other base, he’ll begin to attack it. In games with more than two players, though, I’d advise you to use the Move command. Your scout has a better chance to see more of the map, and since he won’t stop to fight, you may actually wind up with a couple of enemy units following him around the map instead of either attacking your base or defending your enemy’s.
Cloning Commands
This is the very first automated command in every game. As soon as the game begins, select all four of your peons and right-click on a mineral patch. Hold down the SHIFT key and click on one of the wireframe portraits (this will deselect one peon) and right click on another mineral patch. Repeat this twice more and you’ll see that all four of your workers started moving towards the minerals at the same time, but each headed for a different mineral deposit. This will save you a little time because you don’t have to select each peon, and they don’t all go to the same deposit before they start harvesting rock. In the earliest seconds of the game, time is most important, so if you can start mining a little faster than your opponent, you may be able to build your first offensive unit quicker than he can.
This is a simple example that’s in common use. You can use the same cloning concept throughout the game. Let’s look at a couple of situations.
You have four carriers attacking your defenses? Select four ghosts. Hit the C (Cloak) key. Hit the L (Lockdown) key and target a carrier. All four ghosts will start moving towards that carrier. Hold down the SHIFT key to deselect one ghost, and target the second carrier. Three ghosts will target that one. Repeat the process twice more and all four carriers will be locked down almost simultaneously.
You’re ready to send six shuttles full of marines and medics into your protoss opponent’s main. Your comsat shows that there are a couple of templar nearby though, and you know that if you send all of your shuttles to one drop point, you’re asking for mass casualties before your shuttles are even fully unloaded. Select all six shuttles. Hit the U (Unload) key and click at one point in the enemy base. Hold down the SHIFT key to deselect one shuttle. Hit U again and click on another promising drop point a little ways away from your first one. Repeat until all six shuttles have been assigned its own (each) drop zone. When you get over his base, you’ll be dropping squads all over the place, and it’ll be harder for him to kill the majority of your troops with a single storm.
Protoss can use cloning for storms. Zerg can use it for broodlings. Want your three sci vessels to irradiate three different templar? Basically, any spell casting unit can be selected together and have their special ability cloned to hit several different targets or areas.
The secrets of cloning commands like this, are: speed with your mouse, knowing your shortcut keys, and giving yourself enough distance. The first two concepts are self-explanatory. Giving yourself distance refers to the fact that as soon as you give the first command to the group that you selected, they’ll start moving to carry out your order. If your ghosts are too close, in the first example, you’ll have four ghosts locking down one carrier before you have a chance to deselect and retarget. This is a handy way of using your units effectively, but it usually works best when you’ve had some time to plan your move, ahead of time.
Command Queuing
This is actually the most automated of all of the concepts that I’ve brought up, and may be the hardest to give you a good example. Basically, what you’re doing is waypointing, but instead of just having your unit move, you’re telling it to follow several commands in order.
Here’s a simple example. Many people that play terran will send an SCV off to build a structure and then forget about the SCV until they run across it while they’re looking for their base. In effect, they lose the minerals or gas that the SCV could have been collecting while it was just standing there, admiring its handiwork!
Here’s what you do: Select an SCV. Hit the B (Build) key, and the S (Supply depot) key. Hold down the SHIFT key. Point to the spot where you want a supply depot built, then (with the SHIFT key down), right click on a mineral patch or refinery. As soon as the SCV finishes building the structure, it will go back to harvesting resources. Now, I’ve heard from some players that the right click doesn’t work. I’m not sure if that’s because they’re running on a Mac, or if they waited until construction had already started. If the SCV has already started to build, it becomes too absorbed in its work to listen to any more orders from you. You have to be fast. You need to return to gathering before the construction starts.
You can also use this technique with any unit that has a special ability. Did you ever try to pull off a high templar drop on your enemy’s economy and wind up not only losing your attack troops, but your transport, as well? This probably happened because you couldn’t select your high templar quickly enough (most likely because he was under the shuttle); and by the time you tried to fly your shuttle away (after your troops were dead), every ranged troop in his base was shooting at it.
Here we go again…you’ve got an observer checking out his mineral line. You load a high templar and a couple of zealots into your shuttle. Use waypointing (multiple Move commands, SHIFT + M + click) to get your shuttle to fly around any of his defensive units or structures. When you have a straight line to your drop zone, keep holding down your SHIFT key and hit the U (Unload) key and click on your drop area. Keep holding that SHIFT key down and hit M again, and click back at your base. Now, the shuttle is programmed to fly a path, unload your units where you want them, and when it finishes unloading, it’ll fly back to your base; while you concentrate on using your templar to its greatest effect. All three of the races’ transports can be command-queued to run zigzag courses, unload and return via another zigzag course.
Command queues are great for saving your spellcasting units from just sitting there after they attack, though they are limited. Select a Battle Cruiser. Press Y (Yamato), click on your target, and hold down SHIFT, hit M, and send your cruiser back to your base. Note that with most units, unlike transports, you cannot waypoint moves before the special ability. If you try to send your cruiser on a roundabout path, it’ll begin to move when you enter your first movement points, but as soon as you hit Y and click on the target, it’ll go from wherever it is, directly to the target. In most cases, you can waypoint moves after the special ability is used though, to get your unit back to safety.
Another use for command queues is to attack particular units or structures in order. You select that group of marines, and stim them up to attack a zerg expansion. If you’re interested in killing the economy quickly, you may want them to ignore any sunkens or zerglings and get right to the workers. Use the Attack command (A key or right click) and target a drone. While holding down the SHIFT key, continue to target drones until the waypoint list is full. This group of marines will then target those drones in the order that you selected them. You have to be careful about this, though. Those marines will ignore anything else that is attacking them. You can use the same method with carriers if you want to wipe out all of the cannons or turrets that are defending a base. Again, be careful, because your carriers will not defend themselves against any other units or structures until they finish up all of the items that you targeted.
A method that I have used in the past is to have your "assassination squad" that’s targeted to specific units or structures mixed in with other units that are sent in under the general Attack command. So if you’re sending in six carriers, send four of them to attack an area of a base while you specify nearby targets for the other two.
Ah, now think of the possibilities when you start combining a lot of these concepts… More importantly, think of what it’ll do to your opponent. What’s he going to think if you have marines and medics running between two expansion points (Patrol); you’re nuking his main and an expansion simultaneously (Cloning), and cruisers keep blasting his cannons and running away (Command Queue). At the same time, your shuttles are dropping troops off behind his base and you’re taking this quiet time to build new troops. Experiment with the different units. Get used to their relative speeds. The more that you can have occurring at the same time, the more distracted your opponent becomes.
The SHIFT key is your friend. Hotkeys and shortcuts can also speed up your game. Use them wisely, and often.
The Art of War
Strategy provided by: Starcraft
Millennium
*SD Note*- The introduction sounds like what I wrote at my Strategical Intellect section. =).
This analysis is an in-depth guide to the theory of war, not just StarCraft. Of course, I have included relevent examples to assist your understanding. This is intended for the true intellectual, who wants to take his dominence in StarCraft one step further...
PART ONE-
STRATEGY AND TACTICS
I'd like to start off this analysis with a quote from a book, "The Right Way to Play Chess," by D. Brine Pritchard. Here it is, from page 47:
In chess, as in war, movements are governed by two determining factors--strategy and tactics. Strategy can be said to consist of the spade-work; tactics, which implements strategy, the point-to-point struggle.
Some players prefer the subtleties of finer strategy, others the exhilarating rough-and-tumble of tactical play; it is this distinction which to a greater or lesser degree determines a player's style."
Now, all of you may be pondering what this all means. That I intend to explain to you by the end of this analysis. You see, strategy and tactics are two completely different aspects of war, and yet they have a great influence on each other.
In simple terms, strategy is the plan. It is the overall idea how to complete an objective. Tactics, on the other hand, is how the plan is executed. Tactics are used within strategy to accomplish certain goals.
Still confused? Well, let me give you an example. One person playing StarCraft may have a strategy for achieving victory, and that is to obtain an important resource location before his opponent. He will then use the tactics of careful positioning of siege tanks on the high ground, supported by air units to achieve this goal. When you look at StarCraft strategies on SC:M, you're actually looking at tactics as well. For example, my mini-quizzes generally focus on tricks with controlling your units, and they would be considered tactical planning. On the otherhand, my Beginner's Guide to StarCraft shows people the art of establishing expansions and analyzing weaknesses in an opponent's defense. This would be considered a strategy.
In fact, most of what you see offered around the web on StarCraft strategies are actually tactics. Build orders are controversial, but since they deal with the individual order of establishing your base, I would consider them tactical planning rather than strategies. Other articles, such as this one you're reading right now, is actually an analysis and neither a strategy or a tactic.
In conclusion, tactics is your display of control over your units; your skills at getting that perfect psi storm with your templar, and using a ghost to infiltrate enemy lines and firing a well-placed nuke. Strategy is the overall plan; you use strategy to accomplish the mission with the intelligent strikes offered by tactics, such as nuking your opponent's resource location. With bad tactics, you will never get the job done and your plan won't be accomplished. With bad strategy, you'll end up slaughtering your troops with poor planning. Strategy has to do with the overall war, while tactics has to do with the individual battle. Strategy is the broad perspective of the whole game and your plans to achieve victory.
Tactics is the way you use your units to accomplish your plans by careful management on the battlefield.
PART TWO-
THE ELEMENTS OF STRATEGY
All of you should probably have an idea about the difference between a tactic and a strategy. This next section will analyze the elements of strategy. Success and defeat in StarCraft is determined by the following tactical factors, which makes up strategy:
1- Force... This is the basic power of your units and your army. In order to be successful, you should have a sizable army. Your army does not have to be stronger than your enemy's army. Many times in history, a small army was able to defeat a superior force due to better planning and strategy.
2- Time... This is one of the most important factors in a strategy. Can you maneuver your troops and rally an attack before your enemy's defenses are ready? If you are quicker at executing your strategies faster than your opponent, you have a major advantage. You should always try and make time on your side. Sometimes careful management of time means to be patient and allow your opponent to exhaust himself. Other times it means making units quicker and reacting to new situations faster than your opponent.
3- Territory... This is the actual positioning and placement of your forces. This includes obtaining vital high ground and control of valuable bridges. With control of territtory, you should force your opponent into less desirable positions. Control of territtory also has to do with conducting effective ambushes and the freedom of movement for your own troops. You should make sure the territory surrounding your base is always secure and that access to locations of resources are guarded closely by your troops.
4- Wealth... This is the amount of resources you have available, and it is closely related to the size of your forces. However, resource wealth should be carefully managed and spent wisely. If you are not happy with how you spent your money, that is too bad. Make sure you spend your wealth on a variety of units for a versatile attack force capable of adapting to any situation. Also be sure that you have access to more wealth into the future so that you can maintain your forces at maximum efficiency.
5- Method is not to be confused with tactics, because tactics makes up all seven of the mentioned factors. How you spend your money, use your territory, and use time to your advantage is all part of tactics. Method is the way you use your troops for attack and defense. If you use Vultures as a defense against Guardians, you are probably using bad defense methods. This factor is very important as it dictates the casualties you inflict on your opponent, and the losses your own forces recieve.
6- Knowledge is the amount of information available to you. In other words, good knowledge is obtained by effective recon. You can't form good strategies if you have limited knowledge of what your opponent is doing. For this reason, knowledge is one of the most important factors in war.
7- Psyche... Yep, this is one of the most important, and yet a factor that is hardly understood. Therefore, I have have dedicated the next section completely to psyche.
PART THREE-
PSYCHE
What is psyche? Well, in StarCraft at least, it is the on-going mental struggle between you and your opponent. Let me give you an example: You want to go for a quick expansion at your natural in order to get an advantage in resources. However, you are afraid your opponent is going to conduct an attack soon and so you scrap that idea and start building up a defense instead. This is exactly the point I would like to present in this section...
Psyche is the intimidation you pose on your opponent. If someone was playing a regular player, they might not be affected as much and they would probably play as they normally do. If they were playing a KBK champion or a person with a ladder score of around 2100, they would probably be very nervous and this would affect their game play. Even newbies affect a player's psyche. If you see a person who lost 34 straight games and who doesn't know the difference between a spidermine and a probe, you would probably be very relaxed, and may actually play a little loose with minimal defense.
There are a few elements of psyche:
1- Fear... Basically, you are afraid of some secret plan that your opponent may have, and so you will change your own plans to a more defensive stance. You'll be afraid that the enemy is watching the whole map and so you'll be hesitant to expand.
2- Confidence actually as two meanings. For some people, confidence is when you are playing an ordinary game. They will do their usual build orders and play normally. For others, confidence means that you have total belief in your success against a newbie, and so you don't really care if your strategy is a little sloppy.
3- Adaptation is very important. Many players will see their perfect build orders that they follow blindly ruined by constant attacks by the enemy. For those who are able to adapt, this is not a problem. They can change their strategies and focus on achieving their objectives in a different way. For others, this will be devestating. They won't change their build orders, and they will probably end up losing because of this.
4- The element of surprise is very important in a game. You must be able to attack where your opponent is least expecting it. If you simply barge straight into the strongest part of their defenses, it is likely that you will be stopped. However, by following a plan that is totally unexpected by your enemy, you will hit him hard where it hurts. If you surprise your enemy, it is likely he will fear your assualts for the remainder of the game and he will go into a defensive stance.
5- Anticipation is equally as important as surprise. To be able to suspect a secret plan is vital to your own defense. If you can sense that deadly mutalisk rush in time, perhaps you can establish a defense in time. For example, if you catch an observer looking at the undefended back of your base, perhaps you may want to strengthen it in anticipation for a drop.
6- Action/Reaction is extremely important when it comes to psyche. Are you adapting to your opponent's attacks, or is your opponent adapting to you? You should always make sure that you are in control. Your opponent should be forced right where you want him, and in this way you want him reacting to your moves. If he gains momentum and has you reacting to his attacks instead, it is likely he will be able to second guess your next reaction and set the terms of the battle in his favor.
Conclusion...
The art of war is very complicated, and indeed this four page analysis could probably be stretched to volumes and volumes of books. Indeed, I based the concept for this analysis on the theories of the ancient Chinese warriors, who believed that war was an actual form of art, even if it involves the loss of life. Fortunately for us, StarCraft does not involve bloodshed though we can still implement such ideas in the game. So how should we play StarCraft and totally dominate our opponents? I'm not a samuri warrior, though I do have some concepts that may help you.
Raptor's Theory of War:
1- NEVER fear your opponent, no matter how much he tries to intimidate you. It doesn't matter what he says in the chat rooms, because the only place where his true skills are demonstrated is on the battlefield.
2- Think from the viewpoint of your enemy. If you know he likes to go mass dragoons, maybe you should go for zerglings with darkswarm. Use such knowledge to your advantage.
3- If anything, gain the initiative. You should be the one to attack first, or grab that vital expansion before he does. You should have defenses on the high ground before he even thinks about using a ridge drop.
4- Be wild and aggressive! If he's expecting a basic mass zealot attack, maybe you shouldn't do that at all since he'll be prepared for it. Do something that he isn't considering. Innovate a new personal tactic to get the best of him.
The Concept of Misdirection
Strategy provided by: Starcraft
Millennium
Warning: The following strat will not improve your skills or even make you look like a better player. There will be no build orders or no combinations you could follow blindly in a real game. This is just a thing that helped me win a couple of games against players which were obviously better than me in pretty much any aspect of the game, but I find that it deserves the being called "strategical thinking" much rather than most descriptions of combinations or so-called strategies. Judge it by yourself.
If you look at a game of SC, no matter how you divide and explain the strategical part of the game (execution, planning and so on), you will always be making a hidden assumption: that every player is trying his best to defeat his opponent with the units he controls. The following strategies will make use of these kinds of assumptions, which most players are making without knowing it themselves.
I'd like to present what I call the concept of misdirection using a Terran vs. Protoss scenario as an example; although this isn't exactly an unknown match-up and most Protoss players will probably have developed a counter to Terran strats, winning against an expert at Tank pushing will be difficult for most Toss players. So, let's say you're in mid-game and you're being contained. The Terran has a good defense and constantly drops when you try to expand further. One strategy that you might want to try (I hear this is what Toss players do when they're desperate in a PvT game) is to go Carriers. This fails 90% of the time because the Terran will be having 6+ Factories with which he can build Goliaths in no time, three times the number of your Carriers (plus he will have various upgrades from earlier on). The one "mistake" people are making when they fight a losing battle is doing obvious and poorly hidden changes in the combination of units they're about to use. Rather than throwing down 3 Starports the second you get into trouble and expecting them to work wonders, you'd better anticipate a lot sooner what's gonna happen and build your fleet of Carriers slowly without deploying them, while fighing with more usual units against the Tank push.
Building Carriers from one Starport from very early on will not drain your resources immensly but enough that you will certainly not be able to resist for long, not to mention breaking through a blockade, but than again this isn't the point.
You will continue to "fight" with all the regular units, Zealots, Dragoons, High and Dark Templar, and slowly but steadily build up a fleet which you will never use in any of these attacks (one might be tempted to combine the fleet with his ground forces but this is not recommended unless you're absolutely sure you can win). The point in this is to do a suprise attack. All of a sudden a group of Carriers will show up at his main and there won't be enough time to spawn an army of Goliaths large enough to make a difference.
In other words, the concept of misdirection consists (in this case) of fighting a losing battle all along, sacrificing your chance at winning the game with the units you're using, to gain one advantage which you will only play out around the moment you're about to die. This actually worked for me in situations like the ones above, where a player whose Terran was far better than my Protoss thought he was winning, didn't produce the counter to air units soon enough and ended up losing the game to a suprise attack. Of course, Protoss vs Terran is not the only match-up where you can use this, heck such strategies are not even limited to SC. But sticking to this: another good example is when you suspect a Zerg player will go Mutae on you (you being Toss). This can be fatal early on, with the now reduced damage of the Templar's storm so you might want to assign a small part of your income to building Corsairs. Obviously, this scenario is not as harsh as the one described above as you're not really putting all your hopes into one attack.
A variation, or extention to this, would be to leave your units vulnerable to a specific type of attack (like building only grond-attacking units, for instance only Tanks and Firebats) and secretely building up a counter to the units your opponent might use to exploit your vulnerability (Valks or Wraiths in this case). To some this might be a bit too risky and I'd agree; wether you should try this or not will also depend greatly on how well you know your opponent, how well you can predict him.
To sum it up, the concept of misdirection (in general), means upholding the illusion of a specific state of the game (namingly that you are weak in one way or another and that your opponent is winning) and exploit your opponent's reactions to this state. But beware that the examples presented here are rather obvious, not emphasising the concept at higher levels. There is of course no limit to how subtle you can get at tricking your enemy into doing something you can use to your advantage. So, keep in mind and play in an elegant fashion. Hope this got you thinking about some aspects of strategy.
The Value of Adaptation
Strategy provided by: Starcraft
Millennium
You must be wondering about the title. Well forget about the title for a minute. Allow me to ask you this question. Why are we, as Homo sapiens sapiens, the dominant species on this planet? We are, after all, a very new species. Not only that, we are very physically fragile and weak. Then why are we all over the planet, whereas many other species, much older ones, are limited to certain areas and are at risk of extinction? The answer is really quite simple. We are the species that is most capable of adaptation.
No, no, no, don't stop reading just yet. I'm not giving you a biology lesson on the theory of evolution. This is a StarCraft strategy article after all. Just as our species have adapted to the environment and surroundings over the last 100,000 years since the birth of our species, doing the same will improve your gameplay in StarCraft. How so, you ask? Well, read on.
StarCraft is played on many different maps, or lands, or terrains or whatever you want to call it. I'll be using the term map throughout this article, so if you don't like it, then too bad. Unless you only play one map, you will have to adapt to whatever map you're playing on. And thus, if you only play one map, stop reading this now and go away. For those of us who play more than one map, read on.
How can adapting toward the map help you win? I already hear you jabbering about your elite hydralisk horde or reaver drop builds. Sure, a common build can work well for many a map, but have you ever not had your zergling rush thwarted by a solid defense at the enemy's ramp? I'm sure you have. The ramp itself is terrain, although you may not think of it that way if you often play on maps that have a ramp and you get used to it.
Adapting your build could have saved minerals that you spent on zerglings. Perhaps you knew your enemy was protoss and saw him block his ramp with two zealots. Instead of doing your normal 9 pool build, you could have instead done a mutalisk rush and take out their workers when they put all their defense at their ramp. Or perhaps a quick expansion to a lurker drop. The possibilities are endless. Whether you know how to use these possibilities in certain situations dependent on your level of skill.
And thus we arrive at this word again: flexibility. A changing enemy is far harder to beat than one who does the same thing every single game. My advice to you is, if you want to become better, try to be an able player in at least two races. All three races have their distinct benefits, benefits that are much more useful on some maps than others. A tank on high ground is much more valuable and useful than a hydralisk, for example. Now, I'm not saying that you can't be good by playing just one race. But having the ability to play different races will allow you, once again, to adapt to the map and pick a race that has advantages you can exploit in that map. For example, on a map like dire straits, the protoss species are dominant, due to their photon cannons and superior air force (namely corsairs and speed upgraded shuttles). Or you can decide to go with the terrans and use tanks to kill enemy workers from across channels. Whatever your choice, be sure to play according to the map. Don't 5 pool on dire straits, that would be just plain dumb. Of course, that's obvious, but something such as choosing between going with a reaver drop or high templar harassment is not. Making that decision according to the map, what the enemy is, and what he does, rather than going with the build that you're most used to.
Here is where my argument that StarCraft is balanced comes in. Sure, marines and medics will usually eat hydralisks for lunch, and psionic storm will turn those marines into mush. Most people see this, and thus they complain about imbalance. Well allow me to tell you this. If you see your enemy using high templar, then don't attack with infantry! It's that simple! Adapt to what he's producing, and make science vessels to kill his templar or at least force them to merge into archons. Then you can use units that will kill archons relatively easily, such as vultures or tanks. Therefore, people who complain about imbalance are simply people who cannot adapt. Sure, you can complain about a unit being too weak once in a while, but don't go nuts over it and quit StarCraft simply because those damn ghosts keep locking your carriers. Adapt and find a solution!
Thus, the conclusions we can draw from my points stated above are: adaption and flexibility are key to success in any situation, be it evolution by natural selection, or a simple computer game called StarCraft; StarCraft is balanced. When you lose, it is, more often than not, due to the fact that you could not adapt. There are other factors, of course, such as luck and latency, but those things you do not have control over. Instead, focus on things that you do have control over and improve your game.
-NobleHelium
Dropping Techniques
Strategy Written by: HookedOnChronic
Dropping holds the most potential for devastation in any offense with the least
amount of troops, money and time. We all do it, (hopefully) but how many of us
do it cost effectively? By cost effective, I mean... the money and time that you
have spent on the drop has to be countered by an equal amount of money and time
lost by your opponent. There are 3 key phases to dropping, in my opinion.
1. Preparation and planning
The thing to keep in mind with dropping, is that planning and scouting are key.
No true military mind would send drop his troops into an area without some
prelim scouting, just as you shouldn't. Knowing the location of the drop is
easy, but knowing what defenses are present and what offensive strategies you
will need is much harder. If you are protoss and you are dropping against zerg
where their entire defense is sunken colonies, archons will not help. If you
scout and see that they have a spire, archons are a must. Don't assume that 2
reavers, 2 tanks, or 2 lurkers is the best way to drop. Also, your first failed
drop tips your opponent to what buildings and tech level you have achieved. They
will most likely protect against future drops in one way or another, and they
will know to check any island expansions that may be on the map.
2. Harassment and Diversion
Your drop is ready and you have the proper troops loaded up and ready to ship
out, what next? For most players the next step is to run right out there and
drop you opponent. This, in my opinion is going to cost you the game. Look at it
from your opponent's view... they are building and scouting, or preparing their
own drop when suddenly they have a blip on their mini-map. They react quickly
and efficiently focusing on killing that shuttle and its nasty cargo. Chances
are you will either be forced to retreat, or you will do minimal damage while
loosing valuable units. My solution for this is simple. Organize a distraction.
In a land game, you should have units in addition to your drop... use these to
execute a strike vs. your opponent's weakest point, or a new expansion. If your
attack is threatening enough or well planned enough, your opponent will pull
their "reserve" troops to combat your attack. At this point you should drop.
Chances are, your opponent will be defending off your initial attack and
winning... they will not even notice that you have obliterated a crucial
building or wiped out his worker lines (sorry about the war2 reference). Another
thing to get your opponent to commit to defending your initial diversion is to
use a single "advanced" unit in your attack. If your opponent sees 12 marines
come in, they may be suspicious and not pull all their troops. If they see 12
marines and a single siege tank, they will be much more inclined to rush all of
their mutalisks to defend the area (for example). A single templar or lurker
draws the same attention.
3. Timing and Escape
So lets assume that you have successfully diverted and dropped. You then target
his income and killed 9-10 workers and maybe a stationary defense building.
Maybe you took out a key structure. Either way, most players I see in games tend
to make the same mistake. They get greedy. You can look at the amount of money
and time that you have put into this drop and gauge the cost-effectiveness of
your drop thus far. If you have also diverted your opponent's attention, you can
see the amount of power that they hold on the map and decide if you should now
run with your drop, or stay. The advantages of running are obviously that you
keep your mode of transportation, and your units themselves. The advantage of
staying is that you leave a thorn in your opponent's side that they have to
remove. While they spend time and money on removing that, you spend time and
money on expanding or powering. The general mistake that I see in games is that
a player drops and does the necessary ! damage, then they stay and try to
inflict a mortal wound, which will take too long. Assume the entire time of the
drop that units are moving to counter/kill your dropped units. If you have
expensive units such as a siege tank, reaver or archon... you probably want to
run before the opposition takes them out... then regroup and use those units at
another location or time. Another option is to produce some air power of some
sort to help escort your shuttle away by taking hits from pursuing air forces.
It's better to loose a single wraith than a shuttle, tank and 4 marines. As a
general rule, quit while you are ahead, rinse; then repeat.
Guerilla Tactics
Strategy Written by: kevinsbane
Ah, my favorite set of tactics.
(note: doesn't work at all for BGH maps)
1. Terran:
-Irradiate is a deadly, deadly, deadly spell. Build six sci. vessels and hotkey
them all. Go on a whole bunch of raiding missions. Irradiate one thing, run
back. Go somewhere else, irradiate more. Wash, rinse repeat. Does two things:
Pisses off opponent and wastes money.
-set traps:
Use a battle cruiser with yamato, and set up 12+ goliaths with valks. behind a
river. Go to his defense line, yamato, run. Keep doing it. If he decides to come
after you, slaughter whatever air force he sends out after you.
(need to work on my terran ones)
2. Protoss
-Use feedback often and just drop DA's into his base, and recall both your DA
and captured unit back to yours. Do it constantly, you'll not only gain valuable
units, you'll also make you opponent clam up.
-hit expansions with scouts, kill a couple turrets, scv's, run, recharge. Repeat
with other expands, and occasionally hit his main.
-recall a bunch of reavers in, deal massive damage with two, three, four shots,
recall out. Very, very nasty, vicious and hard to stop.
-if you have the corsairs, have some fun. d-web his main base and start pounding
it to bits. If air units decide to come and play, the corsiars will take them
out. (exception: BC's, Carriers, devourers)
-psi storm and run. Set traps with templar only. I remember how I took out all
of a newbie's army with one high templar. 70+ wraiths gone in two casts.
3. Zerg
-Use queens, and use a lot. Especially against terran tank commanders. It's
really funny. Blow up one tank, the rest kill the broodlings and damage other
stuff. Do it again, and voîla! half the tanks are dead
-traps are the favorite of mine. Send in a couple hydras, draw the attention of
the army. Lead them through an area, littered with lurkers, hydras and lings,
all burrowed and hot keyed. Wait for the appropriate time (might require some
hitting of the "stop" command for the lurkers) and unburrow! deadly.
-plague like crazy. Burrow a bunch of lings near the guy's choke/entrance\base.
send in some defilers, plague/consume/plague until his base looks like it's
bleeding. Distract him with broodlings/hydra drop
-d-swarm some hydras and lurkers, lead all manner of ground units to them. If
the guy's smart, he'll run. But you'll have gotten the advantage. After several
times of this, he'll have held position. Then go in with guardians and wipe up.
PS: these strategies by themselves will NOT kill an opponent. They are meant for
non-infinite money maps and must be used with a single, lethal blow. What they
DO do is make that killing blow easier to deal.
Science above Attrition
Strategy Written by: Minion
I've been playing this game for a great while now. I started out playing a
numbers game, thinking that Starcraft was gonna be like Warcraft - meaning the
more units I built, the greater the odds of me winning. But then I realized that
it was no longer true. The units in Starcraft are far too diverse to rely on
repetitive, overwhelming numbers to win every game.
I noticed that as my entire wave of dragoons (just an example, I assure you)
walked into a base, the front line would stop and open fire until such time that
I told them to move or they were destroyed. But everybody behind them would wait
their turn - meaning that only a certain number would be seeing combat at any
given time. That means that out of your whole army of 50 dragoons, they're only
fighting the enemy 7 or so at a time; and 7 dragoons can be easily eliminated
with the proper counter units. So why am I going to waste my time and resources
making 50 when only one or two dozen with science support does the same job, at
a cheaper cost?
So I took the path less traveled and started going with Science.
"Science? What the hell do you mean by Science?" I mean spells, specials,
whatever the popular name is these days. The point is, by balancing armed units
with Science units, you can save yourself a whole lot of resources and time in
tearing away at your enemy. After all, I'm sure you've noticed that two
battlecruisers engaging 1 on 1 will end up finishing in a draw, or with one of
them leaving for home heavily damaged. So why make it 50 on 50?
Let's say we're in the same situation, but one of them decides to fire a yamato
blast at the other, doing a full 260 (minus armor) to the other cruiser. The
cruiser that fired the yamato is bound to go home in much better condition now.
Increase that effect with defensive matrix and you fare that much better.
Locking him down would be your best choice, rendering the other unit completely
unable to defend itself or run away.
But of course that was just a small example. I intend to eventually outline as
much as possible on this subject through other posts, but hopefully the
Starcraft community understands me well enough without me having to hold their
hand.
The key lies with experimentation...try out every special in the game. See what
you need to use on what units, and build your armies accordingly. It may be
awkward at first but as with all things, with practice it will become easier.
Understand that you don't need the numbers - just blind them with science :)
Starcraft Fundamentals
Strategy Written by: gwt77
The purpose of the following is to provide people with an understanding of the
basic fundamentals of RTS gaming. These are perhaps a response to the lack of
emphasis on game philosophies and fundamentals characteristic of the majority of
websites. In my opinion, too much attention is paid to developing cool tricks
with special abilities, or proper build orders and rushing (although they are
important, ignoring basics will lose you the majority of your games). I have
titled this section via the use of a paradox - 'Advanced Fundamentals' - since
the following advice is technically what all players should follow and observe,
yet only the elite few actually do so.
People play too defensively
The golden rule of RTS gaming. Play aggressively! You can not let your opponent
control what you do. Being aggressive will win you battles in starcraft. Make
your opponent play by your rules. If you let him dictate play, then you have
basically lost the game. By being your aggressive, you keep your opponent on his
toes, constantly wary of your next move. As a result, the options remain in your
court. You gain control of the map, his actions, and eventually the game. But
more importantly, you keep your opponent on the defensive. Sure the terran have
a great defense, but what good is that if your not attacking your opponent and
destroying his buildings (hmm, what was the main objective of the game again?).
"Attack early, attack often" - Toes -
People don't protect their Workers.
These guys are the most important unit in the game. Period. All good players
know that the quickest way to send an opponent running for the hills is to take
out his SCV's, his source of income. These should be your main priority, not
your opponent's buildings or your opponent's troops. If I'm attacking a base,
these guys are usually my main target. Right in the very beginning of a game,
build defenses around these guys. Even just a few turrets, bunkers, cannons, or
spore colonies will do, just to act as a deterrent for any would be reaver
droppers. Protect these guys at all costs, else you will find yourself far, far
behind your opponent production wise.
People Don't Scout.
Knowledge is power. I cannot stress enough how important scouting and
reconnaissance is in the world of starcraft. You need to keep a constant watch
on your opponent. Track his movements and never let him out of your sight. It
will make you more confident and secure in organizing attacks, informing you of
your opponent's progress and of any developing weaknesses. Scouting allows you
to be more responsive to the tactics of your opponents. It allows you to adjust
or change your strategy in response to your opponent's actions and thus you are
better equipped to handle any surprise attacks or unforeseen events. If your
scouting shows you that your opponent is doing something that will beat your
current strategy, no problem. Just change your strat. Without scouting, this
level of responsiveness is not possible. So while your building reavers and
zealots for a heavy ground assault, your opponent has come in with wraiths and
cruisers. What? You didn't see that coming. Maybe you should have ran an
observer or a couple of hallucinations through his base? Never underestimate the
value of good scouting. In my opinion, knowledge is the most powerful weapon in
the game.
People Don't build enough workers
Ideally, you should have at twice the number of workers as there are mineral
patches. This should be your target as you develop your economy. The only way to
keep your economy working at 100% is to build more workers. However, people also
forget to build workers for construction purposes. This is especially most
noticeable with the Zerg, since drones are required to morph into buildings.
Many times a zerg player will take a worker off their mining duties and morph
them into a building. The problem with this is that players often forget to
replace the worker with another drone. As such, their worker line is constantly
dwindling, and thus your economy is not working to its full potential. In some
cases, after an SCV has finished constructing a building, players will forget to
put them back onto minerals. Therefore, try to build an extra 5-7 SCV's for
construction and repairs alone. Your economy should be working as efficiently as
possible, at all times, raking in money at the fastest possible rate, and the
only way to make sure of this is to build more workers.
People don't defend their expansions.
I don't know how many times I've come across an expansion with only one SCV half
way through building a command center only to get shot down by my wraiths, or
marines, or whatever. When expanding, BUILD A DEFENSE FIRST! Secure the
expansion before you mine from it. I know for the zerg you will need to build a
hatchery first before you build any colonies or canals, but then that is no
excuse for not sending down about a third to a half of your army (yes I said
half) to secure the mining spot. Your expansion is your income, and without
income, there's no money, which means there are no troops. In essence, your main
base will last longer than your SCV's and half finished defenses when attacked,
so send the majority of your troops to your expansion to secure it, then think
about defending your main base.
People don't build enough unit producers.
The true sign of newbie is when he has only one type of unit producer training
his troops. Don't just limit yourself to one barracks, or one Hatchery, or one
Gateway. Build more. The more you build, the faster you train your troops.
Therefore, your army becomes twice as big in half the time. Its not uncommon for
me to have 5-7 barracks constantly producing troops at any given time. What is a
measly 150 mineral anyway? Three marines, 2 Vultures. The unit producers in
starcraft use up relatively little resources, so there really is no excuse for
having just one factory, or one gateway, or one starport. Build more.
People don't spend their money.
This is a very prominent factor in the downfall of most players. They don't
spend their money quick enough. You should always, at all times, have close to 0
resources in the bank. Never have money sitting around, doing nothing. Make the
money work for you. Now who is going to win, some guy with 1000 minerals sitting
in the bank, or a guy with 20 marines? If your resources ever start to pile up,
spend that money on more buildings, more unit producers, more units, upgrades,
or even set up another expansion. You should never die with money in the bank.
People don't expand.
Expansion is basically what RTS games are about. Money is the driving force in
the Starcraft Universe, and if you don't have money, you die. One expansion
won't cut-it. In the mid-late game, you should be aiming to have AT LEAST two
expansions collecting resources simultaneously (especially for the Protoss).
Because mineral patches in starcraft can only support a limited number of units,
expansion becomes that even more vital. And don't expand just when your mineral
patches run out. Expand as early as possible. That way, resources will still be
coming in to finance your war efforts, placing less effort on you to establish a
successful expansion. If your expansion is shot down, at least the money from
your original mining site can help you set up another. As a general rule, I try
to expand whenever my resources start to pile up, usually at about the 1000-1500
mineral mark.
People don't use specials.
The great thing about Starcraft is that a big army doesn't necessarily guarantee
you a win. Whole armies can fall to even a small number of units. The reason?
Special abilities. Special Abilities are responsible adding the element of
strategy to RTS games. Why was War 2 so popular? All their opposing units were
basically the same, not much variety. But it was the magic that had propelled
Warcraft II into the RTS spotlight. The magic was responsible for adding
strategy to the game, not to mention great fun and playability. The same notion
can be applied here to starcraft. Special abilities grant your troops that much
more of an advantage over your opponent, and proper usage will further increase
your chances of success.
People don't upgrade
Upgrading is sooooo important in Starcraft. Most fully upgraded units in
starcraft gain close to an increase of 50-70% in potency (a good example being
the lowly zergling, receiving an increase of 60% in power through weapon
upgrades alone!). You need to be constantly upgrading your troops to gain that
extra edge over your opponent, or at least have your units just as powerful as
theirs. And don't just look to armor and weapon upgrades. Make sure to upgrade
special abilities as well. As a good rule of thumb, by the mid-late game, most
of your units should be up to level 3 upgrades for both armor and weapons. By
mid game, all your basic, low level units (marines, zerglings) should be fully
upgraded. Don't just rely on one building to upgrade your troops. Build extra
buildings so that you can research both armor and weapon upgrades
simultaneously. Engineering bays, evolution chambers and armories do not cost
that much to build.
People don't make full use of Starcraft's control options.
Shortcut keys, waypoints, 'attack location', and grouping keys not only take the
burden off micromanaging your troops, but also speed up the handling of your
army. In Starcraft, it simply takes way too much game time using icons to train
troops, using icons to use specials, or manually managing your troops in
engagements. Now which method is the most efficient way to build a barrack,
clicking on the basic structure icon, then clicking on the barracks icon, then
placing the barrack, or simply typing b-b then placing it? The use of short cut
keys also applies to specials. Clicking on the lockdown icon to use lockdown
wastes too much time. Isn't it more efficient to just hit L then click? You
don't want to waste your time fumbling around for the icons on the screen when
the use of the ability is a mere key stroke away.
I cannot stress how important the 'attack location' command is. The use of
attack-location involves hitting 'A' for attack (or clicking the attack icon)
and then clicking on the location that you wish your selected units to move to.
Attack location causes your units to move in a patrol like fashion, attacking
any units that it encounters as it advances towards its destination. The attack
location not only lets your units defend themselves against any threats on their
journey, but it also makes the selected units target their own individual enemy
by themselves, thus eliminating the need for constant micromanagement. This is
especially useful with melee attackers.
Read the list of control options and short cut keys provided in Blizzard's
instruction manual careful. Their proper use could save you a lot of game time
in the future and a lot of tedious micromanagement.
People Don't Know their Units
This is related to the different damage types in the game. People don't know
which unit to use against which opponent. People often look at a unit's stat and
think WOW. This goliath does 20 hit points of damage to air and 10 hit points of
damage to ground. I'll build lots of these and nothing will stop me. The problem
is, you have to to take into account the type of damage that your unit does.
That is why marines are usually better at attacking mutas than goliaths (without
the range upgrade). The reason: goliaths will only do half damage to mutas
because their damage type is explosive and mutas are considered as small units.
So while people think their doing a whopping 20 hit points of damage, the mutas
are kicking their ass, receiving only a mere 10 hit points of damage. The marine
on the other hand, does full damage. They still only inflict around 6-8 hit
points of damage, but their rate of fire is faster, and they are also cheaper to
train and can be supported by medics. Developing a thorough knowledge of your
units is vital to ensure that you are fully aware of the capabilities of your
army, and thus are better equipped in making decisions regarding their use.
Expansions
Strategy Written by: gwt77
Expansions are perhaps the most important aspect of any battle in the world of
Starcraft. Money turns the wheels of motion in Starcraft and without expansions,
you have no money, and you die. Once the early game has passed, almost all games
will be based on how well you expand. The following article will address the
problems and philosophies associated with the establishment and maintenance of a
successful expansion. Read these carefully as the ability to establish an
efficient and well defended expansion can often mean the difference between
victory and defeat.
Secure Before Mine
The first rule to observe when establishing an expansion (and perhaps the most
important) is to secure the mining site before you mine! Most newbies (and
perhaps even a majority of intermediate players) will start to build their
Command Center, Hatchery, or Nexus before they establish any defenses. This is
the quickest way to lose 400 minerals and a great deal of time. If the enemy
comes across your expansion before you finish building defenses, be prepared to
cancel constructions. Secure before Mine, words to live by. Have your SCV's
build turrets and bunkers before the command center. Get pylons and cannons
before the Nexus. I acknowledge the fact that for the zerg you will need to
build a hatchery before any defensive structures, but then that is no reason for
sending about 1/3 of your troops to defend it until the structures are up. You
need to secure the site before you mine, else the majority of your expansion
attempts will fail miserably due to lack of defense.
Another rule to be addressed is concerned with enemy expansion scouts. Always,
and I mean ALWAYS, comsat or do a sweep of the expansion site to clear it of any
enemy scouts. If he knows your expanding, you can basically kiss the expansion
goodbye. Comsat if you're terran and send an overlord if you're zerg. If you see
a scout, kill it and look elsewhere. If you're protoss, and are expanding before
you obtain observers, you may have to take the chance and just expand. In these
situations, I am usually especially wary of an enemy attack and send most, if
not all of my army to the site. It is also preferable to find a site close to
your main base to facilitate defense.
Maintaining a Defense and Commencing Mining Operations
Following the successful seizure of the mining site, maintaining a defense and
an efficient worker line will be the next step in ensuring a successful
expansion. The strategies involved in defending an expansion vary with each
race, but most can provide your expansion with a strong defense when used
correctly. The first thing to remember is that the purpose of an expansion
defense is to provide an adequate means of protecting your workers and to be
able to hold off an attack long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Most
expansions should be able to hold off small to medium assaults. Defenses against
large, heavy expansion assaults should be adequate enough to hold off the attack
until reinforcements come on to the scene. The second thing to remember is that
once you set up an expansion, it should be the focal point of your defense (not
your main base). Your income is your lifeline, and critical to your success.
Protect this at all costs.
The Terran have undoubtedly one of the most effective expansion defenses. A few
turrets, mines, bunkers and siege tanks is all you need. The Protoss expansion
defense is also surprisingly strong and efficient, often only needing a few
batteries, cannons, Templars (with storm), and some extra units such as archons
and reavers to ensure its defense. Although the zerg are perhaps the easiest
race to expand with, they also have a surprisingly strong and cost-effective
expansion defense. Spore colonies and scourges are great for repelling most air
assaults while dark swarm can provide effective protection for your workers
against air and ranged units. The improved sunkens and the new lurker are also
extremely important in zerg expansions and have added a welcome increase in
firepower to their defense.
Terran Expansions
Terran expansion defenses should be constructed with the use of multiple SCV's.
You need to have SCV's building turrets, bunkers and whatever else
simultaneously. It takes simply too much time for one or two SCV's to construct
all of the structures needed. My standard expansion defense involves two
bunkers, two turrets, a few spider mines outside (I use them mainly as scouts,
but they also provide effective protection against land assaults), two ghosts
later in the game, and perhaps a siege tank or two and a pack of wraiths (I
usually use a pack of wraiths as a mobile response team to deal with any
surprise assaults, not just for one expansion site but for all my bases, and
tend to have them hot keyed for quick access).
It is important to keep the defense tight around your workers. You don't want
the enemy sneaking by your bunkers and turrets with shuttles and unloading
reavers right in the center of your mining line. Have turrets constructed right
next to your bunkers to protect from cloaked units (especially lurkers! These
guys can mow down your workers before you even get the warning). Your tank
should be in siege mode and flush with the bunkers when playing terran. The
ghosts are mainly there to protect from shuttle dropships. Lockdown can provide
adequate defense against most dropships and can even halt most air assaults. It
is perhaps wise to build some defenses, perhaps an extra turret or bunker,
behind the mineral patches to catch any units who manage to sneak around and
behind. If there is a ledge overlooking the base, get a unit up there or mine
the place. I usually use spider mines as scouts to act as an early warning
system, however, if the enemy can only reach your expansion through a choke (via
land), it is often a good idea to clog it up with a spread of mines as well.
This should cut down most land attacks quite considerably. Medics can also be
handy to cast restore and heal any troops which you don't have in bunkers.
Wraiths are mainly there to respond to guardians, nukes, and siege tanks who
launch a surprise attack. If your base is being pounded by guardians or any
other air unit, upgraded goliaths are a must. These babies can easily hold their
own against cruisers, carriers and guardians in sufficient numbers. Scouts,
mutas, and wraiths should be no problem at all when using goliaths, due to their
weak air-to-ground attack. When upgraded for weapons, goliaths receive an extra
four bonus points for each level attained, a huge boost which places greater
emphasis on their anti-air roll. Goliaths are also especially effective on
island expansions.
Protoss Expansions
The protoss have an advantage in that only one probe is really needed to begin
the establishment of an expansion, although it is perhaps wise to bring over a
few troops over for temporary defense until the structures are up. The protoss
expansion is surprisingly strong. Although their fire rate is relatively slow,
they are very cheap to build (compared to the 300 mineral bunker - taking into
account the cost of marines, assuming four marines are used- and the 200 mineral
sunken, including the cost of the drone), and can be warped rather quickly
through the use of only one probe. The defense of a Protoss expansion requires
really nothing more than one reaver, two templars, one or two observers lurking
on the outskirts (mainly to protect against nukes, dark templars and any other
cloaked units), shield batteries, archons, and a plethora of cannons guarding
the whole site. Archons and shield batteries can be a devastating combination. I
once held off a pack of at least 12 mutalisks plus a few token hydras with two
archons and two batteries. That is what I call efficiency. The Templars provide
excellent defense against both ground and air units. Their effectiveness against
air is further magnified by the cannons and their effectiveness on ground is
supported by the presence of reavers. This is perhaps the greatest strength of
the protoss expansion. Reavers and psi-storm provide a devastating amount of
firepower while cannons add great range over both land and air.
The only weaknesses of this expansion are guardians and tanks, both of which can
fire at range without receiving immediate retaliation fire. Try to get
speed-upgraded zealots to take out tanks and scouts or corsairs to take out the
guardians. Having an extra Dark archon to take out spell casters with feedback
(one dark archon can kill 5 templars!) can also be an invaluable asset for a
protoss expansion defense. In addition to this, maelstorm can usually provide
your defenses with a temporary reprieve from a massive enemy assault force
should the situation arise, allowing for psi-storm and reavers to inflict
maximum damage and increasing the required ETA for reinforcements.
Zerg Expansions
The zerg expansion is very strong. Sunkens, combined with lurkers, can usually
decimate most large land assaults with minimal casualties. Spore colonies should
be constructed around your workers to prevent drops in addition to a few
patrolling hydras and zerglings. My expansion usually consists of plenty of
sunkens, spore colonies, defilers, scourges on patrol, and a nydus canal. The
nydus canal is perhaps the most important structure you will build. This will
facilitate the defense of your expansion by allowing fast and easy access to the
mining site for your troops. The great thing about the canal is that you can
keep all your troops at your expansion/s to defend it, and if you see your main
base being attacked, you can quickly 'warp' them all back in to deal with the
threat (or vice-versa). However, care must be taken to leave the nydus at the
back of your base, away from the enemy assault force, since the nydus is usually
a top priority target and, pending its destruction, can leave your base wide
open for destruction. Furthermore, try to set your hatchery's rally points to
the canal. This will allow recently acquired troops to warp over in immediate
defense of your expansion.
Against Terran, I usually have a few defilers standing by to dark swarm over my
workers and my defending army. Against the protoss, I usually have a response
team of mutas to take out ground-to-ground threats and provide some resistance
against air units until hydras and scourge come onto the scene, and perhaps the
occasional queen to cast broodling on templars or ensnare on the zealots and
marines. In both these cases, you need to have the nydus canal to recall your
hydras and ultralisks to the scene, else you your expansion will suffer a hasty
demise. Scourges are also key participants in expansion defenses. Patrolling a
few on the perimeter can usually deter most airborne threats, including the
dreaded shuttles (watch out for hallucination though). Overlords, of course, are
a must.
Maintaining Offensive Pressure.
One thing you must remember is that the above expansion defenses are only ideal
setups. In fact, most of these are unrealistic in terms of costs and time,
especially in allied games were things can get a bit hectic. I have only really
achieved these setups very late in FFA's and when my money started piling up
(which means that I had not been spending enough). Sure having scouts and
reavers defending your expansion can keep your workers nice and safe, but
wouldn't you rather have them tearing apart zerg hides and terran flesh? You
should be aiming to use the minimum amount of defense as is possible. The more
you can get away with the better. If you see that you opponent is not attacking
you as much, usually only a few cannons or bunkers will do for defense. If, on
the other hand, you suspect that your opponent will hit your expansion hard,
then bolster your ranks. Your expansion defense is very flexible, and it should
be able to adapt and change according to your opponent's actions. If you see him
going for air, add more anti-air structures. If he is going for ground, add a
few sunkens or spider mines. If you have him on the back foot, try take some
units of defense and use them more aggressively. Always be ready to respond to
your opponent's change of tact (reason 1,000,001 why scouting is important).
However, above all, aim to place less emphasis on expansion defense and more on
offense.
It can often be tempting to go all out defensive once you begin to build your
expansion. Reject the temptation. It is imperative that during and after
establishment, you continue on with you war effort and start to go offensive.
Don't get sucked into the trap of turtling and constructing bunkers all over the
place. You need to keep the pressure on your opponent. Attacks against your
opponent during the establishment of your expansions are perhaps the most
important in the game. You need to keep him busy fighting your army while you
setup. If he finds you when your expansion is not yet up to full health, then
you will be in trouble.
And last but not least, once you establish an expansion, it should be the focal
point of your defense. Remember that your income is your lifeline, and without
money, you die. Protect your income at all costs.
Optimum Number of Workers Harvesting
Gas
Strategy Written by: Anonymous
Introduction
If you watch 3 workers harvesting gas there often doesn't seem to be a time when
there isn't a worker inside the extractor harvesting gas. Some players,
including myself have believed that, because of this, 3 workers is the optimum
number needed to harvest gas. While others have maintained that 4 enables you to
harvest more gas from an extractor. Even among the very best of players there
has been a certain amount of uncertainty as to what was the optimum number of
workers to harvest gas. This was demonstrated in this comment by Starcraft and
Brood War genius, D22-soso after his PGL final game with the great X'Ds~Grrrr...:
He then used 4 Scourges to kill 2 of my Mutalisks. So, I'm up right? Yes. So,
how did I lose? I only had 3 Drones on Gas while he had 4. Call me stupid. I
wasn't aware that it made an impact until that game.
I decided to make an experiment to investigate what was the optimum number of
workers to harvest gas, whether or not this differed depending on one's race and
starting point.
Methodology
I made a special map to conduct my experiments. Using map settings, the map sets
a countdown for 60 seconds at the start of the game and ends the game after this
time. I used Dire Straits as a base for my customized map. Already on the map is
a hatchery and an extractor located in the usual places for the top left
starting point on Dire Straits. There are also 4 drones placed as close to the
extractor as possible.
Test 1: "3 drones on gas"
As soon as the game started I would double click on a drone, selecting all 4
drones then right click on the extractor. Immediately after this I would remove
one of the queuing drones leaving only 3 drones harvesting gas.
Test 2: "4 drones on gas"
As soon as the game started I would double click on a drone, selecting all 4
drones then right click on the extractor.
I repeated these tests several times at top left then altered the map to allow
me to conduct the same tests at the top right, bottom right and bottom left
starting points. I then tried this for Terran and Protoss as well. I also tried
testing with 5 workers but the results for these were always the same as for 4
workers.
Results
Zerg
From repeated attempts on all starting points the results were always the same.
After 1 minute of harvesting gas with 3 drones, a total of 176 gas had been
collected. After harvesting with 4 drones a total of 200 gas was collected.
Table showing the amount of gas harvested after 1 minute
using 3 or 4 drones 3 drones 4 drones
176 200
Terran
I tried this only on bottom left and bottom right but because the results were
the same for both of these and had been for the zerg tests as well I saw no need
to repeat the tests at the other starting points. After 1 minute of harvesting
gas with 3 SCVs, a total of 192 gas had been collected. After harvesting with 4
SCVs a total of 200 gas was collected. Surprised by this difference in results
with the zerg tests, I also tried testing the two methods after a period of 2
minutes to see whether the difference between 3 and 4 SCVs harvesting grew over
time or whether somehow there was an initial difference of 8 gas that did not
change. After 2 minutes of harvesting gas with 3 SCVs, a total of 392 gas had
been collected. After harvesting with 4 SCVs a total of 408 gas was collected.
Table showing the amount of gas harvested after 1 minute
using 3 or 4 SCVs 3 SCVs 4 SCVs
192 200
Protoss
I tried this 4 times with 3 probes on the bottom left starting point and the
results were equally distributed between 168 gas and 176 gas after 1 minute.
With 4 probes at the bottom right starting point 192 gas was collected. I then
tried this at the bottom right starting point and was surprised to find that
despite repeated tests only 160 gas could be harvested with 3 probes after 1
minute whereas the optimum 192 gas was collected with 4 probes from this
starting point.
Table showing the amount of gas harvested after 1 minute
using 3 or 4 probes 3 probes 4 probes
160, 168 or 176 200
Conclusion
In all cases, 4 workers are able to harvest more gas than 3 workers are, over a
period of 1 minute. It is uncertain as to why SCVs, drones and probes harvest at
different rates. The tests appear to indicate that SCVs are faster or have
greater acceleration than drones but spend the exact same amount of time in the
refinery/extractor while probes appear to spend slightly longer in the
assimilator. The reasons why the results between the different worker types is
not that significant however. What is more significant is that a Terran player
harvesting with only 3 SCVs will only be missing out on 8 gas per minute of game
time (time is relative of course =P). The most important conclusion from the
experiment is that if you're trying to harvest gas as fast as possible you
should be harvesting with 4 workers rather than 3.
Have a strategy? Send it in here.
