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Some Strats and General Analogies of SC
by Blacklizard
Starcraft Beta Test Ladder Champion

Hello forumers,
I haven't posted a ton during the beta, but that's because I was playing hard! Now that I have some extra time, I will enjoy posting. Perhaps one day I'll put the posts on a webpage, and maybe a bit more.
WARNING : I will tend to go on tangents and ramble. I could write a much more organized post if I spent another hour reforming it... but I don't have that much time to waste, heh.
Is SC so very much like War2? Yes and no. It is as addictive, as fun (more if you ask me =] ), as complex, and as competitive. But it is different because of many aspects of gameplay and a tighter control on lamer abuse.
First let me comment on lamer abuse. In war2, ppl would drop if they were behind. Then they'd either look at the saved games (never did this but heard it was possible) or simply use whichever saved game was more helpful to them and continue the game with you pretending to be honorable. Ladder games on SC aren't savable, and when u drop you get a disconnect added to your record. There are several players I won't play because they had more drops than wins. I might give them one chance, but usually they won't let you down (they'll drop on que.) Be warned, these ppl will give you all kind of excuses, and usually a different excuse each time, highlighting their lies. Also, at ANY point in a game/chat/gamechat etc. you can do a /stats on your opponent and find out what his wins/losses/disconnects are. VERY useful!!! That way u can avoid newbies and lamers. NOTE: all this only works on battlenet. Unfortunately Kali won't be able to do this.
Gameplay : The game is alot like War2. The more skilled wins almost always (given time to learn.) There are still map specific strats that work best, and so there are lamers that only play these maps. The good thing is that ladder maps *should* be quite fair by the time retail comes out. And there aren't an infinite number of ladder maps, so you don't have to learn a thousand maps to do well on ladder.
NOTE : I'm big on 1 on 1 competition, so I love the ladder.
More on gameplay: rushing is usually more easily defended for 1 on 1 than in war2. Of course in war2 you could wall off/tower/cat... and I can honestly say that there are some strats I know using the wall off that are near unbeatable on some maps. I know ppl will argue, but walling off is really kinda cheezy. Why? Well, sometimes it fit in nicely. But sometimes it was unbeatable till you got death and decay, or at least lust. That's kinda silly. If you had 25 grunts, and they walled in with a cat, and repaired the wall... guess what... you aren't gettin in. And if it is on a map with lots of gold and wood for them, they are gonna get lust and kill you.
Err, yeah gameplay. Ok, rushing is more stoppable in general for 1on1. Rushing can still be used... and can give you the advantage it gave war2 players... keep them occupied and then out resource/techtree them. IMO, SC has a better control on rushing because ladder games aren't top speed... thank god, that was so dumb in war2. Top speed encourages a one strat only kind of play. You can't defend a rush and build up, which is silly. While all the rusher used to do in war2 is send his men to attack (with speed at full) then ignore them while he built normally. Stupid. Well guess what fellas, you are gonna have to beat me for real on SC ;) Yes, I have a bit of a thing about the fastest speed players... it eliminates too many strats and leaves only one. Now if you want to rush, you better think about managing the fight more, which means more skill involved, which is better.
Gameplay : upgrades : In war2 usually you upgraded really quickly, or you died. There were exceptions involving expanding strats etc. Well, in SC I think the opposite is true. Upgrades (weapons/armor/shields) are very expensive to your economy early on, and take forever to upgrade. Upgrades that are quick (speed, attack range, stimpacks) are more useful early since they are done before you go fight usually, and often do alot more than give you a -1 damage per getting hit.
Gameplay: peon control : You can control peons much much better than in war2!!! There is no forest to accidentally chop thru to leave u open to attack. Mineral crystals (most peons are on crystals... say, 20 out of 24) are your main resource, well kinda. It's a combo of gold and wood in war2. There are about 7 to 10 mineral crystals per mine ... peons go to them and mine them. It take a peon like 5 to 8 seconds to finish mining one crystal, so no worrying about your 49th chop on wood being interrupted by a lone grunt that sneaked into your base. And due to better internet planning, you can pull peons off minerals AND gas MUCH more easily than u could pull guys off gold in war2. This, thank god, keeps a guy from puttin that one lone grunt in the middle of your gold flow and killing tons of peons. Pkt: 4 also helped this in war2. In general, delay isn't bad at all in SC... and i have NEVER seen horrible delays like I have in War2 over the internet. I had millions of games where it took 30 seconds in war2 before guys would follow my orders (during pkt:8 or pkt:7 times.) That was the worst.
Another thing on peon control, peons outrun most fighters. That's right, now u can actually defend when they run in with "ogres." Run your peons out!@
Sidenote : you can still wall off, tho it's harder to do, and "small" guys... peons, marines, zerglings usually can fit thru the cracks between flush buildings (side by side buidlings work better than ones that are on top of each other if i recall correctly. Zergs have the hardest time walling off, since they have to build a whole other hatchery there to do so.
The fast speed for peons also allows them to be efficient scouts.
Gameplay : There is no lust. Nope, sorry lust lovers. Along with this, Blizzard was telling the truth when they said units are good throughout the game. Of course zealots aren't goint to do you any good against air units, but zealots,zerglings, marines, hydras, dragoons, etc, etc, are good as soon as you get them, and are just as good later ... perhaps in greater numbers, or often in bunkers, but....
Gameplay : No lust also means there is no ultimate unit. You have to use a variety of units against tuff opponents. Spell casters are even better in SC than in War2. Woo hoo~! And you often need them more. In probably 80% of my SC games I have heavy usage of spell casters. This i LOVE! I use the spell casters more than anybody I play, so I go out of my way to use them. You can get away sometimes with minimal use of them.
Competition : on ladder games, competition is good, and will be even better when the game goes public! Being able to check ppl's stats is the best way to determine a good matchup for yourself. The game is definitely skill-based, and not spaz based. It is still an offensive game like War2, which I think it great. However it feels more balanced. Offense isn't so cheezy like the undefendable lust and unkillable walled in mages/cats (during certain points of the game.) Your offense has to be more calculated, and defence is the same way. There is still a time for sending your men in in a sort of rush, to blast past defences quickly and messily. And whatever you do, don't think that the game is defence oriented. The only games that turn out to be more defence are 1on1's involving terran vs. terrn. I say that, but at the same time, some of the most fun games I have had (not defence games) were terran vs terran. So, anything can happen!
Learning and teaching tactics is much easier in SC due to shared vision. You can share vision with players during a melee game. This helps alot. Team games also can be a great teaching tool.
Complex : yes, the game is complex! It is more of a game of counters, where as war2 was almost purely a race. War2 was complex in that you had to be exact... exactly 20 peons for this strat... exactly this many peons on wood here... etc... build the buildings exactly like this to defend this attack... etc. SC is more lenient in these areas, although some strats do need exact numbers of peons/men or exact placement of buildings. In general tho, if you are a good player, u don't Just have to know the one perfect buildup strat for a certain map. You can be more creative in SC (which i love!), and you can beat many strats in a variety of ways. Other SC complexities lie in the need to control your men wisely during a fight. War2 didn't emphasize this enuf in many situations. NWTR battles were a big exception tho. There are still times in SC where u can get around controlling every guy... but usually you want to be watching the battles and correcting your men's mistakes and casting support spells.
Well, i rambled alot. Let me end this post with at least one concrete strategy:
Hmmm. Ok, let me give a good build up for protoss vs. zerg on a land map. Expect to get zerglings in your town early. If there is no chance to have them very near you, build like this: pylon, gateway, pylon, gateway, pylon, gas assimilator, cybernetics core (maybe a pylon before it.) This isn't the perfectly effecient build up, but remember, skill can overcome a slightly off build up in SC. This build up will allow you to: counter zerglings early on using zealots. Then, you start building dragoons... which are ok vs zerglings (get shield batteries built if they are going heavy zerglings... and get shield batteries ready for what's probably coming next.)
Now you have to watch out for a couple of things. Hydras or Mutas. The best thing to do is get some good scouting and find out what they are going for. If they are going for hydras you need templars or reavers. This takes time, so be careful. If they go for mutas, you are going to need shield batteries all over your town. Probably like 4 shield batteries, 2 very near peons. The reason you need them all over is because dragoons wont have time to walk far to get to them when the super fast mutas are attacking you.
If you are unable to get a good scouting run in, you are in for problems. You can go for dragoons and zealots (probably get 3 gates by now) and make sure you have shield battiers near front lines. In this case you'll probably be a little behind if they come in with hydras. But the shield batteries may help.
As always, press the attack when u are ahead. This will probably be either really early before they have hydras, or later when u have templars and/or shuttles and/or reavers.
Blacklizard
March 23, 1998

For More Strategy Tips by Blacklizard, check out Blacklizards Strategy Guide at OGR.

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