The First Three Minutes of a Zerg Brood's Existance

Since patch 1.08 and its Replay function, games played by famous players have become quite popular. One thing clearly different from one player to another is the way he builds up early on (although most of them go for the same strats). What I would like to focus on in this strat is how a Zerg player builds up within the first few minutes of a game. You can hear some of these famous players stating that this or that build order would do better for a Zerg's economy, and since some of them strongly recommend the Extractor Trick while others ignore it, I decided to make a few tests:

-- How the testing was done --

To see how my economy would do depending on the various build orders, I modified the map "The Lost Temple" to always spawn me at the same spot (9 o'clock) and added a trigger to start a countdown timer at 3 minutes. Then I executed every build order, from Overlord at 6th Drone to Overlord at 9th and also tried out two types of Extractor Tricks (one, where you morph the extractor before morphing the Overlord, and one where the Overlord comes first), always building up to the 11th Drone.

Disclamer: I do NOT guarantee that my results are accurate!

Still, although the results you'll see here are only from 1 or 2 test per build, I took great care to not execute them differently (if a Drone "got lost" I immediatly restarted the game and I assigned mineral patches in the same order (with a some minor differences in the builds using the Extractor Trick)). If anyone believes that these numbers are not valid, I urge him to try out and see for himself (and also to drop me a line if his results are totally different from mine).

-- Results and interpretation --

Build Order -- Average minerals mined after 3 minutes:
Overlord at 6th Drone -- 464
Overlord at 7th Drone -- 488
Overlord at 8th Drone -- 496
Overlord at 9th Drone -- 496
Extractor Trick, Overlord at 10th Drone -- 475
Overlord at 9th Drone, Extractor Trick -- 491

I'd also like to state that you'll probably not get the same results as I did; what I'm trying to show here is not that one build order would be better than the other, but rather that the differences are minor. I can hear people say: "But 20 minerals this early make a GREAT difference!!"; yes, they do make a difference, but if you'd have the choice to pay 8 minerals to get an Overlord 30 seconds sooner, would you do it? I sure as hell would! And there's a second aspect you should consider: some of the build orders are easier to screw up than others. Building an Overlord at the 7th Drone doesn't require you to do anything special afterwards, you'll even be able to build Drones almost without having to wait for the Overlord to pop up. Pulling off the Extractor Trick on the other hand, requires additional micro-managing and could easely cost you a few seconds if you make a mistake. Noticing that with one build order I finish morphing Drones sooner than with the other, I decided to do another set of tests, to see how soon I can get 300 minerals after my 11th Drone is built (since so many Zerg players still go Hatch before Pool). This is what I got:

Build Order -- Avarage time until 300m
Overlord at 6th Drone -- 2 : 38
Overlord at 7th Drone -- 2 : 36
Overlord at 8th Drone -- 2 : 37
Overlord at 9th Drone -- 2 : 35
Extractor Trick, Overlord at 10th Drone -- 2 : 34.33
Overlord at 9th Drone, Extractor Trick -- 2 : 35

There you have it again. If you're concerned about minerals only, there's practically no reason to prefer one build order instead of another. However if you're a lazy person, such as I am, and/or if you want to have a second scouting unit early on, you'll choose not to do the Extractor Trick and rather to go for one of the simpler builds. (As a side note: Similar tests for the other races led me to the conclusion that for Protoss the best moment to get warp in the first Pylon is at the 7th Probe, while a Terran player should build his first Supply Depot at the 9th or 10th SCV. Need I mention that these results are also probably not 100% accurate?)

-GeLaar -- Starcraft Millenium - http://www.scmillenium.com

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The Concept of Misdirection

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.

-GeLaar -- Starcraft Millenium - http://www.scmillenium.com

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The Art of War

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
   2. Time
   3. Territory
   4. Wealth
   5. Method
   6. Knowledge
   7. Psyche

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
   2. Confidence
   3. Adaptation
   4. Surprise
   5. Anticipation
   6. Action/Reaction

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.

-Raptor -- Starcraft Millenium - http://www.scmillenium.com

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Automated Starcraft

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.

P.S. Thanks to Mike Lemmer and Bobo for all their help in putting this article together.

-Dhavok -- Starcraft Millenium - http://www.scmillenium.com

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Off the Wall Strategies

Throughout the years of Starcraft players have come up with some very odd strategies that have worked in circumstances that they never believed. Other strategies were a one time circumstance that they weren't orginally thinking of. Today on SpaceDominator's birthday we will be analyzing three(one for each race.) of the off-the-wall strategies that have been explored in the past and the present. If you have any off-the-wall strategy that you think is just amazing, email it to me at [email protected]. Let us begin.

* The Orbital Relay Cannon Push: This is a strategy that I invented on the map Orbital Relay. The basic concept of the Orbital Relay Cannon push is that you will be trying to choke your opponent from getting out of their originally base. On Orbital Relay there are two major expansions which will usually determine the standpoint of the game. Your objective is to take these expansions and use them.

How to execute?- First of all, you will want to be prepared for anything early on  in the game. I will generally build 2-3 probes, then go pylon and then forge. You will then want to choke up your two choke points in the "triangle" formation. The triangle formation is exactly that. You can design the "triangle" in one of two ways. You can place the first row of cannons at the front, the pylon then in the middle and follow that up with a single cannon. Or, you can do the more popular way, two rows of cannons(5) and 1 pylon in the back. The idea is that you will want to prevent yourself from being rushed apon early on in a game.

Then once you get an opportunity to strike, take two probes and build a pylon OUTSIDE of the choke point. Then start building cannons in rows. You can also follow the triangle system if you'd like but continue to enforce it. Against multiple players be extremely careful. You will not want to give them any holes to escape. Against one player the strategy is even more efficient. The idea is then you have your opponents choked in. Be sure that you have been building probes the entire time as well. You will want a very steady flow of minerals coming in. Then, build 2-3 gateways and start massing some Zealots. You will be using these against any Reavers/Tanks that come your way. Expand to the two expansions at 12 O'Clock and 6' O Clock and start massing whatever you feel like.

There is a second route that you can also take. Sometimes you might be lucky and be able to expand the cannon lines into their own main base location. You will want to be sure that your troops are well defended and that the cannons are within the range. Remember to use the Zealots that you have built as well to protect your forces. To add to the chaos to the opponent I usually mass carriers and do some micromanagement to drag their forces to my rows of Cannons.

You could also deal with containment to one side as well and push it that way too. It's just more efficient if you have both sides defended well with the cannons.

To counter it, you will consider the idea of overpowering with long ranged units such as Reavers/Tanks and use support to destroy the Zealots and other units used to protect. It's very easy to counter, but if done properly, can change a game very quickly.

This strategy I worked to perfection against Milk and another guy and they were very unhappy about me owning them. =)

FBS executed a variety of this tactic on myself and I was able to manage a very interesting counter to it. You can view the replay to get a sense of the idea at this address.

* The Science Vessels That Could: FatBoySr from http://www.starcraftsilo.com decided to have some fun against my Zerg in a 1vs1 game just last night. The strategy involved a large number of Science Vessels and a certain spell. Your objective using this strategy is to demolish all of the possibilities for resistance and detection and use the Ghosts who are cloaked and bombard your opponents base by using Ghosts and the very powerful Nuke.

How To Execute? Your objective is to build yourself up into a position where you can afford to build a large number of starports and troops. You will want to do a standard build order and maintain your own personal position to keep yourself in good shape. You will want to execute this strategy near the end-game. You will then want to have a large number of starports and be sure to research Irradiate. Irradiate is the key to the entire strategy.

You will then construct a LARGE number of Science Vessels and continually placing your time and effort in creating these and marines and other support for them. The key is that you will end up irradiating ALL opposing zerg units that come up against you and put irradiate on your own science vessels and with it's great speed catch all of the zerg drones and other units. This will leave your opponent in a terrible position. Then build a few ghosts and start nuking the blind bases.

I have only come up with a couple of possible counters:

      1) You can continue to bombard your opponent with scourges eventually killing the Science Vessels and hoping that your opponent has not expanded or you have destroyed their expansions.

      2) Another thought that has briefly crossed my mind is the thought of Defilers. Plague is a very powerful spell and could cause the Science Vessels to be in a weakened position where units such as Hydralisks/Mutalisks could counter them. However, you'd have to execute this pretty quickly against a group of units that can see burrowed units, if you consider that route.

      3) Bombard the base and destroy their economy and prevent this from happening is the most likely strategy.

* Defying The Norm Of The Drop- I have never executed this strategy in my SC career but it is something that I've considered after that game with FBS. What if the Defiler had more of a usage then was originally thought? What about using the Defiler as a basis for a drop? It might sound strange but with some plague and dark swarm we might have found something that isn't necessarily the most popular strategy, but one that could just be strange enough to work.

How To Execute?- Pretty simple. You will want to keep your opponent off guard from defending their mineral line. The mineral line is the key to this strategy. You will want to be expanding and attacking like a good zerg player will. You may want to consider massing and sending them right up Woodward through the choke point.(Tigers fans understand what Woodward is.) Then you will be teching to get to the Defilers and you will want to research PLAGUE first, the Energy and then Dark Swarm. Dark Swarm isn't necessarily necessary for this case.

The best concept would be to flank the mineral line. Flanking the mineral line means to attack from the two outside edges and drop them on both sides. Then release plague, and a group of units on the other. Consume a couple to give yourself the chance to plague again. Then send in your force through the mineral line AND the Choke point. The idea is that you will want your opponent so confused about where to send his troops that neither answer is a winner. If you can do that you will overwhelm and easily destroy it.

The best counters to this type of action is to have the Drop defended around the mineral line. You will want to be in a position to attack your opponent at any time but also not being too careless and leaving yourself open for a counter.

Just a thought that came to mind.

-SpaceDominator -- Starcraft Millenium - http://www.scmillenium.com

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