einer der besten guides die ich je gelesen hab ist das "Zen of playing Terran". Uralt und viele der Probleme die TerranPlayer damals hatten sind mittlerweile gelöst - aber er erklärt besonders Anfängern sehr gut WARUM bestimmte Entscheidungen WIE zu treffen sind. Prädikat äußerst empfehlenswert! (bedenken, das Teil is etliche Jahre alt, also stimmen manche der Einzelheiten nicht mehr, es geht um das Grundverständnis von Offensive und Taktik welches sehr gut erklärt ist.)
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The Zen of Playing Terran, A guide on destroying your enemies
By: Toes
Introduction You've read all the strategy guides, memorized the tech tree, perfected a killer build order and you still can't seem to win with Terran regularly. This is an advanced article focusing on ways of looking at the game rather than specific tricks and tips. By reading this you can get a better understanding of how to win more regularly, using Terran, with lots of useful tips for other races as well. I chose Terran because there seems to be a lack of good Terran players out there and hopefully this article will inspire more people to master them.
The Terran Problem 90% of Terran players have the same problem that causes them to lose games every time.
Terrans are too defensive!
The typical player after getting comfortable with Terran starts thinking that "Geee! Bunkers and Tanks are impregnable! No body can get in! I'll bunker up and place some tanks here, some towers here, mines, etc"
When people play Terran, they tend to go the defensive right away. This loses them the game even before it's started. No matter how good a defense you put up, you can't win the bloody war. You can not defend your enemy to death. The Zerg are such an effective race because it force you to be aggressive, while a Terran's strong defense is it's own worse enemy.
I assume Blizzard has done an adequate job of race balancing. I'd suggest Terrans lose more often than Zerg because they start defending and bunking themselves in far too much. I've been in situations in which I've just sat there as a Zerg with no troops left while my Terran opponent sits in his bunker waiting for my next attack. They've doomed themselves to losing the game.
The Insurance a.k.a. Defense
I view Defense akin to bad insurance. You really don't want to have it, but when it looks like something bad will happen you want it, you need it in hopes that it will save your ass. Like insurance, you buy as little as you can possibly get away with. I mean minimal! I mean bare bones!
Why you ask? Isn't it logical to protect your most important assets, such as your buildings and drones? The answer is two sided. Yes it is important but not quite as important as being able to completely crush my opponent like the bug that he is. =) I'll go in to more details later in the document on why you should minimize defense.
Troops on defense aren't killing things, exerting a zone of control, or scaring the enemy in any fashion. A good rule of thumb for me is that if you find you have more than 5% of your forces on defense, you've got way too much! You shouldn't ever have more than a few token troops at your home base to kill the wandering peon or scout.
If you're both building up equally and you leave a big defense force behind in your town during your attack you will surely lose the fight. You've left a sizable portion of your army twiddling their thumbs. While he has his entire army ready to slaughter you.
Once you are in a "Defensive" mode you are no longer able to win the game. You will sit back and prolong your slow destruction by building more barracks, towers and tanks. I say it again, you can not defend your opponent to death. You may kill many of his troops but you are just prolonging the inevitable.
Now there are times when you feel like you must go defensive. For example when you are outnumbered 2 to 1. But you have now given up control of your own fate. You are relying on the fact that your opponents are stupid enough to attack your defense and will squander his troops, giving you the win. You are not in control of the situation and become dependent on your enemy's ability to lose.
The Path - "Attack! Now!"
StarCraft promotes aggressive play. Remember these words, they will serve you well.
Attack early, attack often
In a basic Melee game your goal is to defeat your enemy by attacking and destroying all his peons and buildings. Every other activity is just a means to this end. Defending your base, building more troops, gathering minerals are all secondary tasks to enable you to attack.
You want to keep yourself on the offensive and your opponent on the defensive. Once you get the enemy on the defensive you have effectively won the game. You just have to mop up while he cowers in his base. You build up troops and slowly slaughter his defense until you've won. While this may take a while, but the game is will be in your hands if you can get him on the defensive.
This is another reason why the Zerg players have performed better than the Terran players. If you start playing defensively that's a strong sign that you'll lose the game because you will not easily be able to shape the flow of the game. What you must do is position yourself so that you can constantly and effectively attack your opponent with all your resources as soon and as often as possible. This is the mindset that you have to focus on through out the game. Sooner or later you will succeed, but only if you stay focused on this goal, and treat all other activities as secondary to this one.
You want to be the on the offensive because it gives you control of the game while forcing the opponent to react to your actions. You want to be the one shaping the flow of the game, and not dealing with minor emergencies.
The Battle Grounds
Although you fight in StarCraft with the marines, hydras and zealots, they are only tools. They are the end result of your work and are only the representations of the real battle that you wage. Try to imagine the game as fighting several different battles on different levels. They are each important but vary in importance in every stage of the game.
I group them as Time, Economic Efficiency, and Strategic.
Time Time is the only thing that is given out equally in a RTS (Real Time Strategy) game. You only have N amount of time, your opponent has N amount of time. Theoretically you and your opponent should always build up equally. Imagine that you can fight your opponent on the slowest setting while he has to play the game on the fastest setting. Who do you think will be doing better?
You can never have enough time to manage your economy, build troops or attacking. You can get more by attempting to play the game "faster" but this has it's limits. It's obvious that you must manage your own time as efficiently as possible and use it in only on the most important tasks. This is why it is so important to stay focused on attacking the enemy, it helps you focus on deciding what is important to do and what is not.
The flip side of this is that you must find ways of taking it away from your enemy. You're fighting a battle of time. Whatever you do, you enemy must spend time reversing. You build troops, that your enemy spends time killing them. You lay mines that he has to get rid of. You kill his peons so that he must rebuild.
You must make your enemy waste his time fixing problems that you cause. If it only takes you 5 seconds to create a distraction that he must spend 2 minutes fixing, you've won out big time. Keep in mind mineral costs should balance out to time lost.
Economic Efficiency
Anything that is currently not moving you towards your goal of winning the game is WASTE. You must endeavor to avoid this.
Here are some common situations that you can avoid:
What good are Minerals and Gas that sit in the Bank?
Often after you're involved in a big battle you have lots of money sitting in the bank. This cash does nothing for you. Never die with money in the bank. Do keep about 50-100 minerals in case all your SCVs get destroyed. Like defensive troops this is just insurance.
What good are marines and tanks that aren't attacking or en route?
This is the reason why being defensive is a bad idea. Why are you building troops when you aren't using them. Ideally troops should be shooting 100% of the time killing enemy units and structures; even though that's impossible, it's something it's a target we can strive for. Don't let troops sit around. They are useless, you might as well have saved the money for more useful things. The only time troops are sitting around is when they are useless in small groups and you must wait around until they reach a size in which they are useful.
What good are upgrade buildings (engineering bay/forge) if you don't use them?
Only build buildings you need or plan to use lots of. I see lots of players build a building for the sake of having one.
This should give you the idea that you must use all your resources, as much as possible, all the time. Minerals and gas in the bank should be at a minimal.
Strategic You are playing against another person, not a computer. People's actions can be anticipated and conversely their actions can be shaped by yours.
Try this exercise in your next game. Right after the first bit of initial fighting, relax, sit back for a second, and think that if you were in his/her shoes what would you be doing, and what can you do to ruin his/her plans. Understanding what the other person is thinking, and what choices he may make will help you out immensely. Often people analyze their actions, after the game. It's funny because doing this during the game is when it is important.
You want to control what choices the enemy has. You don't want to attempt to react to his plans so you should force your opponent in to a "fire fighting" mentality where he is constantly running back and forth reacting to your plans. Reasons why you should concentrate on being offensive and not play defensively.
Units My thoughts on many of the different Starcraft units are concentrated on an analysis of the underused vultures. Marines
I view these good buddies as the poor man's Hydralisk. Like all the basic troops they are useful through out the entire game. By the end of the early portion of the game you ought to have four barracks running. This will last you thorough out the game, building any more will be a waste since you won't be able to fully utilize while you're climbing the tech tree.
While they do seem to be inferior to zerglings and zealots, they have one very important capability. They are ranged troops, covering air and ground. They scale much better than their enemy counter parts. The problem is that they absolutely suck in small numbers… and suck bad.
4 zerglings will rip 2 marines apart. Heck 2 zerglings will rip 2 marines apart unless you manage the aiming yourself. You must make marines in large packs of 12-20 marines. They really shine in this size but will not survive long in any other form.
Fire Bats Firebats are a very useful troop and are most useful as the role of an "enhancement" unit. Alone they aren't as powerful as pure marines, but a when mixed in a group is when they shine. They also tend to be the first to die since they have to get in close, so build them often to in order to maintain that mix.
Some words from Kinjana who did some testing with Firebats and vultures.
Did extensive testing today with Firebats, Vultures and Zealots. Conclusion, Firebats rule! They excel against zealots.
12 vultures versus 12 zealots equal 12 dead vultures. Did not matter if I attacked, aimed, aimed with spider mines as all the vultures died.
12 firebats without stim versus 12 zealots equals 6 firebats.
Firebats chew through zealots and they block for any range troop. This is good for any attack force. Most Zerg players neglect the Zerglings past the first of the game. This is a big mistake! If you can keep the zealots away from your hydras you'll be better off since Zerglings will act as a good wall for your Hydras.
Remember the Firebat is the only non-range terran attack, they're essential if they start Dark Swarming. Have the bat!
Bunkers
Bunkers are a boon and a curse at the same time. The problem with bunkers is that people tend to rely on them too much. Marines sitting in a bunker are a waste of resources. No one will attack bunkered marines unless they have a very good chance of destroying them without losing many troops by using Guardians or Tanks.
If you build bunkers, keep them empty! When an attack is coming, run in, use them and leave immediately. Those marines you've built will be much more useful attacking the enemy than sitting there twiddling their thumbs. Bunkers are a building and can't move so they are useless for 99% of the game.
Build 1 bunker in the early game as insurance against a rush. Build another bunker if you see an attack coming. Get in them during the duration of the attack, crush your attacks, and leave. Take what troops you have and counter attack.
3 decent ways to use bunkers.
1. As an insurance against an early Zergling rush.
2. Out side the enemy town to distract him and to make him take the defensive.
3. I see an incoming attack and need additional cover.
I know it feels safe to be in a bunker, but it's like a security blanket. It just feels that way. If you just use all the marines in your bunkers to attack your enemy, chances are you'd crush them in seconds. 8 more Marines can be the difference between a victory or lose.
Vultures I admit it. I love Vultures! In my opinion they are the best early game unit. You can't go wrong building vultures with the spider mine upgrade. In many cases I prefer them to Tanks because Tanks require so much MM (micro-management) and babying in order to keep them alive. Vultures are a much more flexible unit.
Their mines do 150 normal, area damage. Repeat after me, "WOW! That's a lot of damage!" Are you having trouble with Hydras and Zealots ripping you apart? 1 Mine will pop up to 12 hydras. Usually they hit about 3-6, since hydras tend to bunch up. 2 Mines will kill a zealot, on average they kill 2-3 zealots every time a set of them go off.
Vultures cost 75 Minerals, only 25 minerals more than a marine. The mine upgrade costs 150 Minerals, and 150. Getting vultures are cheap, for every 3 marines you can get 2 vultures.
Let's do the calculation for the worse case scenario. For 75 Minerals you get 3 mines, a strong fighting unit and the fastest scout in the game.
Do you think 3 mines will eventually do the following?
Kill 4 Zerglings?
Kill 1 Hydras?
Kill 1 Zealot?
Kill 2 Marines?
Chances are the mines will make a kill, which will pay for the cost of the Vulture. You are left with a unit that will do almost the same damage as Tank, at the same cost. Yes you heard right. A tank (150/100) does 30 Damage. 2 Vultures at 150 minerals does 40 damage (20 each). The catch is that, it's concessive damage so that you'd better be hitting small units like Zealots and peons.
Laying Mines
Lay mines at every point where you believe he will have troop movement and you are guaranteed you will be paid off for your efforts. Select them all, hit the Mine hot key 'I' and click on the point. Do this 3 times. If you have 8 vultures, you can lay 24 mines in less than 10 seconds. Mines are a huge headache to get rid of, while requiring very little effort on your part.
Large groups of Hydralisks will destroy individual mines before they explode. All you have to do is lay 2 or 3 mines close to each other and that'll be that for the hydras. Don't lay your minefields too thickly either because once they've lost a whole bunch of troops to your mines, they won't ever walk through them again. Many small fields everywhere work best in addition to giving you reconnaissance information on his troop movements.
Clearing Mines
Mines are a pain in the ass to destroy. Only the Zerg has a reasonable ability of clearing them quickly and safely during the early game when they are laid.
It's hard to clear mines as a terran, since marines can't seem to shoot down spider mines quick enough. Protoss has to wait for observers, and Terran requires a Science Vessel, both of which require some tech climbing. Using ComSats or building Missile Towers are out of the question because you have to pay too much and it is too time consuming.
Large groups of 10 Hydralisks or more will destroy individual mines before they explode. This is not a very sound method since all you have to do is lay 2 or 3 mines close to each other and that'll be that for the hydras. The preferred method is to float an overlord over and Hydras can bust the mines with no problem. Using drones are even better since they don't set off mines.
Tanks
Tanks are very powerful and popular. Like the bunkers they have one major problem. They are great for defense, but are difficult to use for offense.
Tanks by themselves are very weak, they are like War2's catapults, and you must protect them with a set of marines. The biggest problem by far with the tanks is that, they require lots of babying. You can waste a lot of time with them trying to position your tank just perfectly. The key is to just move in, and siege them as your troops start fighting. If you wait for the tanks to positions themselves perfectly it gives your enemy enough time to build serious reinforcements. The best use of them I've found is to bust a Terran who has bunkered up his base.
I know it's satisfying to utterly crush your enemy's offensive but do not leave a tank behind to defend your base. You are wasting a valuable unit that could be winning the game for you. Get that tank out of there and in to your attack group. Move in to the flow of battle.
Misc. Tactics
When playing Zerg, hunt down his overlords religiously. This will screw up his economic growth in the worse way in addition to making them be afraid of using them as scouts. He'll put them in a remote corner to avoid this, later on you can go nuke or irradiate them.
If you are doing this while en route to his base, this is often enough to turn the battle to your favor. This prevents him from building last minute defense troops. He will have 2 hatcheries so, you've just eliminated 6 hydras or 12 zerglings from the fight.
Do not attempt to build troops to save your base when you've been over run. When there are than 8 enemy troops in your base, whatever pops out will be chewed up right away. Don't do this unless you have a chance. A good example is when there are 2 zerglings left and you can pump out 3 marines and have an empty bunker with your name written all over it. Even if you build troops, his re-enforcments are coming too, and you've lost time while he's been going fairly efficiently. Chances are you're dead already. In a 1v1 game you're dead, save that cash for your expansion base, you'll need it. You have a better chance there.
Team Games
2v2 Games are very popular on Battle.Net. Usually it's a pair of friend playing together or it's a random TvB (Top vs Bottom) game. I'd thought I'd go over some common strategy that people employ.
BYOP (Bring your own partner) Do you think figure skating champions pick up a random chump off the street before the Olympics? If you're always losing make a friend and play in pairs.
What you must do right away is determine the strongest player and both of you attack and destroy him as soon as possible. Unless he is a Terran bunkering up, your combined attack will destroy him every time. This is assuming he is about on the same skill level as you and your partner. Often the first wave will decimate his troops, but not all his peons. Remember to start sending your second wave during your initial attack. Do not hold back! It' is now or never, commit all your troops or you will fail and your economic hit will be worthless.
How do you deal with this scenario? Well suppose your partner just got hit is about to get hit again and is screaming for help. You can do two things.
WRONG: You rush all your troops to his aid and you fend off the attack saving his ass. Situation: Your troops are now decimated by fighting 2 guys at once, and your partner is weak still from the previous attack.
RIGHT: You take all your troops and attack the nearest person attacking your partner. Situation: You win easily since he has no troops at home. Now it's down to 2 of you and the game is essentially a 1v1. Your partner runs for his life.
Unless you have the troops to spare, do not attempt to save your partner's ass. It is a lost cause, which will take both of you down. Your partner should be running for his life and saving cash to rebuild near your base where you can easily cover each other.
Final Words:
If there is one thing I hope you've learned from reading this is that you MUST play offensively. Just consciously doing so will improve your game significantly. Keep repeating this.
Attack early, attack often
GL (good luck) and see you on B.Net.
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Toes
Thanks to Kinjana for allowing me to kick his Zerg ass and supply of suggestions, bobobutt, err bobonut for the proof reading, and everybody in Feet for allowing me to be their whipping boy. Pfttttt!
Special Rubbings to the Mass Assassins Clan
Reference:
Sun Tzu's "Art of War"
http://home.navisoft.com/entisoft/artofwar.htm OGR - Black Lizards Strategy Guide
http://www.ogr.com/specials/starcraftguide/starcraft_strategy_guide_1.shtml StatBox
http://www.sfu.ca/~alaric/the_statbox/1