Starcraft II Officially Announced

[Fresh Tendrils]

Sportsdude, I've only been playing as Terran so far. I've been playing custom games with friends online but no ranked stuff yet.

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[sportsdude]

Re: Starcraft II Officially Announced

Sportsdude, I've only been playing as Terran so far. I've been playing custom games with friends online but no ranked stuff yet.

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First, let me echo what bcruise said. To get the most minerals per base you want to have three per mineral patch and three on each gas, which translates to 30 workers. So expansion sites have less minerals, but each starting point can be saturated with 30 workers.

Here are two common Terran build orders, and the 3-Barracks build can be altered into something else if you want, I'll explain that in a sec. As for the numbers you're going to see on the left side, that corresponds to how much population or "food" you have, and that counter is at the top right of your in-game screen. The numbers I throw out are in reference to the number on the left side of the slash. Thus, when I say "10-build supply depot" that means the second hit you hit 10/XX population you need to be building a supply depot. Timing is key here, and these two build orders are simple to execute with only a little practice.

First build order: The 1/1/1 Barracks/Factory/Starport
10-supply depot
12-barracks
13-refinery #1
15-orbital command
16-supply depot

notes:
-your first 100 gas should be used to build a factory. The next gas after that should be used to build a tech lab on the factory when it's completed.
-when the tech lab is done and you get enough gas, build a starport.
-the second refinery can go up anytime after 16-supply depot.
-because you have one barracks, you will be short on basic infantry. This assume you are going to start pumping tanks, hellions, vikings and banshees, which is what the 1/1/1 is about. Those things cost a lot more towards your pop count than infantry, so after the starport goes down be sure to have one SCV spamming depots to make sure you don't get supply blocked (which is you have to wait to build additional units before a depot is finished)

Second build order (and the one I'm using a lot right now): The 3-Barracks
10-depot
12-barracks
13-refinery
15-orbital command
16-supply depot. note, here is where things branch out. I build a tech lab on the barracks after this depot is done and drop a mule on minerals when the orbital command is finished. When the tech lab finishes, start pumping Marauders. After the first Marauder exits the barracks is when you build barracks #2, and you put a reactor on this barracks. When the second barracks is being built, use tech lab on first barracks to research either concussive shells or stimpack (your choice but eventually both should be researched).
20-25-You should now be around 20 population. Take one SCV and start spamming depots. You're about to have three barracks constantly pumping units, so you will need a lot of depots. While you queue up a bunch of depots, take a look at barracks #2. Click the SCV who's building it and shift queue up barracks #3. If he has finished building barracks #2, ignore the shift queue and just build the third barracks. When the third barracks finishes put a tech lab on it.

Now, the 3-barracks strategy assumes you're going to pump quite a few marines and marauders, which can be quite effective. However, don't wait too long to throw down a factory (w/ a tech lab) and a starport (I like a reactor on it because I don't use anything other than vikings and medivacs). Also, since your basis is heavy infantry build a couple of engineering bays to upgrade their weapons and armor.

I said the 3-barracks strategy can be altered, and the easiest way is to build a factory instead of the third barracks, essentially making it a 2-barracks and 1-factory build. This is helpful if you want tanks to defend or hellions to harrass.

Apologies for the long post but I wanted to be sure I explained things clearly. The 3-barracks build is simpler than it looks, you just need to practice it a bit. If you have any questions let me know.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Starcraft II Officially Announced

sportsdude, that is awesome. I definitely appreciate it. How do you approach defending your base and then attacking?

[sportsdude]

Re: Starcraft II Officially Announced

sportsdude, that is awesome. I definitely appreciate it. How do you approach defending your base and then attacking?

the prevailing thought amongst high-level players is that static base defense is a waste of minerals and time. I don't necessarily agree with this. I think a few base defenses are good things. They do a couple things, 1) help open sight and remove fog of war (if you build them not next to your command center) and 2) serve as detectors for cloaked/burrowed enemies. As Terran, I never build bunkers. I do build missile turrets. I build three in my bases, one behind the center of the mineral line and one by each refinery. Why? This makes it so enemies can't do drops on my mineral line, which is common. A hurt economy puts you at a big disadvantage so I try to protect my mineral line. The turrets also serve as detectors, so if a zerg tries to send in burrowed units, a terran sends in cloaked banshees or ghosts, or a protoss sends in dark templars, you'll see it coming.

As for attacking, this depends on if you playing by yourself or if you've got teammates (2v2, 3v3 or 4v4). First tip is to scout, and it's something I admit I'm not very good at. You need to scout your opponent's base to see what you're going against. Sending a bunch of marines and marauders blindly into a zerg base only to realize the enemy has a bunch of banelings means your army is about to die. Scouting helps you know what you're going against, and you can scout with anything, don't limit yourself to doing the occasional scan. Marines are only 50 minerals, you can waste one every now and then.

Anyway, aside from scouting, when you feel ready to attack, just go. Make sure your army has a detector or two with it (each race has one mobile detector, for the terrans it's the Raven). Also, don't be afraid to retreat. If you're attacking and feel like you're not going to break through that wall or you enemy's army is stronger, it's OK to retreat and fight another day. The temptation for a new player is to keep attacking no matter what, but sometimes you have to fight that urge.

A few notes you should know as terran:
-banelings absolutely kill terran ground forces. Be wary when facing a zerg because enough banelings can wipe out an entire army, and banelings are cheap and easy to get.
-Using a few ghosts to EMP a protoss ground army will give you a significant advantage. The EMP drains their shields, which is part of makes protoss so powerful.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: Starcraft II Officially Announced

Awesome man. Thanks. I can't wait to try this out tonight.

[sportsdude]

Re: Starcraft II Officially Announced

sure thing. I like said, this will take some practice. Plus, whether you're playing against CPUs or online, you're going to lose, and losing makes you better. The system automatically saves your most recent replays, so when you get a few minutes you can go back and watch your replays to see what you did wrong or where the battle turned.

Also, watching videos can help out as well. I got some good advice from several day9.tv videos I watched, huskystarcraft is another good one. Those two guys are pro-level players that break down different strategies, what works and doesn't work, etc. and they break it down very well so it's easy to understand.

[Fresh Tendrils]

I didn't buy the game for the campaign, but it is probably the best campaign from last year. I've been enjoying it.

Also actually beat medium last night so at least I'm improving.

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[rubisco43]

Re: Starcraft II Officially Announced

I didn't buy the game for the campaign, but it is probably the best campaign from last year. I've been enjoying it.

Also actually beat medium last night so at least I'm improving.

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For hard and above, make sure you save often... you'll need it.

[NoDakHusker]

Re: Starcraft II Officially Announced

sure thing. I like said, this will take some practice. Plus, whether you're playing against CPUs or online, you're going to lose, and losing makes you better. The system automatically saves your most recent replays, so when you get a few minutes you can go back and watch your replays to see what you did wrong or where the battle turned.

Also, watching videos can help out as well. I got some good advice from several day9.tv videos I watched, huskystarcraft is another good one. Those two guys are pro-level players that break down different strategies, what works and doesn't work, etc. and they break it down very well so it's easy to understand.

This is a great post, along with your previous one breaking down build orders. I learned a ton of stuff from Husky and watching replays of matches you lose can really go a long way to learning how to adjust your strategy.

[ChubbyBanana]

Re: Starcraft II Officially Announced

Just did an overnight DL and entered a Guest Pass Key. About to see what all the rave is about.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Just did an overnight DL and entered a Guest Pass Key. About to see what all the rave is about.

You'll get addicted.

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[sportsdude]

Re: Starcraft II Officially Announced

yeah chubby, it's an awesome game. If you're still undecided after your guest pass runs out, let me know because I have an extra guest pass.

[Fresh Tendrils]

I still have all mine.

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[TracerBullet]

Re: Starcraft II Officially Announced

I still have all mine.

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Same here..

[bcruise]

Re: Starcraft II Officially Announced

Patch 1.2 released: http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/2053470

Chat channels, Master league, and an extreme graphics setting seem to be the highlights.

In-game it seems like mostly a bugfix patch, but not having played in a while I wouldn't really be aware of how the balance changes would affect gameplay.