Sideshow
27th February 2007, 13:02
Starcraft is perhaps the canonical RTS, but it is also a tricky game to pick up. Even the basics of multiplayer games are not covered in the tutorial, so this article will take you through the early stages of the game, outlining what you should be doing and giving general advice on units and battles and such. Protoss will be used as the race being played as is it the most beginner friendly (less intensive micro early on, units are more robust, buildings are the most basic to operate).
Worker, probe, peon; all these words refer to the same thing, your basic worker unit. At the start of the game you will have 4 ready to go. If you look at the top right of the screen you will see you have 50 minerals, 0 vespene (or gas as it's typically called) and are using 4 out of 10 control (or psi / support). It costs 50m to buy a worker, which is the first thing you should do as soon as the game starts. Click on your HQ, and then click on the build worker icon in the bottom right (every command is accomplished by the button pad in the bottom right). As soon as you've started the worker building, grab your 4 on screen probes and send them to mine for minerals. You do that by right clicking them on a mineral patch. Once they are moving, it's a good idea to individually select each one and assign it to it's own patch - this will speed up mining. You should also assign your HQ a hotkey (I usually use 0, but it's up to you). It's a good idea to assign all your unit producing buildings hotkeys, as this will allow you to queue units while you are fighting across the map, without having to go back to your base.
As soon as your 5th probe appears, assign it to mine too. For the first good portion of the game you will be making workers almost constantly. You want 2-3 probes per mineral patch, and 3 or 4 on you vespene geyser (once you start refining). The 4th probe on the geyser does provide a small increase in speed, so is not always used (if you want more minerals faster for instance), but you should always have at least 3. Even though you reach these limits, you should still be making more workers, as you should be expanding and making more HQs at other resource points on the map. In most competitive maps you will have your starting base (your Main) and another mineral field very nearby - this is called your Natural, and you should generally build your second base there. Naturals sometimes have gas and sometimes don't (in Lost Temple they do).
Shortly after your 5th probe pops out you will reach 50M again - build another worker! From now on you will get up to 50M quicker than it takes for your HQ to build a worker, so there should be queueing the next worker before the current one finishes. The exception to this is when you have to save up to buy a building or unit, which we are just coming up to.
The timing of build orders in starcraft is checked against your current control level. So if you are told to build a gateway at 9, it means when your control (listed in the top right corner) is 9, you need to build a gateway. This works because you are constantly building workers, so that number is constantly going up relative to your income. To get back to the case in hand: once you have 8 control of workers, you need to build a pylon. Protoss can only build their buildings withing a certain radius of their pylons, so in a map like Lost Temple you should place your first pylon at the top of your ramp (the ramp leading into your base). This will allow you to put your gateway there too. Your gateway is you main unit-producing building, and having it next to your ramp means you can rally the units it makes directly to the top of the ramp, blocking it and denying your opponent easy access to your base. Having the pylon at the top of the ramp also means you can build photon cannons (fixed gun emplacements) there.
Once your pylon starts warping in, the probe you used to initiate the warp becomes free again. You should NOT send this back to mine! Instead, assign it to hotkey 1, and send it out into the map. You want to send it through each possible starting point, beginning with the nearest one to you, looking for your opponent. First, you need to know where he is. Second, if they went random, you need to know what race he is. Finally, once you do find him, you want to try and keep your probe alive, running around his base. This will let you see what buildings he is making, and thus give you an idea of what units he is making. Good scouting is vital to being a good player, as you can gain a huge advantage from reacting to your opponents build order. The tricky part of all this is that you have to do it while at the same time taking care of your own base.
Back at your own base, when you hit 9 control you want to cease making workers for a little while - you need to save up 150M in order to buy a gateway. Shortly before your 9th worker pops out (note: workers which are currently being built inside your HQ count towards control, so you will have been at 9 control for a little while at this point), you want to send one of your probes over to your pylon. As soon as you hit 150M get it to warp in a gateway then send it back to mine. Start building workers again.
From here you can vary your build substantially, going for rapid unit deployment or teching or some other weird build order (like an early forge). A good, stock build is another gateway at 11. Build zealots whenever you can. You can send you early ones to join you scouting probe in the enemy base for early harrassment. Putting two zealots on your ramp and giving them Hold orders will block your ramp entirely - the enemy (and you) ill be unable to send units up/down it. You need to get an assimilator up and running, and then a cybernetics core will let you build dragoons (your first ranged unit) and also unlock your advanced buildings (the bottom middle button on the command console). Whenever your control gets within roughly 4 of your max control you should build another pylon. Once your base is reaching saturation point with it's worker you should try and expand. An old maxim of starcraft is "Whenever you attack, expand", meaning you should try and set up a new base every time you have a significant engagement with the enemy.
Against zerg, zealots early and then reavers or templar are good. Both can kill vast swathes of units at once. Templar are more gas intensive, but will allow to pick up the zealot speed upgrade on the way, which is very useful. An early starport for an early corsair to go hunt overlords can be very irritating to the zerg player. A forge is useful - 2 zealots on your ramp with a photon cannon backing them up can hold off the lings forever, and the +1 weapon upgrade means you'll kill lings in 2 hits rather than 3, a huge gain.
Against terran, you want a mix of zealots and dragoons - get your core early since you are unlikely to get up his ramp with only zealots. Dragoon range upgrade is a must. You need to go robotics for observers, to let you see all those pesky mines, and you need to get shuttles so you can drop zealots on his tanks.
General Tips:
Flanking your enemy is GOOD.
If you have a pile of ranged units, working through each enemy unit is better than letting them fire at whoever is nearest. Use shift-queueing to give them a chain of targets.
Learn to use the keyboard shortcuts.
Find out what unit you need to beat each other unit.
Don't overdo defensive structures - you can't attack your enemy with them.
If a unit starts getting low on health, move it away from the fight / behind your other units.
Right-clicking to send your units somewhere will make them move to that point, regardless of any enemy they meet en route. If you want them to attack any enemy they meet, you should use the attack command - with your units selected, hit 'a' on the keyboard then left click the destination.
Strategy guides:
Battle.Net (http://www.battle.net/scc/)
Starcraft Legacy (http://sclegacy.com/strategy/)
starcraft.org (http://www.starcraft.org/strategies/StratsDB)
Worker, probe, peon; all these words refer to the same thing, your basic worker unit. At the start of the game you will have 4 ready to go. If you look at the top right of the screen you will see you have 50 minerals, 0 vespene (or gas as it's typically called) and are using 4 out of 10 control (or psi / support). It costs 50m to buy a worker, which is the first thing you should do as soon as the game starts. Click on your HQ, and then click on the build worker icon in the bottom right (every command is accomplished by the button pad in the bottom right). As soon as you've started the worker building, grab your 4 on screen probes and send them to mine for minerals. You do that by right clicking them on a mineral patch. Once they are moving, it's a good idea to individually select each one and assign it to it's own patch - this will speed up mining. You should also assign your HQ a hotkey (I usually use 0, but it's up to you). It's a good idea to assign all your unit producing buildings hotkeys, as this will allow you to queue units while you are fighting across the map, without having to go back to your base.
As soon as your 5th probe appears, assign it to mine too. For the first good portion of the game you will be making workers almost constantly. You want 2-3 probes per mineral patch, and 3 or 4 on you vespene geyser (once you start refining). The 4th probe on the geyser does provide a small increase in speed, so is not always used (if you want more minerals faster for instance), but you should always have at least 3. Even though you reach these limits, you should still be making more workers, as you should be expanding and making more HQs at other resource points on the map. In most competitive maps you will have your starting base (your Main) and another mineral field very nearby - this is called your Natural, and you should generally build your second base there. Naturals sometimes have gas and sometimes don't (in Lost Temple they do).
Shortly after your 5th probe pops out you will reach 50M again - build another worker! From now on you will get up to 50M quicker than it takes for your HQ to build a worker, so there should be queueing the next worker before the current one finishes. The exception to this is when you have to save up to buy a building or unit, which we are just coming up to.
The timing of build orders in starcraft is checked against your current control level. So if you are told to build a gateway at 9, it means when your control (listed in the top right corner) is 9, you need to build a gateway. This works because you are constantly building workers, so that number is constantly going up relative to your income. To get back to the case in hand: once you have 8 control of workers, you need to build a pylon. Protoss can only build their buildings withing a certain radius of their pylons, so in a map like Lost Temple you should place your first pylon at the top of your ramp (the ramp leading into your base). This will allow you to put your gateway there too. Your gateway is you main unit-producing building, and having it next to your ramp means you can rally the units it makes directly to the top of the ramp, blocking it and denying your opponent easy access to your base. Having the pylon at the top of the ramp also means you can build photon cannons (fixed gun emplacements) there.
Once your pylon starts warping in, the probe you used to initiate the warp becomes free again. You should NOT send this back to mine! Instead, assign it to hotkey 1, and send it out into the map. You want to send it through each possible starting point, beginning with the nearest one to you, looking for your opponent. First, you need to know where he is. Second, if they went random, you need to know what race he is. Finally, once you do find him, you want to try and keep your probe alive, running around his base. This will let you see what buildings he is making, and thus give you an idea of what units he is making. Good scouting is vital to being a good player, as you can gain a huge advantage from reacting to your opponents build order. The tricky part of all this is that you have to do it while at the same time taking care of your own base.
Back at your own base, when you hit 9 control you want to cease making workers for a little while - you need to save up 150M in order to buy a gateway. Shortly before your 9th worker pops out (note: workers which are currently being built inside your HQ count towards control, so you will have been at 9 control for a little while at this point), you want to send one of your probes over to your pylon. As soon as you hit 150M get it to warp in a gateway then send it back to mine. Start building workers again.
From here you can vary your build substantially, going for rapid unit deployment or teching or some other weird build order (like an early forge). A good, stock build is another gateway at 11. Build zealots whenever you can. You can send you early ones to join you scouting probe in the enemy base for early harrassment. Putting two zealots on your ramp and giving them Hold orders will block your ramp entirely - the enemy (and you) ill be unable to send units up/down it. You need to get an assimilator up and running, and then a cybernetics core will let you build dragoons (your first ranged unit) and also unlock your advanced buildings (the bottom middle button on the command console). Whenever your control gets within roughly 4 of your max control you should build another pylon. Once your base is reaching saturation point with it's worker you should try and expand. An old maxim of starcraft is "Whenever you attack, expand", meaning you should try and set up a new base every time you have a significant engagement with the enemy.
Against zerg, zealots early and then reavers or templar are good. Both can kill vast swathes of units at once. Templar are more gas intensive, but will allow to pick up the zealot speed upgrade on the way, which is very useful. An early starport for an early corsair to go hunt overlords can be very irritating to the zerg player. A forge is useful - 2 zealots on your ramp with a photon cannon backing them up can hold off the lings forever, and the +1 weapon upgrade means you'll kill lings in 2 hits rather than 3, a huge gain.
Against terran, you want a mix of zealots and dragoons - get your core early since you are unlikely to get up his ramp with only zealots. Dragoon range upgrade is a must. You need to go robotics for observers, to let you see all those pesky mines, and you need to get shuttles so you can drop zealots on his tanks.
General Tips:
Flanking your enemy is GOOD.
If you have a pile of ranged units, working through each enemy unit is better than letting them fire at whoever is nearest. Use shift-queueing to give them a chain of targets.
Learn to use the keyboard shortcuts.
Find out what unit you need to beat each other unit.
Don't overdo defensive structures - you can't attack your enemy with them.
If a unit starts getting low on health, move it away from the fight / behind your other units.
Right-clicking to send your units somewhere will make them move to that point, regardless of any enemy they meet en route. If you want them to attack any enemy they meet, you should use the attack command - with your units selected, hit 'a' on the keyboard then left click the destination.
Strategy guides:
Battle.Net (http://www.battle.net/scc/)
Starcraft Legacy (http://sclegacy.com/strategy/)
starcraft.org (http://www.starcraft.org/strategies/StratsDB)