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Practice Makes Permanent
Hello everyone, you may have noticed but, I’m not Mycotoxin. My name is Cabal, I am a Zerg player as well. I am a big fan of war scenarios, and strategies. I also am certified as a police officer, and I will use real life scenarios in my posts. While Mycotoxin is working on a very specific line of posts working his way up The Pyramid, I would like to post on other varying techniques that will not follow any particular order. So, let’s begin.
One of the most important, and time-consuming matters in working your way through the SC2 ranks is Practice. Practicing with your friends, laddering, playing vs. the computer are all important in their own diverse ways. You may be saying to yourself “well, duh.” but let me make an analogy first. I love going shooting, it’s a great hobby of mine. I used to not really know what i was doing but figured “heck, I hit my target most of the time; that’s pretty good.” Then I enrolled into a firearms class. One of the first things my instructor taught was that practice does NOT make perfect, practice makes permanent. What that means is that if you shoot a handgun and hold it in certain stance 100 times, your brain uses a “muscle memory” and every time you hold a gun you will go back to that stance. Once you have gotten yourself into a bad habit it can be EXTREMELY difficult and painful to break. Now that i have retrained my “muscle memory” into a better, more comfortable stance; I shoot with far higher accuracy.
What does that have to do with SC2? Well, say every game you do a double extractor trick then overlord; only to find out now that some high level player has determined that economically speaking 9 Overlord 10 Drone is better. If you have played 100 games always doing a double extractor trick, you will almost automatically do it. On a larger scale, if you always do ling rushes, once you get into higher ranks that will not always work for you, then you hit a wall that you can’t seem to quite get past. These are things that if you practice and make a note to yourself that “I will change my double extractor trick to a 9 ovie, 10 drone build” then with practice, it will become permanent.
Now, practicing in ladders adds a lot of stress; and if you change your play style drastically while laddering you probably will lose some games till you get more used to the “feel” of the build. But, you don’t have to deal with that. Use your friends, and your communities to practice. Mycotoxin mentioned this in an earlier post, but i feel it’s important so i’ll mention it again. The Training Pit is an open community, of players varying in skill from bronze to platinum level players; and many of them are willing to help you practice a new build or practice a certain build you have a hard time defeating. I strongly recommend getting involved in a community, because we all know that the ladders are full of Trolls, Cheesers, BM’ers, smurfs, etc. That is not a good practice environment. Places like the training pit have no time requirements, just pop on and play a few games vs some people.
Another tip I have is there are some great custom maps that people have developed as perfect practice tools:
The unit tester is perfect for sparring against units. Say you have a really hard time against Marines, and tanks. You can pit units vs. them and see how they do. This is great to give yourself the knowledge of other teams that is so important especially with a reactionary race like the Zerg.
Unit tester for one or two players. Easy to use unit creator, resource spending tracker, different arenas, and many options. Compare unit compositions and costs, or practice your micro with friends.
To play the map online:
- Search for keyword “online“
- NA server: “Unit Tester Online” published by Killer
- EU server: “[Official] Unit Tester Online” published by Westberg
- SEA server: “[Official] Unit Tester” published by EpicZergling
To play the map offline:
- Download TheUnitTester.SC2Map from the right side.
- Choose from “North America” or “International” versions, depending on your client.
- Drag TheUnitTester.SCMap over Starcraft II to open with the Blizzard Launcher
The Multitasking trainer is good for, well Multitasking! How many times have you run into a situation where you are trying to work on economy and a battle happens, or you are fighting someone and realize that they have taken an expand and you better expand right now. This map will help you dramatically increase your Micro and you Macro abilities. The map will force you to use Hotkeys, and Queue up commands.
This project is a series of standard 1v1 Blizzard maps adapted to include a sophisticated build order testing system. The goal is to execute the chosen build while keeping up worker production and creating the largest army possible. The AI will execute a given build order or execute a random one. At the end of the round, you are given a score which tells how well you executed the build. Also included is a “Freestyle” mode, which monitors your play and displays the build order that you performed.
After playing a freestyle, you can open your bank (save) file at My Documents/Starcraft II/Banks/YabotSettings.SC2Bank in a text editor to see the encoded build as a single line of text. This text can then be decoded and edited at sc2builds.
Take all that you’ve learned and practice it in the sandbox.
Play in The Sandbox solo or 1v1 with a friend:
- Find hard counters to any unit composition
- Test different upgrade variations
- Practice new unit compositions against random armies
- Micro against a working tactical AI
- Outmicro mirror armies
- Hold ramps of all kinds
- Plan your base build
- Defend your mineral line
- Practice drops
- Invent your own challenges
The easiest way to use any of these maps is to get SC2Allin1 or Lazy Launcher
I know that this is a lot of Information for one single post but I wanted to give everyone the tools needed to get deeper into your training. If you have any questions or would like to add your personal input feel free to leave a comment below.
–Cabal
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Army Building 101
I apologize for the delay in posts, I have been hard at work over at www.TheTrainingPit.net, but now it is time for some Zergy goodness.
Zerg Armies Are Different
This is the first real post, in a series, that I plan to do on the Zerg army. We are going to start out at a theory level and then work our way into specifics and details, and then compare the Zerg army to the army of the other two races. You know, “those other guys”.
So lets look at some characteristics of the Zerg army that were mentioned in a previous post
- Zerg army units are relative to Protoss and Terran army units in that:
- they are cheaper
- they deal less damage
- they have lower build times
- they generally have faster movement speeds
- can be produced in more mass with less infrastructure and investment
- Zerg army units are:
- most effective when not confined by chokes and ramps (they like open areas)
- have few siege range options
- are all biological
- are produced via larva at the hatchery, vs via queues at production buildings
- Zerg units are not:
- built for making hard pushes through strong defenses
- built for sieging an enemy base for long periods of time
- able to move up and down cliffs
So why do we care about all of this? Because we need to understand our army and how it works. As Zerg we are going to produce more units, move around the map a lot, do small amounts of damage often, and avoid terrain that is tight or hard to maneuver around.
What we are not going to do is attack heavily bunkered locations, or get into head-on-battles with Terran or Protoss armies of equal or larger size.
If we take these attributes we listed above we can make a list of things that the zerg army is good at:
- The Zerg army is very good at making an opponent uncomfortable. Early lings doing light pressure, muta’s harassing bases, banes burrowed somewhere on the map, the potential for an army of Infested Marines to suddenly pop up in a mineral line, burrowed roaches, and nydus canals are all really good ways of making an opponent lose their cool.
- The Zerg army is good at out numbering the armies of the Toss and Terran. Producing more units first, and producing more reinforcements faster.
- The Zerg army is less effective (vs toss and terran) the closer the armies get to 200 supply. I.E. A 200 supply terran or toss army will almost always beat a 200 supply zerg army.
- The Zerg army is very good at swarming. Have you ever seen a base that has 60 lings and 40 something roaches in it? It is such a pretty thing. Every building taking damage, every unit that gets produced being insta-killed. Oh it is a lovely sight.
- The zerg army is good at retreating for strategic reasons. Such as: to unnerve your opponent by making him guess what you are doing, to gather reinforcements, to wait for a better position to fight in, or for hit-and-run tactics.
There are many other things that the Zerg are good at, that make them an effective army. They are not an incredibly efficient army (4 lings to kill one Zealot is a good example) and so there will be times that you must make way more units than your opponent to finish them off.
I first realized then while watching Nestea in a tournament game. Nestea’s engaged a Protoss army in the middle of a map, I knew right away that his army would lose. And it did, it lost that battle without any trouble. I thought Nestea was going to lose, but he didn’t. As I sat there wondering why he made that engagement in the middle of the map, instead of waiting back at his base so he had more time to get some more units, Nestea’s newly spawned reinforcements popped and were able to engage the toss army as it came into the base. Nestea knew he couldn’t win a head on battle with his army vs that toss army. So he decided to win using two armies. The first to soften the Protoss army and the second to make the killing strike.
At that moment it hit me, the Zerg army is not just different from the other two armies, but it is significantly different. If you are trying to run your Zerg army like your Terran and Protoss buddies run their armies then, well, you’re doing it wrong. Focus, instead, on the strengths of the Zerg army and use those to exploit weaknesses in your opponents.
Keep on creepin’
~Mycotoxin
Join a new community!
Calling all Bronze to Platinum Players!
We are announcing the launch of a new StarCraft community! TheTrainingPit.net is a practice and coaching network for Bronze to Platinum players who are looking to improve their game skills.
The community is in the “beta” phase so join up now and help grow the community. The Training Pit offers similar minded, and skill level, players who want to practice off the ladder. It also offers the ability to spectate games, get coaching and feedback, and generally have a good time.
So get over there and sign up!
Mycotoxin
Army: It’s time to get serious
The Next Tier: Army
The next tier in the Starcraft Pyramid is “Army”. So far we have looked at the following tiers of the Pyramid: Economy, Production, Knowledge, and Information.
But now it is time to get serious. It is time to build some armies and kill some stuff.
Over the next few posts we will be looking at various aspects of the Zerg army, and how to get things done using them.
In his post about the Pyramid, Budha states:
“As weird as it sounds, the army is usually the most under-emphasized aspect of Starcraft. This level of the pyramid includes not only the army composition, but also it’s positioning on the map. This is where you will, for the first time, make in-game, in-the-moment-decisions about what type of units to produce, and WHERE to place them. Put the emphasis on the second part. The positioning of your army is just as important as its composition. You need to defend your bases and engage in the rights spots, with an advantageous position. The spot where your army awaits its order to advance is also crucial here; imagine your army being in the back of your base when the opponent pushes? Once this is mastered, you will plow through any opponent that has not reached this level. Next, we bring structure to your game.”
What to build, and when
So the “when” part of the Zerg army is easy. The answer to the question “When should I build army units?” is: “As last-minute as possible.” As we have talked about before, if you are managing your Economy and Production correctly you will make Drones as often as you can and in the early-to-mid game only build army units when you must.
But how about the “what”. We have also looked at this some before. Zerg is the “reactionary race” and if you have good Information you can react to the army your opponent has created by morphing in an army that counters it. And, as we have talked about before, if you have been studying up and gaining Knowledge than you will know what units counter your opponents.
Are we seeing a pattern here? I thinks so. What we are really talking about is using the things that we have learned in the previous posts to actually win a game. Think about it. If all you do is work on your economy you will lose, if all you do is produce units you will lose, if all you do is work on your knowledge you’ll never even play, if all you do is scout to gather information the whole game, you will lose.
But if you balance your economy and production, if you understand the details of your units (and your opponents units), and if you actively scout THEN you will be able to build one sick-nerd-baller army and send your opponent, quivering, into the GG corner.
Army: this is where the rubber meets the road. This is where we start getting things done. Everything we have worked on up to this point has been leading up to building an army – and things are about to get exciting.
Over the next few posts we will be looking at how to build, manage, position, and use your army for the purposes of stealing ladder points.
In the meantime…..keep on creepin’
~Mycotoxin
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What you see is…what the heck?
Information: What you see is…
Scouting is different, for us newbs, than it is for the pros. If you watch a pro comment on a game while he plays, of if you listen to the casters during a tournament, you will here them make predictions about the player’s strategy. They often do this early in the game and with very little scouting. They call out whether a player is going to be aggressive or instead is going to expand. Whether he is going to go mech or bio, zealot or stalker, 4 warp gate or 3 gate expand, and so on. Unfortunately, things are not so simple in the lower leagues.
At the pro level, everything maters. If you build an extra barracks before going into your factory, it could cost you the game. If you get your second gas 30 seconds later than you should, you could mess up your entire strategy and fall too far behind. In the lower leagues this isn’t the case. Our builds and strategies aren’t that refined. Both players are making various mistakes. And timings are not so crucial. These facts make scouting more difficult for us newbs.
For example: I may scout that my opponent has taken his first gas very late, but that doesn’t mean he is going a heavy marine aggression - it could just mean he screwed up. I may see his first barracks and factory switch places early in the game, but that doesn’t mean he is going 2 Hellion into Banshee. It could mean he is just trying to mimic something he saw a pro do, has messed it up a little, and is actually going a bio-tank build.
….what the heck?
Simply put, scouting is harder in the lower leagues. You will actually need to more aggressively scout in order to get a true read on your opponent. Some of the best information you can get is by checking his army every once in a while. Carefully embedding a Changeling into his army can give you full view of his unit composition and his army movement.
Running a speedling into your opponent’s army will give you a brief view of his army. Running a speedling under the edges of his walls will tell you if he has tanks. Sacing a overlord (with the speed upgrade) can give you a view of both the buildings in his base and his army composition.
In the lower leagues the only builds that can be easily discerned by preliminary scouting are hard-cheese builds such as a proxy 2-gate rush. So, don’t fall into the trap of trying to guess your opponent’s build based on just a little preliminary scouting. Continue to scout, strive to get as much information as you can get and then confirm that information with additional scouting.
As you move up in the leagues you will begin to see more and more “predictable builds”, but this doesn’t become consistent until the Diamond league.
Get your units out on the map, consistently scout for good information, and….
….Keep on Creepin’
~Mycotoxin
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Tier 4 – Information: The Intelligence Department
It is time for us to move into the next tier of the Starcraft Pyramid!
We are going to talk about “Information”. In short, “information” is what you see, and what you know while in the game.
Budha, in his team liquid post, says this about the Information tier of the pyramid:
“Information is what is displayed to you in-game. This starts out with what race your opponent is playing. Then, where he spawned on the map, what he decides to show you, and finally scouting. With proper scouting, you will gather all the information necessary to capitalize on your new-found knowledge of the game and enable you to actually start making on-the-fly decisions about your game specifically. The information gathered will of course enable you to make the correct in-game decisions and follow the right strategy to plow through the opponents that have not achieved this rank yet!”
So the information step starts out in the “game loading” screen. What race are you playing against? What map are you playing on? Is it a 2 spawn position map, or a 4 position map?
Then the game starts, you send your drones to mine and spawn another drone. From this moment on the game itself will not volunteer any more information. StarCraft itself will no longer tell you anything. There is only two ways to get information:
- Scout with your units to survey your opponent
- See things that your opponent reveals by coming into your view
Reactionary
Information is more important to Zerg than any other race, because Zerg is the “reactionary” race. As Zerg you don’t choose a build order to follow, and then push out. Instead, you must base what you are going to do (what units you are going to build) based on what your opponent is doing. Thus, if you don’t know what your opponent is doing, than you can’t react.
Terran act, Protoss act, but Zerg REACT. And you can’t react with out information.
The Intelligence Department
So how do we get this information? Well the zerg have several ways of getting scouting information.
- Overlords
- Overseers
- Speedlings
- Burrowed units
- Changelings
- Mutas
- Creep Tumors
In the early game overloards and lings are your best resource for scouting around the map. In the mid game Overseers, burrowed units, and Changelings add to the effectiveness of the others. As the game progresses good creep spread can give you all kinds of information and a flock of Mutas (or even just one lone muta) can move around the map quickly and easily.
When, Where, How
Here are some suggested scouting tactics.
- Send your first Overlord to the nearest spawn location
- Send your second overlord to your front ramp to watch for probe cheese or bunker rushes
- Send your 12th drone to each spawn location, in the opposite rotation as your overlord. Use this drone to check the early game actions of your opponent and then come home.
- Take the Xel’naga towers early with your first lings
- At about 6 minutes use a ling to poke up the enemy base and see what buildings he has
- At about 8 minutes send an overlord over the enemy base to check what buildings and units the enemy has, be prepared to lose this overlord
- Get a 3rd Queen right away and use her to help spread creep, the creep tumors give vision as they count as “buildings”.
- Place an overlord behind the enemy natural to watch for the timing of the expansion
- Get overlord speed (it works for overlords and overseers) and spread your overlords around the map. Drop creep on enemy expansions.
- Use Overseers to drop Changelings in enemy bases.
- Attach Changelings to the enemy army.
- Spread creep across the entire map, where ever you can. (remember, creep spreads faster when multiple tumors are placed next to each other)
- Use lings and mutas to constantly patrol the map
- burrow units, lings especially, at chokes, mineral fields, high ground, next to Xel’nagas and anywhere else. A ling only costs 25 minerals, it is so worth the chance of losing a few to get better information.
The more you know about your enemy, his army, his tech, and his movements the better chance you will have at winning. Sun Tzu dedicated an entire section of The Art of War to the use of spies and getting information. He knew he would most likely lose if he didn’t have good information about his enemy.
Get out there, see what is going on, and ……..keep on creepin’!
~Mycotoxin.
