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
