Often I meet an impressionable newbie online at BattleNet in dire need for help that asks the inevitable question; "Will you train me?". Having endless patience and remembering my first days at BattleNet I hardly ever say no but I always remind them that I am still learning myself.
After typing many, many times endless advice for different newbies I have met over the past few years, I decided to make the ten commandments for the newbie. This has saved me a lot of time, has made many a newbie happy and hopefully has helped them advance a little faster in their quest for winning that first glorious game.
Physician's TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR THE NEWBIE:
Physician Strategies for the Newbie: The Ten Commandments
One: Workers and Buildings
Make workers one by one non stop whole game, so you have 3 per patch and 3 or 4 per gas. The exact optimal number of workers depends on distance from your base to the patches or gas and on the race. The optimal number per patch in most maps is really a little more than 2, not three, but do not worry about this because sooner or later you are going to need the worker for an expansion. As a terran or protoss make in general one worker after another non stop. As a Zerg you will usually need less workers - 1.3 workers per patch unless you are planing to expand and you can step up the worker porduction.
When you reach three per patch, if you know what your opponent is doing, keep making so when you expand you can mobilize half your workers to new expansion. This will make your new expansion instantly profitable.
In general when you build your base always build tight so few units or defense structures can defend the whole base. Don't build all spread out. This 'building placement' is critical in some maps and will always give you and edge if you do it correctly. Put the buildings so you make it hard for enemy troops to access your defensive structure/units or workers. Lay traps (mines, lurkers, dts) in places you know your enemy has to walk through to get to your workers. Create mini-chokes inside your own building complex.
Two: Recon
Explore constantly with a worker what your enemy is doing. Do this at least every 2 min. If u don't know what your enemy is doing your like a guy trying to fight with no eyes. Black areas in your mini-maps are your reminder that you playing in the dark.
This point, and low worker production, is what will keep you losing many, many games if you do not apply it with fanatic devotion. This is perhaps the most important of all points that's why I have kept it so short. After every game you have lost ask yourself why? Your will find that almost invariably the answer will be you did not scout enough.
You ever heard?: 'The bastard attacked me with guardians and killed my marines and tanks, I had half the map and I could have crushed him if I knew he was making guardians". Explore, explore. See what your opponent is up to.
Three: Expansions
If your enemy doesn't explore you early, feel free to expand early, and make more workers and less fighting units. But make sure you know what his up to. If he explores you early and often, do the same, and expand when you have him contained or have enough fitting units to defend your expansion rapidly or just out right take him out if you see him weak. Although this point is obvious always expand near your main so you can defend it. Expand every time you can breath. Breathing is expanding. Expand!
Do not worry about changing your build in fear that your enemy is a hacker. If he is a hacker do your best and adapt as soon as it becomes obvious he has map knowledge. Compensate with scouting. If you die, you die, do not worry about it - fighting with the odds against you can only make you better. If you live building in fear of hackers you will cripple your style.
Four: Strategy
One simple Strategy to win is always follows the following step:
1) Locate (and harass - harassing means you annoy him, you lose always less units than he does and you don't waste as much time as he does defending.. if you can't do this don't harass )
2) Contain or box him in (don't forget he can come out with air or drops)
3) Expand.
To defend is cheaper than to attack, this is a certain truth. But to defend adequately and win you actually need to be better than your opponent and you need to have prefect recon (scouting).
To attack will always give you the advantage of surprise and initiative but if you miscalculated it will be very costly.
Better players than myself will insist that you should be aggressive and keep the pressure until either your enemy can not keep up with you or he dies. In warfare this is translated to keeping the 'initiative'. There is a minor difference between being aggressive and having the initiative.
Part of strategy is your economic plan, also known as you 'Macro'. Within this is a very difficult ability that only years of experience will give it to you: The abiilty to know when to stop worker production, and concentrate on unit production only, to create an army for survival or an attack.
You are welcomed on channel op entropy (east) any day if you want me to bore you with monologues about these and other military, warfare term and any other subject.
Five: Defending and Attacking
When you attack, make sure you have absolute superiority, otherwise you will lose many units for little of his. Judging this takes some experience you can only get battling. You will need to judge many factors in a single glance after scouting (number of units, match ups or counters, upgrades).
Defending is always cheaper, but if opponent is of your same skill you will probably end up losing. The principle is simple: you concentrate a greater force than his on a specific area of the map to obtain material and/or positional advantage. If he is unable to pull in enough defenses on time, you have won. If he manages to pull in enough defenses on time, pull out and do not throw away all your units in blind fury! But you chose where and when always. This is keeping the initiative.
Make a compulsive habit of clicking on your opponents units to check for their upgrades.
Six: More Recon!
Every race has a legal form to map hack. Zerg: the burrowed ling and the parasite spell (parasite critters its fun and I could swear these guys always look like they start working for you!).Toss the observer. Terran: the cloaked patrolling wraith or the mother of all map hacks- 'the Scan'.
Have you ever lost a game to a map hacker? Have you ever said 'well, IF I had a Map hack I would have whooped your ass so bad'. Well the facts of life are that you have your own substitute for map-hacking, except most players don't use it enough. This is basically recon (scouting). Except there is a subtle difference - hopefully your opponent is unaware that you have recon on him.
Seven: Tactics
When you attack a particular group of units, try to attack from at least 2 different directions or better still surround him. You will save many, many units this way. Even in real military battles flanking kicks ass.
If you are behind in upgrades compensate by making greater number of units. If you are ahead in upgrades find a weakness and attack. Later as you improve you will learn that certain combination of mixed troops is far more effective than pure troops. Example: Muta/lings troop mix rape single force of goons or hydras. How you dance around with your units and the synchronization between them, while they attack or defend, is what you will hear as 'micro'- which is nothing more than unit control. For this you may need to learn hot-keying. If he is beating you in the upgrade race make more units or hold your attack until upgrades are equilibrated.
Always be on the look out for weakness that allows you back door tactics: like early air (drops or air fighting units) over the enemy mine line. Objective of all back door tactics is not to kill your enemy with it (mind you if he does die, great!), but to slow or kill his economy by taking out workers.
You must also learn how to hot key: fighting units or production or locations. You must also learn the hold shift function. This can be found in www.Battle.net strategy section.
Eight: More Recon! The MINI-MAP
One of your eyes must always be looking at your mini-map. And I mean always. Always memorize what you see whether it be a particular unit or building in map, was it moving or not? Often you can determine origin of base or expansion by direction a units is coming or going. Remember the location and make a mental calculation of the trajectory of the units will take it or where it came from.
The mini-map is holy, all good Starcraft players have a healthy strabismus developed.
Nine: Counters
Unit match-ups and what to upgrade is the hardest to learn. You can do this by checking unit stats at battle.net and by shear trail and error.
Sooner or later you will learn that Zerglings are useless against marine/medics combo, or even worse trying to use Mutas against Valkiries, or sending ultras against walled off tanks. Sooner or later you will learn that crackling eat up dragoons, speed zealots eat up moving Terran infantry or sieged tanks, Vulters eat up zealots.
You must learn all these basic units match ups if you are ever to have a decent chance. Another name for unit match ups you will find as counters. You can try here for some initial advice.
Learning what to upgrade and when is just one of those mysteries of life. Ask around, watch replays. You'll get the hang of it. Watch Rwa's or look them up.
Ten: THE MAP
Map size will strongly determine how fast you make fighting units and how fast you should expand. The smaller the map the more fighting units you should get early on and the later you should expand. The larger the map the more workers you should make and the earlier you should expand.
Each map has its tricks. Just like in warfare taking advantage of the terrain is critical. Chokes can be defended better. Avoid building in open land. Always take advantage of cliffs both for defense or offence. Intersection areas should always be a priority for maintaining control or at least recon monitoring.
Large maps favor players who do not like rushing but it also favors map hackers. Small maps are preferred by opponents who rely heavily on their micro skills and/or who like rushing.
Avoid MONEY maps like the plague. They are not essentially bad, but you will be playing a different and more simple form of Starcraft that what all those pro-gamers you so admire play. Avoid playing in UMS mode for regular games, or you will find after you lost that your opponent had tweaked the map/units/resources to his advantage. I once saw one zergling kill one hatch with one hit! Avoid non blizzard maps because some will make either the resources or the base disposition is unfair.
I personally prefer to play a different map every game but it is said among many better players than me that unless you master one map you should not move on to the next (like temple). BORING! In my opinion the more maps you know how to play in the more flexible your gaming will become and never sacrifice fun for skill.
Final after thoughts:
Remember no matter how many losses you go through, you must strive not to succumb to insults or map hacking. Do not worry about your win/lose stats, you will find that no decent player cares about them. The only element in your stats that you should take care is your disconnections. If you have many you will lose 'honor' as it means one of two unforgivable sins: you either have a bad connection (very, very bad sin) or you are purposely disconnecting (essentially not a sin, but all intelligent players will think your IQ is deficient, but will be thankful you saved them time killing you). Good players will avoid you like the plague if you have many disconnections.
Do not be rude to anyone you would not be rude to if he were standing in front of you! Learn that: People > Gamer. Learn that: Manner > Skill. Never insult newbies and don't forget that a 'newbie' is a person. But more important never forget that for Boxer and Grrr.... YOU ARE the newbie.
The joy of this game is the learning. The faster you learn the shorter your joy. The spice, the element of gamble and uncertainty of this game is the fog of war, with out it, the game dies.
Written on August 14th, 2002 by: Physician.
