EPTI dumbly move my army out after I get my expansion up, which is the point at which one’s army is always going to be at its relative weakest. Then, later, instead of holing up in my base and teching in order to get a good counter for his army, I sort of just arbitrarily attack, taking him head-on with my stalkers. Needless to say, after expanding and losing tons of units the first time, that probably wasn’t the best strat to go with.
Another problem I have is that my opponent dominates the map, effectively keeping me from taking a third expansion and depriving me of 1200 minerals in lost nexuses. This I also attribute to my poor attack timing. If I had held off earlier, I may have been able to protect a second expansion better. Then, after the first attempt at expanding was shot down, I probably should have acceded to his refusal to let me further expand, instead building an army that counters his roaches/hydras.
My minerals do get high at a few points, but my biggest problem this time is not utilizing the advantage of expanding. SC2 economic decisions are a matter of short-term versus long-term benefit. I was using a long-term strategy but trying to win in the short term.
Check out the video with commentary here.
Lessons learned:
1. Don’t just launch an assault because I feel like it. Keep long-term/short-term strategies and objectives cohesive.
2. Keep watching those minerals. If they get too high, that’s probably a sign that I need more gateways.
3. If at first you don’t succeed at expanding, examine the reason why. If it’s because the opponent’s army is more massive than your own, you need to turtle a little and produce counter units — NOT blindly insist on trying to get the expo up anyway. If the other guy is freely expanding while you’re hiding in your little base, try to hit his mineral line with a drop.
