Bored at work, might as well rewrite something


Suntzu (author of Art of War) once said "know your enemy and yourself, and you'll fight a thousand battles with no losses" what he really means is that you really need to scout

This was something that was taught to me by a friend during the SC2 beta, he no longer plays SC2 really. But this is something that has helped me alot during my days getting myself from Copper to now Gold. (back then there was a Copper League)

Now what is scouting?
Scouting is a burst of information.
What is Monitoring?
monitoring is different from scouting as it is a steady stream of information rather than a sudden burst of intel.
eg. overlords, observers, xel'naga towers, sensor towers.

the main out look for monitoring is movement. Monitoring is used exclusively for tracking movement. Movement include tech movement, production movement, army movement and Economy movement.

Is he expanding, is he moving out, is he teching, what is he producing. These aspects are movements that make up game changing decisions.
Monitoring is that much scarier than scouting. Because it's the same as being scouted every single second.

Back to scouting.
There are 4 stages to scouting
A-To See
You can't scout what you can't see. You can assume, but you can always be wrong.
B-To Recognize
You see something, now you take what you see, and you recognize what it is
C-To Interpret
You take what you just saw and you add it to what you already know
D-React
You make a decision based on the updated information

So it happens like this.
I see a proxy pylon.
I recognize this is an aggressive maneuver from the opponent
I interpret that it is a 4 gate timing attack based on this and my previous scouting.
I react by dropping 2 bunkers

Now to scouting there's more to it than what it seems, Breaking it down, It's called the 4 elements of scouting

What is the 4 Elements of scouting?
Econ
Army
Position
Intel

These 4 dictates pretty much all decision making in any given game
Econ-How many bases is the opponent on? am I ahead, behind, or even?
Army-What's his composition, tech, and number of units? his production etc.
Location-Where is his army? this dictates whether you can catch him off guard with harassment or a push.
Intel-What does the opponent know about me? does the opponent know my econ army and position?

Now to put these intel into use

Econ-He has more bases than me- Should I attack?
He has less econ than me- is he cutting workers?
If he is cutting workers where is he spending the money?

Army-He has more units than me-is a push coming?
He has less units than me-can I attack him?
Does he really have less units? could he be concealing his numbers?

Position-He is pushing towards me-What can I do to defend.
-He is out of position-Can I deal Econ damage? or harass?

Intel-He knows I have more econ- is he going to harass/attack me?
-He knows I have more econ-is he going to expo soon?
-He knows my army is weak-is a push coming?
-He knows my army is here what can he do to take an advantage of my position.



Normally a decision is made by having at least 2 elements of scouting known to you. For example. He has alot Zealot Stalkers no sentries, He is on one base. => He will push me soon.
or He knows I have my expo up, He's on one base => He will push me soon
or He has Zealot and Stalkers, his army is in his natural=> He is going to take an expansion, thus, I can take another expo.

Scouting is easy, you move your units around and you see stuff. but what's hard is taking what you see and putting the puzzle together.
Econ Scouting Examples
Pylon below the ramp => he'll expo soon
A town hall structure in construction => Expo
A lot of drone count on 1 of the bases => He's building an expo somewhere

Army Scouting Examples
I see early Council, get detection. DTs inc
I see chrono boosted cyber core with 1 gate 1 gas => 4 gate incoming
Barracks Factory Starport=> Expect Banshee.

Position Scouting examples
this is self explanatory really, where is his army. does he have 1 large army or 2 small army? Harassment scouting fall under this, as well as proxies.

Intel scouting
Really you should deny as much intel as possible. But, as the game goes on, Your opponent will
A-know what your econ is like
B-Know what your army is like
C-Know where your army is
D-Probably have an idea of what you know about him.

A good example is your opponent scouts your banshee rush. You know that he has confirmed
1-Your econ, because you're probably on one base
2-your army, Banshee and some marines.
3-You know that he has scouted your banshee.

Now the opponent knows you're rushing banshee, the response? engi + turrets, of course you can continue the banshee rush or not, that's up to you. but Now you know what the opponent knows about you. So you totally could cancel go siege tank,viking or something. but whatever decision you just made is a intel scouting decision.

Now when you do scouting, you naturally interpret the information that you have seen. Interpreting intel is to put what new information you gained and add it it to what you already know.
What do you already know?
You know at the very start of the game, what your opponent is playing (save for random.) Now that you know their race. You have a list of possibility that comes up
For example, your opponent is Protoss
You know that he might 4 gate
or 1/2/3 gate expo
or he might FFE
or He might 3 gate robo.

what he can't do obviously is a stim timing push (lol)

Now you take what you already know and you scout for the possibilities.

I see 3 gates, and a Expo, with alot of sentries (econ+army scouting) there for he has no robo yet.
He has alot of sentries, there for It's hard for me to engage. But he won't have a robo. thus, no observers. There for cloak will be tremendously powerful.

You have just created new information. And based on this new information you react,

By making ghosts/banshee because they can cloak.

BUT, before you do, what does he know about you? What will he react? Will he be able to react in time? How much damage can you do before he reacts properly.

This more or less a break down of scouting mentality. And These are just some example of usages of scouting and the basic aspects of scouting.
Information is power, so don't ever forget to scout.


-Credits to Gifted for teaching me this

What's your scouting mentality like?