EPT
Your head may explode while reading this post. Another possible alternative is you claiming it's a pile of shit and leaving, disgusted all the way down to your stomach.
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The Metagame
I consider myself being very clever. The way I use my cleverness in Starcraft is via the metagame, another way to say it is "he scouted me and so he knows I'm going X. But he thinks he's clever and bets that I will cancel X and go for Y. Therefore, I'll keep X."
Unfortunately, this attitude of mine often leads to some very stupid losses. Another example is Terran 1basing Marines even though he's fully aware I've got Banelings and I'd be capable to reduce him to rubble. I mean, the only sensible way is to add another Command Center and try to catch up because even if you all-in, Banelings+Speedlings will rip you apart with no Combat Shield, Stim and Medivacs. That's why I Drone and that's why I lose.
But this guessing game doesn't end here, not by a long shot. Say you're a fan of the Khala and one of your Probes has opened a rift for a shiny new Nexus which you desperately need. And yet, a pesky Zergling discovers it. What now?!
- will the Swarm send a small force to dispose with it, meaning you should send a slightly larger one?
- will the Queen realize you need the Nexus so desperately and therefore dispatch everything that hands sort-of-legs and kind-of-wings? If so, will you be able to hold or should you take your toll by attacking the enemy buildings?
- will the Swarm fake this attack and set a horrendous trap for your brave forces, in which case you should actually go defend your expansion?
- are you dreaming within a dream?
Never mind, time's up, before you decided your expansion got destroyed and you've most probably lost.
The Answer
I've been so proud on mostly correctly guessing all these years that I've overlooked the most blatant and perspicuous answer to these problems and decisions.
Scouting.
While it sounds extremely cheap, the fact is that if you scout properly and all the time, you don't have to guess what will probably happen and you can know instead. Returning to the example above, a couple of faithful Observers well placed across the battlefield will quickly tell you what you need to know while you securely move your forces halfway across to be prepared for any alternative.
Go now, browse through your replays and try to find more than a handful of games which you didn't lose due to bad scouting. Games lost thanks to bad scouting include:
- drops doing severe damage
- unexpected tech switch
- timing attack
- harass in general
- opponent pulling off a secret expansion
- etc etc etc
Each map is covered by a Fog of War and you should think of it as of your worst enemy. I mean, I'm pretty bad in scouting myself and often let myself be surprised by a Terran drop or something, but I'm counting on this entry to help me remembering this stuff I already know - but the fact is the area of map you don't see is a bad area and you should fix that ASAP.
- Zergs - dudes, we have dispensable flying Supply Depots which can also puke Creep!
- Terrans - you Terran folk also have flying units which you can set on patrol over distant expansions, Viking or Banshee should do the trick
- Protoss - are you kidding me? Not only you've got invisible scouting units, but the Warp Prism in principle can very quickly take care of any expansion attempts
But of course, our goal here is not only to guard expansions but also the general area. HotS might help a lot with that with its new units.
So you have two choices.
- You can be like me. Clever, arrogant, with good reactions who sometimes wins, sometimes loses due to his judgement and doesn't scout as well as he should.
- Or you can be better than me and make scouting your utter priority in the entire game. I guarantee that if you've already have the basic mechanics, this is the difference between decent and truly great players.
Thank you for reading!
