EPTMarine Splitting. Not a topic I was planning to discuss today, but it is currently what is very important to improving my play against zerg. In addition to this, it is a skill that all terrans must develop if they plan on using any amount of bio forces in their armies. Terrans will quickly discover that if they attack move marines, marauders and medivacs (MMM) into a zergling/baneling composition things do not go well at all. The same goes for attacking into even low numbers of tanks or colossi that may seem like they should be managable. Splitting will greatly increase efficiency against all forms of splash damage, and is therefore very important to be practicing.
So what exactly is splitting, and how do we do it? Splitting is simply the act of spreading our units out for the purpose of avoiding splash damage. Simple enough to state, but very difficult to master. There are a couple techniques to use to help out though. The first and easiest is the patrol command. By issuing a patrol command (default hotkey "P") a small distance from your army your units will being to automatically spread themselves a little bit. It is important to issue the patrol command to a nearby location, as the units will maintain their original formation until they are close to the end point of the patrol. Remapping the patrol key can also be useful, as "P" can be very annoying to get to. I use "Q". The next step is more difficult. The essence of it is that they army needs to be broken into continually smaller pieces. The best way to start out is to find the largest chunk of the army, and split it into 2 or 3 parts using move commands. Grab a half/third, move command a small distance away. Then you simply repeat this process until all splash damage is removed from combat. Move commands are important here, as attack move commands will usually mean the units won't move at all. The technique is so hard to execute fast enough and requires so much attention that practice is absolutely vital.
But how should we be practicing splitting? If we simply play game after game, we don't end up getting a lot of practice. This is because it is not uncommon for games in bronze to low master league being decided by one engagement. Do we really want to only get one chance to improve this crucial part of play per match? Of course not. Instead I would recommend using the "Marine Split Challenge" custom game that can easily be found in the SC2 client. This will give you 30 marines and throw increasing larger waves of banelings at you until you choose to stop. This makes it easy to get at least some form of splitting practice done each day, and in about 10-15 minutes you can potentially get more done than in a couple hours of playing games. Many people do practice by simply making a lot of marines in a single player game and splitting that group over and over and over. That may work for some people, but I prefer to have a challenge, especially one that increases in difficulty. This allows you to more easily judge how well you are splitting and it makes it clear that you are improving.
Practice makes perfect here, the only solution is to go out and do it. That's likely what I'll be doing for the next couple of day, so there is a good chance of no blog post this weekend. Next one will be out on Monday at the latest, discussing how to tell what execution mistakes you are making.
