EPT
Anywho, I'm currently reading The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin (which you have probably heard recommended by Day[9]), and it's just full of great info. I've decided to start tackling the basics in my SC2 play. Specifically, that means larvae and overlords.
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Apocriva vs SutleOne (Win)
This is the first match that I decided to concentrate on larvae and overlords as much as possible. Watching through the replay, I see the following issues...
- The Terran sets up a bunker at around 4:30, and it throws me off enough to pile up 4 larvae and 400+ minerals.
- There are a couple times leading into the midgame where my injections pop, but I'm not immediately making units. I've actually gotten fairly decent at remembering to inject -- that should be a cue to spend larvae though.
- The first really major pileup happens when I'm getting my third populated. I spend down all of my larvae at 9:27, and then don't spend more until 10:36, after two rounds of inject larvae. During this time, I'm setting up a couple tech structures and moving drones around. I end up with 1500/1000 for resources. Yikes!
- (Interesting obvservation... Having a bit of money banked doesn't appear to be actually THAT terrible, since I'd need it for my next round of larvae. The important thing is remembering that INJECT = SPAWN!!)
- (Another observation... Three queens' worth of injected larvae makes for 12+ larvae at once, so if I see around two rows of larvae, I'm doing well enough spawning them. On the other hand, I haven't completely missed a round of larvae unless I see two pages of larvae when I go to spawn.)
- At 13:00 or so, I start making more tech structures again, and doing a bit of scouting, and my larvae spending totally drops off again. At this point, I feel like I have more larvae than I can spend money on, but I reckon that will be resolved by having a better mixture of units.
- I never really get my larvae down to zero again, and really pile on a lot of minerals. I end up maxing out at around 17:00 and decide to attack so that I can free up supply for brood lords.
The big take-away is that INJECT = SPAWN. That's just something I have to drill into my head. Only AFTER injecting and spawning should I worry about anything else, including building tech structures and whatnot.
(Following this is a horrible loss against an early-aggressive Zerg. Was in the mindset to learn and not play, so this wasn't a game worth analyzing at the moment.)
Romulus vs Apocriva (Win)
Base races are never comfortable, but holding off Romulus' early pressure felt good. I felt I did really well with injecting and spawning together, but last time it was generally when I was setting up tech structures that my macro slipped, so let's see how I did here.
- First and foremost, I really screwed up my opening and was microing drones terribly. Most notably I forgot my 15ish overlord which meant an early supply block. Blah!
- I generally apparently run out of money before being able to morph my last couple of drones. I don't even pull ahead of my opponent in drone count until after the 8 minute mark. I guess that's the power of an early expand for Protoss!
- I go a little overboard on overlords, but I'm of the opinion right now that too many is better than too few.
- I actually have a very smooth transition into making units so that Romulus' first attack doesn't decimate me.
- I miss my first round of larvae at around 13:30, but my money isn't astronomically high as it would usually be. I'm at 156 supply going into 14 minutes, while my opponent is at 81.
- I max out at around 15:00, and again decide to attack to free up supply. This unfortunately ended up timed poorly with when my opponent decided to attack me, and ended in a gross sort of base race, which won't really teach me anything useful to the "larvae and overlords" topic.
Okay, that's enough analysis for the time being, I think. It was enough to see that I have a very simple mental habit to form (inject + spawn), and even in a single game it was apparent that it pays off. Once I spend a few more games forming that habit, I can go back to worrying about other things.
In the meantime, Adventure Time and Day[9]!
