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Note: Click on the Game title in order to access the replay.
Introduction:
So so day today. What did I learn above all else? I suck at macro games. It's not terribly surprising though, most lower level people are. That's why the lower levels are filled with half-assed cheeses and quick timings. Players that can hold off such junk and push into a stable, long-term game will always win (unless placed against someone of equal caliber).
That's why the idea of being better at macro games is so appealing to me. Right on the edge of my vision is a tantalizing dream wherein I will only lose to players who are better than me, or if I make a slip-up that I should lose for making. But I'm not there yet and it's frustrating.
Right now I'm the crappy player who can't keep up in a macro game. Still, I'm doing better at focusing. One game at a time, executing my build. Next time I log on I'll focus on making sure those Probes and Pylons are built. I'll make sure I'm making them as efficient as I can by directing my rallies WHILE doing other things. And I'll improve on my scouting, though I'm quite pleased with some of how my scouting has progressed since I last played.
I need to practice Unit Control and Engagements too, but that can come later. I want to make sure I'm out-macroing my opponents first.
Season 4 Overall: 5-4
Day: 2-2
League-Rank: Gold (41)
Game 1
PvP
WIN
Map: Abyssal Caverns
Player: daPlunja
Quick Summary
Quick PvP, opponent chose to expand, I punished with a strong 1-base build. Protoss need to be less greedy!
Build
3-Gate Robo (GGRG)
What to Work On
Throw away game. Tried using webcam to record my typing for reference purposes, but it slowed down the game a lot which screwed up certain timings. Will have to record my APM during a match that doesn't count: such as against the computer or a friend in a custom game.
What I Liked
Despite the slowed game, some decent unit control against his in order to make sure my army could survive its push.
Game 2
PvP
LOSS
Map: Antiga Shipyard
Player: MLAXtwelve
Quick Summary
Long, macro PvP. Opponent expanded but had a decent defense army so I chose to expand as well. From there it was a macro arms race, which I lost. A couple of supply blocks as well as other issues made it difficult to keep up. When we did engage, I chose a poor engagement location and lost the battle. From there I was behind, alive only because my opponent was content to sit back and macro.
Build
3-Gate Robo (GRGG)
What to Work On
Supply blocked far too many times. Late on certain timings, which put me behind quite often. Should have made additional gateways sooner. Cut Probe production too early as well, which put me slightly behind on income.
What I Liked
I scouted the natural and eventually the third. A few observers went a long way towards spotting what my opponent was doing and where their army was. I also happened to catch a Warp Prism before it could do any damage and his first Observer before it could scout much. Score!
Game 3
PvZ
LOSS
Map: Tal'darim Altar
Player: SHIBAL
Quick Summary
Long, macro game. Only harassed once. Some poor engagements plus the lack of a sound unit combination were the cause of this loss. Need sentries and Zealots.
Build
FFE
What to Work On
Chose to go with Stalkers due to the Muta ball, but I figured Speedlings would be on the ground so I also grabbed Colossi. However, without Sentry support for Forcefields, and some Zealots spread in there to tank some of the melee hits, my ground army was utterly decimated by the Zerglings. Better unit composition needed. Was not supply blocked, or, at least, did not notice. However, I needed to macro better, I floated far too many minerals at several points in the game.
What I Liked
Caught a changeling before it could get too far. Saw my opponent's third and took it out, then retreated. Executed a minor harass, which moved my opponent's army out of position. Any of those things combined with better macro and choice engagements could have swung the game in my favor.
Game 4
PvP
WIN
Map: Antiga Shipyard
Player: Snowblower
Quick Summary
PvP, opened with a basic 3-gate Robo, saw my opponent's early units and decided to keep defensive. Opponent did not see my scouting probe, so I hid it in the gas and made a Pylon. Continued to macro my forces, making sure I had Sentries for Forcefields, Immortals to deal with the Stalkers, and a few Zealots to tank damage while my Stalkers did the rest of the work. When my opponent attacked I defended and then created units right in his base.
Build
3-Gate Robo (GRGG)
What to Work On
Got supply blocked at least once. Could have focused a little better as my opponent's attack caught me slightly unprepared, but I knew it could happen and reacted quickly.
What I Liked
Took advantage of the fact that my opponent didn't react to my probe and hid it. While it might feel cheesy, you have to take every advantage that you can get and my strategy wasn't contingent upon being sneaky, it just happened to be helpful. I also like that I sort of saw what was coming my way and prepared appropriately for it. Also, my opponent didn't respond to my have fun with any sort of manner and didn't gg out. Always nice to take out the ones who take it far too seriously!
Daily Summary
2-2 isn't a bad way to end the day. I've learned that I'm absolutely awful in long macro games, for a couple of reasons:
- Macro: I'm doing a bit better at getting a better income (though I can still improve by miles, but some of that will have to wait for improved mechanics) but not in spending the money. I get supply blocked far too often later on too.
- Poor Engagements: Still figuring out how to use the terrain to my advantage, and when it's going to hurt me.
- Unit Control: I have some bright moments, but I'm definitely screwing up even basic unit control, such as letting part of my army get ahead of the rest. I can do better.
All in all it's positive though. I do believe I'm improving. I'll just continue to practice my econ and my mechanics and see what happens from there. Occasional practice of unit control and engagements would be helpful, but this seems, for me, to be specifically a large army problem.
 
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I like the idea of this blog. Why don't you include replays with the game summaries? if you use gamereplays.org, you can set up a nice looking tab that shows up in the forum text.
Also, it seems like you are finding lots of your problems, but not trying to figure out a clear way to fix them. For example, getting supply capped seems to be a reoccurring theme in your play. But what exactly are you going to do to fix it?
Finally, I think you're looking at macro/mechanics incorrectly. Mechanics are the fundamentals: resource management (macro), unit management (micro), scouting and reacting to that information, and map awareness/control.
"though I can still improve by miles, some of that will have to wait for improved mechanics"
There is nothing to wait for. Just go get better mechanics.
As for getting supply capped, you should memorize the exact food count of when you need pylons so that you can build them at the same time every game.
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Perhaps Mechanics isn't the right word, but I use Mechanics to talk about getting actions done. I specifically refrain from APM because I don't think in terms of "needing higher APM". I'm a guitar player, my fingers can move plenty fast. I could spam APM if I wanted, but that's useless. In the the essence of it though, what I need is to be able to do more at once. Not being able to is killing me. But, since it's not finger dexterity that's limiting me, I need to figure out what is. I figure it's something along the lines of focus or attention.
You bring up a good point about not proposing solutions though. It's not that I'm not thinking of them, but, perhaps I should add a section for where I'm going to specifically make improvements. I also don't tend to think in terms of "at this supply I'm getting blocked, I should make a pylon at X" supply. On the surface, it's a good thought to have. However, I find that I'm not usually getting supply blocked at specific supplies (most times). Rather, I simply get supply blocked at various supplies when I'm not paying attention.
What's the solution? Pay attention more. Usually I'm forgetting pylons when I'm focusing on something else. So, somehow, I need to integrate "check your supply" into my thoughts when I'm doing other things. I've heard of people utilizing specific rotations, such as:
Check Army, Check Supply, Check Money, Check Map, Check Warpgates, Check Army, Check Supply, etc...
But I've found it difficult to keep to such patterns because, ultimately, something happens which shifts my focus and interrupts the pattern. Somehow I will have to figure out something though, since my inability to Multi-task efficiently is probably one of my biggest hurdles.
I think I'll post a blog about that specifically, either today or tomorrow.
Thanks for the kind words and the advice. There's a lot for me to work on, and I'll get there. The encouragement of the community will only strengthen my resolve.
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On November 27 2011 07:35 Chamenas wrote:What's the solution? Pay attention more. Usually I'm forgetting pylons when I'm focusing on something else. So, somehow, I need to integrate "check your supply" into my thoughts when I'm doing other things. I've heard of people utilizing specific rotations, such as:
Check Army, Check Supply, Check Money, Check Map, Check Warpgates, Check Army, Check Supply, etc...
But I've found it difficult to keep to such patterns because, ultimately, something happens which shifts my focus and interrupts the pattern. Somehow I will have to figure out something though, since my inability to Multi-task efficiently is probably one of my biggest hurdles.
You can simply think something like "Whenever I build a probe, I check my supply", or "Whenever I warp in units, I check my supply". Or, "Whenever I a fight is happening (however small), I check my supply". Cloaked banshee comes into your base? Check supply. Connect checking supply with something you are doing when you get supply blocked. You don't need to integrate it on its own, connecting it with something is easier, for me at least.
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Sounds like a good plan, Erzz, I'll see if I can get it to work for me. Perhaps not EVERYTHING, but connecting it with building units might be a sensible solution, as I'll always note when I get close. I think one of the other issues is that, early on, you can build one pylon, build a few units, build another pylon, build a few units, etc... however, when it gets later on in the supply, you'll often have enough gateways that one pylon won't cover all of the warp-ins, plus whatever else might be building. So, perhaps, after a certain supply, I'll have to drop 2 (or more pylons) instead of sticking to just dropping one. Right now I usually drop multiple pylons when I accidentally hit the cap, but, ideally, I don't have to play catchup and then some. I'd rather have just enough supply at all times.
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It's great that you're doing all this analysis on your games, but one thing I would keep in mind is that, time permitting, you should probably try and increase how many games you're playing. You seem to be playing three or four a day, which is going to prolong your process of improvement.
I paid my bronze -> diamond+ dues while playing Brood War instead of SC2, but I can still tell you that the process is helped a ton by playing a huge amount of games. A lot of the analysis you're doing is awesome and taking the time to think about the games I played afterwards (and write things down like you're doing) is something I didn't do when I was trying to improve at Brood War, and I now know that if I had done that the process would have been expedited. However, I cannot overemphasize that volume is incredibly important to improving at SC.
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Volume is something that's occurred to me as well. But it was a question of volume which got me to stop playing in the first place. When I figured I might not be able to play enough games, I got discouraged, and stopped playing. While I'd love to commit to more games and more analysis of those games, right now, I don't have that sort of commitment. What's important to me is playing games and analyzing them. Even if progress is slow, it's better than having none. And, when my schedule opens up a bit more, I'll be ready to to jump in and significantly improve my abilities. 
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something that's helped me in some of the best games i've played, is leaning towards... not watching something while it is taking action. i'll just use some simple examples since i'm pretty bad at the english language, haha
you are sprinting towards a marine tank push with enough lings and banelings which have been pre-positioned for ease of use (army-wise). you don't have to watch your banelings hit, or your zerglings make surrounds because you know they will do so.
instead, you could be preparing for the engagement before it happens, and what your follow-up would be. personally i'd send extra lings to break rocks at an expansion i wanted and even creating a drone to make it.
using your sense of prediction to create internal 'timings' for yourself will bring you to multitask.
'oh, i've won this fight, i'm not going to watch all of it happen, even if my banelings make inefficient trades. i'm going to inject earlier, make extra drones, and prepare to nab that expansion right this instant while my units are still fighting'
i will use examples as i see fit, but from my own experience.. i feel that having to look at something for long takes away from anything that i want to actually do. specific ways of spamming and map hotkeys allow you to keep your mind open and ready to perform actions even if you didn't necessarily plan them. i think this is important as a learning player as you will notice choices or options that work out better than initially planned.
best of luck though! and i love the analysis/blog
*edit* add me as silhouette 594 or pm me if you'd like some practice games withh my currently platinum self : D
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Added, Nanaoei. Hopefully I'll see you around.
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Master League blogcraft.
Need more Starcraft games per day,
WhiteRa plays 40.
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Maybe one day, but I'm definitely not WhiteRa.
When (notice I'm not going to use if!) I get to Masters though, maybe I'll have improved enough to commit to it fully and get a really nice blog setup going. Until then, this is all I've got.
Also, won my 1 game for today. Sorry, I don't play every day! Probably only 2 games tomorrow. But, if things go well, I might be able to rock a nice amount of games at some point this weekend. I really want to get some solid practice in, just have to tighten up my FFE build first, and practice my Terran build a little. I'm not seeing enough Terrans on the ladder to keep it tight.
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EPT
