EPTPrimarily I want to ask about what equipment would be most suitable to a cast a daily show. It’s okay if you just list some equipment, no need for brand or pricing, as the main focus is bring the best possible entertainment for everyone.
Now that all of that is said and done with let’s get on to the daily.
Yesterday we started with an extremely common problem of just not having enough workers to fuel all the fancy things we want to do. So today we will continue to build on that by adding the next step.
Today’s Topic: Expansion
Let’s introduce what this terminology means in the first place so everyone is on the same page. Expanding means to take a base outside of your main base. The one right outside your main is generally referred to as your natural. Most players understand the concept of expanding means to get more resources faster. What most players struggle with on the lower ladder is understanding how to expand and when to.
For zerg players it is almost intuitive that you need to get your natural up and running but a lot of bronze to gold player find that they just never know when to expand. A BO – build order will tell you when to build the hatchery but knowing what to do and knowing why you can do it plays a huge role.
Don’t you get the feeling when you expand it feels like sneaking around? So how do we know it is safe to expand? How do we defend our new expansion? So many questions overwhelm us.
Before we get into the finer details and other jargon that high master and grand master players want to know to efficiently expand let’s look at the general mistakes that a lot of lower ranking players seem to make.
The most common problem with taking an expansion is not knowing why you need the expansion! Think about it, if you ask your average gold to bronze level player when and why then need to expand they’ll usually say it is either part of the “Build Order” or it just feels like they had the money for it. This doesn’t sound really refine does it? So lets cure this problem, by explaining the reasons.
When is it really a general idea to expand?
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When you are attacking, why? Because your army attacking is protecting the expansion in the back. Have you ever looked up at your money after a big battle and realized it’s extremely high? That’s a sign of response but not awareness. Meaning you know that you need to look at your resources eventually but it doesn’t feel like you naturally drift to it. Right now you are “actively” looking at your resource.
What we want to do is get away from that. We want to develop this internal feeling of needing to spend your resource. However spending resource is harder than it sounds, because become concern about concrete details such as how much x unit do I need. Do I want upgrades now or later? What about weapons or defense. All these options pulls your attention away from our initial goal, which is to simply spend that money.
As I was browsing the forums today, I found someone going by the name of Taerix who posted an incredibly useful build order that help us tackle our exact problem today. Of course he wrote it specifically for Terran player so with his permission I will link the terran. Do spend the 2 min to check it out, Terran Build for practicing Macro
The main focus of this build is to encourage the player to target specific problems one at a time. For our protoss buddies, replace the units with gateway units. The same for Zerg. The build order for these two races will be posted at bottom of this blog.
We also want to take this one step further because we want to include expanding. This build will give us the army we want to defend and attack with freeing up our mind to focus on expanding.
Remember the number 1 reason why players do not know when to expand is because they’re scared of the unknown. Since the army composition is already given and extremely lean, there is no need to focus on defending. You can expand when you have begun your attack, amazing isn’t it?
Build Order for Protoss
9 Pylon
12 Gateway + Chrono boost Nexus
13 Assimilator
14 Put 3 probes in gas
15 Cybernetic Core + Zealot
16 2nd Gateway
17 Pylon + probes
18 Warp Gate research + Stalkers
19 Pylon up and continue to build your probes
Keep checking on your nexus Toss players! We want probes, lots and lots of probes. Only when there’s a probe building do we want to build any other units. Main focus should still be probes.
Here’s how the rest of the strategy plays out:
@7:30 WarpGate should be nearly completed now is the time to move out!
as soon as you move out drop a pylon near your natural and bring the probe with your army
Build a Nexus as soon as you can afford it. Box your army an attack with it. Select that probe and have it build a pylon nearby warp in units as needed.
Remember to check on your nexus, look at your expansion when the nexus is 4/5 done now is the time to box half of your probes in your main base and bring them to the expansion. Continue probes and pylons as needed. When your probes have arrived at your expansion build 2 more gateways.
From then on, focus on expanding every 5 min. Attack each time you’re ready to expand. Be it win or lose pick up your army and go for it!
Build Order for Zerg
9 Overlord
14 pool
15 Hatch
16 Overlord
16 2 pair of lings
18 Queen
22 Overlord
24 Roach Warren+ extractor
Build a spine at your natural and the 2nd Queen. From this point on build 2 drones per roach you build. Focus on the mini-map and your queens. Everytime it hits 25 energy spam that v and inject.
9 minute build your 3rd hatchery. Box your roaches and rally your units, attack while the hatchery builds.
Remember these are merely the stepping stones.
Until tommorrow everyone remember to have fun!
