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Today I created two videos on some various micro topics I've been meaning to share lately. The topics are:
- Blink Micro
- Force Field Usage
- Flanking
- 2 Unit Combo (Ling + Roach/Hydra)
- Concave vs Convex
- Zealot Conservation (in use of Force Field)
- Multi-Box (Spread Fire)
A good number of these topics went rather undocumented, as far as I know, until now; I'm glad to share them with you all!
Definitely the most interesting topic is Multi-Boxing. In Age of Empires it's extremely important to select small groups of units and specifically order your different groups to attack different units. This is because a lot of units in Age games fire slowish projectiles, allowing a poor player to overkill enemy units with a lot of wasted shots. oGsMC has been dominating 4 Gate battles for a long time, simply because he's utilizing Multi-Boxing, that is, he's making sure that each unit his army fires at doesn't receive any fire that will miss.
For example, a Stalker takes 12 shots from another Stalker before death. In a Stalker vs Stalker war the player who kills off enemy Stalkers the fastest, without firing more than 12 shots at any enemy Stalker, will be the one who comes out victorious. I've won many PvP games simply because I realize an enemy Stalker will die in around (for example) 4 shots, though I have 7 Stalkers. So I quickly box 3 of those Stalkers and order them to change targets. This way I still kill the first enemy Stalker at the same speed as if I didn't Multi-Box, but a new enemy Stalker also took an extra 3 hits!
Another topic that I haven't seen discussed is the Zealot Conservation. Whenever a Protoss Force Fields, most of the time they will let their Zealots take shots from enemies behind the force fields. This is a waste! The goal of Force Fields is to get as many enemies out of the battle as possible. Knowing this, it's often times best to get your Zealots out of a battle until FFs dissipate -this is shown in the videos.
There's also another lesson to be learned from my time spent playing Age of Empires. In Age games, especially Age of Empires Online, it's extremely important to have good unit compositions in order to kill your opponent's army. If you think this is important in SC2, multiply that importance by like 17, and you have Age of Empires Online. This is relevant because I realized a long time ago that on the Korean server Zergs were very aggressive towards Protoss on close positions Metalopolis. Very aggressive! They were like "You will die NOW" and then 2 base allin me every game. It was a very strong aggression as well. My old teammate Bad always complained about his armies felt weak against Protoss... I actually thought that this was because he wasn't playing like Koreans. Simply put, the Koreans were attacking me with a two unit composition of Ling/Roach, and often times in GSL you'll see Nestea or some other Zerg do a Hydra/Ling push. Hydras and Roaches benefit greatly from having simple ling support agianst Protoss armies, and I don't think many NA players realize this. I go over with an example in the videos detailing this idea of having a 2 unit composition very useful for early/midgame compositions ZvP.
And lastly... I listened to this song which pumped me up for a spendature of a few hours to create these things! Listen to it! You'll win your next ladder match if you do. I dare you.
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nice vids cecil 
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i only got to watch part 1 and so far it's great! I loved the chargelot/blink strategy you had at the end of the first game. the only thing was the brightness could use some up-age. looked dark to me.
i'll be sure to check out your other videos too 
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Cecil I think you're my favourite semi-pro.
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good videos can you make a video showing how to apply pressure to a zerg?
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Hats off to you. Those are some very well made videos, and though I knew alot of the zerg stuff beforehand I was happily oblivious to a lot of the protoss stuff (guess what I play  )
Alot of players can definately learn alot from watching this. One thing is reading about it, another is actually seeing it explained.
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i really like your video i watched you 3 stalker video already and i havn;t had time to try it but it is a build that i am going to put into my pvp build. keep making the videos man they are really informative!(blinking a small group to pick off weak stalkers never crossed my mind for some reason, this should make my stalkers fights easier)
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Belgium408 Posts
some nice stuff in there, thumbs up
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you post the best guides for protoss that I've seen. I think all of my standardized builds have been ones that you have posted guides for. Now you want to help teach micro as well? You're the man. Thanks for the guide!
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that multi boxing is intense! good luck to you sir
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On August 02 2011 18:56 youngminii wrote:
Cecil I think you're my favourite semi-pro.
Awe thank you sweetheart <3
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oh can you please please upload this unit tester map?
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Thank you but what you're calling a convex isn't a convex but just a ball. A convex is the opposite of a concave. A convex is a half circle with the enemy outside the circle, instead of having a half circle with the enemy inside the half circle
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On August 02 2011 19:35 Olsson wrote:
Thank you but what you're calling a convex isn't a convex but just a ball. A convex is the opposite of a concave. A convex is a half circle with the enemy outside the circle, instead of having a half circle with the enemy inside the half circle
Well yeah it's a ball, but the units that fire on the Red team were in a convex, thusly pushing their own hydra buddies around the sides and resulting in a loss. In BW whenever an army engaged into a concave, that army position was "a convex". At least that's what I was always told. But yeah you are right anyways
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A great video. Its funny because a lot of what you've gone over here is relatively basic, but easily overlooked in the midst of an actual game. For instance sometimes I throw everything I know about concave/convexes out the window. Which is weird considering I'd consider myself a decent masters zerg.
I especially appreciated the last segment with the roach, and roach/ling army vs protoss. Even though your examples were done on a small scale they did a brilliant job at stressing the importance of composition. Once again using zerg as an example, It can be easy to max out on roaches, only to be decimated by a smaller protoss force. I'm going to put an emphasis on a healthy army with diversity in the mid game from now on. Instead of simply having units.
The only sort of criticism I have, for the next time you make a video is consistency. Maybe its my OCD but whenever I test things I want to be as accurate as possible. Like when you did the overview on force field use vs terran it doesnt hurt to have the exact same number of units as opposed to a rough estimate. Maybe consider setting up the groups of units before filming? Just a thought. Otherwise great job.
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Awesome! But you need to tell us the name of the song, because in some regions (mine included) youtube doesn't show the video :S
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My god Cecil, you are so awesome! You're putting out so much content I can't even keep up haha
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I love you. Videos are in HD this time!~
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On August 02 2011 18:40 CecilSunkure wrote:
For example, a Stalker takes 12 shots from another Stalker before death. In a Stalker vs Stalker war the player who kills off enemy Stalkers the fastest, without firing more than 12 shots at any enemy Stalker, will be the one who comes out victorious. I've won many PvP games simply because I realize an enemy Stalker will die in around (for example) 4 shots, though I have 7 Stalkers. So I quickly box 3 of those Stalkers and order them to change targets. This way I still kill the first enemy Stalker at the same speed as if I didn't Multi-Box, but a new enemy Stalker also took an extra 3 hits!
I understand that the new AI does this for you. If it only takes 4 shots and you request 7 stalkers to attack that target only 4 will attack.
I read about this in Docs Definitive TvZ guide
Note: Your tanks do NOT overkill even when focus firing. I actually did not know that and was wary of focus firing after I had 3+ tanks. WHY DIDNT ANYONE TELL ME? Basically, the problem in BW was that if you selected used your hotkey for your tanks to focus fire goons, ALL 12 tanks will kill 1 goon. If 1 zealot dropped on to your tanks, ALL tanks will fire and kill that zealot. In SC2, if a marine is dropped on a clump of tanks, 2 tanks will fire. If you focus fire a bane with 10 tanks, only 1 will fire. If you focus fire 10 banes, all 10 will fire and kill those 10 banes (while splashing the surrounding area).
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EPT
