EPTDisclaimer
I understand that F2A is not the optimal way to play SC2, but I also know that some people play this game casually. This guide is intended for those who wish to beat brutal missions but might not have good micro. For most missions and commanders, even if you don’t have good micro, you can win with decent macro.
General Notes
- Always change your rally point as your army changes location, especially for commanders like Raynor, Swann, Zagara, Abathur, and Dehaka. For the most part, prioritize macro over micro, since you can quickly rebuild your army with a good economy even if you lose some units.
- Once you are maxed out, add more production facilities in case you need to remax.
- Have a consistent set of hotkeys. Hotkey all production buildings of one type to one control group. For example, I use 7 for barracks/warpgates/hatcheries, 8 for factories/robo, and 9 for starports/stargates. Hotkey detectors to another group. Hotkey upgrade buildings to one group (I use 6). If you have two types (forge/cyber core or ebay/armory), put them next to each other and press the hotkey twice to jump to the buildings. Hotkey hero units to another group. Use the F3-F6 buttons for your top panel abilities.
- Use control click on the unit frame at the bottom to select all of one unit. This is especially useful for Zerg commanders when morphing units into stronger ones.
- You must be extra careful on The Vermillion Problem because of the lava. As for all the other maps, F2A your way to victory.
Guide Notes
Commander (Difficulty in terms of micro): 1 to 5 (1 = Easiest, 5 = Hardest)
Unit Comp: The types of units in your army
Production facilities: Suggested number of production facilities
Cycle: What you should be doing after the early stages (after expanding, getting your tech), then repeat
With spare APM: Other things you can do during your cycle if you have the actions to spare.
Note: Things to keep in mind
Raynor (Difficulty: 2/5)
Controlling Raynor’s army is pretty easy. Managing his economy is the hard part.
Unit Comp 1: Marine, Marauder, Medic, Viking
Production facilities: 6-8 orbitals, 12-15 barracks (add-ons depend on enemy comp; more tech labs if you’re fighting against a ground comp, more reactors if you’re fighting against an air comp), 2-3 starports
Cycle: Make infantry and vikings, mule minerals
With spare APM: Build turrets and empty bunkers
Note: When Hyperion is out, you can’t stim when you press F2 (because the bc has priority). This is why I prefer the banshee calldown (and put all my mastery points there).
Unit Comp 2: Vulture, Viking
Production facilities: 6-8 orbitals, 6-8 factories, 3-4 starports
Cycle: Put mines everywhere (right click to autocast mine reload when you have 8-15 vultures; no need if you have more than that), make vultures and vikings, mule minerals
With spare APM: Build turrets and empty bunkers
Note: Control click the vulture in the unit frame to select all the vultures from your F2 group in order to place mines.
Kerrigan (Difficulty: 3/5)
Kerrigan requires a bit of micro, but she’s pretty durable, so she should be able to survive during battles, especially after your omega worms pop up and the cavalry arrives. Get omega worms, hotkey to another group. Rally hatcheries to worms. Make a few overseers; they’ll be late to the battles, but better late than never. You can also put a group of overlords in an area halfway between the battle and your base to use as backup overseers.
Unit Comp: Hydralisk, Ultralisk (add Zerglings if you want; good for armor reduction).
Production facilities: 3 hatcheries, 1 queen (or more 2 more hatcheries if you don’t want to inject periodically), 5-6 omega worms
Cycle: Make units, pop an omega worm near the battle, move Kerrigan around and kill things, unload worms to clean up (or initiate fight)
With spare APM: Inject hatcheries with queens, spread creep
Note: Build omega worms along the path of your units so that if you catch units walking towards your battle, you can tell them to catch the next bus (worm) and join the fight.
Artanis (Difficulty: 1/5)
Artanis is definitely the easiest commander to play. Very little micro, very little macro. Just reposition the pylon field periodically, make units, and fight.
Unit Comp 1: Zealot, Tempest
Production facilities: 6-8 warpgates, 2 stargates, 1 robotics facility (for Observers)
Cycle: Position pylon field, warp in units
With spare APM: Use Tempests’ Disintegrate on objectives like trains and rifts.
Unit Comp 2: Zealot, Archon, Reaver, Immortal
Production facilities: 6-8 warpgates, 2 robotics facilities
Cycle: Position pylon field, warp in units
With spare APM: Research Psi Storm for Archons and use Feedback or Psi Storm on enemy units.
Swann (Difficulty: 1/5)
The best Swann players utilize Hercules very well, but F2A players (like myself) aren’t so efficient with them, so they’ll just have to walk around and A-move instead. Siege Tanks and Thors are good because they have an extra life, but your army will be mostly Goliaths.
Unit Comp: Goliath, Thor, Siege Tank, Science Vessel
Production facilities: 5-6 factories, 2 starports
Cycle: Factory: Build units, Starport: Build science vessels
With spare APM: Use Defense Matrix and Irradiate
Zagara (Difficulty: 1/5)
Zagara is pretty much an A-move commander. Hotkey Zagara to a separate control group. Make a few overseers and they’ll join the F2A army. If you’re worried about not having detection during battle, you can move some overlords towards the battle and morph them into overseers when needed.
Unit Comp: Zergling, Baneling, Aberration, Scourge
Production facilities: 4-5 hatcheries, 1 queen (if you have the APM to spare)
Cycle: Make units, use Zagara’s abilities
With spare APM: Use Corruptor’s Corruption on objectives (rifts, thrashers, etc.), inject hatcheries, spread creep
Note: It is more important for Zagara than other Zerg commanders to spread creep because Kerrigan can produce creep anywhere with omega worms, Abathur can produce creep anywhere with toxic nests + queens, and Stukov produces creep on his own)
Vorazun (Difficulty: 2/5)
Vorazun is fairly easy to play, since her army autocasts most of their abilities. She needs to make forward pylons (like most other Protosses). I don’t usually research Blink or Void Stasis for Dark Templar because blink requires extra micro and void stasis actually keeps some static defenses alive; I’d rather just destroy them immediately.
Unit Comp: Dark Templar/Corsair/Centurion (for fodder/stun effects when you have spare minerals)
Production facilities: 6-8 warpgates, 3-4 stargates
Cycle: Make units, make forward pylons (dark or regular)
With spare APM: Control Oracle(s) more actively to avoid losing them, use Dark Templar’s blink
Karax (Difficulty: 2/5)
Karax is the least A-move commander because he mostly relies on static defenses until late game. Hotkey orbital strike for easier access. If you’re only building static defenses (such as on Temple of the Past or Oblivion Express), you actually don’t want to press F2 at all so that your Energizers don’t wander away from their stations. If you end up getting carriers, use a separate control group and A-move. If you’re going on the offensive, use this comp.
Unit Comp: Carriers, Energizers, Sentinels
Production facilities: 3-4 warpgates, 3-4 stargates
Cycle: Make units, use orbital strike, occasionally turn an energizer into a warp field
With spare APM: Use the Energizers’ Reclamation on mechanical units, make forward mini bases with cannons, shield batteries
Abathur (Difficulty: 4/5)
Abathur requires a bit of micro earlier on to get his ultimate evolutions as soon as possible. After he gets his 6 ultimate evolutions, he just needs to A-move. Hotkey toxic nests for easier access. I usually hotkey all my mutalisks in a separate control group so I can have them collect biomass after the fight. Good Abathurs use Vipers, but they require extra micro, so I don’t use them.
Unit Comp: Brutalisk, Leviathan, Queen, Mutalisks, Guardians, Devourers
Production facilities: 2 Hatcheries
Cycle: Make units, place toxic nests, fight, collect biomass with specific units
With spare APM: Spread creep, make spine crawlers with excess minerals (even though roaches can slow the enemy, they are not good because they’ll take biomass from the mutas)
Note: When you press F2, your Brutalisks’ commands are available, so you can deep tunnel somewhere on the map immediately.
Alarak (Difficulty: 5/5)
Alarak is probably the most micro-intensive commanders to use. If you want to use Ascendants, you can reduce your micro burden by focusing only on using the ascendants’ abilities and use Alarak + supplicants as a meat shield.
Unit Comp: Supplicant, Havoc, Ascendant, Wraithwalker
Production facilities: 8-10 warpgates, 2 robotics facilities
Cycle: Make units, use Ascendants’ Mind Blast and Psionic Orb, use Ascendants’ Sacrifice, place forward pylon
With spare APM: Use Alarak’s abilities
Nova (Difficulty: 4/5)
Nova is another very micro-intensive commander to use. Liberators are one of her most powerful units, but it requires a lot of micro, so I generally only use them to deal a bit more air damage and to soak up some air-to-air fire so my ravens can live longer. Ghosts’ EMP requires micro as well, so I don’t use that ability either. Hotkey your tanks to a separate control group. Hotkey your defense drone and airstrike for easier access.
Unit Comp: Marine, Goliath, Tank, Raven, Ghost
Production facilities: 1 Barracks, 1 Factory, 1 Starport
Cycle: Set mines with tanks, use defense drone, use Nova’s abilities
With spare APM: Use the Raven’s abilities, use Ghost’s EMP
Stukov (Difficulty: 1/5)
Stukov is basically the A-move king. You don’t even have to do anything except reposition your psi emitter once in a while and unload bunkers.
Unit Comp: Infested Marine (from Bunkers)
Production facilities: Lots of bunkers, 3-4 Barracks late game
Cycle: Build bunkers, move them forward when you have a moment to spare
With spare APM: Build tanks and/or liberators and control them with F2.
Fenix (Difficulty: 2/5)
Fenix’s Conservators and Fenix the hero unit’s dragoon and zealot forms are pretty much the only units the really require micro. The rest are pretty straightforward. Psi Disruptors are fragile, unreliable, and require extra micro, so I don’t use them. Personally speaking, Fenix is my worst commander, so these army comps might not be that great. However in regular brutal missions, it doesn’t really matter what you make as long as you make lots of units. Use Conservators as forward pylons.
Unit Comp 1: Carrier, Conservator, Legionnaire (You can skip legionnaires altogether and just make carriers)
Production facilities: 3-4 stargates, 3-4 warpgates
Cycle: Make units, use Conservator’s Protection Field, use Fenix’s abilities
With spare APM:
Unit Comp 2: Conservator, All the Champion A.I.s, more Carriers, more Legionnaires (against ground) or more Adepts (against air)
Production facilities: 6-8 warpgates, 1-2 robotics facilities, 2-3 stargates
Cycle: Make units, use Conservator’s Protection Field, use Fenix’s abilities
With spare APM:
Note: When you press F2, Fenix’s actions are available by default, so you can use his abilities immediately.
Dehaka (Difficulty: 3/5)
Dehaka the hero unit requires some micro, but his army doesn’t.
Unit Comp: Mutalisk
Production facilities: 5-6 Primal Wardens
Cycle: Make Hydralisks, use Dehaka’s abilities, mutate Hydralisks into Mutalisks
Note: Control-click units in the unit frame to mutate them.
With spare APM: Build primal wurms, put them in a control group, deep tunnel them to the battlefield
Han and Horner (Difficulty: 2/5)
Horner’s air units and Han’s Assault Galleons have pretty good survivability, so you don’t have to worry about them dying too often. Horner’s air units have Tactical Jump, but I don’t get that because it requires extra micro.
Unit Comp: Assault Galleons, Reapers, Hellions, Hellbats (if fighting heavy ground), Horner’s Wraiths, Horner’s Battlecruisers, Horner’s Vikings (if fighting heavy air)
Production facilities: 5 Assault Galleons
Cycle: Place mag mines, make units from Assault Galleons, control-click Reapers and make them fly, fight, collect minerals/gas on ground
With spare APM: Build 10 Precision Strike Platforms, use Precision Strikes
Note: Get the Fusion Core first, turn your Assault Galleons into carriers, and then get air units. When you press F2, your Assault Galleons’ commands are available by default, so you can train units immediately.
Commanders who are very A-move friendly: Raynor (just gotta go back to base and use mules), Artanis (his units don't have many abilities), Zagara (you should occasionally control Zagara the hero unit to make Hydras and Mass Frenzy), Vorazun (her units don't have many abilities), Swann (if you don't use Hercules or siege mode), Stukov (A-move king), Fenix (you don't really NEED Fenix the hero unit's abilities), Han and Horner (you'll need more anti-air if you don't make the reapers fly)
If you're going to just A-move on the mini-map, you need to be sure you have enough units.
I'll update this guide as new commanders come out and as I find better strategies that don't need much micro.
. I can understand though that tabbing also requires more mechanics and you have to remember the order of buildings.
