EPTI still am considering developing a resource for the very beginner on how to improve their mechanics, however I am starting to think that the approach should be slightly different.
The idea I have in my head is more of a gathering of different macro exercises with general benchmarks to help illustrate each of the "basic" rules of macro that are commonly identified.
Edit 2: If you want to see my arguments against this type of guide you can read my comments in this post:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=191745
Arisen has captured more different build benchmarks here, you can see my arguements against getting stuck in a benchmark mind frame in that post.
Introduction
This guide is intended to gather information to clarify the what "just macro and you can get to diamond" to help a new player better understand the costs of "small" mistakes. The intent is to utilize speed builds with timing benchmarks to help beginning players understand what they could have.
Some of the builds listed here will be considered all-in at higher level of play but are very viable and able to be transitioned out of at lower levels quite easily. The intent is to have solid econ builds that will help the beginner progress with a "measurable window" for self analysis.
Of course unit mix could be different, these are strategy issues and I hope to avoid them in the interest of focusing on macro and valuing errors. The idea is to have a generally balanced army that would be viable in most match-ups.
If I can gather enough information here and if there is enough general interest I will spend the time to add this to the Liquipedia page and cross link it to existing articles as appropriate.
My use of the word “optimal” is what can be done by a player, not a machine. Also, since this is a beginner guide and focused on simple econ I would like to avoid cutting workers or production to optimize.
Ultimately, for the build orders and food counts listed I would like to gather a replay for each one and then I will write down the specific build order from the replay so there is strong correlation of information.
Being a beginner myself I am looking to the TL community to help fill both information in this guide and to correct errors and help fill in omissions
Initial Goals – Bronze/Silver
We have to start somewhere with macro, so I have chosen 1-base. This will help people to sort out the fundamentals like using hotkeys and constantly building workers and units and to learn to start properly valuing their mistakes.
For the beginners please understand doing just this well is not good macro. It is just the start of it. Good macro will continue on to multiple bases, this will give you some sense of how much units you can have to defend those bases making the concept of expansion more comfortable.
The build orders listed here are not to be confused with game strategy. They are chosen because they are somewhat common on the ladder and so therefore your practice will have some benefit in game. The most important point of this exercise, is to give you feedback on how efficient your macro is. The viability of them in game is up to you to determine. Even Zerg needs to be able to measure what they are doing, be it off of one base or two or three. So we will try and balance worker and unit production at 7-minutes for all three races.
1-base 7-minute unit counts for the following builds:
Terran
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3-rax 2tech, 1reactor
55/59 food consisting of
25SCVs, 10 marauders, 10 marines
Build Order
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10 Supply Depot
12 Barracks
13 Refinery > 3 in gas at completion
15 Orbital Command
15 Marine
16 Supply Depot
17 Barracks [2] > Reactor immediately after Barracks Completion > Produce only Marines
17 Tech lab on Barracks [1] > Produce only Marauders
19 Barracks [3] > Tech lab immediately after Barracks Completion > Produce only Marauders
24 Supply Depot
At this point continue producing w/o queuing units, the Supply Depots will need to be built after you start production of each round of units, you should barely have enough money to build them.
2 marauder, 2 marines and 2SCV = 8 food = 1 Supply Depot
At 6:15 you should have 100 minerals and 100gas to start stimpack
At 6:45 you should have 50 minerals and 50 gas to start concusive
Replay
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3-rax 52 food
You can see small mistakes cost units here:
1st supply depot worker arrives about 15 minerals early
Forgot to put guys on gas as refinery finishes
2nd and 3rd rax about 15-20 minerals late
Result 6 marauder, 9 marines and 26 SCVs on the ground at 7 minutes with a full cycle in production
1-1-1, reactor barracks, tech lab factory
46/51 food consisting of
26SCVs, 10marines, 2siege tanks, 2medivacs
Build Order
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10 Supply Depot
12 Barracks > no add-on till extra gas with tanks and medivacs in production
13 Refinery > 3 in gas at completion
15 Orbital Command
15 Marine
16 Supply Depot
20 Factory > Tech lab at completion > produce only siege tanks
21 Supply Depot
25 Starport > no add on produce only medivacs
Start siege tech after first round of siege tank and medivac is started
Produce only marines from first barracks
Replay
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1-1-1 46 food
I am sure this can be optimized quite a bit more some mistakes:
Forgot to put guys in first gas immediately
Tech lab on Factory was late
Siege Tech researched before starting first tank
These probably cost me 1 tank and 1 medivac on the ground with production started on another pair.
Result 26SCVs, 9 marines, 1 tank, 1 medivac on the ground at 7 min with another round in production.
Protoss
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4-gate
xx/xx food consisting of
? Probes, ? Zealot, ?Stalker, ?Sentry
Build Order
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
Replay
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
3-gate, robo
xx/xx food consisting of
? Probes, ? Zealot, ?Stalker, ?Sentry, ?Observer/?Immortal
Build Order
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
Replay
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
Zerg
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The first build for zerg is currently the most "standard" build for zerg given the macro mechanic of larvae inject and the reactionary nature of the race. In order to give a benchmark the build will drone till the last minute possible then produce enough units by 7-minutes to hold the pushes listed so far in this guide.
14hatch, 14 pool
xx/xx food consisting of
? Drones, 2queens, ?sling, ?bling
Build Order
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
Replay
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
The community at large has the consensus that one-base zerg is a very large mistake. I agree with them. However if you are new to the game and need a macro benchmark for 1-basing, I will do my best to give it to you here. Be warned that as you progress past Bronze and Silver you will most likely have to spend a significant amount of time re-learning your race.
sling / bling
xx/xx food consisting of
? Drones, 1 queen, ?sling, ?bling
Build Order
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
Replay
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
sling/roach (I am not sure if this is the best second 1-base build for zerg)
xx/xx food consisting of
? Drones, ?roach, ?sling
Build Order
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
Replay
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
Valuing Common Macro Mistakes on 1-base
If you are practicing these builds, you will quickly see the level of efficiency of your play by stopping the game at 7-minutes and comparing your food count to the optimal. If you get only 35 food and the optimal is 55 food then you are 35/55*100=64% Efficient
So now watch your replay and make note of the following mistakes:
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Queuing a worker more than 80% completion of previous worker
Starting a worker 1-5 seconds late
Starting a worker 5 or more seconds late
Starting a production building 25-50 minerals late
Starting a production building 50-150 minerals late
Getting supply blocked for less than 5 seconds
Getting hard supply blocked (meaning you start your next supply when you are at food cap)
Having more than 8-10 extra supply for unit production
Missing larva inject/mule/chrono by 5-10 seconds
Missing larva inject/mule/chrono by a full cycle
Forgetting to put workers in gas
Missing unit production by 1-5 seconds
Missing unit production by 5 or more seconds
You should start to notice some general things about mistakes. Each short duration mistake should cost you 2-3 food @ 7-minutes. Each longer duration mistake will cost you 5-8 (or more) food or more at 7-minutes.
Tips for better Macro Efficency – Bronze/Silver
There are a million out there and it is all preference, but if you don’t know where you want to start at least do these things or your own variation of them:
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Rally your hatchery/cc/nexus to center minerals
Set your hatchery/cc/nexus to Control group 4
-Only make workers by pressing 4s/4sd/4e depending on your race
Set your Barracks/Warpgates to Control Group 5
-Only make units by pressing 5aadd/5zzss for terran and protoss
-Only make units by pressing 4szzzzzz for zerg
Zerg set your Queen to Control Group 5
-Only use your macro mechanic by pressing 4e [click]/4c [click]/5v [click]
Add all of your units to Control Group 1 after each production cycle
Shift click workers back to minerals after you start each production building
Attempt to send a worker slightly early to build a building so that he arrives just as you have the minerals to start that building
Practice cycling through your hotkeys to watch production 114511451145 over and over again, do it slowly at first, there is no need to go fast yet, you will be macroing while watching your army this way. When you need to build a unit you would just insert that hotkey in the cycle. 114s51145aa11451145114s…
When adding a barracks or gateway, click on it right after you shift click the worker and press shift + 5 to add it to that control group. Then press 5 and right click the top of your ramp to rally units there.
When you need to build supply press 44, click a worker press bd [click] [shift+click minerals]/be [click] [shift+click minerals]
Will this win me games in Bronze/Silver
I can only give the experience of myself and my good friend. We were both Terran and we both did the 3-rax build at about 80% efficiency. For each of us we won more than 3 out of 4 games against bonze opponents. We did rally our barracks to our attacking force to seal the win.
Typically the 1 in 4 losses was to a cheese we did not know how to defend or that threw us off our game too much.
More importantly than winning here with a “all-in” it gave each of us more confidence to be able to expand.
Against silver players with 80% efficiency this build was slightly better than 50/50. The complete lack of tech was starting to show as a weakness against some silver players.
Expanding your understanding of Macro by Expanding – Silver/Gold
Now that you have enough units that you can hold an early push it is time to practice the macro of expanding. Building on the 1-base play the goal here is to start getting a expansion between 7-8 minutes and may require skipping a unit production cycle to have enough minerals if you are really efficient at your 1-base macro. If you are still having slip ups, most likely at this point you will have the spare 300/400 minerals to expand at 7-8 minutes anyway.
The build orders listed here are more of a framework or plan of when to add buildings as the minerals and gas will allow as long as you have a full production cycle of units in progress.
These speed build numbers will have virtually no correlation to ingame numbers because there will be any number of attacks, harasses, etc. that will change the food counts. The idea is to get a feel for what you can optimally have off 2-bases to check your own efficency.
If a speed build maxes supply before 13 minutes on a speed build I will edit and note the time that max supply happens.
2-base 13-minute unit counts for the following builds:
Terran
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3-rax 2tech, 1reactor, expanding to 4-1-2
xx/xx food consisting of
?SCVs, ? marauders, ? marines, siege tanks, ?medivacs
1/1 ground unit upgrades
Build Order Additions
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Start CC @ 400 minerals as your attack is moving out
Get second gas @ 70 minerals when you have constant unit production
Add factory @150 gas
Add Eng Bay
Add Starport at factory completion
Add second Starport
Replay
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Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
1-1-1, reactor barracks, tech lab factory, expanding to 4-1-2
xx/xx food consisting of
25SCVs, ?marines, ?marauders, ?siege tanks, ?medivacs
Build Order Additions
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
Replay
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
Protoss
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4-gate, expanding to 4-gate, robo, stargate
xx/xx food consisting of
? Probes, ? Zealot, ?Stalker, ?Sentry, ?Observer, ?Immortal
Build Order Additions
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
Replay
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
3-gate, robo expanding to 4-gate, robo, stargate
xx/xx food consisting of
? Probes, ? Zealot, ?Stalker, ?Sentry, ?Observer, ?Immortal
Build Order Additions
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
Replay
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
Zerg
+ Show Spoiler +
sling / bling expanding to add muta
xx/xx food consisting of
? Drones, ?sling, ?bling, ?muta
Build Order Additions
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
Replay
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
roach/ling expanding to roach/ling/hydra (I am not sure if this is the best second 1-base build for zerg)
xx/xx food consisting of
? Drones, ?lings ?roach, ?hydra
Build Order Additions
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
Replay
+ Show Spoiler +
Forthcoming – I will use my silver level macro to add each reply and build order if I don’t get help, perhaps then others will chime in and contribute more optimized builds
Tips for better Macro Efficency – Silver/Gold
After your expansion it is easiest to judge your macro by your minerals and gas. Everything here is more or less optimized (or someday should be) for constant production on 2-base but slip ups happen and in game and in practice here is what you should do:
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Extra minerals when you have a full unit production cycle
Build an extra barracks or two or three for more marines
Build an extra gateway or two or three for more zealots
Build an extra hatchery and queen in base for more slings
Note at the end of the build time what the mistakes cost you in food, this lets you keep spending your money but also see what it cost your in food compared to optimum
Extra gas when you have a full unit production cycle
Get an upgrade or two or three, most of these builds should be gas bound, so go back an look at what big mistake happened to allow the extra gas.
Will this win me games in Silver/Gold
Again I can only speak for me and my buddy, but doing the 1-base play at 90% efficiency and the two base play at 70-80% efficiency had me winning against silver players 3 out of 4 games.
Against gold players, since I have only started poking at the ramp instead of the full 7-minute attack it has been winning quite a bit. Since we are just starting to face them, I don’t want to give a win rate till I have some more information. It is still feeling very strong though. The 2-base push feels massively strong when you don’t lose the initial 7-minute army.
Third base and Beyond – Gold/Platinum
The primary advice I have here is to start taking your third as you move out with the attack at 13-minutes or so. This will replace the minerals lost by your original base starting to mine out and continue to keep you at your solid two base production
Expanding roughly every 7-minutes thereafter will allow you to continue to have full production off of two bases
What is next?
Hopefully you now have a sense of what it is possible to produce off of multiple bases
Hopefully now you see more value in what may have appeared to be small mistakes and have more motivation to fix them.
Hopefully now you understand what “smooth” macro is and have been enjoying winning more than losing and a promotion or two
Now it is time to take what you learned here and apply it to all the build orders and strategies are out there and play them more optimally to continue to progress up the ladder.
You should see that expanding is good and safe and want to start doing it earlier than listed here, experiment, watch replays have fun with it and have the confidence that you will have the most units possible when you expand no matter what timing you choose. If you die try expanding later vs that strat next time or add more static defense.
You have the framework for controlling the game and optimizing a build now. Now you can actually spend your time learning some strategy and becoming a more efficient macro player.
