Applying Art of War to SC2 - Lesson #2

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you do not know the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."

and related to this

"Knowing the enemy enables you to take the offensive, knowing yourself enables you to stand on the defensive."

Initially I found nothing of value from these sentences but as time passed they haunted my mind up to a point of vague realization. "If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat." But I never watch(ed) my games after victories! It just happened that on a day after reading those sentences I saw an insightful episode of day9 (I'll put the link when I find it again :p). In any case, the idea in that episode was to check the timings of your opponent, when do they do which things and in which kind of situations they end up in by doing these things.

Most importantly, when they have very few units and when they have certain techs available.

For example, if zerg takes 3 expansions before 6 minutes they tend to have 0-6 zerglings available. Thus, you could try to send couple of zealots to their 3rd to force them to make units or to lose a lot of stuff. I tried it couple of times and it gave me a nice advantage, however, my own tech was late because of the 200-300 minerals I invested into zealots.

Now, this kind of thinking is supported by asking after each game why did you lose or why did you win (why did they lose) that particular game. Usually the answer to this question is because of the tech/amount of units/bad engagement. The tech and the amount of units are related to the macro decisions and ability. While engagements are related to your army placement and control.

Humm, I seem to have lost my train of thought..

Lets continue with the 1st sentence. "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." One of the consequences of not following this advice in sc2 in my opinion is deviating from your build order. You should always follow your build order! Unless, you know how to specifically react to a certain information you are able to scout from your opponent. This is why you need experience and practice. You will be able to find the situations where your build order does not work and why and how you should react instead. In my eyes, this means that I must know why my build wins and how the game of my opponent flows (why their build would win) after they have made certain decisions.

"If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat." Then this would basically mean that you know when you have achieved what you need to win. However, because there is no strategy which wins every other strategy you must know if the enemy has chosen a strategy which will beat yours. Because if your executions are at the same level it should be that the one with superior strategy (unit amount/composition/engagement pattern) wins. The suffering from a defeat would thus mean the insight lost in the ignorance of the victorious side. Later, in an another game, this ignorance will contribute to a defeat.

OK..this is now becoming way too long and boring for anyone to read :D

TLDR; How to learn game flow from replays:
1) when&where you are strong?  why?
2) when&where your enemy is weak? why?
3) when&where you are weak? why?
4) when&where your enemy is strong? why?
6) did you attack when enemy was weak to where they were weak or when they were strong or to a point were they were strong?
7) did you defend your weak points which the enemy would have been able to attack?
8) did you defend when the enemy was strong?


Game 1
I won because my dts raped their base (destroyed workers from 2 mineral lines) while their army with the observer was in my base. But not alone because of this but also because I attacked before they were able to recover. I was also able to expand earlier (why?).

--> you can punish with dts if they are in your base at 10:30. Actually no, the opponent had 2 observers, but they were both in your base. Defending with chargelots would have been a better solution. And was later the solution. Should have started gathering zealots earlier.
--> if another protoss loses their army and their workers. or maybe also if they lose their non-gateway based army --> attack if you have army left and economy behind it. 2 archons and a lot of chargelots is good.

Game 2
I lost because they attacked when I was weak (lost 3 stalkers in their base). Attacked on 1 base.
--> if you lose your 3 stalkers do not expand if they have not expanded by 7:30

Maybe I actually lost because I was not able to spend my income :D because my gates were late.
Charge was ready so tech was in time. But during pressure should also remember to add gates...
Do not fire momma too early? Even tho you can cause a minute delay..?
Should have killed robo from their base because it was making an observer otherwise they would have needed to go back.
Maybe also workers should have joined the 1st fight.

--> you need to have enough units to defend your expansion
--> the longer you delay their attack the more units you are going to have against theirs
--> delay by fighting only after they can reach the nexus
--> sentries can be used to delay and cut so maybe them isntead of dts?

Game 3
Scouted six pool from random bm zerg --> good
Should have kept the gate and just blocked with forge? or made forge before gate?
zealot out from gate would have helped!
was left 2 workers behind but no core..

5:55  took gass
6:00  expanded to natu (8 lings, droning) (so could have thought that late exp --> gass)
6.35 roach warren started (8 lings, droning)

I had static def so could have just teched at ease with 2 gasses

7:25 warren ready (5 larva, but droning because so few..) (100gass --> 4 roach)
8:30 2nd gass
9:30 ~same worker count, 8 lings, 5 roaches

Should have made sentries to delay roaches!

--> 3gate robo against 6 pool continuation?


Game 4
I won because enemy gave up when was leading.
Wall wrongly done.. cannon could not reach all lings. However nice block with the probe ;p
Should have been more careful with letting pylon finish (cancel & expand not the other way around).
If 2 bases, make gates fast because you are not going to expand!

Game 5
Lost maybe because they got my nexus destroyed and also had faster 3rd. This was possible because they attacked my ramp after I had my army moved else where. To avoid this a smaller force should deal with drops.
and robo as well..
Observer a little bit too close to the ramp.
Should place one templar to wait for diversion medivacs so that don't have to run with hole army. In a more general sense, should have a smaller group to deal with drops, maybe time warp at main ramp and the momma to main?

Game 6
They lost because expanded laters? Expanded at 7:10 when my exp was almost finished. My income starts to be higher at 8:20. Their caches up at 9:40. My attack starts at 12-13 and they have way fever units! They lose because they are floating money and do not have enough production facilities.

Applying Art of War to SC2 - Lesson #0

"Without constant practice, the officers will be nervous and undecided when mustering for battle, the general will be wavering and irresolute when crisis at hand."

In SC2 the officers are your micro and macro, the foot soldiers your mechanics and general your decision making. Or that is how I would like to see things :p

If the soldiers are unable to follow their officers, the commands can not be carried out. If your hands are too slow or sloppy, you will not be able to carry out your micro and macro. You can practice your mechanics with pretty much everything which involves using mice and keyboard?

If the officers are nervous and undecided, their commands can not be clear and distinct. In SC2 this would mean that you have to stop to think how you were supposed to move your units or what were you supposed to build next. In other words, you micro sucks and your build order seems undecided. You can practice your micro and macro against bots or in different trainers.

If the general is wavering and irresolute, he is unable to make the correct decisions snappy enough. If you are wavering and irresolute in you decision making you will feel anxious and unable to respond to your opponents moves. You can practice decision making by watching pro vods/replays, by studying your own replays and by playing against other humans.


[Neuroscience BONUS]
This all boils down to the observation that not actually everything is handled by your brain cortex but repeated processing will be handled before cortex, unconsciously. These unconscious nerve tracts are slower than true reflexes but are faster than conscious processing. With practice the things you are processing with cortex, will begun to be handled before it. Hooray for our lazy brains!

This is why I have the opinion that to start practicing new things, such as new micro or new build order, you should play against someone worse than you or a bot. This will give your cortex the time it needs to carry out your plan. However, to sink the new thing deep into your brain you will maybe need to play against someone better than you. Because playing against them will require you to be able to process the information fast enough.

Maybe due to the unconscious nature of the basics the Masters are unable to teach the Bronzes?

Applying Art of War to SC2 - Lesson #1

Tactical maneuvering is to
"be beforehand with the enemy in seizing favorable position"


Favorable positions in SC2 would be:

• arcs
• on top of ramps
• enemy in narrow passages
• place where enemy has not laid siege ?

If you are about to engage a battle and you observe that you are not in the favorable position - do not engage but retreat ?


How to practice:

1. Check all the engagements you had from replays
2. Were all of your units firing? What to change to obtain?
3. Were all of their units firing? What to change to avoid?
4. Were you in siege?
5. Were they in siege?
6. What are the places the enemy would like to position their army to? How to prevent?
7. What are the places you would like to position your army to? How to obtain?
8. Is the enemy army position favorable from all directions?
9. To be beforehand you would need to know how the enemy force is moving. 
10. Did you know where the enemy force was and where it was going to? How could you have known that? How should you have utilized that?
11. Did the enemy know you were coming and positioned themselves? How to not allow this!!? 

Game 1
When rushing with tanks to your base they do not have good positions. Try to run towards them? Poke, go back, poke go back?

When you know an attack is coming via ground take positions on top of ramps.

Do not allow them to pull you to their favored position.

Keep mommacore where they can not soot but where from you can.

The location of the enemy force was unknown. Had proxy. Should nearby locations always be scouted to see if proxy?



Game 2
Keep a nice arch to prevent their units from coming
while making your army stronger
and killing the 3rd with few units

Game 3
Keep an observer above their exit to see when the army moves out
Have spotters and keep your army in a nice welcoming arc with some ranged units high ground

Game 4
Make a nice concave when defending at ramp.
Put zealots first because they are melee. Do not let them bait zealots? So maybe on hold?
Then archons because they have shorted range.
Then stalkers because they have longest.

Do not allow any visibility for them. Destroy their observers from your base by circling around with your observer and stalkers.

Game 5
Ramped & mommacored <3

Could have had some additional visibility to see where their army is going. Pylon or observer as a spotter?

AAARRRGGH. I could have easily killed him if I did not back up. Backed up because was not aware of the army size. Try to always before and after engagements determine their army size.
--> Use observers or zealot to see how big is the army.


Spread that army!

Choose you fighting position based on your unit composition!

zealot & archons == melee/low range --> fight on open areas

voids, immortals, colossus, stalkers == ranged units --> fight on chokes

also

when sniping a base and the enemy attack via ramp - that is usually a nice spot to def.

Defend so that you can use your momma or choke their units. Unless you have a  huge load of melee.