Terran Macro and Micro Strategies and Tips for Starcraft 2
Terran Macro and Micro Strategies and Tips for Starcraft 2
Terran Macro Strategy - Overview
When we talk about macro strategies in Starcraft 2, generally we are talking about "big picture" strategies such as ensuring your economy is growing quickly and that you are continuing to build buildings and upgrade them. It can also refer to collecting resources and generating units. Having a good macro strategy will definitely be a large part of the outcome of your battles - if you forget to collect or spend resources, let your economy falter, or don't upgrade your buildings, you are sure to lose in battle. For instance, if at the start of the game you are winning and catch the enemy in a surprise rush attack, but then forget to spend resources on constructing units because you are so caught up in the battle, your enemy who is using smart macro strategies will soon recover and then overwhelm you with the strength of his economy and his ability to quickly produce and replace lost units. Here are some of the best ideas I've seen for Terran Macro Strategy. I learned these strategies and more from a terrific Starcraft 2 guide that I highly recommend.
Terran Macro - Using Hotkeys
There is virtually no way to elevate yourself to the more advanced leagues without the use of hotkeys. These shortcuts allow you to focus on specific battles while continuing to produce and upgrade your units and buildings. After you've played several games, you will hopefully have memorized the right hotkey configurations. The most basic configs include Unit abilities (R - Snipe), Building (C - Command Center), Unit training (C - Medic), etc. You can find more about Terran Build Orders here.
Setting up your unit producing buildings as a single hotkey will make it easy for you to keep tabbing through each building until you get to the one you want, and then simply be able to click on a key and build additional units. This setup will undoubtedly save you in many close battles. It may even be a little simpler to separate each unit producing buildings into a separate hotkey (if you're willing to memorize them all) because then you won't have to tab on through other buildings - you'll just be able to click the hotkey for each building instantly. This can accelerate production slightly and is helpful when every second counts.
Terran Macro - Never Que more than one or two Units
Sometimes it can be really tempting to just throw a bunch of units in que so you don't have to keep dealing with adding units as you accumulate resources. If you use the hotkey strategy above, this is not really necessary and is even a little wasteful. Starcraft 2 will collect the minerals and gas that each unit costs as soon as they are entered in the que. So even though you've spent the minerals and gas, if you have a long que you may not get to enjoy that spend for several minutes. It's way better to use those resources immediately, perhaps to build another Factory that will then allow you to produce more units more quickly.
Terran Micro Strategy - Overview
Your micro strategy is also very important as a Terran. By far the most important thing to do is make sure you are continually scouting and harassing your enemy. As long as you keep scouting him, you'll be able to figure out his strategy based on the buildings and units he produces, particularly in early to mid-game. One of the best scouting guides I've seen on the web is the Terran Scouting Guide. It also shows you how to find and defend against enemy scouting activity.
Terran Micro - Control Groups
Configuring the control groups correctly throughout each game is another way to quickly and easily help you move around your units. Generally, it's a good idea to put your entire army in one control group in case you need to defend a major attack, but while it can be tempting to go for an all out attack with this group, don't do it - you'll end up leaving your buildings defenseless and this can be very costly. As for setting up specific control groups, make sure to set up groups that make sense - like combining Marines and Marauders into one group because they make a great team. Make sure to also set up separate groups for air and land attacks. Putting your Ghosts into a group is also really smart, especially when fighting Protoss with their strong shields and defense.
Terran Micro - Focus Fire
Focus fire is largely overlooked in Starcraft, but can really be an effective micro technique. When using it, make sure to choose your control group and then target a single enemy unit, using focus fire until it's destroyed before moving onto the next one. An especially good time to use it is if the enemy group is retreating - use focus fire as you keep advancing on the enemy in order to inflict the most amount of damage while they retreat.
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