Starcraft 2 tactics

I know I’ve been a terrible host to your endeavors on this page as I never manage to get into quite as much detail as I’d enjoy to but this is part of the job as you never really have time for anything. In any case, this time around I would like to focus a touch on the tactics part of Starcraft 2 and what tactics really means.

It’s a common misconception that tactics = strategy yet that is not the case by far. The definition for strategy is simply “an elaborate and systematic plan of action” while tactics refer to “a plan for attaining a particular goal”. In this aspect your general strategy will be focusing on what your overall game plan is and how to attain it. Your tactics will be focusing on how to get your units to a position the quickest, how to win an engagement, how to deal with harassment or maybe how to harass yourself. A strategy basically is built out of tactics.

So let’s get down and dirty with some of these. First of all a good tactic is to always expand when attacking. You don’t need to commit to the attack, even pressuring might give you the window to grab an expansion and thus double up on your income rate. The goal you wish to achieve is simple – increase income and by increasing income, increase the number of unit producing structures you can sustain. If you are camping outside your opponents base and he can’t break your contain it usually is pretty safe to expand.

Another Starcraft  2 tactic is dealing with harassment. Your goal is to give yourself some breathing room as harassment will wear on the most experienced players and will be creating open spots for your opponent to use against you. If you are a Protoss or a Terran player who is struggling against a Zerg player using Mutalisk, then consider adding some static defenses to the back of your base or to more vulnerable locations. This can give you some breathing room and allow you to macro and expand safely or even attack without having to worry about your mineral line or your production buildings.

My all time favorite Starcraft 2 tactic and this actually applied to a large amount of military strategy is attacking in two places at the same time. Think if you are a Terran player and you fill up two Medivacs with some Marines and Marauders which you drop at the back of your opponents base while your main army is poking at his front. Your main force could be equal to that of your opponent but because he is defending he might be having the advantage so just fall back and let the attack at the back do some more damage. As a Protoss you could use a Warp Prism to drop units or warp in units while as a Zerg player you could be running in to an expansion and killing some workers while harassing the main base with your Mutalisks. No matter what race you play, attacking in two locations at the same time can be highly effective and could give you the edge in an otherwise equal game.

The last but not least bit of Starcraft 2 tactic is knowing your environment. Knowing where to fight and where not to fight and most importantly how to pick your engagements based on that. A lot of people have issues with this aspect as it does take a while to get used to, but as soon as you do, you’ll find yourself wining more games. Do you have melee units? Then you’ll want to fight in an open place. Do you have heavy long range siege units? Then you want to fight in a closed space where those units can do damage but your opponents cannot reach you. Always understand how your army would work best. A simple example would be of a Zerg trying to push a ramp with just Zerglings while a Terran player has 2 Tanks at the top of the ramp – they aren’t getting up that ramp.

In any case, time is pressuring me as usual, so I’ll stop here but make sure to let me know in the comments if  there’s anything more specific you’d want to know. Until next time, have fun and follow these tips!11

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