Supply Blocked Update

Don't get supply blocked!

Getting supply blocked. It happens to all of us. From pro's, to your grandma. Recently, I was asked if it is that big of a deal to get supply blocked. My immediate thought was yes of course, and it is, but there are certain situations in a game where it is very bad, and other times where it is only an annoyance. While it is important to never get supply blocked, I will attempt to explain ways in which you can prevent yourself from getting supply blocked, and if you do, what you can do to help lessen the blow.

I recommend you check out my last post on the subject: Getting Supply Blocked.

Worse Case Scenario
The worse time to get supply blocked I would say is within the first seven minutes of game play while still on one base. Every unit, every warp in, every upgrade in that time needs to be right on cue.  Imagine this, you are supply blocked at the 26 food count because you forgot that 3rd Pylon. You have two Zealots out and ready to make more. It takes 25 seconds to warp in a Pylon, not including the time to select a Probe and make more Pylons. A Zealot can take 33-38 seconds to make, add 4 more seconds for Stalkers. 25 seconds is nearly 2/3 the time it takes for another unit to be made/warped in at the Gateway. The game can be over before the first push even happens.

Think of the opening/early game as you would a race between two cars. Both cars can achieve the same top speed, but one has higher acceleration than the other. Who do you think will win? Obviously the car that can get to its top speed before the other will take the win. Same concept here, the early you pick that momentum up, the easier it will be too gain the lead and hold it. Getting Supply blocked, forgetting to build Probes, or letting your minerals get too high from lack of effective macro are all speed bumps you want to avoid. They can cause you to temporarily lose some speed.

How I fixed the Blockage...
After practicing on the Normal Difficulty of the Multitasking Trainer, I discovered that if I forgot the Pylon at 26 or 34, I was doomed to lose. No matter how hard I macro'd, Chrono boosted, or positioned my troops, having 4 less units during that timing attack was too much. So I began to look for key moments early on so I could time that Pylon just right so just as I needed it, a unit would be taking advantage of it. This time was somewhere between 4 and 5 food left till cap early on. However, around 50 food and up, it became necessary to build a Pylon after every warp in, and sometimes more as I expanded.

I mentally connected building a Pylon with warping in units. Another Pylon to me was just a second step in Warping in. You cant build one when you need it, you NEED to plan ahead.

For anyone in the lower leagues who are having this problem, it might help to just go ahead and place that 3rd and 4th Pylon down much earlier, like while you are warping in your Gateways, Assimiliator and Core.

What to do when you've been Supply Blocked...
First things first, build a Pylon. Your ability to macro has stopped. If you caught it right as you got capped thats good. Get that Pylon out, and probably a second to keep yourself in the race.

What happens when you catch it later, when your ready to warp in more? This one can hurt you. The first thing you should consider is this. Do you feel like you are safe enough to expand? If so, still place that next Pylon down, but do so near your expansion. A lot of pro's put a Pylon at the end of there ramp when they are about to expand. Warp in a few units, preferably some that take less minerals, like some Sentries or Zealots, and place another Pylon down AFTER the warp in. your mineral count should be approaching the amount needed for a Nexus. This can be one effective way to move into the mid game by taking advantage of a temporary setback. But only do so when you feel safe enough to expand. The end result can put you back on track.

Another way, and this works very well, is to place a Robotics Facility down if your money is building up and no way to effectively use it, yet. You get an Observer out as its cheap and can use up some of that gas you have been stockpiling. This can protect you from Banshee play or Dark Templars.

Placing a Forge also works. The first upgrades are only 100 minerals and gas. A very fast and cheap way to help you gain a slight advantage while your money is building up.

Getting supply blocked directly affects your macro. Finding ways to keep your money low, without building units is the key to staying in the race. It may seem like a good idea, but DON'T and I repeat DON'T place 5 Pylons down instantly out of frustration. The idea is prevent yourself from getting supply blocked, not temporary solutions. Placing a lot of Pylons down at once, in my opinion, is just like queuing up units. Your using up minerals that can be used elsewhere.

Top 10 of Forge Romeo!

Finally I did it! I made it to the top echelons of Forge Romeo! It took some work, but the biggest thing I noticed was that my macro began to slip after several games. I would get too excited, attack early, or screw up my build order in my over confidence. Indeed, what I have heard about concentrating on Macro in the lower leagues and less on the game itself has really paid off. Macro really is the most important thing to concentrate on. When we learn to macro fluidly and effectively, then we find the power to get our Micro and Macro in a balance. Sorta like this:

You can find more of these great designs at
http://thehandsomenerd.com/

Broke a losing streak.

So I have been on a losing streak lately. I played 5 matches the other day and lost all of them, vs 5 Protoss. Today I finally broke that streak. I lost 2 two in a row to just early Zerglings and Zergling/Mutalisk.

My strategy had been to just try to out macro my opponent and use my 3 Gate/Robo build because I believe so strongly that it is economically sound in the early game, and in my tests it is, but when I get into a ladder game, I get so distracted easily that my macro and build fall apart. This build requires near perfect timing to achieve and get 50 food worth of units in about 7 minutes and my expansion at 7min, 20 sec. Else I'm not spending minerals like I should.

My Flaws
My first big flaw was not letting my opponent feel the full wrath of the warriors of Auir! In other words, applying good, constant pressure. For me when I am up against Zerg or Terran, its hard for me to gauge where they are at in the game. I cant look at a unit composition from my scout and tell whether they are going certain tech. I know I should be able too, and I know I should play the other races for a bit to get a better feel for it, but I feel i would do better to work on simple play and macro. Once I can do this and not miss a probe, or building, I'll expand my knowledge beyond Protoss. What good is knowing what my opponent has if I don't have the macro and faster hands to deal with it? My other flaw, which I have already stated is my macro is seriously lacking. I think the only way to fix this is to just play a some games until I can "remember" what I should be doing.

How I finally won.
My macro was bad, my eye was not on the minimap like it should, but I did notice one thing...I only got supply capped once in each game I lost. That told me I mentally rose building pylons constantly as a priority to a point where my probe production was suffering. So decided to just keep my macro from being worse, but trying to apply pressure. This gave me knowledge of what my opponent was doing, he destroyed both my advances, and if he had pushed back I would have lost, but I noticed he was massing Stalkers, probably because he saw I had 2 Immortals on the field. I already had my expansion down, probe count was lower than I wanted, but I at least had decent saturation. So I took a chance, dropped 2 more Gateways down and a Twilight Council and began warping in Zealots. In hindsight I did take my expansions two gases after I did this, I don't know why, I was just going to go Mass Zealots. I kept warping them in as I could and brought in a few more Immortals to help take the Stalkers down. When he pushed, his army was crushed. He outnumbered me by about 18 food. But because I knew Stalkers have a hard time against Zealots, I just massed Zealots.

I'm going to try playing a minimum of 3 matches a night now to help keep my macro up. Playing the AI no longer helps me.

Common Cheese and how to defend against them.

For me, Cheese is considered to be a strategy that will give you a win by taking advantage of the fact your opponent will not expect certain things that early in the game and will have no reasonable way of defending against it without a Spawning Pool, Gateway, or Barracks. People will argue that this includes early aggression, it doesn’t. Certain things just hit below the belt and I for one don’t like it, so I’ve come up with ways to defend against cheese so I don’t lose to it. Now just so you know, the cheese I mention here is what’s happened to me in matches, I’m sure there are more different kind of cheeses, but there is no point in me telling you how to defend against it when I’ve never experienced it myself.

Protoss 2 Gateway in your base.

This is one I’ve seen a few times. I hate this one the most. The thing that tips it off is the scouting probe. You need to keep an eye on it. The last time this was done to me, I noticed the probe a little early (I was on Desert Oasis, and the probe got there just as I was finishing my pylon). That did raise my awareness a bit, but what gave it away was the fact that he didn’t even scout me, he just went south, I let him go to make him think I wasn’t paying attention, I quickly made sure that the gateway I was making would get a zealot out ASAP. Sure enough when I pretended to discover the 2 Gateway and Pylons coming up I had a zealot on the way, but so did he. The most important thing to remember in this case is that even though he may have caught you off guard, his economy is pretty shot. It becomes a game of who can macro better. Buying enough time and splitting his forces up is key. Don’t try to take down the gateway, take his units down one by one, as soon as they are all down, he can only build 1-2 at a time. At this point his economy will catch up to him, but the key to winning this engagement is spotting that probe scout early on and keeping an eye on him.

Protoss Cannon Rush.

This has to be one of the easier ones to approach. Spotting that probe scout early on and keeping an eye on him is key, if you know he’s doing it, Continue as you were build a few early units, lings, zealots, marines, and send them at your opponent. His resources are being consumed by cannons, which are immobile and cost 1.5 zealots. His base will most likely be undefended leaving your small attack force to have some fun. Now the strategy isn’t over, he can simply decimate your mineral line and your Nexus/Hatchery/Command Center and it will end with him technically winning as your small force won’t be able to take down his cannons. So do your bst to conserve resources and get an expansion going as this will be your new main base. With his resources gone, and no units to defend, you can simply build up your base again. Get more units to finish him off, if he hasn’t already left after realizing your building an expansion.

Void Ray Rush

This has to be one of the more difficult strategies to deal with. Some people consider it Cheese, some don’t. There is a way I personally think that decides whether it is cheese or not. If the Protoss player was expanding and still getting ground units, I don’t consider it cheese. The player is preparing himself to go into the later stages of the game. A cheese play is meant to end the match soon, so all resources go into making those Void rays. The best way to counter this is to see if the player has walled himself in. Protoss do not completely wall themselves in unless they are buying time to get those Void Rays. One easy give away is a PvT match up. Terran players normal wall themselves in anyway so the Protoss player usually doesn’t. If you see him walling himself in, expect a Void Ray rush. Getting a lot of Marines can help counter this, or teching up to Vikings can also help. Keep an eye out for the common spots to place a Stargate, remember, you only need to take out the Pylon to render the Stargate useless.

6 Pool Zergling Rush

This has to be the most annoying as it causes you to change where you build. There is no realy way to spot this early on unless u send your probe over on 7 food. The only way to be safe is wall yourself in when you are up against a Zerg. Leave a small place for 1 zealot to fit and put him there on Hold Position, then tech to some Stalkers to hold off any advance until your economy and unit production are stable to push back. With this cheese his ability to tech up and macro well are shot. Hang in there and wait until you can push back.

If you notice, the key element is early spotting of these actions. If you don't take the effort to actively watch your base and his, then you only have yourself to blame.

More Macro!!!

Hi guys! Hope everyone had a good weekend! Mine was, I saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. If you haven't seen it, it is definitely one of the best movies I have ever seen and encourage you to go see it. Best line in the movie, “What an Asshole!” when you watch the movie you will understand!

Being fast doesnt mean having high APM

So today I am going to talk a bit more about macro and other things you can do to help speed up your game. Having high APM does not mean being able to click at a very fast rate, it’s remembering what to build or train, and when to build it. It also means keeping an eye on your resource bar and your supply. You need to make sure your money is low. The way I think about how much money is too much is this. What is the most expensive unit I can make at that point?  If I have more than enough minerals to make that unit, I have too much.

So here is an exercise I have been doing to help increase my APM. This is something Day9 had mentioned in one of his dailies. You can find his videos and more at http://day9tv.blip.tv/. Ever since I’ve been doing it, I’ve noticed my awareness has gone up, and time has slowed down while I’m playing, if that makes sense. Here is what he suggested, "Don’t stop building Workers, Probes, or SCV’s."

What I had been doing...

Now to just make a quick point, before I did this, I was using 3 Probes in each refinery and 15 for minerals 21 total, it worked out pretty well. Up until I wanted to expand, then I had to do a mad rush for more Probes, to make that expansion viable.

When I continually built Probes, I noticed I had to pay attention to timing; I always had to be making Probes, meaning making sure my nexus was busy for 5 minutes took priority over everything else. This simple act changed my build order up, but allowed me to be more observant of what was going on around me. I noticed I had enough money to indeed build that Cybernetics Core shortly after the Gateway came up, getting an assimilator up early was something else, I started seeing right times for building placement and when they weren’t right.

I know his is kinda vague, but just try it yourself. Keep your build order you like, and just change it by making sure having at least one Probe building at all times.

What changed when I did not stop building Probes?

One of the biggest things I noticed was that I can early expand, with a sizable army early on. The few extra Probes I had from continuously building provided a slight boost to my economy over time.  So around 6-7 minutes in I can start an expansion and still have a sizable army to defend or harass with. By the time it is up, if I have been continuously building Probes, half of the Probes I have can be transferred to the new expansion. Several more will still need to be trained to take advantage of the gas deposits. You should always strive to have 2 separate bases for income. At this level of play its hard to manage 1 base let alone 2, so you never know when one will be taken out, or if you’re not paying attention they will simply run out and you will have to wait to get your income at that rate again.

I dare you....

My challenge to you, practice this, continually make Drones or whatever your weapon of choice is, and watch your resources and food count. Time buildings so as soon as you get the amount you need, a drone is ready to build it at that spot. Don’t get supply blocked either!  When you are within 6 supply of your cap, build another depot, Overlord, Pylon. The constant watching and waiting will make you more aware of what’s going on. Keep your money low! Is it getting high? Build a building, train a unit, or get an upgrade going! If you have money, SPEND IT!!!!!!

 I will post a replay up soon hopefully of what it should look like. J