Starcraft Noob: Need help remembering?

I saw this map on the forums and tried it out today. It definitely helps you remember to be active. One problem I have in a match is keeping consistent actions. Sure the first 2 minutes theres not much to do, but if you dont give your self a running start, you may end up dead last....

The objective is simple, play a typical melee map, the catch? In the top right corner is one of your workers being chased by a particularly angry Zergling. You need to keep him alive while getting your base going, but guess what, the catch even has a catch....You cannot use more than 1 waypoint for that worker. So every 10 seconds you need to be checking your worker. 

Don't worry they give you different difficulties to choose from so you aren't thrown directly into the wolves...But there is another catch. You need to keep your minerals under a certain amount throughout the entire match. Sounds interesting right? Well the good thing is you don't have to worry about early rushes, at least not on Easy...An attack does come around the time you would normally expect it, however there is yet another catch...

The objective is to destroy the enemies command center, deep within a protected line of at least 1 of almost every unit that race has to offer, but before you can do this objective, you must rescue a unit and bring him back to your Beacon in your base. Depending on your difficulty, you may have to do this more than once....

Shouldn't be a problem right? Well the list goes on....The energy of your Nexus, Queen, or Orbital Command cannot Exceed 99/150/99 respectively. But the last interesting tidbit is this, you need to do all this within 17 minutes of the game starting. Sounds easy right?

Here are some tips for completing the Easy difficulty as thats as comfortable as I am with it....

Make your Nexus or whatever a control group. I use 4 as its very close to the other commands I use.

Use your keyboard to build the workers, D for Drone, E for Probe, S for SCV. all are within your hands reach, assuming your right handed that is :)

Make the Worker(for me it was a probe named Proberto) group 3 and press that group twice to quickly switch to it and switch back. By doing this you can switch back to your Nexus and build workers without having to actually look at the Nexus.

To rescue the VIP, Just build a transport, get within proximity of him and pick him up and bring him back :)

Keep building units! Turn the Coach on to help yourself remember to keep building workers!


I had fun and I felt myself getting mentally faster, keep playing up the difficulties until you can win them perfectly.

http://www.sc2mapster.com/maps/multitasking-trainer/.

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.