Expanding, Attacking, etc...

Expanding, Attacking, etc...

I've got a little time to spare, so I thought I might post a couple of thoughts while I'm here. There are strategies to everything in Starcraft: build order, attacks, stealth, unit combinations, and a strategy that I learned early on that I don't see too many people using... strategies involving expanding. So, I thought I may give it a go.

The most important thing about expansion strategy is reconnaisance. The second you see someone making a move on one of your expansions, you have to be able to respond quickly, so knowing what your opponent is doing is emmensely important. Consider that your reconnaisance has to be superior to your opponent at all times. With this in mind, consider how you might begin.

Send your 7th probe, 8th SCV, or first zergling out to scout. Find your opponent(s), but don't let them know you've found them. Instead, find an expansion spot and build a pylon/cannon, bunker/turret, burrow your zergling. This is not to say ignore your base defense. Do make sure and make a stable defense by packing your main base tightly together or securing the choke point. Packing your base together means leaving small spaces for cannons, bunkers, or sunken colonies that are protected by buildings. This is not building a horde of military might as fast as possible, so don't bother, yet. You're counting on your opponent attacking your main base as often as possible, so build your base as defensively as you can. You should have 2 expansions up and running in under 10 minutes, and if you've built your defenses appropriately, you should have the bare minimum to withstand an infantry assault at at least one of your expansions. Here are a few points I might make on expanding:

1) Keep teching up. Don't put valuable buildings at expansions. Your expansions, believe it or not, are expendable at the very most, so rely on your main base defense for protection and tech-up there.

2) Terrans have a unique advantage in expansion since their buildings move. Take advantage of that, especially with an island expansion. I have won games against a protoss/zerg threat with terrans primarily from the expansion dynamic of the race.

3) Have a nice mix of units at your expansions. For instance, if you're protoss, have about 2-3 cannons, 2-4 zealots, 1-2 dragoons, 1-2 dts, and maybe a few scouts later on. Don't rely on one particular defensive structure or even two. Have a variety. 12 dragoons will fail to take an expansion if you have 2 tanks, 3-6 Firebats, 4 marines (bunkered), a missile turret (countering the observer), and a few wraiths.

4) Having a small defense at your expansions BUYS YOU TIME to react to attacks. Don't stack armies up, but don't leave expansions completely defenseless either. Leave enough at the expansion to delay the destruction of the expansion, but more importantly to eat up their units, which in turn eats up their economy in reproduction. If all else fails, respond to the destruction of an expansion by attacking their main base. Bring their units back so you have time to build the expansion again. Then just fortify it more, leave large amounts of units just outside of the expansion to respond again.

5) If detected very early on, this strategy can be more difficult, but not impossible. Fake out your opponent. Build a bunker and missile turret at several expansion spots, then take the expansion furthest away from the one attacked. Take an overlord, a few hydras, and a few zerglings to an expandable area, let your opponent's troops attack at the expansion, then sneak your lurkers in to your opponent's base and kill all the workers.

6) Leaving your larger armies in areas close to but not inside the expansion area is very often effective. If your opponent scouts around and finds your expansion, but little forces guarding it, then he's going to feel compelled to attack. That's good if he doesn't know what units really lie in wait.

7) Don't be afraid to send a small force to knock on his door, take out his expansion, hit his main base's workers, etc... That's sort of expected, not required. Just make sure that when you are attacking for the kill, you are sending your armies all in at once. When facing players who expand quickly, your best defense is to go for the main base as often as possible.

Expansion provides so much more strategy to the game. I hate reading posts about how great the "fastest possible map" is "because you don't have to expand." Expansion is just as much a part of the game as the big armies you build, so if you utilize it well, you can end up with the same big armies you would on a money map in just a slightly longer amount of time. Good luck and good gaming.