Starcraft

[CombatEX]

The campaigns are fun, especially the second one, but the multiplayer has always been the main focus for me. I agree with Eijolend that 1v1 can be hard to return to if you take a break, but for different reasons. Eijolend says that the main problem is getting your mechanics down despite knowing what to do. I find that it's actually the opposite. If your mechanics were solid at one point, it shouldn't take long to pick it up again (it's like riding a bicycle). However, openers and strategies are in a constant state of change so if you take a break and come back a month or two later you'll have to learn how to deal with the new tactics people employ.

As a new player though it is true that building up strong mechanics is the first step. Without good mechanics your strategies mean nothing. Think of it this way, if you are floating a ton of resources your army will be much smaller than your opponents. Even if you have a great strategy and can 'outwit' your opponent, you'll probably still lose if you have a much smaller army. In other words, you need to work much harder and play much smarter to make up for the fact that your mechanics (macro) are worse.

I suppose I should briefly explain the two types of 'mechanics'. Macro and micro.

Macro: Spending your money efficiently, building enough workers (when in doubt build more workers), and expanding to new bases optimally (expanding as much as possible without dying because your army is too small to defend). You also need to know how many production facilities you can support and produce from them at the 'optimal' rate.

Micro: How well you manage your units. Basically keeping as many of them alive as possible while dealing maximum damage to enemy units.

In essence there are 4 key aspects to Starcraft.

1. Macro
2. Micro
3. Scouting/Map Awareness
4. Strategy
~. Upgrades

The first thing you should learn is macro. Good macro can probably carry you from Bronze to around Gold since you can simply overwhelm your opponent with a larger army even if you aren't great at micro or strategy.

Micro is something which will always be helpful and as you rank up it will become more and more beneficial. However, remember that the better you are at macro, the less good your micro has to be.

Before you can hope to accomplish 4. Strategy, you need to be good at 3. Scouting/Map Awareness. To put it simply, if you do not know what your opponent's plan is and where your opponent's units are, how can you hope to outwit him/her?

As Eijolend said, strategy really only comes into play later once you have figured out how to do everything else well. In the absence of points 1, 2, and 3 you cannot hope to outplay your opponent with strategy alone.

On a final point, it is important to note the strength of upgrades. This is something that lower level players often overlook but it has an enormous impact. Each upgrade augments ALL of your units (of a particular type). The increased damage output or survivability (depending on which type of upgrade you get) of ALL of your units greatly outweighs the cost.