Mental Strategy

Mental Strategy:

Title: Mentally Preparing For A Melee Game of Starcraft

    This is the first strategy of the Mental Game Types Series. In other words I am going to be having a mental strategy based on each of the game types covered in the game of Starcraft, starting with it's most basic form the Melee. The melee is the game of Starcraft which about 90% of the people on Battle.Net end up playing because it apparently has the most strategy because it's the game in it's standard form. Teams can be allowed in the game, and is commonly done because then you'll have 2 people with their own individual bases attempting to destroy 2 people on the other side of the coin. This is generally the thought behind a melee. Originally in the Starcraft Beta, they were thinking that this was going to be the only game type that would allow for you to gain a win in Starcraft counted to your record. This would of really done something shocking to the Starcraft Community because of that reason. Use Map Settings were allowed for wins back then. However, we'll get to all of that stuff in later mental strategies. We need to discuss the physics and the mental aspect of the basic game of Starcraft. Not too complicated? Well.... let's begin and you can judge that yourself.

    The first thing you have to think about whenever your playing a game type in the game of Starcraft, is the rules of the game. Do you need to do a certain objective? Do you need to try to capture a certain point? What? In a melee none of that goes into effect because you are in a standardized form of the game of Starcraft. You see it's basically a Free For All, with teams. Strangely enough =) The idea behind a melee is that you will be playing the most strategical form of the game in Starcraft's standard form. You will generally see a Melee game with 2, 4, 6 or 8 people. However, I've seen these numbers go odd too for certain challengers. The melee is the game that you should first begin with when playing the game of Starcraft for the first time. I say this simply because it will allow for you to be mentally used to the idea behind a game of Starcraft. Starcraft is mentally divided into several parts, and we're going to go into to them right now.

• Aspect #1: Construction- This is one of the most important aspects in the game of Starcraft because Construction is how you build your base and how you gain new units, and new upgrades. Mentally you should have a strategy in mind for the game so you should know what buildings you will need to construct to allow for you to successfully run your strategy. This is very important! If you construct the wrong buildings trying to go up to a Seige Tank Push and you build 4 starports, your not going to be running the strategy you want. Four times out of Five this will end up killing you because you have changed strategies and your hold aspect of the game has changed. This is one of the things that can kill Starcraft players a lot because of all of these changes.(Happens to me all the time). Not in that much of an extreme however. The things you do could be very minor but still they will probably end up hurting you. For an example if you place a Seige Tank in an incorrect place your defense could be destroyed by having that opportunity to access your Seige Tank and killing it. Think about all of these things in a game of Starcraft that is all related to Construction.
• Aspect #2: Resource Management- Another common thing that a person in the game of Starcraft could end up hurting themselves at the end is not understanding the importance of Resource Management. You need to think about this especially in the beginnings of a game. Do you build 10 SCV's? or 20? Do you build 7, Supply Depot, Barracks, and build 4 more? The idea is that you need a plan before the game. This corresponds with Aspect #1 in it's fullest form. I say this because Resources are what is needed to construct buildings and troops. Pretty basic idea huh? Complicated to get great at though. You better believe it! Early on in the game Resources are limited and you need to figure out what your going to do with your limited resources. If you are trying to climb the Tech-Tree then you should have a sufficiant number of peasants to allow you to do this. You are not going to get to a Factory very quick with 4 SCV's. Remember this important law of Starcraft. Every SCV can produce in one trip to the minerals back 8 minerals per rotation. Each SCV costs 50 minerals, which happens to be the amount of resources you begin the game with. If you are going to want to go higher up on the Tech-Tree your going to want have at least 20-25 rotations happen because you will need all the resources you can gain. It's important! Think about this. It is a part of my game which needs to be improved but this is how you guys should plan on doing it.
• Aspect #3: Execution- Execution is the 3rd Aspect of Starcraft. You have construction occuring and your managing your resources all inside of your brain. Now you need to determine execution and when are you going to attempt to execute your strategy. Ideally you want to run your strategy as quick as you can because you don't want your opponent to be prepared for anything of what your planning. For an example, would you want your opponent to know that you were going ALL Air? Your opponent would then counter that by either building Goliaths/Scourges or the such. You need to execute your strategy in a suprising fashion. How? That is all dependent on the map. If you for an example are going ALL Air, will you want to try to attack his or her economy? Or do you want to try to weaken their force to bring in a secondary strategy that you had in mind. Do you want to execute this when your opponent has some defenses? Or would you prefer to execute it early and quick? All of these questions I am telling you are things that you should definatly think about when playing the game of Starcraft. The difference between a Win and a Loss in Starcraft can be involved in execution. Let's go into a little sample here. You are going ALL Air, like we have said. You decide that it is better to build up a more sizable force to kill your opponent, even though you know there is a point where you can strike against them. They then come and successfully complete their strategy, a 24 Goliath Rush. Your base is in ruins, and the game of Starcraft is over. If you would of attacked those points you could of done some damage(minimal probably) but you would of been able to buy yourself some time because he'd have to recover his economy. This is how execution can really determine the game's momentium and which way it will truly go.
• Aspect #4: Strategy Concentration- I have gone through this very briefly in each of the three above aspects of the game of Starcraft but still this topic definatly deserves it's own section of this mental strategy. I have stressed throughout this strategy the importance of maintaining one strategy because a change can be deadly in the game of Starcraft. However, this is something that seperates the men from the boys and the champions from me. =) A strategy can only be as good as it is executed in the game of Starcraft. If you are planning on rushing with 36 Zerglings and you decide to keep them as a defense, what was the true purpose of building 36 zerglings to keep u defended? 1 Air Unit can demolish that whole army of 36 zerglings. Think about it in those terms. It's important for the person in the game of Starcraft to spend all of his time and energy on one thing! Not a few hundred things. This is generally the weak point of a person's game. When playing the game of Starcraft you'll be very tempted to want to construct a defense just in case your offense doesn't work. This is a very good idea, but do your attack first then worry about the defense. You don't want to be building a defense in the middle of an attack. That's like saying, "Oh, General. Can you attack and defend that flank at the same time?" The answer is NO, it's impossible to maintain two things at once. Same goes in Starcraft. Think about it all concentrate your time and energy on one strategy and your chances go up.
• Aspect #5: Troop Management- Management of your troops. The locations of where they are placed are as important as the units that they truly demonstrate. Their abilities should accuratly depict what your strategy is based on. In other words, if you are going to go ALL air, you will not be building 25 Marines attempting to rush your opponents. You would be getting Terran Wraiths/Valyrites/Battlecruisers to do the work. You see Troop Management is something that you need to think about because it involves Aspect's #1 and #2 again. What you are attempting is to move your troops into locations which will make them most useful. In other words, you would most often put a Terran Marine into a Bunker to keep him protected during a defense. You will need to think about these possibilities. Here's a couple of questions you should ask yourself when thinking about Troop Management. Is the location of my troops adequate enough to do enough damage to destroy or damage buildings, and opposing troops either from attack or defense? If yes, in your opinion the troops will be able to keep your base defended. If you are wrong however, we may be discussing Pickett's charge AGAIN. =) If no, fill in holes of your army or defense with multidemensional units(units that add something new to the mix). Examples: A defiler/A high Templar/A Science Vessel or a few goliaths. Remember the troops that you choose will be important in what the game will end up producing for you at the end, either in Victory or Defeat. Secondly, are the troops that I have adequate enough for the strategy that I have determined that I am going to run? If yes, again your opinion will be shown on the battlefield, if wrong... who knows the consequences. If not, add units that will make your troops more powerful and effective. These are important steps that you need to understand.

These are 5 major aspects to the game of Starcraft. There are definatly many more, but for this strategy those 5 are sufficiant enough. More Aspects will be covered in the future Mental Strategies. So in conclusion, in the game of Starcraft when you are preparing Mentally for a Melee game, you will need to follow the 5 aspects stated above and listening to your own questions about the game. You'll be just fine if you do that.

-SpaceDominator