Improving Your Game #1

How to expand and Stay Ahead

Improving your game #1

A common question asked by the average Starcraft player is, ‘How do I improve my game’? Well this is certainly a very broad question but the people at MML are here to try and answer that question as best as we can. In this particular entry as our first post on how to improve your game we will be talking about the concept of expanding. We will be discussing subjects such as:

Why do we expand?
When do we expand?
What do I do once I have expanded?
If you are new or just want to improve your game this blog is certainly for you.



The Purpose Of Expanding: Why do we expand?
Expanding is a crucial part of starcraft. It can certainly change the result of a game if done successfully and if done poorly can leave you in a terrible position. Expanding is a way of getting more minerals/gas to enable you to produce units faster. This will keep you ahead of your enemy, hopefully leading you to win the game. Expanding tends to be a stepping stone to new horizons of tech; this can help you go more gas heavy or give you more minerals to add more unit producing structures.

Expansion Timings: When do we expand?
Expanding early is risk but with risk comes great reward. A Zerg player tends to expand earlier than other races. It is common for a Zerg player to expand at 14/18 which is seen frequently on our casts. However Protoss and Terran players can expand just as fast which we saw in a particular cast from a masters Protoss player against Zerg. You can watch this game below:


We can only presume this tactic was used to stay ahead of the Zerg player and when i say ahead i mean imagine Starcraft as a race. The way in which you can win this race is to get to 200 food as quick as you can and to stop your opponent from reaching that goal. To help you achieve that you will want to get your expansion at solid timing. In this game the Nexus was thrown down far earlier than a standard game but it worked because with scouting information the Protoss player knew he wouldn’t get any early pressure but I know what you’re thinking. Easier said than done. This concept of ‘knowing when to expand’, is completely based on the practice you but into Starcraft. You learn the ins and outs of the game allowing you to get to your goal far faster than your enemy.  Another example of this Protoss versus Zerg FE (Fast Expand) at the highest level of play at a major tournament (MLG Columbus) MC pulled off an extremely fast expand versus Idra. This game can be watched below: (it is a huskystarcraft commentary)


This game shows the a FE will allow you to gain more minerals and gas to produce mid tech units; like Immortals and Voidrays to defend early pushes from other players. Void rays are used more commonly against a zerg ally as zerg don’t have any anti air until liar tech other than an odd spore crawler or two which take up time and money. This was idras only options other than the option to rage quit and since we are talking about Idra here... He chose to rage quit.
Another example of when we need to expand is the standard timings. The MML team recently studied a player called Athenewins - those of you who played wow may recognise the name. What our studies showed from this macro orientated player that he/she tended to expand around 6:00 minutes in game time and 7 and a half minutes.  This depended on the pressure that was being exerted. This build is more commonly known as a 3gate expand. You get 3 gates and you expand around 6:00 – 7:30. This helped me out a lot in my own game play.

After there is the 3rd and 4th expansion we need to think about. This expansion, in personal experience, tends to go down when i have far more minerals then i do gas. At this point alot of your units will cost gas and when you have more minerals than gas this is a way you can easily keep producing units at a normal rate while being able to expand and spend the necessary recources on your beautiful new expansion.

What I’ve found with most diamond terran players since I have been in diamond league is that they tend to expand after their first push or during their first harass; if a terran player chooses banshees as his game style he will most likely expand after about 3 banshees while he is doing damage to the other player in an attempt to stay ahead in the race. Or if the player plays a standard 3 rax build he will push as his Stim finishes and expand with it.
Zerg i have found almost always expand around 14/18 or 16/18 and put their 3rd up around 10mins in game time where as the other races tend to expand at around 14:00 – 15:00 in game time in attempt to stay ahead in this race.

On ladder there is often a chance that a player will opt for a one base ‘all in’. This can be extremely hard to defend but if scouted properly it can be easy to defend. These sorts of tactics throw macro players off completely but really they are all pretty simple to defend. Things you need to look out for when scouting is
How many gases do they have; if they don’t have any gas it is highly likely they will be rushing. Whether it be zealots marines or Zerglings. Zerg is slightly different checking their spawning pool timing is what you need to look out for. However there can be gas heavy ‘cheeses’ like dark templars. For these sorts of tactics you need to watch out for what units they are building; if they have two gases and are massing zealots you can pretty much presume they are spending their gas on something else.

The Keys To Staying Ahead Of Your Enemy: How do I stay ahead of my opponent
In this section I will be pointing out small things that help you win the race to 200/200, well when say small things, I mean small things that make a big difference.
First of all killing your opponents probes/drones/scvs can put you extremely far ahead. This will basically give you a worker advantage that means you will have the income advantage. If you do manage to make some economical damage this means the enemy must rebuild their probes and drones in order to catch up. This makes them slow down in terms of income leaving you better off.
Static defence does help, but remember not to go overboard because, if you spend too many minerals on static defense your army production will hinder. The static defence isn’t for defending a fully fledged attack, what the static defence actually does is stop those, ‘annoying things’, such as DT’s, zerglings, mutas and banshees. A few cannons, missile turrets and sporecrawls will certainly help defend since they can all detect.

Remember now you’ve expanded you can get your upgrades. These are crucial to have. Without upgrades is like trying to get through the day without that morning coffee. It’s hard. A unit that has 1 upgrade will beat a unit without one. Imagine your whole army with that benefit! I know what you’re thinking. ‘Why wasn’t I using upgrades before. Thank you MML!!!’
Thanks for reading this blog, presuming you read it all! MML are wanting more active members! So join our EU chat ‘MML’. Hopefully we can help each other out with becoming better gamers. Whether you are bronze or grandmaster we would be happy for you to pop in a and say hi once and again.
Again, thanks for reading...
The MML team.