A good player will havereact to your map control while estabilishing his army constantly moving aroundown, so that you don't know where ithis army is,. This prevents flanking and making it hard for you to flank itunnecessary engagements. Catching a big army out of position, like tanks unsieged, or vulnerable units in the wrong spot relative to other, harder units, is key when your army is smaller or your unit composition subobtimal. To flank his army, you will need to know where it is, and where it's going. This means that you either have superb scouting, or that you andare able to foresee his movement. A strategic drop in his base can make him pull a good chunk of his army back, which makes his movements predictable, and thus, vulnerable.
A good player will have his army constantly moving around, so you don't know where it is, and making it hard for you to flank it. Catching a big army out of position, like tanks unsieged, or vulnerable units in the wrong spot relative to other, harder units, is key when your army is smaller or your unit composition subobtimal. To flank his army, you will need to know where it is, and where it's going. This means that you either have superb scouting, or you and foresee his movement. A strategic drop in his base can make him pull a good chunk of his army back, which makes his movements predictable, and thus, vulnerable.
A good player will react to your map control while estabilishing his own, so that you don't know where his army is. This prevents flanking and unnecessary engagements. Catching a big army out of position, like tanks unsieged, or vulnerable units in the wrong spot relative to other, harder units, is key when your army is smaller or your unit composition subobtimal. To flank his army, you will need to know where it is, and where it's going. This means that you either have superb scouting, or that you are able to foresee his movement. A strategic drop in his base can make him pull a good chunk of his army back, which makes his movements predictable, and thus, vulnerable.
MostMany players will only ever perform one big push in the entire game. This kind of player will sit on his bases, researching and defending, until his "Ball of Death" is complete. He then pushes out, and crosses his fingers that the ball succeeds in it's mission. If this push clashes on the rocks of their opponent's defence, the game is pretty much over.
Most players will only ever perform one big push in the entire game. This kind of player will sit on his bases, researching and defending, until his "Ball of Death" is complete. He then pushes out, and crosses his fingers that the ball succeeds in it's mission. If this push clashes on the rocks of their opponent's defence, the game is pretty much over.
Many players will only ever perform one big push in the entire game. This kind of player will sit on his bases, researching and defending, until his "Ball of Death" is complete. He then pushes out, and crosses his fingers that the ball succeeds in it's mission. If this push clashes on the rocks of their opponent's defence, the game is pretty much over.
To begin with, let me make clear that this topic is a complex one, and analysis is almost always subjective. To determine whether your attack has done enough damage, you will have to have set a goal for the attack, and know whether this goal was fulfilled. To simply attack and wonder afterwards whether you did "enough damage" is a waste of your time and resources.
Long story short: make sure your attacks have a strategical or economical objective, commit just the resources required to fulfil this goal, but no more, and get the hell out when this objective is complete. The military folks call this a "strategic attack".
First off, aA push isand harassment are not the same as harassmentthing. A pushHarassment is meant to take outcreate a small advantage you are going to exploit, or simply apply mental pressure on your opponent. A push, while harassmenton the other hand, is meant to set back your opponent significantly. A well executed push will set him back in some way, knowingso much that the units you commit to the harass won't possibly have a chance of actually beating him and win the match. Continuous harassmentrecovering is known as "pressure"not feasible, which often leads to confusion amongconsequently winning you the termsgame.
AlsoMore generally, the loss of a failed harassmentharass troop might set you back economically, but should not lose you themean that your game is lost. A failedLoosing your troops in a push, on the other hand, will often havemean that you will lose shortly after to a counter attack.
EconomyThe Push
The most general (and inaccurate) way would be to sum upMost players will only ever perform one big push in the costentire game. This kind of what he lostplayer will sit on his bases, researching and put itdefending, until his "Ball of Death" is complete. He then pushes out, and crosses his fingers that the ball succeeds in it's mission. If this push clashes on the rocks of their opponent's defence, the game is pretty much over.
One step up againstfrom this level is the initial aggressor. He will prod and pounce around your investment inbase before the harassment12 minute mark, at which point your defences should have pushed him back home, and he will then sit there and do the same as above.
Harassing
A defending, passive player will mostly leave you alone, bar the eventual scouting poach. But no matter how good his defence, you can always chip away at him, slowly but surely setting you ahead. This is called "harassment" or "pressure". But this pressure needs to follow a plan, or it will just be lost resources to you.
Economy
Any kind of attack entails an economic investment. You wanthave to doweigh up this investment with the damage you expect to cause. The more economicalyou invest in your attack, the more damage than you have paid yourselfto cause to "break even". You especiallyIdeally, though, you will want to make sure he losescause more economical damage than you dothe sum total of your investment.
More accuratelyBy applying good harassment, you wantcan try to hit him where it hurts the mostkeep up with an expanding player without expanding yourself, although this is only ever very temporary. ThatThe only situation where you would not expand is, if he's fast in a so called "one-expandingbase all-in", deny his expansionwhich relies heavily on timing. If he's trying to techyour timing gets delayed for some reason, denyyou may delay your opponent's economical rise by applying selective pressure, forcing him theto build defensive structures and units instead of committing to tech by taking out key buildingsand economy. Killing workers, or even entire expansions, is alwaysan excellent way to achieve this.
When speaking of economy, Starcraft 2 is a good optionspreadsheet. Whoever collects more resources faster, since it will set himand is able to invest them better, wins. If you are behind, you hit your opponent in terms of gathering speedhis metaphorical wallet to even the game. If you're ahead, you hit him right there, to get further ahead. Of course, this takes experience and knowledge "being ahead" is always subject to determinethe relative level of skill between you and executeyour opponent. This kind of speculation always assumes equal skill, andwhich is hard to analyze onnever the fly during a gamecase in practice.
Strategy
Strategy
Always bear in mind that the damage you have done with harassmentEconomical advantage is temporaryall good and nice, but a strategical advantage can lead to a much faster victory. Sooner or laterGenerally, heyou will simply recover. The keywant to effective harassmenttry and deny your opponent a tech path that is exploiting the advantage you gain with itstrong against your intended build. A very easyFor example of exploiting, if you're a harassment would beTerran going Dark Templars while a harass delays his detector units enough for an army composed mainly of tanks, you will want to minimize the amount of Immortals your DTsProtoss opponent has by delaying his Robotics tech as much as you can, and picking off individual Immortals before the grand engagement. You know that Immortals are expensive and slow to make it intobuild, so denying him expansions is an effective way to limit his baseproduction rate, and continuous pressure will force him to commit resources to other units in order to stay alive. While he
Almost as important as the mathematical factor to pressure is the mental factor. By executing a lot of hit-and-run attacks, your opponent will often get detectors out eventuallynervous, youand his attention will have gained enough time to deal potentially devastating damagedivert in the moment of the attack, allowing for flanking attacks, or picking off strategic infrastructure easier with a drop.
Another potential benefitExecuting a big drop in the back of harassment is throwing his base will often force your opponent to pull a large chunk, or even all, of his army off positionback to defend, which allows youleaves the proverbial door wide open to flank it, and with good microa frontal attack. The sort of multi-tasking required to effectively defend from this kind of two-pronged attack is usually only found in the very highest level of players, take it outbut the ability to execute such an attack with far less units than he hasminimal losses is equally hard. Drop harassment also momentarily splits his attentionIn a pinch, which can allow you can simply suicide your drop and commit to out-micro himthe frontal attack, hoping to catch his army in a weird position once the drop is cleared.
All in allA good player will have his army constantly moving around, thisso you don't know where it is a very complex topic, and making it hard for you to flank it. Determining whetherCatching a big army out of position, like tanks unsieged, or vulnerable units in the wrong spot relative to other, harder units, is key when your harassmentarmy is smaller or push did "enough" damageyour unit composition subobtimal. To flank his army, you will need to know where it is tough while you're still playing, and not much easier when watching a replaywhere it's going. It is far more effective toThis means that you either have an objective, like taking out a few workerssuperb scouting, or denyingyou and foresee his movement. A strategic drop in his base can make him pull a certain tech pathgood chunk of his army back, than simply doing a pushwhich makes his movements predictable, and trying to analyze it afterwardsthus, vulnerable.
First off, a push is not the same as harassment. A push is meant to take out your opponent, while harassment is meant to set him back in some way, knowing that the units you commit to the harass won't possibly have a chance of actually beating him and win the match. Continuous harassment is known as "pressure", which often leads to confusion among the terms.
Also, a failed harassment might set you back economically, but should not lose you the game. A failed push, on the other hand, will often have you lose shortly after to a counter attack.
Economy
The most general (and inaccurate) way would be to sum up the cost of what he lost and put it up against your investment in the harassment. You want to do more economical damage than you have paid yourself. You especially want to make sure he loses more than you do.
More accurately, you want to hit him where it hurts the most. That is, if he's fast-expanding, deny his expansion. If he's trying to tech, deny him the tech by taking out key buildings. Killing workers is always a good option, since it will set him behind in terms of gathering speed. Of course, this takes experience and knowledge to determine and execute, and is hard to analyze on the fly during a game.
Strategy
Always bear in mind that the damage you have done with harassment is temporary. Sooner or later, he will simply recover. The key to effective harassment is exploiting the advantage you gain with it. A very easy example of exploiting a harassment would be going Dark Templars while a harass delays his detector units enough for your DTs to make it into his base. While he will get detectors out eventually, you will have gained enough time to deal potentially devastating damage.
Another potential benefit of harassment is throwing his army off position, which allows you to flank it, and with good micro, take it out with far less units than he has. Drop harassment also momentarily splits his attention, which can allow you to out-micro him.
All in all, this is a very complex topic. Determining whether your harassment or push did "enough" damage is tough while you're still playing, and not much easier when watching a replay. It is far more effective to have an objective, like taking out a few workers, or denying him a certain tech path, than simply doing a push and trying to analyze it afterwards.
To begin with, let me make clear that this topic is a complex one, and analysis is almost always subjective. To determine whether your attack has done enough damage, you will have to have set a goal for the attack, and know whether this goal was fulfilled. To simply attack and wonder afterwards whether you did "enough damage" is a waste of your time and resources.
Long story short: make sure your attacks have a strategical or economical objective, commit just the resources required to fulfil this goal, but no more, and get the hell out when this objective is complete. The military folks call this a "strategic attack".
A push and harassment are not the same thing. Harassment is meant to create a small advantage you are going to exploit, or simply apply mental pressure on your opponent. A push, on the other hand, is meant to set back your opponent significantly. A well executed push will set him back so much that recovering is not feasible, consequently winning you the game.
More generally, the loss of a harass troop might set you back economically, but should not mean that your game is lost. Loosing your troops in a push, on the other hand, will often mean that you will lose shortly after to a counter attack.
The Push
Most players will only ever perform one big push in the entire game. This kind of player will sit on his bases, researching and defending, until his "Ball of Death" is complete. He then pushes out, and crosses his fingers that the ball succeeds in it's mission. If this push clashes on the rocks of their opponent's defence, the game is pretty much over.
One step up from this level is the initial aggressor. He will prod and pounce around your base before the 12 minute mark, at which point your defences should have pushed him back home, and he will then sit there and do the same as above.
Harassing
A defending, passive player will mostly leave you alone, bar the eventual scouting poach. But no matter how good his defence, you can always chip away at him, slowly but surely setting you ahead. This is called "harassment" or "pressure". But this pressure needs to follow a plan, or it will just be lost resources to you.
Economy
Any kind of attack entails an economic investment. You have to weigh up this investment with the damage you expect to cause. The more you invest in your attack, the more damage you have to cause to "break even". Ideally, though, you will want to cause more economical damage than the sum total of your investment.
By applying good harassment, you can try to keep up with an expanding player without expanding yourself, although this is only ever very temporary. The only situation where you would not expand is in a so called "one-base all-in", which relies heavily on timing. If your timing gets delayed for some reason, you may delay your opponent's economical rise by applying selective pressure, forcing him to build defensive structures and units instead of committing to tech and economy. Killing workers, or even entire expansions, is an excellent way to achieve this.
When speaking of economy, Starcraft 2 is a spreadsheet. Whoever collects more resources faster, and is able to invest them better, wins. If you are behind, you hit your opponent in his metaphorical wallet to even the game. If you're ahead, you hit him right there, to get further ahead. Of course "being ahead" is always subject to the relative level of skill between you and your opponent. This kind of speculation always assumes equal skill, which is never the case in practice.
Strategy
Economical advantage is all good and nice, but a strategical advantage can lead to a much faster victory. Generally, you will want to try and deny your opponent a tech path that is strong against your intended build. For example, if you're a Terran going for an army composed mainly of tanks, you will want to minimize the amount of Immortals your Protoss opponent has by delaying his Robotics tech as much as you can, and picking off individual Immortals before the grand engagement. You know that Immortals are expensive and slow to build, so denying him expansions is an effective way to limit his production rate, and continuous pressure will force him to commit resources to other units in order to stay alive.
Almost as important as the mathematical factor to pressure is the mental factor. By executing a lot of hit-and-run attacks, your opponent will often get nervous, and his attention will divert in the moment of the attack, allowing for flanking attacks, or picking off strategic infrastructure easier with a drop.
Executing a big drop in the back of his base will often force your opponent to pull a large chunk, or even all, of his army back to defend, which leaves the proverbial door wide open to a frontal attack. The sort of multi-tasking required to effectively defend from this kind of two-pronged attack is usually only found in the very highest level of players, but the ability to execute such an attack with minimal losses is equally hard. In a pinch, you can simply suicide your drop and commit to the frontal attack, hoping to catch his army in a weird position once the drop is cleared.
A good player will have his army constantly moving around, so you don't know where it is, and making it hard for you to flank it. Catching a big army out of position, like tanks unsieged, or vulnerable units in the wrong spot relative to other, harder units, is key when your army is smaller or your unit composition subobtimal. To flank his army, you will need to know where it is, and where it's going. This means that you either have superb scouting, or you and foresee his movement. A strategic drop in his base can make him pull a good chunk of his army back, which makes his movements predictable, and thus, vulnerable.