Harvesters in Starcraft: Version: BW 1.07 Skill Level: Novice to Average Game Type: Melee/FFA Best Against: Terran Ideal Map: N/A Author: White_Pointer Objective: To Maximize the Output of Harvesters

A lot of the Starcraft Community, it seems, know the basics of what each attacking unit does and maybe a trick or two with those units. What a lot of the novice to medium players do quite a bit however, is to almost forget about the worker units. Yes, the humble, simplest, but most important part of any army, whether it be in Starcraft or in any other real time strategy game for that matter. In a game like Starcraft, however, these units play a more important role than just resource gatherers who mindlessly go about their tasks oblivious to what is going on around them.

What I am trying to do with this guide, (and remember it is only a guide, not to be taken as the Bible) is to aim at the novice to medium skilled gamers out there. Those who may want to brush up a bit on their skills but who are looking for a good place to start. What I am addressing is the use of the worker units. This view may seem mundane and old news at first, but it is a very important aspect very often overlooked. Firstly though let me say that I am the first to admit I am not the world's best Starcraft player and never will be. Most of what is written here is stuff I have learnt during the course of playing, or what I have observed watching more experienced gamers go about their business.

So, with that out of the way, let's get down to the fundamentals, race by race. I should say that this guide is not one you want to be reading if all you want to do is mindlessly memorize build orders, but rather one in resource management, constructing buildings and using the worker units to their full potential. Perhaps if you consider yourself an expert, you may want to steer clear as well, but hopefully I have made it an interesting enough read to cater for you too. This is also not a guide to read if you want information on the other units and build orders and such, Kissblade is writing a guide for that type of stuff here. Throughout this guide I sometimes refer to the opponent as a 'he', I am not being sexist in any way, it could very well be a 'she', but I am just using 'he' as a collective term. Oh yeah, and if you think I have spelt something wrong, I haven't, because I am Australian I have spelt it the Australian way!

Terran:
The Terrans are the easiest race to learn the ropes of the game with, which is why they are appropriately the first campaign in the single player missions. However, in my opinion, they are also the hardest race to master. But more often than not, the problem doesn't lie with the powerful weapons such as Seige tanks and Battlecruisers, but rather, the SCV.

The Terran's worker unit is your average Joe Blow who has been pulled off the street and thrown into a robotic vehicle-suit type thing (not unlike that contraption Sigourney Weaver was in at the end of Alien 2), so they aren't too smart when it comes to common sense. This means that they often take the scenic route to get to a particular point to start building, or go around the back of a mineral patch to mine. This can become annoying but despite these things, the SCV has left no doubt in my mind that it is the most versatile worker unit in the game in the amount of things it can do and is capable of.

But, of course, the first thing that must be done to ensure success is to build lots of them. I mean lots. As SCV's must be present during the whole duration when building a structure, you'll need a lot of them to be productive. I have read in a few guides that a good idea is to have 2 SCV's to a mineral patch. I would like to go a little further and say have 2 for every mineral patch plus a couple more for good measure for construction and repair. In an average game with about 9 mineral patches, that means 18 SCV's plus a couple more, I like to use a nice round number of 20. That's just for mining menerals! Once it gets to the stage of mining gas, usually 4 doing that job will do the trick, although depending on how far away the Vespene Geyser is you may want to have a little more.

Now for buildings; the most basic building the SCV needs to construct is the supply depot. Terrans don't have the luxury of being able to quickly select a hatchery or two and instantly spawn overlords like the Zerg, and neither do they have an advantage of using one unit to instantly start warping in buildings left right and center, the Protoss. For this reason you are going to need to have several SCV's dedicated solely for the construction of your buildings. They do, however, have an advantage over the other races in the fact that they can build anywhere (with obvious exceptions like on water). This is a huge advantage. Supply depots can be, to put it bluntly, a pain in the arse to build. They are small buildings, but you generally need a lot of them, which means they take up a lot of space. The problem is they serve no other purpose but to give you the luxury of producing more units. Both Overlords and Pylons have additional uses, the only additional use of a supply depot is that it just gets in the way.

Or is it? The fact that you can build them anywhere comes as an advantage especially in the early game. They can be extremely useful against those annoying zergling rushes, and I'll show you how. Building a bunker as soon as you can and filling it with a few marines is a good idea especially against Zerg opponents, but if the attack is a little larger than expected you could find that bunker up in flames before you know it. A novel idea is to build supply depots around the bunker. If placed correctly with no large gaps between them, only one zergling can fit in the gapy at any one time and larger units like Zealots can't go through at all. Even if they are a good microer, they are going to need to target one of the supply depots to destroy that first to be able to take a crack at the bunker, all the while, your marines are constantly shooting away. To add to your opponents frustration, and to prevent the supply depot burning down (or any other building for that matter), select a couple of SCV's and repair it while the attack is going on. This works exceptionally well if the SCV's are actually behind the buildings, and the zerglings (it works just as well against zealots by the way) are in front. It will annoy them to no end! The end result, he loses his men (or he has the brains to pull them out and save them), and you have possibly only lost a few minerals in the repair of your buildings, and gained a slight psychological edge against your opponent. In my opinion, that's a pretty good investment.

The fact that SCVs can repair buildings adds to your edge over opponents. Get into the habit, even in the late game, to use your SCV's effectively as a form of defense in repairing bunkers and missile turrets as the enemy surges forward. You could quite possibly win a battle you had no hope in hell of winning, or, at the very worst, you can take out a substantial part of their army and go down fighting. Like any strategy it isn't foolproof, but it may just frustrate your opponent enough when he sees his huge army reduced to nothing while he has barely laid a scratch on you (Yes, it does actually happen!). An excellent defense on maps with choke points is to stick two supply depots at the choke, two bunkers filled with range-upgraded marines behind those, and a few tanks in Seige mode behind those. With a few SCV's around to repair anything that gets damaged, and a missile turret or two, your opponent is going to need to use the heavy artillery to get through your front line of defense. While they didn't make gates in Starcraft, you can use your barracks as a gate. This helps greatly when your planning to go Heavy metal, in which case the gate will remain closed till you've got out a decent number of vultures.

On the subject of missile turrets, they have an ok attack rate, do ok damage, and like the Spore colony and Photon Cannon they are also detectors. They are overall a solid defensive structure although they only have 200 hit points to play with. Having said that, they really only should be used for defense around the perimeter of your base to prevent tactics like drops in behind your worker line or a quick mutalisk or wraith assault. Don't rely on them as your only form of detection, you should be utilizing your Communications Satellite (otherwise known as the ComSat) to do this job. Against Zerg or Protoss, you'll need them fairly early to counter DT or Lurker rushes. Many people disregard the ComSat's full potential but it is a very powerful tool. Lots of people have one at their main, then use their expansions to create numerous nuke silos. I don't see any need for this unless you are playing against a complete newbie and want to show off against them by nuking the crap out of them. Otherwise, if you really, really, REALLY have an itch to build one, build only one, any more than that isn't practical. You should be using the rest for ComSat's, and have each one hotkeyed for quick activation and scan. I often wondered how the computer players could scan so quickly, and now I know. With the use of hotkeys, all it takes is 2 key presses, and a mouse click and there's your scan, within half a second or less after being attacked by a cloaked unit. Get good at this, there are times such as a dark templar attack on your marines (because they can kill your marines in one hit) where you don't want to be fiddling around getting your scan ready. It has to be quick and accurate, and you have to be doubly quick to co-ordinate your units for a counterstrike. But once you have this tactic down pat, lurkers, wraiths and dark templars won't be able to set a foot near you. Oh yeah, and it has the added bonus of being a great reconnaissance tool as well. Not only to see when they are going to launch an attack or see whether they are vulnerable to one themselves, but also to take a look around. Look at the build order they are using, so you can try to anticipate what to expect from them, and always keep scanning to keep an eye on them. That is another good reason why you need more than one Comsat.

You can also use your SCVs as a means of attack, if you play your cards right. I am not saying go front into the enemy camp with massed SCV's (if you do you are an idiot), but one or two SCV's around backing up other units may not be such a bad idea. My induction to Battle.net saw me up against a guy who had won 300 odd games, and one tactic he used against me was to stick a bunker behind my base, out of sight, and fill it with marines. By the time I noticed it, it was too late, and the units I had could not even get close to taking it down, especially with the SCV behind it repairing it. That kissed the game goodbye right at that point. Another way to exploit this is to use a tactic that is often considered gay, but a lot of players use it and it is quite profitable. Like rushes, if it works, and your opponent is vulnerable, why not use it? You can basically lock your opponent into his own base by building bunkers with marines at the choke point (if there is one), not allowing anything to get out without a fight. (As an added bonus a few seige tanks will do wonders as well). A lot of experienced players exploit this further by bunker hopping, a tactic which basically means to build one bunker in front of another, filling them with marines as you go. Get closer and closer to your enemy's base so that even if they tried, they would not be able to escape you. While you have them hemmed in, you can either go for the throat, unload the bunkers, throw in a few medics and assault them that way, or tech up to your big guns and absolutely annihilate them. This tactic works best in early game though, by mid game the better player will have an expansion somewhere and generally won't be as effective.

Expanding is important, and when a suitable expansion spot is found, once the new Command Center is built don't wait around for new SCV's to build to start mining. Take a few from the ones already mining at your main, and use them to kick start the mining at the new while you pump the new Command Center full of SCV's. I think it also goes without saying that you must have some kind of protection there as soon as possible, but that's not a job for your SCV's!

One more thing to be said about SCV's is that they can build buildings that are mobile. Most Terran buildings (with the exception of Supply depots, missile turrets, bunkers, the academy, the armory and the various add-ons) can lift up off the ground and move to another location. While most people may only use this as a last resort of saving their skins after a quick zergling or zealot rush, it has other uses. For example, on maps with choke points, you can block your choke with, say, a supply depot and a barracks. This will allow you to protect yourself against early rushes. When your men are ready to move through, you can just lift the barracks up and use it as a 'gate' to the outside world, which is a very handy trick on maps like "The Hunters" where your choke it so vital.

It also makes Island expansions in Island maps a lot easier. I don't think a lot of people exploit this one but I sure do. On Island maps, especially if you know the layout, you can expand before anyone else can. Simply build another Command Center, lift it up, land it on the new island, and hey presto, there's your expansion! Pretty cool huh? This can obviously be done a hell of a lot quicker than a Protoss or Zerg player can. You can also use your less expensive buildings (such as an engineering bay) as scouts, looking around and keeping an eye on your opponent. My brother was playing someone on battle.net who was keeping an eye on him with an engineering bay, waiting for a chance to nuke him and move in for the kill. With cloaked Wraiths waiting in ambush to protect the engineering bay from being attacked and destroyed, and an SCV nearby to repair it if it got slightly damaged, it proved out to be a worthwhile tactic that eventually led to my brother's defeat.

Since then I haven't seen anyone else use the buildings in this way, but it is definitely a possibility that will surprise your opponent somewhat since it is so unorthodox. Also, if you can catch your opponent not really paying too much attention, you can land buildings like barracks and factories somewhere behind the enemy lines out of site, build an army and take him from behind! This surprises a lot and catches a lot off guard since most players expect attacks to come from the front. Only trial and error will get this right though, pick your opponents carefully. Another good trick in allied games is to lift up a few buildings when you are in some hot water, and move them to deep inside your ally's base, to give yourself a second chance.

Don't forget that SCVs can also be used to repair the vehicles and ships, not just buildings. Seige tanks and Battlecruisers become even more powerful when accompanied by SCV's, repairing them if they becoming damaged. Obviously in the heat of battle this is going to require some good micro management but if you can pull it off you can more than get your money's worth out of these expensive units. SCV's repair rates are cumulative. Keep that in mind when your base is being ransacked by a bunch of Dragoons. It is an advantage no other race has. Zergs heal at a very slow rate, Protoss regenerate their shields at a steady rate but not their hit points, so exploit the fact you can repair faster and your opponent will come off second best. But by far the best advantage I can see of the SCV's repairing capabilities is the fact that they can also repair each other (being vehicles themselves, after all SCV stands for Space Construction Vehicle). And as an added bonus in Brood War, they can also be healed by medics, so they can be healed in not one, but two ways. Exploit this fact too, if you are repairing a Battlecruiser with a few SCV's but the enemy continues fire trying to take out the SCV's, have a few medics behind them. Unless they can kill them in one hit, you can be a very annoying customer.

In conclusion, out of all peons units, the SCV is most useful. Not only should they be used to harvest, but also for attacks. Therefore if you have plenty of resources as Terran players often, never stop building SCVs, and send extras up with your attack.

Zerg:
The Zerg Drone forms the vital backbone to any Zerg Swarm, without them your swarm against your opponent will be about the equivalent of a beehive against a Monster Truck. The Zerg are a fairly weak race compared to the other two, and rely on sheer numbers to maul the opponent. If you don't use your Drones effectively, you will not get the numbers (certainly not quick enough) to stand a chance against a skilled opponent. So how do you use them?

The Drone is the slowest harvester of the 3 races. I gave the example with the SCV of 2 to a mineral patch plus a few more. Well, with Drones, I would go as far to say that you would need practically 2.5 to a patch to be able to gather these resources a maximum rate. In addition, drones are constantly spent when you build buildings, so it's a good idea to actually have around 3 drones per patch. Doing this may seem like a bit of overkill with something as trivial as harvesting, but trust me this is what you will need. With several expansions, the Drones can form a swarm in themselves. Don't overdo it though, you need to keep some of those resources free to produce your attacking units! As with the SCV's, about 4 Drones to a Vespene Geyser is sufficient, again depending on how far away it is from your hatchery.

Other than resource gathering, the only real other use for the Drone is to use them to build the various structures of your hive cluster. Unlike the other two races, you actually lose a Drone for good when making a building (although you can't really call them buildings for the Zerg, more like structures). This is because the Drone itself mutates into that structure. For this reason alone, it can be easy to lose track and consequently lose games, because a lot of players use Drones for building construction and forget to replace them, effectively falling behind in resources. I have already emphasised the importance of resources for the Zerg, so you need to make sure as soon as you lose a Drone to a building, have that new drone spawning at the hatchery straight away. A second lost to mining minerals could cost the game in tight situations. Also, the Zerg structures are essentially living organisms (just mutated drones) so they heal at a slow rate just like the other Zerg units. However, don't EVER use this as an excuse to neglect defending your base. They regenerate their hit points far too slowly to be forgetting that.

Building placement is also important. The Zerg are restricted to placing their buildings on the creep, so they are kinda limited as far as choices go. Remember though, your creep can be extended with creep colonies and hatcheries if you need more space. When constructing a building, you need to consider where the opponent is likely to attack, where you are going to set your rally points and so on. For example, to make a hard time for your opponent if they are Protoss or Zerg in the early game, placing a sunken colony or two in between larger buildings such as hatcheries can be a worthy tactic to employ. If your opponent is not paying too much attention, his units will not be trying to take out the surrounding structures but rather the sunkens themselves, which they they'll have trouble getting to. With Terrans it's a different story, because marines have a ranged attack. In this case, be sure to build sunkens on the perimeters of your supply line. Many Terran Players will try to take out your drones or extractor while staying out of your sunken's range.

Sunken colonies have a quick attack, a long range, have a good number of hit points (400 in total) and do big damage. Quite a weapon to have at your fingertips, especially in numbers. Sunken colonies and zerglings make a powerful combination in early game, as mentioned. In mid-game, combine them with lurkers for added effect and to make your base very hard to penetrate unless your opponent goes air. Also, on maps like The Lost Temple, Morphing a hatchery at a choke point and putting 1 or 2 sunken colonies near it with zergling backup makes for a very hard time for your opponent to use the frontal attack approach.

The Zerg have an answer to the air attack problem too, though. Spore colonies attack at a very good rate, have a lot of hit points (it takes 2 blasts from a yamato cannon to bring them down) and inflict heavy damage. They also have the added feature of being detectors, although don't rely on them for this job, that is what overlords are for. It can come in handy though, when you are able to see your opponent's cloaked wraiths, and to take out that annoying observer taking a look around your base. Back them up with hydralisks both in early game and mid game, they can form a very good combination together, even against the capital ships of the other races. (Although by the time your opponent has these you should have an adequate number of devourers to combat them as well.) When you do build Sunken and Spore colonies, never build just one and leave it by itself. Always group them to make it harder for opponents to take them out. Just like you need many units to win, also must you need many defensive structures. Although don't go overboard, build at least two, but usually don't go over four. Offence is what wins the game. Never leave a creep colony just sitting there either, even if all you wanted it for was to extend your creep. Convert it into something more useful, why the hell not? For the cost of 2 zerglings you can create powerful defensive structures.

These structures under certain circumstances can turn from defensive into attacking weapons. Yes, you can actually use your Drones as an attack option. One catch though: your opponent needs to be Zerg. One aspect that many novice-medium players don't realize is that you can actually morph buildings on your opponent's creep. If you are quick enough and morph several at once, your opponent can be in real hot water if you pull it off effectively, especially close to the worker line. You can also pull this off against Terran and Protoss opponents if you are good enough, you just need to find a way to morph a hatchery close enough to the target first. Sunken are the most powerful towers in the game, use them well.

Many players don't utilize the Nydus Canal, it's a wonder why, in my opinion they are a very powerful asset. Expansions can be connected to your main and other expansions that are on the other side of the map, no matter what the terrain is in between them. I guess the only bad thing about them is that generally they are only available in mid to late game (unless you have decided to quick tech cracklings). A good tactic to use against a Zerg opponent is to actually morph the Nydus Canal exit on their creep, (because you do not need a drone to place an exit) and the second it finishes, instantly send through a massive army to take them completely by surprise. To pull this off, first parasite an enemy overlord or drone… after that, just provide a slight distraction while the canal is building.

This trick can also work against a Terran or Protoss opponents, but you are just going to need to find a way to sneak a drone close enough to their base to launch an attack but far enough away to avoid detection. Use this drone to make a hatchery, once it completes stick on the Nydus Canal exits and watch your opponents immediate reaction to take it down! While this is going on, it may be a good idea to attack from the front as well, just to throw another wildcard into the mix.

The only other thing to be said about Zerg structures is that to effectively use the Zerg to their full potential, many hatcheries must be morphed. I like to use the general guide of having 3 at your main, plus 1 or 2 at each and every expansion. Of course this will differ depending on the amount of resources available, and you may find that you can use 2 at your main just as effectively as 3, or you may find that you require 4. Remember the Zerg's strength is numbers, so do whatever it takes to produce the largest army in the shortest amount of time. Remember, expand expand expand. Zerg can expand quicker than any other race (costing only 300 minerals for a hatchery as opposed to 400 for a Terran Command Centre or a Protoss Nexus). You will be surprised how much of a difference that extra 100 minerals makes, so exploit that fact and gain the upper hand as soon as possible.

Protoss:
The Protoss' answer to their resource mining and building construction problem is the Probe. The Protoss have the toughest units, but are also the most expensive. The Probes does the job that is required of them though, and are quite a useful unit for a number of other things.

First and foremost, as with the other two races mentioned, there is the issue of getting those resources in as quickly as possible. The Probes harvest only a little slower than SCVs, but they don't need to be present to warp in a building. Therefore a Protoss player can make do with a smaller amount of harvesters than Terran or Zerg. Usually 2 to a mineral patch will do, and 4 per Geyser will be enough, depending on how far away it is. There are times when you would bend these rules of course, but as a general guide this is what you should be looking at.

Being robotic immediately dismisses some threats to probes that the other worker units are vulnerable to. Spawn Broodling, Irradiate and Maelstrom are all things that are cast often on the worker units to either impede their progress or destroy them, the probe isn't effected my any of these, which must be an advantage in itself. Probes are also small, and can fit into tighter squeezes than SCV's and Drones can. This means that they won't very often get stuck in a space in between 2 buildings like SCV's often do (in fact I don't think they ever do). Another good thing

As with the Zerg, the Protoss are restricted in their building placements. Probes need to build the buildings within the radius of a Pylon to be able to give it power to operate. This can be a burden, but not a big one. You still can pack your buildings together very tightly, which is a good way for surrounding Photon Cannons. However, don't EVER have your vital buildings all being powered from only one or two Pylons, that is a big mistake. Your opponent can so easily take out those one or two Pylons and leave your buildings without power. Therefore clump your buildings and pylons as close as possible.

The Protoss have just one defensive structure that can attack, the Photon Cannon. However, it is extremely effective against both land and air units. Fast attack, nice powerful hits and the added bonus of being detectors are all good reasons to use them. In fact, in early game they are your only form of detection, unless you are extremely quick in producing observers (which isn't something you normally think about in early game unless you are paranoid of a lurker or dark templar rush).

Photon Cannons can also be used highly effectively as a means of attack. By placing cannon after cannon, one in front of the other in any direction and occasionally sticking another Pylon down to accommodate, you can either trap your opponent in their own base or just go straight for the throat and use them to take out enemy buildings. With a number of cannons behind them, your opponent is going to find it near impossible to stop the approach unless he can make a quick counter with stationary defenses of his own. This tricks works even better if you find your way into the back of the enemy base and start the cannon approach from there! I heard of one game being played on some dumb clone of Big Game Hunters (gay map by the way) where the Protoss player actually nearly succeeded in 'cannoning' the whole map. Somehow he had managed to cannon enough of the map to take out a couple of players and make it impossible for the other players to beat him. An interesting idea, but not practical in games where people actually have brains and don't play money maps.

The other building the Protoss have at their disposal when it comes to assisting in defense (and attack in some cases) is the shield battery. Not a lot of players tend to use these, but they are actually quite effective. It gives the Protoss so much of an upper hand that it's a wonder why they aren't used more often. The trick to using them is to keep close to them when defending your base. They can work at a small distance, and the best possible scenario is that your micro management is good enough with your attacking units that you can have a front line of defense, then when they are damaged enough, pull them back and recharge their shields while you have a second wave of defense taking the attackers on. For the best result, have several shield batteries so you can repeat this process pretty quickly between your defending groups.

These structures can also be used to help an attack. For example, if you have your opponent trapped in their own area, the last thing you want them to do is get out again, and the shield battery is a valuable asset to have in this situation. Use it in the same way as you would to defend your own base. Once you have the knack, you won't be looking back and it will come almost as second nature to you. Build Shield Batteries near ramps. A key use is on Lost Temple where a player can use two Zealot to block the ramp, and a shield battery to recharge them. In this fashion, the Zealot can take on twice their own number.

Remember, as with the other races, you must expand with Protoss. More often than not, it'll be gas that you are going to need more. Without a good supply of Vespene Gas the Protoss are next to useless so you must get your expansions up and running as soon as you can. Keep in mind the Protoss are focused on power, sobe sure to upgrade whenever you can. Don't overdo the numbers and launch a mass attack, rather use the units more effectively and exploit the fact that they are stronger to the best of your ability. The Protoss need to be the most wary about their resource supplies, and so you need to utilize what you have and what is best for the situation

Many Protoss players don't see a need in expanding quickly, in my opinion it is the Protoss that need to expand first, since their Units are so expensive. Probes cannot repair units and buildings, so keep that in mind too. Tactics like massing Carriers may work against novice opponents on BGH, but you get to the games where your nemesis knows how to use Science Vessels, Defilers and High Templars and you could find it turns out to be a waste of money. By using the Psionic Storm, you can save your resources that you would normally spend cannon fodder, many High Templars with many Psionic storms at once, coupled with Photon Cannons can make your base next to impossible to penetrate.

Another good reason to expand quickly against Zerg opponents is that for them to have a real chance at beating you, they are going to need to have many more expansions than you do. By taking the expansions before they can get to them, you are putting yourself in a very good position for later on when resources mean whether you win or lose.

Conclusion

So that's about it from me. I may have gone over the same point several times for each race, but that comes as normal for splitting it up into the different races. The bottom line is resource management, the use of your worker units and the use of your defensive structures. It should go without saying though that as soon as you turn yourself defensive you will never win games, you must balance yourself between both attack and defense. If you get these fundamentals correct, then you will find yourself winning a lot more games. This is not a quick fix by any means, it may take you a while to start utilizing the advantages that present themselves. And of course, coupled with this are the numerous other things you could do in the game, like using certain other units, spells, tactics such as drops and build orders and so on. Refer to Kissblade's guide (linked at the top of this guide) for that kind of information. But in general, start putting what I said here into practice, and get good at it, and your opponents better start worrying.

"There is no knowledge that is not power!"

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