StarCraft® II

StarCraft Art of War - Supply

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Strategy, tactics, and skill. At the heart of StarCraft II are the legion of skilled tacticians and brilliant strategists leading armies of zerg, protoss, and terrans to war across the scarred battlefields of the Koprulu Sector. Knowledge is power; the greatest commanders throughout history earned their victories not merely by virtue of strategic brilliance, but also by applying themselves to rigorous study of warfare and the tactics used by those who fought before them. You too can tap into this valuable resource, and that’s where StarCraft Art of War comes in.

Are you a veteran player? Are you new to StarCraft II and striving to improve your skills? In this weekly feature, we invite players of all skill levels to ask questions, share their tactics, post replays, and provide advice for understanding and defeating today’s most popular units or strategies.

In this week’s holiday edition of Art of War, we’re talking about keeping your army fed:

Supply. Most players know a build order, but how do you manage supply mid to late game to avoid getting supply blocked? How do you balance your army between attacking units and workers at each stage of the game?


Art of War Rules:
  • Stick to the rules. All posts should abide by the forum code of conduct and the Art of War guidelines. Feel free to disagree with each other, but please do so respectfully. When you express opposing opinions, focus on the idea, not its author, their record, or perceived skill level.

  • Be constructive. The purpose of this thread is to share effective tactics and strategies; to adapt, overcome and become a better player based on current conditions. Claiming that a unit or strategy is overpowered isn’t conducive to learning better play and tends to just derail the discussion.

  • No soapboxes, please. This thread is for the community to discuss strategies and tactics amongst themselves, not to push individual opinions about game balance or design.

  • Please limit conjecture. Theorycrafting definitely has its place, but it’s best to keep the discussion focused, on-topic and practical.

  • Important: Please provide explanations and be prepared to provide evidence. These threads exist to elevate the level of strategic discussion on the forums. When appropriate, please provide replays illustrating tactics or techniques you believe to be effective. When using videos or replays please post time stamps to help direct people to the specific points in the action in which you’re referring.

  • Ask questions! These threads aren’t just for experienced players, but also players who are learning the ropes or want to improve their skills.
#1
11/23/2011
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I find that an excellent way to avoid getting supply blocked is just to let your whole army die.
#2
11/23/2011
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11/23/2011 01:39 PMPosted by Krintar
I find that an excellent way to avoid getting supply blocked is just to let your whole army die.


Works for me.

Avoiding getting supply blocked in the mid-late game stages has alot of things that factor into it. Going supply heavy units like roaches means that I would need more overlords more often. Mass thors will need a lot of supply depots being built at once constantly, whereas going mass ling or mass marine will require less.

There is no trick to avoiding getting supply blockedfor 100% of the game, but a good general thought to keep as zerg in 7 minutes onwards is to always make an overlord with any group of units that come off a larva inject.
#3
11/23/2011
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I heard Minigun say once on his stream that a good rule of thumb for Protoss is that each time you do a round of warp-ins, you build one Pylon for each mining base you have. The times when I remember that, it certainly helps me.
#4
11/23/2011
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I always find it difficult to resume supply production after my initial attack/defence frees up supply.
When you check your supply and you have 40 extra it seems like you would rather spend those resources on more army than continuing constant supply production and the next thing you know you're supply blocked because you stopped actively checking.

As protoss I subconsciously want to carpet my base (or the map) in power fields so I have less of a problem with supply as protoss because pylons are very useful things to have ;)
#5
11/23/2011
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MVP
Getting supply blocked is my #1 problem as all three races, though it screws up my Terran the most (can't spam Depots/+5 second build time).

It's one of my biggest problems, and I will come against it as early as 18/19 supply.

Any timing tricks for each race? Best I've heard for Zerg is to build an Overlord for each Hatchery on every Larvae cycle, though Protoss and Terran ones escape me (probably because there is no constant checklist like there is for Zerg).
#6
11/24/2011
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I think building 1 or 2 supply before attacking really helps!
#7
1/9/2012
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As a Terran, don't be afraid to use supply drops. Sure, they mean you miss out on a Mule or a scan, but it means you are given another 30 seconds to build units before new supply depots complete. Also, in the long run, they're a free 100 minerals that appears out of nowhere, so during long macro games or games where the map is mined out, you've spent less of the minerals physically on the map than your opponent, where as a Mule may gather 300 minerals in a lifetime, but it comes off the mineral patches and leaves the map dry.
#8
1/11/2012
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yeah ! I'm glad to have found this post. I didn't know that either.

Are there 3v3 maps that is also playable by those using starter editions?
#9
1/16/2012
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MVP
01/16/2012 09:02 PMPosted by dotslashbin
Are there 3v3 maps that is also playable by those using starter editions?


Nope.

No signature.
#10
1/16/2012
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I always visit Woolworths just before I start a game. I find it gives me a huge supply advantage.

“It’s only paranoia if no one is out to get you. Otherwise, it’s common sense!”
SLIN VLA.
#11
1/17/2012
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Early in the game, it is easy to manage my supply.

Mid-game, it does get difficult. To avoid being supply blocked all the time and not building enough workers, I compromise. Since in the mid game I should have at the very least around four hatcheries, I can make lots of units, especially with the extra larva being produced constantly by queens. Every time I make a bunch of military units, I add 1 drone and 1 overlord to the production also, so I never fall behind.
#12
4/10/2012
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Early in the game, it is easy to manage my supply.

Mid-game, it does get difficult. To avoid being supply blocked all the time and not building enough workers, I compromise. Since in the mid game I should have at the very least around four hatcheries, I can make lots of units, especially with the extra larva being produced constantly by queens. Every time I make a bunch of military units, I add 1 drone and 1 overlord to the production also, so I never fall behind.

Please don't necro threads. Every old thread you post in comes up on the main page again and it's annoying for everyone else.
#13
4/10/2012
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Early in the game, it is easy to manage my supply.

Mid-game, it does get difficult. To avoid being supply blocked all the time and not building enough workers, I compromise. Since in the mid game I should have at the very least around four hatcheries, I can make lots of units, especially with the extra larva being produced constantly by queens. Every time I make a bunch of military units, I add 1 drone and 1 overlord to the production also, so I never fall behind.

Please don't necro threads. Every old thread you post in comes up on the main page again and it's annoying for everyone else.


Sorry, I did not realise it did that. Just thought it would be good to keep the discussion going :)
#14
4/10/2012
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