MYM - Concepts of Warcraft, Part 1.

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Well when i started this "guide" i had really no idea what i was going to write about and i was rather interested in seeing how i could really get about something to the public that was

a) free
b) useful
c) see my name among the list of mym's monthly winners. (lol).

So anyway my intention in the next series of articles (which ill do or not do depending on what you tell me after reading this) is to help myself and maybe you understand the technicalities involved in a game as complex as Warcraft. I will make a humble attempt to give you an idea of what the wonderful game of Warcraft involves right from Macro to Micro to harass to expo (wow that rhymed..). These are things im still learning to understand better so

If i were to start with the absolute fundamental basics of the game, you'll probably hit next blog so i am not going to start by telling you that you need Wood and Lumber and well farms/burrows/ziggurats/moonwells.

However the first point i would like to address is a topic i call

****************************--------------------------********************
R E S O U R C E S
****************************---------------------------********************

I know, im not an Ascii artist ok ? I just thought that was a pretty neat way to introduce a topic. In fact its so crude i think im starting to love it.

Ok so what are resources and why are they important ?
This is probably a dumb question on the upfront but an important thing to remember is "He who eats well, fights well." What this doesnt mean is Gorging on Mcdonald's burgers will make you a better warcraft player.

This means that its time to delve into the topic of Macroing.
Macromanagement is literally "Large Management" or a look at the higher/overall picture of the game. Warcraft is often called MicroCraft meaning that a lot of importance is attached to the "Controlling of Units" of the game. Well how can you get units if you dont have resources? Thus a fundamental ability of the game is to generate enough resources to keep an army production going. This can be done in the positive and negative ways. Allow me to explain them.

+ve
a) Gaining Expansions.
There is a concept called Upkeep in warcraft which most players are familiar with. What this basically is, is that above a certain population limit (accounting both your army as well as your resource collectors) you are taxed on your gold income. I know, aren't they mean bastards? i mean this is supposed to be a game where Tax shouldnt come in. But what this allows is for an interesting game play. Staying below 50 food is the No upkeep stage which i like to call the WYMIWYG stage (What you mine is what you get). Every resource collector (peon/peasant/wisp/acolyte) mines in 10 gold per cycle. That is if you have 5 workers (which is the max no btw for units to enter a mine) youll get 50 gold per 5 seconds (or whatever the exact time, im doin an over all guide k? not a statistic report so quiet down.) Now if you have an army size of larger than 50, you go into low upkeep. This is the diabetes stage, danger to overall economy but not necessarily fatal. You lose 30 percent of your mined income and thus retrieve only Meaning you get 3 lesser gold per worker. And if you hit 80+ population you get a heart attack, ie its fatal to your economy (-5 Gold per worker). Most players use the tactic of gaining gold by reaching 50 pop and then suddenly booming out to 80 food or more (MadFroG's tactic with mass gargs). But remember if you take up expansions you also need more workers hence more non fighting population. So in order to gain more gold you cannot squeeze the same gold mine, instead you hunt another. This is what "expo" "2nd base" "more gold" all mean. You are basically allowing for 2 inputs to your income. This is important as you would have noticed NE players doing mass expos as their units are rather fragile but yet still being able to counter whatever is thrown on them. How are they doing it? Simple, they have twice the income you have. NE players NEED (omg NE in Need clever or?) to set up expansions as they are primarily a hit and run based race. Thus making their units fragile and not lasting long in fights, except for Imbalanced bears and staff which we'll get to later. So its quite clear, gaining an expo is important as it helps you get more income and thus mass forces stronger/better (upgraded) or just more overwhelming. Some races have this easier, some have it tougher. Hence those that have it harder to a second tactic which is the sort of negative way of doing things.

-ve
b) Attacking the economy of the enemy.
Every evil thing you can concieve of to do onto your enemy comes here. What i mean is be a pain in the ass to your opponent. One way to get a bigger army is to either build more unit producing buildings (for which you need an expansion) or is to make sure your opponent can't build them OR to disrupt what would have otherwise been a peaceful economy. In other words, yep you guessed it. HARASSING. Literally meaning disrupting or being a Pain in the ass. You do this by what in several different ways. While its not possible to list each and every tactic, let me give you some examples.

DK/Lich harass coil nova on peasants.
Wyverns harass on lumber peasants.
Garg harass on wisps.
Burrow harass by gayAm/Bm.
Dh pissing off with hitting your peasants.

You get the idea dont you? You might have noticed i used peasants many times, you clever you, thats because humans are prone to harass but thats again later on yo wait a bit...

Another good thing that would also count is to make sure you prevent the enemys army in "creeping" by "creepjacking". What this means is to ambush the enemy while he is fighting creeps to gain experience by you hitting and running against his units. This puts him in a state of tension as he has to either fight 2 enemies (creeps + you ) at the same time or get out (by tp'in, running etc).

That was one part, the other also involves an overall picture of the game or what is termed as "GENERAL STRATEGY." The thing with Warcraft is that there are loads of strategies that can work provided they are termed right. So why is it that you see almost every gosu use a cookie cutter or why is that you trying to attempt a cookie cutter fails? It's because your indepth knowledge of why and how it works doesnt sync with that of the person executing it. If Madfrog stays under 50 pop and attacks certain targets, he knows what he is doing precisely out of practice, but you try the same thing you get owned and then post a new thread on SK gaming about imbalance.
Every strategy has holes and a better player exploits those holes to gain an edge. A cookie cutter has the least amount of proven holes and hence everyones comfortable doing that. But what you can generally gain from the replays is the overall what do i do when i face an elf, what do i do when i face an orc etc etc. Macro in this case means you try to picture the overall strategy you would face and base your actions (non micro ones) on it. Like if i were to rush to t3, i would need what? More lumber and certain defence mechanisms as i am not going to concentrate on lower tier units hence i would get
a) a lumber mill for faster collection
b) maybe more peasants/ghouls to get lumber and compliment no 1.
c) towers for defence or constantly harass enemy so he doesnt find out what you are doing.etc.

As you see if you do just one strat you arent going to understand why it works. Do something crazy like pitlord first vs ne and see how best you can use him (practice games of course, dont play a tourney and come and bitch to me about hey kage you #$@#@ you said try it wtf bi@$#%@# etc), then you will understand Why pros never go pitlord vs ne first (well some do but thats coz they were smoking some really cool stuff.).

Macro also, in sort of a conclusion to this rather long read, refers to the final aspect, that is controlling your growth and territory. The more expansions you have, the more income you have. The more buildings you put up, the faster you get your troops. 2 spirit lodges will give you 2 shamans faster than one would at the same time of production right?

In the end of this part 1, i hope something was gained (if not you can bitch about it in the comments too thats appreciated as well.) and hopefully in my next series of articles i can deal with macro with screenshots and figures and replays and what not.

Till then, GL GF GG in Macroing.

Comments (8)

Page :

(2 years ago) #1 myMYM\|ohjeohje

dont know about that c part :) but good reading though :) Its Mr. Replay manager to you ! _ -Ohjeohje

(2 years ago) #2 ShamRock

Nice work kage :) In this world of sin i hope to surrender to the holy bliss.

(2 years ago) #3 supah*nettn

I love you Kage :O I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it!

(2 years ago) #4 MYM\|Mercy

It surely enlightned me, the wc3 noob I am, on certain things, nice work Kage :) Knowing my destiny - Is accepting your defeat...

(2 years ago) #5 Noname

Kage, you're still a freaking newblet so go lose. xD nice work K-man :D

(2 years ago) #6 Flex-

Macro? Micro? whatever.... panda + mass hunts and gg < -- the way if strifero Sup?

(2 years ago) #7 wNv\|VBadGirl

"ie its fatal to your economy (-5 Gold per worker). " actually u have -6 . each peon/peasant/etc mines only +4 gold, that's why having more than 1 exansion up running it's crucial in this stage. Hold the S cause i'm an AINT.

(2 years ago) #8 rohanak

now dats some help to noobs My life for the horde

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	Karthick 'Kage' Gopal
	From : India
	Age : 2008 years old

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