Some Good Stuff To Know About Early Terran Build Orders

I had some questions about early game build orders with Terran so I decided to do some testing with qxc's build order tester. I posted a long version on my blog, but I wanted to share my results here in the hopes that it will help someone in the community. This is simple stuff, and will mostly be applicable to beginner's.

Here's the three things I tested:
1. Difference between moving your SCV's first, then training one and training first, moving second (at the very beginning of games)
2. Does it matter if you rally your SCV's yourself, or should you just let the AI do the work?
3. Is it best (with Terran) to build a supply depot at 9 food or 10 food.

All pretty simple and straight-forward, but the results I got surprised me. I tested each of these scenarios quite a few times and found a pretty good 'average' result for each one.

First test - Which is more efficient: train then move or move then train.

I found that at about the :40 mark I was able to have 5-15 more minerals when I trained an SCV first, then told my guys to mine. Plus my SCV's were coming out a little earlier.

Second test - Manually rally my SCV's to the mineral patches, or just rally to the nearest and let the AI figure it out.

While the AI in Starcraft 2 is MUCH improved over the original, it still doesn't do as well as manually micro-managing your early game mining. I found that I was able to squeeze 10-20 more minerals out of my workers when I manually told them where to go versus letting the AI do it.

Third test - Supply depot on 9 or 10 food?

I had a good guess on this test, but I wanted to know for sure. And again this is only for Terran and doesn't apply if you're doing a 9 or 10 racks build obviously.

So I found out that again I was able to get 10-20 more minerals by building my depot at 10 food. A small difference but a decent result. Plus since I wasn't waiting on minerals my SCV's were coming out a few seconds earlier doing it this way. Building on 9 food just isn't that efficient.

Now these test results do seem small, but they add up! If you put these 3 little things together you're ahead by 25-55 minerals and a few seconds of SCV production, which can make a pretty big difference if you get rushed.

Hope this helps someone!
Taerix

Nice job on the ideas but these ideas should not be used just for Terran since all races can employ similar ideas. First thing is, no matter what race you should always build your worker before sending the others to mine. Unless you are doing a 6 pool and just want to use that first 50 minerals toward the pool.

Secondly I would like to discuss what is known as the worker split. You are very correct that splitting your workers will give you minerals faster than just rallying to one. I would give people an easy idea on how to split. So let us imagine you have just used that first 50 minerals to make your first worker and are getting ready to send your workers to mine. It is important to think to yourself that:"just sending them to one mineral patch and letting them figure it out is pure evil and I can go to hell for that". A bit over the top but, just realize its not a good thing. So how I deal with this is: I box all of my workers, and send them all to one patch.

Now I know you all are like "OMG you are so evil 'cuz you just said to not do that evil, horrid thing". And yes that is true but this is where the split comes in. While the workers are speeding their way to the minerals you select 3 of them and send them to a different mineral patch. Then, when you are done with the split, you can set your bases rally point to a (very important to note) mineral patch that is not currently being mined. There are a few variations of how this works but the 3 split is what many people try to accomplish and it works very well.

The ideal situation is that all workers will get to their patches relatively at the same time. What I try to do is this: when I select my workers I try to select the 4th mineral patch from the top, and the 3 that I split off I send to the 2nd from the bottom (the 7th from the top). When the first 3 workers get to the 4th mineral patch one will instantly start mining and the other 2 will split, one will go to the 3rd patch the other to the 5th. As that happens the second 3 reach the 7th mineral patch and the same thing occurs, one starts mining and the other 2 go to the 6th and 8th mineral patch. But this is just how I like to do it, there is no wrong way except to just do a single rally. Just practice on what feels right to you until you feel good about your split.

The thing about the supply depot is a great point as well. There are so many options with each race to mess around with about timing supply. In the zerg strategy thread Hammy made this great post about how the 9 overlord, 10 overlord and extractor trick all ended up to being nearly identical in the follow up timings. Do not be afraid to fiddle with supply timings to suit your build instead of going for the "normal". As protoss I have used the 8,9. and 10 pylon at any one point in time due to various match ups and various maps. It is a good idea to be able to be flexible in your starts if need be. Because you wont always live through a 6 pool on a "normal" 13 gate.

Also, when manually rallying, fill up the closest mineral patches first (they do make a difference, I believe you get an extra trip with your MULE).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by silencbank

As protoss I have used the 8,9. and 10 pylon at any one point in time due to various match ups and various maps. It is a good idea to be able to be flexible in your starts if need be. Because you wont always live through a 6 pool on a "normal" 13 gate.

---

You can if you block off your choke before then. The key is to scout: I don't recommend screwing your economy because you think a rush might be coming - that's overreacting.

Quote:

---

I believe you get an extra trip with your MULE

---

This is a great suggestion. I try to vary where I send my mules though, since if you always send him to the same mineral patch that one will be mined out much faster than all the others which will lower the rate you're getting minerals from that base.

Might not make a huge difference, but every advantage helps!

I'm glad people brought up the 9 or 10 supply depot discussion.

If you build a supply depot @ 10, you'll be supply blocked for max.. 15 secs? That's HUGE! That's almost an entire scv behind (17 secs - correct me if i'm wrong..)

I always try and not get supply blocked, but if you are building at ur choke which is obviously further than if you just build the supply depot next to ur CC, you can get the timing down pretty good if you move out with a scv who is coming back to cc at ~50 minerals @ 8 food. So by the time you get to the choke, you have exactly 100 minerals and at 9 supply. You will most probably get supply blocked, but only for 1-2 seconds.
So, in short
@ 8 / 10 supply : When you have ~50 minerals in the bank, move to your choke with an scv who just finished returning minerals and move to choke
@ 9 / 10 supply: By the time your scv gets there. You'll have 100 mins and 9/10 supply


I fail to see how getting supply blocked when you build ur supply @ 10 is anything of efficient. For building at 9 supply, you don't cut scvs. I could only think building a supply @ 10 MIGHT be okay if you're planning for a quick < 6mins attack.

Anyone care to comment? I've thought about this alot and I am a firm believer that 9 supply is the way to go!!!!!

I am going to have to disagree because there is a way to get the depot out at 10 supply, and not be supply blocked save for 2-3 seconds depending on lag. What I do is fill up my 8 mineral patches like normal after doing the split. On my 9th scv I auto rally it to my ramp. While my 9th scv is building I que up the 10th scv. When the 9th scv gets to the ramp it is very close to being 100 minerals in the bank, so you can happily build the depot and be ok. So, even though I build it with my 9th scv I am technically at 10 supply. The timing works so well that there is a very little gap between when the depot finishes and scv 12 starts. When I do my wall off econ start this is how I always do it and it works well for me. Do not forget that Terran is not like the other races, you start out at 11 supply not 10.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by silencbank

I am going to have to disagree because there is a way to get the depot out at 10 supply, and not be supply blocked save for 2-3 seconds depending on lag.

---

This is what I've found too, if you build your depot when your supply says 10/11 right when you hit 100 minerals, you'll only be supply blocked for half a second or maybe even none if you're fast enough.

But if you go 9 depot you'll be waiting for 4-5 seconds on money to make scv #10.

oh shit. I just got owned.

I forgot terran start with 11 supply to start.

See what happens when the beta stops?

I do the exact same as everyone else.

I agree completely.

Never build Supply at 9/11.

Always build Supply at 10/11.

10/11 doesn't mean you already have 10 SCVs. The 10th is still being made.

I like to keep track of my rally points, to make sure I send them to the patches with the least workers.

As a Zerg player, I find it very useful when doing a 13-pool to rally my 3 drones once the ovie pops to different patches, so they don't waste the time splitting.

I'm still not skilled enough to do the 3/3 starting split, though.