Siege tanks love some high ground.

With regard to narrow passes, if you can occupy them first, let them be strongly garrisoned and await the advent of the enemy.* Should the army forestall you in occupying a pass, do not go after him if the pass is fully garrisoned, but only if it is weakly garrisoned.

It can be difficult to learn the ins and outs of every map without quite a bit of time spent out of game or ranked matches looking up every nuance of each one. I’m certainly not going to suggest you do that. Instead, I’d like to touch on some general suggestions and observations when it comes to terrain.

A lot of build orders call for you to send a worker to scout. You may see the pros doing it too. The truth is, other than giving you the initial position of the enemy, this potential loss of an early gatherer does not provide more vital intelligence, as to what your opponent is currently building or when their attack is coming. Likewise, unless they invest in some other means of observing you, they won’t have that intelligence either. Most of these terrain suggestions will provide you with some means to gather that intelligence, and possibly exploit the advantages some of your units provide.

The Higher Ground

StarCraft 2 maps are not flat surfaces. Plateaus, cliffs and ridges run throughout the battlefield. Many historical military engagements have proven that significant advantage exists in positions upon higher ground. In the case of StarCraft 2, if nothing else, you have the capability to look down into a trench or pathway and see where the enemy is going and in what numbers – at least until you’re spotted and they turn your brave scout into a bloody smear.

The high ground provides opportunities beyond mere observation. Certain units – seige tanks and colossi for example – lay down their fire in an indirect fashion, spreading destruction over a wide area. Doing so from a higher position limits the amount of retribution that can be brought against that position. Such planning can stall or possibly even stop an incoming attack, buying you more time to mount your counter-offensive.

The Path Less Traveled

In most cases, a player with some skill will quickly outgrow their initial placement and need to expand. There are some builds that can take you entirely to success on one base, but sooner or later you’re going to run out of minerals. Expansions solve the potential problem of economic shortfall, but these positions are more exposed to entry, especially from unexpected angles.

Destructible rocks, reeds, smoke and other aspects of the environment will make these approaches less obvious. However, opening these approaches provide some interesting opportunities. Most of them lead almost directly into the mineral line of the expansion. Fast units, such as hellions, speedlings/banelines and blink stalkers, can exploit this placement, bring some damage into the workers behind the expansion, and bug out before your opponent can retaliate. It doesn’t work for every map or every strategy, but with the right timing and units it can be devastating.

Choke Points

Most maps put the players in a position with a ramp that can be walled off and provides some natural defense. Other terrain features can limit the approaches of an opposing force into your bases. As many historical battles can teach us, with the right positioning and preparation, a small force can hold off a much larger one while taking minimal casualties.

Other than the immediate benefit of deterring your opponent, preparing and keeping choke points also allows one the opportunity to build in relative peace. Many players, faced with a daunting defensive position, will throw ever-growing waves of similar forces against it. While they will break through eventually, a canny player will exploit this to build a rapid response and sortie out when the next wave hits.

Of course, if either player goes for air superiority and the other is unprepared, terrain becomes something of a moot point. But that’s a consideration for another time.

* Because then, as Tu Yu observes, “the initiative will lie with us, and by making sudden and unexpected attacks we shall have the enemy at our mercy.”

The Viking: Fast, smashing anti-air missiles, wide vision area. Great for both offense & defense.

The Art of War teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of our enemy’s not coming, but on our own readiness to recieve our enemy; not on the chance of our enemy’s not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.

I’ve mentioned in the past that attacks on your base are inevitable. It’s only a matter of time before some measure of nastiness is going to roll up on all your expensive buildings and high-tech units. Sooner or later you do need to look to your defenses. Some would say that defenses must take the form of static buildings and choke point formations, while others maintain that the best defense is a good offense. For the sake of argument, we’ll call these two standpoints those of the Tortoise and the Hare.

The Tortoise is appropriate for more static defensive tactics. It’s appropriate that this method is called “turtling”. Like the Night’s Watch in Game of Thrones or the ancient Emperors of China, imposing and immobile defenses can deter or slow down enemy aggression with their mere presence. It also is worth noting that maintaining a strong defensive line can provide a measure of breathing room for you to build esoteric, air-based strategies centered around drops, mineral line harassment or top-tier airborne sieges.

The drawbacks to this defensive methodology is that it’s entirely reactionary. You have to scramble if your opponent comes up with a way around your defenses or attacks a weaker side of your position. It also allows ample time for your opponent to build tactics & counters of their own. Finally, even turtle tactics require resources to maintain their lines and expand, and since defenses are so static and getting caught out of position can be lethal for said defenses, you will be susceptible to strangulation if you aren’t careful.

The Hare takes the fight to the enemy. Rather than waiting behind walls and automated defenses, this methodology pushes out as quickly as possible. It’s a fast and aggressive style of play that relies upon repeated thrusts against the enemy position to throw off their timing. The reason why I would consider this a method of defense is that as long as you’re throwing dudes at the enemy, you’re less likely to get dudes thrown at you. This means you can keep building behind each push, and if you aren’t, you should be.

That’s one of the major problems with relying upon offense. If you become focused on the battles and explosions, you might miss a chance to expand or build. If you look at a replay and see your buildings are idle and you’re flush with minerals or gas, you’re doing something wrong. Attacking quickly and repeatedly can also be fragile in the early game, and if an enemy’s defenses continuously repel your pushes and you don’t adapt quickly enough, your next push might be the opening they’ll exploit to ruin you. Constant attacks can deprive mineral line of defenders, which is just another way of saying counter-attacks can be deadly if your macro is not maintained.

Which way do you tend to lean? How do you make your position unassailable?