so im told that scouting in early game is an important thing to do., so usually after building my first pylon I send my probe into my enemies base but what exactly am I looking for? how do I use that information? because everytime I do it, against every toss Ill see a pylon a gate and maybe a core, against terran ill see a supply depot and barracks i mean these are buildings which everybody has to build, so what other key pieces of information should I be picking up on? I can kinda understand against zerg, seeing how early their spawning pool is so you know whether you should expect zerglings or not, but what else should I be looking for?
The number of gas extractor buildings. If they get 2 very early, you can be pretty certain to get a tech rush, and they won't have a whole lot of low tier units to protect their base. This should be a sign for you to go harass as much as possible, or even take out your opponent right away, since he'll be poorly defended for a while. Other then that, you can use your scout very well against all races to prevent expanding early. Since they'll have no units to attack you, except for workers, you can simply put your worker at their natural expansion after scouting. Right in the spot where the main building would go, that is. This causes them having to kill your worker first to be able to harvest resources properly, although Terrans can just lift off. But hey, at least you'll know when they expand. Other then that, the longer you keep your scout alive, the more you'll get to know about your opponent. But that should be pretty obvious. ^^
guess what, your probe is the excellent harasser at the beginning especially if your versing terran. Attack their scvs, once you lose your shield, run around his base until your shield goes back up (remember your shield goes back up way faster in sc2 and sc), then attack again. Try to kill as many scvs as possible before he gets his first marine. even better, try to kill the scvs that are building...they tend to be the most vulnerable. this was totally off topic. but when i heard you scout with a probe, i am assuming you play protoss.
Signs you should pick up: Terran: do they wall off, do they build additional barracks or factory? Tech labs, reactors or nothing? Protoss: Cybernetics core before or after second pylon, additional gateways, chrono boost on Nexus or cybercore/gateways? Zerg: do they expand early, do they get gas at all?
Also, if your opponent has very few workers and no barracks/gateway at all in his base, he is proxying you. Immediatly scout around your base and prepare for early pressure. In the best case, when you feel your base secure, attack him, usually, there won't be anything to defend.
say if i see barracks with a techlab then i still wouldnt know if he was going marauders or rushing me with reapers would I? because I would personally prepare differently for each of those 2 units what does the timing of the cyber core tell me? and i really know nothing about the zerg race, so why is them getting gas an important thing to pick up? same with fast expands? seems like FE is something alot of zerg do anyway
Early cyb core in toss mirror should mean he techs soon, or goes blink stalkers. If your early probe scouts barracks with tech lab, he usually goes reapers. But genereally you should get an early stalker against terran anyways, this means cyb core immediatly after gateway. Fast expand is very vulnerable to an early zealot push.
since i play protoss and don't scout early game, all i can give you is what my build might mean. if i have 2 gates im rushing zealots( which i dont do generally) if i have 1 gate and a cybo im not, i will build a stalkers before getting my next tech and kill your probe thing so you know nothing (which is why i scout with a observer) how much gas they have can give you a good estimate of what they are going in higher level games in lower level people get 2 gas for no real reason/cause it is there.
Is it a viable strat to get 2 gas early but go for an early push, just to make the opponent feel safe? 2nd gas for tricking the opponent, I mean.
I have a real problem scouting against terran as protoss. Once they kill my early probe, I cant get any more into their base becouse they wall off. Then, I dont know whether I should tech up to Robo Bay or Twighlight council. I need the robo bay to get observers to scout them, but if I spend the resources on this, I dont have enough to get an early charge upgrade or get enough troops if they go mauraders. Also, when i do send observers into their base, it always seems like a sad waste of gas, since most terran players build missle turrets all through their base to stop protoss scouting. The third option is the hallucination pheonix, but I never want to waste the energy with my sentries when i could need it at anyt time for gaurdian shields/force field. Any tips on how best to scout?
Just build another sentry which you can always need and spam a phoenix with one of the others with more energy? But still, this one will get shot down by turrets just as the observer? Or is the phoenix fast enough?
Yeah the hallucination pheonix is great even though it gets shot down because its so fast. But I'm talking about early in the game, 100 energy on a sentry is kind of steep, when I could need a gaurdian shield any second to fend off a marine/maurader push. Plus the 100 minerals and 100 gas for the actual hallucination research.
Maybe try holding the xel naga towers so you know you won't need energy the next seconds? Generally it's good to have map control, especially against turtling toss/terran.
You want to scout zerg to see how early they are getting their Spawning Pool. 12 Pool and below may indicate a ling rush. How do you know what supply he is on? You just have to guess based on your own supply. Early game, you both are making workers so the unit count should be about the same.
