Harassing
Harassing is very much like rushing in that you use dirty tricks to help give you an advantage. A popular harassment strategy is resource guarding, where you block possible expansion points. First of all this is good scouting because it lets you know how many expansions your opponent could possibly have and second of all it will delay any opponents expansion. When people choose to colonize another base they often send one worker unit to build their main "resource receptacle" building there. Since they sent one worker unit, it is no big loss if he dies and if all goes well, they can set up defenses and put buildings in their new expansion. If you have minor forces at each expansion, you can delay the enemies’ growth. Heck, even ONE combat unit can stop a worker from colonizing a base. The player will then have to send his forces there to counter your forces and it could get messy, but whatever happens, you have just delayed their expansion. In any game, a minute delay helps out a lot. Another harassment strategy is to have an air transportation unit transport a minor army behind the enemies’ lines into the heart of their base to wreak havoc. Know that any units you send in will most likely be destroyed, but if you can kill half their workers in this 10-20 seconds, you have hurt the enemy even more, because he must now build all these guys back, while suffering from diminishing resources from having them gone. Typical hit and runs work best on newly colonized expansions. Just be sure that their main army is off somewhere else. The further their army is from your hit and run force, the longer it will last and the more damage will be done.
FFA
One of the most tense gaming types is Free For All, where there are many people all fighting for victory. The most important thing to do in FFA is to scout. You must know what is going on all over the map at all times. Use scouting to determine who is winning, who is losing, prime targets and available resources. Scouting is a core aspect to all FFA games and if you don't scout you wont be able to take advantage of any opportunities that may arise. Along with scouting, an important factor is to not draw attention to yourself. Say you are attacked, surely you must defend, but try not to counterattack. Murphy’s Law states, "All that can go wrong will go wrong." The second you leave your base, someone else will come in and finish what the first assaulter started. Do not type in chat unless it is absolutely necessary and do not go out attacking random people unless you have specific reasons. Often newbie players (mostly the ones who don't scout) will find one target and stick to them. They don't understand that in FFA games it is most important to attack the person who has the most power. Sure picking off easy targets has its benefits, such as removing one more person from the game, but while you are out attacking, someone else is building up their armies. Deciding what units to build is a hard decision that can only be based off of your judgment. Generally if you are going to mass (build in excess quantities) any units for your armies they must be a balance of many things. Small enough so they wont overcrowd, fast enough so that they can cover the map in short time, ranged enough so that you have more units attacking at onetime and strong enough so that they are not cannon fodder. Massing melee units can be a problem because no matter how many units you have; only the ones in the front row will be attacking. Not to mention, if the enemy has air units he will be untouchable. Massing air units is also quite great because air units can stack. Ground units will get crowded and run into each other, often forming gridlocks. Air units don’t have this roblem. You can send every air unit you have into a big pile and there will be no blocking. Air units can also cross impassable terrain and water.
Base Defense
Base defense is an important part of game play. If your base is well defended it cannot be harassed or even attacked by anything short of a large army. Base defense should cover all sides of the base and have exceptional defense covering the worker units. Each race has a stationary turret of some sort which works quite well when used in mass. Terran do not have an anti-ground stationary turret, but using a stationary siege tank works quite well. The main goal in base defense is to obliterate all possibilities of being harassed and to delay all attacks. No base is ever truly impenetrable or else the game would be boring, but even the best of defense will only hinder attackers assaults. When your base is under attack you must get your main army to defend it. Since you have defensive structures also attacking the assaulter, defending is much easier than attacking. The most important thing to know is that offense is the best defense and defensive structures
are no substitute for a mobile army.
Team Games
Team games are also quite popular in Starcraft. Team games involve 2v2, 3v3, 4v4, 2v2v2v2, 3v3v3, 2v2v2, etc. Any combination of teams adds a new layer of strategy to the game. The most important part of a team game is TEAMWORK. If you and your allies don't work together, you will not survive versus a team that does. The first and foremost part of teamwork is communication. When you type be sure your chat is setup so enemies cannot hear you. Tell your teammates the enemies’ locations, your plans, available resources and proposed tactics. Another core aspect of team play is coordination. Two armies attacking a base is far stronger than one. It is not twice as strong; it is more because you have two people micromanaging troops and often two separate races attacking alongside one another. Just know that double-teaming is part of team play, and the enemies' allies will most likely send reinforcement. Evaluate your enemies and coordinate harassment and expansion control. Keeping your enemies at bay is much easier if you have two sets of eyes watching. If your teammate is under attack, help him! Send everything you have and do whatever it takes to keep him alive. When he is gone, you are next, with two players knocking at your door. A typical strategy for team games is to send one worker unit to each other’s base. These ambassadors prevent total annihilation of one player because even if one player's base is obliterated, the ambassador can start fresh in the players’ base or at an expansion.
