If you are one of the tens of millions that play World of Warcraft,
surely at some point you’ve heard of StarCraft II.  It’s
coming with a
WoW pet!  It’s Blizzard’s next big game!  They showed
commercials for
it during the NBA finals!

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/86711"> src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/86711"
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style="font-style: italic;">It all begins with the
construction of workers, and it all ends with the destruction of
workers.

But uh, what is it?

StarCraft II is, at its heart, an action-packed Real Time Strategy
game.  There are no turns.  Everything happens
simultaneously as other things are happening.  You’re
gathering resources?  I’m moving my army in position to attack
them.  When I say action-packed, I also mean it’s action for
the player as well.  It’s very difficult to win without
constantly being active and overseeing the production of units,
utilizing them in combat, and expanding your economy to afford more
units all at the same time.



It’s a daunting task!  But you can do it.  Even if
you’ve never played a Command and Conquer, Warcraft, or Homeworld in
your life, StarCraft II will amaze you and entertain you for hours on
end.  And once you get used to it and go online with it that
entertainment value can expand to days, weeks or even years. 
Warcraft III is almost dead from a competitive base game perspective,
but the custom maps have given it life far beyond that of any other
RTS, and StarCraft was no different in the late 90’s.  



Your first real decision is who you’re going to play as – Terran, Zerg
or Protoss.  Obviously you can switch at any time, and will
need to understand all three to win, but you need to start somewhere.



    Terrans
- The Terran race is essentially
humanity’s united (sometimes) stand.  Terrans are fragile, but
strike from
afar with great power.  They have the best methods of healing
and repair, but require intense attention to survive and
excel.  Terrans generally suffer from a lack of mobility, so
they can be caught out of position and flanked effectively.



    Zerg
- Aliens as far as the eye can
see.  The Zerg are a ravenous race that revolves around
strength in numbers, and speed.  What little they have that
can attack from long range is very good, but most of their units
require being in your enemy’s face.  The Zerg can only build
on the Creep, a goo produced by your main buildings.  All
units and structures are organic and regenerate over time as well.

    

    Protoss
- Honorable soldiers, the
Protoss warriors embody true strength, and employ some of the most
devastating and tough units at any stage of the game.  All
units have shields, which absorb damage before the unit takes actual
damage, and these shields regenerate quickly when out of
combat.  The Protoss can only build when in range of a Pylon,
or a field that can support their strange structures.  These
structures are warped out of thin air, and only require a worker to
start it--it will finish on its own.



Who you choose is entirely up to you.  There is no superior
race.  If there is one, it’ll quickly be nerfed, so have faith
in the developers and pick whatever interests you the most.



Real time strategy games are a game of harvest, build, and kill,
typically in that order.  Resources are needed to build the
army you want, so every game will start you off with a main structure
and a handful of workers to mine nearby minerals with. 
Speaking of minerals and resources, there are three resources in
StarCraft II.



   
Minerals - Required for
everything.  The bread and butter of your economy, Minerals
alone are enough to produce a decent force and get a solid economy and
base up and running

    Vespene
Gas - Required for most
high-tech units.  Units generally have less of a demand for
Gas than Minerals, but some units require as much as double to triple
the Gas as they do Minerals.  What’s more, Gas is much harder
to harvest en masse.  Be picky about what you spend your Gas
on, as it will almost always be your limiting resource of production.

    Supply
- Your ability to produce new
units.  This caps out at 200, and each structure or unit you
build that supplies this provides 8 or 9 supply each.



Send your initial workers to the nearby minerals, and start
constructing more.  There’s a function called Rally Points in
this game that enables you to set smart commands to newly built
troops.  Each building can set its own rally point, and if you
set a rally point to the resources for your workers, they’ll
immediately begin harvesting with no input from you once they are
completed.  There is such a thing as too many workers, but
generally you won’t have to worry about this while you’re still
learning.  Just remember, if you have money, build workers too!



From there, you need to build supply units or structures to make room
for more workers and your first military units.  Progress
through the tech tree and make combat units of your choosing. 
The best way to go about this is to see what your opponent is going
for, and react accordingly.  Countering your opponent’s unit
choices is the most important aspect of multiplayer in StarCraft II.



Crushing your opponent with what you’ve created may take
time.  Multiple attacks might not even be enough. 
Just remember to keep expanding, and diversify your forces as needed to
react to your opponent.  Once you’ve eliminated all of your
opponent’s command structures, their remaining structures will be
revealed and you can crush them as you see fit to end the game with a
victory. 



Victory will not always happen though, and especially while learning,
you need to learn to cope with defeat as well.  Be graceful in
your loss.  Don’t complain about balance or units, don’t bring
anyone’s mother into the conversation, and a simple “gg” will convey
your surrender as a good game.  Don’t let any game get to you,
and just give it another go later.  Take a break if you need
to.  Play some custom maps perhaps!



You don’t have to play multiplayer to get a blast from this game
though.  The rich single player campaign will provide you with
more than enough thrills and drama, with award winning voice actors and
actresses talking rather than xXLeGoLaSXx.  Striving for the
achievements and secrets in this campaign will keep you busy for a very
long time!



We’re two weeks from release.  Are you ready?