War Selection – Build Order Guide

Very detailed guide to optimize your early to late game – Build Order!

Intro

Note: Credit goes to Vyn

As a SC2 players, I like to optimize early game with what is called a build order (BO). In order to be precise in the timings, I use my current population as an indicator.

After many tests, I think I came with something that should be close from an optimal start. (Please tell me if you think things are not great or could be better)

Keep in mind:

• This guide is truly effective if you already know the basics like how to easily defend yourself against wildlife. Otherwise, most timings won’t be accurate.
• This guide is trully accurate for asian players since I mostly play Asia (90%).
• By default, you are producing workers and houses non-stop.
• If you got a lucky start like cows or 20+ trees close to your spawn, the whole thing is completely different).
• If you got rushed early, all the timings are delayed too.
• This guide is for players that prefer to play the late game over rushing early.
• I am not talking about balance since it is not what matters here and is subject to changes.

Stone Age

Start -> send one of the wood worker to build a house.

The first 2 new workers goes to wood, the next ones goes to berries until you reach 19 pop.

The guy you send to build your second house will be your scout which mean he will explore the close area all around your spawn to find a good spot to create a warehouse for wood. Starting by scouting around berries with the hope to find a good spot here (so you can optimize both food and wood)

At 19 at most -> you must drop your warehouse at the best spot possible, from there, all the workers goes to the wood close to it (so you have ~11 workers on berries).

At 20+ -> you can start the eco techs (from the warehouse). I think is it worth it, especially if your spawn is ♥ and you know you are going to stay at Stone Age a little longer than usual.

At 28 -> send a new scout to look for a good spot for your Temple unless you already found a good one. A good spot is near Iron. If you are low on food (struggling to have 50-100 food in stock) put 2-4 workers from wood to food since you need 100 food to start Temple.

Build Temple as soon as you find a good place. Build it with 2 workers if you have too much wood (200+). Don’t build it on coast because it is very easy to destroy it from the sea with bombard ship.

Tech up as soon as your Temple is done (EU or Asia, EU is more beginner friendly). From there, there is no specific place your workers should go to. Send them where you need them: food/wood.

Bronze Age

At 43pop -> you should have tech up.

The common mistake is to upgrade all your workers asap. Upgrade your workers only if you need more to build advanced building or have lot of food in storage.

From there, the first thing to do is the vision research (cheap and very useful to find all the best spots to focus your eco on and to defend yourself in the early game). Then I usually queue 5 to 10 workers with rally point to iron and then age up asap.

You should have around 100 iron and ~15 workers on iron when you start aging up. (so you needed to pull some form other resources in advance)

If you are lucky enough to have safe water close by. You should build a harbor just before you start aging up to Iron age.

This way, you can still upgrade your eco (making ship) while not being able to create workers.

That is also why it is important not to delay the timing you are aging up since you will quickly reach the 60pop limits otherwise.

Iron Age

First things to do -> uncap population since you are very probably at 60/60pop.

Upgrade your eco with your warehouses upgrades (ideally you want to build your second warehouse just before so you can run both upgrades immediately). Upgrade your Warehouses/Food building/Forge (for EU).

Then make army/other buildings.

If near water, that is a good timing to create another harbor or even 2 more if you see a lot of water.

Middle Age and Beyond…

From there, try to gain as much territory(vision) as possible by building towers near borders (it is even better to build tower at the end of Iron age so the towers are really cheap). I usually create a squad of 5 workers to build tower at Iron Age and 8 for Middle Age.

Don’t underestimate the cost to age up at this point. It can truly put you into an eco crisis if you don’t manage it well.

Build tractor as soon as you can since they are very effective to harvest food and cost much less supply. If you need more population, kill your fishing ship first if you have some (very high population cost for very little food production in late game).

By the time you have 5-7 tractors, you don’t need any workers on food. Kill them if you need pop and got enough resources.

You might only need 60 workers for the ultimate late game.

When Should I Build Army / Defences?

The smaller your territory is, the earlier you should make barracks.

>350 very dangerous -> might go for warriors from stone age to scout and defend beasts pull.

>800 stay vigilant -> go for 2-4 barracks as soon as you reach bronze age but after upgrading your warehouse which is the priority.

<800 Safe spot -> you don’t need to build barracks until you reach iron age.

Keep in mind that upgraded workers do a lot of damage, so they can really help to defend early attacks.

Towers are great to defend but you should not build them unless you NEED them (if you see a scary army coming) because it is very costly and built fast.

If you get bully by cav (mostly Asian Ronins) don’t try to run after them too much, the best thing is usually to go straight to your opponent main base with your army to force him to back up.

Some of the Tons of Little Details

• Don’t put more than 3 workers on a tree/berries bush or they will start colliding non-stop and loose efficiency.
• Don’t put more than 15 workers/per warehouses on a single stone/iron deposits for the same reasons.
• Don’t put 2 fish boat on the same fish deposit for the same reasons.
• Build your harbor on obtuse angle and not acute angles so your fishing ship will less likely block each other.
• If you play as Asia, good luck microing your workers on fuc… chicken.
• Upgrading Houses is usually better than building new ones (no workers has to work on building it).
• If you can kill or bait a wild animal into your main base to harvest food early, DO IT. It is much more efficient to get food. Don’t even fight wildlife if you can avoid the fight in early game. The best thing is always to let your worker that is focus die as far as possible from your base. Ideally, you want to auto-attack the beast right before your guy die so it will pull in all beasts around. If you do it while being to close from your base, beast might attack your closest workers/buildings so be careful. You don’t want to group beasts near a good spot for resources so try to dodge those while running away.
• If your territory is safe (>500) destroy the initial defense you got since it will be useless and take valuable space. Destroy it whatever your territory size if it is on the path of basic resources.
• Reshearching Vision first is not actually mandatory but it make everything easier and saffer. Prioritize other upgrade only if you are someone who does not learned anything reading this guide 🙂