How to scout in the early game?

[Valki]

So, after beating the Sorian AI I ventured to the ladder, where I lost a lot of games but actually managed to win a few too.

The biggest problem I have though, is getting intel on my opponent, especially early on.
I've tried land scouts, I've tried groups of medium tanks, but neither got me a view of the enemy force.

Building an Air Factory just for the Scout seems wasteful. Maybe I should sneak an engineer close and build a radar?


Can someone give me some tips on scouting that doesn't cost more than its worth?

[uberge3k]

It depends on the map.

On 5x5km maps, you will be scouting primarily with land scouts. They are practically free; it's very, very difficult to make them *not* worth their investment. Always prefer having more scouts than having too few scouts; I like to always have a few more than I think I'll need, so I can quickly replace them if they happen to get picked off. Better players will try to blind you in whatever way they can, including targeting your scouts and radar with bombers and LABs.

At a minimum, make sure that you have 1-2 scouts placed slightly past the middle of the map, covering at least one choke point. Typically, you will be sending your ACU down one side of the map and your units down the other; make sure there are scouts with both groups.

Every raiding party and every army needs a minimum of one scout with it. The importance of this cannot be understated. Nearly every unit has a larger firing range than omni range, meaning that if your tanks are traveling without a scout, they have a smaller usable range.

Stationary radars are cheap. Use them more frequently as the game goes on, but be careful about making too many too early - the energy drain is significant in the opening minutes of the game, and land scouts will likely be more efficient. Keep in mind that they are fragile as well, and will make prime targets for bombers or raiders - make sure that they're placed strategically so that an attempt to take them out will likely end up hurting your enemy more than it will hurt you.

In 5x5km maps, you may not even be making air as it's very easy to defend against it with AA. However, if the spawn points are separated by water, or there are many expansion points only accessible by transports, or the map is anything larger than Theta or Canis - you should most definitely be making air. You generally can't go wrong with air second.

The purpose of an air scout is that it is faster than every other T1 air unit. This means that with proper micro, you should only need one and it should last you the majority of the game so long as you pay attention to it. Other than that, keep making interceptors so that you can match your enemy's air production. Games can easily be won by a decisive air fight that gives you air supremacy, allowing you to shift production to offensive air units and forcing your enemy to invest heavily in land based counters.

Lastly, as you improve with the game you will find that you can determine a huge amount about what your enemy is doing simply by noticing what they're doing at what time. For example, if I notice that I seem to have 2-3 more tanks than my enemy at minute 3, I can assume that they're most likely putting more eco into early air. If you know the map and the enemy, you can often predict what opening they're using with a high degree of accuracy simply because at the "high level" most people play very consistently and predictably. If you see them in chat, talk to eXivo and Pic - they are perhaps the best players I've seen at getting into their enemy's heads and playing several steps ahead.

[rootbeer23]

since you are talking of the time when you dont have an air factory yet... seeing your enemy force is something you just cannot have at this point.
for defence, a radar is definitely the thing you need. even the cheapest t1 radar gives you a >10 seconds warning if the enemy is coming at you. you can also approximately tell the difference between land scouts/light assault bots, tanks and engineers from the speed of the unit, if all you have is a blip on the radar.

[Valki]

I am indeed talking about getting vision of the enemy base, especially early, and not around my army; I already add some scouts to my armies for their extra vision.

It would be annoying if I couldn't do early scouting of the enemy's main base.

[uberge3k]

Right, I neglected to mention what is perhaps the most important uses of land scouts: scout first.

Make a land scout as the first unit from your factory. Pick a side of the map to travel via, and run it at the enemy's base.

The scout will either make it through to the base, telling you where the enemy ACU is (either still inside the base, or on the other side of the map) and what units and structures he's making. Alternatively, it will be intercepted by an ACU or a raiding party, which you can now counter as you know exactly where it is coming from.

Note that land scouts move faster than all other T1 land units, in addition to their radar range significantly outranging every T1 land units' weapons. This means that you don't need to lose it on the way in. You can tell by the speed of the radar blips whether what you're looking at is an ACU, LAB, or tank. React accordingly to save the scout. Either retreat back to your side of the map and use it for one of your raiding parties, or, if possible, run it around the back of the enemy base. This will give you extremely useful intel while it survives *and* force your enemy to divert one or more of his early units to kill it.

You can do the same with LAB first, but I generally find it to be far too risky. It puts you too far behind in initial engineers, especially if you make a scout to go with it.


Most times you simply can't get vision on your enemy's base very early on in a cost-efficient manner. This generally isn't as much of an issue as it sounds like, as it's usually quite easy to tell what your enemy is doing at a high level based on what units you see from him. Remember that so long as your initial build orders are decent and not completely ridiculous (ie, stalling all the time), your enemy cannot have more than what you can have.

[ZaphodX]

Ubergeek has given a detailed analysis, but I'll give a simple summation of what I would suggest.

Use land scouts early on, they are very cheap and fast and give great radar coverage. If you want to physically see the base you can suicide a scout or send raiding parties in, but this really isn't necessary information if you have radar coverage.

Build an air factory, and use interceptors for scouting unless it is a large map. Don't think that the air factory is an expensive way to scout!! It fulfils many vital roles:

Recon
Transports - engineers, ghetto gunships or unit drops
It's much better and more versatile than t1 AA when dealing with air threats
Bombers are excellent against grouped landspam or for harassing some expanding engineers
Prevent your opponent getting air dominance
Punish your opponent if they neglect air