TMA - Team Micro Arena

How To Play > Advanced

How To Play – Advanced Guide

As already mentioned in the Basics Guide, in TMA you definitly have to play together as a team to be successful in the end. But what characterizes an effective team play? How to react to the actions of your allies? This and more will be answered below.

"The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club wont be worth a dime."
[ Babe Ruth - Baseball legend ]

Communication

Bad team play often is a result of a lacking communication. Altough experienced players might be able to keep track of most of the action on the map, even they can’t what your are thinking. You spotted a hero? Tell your team! You go for an Observer or are going to select some Wraiths to hunt down a hero? Tell them! Besides the allied chat (!) you can also use the minimap ping (Alt + left click) to draw their attention to a special location on the map. As long as they have at least some basic team play skills they will respond to you and the situation.

Chaos Playing

Before we start, some examples how not to play. First of all, don’t just go on your own and run into the enemy forces without a chance. This way you just give them points. Coordinate your attacks, go together, try to spot the enemy units and anticipate their moves.
Now about some other important things. Let’s say you have an air hero among your forces but are pushed back by strong ground forces. Your ally doesn’t select new units quickly enough and you have to go for Zealots to stop the push before you lose your shield. But about the same second your ally also goes for ground units because he didn’t pay attention: That’s the moment the other team has been waiting for! Now your hero is left alone helpless vs incoming Wraiths. Never let this happen! Always check what units your ally selects. If it has to happen quickly and in case of doubt for example just write "me Zealots". As long as your ally wasn’t afk (away from keyboard), he now will know and is able to respond to the situation.

Another example: An enemy Arbiter recalled some tanks behind your Nexus. Now don’t panic! One of the worst things you can do is to select Guardians twice. If you get into a Stasis Field, it’s good game. So only one player goes for Guardians, the other one hunts down the Arbiter so the Tanks will get visible and a fast second drop is not possible. Admittedly it’s not easy to keep cool in such a situation, but it are mistakes like these which cost you the game in the end.

To avoid issues like "what units shall i take?" and to bring a certain flow into team play, there is at least one certain role for each player. To a large part, these roles affect what to do and which units to select. These roles are named:

Lead and Support

Also playing 3on3 but especially in 2on2 games, one player always holds the role of the leader and the other one acts as the supporter.

The job of the leader is to to get points and to contiuously enlarge this point advantage. Due to this and his stronger units, he also is the one who attacks the enemy Nexus! He holds the decisive role during the game and has to dominate it. But a leader can’t do it all alone and needs some backup.

That’s the role of the supporter. On the one hand he has to support the leader so this one can achieve his objectives – mainly to destroy the enemy Nexus of course. On the other hand he always has to know what’s happening in the arena. He has to spot heroes, hunt them down, and defend the Nexus vs incoming attacks and drops.

As you can see, both roles are equally important. A leader can just be as good as his supporter enables him to be.

But how to recognize who is the leader and who the supporter?
Well the leader usually is the guy getting more points. He is very offensive, doesn’t play around too much and moves straight foward to directly attack the enemy Nexus. Also his hero control has to be very good because he needs them to either get points or launch devestating attacks on the Nexus.
The supporter in contrast cares more about protecting and hunting heroes as well as getting Observers. He supports the leader just the way his forces are most efficient.

More Precisely

To lead right from the start, you need some small units which have a big gun, like taking drugs, say things like "Rock’n’Roll" and "Outstanding" and want you to give them something to shoot. Ye, exactly: The Marines! Especially stimmed they have a high firing rate and can quickly increase your points. But they are quite fragile and that’s why they have to be protected. Melee units such as Zerglings or Zealots act as a shield and give the Marines the time they need to to their job - of course these melee units are selected by the supporter. Vultures using their Spider Mines can be pretty good to disorganize the enemy forces and if they select many melee units, Firebats can also do a nice job. Basically the supporter has to get his ally to 10.000 points before anyone else gets there.

Once the leader got above 10.000 points, he usually continues to increase his points and puts some pressure on the enemy team. Again the Marines do the best job and are even accompanied by two Medics and a Ghost. For the classic push, the supporter gets Vultures and mines the enemy spawn area. Like this, the supporter can also increase his points and the leader has a great chance to quickly get 15.000 points and select a hero. The supporter also attends to cloaked units, that means if anyone is getting an Observer that’s usually the job of the supporter.

When the leader selected his hero, the supporter has to protect it and adapt his units to the hero. He always has to be there for his ally’s heroes and support them in any way possible. For example biological heroes need Heal by Medics, air heroes need some anti air units by any means, mechanical units can be repeaired by SCVs and also often require Restoration so they cannot get locked down.

Switching Roles

Most probably your enemies don’t want you to win the game and sooner or later they will try to mine your spawn area. Now if the supporter – who would usually select some melee units to prevent that – isn’t able to get units fast enough, the leader has to do that. In this case don’t wait and get mined, just switch the roles. So now the leader has some melee units and the supporter get Marines. Go attack and when your units died you just switch back: The leader gets Marines and the supporter melee units again.

Or another situation: Let’s say the enemy has only some melee units left in front of your Nexus. Again if the leader has to select untis first, don’t stick to the Marine/melee unit system. The leader could for example select some Vultures, ignore the enemy forces and mine their spawn. Now the supporter can go for Goliaths or Marines and you can make a push.

And a third example: Sometimes you are under heavy fire and the leader also has to go for some strong melee units to break free. Now when you pushed back the enemy forces and the supporter can select units, he can go for a direct Nexus attack – for instance using Reavers or Tanks. Even two Reaver drops without support can be pretty efficient if the shield is already down. It always depends on the situation, don’t just stick to the roles.

To make it short: Just don’t be a robot – adapt to the situation and respond in the very best way.

3on3 Games

In 3on3 games the roles are not that clear. There’s so much happening at the same time and it’s often hard to find a role. Chaos playing is even more present here. However, there should at least be one leader. The second player acts as a supporter and the third one is some sort ofof a hybrid but more towards the supporter role. It also depends on the leader. If he’s going strong, two supporters can even push him more. If the leader can’t do the job alone, it’s possibly better to have a second offensive player and only one real supporter.

Of course it’s a big advantage if you know your allies and how they play.

Global Laming

TMA usually is an action packed, intense and still very strategical map. Unfortunately there are some lame moves which have become kinda popular. It’s not even about team kill or leaving locked down units without killing them. We are talking about things like Ghost laming (when you only attack with a cloaked Ghost again and again), mass camping (only wait for the enemy team to attack prepared and in front of your Nexus) and mass ground suiciding (attacking with the best counter units and suicide after every time to get new units without giving any points). Every single action is allowed – there is a time to use Ghosts, to wait in front of your Nexus and to suicide your ground units. But only as a part of your strategy and when really needed! If your strategy only consists of suiciding, that’s just lame. It stops the flow and speed of the game play, it ruins the fun and is also kinda bad manner. Unfortunately no trigger is known to prevent mass ground suicide, so we can only ask you to stop it. Try to win using your skill and an offensive style.

Remember That

Always know what’s happening on the map, check for heroes and also keep an eye on the points list. Anticipate your enemies actions, find your role and play just like you have to depending on the situation. Communicate, never get taken by surprise.

Play as a team, it’s the key to achieve victory on this map. Even if you are an extremely good TMA player but you have a noob or unknown ally and go on your own: As long as the other team knows what it’s doing, plays together and coordinates it’s attacks, it’s almost impossible for you to win.

Thanks to 4N.Phoenix for the supply of the material for this article.