TMA - Team Micro Arena

How To Play > Basics

How To Play - Basics

The map is called Team Micro Arena. This indicates two of the basic principles: Team play and micromanagement!

Micromanagement

To be a successful TMA player you don't necessarily have to have a gosu micro, but you should still be able use a solid one. Especially in the first minutes and while playing in the 1st zone, this can can get you a big advantage over your enemies since the Kill Points are more important than later. Pull back your damaged units for a second and go for an attack again, split your units vs splash damage and try to anticipate the routes of escaping ranged units for a surround. Also always get your ranged units behind some melee fighters so they can do some damage without being killed.

Team Play

This takes us to the second and way more important component - the team play. Even the best TMA player will have serious problems when playing against two guys who play together as a team. Teamplay is an essential part of this map and often unattended.

The basics of teamplay are easy to learn. Always try to have a good mixture of melee and ranged units in the arena. That means don't only select what's most comfortable for you, but also check what is already in the arena and how you can support your team or just get an advantage over the other one. Of course in reality you often won't have time to check for already selected units and in early game especially two or three groups of Marines can also be devestating, but still try to balance your forces whenever possible. This is especially needed when heroes are on the map. Don't just go for some units, but notice what hero your teammate selected and think about how to support or protect it. This way your team might be able to do an almost unbreakable push. Of course the best combination is always depending on the situation.

Talk to me

The next level of team play needs some communication. You might think this is unnecessary to be mentioned. But you were surprised how many guys join that map and just start playing it on their own without even talking a single word to their teammates. Oh and use the ally chat...if you forget to activate that one, your enemies will be very thankful.

Besides communication which is always beneficial, this also needs a continuous overview of both the map and the kill score board. Regularly check the Kill Points to see when the enemy team can choose a hero and try to scout it so you know what's incoming and if you have to take it down quickly. As soon as you scout the hero, tell your team. Like this they will definitly know about it and can try to take it down or just response to the new situation.

Detectors

If your units or hero is attacked by cloaked units or locked down, one of your teammates quickly has to react and use the ground suicide located at the flags. Now he can help by detecting the cloaked units with the Observer or quickly suicide it behind the Nexus and choose whatever is necessary to support. The same applies for you too.

You can also use that for traps. For instance when one of your teammates gets some air units, Reavers or slow heroes, there will often be some cloaked wraiths incoming. Knowing that, you can already be prepared by selecting a detector or at least be ready to use the ground suicide to quickly get an observer. Note that if you abuse the ground suicide too often for saving the Kill Points of a unit, it can also get a disadvantage. Since you won't have any units in the arena for some seconds, your team is very vulnerable for a strong push or a drop especially supported by a hero.

Pushes and Containments

In general the two teams will always attack, lose the units and quickly select new ones. Once a team is too slow or the other one is just stronger, there will be a push. Now one team is in defense and has to break free. If the attacking team has some balanced forces, it might also be able to raise a containment and get many Kill Points by quickly killing the spawning units. Especially supported by detectors, spells and splash damage this can be really hard to break.

In the majority of cases the best choice for the defensing team is to select their units at the same time, so they have a strong force to break free.
However, there are some certain situations when this way is not recommended. For instance if there is a High Templar in the background only waiting for the units to spawn. If this is the case, it might be better if only one player selects some strong units and the others follow one second later after the Psy Storm.

Another very common situation is when the push or the containment is supported by some Vultures and your spawn area is mined. If all players select non-triggering units (Vultures, Archons or air units) you can go together. The other possibility is that one player goes first with some cheap units (Zerglings recommended) and sacrifices them. The other players follow a second later after the explosion and before the Vultures are able to mine again. If the attacking team has only weak or maybe no anti-air units at all, one player can select a detector and the others attack with some air units. Like this, you can take out all the mines next to your Nexus.

Even if the situation looks really bad: Never give up! We played so many games when our Nexus was almost down, but we were able to recharge the shield and recover strength, finally pushing again and winning the game.

Check out The Zones for some basic hints about what to choose and when. The section about The Units provides you with detailed information about the several units and their stats.

The Nexus Shield

In the beginning the Shield is between you and the Health Points of the Nexus. Besides getting as many Kill Points as possible - and giving as less as possible - a second objective is also to kill the Shield Points of the Nexus. Some units, for instance Firebats, Zerglings and Zealots, can do this comparatively fast.

Once the Nexus Shield Points are gone, it's time to cause as much damage as you can on the building before the enemy team is able to recharge the shield. In the early game the best way to do that is to use an offensive hero. Later you can also use strong units such as Reavers and Tanks.

Hero Units

The choice of your hero should always be situation-dependent. If the Nexus Shield Points are already gone, try to directly damage it using offensive heroes like Fenix or an Infested Terran.
If the Shield is still existent, you can either get a hero with a strong firepower to quickly increase your Kill Points or one to support the attacks of your team. The Vessel and its EMP is always an option, but you have to protect it well.

If the other team already has one or more heroes in the arena, you can also respond to that and choose a specific counter hero. If you regularly check the kill score board you might be able to kill the enemies hero selector what can sometimes be better than selecting a hero unit. Even if it is possible to endlessly recharge the Nexus Shield using the shield hero, you will get problems if you only defend all the time. Sooner or later you have to switch to offense and attack the enemy Nexus or you will get overpowered by the other team.

That's not the way

There are some more things you shouldn't do. A very important thing is not to kill any units of your team. You are free to kill your own units, but not the units of your teammates. This is called teamkill and the other players won't be happy about this at all. It's a cheap way to get Kill Points and comparable to cheating. And we all know what happens to cheaters: They will be ignored, banned and left alone!
However, there are some situations when a teamkill is unavoidable. For instance when a Psy Storm is used by a teammate, you often can't avoid your units from being killed too. Same thing about Spider Mines and splash damage.

There are also some micro moves which allow you to 'use' a unit of your teammate to kill certain units. For instance if you pushed your enemies back, they counter with a defensive Lurker and you don't have a detector among your forces but a Reaver. Now a unit of your team can run towards the Lurker and the Reaver aims for it as soon as it reaches the Lurker. The splash damage will also kill the Lurker. This can also work vs a cloaked Ghost or a Dark Templar using the splash damage of a Firebat or an Archon. Anyway these moves are rarely executed and need some good micro skills.

Another thing you should not do is to leave locked units in the arena without killing them. It might happen sometimes when you don't notice or maybe quickly have to respond to a dangerous situation, but it's a point of honor and should normally be avoided.

Bad Manner

By the way, don't get mad at your allies when they do something wrong or don't know what to do - tell them how to do it better and you will help them and maybe even help us by enlightening a future TMA player. Of course there are always some idiots which just don't want to learn anything - but everybody deserves at least one chance, so please try to stay mannered. Thanks.