My Hum Strat Guide Part 1 -- Basic Beginning Build Orders

I am not getting all into the "attacking" aspect of strategy, or even any tier2/3 stuff, at least right now...  This is strictly just building order basics, But of course there are multiple orders for various strats.  I will be sharing what I think are the 5 most basic ways of looking at human strats; we have the Tech, Mass Rush, Fast Expo, Standard, and Rifles, which I will explain what I think is the fastest easiest way to go about each of these... but deciding when to use each one is a bit more complicated, then we would have to get into maps and races etc. Here are my build orders:


Standard- Simple, effective, versatile

•Starting with 4 peons on Gold... 1 peon to build your alter

•Training peons... your 6th peon builds Barracks

•7th peon builds farm

•I see some people build there 2nd farm by now but I say that's too early
You can use the peon from your alter to start your 2nd farm and its timing is fine

•Your 8th peon should probably be scouting now

•Your 9th peon will go then go to wood

•Your alter and 1st farm will be finishing, as I said...
start your 2nd farm w peon from alter and the peon on your 1st farm goes to gold

•the peon building your barracks can start a 3rd farm (keep training peons)

•when you Begin training your first footmen your should have 18/18 food
you should just be getting your 11th peon, and your 2nd farm will be finishing soon

•don't forget your arcane tower! heros are out by now

•Now you have decisions to make, how many farms and how many peons before you tech??

•Most of the time you would get 8 peons and tech around 28/30food (aprox)

Or you could try getting your 3rd farm a little later for a faster tech

•OR you could try getting 10 peons to help with militia creeping and expo later on
I find getting extra peons and still decent timing on tier 2 makes expoing easier later on

•Get your Vault and decide if you need your lumbermill or blacksmith

Teching-
This is a build I actually don't like using a lot, for 1 it makes expoing early impossible. also, Human heros are not great at harassing (AoE harras is just not my preferred method) personally when I see a human tower teching in 1v1 (mirror) I feel confident cuz I will have a better chance creeping. But here is the way I see it... The best way to tech with human is to still get your barracks, just 2-3 foots really helps both w creeping and defense, which is the weak point of the techer imo. Here is my build order:


•4 on gold, 1 on wood... training peons, 1st peon trained builds alter

•2nd peon trained goes wood, 3rd peon trained get farm

•4th peon trained get barracks (this is still a tech)

•5th peon goes gold, 6th peon gets arcane tower

•when your alter is finished start your 2nd farm, this will be your LAST farm

•by now you should start your lumber mill

•with only 2 farms your food supply will by 24 max when you start your tech
you will be able to get 3 foots with 8 peons on wood (or 2 foots w 10 on wood) your choice

•since you will be focusing on a strong tier 2 army the brax seems wasteful but the 3 foots
will help you play defense (along with towers) and make it so you can also creep a little better

•deciding whether tier 2 or tier 3 is based on your ability to scout your enemy




Mass rushing- only recommended on certain small maps, you HAVE to attack them before they can get any towers

sometimes I fast creep ONE green spot and then rush w 5-6 foots, but sometimes I go w just hero and 2 foots asap

• 4 on gold 1 peon builds alter, training peons...

• 1st peon trained goes to wood

• 2nd peon builds farm

•3rd peon starts 1st barracks

•4th peon builds 2nd brax

•alter finishes and that peon starts 2nd farm

•5th peon goes gold

•6th peon gets 3rd farm, dont forget arcane vault

•STOP MAKING PEONS YOU DONT NEED OVER 6 I PROMISE YOU

this strategy IS effective stay at 6 peons, you will be able to tech JUST FINE

•you should be attacking by now but keep massing foots to about 30/36 food

•decide if you want defend or a blacksmith...
if you go defend you can get your food to 36 and tech, but keep the pressure on

•the only reason you should get blacksmt is if your opponent is teching to fast air
if you get blacksmt your farm supply should go to 42(save room for some tier 2)

• always retreat low hp units to heal and KEEP ATTACKING Do NOT let up for more time then
it takes to heal up, dont creep or shop too slowly, and keep your army BIG dont give Xp to opponent

•if your opponent is teching and you out number him you will have an easy time preventing

them from getting any new buildings, just attack his food or peons whenever you can



Fast exposing- goblin shredders
In 1v1 the fast expo seems very popular against Undead, also its pretty easy in 4s RT, but Im not so much a fan of early expos anymore... I think going tier 2 first is better for versatility and taking an early offence when you can, but... basically if you want to fast expo the build order is the same as the standard, except you need to get additional peons. I see a lot of people rush the expo with 5-6peons leaving only 3-4 at there base and forgetting to make more peons. If you build 12-14 peons right away and wait till you have 250+ wood before you go to even start your expo, you will still be able to tech at a decent timing.

I recommend ABOUT 20 peons (about 10 for wood/10 for gold) you just have to learn the balance of upkeep & resources... with ANY expo you need to still be spending resources asap especially upgrades (humans should utilize speed building wisely too) human requires a lot more buildings then other races which is why they are the toughest mAcro race. I highly highly recommend using goblin shredders WHENEVER you can that's the first thing I look for on a map is the gob shop cuz that's when I know I can expo without losing tech speed. 

Rifles Caster- Almost forgot about this one... I am not a fan of rifles, I feel like they take too many resources(and probably give too much Xp) for a tier 1 unit... maybe if they had faster movement/attack speed I would like them but... if your not massing and your teching, then there is better AA then rifles.  They are just good at overwhelming opponents if your fast at massing

•4 on gold 1 on wood
•first peon trained gets alter
•2nd peons trained gets wood
•3rd peon trained gets farm
•4th peon trained starts blacksmt
•At this point remove a peon from wood and build a brax
•5th peon goes to gold
•Alter finishes and the peon gets a farm
•6th peon goes to wood
•the rest is pretty much up to you, I consider this to be a bit of a noobie strat but...

 there is a time and a place where this can kick ass, you just gotta figure out the food-to-upkeep timing
there usually only good in large numbers, so you have to be careful not to let them get picked off 1x1 early on
most people would go for fast casters I think here, maybe mortar? and tier 3 upgrades would be very imporant



I will probably update this eventually, but for now this is my general overview for the basic strats of human players. Obviously these are not the only strats there are, these are just simplified starting techniques to help me decide what the best option could be(per map) as if the game were like rock paper scissors. For the most part you can apply this overview to any game mode (solo, AT or RT) imo

this will continue on in part 2... Intermediate Movement/attacking Techniques