What is “macro” and “micro”?:

You may have heard these two terms in any RTS (Real-Time Strategy) game but may not know what they refer to. Basically, “macro” and “micro” refers to two essential mechanics in all playstyles. It refers both your overall economy to produce units and the ability to control them to get the most of them. Essentially, “macro” and “micro” can be compared to stuff that makes up the overall strategy in order to win. In many RTS games, especially Starcraft, “macro” and “micro” are the most important and anyone that has a better grasp of them will come on top.

Macro:

“Macro” refers to the managing of your economy in RTS games, since this is a site that is based mainly on Starcraft, we will use that as the base of the explanations. What “macro” basically is the management of the constant production of units in order to build up your army. The bigger of an army you have over your opponent, the more likely you are expected to win (Excluding unit composition and counters). In Starcraft, macro refers to the management of your production of units as well as the production of worker units to increase the amount of income you get. At the beginning of a multiplayer game of Starcraft, you often get a central structure that builds your worker units and you send your worker units to mine minerals and mine vespene gas. After getting enough money, you build the first structure (Spawning Pool, Barracks, Gateway) which produces your basic infantry units. As the game goes on, you are required to build more worker units, make expansions, research, keep building supply structures to build more units, make more advanced units, etc. This is all considered macro, and while it does seem rather easy, do note that you are required to do this on top of managing control of your units and scouting your opponent out.

A typical terran base under supply block (On the top right), you typically want to make supply depots before hand just so you don't get supply blocked, which would delay the making of your units.

In further detail, macro requires you to know what to research and when to along with what to build and when. The question lies on what you should get and how much of it you want. On top of unit productions, you must also remember to know when to expand and where as well as to keep producing worker units to maintain your income. Since the minerals of your starting location doesn’t last forever, you typically want an idea of when exactly you should expand and when to stockpile minerals from producing units to building a new resource gathering structure. Overall, if macro can be compared to anything, it would be the equal to “strategy” to a war that allows you to win the grand scheme of things.

You typically want more than one structure to produce units, since multiple buildings can build units faster than just one.

Micro:

On the flipside of the equation, we have “micro” that factors into the gameplay mechanics of Starcraft (And Real-time Strategies). The common misconception of RTS games is that you build units and send them out to attack and just watch the battle that ensues. That is completely wrong and especially in Starcraft, that mindset would get you slaughtered by players that think otherwise. “Micro” (Micromanagement) refers to the control of your units, if you just send units out to attack the enemy, you would most likely get slaughtered by ambushes or focus fires from the enemy. The basic mechanics of micro would be something like controlling your marines when they’re moving out to attack an enemy base, only to get ambushed by burrowed zerglings. Since the marines are set to move to a certain location, they will continue to move even though they are under attack and will not fire back at the zerglings that are attacking them, thus getting themselves killed. A player that has good micro would control those marines to either fire back at the zerglings or to retreat to a place that suits the marines and gives them an advantage.

Pulling back units that are under attack is more helpful than some would believe. Of course, that's depending if you pay attention to your units.

Control of your units is just the basics to “micro” however, micro also refers to the full use of how unit works in order to get the most out of them. In most RTS games, there will usually be a unit that you can control in a way that you can shoot for about a second, pull back, shoot, pull back and shoot. In Starcraft, there are a decent amount of units that can do this in varying levels of success, by doing this, you can minimize the amount of damage your units take and maximize the amount of damage you do to the enemy. Even a little more damage can make a difference in a small battle. For example, the Terran Vulture can go at fast speeds and has a decent range, since it has these advantages, it can be used as a harassment unit and be used in a way that it can perform hit-and-run attacks. Overall, “micro” can be compared to tactics, in which both are used to win individual battles.

Conclusion:

While both are important and have huge impacts on how a game will turn out, typically, it is better for newer players to get better with macro since a macro player can always beat out a player that is better with micro. If you can utilize both micro and macro to your advantage, you will be in a better position to win.