Gaming Tips and Tricks: Playing StarCraft II with the G13

We’ve been playing a lot of StarCraft II lately, and I reached the point where I can’t click fast enough to survive, let alone win against the better players online. Trouble is, I’m terrible at memorizing all the key commands and finding them in the heat of battle. If I’m going to move up out of the Bronze league, I need to get serious.

For me, that’s where the Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard comes in. I’ve been playing around with a profile to make it easy to produce and manage units while in the heat of battle. G13’s 25 programmable G-Keys have given me a much easier way to lay out and control everything. I almost never use the keyboard now.

I normally play Protoss, so my example is geared toward that race, but the principals are the same for Terran and Zerg. With that in mind, here’s how I set things up. Check out the screen shot of the G13 layout.

View Movement:
I like to move around the map, so I assigned the left, right, down and up arrows to the G13 thumb stick. Now I can scroll around independent of mouse movement. Nearby buttons are assigned to select an idle probe, and go back to view the base.

Builds:
I assigned the top row to building the most important units I need: Probes, Pylons, Zealots, Stalkers, Void Rays and Carriers. One touch will build a unit, assuming I have the minerals and gas needed. I assigned G1 to ChronoBoost.

The next row builds structures. I usually build a Warp Gate, Cybernetic core and Star Gate, in that order, and I added Robot facilities and a Templar Archive to the row as well. You’ll notice I put the Shift key in the center. I use it to help build multiple Gas facilities, Pylons or Cannons.

The third row sets rally points, pings the map, and builds tier 3 structures; Fleet Beacon, Robo Bay and Dark Shrine.

The bottom row takes me instantly to the Nexus, Warp Gates, or Star Gates. There isn’t a direct command for these, so I assign them to a number key. This is easy and very handy. Click on the Nexus, and press CTRL 1. Click on a Warp Gate, and press CRTL 2. Click on a Star Gate, and press CTRL 3. Now keys G20, G21, and G22 will highlight the Nexus, Warp Gate, and Star Gate. As you add additional gates, you can add all of them to the button by double clicking the building, and pressing CTRL + number. it really makes building units go fast!

After using this arrangement for a couple days, my Actions Per Minute (APM) have really improved. I’ll probably fine tune the arrangement of the commands, but it is easy to do, because the command can just be selected from the Macro list for the G-Key.

I haven’t assigned anything to Modes 2 and 3 yet. I’ll probably use them for Terran and Zerg, or for some of the tech power-ups and spells.

I won’t be going Pro any time soon, but I’m already having more fun playing, and winning more often. If you have a G13, or any G-series keyboard, try assigning some StarCraft II controls to your G-Keys.

Author

Global Product Marketing Manager