Microscend
Selection Sprint
Everyday army orders, with the mouse alone.
Sixty seconds of the orders a game asks for again and again: pull a few units out of a clump, leave one behind, take every unit of one kind, merge two groups, queue a second waypoint with Shift. Each order is drawn where it happens, so all there is to do is carry it out.
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What it trains
Precise selection is what every other mechanic stands on: box selection, Shift-click to add a unit or drop one, double-click to take every unit of a type, Shift to queue orders. There are no control groups here, only the mouse. Each order is worth what it takes done the shortest way, and a command to the wrong units or the wrong place costs points, so speed only pays when it is clean.
Rated in Mechanics, the one skill it uses.
The drill
The situation
Pull a few units back, leave one behind, send every rider round, bring two clumps together, queue a waypoint: what a game asks for again and again. One screen, no control groups, nothing to read.
Scoring
Carry out as many orders as you can in 60 seconds. Each is worth what it asks of the hand done the shortest way: every click, box and ring, more the further the mouse goes. A command to the wrong units, or to the wrong place, costs 20.
How to play it
- Take the units with a disc under them, exactly those: a cross means that one stays.
- Give the order the ring shows: move is a right-click on it, attack-move A and a click, hold H.
- Two rings in a row: the second with Shift held. The next order shows faintly ahead.
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In your games
These are the clicks behind every RTS: pulling a hurt unit back, sending part of an army to a flank, taking all your siege at once, queuing a path. They work the same way in StarCraft II, Age of Empires and Warcraft III.