Macro vs. Micro

A lot of people complain that Terran is by far the weakest race in SC. Although I do belive that Terran does have its bad points, i do NOT think the are innately the weakest race (although they may be). For the record, i pretty much cant kill a fly with terran.  However, I am MUCH better than i was at one time.  About 90% of players that play terran on Bnet suck with them because they dont know how to use them correctly.  The same 90% whine that the game is unbalanced because they can do farily well with Protoss and do well with zerg.  The truth is, Zerg is very easy to learn, and Protoss is almost as easy to learn.......the same styles of play will work with toss and zerg.  Using macromanagement, it is farily easy to win with zerg or toss.  What i mean by this, is that the basic "gameplan" with either toss or zerg (for me at least) is something like "make a crapload of workers, and make a crapload of attack units, and run the other guy over."  This style of play is called "Macromanagement." 

MACROMANAGEMENT

With macromanagement, you are focusing on getting a good economy by making a lot of workers (never stopping production of workers), and using your money to make a lot of low-tech units (like zealots, marines, hydras, etc), and then massing them together, sending them to your enemies base, and then making more, and sending reinforcements in a continuous stream with the intention of overpowering him.  This strategy is fairly easy to pull off once you get the right build order and realize you need to make more than 7 probes. =)  The other style of play in SC involves Micromanagement.

MICROMANAGMENT

While players who macromanage are basically relying on their sheer strength of numbers to win, micromanagers rely more on the specialized skill(s) of their usually fewer, albeit more "advanced" units.  Although it is far more complicated than this.....In order to win when relying on micromanagement, you hafta be able to control your "specialized" units with the utmost precision.  Some examples of strategies that rely heavily on microing are: mixed reaver drops, hydras and guardians, and the tank push.  These strategies are potential game winners, but they are VERY hard to pull off.  When i say this, i make the assumption that you are playing against a player of equal (or better) skill. 

SO, WHICH IS BETTER?

The problem with micro strategies is that they require concentration and, most importantly, TIME.  This is usually where the macromanager gets his advantage over the micromanager.  For instance, while you are carefully maneuvering your damn tanks and marines to get into the right formation, you are ignoring your base, and most importantly, THE PRODUCTION OF MORE MILLITARY UNITS!  Therefore, even though you have the tank push set up, you dont have more marines and tanks ready to reinforce your push at the enemies base.  This is why most people suck with terran......and it is the reason that the computer ROCKS with terran....because the comp. can do several things simultaneously.  As for the possiblity of humans.....well, some players can handle doing lots of things at once really fast, and others cant.  Some players ive seen can barely even run their base.....they constantly have workers standing around doin nothing, or their gateways are idle....or they stop making workers after they have 10.....or they run out of control points......or they forget to make units, and then to make up for it, they cue 5 zealots, which is basically a waste of 400 minerals because only ONE can be made at a time.....its better to just wait till one is almost done, and THEN cue the next.

The importance of micromanaging, i think, is to integrate it into different aspects of your game. Only micro when necessary, but if it will save you the game to micro your 7 marines so they dont die to 5 zealots, then DO IT!  Usually though, even the best micro skills will lose to a "really big" army...there is only so much you can make up for with finesse and skill in controlling your units. I.E., 12 marines arent gonna beat 12 zealots no matter HOW good you are at controlling them. So, work on your micro'ing skills, because they just may save your life someday!