Just come to realize something: How do you fast expand on Nova if you start with Factory or Starport? Without Barrack you don’t get Railgun or Marine.
You stagger build Factory/Starport with Barracks, as they take different lengths of time to complete (if I recall one takes 50sec the other takes 60ish). Or simply work off centre for a bit on your expansion, as you can always move the CC later.
Honestly I’d do the latter since the point you’re setting up in-game and on this topic is “fast expand”. Not much of a “fast” if you stagger the production buildings then get CC if you know what I mean. For P1 it is kind of a give or take, going CC first is technically fast expand but you do lose a bit of time on the cooldown for units.
Looking through youtube, I found one of TwoTuu’s older video playing P1. It demonstrates the “staggered” build. You’ll only really need to watch like the first few minutes for it.
The build order that I do is:
- 2 Refinery (before any SCVs)
- continuous SCV production
- Once all Refinery SCVs have returned to Minerals send a scout
- build primary production structure
- build 2nd, 3rd production buildings (if factory/barracks first then make sure to delay Starport by 10/15 seconds respectively)
- build CC next to rocks
This is a slow expansion to maximise Gas production and availability of secondary unit availability. Most of my builds make some use of secondary buildings and even if I plan to only use 1 structures units I still want “back up charges” in case of a particularly bad engagement or to put out fires (amazing what you can do with a Raven call down if needed).
If you can go barracks first (against non-swarmy zerg) then you can speed up the expand by delaying Factory/Starport (or forgoing them completely if going for a fast completion on L&L or VT).
Most of P1 is choosing the right production structure. Having a “low eco” start doesn’t matter when your primary unit is locked behind cooldown anyway and the unit is question is effortlessly deleting Amon waves (should have no problem hitting supply cap in any B+1 game and be floating minerals for “just in case” Griffon strikes).
Worth mentioning I think, for most situations Nova herself can handle a great deal of the early game on her own, so production can go straight into eco and expanding.
Also, if your partner can expand easily (like say Zagara or Alarak), then ask them too!
Thanks for all the advices. It appears I can also pray for a Dehaka teammate when I play P1. XD
So in short, P1 cannot expand as efficiently as other prestige, but it’s not that much slower either. I’m inclined to do TwoTuu’s idea where he build units ahead of CC.
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In his replay, he had no choice but to do units. It is more optimal as he is soloing. As for the delay, if you’re choosing to do CC first +/-gases then it’s not delayed at all (by comparison to other prestiges).
This is the key differentiator for P1, but most seem to just blindly do a barracks no-scout. 
Granted, if you do the map trick you can see if the enemy is Zerg, which Barracks is pretty well suited for nearly always. Otherwise, yeahhh.
I’d say Factory for Explosive Threats. Starport is best for Broodling Corruption. Barracks or Starport for Invasionary Swarm. Devouring Scourge: Barracks.
Yeah, wouldn’t necessarily say they’re optimal, but Ghosts do well against pretty much any Zerg except explosive threats, so you can get away with feeling lazy and not scouting against them for the most part.
You have Nova in both Assault mode and Stealth mode, I think that’s enough to cover 100% of the critical comp choice (wrong choice).
Scouting is important but shouldn’t really break a player, even if they went blind. I think what scouting get you is for an opportunity to choose the easiest/best solution to the enemy comp. Beyond that there is no real value.
Naturally you can just Nova solo, but why not be efficient and crush Amon with a hard counter. 
Players who go P1 without scouting are probably better off on P0.
Agree. Doesn’t matter in regular Brutal but there is enough hard mutation combinations for Nova that you want to know how to be efficient when needed. Especially knowing which tertiary production units are needed and keeping them alive. Don’t forget to rapid fire those activated abilities as well 
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So true. Once I got rapid-fire working I can’t imagine doing without it.
Factory => Goliath
Star port => Banshees
Or
Factory / star port => barrack => Marines or Marauders
Benefit: You don’t need the extra gas to make Goliath or Banshees
Disadvantage: Your marines or marauders may die off later.
If I were to send a worker out, I would send it out when game starts. Some maps like RoK enemy comes in early. First wave will reach your base between 2:20 to 2:40 so I want to make sure I could deal with it when it arrives. If I can’t get units out on time I put the a structure at base entrance.
Sometimes I don’t scout, I prefer to wing it and see how I do.
Yes I have her cover everything until mid game. 
Sending SCV after refineries is finished is about keeping 14 SCVs on Minerals which minimises economy impact (as the first 14 SCVs mine at 100% efficiency while the following 7 have between 50 and 70% efficiency depending on patch distance if i understand the mechanics correctly) while still providing scouting information early enough to choose the correct production structure.
On RtK I make a wall with my production structures (actually I do this on every map) and if needed attack move and run away an SCV to buy time for first call down.
Good extra units:
- 2 ghosts to EMP hybrids, BCs and protoss.
- 2+ Siege tanks for spider mines to camp spawns
- Raven call down to deal with nukes
- 2 Libs to defend rocks at each entrance on DoN
- marines+gols against protoss air (starport first)
- firebats to protect assets from zerglings (and other T1 units)
Nova’s upgrades are so cheap no reason not to have some back up plans prepped to deal with any eventualities.
Ultimately for the “supposed best” counter-comp for Nova (in P1 or not) is still a mix of Barrack/Factory/Starport units. As if Starcraft as a game has some nuance to it 
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As a result of that the mixture doesn’t really get affect all that much by P1’s advantage at all, despite its detriment to the non-chosen structure. And if I’m being honest, this is also one of the most criticized issue people have against P1. Scouting early or semi early or even at all only provide that very initial benefit for massing up a particular unit out of that chosen structure. <== This is really ‘optimizing’ in a technically non-optimized army composition, so to speak.
To me it’s kind of moot talking about efficiency and optimization, in the context of scouting, when that isn’t truly being affected. Nova will ultimately be limited by an alternation of time and resources (ie. when your econ just kicked in you’re waiting on cooldowns but if you’re mixing in ghost/tank/raven etc. then you’ll be running short on resources all game).
I can appreciate the sentiment of the scouting but really it is being over-represented in its usefulness.
This might surprise you (and everyone) but I disagree! 
Non-Swarm zerg is completely hard countered by Ghosts. Explosive Threats is hard countered by Firebat/Siege Tank (Nova can snipe Vipers). Protoss Air is hard countered by mass Lib (but due to high cost marine/gol/Raven is stop gap). Mass Gol soft counters Terran Air (or hard counters if your micro is good).
These are mostly critical mass units and having enough of them is the difference between eviscerating the attack wave or having to actually fight and mitigate damage (defensive drones, micro, Nova micro etc).
All of this is manageable with another Prestige of course but when you start mixing in tough mutations is when you want to know how to deal as much damage as possible.
But hey what do I know!
In what situation would a critical mass of Ghost, Tanks, Liberators, etc. would change the gameplay so dramatically? I am always up to learn something (if there is something indeed to be learned).
Can you show that in a replay where say 1-2 set of ghosts against swarmy won’t do what 4-5 set? Or that 2 set of Tanks’ worth of mines aren’t enough but you just MUST use 10 set of Tanks to deal with? Or how non-swarmy is “hard-countered by mass Ghosts? Remember this is in the context of optimized composition tailored towards a specific enemy comp, such as against Swarmy. (ie. why is 10 set of ghosts better, which needs scouting, versus only 4 mixed with other units instead?)
You seem to take every moment of your life to try to skew any point I make. Then try to start some 
. Aren’t you on vacation? Is this really what you spend your free time on? Sorry that I don’t find it amusing like you seem to (the way you started off this post).
Nova doesn’t have Firebats. I think you meant hellbats.
Nova’s bio is pretty good for most zerg comps, it tear down Zerg air really quick. But not the best for banelings and scourge
Do you send your scout out to die? I usually try to keep them alive if I could. Then I have them come back to mine. You won’t have much mineral loss there.
Once I find out the enemy comp I usually have enough resource to build your first structure a little bit after.