What about destroying order? Once we engage our units, what are destroying priorities? Are our decisions always right? If you have enormous combined combat group then destroying order is completely irrelevant. You just walk through and let the AI decides the order. But when you have small operative group which cannot win the game but can make a difference, what are your decisions. I will try to make some overall insight through all three races.
In general
In face to face combat, the first priority is to destroy enemy units as they can fight back. Now we have three possible results.
First result is that you can loose your attack group. Done deal, you are not able to even think of destroying order.
Second result is that you can, if possible, avoid enemy units, pass them by, and go for something more important inside base. Usualy your goal is harassment, or tactical destruction of something that will set your enemy back. This especially works for Zerglings, Hellions or Reapers (thanks to their speed), blinking Stalkers, Nydus worm, different dropships and air units which cannot be choked. All of this is variant of avoiding close combat and go for destruction of something defenseless. At this point you can consider destroying order.
Third result is that you win the particular combat, and you have some remaining damaged and wounded units which can do some damage until enemy reinforcements get in. Again, next opportunity for considering destroying order but available time time for action is usualy very short.
Now lets see what are the possibilities in cases two and three. You have some units which can attack something, without being disturbed for a short period of time. What will you choose as priority, and how will you decide.
Against Terran
Obvious choice is to try to attack workers, setting opponents economy back so he cannot produce more units or buildings. It is important in early game, while in mid game strong multi base economy can recover more easy. But still, we mostly go for workers. After that, if you have enough power, you can go for CC. If it is the only one CC it makes a huge difference in game. There are things that make you change that order and it is based on your overal knowledge of opponents forces and operations and your units that are in destroying group. If you are on Void rays and you see that starport is producing Viking you may decide to go for the Starport first. If there are some misille turrets or SCVs building them, this may became your primary target as you want to protect your units so they can continue their mission. In later game when there are more expansions and you find yourself in enemy main base which may be even mined out, you have a chance to destroy tech and producing buildings. Some players go for tech lab first to prevent tech units production, but others understand importance of terran supply depots. Destroying them could lead to supply block and enemy cannot produce any more defense even their bank is full. What are those decisions based upon? Hard to say, I guess you need experience to decide what will get you the best advantage in a situation. If you are faced with reactor baracks, producing two marines will you attack barracks or reactor? Do you have enough time to destroy baracks and completely stopping marines, or you are almost at end so you can at least cut production to half by destroying reactor? If you are on air, do you see that barracks producing marauders will not endanger your units at then moment and that starport may be more important target? As any other race Terrans are sensitive to economy, which means workers, supply depots and CC. Whenever there is a chance, go for it. If economy is defended well, try to weaken that defense by destroying important buildings that will make you the best benefit in later game or another try.
Against Protoss
I may say something stupid here as prottos is not my main race. I guess everything works for terran considering economy, works also for Protoss. There are also some differences to have in mind. While on Terrans base you may leave some SCV alive, as you can easily kil it if it starts to build misille turret while you are non air. SCV cannot move as he is needed by the building site. Killing him will stop the building. Prottos probes are different fellows. Single probe can plant dozens of Cannons in no time. So it would be better that you get it at once. Considering supply, for Prottos their pylons are more important then supply depots are for Terran. Except food, pylons provide energy for protoss building to operate in their area. Check the Protoss base for pylons and try to find the most important one or two. If your Protoss opponent was careless while building his base you can do lots of setback destroying the key pylon, and powering down his production buildings. If you see many buildings around single pylon, go for it if you can. If you managed to turn off some buildings go for the ones that are still operative or for their pylons. Turned off prottos buildings are sitting ducks. Of course, if others buildings are defended, then you will finnish the "ducks" for later advantage. The same goes for cannons which can be very unpleasant static defense. But they also need power to operate. make slose look at cannons and pylon grid. There is possibility that you can choose an angle where you can get pylons wihout getting in ranhe of cannon. Smart Protoss wil arrange pylon/cannon grid carefully you cannons protect their pylons as well. Now, when you can, and based on current force relation go for something that presents the obvious danger for you. if you dont have much anti-air, try to kill stargate, to delay his air until you consolidate your defense. Very important targets are proxy pylons. Remove them regularly as they give Protoss better contol of the map, and fast units deployment. All other buildings, I think are of the same importance and you need to think about whole game outcome in advance to decide your first priority.
Against Zerg
The same, workers, overlords, hatcheries... economy. Spawning pool is also important, and can delay production for some time until new one is built. Take care of Nydus worm, it can be dangerous for your base so you want to get rid of it. I noticed that against zerg some players make a overlord hunter groups. Group of Vikings, Mutalisks, or Phoenixes are sent on attacking path searching for overlords. Overlords gives sight for Zerg but they are also supply for their units. They are usually all around the map, spreading creep, guarding expansions or simply watching your movements. In later game they can mutate to Overseers, they can see cloaked units, and also can be used for transports or marking the spot for Nydus worm. use every chance to kill Overlord, they are only supply device that gets to your base itself. regarding Spine crawlers and Spore crawlers, you will decide on the field. First is anti-ground, the second is anti-air. Depending on your goals and units you can ignore spine crawlers if you go for enemy workers from air. in same situation you may go for Spore crawlers first and then workers, or you can retreat if it is not worth. Experience counts here. If it is worth go destroy static defense first if you estimate that you will get out with at least one unit that can destroy all workers on the hatchery.
Conclusion
For all three races, workers are very important units, we try to defend ours but we also like to attack opponent's. Working force is what carries everything else in the game. When you go for destroying stream or harassment, make sure what you want to do, think in advance, stick to your plan, and adapt as necessarry. Do best to micro your units. Dont let AI to decide what to shoot on as your fire may occasionaly spread to different targets, lowering down your attack efficiency. I found that attacking workers work pretty good at start guded by AI but you need to take care when your units loose focus on workers and start to attack something else. Controll your group using hotkey, and try to focus your fire so they attack is synchronised with maximum damage in less time. Don't spend yur time on useless attacks, like depleted gas rafineries, or in later game facilities that are teched out for upgrades. If, for example, your opponent is upgraded to level 3, destroying armory will not get you any benefit as upgrades stays at the acchieved level. Buildings like Fusion core, Forgery, Spire etc. are required for specific production. Destroying them will stop perticular dependent production.
Even most of players understand importance of focused fire, it sometimes doesn't go well just bacause targeting order is wrong. Many fights between combined unit groups may end differently if you choose good targeting/destroying order. Are Marines more important then Medivacs above them? If you are on air, are Marines more important then Marauders? Battlecruisers tend to shoot at Interceptors rather then at Carrier (if you leave it to AI). Group them, focus them at one Carrier at the time for the best result. Ever faced with Zealot/Stalker/Immortal/Sentry group? Would it be nice to focus everything on Sentry first to stop Guardian shield or Force fields?
In all situations there is something that is more important then other thing. We should practice, anylyze, watch replays, experiment, get knowledge about abilities and ranges. With all this we may become better players. In one sentence we can define destroying order: Hit where it hurts the most.
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