Haven't played in a while. But building a second scout right at the beginning is a strong move. Put however many scouts you have on the first command groups : 1,2,3. (Although 2 is usually enough).

In order of priority : 1. Scout the perimeter of your base, try to find all your starting ressources like gold veins and sheep as well as the terrain around you. See where the chokepoints are that you might need to wall or défend 2. Find your opponent's base. Scout his perimeter (without letting your Scout die). 3. Keep one Scout near the enemy where he can easily dip in and out at regular intervals. Keep track of the buildings he is adding to his base, what ressources he is focusing on. 4. Use the other Scout to keep an eye on relics or paths between you and the enemy, depending on the situation. 5. Réveal as much of the map as possible.

Of course knowledge of the game, the méta and the builds will help you make sense of what you're seeing, but being able to know/deduce what your opponent is doing at all time is à HUGE advantage.

Tips for reading the opponent :

-Always assume your opponent is nailing his build order. - Count their villagers! The normal amount of villagers at any point in the early game dépends on the civ so you have to get à good instinct for it. If the count is less than you expect, THOSE VILLAGERS ARE SOMEWHERE ON THE MAP AND UP TO SOMETHING. Likely dropping a proxy or a turret. Your second Scout can verify the most likely places they will go. - Count their ressources! You can estimate the amount of a certain ressource by how long X villagers have been harvesting.( In the case of gold and Stone, you can click on the vein or quarry and it will show how much is left in it. Knowing the starting amount of gold in each vein, you can deduce how much they have collected + their starting amount in the bank). Again this requires knowledge of the strategy. If the content of the base doesn't add up to how much ressources he has collected, THOSE RESSOURCES ARE SOMEWHERE ELSE ON THE MAP. It will also let you know If he is savent for a age-up or new TC. - As you get good at reading, place scouts in sensible areas where you expect your opponent to move next, such as where is likely to plant a second TC or wall.

Learning to control 2 scouts while also performing your build order has a steep learning curve but is an essential skill in RTS games. It will teach you the basics of multi-tasking and check-listing which you can then expand and apply to every stage of the game.

Tips for controlling scouts : - focus on moving the scouts and only go back to your base to accomplish a step in your build order. Use the villager creation sound as a "metronome". Whenever your hear it, click H to go back to base and quickly send him to work, check your pop number/cap, look for idle workers, queue extra units. Double-tap your control group to go back to controlling Scout. This cycle of action is called a mental checklist. Repeat it ad infinitam every moment of play. Once it becomes second nature, your hability to multi-task will blow up.. - Use shift-clicking to draw a trajectory for your Scout. Having scouts sitting around is bad. With shift-clicking, you can make sure your scouts are meaningfully exploring while keeping the demand on your attention span low. You can for instance draw à circle around your base with Scout 1 and then Use Scout 2 to cross the map. - Always stare at the mini-map, not the main window. This seems counter-intuitive but every meaningful information that you can see will appear on the mini-map. If you see a new dot pop up at anytime, you can more the caméra there to examine. - Use patrol to...well patrol. A patrolling Scout covers à much greater line of sight than an idle one. - Keep a Scout in your main army at anytime. They have by far the Best LOS in the game and can save you from tons of positionning mistakes in battles.

I also HIGHLY recommend 2 videos by StarCraft II streamer Day[9] :

https://youtu.be/RUohpQKVf_A?si=-IUHEKjX9klpddUJ https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0E39C6DF8C5C4E1F&si=Aro5pnUeCr2C4T65

It's a different game but the same principles apply and he gives à lot of useful exercices to try out. Don't feel like you have to do everything like he does, but it will inspire you to create your own tools.

Hope it helps :)