The Harvester is the most basic unit in cnc3, and each harvester literally helps to make or break a cnc3 player's economy. Losing a couple harvesters early game can mean the difference between winning and losing a game of cnc3. And producing extra harvesters, and maintaining a good amount of them can also win a game by allowing you to have a superior economy to your opponent's economy.
Therefore, it is important for every player to understand what to do when your precious little babies come under attack.
Reverse Move
Reverse move isn't just a mechanic you should be using with your tanks. It's important to utilize the reverse move command when microing harvesters away from enemy threats. The moment you find yourself in a situation where your harvester is under attack you should be using reverse move to navigate your harvester through your base and towards any defenses you have or other mobile units. This way, your harvester will take less damage and there is more of a chance of survival for your harvester to get to a warfactory for repair.
Harvester Dancing
Along with reverse moving your harvester, you need to utilize any surrounding buildings that you have to shield your harvester from as much damage as possible.
If you plan ahead of time, you can place buildings to act as protective walls for your harvester in case of emergency. The few seconds that your buildings protection gives your harvester, along with less shots on your harvester, means you'll gain some time to bring in other units to get rid of the enemy threats. Every second counts.
The best building to dance your harvester around is the warfactory, because not only are you taking less shots from enemy units due to the buildings protection, but your harvester is being repaired during the entire process, thereby lengthening it's life and giving you even more time to bring in reinforcements!