"Canada > YRM"
-Fractal_Wave
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| Me vrs the Army of Darkness | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 09/28/99 08:09 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 7, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for AQD3: 7.6184 |  | INTRODUCTION
Last night was pretty good for starcraft. I got to see my hero Whoop play vrs Ahscar. It was a very cool game on Lost Temple; Whoop with protoss vrs Ahscar with zerg. Whoop played great, using all kinds of flanking maneuvers with his zealots vrs hydras, and just showing he’s a great tactician. He won that game after some very fierce opposition from Ahscar. After that I played Ahscar and got owned on Dire Straits. He did a quick 4 zealot drop and I didn’t get my reaver out in time. It was very disappointing. I hung on for another ten minutes after that but it was effectively over. So when I went into the game I’m doing this report on, it was with the intention of inflicting a little bit of pain.
It’s pretty hard to get a decent ladder game. A lot of people won’t play you if you are even five points under their score. I had to spend over fifteen minutes jumping in and out of ladder games before I finally found someone to play me. The player I found had made a game “1:1 1075+”, and was named Sword_Shannarra.
We played on Lost Temple:
COME GET SOME
We both chose to be protoss in the start screen. I got the top position and Sword got the bottom. I’ve been having a little bit of trouble with my protoss vrs protoss build. The dual gate on 12 to six zealots and attack has been giving me mediocre results. The problem is that when I get there they usually have either blocked their choke, and by the time I get through it they have enough to fight me off or have gotten their tech choice, or they had used a similar strategy to mine and will simply have more troops due to travel time. In a 2v2 it’s a good build order because if you attack one person with all your forces you will generally be able to break a choke.
My new experimental build order went as follows:
8: Pylon
12: 2 Gateways (scout with the probe making gateways)
14: Pylon
15: 2 Zealots
20: Pylon
21: Assimilator
22: Zealot
25: Cybernetics Core
This build let me have the flexibility of early gateways. I cost me the opportunity to build 3 zealots while getting my core and assimilator, but the travel time across the Lost Temple generally gives you a two zealot margin of error, and I would use my probes to defend to make up for the last zealot if my three zealots could not hold the choke long enough for reinforcements. I had a bit of confidence my resources were doing better than my opponent too. I had used the rally point feature on my nexus to send my newly built probes right to the mineral patch I wanted them at, then selected them in mid move and directed them to mine. By the twenty probe mark this usually lets you have a 100 mineral or so advantage over someone who doesn’t do this. That’s an extra zealot or pylon right there.
My scouting probe had found my opponent in the bottom position. I had not gotten a look at his base because he had blocked his ramp with two zealots. They managed to kill the probe as it tried to squeeze past. I knew that I needed some information. I had followed my initial build order with a citadel of Adun, a forge, and a dragoon. I took the dragoon and my initial three zealots to attack his base. If he had gone with a one gateway to tech build order and neglected his zealots, my goon would let me force my way past his choke with it’s ranged attack while keeping my zealots just below his on the ramp. A beautiful plan, but like most plans this one did not survive contact with the enemy. As I arrived at his natural I was greeted by a party of seven zealots. After a second or two of engagement I ordered my forces back to my base. I lost one zealot in the exchange before I managed to leave. His forces pursued mine across the map while I ordered up two dragoons and a templar archives at home, along with a cannon placed behind my gateways that would be hard to get at for an attacker.
DID YOU WANT SOME OF THIS?
With my base in good order I looked back at my forces and found that only one zealot was still chasing me. My two zealot and dragoon force took the easy kill, then ran when the six remaining zealots showed themselves. I had my forces on the ramp at my base. Three dragoons backed the two zealots blocking the choke, quickly joined by another two new dragoons. I projected I would lose both zealots and one dragoon if he attacked. Instead he ran past my base and settled his forces at my natural… This was a little odd. My first dark templar warped in and I sent him to my natural. I ordered the rest of my troops to the bottom of my ramp. As the dark templar started carving the zealots up they ran back towards my enemies base, getting torn up by the troops at my ramp as they ran by. I started in pursuit with all my forces and occupied the area at the bottom of his ramp with five dragoons, two zealots, and a dark templar. I didn’t attack because I knew he had cannons at the top of his choke and his remaining forces would be enough to stop me. I started the two zealots to patrol between the left and right start points and their naturals.
With map control firmly in hand I expanded to my choke. As my first pylon warped in there my forces at his natural were attacked by dark templar. I ran all of them except my own dark templar to the safety of the cannons in my base and warped in two cannons and a gateway at my natural. His dark templar attacked my base, killing my new robotics facility, but not before I made an observatory. A new robotics facility began warping at my natural. I concentrated on making dragoons from four gateways, and I put down another forge and started double upgrading. Once my robotics facility warped in I made an observer and moved the bulk of my forces to his mineral natural. I killed a dark templar on the way. I set up camp and my observer showed he hadn’t taken his natural. Just as I was feeling confident I saw a shuttle pass over the head of the zealot I had patrolling the right start. I expected an attempt to put cannons on the ridge over my natural. I couldn’t have been more wrong… I started a few cannons close to the edge of my natural’s cliff and ordered a few dragoons down there while I made a shuttle. I though I could stop cannons with what I had there until my shuttle popped out.
Sword came in right behind the natural with a reaver drop. I ordered all my probes to the front of the base next to the cannons… The reaver auto targeted the cannons as the closest threat. One scarab killed over 15 probes. I stormed the reaver with a handy templar and finished it with dragoons. I had heard an odd grinding noise when the attack began. I looked curiously at my computer to see if that was the source…Oh wait, it was me grinding my teeth together.
I kept up with my dragoon production and upgrades, tossing in the odd zealot and templar every so often. I used an observer on each island, revealing that Sword had taken the lower right one, and the upper left was clear. I expanded to the right start, making a gateway and a stargate. My first plan was to use my shuttle to ferry troops to the upper right part of my opponent’s plateau, then use a double pronged attack to break his choke. My observer revealed his observer sitting there. We played observer tag for a few minutes, each of us storming the other’s observers, or batting them down with dragoons. We just about broke even when Sword made his play. He sent two full control groups of speed zealots at my mass of forces in the middle. I let them eat a nearly perfectly placed storm on the way in and my six zealots engaged them while my two control groups of dragoons laid down the law. I lost my zealots and one dragoon while he lost everything.
HAILTO THE KING BABY!
Time for plan B. I made an arbiter tribunal and an arbiter. I also produced two reavers. My plan was a modification of the original one. I would use the reavers to clear the choke and then attack. I got two templar with one reaver, then lost it to a defensive reaver. Another great plan gone to hell… I switched my five gates over to zealot production and got the speed upgrade. Plan C was to take the choke with speed zealots and then patrol in the mass dragoon army. Sword tried my force with six dark templar. They vaporized nearly instantly to the massive dragoon army. My supply was sitting at 187/200. I sent in the zealots and found to my surprise he had moved some forces down his ramp. The first zealot ate a scarab from his reaver. I kept pouring in. The reaver went down to the speed zealots and went up the ramp. Repeated storms on the cannons they were attacking took down the rest of my zealots, but only one cannon was left. I was getting tired of screwing around. Time to inflict some pain. I patrolled in three full control groups of dragoons, with a few templar right clicked on random dragoons to provide support if needed. I ate a few storms coming in. A lot of storms actually. Still, when the smoke cleared I had two control groups left. My upgrades hit 3/3/3. Sword gave me a “GG”, but didn’t quit. I was expecting him to try and break out a control group of carriers from his island or something. I wasn’t going to tolerate much more of this.
All the templar, dragoons, zealots, and dark templar I had left gathered in the middle. And my arbiter. I used all the templar to cast hallucination on the arbiter and got a full control group. I sent in the hallucinations with the real arbiter in the middle. As we breached the island defense and started taking mass cannon fire I hit recall and brought in a group of dragoons, zealots, and the shuttle with my one reaver. He stormed a few times on my attack force, but it was all over. My forces quickly tore down the robotics bays and cannons he had peppered the island with , and it was finally over.
Thank you for reading my report. You can find a record of my ladder game Here.
AQD3
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