"All the best, Fract... er YourRoleModel"
-YourRoleModel
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| Holy S***! My Most Earth-Shaking Game Ever! | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 10/16/99 05:10 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 8, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for .Praetor: 8.2987 |  | Warning: Still a fuddy-duddy with no HTML or picture skills.
Well, it's two in the morning here, so no one is in NWTR, and very few people are in nohunters. 'Sides, it's about time I got a respectable ladder score, especially with AQD3's reports littering the list (not that I mind at all). So I set out to get my second ladder game of the night. Suddenly, what do I see on the list? Lo and Behold, a free for all game (1:1:1:1 of course, not like any americans would actually be out there).
So I join up. The game creator and I talk for a bit, he in broken English, me in my normal English, which means I probably made it hard for him to follow. Anyway he goes to Kaist university in Seoul, which is supposedly one of the top universities in Korea. Anyway, we finally decide to play a one on one, because no one will join. He leaves at the beginning of the game, probably because it takes soo long for my compter (p100 16 megs) to actually load a map like Lost Temple.
Well, somewhat dismayed by that little setback, I join an ordinary 1100+++ game (I'm 1098). The creator says "go?" just as I say "go?" And the game is off.
Map: Lost Temple (it was late, and a ladder game, sue me)
I (.Praetor) random Zerg at bottom (6:00).
Young4436 chooses Protoss spawns right (3:00).
I'm somewhat pleased to get Zerg. Despite the fact that it's my worst race, I haven't played Zerg much lately, so I was happy with a change of pace. I immediatly set my drones to doing drone-type stuff, and my overlord was ordered to south northwest, to 9 o'clock.
Even though I don't have sound, I could sort of hear the groaning and "neawraoungh" of drones, so it was nice to be back to Zerg. I even spent some time looking at the little portraits, thinking they look much nicer than Zerg and terran ones.
Strategy-wise, I was thinking a six pool. Unfortunately, my overlord did not find the enemy at 9 o'clock, so I abandoned that idea, and started more drones, losing only about a second in my build. Handy, those close Lost Temple starts.
Anyway, for one reason or another, I had almost exactly one hundred minerals when my ninth drone was done, so I started an overlord. Why did I do an overlord first? I don't know, it just felt right. I was in a sort of feel-good mood. That happens to me during the wee hours of the morning. I don't know why... That happiness did not preclude me getting down to the business of playing StarCraft and killing my opponent, but I decided that more drones would lay a good foundation, and started more. I quickly reached three hundred minerals, and started a hatchery at my choke. I did so there out of grudging respect that I had virtually no defense, so a sunken on the cliff could become immediately useful.
Gas is also started, and once I get to fourteen supply, I start another overlord. Feeling extra guilty, I finally start making zerglings (slowly, because I only have one hatchery). I've got some good 20's and 30's big band song stuck in my head (don't ask), so I'm rocking back and forth in my chair, popping fig newtons and downing orange juice. It's just that sort of night, know what I mean?
My first overlord reaches the top (12:00), and finds it empty (my second overlord is on it's way to 3:00). As a result, I gather up my eight zerglings, enabled because of the extra supply due to my second hatchery, and send them to 3:00. They kill the scouting probe that is entering my base on the way out. I go back to producing drones with my two hatcheries.
Not surprisingly, my zerglings find four zealots standing watch above the opponent's choke, so I quickly back them away, though the first scout is torn to pieces rather quickly. I let the zerglings wait outside the Protoss natural and begin to research burrow from my choke hatchery. In my main I start another hatchery, on account of having three hundred minerals again. I start more drones, and check on my second overlord. It is just flying into the enemy plateau, and finds two cannons warping in on the edge of the cliff facing Young4436's expansion. Cool, and he didn't even need them. I send my overlord up north, to get a good readout of his base.
At home I'm starting to max out drones, plus I know I can expand, since my opponent obviously doesn't plan on attacking soon. I start a hydra den, as well as a hatchery at my natural, and another overlord at my main. My first overlord I send to the top left island to keep watch. Back at home I have lots of drones, out of three hatcheries, so I save up and start two evolution chambers as well as an extractor in my natural. I also start a few hydralisks when I have the money. Gosh, I love always having larvae.
My overlord is sending me good reports of the enemy base, showing several pylons, two gateways, a forge, and a warping cybernetics core. It's cool with me. I have the overlord continue to hover in the north part of his base. What isn't cool is that just when I send one zergling into his natural to scout out the place, zealots come streaming down his ramp, numbering about eight. Hoo-boy. My zerglings run helter-skelter back to base, as my hydralisks run to join them at the front of my natural, I start a sunken at my choke, and I start a few more hydralisks with what money I have left.
The zealots, however, only had strict orders to check out the enemy's natural, and apparently no intention of attacking my base. I had reason to suspect this, since it is a well-known fact that zealots are lazy, and often portly. Quite odd, considering their name, zealots. In fact, it is rumored that the only way they stay in shape is through the game of (2)Pro_Bowl.scm, and to really be effecient they need cybernetic enhancements above and beyond their armour suits.
All of these reasons explain why my overlord has been hovering over the Protoss base. As I take a look up there, I notice a completed cybernetics core, as well as a warping citadel of adun, which looks halfway finished. Uh... oops. Apparently, my overlord found a nice warm rising thermal, and decided to stay there. I order the lazy thing north and eventually, through waypoints, over to the 9:00 natural's cliff. I use overlords so much for scouting, I have to be careful, lest dark templar overtake me.
With my natural starting to run, I transfer some drones over from my main, mostly four for gas extraction. Now low, I continue to produce drones and a few overlords, from four hatcheries. This means I really only produce ten drones and two overlords, but doesn't pumping drones and overlords from four hatcheries sound outrageously cool?
Anyway, glancing up at my resources, I find I have about three hundred minerals and over one thousand gas. Oops. Oh well, it's always nice to have a stockpile of the stuff. I start on the carapace and missile upgrades at my evolution chambers. This decision is actually somewhat painful, as I find that I almost always go cracklings in late game, and so want to plan for them. However, at the moment it is looking to be hydras, so I get the missile upgrade with the argument of novelty pushing me over the edge.
See why my reports are so long? If you examine the above paragraph, I spend quite some time telling you that I got some upgrades. And people like this. Go figure.
Considering that both my natural and my main are filled with drones, and I have upgrades working, I start the hydralisk range upgrade, a few more overlords, and start full-scale hydralisk production like mad, using the three hatcheries on my plateau, which are all rallying to the same general area.
When I've got a full control group of hydralisks in my main, I start to feel really, well, Zergish, and decide to ATTACK! Oh, that feels good. I'm really getting into this Zerg mode of thinking. I take that control group, as well as another control group of assorted hydralisks and some zerglings, and head on up to Young4436's natural. Time to kick ass and take names (wait, that's what Johnny did to me).
I roar charge (press the attack move button), and my forces surge forward, ready to slaughter all.
Or die in vain, as the case may be. Zerg units really don't care which. And, unfortunately, versus eight zealots, three cannons (plus another on the cliff edge), and one high templar, that's all my Zerg units are going to be able to do. I take one psionic storm right where it hurts, and retreat as fast as I possibly can.
Which, as it turns out, isn't all that fast, as my unit control decides to reach un-heard of lows. I do, however, manage to burrow five hydralisks in the back, to watch out for counterattacks, and retreat the majority of my Zerglings, most of whom hadn't even got close to the Zealots. The Protoss was probably happy. His cannons need to pop up every now and again to keep the oil moving. I take the pitiful remnants of my zerglings, and scatter them about the map, burrowing them at all the 12:00 expansions, as well as the mineral naturals of 3 o'clock and the enemy's mineral-only natural.
Looking at why my attack failed, it was because I really didn't attack with all that much. Which means I really didn't lose all that much. Happy with that thought, I proceeded with my battle plans. Seeing more cannons, and high templar, I expected my player to expand and turtle up more. As a result, I built a spire, a queen's nest, as well as sending a drone to the nine o'clock main base to expand. During the attack, I had continued with hydralisks at home, so I had well over a control group of defenders. Having already researched speed for my overlords, since I had the gas, I started transport as well.
At this point, I analyzed our positions. He was definitly ahead, due to some loss of troops by my part, and the fact that I'm just not that efficient as Zerg. He had adequate defenses just in cannons, as well as an attack force that probably equaled about what I could field. On the other hand, I have started to get a feel for his playing style, and I knew that he was going to turtle up for awhile longer. As a result, I saw that the game was going to turn to my favor, and I decide to expand all over and just build up until he broke out, and I defeated his army.
Good plan, eh? To actually implement it, I started up a few more overlords (I was doing great on staying ahead of supply this game), and about five queens, as the nest had completed. I sent an overlord to the cliff above his natural, one to the island in the southeast, one to my cliff, and kept two others for detection purposes. I continued upgrading my hydralisks, and started on the defense upgrade for my mutalisks when the spire finished. I was already planning for corsair. I also started up six mutalisks, as well as a drone for the hatchery that had just completed at the 9:00 plateau. I sent another drone up to the 9:00 natural to prepare to expand there. I start three more mutalisks and take the six that have finished, and head up to the enemy's cliff outside his natural. I also start on the broodling upgrade.
My mutalisks, in full view of a high templar, head right for the probe line. To be specific, right above the probe line. I kill at least four probes, there are alot, before he runs them away. When he runs away, I run away, and the storm does minimal damage. I then take a queen, and parasite the high templar, and kill a few more drones with my mutalisks. Another storm clips me, but I am already heading north, to see about his other peon line.
My mutalisks make it up there, only taking scattered fire from two dragoons. I kill a few more drones in his main's mineral line - there are a lot less here, he must have transferred most of them to his natural expansion. This time a storm catches me unawares, and I lose four heavily damaged mutalisks before making it all the way out of his base, resting the two mutalisks left at the cliff in the northeast.
At home I start six more mutalisks, as well as a few more overlords, and the queen energy upgrade. My transport for overlord finally finsihes, so I start on a Hive. Having some minerals left, I start more hydralisks, as well as drones at nine o'clock. Well there goes all my larvae, but my money as well. I send up two queens to do some harassing at Young4436's natural. There is one parasited high templar there, sitting next to a much juicier templar. I send in my queen, and nail the templar, then retreat it down to the bottom right island. He sends the parsited high templar away from his choke defense, into his base, where it waits by two more juicy templar. Oh, happy days. I send my second queen around the choke, and prepare to get another kill.
I do, but two cannons heavily damage my queen, which I retreat to the same island the first did. Apparently, for some reasons, Young4436 has placed cannons all around his base. A REAL turtle. Much happier, I start up some more hydralisks at home, and get gas working at nine o'clock. I also start a second spire, and upgrade to greater spire, as well as eventually getting level one attack at the second. I work on getting the nine o'clock natural up as well, and start a hatchery at my mineral-only natural.
My opponent, who only has level one ground attack for upgrades, shows that he has been doing something, and sends six corsaid down to harass my queens. He does get the heavily damaged queen, but I retreat the other, and bring my nine mutalisks into the fray. His corsairs are beating on my mutalisks when they arrive. Much to his surprise, the second line starts firing, and the first four, still spaced out, pass over his corsair, and then turn, creating a circle. Perfect. Unfortunately he realizes this as well, and retreats his corsair. My mutalisks kill the observer that was by my overlord.
I get a few more drones at each of the nine o'clock locations, and move the two mutalisks way up north to kill the other observer at the top left island, also by an overlord of mine. At home, I start nine more mutalisks. The opponent responds with corsair, which I see coming due to a parasite by the previously retreating queen. One mutalisk, and my overlord die, but the other escapes to my main. As I am performing these actions, the overlord decides to shake a bit.
What?? I look closely at my screen. Yet, the overlord is swaying. No, I'm swaying. I can feel it in my stomach. Was it too many fig newtons and the orange juice? Possible. Wait, there it is again. It seems like the whole ground is swaying. What's that noise. The plastic clicking. Oh, my blinds are hitting each other. Why? Holy Sepulcher of Antioch! I'm in an earthquake! Hopping out of my chair, I go to stand in my doorway, which every resident of California knows is one of the safer places during an earthquake. Criminy! That IS the ground moving, and the walls too!
Now, I'm not worried at the moment, for the swaying is gentle, though it does last for another minute or so. San Diego is not a big hot spot for earthquakes, so it was either a small one, or a big one somewhere else in Southern California. Did you feel it Johnny? Bet it is in the news tomorrow. Er... later on today.
Anyhoo, none of my flat-mates get up, so I walk outside, poking about to see if anyone else is up, so I can ask the inevitable question. "Did you feel that?" Well, duh! I don't see anyone in the immediate vicinity, though the ambient chatter from apartment windows is more animated that usual. A car alarm went off as well.
I take another look around, and head back into my apartment. Nope, none of my flat-mates woke up. Well whaddayaknow. Gingerly, I take a seat back in my chair, stealing a glance at my blinds. They're gently swaying, not even enough to touch each other. I say well whaddayaknow to myself a few more times, and check on the damage to my StarCraft game, not that I really care anymore.
My opponent has taken out my nine o'clock expansion, taking advantage of my absence and their state of undefension. He'll pay for that. None of my crucial holdings have been destroyed, and all my troops are in working order. I am also missing a zergling scout at twelve o'clock. I immediately send out two drones, one to each of the nine o'clock expansions.
I also order ensnare, the overlord sight upgrade, both air upgrades, the third level upgrades for my hydralisks, as well as starting six more mutalisks, and morphing the nine mutalisks at the southeast island to devourers and the ten mutalisks in my base to guardians. You have a chunk of cash when and earthquake grabs your attention.
And how often do you get to say that, hunh? Anyhoo, glancing at my supply, it is suddenly about thirty below what my forces should have. Oh, son of an itch (what can I say, I rarely swear). Overlords are MIA all over the map. I start nine more.
My fleet starts moving north, towards twelve o'clock, accompnyed by three overlords (for detection). I also lose the drone at nine o'clock to a single zealot. I do start a hatchery at the nine o'clock natural.
Young4436 has four cannons and at least a dozen zealots guarding his newest expansion. These fortifications are, of course, easily brushed aside with my guardians. His zealots smartly retreat, as corsair respond, which I see, due to the parasited corsair.
I prep my devourers, and meet the corsair just as they hit my guardians. Perfect timing so he doesn't see them coming with his buildings that are being razed. I bring up my mutalisks then, the six from my base, realizing I may need them to finish off the corsair. The question soon becomes moot, as the corsair retreat, one still parasited.
At home I start more mutalisks, and a few hydralisks. I send five hydralisks to nine o'clock, which clear out the zealot. I send a drone up after, to start a hatchery.
At twelve, my guardians have taken out the nexus, and everything but one pylon and one gate. I see goons responding, due to my early-game burrowed hydras and the parasited goon, as well as the parasited high templar, which still sits near the choke on high ground. I take the time to pump some drones at various places and send them to the nine o'clock natural. My fleet I pull back over the water between twelve o'clock and the northwest island. I send two queens up to held deal with templar problems.
I pump some more drones, and get the nine o'clock natural running smoothly. The nine o'clock main has some mineral workers and gas running. As you can see, I've been hitting the gas quite a bit. Speaking of which, I start the level three upgrades for my fleet. My hydras are already there.
I send one queen into twelve, and parasite a goon. When vision is given to me there, I broodling a templar and a goon, and attack with my guardians. I had a picture perfect idea of my guardian's first volley hitting as the goons were firing their first volley on the broodlings, but it didn't work out at all that way. Rather, my guardians just killed the goons fair and square, losing a few of their number.
One templar, which my parasite had not detected, did get a storm off. Fortunately the lazy warrior decided to target my closer devourers, which were huddling over then nexus. This was good, because I needed my guardians, and the devourers were fast enough to escape some of the storm. Corsair retreated when they lost one of their number to concentrated devourer fire. More goons were killed and the nexus razed a second time, when yet more goon reinforcements showed up, about eight of them, followed by a templar. I managed to kill the templar by sneaking my six mutalisks around the back, though they were all damaged by storm. The remaining dragoons managed to finish off my guardians, which I could not retreat due to their slow speed. Young4436 only had about two dragoons left anyway. I retreated my forces again, morphing the six mutalisks into dragoons, on account of them being damaged. At home, I built some more mutalisks, and beefed up my expansion drones more.
About this time I noticed my main was (long since) dry. I sent a few drones to my mineral only natural, as well as eight to the northwest island, and three to the south east island. On both islands, I started two hatcheries and an extractor. The extra hatheries were for insurance and efficient mining. Wanting to finally finish off twelve, which, though constantly held, has never been mined to return any sort of investment, I send up twelve hydralisks and a group of assorted hyralisks and zerglings.
On the way some of my guys smell zealots and head for the Protoss choke defense, but I order them back on path. I also send in my queens, getting the only templar and another goon in the north. They are followed by my guardians, just as the first hydralisks are heading up the ramp into twelve o'clock. Unfortunately, at least six hydralisks were distracted by cannons on Young 4436's cliff edge. The offending cannons were, I think, destroyed, though at the loss of hydralisks.
At twelve o'clock, another hidden templar gets the first good storm off on my guardians, which are, luckily, somewhat spread out. My guardians fall prettly quickly, but my hyralisks and zerglings finish off the dragoons. Unfortunately, immediate reinforcements of dragoons quell the threat.
I have been producing drones at my northwestern expansion, and have filled it out, so I start twelve zerglings, and send up another overlord to the location. I also take the last twelve hydralisks in my main up to the twelve o'clock location. Loading up the zerglings, I drop them on the edge of the twelve o'clock plateau, in the southwestern area, after broodlinging a templar. My hydralisks come in, and start attacking the goons. I quickly order my zerglings into the fray from the other side.
At first, it looks like the attack will be a failure. The hydralisks are not a match for the goons already there, and several fall before the zerglings can arrive. The zerglings, regular and with only carapace upgrades, do arrive, but look to be a small force against the eight dragoons left. Luckily, the dragoons fire upon the zerglings next, and upgrades play a factor as my four remaining hydralisks and zerglings finish off the dragoons. this force proceeds to level the twelve o'clock base.
Now why didn't Young4436 send reinforcements as he had in the past? Simple, his arbiter had wandered into my base and recalled eight zealots and eight dragoons. Oopsie. Did I just send out most of my base defenders too? For a few seconds, our forces just stare at each other in a comical scene. Finally the lazy Protoss get to work and the zealots move out while disrupter blasts scatter the overlords that allow me to see the whole area despite the aribiter.
With Young4436's forces attacking, I spring into action as well. I double-click upon an overlord, and order my excess supply out to the water to the west of my main. At my mineral only expansion, I order back about eight hydralisks. I also start eighteen zerglings, resetting rally points for the two hatheries at my main, to behind most of my buildings, to provide grouping time. My ramp hatchery's rally point remains the same, and I start hydralisks at both the hatcheries below my plateau.
I send in the mutalisks I had in the area, which number about ten, and attack the arbiter, after killing the sole templar accompnying the attack force. The arbiter is almost dead when I am forced to retreat my three remaining mutalisks due to cloaked dragoon fire. The mutalisk retreat to the new main rally point.
The arbiter appears to be heading back to Young4436's base, so I pop up the five hydralisks who have been comfortably burrowed in that part of lost temple for quite some time now. Once the arbiter comes by, they shoot it down quickly, and burrow in the same places again. I direct my attention back to my main, where zerglings have birthed and are engaging dragoons.
The zealots are beating on my spire, and I micro my zerglings around the hatchery in between the zealots and them, setting the zerglings on the dragoons. At my nine o'clock expansion, I start six more mutalisks. My mutalisks on home engage the zealots there, and my zerglings have again finished off flanked dragoons, this time by zerglings rallying from the ramp hathery. My mineral-only natural hydralisks finally bring their bad AI pathing hides up the ramp, and engage the zealots. The zealots do get all the zerglings, but little else. I lose my evolution chambers, which I don't care about, and my spires, which I care about, and my Hive is reduced to about forty percent health.
I start two more spires at the northwest island, and rebuld hydralisks at my main. Money starts to pile up for the first time without me doing anything about it (aside from natural disasters). Eventually the spires finish, and I start six more mutalisks, with nine more at my main. Eventually the spires becomre greater spires, and I start six more mutalisks at my northwest island, and transfer the first twelve to the island above Young4436's main. The eight devourers I still have join the party.
Yound4436 takes this time to drop my southeastern island, where there has been an observer I knew about for quite some time. I had refrained from killing it so that expansion could serve as a sacrificial victim keeping Young4436's attention from my working bases. (Never enlist in my forces. I am fond of suicide missions.) I do start eight zerglings there and use three idle drones to start creep colonies. The drop forces are three zealots and a templar.
My guardians morph above the enemy's main, and I send them in, relatively spread out. Two templar are killed with only one storm going off, damaging three guardians. The crab-like behemoths begin to carve up the Protoss base, starting with the assimilator and continuing on to some pylons and a nexus. Due to bad construction, dragoons have a limited path to my guardians. This problem may soon be relieved by my guardians themselves. Just now I notice a little problem. There is another arbiter. No! I quickly order the three overlords I had accomnying my fleet on the early twelve o'clock attacks over to the attacking guardians. Still, they have to cross almost the breadth of the map.
Back at my southeastern expansion, my zerglings kill a zealot, and make the templar cast a suicide storm on himslef. I morph my creep colonies into sunkens, but they are all already down to half strength due to zealot attacks. I start six more zerglings there.
Up north, I grab what mutalisks I can and send them up to the same promitory overlooking Young4436's base. My guardians in his base have taken down some pylons and the nexus, but two bad psionic storms have also damaged the beasts. Some dragoons kill the remaining guardians, with medium losses, and I get the arbiter with concentrated devourer fire. I morph the twelve new mutalisks into guardians and take my attention back to the south.
At the southeast island, my colonies are morphed, but two only get one shot, due to the damage they have taken from the zealots. The two remaining zealots, undamaged, advance on the last sunken, which is at half-strength. The zealots have two attack upgrades. Luckily, my zerglings finish birthing, and finish off the zealots with ease.
At the northwest island, corsairs have arrived and murdered two overlords, the corsairs continue south on their rampage, eventually killing all the overlords at both of my nine o'clock expansions.
Back at his base, I manage to kill one last templar before a storm goes off, and begin the serious process of destroying his tech buildings.
Young4436 surrenders after his corsair finsih his tour of my western bases, now all productive.
Whew. Some notes:
Some details are off, and I actually know a few. You get the flow of the game best this way though. Any intentional fudges are minor, and are done to cover up parts of the game I could not remember. They mostly have to do with timing of upgrades, etc.
Early mistakes, or ineffeciencies in my build order led to mid and late game strength, when I had enough larvae to call upon. Not enough hatcheries is often a failing of mine, and perhaps why I like Zerg air =).
This guy wasn't great, but he was legitimately 1100. He was rather a turtler, but had the best sense of strategy of any turtler I've seen to date. It is my outrageous guess that he is a former Korean Zerg player learning Protoss. This would also explain the arbiter tech leaning, as a replacement to the massive overlord drop. Readers of my earlier reports will note that this is just as susceptable to psi-storm.
I'm getting more confident handling mutalisks versus corsair. The little buggers are ceasing to faze me too much. It does help when they are un-upgraded.
your humble scribe,
.Praetor |
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