TOP LEFT: Nikki (Random Zerg)

BOTTOM RIGHT: Celedor (Random Terran)

THE EARLY GAME
     Nikki starts out by immediately expanding to his natural using the 10/9 extractor trick. After having established a stable source of gas, Nikki upgrades to Lair with the intent of teching to Lurkers. It's been sometime since anyone has rushed to lurkers, and he hopes to catch Celedor off guard. Celedor builds a Depot, Barracks, Refinery and Factory and quickly researches Spider Mines. He's been mucking around with vultures and mines in his recent games, and shows no sign of stopping now...

    First Blood is drawn when a scouting Overlord gets too zealous and floats right over Celedor 's base. Marines use the bloated invader to practice for the upcoming conflinct. Nikki , is definitely not pleased...Realizing that his build was more attuned towards Protoss than Zerg, Celedor orders the construction of an additional Barracks.

    The first vultures are trained, and the hoverbikes leave the Terran base after planting mines in designated chokepoints... Meanwhile, in the Hive Cluster, Hydralisks suddenly grow dormant, as a protective shell envelops their bodies -- they enter the long sleep, waiting to re-emerge as deadly Lurkers.

    In their scouting patrol, the Vultures encounter some Lurkers en route to the Terran base... The Vultures decide to retreat, but not before leaving the Lurkers a deadly surprise...

BLOOD
    After the initial confrontation, both sides decide to amass their forces and consolidate their strength..

"Uhhh, could you stand over where the lurker was for a minute?"

    Finally, a group of 6 Tanks, 18 marines and 4 Vultures leave the Terran base just as construction of a new Command Center was beginning at the natural. The Terrans make their way across the ash-covered landscape -- until they come across the burrowed Lurker. Caught without detection, they are in a bit of a fix... However, a flash of brilliance allow the Terrans to kill the burrowed Lurker without the aid of detection... The commander of the tank column asks for a volunteer... No one is eager to try though, so they draw lots to see who gets the assignment. Private Bob is chosen. After being stimmed so full of drugs that he doesn't care about what happens anymore, the poor private dashes towards the source of the Lurker Spines and waves towards the tanks... "Over here! Over here!" The tanks then fire upon Private Bob, taking the Lurker with him.

With the Lurker conveniently out of the way, the Terrans continue unhindered towards the waiting Hive Cluster. The tank group splits up -- three taking position along the cliff overlooking the Zerg Natural, while the marines and the rest of the tanks go over to the ramp leading to the cliff -- to cut off any Zerg force that attempts to kill the tanks on the cliff. Celedor has forgotten to factor in the possibility of a Hydra drop... The Zerg Overlords now have both Pneumatized Carapaces and Ventral Sacs... Cerebrate Nikki takes advantage of this and the tanks on the cliff quickly fall to a well-executed Hydra drop. The tanks and marines on the ramp then advance towards the Hive cluster with revenge on their minds. After taking down the natural, the Terran force continues by forcing it's way up the to the Main Cluster, slowly destroying all Zerg forces sent to stop it. The hatcheries work furiously as fresh warrior broods are spawned from new larvae -- even the larvae of the dead hatchery morph into eggs. Having eliminated all mobile resistance, the tanks then take position just outside the range of the Hive Clusters defenses -- in the form of Sunken Colonies, and begin their relentless Arclite Cannon Fire. The few Overlords in the Hive Cluster quickly float away before the marines decide they make better targets than that Extractor by the side. But in the panicked evacuation, the poor drones are left to fend for themselves...

TERRAN ASSAULT--> <--DRONE BUM RUSH!!!

ASHES
      And what has Cerebrate Nikki been up to all this time? The lack of Overlords and Hydralisks within the Hive Cluster may offer a small clue as to what was going on. The presence of Ventral Sacs and Pneumatized Carapace would even shed more light on his (it's?) intent. While the battle raged on within the Hive Cluster, a group of Overlords made it's way across the map and landed in the midst of the Terran base, unloading several ravenous Hydralisks. Alerted to the Zerg Invasion, Celedor orders the Terran structures to lift-off and scatter, as the Hydralisks begin to lay waste to various units and structures. Several SCVs are massacred. The Hydralisks chase down all fleeing buildings and destroy them, proceeding towards the natural. Freshly built Vultures scatter mines throughout the Terran base, but the Zerg attack force has the Overlords following them, and the mines are little more than a nuisance. The Hydralisks proceed towards the Terran Natural, where a barracks had trained some new recruits. These fresh recruits don't know how to handle higher ground, and with the attentions of the Terran Commander turned elsewhere, they easily fall to the Hydralisk swarm. The Hydralisks move down the ramp, but the Command Center there has already left, along with the five SCVs that had been queued into production. The Hydralisks then return to the main base, destroying Supply Depots, Machine Shops, and whatnot, turning the ground into a huge wasteland of wreckage and ashes... After the last building goes up in flames, Cerebrate Nikki is angered at the fact that the Terrans have not been completely eliminated from the map. Once again, the Hydralisks board the Overlords and begin a search for any wayward Terran buildings. At around this time, a fleeing Starport spots a fresh Zerg hatchery being morphed in the Central Island. It is swiftly killed by Hydralisks diverted from the search party...

REBUILDING AND REBIRTH
     It is only a matter of time before the Hydralisk search party finds the Terran base. Realizing this, the Siege Tanks and their escorts move towards Top Right, where the refugee Terrans have begun constructing bunkers and Supply Depots. The remaining Vultures frantically mine the area between the former Terran Main and their new base. But the Hydralisks are safely nestled within the Ventral Sacs of the Overlords, and even if they were not, the escorting Overlords would have easily spotted the hidden mines. A burning barracks limps towards the Terran base, and an SCV scurries to repair the damage...Unfortunately, new marines cannot be trained because of the lack of supplies, and the Terrans will have to make do with what they have against the Zerg.

"Hydralisk burger, anyone?"

     As soon as the new hatchery is completed, it begins to spawn new drones, and the first boards an Overlord and is sent to establish yet another hatchery in the Bottom Left. The search party has now been to all possible locations but Top Right, the Overlords decide to approach from the cliff, and drop the Hydralisks which would finish the opponent once and for all. However, with the Siege tanks to assist, the Hydralisks do little harm...
     Feeling a little safe after having fended off the Zerg invaders, Celedor uses his stockpiled minerals to establish a Command Center in the nearby resource node. Production of two more Barracks as well as an Academy are started.
     Cerebrate Nikki continues to produce drones and hydralisks, even morphing some into Lurkers,and the ravenous swarm begins to reach it's old economic power. Some Vultures return to the old Zerg base to get rid of whatever structures remained, but Cerebrate Nikki quickly builds a Hydra Den on the island before the precious DNA information is lost. A tense form of peace settles over the land, as either side waits for the other to make a move.
      Nikki decides to harrass his enemy with Lurker drops behind the harvest lines. Once again, Celedor is caught without detection and quickly builds a ComSat. The Lurkers unburrow, in the hopes of taking the Comsat down before it is built, but waiting marines on drugs take the Lurkers down. The attack has made the Terrans more vigilant, and an Engineering Bay is constructed in order to provide the Marines with a more powerful Armor in order to withstand more Lurker hits.

     Soon Nikki feels that he has built up sufficient forces to finally crush the wretched Terrans, and sends several Overlords jampacked with Zerglings, Hydralisks and Lurkers, dropping them from behind in the hopes of taking the Terrans by surprise. Zerg numbers prove overwhelming and the three veteran tanks are killed, but not without destroying the attacking Hydralisks and Lurkers first. What is left on the battlefield are 5 marines -- wounded and worn out by the assorted drugs they have taken to make it this far, and 6 or 7 fresh Zerglings. Desperate, the marines run towards a derelict mine, in the hopes that the Zerglings will follow -- they do...and what is left is a smattering of Zergling guts and gore. Cheers erupt from the Terran force, and a medic is hastily trained to take care of the battle-weary marines. A Factory is built as the Terrans prepare to shift to the offensive.

     Meanwhile, Nikki has decided to take a different approach. Deep within the Island which the Zerg have made their home, a Spire has begun to morph...

END GAME
     Having built up a force of 24 marines, 4 medics, 2 tanks, as well as a Science Vessel, Celedor sets his eyes on the Zerg Expansion in the Bottom Left -- a quick Comsat shows that the assault on the Terran base has left this expansion completely defenseless! Marines and tanks leave the Terran base on a mission. A well-placed Overlord manages to detect the Terran force leaving and Nikki decides that now is the perfect time for those two lurkers within to attack. The Overlord drops them on the Terran Expansion. The marines who remain try to stop the Lurkers but only succeed in wounding one. Lurker Spines soon force the Command Center to lift off. However, learning from past experience, the Lurkers do not unburrow but instead remain to deter the Terrans from returning to retake the expansion.

     Meanwhile, the Terran force arrives at the Zerg Expansion and with the help of drugs and medics easily turn the Zerg base into another bloody sore on the ground. At this point, Celedor decides to scan the island Hive Cluster once again, in hopes of gleaning the intent of the enemy. The scan catches the Greater Spire only moments away from attaining full functionality. Scientists immediately begin searching for the fastest way to equip their Science Vessal with the means of combating the imminent threat of Guardians.. Even as they do so, Mutalisks have already entered the Cocoon stage of their morph into Guardians.

"... the Zerg Greater Spire is possibly the most complex organic structure within the Galaxy. It goes beyond the original DNA present within the Mantis Screamer, and undergoes an accelerated Evolution which only the Vespene Processing Metasynaptic-pseudonodes of the Hive Cluster can generate. This is the most... -- Xel'Naga Zerg Records"

"Is that a GIANT corpse that the medic is examining? Nahh, it's just one of those trans-dimentional riftwarps that sometimes portray your future in an enlarged form."

The marines make their way back to base, while a stray medic moves towards them. The newly-morphed Guardians are on their way to the Terran base when they spot the medic...They decide that it wouldn't waste that much time to kill this lonely medic...While the Marines slowly trudge back, the Vessel zooms ahead of the party -- the scientists have managed to fit the Vessel with Irradiate and it now moves to test it's newfound abilities on the Guardians. The Guardians slowly take position on the Volcanic region to the left of the Terran Base and begin their bombardment of acid spores...Straggler marines die in the onslaught... The Vessel arrives and irradiates 2 of the Guardians, leaving 4 more to happily feast on the Terran base..

     Three Goliaths which were hidden from view now move to engage the remaining guardians... With the help of Charon boosters and marines, the Terrans manage to rid themselves of the enemy Guardians!

Now why are those Goliaths firing upon a Guardian with Cancer?

     Elated, Celedor takes the time to broadcast the only message in this eerie battle. Cerebrate Nikki , realizing that he has no more resources to sustain the onslaught, and unwilling to see more Zerg Forces needlessly suffer, surrenders control of Ashrigo to the Terrans. The Terran Flag flies proudly over the Ash-covered landscape!!!

AFTERTHOUGHTS AND HINDSIGHT

• Nikki : "If I teched up after having established both my island base and my expansion, I could have won the match by making an earlier guardian assault -- as well as a more massive one. A few Broodlings wouldn't hurt either."

• Celedor : "Mines might attack cloaked units, but do absolutely nothing against burrowed ones. A Marine and 2 tanks might be helpful though... A Zealot and two reavers for that matter....:)"

• Each map has it's own set of map imbalances -- Ashrigo doesn't offer sufficient space for Terran wall-ins by the ramp, at least, the Bottom Right doesn't.

• BLOrGJH!!!!!

CREDITS
     Special Thanks go out to:

• J3-Online for allowing us to use their computers to make this report! :)
• JAm, for offering his critique on the report.
• YourRoleModel for inspiration. (intimidation?)
• The staff of Battlereports.com for hosting and maintaining a great site.
• her

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  Most images were not actual screenshots taken during the game, but re-enactments of the battle. Both Nikki and Celedor however, certify that the events did happen in game. The player portraits do not reflect how the players look like in Real Life...