"At home four zealots came wandering past my choke point, took one look at the wallin, asked T_Mac for danger pay, didn't get it, and contented themselves with scouting my natural and then going on strike for better wages. I think they might be still there, waving signs and chanting 'For Hire!'
Alright, so that pun sucked. Work with me here people. It's past midnight."
-Fractal_Wave
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| Marine attack vs armor: What to upgrade? | | | Author: | | | IP: | user-33qXXXX | | Date: | 01/31/00 07:01 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 6, Min: 5
Lifetime Rating for DeezNutz: 5.5000 |   | Hey everyone, just want to say a few things before I start. I had no clue I was going to BR this game beforehand, so no pictures are included. Of course, since I am totally HTML illiterate, I probably wouldn't have been able to insert them anyways. Oh well. This is my first report here, hope you enjoy.
It started as I was observing some friends play a game called Race Wars on hunters (basically everyone goes random, scouts early and allies with anyone of the same race as them). After one of the terrans (my future opponent) got 6 pooled, he managed to float and relocate to his allies mineral-only expansion. About mid game he tells his ally to get marine armor, since so far he had only upgraded attack. I thought that was sound advice, as his ally didn't have a sci facility yet and that was the only thing he could have upgraded. He then took it a step further, however, and insisted that you should always get marine armor first. Here is where our little debate started..
I want opinions on this. He insisted that marine armor was more important as it meant 2 shots from dt, 3 from lurker, sunken, cannon etc. I thought, however, that marine attack was more important against every OTHER unit in the game, and that since only a fool wouldn't stim vs these things anyways, it is still 2 hits to kill. Medics take the place of armor. But that's just my opinion, tell me what you all think [our ensuing battle may have been fought for nought (heh that ryhmes)].
The next day our discussion heated up again. He finally got tired of it and said 'Look, I'll kick your ass right now if you want me to.'
I responded with a simple 'Yes. Yes I do.'
And so it began. The game ended up on hunters, I let him choose the map. I knew he loved the zerg and nearly always chose them, so I decided to force a ZvZ matchup, something I had been practicing recently. I spawned mid-left, him at top-middle. His name, btw, was $hithead. I told him my plans of forcing the ZvZ as soon as it began, and he declared that it was his best matchup. I told him he would therefore have no excuses for losing. The pressure was on, both of our dignities were at stake here. Who would prevail and prove that their marine strategy was better? Only time (and a lot of dead zergies) would tell.
I sent my overlord up to scout, and $hithead sent his left. They met above top-left. That prompted him to bitch about closeness and how he hated to pool first. He must've thought I was some gay little 4 pooler, because when my overlord got to his base it found 2 sunkens, a hatchery and a spawning pool. When his got to my base, it saw 2 hatcheries, a spawning pool and a creep colony morphing. I faked his ass out and he knew it ;) Go my econ!!
Well, when he started his second hatchery I about started my third. I was pumping lings and drones while starting an extractor. He saw I was beating him to gas so he threw up a Hydralisk Den as soon as possible, whereas I put up a Lair and then a Spire. I am a firm believer of the muta/ling in ZvZ.
My first attack was just lings, I decided to go on the offensive. He held it off, but he had to take drones off his minerals for awhile. His was a victory, but a slightly Pyhrric one. Immediately after the attack his first Hydra popped and proceeded to waste my poor ovie. I had preplanned though, so food was still fine. As payback, my first few mutas, which came in a few seconds, had the pleasure of killing his. Both of our plans were in the open, and things were just starting to heat up.
It's hard to describe in exact detail what was happenening for the midsection of the game. He tried to contain me with his first lurker and many hydras, but thankfully luck was on my side and my lings raped it before it could burrow as they were heading out. There were a long series of retreats and attacks, followed by more attacks and even more retreats. Both of our forces were being pumped from 3 hatcheries each. My mutas were 1/0, nothing else was upgraded by either side- It was too intense of a game, I think.
We were both very good at killing expansion attempts. I blame my own retardedness for not defending them better, but oh well. Hindsight is 20/20, eh? Patrolling lings everywhere did their job and did it well- I knew we were both in trouble without any expansions and that the game would be decided shortly.
During these failed attempts, my main hadn't been sitting idle. I had gotten ovie speed,a hive, and shortly after ling speed and glands (yay cracklings > hydralisks). The mineral patches in my base looked dangerously small. I tried another offensive, of many lings and mutas to his base of hydras and lurkers. My cracklings and mutas took out all of his lurkers and many hydras before i retreated the expensive mutas back home. I was getting desperate. I plopped down a hatchery at my mineral only natural (finally, I coulda done that much earlier fairly easily) and put down a Hydra Den- I figured cracklings really lose effectiveness vs lurkers without some ranged help. I sent my random 24 units of mutas, lings and hydras to the middle to protect my base. I also used some of my last minerals to plop down 2 more hatcheries at bottom left and the natural to bottom middle- It's sneakier ;)
It was about then that one of my stray overlords noticed a huge force coming from his base. Luckily, I had a cashflow again from my natural and quickly started 4 hatcheries worth of lings. The 24 lings joined the 24 defenders already there, ready for the grand ambush. In came the hydras and lings into a seemingly inferior force, when suddenly from the back, *BOOM*, hydras drop like flies to my cracklings, cutting off the possibility of a retreat. That battle was the turning point of the game. I patrolled every expansion and further enhanced my economy at my expansions.
I was massing out of fear of lurkers, little more. Being the dumbass that I am, I never scouted his base beforehand- Had I, I would have found it totally empty of all life. 1 zergling > $hithead's now empty base =[
Oh well, you live and you learn. $hithead asked for vision and we congratulated each other on a game well played. I enjoyed the victory very much however, as $hit had a habit to brag and very often reminded the members of my channel that he was the best player there. Sure you are :)
I think Adrenal Glands were the major turning point of this game. They increased the efficiency of every ling i made by 1.5 and really beat the living hell out of hydralisks.
Well, I want opinions please. Who is right about the whole marine upgrade thing? Armor just seems useless to me since you usually stim anyways. Also, besides learning HTML, what can I do to improve? Thanks for reading.
GG $hithead, hope I taught you some humility though =]
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