"good for me that I have storm and he not :)"
-Necrosausage!
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| Reaver + Goon = Dead Zerg | | | Author: | | | IP: | fester05XXXX | | Date: | 03/14/00 04:03 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 7, Min: 6
Lifetime Rating for Rakshasa: 6.5000 |   | Finally after hours of mad trash talking at the Tao Server(with the usual suspects right at the centre) a game of Starcraft broke out. Mage, Apex, Stranix and Tiller had all gone elsewhere and Kain and Shadowlisk quickly, quietly and politely agreed to a Tao ladder game (not Shadowlisk was top 40, Kain has not been playing much and was around 250). After a bit of arguing over who would obs the game, Shadowlisk created and we were off...
Note: Let me apologize for the lack of screen shots. There is something woefully wrong with my picture converted and the JPGs come out in horrible colors. I will hopefully get a functional one before my next battle report.
The details:
Map: Lost Temple
Shadowlisk... = Random zerg, 9 o'clock.
[9]Kain = Random toss, 12 o'clock.
The first few minutes of the game were horrible, as there was dreadful lag and the players and observers were arguing about who should leave. Eventually, all the observers left but me and the game proceeded. Shadowlisk started out strangely (for kali) going 9 expand, then ol, then pool as opposed to the traditional 8 ol, 11 hatch 12 pool 14 hatch. Kain on the other hand went purely traditional, going 8 pylon, 10 and 12 gate. Shadowlisk's overlord got to Kain just as he made his pylon and Kain rushed a probe off to scout Shadowlisk.
The probe was too late to stop the drone from making a hatch at his natural, so it went inside his main to see what was going on. Seeing the strange build, Kain sent his first zealot straight at Shadowlisk.
Given Shadow's strange build his hatchery finishes slightly faster than with the standard build (but he is way behind in drone production) and he begins to make a creep colony. The pool finishes before the zealot arrives and Shadow makes 8 lings. Wisely, Kain elects to retreat with his probe and zealot and not send reinforcements. He begins to tech, but sees that some zerglings are following his zealot. Realizing that he might be in danger of getting mass linged, he wisely starts a forge and a pylon at his ramp.
Shadow has 8 lings following the zealots and another dozen at his natural starting down. Here Kain's zealot that he retreated is critical. Kain has 3 zealots when the lings get to his ramp, had he only had two he might have been in danger. In any case, Shadow retreats when he sees that Kain has started a cannon and has just made two new zealots. Seeing that Shadow has pulled back, Kain begins teching hard, he has four probes on gas and starts a cybernetics core. Shadow still does not have gas, and he only has two hatcheries. He starts gas but he is way behind economically - his build order was extremely flawed. Realizing he needs to tech quickly, Shadow gets gas at his main, but still has only two hatcheries. He quickly techs to hydras, he then begins a third hatchery after the hydra den is complete. Shadow wisely continues to scout with overlords between their two bases, never getting far enough into Kain's base that he could be in danger. Seeing this, Kain decides to be sneaky. The cybernetics core and forge are at the left of his base where the overlords can obviously see them. Kain builds his Robotics Bay at his choke where the overlords cannot see it.
SSince he cannot see any further tech, Shadow has all his units at his natural. Kain elects to drop four zealots on Shadow's mineral line at his main. Shadow's scouting overlords see the shuttle about half way through it's trip, but it is too late. For once Shadow had done the standard thing - he had researched Hydra range before speed in order to make micro easier. Unfortunately this meant that it took approximately an hour for his hydras to mosey on up to his main. In the end, the four zealots were easily killed, but they killed almost a dozen drones first. Why in god's name Shadow did not run his drones is a mystery, but Kain showed his skill once the Hydras arrived. Rather than try to take on the hydras, the overmatched zealots targetted the drones and did significant damage. Shadow refused to surrender however, he put up a sunken in his main and started a forth hatchery.
Despite Shadow refusing to surrender, the game is all but over at this point. Kain has a full group of range goons and 2 reavers. He sets off to Shadow's base and sits outside of it for a moment. The rosters on each side are rather strong:
Kain has 1 zealot, 12 goons, 2 reavers and one speed upgraded shuttle.
Shadowlisk has 2 sunkens, 24 Hydras and 12 lings.
While numerically and economically Shadowlisk's army is larger, it isn't even close. There is some crazy microing on each side (targetting Reavers, picking reavers up in shuttles etc) but in the end Kain only loses 1 reaver and 1 goon while Shadow loses everything. Politely and respectfully Shadow surrendered to the superior skill of [9]Kain.
This game makes it clear that Reaver / Goon is better in the early game than Templars and mixed ground. Templars are a defensive stance, and their attacks are better vs large swarms of enemies. Also, storm is next to useless vs melee units and is not help against sunkens. Templars are a great defensive unit, and very useful offensively in the mid to late game. Kain was teching to templars and expanding as he attacked, so if the attack had failed he would have had templars by the time that they would be useful as an offensive unit. Remember, the best defense is a good offense.
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