Intro

Well... I was having a nice day in Nohunters. I had the priveledge of observing a game between [tC]Romeo and werd~bold (also known as ko[b]old, but i'll refer to him from here on as bold), and ended up being Zerg vs. Toss. Mutiple waves of lings were unable to hold off the mighty Protoss brethren, as bold eventually triumphed with a mixed force of Dragoons and Reavers.

After the game, Romeo seeked a re-match. However, when I went to make the game, bold came, but romeo didn't. After minutes of getting bold a new contestant, Prugge was the man to volunteer. Since no mentioning of a map was chosen, I assumed that The Lost Temple was going to be picked.

And it was.

So go grab yourself a bag of popcorn, wait for these pictures to load, and enjoy yet another entertaining battle for control of....

Ko[b]old - Chose White Terran at 6
Prugge - Chose Brown Protoss at 3

(Might I mention that I had the pleasure of observing this game with Aristocrat-X. Observing a game with him is quite entertaining.)

Let the games begin!

The build orders were rather standard. Prugge built a Pylon at 9, Gate, Pylon, then surprisingly expands to his natural very early in the game. He later adds a forge and sets up a few cannons at his natural. Bold makes a depot at the choke at 8, follows with a rax, refinery, and closes the choke with another depot. Double factories, as expected, soon pops up afterwards. A sole marine is standing on the safe side of the choke.

The players have scouted the positions out (already knew race) but didn't plan any attacks early on. Bold, after making 4 vultures, sets spider mines at his choke and pops a few around Prugge's mineral only. He then sets up a containment force with tanks & vultures, and constructs an E-bay to look over cliffs.

Prugge now had 3 gateways and had teched to an archives. As I saw this, 3 Dark Templar popped right out of the gates. They went straight for the containment force, and crushed it all. The E-bay survived by lifting, and stuck around for a while to scout.

The Gateway Garrison vs. Fear Factory

The End Already?

Prugge added about 9 goons to his Dark Templar and went on an attack to the Terran Main. Looking at the base, i thought that it would be an easy triumph. However, since Bold had not given me shared vision , I could not see his Spider Mines.

Coincidentally, those saved the day.

Blue Goon Soup Recipe:
About 8 Spider Mines
A few isolated siege tanks
No Protoss Detection

Because of all those Spiders and a tank out of melee reach, Bold was able to live on. He quickly responded by building 2 tanks and dropping them on the ledge above Prugge's natural. Using the E-Bay left from the old containment force, Bold was able to crush all the probes, and then, eventually the nexus.

Prugge, however, doesn't seem to worry. He has expanded to the main at 12, and secured it with cannons. Bold also makes his first expansion(s) of the game, going to his natural, then the 9 o clock main, and then his mineral-only. During this time, he techs up through a Starport, then makes a Sci Facility and starts Science Vessel production. Prugge has stopped teching, because he's putting all his effort into trying to dispose of the incoming containment force.
Yup, that's right. Bold has set up the right containment force this time, with about 5 tanks, sci vessels, vultures w/ mines, turrets, and Non-Hostile SCV's to repair any damaged unit. Using the tanks, he crushes the remaining cannon defense that guarded his entrance, along with a well-shot EMP Shockwave from a Vessel. Zealots and goons try to come help once again, but are quickly terminated from the blasts of the arclite cannons.

Divide & Conquer

Both players take a little breather to build. During this break, Bold pretty much secures the game by taking the natural and mineral-only at 9, taking his number of active expansions to 5. Prugge continues to attempt to attack the tanks with zealots and goons, but the numbers were not enough.  Bold also tries to beat down Prugge's 12 o clock expansion with about 8 vultures, but the attack is halted by Zealots and Cannon Fire.

Bold begins marching straight into the Protoss main once again. About 12 Zealots, 8 Dragoons, and a few Dark Templar are there to defend the 3 o clock main.  Using EMP and D Matrix, about FOUR tanks and 2 Vessels were able to overrun the base. Keeping at least 2 tanks unsieged at all times, Bold avoided any threat that Zealots or Temps posed to tanks in Siege mode. Prugge, obviously, was not happy about the gosu microing used against him...

Another attack was then launched on Prugge's expansion as his main was going down. Bold brought 3 tanks and a vessel to the main at 12, but was caught off guard when Dark Templar and Nike Zealots came from 2 directions. However, the nexus just fell at the main, and Prugge had nothing left to fight back with.

A Warrior Falls...

Prugge's only base is at the 12 o clock main. He's got 3 gateways, has teched up to the Archives again, and has a decent sized force of Zealots and Dark Templar, but it's not enough to hold off the advancing vehicles. Prugge concedes the game, and the Terrans have once again secured the Temple, under the name of Ko[b]old.

Scores

Lessons

1. Psi Storm is a must against tanks. I think I saw the spell used once the whole game, and that's not enough. When your opponent goes heavy metal, you should have at least 1 templar for every 2 tanks your opponent has.

2. Tanks > Cannons. Do NOT use Cannon D on a Terran going Heavy Metal. Tanks > Goons and Zeals too.  You have to use air or Psi Storm for the right retaliation.

3. Detection should have played such a big role in this game. Prugge could have won it with his attack at the beginning, if he had just one observer. The Spider Mines really ate his troops up, and when you're going up a ramp, there isn't much you can do about it.

4. Speaking of Spider Mines, these little things are actually an important weapon to the Terran arsenal. You can get 3 for 75 minerals, along with a semi-decent attacking unit. When used right, you can cause your opponents to waste thousands of minerals on troops that just unexpectedly die.

5. Sci Vessels are your best friend. EMP Shockwave spells Hell for a Protoss player.

That's about it... Thanks for reading my first battle report, and I hope you read the ones I plan to write in the future. Please give me some advice.

This has been a

Production