The Pregame story

In real life, SCmarines is my next-door neighbor. Well, we got to talking and decided to play a friendly 1v1. From the very beginning, I knew I was in trouble (playing BW all day then suddenly switching to SC will do that to ya); upon joining the game, I found out that I was in even MORE trouble...Island Hop. I sux at islands!

I decided that I would attempt the strat that I saw X'ds~Grrr... use on Soso and DeepBlue at the PGL finals (I was there, baby!) and go power mutas with scourge support. However, as I was developing this ingenious plan, SCmarines pushed the button and the game started...I'd forgotten to choose my race!

The Beginning...or the End?

I found to my dismay that I was Protoss! Now, I pretty much suck at islands (hold it, I pretty much suck period!) and I definitely have no idea how things balance out in Vanilla SC. Well, I've played with SCmarines before (pretty much taught him how to play, lol) and I knew that he was fond of the Hydralisk drop. So I figured I'd get him early with a 4 Zealot drop and mess him up while teching to Reavers.

Well, things didn't go as I had planned; like I said before, I suck. So I put down my pylon on 8 and followed it up with a Gateway, CyberCore, and nothing! You see, while developing my plan, the thought had crossed my mind that I could get to him before he gets to me because shuttles don't cost gas! And I'd be able to hit him hard without needing any vespine. However, I forgot that the Robotics Facility needs gas! AAAAHHH, I put down an Assimilator and ripped four (not three) probes off minerals for gas. In the meantime, I built a Forge and a few cannons for defense.

Now that my gas was coming in, I built the stupid Robotics thing and made a shuttle. I had about 6 Zealots and started on a Dragoon. I also built a Reaver Support Bay and a Citadel of Adun. As soon as my Shuttle finished, I queued a Reaver to build.

Ok, now that I have my shuttle full of Zealots I go out searching to give him what's coming to him (o ya, I also got the shuttle speed upgrade). I scout to the left...not there. I scout to the mid-left...not there. (Seeing that there was nothing here, I sent a shuttle and a probe with hopes of expanding.) I scout to the bottom-left and bottom-middle...not there. Finally I find him in the bottom right; I execute my pathetically late Zealot drop (which died miserably) and send my shuttle home...HOME Guess what's at my base...Mutalisks! Apparently he had mad-teched to Mutas and was beginning to mess with my HQ. He used a hit-and-run tactic killing a lot of my probes, units, and buildings that weren't under my measely cannon protection. My Dragoons (Ya! I had 2, baby!) were scrambling to cover the stuff that wasn't already protected. My base is in ruins; my monetary income is pathetic, and I have no air defense against a purely air attack! Things are looking dim as we move into the next part of our game.

Fighting for Survival!!

With a grim determination in my eye, I hurriedly built photon cannons all over my base and built several more Dragoons (I already had the range upgrade). However, this plan soon fizzled because he would just kill the cannons before they warped in and run away before my 'goons could do any real damage. I needed to cover my base more thoroughly; so I loaded up my Reaver into my Shuttle and scooted it over to his base. I dropped it outside his vision, loaded it up with Scarabs, 'A'ttack-moved it into his base, and went back to my base. It worked like a charm; while he was occupied with killing the Reaver, I was able to warp in a bunch of new cannons all over my base! But that wasn't good enough as when he was finished with the Reaver, he just hit buildings that were out of range of my newly built cannons =(. I couldn't get my Dragoons over there because they were blocked by the aforementioned newly built cannons. Also, when I tried to build MORE cannons to cover the parts of my base that weren't already covered by my newly built cannons, he would just kill them before they warped in =(

Hey! Templar ROCK Mutalisks, right? I started on a Templar Archives hoping that he wouldn't attack before I got Temps. As soon as it finished warping in, I queued a High Templar to build and started researching Storm. However, I was dangerously low on money; I needed to find some way to clear out his Mutas so that I could continue mining! Wait a second! I checked my other Shuttle and sure enough, it was floating over an expansion safe and sound. I told the Probe in there to build a Nexus and a few Pylons.

Back at my base, my Psi Storm upgrade was almost finished when, BANG about 10 Guardians start ripping at my Archives. AAAAAHHHHH I cancelled the researching as there was no way it would finish before the Guardians killed it, and rebuilt my Archives far away from where his Guardians were.

By this time, my expansion was up, I queued a bunch of Probes and made a couple of cannons for defense. I also put down a Gateway.

By some stroke of luck, I manged to drive the Guardians off by loading my Goons into shuttles and dropping them directly beneath the hulking beasts. After that, followed several small attacks in which he would come in, bust up some stuff, and leave before my Dragoons could get there. Finally my Psi Storm upgrade finished! When he came in with his Guardians again, it was a different story. I managed to storm them several times, but he did a good job of spreading them out. I just kept making Templar at my base until I had about 6 of them (I also got the energy upgrade). I was finally able to actually kill some of his Guardians! This brings us to the next phase of battle.

Bring it on!!

Now that my main was semi-secure, I began thinking of ways to counter his attack. Normal Starcraft? ARGH, I sat there dreaming of Corsairs, lol. Anyway, I opted for Scouts, but I knew that they cost a lot of money. So I expanded again =)

He was relatively silent during this time; the Guardian raids had stopped, but I knew they were still lurking around out there. I now had 4 Stargates pumping Scouts; 2 at each of my expansions (mid-left, bottom-left). They were rallied to mass at my mid-left expansion. Also there, was a Gateway pumping Zealots. At my main base I had a half dozen fully charged Templar waiting to Storm anything that they could throw at me.

He then started to put the pressure on again! He attacked with Guardians and Mutas from the side, while dropping 8 Overlords worth of Hydras outside my base! Luckily a Templar can Storm 3 times before he has to recharge, hehe. About 18 Psi Storms later, his massive army was reduced to a single Hydralisk smacking on my Robotics Facility.

At my mid-left expansion, I now have about 12 Scouts and 10 Zealots; I load 8 of the Zeals into my 2 Shuttles and go over to his main base.

I drop the Zealots outside of his creep where they immediately start to rip into the Hydras sitting there; I click my Scouts to bust up the Sunken colonies. Needless to say, I slaughtered his base with minimal losses. After destroying that, I sent my Scout fleet (now 20+) to his fledgling, undefended expansion and eliminated him =D

Afterword

Chatting with him after the game, I found out that he was concentrating all his efforts on destroying my main (and almost DID it too); he said that he knew I had an expansion, but was concerned with destroying all my tech buildings first. To which I said that I couldn't have cared less about my main; all it did for me was to keep his army from attacking my expansions. It was a good game; I honestly thought that I was dead. But he failed to expand enough (like he should have) and recon the map. When I asked him about it, he said that he spent all his money on Mutas and Guardians and that he didn't have enough gas for Overlord upgrades. He had to wait for it to build up before he could expand.

Well, I had a good time and pulled off a decent comeback. Here are the Lessons Learned (you don't get a gold bengalaas w/o them, u know):

* Psi Storm rocks ALL!! It's not funny, man.
* Robotics Facilites cost gas!
* I miss Corsairs 8*(
* Expand Expand Expand, if he had expanded like he should have, I would have been in big trouble
* Scout the map!

Quotes:

"You wanna ally now?" Him right after he gets Guardians.
"No, let's keep playing" Me in reply

"You're lucky with Psi Storm!" Him after I Storm the crap out of his 30+ Hydra drop
"It's all skill, man" me in reply

"Sorry, was that your last building?" Me as my 25+ Scouts fry his last Extractor

And finally, the Quote of the Day!!

"Screen Shot? What the heck is that?" Me while submitting this BR.

Next BR I WILL have Screen Shots. I'll set a record on this site for most screen shots! You'll see!