"Muhaha!! I am Evil Eye Laser Man!"
-Jamellan
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| A difficult game in the Tundra My last mostly text br?? | | | Author: | | | IP: | static-2XXXX | | Date: | 07/03/00 05:07 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 9, Min: 9
Lifetime Rating for |]agomar: 8.6667 |  |
A Difficult Game
in the Tundra
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Well, today I am releasing what has, ironically enough, become rather rare for me: a mostly text br. Actually, this is more of a preview report to a glossy, original, 3 FFA battlereport that I hope will get me a 10 ( that'll
be out Wednesday with some luck ). However, I believe this report is a good one . . . it does have some pics, especially nearer to the end, and it's of a game that I actually played, the type of br you don't really get to
do in that image-heavy style I think ( or rather hope ) I've become known for.
So, as I used to say, it's on to our feature presentation!
Pregame
Now, as most of you know, there are basically only two ways of starting a game at, oh, 6:00 AM. Upon going into NoHunters, one typically notices a small batch of sleeping or totally stoned people, probably gazing at their
flickering screens through the veils of drug-induced idiocy ( which is difficult to seperate from their normal mindsets, but oh well ). Occasionally an ill-fated pubbie wanders in, looking for a game. At such a rare, astonishing event, one usually spams the hell out of him, in the hope
he will respond in an amiable fashion.
Unfortunately, this doesn't always work. In that case, like I did at the bottom of that screen, one usually writes down fairly common gamenames, and goes to create the game, in the fleeting belief that someone amongst that silent crowd will suddenly wake up, spring to his senses and go join. No
such luck. On account of my ceaseless spamming, Ineedmorehelp quickly fled and nobody joined my gosu game ( on Kakaru Keys too, that would've been too cool ).
The second method of trying to get a game in the wee hours of the morning is creating something with a totally ridiculous name, which will often attract some drunks/perverts/nuttos. After trying five times to get people to join games by the name of "5FFA PRIMEVAL ISLES FUN!", I succumbed to this temptation and made a match by the title of "YOU SUCK MOFOS!!!". this also failed. Finally, desperate, I loudly advertised free sex.
Of course, it worked.
Early Game
Soon enough, Kniaf and a guy whose name was YOR surrounded by a motherload of numbers and symbols ( 5:00 drunk or Korean? ) joined up and demanded me to start, which, of course, I did. As the numbers ticked down to a close,
Kniaf continued wondering about the exact specifications of the guarantee. Naturally, because I couldn't answer to my pledge, I hoped to win and bluffed my way out =D
 I had picked Flooded Plains as my map, which I had never played before, thus being unaware of the ridiculous number of bridges and expansions existing in this world ( everytime I had though I'd found all the bridges leading to my main, I'd find another! ). Due to the massive size of this map, this was sure to be along game, and I rapidly decided I'd go for a quick tech up as I gazed resolutely down at my brown Protoss tribe ( now my favourite and best race ).
At the eigth peon I began warping in a pylon courtesy of Shakuras ( thanks guys ), then amassed the 150 minerals I'd need to phase in a Gateway, a feat accomplished when my ninth probe skittered out of its Nexus. Now, constantly
building peons to augment my swarming miners, I decided to build an Assimilator for early gas production, which I promptly did when Probe model 11 beeped in for duty. My gateway had materialized moments before, so I qued a zealot and waited for the 200 minerals I'd need for the towering
Cybernetics core. When I finished with that, I used the same probe to lay down the warp beacons for both a second gateway and forge, followed soon after by a pylon to support my growing army of peons.
Well, a distinct lull in action followed as I furiosly continued my tech to glory, building a Citadel of Adun ( always gotta pay reverence to that guy ) and a Templar Archives soon after. Not even now was I satisfied, but soon
quenched my desire for technology by materializing a Robotics Facility and Support Bay, finishing up by tucking an observatory in a corner beside a stockpile of glittering blue minerals.
My fears of pubbie newbie ownage were soon erased when a curious yellow probe sniffed about my relatively defenseless base only seconds later, straight from Kniaf's rebel Protoss lair. I was
about to voice my outrage when the noble rival Executor did that most honourable thing only true Templar can ever fathom: disconnect. And with a last ASDF!!! on my part, Kniaff had dissapeared into the somber sky, never to be seen again.
It was now a 1v1. May the best Commander win.
The Swarm
Rubbing my hands and amassing minerals, I decided it was time to expand. Warping in a third gateway, I moved North East to a rather large, elongated Island, free of critters and the perfect spot for a nice, shiney Nexus. I commenced "construction," while building a pylon to support future defense. I also erected 2 cannons in my peon line back at the Main base, as well as two batteries at varying locals, while starting research on the first shield upgrade and psionic storm. As I was busy with these important matters, I nonetheless found time to build a shuttle, finish enhancing its speed and roll double reavers off the press within a relatively short duration of time. Acting on the grim Korean chirp of my second reaver, I
qued up scarabs, loaded em into their dropper and sent them on their way. It wasn't long before YOR's base was in sight, to which I flew directly due to my immense intuition and awesome psychic potential ( read: lucky guess ).
Chuckling as I prepared what I was sure to be a textbook reaver drop ( I do that those extremely well these days . . . gosu ), I unloaded a single lumbering slug just out of reach of a vicious looking sunken and behind his
peon line. As I qued up three observers back home I zipped back and dropped the second giant robot in firing range of the sunken, which quickly exploded in a ball of bloody gore. My smirk was quickly eliminated, however, when the
drones skittered out of range and about two groups of cracklings showed up to pay their respects. Um, owee. The reavers were thuroughly owned, and only managed to reduce six fanatic little lings to splatters on the frigid ground
before they were in turn vapourized. Luckily my shuttle got out intact, although it sustained minor damage from a vengeful Spore colony.
Not Good.
Putting the loss behind me, I concentrated on getting my expansion fully up and running, while producing High Temps augmented by Reavers at my main. Once in a while I would merge two selfless hts and summoned a terrifying
Archon, which loomed over my forces, uttering an occasional cheerful DESSTROYY or ERRRADICATE. Those Archons have one track minds. Wouldn't want to talk with one.
Anyway, after I thought I'd prepared for every possible attack into my main, having covered the 9:00, 6:00 and 3:00 bases with a battery, two cannons and a ht, I felt rather smug and ordered a stawart probe to make me an expo just
above the one I already possesed. I sat back, took a sip of my coke, thought about a girl, and looked back just in time to notice a rather wide teal line on the mini-map, inching into my base from a very wierd angle.
Ah yes. Another bridge. Um, owee.
This crossing was right above my peon line, so I frantically commanded my Archon, reaver and High Templar forces to move all the way up from their present positions and engage the enemy! By this time hordes of
vicious, drooling zerglings were pouring into my base, crushing all opposition with ease and tearing furiously into my tech structures, which luckily blocked the way to my peon line. Before my minions could wade through my tightly packed base, however, the lings has burst through and laid waste to my peon line, which I desperately tried to escape. My way was blocked, however, and it was to no use. Only a single probe survived. Now, as the diabolical Zerg cracklings started pounding on my nexus, the first
scarab hurtled into the chaos and blew away a full half dozen lings in a single blast. The second scarab from another slug blew away the last lings attacking the battered nexus. The remaining Zerg Warriors, however, their
rage now turned upon my determined defenders, raced forward at breakneck speeds and fell upon the reavers, high templar and archons with renewed fury. Standing firm, I retreated a badly hurt reaver into a waiting shuttle, then stormed the hell out oftwo groups of lings before four of my temps were
slaughtered, after which I commandeered my Archons into the fray, which promptly owned any surviving Zerg with ease. The toll: a badly hurt main for me, three groups of partially upgraded cracklings for him.
As the last splatters of blood were absorbed into the frozen ground, I breathed a sigh of relief, and ordered my forces to stand down. Thanks to my other two expansions, I suffered only minimal resource loss, and soon rebuilt my entire peon line, adding another cannon and a battery to my defenses. Seeing that YOR had apparantly resolved to go mass cracklings, I decided
to respond in turn, phasing in a fourth gateway, researching the second shield and first armour upgrades, training High Templar at a feverish pace. Although I
had an amazing amount of minerals, my gas was slightly behind, so I built a lone Assimilator at the closest base to the south west, manning it with 10 peons, creating a long vespene pipeline going straight through my formidable defenses and into my main. Now I was able to create templar like never before, merging them into archons, yet saving one out of every three for the deadliest special ability in the game: psionic storm.
It was not long after I sighted the cerebrate's fourth expansion attempt ( I had spotted his third sometime before with the same range upgraded obs ) that I noticed a long green line winding its way towards my main! Luckily I had a
dinger there, so had time to position my archons in a semi-circle around my choke, and placed my reavers behind the gaseous blockade. Unfortunately, I forgot to retreat my industrious vespene probes, which gave their lives for Aiur
( or is it Shakuras? ) in quick succession. When the first wave of zerglings bounded eagerly up to engage, they met a nasty surprise in the form of 8 psionic shockwaves, two scarabs and the occasional psionic storm thrown in for good
measure! The leading group was blown apart within seconds, the next followed soon after, and quickly what was once a confident attack turned into a rout, with the Zerg swarm retreating under heavy fire, bitterly humiliated!
Unfortunately, however, as the relatively short battle progressed, my archons decided to act on their own and moved into single file position. Because of this, and some not-so-gosu micro, I managed to lose three of the mighty psionic entities . . . to zerglings. Go figure.
During all this action, I noticed that YOR had not bothered to support his ravenous attackers with any sort of cloak detection - a weakness I was able to exploit throughout the game. I trained dark Templar from a single gateway, continuing high templar production at the others. By this time, having been pummeled by two successive invasions in a row, I decided to
strike back in turn - but with the awesome power of the best ground attack combo in the game: archons, reavers and high templar. Since I'd been phasing in shuttles from Shakuras orbit throughout the game, I had more than enough to carry the 8 archons, 2 reavers and 4 high templar I now posessed, rolling them into the sleek ships and heading straight for the enemy main. Since two observers had already been downed just below the intended target area by a
mixture of mutalisks and hydras ( his new unit of choice ), I took caution with the next obs, whose speed upgrade finished just as it rambled into action in front of my shuttle fleet. A number of overlords, a great deal of hydras, some scourge and a horde of mutas were barely visible miling aboutin his main base, together with enough spore colonies to down my entire drop flotilla in seconds.
Unloading there was obviously not a viable option. A ferocious mutalisk spotted my observer just as it was running back, but my now fully upgraded shields saved
the day, and the brave dinger was able to escape.
Thankfully, I noticed with that same little craft that a snowy ledge was poking from the bottom of his main base, straight into the frigid sea. Without further thought, I deposited the entire attack force here, but my archons misbehaved and hovered in early. However, due to the sheer power of my army, I was able to overrun the first defenses and make quick work of the leading structures. That's
when I noticed it. Lurker spines.
And my observer had past the nearest island and was on its way home!!
Frantically, I brought back the obs, just in time to see three archons take down a group of hydras . . . then die in puffs of blue vapour to the incidious, dishonourable lurkers. Cursing wildly, I slammed my mouse down onto the table, and called in my high temps, who, despite storming the whole bloody place to a single mass of seething crackling lightning, managed to fail in destroying the
stationary lurkers! Now I had only two archons, a reaver and double high temps left . . . with my observer still not in range! Just as I went in to evacuate the last survivers, the enemy hydras surged forward and eliminated them with
very few losses. My shuttles just barely managed to escape with zero casualties, somewhat damaged despite their gosu shields, and the third observer in a row was downed after it rambled straight into the Zerg hive cluster, orders
unchanged. Served him right for being so slow.
Switching Strats
At this time I realized my mass templar/reaver strategy wouldn't work. Even if the possibility for victory existed, as was still very possible, I was too demoralized to continue after such a humiliating defeat, and realized that temps simply don't offer enough mobility for a map where a Zerg could have upwards of ten productive, heavily defended bases! I quickly warped in triple Stargates, expertly forged on Shakuras, and another cybernetics core for air upgrades, which I rapidly started researching. With the enormous amounts of money I had, I phased in about 10 pylons, made 2 new expansions to the south east of my by-now
mined out main, transferred the probes, built a fleet beacon and started the interceptor upgrade ( whew, I was quite busy ! ).
All this industrious rebuilding, however, was temporarily halted when a vigilant observer spotted an enormous Zerg swarm streaming out of their main, consisting of 2/2 Hydras, zerglings and mutalisks!
Ah yes. Not good.
I warped in two more cannons to defend, brought in my 11 dark Templar, four High Templar, lone archon and single reaver to defend, knowing that the odds were heavily stacked against me. However, I had spotted only a single overlord amongst that massive Zergish swarm ( more than enough to kill my dinger :P ) . . . and in that lay my only hope.
When the first spines began to tear through the leading pylons and cracklings rushed between the deadly hydra ranks, I stormed everything in sight - including
the unfortunate ovie. The leading Zerg batallion was smashed to bits . . . to conveniantly make room for the next! Uh oh. Although I fought furiously and with
great fever, I eventually came up short. All defenders were crushed, including a web of cannons, batteries, pylons and more. Now my busy stargates were totally exposed to the enemy warriors, who started pummeling them with acid spores,
spines and razor-sharp claws. But wait . . . my dts were still there, nearly fully upgraded.
It was not a pretty sight.
Cracklings died with a single swipe, and in an astonishingly short amount of time, every last Zerg ( that's three remaining groups ) had been reduced to mere
splatters on the ground . . . with zero casualties for me! A single psi storm from a newly trained templar chased away his mutas, just before my massive carriers left their gargauntuan docks and built their first interceptors. I
really started pumping out the giant capitol ships now, from quadruple gateways. My upgrades were at 2/2/3, and I warped in an Arbiter Tribunal to properly support my forces against his largely detectionless minions ( told you I'd
exploit his one weakness eventually ). I'd also phased in a scout before, which was to help me tremendously later on . . . .
A lull in action followed, during which I created a new base where I had earlier just warped an assimilator ( to the south west of my main ), carefully tucked away below the mineral line in the hopes an attacking Swarm wouldn't notice it! Finally, I had my awe-inspiring doom fleet: nearly a full group of carriers ( 11 ), augmented by double arbiters with recall, a shuttle full of high temps and a single scout. I was ready to move out.
I decided to go for the biggest fish first, and sent in the dreadnought armada straigt towards his main. The surprisingly fast Carriers arrived soon enough, and a swarm of 88 interceptors screamed out from their motherships, almost instantly laying waste to anything in the air or on the ground . . . especially the evil overlords. Once these were smashed to dust, the detectionless hydra defenders were easy prey, and since spore colonies don't exactly excel versus the mightiest of Protoss units, they were also crushed with ease. As I blew away building after building, I realized his war machine had been powered primarily
by 5 or 6 hatcheries at his primary base alone!
When his main was but a mass of crumpled hulks, I knew my rapid switch in strategies had caught him completely off guard. He had apparantly quit scourge production and opted for hydralisks instead . . . which I quickly found out when an apocalyptic army of what must have been 50 hydras, 24 lings and another 6 mutas bore down upon my main.
Drat.
ASDF!!
The terrifying doom army was still some moments away, since I had spotted it early with an observer and was continuing to track it. Luckily, I had left that shuttle packed with four high temps at my main, by mistake, rather than bring it
along with the Carriers ( !! ), so I dropped in some quick, highly effective reinforcements. All I had onsite were 12 Dark Temps, those four hts plus 2, a reaver . . . and that was it. Not very promising.
Amazingly, however, as I was flying in my scout to provide some last-ditch, desperate defense, I noticed a single overlord apparantly trying to catch up with the Zerg column. Apparantly he had no cloak detection with his military, and would have none, since my 3/2/3 scout make short work of the ovie, and his brother flying in from another angle. When the enemy hydras arrived, the dark
templar were able to slaughter masses of them, with the only danger to them coming in the form of reckless psionic storms unleashed by my fanatic templar ( guess they still hold that grudge against their darkish bretheren ). Yet the
sheer numbers of the attacking forces overwhelmed my visible defenders and crushed over half the base, including a third of my total number of pylons, nearly all my tech structures and all my defense.
But I had come out ahead just the same, although in a slightly Pyrrhic sense, and with two back-to-back victories under my belt, I started feeling alot better. I ordered my flotilla up north, now easily the most powerful force in
the game, and laid waste to two cowering expansions in a row, laughing as I slaughtered his overlords, then moved in and sacked the defended bases with impunity ( Carriers look beautiful when attacking . . . I'm still amazed even
after having seen it 100 times ).
Alas, another three groups of cracklings bounded eagerly into my base, lusting for blood. They were not to be satisfied, although they did get a whole lot of
plasma from exploding pylons =O. My dark templar easily delt with the threat before the fifth pylon could detonate, however, and I now grinned broadly at the realization that I had a good five critical wins in a row!
A Zerg, however, is very difficult to eliminate on a map like this, being able to recreate bases after you've left with residuary larvae, rebuild tech structures with extreme speed and build new expansions in the wink of an eye. A
patrolling observer spotted one of these attempts at the North Easternmost "island," and I promptly dispatched a quick shuttle to deal with it, loaded with two goons I had phased in somewhat earlier. I arrived just as 3 eggs began to morph beside the brooding Zerg structure, and spotted another two lings patrolling the grounds. However, I quickly forgot about that as I spotted another crackling assault on what was left of my main - with full Overlord
support!
Happily my scout was still in the area, so I intercepted the overlords before they got into range, blasting some out of the snowy sky and chasing others to shelter. Naturally, the lings were easy to deal with, me equiped as I was with
dark templar, yet another few pylons and a cannon were blown apat before I could do anything about it. All these attacks were starting to hurt me very badly . . . a classic war of attrition had begun.
I quickly turned my attention back to the Top right expo, where my shuttle was still hovering, just out sight and bobbing up and down eagerly. I noticed with my brave little obs that those triple eggs had turned into hydras, but figured fully upgraded dragoons would be no match for the sadistic enemy warriors Zerg defenders were as heavily upgraded as I was. Um . . . owee. Thanks to decent
micro, I managed to kill a ling before my first goon was torn apart, and I quickly retreated my heavily damaged survivor into the shuttle and flew away, just out of sight once more. I figured I'd keep it there, just in case he
decided to attack with those units some time in the future.
About now a trusty obs rambled over a Zerg extractor about a quarter map width to the West of my Main, apparantly part of a rather large base. I decided to move my grand fleet to the east instead, however, situated as they were at the
North West, and on my way crushed two expansions with sublime ease, my flights of cloaked interceptors being no match for his hydras and overlords as they swarmed furiously about his defenders.
I was starting to grin broadly before I realized that there was yet another Zergish attack on my main . . . and another on my third expansion to the North East! As I switched to my primary base, I noticed this was not just an
ordinary assault . . . 9 upgraded guardians hovered over 6 hydras, their monstrous, crab-like hulks terrorizing my outclassed Protoss defenders. Three ovies were in the region, which I quickly killed with my scout, but not before
the guards had slaughtered all but 4 heavily damaged templar!!! Luckily I managed to kill all his hydras before running away, and I was able to slaughter the mighty guardians with that valiant scout, but not before they'd completely destroyed my Main and started work on the expansion below it. My supply situation was atrocious: with all my pylons gone, I couldn't make any more probes or warriors. Now would've been the proper time to load my probes into a shuttle and start new bases elsewhere with my 7000 minerals ( !! ), yet I'd forgottten all about those droppers that hovered over the icey water somewhere
near the center of the map.
The other swarm had now sacked my second expansion as well, to the west of mymain, and started to pour into what was once my primary base, fresh with reinforcements. Luckily I still had a high templar in the area, tucked away in a
stray shuttle, so I unloaded it and stormed about a group of the fearsome Zerg warriors to oblivion before it was in turn killed.
Now my Carrier doom armada had finally reached the North Easternmost Zerg expo, and sacked it within seconds, deploying deadly flights of interceptors with perfect precision and grace. Gosu. I ordered the mighty fleet to race back home, knowing that they would be needed to combat the rallying Zerg armies.
Around now my enemy started handing out GG's, thinking he had won for sure, and, having demanded me to ally earlier when he though he was losing, told me "don't worry, I'll ally you at the end." This enraged me beyond belief, and I was cackling with the thought of vengeance as I navigated my fleet back through the ice flows and straight into my main. The Zerg swarm, however, chose this time to swarm forward, and, killing all my dark templar before I could down his overlords situated over three groups of hydras with that brave scout, which was also shot down before it could release its second volley of missiles. My lower
expansion was blown apart, along with the better part of the one below it, before my awe-inspiring cloaked carriers, dwarfing the fanatic Zerg warriors far below, let loose their first apocalyptic waves of interceptors, ravaging his
ovies, slaughtering his hydras and basically smashing the entire army to bits in seconds. Battle won, game not lost =/
At this point I quickly decided to nearly simultaneously warp in about a dozen pylons at my hidden expansion just below and to the west of my former main, materializing a Gateway and a forge at the same location. My Carriers roared
over my newest base, and bore down upon the enemy zerg hive cluster just beside it. Naturally they met an easy victory, yet three were plunged into the yellow by his evil hydralisk defenders, and ultra chobo spores. I began to sweat a bit when I spotted another crackling raid coming through my main, which luckily went down and sacked my last remaining structures at the bottom center expo. My
carriers were again on the move, this time to the east, and slaughtered the zergling brigade before lumbering off again to blast a very large, 4-hatchery Zerg base to oblivion, an incidious hive cluster I had recently spotted with a
lucky obs. I continually tried to find his hydra den, but to no avail. Another hydra swarm ran into my last survivng base, ravaging the half dozen cannons I had just started to warp into being. Only two survived, and I managed
to slaughter the entire pack of Zerg with them, one at a time, before the cerebrate could catch on. I lost all my probes, however, and couldnt rebuild because my ships, including shuttles, were eating up all my supply. Why
I didn't split up my carrier fleet or leave a single arbiter back for recall I'll never know.
This went on for quite some time: me destroying his bases, he ravaging my last cluster of buildings, me running back my carriers to defend. Needless to say, it became very tiring, and I began to develop a great deal of animosity towards my annoying Zergish foe, who still contested he'd won. With me having 7 buildings left, all at the same place, and he sending in hydra raid after hydra raid, this
didnt seem to be all that far from the truth. Yet I still possesed the awesome Carrier fleet, and knew how to use it. Plus I started singing macho man, interchanging the chobo "macho" with a gosu "mofo," trying to scare him into
leaving. After a while, however, he started asking what a mofo was, and I responded that I hadn't a clue :oD
Continued on next page . . .
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