"will's race is vespene gas"
Fear'Factory
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The Ice Trilogy - Part 3:
The Battle for Glacier Bay | | | Author: | | | IP: | gateway.XXXX | | Date: | 10/24/00 11:10 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | Famous Reporter(1), Starcraft(1), Problem: Broken Images(1) | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 3, Max: 10, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for |]agomar: 8.6667 |    | 
Well, this is it.
The end of the Ice Trilogy. And my biggest br yet. The pictures on this are unearthly in their scale. Which, depending on your browser, is either a good or bad thing. In any case, I promised you an epic, and you got it.
So, it's on to the feature presentation!
Pregame . . .
I staggered into Nohunters Thursday ( Oct 20 ), drenched in lag. I then proceeded to spam what appeared to be a full channel, only to realize that the entire channel was afk! But I was relentless, and wasn't about to be deterred by the fact that nobody was there. I wanted a 3ffa. With a determined sigh, I proceeded to spam.
Thirty minutes later, a couple people skidded into the place, and proceeded to ( gasp ) talk. Wait a minute. Something was wrong here. People don't talk in Nohunters. They either spam or say nothing. Never talk.
Flinching, and more than a little concerned, I took up a conversation, in which a certain chap named LuckyNewbie proceeded to deliver my ego a devastating blow:
Hmph. And after all this time, I'm still not a celeb. I took this in stride, barely, quivering with indignation. www.Hoss.com now thought the opportunity was ripe, and I was sufficiently wounded, to act as the Brutes and plunge his dagger into my back. He did so admirably.
I reeled in pain. This was the devastating one-two trick: say something nice to put your opponent offguard, perhaps even absorb a compliment or two, and then lash out with the killer. Gasping, I struggled to respond. Since I later developed a friendship with Hoss, I reformed my ways. You will notice that I responded to Monty_Python's recent battlereport with a touch more class, a little more style, and a bit more sophistication. Fits my personality, really. And I owe it all to Hoss.
Lucky now started talking about his battlereports, and both Talkers ( that deserves a capitol in NH - a secial breed indeed ) began to boast. Lucky decreed that his latest report truly deserved a 9, and Hoss stated with confidence that the report he was scheming to release ( but never did ) would have got straight 10's. *cough*
Shockingly, we did actually manage to start a game, and this report does actually consist of more than confused quotes from strange people. Hence, I will now dully inform you, that after two games which I meant to report, in which either Hoss left ( for a reason I still don't fully understand, he was winning and the game was looking good ), or Wr@th, the other guy we picked up, had to leave 5 minutes into the match ( due to AP, or Annoying Parents syndrome ), we finally managed to get a good match underway, involving all three races. Not too bad for a nameless, unknown, spamming idiot, eh? ( Yes I'm Canadian too ).
The map, as you may know ( if you'd been paying attention to Part 1), is Glacier Bay, perhaps my all-time favourite. Things are looking up as the legendary Hoss morphed the vile spines of his towering hatchery at 6:00, while the mighty Moogle, the guy who tagged along, phased in a shimmering Nexus at 7:00, as the dreaded LuckyNewbie descended down upon 1:00 with his massive, glittering command center. So begins the Ice Trilogy, Part 3 - the Battle for Glacier Bay.
Early Game. . .
Wow, I am good at these pregame things noadays, aren't I? Smidgens!
Anyway, on to the game. All players diverge quickly into their preferred builds, with Moogle opting for a highly conservative Protoss build reminiscent of the days before the Reunification, going for the typical double gate, double pylon, plenty o' probes. Teching seems to be the top priority the Executor, as a towering Cybernetics Core and a sprawling Forge join the ranks of his other constructions. Uncomfortably near him is the incidious base of the blood-red Zerg, where a second hatchery is morphing, along with the stinking heap of pestilence known as the Spawning pool. Hoss quickly mutates a trusty Hatch at his natural, and moved up to double lairs with astonishing speed. He also sends twin ovies to Moogle's settlement, where they serve to annoy and distract, until they are chased away by cannons.
Lucky, on the other hand, has plans of his own. He starts a bold new Terran presence upon this world with a deadly heavy-metal build, but also realizes the importance of support, rapidly erecting double rax for invaluable m&m support. An academy and comsat go up quickly, along with a Starport for the ever-useful droppers. To my surprise, the first human expansion is not started at Lucky's natural, but rather at the Main base below his own. I'm undecided as to the wisdom of this move; time will tell.
Hoss appears to be in the lead thus far, as he establishes another hatchery at his natural, and techs to speed-upgraded overlords. Hydralisks begin to pop out of his many hatcheries, but he doesn't bother with lurkers, perhaps realizing their limited use on an island map, where the possibility of an aerial assault is very real indeed ( ok I would've made some, but that's just me ). When the cerebrate achieves ovie transport, which, owing to his double lairs, is soon after he gets speed, he loads twin drones into a single lumbering behemoth, sends the lot North, and quickly begins new infestations on two desolate islands. Moogle still hasn't expanded, but is teching like a wombat and has recently warped in a massive robotics bay. He also appears to be going with the templar research tree, with a citadel fully powered and an archieves in the warp.
Let's take a look at how things stand, just minutes before the real action starts.
The crimson cerebrate has triple expos, and is looking very strong. Although his two newest expansions aren't online yet, he has great future economic prospects, and his production capability is excellent. Lucky has moved not to his own natural ( too low for him ), but rather to the far more chiche and cosmopoliton 2:00 natural, while building a CC at the 3:00 main as well. For a Terran at this stage of the game, he is strong indeed, possibily powerful enough to challenge the dreaded Hoss, of whom his men talk with hushed tones and fearful glances. The mighty Executor appears to believe that expanding is for weaklings, not confident in their position in life. In accordance with this philosophy, he bravely sticks to his main, but continues to tech, knowing that the superior Protoss technology is more than a match for anything inferior beings can field.
So, surprisingly, after that whole load of useless adjectives, I will now describe what happens when the dam finally breaks.
The red commander begins to rally a mighty fleet of overlords above his main, and loads in his swarming hydras, one by one, just as his expansions begin to crawl with mineral-hungry drones. The ovie flock leave their main just as Moogle begins to think seriously about anti-drop protection, and a mighty fleet it is indeed as it sails across the deep, arctic seas.
A shadow falls over the Protoss base as the hideous crimson overlords, hanging low in the sky, descend down upon it. Hydras skitter from their carriers exactly in the middile of the wretched peon line ( probes don't have it easy ), arranged in a highly beneficial semi-circle formation. Probes begin to pop left and right, and, thanks to the perfection of Hoss' drop, retreat is not an option. Protoss troops pour in to ward of the spiney attackers, yet are driven back under heavy fire. The battle is fierce, yet finally the last, valiantly fighting dragoon collapses in a puddle of blue goo, opening the road for the decimation of the orange base. Yet Moogle is relentless, and double goons phasing in out of the gateways prove to be more than enough to slaughter the scattered hydras that remain. Nonetheless, it was a successful drop, and the orange Executor is quite badly hurt.
Satisfied with his attack, the red executor sits smugly back and consolidates his dominion, while Lucky is reduced to wondering what in the world has just transpired down south. Determined to find out, and convinced there must be some way he can take advantage of whatever happened, he loads a single dropper with m&m, and flies the battered ship down south. Fortunately for Hoss , the shuttle manages to successfully evade all three of his expansions - a truly impressive deed - before fleeing in the face of mass hydras at the crimson main. However, when the vessel heads west, it stumbles across Moogle's partially rebuilt main. The devious terran commander flies his dropper up and around, finally landing his infantry force at the extreme Western tip of the island. Although Lucky shows some impressive micro, dancing his marines back and forth to take potshots on the Protoss units, while staying out of range, he eventually loses his entire troop to the withering plasma bolts of nearby 'goons. Moogle, however, is not exactly pleased at the quick double teaming he's just recieved, and schemes his revenge.
The action continues as Lucky, thinking the cerebrate now the main threat, loads up an expo-busting force of tanks and infantry into a dropper, and sets out to "deal" with uppermost Zerg expansion, which he's just discovered using a quick comsat. Puzzlingly, no red reinforcements arrive, and the entire base, drones and all, is blasted to smithereens in seconds. Another dropper flies down and delivers an scv and couple more marines, founding a bold new human presence within the core of Glacier Bay.
Moogle, still seething with revenge, takes this time to scout a little with shuttles, then loads up a powerful Zerg-busting force of a couple dragoons supported by zealots and a reaver, sending the awesome psionic warriors to the East and executing a textbook drop smack dab behind the Zerg mineral line. Not good. The battle is fierce, as Hoss' hydras race down to defend, zealots leap out to engage, dragoons launch their plasma bolts and scarabs buzz through the zerg ranks, detonating with earth-shaking explosions. Yet eventually the Protoss warriors are less than a match for the swarming Zerg, and none survive the Battle for 6:00. Nevertheless Moogle has gotten at least partial revenge, and now it is the cerebrate who has been double-teamed.
Mid Game . . . .
At this point, Lucky seems to be clearly in the lead, having three expansions to Hoss' two, and so far nearly entirely unscathed, his losses being only the 6 marines and two medics he loaded into that shuttle bound for Moogle's main. Hoss appears to have hit a wall: he's been pummeled from two sides now, by two different races, and, although he still posseses the highest troop count, his defense is looking more and more iffy by the minute. Nevertheless, I've never played or observed a game on this map where a Zerg lost, so perhaps he still has some hope. I at first had written Moogle out as a dead newbie, but he's come out swinging, and has the highest tech tree in the game. If he can find a way to pit both major powers against each other, and swoop down upon the injured victor when one of them has been eliminated, he could very likely win.
Things settle down into a lull, until Hoss straightens his slimey bulk, looks to the East, smirks, remembers he's a Zerg and thus physically incapable of smirking, and narrows his eyes. There, just above the frozen icebergs piercing the dark sea, is a plume of smoke. A Terran expansion. That must not stand!
Deciding that victory is his for the taking, the blood-red cerebrate seizes a vast fleet of overlords, runs every last one of his hydras into their cavernous bulk, and commands the entire terrifying fleet to the Northeast.
Lucky has no idea of the doom that is bearing down upon him, closer and closer every second that goes by, as he peacefully consolidates his rule and looks forward to an easy victory. Then a darkness falls over him, the sun is eclipsed over his largest expo ( the 3:00 main ), and the massive overlord armada comes a-lumbering down from the deep South. Countless hydras leap out of their sagging ovies in a sight to terrify even the bravest of men, and with a single, quick swipe, the entire human base, along with its 18 or so SCVs, heavy defenses and burgeoning tech structure was utterly annihilated. Hoss kept his hydras perfectly grouped in a tight semicricle the entire battle, and in a well-deserved, stunning victory has managed to completely turn the tide of the war - perhaps irrevocably.
I am speechless, and Lucky wails in horror at what has befallen him. Since a slow, hideous death at the hands of the cerebrate's most sadistic hydras ( already a rather nasty bunch ) doesn't exactly besuit him, he quickly fortifies the bridge leading up to the 3:00 main's natural with many a tank and lots of infantry. As the lull grows ominously, the Terran commander relaxes, and sits back in his chair. I think the next two quotes ought to speak for themselves:
The pause is suddenly explained in terrible clairity, as the evil Zerg death fleet sinks down upon the cowering defenders. Hordes of hydralisks again pour out of the ovies, and a mighty battle is fought once more. Twin tanks on the far side of the CC blast the swarming hydras, while a bunker opens fire and infantry runs up to engage. Yet Hoss is not to be daunted by even these nearly invincible defenses, and microes his hydras expertly, with a quarter smasing the SCVs and the rest ripping into the tanks in two groups, from both sides of the command center. So it is that the mammoth machines quickly explode, while the bunker is torn to shreds, the marines murdered and the peons miserably assasinated. Lucky's base now lays exposed before the group or so of hydras that remain, and the game seems over.
The Easternmost end of the base is sacked in short order, and the human Commander is close to despair, sending a dropper full of 6 marines and twin medics up from the 2:00 natural in a desperate attempt to stay alive. Now since 8 m&m don't exactly fare too well against superiorly upgraded hydras with speed and range, even Lucky must not have had much hope for his last ploy. But, to my astonishment, the infantry meets only small clumps of 3 or so hydras in widely scattered portions of the base, and, one by one, manage to mow down the entire swarm - with zero losses! Even a few ovies are blown to bits, and Hoss retreats what little he has left in disgrace.
I have little hope for a Terran comeback, however, with the human commander's tech structure in ruins and his economy devastated, until I look back at Hoss' main and see the reason for his disastrous lack of micro.
That's right, it's Moogle. Who would have guessed! After taking twin disastrous blows early on, he's recovered enough to deliver what may have been the game-changing attack, sending a couple sleek shuttles soaring over the watery abyss, and landing a crippling dropforce behind the cerebrate's Main peon line. Pearly reavers devastate the peon line, and even Hoss' hydra army takes quite a pummeling before it can vanquish the dangerous Protoss threat. Distracted, the cerebrate probably didn't even see Lucky's last-ditch relief drop of m&m before it was too late.
The Tide Turns
About now, with victory yanked from Hoss' hands just when it was all but assured, the game takes a turn in a very odd direction, and one of the most startling surprise comebacks I have ever observed begins to shape itself before my disbelieving eyes.
Moogle has, by this time, finally moved to his natural ( there's a man who doesn't believe in expansions . . . a little too much Blood Bath for him ), and finally possesses a truly mighty war machine. The first thing he does is execute another annoyance drop on Hoss' main, this time with the aid of a high templar. Although the cerebrate is prepared, the templar managed to release a perfectly-aimed storm, and a good many hydras go down before the attack is vanquished at last.
By this time, however, Lucky has recuperated, and has retaken the 3:00 main, while beginning another expo at 9:00, a new base at his own natural, and is looking down greedily at the red cerebrate's last central expansion. A dropper cautiously cruises down, drops in a marine, and remains hovering over the waterline. The marine scouts through the base, finds no anti-ground defense ( only twin spores ), and signals that the coast is clear. A whole troop of infantry now pours out of the dropper, and another shuttle quickly appears, unloading a lone tank and twin SCVs. The base is blasted to smithereens rather quickly, and now Hoss is down to only his main and natural bases, both of which are not yet completely mined out.
Detecting the shift in the balance of power through the long attenas implanted in his head, Moogle seizes quadruple shuttles, loads em up with anything and everything he has ( which is quite a bit ), and flies them North over snow and sea. The first thing the sleek shuttles encounter is, of course, that 9:00 expo. Moogle is not impressed, and unloads double shuttles upon the terrified SCV. The budding Command Center goes down in a blaze of glory, and now the shuttles continue on relentlessly towards their final target.
Minutes later, their lightning-blue engine exhaust illuminating the waters below Lucky's Mainbase natural, and they swivel North to drop their deadly cargo. The Terran notices the shuttles nonetheless, and is prepared for the assault. Nonetheless, all his infantry die quick deaths to scarabs and psi storms, while the resident wraiths are blown to ashes seconds later. Like any wise Commander, Lucky realizesd when he's outclassed, and begins to fortify the bridge leading to his main. I gape as I see what lumbers out of the shuttle: an Archon, twin Templar and a Reaver, all supported by a good deal of dragoons and zealots. The warriors tear into the sprawling base, and slaughter countless SCVs. The CC just barely manages to escape, well into the Yellow.
And Moogle doesn't stop there.
Enthused by his victories, he presses on into the Terran main. I am shocked at the incredible turnaround in the game: the Executor, with absolutely no chance of winning, has pulled off an incredible stunt. Not only has he caused Hoss to lose, but now he's actually in a position to smash the human main, and win himself! And that he seems very likely to do, as his forces easily outgun what little defenses the equally dumbfounded Lucky has set up. But a single tank, and a cluster of m&m, are left to valiantly protect the base from the oncoming Protoss juggernaut.
The next bit happens very quickly. Dragoons and zealots stream into the base, escorted by their Archon and templar. The tanks fires, while the marines stim and slice into the oncoming Protoss warriors. Many a marine is slaughtered, but the already damaged Archon ( mostly from psi storm friendly fire, huk ) vanishes in a puff of smoke. The Protoss are stuck on the ramp, while the tank continues to fire devastating rounds of heavy explosives. I cringe as I see chaos strike the Protoss troops, Dragoons collapse in puddles of blue goo, and zealots vaporize in a flash of light. Moogle, thinking that the battle is beyond victory, retreats his most precious units ( ie his reaver and templar ) into shuttles, just when they could've been used the most. But a lone tank is all that remains between the Protoss and the Human base, but this proves to be more than enough as the orange attack crumbles under its intense fire. Now a few wraiths and an equal number of marines arrive to finish off what is left of the assault, and even an evacuating shuttle is blasted to smithereens. Although his losses are heavy, Lucky has bravely fought off yet another assault, once more with lesser numbers and superior micro.
Not the game is once again a Toss up, just like in the beginning, between all three powers. Moogle posseses the largest army, with double archons, quadruple templar and a Reaver, along with a regiment of dragoons, while Hoss has the greatest production capabilities. The Terran Commander, however, still holds the best economy, although this has been gravely wounded, and his actual military units are few. With a concerted strike at the expansions above him, the red cerebrate would win, yet, since he doesn't know of the Executor's battles against the Terrans, he already assumes that victory is safely within the clutches of Lucky. Moogle knows how much he has weakened his human foe, but still believes Hoss is mightier than he, and that a hydra doom drop is only minutes away. It is perhaps this resigned attitude on the part of his foes that may be the human commander's best hope - and greatest strength.
The Tide Turns . . . Again
The stage is now set for the defining moment of the game. Moogle rallies a couple shuttles to his main, where a melee of Protoss units is rolled into the graceful ships. Where these vessels go will determine the winner - and loser. Tension rains throughout the battlefield, neither Commander knowing where the next blow may fall.
The shuttles head directly East.
A powerful troop of Protoss units streams into Hoss' mined out main base, and are instantly countered by a massive swarm of infuriated hydras, and a small fleet of scourge screaming in overhead. The two sides battle furiously, knowing that the only outcomes of the struggle are continued existence - or defeat. In the end, there are simply not enough Protoss to counter the living wave of Zerg reinforcements, and all are torn apart by crippling volleys of spines. Even the shuttles aren't safe, as the scourge pursue and destroy every last one.
With his army in ruins, and only dual archons left to defend against the inevitable doomdrop - be it Terran or Zerg, Moogle sumberly messages the Shakuras Academy. Moments later, a brilliant recall vortex telleports him, and his last surviving troops, straight back to the home of the Dark Templar, so many light years away. He fought well, and with great spirit, yet despite having come so close to vicory, it was still not enough. Next time, he would do better.
What's next is obvious. Hurt badly from the Protoss attack, Hoss can do little more than watch as the rebuilt Terran army descends down upon his main. A batallion of tanks siege, two groups of marines, supported by medics, race out onto the creep, and soon enough the vile Zerg Lair is pummeled violently into oblivion for once and for all. Although two groups of hydras remain, they are crushed with some casualties, and the last Zerg structure goes down in a blaze of bloody glory.
The cerebrate heaves his slimey bulk into the nearest bloody overlord, which, with a snort, carries him up far above ruins of his former base, and blindingly fast into hyperspace. He would return, and the foolish Lucky would yet pray he had not challenged the Will of the Overmind.
Now for some stats.
And that's it! So ends the Ice Trilogy, to put it in a more grandiose fashion. I have no clue what my next report will be about, probably a huge FFA on a space map . . . msg me plz if you'd like to be in, and I'm sure we can arrange something.
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