"sorry for being premature, that's a bob thing"
- CrackHeadJeb
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| Embarrassing Moments. | | | Author: | | | IP: | usilesi3XXXX | | Date: | 02/15/01 12:02 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 6, Min: 6
Lifetime Rating for linternet: 8.0000 |  |
Embarrassing Moments
This is my first battle report. I have been lurking around this site for a while, but I don’t say much and I try to stay out of the arguments. This means that you do not know me very well, if at all. I do feel somewhat guilty that I have contributed nothing to a site that is made great by the work of its community. To fix this, I have been planning to at least attempt a battle report for some time now. I wanted to do it by asking to observe a couple of games until I found one that would make a good report. This changed when I played a (public) 2v2 that not only ended up being a really good game between two evenly matched teams, but also ended up being one of the most embarrassing games I have ever played (and I have had a few, trust me). Sound interesting? Well, maybe not, but it was to me and that is why I am reporting it.
Warnings:
1. As I had no intention of battle reporting this game, there are no screenshots. This fact should reduce my readership to about 3 people, which is my estimate for the number of people willing to read a text only report from a total newbie.
2. This is not game between 4 great players. It is a case of 4 newbies (meaning a poor player and not necessarily someone new at the game) playing each other. So if you are the type of person who can enjoy a sports game where two crappy teams duke it out on the same level, read on. (My readership now decreases to 1).
To the person left reading my report, thank you, and I will get to the game without wasting any more of your time.
The Setup
The map: A Bridge too Near.
The players: (NOTE: Another side effect of not intending to battle report this game is that I don’t remember the players, except for me, therefore I will be referring to my co-players by their race and color).
Me (Picked Prtoss [yellow])
MyZergPartner (Picked Zerg [white])
Vs.
MyTerranEnemy (Picked Terran [purple] )
MyProtossEnemy (Picked Protoss [teal]).
Beginnings
I started in the upper left corner while MyZergPartner started in the upper right. As my scouting soon revealed, MyTerranEnemy was in the lower left and MyProtossEnemy occupied the lower right. As my opponents were Terran and Protoss, I decided to tech straight to goons and then temps, as this would give me a versatile arsenal by the mid-game, and because storm owns. (Disclaimer: Throughout this battle report I will be relaying my thought process. My strategic aptitude is in, at best, the 5th percentile. Therefore anything I saw is not meant to be good strategic insight and it merely reflects what I was thinking at the time). I alerted MyZergPartner to my intended tech path, and he responded by asking me what he should build. This set off all sorts of warning bells inside my head as, in Starcraft, if ANYONE is asking ME what THEY should build, my team is in trouble. I told him to start with lings and then tech to mutas simply because I had been owned so many times by the combination that it would be nice to have it on my team for once.
On to the Action!
I had amassed about 6 goons and was researching range when I decided that it would be a good time to attack. MyZergPartner had about 18 lings and I figured that we could deal a substantial blow to either opponent. Just as I was about to hit on the keyboard to send the message, MyZergPartner screams for help and I notice that he is being attacked by 6 zealots. Given that the map’s layout would force me to go to first go to the center to get to his base, I knew that I could not reach him on time to help. I therefore decided to counter MyProtossEnemy . With no micro whatsoever MyZergPartner is able to hold off the initial assault with two zerglings left. When I get to the center of the map, I notice a large Marine/Firebat/Medic force moving in to finish my partner off. I order my (now 8) goons to take a detour towards MyTerranEnemy and when I arrive, I meet very little resistance and I lose only one goon in the fight. I then proceed to decimate MyTerranEnemy's base, while he decimates MyZergPartner's base. Being the newbie that I am I destroy MyTerranEnemy's main base, BUT, some of his SCV’s escaped. Being the newbie that MyTerranEnemy is he manages to destroy MyZergPartner's base, BUT, some of his drones escaped. This leaves us back at square one with my team in control of the left side of the map and our opponents in control of the right side of the map.
Economic Growth
MyZergPartner's decides to take up residence right next to me in my main base. I realize that this is a recipe for economic disaster, so I send a probe down to MyTerranEnemy's former main base, wait until I have 400 minerals and start a Nexus which is defended by the 7 goons left over from the attack. As my expansion is building, the Marine/Medic/Firebat force that destroyed MyZergPartner's main base had come back to reclaim their lost territory. With a little bit of micro (very little) I was able to hold off the assault. I had lost all but two of my goons in the process and one of them was badly damaged. This was clearly not enough to defend my expansion, and as my economy was hurting from sharing a base, I had no money for cannons. Therefore I sent the entire army from my main, 5 goons and a dt(hey, I did say I sucked), down to my expansion. Sure enough, I ran into about 10 enemy zealots en route, and they were making a run straight at my expansion. I followed him there and we engaged each other. He managed to down all of my goons, while having 4 zealots left. Fortunately (for me), he had no detection, and MyGayDT was able to force him to retreat. With my economy getting a little stronger, I fortified my expansion with cannons and expanded to the natural of the lower left starting point. MyZergPartner also expanded, using the natural to our shared main base.
The Tide Turns.
There was a long lull in the action as MyZergPartner's and I built up our forces and I assume that our opponents were doing the same. I had built the goon/temp force that I had wanted to earlier and MyZergPartner had started pumping hydras. Eventually I wanted to get a foothold on the enemy controlled right side of the map. I sent a probe to scout the upper right starting location to see what was going on. What I saw was a terran base guarded by some of MyProtossEnemy's cannons, a large Zealot/goon force and a few vultures. My partner suggested that we attack and I agreed. We set forth with a group of hydras, zealots, goons, high templar and dark templar. When we arrived, we had a distinct advantage. Unfortunately, our newbie ways shined through and as we had brought no detection, we lost a large number of troops to spider mines (no DT's for them :-) ). This tipped the balance in their favor and they destroyed the bulk of our force. However, in true newbiesm (I invented a word) counters newbieism fashion, we had managed to take out their cannons and with no detection left my surviving Dark Templars were able to mop of the mess and force MyTerranEnemy to lift his base and retreat to friendlier territory. With the battle won, I sent the probes and troops from my mined out main to the upper right corner to start an expansion. I again lost several probes and troops to spider mines placed in the center of the map, but the expansion got off the ground. MyZergPartner also took the opportunity to expand to the “island” located to the south of our shared main. We later found that MyProtossEnemy had expanded to the natural of the upper right starting location, which we took out with minimal losses, and I then used it for an expansion.
Game, Set, and Match – or is it?
At this point, MyZergPartner and I were in control of 75% of the map and I decided to take a look at the bottom right to see how easily we could finish this game off. I sent a probe, which ran smack into 4 reavers crawling towards the upper right starting location. I also noticed a little bit of distorted space above the reavers indicating an observer. *Sigh* my DT's are not going to save the day this time. However, newbieism may very well destroy me, as we had no air units and 4 reavers are quite deadly against most ground units. The reavers arrive and take out my entire defending force (2 cannons and 3 Dark Templar) without losing a reaver. They start hitting my probes and nexus, when MyZergPartner's hydras arrive, they take out two reavers before getting killed. I run my remaining probes away and MyProtossEnemy attacks them instead of the nexus. This gives me the time to get my (already traveling) forces to the expansion and I manage to take out the remaining reavers (while losing a few to MORE spider mines in the center, and a couple to the reavers themselves). I begin to get tired of losing troops to spider mines, so I send an observer (yes, I finally have them) and 12 goons to the center of the map. I clear the remaining mines and the couple of vultures that are hanging out there and then, MyZergPartner and I gear up for a final assault. After a buildup period, we take a healthy mix of troops (zealots, goons, temps, sairs, hydras, lings, and mutas) and in a display of pure macro, proceed to simply overrun our opponent’s last stronghold. During this attack, MyProtossEnemy sends 3 carriers to the “island” of my original main base, destroys it and starts an expansion. I ignore this and it ends up being the source of extreme embarrassment for me, that I will get to in a minute.
Embarrassing Moments
With the game firmly in hand ( MyTerranEnemy is gone and MyProtossEnemy is reduced to the one island expansion) I begin to experiment, by working on my unit control and building strange combinations of units. MyProtossEnemy tries to expand a couple of times and I put the attempts down without too much trouble. At about 10 minutes into my experimentation, MyZergPartner tells me that he has to go soon. We therefore set up a simple drop for the island that fails miserably due to a tightly packed and well defended base. MyZergPartner then leaves the game. I am relaxed at this point as I have the entire map, though MyProtossEnemy obviously isn’t going to surrender. I take my experimental air force that consists of scouts (yes I did say scouts) and sairs, and try to take him out with dweb and scout fire. This fails due to a combination of his three carriers, storm, and an archon that he used when I let a couple of scouts get too close. My next attempt to crack him involved an arbiter with recall, but it got mind controlled. Later I sent two arbiters, but one got mind controlled and the other was destroyed before it could recall. Yet again I tried to break his defense, this time it involved using dragoons to flank the outside of his base in an effort to give me enough room for an effective drop. I sent a couple of observers to spot, and my ranged upgraded goons to surround the island. He took care of this with his carriers and psi-storm.
Carriers Anyone?
I was getting very frustrated and I was running out of resources, so I expanded to anywhere that had any minerals left and started building a carrier fleet. I sent about 8 carriers, thinking that this would end the game. Much to my dismay, using a combination of stasis (from MY stolen arbiters), mind control (I let a carrier get too close) and psi-storm, he was able to get rid of this attack. I did, however, manage to deal him some damage. I rebuilt my carrier fleet and filled 6 shuttles with troops. I used the carriers for cover and did my drop. He managed to mind control 2 shuttles and staved off the attack with pretty much the same combination of units (a good deal of them were formerly mine). He was almost dead, however, and I figured that one more assault should (finally) do it.
The End – Thankfully!
I had mined out every mineral on the map, and was gearing up for (hopefully) one last assault, when I got a message from MyProtossEnemy saying that I was a retard (well deserved after what I just did) and that he couldn’t withstand another assault. He asked me to ally, and given how pathetic I was, I agreed. We exchanged gg’s and left.
Lessons learned.
- I REALLY suck at this game.
- Don’t give up, with good positioning and micro, a few units can go a very long way.
- Don't get cocky and start experimenting. Focus on winning your current game.
- I need a major amount of work on micro, unit control, selection and coordination.
- If I managed to learn anything from my games, I would be much better player.
- Did I mention that I suck?
Thank You for reading,
-Linternet
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