"His girlfriend just broke up with him. Two days before valentines day. So if I lose, it's out of pity."
- ZerG~LinG's A Broodwar Quickie
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| Lesbians: The Rebuttal | | | Author: | | | IP: | proxy1.sXXXX | | Date: | 09/11/01 06:09 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | Image Heavy(4), Famous Reporter(2), Starcraft(1), Warcraft 3(1), Civilization(1), Rare game(1), Old Classic(1), Gorgeous(1), Great Writing(1), Pro Player(1), Problem: Broken Images(1), Long(1), Funny(1), Problem: Spam(2), Text Only(1), Fan Fiction(1), Strategy Focused(1), Tutorial(1), Funny Comments(1), Series(1), Flashy(1) | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 8, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for [SM]Strega~F: 7.2000 |  |
Welcome one and all to this, my first legitimate all-text report! Sure, my first 2 reports were all-text, but that was because I didn't know any html back then. Also, those reports went bronze. So, let us never speak of them again.
A word from one of my sponsors: 
This report came about when I commented on Eradicate~Me's report. He had beautiful pictures, but was lacking in the text. Through frustration (lack of image editing talent) I somehow ended up doing an all-text of the same game.
Now, I had a problem that needed adressing here. It just isn't a Strega report without excessively large and useless pictures, but an all-text is just that. All text. Now, I've stretched the boundaries of this definition a little bit. An all-text battle report can not contain any pictures relevant to the game. Now, with no screenshot-collages, what could possibly fill that gap.
The answer was obvious. What else is synonymous with Strega reports? Yep, you guessed it. Lesbians! So, without wasting your time much more, I present to you
Lesbians: The Rebuttal
As a quick sidenote, I did not witness this game originally. I downloaded the replay from Erad's report. To any possible reporters, I urge you to observe/play the game yourself. This has been the hardest report I have ever done, simply because I could not sit back and go "Oh, I remember that part. That was cool!" The moral of the story: Replays are evil.
This game occured on the Lost Temple (I promise my next report will be on a non-Temple map. As I said before, I didn't choose this game and/or map. Deal with it.) and, to compensate for this crappily chosen battleground, our players happen to be pretty damn good. Either that or this game was a fluke. =)
[bs]RaGE received the teal terrans at the middle right starting position. Now, as this is an all-text, I must warn you to continually remember this start spot as Rage's spot. His opponent, [bs]Inferno received the brown protoss at the top middle starting spot. Remember kiddies, mid right = Rage, top mid = Inferno.
An ordinary start happened by both players, with each sending out scouts at roughly the same time. Rage scouted clockwise and, as his opponent was the first spot anti-clockwise from him, Rage ended up not scouting his opponent for quite a while.
Also scouting clockwise, Inferno found his opponent in the first place he checked. Utilising this small advantage to it's fullest, Inferno proceeds to annoy his opponent in an effort to stall Rage's teching. Unfortunately, this ploy doesn't quite work out.
Back at his base, Inferno has slowly been massing some units in order to end this game quickly. Gas has been collected, gateways have been thrown down, zealots have been produced. A pretty standard situation really.
As soon as 3 zealots are done, Inferno sends them over to his enemy's base and starts attacking a suplly depot there. Ah yes, Rage had not been quite as sluggish as his clanmate had expected.
A wall-in was already easily in place (as you would expect) and he, too, had been harvesting a nice stockpile of gas. A factory was done already and, nearly as soon as the zealots arrived, a tank had finished production. This was enough to scare the dastardly protoss away, especially as an SCV was busily repairing the depot.
Shortly afterwards, 2 more zealots arrive and they try their luck at Rage's wall-in. Once again the tank scraes them off, with another tank coming into play just as they ran off.
Not one to be deterred easily, Inferno brings in 2 dragoons that he had acquired immediately after his cybernetics core had finished warping in. Once again these units cannot break the terran, with a tank in siege mode clinching the deal. Still, no protoss units had actually died and Rage had wasted some money on repairs, so it wasn't a complete waste.
Both players had been teching away nicely since these early squabbles, and the scene was set for a pretty long game.
Rage, not wanting to waste the oppurtunity, quickly made a dropship out of his newly-functional starport. 2 tanks were sent over towards Inferno's base and, not finding any expansions, moved directly overhead of his counterpart's mineral line.
Seeing a zealot on guard at the minerals, Rage decides to drop the tanks on the lower ground just to the left of the geyser. With the dropship as a sight-aid, the 2 tanks started popping at the zealot and the probes, aswell as the geyser there.
Inferno, not being a fool like many others, brings a single dragoon up to the mineral line and brings back his offensive units (those 5 zealots and 2 dragoons from the first attacks) along the lower ground. While the zealots target the tanks, the dragoons focus-fire on the dropship. It almost works, too. The tanks manage to get into the dropship which then proceeds to fly back over the minerals. The dragoon left on guard pops the dropship just as a tank unloads. Together with a zealot, the dragoon is more than enough to quell this threat.
Using this small distraction to his benefit, Rage floats a newly-made command centre down to his natural. SCVs are maynarded and things aren't really happening all that much. In an attempt to gain back the momentum he had, Inferno also expands to his natural. Rather than maynard his probes, however, he decides that making the majority of them from scratch seems like a good idea.
In an idiotic move shortly after this, Rage floats his one and only engineering bay up towards Inferno's base. Noticing the expansion, it then sticks around. Not wanting the obtrusion to stick around for long, Inferno orders 5 dragoons to "persuade" the E-bay to leave.
Here's where the idiotic part comes in. Rather than remove his oh-so-expensive building out of the line of fire, Rage lets it just sit there! Oh well, a few turrets had already been erected around his base for protection, so it didn't matter too much.
In an attempt to justify the death of his E-bay, Rage loads up 2 tanks into a dropship and heads up towards the cliff. A good ol' fashioned cliffing.
Unfortunately for Rage, though, is the fact that Inferno had just thought to defend his cliff. 4 zealots are unloaded just as the tanks arrive. Through use of the leg enhancements, the tanks are fought off before they can even be dropped. Good work boys!
Not one to sit around and mull, Inferno sends his troops (consisting of 7 dragoons and 6 zealots) to attack the front lines of Rage's base. Making good usage of his micro skills, Rage manages to hold off the most of his opponents forces without losing too many of his own units.
Spider mines, tanks and vultures take out the entire attack force with very few losses but, what's this? A shuttle comes flying in to the now-undefended main. It drops off it's entire cargo (3 zealots) and they start running amok.
Showing nice micro once again, those 2 tanks that were in the dropship are brought back up to the zealots. They unload, fire a few shots, load back up. Using these stall tactics, it allows the speedy vultures to reach their enemies. One of the better battles of this game, simply because I am a lover of micro and sneak tactics. Also, I'm the reporter and, hence, your god. =)
Recovering from his losses in the field could be tough, so Inferno decides to take another resource node. The natural at mid left (or 9 o'clock for the directionally challenged of you) soon becomes property of Inferno Incorporated©
Not knowing about this little expansion, Rage goes on the offensive towards his opponents main/natural. A tank push occurs with vultures backing them up. A busy little SCV makes himself useful and erects about a dozen turrets around the place. The tank push probably would've happened earlier, but Rage had lost his E-bay. The lateness of this push allowed Inferno time to move a probe out of his base and expand. Good work Rage.
I'm not sure if he found out his opponent was out-resourcing him or whether he just became incredibly ballsy, but Rage sends 2 SCVs down towards bottom-mid (6 o'clock) and constructs a command centre at the 6 main and the 6 natural.
The tank push also encounters some resistance at this point. One of the tanks sieged up close to some zealots and, being the uncouth redneck that he is, started firing on them. It didn't matter though. The units there were shredded but (there's always a but) Inferno now knew about this offensive attempt.
Shortly afterwards Inferno goes back on the offensive. Dropping 4 zealots into Rage's main, he uses this distraction to attack the blockade in front of him.
The zealots die easily to some micro by Rage but, with the distraction working superbly, the tank push meets it's match. 4 dragoons and 4 zealots (along with an observer) take out all of the spider mines and vultures before being brought back a little. Allowing no breathing space, Inferno uses his 2-dragoon relief force to push ever further into the tanks stationed there. Very little losses occured at the protoss commander's end, whilst the entire blockade was destroyed. Decisive victory.
To compensate for this loss of momentum, Rage expands again! This time to 6's mineral only. The worst possible thing happens though.
An obsever sees some SCVs being maynarded down to the 6 o'clock expansions and Inferno sends 1 zealot and 9 dragoons down to attack what appears to be 1 expansion.
These forces slaughter the mineral only expansion before it's even up and running before proceeding to kill quite a few SCVs. Rage sends down all of the units he can muster to deal with this threat but to little avail. Vultures and tanks alike are destroyed, with half of the SCVs getting mowed down. When more units come to stop this attack, Inferno moves all of his remaining troops up into the 6 o'clock main. The 4 dragoons attack the command centre situated there and they get it down into the red before it flies away far enough.
Tanks and vultures kill these units shortly after, but not before they kill another few SCVs and also a refinery. A beautiful noise echoes through Inferno's speakers as the red-healthed command centre explodes into a fiery ball of pixels and Playboys.
Following up on this attack (or rather while this attack was happening) Inferno drops another 4 zealots at the exact same spot as the last 2 times. Expecting this, Rage fights this off easily using very little micro on his part. The only thing that the zealots managed to kill was an armory. An armory that wasn't upgrading anything. Good work.
Some more expanding happens again, with both players taking another base for themselves. Rage takes the 6 o'clock mineral only again, whilst Inferno nabs the 9 o'clock main.
Not letting up on the action, Rage sends 4 tanks, 5 vultures and a science vessel up to the 9 o'clock natural. As expected, these units start ripping into shit like nobody's business. Revenge is sometimes the only antidote, as Inferno surely knows. That said, 9 zealots and 5 dragoons charge into the Terran natural. This little trick works all too well, as Rage is forced to bring back those vultures to help deal with the situation.
Also, 2 of the tanks head back to save the day, leaving only 2 at the 9 o'clock natural. These 2 are killed shortly thereafter by some brave young zealots.
Back at Rage's base the war is still being fought. Utilising the fact that reinforcements were only a step away, Rage manages to stall long enough for some tanks to roll off the production line and siege on the ridge. Even some SCVs were getting in on the action, with fusion cutters welding the gay pride symbol into one of the dragoons' armour plating, thus confirming that Protoss are, in fact, homosexual.
The threat had been put down at both ends, although Inferno managed to make a bigger dent than his Terran enemy. Both expansions survive for another day...
During all of this action, Inferno, our resident protoss, took the initiative to expand to the 9 o'clock main. 3 gateways were slapped down there to support the extra income.
The action never lets up though! I'm beginning to see what Erad meant about everything happening at once. I am officially apologising for my comments on his dodgy writing. This stuff is just crazy!
As soon as the attack at Rage's natural/main went down, Inferno sent a clean-up crew. 6 more zealots and 2 more dragoons attempt to sway the balance of the game, but end up dead. The newly-made tanks and vultures didn't really have any trouble annihilating this small force, as one would expect.
At the same time (again!) 2 tanks roll up to the 9 o'clock natural and begin pounding on the nexus there. These fall victim to the 3 new gateways at 9, though, and never managed to kill the nexus completely. This did tip Rage off to what was going on over at 9, so it wasn't all bad.
Shortly after this incident, 1 dragoon humbly stumbles across the command centre at the 6 mineral-only. Surprisingly the dragoon is left to do it's business, with Rage busily doing other things.
An entourage of 4 vultures zoom over towards the 9 mineral-only but, due to the laws of momentum, the vultures slide a bit before firing on the dragoons stationed there. They manage to get off 1 shot before they are all dead from plasma shots.
In response to this, and not wanting to lose his dragoon, Inferno sends a small force at the 6 o'clock mining operations. The forces now consist of 4 zealots and 9 dragoons, facing off against 4 tanks. Reinforcements are on their way though. What will happen? Who will survive? Will I ever get laid?
1 of the zealots runs head on into the tank pack, managing to kill 1 of them before arclite fire finished him off. Also, while this was happening, Inferno expands to the top left island.
7 tanks hurry off to 6, but they are too late. The mineral-only has been wiped off the map and a whole heap of SCVs have been brutally slaughtered. While the tanks do manage to kill all of the protoss forces rather easily, the damage has been done.
Not giving up on his bases, Rage builds another command centre at the 6 mineral-only. You gotta love that persistance!
A very short lull in the action occurs before the formiddable forces of Rage move out once again. Predictably, they head off to the 9 natural. 5 tanks attack the photon cannon there before proceeding to push further.
It is at this moment that Inferno chooses to show his teching nature. 2 dragoons and 5 zealots stream down the ramp towards the tanks, whilst a few corsairs cast gayweb on the tanks' position. A nice bit of micro then happens. The tanks unsiege, move out of the gayweb and siege again. The corsairs recast gayweb back over them, so the whole process starts again. By these microing methods, Inferno managed to kill all of the tanks with just his 2 dragoons using their ranged attack.
Being entirely monotonous in his tactics, Rage sends another attack force over to the 9 natural. This time it consists of a dozen or so vultures and 3 tanks. Even more of Inferno's tech tree comes into play now, as 2 reavers proceed to unload out of a shuttle. These reavers, together with no anti-air from Rage, provide the perfect basis for a micro-intense battle. Gayweb, of course, played a role in this battle, with even more corsairs coming over.
Gayweb deploys over the tanks, reavers dropped in front of vultures, vultures explode, reavers go back in shuttle. Quite simple really. This choice of teching will definitely have a major impact on the game. There are 2 possible outcomes at this point: Inferno gets better and better units until Rage can't beat the enemy forces OR Inferno can't keep production up and falls to the massive armies of Rage.
Taking the time out to expand, both players grab a new base. Rage slaps down a command centre at the 6 main, while Inferno takes his mineral-only. About time too!
One of these expansions will only last for half a minute though. Inferno sends his reaver/shuttle combo down to 6 and proceeds to destroy the SCV there aswell as the command centre. The shuttle loads the reavers back up and flies over to the bottom right island. It finds nothing and is content to sit there, "just in case."
Changing tactics a bit, Rage decides to attack the tech centre - The Protoss Main. A whole heap of vultures and a couple tanks start pushing into the 12 o'clock ramp area. An observer looks overhead and warns Inferno of what is to come.
The tanks start hitting the natural, while the vultures lay down tonnes of mines. And then it happens. The most feared unit in the game makes it's presence felt. The scout. Erm wait, that can't be right. *Checks notes* No no, silly me. It's the carrier. Dum dum dum... (Not to be confused with "dumb dumb dumb")
2 carriers, to be precise. With no anti-air in the area, Rage's troops are left to die horribly to an unattackable foe. They do push on further in an attempt to do some more damage, though, but zealots and dragoons force the terran troops to retreat. On a brighter note, the spider mines managed to kill off quite a few pursuing dragoons and zealots. Nevertheless, the carriers had been seen. The plan was found out, and Inferno had to act fast.
2 more carriers arrive on the scene, whilst many goliaths are being pumped out of all available factories. A few tanks still get produced, just in case there is a ground attack.
Those 4 carriers strike fast (well, fast for carriers) and target the Terran main base. This also happens to be where the gollies are. As such, the carriers only manage to kill a few supply depots and an armory before being chased off by the gollies.
Not wanting to waste any time, Rage starts scouting all over the place for vulnerable expansions. It is by this method that a lone tank stumbles across the 12 mineral-only. The brave young tank driver starts firing on the nexus before being chased off by those damned carriers.
Right as this was happening, Inferno expands to the 9 o'clock mineral only an Rage takes the 6 main again.
Taking a gamble, our intrepid Terran commander sends all of his available forces at the 12 mineral-only. Vultures, tanks and goliaths take on some dragoons and the 5 carriers defending, not forgetting gayweb. The corsairs manage to hold off the goliath attacks pretty well, thus allowing the carriers some breathing space. While this all-important battle between carriers and gollies was going on, the tanks and vultures had managed to actually destroy the nexus. Wow.
2 carriers fall to the goliath missiles, but that is all that can be done. The carriers finish them off and also kill a lot of the remaining tanks and vultures. 2 vultures, 1 tank and 3 carriers are all that remain after this bloody battle. Unless you count the units still being pumped back at each player's base.
Going back on the offensive, Inferno is more interested in stopping Rage from making any money than stomping his tech tree. 3 zealots and 2 dragoons charge into the 6 o'clock mineral-only and proceed to die horribly. It seems that tanks > dragoons. Oh well, it's the thought that counts.
Not one to be shaken easily, the cute furry Protoss commander sends 4 carriers, 2 dragoons and 1 zealot into the centre. This is precisely where Rage has been keeping his army. Not wanting to encounter the gollies, though, Inferno takes a round-a-bout way of getting towards 6. Soon they are busy attacking the 6 mineral-only and having a few beers with their mates, but it will not last. Apparently the neighbours complained about the noise, and now the cops are here, in the form of "12 Angry Goliaths."
The presence of these gollies forces the carriers to hide on the cliff part above the mineral-only (cliff is part of the 6 main). Unfortunately for the ground units, they are left to die at the hands of the pigs, err, goliaths.
Through smart usage of comsat and the goliath range upgrade, another carrier dies without the goliaths even having to move. And just as the comsat wears off, David the goliath gets off one last shot. Boom, another carrier explodes, with it's hull disappearing into thick air.
Using the "Let's piss off the reporter" rule, Rage decides that attacking the 9 o'clock mineral only would be fun. He sends 2 vultures and a tank over. Inferno makes it abundantly clear that the carriers aren't going anywhere, as they start attacking the 6 mineral-only again from their perch. The attack at 9 doesn't go so well, with dragoons and probes helping stop them.
Back at 6, Rage sends 3 gollies up the ramp to get at the carriers. Somehow the carriers manage to kill all 3 goliaths without losing any of their number. True, both carriers are in the red health point zone, but they still survived. 3 more gollies ascend the ramp, forcing the carriers to run home to mummy, aka the 9 main.
Sensing that he had a sort of advantage, Rage rolls up to the 9 mineral-only with 3 tanks and a heap of goliaths. Whilst this base was falling, Inferno decides to do a few things at once. Firstly, he sends 6 dragoons at the Terran main. Secondly, proving that he can macro like a champ, our sly little Protoss user sends his 2 carriers, along with the other 6 that he had made, over to the 6 mineral-only. Ho hum. 3 battles happening at once. Thanks guys.
Ok, easiest one first. The dragoons managed to kill off a few tanks and the such at Rage's main but, other than that, the dragoons did squat. Secondly, the attack at 9 went off well. The tanks hurt the natural while the goliaths run back to 6 to help fight off the carriers.
2 of the 8 carriers fall to the goliaths before even more action starts happening. Some vultures head off to support the tanks at 9, while Rage expands (finally) to the island at bottom left. Coincidentally, the shuttle that had been there for quite a while had just moved off when the floating command centre arrived. If the shuttle had stuck around just 1 second longer, it would have been able to shut down this expansion before it even got started.
Back over at the 9 area, the mineral-only was now devoid of everything, while the natural had started to take a beating.
That shuttle had a purpose when it went away from the island, as you would expect. A reaver was dropped in the 6 o'clock natural worker line, only to be blown up before getting off even 1 scarab. 2 tanks hit it upon being released, thus making it explode instantly. The shuttle then runs off to the relative safety of the cliff above the natural.
Once again going on the offensive, Inferno sends his 6 carriers over towards the cliff-like area above the 6 mineral-only but, at the last second, decides to be cautious. As such, the carriers (and a 4 corsiar escort) stumble across Rage's expansion at the 6 main. Goliaths rush to defend it but, being the moronic imbeciles that they are, they forgot how to operate heavy machinery (Damn that cough medicine!). Much stumbling ensues and the base is razed before enough goliaths can reach their destination.
In response, our medicated Terran floozy sends a myriad of tanks and vultures over towards the 9 natural. Naturally, the natural dies an un-naturally un-natural death. */me Grins sheepishly*
Weighing up his options, Inferno decides that losing all of his carriers and his 9 o'clock main expansion would not go down too well. So, in the nick of time, the carriers glide gracefully over towards the ramp at 9, with goliath missiles chasing them furiously. Rage also looks into the future at this point and realises something important. His attack force doesn't have any anti-air, and 6 carriers were just "chased" that way.
Doing the only possible logical thing, Rage then begins singing erotic love songs in an attempt to serenade his foe. This, understandably, only works in real life. It still doesn't solve the problem of his tank and vulture army. Ascend the ramp to certain death, but cause some damage? Run like Fox^1 during a pie-eating contest (don't ask)? What to do...
The answer was quite obvious. Run the bloody hell away, we'll come back another day. A sensible choice, I must say.
Editor's Note: It was about this point where I gave up all hope of EVER finishing this damn thing. Perseverance and Strega just don't mix, except where it counts. ;]
After taking a few prozac and a couple shots of tequila, I'm ready to start typing again. Praise the Ford!
A litte bit of a stalemate happened over at the 9 o'clock natural, with carriers on high ground attacking various units straggling behind on the low ground. Taking this period of slight-relaxation to it's advantage, Inferno expands once again to the 12 mineral-only. How long it will last, only the 16543163 people with the replay know.
Back at the stalemate zone, gollies start attempting to break into the 9 main. Unfortunately, carriers on high ground tend to own goliaths on low ground, in stream-lined formation. Just as anybody with half a brain (Ie. not me) would do, Rage brings all of his troops back away from the ramp. Any stragglers die horribly to the interceptors. Little Mister Terran lost quite a few goliaths in this attack, without killing even one carrier. Definitely a bad sign.
Your memory will need to work a little here. Remember how I said that the shuttle was hiding on the cliff above the 6 natural? Well, it was at this point that it tried to get home. Goliaths protecting the 6 main for the inevitable re-expansion there shot down the shuttle in horrific detail. Oh well, it was only a Protoss, they're not very vengeful, right?
In probably the crappiest battle of the report, 1 tank clashes with a dragoon and a zealot at Inferno's main ramp. You do the math: 1 tank with no micro vs a dragoon and a zealot. Can anyone say "Beatdown"? Actually, can anyone say "aiuola"? It's the Italian word for "flower bed." Spooky.
Anyways, the carriers, not being on hold position, are lured into a trap somewhat. The gollies had run up, shot off 1 volley, then high-tailed it to the 9 mineral-only. Sure enough, the carriers followed, but were stopped before getting too close. They get damaged a little bit more, but nothing major happens.
Not wanting to lose this all-important advantage, Inferno attacks the 6 mineral-only again. Once again, Rage is forced to bring back his goliaths to deal with the carriers. He's smarter than your average bear, though, and only sends a handful back to scare the wimpy carriers. It works, too! The carriers run back from the 6 or so goliaths as if they actually pose a threat!
This is exactly what Rage wanted, as his forces mobilise up the 9 o'clock ramp. The carriers, busy being cowards, aren't able to stop the ascension until nearly all of Rage's vast goliath army is already up there. Calling it quits for that base, Inferno decides to play a little game of chicken with his clanmate. The carriers attack the 6 mineral-only, the tanks/vultures/gollies attack the 9 main. Who will pull up first?
Surprisingly, both players have huge nads. Neither player wishes to leg it back to their respective expansions. If goliaths went back to 6, the carriers would go back to 9. Stalemate again. As such, every single base at both 6 and 9 gets completely, utterly razed. Nothing remains of the mains, the naturals, or the mineral-onlys. This game just got interesting!
Continuing with this killing spree, Rage scans for possible targets. The 12 mineral-only is the most viable option and, due to the carriers' positions, only 4 tanks and 3 goliaths are sent to take out this base. All of the gollies that belong to the 9 o'clock raiding party are also sent to the carriers' last known position: the alley between the 6 natural and the 6 mineral-only. The tension could cut a knife (yeah, you heard me!) at this point, with every moment counting.
Seeing as he only has his island expansion with resources left, Rage finally expands to his mineral-only at 3. Also seeing that Rage's only source of income was the island, Inferno sent his entire carrier fleet over there. This can only end in heartbreak...
With only a couple of turrets and 3 goliaths to defend, the island dies quite uneventfully. The tanks and gollies at the 12 mineral-only wipe it off of the map, seeing as all of the carriers are on the opposite side of the map. Only 1 goliath was harmed, but oh how he was harmed! I think he befell nearly every torture that was ever intended for James Bond!
Coping with this traumatic loss, only 2 goliaths stride along with the 4 tanks on their journey to the Protoss main base. Also, seeing the dire position he is now in, Rage expands to the 9 mineral-only aswell as the 12 mineral-only. Not very subtle, is he?
The tanks are sieged up at Inferno's main, with an observer overlooking the entire entourage of 6 units. Also, the goliaths that Rage sent to 6 have been returned to just in between the natural and mineral-only at 3.
It was a good thing, too! The carriers had continued on their journey from the bottom right island, and were just about to cliff 3. Through smart usage of a floating barracks, Rage is able to kill off 1 of the carriers and forces the rest to hide at the back of the cliff. At this very moment in time a few reavers make a cameo appearance at the 12 mineral-only. This forces the command centre to lift off, which only ends up with corsairs attacking it.
While the cat's away, the mice will play, or so the saying goes. Following these strict guidelines, our heroes play another game of chicken. Tanks and goliaths push into the 12 natural, while the carriers take the chance to bust back into the 3 natural. Who shall break first?
A shuttle drops off a dragoon and an archon (!) in an attempt to slay the enemy troops. This fails worse than 9 in 10 marriages, and Inferno is forced to give up everything that he had there. Hmm, a depleted geyser and a nexus. Wow, how shall he cope? On the other side of the coin, the carriers are doing equally as well. Now both players are hurting for money and also for safety. This game of chicken has got to be the most intense one ever.
Inferno has an island expansion running, and his carriers. Rage has his mineral-only and also the 9 mineral-only, along with quite a sizeable tank and goliath army. It has come down to the wire, with both players frantically making more troops at their mains. The Terran is better off financially, but only if he can keep those expansions. The Protoss is better off in terms of forces, due to the awesome power of a sneakily planned carrier attack. We are reaching the climax, and so is Bob_the_Newt. Dirty boy!
The carriers push the envelope first, and attempt to break right into Rage's main. Key word there is "attempt." Now, you see, a kajillion goliaths tend to scare most carrier fleets off, but this one was different. They were controlled by a fearless (possibly high) commander in the form of Inferno. Trio upon trio of goliaths crumble apart in mediocre fashion, but the missiles start taking their toll.
The numbers are just too much, so the carriers get the hell out of there. Back to the cliff they flee, only stopping to ogle some phallic rock formations. From this nice little perch the carriers start picking off more and more goliaths, but the goliaths can shoot back. The seriously-damaged carrier fleet backs off for a little bit, seeing as more pressing matters are occurring at Inferno's base camp.
The tank and goliath force stationed at the Protoss ramp have started pushing in. Also, unbeknownst to Inferno, his opponent Rage was claiming even more expansions for himself. The 6 main is taken again, with absolutely nothing happening down that way for once.
Back at the ramp, the mystery of the archon had been solved. Templar released their pent-up energy onto the unsuspecting Terran forces as if it were Christmas at Bloomingdales. They didn't stand a chance, especially as a fairly decent army of archons and 1 zealot started crushing the survivors. To add insult to injury, the templars that just caused havoc have been morphed into archons too. Quite a bit of damage had been done, so it wasn't a complete failure, but the failure was still there. The stalemate had been broken. The time for major action had once again called upon these worthy fighters.
Seeing their oppurtunity arise, the carriers set sail towards Rage's main. The goliaths were still there, and they were still being pumped out of the factories there, so the carriers couldn't do much. They only make 5 in number, and resources are scarce on Inferno's side. He's really getting desperate. That base has to die, or else the dream shall die.
The archons are the key, or so Inferno thought. Actually, I'm pretty sure that Rage thought that too. Either way, all of the survivors from the battle at the Protoss main have made their way down to the 3 mineral-only. SCVs are slaughtered brutally, defending units crumble instantly, and the command centre is forced to lift off and fly into Rage's main.
Hoping that the distraction has been made, the carriers once again fly out from the cliff at the 3 natural, but the gollies are still in transit. As such, an already damaged carrier explodes during the trailers of it's In-Flight Movie, which promptly discourages the other 4 remaining carriers from proceeding.
As a side note, a wandering observer (take note kiddies) had stumbled across the expansion at the 6 main just as the SCV finished construction. 2 SCVs were working there when in walked 3 archons. As you would expect, a massacre ensued and Rage didn't even bother lifting the command centre off. No point really.
With the archons from the 3 mineral-only attack gone on an expedition, Rage is free to retake the expansion. The command centre slowly floats back to it's destination. Meanwhile, over at the 9 mineral-only, our office-worker Terran decided to enter into the air race. He quickly chucks down 2 starports, hoping to take out Inferno's carrier fleet in a swift and silent strike. About time too!
Inferno might have something to say about this, though. 2 more carriers arrive at the cliff (making 6 total) and the archons return back to the 3 mineral-only. Just as the command centre was landing. Ho hum. It went straight into the red on the first volley (only got repaired to the yellow) and was dead before it could lift off again.
The end has come, boys and girls. The combined armies of the carriers (6) and the archons (6 or 7) attack Rage's main head-on. The goliaths are forced to attack the archons, which gives way for the carriers to come on in. 1 carrier falls - BOOM. Storm is let loose over the defenders, while archons and carriers rip into everything around them. Another carrier falls - BOOM.
Just when it seemed like the final battle would be a total beat-down, the starports made their presence known. Cloaked wraiths came zooming and zipping into battle, where no observers were present. Carriers ran for their life, while the wraiths unmercifully extracted revenge. By the time an observer arrives, all but 1 carrier has been killed. All of the factories are gone, however, and it looks very very bleak for our Terran, Rage.
Wanting to secure the game for good, Inferno takes the 12 mineral-only again. It's not really needed though, as Rage is utterly screwed at this point. Not giving up until everything is gone, I soon realised my mistake. Not all of the factories were dead, 2 were floating. This will come into play in a short while. On this note, Rage proceeded to expand to the 6 mineral-only whilst every last trace of his main is annihilated.
1 archon happily stumbles across the 9 mineral-only, aka the wraith production base. Unfortunately for Rage, half a dozen wraiths tend to take a long time to kill even 1 archon, especially when the wraiths have no upgrades and the archons are at 3-2-3. A few zealots join in, followed by a couple templar. Some storms manage to damage the wraiths, but not destroy any of them. The units slowly die, but it's taking a long time and wraith cloaking doesn't last forever!
Also, the final nail in the coffin occurs at roughly the same time as 2 wraiths uncloak (no energy) and proceed to die. A few archons have found the fledgling base at the 6 mineral-only and proceed to raze it to the ground.
It's all over bar the shouting, and Rage knows it. Those 2 factories that were floating end up being dropped off at the 12 natural. With only the command centre at the 9 mineral-only still standing (barely), each factory can only make 1 vulture before all of the supply is gone. Also, storm and mana levels has seen the end of the wraiths.
Being extra cautious, Inferno expands to the 6 main, assuming that his opponent has something left to give. The 2 vultures are, sadly, torn up by an archon and the factories soon follow.
GGs were probably exchanged (it's a replay, so I don't know) and the game was finally over. A truly fine game that lasted for 50:24. Bravo boys, bravo.
Well, that's it for me. This report took a bloody long time to do, and I've checked it over a few times so I think that there aren't any spelling errors. I was also going to include some music that I thought was appropriate, but I have a limited megabyte level with my current server, so I didn't feel like wasting it with the download/upload.
Also, I'd like to give a yell out to |]agomar for making rater. Yeah, I know that's old news, but this report took a long time to do! Hell, I started it during the Reagan administration! Oh well, it's late(ish) and I'm going to go proof-read once more, then tweak the html. So, Strega out.
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