Im Back

Im sure all of you have probably forgotten me by now but a few months back i wrote a bunch of reports, lost interest in the whole thing, and stopped. I have decided to experiment with a different style of battle reporting, the text only.

These reports will be sharing with you my experiences on the gamei ladder system. I hope that you will enjoy these reports and criticize my gameplay in the comments section. I am reporting these with the intention of improving both my writing and my starcraft skills.
And I do realise that this is a total rip off of Mark4's reports!

So it begins...

Last season my gamei high was 1270, I am hoping to better that score this season.
I created a game entitled 1v1 1000++ and I was promptly joined by an 1140 player who had the rec of a newby basher, I was delighted! My opponent had selected random and I had selected my standard protoss.

It was obvious this guy had no idea how to use terrans. To avoid boring you all too death I wont go in to detail with this game. Lets just say he tried some M&M drops, they died, I took every expansion on the map and overan him. GG

That was a little easy but I was happy to take his points away from him. I created another game entitled 1v1 1034++ and I was promptly joined by a player with a ranking of 1064 and we were off!

The Early Game

I found him as protoss at the 3:00 location, and I planned my build order accordingly. I produced a gateway on 10 supply followed by a gateway on 12 supply, given the proximity of our locations I felt that a zealot rush was necessary.

My probe inside his base scouted a similar build to my own with the exception that he added an additional pylon before his first zealot, wheras I had done the opposite.
I chased his probe out of my base with my first zealot however a moment of slackness on my behalf allowed my own probe to be killed. I ordered my zealot and a probe to hold position at my ramp until they were joined by 2 more zealots, at which point I ordered my probe to resume mining.

Once my 4th and 5th zealots were under production I begun warping in an assimilator. As soon as they were completed I moved out with 5 zealots hoping to catch my opponent off guard. They were intercepted in transit however by 6 zealots leaving his base. I quickly ordered my zealots back to my ramp where they met up with fresh reinforcements.

Let the zealot wars begin!

My opponents zealot's charged up and down my ramp hoping to lure my zealots down into the open, thanks to me not ordering to them to hold position he was almost sucessfull. At this point we were pretty evenly matched, I decided that the only way I was going to get an edge in this conflict was by being the first to gain access to dragoons. I halted zealot production and began a cybernetics core and I also added a sheild battery at my ramp, I wasn't totally confident in my ability to hold the ramp until my dragoons arrived!

My core finished warping and I begun 2 dragoons as well as their range upgrade. At this point in time I have 6 zealots holding the choke to his 7 attempting to scale it, my shield battery was proving the difference.

He was microing much better than myself however and he was able to gain several zealot kills through charging my ramp, killing any zealot slightly out of position then retreating. He was continually doing this and doing it well.

After picking off another zealot he made his move. He charged my ramp with 9 zealots only to find it defended by 4 zealots and 2 dragoons. 2 more dragoons popped out of my gateways and he retreated, at this point I began warping in a robotics bay.

The Mid Game

2 more dragoons popped out of my gates and I decided the time was ripe to take the offensive. I charged down my ramp and engaged his army of 9 zealots and a dragoon with my own army consisting off 6 goons and 3 zealots. My zealots acted as a barrier that felt that brunt of his zealot force. I focus fired my dragoons on his lead zealots and managed to send 2 back to Auir before he ordered his forces to retreat, I had lost 1 zealot.

I pursued him until we both reached the 3:00 mineral only, he then met up with reinforcements in the form of 2 dragoons. He flanked my zealots with his own and pinned them against the cliff where they were destroyed very quickly indeed. His zealots charged my dragoons and several dropped remarkably easily having been weakened in earlier skirmishes! Once his zealots had engaged my dragoons I fell back to my base.

At his point I have a 3rd gateway up and running and I have begun production of observers. I gather up 2 more dragoons and charge back down my ramp, killing his remaining zealots at the price of 2 dragoons. He made a foolish attempt at pushing me back and attacked with 4 dragoons. I lost a single dragoon to focus fire before killing 2 of his, and making him think the better of the situation.

I take my natural expansion before moving my 8 dragoon towards his base. I arrive at his natural and find a nexus guarded by 5 dragoons and 2 almost complete photon cannons, something has to be done about this! My opponent attempted to buy time for his cannons to warp by hitting and running with his dragoons, the result was 3 dragoons dead to focus fire without causing any damage.

As I engaged his remaining dragoons along with his cannons I begun to take casualties, fresh zealots also arrived on the seen. Reinforcements of my own begin to arrive and I win the battle for his natural, I raze the nexus to the ground while my opponent rallies his army at the top of his ramp.

After destroying the nexus I charge his ramp with 8 dragoons. They engage 5 zealots and at this point I micro really poorly often misclicking and giving his zealots free hits. Fresh reinforcements combined with my poor micro and +1 attack upgrades result in him forcing me back down the ramp. I dont let this minor setback bother me as my natural expansion has just finished warping and I transfer a number of probes down to it.

With my expansion online I decide to get serious macro wise and I slap down 3 more gateways along with a robotics support bay, I also begin researching +1 attack upgrades.

My paradise is shattered when a small army hits my goon squad that was monitoring my opponents natural. My forces were obliterated after dealing only a single casualty to my opponent, damn upgrades own! His army attacked my base and we fought until only a few dragoons remained on either side, at which point he pulled out and set up a containment.

I am perfectly aware that his whole attack was a screen for him retaking his natural, I am perfectly comfortable with this however as my reaver has just warped in. After dropping a dragoon onto my naturals ledge I load my reaver up, begin researching shuttle speed, and prepare to do some damage to my enemies economy!

The Late Game

Sadly my reaver drop does not fare too well. My concentration lapses and I land my reaver far to close to a cannon guarding his mineral line, he attacks with his probes and the one scarab I managed to fire is absorbed by the photon cannon.

My main runs dry of minerals as my +1 ups kick in, I decide to break the containment and grab my mineral only. My opponent has 1/1/0 upgrades compared my lowly 1/0/0 ups but through weight of numbers I am able to break the containment and take my mineral only.

Immediatly after the battle I grab 2 dragoons and load them into my shuttle, I then drop them on my opponents unguarded natural cliff. They begin firing on the probes and at this point I'm starting to get that sweet sniff of victory. Sadly my opponent had other plans!

He moves out with 11 dragoons and engages my army consisting of 9 dragoons, he also has the upgrade advantage. I pull my forces back to my natural and prepare to face the onslaught, I know this is his last ditch effort to win the game. I win here I take the match.

He charges my natural no doubt thinking he was about to do some serious damage, he would have been right too if my army didn't now include 2 reavers and a shuttle. The first 2 scarabs kill 3 goons, he then focus fires on my reaver but I just lift it with my shuttle. Another scarab kills 2 more dragoons and his attack force is shattered!

I march into his natural and raze it to the ground. My opponent concedes with a gg and leaves. My score now stands at a more respectable 1062.

This game was really intense and I hope I managed to convey that through my writing. I look forward to hearing your views on my gameplay and I hope to learn from any mistakes I have made.

The replay of this game can be found at this address: http://www.battlereports.com/viewreplays.php?replaynum=5685

I would welcome games with anyone here who is interested, my online names are FeeLdAfuRy or Furious(56k). This will most definatly be an ongoing series, I really enjoyed writing this and I hope you enjoyed reading it!
Signing off for tonight.......Furious!