This is my first attempt at writing a battle report, but it has pictures, which means it must be good! Anyway. Some info on me. I used to be a decent StarCraft player by the name of ])arkShadow[S]. Getting into WC3 from SC was quite difficult, cause creeps are so fscking important. It's so hard to get rid of that mindset that troops aren't the only thing to smack around. And sometimes these creeps require an army to destroy. Ugh, I'm digressing or something.

Battle.Net's intelligent match set up thingy is really a great tool to get even games. Well, now that the level range is now 6 anyway. After valiantly pressing on Play Game and choosing Random, I (pocketGosu) awaited as the eye of death or sentry or something searched viciously for a game. I was on a pretty hot streak (13-2 or something at level 7) and was feeling good about myself. Although I lost to some level 2 guy and a level 11 guy. But that's besides the point. I got paired up with a level 9 P.O.T.M. My first thoughts were, "craptastic, not another higher level". Even worse was the fact that he was NE. All I could think was "I'm going to get Priestess and Huntress whored." The level was Gnoll Wood.

Gnoll Wood is a 6-player map that has mostly Gnoll creeps, go figure. There's Mercenary Camps at locations A,D, and H where you can hire Troll Berserkers, Troll High Priests, and Ogre Maulers. Goblin Merchants are at locations B,C,G, and F. A Red Drake (level 6) guards the Fountain of Health at location E. Golems are near every corner start point behind trees. My position is white and his position is purple. Henceforth, pocketGosu shall be talking in third-person.

Early Game

Early builds are nearly identical, with each player first building an Altar, then a farm (Ziggurat/Moon Well), then a barracks (Crypt/Ancient of War), and finally, a second farm. pocketGosu's Altar finishes first, and he quickly trains a Dread Lord w/Vampiric Aura. As soon as P.O.T.M. finishes with his Altar, he surprisingly (and to my relief, although I didn't know it then) builds a Demon Hunter w/Immolation. pocketGosu rallies his crypt to the lumber as P.O.T.M. builds Archers. pocketGosu sends one Acolyte to scout the 12 o'clock position.

pocketGosu begins to creep hunt with his sole Dread Lord, over confidently thinking it can handle most creeps. After going to the Mercenary Camp at A, he decides 5 creeps is too much to do alone. The acolyte at the 12 o'clock position is brutally murdered by Golems. He decides to go straight for Abominations and upgrades to the Halls of the Dead. He uses just one Crypt to build Ghouls for lumber and then for creep hunting.

P.O.T.M. has three archers and a Hunter's Hall being constructed. After the Hall is constructed, he builds another Ancient of War. Priestess building would begin soon. pocketGosu constructs a Graveyard and researches Unholy Strength to increase Ghoul (and Abomination) damage.

P.O.T.M. begins scouting with his Demon Hunter. Since it's night fall, he won't get harassed by creeps while he searches. pocketGosu takes 4 Ghouls and his Dreadlord to spot A to clear it. The Ghouls fall quickly but the DL survives and levels up. pocketGosu picks up the Tome of Intelligence +2 and researches Sleep for the Dreadlord. Mmmm... sleep...

pocketGosu's Halls of the Dead is complete and he constructs two Slaughterhouses and soon after, a Black Citadel. P.O.T.M. begins creep slaughtering with Huntresses and his Demon Hunter and clears his expansion directly west of his base. He wins a Tome of Experience and a Sobi Mask as well as leveling up. He sends a wisp over to create a Tree of Life. pocketGosu sends a damaged Ghoul to the 7 o'clock expansion and gets brutally murdered by, you guess it, a Golem. But it's night time, you say? Golems don't sleep, those spell immune bastards.

P.O.T.M. has upgraded Strength of the Moon so his Archers and Huntresses do increased damage. He kills of the creeps at location C and levels up again. pocketGosu begins to clear his own expansion and sends a Ghoul out to check the 4 o'clock position that P.O.T.M. is located at. As the ghoul willingly moves to that position (praying that it won't be brutally murdered by a Golem), it spots the army of P.O.T.M. which has quite a few Huntresses already. For some odd reason, the Ghoul is allowed to live and runs towards the now discovered P.O.T.M. base. P.O.T.M.'s army is marching directly towards P.O.T.M.'s army base. Immediately after pocketGosu's Dreadlord finishes eliminating the creeps, P.O.T.M.'s army comes from around the tress and behind and barely misses the Dreadlord's leave. They jump a Ghoul and then wait for an attack of opportunity. At this point, pocketGosu has a very small army and doesn't realize P.O.T.M.'s approach.

P.O.T.M. assaults pocketGosu from the right.

Here's your first battle crappy battle picture thing.

pocketGosu manages to sleep the level 3 Demon Hunter and retreats to the almost finished Spirit Towers. P.O.T.M. decides to retreat for now. The Dreadlord is badly injured but the Blight quickly helps to regenerate his wounds. pocketGosu tries to send two Ghouls to return to get lumber. Somehow, the Ghouls decide to go behind the woods to where, omg, Golems are! The Ghouls manage to escape the lumber level 9 golem this time. This is the final Golem encounter for the game. Pff.

Mid Game

pocketGosu finally has Abominations out with (2/1) upgrades to deal with the menacing, evil Huntresses at (1/0) still. P.O.T.M. begins mining at his expansion. Ten minutes into the game, pocketGosu has no expansion. He sends 4 festering Abominations and his Dreadlord to wipe out the creeps at the 7 o'clock position. P.O.T.M. is advancing towards pocketGosu's base. He leaves an Owl scout (huntress skill) near the closest expansion of pocketGosu and waits to see if he can play Golem. And he does: he ambushes an acolyte and an Abomination. The Acolyte survives but the poor Abomination was obliterated before it could render and tear. P.O.T.M. heads toward the Dreadlord and the 3 remaining Abominations (one was lost in the creep battle). Another battle ensues...

pocketGosu has no choice but to use his Town Portal scroll. The acolyte who escaped previously is brutally murdered by the evil Huntresses of evil (yeah, you heard me). A wisp is sent to become a Tree of Life. Several Abominations are being constructed as the dreaded sound of Low Upkeep is heard. P.O.T.M. rallies his troops to strike again at his enemy... the creeps. He moves towards the 12 o'clock position to eliminate the even more evil than the Huntresses evil Golems. pocketGosu now has several Abominations and also wants the 12 o'clock position. Little does he know, it's the...

The two armies meet just NE of point B. Though the battle seemed to tip in favor of P.O.T.M. due to the sheer number...

P.O.T.M. is forced to town portal his demon hunter as his troops are decimated by lumbering hunks of flesh and metal. pocketGosu clears out the Goblin Merchant at point B to buy a Town Portal as P.O.T.M. licks his wounds. pocketGosu proceeds to clear out the gold mine near point B. Two acolytes spot the Tree of Life expansion at the 7 o'clock position and the Abominations rush to the scene. However, P.O.T.M. uproots his tree and makes a run for it... a walk for it... whatever. He was able to avoid being seen by the army. The two acolytes are sent to the 12 o'clock position where they haunt a gold mine. An owl is spotted and the Ghouls knock the owl-infested tree (i'm not biased, i swear). pocketGosu rallies his troops to prepare for an attack. And stupidly move-attack into point E. What's wrong with point E? Fountain of Health, some worthless Gnolls (dreadlord at level 5 now), and a.. oh. Red Drake. Dragon. Burning. Oh well, that's what sleep is for. Disease cloud has been researched, and a green cloud of disease and death (and decay... err not that) is left behind in their wake.

And what has P.O.T.M. doing all this time? The Huntresses have been pumped out by the Ancients of War. He has a dozen of them waiting to destroy anything that stands in his way. pocketGosu sends a Ghoul to inspect P.O.T.M.'s base. The huntresses rush in to... well not kill it. They rush headfirst into the 7 abominations.

Nice kitty.

The huntresses and druids of the claw (with roar) decimate the abominations until pocketGosu runs them back home with a town portal. He only has 3 abominations remaining. The scouting ghoul manages to damage an Ancient of War to 800/1000 before it too is brutally murdered by the Demon Hunter and a druid of the claw. The Huntresses are now (3/2) while the Abominations are still (2/2). Abominations are quickly being pumped out by the slaughterhouses as a third is constructed.

P.O.T.M. strikes again quickly destroying the 12 o'clock expansion of pocketGosu.

pocketGosu manages to unsummon the gold mine and hold on to every gold coin he has; his main gold mine is low. Things look bleak for pocketGosu as he has only 6 abominations (3 more building) against an inevitable stream of huntress death. Luckily, the 3 abominations are finished, as well as the armor upgrade. Soon, P.O.T.M. begins his assault. But luckily (yet again) for pocketGosu...

I'd like to interrupt this dramatic upcoming battle with some random memories. Long ago, in the old StarCraft days, I used to do something I thought was harmless. It's called line dancing. Attack-move your units somewhere and they will break formation and line dance to the enemy picking them off one by one. I never realized this when I actually played real people (SHUT UP!). I know it's mean to say such a thing cause...

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?

The final battle begins...

In the chaos, pocketGosu's Dreadlord levels up and gets the ultimate spell Inferno, which calls a jolly green golem... GOLEM AGAIN... but this time he's on my side. He has immolation like the Demon Hunter does. He dishes a lot of pain out. Wheee another golem. I distinctly remember his saying BS. Hell I would too.

Knowing that his enemy is drained of forces, pocketGosu's quickly retaliates. P.O.T.M. furiously attempts to rebuild his army, but to no avail. pocketGosu manages to pull off a lucky victory. GG P.o.T.M., well-played. I just got lucky, that's all.

Lessons Learned

• Abomination Macro > Huntress Macro
• Expanding would've been nice (me expanding, that is)
• I am one lucky whore
• MSPaint > Fireworks
• WHY THE HELL IS PINK A COLOR? Okay, that's not a lesson learned, but a question that needs answering.

This probably won't be the last mess I'll be posting. I promise I'll get better at the graphics component. I hope you had as much fun reading as I wrote blah blah blah whatever.

Oh, I'm looking for this SilverSurfer[s] guy.. silver something, and this Infested~MxPx guy. StarCraft people. WilliamWC3 knows that silver guy I think. Hell I used to know William. WHEE DIGRESSION.

Oh the scores...

Overview
Units
Heroes
Resources

Err...

This has been a pocketGosu production.