"Don't write a BR if I lose!
-DisgruntledApe
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| WGT Chronicles: Chapter 1 | | | Author: | | | IP: | AMontsouXXXX | | Date: | 04/06/04 06:04 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 7, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for Raider: 8.5370 |  | WGT CHRONICLES: Chapter 1
Hi everyone. I have been away from BW for quite a while, but I came back recently to play some WGTour. Right off, I was so out of shape that God shuddered and wept watching my first few games. It got better eventually. I am still a good deal away from regaining all my former skill, but I am playing decent enough that I believe my games can make for some decent reports. SO let me introduce the setting.
I am currently in the upper part of C4 and have been alternating winning and loosing streaks. In the middle of a particularly nasty case of a loosing one that dropped me from mid C3 back into C4, I decided to relate my experience in on this ladder in a series of battle reports. So here it comes.
Game 1
I messaged in the channel asking for a C4 game. After a few attempts, I received a message from the bot informing that a player named B0xer had created a match against me. He was actually ranked C3, which made me accept quickly since losing to a higher ranked person would mean I lose less points when I lose and get rewarded more if I win, should it actually come to that (I am on a loosing streak, remember). I created a game on WGT 2.3 version of temple.
For those of you unfamiliar with that particular version of temple, you can find a large picture of it here. There are several significant changes made to the map that improve balance. First of all, you will notice that the terrain of 6 and 3 o'clock mains is changed so that terran can no longer hit the Protoss nexus at 6 from the 6/9 gully and at 3 cannot fire as far onto the protoss plateau or fire on the 12 ramp from the 3 plateau. The islands have minerals placed normally, which makes is easier to mine. Minerals at naturals are placed so that only half can be reached from the cliff, which makes the peons a bit safer. There are some other minor changes. The end result is, in my opinion, the best version of temple ever made.
With the question of the map out of the way, let us move on to the game itself.
I picked my usual Protoss, while B0xer picked Terran, just as the big guy with a similar name (big in the gaming world, in real life koreans tend to be pretty small).
I got the 12 o'clock start, and began with my usual PvT build. I made a pylon on 8 and sent the probe towards the 3 position. I found it empty, which meant I did not have to start pulling shit out of my ass just yet.
Gate came at 10 control, the Extractor at 12, Cyber Core at 14, and the second pylon at 15. I placed my second pylon at the side of my minerals so that it blocked the way from behind them. This way if his scouting SCV, which had reached my base right around there, tried to run around my base using the path behind the minerals to evade my units, the bugger would run into a dead end.
At this time my probe found my opponent at 9, the last position I checked. The wall was already in place, and the probe datavised that the way into the enemy base was blocked. I ordered her to attack the depot (I cannot see why no one had ever figured out before that probes are girls...they are so fragile). However, lights came on at the barracks, so I ran the probe away and hid it behind the minerals at my opponent's natural. This way I would know when and if his expasion came on-line.
At home I ordered a dragoon while making a probe of mine chase the enemy SCV around. This added yet another thing for my opponent to do, as he ran the SCV around my base with the probe in hot pursuit. It's not much, but I would rather have him micro the SCV than let is sit there and to pay full attention to his own base.
As soon as I had enough minerals, I began a Robotics Facility and started dragoon range research (all before my first goon was produced). My dragoon finally popped out of the Gateway and chased the SCV away. (If probes are fragile girls, the near-immortal SCVs have to be burly truck drivers.)
At this point I was in the dark since my probe did not make it into the enemy base, and I did not know what he was doing. It could be 1 factory fast expand, 2 tank drop, 2 factory tank rush, quick vultures with mines, anything. So I decided to play it safe and go 3 gate goon. This build is very versatile. First of all, it produces enough goons that a 2 factory terran cannot run you over and has to expand. Second, in case of a 1 factory build, it gives you enough units to challenge the terran.
To this end, I added a second gate before beginning my second dragoon.
My first dragoon arrived at the 9 ramp to find it blocked by 3 marines. I retreated it. My RoboFac came on-line, I started a second goon, an observatory, and the 3rd gate.
I sent my first observer towards the enemy base to scout, and put some goons near the mineral line to defend in case of a 2 tank drop. The second observer went to my choke in case vulture showed up.
My observer reached Terran base and found 2 factories with addons. It had to be either an early tank push or early vulture. I left the obs there to see what would come out of the factory next.
Six vultures hit my front door. I had a dragoon blocking the ramp and 3 behind it at the gate rally point. They fired at vulture, killing one along with a mine. The vultures retreated to my natural. 3 more goons came out of the gates, giving me 7 goons at the choke. I moved out with the observer trailing, leaving 2 goons to block the ramp, I attacked the vultures at my natural. The dashed about, trying to make it up ramp, but fire from 7 goons cured their presence pretty quickly.
With 6 vultures dead, I was up 450 minerals on my opponent. I cleared out the mines from my natural and ordered a probe to start a nexus there.
At my enemy's base, I saw the barracks lifted to let a force of 6 tanks and 3 marines through. I moved my now 12 goons to the center of the map. This is what this build is for. My observers saw the tanks approach the temple wall near 9 mineral only, and I split them, sending 7 down to lower part of the wall and leaving 5 to black the top.
I ordered the attack just as B0xer sieged up. 5 tanks were sieged, and a sixth in the vehicle mode. There was also a vulture. I ordered the goons coming from the bottom to close in to mingle with the sieged tanks, while the goons from the top attack moved. This way the lower goons would be safe from half the tank fire, and those tanks that did fire on them would cause splash damage to the tanks near the goons. 5 goons from the bottom made it amidst the tanks, while the goons from the top killed one tank. The next volley from the tanks killed one more dragoon and damaged the rest heavily but destroyed one of the defending tanks as well. My plan was working. I killed 2 more tanks before the next arclite volley came. With only 2 tanks left, one of the unseiged, that volley only killed one dragoon. I had 8 dragoons left to face off 2 tanks. But there was something I had forgotten. The vulture. Just as my forces moved in for the kill, a mine killed 3 dragoons that remained from the bottom squad. I probably could have pressed on with the remaining 5 goons seeing as they were undamaged, but watching 3 goons die to one mine does have this effect on you. So i retreated for the moment. All in all, the objective was achieved. The terran offensive was brought to a halt and I had map control.
No one told B0xer about this however. As soon as my goons were gone, he unsieged his remaining 3 tanks and moved them to the top of temple wall along with a vulture and an SCV. There they ran into my goons. The vulture died, the tanks sieged (next to each other) and I ordered my goons to back off a bit. Now, this time was SURE I could have easily killed those tanks. All I had to do was order the goons to close in on them, and since the tanks were next to each other, goons would be safe to blow them away. Why did I retreat then? Well simple. With 3 tanks firing on them, the goons would have been damaged by the time they made it into safe zone. This meant that should reinforcements arrive, my goons would take casualties. I did not want that, so I decided to wait for more goons to arrive.
At this point my expansion was done, so I ordered a control group of probes to go mine there and started a forge to canon up against vulture raids. I was also building templar tech at home, and the archives had just warped in. I ordered some DTs in case my goons messed up and I needed backup to stop the terran push.
Two more goons arrived to reinforce the containment force in the center, bringing my goon count to 6. It should have been 7, but one goon got lost coming down the ramp. I guess with all the advanced technology, toss decided that walking skills are not necessary.
Six goons felt good, so I attacked the tanks. One died on the way, 5 made it into range and raped the tanks with no further losses. Reinforcements came in form of a vulture and 3 marines and killed one more goon with the help of a new tank that sieged below them. I backed off. One tank was not a threat to my map domination.
With that in mind, I made 2 canons at my natural and sent a probe to 3 o'clock to stake some more land.
At the same time, my first 2 DTs arrived. One of my observers reported that terran had started a turret near his front tank, so I sent them there to teach him the error of his ways.
When the DTs arrived 2 new tanks and a vulture came to reinforce the terran mineral only position. The DTs killed the sieged tank, a vulture, and the SCV making a turret, while the remaining 2 tanks retreated towards B0xer's natural.
I started my weapon upgrade and added gates number 4 and 5 to accommodate my new income.
Meanwhile at 3, I made a pylon and a canon at ramp and plugged it with 2 goons. This should stop vulture raids. I also started my 6th gate there. Then a nexus.
My probe hiding behind B0xer's natural minerals (remember her?) noticed a SCV being a turret. I sent my 2 DTs sitting at B0xer's mineral nat with orders to be pesky. That they were. Turrets were not done yet, and the DTs killed two tanks and a marine and damaged some other tanks as they chased them back up the ramp. 3 vultures came and started laying mines, which killed both of my DTs and the 3 vultures.
I saw that I had accumulated about 1k minerals, so I ordered zealots made and started their speed upgrade. I was operating from 6 gates at this point. I also had sent a dragoon down to 6 position to make sure B0xer did not sneak and expo there. Terran managing to expand beyond his main and naturals spells major trouble for toss.
My nexus at 3 finished, and I maynarded a control group of probes there while warping 2 canons near that nexus to defend from vulture raids. I may sound paranoid, but considering a successful vulture raid can cost toss the game and most decent terrans DO vulture raid, this is not at all extreme.
And speak of the devil... B0xer scanned 3 o'clock main, and immediately send a vulture group there. Unfortunately for him, it ran into my group of now 12 goons in the middle, and died before ever making it anywhere near my expansion.
My observer at B0xer's mineral only spotted a force of tanks and some vultures moving out to secure that resource node. I had over a control group of goons and 5 zealots in the center at this point. I ordered an attack.
My forcer arrived just as B0xer started laying mines, forcing him to siege hastily. Goons attack moved while zealots were ordered to MOVE into the midst of tanks...and mines. Goons fired and zealots set of the mines. Within seconds an expansion force was reduced to two tanks hastily retreating into B0xer's natural. I had only lost some zealots and maybe a goon. I ordered my forces to press on. For Aiur!
A minor problem developed. My goons paused to attack the supply depot on terran cliff using the observer vision. This gave B0xer some time. When two or three seconds later the goons moved into his natural, they ran into 3 sieged tanks, vulture and some mines. The first arclite barrage destroyed two dragoons. The second one more while my forces struggled to get into position. Two tanks and the vulture were killed, but a mine went off on the goons. SCVs moved in to repair the last tank. Four vultures arrived from the main, and I signaled a general retreat. Of my 14-15 unit, 4 dragoons in various states of damage made it out.
At the beginning of battle I started another gate and queued up some units, so my troop count was good. I had also started making templars. Gate count: 8. Resource count 750/750. Need to get macro into gear.
Threat assessment: none. My opponent, despite having defeated my attack on his natural, is in no position to move out. Let's keep it that way.
I started another nexus. This time at 3 natural. I had made a shuttle before my attack. I loaded it with 2 zealots and 2 templar and headed towards B0xer's natural.
A small group of 4 vultures headed for my natural. One died to my 4 goons in the middle (the ones that retreated). I moved my mix of goon/zeal/temp from my main down the ramp to intercept it. They killed one more. Another died to the canons at my natural (good canon!). The last one died as it tried to run into my main. Vultures are the DTs of the Protoss. They can be really annoying, but just as DTs, they can be cured.
My shuttle arrived at the terran natural. The turret placement was not optimal, so it sneaked in undamaged.
I unloaded the 2 zealots first, then the templar. The vultures at the natural started firing at the zealots. Templars stormed. A fully saturated mineral line was reduced to 7 shaken SCVs. Despite the annoying vultures, toss still has quite a few things to teach the terran about peon population control.
The zealots died. Templars escaped in the shuttle.
B0xer started a command center at his mineral only. 3 tanks sieged behind the structure. A turret was constructed. A few vultures started placing mines. Thanks obba.
My shuttle pulled a U-turn and headed back to B0xer's natural. B0xer had not had time to move peons there from his main. I killed 3 or 4 more SCVs. One templar fell to tank and vulture fire, the other escaped in the shuttle.
I figured terran mineral only had to be on-line. I had over two control groups in the middle. Attack!
My troops poured into the enemy expansion. B0xer had 6-8 tanks and about same number of vultures. I broke through the mines and the templar escort began storming. By the time, all the zealots were dead, dragoons were in position. The last tank fell despite desperate repair attempts, the command center lifted, and the SCVs ran to the natural. I still had a control group of dragoons left. The floating command center fell.
I pressed on. My vindictive gene went into primary mode, and I ordered the shuttle with the last member of the SCV control squad towards the terran natural.
It unloaded the templar on the top of the lone tank there, but died to the turrets. The templar killed a bunch of SCVs with one storm. The goons arrived. Another storm by a templar from the attacking force on top of the tank and repairing SCVs. The tank and the SCVs were gone.
B0xer called "gg."
GG
Game 2
B0xer did not ask to re, so I looked for another opponent, quite happy that my losing streak was finally over. My next opponent was Murray. Another terran.
I started at 3 o'clock.
I scouted with the probe that made the pylon. She headed to 12 as I prepared myself to go into cheese mode if she found anything. 12 was empty. Cheese mode disengaged.
The probe continued her search, as an SCV arrived in my main. My probe had not made it to 9 just yet. Terran scout tends to come later than toss, which meant that my opponent was at 6. I directed my scout there. When the probe arrived at the bottom start though, the walling was complete, and an SCV started chasing her. I called her back to my base.
Once again, I had not information about my opponents plan, so I went into the 3-gate build.
Meanwhile the enemy SCV was running circles around my base pursued by a probe.
My first dragoon finally arrived and killed the polluting terran machine. I had not begun making more gates yet, so my opponent should be ignorant to my mass goon plan, which happens to be a part of that plan.
My scouting probe tried to go back to the terran natural to hide there, but was spotted by marines upon its arrival and brutally dispatched. Those former convicts just have no respect.
My 3rd gate warped in.
I sent one more probe out on a scouting expedition to the terran natural. It was empty. I posted the probe at 6 mineral only to watch for incoming terran attack in case this terran happened to be a gundam fan.
My goon disposition was: one at ramp to block SCV scouts, one at my nexus in case of drop. You need 3 goons to completely stop terran tank drop, so 2 more were to join it soon.
An SCV tried to come into my base, but was fired upon by the goon and retreated. I moved the goon out and found it nearby. The goon blasted the curious thing. Curiosity might not really be a sin, but it often gets punished as if it were one.
I had begun goon pumping.
My first observer arrived and I sent it to terran base to figure out exactly what his plan was.
When the cloacked scout arrived at terran base, it was one factory, 2 tanks, and a dropship. He must be going for a drop.
Goon count: 6. I positioned 3 goons above my nexus, one below, and sent two to just above 3 mineral natural. Many terrans pick that route for the dropship. If Murray picked that way, I was probably going to hear some hack accusations.
Threat assessment: now--none.
3 more goons came out of my gates, and I ordered 3 zealots and a shuttle.
I never saw the dropship. From watching the replay, I saw that it did come, going around the interception goon, did a flyby on my assimilator, saw the defending goons, and departed. I missed that, which affected my later game.
3 zealots were produced. I loaded them into the shuttle, gathered 6 goons and headed to the terran base. I left 3 goons at my nexus thinking that the drop was still coming.
My observer reported that Murray was making an expansion CC in his main and had just now started started the second factory. By the time my forces arrived at the terran mineral only, I saw 2 more factories begun. Murray was preparing his war machine for when his expansion came on-line, which meant he was not making units at this point. There was only one turret near the ramp.
Situation assessment: favorable.
Attack.
My shuttle arrived at the factories under construction. There were no troops in view. Murray was keeping them back. The idea of the zealots in a shuttle is to unload them on top of shit, so I did not unload.
At the same time, my 6 goons arrived at the ramp and started firing at the supply depot. It went down in short order. The goons moved in.
Murray moved 2 tanks and 3 marines to the shuttle. One tank sieged a little way back; the marines started firing on the shuttle. I dropped the zealots on their heads. The zealots promptly slaughtered the marines.
Right then I saw a dropship arrive and unload 2 more tanks. Realizing there would be no drop, I ordered the 3 drop defense goons to move to the terran base along with the goons coming out of my gates.
One more tank came out of the factory as my goons got their first tank kill. The rest of the tanks moved towards the command center. Zealots and goons pursued.
Zealots tend to not give a shit about unsieged tanks firing on them. As a result only one goon died by the time all tanks were dead.
Murray did what all terrans do when things go to shit: he attacked with his SCVs. Unlike other races' emergency methods, this one actually work because SCVs are immortal.
The damn peons did better job holding my attack than tanks and marines. Zealots got killed quickly, and I was forced to micro the goons to keep them alive.
Some vultures started popping out of the factories. Luckily, they were easier to kill than the SCVs.
I kept dancing my dragoons as I ordered more and more to Murray's base. 3 gates produce quite a number of goons. I had over a control groups in under a minute.
This number of goons caused Murray to replace the usual "gg" with "OMG."
GG.
Comments
-Three-gate is a very strong strategy. If this sort of thing matters to you, IntoTheRain thinks so too.
-Recon is key.
-This is the report number 4000 on this site that says, "recon is key."
-Include zealots in your peon control squad. They will soak up the damage from any defending units.
-Canon your expansions. At least 2 canons; 8+ vultures kill one canon in under 5 seconds. Or don't canon, but then don't say I did not warn you.
-No images for two reasons. a) I am in France right now doing a year abroad, and my internet provide does not sit well with BR.com, resulting in the "bad referrer" message if I try to use file manager. b) Without images I can write more reports more quickly.
-No replays for one reason: JV's warning on the replay site. Those of you that want to see the replays, say so in the comment section. If a few people say so, it should qualify my replays as "exciting," and I will upload them. Alternatively, I can email them to you upon request.
-I cannot report all games I play, so I will report the following games: good games I win, good games I lose, games I win using a strat I want to share, games I lose where my opponent uses a strat I want to share.
-Please comment. Whether it's on the strats used or on the report. Comments is the best thing for the reporters.
-Thanks to InkMeister for making me paranoid when it comes to vultures.
-Thanks for reading this. |
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