Preface

Hey there people. I see that SC is a popular game with you people, as it is with me. I've played SC many times before, but not that much online. That's all changed!. I've decided to create this BR about one of my earlier online games. Somebody fix the submitter, it doesn't like fileread nor does it accept bgs!

Before the BR however I would like to inform you on whats happened recently. 5 weeks ago I broke my left arm, I got the cast off a few days ago. So I haven't been able to play SC or EVN lately. Also due to my inactiveness, I'm presenting 2 games (The 1st one sucked anyway, that's why there's no pics).

The Appetizer

I hit the net but not on ladder (I hate

Here are the important parts of the two builds we used and what I allocated to each nexus: My Build: 7th- Pylon, 8th-Gateway, 10-Gateway, 12-Pylon, 14-assimilator. Around the 7 minute mark I built a core & forge. My Allocation: Main-15 minerals & 4 gas. Natural-10 minerals & 4 gas. ClatXor5 Build: 9th-Overlord, 12-Hatchery, 13-Pool, 14-Extractor, 15-Colony-Sunken, 17-Colony-Sunken. 7 minute mark-Lair & Den.

Notes: Other than more colonies this is all Xor built. This guy was a real

I had a good start with my force reaching good numbers early. Unfortunately instead of zeal pumping as I should have done, I played like I did against the computer (this had in fact lost me my 1st game against a Toss). I built numbered squads of 8 zeals & 4 goons. Xor morphed Hydras, lings & Lurkers non-stop when he reached the 13 minute mark.

I did a decent expansion at the 8-minute mark & built two cannons & an assimilator. He built his 1st 12 lings at the same time too. 9-minute mark. I have 8 zeals & 2 goons compared to his appalling 5 hydras & 12 lings. I have 3 gateways pumping zeals and goons at the 11 minute mark. I was still hanging back. 12 minute mark. He still hasn't expanded to his natural but he did have 17 hydras & 12 lings with more coming compared to my 15 zeals, 4 goons with another 3 zeals coming. He finally expanded to his natural at the 15 minute mark. Now I bet you're all bored with the lack of action. Just wait, it's coming; Xor hit me like a steamroller but of course when you have the power of superman that just doesn't work. Also at the 15 minute mark, I have 8 goons, 16 zeals with 3 gates & 3 stargates warping in. He however has 30 hydras (ouch), 12 lings & 2 lurkers.

20 minute mark. Xor expands to top-left natural. 20:30. My 1st 3 carriers are built. 23 minute mark. I have 16 zeals, 8 goons, 3 archons & 6 carriers, Xor has 14 hydras, 20 lings & a

27 minute mark. Xor hits me with 19 hydras & 30 lings. I charge out with 6 carriers, 16 zeals & 8 goons. The Zerg are soundly massacred for the losses of 9 zeals & a goon (the most Xor ever killed in one of his attacks). 29 minute mark. Xor hits me (again) with 17 hydras & 4 lings. I brush them aside for losses of 2 zeals & a goon.

31:30. He (futilely) attacks me with 12 lings & 17 hydras. As I have no ground defense ready. I use my 3

Strangely enough, Xor sends 1 hydra to attack (scouting?). Xor never explains. 34:30. Xor hits me with 2 lings (?) & 25 hydras. They are smushed by my entire battleforce (12 carriers, 3 archons, 16 zeals & 8 goons). I suddenly sense that victory is near so I decide to attack, with all my forces, the top-left natural. After brutally destroying his expansion there I head straight to his main.

Stupidly enough, I hadn't bothered building observers so I direly needed to kill any lurkers before they burrowed. This all worked well until after I crushed his natural. At his main he had 2 burrowed lurkers (soon to be 5). My ground forces were impaled by those few units. Luckily I had 12 good carriers so I proudly crushed his main and with it, all resistance. After his/her last hatchery fell and seeing his/her drones slaughtered, we exchanged GGs & the game ended.

Learning Points:-) I wasn't aggressive enough. I played heavy defence only going out to destroy a hatchery morphing just outside my expo.

Xor didn't play that great, however he/she did do better than I would've expected as he/she managed to avoid "hunkerin' down" with static defences and climbing the tech tree as fast as possible (AFAP) with no standing military.

Preface #2

This game was played with a friend over a LAN network. It was played on

The Main Course

I start like

Anyway, back to the game. I discovered that I didn't build my academy at the right time (which cost me dearly) so I had too much gas and no bats or medics. There was no early aggresion (rushing) so don't expect naught but boring economical

8:30- Mann attacks me with 6 zeals leaving another 6 zeals behind to guard his interests. My marines were sitting around my expo went the attack hit, a zeal was shredded by spikes as two marines were turned into

Now it wasn't until there was 3 & a half marines left that I micromanaged and started focus firing on one of two zeals. But to my anger (and Mann's happiness) I swapped fire to the other zeal a split second too early, though the marines were doomed to die, had of I waited a split second before swapping I wouldn't have lost an SCV. After the marines were dead & a zeal reduced to 27 health, I sicked 3 SCV's on him and after one was destroyed the zeal died.

10:00-I'm rebuilding my military as Mann expands to his natural & I build my 3rd Rax. 12:00-I see a need for defence at my natural & build a bunker/turret/tank combo defence at the choke. 15:00- I reinforce my natural by placing tanks on the left cliff. 16:00- I expo to the '9' main after a control group reports no enemy occupation. Also to do it quickly and silently I use a dropship to transport the SCV.

17:00- Mann expands to the '3' natural. I would like to say this right now: Though I have never read a Heartcutter BR, I know about a few of his phrases thanks to a few BRers (EE, I'm looking in your direction). One of these is something about not letting a Toss get a hold of more than one expo, this little problem however will be easily dealt with pretty soon. At the same time I scan '12' main and locate where Mann's base of operations is.

19:30- Mann groups goons & zeals outside my base while a Dark Archon morphs. I use my 2nd Control Group of Infantry to chase off the Archon as Mann's forces approach my natural. Cannon fire from the sieged tanks on the cliff and behind the bunker kill a few zeals as my 1st Control group charges out to meet them. The bats start burning zeals as medics heal them and marines give support fire. The second control group however charged the rear of Mann's force, killing the goons before they could do any serious damage. In the end I ended up losing 2 marines & a bat for Mann's entire mobile army.

22:30- I dropped a tank on the other cliff side of the choke to stop enemies from hugging the cliff to avoid cannon fire from the tanks from the other side. The dropship then dropped an SCV at the bottom-right island. He then built a CC that wasn't told to do anything until the 45 minute mark.

25:30- 2 Control Groups of Infantry attack Mann's expo at the '3' natural. I destroy all the probes and defences before a shuttle drops off 4 zeals & a scout shows up. I waste the lot of 'em and destroy the nexus. Mann then sends 3 zeals to kill my remaining troops. I crush them and return home. The attack turned out to be a

28:00- A Control Group attempts to stop an expo attempt by Mann. They run into a trap and are assailed from all sides. Scouts, Zeals, Goons & a DT lay into the infantry. 2 medics, a zeal, a DT & 2 scouts walked (or flew) away intact. The probe attempting to be build a nexus attacks the medics in an attempt to make them move so Mann can place a nexus. The medics retreat to the '9' main and get some SCVs to kill the probe.

30:00- Mann expos to the '3' main. 34:30- I skirmish with 5 goons at the '9' natural with 2 control groups of infantry. Mann sends in Re-inforcements in an attempt to kill my only mobile army. The dragoons & a

38:00- 2 Control groups of Infantry & 4 Tanks attack Mann's expo at the '3' main. Mann has 2 zeals there with 5 scouts, 7 zeals, 4 goons & 2 HTs coming to trap my forces. After crushing the zeals I shoot down a scout and after seeing the incoming ground forces I decide to destroy the nexus. The re-inforcements sandwich my forces and none make it out alive! Not so great.

42:00- I expo at the '9' natural. Mann attempts to stop me but I destroy his forces with tanks sieged on the cliff top by the ramp and a sortie of a Control Group. Also, seeing how my natural has almost depleted its minerals I tell my SCVs to mine at my mineral only (not build a CC).

43:00- Having only seen a single control group, 3 tanks & an unmanned bunker, Mann foolishly attacks with 6 zeals, a scout & 2 goons. He notes the turret I'm building and (strangely enough) attacks the tank rather than the SCV. While his ground group, marines kill the scout. Mann's forces are scattered by cannon fire from the cliff-top tanks as he moves to attack. With the the Zeals down to 3 and a half & 2 scouts in the vicinity, Mann regroups his forces outside tank range. Mann then loads goons into a shuttle and moves to drop near the tanks. The first goon is splattered but the second obliterates a damaged tank (had of I repaired it then it would have survived). One tank shot hits the goon before the

47:00- As Mann did not know I had built another turret near the tank, 2 turrets near the CC or manned the bunker in the choke; he decided to attack again. This time with 2 scouts, 2 archons, a DT (he thought there were no turrets on low ground), 2 goons & 6 zeals. The scouts retreated upon seeing the turrets & with the bunker webbed (damned corsairs) he sent an archon to attack it. Alas it walked into the web and became 'Napoleon Blownapart' (it was being shot at by 2 sieged tanks and a 6 marines). A shuttle then dropped a goon and a zeal off on the plateau (though he dropped the goon to early so he was hugging the cliff and became a landscape feature). The bunker up there was now manned though and the zeal became like a soft magnet. This battle was over in 45 seconds and wasted Protoss resources.

48:30- A quick attack by 2 zeals, a goon & an archon destroys a bunker but none of the occupants. 50:00- 3 marines spot an observer and run outside the defence, they are mown down by the archon sitting behind the observer and just outside my LOS.

51:30- Mann attacks with 9 zeals & a DT. However they were foolish enoughto stray to close my cliff and many became

52:00 to 57:00- Nothing interesting here except Mann attacking me with 5 zeals, 2 Scouts, 2 goons & either a DT or an Archon once every minute. He did however try out many techniques including: reaver dropping (once Mann landed the Reaver in a webbed area & my bunker killed it & the other time the shuttle was killed), hallucinations, storms (the most successful, it killed a tank & turret) & mind control (took over the SCV so I couldn't repair the tank as it was pulverized by scouts, didn't work though).

58:30- Mann grouped a force of 8 zeals, 3 goons, 2 DTs, 4 scouts, a HT & 2 archons. The lot of them went to attack (This is all done in order of when it was done). Corsairs webbed the cliff top after 2 zeals were wounded & scouts almost destroyed a tank before the turrets unwebbed and killed a scout and damaged another. The HT stormed the same tank & killed it (damaged the other) before leaving. Zeals were pummeled by tanks on low ground, 3 were killed & 4 wounded before (with help from 2 DTs) they destroyed a bunker. I used micro to save 3 marines & kill a DT. Bunker fire killed 2 zeals while wounding a DT. Cliff-top tank fire killed the last DT and 2 zeals. The Archons destroyed a turret & damaged a bunker before 1 died and the wounded one retreated to the '3' natural. The last zeal tried to flee but got shot down. Two goons fled while another was dropped on the plateau (killed in a second). That was the best attack Mann ever did.

59:30- All the while (while Mann was attacking the 'Choke of Doom') I was building up a rather large force consisting of 5 control groups, 6 tanks & 6 goliaths. I then grouped the lot outside the '3' natural. In a stroke of luck (for Mann) a HT stormed my marines, killing 3 marines & 2 bats. 1:00:00- I attack Mann's expo at the '3' natural. The 2 Archons defending it were soundly beaten and the defences overwhelmed. I destroy 3 cannons, 2 pylons, a nexus & all the probes for little losses. I then lay into the '3' main. I destroyed 2 pylons, 3 cannons, 3 scouts (the only units that tried to stop me from destroying the place), a nexus & all the probes. I retreat to my main and start rebuilding my losses. Very nice indeed as I've killed off over 4000 minerals and 500 gas worth of stuff for the losses of a mere 1600 minerals & 500 gas worth of stuff.

1:09:00- I take 7 wraiths and attack the base in the upper-left corner. HTs kill 6 wraiths for the loss of one of their own. I didn't have cloak available so I used micro to keep my wraith close to the HTs knowing Mann wouldn't storm his own dude. At 1:10:30 I got cloak. By 1:11:30, the only mineral collecting probe (save the one that starts collecting in 30 seconds) is dead as well as all the HTs. An observer has come over and at 1:16:00 a bunch of corsairs will kill my wraith.

1:12:30- Like last time, while I was grouping an HT came out to greet my men & women. Unlike last time though, 3 marines & a medic reached him first. They were all stormed &

1:14:00- My army lays waste to the expo at the '3' main (there is only 200 minerals in Mann's bank & no income). My army goes to attack Mann's natural. We are greeted by a couple of Dark Archons. Just to demonstrate his Archon skill, Mann feedbacked 3 medics & maelstromed a few marines (5), all this in 3 seconds. We killed the Archons & destroyed Mann's natural. Upon climbing the ramp to the main my soldiers were met with a withering hail of storms and webs. My force was decimated an it took all my micro skill to win this with 12 marines & bats, 5 tanks, 3 goliaths & 5 medics I had. My skill however won out even against Mann's HTs, morphing archons, clumps of tech buildings, strategically placed cannons & pesky corsairs. With his main destroyed and all his units dead, Mann said his GG and quit.

Comments

That was a rather good game and I think I played rather well. Also I'm rather sorry about the amount of pics. I try to keep it down to 12-15, this one had 13, next BR will be a longer one. Well that concludes my 1st SCBR, another will be out in a month or so (I hope). My EV:N BRs are at an end, as once again I'm bored out of my mind with it (After playing it in 2 month periods twice a year I know the game off by heart). Tell me what you think my BR and how I can improve on it. There is only one person I will thank (save Blizzard, but that's a team) and that person is EldritchEvil. For my next few SCBRs I'm thinking of following another player in a 3-5 part series. If you have any ideas for who that player could be, please submit them.

Goodbye!