"Unfortunately, the evil Protoss military-industrial complex had so heavily polluted the SCV's normal migratory pathway with cannons that not one made it to the mating grounds."
- FunnyMarx's Much Ado About Nuking.
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| WGT Chonicles: Chapter 3, Special Edition | | | Author: | | | IP: | pD9046AAXXXX | | Date: | 06/01/04 05:06 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 9, Min: 9
Lifetime Rating for Raider: 8.5370 |  | |
Little knowledge is left from the Great War. Wind blows across the sands of time, turning fact into hearsay, history into legend, and names into myths. The few remaining texts speak of an epic struggle that enveloped the galaxy when two of the greatest races collided in a monumental conflict. The sheer scope of destruction was impossible to comprehend. It is said that entire solar systems were devastated and stars were extinguished as they fought for dominance.
No one knows for sure what sparked this greatest of all wars in the history of the universe. No historical records remain that could shed some light on that mystery. Yet a text of a poem was discovered recently, one that might provide a clue to this riddle. The poem speaks of a great temple found on a planet near the glaxy core, a nexus of power that could tap into the primal forces that drive the universe. A race in control of the temple would know no limits to its abilities. The reality itself could be warped and changed with the flows of the power tapped by it.
The poem recounts an epic battle that unfolded on the grounds around the temple. Two armies, size enough to populate entire planets faced off in a struggle for the control of the primal link.
Then, many years later, a computer gaming company raided CIA secret archives and stole the documents that talked about the war. They read the files and, as gaming companies are wont to do, they made a game about it. But being egocentric, as people in general are wont to be, they made humans part of the game. For that game they created a ladder so that players could compete against each other, as players are wont to do. For the ladder they created a map called "Lost Temple" that recreated, as closely as possible, the battlegrounds around the Great Temple. Unfortunately for them, they did not recreated it perfectly. Because of that, many people since then tried to create a more authentic, or as they called it, more "balanced" map of that famous battleground. They still have not succeeded in getting it right, as is evident due to a number of new versions surfacing every day, but I would not wait for that ideal version to come out. Instead, I would suggest you go ahead and read my report since the images have probably loaded by now.
Greetings and welcome to a Special Edition WGTour Chronicles report. There were several reasons for me to break the tradition of text-only Chronicles reports. First of all, it has been a while since I have made a report with images and I wanted to make one. Second, I wanted to include some illustrations to accompany my writing because I think they can sometimes add to the overall understanding of the action. Third, a friend of mine accidentally reset my account while trying to change my name colors. I was just celebrating reaching C2, so I was somewhat upset about it and decided to take a few days off WGTout, which gave me time to actually make this report. Lastly, it was exams time and sitting down to write a few lines of a battle report is easier than getting a few games of SC in when you have to do work, at least from my point of view.
Well, I hope you enjoy this, so sit back in your chair, grab yourself something to munch on, and have fun, if you smell what's cookin'.
Up until now, I have only written Protoss vs. Protoss and Protoss vs. Terran reports. That left out one of the most fun matchups, of course, Protoss vs Zerg. I have had reasonable success at this matchup this season, winning most games, loosing some. Zerg playes these days like to make a very early pool when they fast expand, taking away the threat of the traditional 10/12 dual gate rush. My usual build order is still 10/12 dual gate where I tech quickly while showing off some zealots to try and force the zerg to make some zerglings and sunkens, lowering his drone count. I have also tried 8/9 dual gate rush with the pylon on 7. It worked great unless zerg 9-pooled, in which case I sometimes had trouble with the balance between zealot production and tech.
In the game right before the one I am about to describe, I went 8/9 dual gate but my opponent went 9-pool and I was unable to rush him down. I pressed on, making more zealots and attacking him time to time, but I misgudged my timing and started making cannon defense too late. As a result, when his mutas arrived, I only had one cannon by the nexus, which the mutas quickly destroyed. My opponent managed to get enough probe kills in before my archon came to the rescue that I was unable to recover.
This game I was looking to improve my timing while still keeping the pressure on during the early stages of the game. My opponent for this match was Fenix)XLS(, referred to simply as fenix from now on. We started the game on the too-good and too-old temple. I warped in at the 3 o'clock position. My build order was a simple 8-pylon, 9-gate, 10-gate. I wanted to get a quick rush in to do the maximum amount of damaged I could and make the zerg build those early ling, hampering his economy. The rest of my initial build followed:
11-zealot
13-pylon
13-double zealot since the second gate was done
18-assimilator
My probe reported that fenix was at 9 but he was not early expanding. I ordered the probe to check out the main. There she saw second hatchery and pool making. Pool had just been started and I already had a zealot on the way. Rush to kill was out of the question, but I could still do some damage due to later pool. I hid the probe behind the 9 natural minerals and ordered the zealot to proceed into the zerg base. If he was not taking his expansion, I would just try to get a few drone kills before the zerglings hatched.
The zealot arrived in Fenix's main and found 2 hatcheries, a spawning pool, and an extractor. Several eggs around the hatcheries indicated morphing zerglings. I directed my warrior into the zerg peon line. He managed to get 3 drone kills before being dispatched by combined drone and zergling attacks. 3 drones early on is a huge deal for the zerg since, due to their centralized production system, they have low peon count early game. In addition, Fenix ordered the drones to stop mining for a few seconds to counter my zealot, which cost him some more minerals and gas. In the picture you can see the drones out of position, some carrying gas in the mineral line.
Chez moi, I had an assimilator done and was mining gas full swing. I also had 3 zealots blocking ramp and 2 more on the way. I had started teching up as soon as I saw that fenix was not expanding right away. I think a zerg that goes 2 hatchery early game in his main is a big threat to a protoss player. First of all, you have to deal with the possibility of a 2-hatch hydra rush. When executed well, this tactic can run over a protoss player who sacrificed troops for tech. Expansion under the cover of 6 zealots a la Nal_rA becomes very risky. Second of all, there is a simple mass speedling attack with a third hatchery added a bit later. A rush like that can and will kill 90% of 1-gate players, especially if the zerg uses the trick where he brings some drones along and uses overlord vision to allow them to mine-move into the midst of ramp zealots, getting them out of position. Lastly, a zerg who makes his second hatch in his main can easily take his natural and still stay high enough on troops to ward off protoss attacks. I would have to keep my eyes open to see what was coming.
I had begun a cyber core when my hidden probe reported a hatchery started at fenix's natural. So he was not going for an old-school 2 hatchery hydra strat. Good to know.
I kept making zealots and had 7 at this point. The core was also done, which forced the overlords camping over my base to start their slow trudge out. I started Citadel of Adun followed shortly by a forge. I tried sending out a scouting probe, but a few zerglings waiting outside my choke ended the scout run early. I tried to move out with 7 zealots and a dragoon but the lings darted back and forth trying to get into my main. I blocked them, but they looked like they had the speed upgrade, so I decided to not press the attack for now. Even a few speed lings in toss main can spell disaster early on. Instead, remembering my previous game, I laid down a templar archives and 2 cannons around my nexus in case of muta attack. In retrospect, those cannons were a bit too early. Fenix took his natural a bit late, which meant mutas could not be coming for at least another 2-3 minutes. In addition, now that I think about it, I believe a better move would have been to block my ramp with 2 zealots and order the rest to go to Fenix's expansion. That way, my base would be safe, and the zerg would have to make more lings for defense instead of powering drones.
I was researching zealot speed and +1 weapons. My plan was to test fenix's defenses with speed zealot/archon combination. If he powered too much, that attack would pushinsh him. If not, it would give me time to expand.
As soon as I had my first archon, I ordered my 7 zealot/1 goon/1 archon force to move out. Zealot speed was done. I was in prime shape. As my troops were leaving, I started a cannon below ramp to cover my upcoming nexus warp. I had one cannon above ramp too. Storm reasearch was half way done, and a zealot and a templar were in the making. If the attack failed, I would just pull my troops back and be perfectly safe from any most zerg mid-game attacks because cannon/storm combo pretty much owns hydras and lurkers if they try to come through your choke. Muta was not going to be a problem either. Since Fenix did not have his natural for too long, it meant that he did not have enough gas to make a muta force that would overpower the 2 cannons I had by my main nexus without taking heavy losses.
On their way out, my force killed some lings that were stationed outside my choke and proceeded to fenix's natural. He did have the advance warning from the lings I killed outside my choke, however, and was ready with 2 sunkend and 12 hydra/ling. I decided not to press the issue for now and withdrew back to my natural. This was the safe part I spoke about. Hydra rush could do little to me in my current position, so I started a nexus at my natural and a robofac in my main. I try to stick to the policy of starting robotics as soon as I see the first hydra of the game. When I do that, I am never late with detection for lurkers.
Fenix never attacked me, so shortly after beginning my nexus I decided to check out what he was up to. To that end, I send 8 zealots and an archon to check up on him. They arrived at 9 mineral only and found a morphing hatchery, 2 lurker eggs, and 12+ hydra/ling. After a slight hesitation, I moved my zealots amidst the hydras and attacked. I killed all the units except the morphing lurkers losing only 4 zealots--great victory. I had just begun working on the morphing hatchery when the lurkers eggs popped and 2 lukers hatched. They burrowed immediately, and I retreated my troops. I had recon as well as a small victory under my belt. There was no reason to lose units trying to take down that hatchery.
I am not sure about you, but in the first shot in the animation above, it looks to me like my forces are about to get raped. The second one makes it evident that it actually happened the other way around--the protoss units only lost about half their number while destroying the zerg army. Two reasons for that. First of all, the zealots were among the hydras, which means they were dealing maximum damage and, in general, melee unit beat ranged once they close in. Second...archons are just that good, especially early in the game when troops numbers are relatively low. The lings could have ripped my zealots apart but the splash damage from the Giant Firebat, as WilliamWC3 would call him, ensured that they would not bother me.
When I arrived at my natural, the nexus was done as was my observatory. I began an observer and maynarded a bunch of probes to my expansion. Fenix must have ordered his lurkers to follow just as my troops left because they arrived at my natural right behind me. He could not get them by the cannons however and burrowed just outside of their range. One lurker had come a bit too close for a second though and took a cannon shot. When it burrowed outside of cannon detection range and started firing on my units, I took a templar and stormed the location where it was hidden, killing it thanks to the damage from a dragoon shot that hit the lurker before it burrowed. The first observer popped out and I used storm and a zealot to kill the second, farther out lurker with minimal damage to the zealot. That problem was solved.
I was at 3 gates now and continued to build up. Goon range was done, and I added 3 more gates. Weapon upgrade was also done and I started working on +1 armor. For safety measures, I had 2 cannons near the cliff wall at my expansion and an observer floating over the cliff spotting for them. Zerg players like to do lurker turbo newbies. This setup discourages that kind of action.
I had a control group and a half of zeal/goon/archon/temp with observer support. It was a decent force, so I moved out to my mineral only. I had just started a nexus and a pylon there when Fenix hit me with everything he had. A large force of hydra/ling attacked my forces. A few of my troops were hanging out in the center of the map due to my general negligence, and some of them got torn up before I could pull them back to the main force at my mineral only. Frankly, that was sloppy, and I deserve to lose just for that. My forces should have been concentrated at my mineral only. Cursing, I shifted to that location. There I had 6 templar, and used them to lay down a wall of storm, which allowed me to defeat the attack with all 6 templar and 3 dragoons standing. Four of the templar were out of energy, so I morphed them into archons and moved new troops from my main to the spot. Fenix immediately tried a follow-up attack, hoping that I had no new units. I had over a control group though and, with the help of storm, killed a control group of hydra/ling with no losses. It looked like the cheese saved me. I briefly considered taking a lesson from Bob_The_Newt and making nothing but cannons and templar for the rest of the game, but finally decided against it.
Fenix's attacks were a complete disaster for him. Not only did he lose all his fighting units, all those warriors meant he could not possibly have saturated his 3 bases. He sacrificed economy for a large early army and that sacrifice did not pay off. I on the other hand, had a solid economy and 7 gates. In addition, I was not hurt by any early harassment technique. All in all, I was in a very strong position entering mid-late game.
To capitalize on my advantage, I began an expansion at 12 natural and sent a shuttle loaded with a peon control squad of 2 templar and 2 zealots towards the enemy natural. I also placed an observer on the top left island to watch for expansion attempts there.
My shuttle unloaded its cargo at fenix natural. The templar killed most of the peon line, which was not saturated, just as I had predicted. My units were about to leave when the shuttle fell to 2 scourge. Well, that was not too successful. I only killed about 7-10 drones. Not really worth a full shuttle. But whatever, I was far enough ahead that I could afford to lose it. Besides, I did temporaroly shut down 1/3 of the enemy mining operations.
Only one thing worried me. When I was conducting the psi raid, the templar saw an ultralisk den, which meant I was about to face ultra/crax. Never a good thing, regardless of game situation. Upon seeing that, I ordered my probe at 12 natural (remember that expansion?) to warp in 6 canons and 2 gates in front of them. Those gates would block the cannons from melee units. They would allow crax to come in single file while keeping the ultras out completely. I had a templar there for added measure.
Feeling that the expansion was safe, I maynarded probes there. I had a large force of all sorts of protoss units in the middle, and at 170 control ultra/crax was not worrying me any more. I was beginning to plan the attack on fenix.
Fenix had other thoughts though. Those thoughts materialized in the form of a huge zerg army of crax/ultra/hydra which engulfed my force in the center. At first, it looked like I would be able to hold off the attacking swarm as I laid down several storms right on top of the hydras, but it turned out to not be enough. In addition, my forces were not in a good position for defense...again. They were spread throughout the center of the map, instead of using the cover of my expansion...again. Ultra/hydra/crax combination made a short work of archons, and as soon as those fell, my army crumbled like a dry leaf crumbles when it is crumbled (did you follow that?). In seconds, I fell 100 control down to 80. My mineral only vaporized. It happened so quicky that I never even thought of running the probes away, and they perished along with the expansion.
The game seemed pretty much over. Fenix had map control. My only chance rested on my 12 natural, and that looked to be one zerg stray glance away from total annihilation. I had no troops to defend it. In desperation, I ordered 2 dark templar made from the gates there. They had just popped out, when over 2 control groups of crax/ultra/hydra attacked that expansion.  I stormed the hydras and used DTs to kill the lings that were making it in between the gates. The ultras were unable to squeeze through the small holes and milled about uselessly. After 2 storms, there were no lings and only a few hydras left, and I still had 4 cannons remaining. I could not believe my eyes when the remaining 3 ultras and some hydras turned and fled, vanishing into the fog of war outside my expansion. My defenses held, and the attack only cost me 2 cannons and 2 DTs. Upon further examination, I also issued an honorary Mark4 cost-effectiveness award to the high templar at that expansion.
Reassured by the successful defense, I ordered the new troops from my main to intercept the fleeing zerg forces. My small force of goon/zealot and a DT killed an ultra and a few hydras before fenix ran his troops back towards his mineral only. Despite the loss of my entire army and my mineral only expansion along with its probes, I was still in the game. More than that, I had an advantage since I held 2 full expansions (my natural and 12 natural) while Fenix only had his natural and his mineral only, which meant I was getting more minerals and a lot more gas.
At that point, a zealot of mine that was scouting the 6 o'clock positions ran into a morphing hatchery at the mineral only there. I ordered my force, which consited of a control group of zealot/goon and an archon, to attack that location. I forced fenix to cancel the hatchery, but his force of hydra, ultra, crax arrived within moments. The zerg outnumbered me 2:1, but since he came in a little from the north, I would lose too much trying to escape. I let my warriors stand their ground. They fell quickly, but still managed to take some of the enemy troops, including even one ultralisk, with them.
I knew the zerg was expanding. If fenix got a chance to secure the 6 o'clock area, I would very likely lose. With so much money, he would have enough resources to attack me in several places at once with ultra/crax, while I would need my entire army to defend each of those locations. I added 2 more gates, bringing my total up to 11, counting the gates at 12 natural. Before long, I had a fairly large army composed of zealots/archons/DTs. I ordered it to move out in the direction of 6. In the center fenix intercepted me. His hydras came from the bottom while his ultra/crax force attacked from the direction of his main. Hydras mixed in with the zerg army proved to be deadly. My troops managed to kill all the melee units at the cost of all the zealots. At that point, the ever-converging front of hydras reached my archons and killed them with no losses since hydras own archons.
Once again, it looked like my attack was defeated, except this time I did not even manage to get rid of the hatchery, which I was sure was there. I knew that by this point, fenix would be constructing sunkens there. Once those went on-line, my chances of bringing down the expansion would decrease significantly. If he reinforced the sunkens with lurkers, those chances would become practically zero because sunken/lurker supported by ultra/ling takes care of pretty much all of protoss ground assault options. The clock was ticking down for me.
I did keep my production up though, and when I saw hydras, I added some templar to the building queue. I already had a new force of zealot/goon and a templar standing by. In addition, several of the zealots and DTs from the previous attack got lost due to some misclicking on my part. I rallied those to my choke, where the fresh force was waiting and attacked the hydra force that was moving in on the heels of my retreating units. The hydras turned around and fled towards the 6 mineral only. My troops followed. When I arrived at the new zerg expansion, I found it fully operational with 2 sunkens completed and hydras along with one ultralisk on defense. I stormed some of the hydras and my zealots engaged the rest. Their small size gave me an edge due to hydras' and sunkens' explosive damage. A new set of troops arriving from my main sealed the fate of the zerg expansion. When the last sunken fell, fenix called gg.
Well, this game was over. If I could change one thing about the way I played it, I would pay more attention to my units holding the center. Instead of spreading them out as if I were playing terran, I should have placed them at my mineral only where the cannons and the temple wall would probably have allowed me hold the zerg ultra/crax attack that broke my mineral only and nearly cost me the game.
As for my opponent, I think if he had not wasted the troops attacking my base at 12 natural, and used them instead to secure 6, I would have had a much harder time taking out. Possibly, he could have held on to that expansion and won the game.
This is all theory though. On to game 2.
My next opponent was called SoftZerg. He picked the race his name implies. I started at 9 o'clock position. My scouting probe was heading to 12 after making a pylon on 8, when I saw an overlord float out of the fog of war. It immediately turned around and fled in hopes of avoiding detection, but it was too late. Knowing that my opponent was at 6, I sent my scout there. I have been waiting to play a PvZ with these positions so that I could try a strat I have heard so much about--mass reaver.
With this in mind, I went with just one gate, starting a core after my second zealot, and making the third zealot while it was building. Then I ordered a dragoon. My probe at 6 showed me that the zerg made a his second hatchery at his ramp and had early gas. As well I was not rushing. Speedlings are not a good thing to face early game in the open. More scouting showed that that was exactly what softzerg was going for, as my probe saw that after mining gas for a bit, he moved those drones back to mineral duty (I hid the probe in his base for a bit to scout later and get a whiff of his plan). I also saw softzerg begin a hatchery at his natural.
My main concern at this point was that he would mass enough lings to overpower my ramp defense. When you go one-gate, that is a very real possibility.
As soon as I could afford it, I started a robofact positioned near my gas, as deep as possible inside my base. This way I would have time to kill any scouting overlords with my dragoon before it could get a glimpse of my tech buildings.
Soft zerg soon showed his hostile intentions by testing my ramp with a few lings. I had 3 zealots there, so it was not a problem. The lings fled after losing one of their number. I did take it, though, as a sure sign of things to come. To make my ramp defense stronger, I kept making goons from my one gate. 3 zealots with goon suport can hold off more lings than just zealots with one goon. I also started a forge for upgrades and a cannon at my ramp. Yes, I was taking the ling threat very seriosuly. I have seen numerous replays of this strategy where toss got run over by speedlings forcing his ramp. In my only other recent game in which I tried going reaver vs the zerg, lings broke through and made it all the way into my mineral line before my first reaver popped out and I was able to repel them.
My robo was done, and I started a shuttle and a support bay. My ramp defense consisted of 3 zealots and 2 goons at this point. Reasonably safe.
Six lings checked out my ramp. I killed one before they ran away. I guess the mass ling attack was not coming, otherwise he would not be scouting with a group of 6 lings. With later natural expansion that softzerg pulled and his stopping to mine gas, I did not fear mutalisk, or at least not right away. That left hydras, which could pose an even greater threat to my light ramp defense than lings. I made a cannon near my ramp but a bit away from the cliff. It was positioned so that it could fire on the incoming hydras and receive no fire in return. My hope was that it would confuse hydras enough that, even with far inferior numbers, I would be able to hold my ramp. This was more of a contingency plan, though, in case my reaver either died or arrived in the zerg main at the same time as softzerg decided to attack me.
My first reaver finished. I loaded it into a shuttle along with a dragoon and headed for the zerg main. A reaver landing among peons is one of the most beautiful sights that BW has to offer. For me, though, this sight was ruined by a pair of waiting hydras, which targeted the reaver as soon as it uloaded. I could have targeted drones right away and gotten more peon kills that way, but that would only grant me a few extra drone kills since the mineral line was not saturated. In addition, I would almost certainly lose the reaver to hydra fire. I ordered the reaver to attack the hydras. They died, but the drones were already running away. A peon on mine command is nearly imposible for scarab AI to track down. Still, I managed to get 3 more drones with 2 scarabs. I killed another drone or two that ligered in the mineral line and a newly hatched hydra. Then the main force of hydras arrived. I left the goon, loaded the reaver into the shuttle and headed out. The hydras ignored the goon and tried to bring down the shuttle, losing one of their number to the dragoon fire. Their attept to catch the shuttle failed though, and it sped out of range. Softzerg took out his anger on the dragoon that stayed behind, killing it with his hydras, and I quietly erected a small memorial in my base to commemorate the unit's sacrifice.
All in all, the drop went ok. I killed 4 hydras and some drones while losing only one dragoon. That little advantage was not going to win me the game, but it did put me slightly ahead as well as making the zerg paranoid about reaver drops.
When my shuttle returned home, the second reaver was done and another shuttle was under construction. I had a little money accumulated, so I started a second robotics facility (I did say "mass reaver," didn't I?) and a goon in my one gate. I also began researching goon range.
I had two reavers and was coming out of a mediocre reaver drop. The zerg had taken his natural. It was time for me to take mine. I picked up my second reaver and headed out to my natural with 2 reavers in a shuttle, 3 zealots, 3 dragoons, and a fearsome probe. Well, actually, the probe just came along to build things.
Once there, I noticed that soft zerg had a few lings positioned just outside my natural. I ordered the probe to start the nexus and attacked the lings with my small zealot/goon force. 3 lings died before the last one turned tail and ran. The battle shout, "For Aiur!" resounded across the temple grounds as my troops gave chase. The valiant battlecry changed into a high-pitched "Aaaaaaaaah!" as they ran head-on into a control group of hydras. I immediately pulled them back to avoid further embarassment. The hydras pursued.
What softzerg did not know, was that I was pulling my troops towards the two waiting reavers. Soon it was the zerg's turn to deliver a high-pitched scream when the hydras faced off with the old 3-zealot/3-goon force but with 2 reavers for support this time. Softzerg wisely retreated. I was busy microing the reavers and the shuttle, though, and one of the dragoons got out of control and followed the escaping hydras. The zerg warriors quickly turned around and performed a perfect surround maneuver on the goon, killing it almost instantly. Then they attacked my natural again. There, the same 2 reavers waited. The canon on my cliff (remember that one?) began firing on the incoming enemy troops. I targeted a hydra that was somewhat in the middle of the rest with one of the reavers. The scarab exploded, killing 2 hydras and heavily damaging several around them. The hydras turned and ran once more. Again, a dragoon that thought it was the next Braveheart rushed after them. Hydras turned around and attacked it. This time, however, I was able to take control of the goon sooner and ordered it back to the reavers. The hydras followed. Once again, they faced cannon fire and the protoss heavy artillery. Again, I targeted a central hydra. The scarab killed 3, and the cannon one more. The remaining 4 hydras turned and ran. They did get the dragoon though. One of the zealots died somewhere along the way too.
The hydras were not gone long. Within seconds, they returned with reinforcements, numbering 8 this time. They tried to pull some sort of surround meneuver on the reavers while using nexus as a cover. I will let this short animation tell their story...
A moment of relative calm followed this carnage, as SoftZerg seemed to realize that he underestimated the potential of the reavers. I continued building reavers and shuttles from two robotics facilities and added an observatory to guard against lurkers, should they come. I also planned on using the observers to scout the map. One of the most offective counter to reavers that zerg has is mass expansion with mass hydra holding the middle. This works because hydras do well against reavers in the open where they can flank and surround. As such, I planned on placing observers in key areas to make sure I knew about the expansion immediately. Mass reaver drop would then take them out, in theory at least.
Soon my natural nexus was done and I maynarded a bunch of probes to work there.
A curious overlord floated in sight of my natural expansion. Offended at such blatant lack of respect, I ordered 3 goons to take it out, which they did. SoftZerg must have been using the overlord as advanced scout, or maybe the loss of the floating sack of gas really pissed him off, but whichever the case, as soon as the overlord died, a control group and a half of hydras hit my expansion.
My troops were slightly out of position due to having moved out to kill the overlord right before. The goons were a bit too far ahead of the reavers, which meant at the time when the hydras engaged them, only one reaver was able to fire on the zerg units, reducing the effectiveness of my defense. The hydras took a few pot shots at the goons and then closed in on the reaver. By then, their numbers have been reduced by half due to fire coming from the two reavers, some troops, and a cliff cannon (yes, the same one). The first reavers fell, and though the ground in front of my expansion was soaked in hydra blood, about 3/4 of a control group still remained. They immediately targeted the second reaver. It exploded too after getting only one more shot in. Only six hydras remained, facing two goons, a zealot and the cliff cannon. Soft zerg ordered his troops to retreat. My lone zealot wriggled out of my control and followed the hydras out. Just as it moved away from my nexus, the 6 retreating hydras met up with 3 of their kind coming from the zerg base. The 9 zerg warriors turned around and vaporized my lone unit. Then they proceeded back to my expansion in hopes of finally killing it.
Unbeknownst to softzerg, but knownst to me was the existance of 3 reavers and a shuttle in my main base. At the beginning of the battle, I picked up 2 reavers with a shuttle and they have been on their way to my expansion during the battle. Now they were arriving just in time to greet the returning hydras. As soon as the reavers landed, the zerg ordered retreat. But only two hydras made it out alive. The rest created a trail of dead bodies stretching away from my expansion.
So far everything was working out even better than I had hoped. I thought I would have to fly around the map trying to keep the zerg expansion number down, but instead my opponent kept attacking me and losing unit to the reaver defense. That meant he was comparatively low on peons and probably had not
had a chance to expand beyond his mineral only, if that. I felt perfectly in control of the game and kept building up my force of reavers and shuttles. I also started additional cannons at my natural to defend against attacks while the reavers were away on drop missions.
SoftZerg tried another attack, this time with 12 hydras. Cannon/reaver defense turned the attack around, killing all but two of the intruders within seconds. SoftZerg looked like he refused to learn his lesson.
Meanwhile, knowing that my strength was in drops, which meant I could defend an island expansion very easily, I dropped a probe at the top left island and started a nexus and a pylon there with cannon to follow later on.
I kept building reavers and shuttles constantly throughout the game, and had 6 reavers at this point. My observers in the zerg main reported a spire started and no defense near the drone line. I gathered 5 reavers into shuttles, leaving one to defend my natural from a counter (with the help of 5 cannons), and headed for the zerg main.
The reavers unloaded and opened fire. Spire fell within moments, and softzerg threw all he had at my natural. Two control groups of hydras assaulted the expansion. I kept trying to pick off the ones positioned more centrally with the lone reaver, and eventually I succeeded, killing at least 6-8 hydras with the reavers last scarab. Then the reaver expoded. I was down to my last cannon and a dragoon, but softzerg only had 2 hydras remaining. Seeing his main base in ruins and his attack defeated, he left the game.
Well, I thought this game was a showcase of the power of the reaver. The unit absolutely rocks, and a zerg who underestimates its effectiveness is in for a beating. The units stats at the end of that game were 82-13, just under 7:1 kill ratio. A zerg faced with a reaver user should play very cautiously because the sligtest slip can cost him his entire army. Frontal attack into a narrow choke, such as one leading into temple natural expansions, is about the worst thing you can do. Hydras bunch up and aimed scarabs will slaugter them, which was what happened in this game. The zerg got overconfident upon seeing reavers and kept attacking me, not realizing he was barely doing any damage. Expansions with scourge and sunken colonies defense and hydras holding the center is a much stronger play since it forces the reavers to move out of the protective choke spots. Even then zerg has to watch out for mass reaver drops with corsair support because those will destroy expansions in under 5 seconds, killing any muta force sent to defend. You need to expand fast and defend those expansions so that the toss cannot kill them as fast as you get them. If you can gain advantage early game by breaking through the choke or killing the initial reaver and shuttle, you will be in good shape. A neat trick to use is to mass hydras while expanding and when toss mass drops your expansion, attack with your hydras. He will be low on troops since he sent most of his reavers to your expansion.
Reavers is a viable strategy to use occasionally against the zerg, especially at close positions. Play it right, and the zerg will not be able to stop you. HnR)Pride is rather fond of this strategy, so perhaps you can find some replays of him using it. Nal_rA uses it a lot too when he plays 6/9 PvZ. Try it out, you might like it.
*Raider walks on the stage, picks up the microphone and sweeps a look over the silent crowd looking up at him in awe*
Well, this report is over.
*applause*
And so is my stay in France. That's right, I am moving back to the US.
*Applause from the Americans; Booing from all others*
While I do look forward to this return, mostly because it means summer at my girlfriend's parents' house on lake Michigan.
*Comprehensive whistling from the crowd*
For you, my gentle reader, it means that we have to part for a short while.
*Waits for cries "PLEASE DON'T GO!!!" to die away*
But worry not! for I will be back to procrastination and playing BW and writing about it when I get back to college.
*Whistling and applause*
There is a new ladder for Bw called stargate, and I am looking forward to trying it out. Perhaps WGTour Chronicles will have a slight change in title. Who knows. I can only tell you one thing...I'll be back!
*Walks off the stage to the roaring applause*
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