Dropping and Vulture Basics

Alright. This game came right after a devastating loss vs. a pure terran turtle. I had been playing him on Lost Temple, me being protoss obviously, and I had taken map control. I had about thirty five goons just waiting in the middle of the map. The thing was, his entire base was full of tanks. To show just how insanely defensive minded this guy was, he dropped about twenty tanks on his ledge and sieged them above his natural. Now, anyone who had free reign of a map vs. a guy who's making pure ground would obviously go for capital ships, but I had a slight problem.

Whose Line is it Anyway started in four minutes. Ask anyone who knows me and they'll tell you to stay clear when that show is about to start. Get in my way and I'll take you down.

The time it would have taken to build even a single scout (with which I could have left attack moving in my absence, to an eventual victory) would have been disastrous for my viewing. Making an administrative decision, I decided on a "what the hell" approach and moved those thirty five dragoons into roughly eighty cliffed tanks. I think I got one. Maybe.

Angered beyond belief that I lost the game vs. that random pubby, I quickly ran back to my computer during Whose Line's notoriously long commerical break. A quick 1v1 game was selected and desperate crys of "please gogo t.t" were made.

With the possibility of my show returning any moment, I decided to go for an all out rush. Dark Templar style. Pylon at 8, followed by a gateway at 10 and assimilator at 11. The probe used to create the gateway was then sent on scout duty, and caught up with a purple scv at 12:00. Great. My opponent was at 9:00. Anything to stall for time. I continued my tech, adding a cybernetics core followed closely by a citadel, when I made the realization of the century: the scv would arrive at my base next. Scrambling in desperation I gathered four mining probes and threw them at my ramp, hoping they would get there in time to prevent the scv from ascending and gaining a peek into my plans. Things turned out unsuccessfully however- the scv was momentarily blocked but then managed to sneak through a tiny crack before all four probes got there. As it ran through my base with two probes after it I was forced to forego the warping of my archives. All the probe saw now were two gateways and a citadel. That meant goons and speedlots. A lucky cornering resulted in the destruction of the scv, and I quickly created a templar archives and robotics facility. If he did expect dark templar I would need to find an alternate way into his base. At this time kallover had two factories with about five speed/mine upgraded vultures.

After watching the replay I found that I had made the correct decision by warping in the robotics facility. kallover had obviously not liked seeing a citadel of adun in the first three minutes of the game, and as such he sent several vultures to his natural choke to lay some mines. If I had sent my first three dark templar through they would have been destroyed and wasted. My base before the dark templar left:

(In the picture you can see I placed my eastern gateway a little lower than the others, that was space I planned on filling with a cannon in case I saw any vultures heading my way.) After the shuttle and its merry crew were sent out I began making some goons, rallying them to the center of my base. This would cost me dearly later, when the five vultures that had laid mines in kallover's natural ascended the ramp into my base. They laid some more mines upon seeing my goons, managing to kill one and severely damage two others. After that they made a pass on my probe line, killing several before my goons finished them off. Lesson: always block your ramp and complain to Blizzard to remove vultures from the game. 25,000 strong should have them still not caring. =[

It didn't matter at that point though. My shuttle had reached the terran base, and after flying around the south side, unloaded its passengers. The three bad asses templar walked towards the command center, quickly killing two vultures before they could begin laying mines anywhere. After that the comsat quickly fell, followed by the command center.

One vulture that I hadn't seen raced up and laid three mines, but go look at the results yourself. Good games were exchanged and I rushed back to Whose Line victorious.

Lessons Learned:

• Shuttles are very useful for avoiding vulture mines and are not that difficult to get in the early game. I've used them to perform four zealot drops on zerg and toss opponents in the past to great effect. Many players don't expect a drop force to be in their base so quickly.
• Never leave your ramp unguarded. The thought of rallying my goons to the ramp actually passed through my head during the game, but I was too caught up in my shuttle to move them one screen down. Had I plugged the entrance to my base I would have saved seven probes from an early death.
• Reports on eight minute long games are fun to do =].

Powering and Containment

Decay_ vs. Ling classic Lost Temple. Mind you, it took a considerable amount of "persuasion" to get these two playing. Ling was of course bitching how it's perpetual 2:00 AM over in Dutch country, and Decay_ followed suit with the excuse "i havt played in monts." Whatever SCOUTFAG[LCD], I see right through you -.-

Ahem. Ling followed a standard terran build in the beginning that would allow him a fast factory, while Decay opted to two-gate before building his cybernetics core. After gathering the needed gas Ling began constructing three factories right next to each other- vulture time. (Decay would later add a third gateway and later a templar archives for dark templar. He also created a robotics facility and began making a shuttle as soon as a nearby pylon finished warping in.)

When Ling had a group of eight speed-upgraded vultures he sent them out towards Decay's base. A small force of two zealots and two dragoons fought hard defending the protoss ramp, but in the end two dark templar were needed to put down the threat. The vultures retreated for a moment, while Ling frantically began researching mines and began work on an academy for comsat.

Ling immediately laid mines at both Decay's and his own natural the second the upgrade was finished, but like kallover wasn't prepared for a drop. Three dark templar were dropped off below Ling's factories, and proceeded to wreak complete and utter havok upon Ling's scv line. In the end the terran army lost about twenty scvs (picture link), more to mines than to the actual dark templar. Considering the fact that mines were his only option of dealing with the cloaked units Ling still didn't do too poorly however. Indeed, mines he had laid indiscriminately throughout the temple destroyed three dark templar, two zealots, and three goons that were following the drop to finish him off.

During the drop Decay had begun construction of an expansion at 6, and it finished after four goons he threw at Ling were repeled with three casualties. Two pylons were warped in, followed shortly by two gateways. Shortly after the gateways finished another three dark templar drop was sent against the terran base. Decay was playing feisty no doubt. The three templar hit the ground running, quickly destroying the academy before approximately 87 vultures wiped them out in the presence of a turret. In retaliation a goon and dt Decay had stationed in the terran natural rushed Ling's ramp and were raped by three tanks and a mine. Speaking of mines, in a sort of eery fashion Decay's units seemed attracted to the little incendiary buggers. Despite Ling's best efforts to hide them in discreet and seemingly random places Decay had no trouble at all in running them over with goons. Needless to say more goon soup covered the temple while the protoss established another expansion at 6's natural... The base count was now 2 1/2-1 because the terrans were too afraid to move out in force with only a comsat protecting them from dts.

Decay was now rallying all of his troops out of six gateways- most of them goons- to the center of the map. There he spread them out towards the 3:00 mineral only so no sneaky scv could get through and start an expansion at the 12 posistions. He did not, however, cover the southern pass of the temple. Ling had become aware of the 6 expansions through the efforts of a scouting vulture, and a group of even two vultures could have cleared out the completely defenseless probe lines there while the protoss forces sat in the middle.

But! He lacked the time to launch the vulture sortie because Decay attacked at that moment! Enough for fake enthusiasm =]!

22 goons, 7 speedlots, and a lone dark templar sauntered into the natural a little awkwardly, not unlike a drunken sumo wrestler whose thong is on too tight. The momentary hesitation allowed Ling time to siege some tanks and bathe the attacking forces in arclite fire...

The goons and dark templar erroneously led the assault, and were actually quite successful agains the incoming vultures whose job it was to die while buying time for the remaining tanks to siege. Many, many tanks on ground level with the protoss were raped, quite like the Yankees against the Mets in the last Subway Series. Excuse me while I let out a "hahahahroflhaha!" As the goon forces pushed through the tank fire coming from above they managed to reach the ramp, where their offensive stalled. Seven tanks sat sieged on top of Ling's ramp, and even if goon pathing was fixed Decay would have still lost. Two dark templar and a templar I had not seen (he dropped it during the battle, above the mineral line) proceeded to clear the scvs on mining duty at the terran expansion post-battle.

After resecuring his natural while Decay rebuilt his army, Ling sent two shuttles towards the 6 natural expansion. Two scvs departed from one shuttle and began building turrets above the mineral line, while the other held onto its company. Dropping and sieging the tanks then having four zealots dropped on top of them is never optimal. A lucky observer was fired upon (does that make sense?) clueing in Decay to the attempt. About 15 probes were ferried from the minerals about a screen away, where they were doomed to recieve no more orders for the remainder of the game =].

In the meantime, another protoss army in the middle was moving towards Ling's posistion. This one wisely contained more speedlots than the original (the better to close on tanks, my dear) and five or so less goons. This thrust was much less successful than the original, as Ling had craftily built a supply depot at the base of his ramp... The depot served the same function as the single fence at Gettysburg that many historians believe was the sole reason the South lost the battle: it slowed down the zealot advance ridiculously. Since the zealots were in an attack moving line each zealot in turn arrived at the depot, took a swipe at it, and was blown the fawk away by more tanks that had reinforced the ramp. Another protoss assault gone to hell.

It hardly mattered though. Decay had two mining sites to Ling's one, and ten gateways vs. three factories. The third protoss army gathered in the center of the map, when three shuttles came over and picked up some zealots, goons, and dark templar. The huge force led one last assault on the terran base, and after overcoming immense tank fire, cracked it in half. Seven zealots made it up the ramp this time since no attack move had been ordered, and the five tanks on the cliff were swept away by their blades and goon blasts. The three shuttles that Decay had filled earlier dropped on the terran main, and began wrecking random buildings. With no money to fight on with and a laugh Ling conceded the game and left Decay the winner.

Lessons Learned:

• Keeping a terran player to just one expansion (if that) while scaring him with drops is a very good step towards winning a game.
• While spreading your units in the middle of LT, make sure to keep some to the sides so enemy workers (or worse, forces) can't sneak by you and create a secret expansion or flank. If you're attack down the middle those units off to the side can come in and flank your opponent. The surprise alone may convince him that you have a larger army, and make him withdraw.
• If your Terran opponent enemy vulture rushes and you beat him, make sure to diss him at least once.

I'm heading out for Japan this Tuesday, so I won't be around to pester on AIM or broodwar *cough*Badme. I'll be gone for about six weeks so yeah, enjoy your summers :). Japan bai.

The replay of game one can can be found here.
The replay of game two can can be found here.