A Fight to the Death

at Lost Temple

Introduction

    Hi there!  I'm Manofakewar, a frequent lurker to BR.com, and this is my first battlereport.  It's on a public obs game that was just so incredibly good that I felt something special had to be done about it.  Hmm... I guess that's it for the introduction, really.

The Map and Players and Stuff Like That


    Umm... the title says it all actually.  The map for this particular game is The Lost Temple, a four player map with several... wait... do you really need to know this?

The Players

(Names have been changed to protect their individual privacy.)

Dodo will start in the 3:00 position, with a brownish Command Center.

Arch warps in his yellow Nexus at the 12:00 starting position.

Early Game

    The game starts with both players cloning their peons in a rather systematic fashion (left click one peon, right click mineral, rinse and repeat).  Right after Arch's 8th peon pops out of the Nexus porthole, it is immediately sent to start a warp rift for a pylon nearby.  Dodo starts construction on a supply depot at 9 control in front of his ramp, and carefully places an SCV in the center of the ramp, hopefully deterring any probe scouts.  Sure enough, a probe attempts to waltz in, but is stopped by the SCV.  In a clever move, the probe lures the SCV (having no Hold Position command) out and manages to slip past the constructing barracks and takes a gander at the many SCV's hard at work in the mineral fields.  Then the delinquent probe pulls out a spray can and leaves his insignia in the form of an assimilator.  The probe manages to slip away before

the barracks completes.  Back in his base, Arch puts up a gateway (rather late due to his focused attention on his probe antics).  Dodo, still fuming about the probe running amock in his base sends his own scout SCV.  The runner finds the ramp undefended and heads on it, attacking the nearest mining probe with its fusion cutters.  However, this meager attack is rejected as 2 probes gangbang the poor SCV.  Needless to say, the SCV escapes with 5 of 60 hit points remaining and heads back to home base.  Shortly after this ordeal, Arch puts up his second assimilator of the game (this time in his own base) while Dodo erects a second supply depot, closing off his ramp wallin.
    The terran cleaning crew, consisting of a marine and 4 SCV's get to work on cleaning the ugly graffiti sprayed all over the local vespene geyser.  Meanwhile, Arch is already mining gas and builds a cybernetics core at 16 control, taking the lead in the tech race.  Eventually, the assimilator is destroyed and Dodo immediately starts a refinery, hoping that this late gas mining won't haunt him for the rest of the game.

    Arch's cybernetics core completes shortly, and he immediately starts warping in a robotics facility, making his tech choice apparent.  He pumps a few dragoons out of his single gateway for some early defense against possible marine invasions.  Meanwhile, Dodo has gathered a solid amount of resources and starts a second Command Center at his natural.  Dodo, with his gas income going strong starts 2 factories at once, and starts building a funky wall at his choke.  Not wanting his opponent to get a heads up of an incoming reaver drop, Arch sends a probe down to the 6:00 main and starts construction of a support bay, out of sight.  A shuttle pops out of the robotics facility, and a reaver shortly after.  Arch commands his reaver to build a few scarabs, and loads it onto the shuttle along with a dragoon buddy.  The shuttle then mosies along towards the general direction of Dodo's mineral field.  The shuttle arrives and immediately starts taking fire from a cleverly placed missile turret of Dodo.  The shuttle manages to slip past this defense with its hit points in the red and drops its deadly cargo of one dragoon and one reaver.  Dodo immediately evacuates his SCV's to his natural (which is now up and running) and brings his tanks that he had been pumping out of dual factories to help the cause.  The dragoon takes heavy damage and eventually is destroyed by vulture fire.  The reaver manages to take down one tank, and as its HP reaches red, Arch loads it back onto the shuttle.  Seeing as there are more tanks coming up as reinforcements, Arch retreats his shuttle back to his base, avoiding the missile turret.  During this attack, Arch lost a single dragoon while Dodo lost several SCV's, 2 vultures and a tank as well as a considerable amount of mining time.  Victory is Arch's, for now.                                     
    Dodo has by no means been idle this entire period though.  His 2 factories have been humming for some time now and and he has a fair number of vultures and tanks.  However, with only 1 machine shop, siege tech has been pushed aside to make room for vulture speed and mines.  Dodo also has a fully operational, gas and mineral mining natural expansion while Arch has not started an expansion yet.

    Arch finds that a single gateway just isn't producing dragoons fast enough, and starts constructuing another one in his main.  He also has started an expansion at the 9:00 starting position as well as his natural simultaneously.  Dodo plans to get massive metal and constructs a whopping 4 more factories at his main, bringing his total to 6.  He also constructs an armory for upgrades, or future goliaths and starts upgrading siege tech (finally!).
    Dodo searches the map for any of Arch's expanses and discover's the 9:00 starting position's ramp filled with the blue swirls of warping photon cannons.  The vultures immediately fire upon the unfinished cannons.  Arch, not wanting to lose the money quickly cancels both photon cannons.  Strangely, the vultures instead of moving in to rape some probes, choose to stupidly attack the pylons.  The reaver filled shuttle from earlier arrives and scares the vultures away, saving the expansion.

Mid Game

    Thus starts the beginning of the middle game at the 10 minute mark.  Both players continue to boast their economies, and tech.  Dodo constructs another factory making his total 7, and continues to pump tanks and vultures out of them.  He also has been upgrading his vehicle weapons from his armory the whole time, and his vehicles now have attack upgrades.  He also constructs a starport in his main, to get dropships to transport his troops.  Dodo then takes the time to start up an expansion at the 6:00 starting position.
    Meanwhile, Arch continues to produce dragoons from his now 5 gateways.  His economy is bustling pretty well, but it is interrupted by a gang of Dodo's vultures, intercepting probes migrating from Arch's main to his natural.  The vultures kill a few probes, then after spotting dragoon reinforcements, move deeper into the natural expansion and continue to pick off probes while laying mines.  The mines manage to destroy a few offending dragoons, but the dragoons' phase disruptors overpower the fragmentation grenades, and the vultures are destroyed.  However, this attack has severely reduced Arch's mining efficiency.  Over 15 probes were lost, as well as a few dragoons in exchange for about 8 vultures.  Talk about cost effectiveness!  After this ordeal, Arch takes extra precautions about the safety of his expansions and puts up 2 photon cannons at his natural.  He also builds another gateway, hoping to increase the amount of troops in his army.  Arch is now at 108 control with an army consisting of pure dragoons while Dodo is at 112 with a combination of tanks and vultures.
    Dodo takes this time to start a Command Center at the 6:00 natural and constructs another starport at his main, adding on to both of them.  Dodo's and Arch's mains are both almost mined out, but Dodo has 2 fully operational bases while Arch only has 1 mining base at the 9:00 starting position.  His natural is still going under the process of rebuilding probes, so it is not hauling any cas

h for him right now.
    At this point, Dodo, sick of small vulture skirmishes sends his army of tanks and vultures in an offensive push, attempting to route Arch's main.  The tanks and vultures on their way up encounter a sizeable force of dragoons.  The tanks siege up and the vultures plant mines at the goons' feet.  Many of the dragoons are destroyed by siege tank fire, and Arch smartly decides to retreat up his ramp to higher ground, where reinforcements await.  The tanks and vultures pursue the escaping dragoons, but are destroyed by the speed-upped zealot reinforcements, fresh from Arch's 6 gateways.  The remaining forces of Dodo stagger away, and lick their wounds.
    At the 17 minute mark, Dodo loads 3 tanks into 2 freshly built dropships and sends them to Arch's natural's cliff.  The tanks drop and siege up, laying havoc against the defenseless Nexus at the natural.  Arch, realizing that hes just lost another of his precious mining bases starts an expansion at his mineral only. 
    Arch decides its time to end the game once and for all, and gathers his entire force of dragoons in the center and charges Dodo's choke point head on.  The dragoons fight well, but are intercepted by mines.  Tanks from the rear fire their arclite shells and many dragoons are turned into blue juice.  The vultures prevent the goons from moving further, giving the tanks potshots, turning many more into blue juice.  Arch, realizing that there's no hope in winning this battle, retreats whatever forces he has left.

    Arch's remaining forces from the previous massacre head down and proceed to destroy Dodo's 6:00 natural expansion.  Dodo retaliates and sends his entire tank armada to take out Arch's 9:00 natural expansion.  After laying waste to the Nexus there, the tanks proceed up the ramp but are deterred by 2 dark templar, and having no mobile detectors, the terran commander pulls his tanks back for the moment.  Arch puts up 2 stargates and a fleet beacon at his 9:00 base and that ends the mid game!

Late Game
    Yes, the time has come where the last blows are dealt.  Welcome to the late game.  The map looks like this.

    Arch has 2 operational mining bases (his main was mined out long ago).  The yellow blob in the center of the map is his army of dragoons.  Dodo's main and natural are mined out, but he has 2 mining bases, one of which is a mineral only.  Surprisingly, none of the players bothered to take any of the corner bases.
    Arch sends a group of 12 zealots directly into Dodo's undefended expansion at 6, burning it to the ground, leaving Dodo with a single operational mining base.  However, Dodo's bank is filled to the brim with reserve cash.  Arch then sends his force of dragoons and attacks Dodo's mineral only.  The tanks had not recieved the time to siege up, and the dragoons tear through the vultures and into the tanks in seconds.  The dragoons proceed to destroy Dodo's very last mining base.  Arch then queues up 2 carriers from his stargates.  Dodo has not shown any signs of building goliaths nor upgrading goliath range.  Dodo rebuilds his mineral only and fortifies it well with tanks and mines.
    The tanks that were deterred by the dark templar from entering the 9:00 expansion make another attempt at destroying this valuable asset, this time with the aid of a comsat station.  Needless to say, the dark templar are destroyed and the tanks (about 12 of them) move into the base, and siege up.  Fortunately, Arch's carriers just finished warping in and they aid in the destruction of the attackers.  Unfortunately, the firepower of 2 carriers cannot hope to destroy an entire squadron of +2 armor tanks in record time.  The fleet beacon and both stargates fall to the tanks before they are destroyed.

    Arch now has a formidable force of 4 carriers, but now Dodo knows about this incoming force and has switched production to goliaths.  Due to his earlier economic abundance, his reserve cash numbers in the thousands and he is able to produce a large number of goliaths, as well as upgrade their range.
    Arch's carriers maneuver around Dodo's main and enter from the back, destroying a few missile turrets, but are deterred by the fresh goliaths popping out of the factories.  Dodo's goliath production just keeps continuing, and eventually Arch's last mining base, his mineral only is destroyed.  Both players have no source of income, but Dodo is much better off with an army of about 28 goliaths against Arch's 4 carriers.  The end result is obvious.  Arch's carriers face off with Dodo's goliaths at the center.  The carriers fight valiantly but are in the end destroyed by the massive number of goliaths.  Both players exchange GG's and congratuate each other for a game well played.

    Well, that certainly was one of the most intense StarCraft games I've ever observed.  Actually, it kind of makes me want to play right now.  Anyways, hope you enjoyed!

Sincerely,
Manofakewar