"KaD attempts to disprove the theory that you cannot pull Vespene gas out of your ass"
-Bob_The_Newt
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| Lament of the mediocre No Hunters Player | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 07/15/99 09:07 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | Starcraft(1), Text Only(1) | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 3, Max: 7, Min: 5
Lifetime Rating for Ativus: 6.2000 |   | It was a hot, windy summer night when I, Ativus, sat down in my air-conditioned basement with no windows save for one glowing window to the world I call a computer. I fired up my favorite Game (everquest, wait, no...) Brood Wars and logged on to B.Net. I began with a warmup game of 1v1 on Challenger.
Me: Random, Zerg, Top
Him: Random, Terran, Bottom
Early Game:
I went with 10/9 Hatch while my OL made the long trip south. Sadly, the poor old bag took some nasty marine hits before I could retreat him safely over the water. Afew minutes later, the standard squad of 12 lings come rushing past his three bunker choke and kill a couple SCV's before being toasted by bats with meds (I'm slow, sue me) He had two rax up, two more building, and two bays building. I started two more hatcheries, one by my second gas vent, and a hydra den while I upgraded my first hatch to lair and sent OL's to watch expansions.
Mid Game:
In came the expected Tank Push, which was a little late I'm afraid. My three queens broodlinged the tanks and my three fresh lurkers butchered his drunk detectionless medicless marine escort. I expanded now, to the left I think, It didn't matter, it never got going. 12 wraiths nailed it as it finished morphing. They foolishly tried to hunt overlords - cloaked, of course so I couldn't see them (wink) but my massive hydra army destroyed the pathetic 0/1 airforce. My own upgrades had my hydra's at 2/2, OL transport was comming online, and I could feel the end game was near.
End Game:
It was short, and sweet. My 12 OL's of hydra's unloaded from two sides, effectively giving him two battles at once, while my six lurkers burrowed seemingly un-noticed in his SCV's The ever predictable drop player screen popped up, and got down to :01 before it went away. My hydra's focused fire on his CC, removing the weak terrans from the planet for good.
Pretty normal game, huh? Well, I must say, it was rather boring. Why report it? because you're going to need a basis for reality to compare the next game to.
The main event:
Map: Chau Sara Spaceport. My own design. 256 wide, 128 tall. raised ground around the edges for the most part, broken in several places to make island expansions. The middle of the map is a spaceport (duh) While the rest of the lowland is forrest, making for interesting ranged unit battles. Resources are a bit on the heavy side, but you MUST expand fast because they are easy to get to for all sides. I like it anyway =)
Me: Random, Terran, bottom left corner
Him: Top right corner, Protoss
The disconnecting third: Random, Zerg, bottom right
We start out on this wonderous Free for all with the lovely screen that says "waiting for....." so it's 1v1. On a very rich map. on a very BIG very rich map. And I am Terran. Oh boy. Since the map is so large, I opt for very fast air. I forget early defense, opting instead for a later defense that would cover my whole plateau (The starts are raised with two ramps and three expansions. A fourth expansion is in the "cradle" formed by the high cliffs, making a whole area defense well worth the extra investment)
I went with depot on 8 and 12, refinery on 15 and 16, rax on 19, 21, and made bunkers with 21 and 25 at the top of each ramp. I made depots and filled the bunkers with marines. I kept five SCV' on construction duty, with depot's, turrets, bunkers, etc. While I was beefing up my defenses, I set up patrols of the bridges, expansions, other starts, and other vital areas. (Yes, we had both played the map before, I was not using an unfair advantage) Having three CC's with comsat, I was always aware of what his base was doing. Seemed to be......Carriers. About now, a group of six bats and two meds ran into a group of 8 zeals. on move command. A minute later, my happy squad continued it's patrol route with no losses.
We didn't have another conflict until late mid game, when about 24 3/3 speed upgraded zeals charged my bridge defenses on the south. I held the bridge, but took substantial losses. It was soon to be avenged though, as my Bernard the BC came off the assembly line. Bernie called up a dozen of his closest friends and they decided to go expansion hunting. Their old pal, Mr Burns came along too. Comsat reported the protoss fleet at about 16, but no upgrades were reported, while I was 2/3, almost 3/3. I began the incredibly long journey to enemy territory.
Bernie soon reported trouble though, in the form of about 12 cannons that were protecting a setup of shield batteries in the middle of the map, away from any expansions. I has missed them with my recon completely. EMP was launched just in time as about 24 scouts raced to protect their stronghold. Without shields and batteries though, it was a very one sided fight. Bernie radiod back for a dropship of SCV's for repair duty and continued his expansion hunt.
SNAP! CRACKLE! POP!
Bernie was in trouble. Blue lightning erupted everywhere. Scouts flew in from multiple directions, mingling with my BC's preventing EMP. seconds later, I wished I HAD emp'd, as 4 DA's feedbacked my fully charged fleet. Bernie was lucky though, Mr. Burns threw him a super cool D_Matrix right before he died, and his friends drew the fire so he could escape. However, I was not pleased that commander Bernie had let his fleet die, and I relagated him to SCV protection duty for the rest of his tour. The dropship of SCV's was unharmed though, and I erected a city at the top left.
We traded a few expansions in the middle, but he left them to me once he realized my quick shift to 3/3 marines with medic support was too much for his attack force when the tree cover was factored in. I had replaced my BC's with nuke silo's now, and I was preparing a nuke attack when his carriers finally showed up. 14 carriers, two arbiters. 16 lockdowns later, my eight valks cleared the sky. The loss of his victory fleet set him back quite a bit, and I went nuke crazy as a follwoup. I dropped six nukes at once in his main, destroying all his tech present. After that, it became a game of hunt down the expansion with the marines, kill it, leave one there, move on. We then agreed, since it was late, to have little sparring matches in the middle of the map.
The middle was clear, so we both set up a defense, and paired up troops to fight. We had a lot of fun doing this! it started with a zeal versus a marine, and thanks to fancy footwork (and getting too close to a medic once) the marine won. We made wacky ones (corsair versus marine, reaver versus valk) but we also found some good matchups. Afterwards, I finished off his new base (had to make troops for the fights!) we exchanged GG's and left.
Lessons:
1v1 on a huge map is very hard for Terran
The ability to change tactics quickly can mean life or death.
Cover and high ground are fun to play with
Multi-nuke, Multi-nuke
M&M rock toss air
Writing BR's late at night is a bad idea
Why this is a lament: Well, mostly it's this one simple thing. Both of these games were pubbies (second game was actually yht third me and the guy played) yet I'm in Nohunters all the time. The problem is, no one in nohunters ever wants to play outside their little group of friends. Which is your right, of course. But it leaves those of us without super skillz to find games in public land, where hunters and lamers are king. I guess it's pointless, I'll be getting a new game soon anyway. |
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