"LoL, i hate to break it to ya, but i'm not a nerd :P"
-WarLeaderJustin
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| Rychean Returns or PushMePullYou | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 09/22/99 12:09 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 8, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for Rychean: 8.3636 |  | Let me start by saying it has been almost three months since I have posted a BR here, and for good reason.
- I found that I dislike observing to write BRs, I’d rather be playing. Or observing to learn. I.E. If I was observing to learn I could focus on one or two players and watch their every move rather than trying to watch everyone at once
- I finally remembered to take some screenshots.
- Lastly, I have not had many battles worthy of reporting, until the other night.
When: Sunday September 12, 1999 2:00am CST
Game: 3 on 3 Public Game on BNET
Participants, Races, Map and Start Locations:
In the Beginning…
There was some initial concern about how far our terran ally was from our protoss encampments. Terran decided to defend with a walled in bunker and go quick tech to tanks. I scouted the brown zerg at upper right and saw a rather defensive build with a pool and a couple of morphing creeps. My scout probe continued on looking for the other enemies. My protoss partner and I both do a double-gate, 5 zeal opening. My scout probe died after exposing the other two enemies’ start locations. It was then decided to double-team the brown zerg, since he was further away from his allies and within good striking distance of our protoss bases. My 5 zealots proceeded to the front of brown zerg’s base while my ally’s 5 zealots came in from behind. I lost 3 of my 5 zealots by taking the brunt of brown’s defenses; my partner’s zealots hit the mineral line as the drones abandoned ship and ran away. Knowing full well that zealots chasing drones is rather futile if not just completely stupid, we remained behind and psi-bladed all the structures in brown zerg’s main. I sent another 4 zealots to join in on the fun. As we are finishing off the hatchery, we notice a good sampling of yellow ‘lings and red zealots coming into the fray. We finished off the hatch and pulled our troops back to our respective mains rather than lose them to the superior numbers of forces sent to save the zerg’s base, which was already completely razed. The brown zerg, however, was not dead.
The Backlash….
During the initial battle, I placed a forge then a cannon to stop any cheese DT or Lurker build that might have caught me off guard. I position my retreated zealots in a line at the front of my base behind my fresh ones. I started my tech ascension with robotics first. At this point, the protoss enemy comes through the upper back towards my protoss ally. My protoss brethren already had all of his troops on the right side of his base. Because of the position of my main, he knew that he could not have been attacked from the left without me being attacked first. A sizable red zealot army proceeds to squash my partners zealots and goons. I had a good portion of Zealots of my own and sent them through my partner’s main to prevent any structure or economy damage to my ally’s main. I expanded to the upper left corner during this battle. My zealots eradicated the enemy zealots form my ally’s base. As the dust settled, I finally look at my terran ally who has begun a tank push on the yellow zerg. This was the first time I had actually taken the time to look at his base and noticed his tank push.
He had great D at home and was using the choke between him and the yellow zerg effectively. I had been wondering why yellow zerg was not a part of red’s assault. It was obvious yellow had his hands full helping to protect his zerg ally and fiend of the beginnings of a tank push. My terran and protoss allies both expanded to their respective corners, upper right and lower right. As a plus, the tank push nicely protected my terran ally’s expansion.
On to the Middle…
At this point in the game, I had 2 reavers and a shuttle thanks to the fruits of a double robotics build. My expansion is now going pretty good. I drop the red protoss thinking his over commitment to zealots might be his down fall. I got a few probes as he runs them away. My protoss ally and myself attacked the front door at the same time. Red protoss was forced to use his reaver fearing probes to fight our infantry. It looked like the end until the zerg enemies sent hydras to fight off the attack.
As I referenced the mini-map, I saw that red protoss had expanded to the upper middle start location. I pulled my reavers out oh his main and hit the expansion instead. It was a naked expansion with only a couple of cannons. I kept the reavers there until the nexus was razed. Continual scarab production was eating up my mineral supply as I was tried to crank out more ground units and another shuttle/reaver. After razing red’s expansion, I prepared to hit the zerg at his new main at middle right. As I circled the shuttle back around to the right edge of the map, I see that brown zerg has tried to take his old main back. I dropped the reaver there and quickly razed his defenseless hatch. I then picked up and moved to the zerg’s new main. I dropped my reavers only to see a line of spikes pop out of the ground and through my reavers. I immediately reload and back up to drop again out of lurker range. I kill all the drones in his base and raze his pool. Odd though, he had no units there? Bam! 6 mutas appear. I have the shuttle upgrade at this point, so I load the reavers up again and run back to the safety of my cannons and goons at home. Hmm, I didn’t see a spire at his base; he had to have another expansion going somewhere.
On the Hunt…
By this time, My Protoss ally took brown zerg’s old main. My terran ally has his own little game going on with the yellow zerg and has pushed into his base. I group my shuttles, loaded with 3 reavers and 2 zealots to go expansion hunting. I comb the left side of the map. Meanwhile I have begun upgrades of ground units, added more gateways, 2 more forges, and started teching to templar. (Mainly for the upgrades) My protoss ally went for air with infantry support. My shuttle discovered a brown zerg expansion attempt at the middle left resource node. His hatch was still morphing; I dropped the payload and the morphing hatch instantly transformed in to a drone, which promptly died. I resumed my descent down the left edge of the map to check the bottom left start position and corner expansion. There I found an expansion of the yellow zerg and he had defiler mound fully morphed. I drop in the middle of his mineral line and kill most of his drones. All his troops were tied up defending the tank push which was now completely through his main and headed to the same corner. This time when the brown Muties showed up, I was not lucky enough get my reavers and shuttles out. My protoss ally had used his ground troops to finish what I started at brown zerg’s middle right expansion. Brown zerg is completely razed from his raised ground expansion on the right.
Pivotal Point…
My protoss ally and I have taken the entire top third portion of the map. I had observers at key spots to watch enemy movement. Yellow had been contained to the corner expansion and his main had been reduced to shrinking creep. Red still did not have an expansion and brown had the lower left start slot with the accompanying expansion. My terran ally placed defensive structures at the middle right expansion before expanding there. I made a play for the upper middle start position; I tried to expand naked. My attempt is quickly snuffed as I cancelled the nexus and cannons, leaving just my pylon and probe to be die to the bounce fire of brown mutas. I decided to attack. I have all ground units at 2/1/1 and have archons mixed in with my zealots and goons. As I proceeded through the ally to where brown’s hub was located I noticed a line of red probes headed to the middle left expansion. I spastically redirect my forces to snuff out red’s expansion nexus and probes.
My terran ally is now having to back pedal from his tank push as dark swarm and plague combined with Guardians and mutas are tearing down his tank push. He has been pushed back to the back alley where he originally started his push.
The Ace in the Hole…
My protoss ally, who had been quite of late building his air fleet, whipped out the trump card. He had 10 carriers with arbiter support. He came in and stasis yellow and brown’s devourers and guardians. Meanwhile, I expand to the upper middle start, this time with support. I hold it easily as the enemy is focused on neutralizing the tank push and the threat of protoss air. I now begin macro production of mass infantry from 10 gates. I was just rallying them and then attack moving them into the fray. I just made sure I kept up with production and upgrades.
The enemy protoss proves very good with storm, but is completely starving. We decide to focus on the brown zerg since he had the income. My terran ally has taken to the air as well with wraiths and is executing surgical strikes to prevent and further expansions.  My protoss ally pulls back his air fleet to also play containment. I keep cranking infantry units and finally expand to my natural right out side my main base. I was continually throwing and going, keeping the enemy off guard and on the defensive. As I raze through brown’s expansion, we decide to change gears and kill the protoss. His storms were getting too annoying to let it continue. The terran ally held all major ground points and chokes with his wraiths and tanks. I ram the front door of the protoss base, by first killing the guarding lurkers at the top of the ramp. My protoss ally sent in his rather sizable force of carriers with a well-placed stasis getting at least 5 temps frozen in time. We converge and meet in the middle of red’s now razed main. I have forces split between the zerg and protoss enemies. My terran ally pushes in with his forces. Red Protoss is stricken from the game and yellow zerg falls to the wayside. There was no quit in the enemies; they all fought to the last building with brown zerg frantically trying to morph hatches in odd places. At this point, total map recon prevented any further delays in receiving the long awaited victory screen.
Stuff to bullet point:
- The two middle starts on Dark Continent blow. This is compensated for with an elevated choke, but they are still very hard to expand from and require defense at all angles.
- The enemies were too passive, they needed to counter more often. During my throw and go spell, I was often left with inadequate troop levels to defend my bases. You can’t win if you don’t attack.
- Brown zerg could really play. It was a good thing we hit him first to set him back a bit.
- Stasis, when used right, can be a very disruptive force.
- Battle reports are much more enjoyable and thorough when written by an observing third party.
- Let a nexus or hatchery full morph or warp before hitting an expansion so that your opponent can not simply cancel and recoup most of their expansion expenses.
- Using a simple paint and photo editor program sometimes results in crappy, grainy images.
- I shouldn’t write BRs while at work because it adversely affects my productivity. ;-)
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