As a good friend of all the players in this game, I know for a fact that this game is going to be a very interesting game to watch. Besides, both sides are in rival groups (or clans if you will). NewerBee and NewestBee are members of War Council whereas NewerNewNewBee and Bik are members of Dont Ask.

As countdown commences, NewerBee selects the mighty Protoss whereas the remaining players lets fate choose their destined race. The following map (Figure 1) summarizes the players' location and race.

Figure 1

EARLY GAME

NewerBee starts off with 8 pylon, and a forge followed by a gateway a few probes later. He contructs yet another pylon near the the choke to his entrance and follows up with a single cannon (prevent recon by enemy units - and indeed, no opponent scouting unit did get through). A very unorthodox build order for Protoss. NewerBee proceeds to send his probe to the 12 o'clock base to learn more about his opponents.

BiK starts off with a 9 pool and proceeds to send all his 6 lings to the 6 o'clock base as can be seen in the mini-map in Figure 2. His OL also heads toward NewerBee's base (9 o'clock) for recon. However, as the lings approach the entrance to NewestBee's base, they turn back and decide to keep watch on his own choke. An additional hatchery is formed near the choke as well.

NewerNewNewBee (which I'll simply refer to as RED. Okay, the rest will be referred to by colors as well for sake of simplicity) starts off with a depot at 8, rax at 11, and once again at 13 - the standard build for terran. He quickly gets gas sometime before the second rax is completed. A bunker is built near his minerals after a few marines are trained in case of a rush. As seen below, Red really wants toss. It translates to "shit, I wanted toss =|"

NewestBee (White) starts off with a 10/9 double hatch build at his main. A quick creep colony quickly morphs to a sunken when the pool is finished. His OL is also sent to 3 o'clock for recon. White goes drone heavy before building any significant amount of troops. White builds an extractor and also sends his 2nd OL to teal's base for detection purposes later in the game.

Figure 2

EARLY MID-GAME

Each player builds up a sizable force, which becomes a good time for either,

•  i)   Double rush OR
•  ii)  Sneak attacks (drops/invisible force) OR
•  iii) Containment.

So to prevent from a successful double rush, each player builds up a fairly good defense. The defense is described in Figure 3. Blue has lings and 2 sunkens forming near his choke as well as a sunken behind his minerals to prevent a possible reaver drop, which is possible since there's a Toss (teal) in the game. Red with a bunker and marines guarding the choke ensures safety as well. Teal had 2 cannons as shown. I would have place the lower cannon near the ridge though to get free hits on incoming units. Teal messages me that his probe is mining off the expansion to get some recon ... OK =) As for white, he chain links sunkens toward his choke, which I find kinda odd, but oh well (sorry, the picture can be seen in Figure 4). His choke is guarded with random zerg units as well.

Figure 3

Until this point in time, no one has made a move yet, so everything is relatively
peaceful although the air definitely is cracking with unnerving energy from both sides.

Due to the inactivity between both sides, technology is of utmost importance. At this point, here are the technology each player is aiming for: Teal - Reavers/Dragoons, Blue - Hydras, Red - Tanks, White - Lurkers. To fund costly research, additional income is required. Red decides and gambles that no one will want to penetrate his defenses quickly builds a CC at his natural seen at Figure 4 (The rest of the paragraph will be devoted to Figure 4 as well). White does the same and with a handsome group of lurkers and lings, his expansion is secured. Teal drops off a probe at the NW island and warps in a nexus and 2 supporting pylons. Once the nexus is secured, 3 cannons are positioned in a triangle surrounding the nexus and is mined in earnest. Teal decides to play games with Blue by sending in 2 zealots and reaver to Blue's main. However a massive group of hydras gets rid of the 2 zealots. Seeing that the odds are against Teal, he decides to make a run for it. The reaver and shuttle almost don't make it but as speed research kicks in, the extra boost of speed allows the shuttle to safely fly away with only a total of 19 hitpoints. Close, but no cigar Blue!

Figure 4

Things start to heat up now. The surviving shuttle manuevers stealthily into Red's base and drops Mr. Reaver in Red's natural. A couple SCV's (approximately 5) dies, but a lone tank and Blue's squad of hydras quickly responds to red's distress, and stops Mr. Reaver from causing more trouble. Meanwhile, White takes this opportunity to quickly expand at the SE island during all this commotion. Teal sends in another shuttle and flies it to blue's natural and attempts to cannon push the hatchery from high ground. Teal first attempts to drop Red, which does absolutely nothing and then pulls back to Blue's natural ledge. However, Blue finds out with a hovering OL nearby, and sends in a bunch of hydras and attempts to knock off the 3 warping photon cannons (which are close to the edge). Four hydras are sent up to get rid of the cannons, but the reaver behind the pylon fires at the hydras reducing all four into mush. (See Figure 4.1 below) The cannons eventually dissipate from the hydras below fire upon the cannons and additional hydras are sent up the ledge to help out. The shuttle and reaver don't make it out alive. *Sniff*

Figure 4.1

At this point, White decides it's perfect time to get rid of his enemy zerg brood. He commands a few dozen hydras to pay blue a visit. However, along the way, the tanks from Red's high land fire down upon the hydras confusing them quite a bit (the stupid computer AI attempts to get rid of the tanks when being shot at, and with essentially no vision, the hydras become sitting ducks). The hydras are softened up quite a bit, but they don't reach their destination the way White planned. Blue's hydras and Red's goliath don't have much trouble cleaning up the leftovers. At this point, Teal sends his troops of dragoons and zealots to red. Surprisingly, there are no tanks defending the ridge so the dragoons just walk in and hurt a fair number of SCV's. White attempts to add some extra fire power, but the overwhelming support from Blue's hydras, as well as freshly made tanks stationed right above the natural wipe out the entire combined force of Teal/White.

Blue notices that White has expanded with no defenses active, sends a dozen hydras via 3 OL's (see figure 5). White's SE island is decimated with no losses to Blue's troops. The hydras don't stop here. They are shipped over to White's ledge overlooking White's natural expansion. They are met up with 3 dropship carrying 4 tanks and 4 goliaths. Soon, arclite rounds and fire upon the drones and buildings of White's expansion. White quickly reacts and forms a hatchery at his mineral-only expansion and transfers all his drones there and they do nothing for the time being other than playing jump-rope and bloody knuckles patiently. Red decides at this point to secure another base at his only-mineral expansion.

Figure 5
Note that Red shared some of his forces (primarily goliaths) in blue's base to deter War Council from performing drops. The tanks in the middle of figure have landed on white's natural ledge, as well as hydras next to it. The top right picture shows the failed attempt of teal to eliminate red's expansion. White sends in 2 waves of hydras which don't help much.

Teal notes Red's attempt to further expand, therefore sends a medium sized force consisting mostly of dragoons and zealots and attempts to get rid of it. Although the attack appears to be successful, Red/Blue reinforces with hydras and goliaths. The offense is stopped short.

Figure 5.1

Teal has secretly massed up to 8 carriers and sends them to get rid of the force bothering white. However, just as the carriers are about to engage the enemy troops, more arclite rounds from the distance are heard. Teal is alerted that his own natural has followed the same fate White has (See Figure 6 below). Teal has to return to save whatever he can of his natural. Unfortunately for White, the lack of help from Teal, the expansion to be leveled.

Figure 6

Note the yellow circle surrounding teal specks. These specks are a fleet of carriers which attempt to save White. Unfortunately, they have to turn back because blue/red forces are wreaking havoc on teal's natural (see the white box NW of the yellow circle).

In the mean time, White's mineral expansion is found by patroling units so the combined force of red/blue are sent to destroy it. White has to cancel the hatch and create another at teal's mineral only to ensure some income because his main is depleted. At this moment, White has ZERO income. You can see white's new expansion between the white box and yellow circle.

The carriers manage to destroy the forces above his natural with minor losses (Teal's primary attack force is basically carriers now and random ground troops). However, hydras, goliaths, and some tanks push toward teal's natural and along the way destroy white's final expansion. White is essentially out of the game now with no units and no money.

Teal's last hope, with his partner now out of the game, is to counterattack and does so with his 10 or so carriers (I believe they are 2/0/1). He chooses to attack right between blue and red, that is, in the direction of red's natural, starting at his natural (after recharging shields with batteries). The carriers don't fare too well and do some dancing, but with goliaths targeting individual carriers, a LOT of hydras and some scourge (these kamikaze warriors managed to nick 2 Fat ones), blimps pop in a blink. And as the carriers started to die off one by one, teal had to fall back. Red and Blue saw the chance and quickly pushed into teal's base to increase pressure on teal. When Teal's natural fell, War Council officially declared defeat. GG's were exchanged and everyone returned to the channel (Dont Ask or Ravager -- I don't recall)

Note below in Figure 7 that the goliaths were 3/2. That's pretty impressive -> each volley from the goliath inflicts 32 damage! Red/Blue also trained a very large army. I don't know level the hydras were at. I thought they were just mildly upgraded, but BiK reassured me he had at least 2/1 on them. BTW, sorry for forgetting to capture the final statistics on the game. I was very tired by then. I think that the ranking from best to worst is as follows: Blue, Red, Teal (maybe 2nd, not sure), followed by White.

Figure 7

Thoughts and Ideas:

• All players were competent. However, it appears that War Council did not coordinate their attacks well. Everytime they attacked, their forces were somehow split up. Learn to coordinate.
• On temple team games, if you get terran, you gotta high siege enemy naturals. Almost a must. So if you know that your opponent has terran, be sure to keep your ledge free of enemy troops
• I think White expanded too quickly and didn't defend well. His island was unprotected.
• I didn't take enough screen shots at the end of the game. It was so intense with all the carriers and troops. I managed to nick an interceptor circled in yellow in Figure 7 above.
• Btw, I'm going to write another report later on a rematch between the players.
• If somehow my pictures don't show up someday, please notify me. I don't know when the school is gonna purge this account.

Hope you enjoyed my graphical report. The graphics are all spiced up because I just wanted to test out my skills in photoshop =) When I learn how to make cutout fonts, my pics will be (hopefully) as good as YourRoleModel's. I still don't know how to format the mini-map thingy. Maybe one of you folks out there could give me a tip. Heh heh. Have a good day

WarSuoN