"This can't be gay, there are no protoss here!"
-Dr.Zchivago
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| Apocalypse Now | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 10/11/99 01:10 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 8, Min: 6
Lifetime Rating for AQD3: 7.6184 |   | Introduction
The new ladder season has started, and with it, my ever elusive quest to break 1200. Last season I hit 1198, and was anticipating reaching my goal the next day when the ladder was reset. Now it’s time to try once more. I’ve been using a different ID for a little while. I wanted to test out some new strats and playing ladder is a risky business early in the season.
My first game was a protoss vrs protoss match on showdown. It turned out to be a very odd game. My opponent chose to not get gas until he had expanded to the middle expansion closest to me. He then tried to offensive cannon me and backed it up with a decent zealot rush. Unfortunately for him I had gone with a quick reaver strat. He did surprise me with two cannons placed very nicely to the side of his probe line. I dropped my reaver and let it eat cannon shots to keep my shuttle alive…and dropped a probe off on his ledge. A quick cannoning later and he wasn’t getting any resources from home. Two more reavers cleared out his cannon and zealot defense in the middle, getting me the victory and a score of 1024. You can view the record of that ladder game HERE.
Tonight I wanted to try my luck at ladder one more time. To warm up I played a 1v1 game with TheRubberDucky on challenger. He was winning the game all the way up to the very end when he attacked my base with his horde of dragoons and my ten or so spare templar used up every single storm they had energy for. Needless to say he immediately claimed storm was imbalanced, then surrendered =]. With such an auspicious warm up I was confident I’d be ready for anything, so I made a game “1:1 1025+” on Lost Temple:
The first player to enter had a 3-1-1 record, and after spending several minutes with him in fruitless debate on why I shouldn’t play people who had records that make them look like double disconnectors, I banned him. The second player to enter was [ZX-6R]KILLER with a 2-0-0 ladder record, 29-1-0 normal record, and a score of 1043. I’m not going to turn away someone with a higher ladder score, because it’s very hard to get that sort of game.
I’ve been drinking beer and getting weaker while Charlie gets stronger in the jungles of the Lost Temple
I selected protoss and drew the right start position, while killer chose zerg after he saw my selection and spawned in the left position. I started with my standard opening against a zerg opponent which went like this:
8: Pylon
12: Dual Gateways (scouting with the probe that made the gateways)
13: Pylon
15: Two zealots
20: Pylon
21: Two zealots
My scouting probe worked its way around the map in a counterclockwise manner. When it got to the left start I saw a hatchery morphing at his natural and two zerglings assaulted my probe. I decided that I knew enough about his build from the hatchery at the natural and the zerglings already present that I could afford to run the probe away. I sent it to the bottom start position, hopefully keeping him from realizing where I was. At the very least it would keep one zergling busy for the next minute, which could turn out to be critical.
Just as my probe took off my second set of zealots warped in. I decided to steal a trick from my hero Whoop. I took three probes and the four zealots and patrolled them over to his natural. At home I kept up zealot production from both gateways and started an assimilator. My force came across an odd situation on its way. Killer had chosen to expand a third time and was making another hatchery at his mineral natural! I grew confident in the success of my strat, because this meant he must have a very low troop count. The only thing I could see stopping me at this point was three or more sunkens, and I didn’t see how that would have been possible with his third hatchery. My troops attacked the third hatchery with glee and Killer sent in eight zerglings to try and interfere. I carefully placed my probes in between the zerglings and my zealots so they would be hit trying to get into attack position. A zergling that has been hit by a probe dies to two hits from a zealot instead of three, making it as if the zealot already had an attack upgrade. With this advantage I killed the incoming zerglings without sustaining more than shield damage to my zealots. Killer saw the impending demise of his new hatchery and cancelled it instead of using it to buy time to get up sunkens at his natural.
Never get out of the boat….
My force moved into his natural to see his fully formed hatchery there, along with a creep colony. I began hammering on the hatchery and Killer attacked with 4 zerglings… needless to say they didn’t fare so well vrs my zealots and probes. Killer at first started morphing a sunken colony from his creep colony, but with the annihilation of his zergling forces canceled it allowing me a nice leisurely demolition of both hatchery and creep colony. A set of two more zealots joined my forces at his natural at this point.
With this early victory I felt I was justified in my confidence in my strat. Being somewhat at a loss for ideas on how to proceed, I wondered what course of action Whoop would choose? Well, I’m sure we’ve all heard him say his trademark slogan “The gayer the better”, so with that inspiration I ordered my forces up Killer’s ramp. At this point I took a brief assessment of the action so far. I had lost my scouting probe somewhere in the bottom start to the pursuing zergling. I had the cybernetics core up, a forge, and steady flow of gas. Killer attacked my main with one zergling. Shuddering in horror at the immense size of his force, I was paralyzed to the extent that I actually lost a probe before probing the zergling to death. I placed a cannon behind the wall of my gateways, then started a third gateway. I also got the +1 ground weapons upgrade.
Back at Killer’s base I warped in a pylon at the top of his ramp. Another pair of zealots coming in found a pair of zerglings hiding just below the ramp. They were quickly dispatched as my zealots joined their brethren, bringing the total number of zealots to eight. I warped in two cannons as soon the pylon finished and decided that with their power I didn’t need all three probes to augment my zealot forces. I sent two probes back to base. At my base I warped in a stargate and a citadel of Adun. When my next three zealots finished I sent one to Killer’s ramp and one to each of the other starts. I had two concerns at this point. One was that Killer had chosen to lay down a few sunkens and tech straight to mutas. This would be very hard for my all ground force to counter as I couldn’t rush in and finish his base if he had enough sunkens, and my probes had a lone cannon to defend them. The other concern was that he had snuck out a drone and expanded. The stargate should take care of the mutas if I got enough corsairs and he didn’t use scourge. The zealots I sent to the other starts revealed that he hadn’t expanded. I left the zealots on patrol from the main to the natural of their respective starts. The zealot assigned to the bottom start killed the zergling that had violated my scouting probe in a bloody act of revenge. I also saw an overlord at the bottom start.
….not unless you’re going all the way.
Back at Killer’s ramp I took one zealot and did an end run around the growing creep. I could tell from the creep that there were several sunkens in the base. When I charged in the scouting zealot he died to a horde of zerglings and a few sunken blows before revealing anything useful. I estimated the zergling count to be about 24. With just a touch of worry I put a shield battery at the choke just behind the cannons, and the zealots moved just in front of the cannons. Time for a closer look. I sent my first corsair to the overlord hanging around the bottom expansion. I knew I was guaranteed a kill there. The overlord tried to flee back to Killer’s base but it was too slow. My second corsair joined the first in an attack on the main base. A hastily warping spore colony raced against the damage output of my corsairs for the lives of the two overlords floating above his main base. I won the race with seconds to spare and both corsairs escaped with only minor damage.
Killer knew his back was to the wall. He was pretty much screwed with losing supply at that point in the game, so before it became critical he had to do something. His course of action was direct. He took his two or so control groups of zerglings and sent them running at the forces I had placed at his choke. Nine zealots and two cannons took on his zerglings. With a bit of quick micro on the shield battery I lost only two zealots to his forces.
I love the smell of dead zerglings in the morning; smells like…disconnection
Disheartened by the whole deal, Killer buried his head in his hands, wept inconsolably for his lost zerglings, and accidentally knocked the phone off his computer desk in his sorrow. Unfortunately this resulted in a disconnect for him and a draw for me. In the end the stats revealed I had killed 42 of his units and lost only three of my own. And one of those was my scouting probe. You can check out those stats HERE.
I apologize that I am not reporting a better match for your enjoyment. I only reported this match because I got to tell you about the probe and zealot tactics that I saw from Whoop when he beat Ahscar in this same match up. Whoop did these tactics much better than me though. Also, this may be helpful to the protoss players who wonder how to deal with an early zerg expansion. Thank you for reading my report. I welcome any comment you may have on the tactics my opponent and I used.
AQD3
| | Battle Shots! | 
An image I sent to Ladder.abuse@blizzard.com
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