"Haha I got 100th comment! I look down upon all you single and double digit people."
-JSH
|
| A Bloody Rivalry or Will My Roommate Ever Win? | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 12/13/99 08:12 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 5, Max: 10, Min: 10
Lifetime Rating for WilliamWC3: 9.0882 |  |
 |
Warning: If the fact that I wrote it
didn't already tip you off, this is what we call
an image heavy report. What this means in essence
is that those of us who divine right has blessed
with a fast connection to the internet will see
some very pretty pictures, while everyone else
will see little red x's and neon green text on a
white background. Thankyou and as always, have a
nice day.
 |
 Have
you ever been in nohunters at 3:00 in the
morning? When the kiddies have gone to bed and
only the starcraft masters a couple of bots and
some guy named `SiN are left? A man's gotta
watch what he says or he may find himself up
against the wall with the likes of Zileas,
Iced-Tree, Mark4 or WilliamWC3 showing him who
the newbie is. I am always in nohunters at 3:00
in the morning. I observe the discussion
quietly. Watching the masters as they fight with
their words. Then when one of them goes too far
as one of them inevitably does, and a challenge
is formed, I make my move. Me watchy! Me watchy!
Me monkey boy!
kakakakakaka
| |
 |
 On this
particular night several would be fighters had
already backed down when a challenge was finally
accepted. The contestants were my roomate,
ObiwanJebroni, JPaikman, or just Jose, and an
unfamiliar face atleast to me, who was going by
the name of uncle_a. JPaikman is well known for
playing the loser in my last two battle reports.
uncle_a on the other hand is best know for being
unkown: a real "X" factor, a variable, a wild card
a loose... well you get the idea. Would my roomate
finally break his losing streak? Or am I just
trying to humiliate him? Time will
tell.
The map was
chosen to be Rivalry, and the map would be covered
with so much blood by the time the game was over
that it is unlikely either of our contestants will
ever return to the land for which they once fought
so fiercely. The game is created by uncle_a who is
a little confused by my pressence in the game but
decides not to ban me.  The game is started as soon as I have
finished downloading my 17th copy of the observer
map for Rivalry, but is just as quickly ended when
one of the observers screws up and ends up in a
player slot.
Well thats
my battle report. How'd you like it? Please don't
give me a 2. Ok, actually they just recreated.
This time LionLord and I were the only observers
and we both managed to stay in the observer slot
during the entire 5 second countdown. My god
vision allows me to quickly see that I have
happened into yet another Zerg v Protoss game. My
roomate, JPaikman has drawn the south-west start
as a zerg cerebrate. Our new friend, uncle_a has
drawn the opposite north-east corner and is a
protoss executor. This map kind of favors a
compass (north-south) theme over the standard
clock (1:00-12:00) theme so I will use it. For
those of you who are directionally challenged,
east = NY = right = 3:00 and west = LA = left =
9:00. (I'm assuming those of you who don't know
north from south are too busy staring at my pretty
pictures to notice the text anyway)
 uncle_a
assuming his role as the evil 'toss starts out
with a pretty conventional 2 gate build order.
Meanwhile, JPaikman in the other corner begins
with a hatchery at his natural with his 10th drone
(after canceling an extractor) and then builds his
spawning pool. While we wait for first blood,
LionLord keeps me entertained by sharing his
opinions with me on just about everything.
|
 Well
about the time that Paikman's overlord reaches
the south-east corner and finds that there isn't
a base there, a probe whom we will call r2d2 in
honor of my fellow observer, arrives at his
natural and begins attacking the hatchery that
is morphing away. After the hatchery finishes,
two drones begin creep colonies ignoring the
little robotic bastard who I just renamed Johnny
5 (screw my fellow observer).
 Now
the first zealot from uncle_a's base arrives and
the zealot harass has begun. As the first zealot
runs past the two creep colonies and up the ramp
into the main, Johnny 5 who is alive and wishes
to stay that way has decided that his work here
is done and heads back home. The zealot is
greeted by two of JPaikmans four 'lings. After
Joe zealot kills one of the zerglings the other
regroups with his two companions back at the
primary hatchery. Just then a second zealot
shows up and the two join forces walking into
the base side by side. The three zerglings
seeing the tall protoss wariors, wisely decide
to run about the base frantically.
 The
zealots confused by the nonsense they find in
the zerg base are not too sure what to attack
first. The question is soon answered for them
however as four more zerglings are hatched and
all seven charge. All of the zerglings target
one zealot and he dies quickly leaving five
'lings left to deal with the other one. The
remaining zealot does not, however like these
odds and retreats to some corner of JPaikmans
base. To make matters worse for our zealot
harassing friend, a hastely morphed sunken has
just finished next to the main hatchery. The
zealot does get a little more action when a
curious drone gets a little too close. The drone
is sliced up and collapses in that way drones
collapse when they for some reason don't
explode. Five zerglings quickly exact regenge
for the death of the curious collapsing drone,
and the zealot harass is
over.
| |
|
 No sooner
does JPaikman hold off the zealot harassment than
he decides to expand again. This time he sends a
drone to the south-east main and begins a hatchery
there. Before this hatchery is even finished, he
sacrafices another drone to make his fourth
hatchery just above the ramp into his main. Now
lets take a peek at the protoss encapment. uncle_a
has added another gateway, a cybernetics core, a
citadel, an archives, and after finishing the tech
to templars, a forge. uncle_a has also managed to
amass about twelve zealots. JPaikman's overlord
finally finds the protoss base but decides not to
go in for fear of dragoons.
 JPaikman,
mining from two extractors already, is also
climbing the tech tree. He has upgraded his base
to lair, built a hyrdalisk deen and researched a
little upgrade known as lurker aspect. He has also
built a hatchery above the ramp to the south-east
main and begun morphing several sunken colonies
there. For added defence he has a couple of
lurkers at all of his bases and several hydras. As
my fellow observer also points out, JPaikman has
also constructed three evolutionary bays to
upgrade his ground troops as fast as possible.
Back in the protoss encampment uncle_a after
warping in fifteen zealots and a couple templars,
is building a nexus at his natural.
 Now uncle_a
who is still unaware of the south-east expansion
sends a zealot there to scout. When it encounters
a well defended base, uncle_a decides that he will
not abide this and sends twelve zealots and three
templars to cleans the earth of the foul creep.
The zealots take heavy damage from a well placed
sunken, a well placed lurker and about 12
hyrdalisks as they try to go up the ramp. A
psionic storm takes care of the lurker but not
without also damaging several of the zealots. The
zealots decide to turn tail and run before they
lose too many of their number and the templars
sort of glide ever so slowly after.
 I comment
to LionLord my opinion of the zealots and templars
combo, but he tells me that you just have to aim
the storms. What do I know? Anyway, we don't have
time to argue because a good portion of the
hydralisks have decided to give chase to the
retreating party in hopes that they will be able
to catch and destroy the slow templars. The
templars realizing that they are too far from the
base and that the zealots, probably still angry
about being stormed in the last attack, have gone
ahead with out them, bravely turn and face their
persuers. Though none of the templars make it back
alive, they are able to take several hydralisks
with them despite some fancy foot work on the part
of the hydras.
 During the
attack uncle_a warps in five cannons to defend his
natural and continues to produce templars and
zealots. uncle_a now has 22 zealots and six
templars guarding his natural. JPaikman uses the
lull to expand twice more constructing two
hatcheries at the southern expansion and one at
the north-west main. Shortly thereafter uncle_a
decides to catches the expanding bug and starts
warping a Nexus at the eastern expansion.
|
Up
until this point in time, the two players have
been playing what in Korea they call a MANNER
GAME. Little blood has been shed by either side
as the executor and cerebrate both attempt to
preserve their troops. But now, both of our
contestansts are about to find out what
determination really is...
As
uncle_a sets up his eastern expansion, he
gathers all of his troops in the south-east
natural for a stike. This time they consist of a
couple of control groups of zealots, a half
dozen templars and an observer I can't see
because uncle hasn't shared  vision with me yet. A templar
attempts to weaken the forces by going in ahead
and storming some lurkers. It is unsuccessful
however as a sunken rips into and kills the
templar after only getting off one ineffective
psionic storm.
 The
forces decide to continue with the attack
anyway. With an observer to spot lukers for the
templars to psionic storm the zealots make it up
the ramp and into the base. The lukers however
are well spread and the hydralisks are dancing.
The zealots find more sunkens near the supply
line and some scrambled zerglings. The templars
miss and storm their own zealots again. The 24
speed upgraded 1/1 zealot force is finally
eroded away to nothing and the templars retreat
in shame. Now lets take a gander at the old
minimap.
| |
|
 Now if you
looked really closely at the minimap and there
wasn't a huge teal "X" over the north-west corner,
you might see a little blue dot. This blue dot
represents a zealot which while wandering around
the map happened upon a hatchery. The hatchery in
the north-west expansion had finished a while ago
but had not been developed yet at all. Three
drones were being spawned but it was too late for
that. The zealot kills the drones and then goes
back to work on the hatchery. Soon there are about
seven more zealots beside him and the hatchery
goes down quickly.
 uncle_a now
expands to the northern expansion evening the
number of bases at four a piece. A drone that was
spawned from noth-west base and fled with the
entrance of the zealots, possibly looking for a
new expansion to take, finds the new protoss nexus
warping in in the north. JPaikman now decides that
these zealots and templars call for a change in
strategy.
 JPaikman
has come to the conclusion that all these zealots
and templars are chewing up his ground forces
pretty badly and decides to morph a spire and
build some of those mutalisks we're always hearing
so much about. JPaikman uses this new found branch
of the tech tree to retake the north-west main. He
morphs a hatchery there with twelve mutalisks to
cover it. This turns out to be a good move as 12
zealots, rather angry that are still on hatchery
killing duty, storm back into the north-west main.
They just as quickly storm back out again after
seeing the flying foes, and they retreat to the
protoss controlled northern expansion.
 The twelve
mutalisks give chase all the way to the northern
protoss expansion where they find three cannons
and one high templar. One cannon falls almost
immediately. The mutalisks spot the templar and
target it but he manages to throw a psionic storm
over top of the nexus where all of the mutalisks
are stacked, before he is vaporized. The
mutalisks' numbers drop from twelve to three but
eight more show up from another base and the last
two cannons fall. Before the mutalisks can go to
town on the supply line though the first dragoons
of the game come across the bridge from uncle's
natural and scare off the battered
mutalisks.
 Soon after
the mutalisks flee, the hatchery finishes in the
north-west corner but no action is taken to
develop it. Several zealots, dragoons and templars
(or zealogoonars if you're one of those fewest
syllables possible kids) head out to take
advantage of the undefended hatchery. Twelve
zealots, five dragoons and two templars charge
into the base prepared for battle but all they
find is a deserted hatchery and three little slug
like creatures.
 JPaikman's
answer to the loss of the north-west expansion
once again? Counter! A couple of control groups of
zerglings which have just recently gotten the
attack rate upgrade after Paikman morphed a queens
next and upgraded to hive, pour into uncle's
eastern expansion. The expansion is defended by
two cannons on each side of the nexus a few
zealots and two templars. The templars storm their
own zealots and cannons and manage to take out the
first wave of zerglings while only losing the
zealots and the two southern cannons. A probe
immediately begins warping in six cannons to
replace the two lost ones, while the two templars,
spent on energy, merge to create an archon or a
big firebat as it will be periodically be called.
The majority of the protoss army is off attacking
a naked hatchery in the north-west corner of the
map but a few zealots are brought down from
uncle's natural to help defend.
 The second
wave of zerglings hits very quickly after the
first, but these zerglings find four zealots and
an archon defending the base and are fried
quickly. More troops are right behind them though
and this time about twelve hyrdalisks are
accompanying the zerglings. The zerglings allow
the hydralisks to get in several free hits on the
archon and it is forced to pull back just before
it bursts. The zealots die quickly with out the
archon to support them and it looks for a moment
that the base will be overun. Just then though the
six cannons begin warping in and zealot and
dragoon reinforcements from the north-west arrive.
The zerg offensive ends.
 Now several
things start happening at once. First the protoss
troops push southward out of their eastern
expansion and into the south-east natural. As they
cross the bridge they are attacked by several more
zerglings and the archons shield is weakened again
so he pulls back and stays behind. As the troops
gather in the south-east natural a small force of
hydarlisks come down the ramp from the south-east
main and attemp to flank them. After half the
hyrdas are stormed though, the other half
retreats. At the same time a small air army
consisting of two devoures and five guardians is
morphed over the water just south-west of the
eastern expansion and due north of the south-east
natural where the protoss troops have now
gathered. While this is going on JPaikman has also
morphed a hatchery at the western expansion and
transferred several drones there to begin
mining.
 One
guardian starts pounding away at the archon who
was left behind. The archon retreats to the supply
line and the guardian advances and begins firing
at cannons. It raises one of them before a couple
of psi storms can end the threat. At the same time
the rest of the guardians have drifted away from
the expansion but towards the gathered protoss
army. A couple of psi storms later and the air
army has disappeared. The 'toss troops gathered in
the south-east consist of about twelve zealots,
six dragoons and four templars.
|
The
zealots, dragoons and templars gahtered in the
south-east along with the last minute addition
of the archon pour into JPaikman's southern
expansion. Defending the expansion is a couple
lurkers, five or six hydralisks, about eight
'lings and three sunkens. As soon as the forces
cross the bridge the archon whose shield has
never fully recharged explodes. The zealots and
dragoons start ripping into sunkens while the
templars storm the lurkers. The three sunkens
explode and several bloody splotches mark where
lurkers once were, but more hydralisks and
zerglings come in from the west from JPaikman's
natural. The protoss warriors are eventually
overwhelmed by the swarm although the templars
survive and manage to storm quite a few more
hydalisks before a hyrda or two chase them
away.
 JPaikman
is pumping troops out of about ten hatcheries
now and as soon as the protoss attack is over he
has three control groups of hydras gathered at
the south-east natural. He immediately sends
these troops up and into the war torn eastern
protoss expansion. At the bridge they are met by
several zealots and an archon which manage to
kill a few hydralisks before they retreat across
the bridge. This time though the archon doesn't
make it back fast enough and bursts like the
overfilled party balloon that he is. Now anyone
who has controlled marines, hyrdalisks or
dragoons before can tell you that  ranged units seem to have trouble
getting through tight places especially when
there is something to shoot at on the other
side. As the first hydralisks cross the bridge,
the others begin bunching up in little square
psionic storm size groups. The result it not a
pretty one. The twelve surviving hydralisks pull
back and burrow in the little patch of land
between the south-east natural and the protoss
controlled eastern expansion.
 At the
exact same time twelve zealots charge into the
recently formed zerg western expansion from the
north. To greet them is one sunken just across
the bridge, six hydralisks gathered near the
hatchery and another sunken on the far side of
the expansion. The zealots methodically tear
through all of this while there numbers are
reduced to five. Once the standing defence is
taken out the zealots start chopping  up drones. It takes JPaikman, whose
attention is focused on the far side of the map
with his hydra attack, a while to notice this
and pull his remaining drones out. As the
zealots chase the drones southward, they are
greeted by several zerglings which they are able
to kill. This does however, convince the zealots
to turn back and finish off the hatchery in the
 western base. Before this can be
accomplished though three more hydralisks hatch
and the three surrviving drones return to help
finish off the zealots. All is peaceful again
and JPaikman rebuilds his supply line at the
western expansion. Uncle meanwhile looks to even
the number of expansions again by warping in a
nexus at the north-west main.
 As you
can see from the minimap, each player has mined
out two bases has two active bases which are
quickly running low on minerals and has one new
base which has not yet been mined. The nexus has
just finished warping in at north-west when ten
zerglings curious about protoss activity in that
sector scurry up the ramp. They find a pylon at
the choke and quickly raise it while defence is
being hastily warped in at the nexus. As the
zerglings head into the north-west main five
cannons and a robotics support bay are just
about to warp in. No thats not a typo. I usually
don't build my support bays at expansions that
look like they are about to be raped but
apparently it was all part of uncle_a's master
plan.
 As the
zerglings charge the nexus, the cannons begin
warping in one at a time. The ten zerglings go
from cannon to cannon always attacking the one
closest to being finished and in so doing manage
to take out all of them while only losing five
of their number. They begin to attack the pylon,
the support bay and the nexus each according to
his fancy but before the zerglings can do
anymore damage, five zealots arrive and after
one zealot is lost the zerglings are put
down.
| |
|
 To counter
the zergling harassment of his new expansion,
uncle_a sends twelve zealots into JPaikman's
western expansion. The zealots find only minimal
defence and immediately begin cutting down drones.
Five hydralisks and a couple zerglings come up
from the south to try to stop the zealots but they
are greatly outnumbered. JPaikman tries to use
burrowing tactics to get in some free hits on the
zealots but the zealots end up getting in more
free hits on the hydralisks. The western expansion
falls and the zealots stay there awaiting further
instruction.
 While this
was going on, JPaikman had a couple of control
groups of zerglings burrowed in the north-east
just across the bridge from uncle's natural. When
the zealots come into his western base, Paikman
responds by unburrowing and attacking the protoss
natural. The zerglings however meet several
cannons and supperior numbers of troops and are
thus unable to inflict more than minimal damage.
Now though three little bug like things are seen
wiggling their way towards the spot where the
zerglings were gathered. Three queens are also
spotted en route to this location. Once there are
another three control groups of zerglings gathered
there as well, some dark swarms and ensnares are
thrown down and the zerglings charge. The
zerglings manage to raise the mined out mineral
natural and the troops defending it at the cost of
their lives.
 While this
is happening though, twelve zealots, six templars
and three archons are being sent through the
north-west natural and down to the western
expansion to rendez-vous with the twelve zealots
which are alread there. Now this massive protoss
army rolls into the zerg natural. Once there they
find several sunkens and lurkers and about twelve
hydralisks. The hydralisks seeing the huge army
proceed to dance their ass off. As the zealots
charge they retreat to the opposite corner of the
base allowing the lurkers and sunkens to get in
free hits. When the zealots turn their focus to
the lurkers and sunkens the hyrdalisks begin
fireing on them again. The result of this is that
the  zealots and archons take out all the
lurkers and sunkens but die in the process. All
that remains of the protoss army is a couple of
zealots and the six templars which had been
lagging behind and hadn't gotten off any storms
yet. As the hydralisks come out of thier corner to
see whats left of the protoss army, the zealots
charge giving the templars enough time to storm
both the hydras and the zealots into oblivion. All
that remains is two hydralisks and a zergling
which then proceed to exact revenge on all of the
templars.
 Now feeling
the pinch for cash, JPaikman expands to the
south-east natural. The southern base is now mined
out as is the south-east main bringing JPaikman
down to only one working expansion. Uncle is also
down to only one expansion (in the north-west) as
his eastern and northern expansions are both now
depleted. To try and make up for his sudden drop
in income JPaikman rebuilds a hatchery at the
western base and adds a hatchery at each of the
two gas mines in the center. JPaikman has also
gathered a couple of control groups of zerglings
up in the north-east with his spell casters again
as some zealots find out when they try to leave
their base and are plagued and beaten to death by
cracklings. At the same time, queens go into the
dragoon free protoss main and start broodling
templars and zealots alike.
 Now a
templar, an archon and a few more zealots cross
the bridge to where the zergings and defilers are
gathered. A good portion of the zerglings are
fried by one psionic storm and the archon zealot
combo easily takes care of the rest. The archon is
plagued which of course does a fat lot of good.
Just then though hydralisk reinforcements arrive
and save the defilers from certain doom. The
archon bursts and the plagued templar is chased
down and killed by a couple of zerglings.
 This battle
in the north-east was all just a diversion though.
The game was being decided in the south-east at
JPaikmans recently taken expansion. Two shuttles
delivered their cargo of four fully loaded brand
new reavers to behind the supply line of the
south-east natural. The drones disappear
instantly, and the hatchery doesn't take much
longer. The two shuttles are taken down by four
scourges, but JPaikman has nothing to kill the
reavers with. Ironically, forced to slither back
to base on their own, the reavers find and just as
quickly destroy the eastern of the two gas mining
operations. JPaikmans is now only gathering
minerals from his western expansion again. To make
maters worse uncle_a has just warped in a nexus at
the north-west natural.
 The fun
never seems to end for JPaikman though as twelve
zealots stream into his last operational base. The
cerebrate once again has no troops at his western
expansion and it looks like it will fall. The
drones immediately flee this time and the zealots
take out the hatchery. Just as the hatchery is
exploding though, six mutalisks arrive and chase
them back to the north-west natural. Another
hatchery immediately begins morphing at the base
while the drones wait to begin mining
again.
 At the same
time, in uncle's natural in the north-east six
archons are seen merging. When they are finished
they glide across the bridge. As they aproach the
six hydralisks and two defilers that are burrowed
on the other side, three of them are ensnared by a
queen. Unfortunately it makes little difference
because the hydras are unburrowed right underneath
the archons and are immediately fried. Even as
this is going on twelve more zealots find the
western gas mining operation. Though a couple of
queens manage to ensnare all of them they are
still able to beat the three drones mining gas and
take out the hatchery.
 Now a
reaver drop is attempted on JPaikmans western
expansion. This time though there is only one
shuttle and six mutalisks and several hydralisks
defending the base are able to take out both the
shuttle and its reavers quickly. This is somewhat
academic though as 6 archons and twelve zealots
move into the JPaikmans undefended natural and
after destroying the hatchery there, begin raising
his main. The main is currently defended by a
sunken and five hydralisks which put on quite a
show for us but are unable to stop the protoss
troops from destroying the entire tech tree.
JPaikman refusing to admit defeat sends all of the
troops he has gathered at his western base,
including hydras, mutas and 'lings north and into
the north-west natural. uncle has adequate
defences there though and the zerg forces are beat
back.
 Three
zealots counter on the zerg offensive, but after
wading through the supply line at the west base
they fall to the five hydralisks on the other
side. At the same time, the archons and zealots
which just raise Paikmans main, move into his
deserted southern expansion and take out two more
hatcheries. About twelve hydralisks and several
'lings now cross the bridge from JPaikmans
south-east base and begin dancing to try and slow
the progress of the protoss army. The result is
the loss of most of the zerg forces and the
retreat of 'toss warriors to JPaikmans old
natural.
 Now another
cute package is delivered to the western base in
the form of two templars. They are dropped behind
the supply line and one of the queens floating
overhead ensnares both of them. This doesn't seem
to slow them down much as they proceed to psionic
storm every last drone. Finally the queens get
their act together and the two templars are
replaced by four broodlings just in time to save
the last drone. Now about twenty-four zealots and
three archons enter the western base. JPaikman
seeing that the jig is pretty much up concedes the
game. Of course he doesn't leave because that just
wouldn't be Jose. He still has the south-east main
and is long distance mining from the south-east
natural with about three drones. This does however
afford him the oppurtunity to practice several
annoyance tactics. He plagues some cannons at the
north-west natural, picks off some high templars
with his queens and chases zealots and shuttles
around with his four surviving mutalisks.
Uncle
meanwhile warps in a nexus at the much fought over
western expansion, and assembles troops at the
south-east natural. This of course puts an end to
JPaikmans long distance mining efforts. A huge
force of archons and zealots finally push up the
ramp. There are several lurkers left defending and
all of the protoss troops are ensnared so they
take losses but nothing can stop the juggernaut
now. Uncle attempts to psi storm a queen and
misses and hits his zealots instead to the intense
amusement of LionLord. JPaikman has no troops left
to stop the raising of his last base and finally
the words JPaikman was eliminated flash up on the
screen. After the game there was the usual
post-game strategy discussion but no rematch was
agreed to as this battle report is already twenty
pages long. For those of you who can't get enough
alternating background reports, fear not. I am
working on a best of five series with my roommate
and I_Hate_Medics. Oh yeah and if anyone reveals
the winner of any of those games I'll kill
them.
Lessons Learned1. Zealots sing,
zerglings don't. Thats just the way it
is.
2. Nothing can stop the big
firebats.
3. Ensnare templars, plague
archons. Zerg magic at its finest.
4.
Ensnared zealots still beat drones
Game Statistics# of dancing
hydralisks: 63
# of Math.random() support bays:
1
# of exploding sunkens: 7
Mini-Map
DisclaimerAll of the described events may
or may not have happened. The strategies employed
may or may not be viable. Use only with the
consent of your doctor.
| |
 |
And now I'm
done.
|
|
| |
Home
Forum
Starcraft Tournaments
