"Scorched Basin: where the women are uglier than the tileset and the peons require state-sanctioned bussing to reach the nearest trees."
- CattleBruiser's Basin Street Blues
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| Upgraded_Probes zerg vs my toss | | | Author: | | | IP: | strangerXXXX | | Date: | 02/24/00 08:02 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 5, Max: 9, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for AQD3: 7.6184 |   |
Introduction
Ladder is a dark and evil place nowadays. Around every other corner is a map hacker, a double disconnector, or a 4 pooler. Usually all three. I’ve been avoiding playing ladder games for just those reasons, trying to hold out until the 1.08 patch and honing my skills on the better players in nohunters. Last night I was subjected to the mischievous humor of Upgraded_Probe as I chatted in the channel. After a while his constant private messages of “Nark Nark” wore a little thin and I asked for a 1v1 game from anyone in the channel. Probe responded enthusiastically, demanding a chance to beat me like a pinata at a mexican birthday. The game that resulted was a little ugly as his archon/zealot army faced off vs my reaver/goon one, and the outcome was never really in doubt as Probe just couldn’t seem to stop my constant reaver drops with his unit choices. After a few bitter complaints about the game, Probe demanded a rematch.
I usually don’t like to rematch too much, unless of course I was the one losing =]. My usual strategy at this point is to offer to rematch as a ladder game. Probe had a ladder score of 1183 compared to my 1059, so I was pretty sure he wouldn’t take me up on it. Probe started cussing me out and demanding a melee rematch, but I wouldn’t budge. Then to my surprise he whispered me agreeing to a ladder match. Our first attempt proved abortive with Probe leaving the game at 1:58, claiming he had lost his b.net connection. I told him I smelled fear, which was enough to get him to play again. This time it was going to be for real…
Would you like that zergling rush with a side of cheese?
I selected my usual protoss and started in the bottom right. Probe elected to go random and got the upper left. Fading realm is a big map, and it makes me want to do my Whoop imitation and power like a whore. With this in mind my build order was:
8 Pylon
11 Gateway
12 Pylon
13 Gas
14 Gateway
My scouting probe left as soon as the pylon was done. Just as it reached the zerg base, it was passed by a group of six zerglings, sending a little bit of fear in my heart. My first gateway was still ten seconds from completion… Further scouting revealed what was seemed to be a nine pool. I ordered my probe to attack a drone and then switched my attention back home. I anxiously waited for my first zealot to emerge, and when he did moved him next to my probes. A second later the zerglings came in. As they started hitting the outlying buildings I used my zealot and four probes to scare them off. I’ve found four probes is just about the right number. Too many and you lose mining time, too few and they can be targeted and overwhelmed. Probe tried to circle around to the other side of the mining area and attack there. I countered with my zealot and killed a zergling while losing a probe. My second gateway came on line just as my second zealot popped out and I queued up two more zealots. Probe kept his zerglings circling, trying to draw me away for the probes. I don’t mind when a zerg player does this stuff. He has to micro hard to keep his zerglings alive, and while I have to micro too, all the action is in my base. My macro doesn’t suffer while his should. Once I had four zealots I sent two out to engage his zerglings and defended with the remaining two. Probe did a last suicide run and killed one probe, but lost his forces.
Feeling pretty satisfied with this exchange, I put down my core and started another two zealots. Once the core came online I made a dragoon and chased off an overlord, getting it down to twenty hit points before it got out of range. My macro was starting to pay off, and I put down another gateway and a citadel, then an archives. My zealots were concentrated at my choke on the theory that they wouldn’t help too much in my main. I sent one zealot to the upper right to check for an expansion…nothing. Well, it was time for recon. I decided against naming the zealot cuz that makes them like a pet, and no one likes to send a pet zealot on a suicide run. And a suicide run the zealot got sent on. Probes main was surprisingly bare, having a single sunken for defense. I moved the zealot around the sunken and found a hydra den, while a hatchery was morphing to a lair. Odd sort of build. If I was terran I would have though lurkers, but as protoss? I left the zealot hammering away on the hydra den while probe put up an emergency sunken and attacked it.
Fighting lurkers without detection
I had just put out my first dark templar and made my first three dragoons when I found out the plan. A stray overlord was suspiciously near my choke, showing that probe feared the dark templar threat. Of course, his overlord should have feared the dragoon threat a little more =]. Just as my dark templar reached my choke I was attacked by four lurkers. I had six zealots and three dragoons at my choke. The dark templar took a swipe at the first lurker and then ran on to his scouting duty at the upper right expansions. The first lurker got popped as it tried to come up the ramp. The other three buried on the ramp itself, but couldn’t see my forces on top of the ramp. Hmmm…. I needed to buy time. I started psi storm researching and put down three cannons near the front of my base “just in case”. The lurkers tried to bury a little further up the ramp. The first one died, but the next to made it, and could now see my forces. I backed off, just out of range. Next a game of cat and mouse followed, with probe trying to advance one lurker at a time while I backed up just out of range each time….and each time the lurkers would take a few more hits from the dragoons. Probe reinforced with two more lurkers and about ten hydras as I slowly retreated down my ramp to my main.
Right before I had backed off from my ramp I had sent a probe to the lower left. Knowing the nature of the threat, I had set up a nexus and four cannons to protect it, but as the last cannon was warping in a lurker burrowed in range and forced me to cancel it. My main fear at this point was a lurker containment on my ramp while hydras ran over my expansion. Fortunately Probe chose to attack my main. I had about ten dragoons, two templar, and five zealots. His lurkers came down and buried. I stormed twice and dispatched that threat. Then as his control group of hydras attacked I smoked them with my superior numbers of dragoons. It was time to break out and reinforce my expansion. I sent my troops charging out, only to discover that Probe was doing the old morph three lurkers on my ramp trick. Still, ten dragoons have a decent damage out put even uphill, and I was able to kill two of the eggs before they hatched. The third lurker buried. I was out of patience. My troops charged past the lurker, taking the damage on their shields and moving out to the center of the map.
How to pimp slap Probe: chapter 1
I had my expansion fully working now. Two gateways were active and a robotics facility was warping in. I spent the next few minutes practicing my macro, while probe tried to expand to the upper right and was thwarted by my dark templar. I knew he’d be back in a few minutes with an overlord and hydras so it was time for my move. A templar at my main had finally built up enough mana for storm, so I took out the lurker on the ramp leading out. The ten or so dragoons I had made at my main patrolled towards the upper right; just as they reached my containment force in the middle I ordered those forces to move to the upper right also. My first observer rode shotgun over my forces to deal with any lurkers. As I hit the middle I got a quick taste of hydra fire from the ledge overlooking the middle, an interesting technique. The hydras ran back as I moved a templar in to deliver a storm. The forces in the middle met, with the advantage slightly in my favor based on troop count. Two psi storms later the troop count was pretty damn far in my favor. I sent my troops on attack move to the upper right, then directed my attention to a special project. I had sent a shuttle with a templar and dragoon to the upper left just as I started my attack. With Probe busy microing his forces out of the storms in the middle, I dropped my cargo behind his minerals and let off two very satisfying storms right in the middle of his almost mined out mineral line.
When I went back to check on my troops I found the upper right was mine. I moved the control group and a half of dragoons and two templar to just above Probes ramp. Probe had one last trick in his book. Knowing my preference for dragoons, he spent the last of his money on five control groups of zerglings. As I waited for a few more templar Probe made his move. The zerglings charged up the ramp towards my forces. I dropped the first storm just before they reached it. Five more storms followed in succession as each wore out in turn. When I ran out of storm Probe ran out of zerglings…and I hadn’t lost a dragoon. Probe started threatening to disconnect with his usual good manners, citing the disconnect=no penalty setting I had chosen, but a sharp reminder of my reputation for reporting disconnectors put and end to his foolishness. A nice thirty two points were added onto my score with Probe’s concession.
Thanks for reading my report. I hope you enjoyed it! Please comment with any suggestion on improving my tactics.
AQD3
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