"He flanked me from three directions. I circled the wagons, but these indians had plasma cannons and a really effective rain dance."
- LuckyNewbie in LuckyNewbie vs Whatshisface
|
| Nothing but zerglings | | | Author: | | | IP: | 216.250.XXXX | | Date: | 04/17/00 10:04 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 6, Min: 6
Lifetime Rating for Moros: 6.7500 |  | 4-16-2000. The Rocky Mountains.
I know. You don't want to hear about newbies playing against the comp. And I wouldn't waste your time if this weren't worth talking about. Here's the set up.
Map: Winter Conquest.
Players - human:
Neb: Yellow protoss, upper right.
Moros: Teal terran, middle right
Sporkle: Blue zerg, bottom
Players - computer:
Brown terran - top
Orange terran - middle left
Red protoss - lower left
Sporkle and I are experienced players, and Neb is a rank newbie. We had just finished a game in which Sporkle played terran and got whipped like 10,000 slaves. He was mad.
The game starts. Neb races for 47 cannons at his choke. I go for the usual bunker-medic-tank defense in the fastest time possible. Sporkle starts the game by announcing that he is going to use only zerglings. !!!!????
Neb asks him if he wouldn't mind reconsidering. Nope. Zerglings. That's all. I tried to ignore this, but I could feel panic starting to set in. What am I going to do when Sporkle gets stomped by a bunch of tanks or scouts or whatever? Move faster. Move faster. Damn. These little scv idiots are too slow. They never do what I tell them to.
Now I'm yelling at them. MOVE IT, YOU LITTLE IDIOTS! NOOOOOO! NOT THERE! OVER THEEEEERRRRREEEE!!!!!
For those who think that playing against the comp is no challenge, well partner, I'm here to tell you that when your allies are newbies, or in the case of Sporkle, slightly demented, the comp will give you all you can handle. Today, the comp was not on it's best form.
You would think that since the comp sees the whole map that they would go after the weakest player. That would be me. Why? Bunkers. Are you serious? A concerted attack against two bunkers by two or more players wipes out the bunkers every time. So, who do you think they attacked? Me? No way. Neb. I think it smells newbies. The comp sent wave after wave of suicide attacks against his cannons. This becomes important in a strange way which I will tell you about at the end of the game. Zealots, marines, fire bats, medics, splat, splat splat. No survivors.
Now I'm puzzled, and I little more uneasy. After the first wave come the tanks. Time to build wraiths. In the mean time, I realize to my horror that my natural expansion is minerals only, and not much of them. Fudge. I need gas. Burritos won't do the trick.
Sporkle starts ragging us. "You guys got any offense yet?" No. "I'm going to attack." Fine. Kill yourself. See if I care. Zerglings. This kid is crazy.
I watched the mini map. A stream of blue oozed from his base like locusts on a radar screen. They just kept coming. The stream hit the red protoss natural expansion and quickly formed a tidal wave. It crashed into defender and building alike, and swept all before it. I had to look. I couldn't believe it.
I zoomed in on the action. Nothing left. The protoss expansion had evaporated. I looked some more. A handful of zerglings were in the protoss main base, UNOPPOSED! I was impressed. But I figured that was it. All spent. Nothing left.
Wrong. The second wave emerged. They swept through the protoss base like a frikkin Hoover. "You guys got any offense yet? When are you going to attack?" I was dumb founded. I felt totally stupid. By this time I had secured my expansion with two more bunkers and two more tanks. Big deal. If the enemy came after me, all these guys could do is slow them down a little.
I finally got my wits about me and headed for the island expansion in the middle of the map. Not without some trouble, as the terran survivors had targeted my expeditionary force with siege tanks. My marines danced like disco queens to get out of the way of falling shells. My four wraiths sacrificed themselves to clear the tanks and gave me time to settle in good and proper. The terrans had grabbed some of the surrounding expansions and were getting ready to cause a lot of trouble. Sporkle staved off an attack on his base by tanks and m&m, but with considerable losses. I told him to go heavy mutas. Nope. Zerglings. Fine! Have it your way!
I scanned the terran bases to look for a weak spot, an opening of some kind. I knew that battle cruisers would be useless, so I opted for nukes. By this time I had mined all the minerals in my main, so I had room for another command center. For you nuke freaks, my strategy is at least three nukes, one on each of my different sites. Then, hot key the locations so you can zoom back and immediately start another nuke the instant you launch. This is the nuke rain strategy. If you have the resources, it breaks the will of the enemy as well as his back.
My first nuke fell on the terran expansion just to the left of my island. "Alright!!" said Sporkle. I slipped a ghost into the upper right corner of the brown terran base. I cleverly destroyed his spider mine by stepping on it. I always transport ghosts in pairs. Now you know why. I inserted the second ghost and nuked his command center. Marines, goliaths, firebats all running around like mad ants. He scanned my ghost just after the second nuke fell. Good thing. I had a place to run. My ghost escaped death by the narrowest of margins; seven points left, and running out of manna.
By now, Neb announces that he is going heavy DT's. Against built up terran? Oh well.
Sporkle has cracklings and means to use them. Not caring to wait any longer, he turns his swarms against the orange terran base. Once again, the cloud poured from Sporkle's main. The swarm became a river. It stretched uninterrupted from Sporkle's main all the way to the orange terran base, and just kept coming. I have never seen anything like it before.
I have heard endless wrangling about how unbalanced terran is. And I agree. Watching orange terran bunkers, tanks, and goliaths rip Sporkle's masses to shreds convinced me of it. The terran expansion didn't stand a chance. But when the hapless cracklings began piling up on the ramp, they were slaughtered like ants under foot. Neb asked Sporkle if he needed any help. I watched with growing concern. I knew we would win. But would our gallant zergling meister come to no good end? Was he a genius, or had he just gone zergling mad?
On and on they came. Exploding into puddles, leaping to their deaths without question or complaint, loyal to the very end. Hey. What am I talking about? They're zerglings for crying out loud. Bunnies with fangs. Yipers.
The breakthrough came. I couldn't believe it. First bunkers, then marines, then tanks, all died under the slashing tooth and claw of the wild killers, overrun by the irresistible hord. When Neb's DT's sauntered in, there was nothing left but mop up. I smashed the right and center of brown's main with nukes. The expansion fell to zerglings and DT's. The bunkers and lone tank went the way of the rest. We chased down a few stragglers, and it was over.
When the end-of-game screen came up, Neb, yes NEB, had the highest score. Sporkle was beside himself. How could it be? Sporkle had done all the work! He had produced, lost, and killed the most units. Remember those cannons? The game counts them as buildings. The more you build, the higher your score. Neb must have put down thirty cannons all over his area, not to mention the dozen or so he lost and rebuilt. He also built a large force of DT's and lost almost none. He was behind in every category except buildings. It was good for a laugh.
Like I said before, I wouldn't waste your time with some crappy newbies versus comp game if it wasn't worth telling. Sporkle cleaned their clocks with nothing but zerglings. I wish you could have seen it.
|
|
|
|
Home
Forum
Starcraft Tournaments
