The Great Battlereporting Contest (Week 3): Six Player FFA!!
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Author:	Drefsab
IP:	rliv113.XXXX
Date:	06/25/00 04:06
Game Type:	Starcraft
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THE GREAT BATTLEREPORTING CONTEST (Week 3) ** Lots of pics... let 'em load! Welcome to Week 3 of The Great Battlereporting Contest. If you are reading this and you haven't e-mailed me your guesses then you are too late to enter this week's game. However, be of good cheer, there are still 7 weeks to go. This week, we change the pace a little bit and play our little guessing game on a 6 player free for all. If you've been keeping up on BR.com's forum or Shock's forum you know the basic ground rules this week. However, I will review them anyway. Points were given out this week for guessing the winner of the free for all, the first person eliminated, putting player's unit scores in order from highest to lowest, bonus points for guessing who disconnected and who killed the first Ursadon, and of course, one final bonus point for insulting +:Goldfinger:+ since he called me a hacker after getting OWNED by me twice. Now that you know the ground rules, let's get this party started. A SIX PLAYER FREE FOR ALL FEATURING: Bob_the_Newt T_Mac {Necrosausage!} Silent-Strike -=Krone=- Snowsquall

PREPARING FOR CHAOS

The map of choice for this all out war is Flooded Plains. It is a 192x192 expansion rich map with bridges connecting each land mass. There are four bridges leading into each main base of operations. The starting positions were as follows...

Necro, Snowsquall, and Tmac were the 3 zerg players. Necro and Tmac both set up early expansions. Necro's tech of choice was hydras while Tmac seemed to be teching to something a little higher up the tree with an early lair. Snowsquall also appeared to be going for hydras but he did not take an early expansion.

The 2 protoss players, Bob and Krone, both followed unusual paths. Krone went with a forge first build and started putting cannons at the entrances to his bridges. He also expanded into his corner. Bob pumped peons and went for two early expansions before building any troops. At first his strategy was not apparent until he said...

It wasn't long before the body count started to rise.

If you haven't figured it out yet, the lone, solitary Terran player on the map was Silent. His focus was 3 early barracks and an academy. He started between Tmac and Snowsquall and as both player's overlords pass over his base they start screaming...

Suddenly they realize that their tech builds are going to be wide open to an early infantry rush and they begin trying to convince Silent of how non-threatening they are.

WHO'S OUT FIRST?

Silent's troop count continued to rise. He had his troops rallied to the left hand side of his three barracks and the orange coated, gun toting marines started milling around impatiently.

It soon became apparent why they weren't moving out when the Academy that Silent was building completed and sexy little medics with orange stripes on their uniforms started jumping out of the barracks.

Finally, with a troop count of 18 marines and 6 medics, Silent's troops moved out. The direction they chose was south.

During Silent's troop build up, Snowsquall had managed to construct 3 sunkens, 6 zerglings, and 8 hydras. He had 2 hatcheries and one of those hatcheries had been morphed into a Lair. He looked to be teching to lurkers but as Silent's troops crossed the northeast bridge and into Snowsquall's main, it becamse apparent that no lurkers would have time to morph.

Silent's troops formed up with medics interpersed evenly within the ranks of marines. Then, with a loud battle cry, the force charged into Snowsquall's base.

There was never any doubt about who would come out on top in this first clash. The medics healed the marines and the meager zerg troops couldn't make a dent in the buff terran force.

To make matters worse, 2 of Snowsquall's sunkens stood out of range of the major clash. With only one sunken supporting the 8 hydras and 6 lings, the troops were quickly shredded.

The marines methodically tore down Snowsquall's base leaving him completely dispirited. With only three buildings remaining, Snowsquall chose to opt out of the match.

NEWTS KNOW BEST

After his stunning victory over Snowsquall, Silent said...

Meanwhile, off to the west, Bob was continuing his rampage against the Ursadons.

However, it was at this point that the Ursadons got their revenge. They sent a silent, psychic plea for help to their Zerg neighbors in the south.

The Zerg neighbors were controlled by Necro who had managed to match Bob's two expansions with two of his own. His five hatcheries had been consistently morphing hydras for the last couple of minutes and with 30+ hydras, Necro crossed the border into Bob's land and started razing Bob's easternmost expansion. The expansion had 4 cannons and 4 zealots for defense. This defense proved to be grossly insufficient and the expansion was quickly torn down.

However, Tmac made things interesting by throwing in a control group of lings from his spot in the northeast. Why they chose this moment to cross the bridge, no one will ever know, but Necro's hydras showed no mercy on their Zerg bretheren and quickly destroyed the small distraction.

With Bob's expansion flattened, Necro moved his remaining hydras (which still numbered in the twenties) west across the bridge and into Bob's main. A quick look around his main showed 2 gateways and 4 stargates. Very little defense protected him and the few zealots that were there to put up a fight were quickly returned to Auir via hydra spit.

The hydras then started working over Bob's buildings and his all scout plan is placed way behind schedule. However, he is still in the game since Necro doesn't push on into his final expansion in the far west and instead heads north.

NO CHOBO DIS, K?

While the action between Bob and Necro was going on in the west, Silent was continuing to mass infantry in the east. His troops shifted from the south where Snowsquall had been, to the north.

Tmac knew about the threat that lay to his south, and he had been working hard on his tech. His Hive had finished and with his Hive complete, he had morphed an Ultralisk Den.

As Silent's troops gathered on Tmac's southern border, Tmac gathered the 6 ultralisks that he had managed to morph along with a few complimentary zerglings for a massive struggle to survive.

With a signal from Silent, the terran troops charged into Tmac's main. Tmac scrambled his troops to his main's defense and as the troops clashed, the ground began to rumble and shake.

The galloping of the massive Ultralisks shook the very fabric of space and time causing a giant rift to open. It pulled at Tmac with a mighty fury. He tried to fight it, but it was to no avail. He was sucked through the rift and out of Battle.net Land.

The huge battle that Silent had expected turned into a rout as the zerg minions milled around harmlessly due to the loss of their master.

The remaining players reactions ranged from hilarity to irritation.

CHAOS ENSUES

Meanwhile, back in the west, Necro still had a huge hoard of 20+ hydralisks roaming around looking for trouble. After destroying two of Bob's three bases, they continued heading north and stumbled upon Krone's attempt at a third expansion. This attempt is guarded by about 6 zealots who get wasted quickly and Krone, with a few choice obscenities, cancels the expansion.

At this point, Necro must have focused his attention elsewhere because half of his hydras followed one of Krone's remaining speed upgraded zealots into Krone's well defended main where 6 gateways were busy pumping ground troops. The 10 hydralisks came single file across the bridge and were quickly eliminated.

The other 10 hydralisks had the unfortunate accident of running into Silent's terran force who crossed into the area after laying waste to Tmac's unoccupied main.

5 of the hydralisks get mowed down before Necro realizes what is happening. He quickly grabs the hydras and runs them towards Krone's main with Silent's troops in hot pursuit.

Necro runs his hydras across the bridge in single file and Krone easily handles this second incursion of Zerg troops.

Silent's group of 36+ infantry and 5-6 tanks do not follow so hastily. Instead, they gather just outside of Krone's main. Only one small bridge separates the two titans and Silent looks poised to strike.

Suddenly, a bright yellow streak on the minimap catches my eye. The line stretches from Necro's base to Silent's base. As I click down, I see that the line consists of mass zerglings with about 6 lurkers thrown in for good measure.

Silent has 3 tanks and a group of marines at home and this holds off the first wave of zerglings. However, more and more pour over the bridge and Silent orders the troops poised outside of Krone's main to return home.

Necro's lurkers burrow inside Silent's main just as Silent's infantry arrives on the scene. Spines fly as a comsat lights up the area around the lurkers. The marines charge in and pay a heavy toll. But they do manage to kill 3 of the lurkers.

The other three are burrowed farther south and another 24 cracklings arrive on the scene. Using the lurkers for cover, the cracklings start ripping down supply depots and anything else in range.

Meanwhile, Silent's troops stand by helplessly as they wait for the Comsat to recharge.

Finally, after losing a factory, a couple of barracks, six supply depots, and an academy, Silent charges in with his remaining troops and ends the zerg threat.

ATTACKS AND COUNTERATTACKS

During all this excitement, Krone makes his first offensive move of the game. He moves a control group of dragoons south and they stumble upon Bob's final base. The base is guarded by a few cannons and some scouts.

A discussion ensues in which Bob tries to convince Krone to leave him alone. After a few moments of this, Krone becomes convinced that Bob isn't a threat and pulls out his goons.

Meanwhile, Necro has tired of harrassing Silent and shifts his attention to Krone. At this time, Krone has been left pretty much unmolested. He has 3 bases, 9 gateways, and templar tech. His bases are guarded by cannons, goons, and high templar.

Necro seems to feel like he can break through by sending 60+ cracklings in single file formation across the bridge and into Krone's main.

This proves to be a folly as the lings meet up with goon and cannon fire. The lings are on attack move so they group up around the cannons and storm rapes them. Necro loses all his lings and Krone loses a grand total of 3 cannons.

To compound the failure of his assault on Krone, Necro's easternmost expansion suddenly comes under attack by a large group of infantry with science vessel support courtesy of Silent.

In desparation, Necro tries to morph three hydras into lurkers, but stimmed marine fire blows the eggs away before they can morph into the deadly infantry killers.

Because of his weakened state, Necro doesn't have the troops to defend this expansion and it falls.

Finally, to top it all off, Bob is back for his revenge. He brings his control group of scouts into play by flying into Necro's main. The scouts start by blowing away overlords. Then they start flying around killing peons at various Necro expansion sites. Necro has been concentrating on lings and Ultralisks and has very little air defense to fight off these hit and run tactics.

Necro, thinking Bob is out of the game, starts berating Krone for the scout assault.

When Necro finds out who is responsible for this crippling assault he gets a little bit upset.

Meanwhile, Krone is actually busy elsewhere. He has massed up an impressive force of 6 zealots, 18 goons, 2 archons, and 1 high templar outside of Silent's northern expansion.

Silent has secured Snowsquall's old main in the southeast corner as an expansion and most of his troops are down there. When Krone's force strikes in the north, Silent only has a few marines standing guard.

Silent's troops finally arrive on the scene and a pitched battle is fought. Silent's tanks, EMP, and infantry greatly reduces the protoss troops. But they still come out on the short end and the expansion is lost.

To make matters worse for Silent, while his troops are busy in the north fighting with Krone, Necro chooses that moment to run his useless lings that were being harrassed by Bob's scouts into Snowsquall's old main where Silent's only other expansion stands naked and ripe for the picking.

Frustrated at this turn of events Silent says...

With both of his expansions being raped simultaneously, Silent concedes the game.

AND THE WINNER IS...

With only 3 players remaining, the tide of public opinion finally turns against Bob and his roving band of scouts.

But before either player can make a move, Bob finally makes a mistake with his scouts. He flies them over Krone's main where 8 gateways have been pumping goons. Plasma fire erupts. Bob's reflexes are quick and he only loses half of his scouts. However, Krone still enjoys the moment.

Bob still has 5 scouts left, however, his only base is mined out and he's long distance mining minerals from the nearest expansion. In frustration, Bob leaves the game.

Curious as to why Necro was so frustrated with Bob, I checked the kills on Bob's remaining scouts.

By this point in the game, Krone, who had gone relatively unmolested throughout this matchup, had 4 working expansions and a supply limit worth of goons, zealots, and high templar.

Necro's ravaged troops are no match for the strong Protoss force and soon, Krone's troops are tearing through Necro's main.

Necro's main contained 6 hatcheries, and with its loss, he knows the game is over.

UNIT SCORE TIME!

Well, all the questions have been answered except for the big one, the unit scores. Here's the rundown.

FINAL SCORES FOR WEEK 3

Here are the standings after 3 weeks of play.

"Goldfinger is an icky poo-poo head!" -Nobody

"Goldfinger, showing why jewelry and anal masturbation don't mix" -Pitt

"Goldfinger sucks a big fatty" -Johnny_Vegas

"he (Goldfinger) needs to relieve his frustrations by masturbating or violating his pet gerbil." -Sonneillon

STAY TUNED TO THIS STATION!

Another fun week has come and gone. Its still a very close race up at the top and anyone could pull ahead with the right amount of luck and intuition. With 7 weeks to go, its still anybody's game.

Keep an eye on the BR.com forum and Shock's forum. I will be posting week 4's contest info on or around Wednesday.

Cheers,
DREFSAB