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PREFACE

Intended primarily for those wanting to learn BroodWar by private study, this reports aim to take the reader with moderate experience of the game to the point where he is equipped to deal with any situation.The main points of strategy and reconnaissance are introduced step by step in a series of graded lessons.

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INTRODUCTION

This particular report will cover the Terran vs. Zerg matchup on the map Lost Temple when both opponents have randomed. Let's meet the players:

1st~Kakaru: do I know you?
[o]Mr.X: who
[o]Mr.X: me?
1st~Kakaru: you
[o]Mr.X: dunno
[o]Mr.X: maybe
[o]Mr.X: but not personal I think
1st~Kakaru: tell your akas
[o]Mr.X: its all that Mr.X with dif clans
[o]Mr.X: maybe uve seen me on KBK rankings
1st~Kakaru: i don't know u then
1st~Kakaru: do u know me?
[o]Mr.X: no
1st~Kakaru: maybe uve seen me on hackers list
1st~Kakaru: jk =)
[o]Mr.X: hehe
[o]Mr.X: i know tsu
1st~Kakaru: me too
1st~Kakaru: HA!
[o]Mr.X: he is the only one I know from 1st
[o]Mr.X: !
[o]Mr.X: i think we are ready to start
1st~Kakaru: have u seen shakespear in love
[o]Mr.X: lets go
1st~Kakaru: phyne
[o]Mr.X: gl hf
1st~Kakaru: =(

Note: [o]Mr.X knows 1st~Tsunami from a single game they played, where Tsu was Zerg and Mr.X beat him with Protoss by early expanding.

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LESSON No.1: Build orders and scouting

[o]Mr.X	1st~Kakaru
Supply Depot - 8 (at ramp) Barracks - 11 (at ramp) Refinery - 13 Supply Depot - 14 (at ramp) Factory - 17	Overlord - 8 Hatchery - 12 (at natural) Spawning Pool - 12 Hatchery - 14 (above ramp) Extractor

Some additional notes to the BO's - at the start of the game Kakaru sent his initial Overlord to 6, then when he saw nothing was there he sent him towards 3, and his second Overlord went scouting 12. Mr.X chose to wall in, which is a good call against Random since it's almost a must against Protoss. Perhaps here 1st~Kakaru made a critical mistake by building his third Hatchery before getting gas - that's only good against Protoss! The reason - this late gas puts the Zerg player behind in tech.

For those wanting to improve their play, Kakaru had something to share:

1st~Kakaru: listening to clasical music 1st~Kakaru: increase bw skills 1st~Kakaru: did u know about it [o]Mr.X: dats why im so good [o]Mr.X: no 1st~Kakaru: haha 1st~Kakaru: i made it up =)

Both players found each other late, with Kakaru using only his Overlords and Mr.X sending an SCV clockwise after finishing his Barracks. When the SCV reached Kakaru's base, Mr.X of course saw all the Hatcheries and even if a Lair had started morphing at that time (now that Kakaru saw the SCV), it was obvious that Lurkers or Muta would come later than usual. Some Zerglings that Kakaru had hatched were frantically chasing the SCV but Mr.X microed it around them, then behind the mineral line and so on... until he got a good look of everything. Then the SCV headed out of the base down the ramp. Kakaru followed it to his mineral only, then he returned the Zerglings to his natural where he had started morphing his second Extractor. Mr.X noticed no one was chasing the SCV so he left it at 9's mineral only watching for any sneaky Zerg moves.

Kakaru didn't have much information about what Mr.X was doing, actually he only deducted where the terran base was, but he didn't want to risk losing his Overlords so he stationed the first one to the west of Mr.X's base and the second one overlooking 3's natural, watching for troop movement there. After a while he finally decided to scout if Mr.X was teching or massing infantry, so he sent his Zerglings westwards, finally dispatching the scouting SCV on the way out. Now Kakaru knew that there was not even a chance of surprising Mr.X with those 6 Zerglings, so he just let one of them suicide up the Terran Ramp and seeing the wallin he knew his opponent was indeed fast teching.

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LESSON No.2: Early game - choosing the appropriate tech

So what was going to happen next? Kakaru had to choose whether to tech to Lurkers or to Muta, and Mr.X had to use his slight tech advantage somehow. Well Kakaru probably did the best thing a Zerg can do against a fast teching Terran - he chose the Muta way, guessing that Mr.X would invest his tech in Tanks and not have enough Marines (because of the single Barracks) to attack and defend against the Mutas at the same time. I think that was quite a bold move by Kakaru.

But... little did Kakaru know, that Mr.X didn't even build a machine shop... right after his Factory was finished he started a Starport, then an Academy and a second Barracks a while later. When the Starport  was finished he didn't build an addon to it either, and the lights started blinking... To make it clear to the few that don't know what that means - he was Wraith rushing! Would his strategy pay off?

After the Wraith was completed, Mr.X started a Control Tower. While the Wraith was speeding towards 9 I must say I was very curious if Kak would fend it off before it caused too much damage. As the Wraith arrived and started firing at the first Overlord it sighted, Kak's Spire was 2/3 completed... He quickly added a Hydralisk Den and he tried hiding his Overlords to the south of his base. He also moved his two scouting Overlords into safer territories. Until the first Hydras hatched the single Wraith succeeded in killing 3-4 Overlords.

While all this was happening Kakaru also morphed some Creep Colonies at his natural, at first I thought he was going to make one or two Spore Colonies, but then I noticed he didn't have an Evolution Chamber and he morphed them to Sunkens. That was again a good move in this critical situation, because even if the Wraith seemed to be the main problem he needed defense against the M&M that Mr.X was now massing from his two Barracks.

When Kakaru successfully chased away the Wraith, Mr.X had about 12~13 Marines, a Firebat and 2 Medics. Kakaru had 3 sunkens, 6 Zerglings and Hydras as defense and he was hatching some Mutas, so I think he would have defended with some micro if Mr.X had attacked now. But what was happening at the Terran base?

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LESSON No.3: Mid game - Planning and performing attacks

Mr.X had now started a Science Facility, and he was building something at his Starport meanwhile... what would it be? Well he wasn't upgrading anything at the Control Tower so I figured he needed it in order to be able to build a Dropship... But wasn't it late for a cliff drop? Kakaru had Mutas now... oh... wait, Mr.X didn't even have Tanks! When the Dropship was ready to go, it loaded 6 Marines, a Firebat and a Medic and headed for the Zerg main! The Wraith was already waiting there, securing a position on a "hidden" part of the plateau. Now that was exciting, especially since Kakaru seemed to suspect such a move - he morphed a sunken in his main, and indeed he had his Mutas and Hydras that could come to help. So would this little strike force of Mr.X do some damage or would it get wasted?

None of the two... since Mr.X had other plans: Once the Dropship crossed the middle of the map, he lifted his Barracks and 8 more Marines and a Medic ran towards 9 too. I wondered why so late, why didn't they go together with the Dropship... But Mr.X seems to have done this a lot of times, the timing was frightening - as soon as the Dropship reached the easternmost spot of Kakaru's plateau where the Wraith was, it started unloading there, and exactly when the last marine jumped on the ground and the Dropship moved to the right for another load, the first marines of the new pack arrived...

By the way [o]Mr.X inspected this report before I posted it and told me why he had to pull off this timing stunt - he wanted to have defense at his base as long as possible, he would be so unlucky if Kakaru had attacked him while he was wandering across the map with all his army. That's a good point!

Well 8 Marines + 1 Medic = 9 so after a quick lot between the Marines one of them was left on the lowground doing practically nothing for the next minute or two. The Medic didn't take part in the lot indeed.

Kakaru sent two Scourge to check out what was happening at the Terran base but I bet he didn't even notice them dying when they finally reached their destination due to the action that took place in the next 10-20 seconds... Mr.X's first Science Vessel was completed and he sent it first towards 9's natural to see what was going on there, then towards the hot spot where his Marines were unloading. What always amazes me about Mr.X is the perfect timing of everything he does, I probably don't need to mention it, but the Vessel arrived just as the last Marine of the second load jumped on the ground and it was time for action!

So now Kakaru was in really deep shit - he had his sole Sunken to guard his main, and just for the record I'll mention he had started another Hatchery there. Now 13 stimmed Marines, a mad Firebat(he got his drugs too indeed) and the almighty Wraith focused fire on the Hydralisk Den that was actually out of Sunken range. This is really the first thing you should waste when you arrive at an undefended Zerg base, unless you know your opponent has researched Lurker Aspect already. After the Den the hit squad moved on to destroy the Sunken.

Kakaru didn't give up though - as the attack started, he ran his Hydras up the ramp and in a well timed maneuver attacked Mr.X's Marines with his Mutas and Hydras at the same time. He had only lost his Den and the uncompleted Hatch so far.

Before I continue I would like to point out something I didn't notice during the game - now that I look at the screenshots, while this is going on there is a yellow dot (that's Mr.X color) chasing a blue dot all around the map, and this yellow dot is... take a guess? That's the unlucky Marine that was left alone! And what is he chasing? I think a Drone that Kakaru was going to use to expand to 6's main. So that Marine did see some action too.

Back to the Zerg main... All the Hydra and Muta of Kak attacked... and killed... just 3 Marines! Well Kakaru just didn't have enough units and even if he probably microed (focusing fire on Marines) it wasn't enough... I think the Mutas were firing at the Medics but couldn't kill any of them anyway, and Mr.X microed too. GG's were exchanged and Kakaru left the game. I'd like to thank to both players for that exemplary game, I think everybody can learn a few good tricks from it, that's why I called it a "Teach yourself report". Oh, and the last lesson:

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LESSON No.4: Late game - none, when [o]Mr.X plays

Now, the Scores! Notice the kill ratio... and the elapsed time. It was amazing how fast everything happened. Those great players are so efficient, I bet even if it's my only goal I wouldn't be able to have those 14 man (and 2 women) on my enemy's plateau as early as Mr.X had them, and he had scouting/judging and microing to do as well... To sum this game up - Mr.X perfectly executed a 9:40 minute long build order that seemed near impossible to counter, especially with the late gas of Kakaru.

Don't forget to check out www.team-outcast.org !