"Get a screenshot of this nuke"
-Johhny_Vegas
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| Mausoleum Melee | | | Author: | | | IP: | d185d17bXXXX | | Date: | 09/21/00 02:09 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 9, Min: 9
Lifetime Rating for phoenix[LoD]: 8.2500 |  | Arathorn[LoD] vs. PowerBlade[LoD]
Arathorn[LoD] vs. PowerBlade[LoD]
In
Mausoleum Melee
This BattleReport is Brought To You By:  | phoenix[LoD] |
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 | Map: Mausoleum
Player 1: Arathorn[LoD] Random Protoss
Player 2: PowerBlade[LoD] Random Zerg
Player 1 Starting Location: Bottom-Mid
Player 2 Starting Location: Left-Mid |
If I See These Builds Again... (Opening Game)
Some games show promise of a good fight. Two friends of mine, both skilled players, arranging a 1v1 NOT on Lost Temple sure did. The choice was Mausoleum, a 128x128 twilight map. The grossly enlarged minimap above will fill you in. Arathorn[LoD], who went random for this match, will be referred to as Thorn, in red text for obvious reasons. His opponent, PowerBlade[LoD], is designated Blade. He also elects to random.
Thorn draws white Protoss and is warped in at the bottom-mid starting location. Blade receives blue Zerg from the gods and morphs his hatchery at the middle-left position. Both clone their workers to mineral patches well and begin their early builds. Alas, despite the welcome change of scenery, some things just don't change.
 | Like standard opening builds, for example. Thorn opens with a standard double gate build (pylon, gate, gate, pylon) and begins his zealot production. Blade scouts clockwise with his overlord, sending it to the top-mid position first. It sees nothing of value for some time. He then 10/9's with his extractor and takes an early expansion at his natural. |
Then he starts his pool and a second overlord. Blade's first move from here is to get an extractor in his main and spawn 6 lings to defend his natural. 2 more hatch from the natural hatchery, after a single drone which began mining. A sunken is added to protect the vulnerable expansion. The scrawniest zergling wonders why he keeps drawing recon duty every time as he scouts counterclockwise. Thorn has been pumping the zealots out of his 2 gates and has about 6 when the zergling runs in. Thorn has a 3rd pylon in his base and an assimilator when the zergling scampers in. Blade gets a good look around before it is cornered and killed. Thorn has sent a probe counterclockwise, scouting the mid-right spot. He mail-orders another pylon and a cyber core, while maintaining his zealot pump. His scout finds nothing at the top-mid spot and dies quickly at the left-mid natural. Thorn now has 8 zealots with more in the que. Making the decision to get in Blade's face early, he sends his troops off to pressure Blade before he can severly power.
Micro Machines! (Hold the Early Expansion)
Although I've seen this classic fight play out countless times, the gruesome and pivotal battle of the powering Zerg and the rushing Protoss still excites me. The Protoss scouts the Zerg, finds the early expansion at the natural, and here come the zealots. Very ordinary, but absolutely no foregone conclusions. This case is no different. Thorn has amassed a considerable force of 8 zealots and is headed straight for Blade. At that moment, Blade is aware of two things. First, he scouted his opponent and found a large group of zealots; second, he's been scouted at his still-vulnerable expansion. Acting fast, he morphs a second sunken farther up inside his natural, and adds a 3rd hatchery right next to it. That will make for some tasty production from three fast hatches, but for now the unit count is not in his favor at all. The zealots drew closer, and that amazing battle quickly began.
Alas, Babylon! (Rebuilding)
Blade got caught with his pants down on that one.
However, thanks to his quick micro, he is still standing and begins rebuilding his shattered production chain. With a twist of cruel irony, his ling-speed upgrade finishes in time for his next scouting ling to run quickly to its death. Good God! If he had ling-speed during the attack... omg. Anyways, what does the zergling find? Thorn has certainly not made the newbie mistake of forgetting about "that base thingie" when he's on the offensive. He's got 4 zealots and 4 goons just warped in; they eliminate the scout. What else has Thorn been up to? He has a probe scouting the right-mid and the top-mid for hostile expansions, a citadel warping, a forge warping, and he soon adds an archives. Blade takes his turn to tech, starting a Lair in his main. This is soon accompanied by a sunken in the main. Difference between decent and good players: the good players don't make mistakes twice. Since he was unable to stuff Blade's early expansion, Thorn looks for an expansion of his own. He formulates his plan and soon has an opportunity to execute it.
Thorn sends a probe to the right-mid spot and, finding nothing, lets it sit for a moment. He musters his current force weighing in at 5 zealots and 5 goons and marches off toward his opponent.
| Protecting expansions is crucial as a Protoss player. This is especially true in a PvZ game, where the Protoss can expect to be out-mined very quickly. Thorn knows he's already sinking into that hole. Blade took the early expansion and defended it against the first attack. Thorn knows that, chances are, there will be ever stronger defenses at the natural next time around. What does all this babble mean? It means he needs his own expansion, and that's what his force is for. The 5 goons and 5 zealots charge Blade's natural from the same direction as the first attack. A sunken and a swarm of speedylings are present to welcome them. Again, Blade shows off some great micro with his speedylings, dancing them around the zealots and tearing into the dragoons. Both sides take heavy casualties. However, the reason Thorn's units are not micro'ed as well as Blade's are is that he has his attention elsewhere. His probe in the right-mid begins a nexus, and assimilator, and a pylon to match the Zerg's expansions. Good strategy, and good timing. An attack is a great time to expand, since your opponent's concentration will most certainly be centered on stopping you, and he will be reluctant to scout directly after the fight. The fight itself goes poorly for Thorn and he retreats 3 zealots and a goon to directly above the natural. He probably hoped to save them there until a convenient time later. He doesn't get the chance, as they are killed a few minutes later by an attentive Blade. |  |
See Zerg. See Zerg Run (Turning the Tables)
Blade has started a spire in his main. Considering the lack of a hydralisk den, it's probably a safe bet that he's going for a ling-muta combo. However, at the moment, he just stopped Thorn's attack on his natural. During the fight, like most people, he spawned a mess of zerglings from his 3 hatches to combat the Protoss. However, the fight was over before the zygotes fully matured into ugly slobbering defenders. Always thinking, Blade decides against selling all of his leftover military goods to some cheap surplus store run by "Billy Bob." Instead, he mounts his first offense of the game. It's nothing fantastic, just about 18-24 speedylings that run into fresh zealots from Thorn's base. He's been building zealots and templar now, and researching his psi storm tech. The feral zerglings delay a tennis match, but are soon put down by the zealot enforcers. Before dying, they scout the Protoss base a little. Lacking in true stopping power, the zerglings acheive a psychological effect of a change in the game balance. There wasn't really a change, but it was meant to look that way. Anyways, a little more building from both players. Blade's spire finishes, and he slowly builds up some mutas. In addition, he adds a 3rd sunken to his natural and begins harvesting gas there. Meanwhile, Thorn warps in a 3rd gate. He plants a few cannons behind his minerals and in the center of his gate-cluster. Thorn proceeds to pump zealots and templar.
This is when a real change in the balance of the game occurs. The expansion that Thorn had been building at the right-mid was still undefended and vulnerable. All it took was a level-headed player like Blade
 | who never forgets to regularily scout the expansion points. That was what happened. A single drone was dispatched to the right-mid, probably with orders to build there itself if the expansion was empty. It wasn't, and Blade wasted no time in destroying the expansion. Thorn saw too late and began warping cannons in, but a swarm of speedylings and mutalisks can cross the map awfully fast. Before help can be sent, the expansion falls. |
Blade knows that he's got some momentum going at this point, and he wants to build on it. The drone that originally scouted the expansion does the honors and morphs a hatchery there only a few moments after the Protoss one is destroyed. Blade then makes an economy attack at Thorn's main. His expansion-killing zerglings blitz the Protoss base and throw themselves into the zealots and goons. Might have killed a zealot, but I doubt it. This was just to occupy Thorn's forces while the mutalisks slipped around the side of the base and attacked the mineral area from the NW. A well-planned move, but Thorn foresaw it, and had his cannons in place behind the minerals that drove the mutalisks away.
This quick role-reversal changes the game completely. Now, instead of Thorn hammering away at Blade until he broke through, Thorn finds himself cornered and being assaulted from all sides. Even worse for the Protoss, the Zerg have taken the right-mid spot and now also the top-mid spot. Unless Thorn gets some extra income fast, he will be overrun.
The Good, Bad, N'Ugly (Gritty Resource Fighting)
With zergling groups being rallied outside of his base, Thorn has lost all map control and needs resources badly. Blade has 2 new expansions coming online and continues his recent surge by locking Thorn in his base. Blade's spire has finished it's +1 attack upgrade for the growing swarm of mutalisks in his natural. He spends some excess cash on an evo chamber, a 3rd hatchery at his natural (making 3 there, 1 at main, 1 right-mid, 1 top-mid) and a queen's nest. Thorn makes a move to his natural, but expands there naked. No defenses, no units to protect the area, and Blade hasn't quit his scouting sessions. A zergling discovers the natural expanion, and swarms of its buddies run in before it can be protected. Thorn cancels the expansion, but moves his troops en masse and massacres a lot of zerglings. Deciding that he needs to strike now, before the Zerg expansions come fully online, Thorn continues the push up onto the familiar ground of Blade's natural. He controls about 12-15 zealots, about 4 goons and a few templar /w storm. I would like to note that the only upgrade of any kind that Thorn has (besides spells) is goon range. Blade has speedylings, mutalisks with +1 attack, and an assortment of sunkens. How'd it turn out?
Yes, that psi storm killed every single muta in that picture. Blade was also up to his usual level of micro skill. The zerglings danced around, the sunkens were always in the fight, and the mutalisks took elaborate evasive maneuvers as they swept over the battlefield zero'ing in on the templar. Thorn's zealots didn't have speed, so their micro was limited as it was, but they effectively caused some heavy damage. The templar were not fooled by the muta-dancing tricks, and Thorn put a single storm right on the money. However, Blade just had too much for the Protoss. Lings came in from everywhere, and even after the flight of mutas was torn down there was staunch resistance from sunkens and drones. They finished the fight off, for the second time in the game.
This defeat was probably Thorn's last good chance at victory. Losing it, he erased his unit count while his main was almost dry. An expansion was top priority at that moment, and he looked again to his natural. Pylons and cannons are put up to protect the new expansion. In addition, Thorn moves to counter the mutalisks by warping one stargate in for corsairs. Again, Blade, ever the diligent scouter, finds the expansion attempt and sends in two control groups of lings to squash it and maintain containment. Those lings have +1 attack from the evo chamber, and Blade has started a hive to move to the final stage of his ling-muta combination. While pumping drones from his expansions to build his economy to massive proportions, he keeps massing a new fleet of mutalisks in his natural. Now, Thorn, after losing the cannon defenses at his natural, expands in complete force. His army of goons, scattered zealots and templar serve a little garrison duty while the expansion is warped. A few corsairs and templar form his Anti-Muta Special Ops force back near the main. As the expansion begins running, Blade's hive finishes and he morphs a greater spire, and finishes his crackling tech. The blue blobs of zerglings and mutalisks begin to fill the center area between the two bases. Thorn has a few cannons in his natural along with his main force. Cornered and outnumbered, can he turn the tables and regain his former position of control?
Probably Not (Final Attacks)
At this point, Blade has some fearsome tech in the form of +1 attack cracklings and +1 attack mutas with a greater spire. He knows right where Thorn is, what he has, what he needs, and how to stop him. Thorn has an expansion protected for now, and is finishing up the minerals in his main while he harvests from the fresh patches in his natural. His goons, zealots, corsairs and templar are not anxious to begin attacking anything, and attempt to hold off attacks until the Protoss economy can be bolstered. Blade is thinking about that need when he morphs about 6 guards and moves his mutalisks to the right side of the map. Continuing to cover his bases, he morphs sunkens at both of his new exp's to prevent drops, and keeps a bunch of control groups of cracklings at Thorn's front door. Moments before the guards finish, Blade makes his move. A swarm (probably numbering over 50) of cracklings races into the natural and
 | engages the forces there. The mutalisks make another forked economy attack, flying around behind the base and attacking from the south side. The combination attack works well, and Thorn's forces begin to crumble from the combined attack. As they fall, Thorn sends the templar and the sairs waiting in his base to turn the tide of the battle. However, Blade outguessed him and attacked from an angle with his guards, cutting off the reinforcements. This ensures the fall of the natural, which it does in a timely manner. The hordes soon turn their attention to the main. |
Thorn isn't a Hide-the-Pylon kind of a jackass, but he does like to fight to the last man. Instead of throwing the towel in, he manages to scrounge together some tough defenses in the face of huge opposition, and with virtually no minerals. First on his list is the group of guardians on his NW ledge just above his main. He can't get to the natural in time to save it, so he punishes the fleet at hand.
The templar and corsairs take a chunk of the fleet to hell with them, and two archons merge to defend against the tidal wave of cracklings approaching. Archons do very well against lings, but only to a point. Fighting all the way down, Thorn disappears beneath the swarms of Blade's forces. GG's are exchanged as the game closes. The final scores of the Mausoleum Melee are:
Key Maneuvers (Lessons Learned)
-Defending an early Zerg expansion against a Protoss rush is possibly the most important part of the game. Play like it is.
-When expanding, protect your valuble investment with defenses or garrison units. Those things are too vital to lose to a small force.
-Good micro is an excellent ability and should be highly valued. However, scouting and macro are more important. Keep the recon advantage, the unit advantage, and you'll have the advantage.
-JPEG pictures suck. They are gritty, dull, blurry, and distorted. GIF pictures are too large. My decision is obvious, and I apoligize. I did my best.
-Sorry about the Perfect Storm joke. I couldn't resist such an easy opportunity.
Thanks for reading...
-phoenix[LoD]
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