Sanctuary 2v2
Welcome to my first battlereport... my primary goal is to get feedback to improve my play, so please comment on strategy and that sort of thing. Secondly I am trying to be entertaining, so if you critique my writing I will try to improve in the future. And yes this is text-only... I'm starting simple. On to the match:
Pre-Game
Sanctuary: This map is a nice, although smallish, 2v2 or 4FFA map; it's rushable but has some nice chokepoints so early defense is possible. The mineral & gas local is a little beyond your most defenseable choke. There are four expansion sites in the central neutral territory; and all sites including the mains are vulnerable to cliff siege, to varying degrees. The game started when Pimpalisk and I created a "pubbie" 2v2 join!!, but as usual on a non-Temple map the opponents were of a relatively high caliber.
Home Team
Smackemupagus: I'm a pretty average player, I'm pretty competent with Zerg and my T and P play has been improving since I started hanging in NH. I appeared in a couple of Cyn's reports as [TA]Ramius (my tournament name) so you can check out the 2v2 Cornell series to verify that I am in need of some help :) Randomed to Terran in Southeast.
Pimpalisk: My neighbor IRL and one of my longtime 2v2 partners. Generally Pimp is a little better player than myself, because he is usually very decisive strategically. Randomed to Terran in Northeast.
Away Team
HyKe: A NH'er who happened to wander into our game, HyKe was obviously a little disadvantaged since he got a random partner. HyKe seemed to be one step ahead of us throughout the match and was a challenging opponent. From my vantage point I'm sure I missed a lot of the details of HyKe's play, since he landed as Zerg in the farthest corner of the map from me, the Northwest.
PubExecutor: Unfortunately I don't remember this player's name, but as far as I know he was a random pubbie. Still, he seemed to be a smart player (I'm sure HyKe can confirm or deny that). He set up camp as Protoss in the Southwest.
Breakdown: While our opponents' P/Z combo has a lot of flexibility and firepower, I felt pretty confident as T/T on this map. With money in short supply we hoped to prevent the Protoss from teching too hard, while exploiting the cliffs in as cheesey a manner as possible.
Build Orders
I decided early on to tech quickly for drop, while Pimpalisk chose to supply more ground forces initially and follow a little later with Drop tech. My build was: 8Supply, 9Rax, 10Supply to form a wallin; 10Gas, build a couple 'Rines and then Fact around 13 when Gas allowed. Then Starport as soon as the Factory was done, and built a dropship before any tanks. Pimp went something along the lines of Rax, Rax, Acad, Fact; and a bunker near the minerals rather than wall-in.
Our initial scouts revealed that the PubExecutor had built a Forge alongside his initial Gate, and that HyKe had set down a hatch at his natural. Therefore we decided that our initial strike would be against the Zerg opponent. Pimp directed that I attempt cliff seige against the primary hive cluster, while he assaulted the expansion.
First Strike
My first dropship loaded up 2 SCV's and 4 marines. My lone non-seiged tank was occupied repelling a handful of zealots from my choke (without the wallin, I would have been severly hurt). The SCV's quickly set up a turret and bunker on the narrow ridge above the extractor, while my machine shop churned away and a couple wraiths were queued-up in the Starport. The dropship quickly returned to retreive the tank, and the first Wraith accompanied it back to the site of the offensive as a spotter. Luckily my simple-minded attack was successful, and for the moment I was able to deny HyKe his gas and at least half the crystal mine. However Pimpalisk's northern offensive was bogged down by HyKe's mixed-infantry horde, and the Zerg maintained the gas & mineral income from his colony, while acheiving Lair tech.
The Counterstrike...
Meanwhile my second Wraith observed a Nexus warping in at the Protoss expansion! Since we had not yet expanded, I knew we would have to repel this attempt as well to stay competitive. Still, I needed to power up my infrastructure, since my early tech left me short on production. I added a Rax, Fact, Ebay and Armory; built a second dropship and started a CC in my main. Still short on troops, I left a lone Tank to protect my minerals and continued to hope that my wall was adequate ground defense. A crew of SCV's, a few mixed infantry and two Tanks soon departed for the large plateau overlooking the PubExecutor's expansion site. While the Tanks stayed back, holding fire, the SCV's hurried to complete a turret and bunker. Meanwhile my first ComSat revealed a completed Templar Archives... so i lost precious time setting up the seige while I frantically threw down a couple turrets in my main. By the time I sieged up the tanks, a lone High Temp was in position to damage them both with Storm before dying a warrior's valiant death. A follow-up strike of shuttled zealots killed one tank... but the other was saved by a hair's breadth by the Firebats on the the cliff. The single tank finished off the Assimilator and began work on the Nexus, while his shuttles and my dropships frantically raced home for reinforcements.
The warning klaxon was still ringing... and I saw that my seige at HyKe's cliff was being destroyed. The Zerg had appearantly completed Drop tech, as well as Overlord speed. Unable to spare troops to send to the Northern theatre, I warned my ally to try to reinforce that site; which after a struggle he was able to do (for now). Meanwhile I floated my new CC to my expansion and added some light defense of marines and tanks; while Pimpalisk was constructing a CC at his local.
The Darkest Hour...
In this period our opponents came very close to taking over the game. I built some Goliaths and Valks to help maintain control of the enemy cliff; my modest airforce now contained about 4 Wraiths as well. These, along with some fresh tanks, began the trek back to the front lines. Unfortunately, PubExecutor's crew arrived first, and the Zealots and Templar eliminated my entrenchments. I ordered the tank to maintain it's fire on the flaming Nexus, and it completed the task just in time. After a brief firefight, my fresh Goliaths were dismantled by the speedy Zeals, although they bought enough time for a squad of stimmed Marines to assassinate the mana-depleted Templar. However, I hadn't been thinking ahead far enough to calculate what my gas-starved enemy would do next... he blitzed my budding expansion with around 15 of his speedy zeals. The bunkers and tanks there quickly fell; the Command Center lifted and my empty dropships raced home to save some of the panicked SCV's. I queued up some Bats and Vultures and cried for help; a few of Pimpalisk's tanks landed by my wall. Still the Zealots razed everything in their path; heedless of the Arclite shells and pitiful burst-laser assaults. Frenzied, they battered on the chokepoint wall while SCV's frantically repaired the structures. When it was all over, my entire standing army (less a few Firebats and my airforce) had been destroyed; over 10 SCVs perished (although about 8 were evacuated); my supply was in the red; and my main was depleted of minerals. Still I had a couple hundred in the bank, and soon some calm was restored as my local was back on line.
Pimpalisk was not so lucky. His local had been denied by attacks from HyKe, and he was really hurting for cash. He started SciV production to utilize the gas surplus, while I laid down some mines and built Bats. This tactic paid off, as I was able to repel a follow-up Zealot invasion. I built a Sci Facility primarily to allow further upgrades; and as soon as my cash flow was restored I landed two dropships of M&M, SCV and Golis to retake the critical southern plateau. Luckily they encountered only the few wounded zealots that remained on guard duty; and I rebuilt my seige defenses while the dropships hurried home to fetch tanks. Psistorm soon claimed the lives of all the infantry outside the bunker; and the remainder of the detachment, including the newly arrived tanks, was dispatched by shuttles full of angry zealots.
HyKe Breaks Out
During this period, my recon on HyKe had slipped. I assumed that he was teching for Zerg air and I was counting on my little squad of Wraiths and Valks for protection. I was wrong. He had claimed a central gas & min node, and had plenty of income. Suddenly Pimpalisk said, "ULTRAS", and sure enough, a tank push by my ally had arrived at HyKe's new col just in time to see a Cavern, and a whole bunch of larvae turn into eggs at the same time. His Firebats and my Wraiths were, needless to say, not terribly effective against the beasts when they hatched, and the push was routed. Within seconds, a whole bunch of the bastards rolled into Pimpalisk's newest attempt at an expansion and razed everything that couldn't float. I redirected my dropships to land some Tanks on the highground to dispatch the Ultras, finally; although HyKe wisely placed some lurkers behind the minerals where I couldn't get at them; and once again Pimpalisk's expansion was denied for quite some time, until SciV's arrived.
Aftermath
After this bloody war of attrition, the end of the match was almost anticlimatic. There were three more small but decisive battles. Pimpalisk was able to land a small squad of troops on the ridge overlooking HyKe's new base, under cover of my air Corps and his SciV's, and the seige was successful. I assume that HyKe's main and local were mined out.
Second, the PubExecutor blitzed my expansion one last time. He, indeed, forced me to lift the CC temporarily and evacuate the SCVs into drops that were hovering over the minerals. Still, some spider mines took their toll and Bats and Meds toasted the intruders. Finally, I loaded up all of my troops (only 3 dropships worth) and headed for the southern plateau. PubExecutor had a few Corsairs and a couple Scouts on patrol, but unupgraded; and my small but veteran fleet, at 2/2, destroyed the Protoss craft. The assault squad landed unopposed and blew away the expansion one last time; and our opponents conceeded.
Epilouge
The game was played well by our opponents, especially considering that Pimpalisk and I had the advantage of choosing the map, and that we knew each other's playing style etc. Our whole game relied upon making use of the pro-Terran elements of the map, so we were smiled upon by the "Random" gods, I suppose. Hope you got some enjoyment out of this report and please comment or critique.
-Smackemupaugus
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