""Checkmate," i said, "I just blew the @#$% out of your sorry-ass king."
-excerpt from "The Fate of Jamellan"
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| 3FFA on Dire Straits...Not Temple Like My Last 2 | | | Author: | | | IP: | ool-18bcXXXX | | Date: | 12/05/00 01:12 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 7, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for Khas'andro: |  |
Warning: This battle report was specially designed to eliminate all hamsters. Resistance is futile. (Give it an hour or two, ok?)
I was in a bad mood. I was surfing games in ~NoHunters for the whole weekend, and it was Sunday already. I had some PSP techniques that I wanted to try, but, unfortunately, I couldn't find any good games.
I had decided to watch a game between Selequist and king..diamond. However, Selequist convinced me not to BR it, as he swore that Protoss was his worst race. King won, as far as I can remember. We had agreed to do a 4FFA afterwards, which I lost, but not without greatly cheeseing everyone by rebuilding my base twice ^^. We decided to play another game, but this time, me and Selequist were going to watch.
Hate~Incarnate, the fourth person from our earlier FFA, agreed to play. AIStyles wanted to watch, but we convinced him to play. Little did I know that this would be one of the most interesting games I had ever watched.
A few hours ago on a computer about 6 inches away from me...
We'd chosen to play on Dire Straits after I pleaded them not to play on Temple. I didn't want a third BR on the Lost Temple. All three players randomed, to improve the challenge. AIStyles was the bright yellow Zerg, his Hatchery taking shape at the northwest island. Both Hate~Incarnate and king..diamond drew Terran, but king became the mysterious orange Terran at the southwest island while Hate drew the proud blue Terran and the southeastern island.
Note from author: king..diamond had accidentally revealed himself to be Darth..Sidious after accidentally saying that the game name and password would be "darth1/1" instead of "king1/1" ^^.
Now, for something that I've never tried before. In hope to shorten the overall length of this long game, I have created the following picture to save time. The bad news is that this may slaughter your poor, defenseless hamsters.
You will be obliged to notice that king and Hate took almost exactly the same build order for their starts. The command centers were built at the edges of their mains and floated to the nearest island, as were the barracks. I don't know why Hate built his depot after king, although maybe it's just because I can't count.
Meanwhile, our resident Zerg, Styles, has pronounced himself to "have less skill than a yam", while the other players and Selequist, my fellow observer, prattle on about "banaynays" and "ate"ing them. More on that later. Styles makes a relatively late spawning pool, and proceeds to build spore colonies to defend his Hive Cluster.
Styles has added a Lair and a Spire to his main, while the Terrans have floated their extra Command Centers and Barracks to grab early expansions. Styles eagerly awaits the birth of 6 mutas who, when born, are sent straight to king's mineral line. However, king has managed to erect (no pun intended) an engineering bay and a factory. The engineering bay is floated toward the southeast island to scout for enemy presence. It has also allowed king to defend himself with turrets. However, Styles' mutas fit right in the middle, just out of range of both turrets. king quickly begins construction of another turret, while sending some marines to deter the mutalisks. They fly away, obviously seeking easier prey. Easier prey is found.
Flying to the east, Styles' mutalisks find king's floating engineering bay. It has discovered the blue terrans, and has begun to retreat back to king's main. However, the six mutalisks aren't going to let that happen. They begin releasing their Glave Wurms to destroy the offending engineering bay. They succeed. However, I notice that Styles is NOT the king of macro. He is far from it. During his whole sortie with the Mutalisks, Styles has not made even ONE new unit. Also, he has very few drones mining minerals, less than one per patch. He's also way behind in expansions count.
Hate is yet to be injured. He has constructed two Factories and an engineering bay while king and Styles duked it out. Shortly after the attack, king builds an Academy and a StarPort. Hate also makes a StarPort and an Academy, followed by some more StarPorts. Out of one of king's StarPorts, with a brand new Control Tower, pops a Dropship. The dropship picks up some marines, medics, and an SCV, and head off to the notherwestern island.
The SCV's purpose is at first unknown to me, but hey, I'm just a dumbass observer. I'm here to be made fun of. Anyways, the dropships drop off their cargo and zoom back to their base. The SCV begins constrcution just off the edges of the Zerg creep, but an ansey Marine ruins the surprise. A potshot is taken at a drone, and soon Styles' much increased Mutalisk army is tearing the small Terran army to pieces. During this whole ordeal, Hate has taken advantage of his "peace" and expanded to the mid right island. You know, the one with a shitload of minerals? But the one on the right.
Styles is still lacking an expansion, while king grabs the middle left island expansion, between him and Styles, and Hate already has two expansions. Hate is taking great advantage of the lack of attacks on him and is massing Medics, Marines, and Wraiths. king is construction masses of Science Vessels. Using the short quiet time, Styles expands to the top middle island, his first expansion.
Hate adds a Science facility to his structures, and Styles morphs a Queen's Nest. Now, it's time for that one thing I've never done before...what's that? No, I'm not gonna write a good BR, I'm gonna show you the first of two Upgrade Update pictures.
The picture shows the upgrades of units that each player is using. As you can see, Style and king are going for pretty much only Mutalisks and Marines, respectively. Hate, meanwhile, is making both Wraiths, Marines, and Goliaths, along with some Siege Tanks in the mix.
At this point in the game, Style has begun morphing his Lair into a Hive. king floats a Command Center over to the unoccupied island expansion in the middle (the other one with a shitload of minerals). He also loads some some more marines into two dropships to Style' main. The marines are dropped on the edge of the island, but an Overlord spots the attack, and the marines are quickly defeated. As seen in the picture, I realize that Stimpacks could have turned the tide of the battle. king isn't one to sit back however, and he loads another squad of Marines into a dropship as he sends his formidible Science Vessel squad to attack again. An Overlord spots the incoming vessels and dropship, and the Muatlisks are again sent to intercept. However, due to crappy micro on Style' part and great Irradiating by king, many mutalisks die this day. The rest are wiped out by the Marines and Medics in the dropship that just arrived.
However, that's not all Styles has. He has begun a Hydralisk Den, and has had a Greater Spire for some time now, so he has a good 6 Guardians. As all competent players know, Guardians own infantry. Badly. Worse than I own myself. The marines are mowed down like grass under 15 lawnmowers. Sadly, however, a Guardian's greatest enemy is Irradiate, and all die to its powers. king has yet another drop prepared, however, but this would be one of his last, as his Marine count was dropping, and he wasn't making more.
king pulls of his final, fatal drop on Styles. Styles has barely been able to build 4 more Mutalisks, while his Hydralisk count slowly increases. Seeing the drop coming, he morphs his Mutalisks into Guardians, sending his Hydralisks to defend them. However, the Hydralisks die quickly to the Marines with Medic support. The Cocoons soon follow their lesser brethren. The Zerg main is razed by king's medarine drop. All that Styles has left is his expansion, which will soon fall. king loads his Marines and single Medic back into the dropships and moves to drop on Styles' expansion. He begins to raze the base, but Hate's wraiths cloak and move in, killing all of the Marines and razing the Zerg base. Styles has lost, and he leaves the game without a single "gg". Meanwhile, king has expanded to the northeast main, and has set up shop there, but, while he is attacking Styles, Hate drops some Marines and Medics on the undefended base, and it is taken forcefully from king.
During most of this BR, the action has been focused on king and Styles. Now, Styles is gone, and it's time for Hate to come into the picture. He's been building up a victory fleet of Battlecruisers, Science Vessels, and Wraiths to bring about the defeat of king. However, there is one small flaw.
king has Cloaked Wraiths. Hate has one Science Vessel. Using his impressive micro, king blows away the single Science Vessel, and his Wraiths lay waste to the rest of the poorly planned "Victory Fleet". king, content with his destructive tendencies, expands to Styles' old expansion.
However, a Science Facility doesn't just enable Science Vessels and Battlecruisers. Using liftoff and his resources, Hate has built up two nuclear missles and a small group of ghosts. He drops a Ghost at king's main, unbeknownst to everyone except Hate himself, and only do we learn of his plot when  appears on everyone's screen.
I search frantically for the ghost on the minimap, as I'm sure king is doing at the same time. I finally find it, as shown in this minimap picture, doctored greatly by PSP ^^. The following is depicted in the following picture, rated R for Really, Really Destructive:
But it doesn't end there. The ghost knows he has done well, and Hate orders him to nuke king again, this time at his clustered Supply Depots. The following animated gif is given a rating of NSFPWDLE: Not Suitable for People Who Don't Like Explosions.
That one was a LOT better than the first, wasn't it?
Hate also drops on king's nuked main with Goliaths supported by Cloaked Wraiths. Sadly, however, these Wraiths appear to be low on energy, and king's hastily built turrets are able to damage them enough that his clustered units can easily defeat them when the turrets are destroyed. (Weakened Wraiths + No Cloak)/Marines = Dead Wraiths. More Wraiths soon take their place at king's "natural" island, the one to the north of his starting isle. They tear the undefended base to shreds with their burst lasers, and Hate seems content. He has also decided to begin developing the northeast main, which he evilly stole from king's hands earlier.
Hate is massing mostly Marines, and sends another Ghost to check out Styles' old expansion, which king has graciously taken up residence on. Half the base and the Ghost are taken to the next world by the all-powerful nuclear missle. Hate drops his Marines and Goliaths on king's base, followed by a rebuilt force of Battlecruisers. A Ghost sneakily steps into king's base, but he is blown away by unsieged Tanks. king's Goliaths kill a Battlecruiser, but more move to take its place.
Time for that wonderful thing that everyone loves to see and I hate to do, the Upgrade Update!!
Lots of action is taking place at the northeast main, as, at this point in the game, it is the only island whose mineral patches all have over 1000 minerals. I made this statement earlier in the game, and it looks like it may come true:
Hate drops on king again, this time with many Tanks and Marines. king has Tanks of his own, and they duke it out. The final blue tanks are destroyed when king moves his Tanks right next to one of the enemy sieged Tanks. Now, comes what ranks as the stupidest thing done this game, next to letting AIStyles play:Yessir, king has accidentally Irradiated a Goliath in a botched attempt to DMatrix it as it moves into battle. As you can see, both me and Selequist (the other observer, remember?) are cracked up by it, and Hate has no idea what the fuck is going on.
king finally takes the initiative, after an invitation by Hate. He transports his units across the small hop between his main and Hate's main. With one dropship. Hate comsats the area, and, upon seeing the massing forces, yells "HOLY SHIT" and sends his forces to attack. His forces outnumber king's, and they are victorious. king could have prevented this if he had used more than one dropship.
Hate drops on the northeast main AGAIN, and for the umpteenth time, wins it back from king. Seeing his forces destroyed, king makes a noble decision.
king does the only noble thing, and surrenders to Hate. I accept this sad ending to a great game, but king, Hate, and Selequist convince me to BR it anyway. It was a great game, lasted a long time, and almost mined out Dire Sraits. Here are the scores:
Lessons Learned:
- Crappy micro vs. Good Micro = Dead Zerg
- Plan your attack forces well. Hate lost many battles because of a lack of detection.
- Animated Nuke gifs own you. Nukes own you, especially in a TvT. Burning buildings are evil.
- My stupidity is a gift from God. Don't dis it.
This has been a
Khas'andro Production.
And now, I'll leave you with this wonderful animated gif of a "Dragoon Orgy" I observed during a 4 person FFA on Sherwood Forest:
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