"ProtectorofAiur: Can I still see your boobs?"
-Drefsab
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| Empire Building }:) | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 06/18/99 04:06 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | Starcraft(1), Text Only(1) | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 8, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for Azhure: 6.4000 |   | It was 8pm on a Friday night. 2 of my SC-playing friends and I were blathering around on ICQ with nothing to do when one of them came up with a great idea: "Let's play some Starcraft!" Gotta give that boy credit - he's a genius!
Anyway, spurning laggy public b.net we logged onto our favourite FSGS server and started a ffa on Catwalk Alley (A 4-player-slot space platform map with lots of raised catwalks). I (Azhure) was top left, Protoss. Kamile was bottom right, Protoss and Evastorm was bottom left, Terran. Note: on Catwalk Alley, the south is a fair distance from the top so those two were literally right next to each other... heh heh.
I started out with my standard ffa build order: Scout on 6, Pylon on 7, Quote: "Damn - forgot to change race, ended up with Terran" on 8, heh, and get a small bunch of Zealots as anti-rush defence.
Meanwhile my wee little scouting probe found that the top right spot was valid real estate and moved south to see if he could find some friends to play with. He got to Kamile's (bottom right) spot in time to see a strange sight: An SCV warping in a Gateway? WTF?
Then I realised Evastorm had a lot to learn about scouting - like not attack-moving his SCV.
Anyway, I floated little Scoutie over and took a shot or two at his SCV which promptly turned in the face of a couple of Kamile's probes and zapped me back. I fled out of there and led it most of the way towards the top right position - I'm not above a little creative espionage :)
By this time I knew where both of my opponents were, had 6 Zealots ready to rumble and 4 more cooking in my 2 gates. Taking my small strike force I headed for bottom right since I knew Kamile was the best of the two and my biggest threat. Upon reaching his base I realised just how far I had had to walk from the top of the map as he now had roughly 8 Zealots and 2-3 Goons in front of a shield battery waiting for me! Deciding discretion was the better part of valour I turned tail and ran like a rabbit. (Brave Sir Robin ran away, bravely ran away away! - gratuitous Monty Python quote) My zealots didn't come out too well though, running back along Kamile's choke corridor they ran smack into Evastorm's attack force of 8 Marines! Disposing of the unstimmed marines easily my Zealots headed for Eva's base to see what they could find.
They found 2 bunkers.
With my abortive attack squad now puffs of blue smoke I surveyed the situation, took a swig of coke and decided it was time to execute my favourite strat.
EXPANSION GRABBING! (wuh! wuh! wuh! wuh!)
Sending a couple of probes to the junction where the choke corridors of the TL & TR positions met, I proceeded to set up a sweet little defence. 3 Pylons powering a few cannons up the choke to my base. They were just far enough up to attract the attention of any enemies running through the junction. I also camped a bunch of Zealots and Goons up the other junction ready to spring the trap on the poor sucker who charged the cannons, heh.
While The cannons were warping in I took the expansions to the right and south of my start, fortifying with a few cannons and Templar. When the cash began to roll in I threw up my obligatory 3 Stargates and contacted Aiur with an order for a buttload of Carriers }:)
I also began pumping enough observers to have almost total map recon }:)
Scouting my two worthy opponents I saw they were embroiled in deep battle for the southern expansion between their two bases. Kamile had control over it, but Evastorm's tanks periodically set up on the catwalk surrounding it to take pot-shots. Kamile's Templar had something to say about it though, so the battle was pretty well stalemate. I noticed that Kamile had no other expansions and Evastorm had none at all! It looked like my gamble was paying off - I was now rolling in cash and was eyeing the top right spot as an expansion too.
With my carriers still warping and only a few Corsairs and Scouts as my air force I decided Kamile needed a lesson in not becoming absorbed with 1 opponent in a 3ffa }:)
Loading up about 6-7 shuttles (heh) with troops I sent them to the expansion just above Kamile's main to rendezvous with my web-packing corsairs. A few quick webs put Kamile's cannons out of action and his Templars were mostly defending his expansion so I had little resistance as my 4 Reavers and Zealot backup tore into his base - notably his Stargates and Templar Archives. Kamile wasn't totally unprepared, however and I had apparantly attacked during a lull in his ongoing battle with Evastorm, as he stormed my Reavers unexpectedly (damn those Templar hidden behind the Nexus!). Only 1 reaver survived this and he promptly Mind Controlled it and tore sweet hell out of my Zealots. He drove me off, but I had inflicted sufficient damage for it to be worth it.
Still - I wasn't happy, and when I'm not happy I'm at my most dangerous }:)
I now had 6, 3/1/3, maxed interceptor badasses "awaiting command" at my Stargates. Beefcake... BEEFCAKE!
Glancing at the minimap I saw that Evastorm had finally realised the need for a larger cash flow and was in the process of building at the spot right above him. Assuming a Russian accent I muttered under my breath: "So Mr Evastorm. You sink you can get avay vith expanding vithout reprisal eh?"
Sending my carriers (plus corsair/scout support) to just above Evastorm's half-built expansion I waited until his Command Centre was complete (hehehe) and then moved in.
Disruption Web everywhere! Interceptors flying! Exploding SCVs and Marines by the dozen! And when the smoke and interceptors cleared there was a whole lotta rubble as well. }:)
With a quick: "heh heh" to Evastorm I retreated my fleet and concentrated on reinforcing my Carriers with - what else? - MORE Carriers! eheheheheehehehehehe... Damn I love having the combined income of 4 bases, even if one of them is nearly dry.
And speaking of nearly dry resources, Evastorm was clearly hurting for cash as his main base's minerals were down to 4 nearly-depleted patches and a depleted geyser.
Then came what was probably the piece de resistance of the whole game... I was idly surveying the ruins of Eva's failed expansion when from the edge of the fog'o'war I saw one of the funniest sights I've seen in a game of SC for a long time. One lonely marine with the white swirls of a Defensive Matrix around him edging forward one step at a time. He was scouting to see if I was still around his expansion and being a total wuss about it too! I could almost picture the shitscared little marine commando-crawling his way across the Space Platform and watching the skies like a neurotic farmer with flying cows!
Well ok, maybe you had to be there but it was funny at the time. I left the marine to his own amusements and sent my fleet of now 8 Carriers to Kamile's base... it was time to finish what I had started }:)
Kamile's comment: "Meanwhile Az builds up a huge army" couldn't have come at a better time. With the innocent reply: "Who? Me? }:)" I 'Webbed Kamile's base liberally and began the carnage. I must give Kamile credit, however - he didn't panic and he didn't go down meekly. Psi Storms zapped, interceptors flew, Dark Archons Controlled 2 of my Carriers... grr... and finally when the vast majority of his base was gone I only had 5 Carriers, 2 Corsairs and 3 Scouts left. Of course - he only had 2 Pylons and a few Cannons left (oh, and 1 half-dead Dragoon!) so I was satisfied that I had made a reckoning =)
I considered moving on to his expansion and finishing him, but I decided to hurt Evastorm some more for the sake of balance =) He had rebuilt his expansion and now had a few Cruisers and SVs defending it along with his usual Goliaths and Turrets. Most of his army was there but to get to his main I had to go through either his expansion or the edge of Kamile's where half a dozen bloodthirsty Templar waited for revenge.
So after reinforcing my "omnipresent fleet'o'doom" as Evastorm put it and recharging shields back home I moved in on Eva's expansion with an evil gleam in my eye.
It was a harder fight than I expected from Eva (partly because Kamile had told him, when it became clear that his main was lost, to build Goliaths and Valks... grr). I think I outdid myself with unit control in this battle though and came through it with the loss of only 2 corsairs. =)
When his expansion was gone, I thought: What the heck, and just kept on heading south into his main!
I had enough energy left to render his meagre defensive turrets inoperative and reinforcements in the form of shuttles with Reavers, Zealots and Dark Templar (yay!). I got my interceptors to ask directions from a lonely Valkyrie along the way but for some reason she died before telling me anything so I just turned left at the Command Centre and continued through Eva's base until I reached Kamile's. Being one who always finishes what I start, I just kept on going there too! Although my shuttles were speedy enough and his Cannons dwebbed enough that my reavers made scarab-bait out of his Templars he still stormed my fleet a few times and my escorrt was reduced to 2 lonely Corsairs. Oh yeah - that Dragoon that I spared in his main? I killed it too =)
But then my ever-present observers noticed something that pissed my off mightily. I had used my favourite strat to win the game, but Kamile had used his too. Except his is not for winning games - it is for pissing off the winners... grr
That's right - he slipped about 8-9 probes and 2 shuttles out the back door to play HUNT THAT PYLON!
grr...
Anyway, after I laid waste to Kamile's last stronghold I divided my fastest troops up and put them on patrol all over the map... he was hiding pylons everywhere and he had enough spare minerals (he knew he was going to lose so he saved 'em up the bastard) to make hunting them down a real pain in the nether regions.
With Kamile's game-show host comments filling the screen (as well as Evastorm's bored spamming from the chatroom) I finally took down all his probes, shuttles (chased one across the whole map with corsairs before 2 scouts ambushed and killed it) and finally, thankfully, PYLONS!
"gg"
"Player Kamile has left the game"
"Congratulations - you are victorious!"
And a fine time was had by all!
-Azhure
What's that? You want one of those "Lessons Learned" things at the end? Oh bloody hell... all right...
1) Don't become so absorbed in your battles that you forget about the game at large. I was wide open to attack for the early-mid part of the game but those two were too embroiled in their battles to pay me any attention.
2) You've GOTTA have good recon - I could see virtually the whole map for most of the game while Kamile only had a few observers and Evastorm was relying on Comsats and... heh... Matrixed Marines for recon =)
3) Don't run with scissors - you might cut yourself.
Happy now? Good :)
Thanks for reading and you guys better gimme a Gold Bengalaas too...
-Az |
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