"Wait I know! You could NUKE the ultras... "hold still". "
-YourRoleModel
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| An Observer Story | | | Author: | | | IP: | proxy7.sXXXX | | Date: | 04/22/01 11:04 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 8, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for [SM]Strega~F: 7.2000 |  |
Welcome one and all, (except you bums who don't appreciate how much work us BRers put into our reports when we could be doing something other than keep you entertained!!!) to my very first super-special promo-edition observer-type battle report. Yes, that's right folks. This isn't one of my first-person self-promoting type report, it actually has decent players in it!
So, let's meet the players shall we?
First up, we have Estrogen, who is better known as (drum roll please) CrackHeadJeb.
And if you don't believe me, take it from the man himself :  An excellent player and reporter alike, the most talked about crackhead on the net. You know him, you love him, need I say more?
Next we have Estrogen's partner, @Ghostbuster@. I personally don't know him as I am new onto the BR.com and NH scene, but he says that terran is his worst race. Let's see how he fares with the "worst."
On the other side of the fuzzy dice that is B.net, we have Heckapotamus who is, I am told, an ancient warlord ninja now working at the drug store on 54th street. Can his drug-induced ninja skills prevail? Only time will tell. And me, I'll tell you.
His partner is known only as l-laplo, a mysterious warrior that came from nowhere and probably went back there later. But for now, he will be bathed in fame and fortune through the whimsical, yet tantalizing, writings of myself, The Strega.
Last up we have my fellow observer, Nugentlovin. He can be seen throughout the various pics with funny comments. Here are a few that I couldn't really put into a pic of their own, because they are just plain funny and unrelated to what was happening in the game.
 
The first quote came about when he asked me if I knew any of the players. I said that I knew Estrogen a little, and that is what he came up with. The second one came about when a scouting SCV started beating on a command centre (can't remember exactly which players though).
Well, I expect you want to read the report now, or else run away screaming obscenities about CHJ and Nugent, but that's not something I want to hear about. So, on with the game!
As you all should have realised by now, the teams are Estrogen and @Ghostbuster@ versus Heckapotamus and Haplo, with Heckapotamus being zerg and the rest being terran.
While the early game is the most important for the player, I find that it usually doesn't make much of an impact on the reader. Nevertheless, here are the early build orders for the players.
Estrogen : Standard depot, rax, depot wall-in followed by another rax, then an academy and gas, then another rax and a comsat. A while after this he built an engineering bay.
@Ghostbuster@ : An unusual wall-in, with 2 barracks' and a depot but a bit further back from the normal wall-in spot. Obviously going to place another depot in the extra space left over. Next came in gas and an academy, followed by a factory.
Heckapotamus : Hatchery at natural followed by a pool in his main. Then came gas, another hatchery in main and then a hydra den. A lair followed in order to get lurker technology.
Haplo : The only terran to not do a wall-in this game, Haplo built 2 barracks' and a depot, then gas, a factory, then a starport. Obviously teching, but what to?
Upon building another depot for his oddly-shaped wall-in, @Ghostbuster@ was double rushed by the opposition. Heckapotamus sent in 4 zerglings along with Haplo's 5 marines. As defenders, @Ghostbuster@ had 1 marine with more being built, and also his factory was alive producing vultures.
A lucky call for both Ghost and myself, because I don't think a death so early would make for a quality BR... He managed to hold off the attackers with constant marines from his 2 barracks' and a few vultures from his single factory. Also, Estrogen sent over some marines to help out but ended up just waiting inside Ghost's base for the next attack, as they arrived just as the enemy were eliminated.
Venting his anger at missing out on the action, Estrogen sent most of his marines towards the only zerg player in the game.
Sending 8 marines, Estrogen obviously hoped to get in a good counter-attack. This was just not meant to be though, as they met up with 2 sunkens and 2 zerglings initially, then Heckapotamus brought in 6 more zerglings and the marines were soon dead. They did perform some good reconnaissance however, but all they managed to achieve other than that was to die a smooshy death and take 5 lings and a sunken with them.
The game progressed a bit further and each player built up their respective armies. In an attempt to bring down one of their opponents, Heckapotamus and Haplo join forces once again and deploy their units outside of Estrogen's base. In total, there was 7 zerglings, 4 marines and a vulture assaulting a wall-in, a medic, marine and firebat.
The marine did his best to ward off the zerglings before they broke through the wall-in, but just couldn't kill them quick enough. Shortly afterwards, Estrogen's ranks were blessed with another medic, then another marine. The firebat was the start though, as he slaughtered the zerglings as soon as the wall-in went down, and then proceeded to hurt the enemy marines before finally falling to vulture fire. Excellent micro was needed due to Estrogen just having attacked his zerg opponent, and this micro was found.
At around about the same time as Estrogen was fighting off the small incursion into his base, Heckapotamus took it upon himself to blast his way into Ghost's base with 2 lurkers, but recently placed mines (due to another factory having been built) stopped these monsters before they could even get off 1 shot.
Let's take a little recap of events shall we? First off, scouting ensued as per normal. Nothing exciting. The zerg/terran combo rushed in to meet Ghost but didn't succeed in eliminating him. Then, Estrogen marched into Hackapotamus's base with 8 marines but fell to a couple of sunkens and a few zerglings. Countering this counter, Team H (Heckapotamus and Haplo) went to test red's skills and were severely beaten by fewer units than they had. This was at the same time as 2 lurkers tried to gain access to Ghost's base, but died before getting to fire.
After this little period of small battles with nothing really being achieved except Team H holding up their opponents, we finally get to find out what Haplo was teching towards. Wraiths! Yes, those annoyingly fragile little bastards. But what to do with them? It was decided that Estrogen was the stronger opponent and as such must be eliminated. The 2 wraiths were deployed behind enemy lines and started hacking up (in their own agonizingly slow way) the SCVs in Estrogen's mineral line. Here's a visual aid for the entirely unimaginative of you :
To clear away these pests Estrogen took into account that he had lots of SCVs, wraith ground attack sucks, and he had an E-bay. So, what does he do? That's right! Upgrades! No, err wait... Hmmm... Oh yes, that's right, turrets! Oblivious to this fact was Haplo who must've had his wraiths on hold position or something, because they went down very quickly after the turrets came online. I don't have a screen shot of this though, as something else was happening. Something big. Something hilariously efficient (is that possible?).
Our hero Ghost had not been idle throughout the game though. He had a tank, a couple of vultures (3 if I remember correctly) and some marines with more of everything coming in. However, the constant pressure of being attacked every couple of minutes all game had taken it's toll. Opting to get more units rather than complete the wall-in again, Ghost was open for attack, and that is what happened.
To start with, Haplo charged head first into the spider mines with some marines, then came the real problem. Lurkers. With the mines' invaluable damage not being done to them, and Ghost not having comsat, the defenders went down quicker than I thought possible. At this same time Estrogen had something up his sleeve, but couldn't help out his partner at that point.
As soon as Ghost lifted off his barracks to escape the deadly spines from the lurkers, Haplo's wraiths came in and started pounding on it from the sky. Knowing that it was all over for him, Ghost took to the sky with all his available flying buildings and raced (hehe) towards the safety of his partner's base. This all went to shit though when Heckapotamus brought in some hydralisks and zerglings to finish off his opponent quicker. Somehow escaping with an SCV, Ghost half-built a supply depot in the middle of the map so that he could reach safety and start a building before all of his remaining one's were destroyed.
Well, that surprise that Estrogen had? Yup, M&M all the way. 28 marines backed by 8 medics, this deadly combo was seeking revenge in the form of Heckapotamus. What he didn't know, however, was that if he had attacked Haplo at this point in time he would've easily eliminated him and it would've become a 1 on 1 of sorts. But, that's just not what happened.
Crashing into a couple of sunkens and a lot of hydralisks returning from destroying Ghost's base, the M&M pushed forward and destroyed the only expansion at that point in the entire game. With the help of a newly created science vessel, the red marines pushed deeper into Heckapotamus's base and continued killing everything in sight. Stemming the tide of battle was the fact that the vessel didn't have irradiate at that moment. So, unfortunately for Estrogen, his M&M attack died at the hands (?) of 2 lurkers conveniently located behind a hatchery. Great damage was done, but not quite enough, as this attack brought the zerg to his senses. With death so nearly produced, he would be forced to expand in order for something like this to not happen again.
Bringing around an ultimatum, Estrogen had made it all too clear that he meant business and had the firepower to back it up. This and the fact that he occupied the final site for his team brought about the wrath of one Mr Haplo. Constant production, higher ground and amazing micro lead to Estrogen being able to hold off this counter with relative ease. The problem still remained though. What could Ghost possibly do? He had a half finished depot in his partner's main and was constructing a command centre at the bottom of the ramp, but what else could he do? The answer was : Nothing. 1 SCV and no finished buildings meant that he was effectively out of the game.
There was a slight lull in the action after this, and Heckapotamus took this oppurtunity to secure his survival for a while longer by expanding to orange's old main. Then suddenly everything started happening again, as if they all realised at the same time that they were playing StarCraft and not chess. Estrogen took out his next batch of M&M, this time consisting of 8 marines and 8 medics (left over from the first M&M experience) and headed off towards Heckapotamus's base once again. Also, at nearly the exact same time, Haplo brought out his biggest attack yet. They reached their target first, though.
Smashing into the enemy with 5 marines, 3 vultures and 6 wraiths, Haplo had encountered absolutely no resistance apart from the occasional marine that popped out of a barracks. It's also a good time to note that Ghost's CC had finished building just as they hit and took the distraction of a few marines of Estrogen's to fly away.
Another CC comes into play here, and that's the one that just finished building for Estrogen who planned to float it down to his expansion. This acted as another distraction, giving his main CC plenty of time to run to the north-west island. With his base in ruins beyond salvage, Estrogen decided to kill Heckapotamus once and for all.
Joined up with 2 science vessels that manged to make it out of his base alive, Estrogen proceeded to pummell into Heckapotamus again. The M&M combo went unhindered after the lurkers at the ramp were killed by irradiate, and started levelling the base in record time. Unluckily though, his nemisis had expanded and this gave Estrogen a kick in the nuts like no other. Unable to fully wipe out his opponent, he decided to do the honorable thing and babble incoherently. Even vultures and wraiths from Haplo could not remove the marines from the zerg's ruins of a base.
The reason that Estrogen went pretty much unopposed into Heckapotamus's base was because of a certain little drop that he had in mind. Yes, that's right, the lair wasn't only for lurker aspect, but for overlord speed and carrying capabilities aswell. Dropping a dozen zerglings onto a base may sound stupid, but being effective with them sound's even more stupid. Well, that is, they were effective up until the SCVs got pissed off and started hacking away at the little bastards. And the SCVs beat them too! But these brave hillbillies found the end when they tried to take out marines, vultures and wraiths. Oh well.
Also as a side note, Ghost had reached the cliff overlooking Heckapotamus's natural, and Estrogen had reached the north-west island with his CC, but found a bad surprise waiting for him. An overlord that had been there nearly all game instantly notified the remnants of Heckapotamus's minions. Also, a couple of wraiths had found the orange CC and were having a war with the 2 SCVs repairing it. This battle went on far too long than it should have...
 
In a last ditch all-out effort, Estrogen marches his troops over towards the only place that the zergish Heckapotamus still occupies. Also, he flies his CC away from the NW island and towards the plateau that his orange counterpart is valiantly trying to conquer. At this point in time, after the red CC has left the island, Heckapotamus expands there to ensure that he doesn't suffer a humiliating defeat after coming so close.
Estrogen moves up the ramp only to be slaughtered (kind of) by some lurkers sitting there. He only loses 1 medic, but he still cannot enter up there without losing too many guys, so he has to wait for his vessels to recharge enough energy for irradiate. At the same time as he irradiate's 2 of the 3 lurkers, Ghost is finally eliminated and all that Estrogen has left is his CC and his little squad of units.
After a request by his partner, Haplo sends in 8 wraiths to eliminate the 2 science vessels stationed at the 6 o'clock ramp, and they then proceed to cloak and eliminate the medics and marines there too. Knowing that he cannot even kill Heckapotamus, Estrogen leaves the battlefield after an epic struggle.
The winners : Heckapotamus and Haplo!
After a major fight and a few disappintments, Estrogen comes out on top of the scores (understandably) and Ghost, after losing his base right at the start, has the lowest score. Oh well, they were his worst race remember...
I also had a small conversation with the MVP himself after the game, and here it is :
As usual, there's a lesson's learnt section. (I don't care what anybody says - that is how it's spelt in Australia and I'm damn well gonna keep spelling it that way!)
- I learned a few things from this battle, but the most important one is that, even though you can make better pictures when observing, you can remember the game a lot better when you actually play in it.
- Always expand. If all the players had expanded it might've been a very different game.
- Scout constantly. If Estrogen had seen that Haplo was undefended when he did his first M&M attack, he would've been able to eliminate him to the point of it being a 1 on 1.
- This was the first time that I have ever seen a game with 3 terrans in it with only 1 tank being built the entire game. Shocking.
- I suck at writing BRs. I already knew that, but maybe you've just learnt now.
This has been an [SM]Strega~F production. Hope you enjoyed it. Please leave any useful comments in the approriate spot, and any unhelpful comments can be shoved right up your ass. Thank you. |
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