"Good soldiers were hard to come by on Garon V", thought Master Seargeant Jeek.

The trouble was, although the interest and need for the terran war machine was clear and everpresent on the fringes of the Federation, Garon V was far from the fighting. It's inhabitants were for the most part growing obese with complacency and decadence. Still, the man Jeek had come to see showed some promise.

Corporal Dudley_Baggins had put in some time at the front in a meaningless turf war as a Terran Firebat, and won notable acolades during that tour of duty.

He was in a battle where he slew three blue zealots with some support from other corporals. The only other member of his battalion that had more confirmed kills was a Master Seargeant Siege Tank Commander, with five.

Master Sargeant Jeek was an early riser (there were those that said he rarely slept at all, indeed murmers that he was part zerg were quite common among his followers, though they said it in a mixture of awe and admiration, not derision) and as such he was one of the first to stride through the Garon V recruitment office mostly empty halls, and arrived at the war room hours before the applicant was slated to arrive.

Jeek turned on the tactical displays in the table and began reviewing the battle that the applicant had recently directed. He shuffled papers and took notes, deep in thought, pausing the battle displayed on the monitors and thoughtfully chewing on his pen.

At about 1100 hours, Master Sargeant Jeek set his papers he had been writing in a neat pile within easy reach and sat ram-rod straight. The tactical displays hummed slightly, and with the ambient light subtly dimmed, the electric blue from the screen in center of the table cast an erie glow under the stern commanders visage. He carefully planned these encounters with recruits for the fleet, each movement and nuance calculated to test the recruits character.

The recruit, by stark comparison, was, when he arrived at two minutes past two, anything but particular. His Terran Infantry-issue boots were less than spotless, his face marred by a five o'clock shadow, and arrogance played across his features like fire-light in a breeze.

The recruit sat down with a lazy slouch and raised one hand towards the Master Sargeant, waving it lazily, "So you the man that's gonna give me my wings hunh? Well then, lets get this thing over with".

With this, Jeek stood up and pointed down at the display on the table below. It depicted a rectangular section of Planet Vega Prime, where the recruit had recently commanded a campaign. "Recognize that, recruit?", the lower-case 'r' implied in the recruiters tone

The recriut seemed un-admonished. "Yes, sir... this is a tactical representation of my first command of a Protoss Force in combat. It'll clearly show that I'm the best person to command the allied Protoss loyalists in our anti-Zerg campaign. Whaddya say we skip the formalities, you take a look at the final analysis, and gimme my wings so I can go out and whup some bug-ass?"

The sargeant said nothing, the ensuing silence speaking volumes. After a pause, the sargeant calmly answered his own question. "The display below shows your protoss force starting out at the north-west corner of the map, with the rogue zerg just below, in the mid-west. The terrain is Hunters-class terrain (BGH ;P), with enhanced minerals and vespene gas sites."

"I see that right away, your rogue zerg opponent sends his overlord out scouting. He chooses a far away site for his initial exploration, which is not a very smart thing to do. Normally with zerg, the closest known positions are scouted first, to make best use of time. Your searching technique is non-existent at this point."

"Sir, in all fairness, the protoss forces do not start with flying detectors, and I did scout!"

"Indeed, what you say is true, however, most often early scouting can solidify plans for the early encounters. You'll want to know whether to expect a rush. And the hit to the economy is relatively negligable, the awareness of your opponent's plans very valuable in and of itself. Anyhow. You aquited yourself decently in the early game, warping in a pyon on probe 8 and a gateway on probe 10, followed swiftly by a another gateway, and a zealot."
"Your opponent, is continuing to scout, giving the scout search vectors beforehand (waypoints) to minimize micromanaging. He then builds 3 drones, an extractor, and another overlord, and sends it north, discovering you before you have found him. He notes that you have warped in two gateways, a second pylon right next to the first..."

"That's so that if I get rushed early, it'll take more than killing one pylon to unpower my gateways"

"Simply stellar of you recruit. Please don't interrupt me again or you will be slain. Now as I was saying..." the sargeant said this so quickly and quietly that there was no doubt that he meant it. The sargeant skillfully glossed over it in such away that Corporal Dudley_Baggins was unsure if he really heard it or not. He wisely decided to believe it. "..if he had stayed and scouted, you would have noticed him, and he would have noticed your cybernetics core warping in swiftly after your 13th probe. As it was, he saw your two zealots, and fled right away, surely noting that if you attacked him then with them he would be defenseless. He morphs a drone to a colony and another to an evolution chamber, another just birthed becomes a spawing pool. Understand this, stellar recruit, for here's the lesson. If you had saw his defenses at that moment, the battle would have been over right there."

Corporal Dudley_Baggins tensed slightly and knew that this was true. He felt almost stupid that he did not scout with more than one troop on such a large map. It was a lesson he would take to heart.

"I see that your two zealots become four, and once your cybernetcis core is complete they are joined by twin dragoons. As you are building your forces, your opponent, aware of your plans has made an army of his own, consisting of some seemingly ragtag zerglings and hydralisks"

"Soon after your discovery of your enemies proximity, you send two groups consisting of zealots and dragoons to take forward positions on the map. They make a grim discovery, as your opponents newly morphed lurkers burrow in front of their position, forcing your retreat. Now I see that you want to say something here in your own defense. I see that you had already begun climing the tech tree to observers as you sent out your forces. Still, the observers arrived too late, not in time to save one of the twelve zealots."

"I see that you have elected not to expand, and as this is a modified hunter class system it is forgivable (plenty o mins and gas), but please note that this can get you killed on a normal hunter class (bgh, the one and only)."
"Now that you have your observers, you march your troops in the front and harass your enemy, back and forth, as you build a pylon further back at the crossroads. Dancing your dragoons and troops expertly, you are still forced to withdraw, as Hydras and zerglings pour out of the choke, backed by mutas and 'lings. You seem to take this well, swiftly warping in 4 cannons at the rossroads further back to withdraw to. It comes online just in time to enable your remaining troops to hold the line as the High templar reinforcements and a lone rolling reaver arrive.
I also see that this is just a distraction force, with no real goal other than occupying the rogue overminds attention in micromaging his battle, and that you had long since planned a drop. The drop is admirably executed, and shortly wipes out your opponents economical base. This is a well planned one time fire-and forget-assault, with 2 reavers(one shuttle), an observer, a dragoon and two zealots (the other shuttle)." The addition of five corsairs with four reinforcement 'sairs provide a balancing force against your oponnents mutalisks, and took admiral initiative in targets of oportunity such as every single living overlord darkening the skies of Vega Prime.

"In short order, the remaining zealot/goon with observers and templars following dig the final trench for rogue overminds remains, and he recedes from this realm, his last words, gg"

"Corporal, you will get no wings today. You handily defeated the rogue zerg on Vega Prime, but they were no great shakes. What is really an issue here is zanshin. Your assessment of your opponents skill led you to be slightly lazy in scouting, and execution. It is no great testament to skill to rip yourself a noob in half an hour. Come back when you can show me some real skill. Dismissed."