This is a report on the the last game of the finals of a recent tournament hosted by BR.com. The tournament as a whole has been summarized by Mark4 here.

Corbalt chooses a standard Toss build order to counter the often rush-happy Zerg: pylon, cannon, cannon... wtf? It seems that, in the special circumstances of New Gettysburg - where there are no base ramps and, hence, no particular advantages to stationing one´s troops at the main´s choke - Corbalt believes that the n00b´s favorite build order may actually help him to fortify the next choke on, which guards both his main and his natural. Memories of the first game in this series, which Corbalt nearly lost due to teching too early, may also help explain this clear effort to cover a fast expansion with what will eventually become a powerful defense:

I still think, however, that a zerg powering lings could easily have managed to charge past the fixed defenses into the distant probe line - and Corbalt has now finally found his opponent in the last position scouted, and knows that his first building was an (admittedly not frighteningly early) spawning pool, eliminating the possibility of a super-fast expansion.

Corbalt is lucky, however, as his haute cuisine-loving nemesis chooses to duplicate his strategy, millions of overjoyed germs finding a new home in early hatcheries at both his choke and his natural. The few late lings he powers are hardly a threat to the executor, and Blue Ribbon - who, in any case, found his opponent rather late despite two scouting overlords - wisely chooses to mass a few more for purely defensive purposes. The zerg expansion advantage enables him to complete his imperial plans sooner than the overly bureaucratized Protoss forces, and he ponders his options. Both players have forfeited excellent early prospects for harassment, perhaps wisely on such a large map; both now begin to send peons to the newly annexed territories and to begin to climb their respective tech trees.

With the unusual luxury of two early gas nodes, Corbalt forfeits the usual focus on zealots in favour of a rather dragoon-heavy force at his choke, and upgrades goon range and the all-important ground weapons. His risky stargate gambit in the earlier game having been unsuccessful, he chooses a dryasdust Temple of Adun, doubtless hoping that the early care paid to High Templars´ pension plans will attract a few once the necessary research facilities have been installed. Blue Ribbon shrewdly spawns a loathsome hatchery as far as possible from both his and Corbalt´s bases, hoping that lazy scouting will enable him to recoup his investment. Guessing that the last game frightened the executor away from piratical designs on his lieutenant overlords, he risks taking to the air with a spire. This can be risky against a good Protoss leader - only the reaver tech tree offers no air defense - but the cunning cerebrate does not have only the usual muta harassment in mind.

The opportunity to bypass the powerful choke defense is, however, too good to pass up altogether. The mutas fly north, and it becomes obvious why Corbalt wanted goons. Goons, however, aren't the best defense against medium-sized units (they do only three-quarters damage), and it is fortunate for the guardian of the galaxy's highest civilization that his obsession with cannons isn't limited to his choke. Ultimately, the strangely-tongued bugs splatter a goon and a few cannons, but lose some of their number in the process before the merging of an archon frightens them off. Corbalt also wins the tournament's calmness in action award by warping in a robotics facility, preparing for a possible shift to lurkers while the mutas are still over his probe line. He also rebuilds his cannons almost instantly. With the luxury of an early expansion, resources are the least of his problems.

A period of relative peace ensues, as neither contestant wishes to gamble the tournament on a frontal assault against powerful defenses. Blue Ribbon has clearly decided that only high-tech units can break the massive cannon barrier, and upgrades his lair to the peak of zerg genetic perfection before selecting his weapon of choice. Corbalt seems to have chosen a conservative strategy despite his early antics: focus on ground units, upgrade, and use the deadly storm to reverse any disadvantage in bulk while limiting the zerg resource flow by destroying expansions. He scouts, but misses the largely unprotected distant expansion, while the cerebrate boldly spawns yet another almost next to the Protoss headquarters. Nonetheless, a powerful army gathers at Corbalt's choke as the upgrades to weapons and armour complete; Blue Ribbon´s outposts seem painfully vulnerable.

But who is this? and what is here?

A powerful wing of bombers swooped into acidic action from nowhere. (Almost nowhere. They came from the mutas Blue Ribbon had mutated, almost unprotected, on Corbalt´s natural´s ledge. Possibly Corbalt could have used a corsair or two after all). Almost instantly, two cannons were vaporized, as was the luckless archon when he tries to reach the cliffed guardians.

A rather bizarre savior, however, came to Corbalt's rescue.

Protoss players rarely use goons for anti-air against zerg because, as noted above, mutas are considered medium-sized. Guardians aren´t. Blue Ribbon spread his troops well to minimize storm damage, but that only left his guardians more vulnerable to the focus fire of the spidery warriors. The expensive bombers splattered the first wave, but Corbalt was almost on top of his supply lines whilst the zerg could neither replenish nor heal their forces. Blue Ribbon pulled the tattered remnants of his costly investment back to the cliff to heal.

Corbalt, however, was itching to try his expansion-containment strategy, and send a strong force of zealots to the centre. Blue Ribbon had sent a large contingent of lings to the same area to counter just such a threat. Blue Ribbon could not decide whether to encircle the zealots or counter-attack Corbalt´s choke. Blue Ribbon was annihilated.

Pulling back to pick up a few goon reinforcements, Corbalt quickly checked the right side of the map for expansions, finding the earlier of Blue Ribbon's ventures and half a dozen sunkens. Sunkens, however, are another thing goons do full damage against, although the zealots did most of the damage in this case.

It is at this point that I must reveal that I have not been entirely honest with the reader. I said that Blue Ribbon had selected his unit of choice. I should have said units.

Smarting from the loss of a sizable contingent of his army, Corbalt abandoned the centre of the map to the ultras and moved his new troops to the site of his second expansion, built with surprising speed during the brief offensive and guarded with the usual mass of cannons. He also moved a shuttle loaded with templar south, expecting to find an expansion so near the zerg headquarters. He found two scourge instead.

Eager to find a counter to the ultras, Corbalt made a somewhat unusual choice:

Still fairly well-off for gas, but starving for minerals, the Protoss forces headed south to challenge the zerg holding the expansion immediately north of Blue Ribbon's main. Ultras are usually deadly to the protoss, who lack the concentrated firepower (of, for example, siege tanks) needed to kill the massive fighters quickly. Archons, however, have incredible damage potential, especially when upgraded to their full 39 damage plus splash. These, moreover, were sheltered behind a line of zealots, who make fairly good meat shield even against ultras. With the help of some storm, Corbalt chased the zerg forces all the way to the much-contested western expansion before weakening shields forced him to fall back.

After a brief pause to collect reinforcements, Corbalt headed to the northern corner of the map. It quickly became apparent that Blue Ribbon´s ability to expand all over the map without garrisons had been conditional on the inferiority of the protoss melee units. Now that the archon-zealot combination had bested, albeit without destroying, the ultraling forces, it was Blue Ribbon´s turn to avoid battle, and his northern expansions quickly fell.

If Blue Ribbon could no longer meet his nemesis head-on, however, he could still turn the executor´s earlier expansion-denial tactics upon him.

Corbalt badly needed this base, his last source of minerals, but he gamely continued to wipe out the northern zerg holdings. With just enough minerals for a nexus, he opted instead to continue to bolster his gas-heavy archon forces. The swarm was also hurting for cash; with his newfound technical superiority, Corbalt still had an opportunity to wipe out the last of its income.

This was the last chance for both contestants, so both manoevred to ensure the most favourable field of battle. Knowing he could not face the powerful archons in a sheer contest of muscle, the cerebrate ordered his ultras to retreat to yet another well-guarded expansion, the bottom-right main. Its sunkens might yet turn the tide. Corbalt wiped out one last undefended hatchery, leaving the zerg with only two sources of minerals: the much-contested western expansion, now very low on resources, and the bottom right main where the zerg army stood on guard.

A single dark templar moved in. As he advanced, Corbalt had been careful to slaughter the many overlords Blue Ribbon had scattered over the map, and there were none at this last base. The spy slaughtered most of the drones and nearly killed a sunken before a hulking counterintelligence agent returned. Corbalt then sent in a small detachment of forces, sacrificing an archon to enable his main group to move out of the choke and deploy on open ground. Seizing the centre, he swiftly split the ultras into two groups, enabling him to focus on and destroy the dangerous but relatively fragile sunkens.

Like the Protoss, Blue Ribbon still had plenty of gas (3500+ in the bank), but the zerg have no gas-intensive units (IMBA IMBA KEKEKE) and he was out of minerals. He resigned.

I don´t know much about Starcraft, but I would like to learn, so please leave a comment. This was my first battlereport (or HTML document of any kind), and it was written in a considerable hurry as I returned to university for the fall, so be lenient! Also, does anyone else have an idea as to how toss can beat ultras?