"Don't think you can outlast your enemy in a stalemate, especially if he has a cable modem. = )"
-Macdonough
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| An Intense Protoss-Terran Bloodbath | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 07/20/99 09:07 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | Starcraft(1), Problem: Broken Images(1) | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 4, Max: 9, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for MikeyMonty: 7.8571 |   | An Intense Protoss-Terran Bloodbath
Map: Challenger
Game: Vanilla StarCraft
The Opponents
MikeyMonty, Blue, Protoss (Random), Bottom
Sir.Chauncey, Purple, Terran (Random), Top
Pregame
Well, this is probably getting redundant by now in my reports, but I was cruising the public games, and seeing nothing I created a 1v1 on Challenger. In mere moments Sir.Chauncey joined, and I viewed his record of appx. 250-100 with trepidation, since my record is only appx. 30-10. I felt up for a challenge however, and there was always the chance that this was a BGH player or comp basher. GLs were exchanged, and the game began, with both of us leaving our race to fate.
First Contact
I warped in at the bottom start position and started off with a standard pylon, gate, gate, pylon build. I sent my 8th probe out to scout my opponent's base, to find that he had gone with a depot, rax, depot and early gas. Seeking to take advantage of this, I quickly cranked out three zealots and sent them to attack his base. Upon arriving, I found a factory with a machine shop whirring. Seeing that I had fallen behind in tech, I had my zealots assault his refinery. He had 4 scvs repair it, however, and managed to dance his marines for a while unntil two stimmed firebats from his gates (I had not noticed the academy) managed to finish off my already weakened zealots.
Sim-City
My opponents defences were sparse, and I had a sneaky suspicion. I had recently faced a Terran who went for an early CC float, relying on micro to keep him alive until his superior income allowed him to catch up to and then surpass his oponent in troop production. I feared my opponent had tried a similar tack, and so quickly placed a forge, cybernetics core, third gate, and pylons where needed. I made 6 more zealots for defence, and researched the armor upgrade (somebody please tell me which upgrades should come first, I hear different things from different people). I started an expansion at the mineral onlyexpansion above and to my right, and Maynard transferred about a dozen probes there. I placed scattered photon cannons to shoo away cloaked wraiths both at my main and my expansion. When my cybernetics core was complete I began to warp in a robotics facility and citadel of Adun. I made about a dozen goons and sent five to me new expansion.
Scouting revealed that my opponent had deployed wraiths and sent to fly around the map occasionally, and I feared aerial attacks. I began to produce a higher ratio of goons to zealots, as soon as my citadel was done I made a templar archive, and as soon as my robo facility was done I made an observitory. I began the troop weapons upgrad and the psistorm upgrade, and dropped off a dragoon and probe on the gas and mineral island to my left to warp in a nexus, pylons, and some cannons to begin an expansion. My expansions were now chugging away, I was happily cranking dragoons, zealots, shuttles and observers, and all seemed well. Observers began to creep across the map in search of expansions. I put down an additional pair of gateways as well, so that I could spend my new influx of money.
Finally, Some Action
By now I was, and you probably are now too, bored with playing SimCity. I loaded up two dragoons and four zealots, and sent them to the upper right island expansion, where an observer had observed an enemy expansion. What my observer did not notice, however, were the batteries of turrets my opponent had scattered throughout his expansion. One shuttle was blown out of the sky before I could retreat my other shuttle. Right at this moment I heard a dreadful sound - the hydraulic whirring and clanking of Arclite tanks entering siege mode. I counted 4 tanks, perhaps a dozen marines, and a handful of firebats that were lined up in front of the tanks, no doubt to repell my now speeded zealots. I gathered the troops from throughout my main, and assulted the tank push. I used the dragoon's long range to lure firebats into photon cannons, and then had my zealots do as much damage to the push as possible. I did some damage, killing a handful of infantry and I believe a pair of tanks, before my forces were wiped out. I cursed, and queued up some extra goons in my gates in addition to the ones already there. Suddenly I cursed myself for my stupidity. I grabbed the five dragoons from my expansion and ran them back to my main. Becuase Sir.Chauncy had his tanks positioned behind his infantry, two of his tanks dropped before his infantry could react. My dragoons focused fire on the third tank, destroying it, before marines and firebats reduced them to pitiful pools of scrap metal and blue ichor. I had my probes hastily lay down several photon cannons while the enemy forces were distracted. However, the remaining marines and a newly arrived pack of gates didn't much damage before four more dragoons popped from their gates and newly warped photon cannons cleared the field of terran troops.
No Expansion for You!
I breathed a sigh of relief at the hair-raising manner in which I had narrowly averted disaster. I put down yet another gate, began cranking troops, and decided that I could not let the Terran scum attack me with impunity. I made two more shuttles, and placed observers at all expansion spots. The terran had a noticeable lack of detection in his base; there was only one science vessel at his choke, and some turrets at his island expansion. My observers were able to keep tabs nicely on his operations, and they revealed that he had three starports cranking wraiths, five rax, and two factories. I loaded up three shuttle with dragoons, and used my observers to locate a hole in his island expansion's turret wall. I dropped six dragoons, and destroyed almost all his scv's before they were evacuated in dropships. His CC lifted off, and my dragoons blindly followed it towards the section of the island closest to his mainland. A deafening roar sounded as the six or so tanks he had sieged up on the shore of the mainland fired across the channel of water, decimating my goons.
An Eye for an Eye
Nevertheless, the damage had been done. I now estimated that I was making nearly twice the money my opponent was. This wasn't going to last long however, as a large pack of wraiths struck at my mineral only expansion. They took out one of the photon cannons, and this left a whole in my defense. They butchered my probes, destroying all but two, and damaged the Nexus and pylon before my dragoon cavalry saved the expansion. By now my main was mined out, and I transferred the twenty or so probes there to my gutted expansion. This quickly brought it back on line, and I barely felt the pinch in my coffers. I assumed that by now my opponent had restored his island expansion. I loaded up a shuttle with a templar, hoping to unleash some psionic might on my opponents peon line. My shuttle was intercepted, however, by the huge pack of marines gaurding an equally impressive group of tanks right outside the entrance to my newly restored mineral only expansion. I sighed. It seemed my opponent would not quit. I did not have the direct power to counter such a force before it destroyed my expansion.
My barren probe line and the wreckage of my photon cannon after his wraiths work over my expansion.
His push begins grinding towards my expansion.
A Life Saver
Called Psi-Storm
Assuming that my opponent would move his forces to attack my main after the expansion fell, I placed templar in the little trees near the main's chokes on Challenger. His scouting wraiths apparently didn't notice them there. I placed an observer over his forces, which camped barely out of sight range of my templar. Because he had not begun to micro his forces for his push yet, his infantry were all in one clump with his tanks behind them. I moved my templar foward to storm. One storm crackled in the middle of his infantry cluster, tearing them to bloody shreds. His tanks nimbly dodged the brunt of the other storm I got off before my templar were killed. However, the damage was done. With no supporting infantry the tanks were sitting ducks for my ground forces, and they soon fell.
Ummm... I
missed this part
Now, I must note here, that I believe in the confusion of battle another squadron of Sir.Chauncey's wraiths attacked my lower left island expansion, but were largely driven off. I say this because it seems to me that there were far fewer probes and one less photon cannon then there were when I checked before. I could be wrong about this, but I believe I was raided by wraiths while my attentionwas diverted. Sir.Chauncey didn't stick around long enough to confirm this or deny it.
Man, Do Those
Tanks Have Range...
I dropped a probe, dragoon, and templar on the middle right mineral only island expansion, and was about to begin warping in an expansion when a pack of cloaked wraiths began to attack my dragoon, apparently ginoring my templar. They quickly payed attention when a psi-storm crackled over them, killing two before the rest moved out of harms way. My templar had just enough in him for another storm, however, and the wraiths flew right into the arcing blue lightning. They were decimated, with only a few managing to limp away. However, I once again heard the ominous clanking of machinery as tanks sieged up on both the north and south sides of the island, blasting my troops into oblivion with one volley. Once again I was taught the harsh lesson that cross island sieging is absolutely wicked on Challenger.
The End, and Congrats to Sir.Chauncey On A Game Well Played
Right around now I noticed a purple blotch on the upper left mineral only expansion on my mini-map. Looking at it I saw that Sir.Chauncey had begun constructing a new command center there under the watchful eye of one of my observers. I dispatched five dragoons to deal with the threat and left them there to discourage future expanding. I loaded up four dragoons into shuttles, and advanced a dozen dragoons, a dozen zealots, two templar, and four observer's to my opponent's choke. I decided that I would win this game here and now. I dropped my four goons onto Sir.Chauncey's island expansion, brushing aside the token defences, slaughtering his peons, and forcing his Command Center to lift off. A few seconds later, my horde of troops poured into his main, slamming aside tanks and half full bunkers alike. Sir.Chauncey conceded and left with an exchange of GGs.
My dragoons put an end to that damned island expansion for the last time.
I destroy his final few defending tanks.
My troops tear into his undefended structures.
Lessons
Learned
1) Expansions win games. Unless your opponent is a master tactician or expert
microer, he with more money tends to win the game.
2) Recon is key. Had I not seen that second push coming so that I could storm before he spread out his troops, it very well could have taken out my main. My recon also allowed me to put an end to any expansion attempts.
3) Peons, peons, and more peons. My peon surpluses not only allowed me to mine
faster, but also let me get expansions running very quickly.
Well, as always, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it. This is my first report in a while due to the fact that my computer is evil and refused to do anything right for about a week. Questions, comments, and criticisms welcome.
The final tally. Note we were fairly close in points.
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