"Holy paragraph Batman."
-Mark4
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| A friendly Rivalry | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 08/19/99 04:08 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 8, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for .Praetor: 8.2987 |  | I had just finished an excellent 2v2 on Aylund di Voels (Sqick's map) against Orcmaniac and negative.omega, with Cashew-of-Doom as my partner. The game was excellent. After foolishly allowing Cashew to be eliminated, I proceeded to take a fleet of six or seven carriers and eliminate Orcmaniac and negative.omega, killing scout and wraith fleets. Here's a hint, if you engage the scouts at the stargates, and queue up attack orders, you can do well. One massive volley kills a scout, and they have to get in range. So I killed six or seven scouts that only got one shot off, and retreated the carrier that the other three got to. Whew. Soon after, I had to run away to an observer after mine were dead. But the other 2 gave me time to decimate the wraith fleet. Thank goodness I remembered to pull my last three probes off gas and put them on minerals.
But I'm not here to give a battle report on that battle. I'm here to give a battle report on a much better battle that immediately followed. After the 2on2, Orcmaniac challenged me to a rematch. Yes, I am reporting on a 1vs1. Odd isn't it? This game was one of those that brings me back to Starcraft, gets my blood pumping, and keeps me energized for the whole day.
Orc allowed me to make the game, so after checking my download directory for observer maps, I chose an observer version of Rivalry, and placed the speed on fast (of course!). The observers also give me an excuse to not have taken screen shots....
Orc asked me to be Protoss, and I obliged. Orc chose his standard race, Terran. We started after the map was distributed.
I get the upper right spot, and decide to do what I always do Toss vs Terran on Rivalry. Offensive cannon cheese. With a little o-assim if I can as well. So, I start out with a pylon on my choke, and head out to scout.
Luck is not with me today, as I head out to top left, bottom left, and finaly find Orc at bottom right, below me. His base is way to active for offensive cannon cheese, and he already has a refinery in his base. I have, however, already sent a probe to the upper left base. Seeing Orc scouting (as with me, in the wrong direction), I wait an adequate time for his SCV to look around the upper left, and start a pylon at the choke.
At my main, I already have a forge and two cannons at the choke. Orc's SCV gets the cold welcome of cannon fire. I'm still continously producing probes, and finally start an assimilator. Two cannons also go up at the upper left choke. Still producing probes, I save up to 400 and start a nexus at the top left starting position.
The next thing I do is finally start my gateway, and continue to pump probes. Before the gateway finishes, I have plenty of money, so I start a pylon by both nexi (I love latin plurals). Johnny has taught me to defend against drops. When the gateway is done, I start a cyber core directly above it, also at my main's choke. With plenty of supply from the two new pylons, I summon a zealot, the first actual Protoss ON the battlefield. One of these days, I have to play a non-Protoss Protoss game. Nothing but probes, cannons, shuttles, observers, and reavers.
Anyway, in the game, I'm frantically trying to think of a strategy that will stop the nightmarish vultures tanks and marine pushes that everyone describes for Terran on Rivalry. I decide against carriers, because Orc just got killed with them last game. Preparing counters for units seen carrys over from game to game.
While my core builds, I get two cannons by my nexus at my expansion. The cannons at the choke there are discovered by a marine at that time. To add insult to injury, Orc scans my nexus at my main, providing him no useful information. I believe he swore at this point in time. I start a cannon at my main's choke and by the nexus when it hits me. Reavers! Of course! Stop any early marines cold, and good for hitting peons. Thinking happy day, I decide to go for it, and build a robotics facility. Knowing I am going to want observers as well, I decide to start a second facility soon'
after the first. My expansion is running moderately well at this time, so I have plently of money pouring in, especialy gas, which has been stockpiled for some time.
I take one of my probes off the production line, and constantly move him around to detect counter-expansions by orc. He does so for quite sometime before getting caught by a patrolling marine.
When my first facility warps in, I start a support bay, then a shuttle, then finally get an observatory. An extra pylon has also been purchased to run all these incredibly expensive tech buildings. I'm still producing probes at my expansion, and build a second cannon by the nexus at my main. The second facility starts on a reaver when the support bay warps in, and my shuttle is about half way done. I queue an observer after my shuttle.
Having some minerals again, I order up two more zealots. When my reaver is done, I start five scarabs and load it up in my shuttle, and start another reaver. My shuttle just sits there, probably confusing the heck out of the observers. I decided to keep it for defense. My first sheild upgrade was also started some time around here. Soon, my observer discovered the most heinus of actions by Orc. He was attempting to expand. No no no! I send down my shuttle with two reavers to cause some havoc. I start up another reaver and more observers at home. Being rich now, I start up the obsever upgrades, and the shuttle speed upgrade.
My shuttle reaches Orc's expansion, finding some SCV's working on a barracks and an SCV. And two tanks. I send my reavers down, landing them between the unsieged enemies. One of my tanks took damage from tank fire, but hey, who cares, the next two scarabs killed a tank. I believe the other one was picked up in a shuttle. I must warn you that the reaver battles at his expansion are hazy in my memory. An evil wraith came up to harass me, and started shooting my shuttle.
My shuttle immediately runs away, dropping off a reaver at the SCV's building. I assume that will delay the wraith, and bring my shuttle up to home. At my main, I start another shuttle and another reaver. One reaver sits outside a facility.
Here, Orc makes his first attack. He intelligenly dropped two tanks and some marines and vultures (2 vultures and four marines, unless I miss my guess). The tanks sieged, and the support troops supported them. Arclite rounds begin to crush my cannon resistance, as I check my situation.
Assuming that I could not stop the push, I sent down my one shuttle with a reaver to Orc's main. Thus, the total troops I had to counter the enemy consisted of one new reaver and three zealots. While the tanks stayes supported, I was content to sit. Finally, after the first cannon fell, the vultures and marines discovered they could hit my peons out of the range of the other cannon, which was on the other side of my nexus.
I immediatly ordered my reaver to build scarabs and slug its way to the battle. My zealots were set to attack the tanks in succession. I stopped watching at this point, to attack Orc effectively. My shuttle had actually been sitting over his base for a few seconds (waypoints_, and I ordered it in to the peon line. Because of a missile turret, I dropped it on the edge of the map. A tank blast immediately hits the reaver. Doh! I micro to do some damage, and get two scarab shots off into his SCV line. Somehow the splash was not as impressive as I thought it would have been. four or five SCV's, max, were killed, and I retreated my shuttle.
Now deeply worried about the outcome of the game, I checked my main. I had one of my cannons still there, the one on the other side of my nexus. There was no sign of the zealots, and all I could see was my one reaver in the yellow. YAY. I set the eight probes I had rescued back to work, and started more. I also took the shuttle I had made, started upgrading reaver damage, and picked up my new reaver plus my damaged one. I flew south to hit Orc's expansion again.
An observer is shot at by a patrolling marine when an SV crosses its path. Uh-oh. The obsever is not seriously hurt. My reavers drop by the expansion. Remember, for some reason, the reaver drops seem eerily similar in my memory. I drop the two reavers by two unsieged tanks, where the damaged one is shot by the two tanks, and one dies to scarabs. I take my damaged reaver to hit two SCV's working (on a barracks and CC, perhaps replacements?). The other one stays, and kills two marines. Orc drops his tank again, sheilding it and sieging it. My reaver manages to kill it, but is damaged enough for a wraith to kill it almost instantly. My other reaver is retreated in a shuttle to my base.
I get the other observer upgrade, start another gateway, and get a few more zealots.
Worried about wraiths, I start two stargates, intending to counter with corsair. By now observers have spread (like doom) all over the map. One of them catches three shuttles
and a science vessel on the way to my expansion. I queue up two more corsair, and send over reinforcements (which consist of one reaver in one shuttle).
I get five zealots ready to counter Orc's expansion. Another reaver pops out, and I use my other shuttle to quickly ferry it over to my base.
Orc has promptly sieged his one tank, and has destroyed a cannon. Desperate, I drop a reaver next to the tank despite nearby wraiths and a science vessel. The reaver destroys the tank before being destroyed itself by marines, vultures, and some wraith. The shuttle is also shot down, and I lose the other cannon by my exp's nexus. Grim, I send in my other reaver, and start up two cannons next to the nexus again.
I send my countering zealots into Orc's base. They kill a tank, before being cut down by marines. Looking back at my expansion, the ground troops are gone, and so is the reaver. Must have been some lucky shots. My shuttle gets chased a bit, but the wraiths finally decide to shoot up the building cannons.
They get one. I decide not to cancel to buy more time. The other cannon chases them off for a short while, and I start another replacement on the other side of my nexus.
Sadly, Orc is smarter than that, and plants his wraiths at the back of my peon line. Panicking, I try to get a cannon far back enough, but it is shot down. I a few probes before I remember my corsair. CORSAIR! I send them over immediately, targeting the middle wraith (of 3). An observer is pulled off patrol, and makes it to the battle quickly (upgraded). My four corsair shred the wraith, and catch the science vessel unawares, chasing it into cannon fire. I had lost several probes, but rebuild them.
Back at my main, I discover I am rich, not having paid attention to building troops. Deciding the time has come for me to concede the ground, I start another stargate, a fleet beacon, several pylons, and a templar archives (for eventual aribters). I also start the third shield upgrade, as well as air attack, and zealot speed (I had build a citadel of adun already for speed purposes only).
I find in many games, in late game a few zealots start to tear up all out of proportion to their cost. So I start a few of them. When my stargates are done, bridging the gap between my nexus and my choke colony, I immediatly start carriers.
Having gone into "army mode" where I concentrate on funneling Everything into my military, I get three carriers, and start another plus two arbiters (remember I had tons of gas saved up), disruption web, stasis, and more zealots. After that flurry of activity, I notice that my main could be dry soon, and send over two probes to the north expansion spot, starting up a nexus and two pylons.
An observer spots an expansion attempt at the south spot, just an SCV building a command center. I send four zealots south west to intercept from the undefended side of the map. At home, I continue building, getting more zealots and pylons! Always more pylons.
My four zealots get the command center at Orc's new expansion down to half strength before he remembers to lift it off. I'm happy, deciding to attempt a pincer attack on Orc's expansion with four zealots on each side. To facilitate such an attack, I inch my observer forward into the base, looking for weakness.
I find one, though not what I expected. There are not Science vessles or turrets inside Orc's main expansion, and my observer sits merrily inside of it, sending binary reports back to my nexus.
That observer becomes crucial, as it spots a large strike force of approximately two tanks, eight golaiths, and a few marines. Heading for my mineral only natural. Yikes.
Knowing this will likly be the crucial battle of the game, I arrange all my forces, retreating zealots back to behind my cannons at the northern base, starting two more to make a total of four. My zealots total seven when the last of them runs ahead of the attack force into my northern base. I set up my carriers in the watery area between my two bases, and bring my corsair up, in the off chance wraiths are also headed my way.
My fourth carrier has only four interceptors, and is building more. Orc knows about my northern base, and moves his troops there, getting them all across the bridge and onto the island, before setting up. Just now, I hear in succession, two beatiful messages. One, my two arbiters have arrived. I immediately order them to join with my carriers. Two, "upgrade complete." My disruption web has finished.
Once all his troops are over the bridge and ready, Orc sieges his tanks, and hits my cannons. The first thing I do is send in my zealots, attack moving. For some reason, I also d-web a tank. Next, I send in my carriers, the arbiters tagging along behind. Lastly, I get my corsair together, and get ready to d-web.
As expectected, Orc has a scan ready, and has only lost one golaith when the battle mechs regain the capability of targeting the carriers. They surge forward, and I d-web just in time, one of my carriers sheilds depleted. My zealots have fallen on the line now, and a few of them are killed. Sensibly, Orc retreats, but I manage to chase down his golaiths and kill them with carriers. My zealots help out as well, and several of them charge into Orc's expansion to kill that last Golaith. I expected to lose the Zealots anyway. Deciding to press the advantage, I attack with my four carriers into Orc's expansion.
In the base, my observer spots a most disturbing ghost. Apparently, Orc wasn't counting on Golaiths alone to counter my carriers. Luckily, there is only one in the base at the time, and as my carriers launch their waves of interceptors, I take an arbiter and stasis the ghost, getting four marines in the bargain.
My carriers beging slowly chewing their way into the base, destroying two bunkers, a barracks, and starting to hit other things, when another observer (this one patrolling) spots four ghosts, some marines, and some golaiths heading to reinforce the expansion.
Wanting to kill Orc here and now, I send my other arbiter ahead, and stasis three ghosts and a Golaith. The last ghost locks down my arbiter though.
Noticing I have lost some interceptors, and this base is going to be contested, I retreat my carriers and arbiter. The lockdown victim is destroyed. Soon after this escapade, four marines, a few firebats, and two tanks come down from Orc's main and kill the zealots left at the south expansion.
I consider sending more zealots, but decide that the firebats would roast them. At home, I build two dark templar instead, hoping to use their cloaked abilities for defense. I also start on the ground attack upgrade, as sheilds have finished, and get air armour. I reinforce my four carriers with two more, and buy an arbiter as well. Finding myself with an excessive amount of minerals, but for once little gas, I build pylons where my minerals used to be in my main, and start three more gateways.
After getting two more dark templar, I decide to send the four down to the south expansion, where an observer sees five marines, a barracks, a bunker, and many SCV's. At my main, I continously demand more zealots from Shakuras.
My dark templar do excellent, killing three marines instantly (apparently Orc has not upgraded them), and razing the bunker in seconds. I lose one to attacking the nexus, which was still burning, but cancel that order, and pull two to the ramp while the other cleans up the marines.
My carrier fleet comes down from the middle to clean up, two of the six carriers still building interceptors. At home I start another arbiter and several zealots, along with researching recall.
The south base is razed, and I see a large army gathering at my natural. Many marines, some golaiths, and several ghosts are there, and could probably kill one or both of my bases nearby. Knowing I cannot defeat that force with my carriers (if they don't get shot by the golaiths, or lockdowned by the ghosts, the marines will kill all the interceptors), I decide to lure them away by attacking Orc's main.
My carriers kill several marines emerging from barracks, eight of which!!! take up two huge streets in the Terran encampment. He also has two factories and a starport. My carriers start to do some damage, and may have killed a rax and depot (or both), when Orc sends his army down. He later told me he made an executive decision to engage and destroy my carrier fleet. That his army could have done so is not in question.
Seeing the army move down the middle portion of the map towards his main, I send an arbiter to harass. Ordering it to stasis one of the ghosts which was near companions, it started following the ghost, and got shot down. Without a delaying factor, I retreated my fleet post haste, eventually positioning them in the middle of the map.
My dark templar were nowhere to be found now, I do not know what became of them.
At my north expansion, I start another assimilator, and continue to pump zealots. When my arbiter gets down, I send it down to my fleet. The other arbiter, one of the original two, has 200 energy. I research the energy upgrade, and start three more arbiters, figuring stasis would be decisive. Even more zealots were called from Shakuras, bringing the total in my base to 14.
Knowing my original expansion must be almost dry, Orc decides to assault my northern expansion. His troops gather in my natural, a frightening horde of marines ghosts and golaiths. The group assembles over the bridge, and destroys my new assimilator. The army, consisting of over fifty shock troops, is large, and more reinforcements come, including a tank. I stasis a group of about eight marines and a ghost, as well as a golaith with my veteran arbiter. In my base, ten more zealots have been trained, finally draining both types of cash to below five hundred for me. Orc does not seige his tank, rather his forces engage my cannons, which do admirably.
There is, however, no question that the cannons will fall, and fast. They do. However, I send in twenty four speed upgraded zealots with three shield improvements and one attack improvement. Frankly considering them dead, I know they will at least make a dent in Orc's hordes. Banking on the dwindling resources in my first expansion, I attack Orc's first expansion with my carrier fleet, hoping to at least make him lose a base as well.
All his resources poured into his considerable army, Orc's base falls. My zealots, probably because of upgrades, do extremely well, falling on the rear of Orc's formation and obliterating the army. The zealots do, however, sustain heavy losses. Combined with reinforcements from five gates, my zealot count numbers seven.
Knowing it was over, as my nexus at the northern expansion still stood, though alone, Orc graciously surrendered. Though horrified that he had lost two games in a row, he did compliment me on a good game, and expressed his displeasure at my cowardly carriers.
The two observers left (one dropped, one went to eat dinner) also agreed that the game was an excellent one.
The stats showed me surpassing Orc in resources, but was slightly inflated as a result of some time spend talking after the last major battle. He must have had more SCV's at each base than I did, for he actually came close in resources if one figures out the last few minutes of the game.
The razings would have been low, had the last five minutes also not been played out. He got some cannons and pylons, I got his southern base.
Kills made the difference, with myself in the lead (by points), but by no means dominating.
Taking away from this battle, I learned how mobility helps a lot. Also, never stop making a unit because you've moved on to another part of the tech tree (zealots). Also, don't fell required to use what you've researched, or go all out in one area. I used disruption web a total of four times, in one battle, and I built four dark templar, but only once. The did excellent jobs, but would not have been useful anywhere else.
I hope that this battle becomes a champion of the unorthodox =). Nothing went as expected, and the wide variety of conflict is what made it so excellent in my eyes.
Thank goodness for observers.
I think I'll leave it at that,
.Praetor |
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