A Lesson In ABC

Pre-Game
The Map: Ashrigo

YourRoleModel was gifted with the Green Protoss in the lower right.
Fractal_Wave randomly recieved the Yellow Protoss in the upper right.
Sakabatou observes starting (ironically) in the heat of all the action in the lower left.

Quote of the Game:

Early Game

It has been awhile since I have observed a game. YourRoleModel and Fractal_Wave seemed both to know the stand procedure for starting up although I did notice that YRM was milliseconds ahead of Fractal_Wave. YRM went for double gateway and cybernetics core while Fractal_Wave went for a triple gateway.

Notice much of a difference? Try ONE probe.

First to scout was YourRoleModel who happened to get lucky off the bat by sending his probe north. Fractal_Wave, who one could say was always just seconds behind sent a probe west which just missed bumping into YRM's probe. It was so tempting to mention it to them but I had no intention of ruining this tight of a game. The luck brought YRM the advantage and he defended against it accordingly. Fractal_Wave managed to hide his probe for a bit behind the assimilator after it managed to slip through a pack of zealots hanging near the gateway. It was only their long enough to be greated by recently warped in dragoon which welcomed it openly.

YourRoleModel concerned himself on tech and protecting his choke. He also wisely grabbed his early natural for first expanse. Fractal_Wave angered by the loss of his probe, sent the family of dragoons and zealots only to find a heavily defended choke. YourRoleModel still focused on defense and climbing the tech tree as quickly as he could.

I had foresight enough to know that Fractal_Wave was working on Dark Templar tech. As soon as he had placed together two of them, he sent them to YRM's expanse along with some zealot and dragoon backup. Although the zealots and dragoons didn't last long, the dark templars lasted for a while and hurt YourRoleModel's resources. It wasn't long before I learned how hard it is to watch the entire board when your not even playing. YRM was introducing observers and revealing the map a section at a time starting with the dark templars.

Mid-Game

The map slowly became revealed. Fractal_Wave had by now expanded to his natural and was sending Dark Templars to all major trade routes. YourRoleModel took a Shuttle and dropped some probes and zealots in the Southwestern expanse (home of a friendly little SCV and a floating Command Center in the corner). Fractal_Wave at about this time had dropped in a load of units behind YourRoleModel's main. His base was being ripped apart by Zealots, Dragoons, a high templar, and a dark archon. YRM had his own idea of this raid and had his own Dark Archon mind control the Fractal_Wave's adding a nice little add on to his collection. The rest of the force was easily dispersed.

Why not to drag your boots on the rug...

Fractal_Wave still refused to let YourRoleModel make any progress. A recent exploration with observers had revealed YRM's base to the Southwest. At this point in time, the defense was minimal, consisting of a handful of zealots and dragoons holding the choke. The defense fell but YRM was able to get out some more troops in time to stop the raid. This set Fractal_Wave on a plan. YourRoleModel was defending mostly choke and didn't have much air support. He went for Reavers.

It only took YourRoleModel a drop behind his Southwest Expansion before he went for air. Well, we all know he was already working on air, but it is nice to think that Fractal_Wave taught him a lesson or something similar. Fractal_Wave warps in his first Stargate.

End-Game

The scenario so far: YourRoleModel has the tech tree nearly maxed but his forces are weakened due to constant attacks and reaver drops by Fractal_Wave. YRM has his main mined out, his natural nearly gone, Southwest expansion and the Southcentral expansion. Fractal_Wave only has his main, the natural, and Northwest expansion and natural. He has been forceful enough to prevent YourRoleModel from getting the solitary island in the game.

YourRoleModel moves in again for the center island. This time he has some backup nearby. After a base is underway, in comes the drop by Fractal_Wave. The damage being dealt is strong. A high templar, a high archon, and some reavers. This was when YourRoleModel decided to reveal his nice fleet of 5 or so carriers. Ownage!

Hey, but why stop there? YourRoleModel pulls his carriers back to his main with eight carriers he goes into action. Hallucination on the swarm pulls together a nice fleet of, oh say, 16 carriers. YRM has a little fun and sends all the hallucinations north to attack Fractal_Wave's main. FW, wetting himself goes all out to destroy the carriers only to suddenly see an Arbitar recall the real thing in his Northwestern natural. The base is gone in milliseconds.

Before taking the fleet to the Northwestern base, YourRoleModel decides he needs to recover and pulls his troops back to his main. I could hear Fractal_Wave cursing or opening the beer or whatever he does when he know where the game is going. Even with the loss of his major expanses he has his own little fleet of his own. Unlike YourRoleModel he doesn't just stick to a single unit type of attack (or once I again we would like to believe).

Before YourRoleModel has recovered, in comes the Carrier fleet. YRM takes some damage before his magical little [dark archon]. That works wonders and mind controls the first carrier. An arbitar moves up next and gets the bulk of the fleet in stasis. As if that isn't enough, YourRoleModel pulls up a second [dark archon] and mind controls another Carrier. Game Over... the massive fleet crushes the rest of the cruisers when statis is lifted and the fleet survives Psi Storms amass in the biggest battle since World War 3.

Can anywords describe this better than it is?

Lessons to Learn From:

A - Arbitors turned the game when they put Fractal_Wave's Carriers in stasis. The recall also sped up the delivery of YourRoleModel's attacks.

B - Bases: While YourRoleModel did have a ton of resources he was unable to spend, he always had enough money for what he needed. Fractal_Wave on the other side, had trouble getting at YRM due to lack of resources and map control.

C - Carriers: Explosions Galore! A swarm of corsairs lasted about 15 seconds and constant psionic storms took out maybe three carriers.

GG Fractal_Wave