| Turtles come in Protoss Flavor Too | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 09/06/99 02:09 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | Starcraft(1) | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 7, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for The HydraDropper: 6.6667 |  |
The Map: The Lost Temple
The Players:
The HydraDropper--Race: Zerg, chosen (check the name)
@zzangsecond@--Race: Protoss, chosen
Unfortunately no action shots! I'm always too intense during these games to hit the key, but I'll learn...
I created a public game, 1v1 temple, joined by @zzangsecond@. We establish he is playing from Korea, and his English isn't so hot. Good lucks exchanged and we begin.
EARLY GAME:
I spawn 3:00, and begin making workers. Along with the normal pleasantries, Protoss asks about "manner game" and I'm like "yeah, OK", having been disconnected on after the OTHER player asking for "manner game" and "no disc" etc., so I'm not too confident about such assurances.
My first overlord spies him at 12:00. I am going for my usual build: Early second hatchery at the natural expansion, with a few sunkens and some zerglings to plug the choke. The goal: an early lair with hydra drop on either the toss natural (if there is mining) or the main. This is usually devastating to protoss. What squashes it is reaver/dragoon in numbers (HINT: THIS IS A GOOD PLAYER, YOU ARE IN FOR A FIGHT), early reaver drop on my base or concurrent with my attack, or crazy cannons all over (THIS IS A BAD PLAYER, YOU WILL WIN IF YOU EXPAND AND CONTAIN), there usually isn't any psi storm happening this early if I have done this right. I don't go for lurker tech too much against protoss anymore because it costs a lot, decreases my number of hydras and their upgrades and doesn't really help this early drop against protoss much, but slows it down and weakens it. (Terran is a different story).
During one of the lulls in the early production, I research burrow and scatter zerglings to the two major bases and their naturals and burrow them in the minerals. This scouting both shows me if he is expanding there, in which case I can squash it before he gets too much resources out of it or defense there, and also shows me if there's units there and if it's safe for me to expand there. It proves very important later in the game.
The extent of his scouting or attacking on me is an early probe which is killed by sunkens as it approaches my ramp. No early zealots to the choke, slightly later goons, or late/earlyish reaver drop. Nada. Very suspicious, but I know he is not expanding, at least beyond his natural, as my burrowed lings see nothing. Suspicious for the Cannons 'n' Carriers variety of tosspot.
The result of this early build is usually around 20 mildly upgraded hydras (early second hatch, pool, gas, lair, first speed then transport for OL, make hydra den and hydras while OL upgrades are grinding, upgrade hydra speed, and carapace via evo chamber while awaiting transport ability, and also range if time allows i.e. I am a little slower in my build.
Now I've got the hydras, a little upgrade, I know where the bad guy is, and it's SHOWTIME!
THE DROP:
The five overlords head along the right edge of the map and over the cliff towards the expansion on their way to the main. Sure enough, I see the sparks of mining activity approaching the expansion, and I elect to drop there in the minerals.
I have often found the successful squashing of the enemy's first expansion, if you keep your expansion unmolested, to be in most cases the critical event that leads to the win. Even if he rebuilds, there is a long time in which your income is twice his, and he is spending money to rebuild a base and workers. If you play your cards right, your advantage magnifies as you expand even more and tech up and build more units during this window. It is often possible to do all three during this window if your advantage is great enough. Therefore, even if squashing the main would win outright, if you can see that the first expand is lightly defended and can be taken for sure, it is a more sure bet to take the expansion (and a maybe slower win)rather than chance a heavily defended main.
The probes vanish in so many bright explosions. The nexus soon after. The hydras take many cannon hits but do their job. Meanwhile, I see SEVERAL cannons being warped in in a panic, just south of where the nexus used to be. No zealots or dragoons or reaver fire comes to defend. The hydras take down as many cannons as they can before falling in the photon hail. Yup, we got a cannoner here!
While the overlords were travelling to their destination and during the attack, I was busy making more hydras. The joy of hotkeyed hatcheries, of which I have 3 now (one atop the ramp, mostly for unit production but also possibly for sunkens over the ridge if needed). And I have been grinding more upgrades (first missile damage, range). Right after this attack, I have a fresh team of hydras ready to be loaded for another drop, this time on the main. This leads us to the
MID GAME:
The overlords again fly over the north edge of the map, over the smoking ruins of the natural expand, still with its cannons at the choke, defending nothing. The overlords again begin taking fire as they fly over the main, and I drop just to the right of the minerals. Again, more cannons being madly warped during the attack. Hardly any units, maybe a dragoon or two, and here's why! Fleet Beacon! Arbiter Tribunal! What we have here is a no good, cannon warpin', carrier and arbiter massin' protoss turtlin' mofo who must die and die horribly! I lost to too many of these yoyos during my newbie days. Too many traumatic memories. Vengeance must be harsh.
The crack hydra squad is the first to begin visiting the harsh vengeance of the swarm. Again there is a great slaughter of probes, and the nexus falls. Some tech buildings are taken down (including cyber core and a robotics facility, and a templar archives), and the hydras eventually die to a combination of psi storm, cannon fire, and the last few to a dark templar or two. Not only has this guy gone for too much tech, but too many different kinds, too. And the wrong kind. A reaver or two might have been nice!
Protoss still has technically control over the territory of his main and natural (i.e. the choke and ramp etc.) but I have wreaked havoc with his economy and some of his tech. He definitely is in no position to expand and clearly doesn't have the units to mount any kind of serious attack.
I expand to 6:00 plateau. I now have 3 bases to his maybe 1, 1.5 at most. I prepare another hydra drop to perhaps finish things. As my hydras head from the east towards the natural, they take a huge hail of cannonfire, as the turtle has put up four or five cannons on the cliff over his natural! Now that's really overdoing it! I lose an overlord or two and call off the attack. I expand to 6:00 natural.
Whic brings us to
LATE MID GAME: MAP CONTROL, MORE INVESTMENT BY THE OVERMIND NATIONAL BANK
Mainly consists of me amassing wealth and units and upgrades. I amass an ever growing force of zerglings and hydras at the upper middle of the map to contain and prepare for massive assault. I upgrade to hive and adrenalings, and get greater spire and make a 12 pack of mutas.
About this: I have in the past hated making mutas against protoss and terran as they are so freaking WEAK and DIE so easily to storm or any air unit. And hydras have been so good to me. However, in this map control phase, particularly with a big econo advantage, they are crucial because of their mobility. i.e. rapidly go squash a budding expansion, or defend yours, particularly against reaver/tank etc. You gotta have some.
I am glad I made them as my 9:00 natural burrowling reports mining activity in the vicinity. I rush the hotkeyed mutas there and, with attack upgrade, they "disappear" the probes like nobody's business. Mutas are really good at assasinating the defenseless or outnumbered. Nexus falls soon afterwards, I keep the mutas there until a handful of hydras arrive for the heavy demolition, and I run away the mutas back home before any air units can show up. I'm really into keeping those expensive mutas alive anyway I can now.
More time passes. No sign from protoss. Very suspicious that he must have grabbed one of the islands, which don't have my burrowlings. As I am amassing units and upgrades in preparation for D-Day assault on his main/natural, I dispatch an overlord towards each island. Nothing on southeast. The one headed northeast seems to have been lost without making a final transmission. No reply. Hmmm. I am not content to even let him have one extra expansion, as I have lost to protoss players who, even with just 2 cannoned up expands after losing their main, have busted out 12 carriers and ripped my expansions one after another and won the game. This cannot happen. 16 fully upgraded hydras drop onto the northeast island and slaughter all probes, the nexus and the couple of cannons on this previously undiscovered base. I leave a few there and burrow one for more surveillance. I start an expansion at 9:00 and at the southeast island. Which brings us to
LATE GAME:
Several probing attempts into the main with hydra and ling squads dropped onto the front edge of the main plateau are slaughtered horribly by psi storms and cannon fire. He appears to have one carrier in there (hehe), and even an arbiter or two! He is definitely not going to win the game, but he is not resigning either. He is going to make me crack his turtle shell and prove the win. That's cool, I'm up for the challenge. Bringing us to the
END GAME:
Rolling in money. All buildings are built. Almost all upgrades complete.
Zerg turtle cracking 101--with some types of choke defenses, even with enormous numbers of upgraded units, you cannot crack the turtle even with huge economic resource. Countless units will be slaughtered to storm, tank or bunker or tower or reaver fire, etc. Therefore the special units and abilities are required. These would include bachelors 1,2, and 3:
THE GUARDIAN (Cleans cannons and towers so your guys can run in, slaughters terran infantry. Disadvantage, very difficult to keep alive, dies to any air, storm, and very dumb, easy to mis micro into cannons/towers instead of attacking from range.)
THE DEFILER (Dark Swarm over cannons, adrenalings and ultras run in and have a party. Dark swarm next to cannons. Hydras run in and have a party. Any questions? Disadvantage: Dark Swarm cloud has a sign that says, "PLACE PSI STORM HERE PLEASE".)
THE ULTRALISK (sort of like the burly linebacker types so popular with the chicks in high school, big, strong, not so smart, about a zillion hit points and with the extra 2 armor upgrades available in BW, marine bullets just bounce off the big guys, who leisurely peel open the bunkers and pop the marines inside into their mouths. But that's another game...)
Anyway, some combination of these were tried. A few guardians, with some hydra and muta support, started to take down cannons. But some crafty psi storms began to make this an expensive proposition. And the bugger actually stole one with mind control! Switch tactics, defilers with consume swarmed some cannons and zerglings and hydras went to town starting to tear down the cannon wall. But multiple storms began making this a very expensive proposition as I would lose essentially all my units to take down a few cannons and a pylon. I could have eventually won this way, but wanted to do something, well, a little less resource intensive, that I could justify on the old defense budget better... Which brings us to
THE QUEEN. I had all upgrades except for the queen ones. I had merely made the nest as a pathway to hive, nothing more. Now I went for the broodling and energy upgrades, and made several to join my happy force. The first step: parasite everything you can see, and the stuff you can't. You can't broodling what you can't see. And there's no "Restore" for protoss. Ha! Ha! As far as I knew there was still the one (I thought) carrier in the base. I parasited an arbiter near the edge of the plateau, which revealed THREE arbiters! What was this guy thinking? I mean, maybe an arbiter could win a fight with a fruitfly. Maybe. And THEY ARE EXPENSIVE! I parasited all three. I made a cloud of scourge over my happy army. I targeted each arbiter with a couple of scourge. Bye bye arbiters. Now, one could see a single carrier and SEVERAL TEMPLAR. The carrier and half the templar were parasited. 6 scourge for the carrier, bye bye carrier. Which brings us to
THIS BROOD'S FOR YOU... I broodling 3 of the templar in rapid succession. I could have gotten fancy and "cloned" the attack so that they would broodling almost simultaneously, but I didn't want to screw up and waste broodlings all on one templar. A funny thing happened which I KNEW was going to happen, which was that in running around from the broodlings, someone stormed and killed at least half the remaining templar in the storm. OK! WHO'S THE WISE GUY WITH THE ITCHY STORM FINGER! Ha! Ha! Ha! And I got to see it all through the magic of paravision!
With most of the templar menace gone, I could see a bald spot in all the cannons through my parasited templar to land some troops and began transporting some hydras and adrenalings there. They made quick work of the remaining templar and began tearing up the base. I transported more troops up there and the fun began. While the main was being mopped up, the protoss complimented me on my play, and actually asked me if I was a pro. I should have told him yes so he would feel better, but I don't lie like that. As he was not resigning, I was expecting a disconnect at any time, although the poor sport discers are usually gone long before this, really once they realize they are shut up in their one base with no prospects for winning they quit.
When I got to the right edge of his main, I saw that he had even mind controlled a drone at some point and had built a hatchery and spawning pool. Great, glad you didn't waste any of your scarce resourcees trying to start yet ANOTHER tech tree...
When I finally began dark swarming and tearing down the cannon wall at the natural with zerglings/ultras, he left without disconnecting. The final stats showed me outresourcing him over 2:1 and him having destroyed NO buildings of mine, even in a one and a half hour blood bath! I give him credit for having some fighting spirit (I wouldn't have stayed holed up in a base for an hour waiting for the inevitable, would have resigned before), and being a good sport.
LESSONS:
1. Straight tech to doomsday units like carriers/BCs is madness. Any good player will squash you early with early/mid level units.
2. Cannons are actually good, but cannon walls are stupid. Goons and reavers defend, but can pick up and trash an expansion. This behavior has not been reported in cannons.
3. Burrow lings at all the key spots. That recon is key allowing early expansion squashing.
4. Consider broodling for late game siege breaking (Tanks, temps). Not crazy about the efficiency of this spell otherwise.
5. If you have the huge economic advantage, it's well worth it to lose an overlord or scourge or even a muta in scouting to let you know there's some expansion activity to be squashed.
6. Mind control a worker to build alternate tech tree is a worthless gimmick. How often do both players reach the supply limit? Usually if one player is anywhere near the limit he is totally killing the other player and about to win. If you have the money to blow to make a whole other tech tree you should be spending it on more of the great units you already can make.
7. Dark templar are a waste against zerg. Heard of a little thing called overlords?
8. LESS CANNONS/TOWERS, MORE UNITS!
I know this game wasn't really notable to merit this long report, but I thought many points about recon, containment, expansions, and how turtling is bad and how to crack a turtle are well illustrated by this little tale. | | Battle Shots! | 
Without a Scratch...
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