My scouting probe arrives at Over's base to find a marine on the ramp, whom he quickly darts past to find a building factory. I begin dancing him around hoping to get some factory harassing action as well as seeing if (when) he starts his second factory. Back at home an scv pokes his head up my ramp just in time to see my core finish. Knowing he has some time until the goon will finish over sets it to attack the pylon and returns to his base. At nearly the same time my zeal finishes and I set him to scout elimination patrol, making a goon to aid in this. I didn't need the goon, however, as over apparently believes the "your forces are under attack" message mearly denotes a troublesome probe. Over is left in the dark while I have a pretty good look at his base.

My probe buys it from the trailing rine not long after, but he lives long enough to see the beginning of a second fact. I begin my robotics facilty and place my zeal on my ramp.

A second scouting probe is sent to Over's choke with orders to report back any activity...he never made it there. At roughly the middle of the map he was beset by combined fire from roughly 4 rines and a tank. He also noticed something interesting, at least one scv in tow. Great. This won't be a simple joyo rush, this is full-on gundam contain. And I have 2 zeals and a goon for protection.

Luckily for me we both know that his goals with this force are not to run me over. In fact it's doubtful he'll even try as he has no reason to believe I don't have the troops to keep him from scaling my ramp. My reaver is roughly 3/4 of the way finished and I'm very confident of my ability to break this containment with it. This just means I won't be able to surprise his scvs with it and the 2 zeals, though. ;( While I'm waiting for the reaver I begin goon range and keep constant production of the spider walkers.

Slugs Are Fun For Everyone

My reaver pops out, I float him over to the edge of my main and send in my ground troops (numbering a healthy 2 goons and 2 zeals). There's panic in my natural as vults dart back and rines run for the bunker. The single siege tank comes forward to engage the attackers but backs away at the appearance of my shuttle. I get both vultures and reduce the tank to 13hp at the cost of my entire ground force. I pop my reaver back into the shuttle and wait for reinforcements, which are quick in coming.

Seeing this will take longer than I anticipated, I begin a second gateway in my main as a goon walks down the ramp. The tank darts back behind the bunker, out of the way of the fighting and I drop off my reaver again. It lobs a scarab into the bunker, killing one of the 3 repairing scvs and convincing Over to re-situate the other 2. The tank attempts to get back into the fray, but comes too close to the bunker and dies to the splash of a second scarab. All that's left now is the bunker with it's rine cargo and a pair of repairing scvs, but these will be enough to delay me for awhile yet as my goons don't have range yet and so can't engage the bunker without taking fire.

Over and I play a little game where I lob a scarab, he pops out his rines, and I pop in my reaver. We go through this a couple of times before goon range is complete and I force him out of my natural. Now I start up a nexus in my natural as the absense of reinforcements tells me that he is expanding, and I'm sure he's ahead of me in the timing.

OverTheUnder: hacker :o

I begin an observatory, research shuttle speed as I intend on using drops more throughout the game, and send my shuttle towards Over's natural to see if I can slow down his expansion. I see that it's still under construction and drop the reaver off intending to take out the building scv. Of course, I forgot to even look to see if there were tanks and my already damaged reaver bought two volleys instantly and exploded...um yeah gj me.

maareek: hax -_- OverTheUnder: ;P

Don't Like Slugs? How About Ninjas?

I'm not the kind of player who would let this set back bother me, oh no siree bob! Instead I develop a clear plan of action: drop him again. I debate over just what to use, finally narrowing it down to either another reaver or dts. Dts won out and I get the neccessary tech and warp in another pair of gates. I also go ahead and warp in a forge for cannons even though it's earlier than really one should because I'll be low on goons.

As I'm waiting for my last dt to finish I begin to move my force of 6 goons and 1 obs into the middle, but at my choke they are met by 4 vultures. One vulture dies to goon fire but the other 3 make it into my main. I'm not too concerned about losing probes as my cannon is warping in as they climb the ramp but my shuttle is sitting there with 3 dts in it and another one will arrive at any moment. I don't want him getting suspicious, y'know? Luckily for me the dt doesn't come out until they have already passed and I don't think my shuttle just sitting at my ramp gave anything away since he knew I had it. After the vult threat is dealt with my shuttle makes it's way to Over's main with its cargo.

My dts all land safely in Over's min line, the last one just making it out of the shuttle in time (speed shuttle at that, hax) to find a saturated min line with a turret on either side and a tank in its midst. I immediately target the tank with all 4 dts, blowing him up quickly. Next target is the topmost turret, which also falls quickly. I score another couple of scvs kills before I turn my attention to his refinery. I begin hitting it with all 4 dts and he brings 6 scvs over to repair, pretty quickly I realize I'm fighting a stalemate and set the dts to eliminate scvs instead. About this time I assertain that Over doesn't have sat, how you ask? Because he starts targeting his extractor to kill my dts, utilizing his tank's splash. I pull my dts back and try for a couple more scvs, Over repeats the process on an scv killing another dt. Then, I am sure that I told my dts to split up and only have 1 attack his other tank but they both go in and die to splash (but so does the tank), end dt threat.

All in all I say they were effective, though. They were able to kill 7 scvs, 2 tanks, a turret, and cost Over some mining time. And, more importantly, while they were keeping him busy I was expanding to the 12 min-only expansion.

Expo Schmexpo

Shortly hereafter our forces have a small skirmish in the middle, few losses are traded off but Over is able to oh so subtely convince me to pull back. As I do an observer alerts me of an expansion attempt going up at 6 min-only, there's only one solution to this...speed shuttle on course. He arrives and drops off his 3 zeal, 1 dt payload and escapes the scene relatively unscathed. My small force dies cost-effectively at least, taking out a pair of tanks and a half dozen vults, but doing no damage to the expansion.

I know I need to do something about this new base, but at the moment I sort of have my hands full. While his expo was under attack Over engaged my force in the middle. Feeling fairly confident, I bound headlong into the fray...if I had known he had so much I might not have. It went better for me than I had imagined it would, thanks to some decent storms and my shuttle(give that guy a fucking medal) I was able to keep it a situation where basically I traded his army for mine. Of course, both of us have reinforcements constantly streaming into the middle and this fight continues on for quite a little while.

Hold The Line!

With the first round of reinforcements I'm able to push Over back towards his natural, but within seconds I'm traveling backwards as a healthy sized force of vults works on my zeal/ht heavy army. Things look grim until I manage to get off a nice storm on 4 or so vults (as well as my obs and shuttle[the shuttle survived]) and push him back again despite the aid of some d-matrix from his vessels (apparently he's too cheap for sat, wtf.)

During these exchanges I have begun an expansion at the top left natural, attempting to even out the resources. Fortunately, on account of the dicey situation going on just outside his natural Over is unable to maynard any scvs to his new expansion...which makes me quite happy. I have also taken the upgrade lead, boasting +1 weapons with +2 upgrading while Over has no ups whatsoever.

Back in the middle I am again outnumbered, this time with 4 tanks and about that many vultures to my 2 goons and a pair of zeals. But yet again my shuttle carries the day (promotion, anyone?) by dropping another goon and a pair of zeals on the tanks and then popping the zeals a couple of times to keep the heat from the vultures off of them.

I've again retained control of the middle, but not decesively as 3 zeals and 2 goons aren't that sturdy. And on top of that my micro in the last fight has left my reinforcements all the way back at my ramp (halfway across the map). If over comes out right now he'll have control again and be able to get that expo up and running.

Desperation

I send my reinforcements in to the killing fields and warp in a pair of cannons at my 10:00 expo as well as beginning a nexus at 11:00. As soon as my probe makes the nexus here though he is blasted by a tank...ruh roh raggy. This could potentially be the loss of 2 expos since I don't really have the troops to take a full drop right now...fuck.

Well, with that on my conscience I see only one route to take...take out his expo and make it now. I load up my trusty shuttle with a trio of zeals and send the whole gang down to 6. The shuttle, brave and quick as he was, finally buys it from the turret stationed there but he got all his cargo out in time...what a fighter. My goons are intercepted by the main terran army, accompanied by a pair of vessels and a dropship. While my zeals tear up the expo my goons take out the front vessel...but not before he gets off an emp on the group. I manage to take down a few lead tanks and vults with my goons but then arclite fire forces my army to beat a retreat. My zeals, however, are merrily tearing into the commander center at 6 until a small force of tank/vult interrupts them.

Of course, this is just what I was waiting for, with the vults down at 6 I push forward with my reinforcing zeals and the goons from before, breaking the choke defense. Instead of pushing ahead I pull back and insure the destruction of 6, at which point Over calls "gg" and leaves.

Post-Game

• Despite the fact that both of us had bad micro at the gundam contain in the beginning I feel it still shows the strength of a properly used reaver. IMO it was easier handling it with the reaver than if I had gone 2 gate goon.
• Of course then I threw it away foolishly...very bad decision. I should have at least picked up a goon to drop along with it and more likely should have held off on a drop until after the expo was set up so I could get some scv kills.
• I felt like this game was much closer than the other ones, I was quite concerned I was going to lose at several junctures.
• The inability to build on the center really hurts terran on this map. Makes it almost so he can't move out of his base until he has a huge force with big ups that knife through toss units.
• I'm not sure how effective gols are as anti-shuttle but they still aren't detectors and they take up resources from vult/tank.
• Speed shuttles own.

I find it interesting to note that the tank at top left that I thought was one of 3 or 4 that was going to ravage my new expansion...was just one. Oh well, the concern over it handed me the win anyway.

Post-Game Comments

OverTheUnder: I can't believe I lost AGAIN when I had the advantage. maareek: You ALWAYS think you have the advantage ;p

OverTheUnder: I kept trying to break out when I didn't have the forces >_< maareek: yep, shouldn't do that ;)

maareek: had no macro all game again ;/ OverTheUnder: oh shut up :(

OverTheUnder: I can't tell if vessels are worth it maareek: They are if you're too chobo to get scan -_-

I had originally intended to include images in this report, but gimp and I have not been getting along so they're not here. If any of you are left unfulfilled and just have to have visuals...here is the replay.

And finally, I promised convie I would post this in a battle report so here it is...the reason convider owns:

Hope you guys enjoyed, please leave a comment.