"OH LOOK IM ZILEAIS I GO TO MIT AND FIND IMBALANCES IN MY PANTS!!@# "
-hajooooooob
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| Score One for Team Zerg | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 05/23/99 10:05 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | Starcraft(1), Text Only(1) | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 7, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for HydraDropper: 7.6667 |  | Short and sweet. Me and partner Neo played as a Zerg team on Dire Straits vs 2 Protoss players. I start top right and he starts top left.
As soon as the game commences I set ally chat and announce my intention to hydra drop on bottom right. Neo agrees and techs to a muta rush. I do a standard 2 hatchery build with quick lair and overlord speed then transport researched, with hydra range upgrade. When I have about 20 hydras the transport upgrade completes and I load up. I tell Neo, "dropping now". I bring the 5 lords along the right edge of the map planning on dropping into the worker line. There are a few cannons constructed at the top edge of the map and my lords take a few shots on their way to the drop zone, but no real harm done. As I arrive at the mineral and gas mining operations, I see no defense there and drop the hydralisks. They begin demolishing first all workers and then nexus and the rest of the base. A handful of mutalisks from Neo arrives from the left side of the map and does a little damage on some structures at the top. He is eliminated quickly, but we leave a pylon and 3 cannons at the top of the island, as it is not worth expending our troops against these yet and it gives him an opportunity to observe the rest of the game.
During the battle, I continually instruct my 2 hatcheries, which are hotkeyed, to continue to produce hydralisks.
No help arrives from the ally, and no counterstrike arrives at either of our islands.
Even though it is now 2 v 1 and neither Neo or I has been harrassed, it is concerning that we have seen neither hide nor hair of lower left Protoss. He could have a sizeable attack force by now, or have teched to a bunch of reavers or templar or air force. We can't delay striking there and letting him make trouble for us. I send the overlords back to home base where there are many new hydralisks awaiting to load up. Both Neo and I have expanded to the islands immediately below us by now, and I begin an expansion in one of the center islands. Neither Neo's mutalisks nor my overlords have detected any protoss expansions in our travels across the islands.
As soon as I have 4 overlords full of hydralisks, I announce "dropping again." I cross the middle of the map with my force and again pass a few cannons at the northern tip of the island. As I head for the drop zone (minerals and gas) again, a lone carrier begins to harrass my overlords. So that's the game, he was teching to carriers! The carrier must be newly minted as there seem to be only a few interceptors buzzing around. I focus the fire of several hydras on the carrier hull while the rest commence to trashing the base. The carrier falls quickly, getting no kills. Meanwhile a second carrier begins to head into the fray. I am pleased to see two of my partner's scourge smash into the hull, and my hydras again make quick work of the carrier. As I destroy base structures, Neo's mutalisks and guardians demolish cannons and pylons making their way south towards my forces heading northeast. As I approach the eastern side of the island, I find the stargates, along with a lone carrier that has not engaged the forces--probably newly minted with no interceptors. Boom goes the blimp. Good games are exchanged.
LESSONS:
1. Communicate with your teammate, let them know what you are doing. This way effort is not duplicated. I was able to concentrate on ground forces, and my partner on air. This leads to much more efficient production. If the game had gone later, I could still have focused on grounds, say ultralisks and adrenalings, and drops and defilers, while he could have stayed air and queens, etc.
2. Overall I wasn't sure that zerg/zerg was such a great idea for a team because of the weakness of units, but at least we split production because I told him I was going hydras.
3. Help your teammate! Left protoss was essentially doomed once it became 2 v 1. But because of the straight carrier strat he chose, he probably didn't have any units or transport ability to bring to his buddy's base when the hammer fell.
4. Even on islands, where quick rush is not possible, straight jump to carriers is not advisable, especially in team games when you have no ability to help your teammate. Middle game attacks will catch you with no units, and isolated carriers, or even two or three will fall to a mass of infantry units (marines, hydralisks, dragoons).
5. Overall, I think the brainless mass carrier strat is an effective thing for protoss to do (even tho I hate it, have fallen to it many a time), but you have to have secured at least one expansion first and have a number of units in the field to defend in order to safely pull it off. The carriers are ineffective until there are several massed together with 8 interceptors each, and this takes time and a lot of resources.
6. When your buddy is attacked, you MUST either support his defense if he needs, or launch a major attack on the home base of one of the other players, keeping it even by either keeping it 2 on 2 or making it 1 on 1. Doing neither is unacceptable, unless you haven't built smart and don't have units to send.
7. Expand in association with attacks (preferrably during, or right after). This is when the enemy is most defensive, either building more defense or rebuilding economy and/or buildings and has the least ability to harrass your expansions. |
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