"When Kakaru orders Vegas to "SAT", Johnny's response is "can't." Whether this is due to a broken "s" key or his reluctance to reveal his standardized test scores I still do not know."
-WilliamWC3
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| Trench Warfare | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 11/25/99 07:11 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 9, Min: 9
Lifetime Rating for MikeyMonty: 7.8571 |  | 
Note: This BR isn't image heavy at all, but you still may want to give it a few seconds to load for effect. Hopefully everything will work on the first try...
The Players
Nyctalinth - Randomed to Brown Terran at 3 o'clock.
MikeyMonty - Randomed to Orange Protoss at 12 o'clock.
The Map(Guess)
Well, since school has been keeping me really busy I haven't played StarCraft in about a month or so. I decided to see how rusty I was so I started up StarCraft and created a pubbie game on Lost Temple. My opponent soon joined, and the game began with both of us being content to select random. I was greeted with the sight of an orange Nexus having warped in at the twelve o'clock position and I set my little probes to happily mining away. Deciding to follow Mark4's advice, I created a pair of gateways on 12, instead of one on 11 and one on 13, constructed 2 zealots, and then sent my probe to scout. My probe was greeted with this sight:
The screen shot doesn't show it well, but that is only a partial wallin. My probe sprinted around the right side of the empty bunker, dodging a lone marine, and raced into the base. I expected it to find gas being mined and perhaps the beginnings of some kind of heavy metal hybrid, but instead all I found was a depot next to the Command Center before the probe was blown to bits. Feeling somewhat reassured, but still wary of heavy metal, I got gas for myself and started a cybernetics core. A reaver drop followed by heavy goons was on my mind. I continuosly made probes and the occasional pylon, as well as a pylon, forge, and pair of cannons at my ramp. When my cybernetics core was complete I constructed a robotics facility, researched goon range and +1 weapons, and trained a pair of goons.  I started a shuttle and robotics support bay as well. Soon the bay was finished, and I started making a reaver and researched shuttle speed. I kept making probes and goons till the reaver popped out. I felt confident and began to load my reaver up. Right before it entered the shuttle, however, the twinkling lights of a comsat swept over my nexus. I froze. I couldn't be sure if the comsat had spotted my reaver. I loaded up the shuttle anyway and moved it north, hoping to drop it behind my opponents refinery and snipe at scvs from there. Unfortunately, my shuttle only discovered an empty mineral line and a pair of turrets. Before I could retreat it, it exploded in blue flames, a victim of SAM missiles.
 Well, my reaver was a miserable failure. I hadn't even gotten any recon from the venture. I ran a probe into my enemy's natural and discovered he was expanding. With any thoughts of a quick kill having been dispelled from my mind, I turned to winning the game in a more direct manner. I queued up a pair of shuttles, and added a third gateway. I placed a pylon and 3 cannons at the choke leading to my ramp/natural and began warping in a Nexus and assimilator. My ground weapons were upgraded to +1 so I started the armor upgrade and warped in a citadel of Adun and a templar archives in order to upgrade even further. When my natural's Nexus was complete I Maynard transferred some of the peons I had overproduced at my mine to the mineral patches there. Then I rallied the Nexus at my main to a spot at my natural and began cranking probes from both Nexi(hey, a Latin plural). Within a minute or two, my natural was producing at capacity. I loaded up my shuttle with a probe and started an undefended Nexus at the top left island, and a Nexus at the 9 o'clock natural defended by several goons and cannons.  Just as the two Nexi began warping however, the attack warning sounded. I slammed the space bar and was greeted with the sight of Arclite rounds exploding among the probes at my natural. I had been caught unprepared by a turbo-newbie. I smacked my forhead in anger. With our mains adjacent to each other turbo-newbie was the obvious form of attack for him to select. No sense crying over spilled milk, however. I quickly ran my away to my expansion at the 9 o'clock natural, as I had niether D-Web(this was Vanilla SC), Carriers, or speeded zealots to dislodge the force of several tanks(you can't see them in the pic cause they aren't firing) from my natural's cliff. I gave it up for lost and decided that if I was unable to reclaim it, I would compensate by wrecking one of his expansions. I queued up more goons in my gateways and bided my time.
By this time the Nexii at the 9 o'clock natural and the top left island had completed. I started the rescued probes from my first natural mining, and shuttled the probes from my mined out main to the top left island. In no time at all I was back to full production. I dropped a probe on the cliff over my 9 o'clock natural, and started a pylon and cannon to prevent another turbo-newbie. I had accumulated quite a large number of goons by now, and decided the time was ripe to show him what my forces could do. I gathered all my goons in the center of the map, and loaded a probe into a shuttle. I was going to drop the probe on his natural's cliff and start up some cannons or something(stupid maybe, but I'm a sucker for poetic justice.) Unfortunately my opponent had placed a few turrets on his cliff to discourage just such a thing, and once again one of my shuttles was wasted by missile turrets.
My goons had no such vulnerability to turrets, however, and when patrolled into his natural they crushed his bunkers and lone low-ground tank. The remaining half dozen ran behind the mineral patches in the natural to escape high ground tanks, and butchered most of his scvs. It was only a matter of time, however, before the high ground forces rolled down his ramp and eliminated my goons. Fortunately, just as the fog of war enveloped the remains of my dead goons, I barely caught a glimpse of a dropship heading south, presumably to establish a foothold on the lower right island. I quickly loaded a shuttle with a goon and reaver and sent it south-east. Because of the speed upgrade, I actually beat his dropship to the island, and his troops were butchered as they emerged. I kept my forces there, and my possesion of the island remained uncontested for the rest of the game.
 I still was not sure of myself however, as I had been unable to destroy his natural's CC. I began queuing up more goons, reavers, and shuttles and placed a second forge for upgrades. I also researched +1 air armor (my shuttles were having an un-amusingly short life expectancy). My opponent was not rendered flat-footed by my attack, however. I once again heard the attack warning and was greeted with brown marines and firebats leveling the pylon and cannon over my 9 o'clock natural. I didn't see any tank, and can only assume that the marines were there to secure the cliff while the dropship returned for artillery, and that he had not counted on my cannon giving me warning. I loaded a reaver up in one of my shuttles and dropped it on my cliff. It's anti-infantry scarabs took out a firebat, but the Terran infantry loaded up into the dropship, which then headed North.
 With visions of my island probes being shredded dancing in my head, I loaded the reaver up again and gave chase to the drop ship. I arrived to find stimmed infantry harrasing my probes, but I ran about half the probes away and the reaver decimated the infantry with just a pair of scarabs. This military blunder on my part of leaving my top left island undefended angered me. I could feel the tide of the game turning, and my advantage slipping away. I started a Nexus at the 9 o'clock main and began replenishing the probes at the top left island. I had accumulated about a control group of goons by this time, and attempted to force a skirmish in the enemies' natural. However, as I was moving my goons south along the cliff of my opponent's main, Arclite rounds from the high ground decimated their ranks. I quickly retreated them to my natural's choke, but the tanks moved up to the north face of the cliff and harrassed my goons even more. I moved them a safe distance away to the center of the map, but was forced to concede the cannons and pylon at my choke to the tanks' depredations.
Well, having learned from my last BRed game that sticking with a strat that's failing miserably is a bad idea I decided to turn away from goons and reavers, consign the ground war, and go to the ultimate Protoss chease for a solution; carriers. Up went my stargates, fleet beacon, and second cybernetics core for upgrades.
I queued up two carriers in each of three stargates, and also started more goons and ground upgrades. My hope was that with his strong anti-ground defenses tied up with a dragoon assault my carriers could cause significant damage. I set a zealot to patroling the six o'clock natural and main. He encountered a force of terran infantry and tanks, and a pair of scvs moving to the six o'clock area. Wanting to head off an expansion attempt I dropped a reaver behind the unsieged tanks and infantry, and popped it using the shuttle to take out the majority of the infantry. With the backbone of the force out of the way, a control group of goons mopped up and parked outside the six natural to prevent a future expansion attempt. I moved eighteen goons and the now completed six carriers to the center of the map. My ground troops were 2/1/1 and my carriers were 1/1/1. I simply waited for each carrier to accumulate a hangar of eight interceptors each. I then moved them slightly behind the 3 o'clock natural's cliff. I simultaneously had both forces patrol in to assault the enemy defenses.
Dev will be happy to hear that my all "macro goon" force was simply liquified by the Terran infantry/tank defense. My carriers, however, met with significant success. The defenses were primarily anti-land, as I had hoped, and were simply leveled. Nyctalinth was no slouch, however, and had apparently forseen the inevitable carrier attack. Several ghosts marched towards my carriers, and anticipating lockdown I retreated my carriers back over the natural cliff. One was locked down before it could escape, however, and it was destroyed by a small (appx. 3-5) group of goliaths. I loaded up into a shuttle a pair of reavers that I had laying around, and maneuvered it into the enemy base, dodging sporadic turrets. A pair of scarabs later, and the ghost/goliath combo was reduced to scrap and blood. Scattered remaining ghosts locked down the reavers, but they must have been out of mana as my carriers then easily destroyed them and began laying into Nyctalinth's base. He gracefully surrendered with a gg.
Now that I have Photoshop, here's the obligatory ostentatios picture..
Lessons Learned
-Strategic attacks can't beat map control and superior macro/tech unless they are truly devastating.
-Use cliffs and chokes to your advantage. My ground forces were pureed by his use of high ground and chokes. The goons would get bottled up due to bad pathing, and then tanks' splash would just wreak havoc. Also, a well fortified turbo-newbie is incredibly hard to dislodge. In this case, being at 12 was a lifesaver. Had my natural blocked my main's choke, anything leaving my base would have had to run a gauntlet of tank fire. With the natural out of the way at 12 however, the tanks in the turbo-newbie couldn't hit troops leaving my ramp.
-Reavers can have limited effectiveness against Terran. Just make sure to strike when tanks are unsieged, such as when they leave a dropship or are in transit.
Thanks for reading. As always, questions, comments, and criticism are welcome. Criticism and suggestions for my strats are especially useful.
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