Hello there, and welcome to another |]agomar battlereport.

This marks the 3rd attempt in my epic crusade to secure a 10. It's been tough, I tell you that much. It's a one in a thousand game that can actually, theoretically ( at least if the writer is good enough ) get a ten. Look at my last br. Brutal games. Just brutal. Tried to make them look alright, and hey, I guess it worked, but no 10 for me ;-<

But, here I go again. This game was played on fastest speed, which, believe me, is horrible for battlereporters, at least for me. Often times two things were going on at once . . . a big huge battle, say, at one location while a devastating raid is going on at another place, or an expansion is dropped upon and shut down on an island. Try making screenshots of all that at a time! Yet, I guess I did pretty well on the whole with regards to getting the shots . . . .

So, without further useless ado, it's on to our feature presentation!

Pregame

Well, it late in the afternoon on a normal Monday in the little town of Wainfleet. I was searching Battle.net for some of my friends, but since none were online I reverted to spamming the already spammed people of Nohunters ( which includes myself, that's how bored I was ). Fortunately, by some strange turn of fortune, a couple cool people skidded in and began the formation of a game. When the password and name were announced, I rapidly joined and began uploading the observer Dark Temple. Then, to my immense shock and surprise, ^Balrog^, hero of my last report, joined up! Woohoo!

He quickly selected the observer slot and the game was off, the countdown ticking down to zero suspensefully as a flurry of gl's were shot through the airwaves. I deleted about 80 screenshots, and prepared for what I knew was to be the feature game of my next attempt at a 10.

Early Game

.Curly (T) started out at 3:00 with Terran, and, together with his ally, [LoR]-Vega, (T) who took Terran at 12:00, formed Team T ( guess what that stands for ). NoNam[e] (V) spawned as the vile Zerg at 6:00, with his ally, Dark[e]lement(V) , who took Protoss at 9:00, also taking the V for Varied behind his name.

Things, as you can imagine for a game with lightning fast speed, started off extremely quickly, with each player frantically queing more peons, while Balrog and myself issued forth a motherload of witty comments ( all of which I failed to get into screenshots, just to spite him ). Team V ( for Varied Races ) got off to a good start, each commander making good use of their unique racial abilities. The teal cerebrate known as NoName waited until he had 300 minerals, then set about morphing a second hatchery, while his ally Executor Dark[e]lement(V) warped in the necessary first pylon, phasing in two gateways thereafter, accompanied by a second crystal pylon and more probes. It was obvious that he was to cover his companion, who was preparing to build a third hatchery on top of the dark plateau. However, this would prove unnecessary, as both the bustling terrans were creating extensive wallins around their ramps, obviously preparing to tech up to factory units, a good choice versus two opponents of different races.

Nothing much happened for a while, although all the contestants didn't skip sending out peons to scout, the humans lifting their barracks to enable this rather common and not really worth mentioning move. An SCV rolled into the vile zerg main, looked about a bit, then started fanatically attacking the fourth pulsating proto hatchery, before it was blown to dust by awe-inspiring drones. The terrans, now that they had seen the insane amount of hatcheries preparing to pump out wave after wave of horrific zerg units ( pause to catch breath ), wisely decided to do nothing, and chill out behind their chobo wallins. These, however, did tear apart scouting peons rather nicely, and the cowardly commanders giggled nervously from deep within their defenses as the blood of a valiant drone cascaded down the ramp. 'The factories were finished in roughly equal time for team T ( guess what this stands for ), and quickly add ons
were built, followed rapidly by another of the same structure. Academies had also been erected,
and yellow was working on a comsat, while purple took to training a couple medics and some firebats.

Back to the Zerg. They now had enormous production potential, and already had built a spawning pool! A strange strategy, this, but it the benefits would be amazing. As a fith hatchery burst into being (!!!), and drones swarmed fanatically about the mineral patches and vespene geyser, a large swarm of zerglings burst from their eggs and skittered to their rally point at roughly the middle of the large plateau. Balrog offered his opinion of this strategy:

yet I, on the other hand, found it a rather good idea, especially with the crackling upgrades, which seemed exactly where NoName (V) seemed to be going as a Lair, followed by a Queens Nest hatched into existence. Strange strat, though . . . .

The Protoss, still with two gateways now augmented by a cy core, moved into their natural,
phasing in a nexus and a pylon at the location. Element(V)
had also trained four zeals, which stomped up to the narrow choke and took their position in front of the couple cannons which were now being built. Alright, cool. Nothing has happened, but the fury of war was soon to illuminate this dark, sinister landscape . . . .

Curly casts doubt but Noname comes out

I should be a poet.

Erm, oh, ya, so anyway, at the crazy Zerg base, a hive had already been built, and the final crackling upgrades were on da way. A HUGE army of lings was miling about, waiting to either cause some serious destruction, or be pathetcially crushed ( recon was not a high point of this game ). Vega (T) was quickly teching, having added a starport onto his list of engineering achievements and heavily fortifying his base, preparing to move out into his natural. Curly (T) decided to concentrate more on his existing forces, focusing on the dreaded tank while his ally pumped out vultures and mined both their chokes. Element (V) has taken firm control of his natural, saturating it with probes and initiating contruction of double robotics bays at his main, with Balrog the nutty Sweed shrieking about his
lack of Gateways. At this time, purple decided the time was up to be a lame chobo newbie-like thing that some people find in sewers, and pumped out four vultures in a matter of seconds, loading them into a trusty dropship he had just constructed and sending the whole assembly over to the rear of Eliminator's (T) main. The dropper moved surprisingly fast ( what do you expect, bloody fastest speed ) and arrived in no time, unloading its deadly anti-probe cargo into the enemy midst and deciding to stick around in case some alien anti-air units should arrive to blow it up.

The drunken nuts drove around a bit, bellowing their hickish war chants, but then whirled about
and set upon the probes, murdering the hapless little mites with precion guided volleys of grenades. Countless peons were blasted to blue vapour, and the mining operation in the Protoss Main ceased to exist. Now, stupidly, with a couple thrill-seeking probes still skittering about, the vultures set upon the warping robotics bays, just as the zealots, now augmented by two goons, and newly created double Dark Templar, marched out of the fog of war.

With the Protoss base hurt and the prolonged survival of Element seriously in doubt, Curly (T) decided to let his nearly passed out vulture drivers perish in the Toss base, and guided his shuttle through the hail of plasma and out of danger. The brave vults did manage to kill both the templars before they died . . . .

At this point, a rather interesting phenomenon appeared upon the map. A line of teal about as long as this entire world began to unfurl in the direction of Vega's (T) well defended main, but suddenly took a winding turn to the right, straight for purple.

The zerglings were on the move. And worse, they were nearly fully upgraded, in all respects.

As the tremendous Swarm approached the little line of three mines holding lonely vigil in the Terran choke, Curly (T) ordered his mate to scan teal, curious as to what his other rival was up to. Just then, the first little clump of four lings was blown to hell by two vicious mines. Curly (T) laughed. More lings came. They were slaughtered by the tanks. Curly (T) laughed again. More lings came, up the ramp, throwing themselves on the bunker. Curly (T) laughed as they perished. More lings ran up the ramp. And more. And more. And more. The tank died. The buker exploded. The Barracks detonated. Curly (T) stopped laughing.

He also told yellow not to scan after all.

At first the Terrans, with their excellent defense and well-made wallin were able to hold off the assault. But soon the sheer, overwhelming mass of zerglings began to gain ground, atatcking first the tank, and crushing the bunker, followed by any remains of a wallin that once existed. Two tanks rolled from their double factories, but were crushed with some casualties by the 3 surviving groups of lings. A lones wraith was there to contribute what it could, though this naturally was very, very little. The vicious swarm made it to the core of the base, and the command center, killing all SCVs before yellow thought of sending help in the form of about 8 upgraded marines, supported by two medics. These met 6 or so zerglings at the bottom of the ramp, smashing them with zero casualties, then engaged another 8 at the top of the ramp,
slaughtering them as well. The uncoordianted, scattered lings were easy prey for the hypersonic gauss bullets, and Vega (T) just barely managed to save his friend and allow him to live another day.

The beleagured Curly (T) tried desperately to get back in the game, his only defense being the contingent of m&m left by his friend.

It's Vega Time!

At this time, Element (V) decided that rather then build up a large army, he'd be better off to expand to the upper island, increasing his resource flow and allowing him to become a powerhouse later on. He also loaded two of the dreaded reavers in a shuttle, flying them over to the back of Yellow's base to distract him from the new, as yet undefended, expo. The bloated robotic slugs dropped succesfully, deplying their deadly scarabs and rendering countless SCVs to fire and smoke. Not good.

Vega (T) rushed everything he had to defend against this fearsome new threat, running his peons away as he seiged two tanks just outside the Robots' range. His marines also raced in, and we all know how good they are versus reavers ( *cough* ). Although the drop was quelled, only two 'chobo rines survived, testament to their Commander's glorious use of micro to negate the devastating splash damage.

Now four Dark Temple arrived, dropping straight into what was left of the SCVs and slaughtering them with impunity. Because yellow no longer had a comsat, he told his ally to scan, and started pounding on the offenders with his tanks. Unfortunately for him, the whole core of his base was destroyed before the evil templar could be vanquished, and then only with the loss of all his non-bunker infantry!

But yellow quickly rebuilt, cursing at hs stupidity, ordering up a couple dropships, more tanks and countless infantry to combat the cracklings which he knew Teal was still producing.

Speaking of cracklings . . . .

Indeed, over a hundred, probably more of the insidious little horrors were skittering over to deal Vega his final death blow, just as he loaded three droppers with assorted infantry, vultures and tanks, flying them over to the island he had just discovered and razing it within seconds. Although he was successful, and only smoldering ruins remained in his wake , the zerglings had passed the miniscule line of mines with light casualties, and were now approaching the ramp. As the first ling raced into view, the Terran commander sensed it was over. Although the first wave was beaten back, countless other Zerg warriors threw themselves at the defenses, finally crushing the valiant tanks and brave bunkers. Yellow frantically loaded his drop forces back into their shuttles, flying them over to reinforce his flailing base. But it was to no avail. The entire plateau was consumed in a rage of claws, spines and vicious fangs, with Vega (T) barely managing to fly his primary buildings to safety over the frenzied swarm.

The 'lings move out under the harassment of that same crazy little purple wraith that was the hero of the last crackling assault. The tiny flier manages to get only 2 kills in what seemed like hours, prompting Balrog to express his beliefs that zerglings > wraiths.

Is this the End?

Things have never looked worse for poor ol' team T. Curly (T) has just been nearly destroyed by an immense swarm of cracklings, Vega (T) has been blown away by an even larger army, and my hopes of an exciting game are quickly slipping away.

But the Purple Terran Commander vows not to go silently into the night, and lands a command center at his natural, maynarding SCVs over to the site, and loading others into a dropship, which he unloads at the bottom right island, creating another expansion there. Suddenly, he is the player with the greatest potential forces, and, as more and more peons swarm over the minerals, he constructs five (!) Starports in his main, adding a Science Facility to his list of technological accomplishments.

Vega (T) resolves to land his CC upon the island he had conquered from white, and so begins the arduous trek over the dark sea.

Unfortunately for him, Eliminator(V), who now has a very large army, catches on to his scheme, and drops the bloody place to death within seconds of the Center's arrival. Poor yellow is forced to lift off again, and flies back over his deserted main just as a Physics lab is added to his ally's Science Facility.

Now Curly decides to take a more active role, dropping a tank atop the ledge over NoName (V)'s recently morphed natural. The tank kills the few probes that were there, but the Executor tries to halt the push by summoning a full group of 'goons. The Terran behemoth simply moves back and seiges again, hitting the dragoons with impunity. After a minute of this ceaseless bombardment, Eliminator (V) pulls back his troops, at the loss of three dragoons! The tank unseiges, moves up, and continues attacking the defenseless hatchery!

All Main bases are now mined out, leaving The Protoss with two nearly dry incomes ( his first and second naturals ), the Purple Terran with 2 full expos, the Yellow terran with one ( he just landed his CC at his natural )and the Zerg with . . . zero!

Eliminator (V), having discovered Vega (T)'s new base, promptly sends in over a group of upgraded 'goons, which sack the place in no time. Yellow's ally, however, is not content to simply site back and watch his friend perish, releasing 6 battlecruisers from their massive docks. The cruisers break the horizon and devestate the 'goon army, smashing it with only two losses.

More of the vast leviathans join their bretheren and lumber over to NoName (V), who prepares a desperate defense of scourge and defilers against the oncoming monsters. As the first ships engage the Zerg with devastating success, Curly (T) also lands a CC at his second natural, putting him far ahead of both his rivals in the resource game.

The battlecruisers pass the lonely siege tank, and annialate the surviving organic structures at the beleagured natural. As Noname (V) rallies his forces and prepares for a last ditch defense, I can't help thinking about how much the tables have truly turned.

The ships break the horizon and crush the hopelessly pathetic scourge. They then proceeded to rip apart countless zerglings, before being splattered with evil plague. While they managed to survive, even yamatoing the hapless 'filer, reinforcements consisting entirely of Eliminator's (V) goons and dark archons began to pour up the ramp. With the devastating zap of feedback, the titanic armada went down with enormous casualties on both sides. Whew, what a battle!

The Tide Turns

The Finale!