"will's race is vespene gas"
Fear'Factory
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| Me vs Cow~inca, a three game series! | | | Author: | | | IP: | ppp9133.XXXX | | Date: | 04/17/00 01:04 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 7, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for Pika_Flare: 7.0000 |  | Let the Games Begin!
Wow, a Sunday. I woke up from my bed, bored as usual. After playing Street Fighter Alpha 3 constantly yesterday, I decided I wanted a change of scenery. Of course, starcraft is always the answer to that question. =]
I wobbled down to my basement, booted up my computer and logged onto the internet. Going onto battle net, I was surprised that I had a new record! 3 yellow lag bars! Yeah! Thats one of my best lag records.
After getting owned hard in a PvP match, I decided I wanted some revenge. I was practicing my protoss lately, trying to get better at the specific race. I've been playing them for 2 consecutive weeks! After spamming in x17 for a while I finally got a game with a fellow named cow~inca.
We created the game on the lost temple, on the faster speed. Argh! How I hate faster. We both selected our races, I picked my usual protoss while he elected the zerg to lead him to victory. The countdown began...
Game 1!
I started off in the 12 o'clock position. Not my day is it. I've concluded that I really hate twelve. You can't seem to defend you expansion adequately and my poor peons always seem to get off to a slow start. Because I utterly suck, I can clone properly. I finally get my peons off to work and start to devise my build order.
I decide to early expand. The zerg is likely to expand and I must match that. The problem is I don't know what to do first, a gateway or a forge. I decide to go with a forge then make a pylon at the bottom of my ramp, I then warp in a couple of cannons. I don't early zerglings flooding my expansion. I then warp in my shiny new nexus, followed by my gateway. All of this time I am constantly warping in probes.
Soon enough, an overload comes floating my way. Of course, it is floating so slowly due to the damn speed of faster! I decide that I will scout out my opponent too while warping in a pylon at the very corner of my base. This way I can safely hid my entire tech tree, without the snoopy overload checking out my exact build order. I warp in a cybernetics core at the corner, followed by a citadel of adun.
My little probe finally makes it down to the 6 'o’clock position to find exactly what I expected. Cow~inca had early expanded. Nothing new or exciting. Because I had scouted late, my probe was toasted by hydras. I assumed he was powering hatches, and making a hell of a lot of hydras.
Back at home my tech had reached the templar archives. I had also warped in a single goon to dispatch the snooping overload. I wanted that free kill to put me slightly ahead. My dragoon got into position and rushed the overload. The battle was fierce, (hehheh) but my goon finally out the last plasma beam into that big hunk of flesh. The overload exploded in a pool of blood. That’s probably the only battle I'll win all game. =]
Just as I finished my upgrade to storm, a control group of hydras come banging at my door. I have 4 zealots, a goon, and 2 cannons to defend myself. Cow~inca looks like he has the upper hand. The hydras cut through my cannons with ease, as my troops rush to battle. I finally get his number of hydras down to 4, but I have no troops left. His hydras rush to my mineral line at my expansion and start to pop probes until their hearts content.
While all of this was happening, It actually registered to me to make troops while I was battling! Just as the hydras are popping their first probes, three fresh 0/0/0 zealots come to the rescue. They easily eat the hydras but I have lost half of my probe population at my expansion.
I start to rebuild my cannons and erect a pylon at the top of my ramp. I usually ignore building defense behind my mineral lines when facing zerg on temple. I'm not really afraid of the "doom drop". The zerg never seem to pull that one on me. I add my 4th gateway and start producing zealots/dark templar/high templar from my gateways. I find that combination to work great against zerg ground forces. If the zerg goes mutalisks though, you’re basically screwed.
Just as I'm building up, another pack of hydras come knocking at my front door. This time I'm ready though. cow~inca's troops get beaten down. I throw down some storms, and my zealots and DTs clean up the reminder of his troops.
But this guy is no quitter, he keeps on coming with pure groups of hydralisks -- nothing else. He is slowly wearing down my defenses... Cow~inca also gets smart and brings overloads to stop my DTs. It finally comes to the point were I have absolutely no troops left to defend. Hydras pour in and destroy everything in site.
Bah! I lose. I didn't get to attack cow~inca's main even once! I was always on the defensive. Wanting to actually win a game before I go and do my homework, I ask inca~cow for a re-match. He agrees.
Game 2!
This time I create. I create on the lost temple, and on the best speed of all, fastest! Ironically enough, we both pick the same races we choose last game, zerg and protoss. This time I'm pumped, this time I'll win... I hope.
Of course, with my amazing bad luck, I get the crappy start position again, twelve `o'clock. But to even that out, I get my probes off to a perfect start, I clone them to the mineral patches perfectly. This time I'm not going to early expand, I conclude, I will try a different build order.
I decide on the most common build order. Pylon at 8, then two gateways at 11. I then make zealots constantly, while getting a cybernetics core. I decide to do this while slowly gravitating towards high templar.
My probe, (his name is Mac is you want to know:) informs me that he is getting bored mining minerals. I tell him to shut the hell up. He gets quiet very quickly. =] I decide that he is better off scouting, then mining and I send him around the map. He finally finds something at the 9 o'clock position. A hatchery has finished morphing and 4 lings are beside it. Mac runs (or floats, I don't know what probes do) to get a quick glance at cow~inca's main. He gets in and sees a pool and a hatchery. He trys to run to the corner to escape the wrath of the lings but it is too late. They slowly claw at him. Mac's last words are, I'll never get to play Ultima Online again.... NOOOO!!!!
Just as Mac dies, zerglings come to greet me. I have more than enough firepower to handle them. I kill a couple of zerglings when cow~inca gets smart and runs all of his troops away. Sensing I have a slight advantage, I decided to add a citadel of adun, followed by a templar archives, my standard against zerg, and start up my expansion.
I successfully get it online, and maynard a bucket load of probes to my expansion. I get that nice feeling when you all of a sudden get double the income. As, my money kicks in, I add another 4 gates bringing my total up to six.
There is a little lull of action for the next couple of minutes as I build my army of zealots/templar. I get a little scared and send Mac's brother out scouting the other mains. Nope, nothing there. Just as I'm getting comfortable in my chair, cow~inca comes to break the few actionless minutes.
That’s what I hate about zerg. There always on your case, kind of like a bad itch that you can't reach on your back. But when you do put those zerg in their place it feels so good =]
This time cow~inca comes with a slight variation in his army. He brings about a 50/50 ratio of mixed zerglings and hydras. My army looked about large enough to dispatch his. My little, "anti-zerg-mixed-protoss-unit-group" battles his zerglings and hydras. Everything looks fine until my templar were accidentally left at the top of the ramp! Stupid me, when will I ever learn...
Of course, that was the turning point of the game. my troops got crushed as there was no storm support. When I finally got my templar out, I killed almost all of his hydras with a couple of storms. I needed those other troops that I lost though.
Surprisingly, I noticed that he had no overloads hanging around anymore. Then, an idea popped into my head. Make DTs! my brain whispered to me. What a great idea! I hit my hotkeyed gateways and made 6 DTs simutaneously. Just as he was hammering down my expansion, they popped out, I toasted his remaining hydras with ease. Things were starting to look up.
I continued to make zealots/high-templar/dark templar out of my 6 gateways. As his last wave of hydras suicide themselves into my army of doom, I knew I had won the game.
I gathered all of my troops and sent them all to cow~inca's second natural. All he had was a few hydras and some tokens of zerglings. I eliminated his expansion as he conceded the game with a "dfiuwehfiew". Whatever that means, I guess he was pissed off. =] Woo-hoo! I actually won!
Now it was his turn to ask for a rematch. He quickly messaged me and told me the game name and password, inca/inca.
I joined the game to be disappointed. He had created the game on that devilish speed, faster! I politely told him that I absolutely hated that speed and he then agreed to make the game on fastest. After a few false starts, we were off...
Game 3! Final Round!
This was it. This was the big game. Whoever won would be showered in glory, whoever lost would be beaten to a bloody pulp. Would I be victorious? Read on to find out.
Cow~inca really wanted to beat my protoss with his zerg, so as with the last two games, we both selected those same two races.
As the fog of war lifted over, I was greeted with a good change, I wasn't at the twelve `o'clock position! Joy! How I hate twelve... Instead, I was at 9 `o'clock. Good, I can actually defend the entrance to my main with my expansion. Saves me some cash and puts me in a better position than if I was at twelve.
I've been having bad luck with early expanded against zerg. They always seem to flood my base with 48937874 zerglings before I can get adequate defense and troops out. I decided to go with the exact same build order as last game. 8 pylon, and at 11, two gateways.
The next few minutes were boring, as usual. Me teching up to templar, added another gateway, blah, blah... I researched storm, and gosh, drum role please, dududududuud! maelstorm! Yes, one of the most underused spells in all of brood war. Maybe it will come in handy later on in the game...
I then scouted him out, finding cow~inca was at the opposite side of the map. Ya! I expand, add my 4 gateways bringing my total up to 7. Nothing much has happened. Things seem a little quiet, too quiet. I send a zealot on a scouting mission...
...and before he can leave my expansion he gets pummeled by hydras! Holy *%@$, a lot of them too. cow~inca is containing me =Þ. How I hate containment. I waited too long and now he has probably expanded all over he map, and is rallying hydras from his hatches, right outside my front door. If you know the difference between good and bad, you know that this is bad.
Du Da! Du Da! Du Da! Yes, that is the sound of my heart beating with fear. This always happens in a close game of starcraft. My heart starts racing, my palms get sweaty, and I get mini muscle spasms. Yes, I get that scared over a silly game.
When there are that many hydras outside your door, only one thing comes to mind. STORM! Yes. I start stacking up high templars in my gateways, in one minute, I will have 7 templars. In their deep, warped, voices, the templar inform me that they had just been warped from Aiur. They sit at my expansion, and charge up their mana. A great drop of sweat falls from my armpit. =]
73...74...75! YES! They have finished charging up! I decide to send a zealot as a decoy for my high templar. The hydras will direct all of their attention towards the zealot for a spilt second, giving me my crucial time to storm. One zealot volunteers. Mac, this is for you.
Jorge waits patiently beside the nexus. Sweat pours down his face even though it is below freezing outside. He watches as the hydra's drool drips down to the ground, making an unpleasant sizzling sound. He takes a deep breath, and plunges forward without looking back.
The spines hit Jorge like a thousand needles at once. Instant pain shoots down his body. Jorge looks back as the templar begin their storming feat. Fantastic lightning fills the screen and when the smoke clears up only a couple of hydras are remaining. Jorge risked his life, so that others could live, what a brave little zealot. =]
Breaking out of that containment I knew that I was seriously behind. I feared that he had now done what all zerg seem to do -- expand all over the map. I send a scout to the bottom position, nope nothing there. Then I checked out twelve. Bingo! He is just started an expansion at the main, and the main's expansion. I take my mineral natural, gather up my remaining troops, and dive for the kill.
I decide to attack his main's natural instead. If I wait any longer,cow~inca could just be massing troops, I didn't want that. I send 7 high templar, 2 control groups of zealots, and a couple of DTs to wait outside his natural. When I felt ready I decided to attack.
I did the same strategy I used with Jorge. Send a couple decoy zealots and then storm all his hydras. The zealots race to the hydras and I SLAM the 8th hotkey to bring up my templar. I clone storms all across his hydras. Damn, that was some of my finest, I wish I had a picture. My zealots clean up and start hammering down on cow~inca's drones.
All of this time I was keeping my macro up like a good boy. I send some mixed protoss ground troops to cow~inca's twelve o'clock expansion. and find no resistance. His hatchery quickly falls. Just as I'm going to dive into cow~inca's main, he concedes the game. Woo-hoo! I won the 3 game series!
Lessons Learned
1. Against better players, early expansion doesn't seem to be the most logical answer against a zerg. Try teching up to storm, and then expanding.
2. Storm is a lifesaver.
3. If you have no storm against the zerg, you as good as dead, the zerg have simply too many troops.
4. DTs aren't that bad against zerg. When there is no overloads around they can do some damage.
...And that is all. Sorry if my report sucked, its not my fault. =] Bye-bye for now...
-Pika_Flare |
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