Introduction

After my initial three reports my internet connection got even worse... now I can't even play at FSGS. Thats so frustrating, I feel a bit like Yeti. No way to do a BR... I even observed a comp game (I mean two computers battling it out on Polaris Prime, Protoss vs. Zerg... it was hilarious) and thought seriously about reporting that game, so desperate I was. So what will I do now? I'll just play and observe games played here at the naval academy in Varna, we have a local network and there are some decent Brood War players as well (well we're good enough to have a lot of fun and do beautifull battles and that's all I need to make a BR).

Game

Two days ago me and the famous Hyenna (everybody at the academy knows him =P) decided to play some games and I promised to report the best of them. One of the good games we had that evening was on Dire Straits. It wasn't clear who would have an advantage on that map, since both of us hadn't played much on island (heh expect some island newbiness). I decided to try out a "Turbo Observer" strat I read about... Although I wasn't sure yet how I would scare Hyenna with an early Observer ^^. I started at the top left position and after the initial Pylon I went for Gas at 10, then Gate at 11 and Cyb.Core at about 14.

Hyenna's Overlord arrived at my base comming from south and now we both knew where everybody was... After taking a look at my base the Overlord decided it's time for departure after realizing I might be building a Dragoon, now that I have a Core. I had managed to start my Robotics Facility out of sight, so Hyenna didn't have a clue what I was doing.

After the Robo Facility was finished I started a Shuttle and I build an Observatory and a Forge. As soon as the Shuttle was available, I loaded a probe into it and dropped it on the small island to the right of my main, while building an Observer. Then I scouted what my friend Hyenna was doing...

I was unsure if I should make Corsairs or Reavers before seeing his base, that's why I had actually started both a Support Bay and a Stargate. My Observer saw some Hydras and they saw the Observer too. He ran for his life and saved himself merely. I cancelled my Stargate after seeing Hyenna didn't choose the Muta way, and I continued teching towards Reavers, while starting a Nexus at the island I was talking about... I built 2 Cannons around my main's mineral line, and 1 on my island expansion... that early expansion proved to be a way too gutsy move, after an Ovie spotted it and soon 12 Hydras were dropped, destroying the Cannon, Pylon and Nexus =[. I guess Hyenna was happy now and the people watching behind his back were clapping and cheering... hehe.

Well I really needed an expo, that's why when I had 2 Reavers I transferred one of them to the island below my main together with a Probe and a Zealot and started a Nexus and a Pylon there. I also brought two Dragoons afterwards and I built three Cannons... That was quite a heavy defense, Hyenna was soon to realize this... I guess after that succesfull drop he had on my first expansion attempt, he thought I was his puppet now, and he sent four or five Overlords with ground units in some of them... I say ground units because I even couldn't see if they were Hydras or Zerglings or both, when the surviving Overlords fleed there was just a pool of blood there and my Zealot needed a shower.

After having witnessed how effective Reavers are on those small islands, I reexpanded where I had lost my first expo, again using a small Goon/Reaver defense, now with Corsair support. I had built two Stargates and another Robotics Facility, and I was about to get Templars soon as well... Now that I had a good cash flow, I was pumping Reavers, Shuttles, Corsairs and later High Templars.

While scouting the map with my Observers and Corsairs, I found two of Hyenna's expands and some Zerg presence at top right's main. I quickly assembled a huge strike force consisting of 12 Corsairs and 3 Shuttles worth of Reavers and Templars. My goal - to try and take out the expansion at 6. I knew it was guarded by a group of Hydras and I had also just found out that Hyenna had a Greater Spire! It was a bit tricky to land my troops with all those Hydras patrolling the small isle, that's why I just gave my Corsairs the order to fly over the left part of it while trying to drop my Reavers and Templars to the right a bit later. As I thought the stupid Hydras gathered to the left and tried shooting at my Corsairs, while my 5 Reavers and 2 Templars landed without any problems and the fun began...

Hyenna's Hydras couldn't even get any hits at my Reavers, and I didn't even have to storm them, but I did so to scare him to the max =] . Then it was Drone killin' time and while this was happening a small force of Mutas and Devourers arrived, but my Corsairs didn't have much problems dealing with them... Then I flew my airborne fighters over Hyenna's main and it turned out he had just Zerglings there, so I started popping Overlords. As soon as my Reavers had finished working on the isle where once Hyenna's expansion was, I loaded my strike force back into the Shuttles and deployed them in the Zerg main...

At first my Reavers did a fine job but then they ran out of scarabs... this is one of the embarassing moments I had in this game so I'd better skip the part where I had to load the three mighty Reavers in the Shuttles to save their big fat asses. Yes already just three, two died to the Zerglings =O !!! Anyway after building up some Scarabs the Reavers could continue doing what they were being paid for, and Hyenna had to move his main to another spot of the map, but he was far from done... I could imagine him jumping and yelling, probably even punching the display or throwing the mouse on the floor and kicking it with his army boots, too bad he was in another room, even if we were in the same building.

While my Reavers were slowly finishing the bleeding Hatcheries and tech buildings, I was chasing Overlords accross the map, and I foolishly lost two or three Corsairs, one to two Scourge (I had targeted the Overlords) and some to a pack of Hydras supported by Hyenna's surviving 2-3 Devourers. (That's a great combo against any air unit, Devourers lower armor and Hydras rape with their fast attack)

Next I found out Hyenna had an expand at top right. That was good news for me, because it meant I could use my army in another battle =P. It wasn't that much of a battle though, because drones can't really put up a fight against Reavers and Templars with storm...

As you probably sense I didn't feel any danger, the game seemed to be over. Just for the sake of it I expanded once more to one of the big islands in the middle of the map (the left one) but then while I was toying around with D-web at Hyenna's new main, he scourged my Shuttles that were en route to his base without Corsair support =[. I wondered why he had just the Hydras as defense for his main, and it turned out he had decided to attack my new Expansion with all air combat units he had... What an army he had, I was surprised he could afford it and I wondered why he didn't try to stop my assault at top right... As he told me later he didn't have a Greater Spire rebuilt and enough Devourers to face my Corsairs, but now he had all that! Well it was time for one of the hugest air battles I had (I don't play island much and I don't like air units at all).

As you can clearly see on the images, although this was supposed to be air combat, it was a ground unit that did the decisive damage. There was one Templar on that Island and he had the energy to cast three spells. That was enough... GG

If someone cares about that, we were both upgrading our air units (upgrading Corsair attack is SOOO important...) I had researched Shuttle and Observer speed, Dragoon range, Templar Psi Storm and energy, D-Web and Reaver damage as far as I remember...

Indeed my good old friend Hyenna wasn't happy with his performance, but he liked the spectacular finishing battle too. Later he told me he didn't notice the first storm in time since for some reason the Devourers were drawn above it, hiding it.

Anyway since I was taking screenshots I decided to make a BR on this, hope I didn't waste your time... =]

Have fun!