"Ha, that's one for the archives... (what?)"
-WilliamWC3
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The Ice Trilogy - Part 1:
Searching For Greener Pastures | | | Author: | | | IP: | gateway.XXXX | | Date: | 10/24/00 11:10 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 3, Max: 10, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for |]agomar: 8.6667 |    |
Well, hello there.
This is the Ice Trilogy. It is in three parts. It covers three games. It is obscenely long. It is incredibly pic-heavy. It has a 80% chance of crashing your PC. It contains 47 unknown computer viruses from foreign countries, for which there is no cure. It is also my best battlereport, or should I say battlereport series, yet. It took a helluva long time to make, so you will like it and rave about how great I am in the comments section.
That covered, let's get on with it.
Pregame . . .
In this first part of the Ice Trilogy, I find myself up at 4:00 am, on the computer, muttering to myself about the amazing number of Korean newbies on Battle.net these days. My premier game of the morning was lost to two scheming Koreans, who pummeled me to oblivion with a swarm of mutalisks. Unfazed, however, I begged to observe a match between I_suck_I_Lose ( or something like that ) and Immangue. The game was rather frustrating, as the players, well, weren't exactly the greatest. After, I asked the winner ( Immang ) for a 3FFA with . . . ^^ROOK^^. . . some obvious fan of the site who'd just entered Nohunters. I chose Arctic Station as battlefield, and we actually had a fairly good game, in which I crippled Rook with dark temps, who managed to kill them with great losses, only to be invaded by a massive hydra army from Immang. I sent another four templar, owned that group, then rallied two to my second expo and smashed 8 hydras causing trouble there. I kept making goons, templar and reavers, utterly owned four groups of detectionless hydras near the center with a dozen dts ( no comment ), then pincered my foe between 18 goons with double high templar support, and 6 reavers recalled in by an arbiter. He lost, barely, with Rook praising my name. Woohoo.
After this, I played Rook on some Twilight map, with E-star, some rather good pubbie. I early expoed as Zerg, but was double teamed rather viciously by both players. All my troops died, yet I managed to reinforce with a group of hydralisks, and smashed the evil lings/m&m that remained.
I then paused the game to go to the washroom ( even battlereporters have to do that sometimes ), but when i came back I found it unpaused, with Rook screaming it was E-star's fault. Furious, and badly behind, I vowed to destroy the pubbie cerebrate. I expanded once more to my natural, and sent down 18 hydras in a single large group, which were badly smashed. I continued to battle, commanding 7 lurkers with hydra support to skitter down south, which also were brutally vanquished. Finally, I gained the upper hand, and owned a very large zerg army with far fewer numbers. At that point, E-star left, humiliated. Rook and I battled it out for 5 more minutes, yet eventually I broke his back with a hydra doom drop. Total victory was mine, and I coasted out of the game very happy indeed. That's when we met Guy_Montang49.
In the spectacular map of Glacier Bay ( the setting for the final part of this trilogy ), we staged our next match, again a 3FFA. The game was absolutely amazing, with Guy and myself battling out for roughly an hour, my cruisers/infantry/vessels versus his devourers/hydras/mutas/guardians. In the best match I've had in many a month, I lost, barely, to the Cerebrate.
Still gaping with wonder at the game, I noticed that another person had stumbled into Nohunters. So it is that we initiated yet another Free For All, on the venerable map of Greener Pastures, with Guy_Montang descending his hulking Command Center at 2:00, Rook surveying his icy Terran domain at 12:00, and the blood-red ProtossSgt. Slithers phasing in his shimmering new Nexus at 11:00. All Commaders greedily eye the prosperous, warm South, frozen as they are in the frigid North. Distant blue specks hint to wealth beyond their wildest dreams, and all feverishly build up their military machines to claim its riches. I had declared my will to battlereport this game, and so begins the start of the Ice Trilogy, Part 1 - The Search for Greener Pastures.
Early Game . . .
Things take off quickly, as all players sent out their respective scouts, and scour the map for information. Rook sets up a quick rax, raises a depot and builds another Rax for a good conservative build that seems a good idea on an unknown map. Guy has other ideas, however, and lays down a depot, rax, and then moves for the quick expo. He amasses a formidable infantry force above his ramp, yet both Terrans skip a wallin in favour of greater mobility. The lone ‘Toss in the war, Slithers, does a standard, phasing in a pylon, Gate, pylon gate. He moves for a commanding early economy with a nexus at his natural, but is well behind the brown Captain in this area. Now Rook takes a look at his natural, thinks he wants it, and moves in with a powerful group of infantry, supported with double medics. I worry about the outcome of the game as I see that the blue human has more than enough troops to wipe out either one of his opponents, but relax as I see he's content to sit back for a while, teching.
A long lull settles over the land, broken only by occasional peon skirmishes. The entire South has been fully scouted, and now the courageous Guy, obviously going with a solid heavy metal strat, seizes the expansion directly below him. Unfortunately, the snowy road stretching North from this base forks in two, with one path leading directly to Rook's natural. So it is that the other Terran in the game spots the expo almost immediately, and sends down a powerful squad of m&m to smash it.
Yet brown now has a powerful defense of well-placed tanks, plus a bunker, so that the marines are blasted before they are even within range. Rook micros his infantry well, but acrilite tank fire is more than a match for puny little gauss bullets, and the marines are quickly routed. What few infantry survive stagger back to their natural, where they are met by more of their brethren and the first blue tanks . . . .
Feeling confident after his victory, Guy expands again, far down South this time, and takes pot shots at a nearby Ursadon. I shout curses at the sight of this atrocity, but am stilled by the realization that the critters have not allied vision with me. My conclusion? They're backstabbing. A general order of Ursadon Xenocide goes out, as Slithers expands to the 10:00 main. He seems to be powering hard, like Guy, but teching even faster. Stargates begin to materialize at his main, hovering above the snow, and the immense Carriers seem to be the next step. On the other hand, quintuple gateways now shimmer into being at his natural, and a templar archives towers over the land. What course he'll take is still an unknown . . . I can only hope he chooses wisely . . . .
An ominous buildup of forces now predominates, with the Protoss seeming to be in the lead. Rook's armies reach critical mass, and, lusting for battle, he sends them down south, to Guy's frigid first expansion ( besides his natural ). Unknown to the blue Commander, the base is heavily fortified with a powerful brigade of tanks, a couple vultures, as well as infantry. What's more, advance units spot for the tanks - perhaps the deciding factor in the upcoming conflict.
A horde of infantry streams into the flat approaches to the base, easily outnumbering the brown defenses. Supporting them are as many tanks as brown has to defend, and the outcome is by no means certain as Rook prepares to siege his massive machines. Just then, a scouting unit runs into the mighty tankpush, and Guy, thinking quickly, casts a quick Comsat. Thunderous roars erupt over the landscape, blasting the blue tanks with superior range. Many marines are ground to dust and tanks explode, yet Rook presses on with his assault, sieging his remaining tanks in turn. Simultaneous Booms reverberate across the base, but it is the blue Commander who now finds himself outnumbered. With his tanks poorly spaced, he loses them all to the devastating splash damage of the brown machines, and his fleeing marines are pummeled by cannon fire as they run for home base.
Unfazed, but recognizing his mistakes, Rook sets out to make things right. He rallies all his forces to the land infront of Guy's expansion,
and this time he properly sieges his tanks. All attempts by the brown commander to dislodge his foe from this strategically vital land prove futile, and so he gives up trying and instead focuses on building a crippling doom army. Rook is happy with the current arrangement, since everyone knows that one army out in the open being cool and defending stuff is approximately 3.4 times better than 2 in the bush taking a coffee break. This has been verified by Princess Guatemala, so you know it's true.
Now, with the "build-up" time of the game behind us, things start to liven up very quickly. With a shock, Slithers notices brown's expansion in the South, yet is not immediately worried, on account of the fact that he has economy and production capabilities at least as good, and more secure. What does distress him, however, is the distressingly huge blue army to his East. Although it doesn't seem like this militia is aimed towards him, it nonetheless is the most powerful in the game and a major threat. Yet Slithers opts to ignore this growing death force, for the present, instead concentrating on a series of quick raids to the South.
So it is that the Executor gathers a powerful squad of Dark Templar, and runs them down to Guy's newest expansion, at 7:00. The result isn't pretty. The glorious warriors mow through all opposition, assassinating countless SCVs, and pitifully forcing the Command Center to lift off and sail away. With his first military operation a smashing success, Slithers is confident enough to plan another assault on the brown Terrans, rallying a whole army of deadly Dark Templar to the front of Guy's moderately defended second expansion, roughly at the center of the snowy map.
Then, suddenly, the caped warriors charge forward, slicing apart all scvs in the area, razing the defenses and generally sacking the entire place. This must have been a major blow to the brown commander, whose resource intake was now on very unstable footing, Rook threatening his expansion as he was, red having full map control and his natural nearly mined out ( his main plateau had already reached that status ). Nevertheless, a sole wraith at the sacked expansion starts taking potshots at the mighty templar down below, who, after one of their number dies, are forced to retreat in humiliation.
Relieved, but knowing his critical situation, Guy moves back to his snowy base in the south, erecting a new Commander center with a brave peon, and moving a very large force of tanks/vultures as defense. The swarm of vultures begins to mine the entire front of the expansion, arranging their little packages of death in a strategically perfect way. The cycles retreat back to the tanks, a Science Vessel hovers overhead, and the resource node once more swarms with brown SCVs. Guy is saved, for now, from economic destruction . . . yet the first crimson arbiters pop out of their gateways, and slide down to support massing Protoss troops in front of that recently reclaimed expo.
Let's take a look at the armies massed against the wretched brown Captain, shall we? What, you don't want to? Tough.
As you can see, it's not a pretty sight. Rook now has the mightiest army in the game, and has remained virtually unscathed thus far. He does, however, also have the worst production and economic capabilities of all players. Slithers, on the other hand, has the highest technology of anyone, as well as the best economy and production capabilities, possesses multiple observers, and commands an army between brown's and blue's in scale. Will Guy have the skill required to pull out a win - and if he loses, what will be the outcome of the war between blue and red? Only I, the battlereporter, and this guy I know called Time, can tell.
Mid Game . . .
Then, the dam breaks. Slithers charges his entire army South: hordes of upgraded zealots, swarms of spidery dragoons, and above all, the chilling, unearthly visage of an arbiter. Guy's jaw must have dropped nearly to the floor as he saw the awesome assault pouring into his base. But he hadn't lost yet.
Countless spider mines leap from subterranean vigilance to engage the alien attackers, while the roar of Tank fire echoes across the frozen land. Vultures race to engage, Dragoons fire back furiously distracted from the rapidly oncoming mines, which close in upon the zealots and detonate. To my astonishment, a full brigade of zeals are blown to oblivion ( aka 8 ), yet this is not nearly enough to halt the crimson tsunami. Eventually, the fate of the expansion is sealed, as the tanks crumple under the withering fire of the dragoons, the vultures are rounded up by the surviving zealots and the SCVs are torn to scrap metal by reinforcing templar. Luckily for Guy, however, Slithers loses track of his Southern observers at this time, which are blown to smithereens to make room for dual brown expansions.
Then something very odd happens. An arbiter targets a Science Vessel with its devastating plasma bolts, which then fires back with a crippling EMP. I quiver with suspense, and the outcome is by no means certain, the upgraded Protoss vessel doing far more damage than I imagined it could. The SV is heading to 7:00, however, the site of the newest brown base ( formerly destroyed, now back with a vengeance, that sort of thing ). Double turrets fire on the arbiter, which is downed in moments. Just in time to make room for two more at red's main. Bleh.
Things are now looking very grim for Guy, and the game appears virtually over. Slithers begins to warp in a large base at the recently destroyed brown expo, while doing the same at the icy10:00 natural. With the superior economy, and the largest army, his victory seems only minutes away. I am about to give out GG's, when I notice a very odd thing happening.
Rather than finish off his brown foe and claim his resource nodes, Rook is now moving his titanic doom army the other way! Over three dozen marines, with medic support, and perhaps a group of tanks, mow down advance Protoss resistance, then pause while sieging at the red natural! I am shocked almost beyond words ( well, not quite that much, but you get the picture ) as the titanic machines open fire on a large Protoss army of zealots, dark Templar and Dragoons milling about near the base.
The zealots make a run for the infantry, with the dragoons supporting and the dark templar heading straight for the tanks. The Terran invasionary force is just too strong, however, and pushes back the desperate defense with ease. But this pause is just enough for more Protoss armies to rally to the scene, and dark templar to leap out of their gateways, lusting for vengeance. The battle is massive and terribly violent as the two races clash again. The Terran infantry takes a terrible beating ( dts rock ), with countless marines dying to the swipes of templar. Explosions also begin to riddle the tank columns, but nevertheless the line is held, albeit at great cost. The Natural begins to collapse under the blasts of acrilite fire, but Slithers isn't finished yet. The last Protoss army slams into the blue minions, composed mainly of Dark templar this time. Finally, the attack is routed, with the vast majority of human infantry sliced to mere splatters of blood upon the frozen landscape.
The Executor isn't content with a mere retreat, however. He wants total vengeance. However, although he manages to inflict many further casualties upon the fleeing humans, the greatest blow to Rook is not to come from him.
Guy now has had an enormous break, and has claimed nearly the entire Southern half of the map ( while Guy has the Center and Northwest ). In the Search for Greener pastures he has come out on top. He now possesses an army that is larger than Slither's, thanks to Rook, and has had the pause he required to gain map control. The Protoss Executor has understandably not been concentrating on the growth of the Terran, and now it may be too late. Without the large army he needs to contain brown, Slither is in trouble, and the match is very much in the balance. What happens now will depend on Rook.
Speaking of the blue commander, there is a large brown blob heading North towards him. Curious, yet filled with foreboding, I take a look.
As you can see, it's not a pretty sight.
A powerful fleet of battlecruisers, still warm from their docks, thunder down upon Rook's natural, who, lacking the production capability to quickly rebuild his broken army, is caught utterly unprepared. The cruisers crush all early opposition, yet a group of marines, with medics support, now rushes for to engage. Despite the heroism of the soldiers, they are easily crushed, and now the rest of the base is completely exposed ( people are so indecent these days ). The leviathans generally sack the expansion, fly East, where they are met with a dropper and Sci Vessel, then move Northwest to crush the blue main. All further resistance is squashed the way a mighty bull would smash a gnat under its hoof, double tanks roll out of the dropper and siege, while a science vessel hovers menacingly over all. With his base going down in a blaze of glory, and unwilling to lose any more of his men, Rook concedes the game. Had he gone on, he might have downed two more cruisers . . . which would drastically have altered the outcome of the game.
As it is, a few more blue buildings are smashed, to make way for a Command Center flying in from brown's base, in order to harvest from the depleted gas geyser on the plateau.
End Game . . . .
Now, as the cruisers ominously head further West, Guy, no doubt enthused and overconfident from his earlier victory, orders a powerful army to engage Slither's heavily defended South-central expansion. A half group of tanks, heavily supported by vultures and some infantry, plus one of the ever-present Science Vessels, descends upon the stalwart Protoss minions in the area. Despite the size of the Terran attack, however, the crimson troops are far more numerous still, and quickly tear apart the humans, leaving no survivors.
Then, with a casual comsat, the quintuple Stargates and Fleet beacon nestled deep within the Protoss main are revealed to Guy, who worriedly realizes that this must almost certainly mean Carriers. His awesome fleet hesitates, wavering, infront of Slither's main, uncertain of what dangers they might face. The brown Commander wonders where the enemy armada may be, and, deciding it is better to face an enemy head-on on your own terms than to wait for uncertain destruction, he orders his flotilla into battle. With a final quip,
The human Commander unleashes the fury of his cruisers against the leading Protoss structure, quickly reducing to dust as ships lumber on.
What happens next is one of those epic struggles that are almost beyond description. The vast Terran cruisers slice their way through the base, ripping it apart with searing blasts of laser fire, constantly worried about the possibility of Carrier reprisal. However, what Guy doesn't know is that Slithers never built a carrier for the entire game! Why this is I can't say; perhaps he wanted to use those Stargates later, maybe it was just a reuse. In any case, the cruisers thunder over the base, blowing countless structures to oblivion and smashing pylons to rubble. The Executor realizes his mortal peril, and now an arbiter, with maybe a group of dragoons, race into battle to protect their settlement. A couple cruisers are downed, eventually the Toss defense is smashed. Cannons continue to fire on the Cruisers, and are in turn yamatoed, but eventually, thanks also to expertly placed psionic storms, only two heavily damaged cruisers are left to finish off the crimson main. These are the ships Rook could have killed.
However, as the remaining ships sail over Slither's natural, killing two cannons in the process, 5 dragoons pop out of the gateway nearly simultaneously! Needless to say, the double cruisers are downed in seconds, leaving the Executor to survey the rubble of his vanquished main in peace.
Although his most advanced structures are no more, Slithers has phased in cy-core at his 10:00 main, and his gateway production capability remains unscathed. He can still win, but he's obviously hurt.
The Finale
Now the stage is set for the deciding battle of the game. Guy rallies all his troops to his former expansion near the center, resolving that a strong thrust now will break Slither's economy, resulting in an easy win. The Protoss Executor, however, has rebuilt his templar tech, and posses a full group of dark temps ready for battle. He also has a horde of dragoons, plus zealots, and is now commanding two reavers to undertake the long ( for them ) journey to the besieged expo.
If the Protoss can squeak out a win here, they will probably be able to push on South, smashing countless vacant expansions and taking a grand tour to final victory. It must also be noted that both surviving commanders have only two functioning expansions . . . .
The next bit happens so quickly I almost didn't have the chance to take screenshots. Perhaps 18 tanks push forward to expel the Protoss from their largest expansion, while countless Science Vessels scream by overhead, and vultures rush forward to lay their deadly mines. The Reavers find themselves stuck behind the peon line, but the dark temps, zealots and dragoons take out an entire wave of vultures and slam into the tank line like an unstoppable tsunami. Just when the Protoss seem sure to exterminate their foes, the hovering Sci Vessels defensive matrix every last tank! ( talk about micro ). So it is that all Protoss resistance is obliterated, and the road is open to the glistening structures of the rebuilt crimson Main.
As the monolithic buildings of his sprawling expansion are ground to rubble, one by one, and countless probes are blown sky-high in puffs of smoke, Slithers, with a final GG, hops into his sleek, waiting shuttle and howls out into space through the gently descending snow, furiously swearing his revenge. The war has ended upon this frozen landscape - but at what cost?
So, game over. How about some stats:
And, as this was but Part 1 of the Ice Trilogy, plz keep reading, and continue on!
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