"this is so fucking bad I want to kill myself and then in my will leave a request to have you banned from the internet."
-Fox^1
|
| The Return of Weremuppet; OR - "The return of who?" | | | Author: | | | IP: | 138.28.2XXXX | | Date: | 11/07/00 12:11 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 7, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for Weremuppet: 6.4286 |  | PRERAMBLE
Some of you out there might recall a character who used to be a patron of Nohunters back in the days before it became infested by bots and Lost Temple... :) I was (and still am) known as Weremuppet, aka Cuptoman, poster way back in the day of three novel sized posts concerning the effect Brood War would have on Starcraft before said expansion was released. Aside from that I was an OK Starcraft player who happened to post a series of old battle reports that I had originally posted from Starcraft.org to this site, where you can still read them. There you have, in a nutshell, the sordid history of one of the lesser patrons of nohunters back in the days of yore.
ANYWAY, after a haiatus from Starcraft, I've come back to the game for seconds, and though I've had many a battle report worthy game since this return, I've kept away from NH. Until today. That's when, with my partner Wererhynadon off doing other things, I decided to see what was going on with the old guys. While petitioning for a 2v2v2, which wasn't going to happen, I finally agreed to a 1v1 challenge from AzureHeart, one of the more skilled patrons of the channel at that moment, with a record comprable to mine. I agreed to a 1v1 as long as it wasn't on Lost Temple (One step above Hunters IMHO), he agreed, and the map he selected was Dire Straits. Despite some connection problems and lag on Azure's part, we managed to get a game going. Here's the setup: (And by the way, there are no pics, I wasn't even planning on BRing this until afterwards, so don't give me too much flak.)
MAP: DIRE STRAITS
WEREMUPPET: Orange Zerg, NW
AZUREHEART: Purple Protoss, NE
EARLY GAME:
From the pregame ramble Azure was talking about a new tactic for Dire Straits that he wanted to try out with Protoss. Not exactly the best news for a Zerg on an island map, but what ya gonna do? Partially due to lag and partially due to my lack of focus early on, I got a pool really late, with gas and minerals at full swing when it finished. I sent Overlords out to scout, finding my Protoss foe to my east, but carefully decided to back off and not give him the hint to my location, moving the Overlord down and around from the south to suggest that I was in the SE. I don't think it worked. Just as I was getting a spire started at my main, trouble came knocking, as Azure was quickly pouring out Corsairs for Overlord hunting. Pretty soon ALL my scouting overlords, which were three or four, were nothing more than rapidly decending chunks of Zerg flesh, and I was trapped in my main with a Spire and an Overlord at the ready, with more building and a new hatchery also ready.
Since it was obvious Mutalisks would do little to deter this Corsair pumping foe, I opted to go for what IMHO is one of the most underrated units in SC, Scourge. Think about it. Once they've attacked there is no retaliation, no strung out battle, nothing you can hit back at easily. Just as Purple's corsairs appeared at my main to kill my remaining Overlords, my Scourge hatched, ready to drive them off. With some quick cloning, the nearby Corsairs were dispatched. Sending some more Scourge to scout out Purple, I found a pair of Gateways, a pair of Stargates, and a Robotics facility (naturally), as well as some cannons. After popping some more Corsairs, I completed the transport upgrade and expanded to the island below me. At the same time I also came across an expansion below Azure's main. The stage was set.
MID GAME:
At this point Azure's early strategy became clear: contain me with rapidly deployed and heavily micromanaged Corsairs, then proceed to land and destroy my main. However, during this period I was deploying numerous scourge across the map to hunt down these pesky Corsairs, destroying them whereever I could. With his control of the air in dispute, I began to make plans for a strike. My first target was Azure's main. Since he'd been so busy building Corsairs, I figured, his ground forces can't be that heavy, no? So I began prepping a drop consisting of 24 Zerglings, speed upgraded. However, I was momentarily diverted by a Reaver dropped at my expansion, which began the process of chewing apart my island defenses. Fortunatly for me it wasn't yet targeting the hatchery itself, so I morphed some more scourge and mutas, and without too much trouble ridded myself of the Reaver and it's escorting Corsairs, though I did lose my mutalisks in the process. I then proceeded to send my forces forth to drop. It didn't go well, as the Zerglings were annihilated by the blades of mighty Zealots and the plasma bolts of stalwart cannons. Seeing as how Zerglings weren't working, I chose a different tactic, teching to Hydras for another drop.
Purple wasn't dormant during this time, teching to High Templar and still swarming everywhere with his cursed Corsairs. I was still blowing a lot of gas keeping those suckers in line, and as one might imagine Mutalisks were kinda sorta out of the question, even without Corsairs. But I felt confident I could still break his main, and so I sent three Overlords carrying Twelve Hydras, escorted by Scourge, to Azure's main. I was in over my head, however, as a Reaver appeared, loosing a bloodthirsty scarab at my forces before my Hydras could fill the demonic contraption with enough needle spines to cause it's shields to shatter and it's hull to part way. With seven Hydras I pressed on, until I then realized Purple had Templar at the ready. With the main thought in my mind being "SHIT!" I saw my mighty 1-0 Hydras get ripped apart by Psi Storm, leaving me with an attack that only killed a Reaver, an Observatory, and a cannon. But would there be templar at the expansion? I thought not, so that became my next target, with a new batch of Hydras at the ready.
To say history repeats itself would be an understatement. The Hydras once again were slaughtered by Storm and Zealots, but this wasn't a total loss. On my way I managed to spot a shuttle headed for my expansion, and using a pair of the scourge escorting my drop, sent them after the robotic transport, stopping it from delivering it's evil cargo. I also managed to slaughter a few more Corsairs in my ongoing quest to cleanse the skies of the stupid fighters. It was somewhere around this time Azure managed to sneak a shuttle past my defenses and landed a High Templar at my expansion peon line, slaughtering my mineral mining peons, much to my displeasure. It wasn't a crippling loss though, since I had an abundance of minerals, seeing as how I had to build scourge and all. I was, however, inspired by this surplus to switch tactics again, going back to good ol' Cracklings. I figured enough of them, storm or no storm, should be able to wear down Azure, giving me the victory. Preparing these new forces, I readied myself for what could be a deathblow to my enemy.
Scouting, however, turned up something far more sinister. It seemed while I had been attacking, Azure had been expanding, both to the SE main and to a southern expansion. Rather than expanding myself, I decided I needed to keep the offensive going, and readied myself for attack, with 24 Zerglings in 3 overlords going off to battle for their Cerebrate. Thus the game entered it's final and most vicious phase.
END GAME:
Since I had just recently discovered two expansions warping in, what better to do than take both out at once? I sent two of the Overlords to the South expansion, unloading 16 Zerglings, which, despite Zealot and Cannon defenses, managed to take out the expansion, though only five survived. At the SE expansion, I unloaded the other eight. Foolish as I was, however, I should have realized it wouldn't be sufficent, as Zealots and Cannons were already prepared for what I had cooking. Though purple was one expansion down, he was still two strong. Having readied another 24 Zerglings, I got ready to drop the SE and resolve that corner once and for all.
I never got the chance.
As my forces began to clear away the south expansion, a large purple blob appeared on my minimap, right next to my main. A group of six or so shuttles decended upon my base, containing Zealots, Dragoons and High Templar. My 24 cracklings couldn't stand up to this, and though they took many a brave warrior with them, they were ultimatly slaughtered, and the base razed to ash. At my expansion I rebuild my tech and tried to do what I could to hopefully stop that too from falling. But it was too late. Eventually my expansion fell, and after several desperate attempts to place a new hatchery SOMEWHERE, I at last conceded GG as Azure's Zealots located and destroyed my final, still mutating hatchery. It was a great game, and very well fought by Azure. After a sportsmanlike exchange, I bid my rival adieu and headed off to do some much neglected work.
Lessons Learned:
- Scourge + Cloning = Corsairs sucking it down. If only more Zerg players used them our problems would be over!
- 12 ain't enough for squat. My attacks throughout this game were generally too small and not well upgraded enough to do squat. If you hit, hit hard, unless recon says that you can get away with less.
- Be sure to keep good recon around any positions you could be dropped from. A scourge patrol or something of that sort could have at least diluted the final doom drop to a managable degree.
I would like to thank AzureHeart for a game excellently played, and all you for actually reading this pictureless piece of hazy recollection!
-Weremuppet |
|
|
|
Home
Forum
Starcraft Tournaments
