"Let's all take a moment to bask in the scintillant glow of our acquired mediocrity."
-~CattleBruiser~
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| The Shared Base Manifesto of War - Volume 3 - Teamwork | | | Author: | | | IP: | px4cl.gvXXXX | | Date: | 12/17/00 09:12 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 9, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for WindUpCommunist aka CynicalMagician: 7.6000 |   |
Note: You can see the previous volumes of this series:
1 - Firebases
2 - Entrapment
Ok, even though there aren't a huge number, there are a few pics in this BR, so it might take a minute to load. (Particularly the 322k signature animation...) But instead of some random story, I'm going to take this moment to tell about an experience of mine on bnet. I was trying to play shared base, and when I entered one game a guy recognized my name from this site. Apparently he recognized it from the Shared Base BR's too. He began accusing me of making fun of newbies in my BR's, and joining these games simply for the purpose of making fun of the people in them. Shortly after he said these things, and before I could even respond, the game host booted me, so I'm writing a reply to }{-Man12 right here.
I don't think that these shared base BR's are beating on newbies for a few reasons. Here they are:
1) I've lost half the games in this series so far (Firebases I won, Entrapment I lost), so I'm not always beating these alleged newbies.
2) I don't enter shared base games named, "3v3 Shared Newbs" or the like, because as entertaining as those games are, it's just patheticly easy and makes a poor game to write about.
3) I don't write the entire BR making fun of these kids. Rather, I try to write as though it's a legitimate strategy, and these are my experiences with it. You'll note that I don't make many derogatory comments about the people I play against except when they do things that really are rather stupid (see Volume 1 and brown taking forever to clone his peons).
4) Realistically, there are people on Shared Base that aren't bad. Although I don't think they would take me 1 on 1 on a "real map," they are still decent players. The main difference between us is that they play orthodox, and I don't.
So as long as I continue making this series the way I've been doing it, and I don't resort to writing about me executing a good 3 hatch ling rush on these guys, I'm not beating on newbs, because I'm one of them. But enjoy the rest of the BR, and here's to hoping }{-Man12 reads this.
Volume 3 - Teamwork
At many times in your life you will see that a valuable ally along with yourself creates a team that is more than just the sum of it's parts. This principle holds true in Starcraft as well, and you should never forget to work with your teammates. However, sometimes your allies are morons. Lets face it, they often blow. Therefore, the question regarding teamwork in shared base is not one of, "Should I work with my team mates?" but rather, "Which teammates should I work with?" Here are a couple case studies to help you decide.
Game 1 - Allies, Defense and Macro
This game began not unlike any other. We waited for the download to complete, I talked about Bubble Bobble for a moment, I found out one of my teammates was high, and the world was at peace. While the countdown began, I chose zerg, while everyone else went random.
Once in the game, I discovered that I was partnered with Watankaministri (Watan for short), and RehaBJunkiE (RJ for short), who drew Terran and Zerg respectively. As I cloned my peons, I asked RJ what he was high on. It was more than curiousity, because if you know what your partners are on specifically, you can use it to your advantage. IE. If they are on speed, they will be better on offense, since they are more excited. On the other hand, if they are on LSD, then they will be paranoid, and thus better on defense. So I asked him what he was on, and was somewhat surprised by the reply I heard.
Anyway, because this round my plan was to go with heavy defense at our choke, eventually building up a large enough economy to run everyone over with whatever I wanted, my build order consisted of something like, several hatches, pool, 8 sunkens at the choke, some other stuff, now I have 25 hatcheries, 3 resource nodes, all tech, upgrades researching, and ~100 drones. My zerg partner has been doing roughly the same thing, and my terran ally is has teched to nukes and has 4 silos blinking.
And that's when it all went bad.
"Captain we've discovered a breach in security! Along the flanks of our camp there are landbridges wide enough to support an army!"
"I want 12 sunkens on the east front, now! And purple, put down the Chatelaine and get yourself in gear man! Build some fortifications on the west sieeeeede!"
"God man, the enemy is already upon us! There's not enough time to get those sunkens built before they break through! It looks like they have at least 30 zealots on our pink asses."
"This is not reality!!"
But it was, and I had to deal with it. The sunkens went up, and although the zealots broke through before they completed, with my static d resilence and my partners' help, our base was saved. Shortly after this, Watan finished his wallin for the western flank, which consisted of a supply depot, a bunker, a turret, and 4 tanks. An overlord spotted for tanks for added effect. After a little more reinforcement, my side of the base was home to roughly 20 sunkens.
After this near doom of our base, I decided that it was time to strike back. From all 25 of my hatcheries I called forth pairs of demonic dachshunds, aka zerglings. 200 of the insectoid creatures sprouted, and I rallied them to the side of my choke defense closest to the enemy. Soon, after I had sent 8 overlords ahead for cloak detection, I began the labourious task of selecting and ordering my zerglings. The first wave had begun.
Quite literally fighting tooth and nail, my zergling hordes pounded on the outlying structures that made up the fortress of my opponents collective choke. At least 30 cannons laid behind a couple gates and a forge, and although I was replacing lings as fast as they died and I was killing some of the cannons, it was a hard battle, and many many units were lost. After my first wave was fully extinguished after killing several random buildings and about 15 cannons, I stopped to regroup and rebuild. I needed more zerglings. I got them. The second wave had begun.
Unfortunately for me though, the defenders of the second wave included templar. That reminds me of this one time that I was hanging around with POA and Slayer came in carrying a bouquet of wild spring flowers. But back to my story. Needless to say, I got fucking raped.
Shortly after this, Watan tried to be a hero with the help of RJ. Watan had finally created a few ghosts and had collected his wits enough to nuke, and RJ had been making guardians. With these the two musketeers began an elaborate and dangerous game involving failed nukes, corsairs, and dead guardians. I sighed.
However, the two of them were the least of my worries, as what should my questing and lecherous eyes discover but a medium sized fleet of carriers under the soft blanket of an arbiter. A grim memory of past defeat filled my mind with the spotting of the arbiter, and I vowed that it and it's kind would pay for the shortcoming of it's brethern in previous battles (See Volume 2 of the Shared Manifesto where I lost after my Arbiter strat failed). With the raw power of hate, goliaths, and ~50 scourge, we destroyed the carriers, and our base was safe once again.
After this, I had been getting frustrated. I wanted the game to end. I decided that the best way to do this would be to use hydras. So I did. With my economy which was bigger than all of your mothers combined and my 25 hatcheries, I began creating hydras 12 at a time. My upgrades had reached 2 across the board, and I attacked with roughly 80 hydras, hurling them at the cannon wall. RJ, my zerg ally, helped out in the same way, but his hydras were only 0:2.
We died.
Then we tried again with as many hydras.
We died again.
 They counter attacked and died.
Watan tried to nuke again. He killed 4 cannons.
We tried to attack again. We died.
Then an arbiter flew into our base and recalled a bunch of troops into RJ's base. He eventually drove them off, but lost almost all his drones.
So I tried to attack again.
I died, this time to reavers, storm, and dragoons.
Then they attacked, and we died.
The end.
Thoughts: Hydras are useless, as are regular allies, macro, and defense. The only way to win is through hard hitting unorthodox tactics. In other words, reality is useless.
Game 2 - Micro and Offense
With this valuable lesson in mind I decide to play another game, this time with my good friend Fractal_Wave in tow. We start up a shared base, and Fractal's meaty fist drops on the start button in the same way that bricks fly. I've picked zerg, and Fractal has picked terran. Everyone else is random.
Entering the game, I yell, "TOP!! TOOOOOPPPPP!!!!1" and clone my peons. The game is already laggy. This is not a good sign. I ally with the other people along the top as well as Fractal, and flip player chat -> Fractal_Wave on. I look at my teammates and notice that we are all zerg. Fractal informs me that there is a Protoss to his left and a zerg to his right.
My build order was one meant for aggressive powering, and it consisted of me building some drones in no particular order. The lag at this point is horrendous, and I'm getting angry. After yellow, the zerg player on Fractal's half of the map, leaves, I decide that it is time for some good old fashioned McCarthy-esque paranoia. I have 14 drones now, and I charge them ever so gradually across the map towards red. The screen jerks every couple seconds, signalling that it is lag, and my computer is not frozen. Between gasps, I blurt out to brown, my other partner, that I'm going to kill red. He laughs.
(Editor's Note: I do not actually have any evidence that the lagger is red at this point. Frankly, I don't care. If worse comes to worse, I'll just say that I didn't like red's face.)
Eventually, after roughly 3 excruciating minutes of travel time, my drones reach their target and begin pounding on red's hatchery. Brown asks me if I need any help. I decline, telling him that he should be on the lookout for other laggers. As my 14 drones puncture the soft flesh of the hatchery and dual extractors, I notice 3 overlords pop out of their shells simultaneously. Interesting build. I estimate that it was a 9 ex, 9 ex, 9 OL OL OL plan, or something of the sort.
Regardless, as I slam it down on red, the "Waiting for Players" box pops up, and who's name should be there, but Decimatrix, also known as teal. I ask Fractal if he saw the same person, and after getting a big ol' affirmative, I ask him if he wouldn't mind taking teal out with his SCV's. He grudgingly obliges after expressing his terror at the prospect of taking on Decimatrix's three cannons at the chokepoint. I console him, and he gets on it. After "losing control" of his SCVs, Fractal explains the situation to Decimatrix.
By this time, the lag is still horrid, but I have finished off the hatchery of the scapegoat red and am moving onto the extractors. Brown again asks if he can help, and since the lag is really really pissing me off now, I let him in on the fun with his ~12 drones. 1 extractor falls, and I move onto the next one while I check on Fractal to make sure he's not dying.
Of course he is though. I'm more than a little displeased that he lost a peon war with him as terran. With an apeish grin on his face, he lifts of his command center and starts the long journey to my side of the map. I sigh. By this time my drones have finished on the second extractor, but red is still alive. That's when I notice the second hatchery that red has built in the bottom left hand corner of the screen that Fractal somehow managed to scout. God damn.
I move my drones towards the near end of the choke point and command brown to get zerglings and to take out the cannons that Decimatrix built at his end of his choke. After gathering my 13 grizzled warriors, I start my blitz towards red's second hatchery. To do this, I have to dash by the 3 cannons that Decimatrix has built at the choke. I grit my teeth. I need to get at least half of my squad through, or I won't be able to kill red fast enough, and I'll go insane. The guantlet needs to be run.
On the way to the choke an interesting thing happened to me. A "Waiting for Players" box popped up, containing red's name. Apparently we were right about him, despite our best efforts to be random. I click drop. Ahhhh, that's the stuff. The game suddenly seems to be running on a combination of Trix cereal, speed, and stim, and I'm about two seconds ETA from the cannons. I press enter bring up player chat to tell Fractal that I'm on the way. the 'To All:' prompt comes up. I'm confused, but busy. I run by the cannons at light speed, losing only 4 drones, having 3 with heavy injuries.
And that's when I notice that Fractal isn't in the game anymore. He's magically been dropped, inexplicably and enigmatically. I swear revenge on Decimatrix for no reason whatsoever.
And so begins the great victory of the evening. Microing my 9 battle scarred drones in two groups, and forming a line, I charge into the fray and manage to pick off two probes before Decimatrix even knows what is going on. 3 more probes pop before my first drone dies. Teal's east flank crumples like a rag doll, and I move my 7 living drones into that corner, baiting 4 of Decimatrix's probes to follow. Needless to say, they got fucking raped. I begin pounding on the nexus, getting a full 200 points into the shield before realizing that some probes escaped, and that there was a warping cannon near me. The 7 warriors charge out once more and force the cancellation of the cannon. I go back to the nexus, and another cannon appears. I destroy it as well before it warps, and consider attacking the 6 remaining probes. Unfortunately, my drones are all damaged to some degree or another, and I need them to finish the job. I ignore the probes for now, instead focusing only on warping cannons and the nexus.
(White X denotes death)
Brown has been busy as well, sending wave after wave of 8 zerglings to destroy the 3 cannons and 2 pylons that are at the entrance of the base. Through hard work and no micro, he manages to succeed and joins me in the destruction of teal's base. Once the nexus falls and the zerglings start eating his probes, he leaves the game. I smile triuphmantly at brown, and he smiles back.
Victory!
There you have it. Backstabbing, unorthodox tactics, micro, and hard early offence is better than macro, teammates, and defense. Always. No exceptions. This BR proves it. And before you try and refute me, I'm outta here.
"Every Communist must grasp the truth, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.""
-Chairman Mao - "Problems of War and Strategy" - November 6, 1938
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