"this Jewish Starcraft player has been pulling down games with us even when he learned that we were all gentiles. But we can't seem to figure out why he keeps hogging all of the minerals..."
- mattzarella's The Pentagram Paradigm
|
| Lost Temple Maelstrom Fest! | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 06/21/99 10:06 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | Starcraft(1) | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 8, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for BackFired: 8.3333 |  | The map:
Good old still Lost, Temple.
BackFired-white at 9:00 as chosen Protoss
vs
[SA]Saldar-red (alias Syncmaster_6ne) at 12:00 as chosen Zerg
The early game:
Since my opponent was Zerg, I decided to scrap my usual DT rushing opening and make a decent amount of Zealots early enough to stop a rush, or kill any Fast-expanding attempts to the 12 o'clock natural.
Once I had a Zealot (and a 2nd Gate warping in), I waited anxiously for my opponent's 6 zerglings. Quickly plotted down a pylon. Let's make a forge too... Hey why don't I block my entrance! Then it came to me. He coundn't possibly rush! He didn't scout! My last scouting probe had discovered a mutating spawning pool, but also a creep colony at his ramp, so I dispatched another little robotic spy to his base to find out his true build, and, voilá, it got gunned down by 3 sunken colonies at red's ramp. No early rushing in THIS game... so I figured that if he isn't rushing, he probably got a natural expansion by now (my probe didn't survive long enough to answer that question) so I expanded into my natural as well.. Nexus... Pylon, 2 cannons in front of the entrance. Back at main... 2 cannons at probe line (Zerg MEANS mutalisk rush), Cybernetic core, and another pylon. The Zealots moved in front of the cannons, and the expansion was ready and pumping out probes from 2 nexuses set to a single rally point...
somewhat later...
At home my Robo bay and Adun's citadel were finished, and the next level of tech already in construction, and still no sign of an attack of the Red Zergies...
[SA]Saldar said "nice" and asked me if I play 1v1 often... Okay, now I knew he was up to something... but what? Distracting me from something? Are my defenses really set correctly?
I quickly scanned the minimap for the typical cloud of red dots indicating a mutalisk swarm, nothing.
I got curios. Made the Templar Archives and constructed an observatory. I got to find out what he was up to. Reaver support was planned to come from Double robotics factories and the support bay which started a little later, with an own pylon...
later...
I had produced 2 High and 2 Dark Templars as well as a shuttle by now, and gotten psi storm, and had a probe patrolling the two unused spots on the map. When he expanded, my DT pair would kill it as soon as it finishes...
Well, hed DID expand. My probe met up with an enemy drone at the 3:00 main base, which was just sitting around idly before deciding to "morph to hatchery". I was anxiously watching the Structure's Hp scale... Dt's were ready to strike after it finished... but suddenly......
"We are under attack!"
I quickly checked the mini-map. No red dots, how could that be? Then a big green square vanished from my sight in my natural expansion area. Cliff seige! Saldar had Lurkers hitting my assimilator from above. My Dt immediately "engaged" his hatchery... and in the end, both my ASM and his hatch were dead.
I waited a moment. So he had hydralisk and lurkers sitting on my natural's hill? What could i possibly do 'bout that...
Then... "Wait a moment!" I discovered I had 4 scarab-monging reavers at my factories! They quickly boarded the two shuttles, and proved how fast guerrillas can retreat once the reinforcements show up. Haha! One scarab --> 4 dead hydras
Another Scarab, dead lurkers and 3 overlords running for their lives...
But the overlords were only a few notches away, when the long-awaited mutalisk horde showed up. 8 Muta attacking my 2 defenseless reavers on the cliff! That called for revenge... My templar casted a quick psistorm, but the fast little bastards got away with their lives... for now.
I recalled home my dark templar and researched Maelstrom.
The DTs had served as scouts, now I'd need heavy support. I merged a archon. A dark archon.
Now if he'd really attack with mass mutalisk that would come in VERY handy.
I re-produced 2 reavers and loaded 3 Shuttles (Reaver x 4, Templar, Dark archon) for the counterstrike. My observer spotted a Zerg island expansion at top left. Perfectly easy pray!
Shuttle #1 was moving off to right-bottom: purpose: Expand
Shuttles #2,3 and 4 moving off to top-left: purpose: Havoc
It did not take 2 minutes to level the zerg expansion there, but it made Saldar mad! Really mad! Seconds later a HUGE Zerg Air/Ground combination Force rolled right into my Natural Ground defense... The templar at the front line cast 3 psi storms at the invaders, killed more than 12 hydralisk, but actually didn't even make a dent into the unbelievably huge Swarming army coming to my base.
The Expansion Razers had to turn into expansion savers, and fast! I grabbed the shuttle holding my DA and Templar, and flew it home to my natural's cliff. Cliff drop? Sure Thing. The Dark archon let off 2 maelstrom onto the HEAVILY bunched up Zerg swarm, and the Templar cast Psistrom twice. Splut. Clash. Saldar only had 4 mutalisk remaining after the bad weather abided. Some remaining hydralisk were mopped up by 2 newly produced dark Templar. And my Expansion Nexus was still standing!
As saldar's Army died, he just said "Good job".
Time to expand. Even Zerg economies cant recover quickly from fatal blows like this, so i sent my shuttle to drop off probes on the top-left ex-zerg expansion base to make it my own property. I reinforced my right-bottom base with a complete ring of photons, and with 3 expansions, prepared for endgame. 3 Stargates were warped in, and some makeshift defense for the natural, namely a cannon and a battery for 2 reavers, as support for the DA and my templars already there.
Some corsair just finished when attack number two rolled in. He went for my natural expansion again, and again the Ground and Air was completely filled up with Zerg bodies. The reavers living off shield battery shield points inflicted heavy damage to the upgraded-Hydralisk swarm before biting the dust due to empty batteries...The Templar cast a few psi-storms and Maelstroms which as last time turned the Battle in my favor, but this time Zergling and Guardians complicate the situation. However, this attack too lacked the overlord, so remaining ground was easy pray for Dark Templars, and the freshly-built corsair got rid of those pesky Air behemoths, not however without suffering heavy casualties from hydralisk. This attack came somewhat unexpected.
I did not expect him to get that many troops back that fast.
However, Fleet beacon and Air weapon, Shield, And Air-amour upgrades were already on the way, and 3 Carriers "stood ground" (well, "stood" air ;) in my base, more still building.
My entire Game centered upon one thing. The Carrier Fleet. Nothing else mattered anymore. 2nd Cy-core. Observers, Arbiter Tribunal, Shuttles for Transporting the Templar support, and the DA (Defiler anninhalator). Carriers were grouping up at the former zerg island. It had no defense. I spent every last penny on Carriers&Associated support.
The Carriers had to return home to fend off a smaller attack, consisting of, say, 12 hydralisk, but mainly Devourers. It was no doubt intended to harm the carrier fleet. His forced divided. Carriers engaged Devourer selectively targeting one-after-another, over the natural cliff. The hyralisk battled some ground support, invaded my base but eventually got gunned down by Carrier. I started to wonder if the Zergy opponent of mine would actually be going bankrupt at the moment. This small attack didn't fit his style.
Against the ground force, which was bound to return again (after Attack #2, I learned that there's no such thing as a wrecked Zerg economy, they just rebuild soooo fast) I put up a pylon at my ramp and cannons where the hydra horde would approach. My Natural was dead. But I didnt need it anymore.
My fleet slowly formed. At this moment I had about 8 Carriers, an arbiter, 2 corsair, and a few templar all guarding my ramp.
I was battling time. I knew my opponent had multiple expansion bases going, or he'd gone broke long ago. But I had what I needed. Time was my most needed resource right now, and I couldn't scrap any of it going after expansions. I actually had no forces besides a few temps of all colours and my air armada...
The final attack commenced. It dwarfed even the previous ones in crude size, as Dozens (and I mean DOZENS) of Crackings ran for my base. On the minimap they appeared as a stragiht red line. The first few had entered the fray engaging my cannons. Then a good dozen mutalisk came flown at my carriers, A dozen Devourers supporting them. Everything fully upgraded. Now this is where Psi storm and the Maelstom really shine. My DA casted maelstrom on the fray. Templars Psi stormed the Mutalisk&Devourer Sky Blanket. And it worked. The Sky turned red again, then blue. That air force was defeated. Cracklings were breaking into the base.I didn't care too much about them. They managed to wipe out half my building while the carriers tried to lay waste to the small raptors, but they eventually died (Zergling can not bite a carrier) And my force was ready to go.
Shuttles loaded with High temps and Dark Archon, observers attacked, corsair too, and the arbiter cloaking everything, the typical 'toss doomsday fleet was ready to engage the Zerg main. There isn't much to say about that. It got... mopped up. Like a Custom AI base when their minerals run out. No defense left, save towers. He was not bankrupt. But the many swarmed attacks left the Main Hive undefended.
As the carriers mopped up one expansion after another, Zergling floods came running into my main outpost. They were tearing it apart, no more carrier were there to stop them. But actually... I didn't care. The game was over.
It ended like most TvZ games do if they last long, save for the endgame "GG" which was substituted by a "lucky". Oh well.
Lessons Learned:
1.) As Necrosausage said: MAELSTROM ROCKS! This spell is horribly underused by protoss nowadays, and on its own, it does sure suck because of its short duration time, but in combination with the ever-popular psi storm, it simply SLAUGHTERS Zerg. (especially fast air)
Maelstrom is definately one of the best spells in the game, if, (as with all spells) it's used correctly.
2.)"Zerg are made to lose units": This is correct, of course, but they're not made to WASTE units. Enemy micomanagement weapons should be removed from battle (Queens!) before engaging with the main swarm. They ARE small. They LOOK weak and slow. But they can decide, yes dictate, the game's outcome.
3.)This Zerg didn't use the Zerg's most dangerous Endgame weapon: The Defiler. Defilers are the natural enemy of the carrier fleet. Use Darkswarm on your Hydralisk. Use plague on the carriers. Protoss REALLY get pissed when their Fleet gets plagued. (Terrans do not care that much, good terrans usually have a Firebat squad and a medic group with restore nearby. They also have SCV repair)
4.)Detection is a must. On every attack, save the 6-ling-rush, you MUST have a detector in the group to avoid cloaked suprises. Zergs don't have an excuse for not detecting while attacking. Overlords are abundant.
and:
5.)Do NOT play into the enemy's hands by engaging his main defense, even if your force looks overwhelmingly strong. If the main attack would have been carried out using a doom drop or a partial drop/front attack, it'd bypassed those templar completely. | | Battle Shots! | 
Before.
After.
While I prepare my cannons for "next time", Saldar reports he's gone half-broke
MealStorm (purposeful misspelling =)
"Did you NEED to drop me off just HERE (yuck)?"
|
|
|
|
Home
Forum
Starcraft Tournaments
