The date is March 16, and New York State is in a state of heat, and humidity. The()vermind sits at his computer, and types away, barely being able to keep his head up. After a 16-hour red eye flight from the night before, the()vermind considers the possibility of falling asleep on the keyboard. However, the 6-hour time differences between New York and his vacation spot prevents him from doing that. The()vermind(now known as I) logs into nohunters, seeking a game for observation. Anyway, after 5 minutes of waiting in nohunters, I find DeonPeon (aka kane-) creating a 2v2. The fateful players are DeonPeon, Jocylin (aka. high+templar.), CaughtNaked, and sedatives. The teams being CaughtNaked and Jocylin against DeonPeon and sedatives. The game is created, and we enter what else but Lost Temple. There is little time for everyone to prepare, and unfortunately for me, and my fellow observer [ScV], this is the game-q version of Lost Temple. The game starts, and we pop into Lost Temple, much like getting into an old, smelly car that still has some kind of appeal.
vermind/openingcaught.jpg)
Upon entry into the game, the players now know their positions and races. DeonPeon mutates a yellow hatchery at 6, his ally, sedatives, warps a red nexus at 3. On the other team, both players are terran, with CaughtNaked landing his white command center at 12, and his ally, Jocylin, landing a blue command center at the remaining spot. Obviously, it is 2 terrans against a protoss and a zerg. sedatives is a recent arrival in nh, being an x17 regular. DeonPeon, aka kane- is pretty well known. CaughtNaked is a nohunters regular and battlereporter. The observers list includes, [ScV], -telefragged-, and I.
Build orders are about 80% normal, 20% god damn insane. DeonPeon goes for early gas and an early expansion. It appears his main objective is a strong economic base, and then the mass swarms always identified with zerg players. sedatives is slowly going towards either mass dragoons or mass zealots. A concentrated assault could easily bring him down. Of the terrans, CaughtNaked is clearly the sanest. First going for a wall in, then for mass infantry, one of the few options a terran has on Lost Temple. His partner, Jocylin, completely ignores wall-ins, and goes straight for mass infantry. Scouting is good and done within 5 minutes, and within 10 minutes, the first battle operation is well under way.
CaughtNaked and Jocylin, determined to knock out at least one player in the early game, sends almost all of their marines to the pass into sedative's territory. CaughtNaked's forces of course arrive first due to their location next to sedatives, and move all the way to the ramp into the main before being spotted by the lonely zealots placed there on guard duty. It takes a couple of seconds for the two stupid forces of troops to sight and engage each other. However, when the 8 marines and 2 zealots begin the first fight, no one can ever say that these troops were stupid in death, except for the zealots. Why? Well the fact is that after the battle, only one zealot is left standing, with only the fragments of 1 marine on the ground. They say that 3 marines is the equivalent of 1 zealot, 1 pawn for a bishop, hmmm… Before the battle is over, DeonPeon orders a large force of zerglings north as a relief force, and in order to conserve troops, CaughtNaked orders his forces south to the protoss natural expansion to wait for Jocylin, the zealot does not purse.
However, CaughtNaked is a tad impatient, for when Jocylin's forces are about 10 seconds from meeting up with his force of marines, CaughtNaked sends them straight to sedatives's probe line. The marines face little opposition from the lone zealot, but the zealot soon has other problems as Jocylin's marines arrive. But alas, from the south comes DeonPeon's relief forces. The battle is problematic for the terrans from the start. Being attacked from the south and north at the same time, and having no line of retreat on the narrow ramp, the marines quickly fall to the razor claws, and psi-blades of their foes.
vermind/dicecaught.jpg)
The final action for the defenders is to destroy CaughtNaked's forces, and destroy they shall, with CaughtNaked's marines being killed easily by a combined force of zerglings and probes. Everyone should see what went wrong with this operation, with the two terrans not ever completely meeting up and facing the foe combined. However, it's not like the marines didn't inflict anything measurable, they did kill a zealot, a very powerful and smart zealot mind you.
Minutes pass with all players talking about their next operations. DeonPeon and sedatives resolve to carry on the next battle as a defender, correctly assuming that their enemies will send the majority of their forces to attack whichever player they choose. Meanwhile, CaughtNaked and Jocylin resolve to attack DeonPeon in order to destroy the foe they have just recently comsatted and judged the greater opponent. There are no major shifts in technology during the moment of peace. Again, the terrans order almost all of their forces on a combined assault, but this time with knowledge of what defenses they may encounter because of Jocylin's com-sat. The combined force of 11 marines, 3 medics and 2 firebats sets out from their infantry shifted bases for the Zerg Hive Cluster to the south.
On the way, DeonPeon sends a zergling to Jocylin's base to scout, and is met by the entire attacking force. With advanced warning of the incoming invasion, the Zerg cerebrate orders many of his troops to flanking positions, while leaving a small force of lurkers, hydralisks and zerglings to defend his base. This is a dangerous gamble, with DeonPeon depending on his forces at the expansion to hold off the terran forces until his zerg troops successfully arrive.
The two terran forces successfully meet up just outside of Zerg territory, and launch their attack, trusting that fate is with them. The initial defenses are small, with only 8 zerglings, and 2 lurkers defending the base. However, suddenly, and with exact timing, 2 large forces of zerglings, from the west and the north, descend upon the terran infantry. Panic strikes as the marines realize that they are under attack from 3 sides. Lurkers from the south continue sending their deadly spines, as zerglings rip through the terran forces. The terran commanders issue the orders to retreat, but the only responses are screams and grunts. The battle ends, again in favor of the defender.
vermind/marinezergcaught.gif)
Realizing that the time for their strike is now, DeonPeon and sedatives begin their operations. Not wanting to commit their forces entirely, the two only start minor operations. As DeonPeon sends a small force of zerglings towards Jocylin's base to distract him, sedatives commences a 1-reaver drop on the blue terran's peon line. The zerglings are killed of course by bunkers, but some break through, and distract the terran commander for about 20 seconds before he realizes that his peon line is under attack. At this time, sedatives orders his reaver into its shuttle, and begins a journey north, leaving behind only 3 scvs alive. When the shuttle comes under fire, the reaver is unloaded, and fires one scarab at one of the 4 marines firing at it. Because of the micro, with 1 marine in front of all the others, only 1 marine is lost fighting the reaver. The strike has ended, with the only effect being the devastation of Jocylin's mining efforts.
vermind/reavercaught.jpg)
Minutes pass in silence, as all players rush to re-build their armies. After about 5 minutes of waiting, DeonPeon orders a huge force of zerglings north to attack. Watching the zerg forces on their journey, sedatives can't help but want to join in. He orders most of his land army north to aid in this gigantic endeavor to take out CaughtNaked. However, because of the wall in, virtually every zergling is killed before they even kill 1 marine. It is the protoss forces that inflict damage, with the majority of them being dragoons. The dragoons fire upwards at the terran marines, but because of the height advantage, the protoss commander is forced to issue the command to retreat.
vermind/zergbloodcaught.jpg)
The next 5 minutes is utter chaos, battles at up to 3 places at once. Alright, in order to take advantage of the huge losses sustained by DeonPeon,Jocylin orders a large number of marines and medics south to the zerg infestation. The initial defenses consisting of a sunken and hydralisks, are successful in holding off the terran invaders for about 15 seconds. Sedatives, seeing that his partner is in trouble, sedativesorders his ground army south, to try and stop Jocylin from destroy DeonPeon's natural expansion. When Jocylin sees this protoss army, after a few shots, he orders his marines back home, and another battle ends.
vermind/countercaught.jpg)
However, within 40 seconds, sedatives orders his protoss ground army north, to CaughtNaked's base. The protoss forces inflict heavy casualties, but again, the height advantage provided by the mesa, and the fact that there are so many infantry units severely limits the effectiveness of attacks being conducted. The protoss forces retreat, and at about the same time, Jocylin orders his infantry army out of his base, and towards sedative's base.
Fortunately for sedatives, DeonPeon has a left over zergling in the path of the invading army. This sparks a chain reaction as protoss and zerg units are poured into the area. The first to arrive are the zerglings sent by DeonPeon. These rush from the south, but DeonPeon miscalculates, sending the zerglings not into the flank of the terran army, but right in front of it. The zerglings are slaughtered, and the other zerg units are forced to retreat east, and burrow there. The next punch of the desperate counterattack comes in the form of protoss dragoons. Sedatives orders everything he's got that is outside his main at the terran infantry. Huge casualties are taken by both sides, but the protoss warriors die, again. Marines and tanks reinforce the terran army, and the invasion force pushes onwards toward the protoss base.
vermind/struggleanicaught.gif)
Desperate for a miracle, DeonPeon orders a huge force of zerglings, single file towards Jocylin's base. The attack is doomed from the start, and proves only as an annoyance. Meanwhile, the more crucial battle to the east takes shape, as protoss dragoons rain fire from about and below on the terran forces. However, CaughtNaked has reinforced the terran army, and the sheer size of the opposing force makes sedatives order his dragoons to the final foxhole, the ramp to the protoss main. The terran army, in it's sheer bulk has 4 times the amounts of troops engaged, in reserve, and the terran army forces the dragoons to give up even more ground. As dragoon after dragoon falls, sedatives orders the dragoons back, about halfway between the ramp and the protoss nexus. By now, it's over. The dragoons are outnumbered maybe 5 to 1, and more troops are on their way.
vermind/gamblecaught.gif)
The final assault begins in earnest as the protoss base is leveled. Without a word spoken, the terran commanders pump infantry into DeonPeon's base. Brief fighting occurs, but the terran troops are successful in their attempts to get into the core of the zerg hive cluster.
Realizing that they don't have a chance in hell to ward off the huge groups of invaders in their bases, DeonPeon and sedatives leave the game within moments of the blue invasion into yellow territory. The game closes, and the stats show up. On average 21 units were killed a minute, 5 buildings were built a minute, and 43 minerals were mined a second. Below you see the animated minimap
vermind/animatedminicaught.gif)
Now, the lessons learned section. If you were paying attention, sedatives could easily have won if he supplemented his ground forces with high templar. Storms would rip through the marines that both commanders used, and the outcome might have been different. To the other people from that ffa game that I observed, yes I will be br'ing it, I just happened to observe this game first.
Well, that's the game, and this br is finished. Please vote in the poll below, put comments in the comments section, and have a nice and pleasant day. Oh yes, raters, please rate my report, I know you will, so I won't threaten you people. Congratulations to DrAwesome for becoming a rater. A new addition to my poll, it will no longer have a 1 or 2 option because we all know that people who do vote a 1 or a 2 are just doing it because it's there. Feel free to vote a three if you're feeling really lucky. (yes, the rhyming was intended) For aspiring br'ers, look at testosterone's, crackheadjeb's, and drawesome's reports, you won't learn anything from me. Sob*sob*sob. Have a nice and pleasant day.
|
Home
Forum
Starcraft Tournaments
