Greetings good citizens. This is your famed battlereporter LuckyNewbie, back to educate you again in the ways of the instant classic, Brood War.

Whereas my previous report detailed my bitter defeat at the hands of Maareek, this time we will more accurately depict the great finesse and tactics possible to the Terrans. These reports will take place back when the game was fair and slow to anger. When op ~NoHunters was full of four people, and JV didn’t make news posts just to fill in empty space. I am talking of course, about patch 1.12b.

Ah, the memories. With the help of bwlauncher and old executables, I can once again share these epic battles. So be prepared: this is part one of a continuing series seeing your beloved white trash terrans stare down the calculating, latte drinking, beret wearing protoss.

Background

This match took place back in April of 2005, when my terran form had yet to take shape. My opponent was the unforgettable Maareek, and it seems you’ve seen him everywhere. Maareek was not the PGT-playing protoss he is now. Rather, he was only marginally better than the computer. We would be squaring off on the one and only Lost Temple.

Fight!

Maar would find his protoss at the 12, me with the terrans at the 9. Maar started with a build order that hasn’t changed for many players: 8 pylon, 10 gate, 12 gas, 14 core, 16 pylon. As soon as he had 200 gas, he started a robotics facility.

I had never really used set build orders, other than making the barracks. Because I was on the defensible 9 o’clock, I only needed one supply depot to seal myself in. I would use this ‘no-recon-for-maar’ quite effectively. I went with 8 depot, 10 barracks, 11 gas, 14 barracks, 15 depot, 15 academy. It was ugly, but my plan was apparent. I had started on the metal track, but aborted to early m/m.

Maar’s scouting probe couldn’t make it through my wall, and my one defending marine was enough to have his probe camp outside the ledge. This worked in my favor, as the non stop lights in my barracks could betray my plan.

I had much better luck with my recon. I had found his base on the first try, and camped my scv inside his perimeter. When a dragoon came to flush him out, I used the famous SCV football micro and spotted the warping robotics bay.

I sent two marines to kill this pesky probe, before charging out with my first fourteen medarines. I had three barracks and was beginning a factory, should the attack fail. Maar had just finished his reaver at about the same time, and was warping in a second gateway should the reaver attack fail.

Close Encounters

Our forces crossed paths just south of maar’s main. I’m not sure if either of us saw it, however. In the replay I did not send any units back, and Maar did not recall his reaver or defend his ramp en force.

Near simultaneously, my marines charged up the ramp as his reaver / dragoon dropped. Maar only had one unranged defending the ramp, and I had absolutely no defences on my main other than three just-finished marines.

The game was most likely already in the bag at this point, however. I had 14 attacking medarines and 6 reinforcing. With luck and a little bit of micro, my SCVs killed the reaver losing only two of their numbers, and two juicy marines.

Game Over!

With only two unranged dragoons and two dozen probes, maar didn’t have a chance of saving his main. He concedes, as gauss rifle rips through the remaining buildings.

Amazing?! Isn’t it?! While in future reports I promise to bring you much more exciting battles, this one demonstrates the need for good reconnaissance. Even though maar didn’t glimpse my plan before it was spewing all over his gateways, proper reconnaissance could have changed this game completely.

Furthermore, this also demonstrates the flexibility of the Terran war machine. Medarines are not usually regarded as great tools against the protoss, but with proper use, anything in their arsenal can be. While fragile and demanding a lot of micro management, the Terrans of 1.12b remain my favorite race. You know, back when I was good with them.

So there you have it folks. For all to remember how good LuckyNewbie is over Maareek.

I’d once again like to give a special thanks to ZerG~LinG for his ever-evolving CSS template. And to Maar for losing to me a year ago and getting better, so I can say I have a winning record against him. Leave a comment, but don’t leave apostrophes.

As Always,