"I killed the server admin w/ knife headshot twice in a 40 round game. Some people just have no sense of NINJA RESPECT."
- TheRubberDucky
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| Grand Canyon Tourits | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 07/20/99 06:07 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | Starcraft(1), Text Only(1) | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 5, Max: 9, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for Quik_Rabbit: 7.8000 |   | The Premise:
One of my coworkers purchased the "Mac" Brood War cds. To
celebrate we decided to pummel each other's forces after
work.
The Players:
Unfortunately, there were 5 of us, so it was a tense 2v3.
(I thought the games were tense since i was on the 2-person team)
The Background:
In total we played 6 games. The first game was a mesa
game. Our opponents controlled the middle, so in the
end won. The 2nd game quickly ended when my partner got rushed by a horde of bloodthirsty zealots with marine support roughly 7 minutes into the game. Game over.
Our 3rd and 4th games were abruptly ended when the "STABLE MACINTOSH" crashed ~15 minutes into each game.
We decided to tempt fate again and played a fifth game.
The Decision:
In the 2nd and 3rd games, my partner was rushed. To put it
simply, when it's 2v3, it's safer to bet money on the 3.
So for the 4th (rudely interupted by a user-friendly
macintosh reboot :-[ ) and 5th game we decided to play
on Grand Canyon. Grand Canyon, for all of those who play
nothing but BGH, is an allied map with two distinct sides
seperated by the canyon floor. Each side has 3 ramps that
lead to the canyon floor, but each of these ramps are blocked by minerals. So, in the beginning, it's an island
game, but after you clear away the mineral blocking your ramp, it becomes a land war. We were tired of being rushed, so we were hoping this map would give us the breathing room we needed to play.
FINALLY, Game 6:
Tourists:
Blue Terran: upper left (Me)
Red Protoss: mid left (allied protoss)
vrs.
Sightseers:
Brown Zerg: upper right (enemy zerg1)
Purple Zerg: mid right (enemy zerg2)
Yellow Protoss: lower right (enemy protoss)
Our initial plan was to hurt/kill 1 of them with a quick
drop. My partner would do a double reaver drop while I
would support him with some marines. I started with a
gas intensive build: depot, refinery, barrack, e-bay,
acadamy, starport. Along the way I sprinkled some depots,
a bunker and a turret for protection. I built tons of scvs, 6 marines, and 2 medics, and finally, the floating snail (aka dropship). I loaded up my initial force and sent the dropship toward the middle.
My partner went pylon, gateway, assimilator, cyber, robotics factory, robotics bay. His shuttle initially dropped off an
early probe to scout the middle and possibly build an expansion. He loaded up 2 reavers and we speed toward the
lower right.
Unfortunately for us, our opponents weren't exactly slacking. The purple zerg (i think) had quickly researched
ventral sacks and had airlifted ~6 hydralisks into the canyon floor. My partner's scouting probe, shocked at finding semi-intelligent life, approached the hydras and
broadcasted a greeting. The hydras cordially replied with needles. Goodbye probe. About this time our shuttles (still trying to get to the other side) flew dangerous close to the hydras. The protoss shuttle outran the danger with little damage to the shields. That left my dropship to bear the brunt of the enemy's greetings. After some frantic clicking I brought the dropship back to the lower left side with ~12 hitpoints to spare :-). No more drops for me. I
left my troops there to protect the empty starting spot for
future expansion. My partner flew around a bit, and landed
outside the enemy protoss's base. He blew away a cannon, dragoon, and a zealot before whisking away from reinforcements. That was the end of our drops and meant this was going to be a long protracted war.
Mid Game (The Air War):
I expanded twice in the relatively quiet time after the failed drops. Once besides my ramp, and then at the empty starting spot at the lower left. My partner expanded once
near his ramp. With 3 hot-keyed comstats and my partners observers, we noticed trouble, lots of trouble. Sure enough, the center was swarming with purple and brown mutalisks. They did several hit and runs (my dropship's luck ran out) but no big confrontation yet. My partner
switched gears and starting producing templars and goons
for defence.
For a while I was indecisive. I built two valkeries hoping
to capitilize on their splash damage, but when the game
became a ground war any valk's I built would be almost useless. Then two ideas struck me at once. Mass M+M's,
and Sci-Vessels (aka "The Flaming Balls of Death"). (I acknowledge the countless other battlereports for showing how deadly sci-vessels are!!!!) I was going to use the sci-vessels to keep their air at bay until a massive push of M+M would catch them with their pants down. I built another engineering bay to help speed up the marine upgrade, and started churning out sci-vessels.
A short time after Monty Burns 1 & 2 popped out my partner spotted a 5 guardians + 8 muties going for my lower expansion. I grabbed the sci-vess's, marines + medics (~15), and ran south (I totally forgot about the valks I had built :( ) My partner was closer to the expansion and
brought some templar with goons. The guardians come in and lay waste to several turrets. My 2 cloaked wraiths lay some havoc upon the zergies until a bloated overlord spoils the day. The tin foil wraiths collapse shortly after. About this time the templars float in and sizzle the muties. They run around, sizzle, run around, sizzle. The sci-vessels arrive and zap, 2 guardians start glowing a sickly yellowish
color. The burnt, sickly zergies, hopelessly outgunned try running..... into the path of stimmed marines. Snap, crackle, pop, blood exploding everywhere. Expansion safe.
Now a long stalemate occurs. My partner expands to the 3rd ramp and here is where most of the action erupts. The zergies, smarting from the aerial defeat, build a larger, deadlier airforce just outide the this last expansion. Unfortunately for them, I had 5 sci-vessels by then. I would comstat the area, grap a sci-vessel or two, irradiate, and run the hell out of there. The constant radiation, and some timely psi-storms, kept the expansion relatively safe.
About this time I broke through my minerals blocking my ramp. I thought about attacking but my marines weren't fully upgraded yet. (I kept on getting distracted). So instead I grabbed Urkel, the scv, and told him to secure a
mineral-only expansion outside my base.
Urkel strolled out confidantly in his tacky jeans and bright red sweater. He built two turrets near the mineral patch and waited for further instructions. About this time some zergy fliers flew by and started getting ripped apart by the turrets. Urkel cackled in glee. Unfortunately for him, a mixed host of dragoons, zealots, hydras and zerglings start charging his position. Urkel, shitting in his pants, flees north, away from the safety of the ramp with his heath in the red. ~8 zerglings hound his every step, until finally, their prey is pounced upon and ripped to shreds. I'm glad
Urkel is no longer on TV.
End Game (The ground war):
We were contained and I was close to mining out my minerals,
(although I had a lot in the bank). I had 5 barracks producing m+m's with some token goliaths in case I hit some guardians/carriers. The air war was taking a toll on the zergies, even with some enemy corsairs helping by disabling
our defences. My marines were fully upgraded and I hit the
supply limit. Time to party.
With 40+ marines, 20+ medics, ~ 8 goliaths, ~ 8 sci-vessels,
and several of my partners observer's, I charged down the ramp into the canyon floor. The milling group of dragoons, & zealots charged, but 40+ gauss guns ended their heroism. The zerglings (finshed eating Urkel) also charged, to no avail. Several enemy templars started floating in, but 2 EMP, and 1 irradiate forced them to retreat. I then carved my through two lightly defend expansions sat outside
the ramp of purple zerg's main base. I looked at my supply total, "Damn, I lost 3 marines." The battle up the ramp was a little tricky since purple zerg started morphing tons of sunken colonies. I ran lots of marines up that ramp, but finally the sunken defense collapsed and the base was razed.
At the same time my partner made a big templar/goon/zealot push. He carved through several fledgling expansions, but was stopped by a cannon-crazy protoss defence. My partner brought the two reavers he started the game with to the front line and the cannons + expansion quickly fell.
After resting my marines for awhile, 3 carriers started attacking them. Finally my goliaths started doing the job they were paid for and tagging the undersides of the floating blimps. The remaing marines (20+), make short work of the interceptors. However, the enemy protoss, snuck a templar under the carriers and got some good storms on my
troops. 6 medics and 4 marines turned into mush. Monty Burns, in wrath, irradiated the offensive templar and watched him slowly die.
The rest of the game was sealed. The rest of my marines, with some fresh reinforcements (now that I was under the supply limit) crushed the brown zerg's main base. A shuttle
with four templar gave my force some problems, so for revenge I irradiated the templars and watched them all rot.
(that was quickly becoming my favorite hobby) My partner finished sweeping up the ramp expansions and started moving in toward the enemy protoss main base.
I was blocked off from the protoss main base by several cannons. For fun I nuked those defences twice, then charged in from the north. My partner charged in from the south. I EMP & irradiated several lingering templars (although my partner's dragoons kept on getting the killing shot) and
the fanatic probe rush was shot down. Game over.
Game Time: ~ 1:23
Lessons:
- Sci-vessels slaughter zerg air. (especially if the opponents don't have medics) Because I kept on "thinning"
their ranks, they were never able to launch an effective
air attack
- Recon, recon, recon. We were always able to track the zergie air fleet and were able reinforce weak areas they were about to attack. I was always able to sick my sci-vessels at them. Finally, after talking to them, they admitted they NEVER saw the 80+ infantry I was stock-piling for a rainy day. They should have seen that and change their tactics accordingly.
- Upgrades count. 3/3 marines are remarkingly better than 2/0 hydras or 0/1/0 zealots. Throw in some medics and it's no contest.
- Ground war. Never concentrate so heavily on the air war
that you neglect the ground war. All the dead muties, devoureres, and guardians could have bought a very, very, very large force of hydras/lings. And if the air war isn't
working, by all means switch tactics.
Afterword:
This was my first battlereport, and at the time I didn't think about taking pictures :( . It's a little long, so I thank anyone who actually reads this far. I've read the battlereports for a while now, so many of the tactics I used here I'll admit I've learned from this website. So, because of that, I'll like to give thanks to the webhost. (I'm not trying to brown-nose, but if it helps my score, well then, uhhmmm.... THANKS!!)
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