"D-matrixed Ultralisks, D-matrixed Battle Cruiser, D-matrixed DTs, see a pattern here?"
-Rychean
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| A Terran Gets a Bad Case of the Crabs | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 09/06/99 03:09 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | Starcraft(1) | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 7, Min: 6
Lifetime Rating for The HydraDropper: 6.6667 |   | The Game: StarCraft (not BroodWar)
The Map: Dire Straits
THERE ARE PICTURES THIS TIME, HOORAY!
The Players:
Your Hero, The HydraDropper, chosen Zerg, of course, this isn't TankPusher or CarrierCollector's Battle Report
The Hated Enemy, A Nameless Chosen Terran
After some amicable chat and good lucks exchanged, we begin. I spawn at lower left, making workers and sending overlord #1 up to the top left, with a shift queue to top right and back to base. (Second overlord will be able to scout bottom right before first will make it there.)
EARLY GAME:
The plan is rapid build toward... YOU GUESSED IT! An upgraded hydra drop! What is needed is rapid drone making till 9, extractor trick for extra drone, overlord, extra drone, second hatchery, spawning pool, extractor, quick lair, then overlord speed and transport upgrades. During this, a hydra den is built (speed upgrade researched first), as many hydras are possible built while awaiting the overlord upgrades, which if appropriate placed (back of minerals, middle of base) are also defense against early drop from the enemy. Also an evolution chamber is spawned and initially carapace upgrade is evolved. This typically results in about 16-20 hydras with speed and carapace upgrade available when transport is available. (Haven't timed it but I think I'm usually ready to drop at around 10min?) Usually I will be researching missile attack and range upgrades while the hydras are in transit, but I won't wait for these to make the drop.
While this is going on, my first overlord finds nothing going on atop the map and returns, but the second overlord strikes paydirt, seeing terran activity at bottom right. I don't like hanging around terran bases too much because an early marine or two can kill a critical overlord and really set back production, particularly slowing a time critical drop build like this.
The terran's ability to block the drop is probably best served by having a couple or few well placed sieged tanks with a bunker or two, doesn't require a ton of units (that's the hallmark of terran, efficient defense), or a ton of stimmable marines. Both of these can be picked up and dropped on the zerg base in retaliation of a failed drop, or dropped preemptively.
Going wraiths early is probably a risky move in that it is all or nothing--if he can get a couple few wraiths over to my base early, they can destroy any overlords preventing dropping or expanding until scourge/mutas etc. perhaps winning the game, while they expand freely and prepare a doom drop or battlecruisers. But if they are not in time there aren't enough units at his base to keep my hydras from raising hell, and hydras pop wraiths like balloons.
Evolution complete. 20 speed and carapace upgraded hydras load into overlords which skirt along the bottom of the map towards the enemy base. The plan is to drop right at the mineral line if possible. I continue to produce hydras from my two hotkeyed hatcheries which are rallied to behind minerals and middle of base to provide automatic defense, while attending to the attack.
During the drop transit, a terran dropship snoops around the right edge of my base... could this be the feared stimmarine or tank drop?
A PREGNANT PAUSE...
Spotting enemy transports while your drop is underway always leads to a tension filled moment for both players where a decision must be made, whether to proceed with your drop or return to base and unload for defense. My bias is that, if you think your drop is probably overwhelmingly strong, you should stay the course and hope that what defense you have at your base, units and structures, can weather the enemy storm until you have achieved victory. The reasoning is that if you go back for defense, his drop happens and yours never happens. If you annihilate his drop with minimal losses and no economy disruption, then coming back was the right decision (although he may have some recon on your base) because you can pick up your big force and still go drop right away. But if it is an even battle, and he takes out some workers, the enemy comes out ahead because he has damaged your economy and you haven't touched his, plus he has some recon on your base. If his assult force is strong, this is what usually happens because it takes time for your units to come back and unload and he "gets the drop" on you so to speak. These scenarios remind of of the situations in WWII where American and Japanese squadrons passed each other on the way to bomb and torpedo each other's carriers. They must have been wondering who would have a carrier to come back and land on if they survived.
END OF PREGNANT PAUSE.
Seeing the small group of hydras that have emerged from my hotkeyed hatcheries during drop transit, the terran transport flies away. Must not have been the assault drop but an expansion expedition. Whew. On with the show.
This player must not be very good because I have not been comsatted by now and I am about to unload my assault force.
SHOWTIME
My 5 overlords arrive at the enemy minerals essentially unscathed, taking a stray tower hit or two. The tower defense was erected largely at the border of the island to prevent drops on the large open area, but the minerals are wide open as you can see in the first two pictures. My deadly cargo of hydras unloads, and a mass slaughter of SCV's begins. All workers are rapidly massacred and the command center is next. All the while I am producing more hydras from my hotkeyed hatcheries. I send my overlord force back home to pick up more hydras if necessary, leaving one at the attack zone to spot any stray cloaked wraiths.
The few marines hanging around the base are no match for my assault force. If there was a tank, it died too quickly for me to even notice. Buildings are razed left and right, and the terran flies what burning buildings he can the heck out of there, realizing like some third world despot in the middle of a revolution that "his situation on the island has become untenable". I start a spire and expand to the island immediately above me and to top left. I know that there is no way he is in any position to assault any expansion or main, he's too busy licking his wounds and rebuilding if he is alive at all except for flying, burning, buildings. Which brings us to
MID GAME TO FINIS
My assault squad of hydras patrols the former terran stronghold, pillaging and laying waste to any towers and depots found. But no elimination message. Hmmm. I now begin to scatter a few overlords across the map to look for a hidden base, while creating mutalisks and more hydralisks, getting upgrades all the while.
WHERE IS HE?
Now, to think like the enemy... If I were a terran, in search of some suitable real estate for a base, what kind of place would I look for? Well, it should be real roomy for all those funky terran buildings to spread out in. Hmm... these little islands aren't really suitable, have you got anything else? Bottom right? Just got evicted from there, an unpleasant situation with the rent... Bottom left and top left? I heard that some guy with the Overmind Corporation has just closed deals on those places for some kind of office space. Something about a hive. That leaves.... TOP RIGHT, BINGO! It's perfect!
Sure enough my overlords detect some mining activity at top right. Amusingly, some tower hits are taken from a couple of small islands that have towers but no base on them, what a waste. Perhaps he had contemplated putting a base there, but realized it was too small. Or maybe he's just silly. Whatever.
I immediately load up another squad of hydras, whatever is available, and prepare to drop again. It seems rather repetitive, but if you've devoted a lot of tech and upgrades to a particular all purpose unit like hydras, you're a fool if you don't keep using them until the enemy shows he's got something that makes them obsolete.
Gotta keep the pressure on. Can't let him get a force. This game is pretty much in the bag, but if I sit back and make and admire pretty, weak mutalisks while the terran takes 2 bases and builds a 12 pack of battlecruisers and 12 cloaked wraiths and then wipes my expansions one by one, who's the bozo then, eh?
The second drop doesn't go of quite as successfully as the first, but serves its purpose, to strike terror into the heart of the enemy and, more importantly, screw with his economy. As you can see from the third picture from the fact that I am over the supply limit, I lose some overlords to massive tower fire, but I do get some units dropped in the workers. A crack squad of a handful of remaining hydras again slaughters many SCVs before falling to marine and tank fire. So it's all about the towers, eh? I can't say as how I can exactly blame the player in this situation for cannon/towering up as it is a desparate situation and he probably doesn't have enough production facilities to rapidly create units such as goliaths, but this would be preferable.
Money is not a problem, so more overlords are spawned to create supply, and hive and greater spire upgrades are complete. So I can't drop without heavy overlord loss, eh? It's okay. I'm cool with it. For now it's time for
DAY OF THE GUARDIAN
I definitely have a love/hate relationship with these guys. In some ways they are among my favorite Zerg unit because they are just so cool, have the mad range, and have that deliberate slow and smooth way of moving like they just couldn't give a damn about a goliath. But I also hate them because they are freaking expensive, die miserably to anything air, and are so easily led into towers and goliath fire and easy to mis-micro into deadly situations. I.E. click one millimeter next to a tower instead of on it and they will go TO the tower instead of attacking it from range, taking hits all the while... They are perfect for this island turtle cracking scenario though as they can hang offshore and bomb the towers on the edge, allowing for your drop, and the marines and goliaths can mill around and not do squat. Microing a muta escort to protect against wraiths etc. is difficult because the mutas are also dumb and want to follow units right into deadly tower/goliath/marine fire. It's a tricky, expensive business. But very necessary. And in this case it's defnitely the dope move as there's no way this guy's economy can support making much air at this point, and I could lose some guardians as long as I can get a good drop off.
The remainder of the game consists of a staged assault where guardians crack the tower perimeter with offshore bombing from above the sea (the fourth picture), and then a medium sized (4 overlord or so) hydra drop cleans up the base and serves as support for the guardians to come in and help mop up (picture 5). In these assaults I like to prioritize attacks on the structures most likely to hurt me first, here going for factory because I figure if a tank pops out and sieges it can lay the hurt on more hydras than anything else. A wraith hydras can easily handle or even ignore, and if the enemy were, say protoss, a reaver would still have to make scarabs before shooting. After the factory is dead, then starport next to prevent any wraiths harassing the guardians, and then barracks and the rest.
The terran resigned and we chatted for a little while after. He hadn't really played islands much and assumed that early air was the way to go, overlooking transport. For zerg early mutas (EMPHASIS: EARLY) might actually be one of the better strategies for a map like this. So he was caught without enough tanks and marines to fend my initial drop which sealed it for him. You need transport to expand anyway (except early command center float by terran), so you might as well look into it ASAP. I basically encouraged him to make more workers and units and our chat ended.
I realize that this guy's abilities were not that great, but the game still illustrates some basic lessons that are important for newer players...
LESSONS:
1. Recon. At least know where the enemy IS, and if possible, what he is doing. Terran can have some of the most thorough recon with comsat, and this guy never built one. He could have smelled the hydra drop coming and built more appropriate units to defend it. Not sure if it would have helped him anyway...
2. Expand while (preferable) or immediately after attacks. Enemy probably has to be defensive and can't hit your expand then, unless he's got a stock of hidden units saved up at a secret base. This helps preserve any advantage from an attack, and even if you didn't kill his base, now you have one more and he probably doesn't if you did some damage with your attack.
3. In a winning situation, keep your boot (or claw, as it were) on the other guy's neck. Equal economy = lost game for Zerg vs. Terran or Protoss. Two bases is plenty to bust out the battlecruisers or carriers, so DO NOT LET him do this. Find out where he is. Keep dropping or harassing with flying units. Even if he is rebuilding towers or cannons, that's money he's not spending expanding or building a doom fleet.
The HydraDropper
| | Battle Shots! | 
They're Heeeere...
Dance, I Said!
Just Thought We'd "Drop In" Again!
I Think You Hear Me Knocking...
I Think I'm Coming In...
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