"1v1 NO CANADIANS"
-|]agomar
|
| Terran Conquest, or If At First You Don't Succeed, Use a Bigger Hammer... | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 09/15/99 12:09 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 7, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for The HydraDropper: 6.6667 |  | The Map: Winter Conquest
The Players:
The HydraDropper, chosen Zerg
SirStorm, who randomed
As you can see from the chat screen in the first pic, SirStorm has a serious amount of wins so I was expecting to go down hard. But THAT'S WHY THEY PLAY THE GAMES!
I spawn at 4:00. I send my overlord to scout during my build. I do a two hatchery build towards upgraded hydra drop, putting my second hatchery at the mineral only natural expansion to sunken up there against early attack.
The overlord finds him at 12:00, terran.
He doesn't attack me early (I don't even remember if an scv or marine came to scout, I think there was one which died to my sunkens). Because he is terran and without early mobile detection I go for lurker upgrade as one of the first upgrades. My first drop on his main has about 16 hydras and two lurkers or so. Turns out he has a decent number of marines and medics and puts down the drop well, few if any workers are killed. I do get one of the lurkers burrowed and do some small damage in marines and medics before a comsat scan results in the death of the lurker.
Uh oh. If he has a fair number of marines and medics, this is big time vulnerability for me right now as I am replenishing the troops who died valiantly for the swarm. But time passes and nothing from him. So I decide to early expand, to 8:00. Now I have main and natural, and 8:00 also. I try one or two more drop attempts on his base with similar lack of success, largely due to medics. I am impressed with how these beef up Terran infantry in BW.
I have not been idle, I sent zerglings to all the major expansions I could remember while burrow researched, and then began burrowing them. The one sent to 6:00 died at some bunker down there.
Hmmm...
MID GAME
After receiving this news, I reflect upon the proper plan to address this expansion. After my dismal outings dropping his main, I have to consider ways to counter his terran D. I have also expanded to the lower center plateau, and my economy is rolling and I have been making all the buildings and getting upgrades. I decide I have to be certain that this drop comes off and that the expansion falls. So I need a big hammer to execute it.
Enter Senor Ultralisk.
I plan on a more brutal drop with these big guys and mixed troops. They with their major hit points and massive armor can make the difference between a failed and successful drop, absorbing the brunt of the damage while the other units get "free" hits on the critical structures and units, maybe killing that tank or cannon that opens the gates to the rest of the base...
I loaded up 8 or 9 overlords with VARIOUS GOODIES (see pic 2) and head out. I figure even if there's many towers most of the overlords will get through. As you can see from the SECOND PICTURE, it was like driving a thumbtack with a sledge hammer. Definitely unnecessary roughness. As you can also see, serves him right for making nukes! The base was laid out with a ring of about 5 towers, with the bunker at the choke/ramp.
During this window I have expanded to the natural of 8:00 and the main start point at 2:00. Now I have a total of 6 bases, 4 with gas and I am upgrading everything. I have made a 12 pack of mutalisks as a rapid strike force, but I don't really wind up using these during the game. I realize that I have not seen any activity from my burrowlings so I decide to check the other high platform with an overlord as I have no recon there. Major tower fire. I go for the same formula, somewhat less troops to drop this expansion, and again, it goes off sucessfully despite the four or five towers. Once again, he has a nuke silo there. So that expansion is razed.
The Rest of the Game consisted of:
Him Nuking my 2:00 expansion about 3 times and razing it (it's cool, but I hardly had any workers there and you can do the math on whether it is cost effective, especially when you are behind in good expansions.
Him sending a smallish squad of several marines and medics down the left side of the map towards me. I saw this because a burrowed zergling at that site picked it up. Unfortunately for him, I also had a lurker burrowed near that spot. Because he used his CC's to get nuke silos he didn't have much comsat and the lurker killed the whole group of several marines and medics as they headed towards my base at 8:00.
He made about 4-5 science vessels and irrdiated different hydras in one of my attack forces which succeeded in disrupting my attack and killing a large number of units.
My discovering his base at 10:00 by accident with a stray unit that wandered that day. I ran all the zerglings, ultras, and hydralisks to attack his natural at that base. This forced his command center to lift off. Burrowlings also detect a flash of orange at 2:00, which turns out to be a half-built cc. A crack squad of now adrenal glands upgraded zerglings quickly trash the cc as you can see in the LAST PICTURE.
Now I have 6 bases running to his about 4 maximum (I rebuilt 2:00). Just a matter of time since I have razed his expansions and he hasn't really gotten to mine in a lasting way.
He never attacks or drops in force, just dribs and drabs. For instance, chasing or popping a few ovelords with wraiths after I used them to drop. After some attrition, he must have run out of money, because he asks me, Rematch? I decline due to being short on time and we chatted a bit.
LESSONS:
1. Just because your initial attack didn't do anything, don't despair, just keep making troops and economy and don't miss a beat. Maybe it succeeded in keeping him defensive and in his base, which would have been a major benefit.
2. If your opponent's troops aren't in evidence, it is an excellent time to take a chance and expand early. I think my grabbing the 8:00 early was a key move because it allowed me to reap the benefits of more economy significantly earlier and build up troops.
3. You can't take it with you. As you can see from over 5,000 minerals in one of the screenshots, I should have built 3 more hatcheries or so in my main so I could quickly pump multiple hydras or whatever the unit of choice would be.
4. I think this terran would have better served by comsat towers instead of nuke silos, both for emergency lurker scan but also to repeatedly recon my base and the expansions.
5. While nukes can be a turning point in the game, I think that they are mostly left alone by the better players. Costs money and is not I think a solid winning strategy.
6. Don't sweat the records too much, sometimes you are better, sometimes they are. | | Battle Shots! | 
An Impressive Record
Bring The Whole Family!
Nuke THIS!
No Soup For You!
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