"he was getting like 21903582470 (rounding) new gateways to complement his new expansions."
- DrAwesome
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| Fear | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 10/11/99 04:10 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 3, Max: 8, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for JSH: 7.1000 |   | Those of you who have seen me in NWTR and occasionally NH may have noticed that I'm playing ladder competitively this season. I've already played more games so far this season then I have in any other season to date. Normally what I do is make a game on Lost Temple with a minimum point requirement and wait for a qualifying person to join. I also play as Protoss. Many times I play against a Zerg. I have utilized the early expansion strat on Starcraft.org to great success, and no longer fear this matchup as much as I once did. However this particular game did manage to scare the crap out of me.
Map: Lost Temple
Me: Picked Protoss, 9 o'clock, rating 1112
(56k)Protoss: Picked Zerg, 6 o'clock, rating 1068
With a name like (56k)Protoss, you'd expect him to pick Protoss right? Right? Well he picked Zerg to my surprise. I decide that I'm going to do the early expansion strat yet again.
During the beginning build up stage I send a probe to scout him. I knew where he was due to his overlord flying over my base. My probe discovers no early expansion, early gas, and two morphing creep colonies. My brain tells me that he's going mutas. I usually listen to my brain. A minute later the probe gets his second look at the base and sees a morphing lair before getting killed by the sunkens. Mutas all the way.
As I hit 24 control I send a probe and my 3 zealots to my natural's choke. However at the same 2 zerglings approach and start running around like nuisances. I ignore them but they force me to pay attention when they kill my expansion probe! I kill the 2 zerglings and then notice that I have no nexus warping in. I didn't even notice the "you can't build there" error. Irked by this small delay and the fact that I now have 800 minerals I immediately send another probe to build the nexus and pylon as well as creating a second gateway in my main. Then I train another probe and make a third gateway when he pops out of the nexus.
I'm thinking that Mr. Zerg's muta tech is probably getting close to done so instead of making zealots to 45 control, I make two assimilators and a cyber core at 34 control. I also make a forge. I being warping in one cannon next to my nexus when suddenly a mass of color enters my natural expansion. I'm thinking they're just zerglings but imagine my pure terror when I discover that they're actually 3 lurkers.
Oh crap.
Do I have a cannon at my expansion? Of course not. Is it too late to make one now? Undoubtedly. It all makes sense now. One hatch tech means lurkers and not mutas. I've been playing too many 950 people that go 1 hatch mutas and so I was lulled into thinking mutas. But now these 3 lurkers are here and all I have for detection is a single cannon on the right side of my main nexus.
My expansion probes high-tail it out of there. My zealots attempt to kill some lurkers before they burrow but unfortunately they do not. So my zealots run away too. 1 lurker stays burrowed at my natural and slowly pounds away at the nexus. The other 2 scurry up the ramp and ignore the fire from 3 dragoons before burrowing above and to the left of my nexus!
Damn.
My zealots, dragoons, and all my probes are huddled around my one photon cannon. So now I have no mining going on. But I must exterminate this threat somehow. I make a robotics facility next to my cannon. I look up at my resources and see 127/192. I have just enough for one observer!!!
If I weren't an atheist, I would be praying to and thanking whatever deity I worship.
Alas the 2 lurkers are slowly weakening the Nexus. Damn the increase in Robotics Facility build time! People just had to abuse the Reaver Drop before 1.04, didn't they??
Finally it warps in and I now warp in the observatory. My opponent notices and says "crap, observer." I may yet escape this dire predicament.
BLAM! My main nexus explodes. I check the expansion nexus and it's down to 100/750. That one will survive, assuming he doesn't attack for a while.
After an interminable wait I have an observer! My 7 zealots and 3 dragoons clear out the 3 bastard lurkers. Fortunately almost all of my probes have survived (about 20) and so they all go to my expansion which is thus saturated instantly.
Not one minute later 3 more lurkers attack. I still don't have a cannon at my expansion due to my lack of minerals, and I am forced to fight these 3 new lurkers with my already weakened troops. Ironically my dragoons die but my zealots live and destroy the annoying lurkers.
Finally my income is coming back and fortunately all of my buildings are still around. So I have 3 gateways, a robotics facility, a cyber core, a forge, and an observatory. I begin going hard dragoons to counter the lurkers.
However the pressure is still on. 6 lurkers attack. I have 7 exhausted zealots and 6 new dragoons. The lurkers all burrow in a straight line and thus my zealots are taking 120 damage a shot. OOF! My dragoons manage to kill 3 of the lurkers before dying themselves. The 3 remaining lurkers burrow to the right of the nexus. Shortly they are removed by new dragoons and zealots but not before leaving me with a meager 8 probes. Argh!
I must resume probe production once again. I have some surplus gas and thus make 2 more observers for a total of 3. One I leave just south of my 2nd natural, the other I send to his natural and see an undefended expansion. My observers notice a stream of hydras almost immediately. Of course I think I'm so dead now. Since I still have some gas I decide to get the goon range upgrade.
However the attack doesn't come. A mere 12 hydras, a lurker, and an overlord are outside of my 2nd natural, waiting. For what, I really don't know. But I will them to stay there and be content while I madly pump dragoons from my 3 gateways.
As I'm drenched in sweat my range upgrade completes. I have 12 dragoons. 12 goons. 12 hydras. The time is now! The hydras run back to the lurker, then target the observer. My observer explodes but just before the lurker disappears from sight it eats enough damage and dies! The goons then kill all of the hydras and the overlord that was there without any casualties. However my observer relays back to me that 6 sunken colonies are frantically morphing at the Zerg's natural. THIS CANNOT HAPPEN!
My dragoons motor down to the natural and being pounding on the morphing sunkens. 3 hydras attempt to distract but are smashed to pieces before they can escape. 1 morphing sunken explodes. 2. 3. 4. 2 of the sunkens successfully morph but only scratch dragoon shields before exploding. The dragoons then quickly smash down the hatchery and extactor and I allow myself a small sigh of relief as my opponent curses.
My observer looks up the ramp and sees the way is clear. Inside are only 2 sunkens. Could this be it? My dragoons heroically charge and being firing at buildings when suddenly I realize why there were only 12 hydras. He has 10 GUARDIANS!
Through the combined might of guardians and sunkens my dragoons perish. Not surprisingly, my opponent sends his guardians to my main town. However I have made 12 reinforcement dragoons during that entire previous battle. I let the guards come inland a bit and then CHARGE! My goons kill 2 guards while losing 4 of their number. If only I had some templar. I try to warp in a stargate at my expansion when I realize that I don't have enough gas to support 4 gateways of dragoons and a stargate. Dammit!
However the Zerg has retreated his guards. It's obvious that he wants to be very careful with them. I don't let my goons follow. I want to be very careful with them too. He circles his guards around to the left and begins attacking again. As he sees my goons charge again he again retreats. Fortunatley I manage to kill one guard and not lose any dragoons.
If he cliffs my expansion with his guards I am dead. I have no other source of income. His guards don't come back again so I being worrying that he is going to indeed kill my expansion. It is now or never. I am up to 20 dragoons. I make a pylon in a random location, just in case.
My 20 goons run to the Zerg's natural. Nothing. They run up the ramp again. Nothing. I begin pounding on buildings again. The guards weren't at my expansion, they were at home. They attack the dragoons but it is 20 vs. 7 and so I thus win the battle.
My opponent starts cursing knowing that he had me. I agree and tell him I was really worried. I try not to piss people off because that's just asking to be disconnected on. The guy tells me to play people of my own skill level, and calls me a newbie killer. Since I only have 16 points per win I will admit that I do bottom feed a little. However I reason to him (and to you) that it's easier if I just let people up to 100 points below me join my game instead of always looking for people above me, so then I can play more and thus gain points anyway.
He surrenders and this scary 29-minute ordeal is over. I managed somehow to pull my ass out of the jaws of defeat. Uh, something like that. I really should have been dead.
I don't have any pics due to the intense nature of the game. Sorry. Hopefully I described it well enough, because it really was a good game. The only lesson learned is that one hatch tech means lurker rush and not muta rush. Silly me. :)
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