"just talked to an AT&T operator lady that kept whispering to me
it was like free phone sex"
- Johnny_Vegas
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| 1211 Zerg vrs little old me | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 10/14/99 02:10 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 4, Max: 8, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for AQD3: 7.6184 |   | Introduction
I had the opportunity to play TheRubberDucky last night. It was an interesting match, but about twenty minutes in Ducky told me he had to go. I’m almost positive this has nothing to do with his losing a large hydra and lurker attack force to my reaver/templar combination a few seconds before =]. I’m just kidding Ducky. I’m still up for another game tonight. I also played two ladder games last night. The first one was against an old school two hatchery hydra player. He didn’t seem to understand how to fight dark templar though, and that proved to be his downfall. He was contained as effectively as any terran until my double expansion strategy paid off and I overran him. The second game had a little bit of a twist to it….
I decided to make my own game after getting booted from the first four games I joined. I called it “1:1 1100+”. The first contestant to join had a record of 16-14-7…normal. I spent a few minutes telling him about how the ladder system works and why I needed to play someone with higher points. He thanked me and went off looking for a 1000+ game. The second player was Normar9. He had a record of 56-38-4 and a score of 1211. I’m not sure why he was willing to play me with my lower score, but I checked his ladder games and he generally plays people at his level. I didn’t automatically assume he was a newbie killer because of the change in the k factor after 20 games. It did seem like all his games were zerg vrs zerg though… The map was the Lost Temple:
Did you say “go”?
I picked protoss and drew the left start. Norm picked zerg and got the right. I started out with my standard two gate build order:
8: Pylon
12: Dual gateways
13:Pylon
15: Two zealots
20: Pylon
21: Two zealots
26: Assimilator
27: Pylon, zealot
I scouted a little bit late this game with my 14th probe. I had learned my lesson from the game where I got six pooled and tightened up my building pattern. I set my pylon right next to my nexus and the gateways right next to that. My probe saw a hint of creep at the right start and I ordered it to check out his natural. Empty. I sent it back in but ran into four zerglings coming down the ramp and lost my opportunity for recon. Seeing that he hadn’t expanded to his natural I was pretty sure that I was seeing a two hatchery from his main strategy. I sent my first five zealots patrolling to his natural and ordered up a cybernetics core tucked in the bottom left corner of my base. About this time an overlord started floating by, but it didn’t hang around, quickly floating back to my choke. I ordered up a dragoon and a zealot and started a Citadel of Adun along
My zealots were nicely lined up in front of the entrance to his natural. I sent in one zealot that saw about twenty zerglings. I hit a zergling off to the side with the zealot, then moved back to my forces, hoping to get a few easy kills. I killed two zerglings that ran out after him, then the mass swarmed towards me. I knew running would get my troops torn up, and the odds weren’t so bad my troops would die without inflicting casualties, so I let them stand their ground. Unupgraded zealots are not my weapon of choice vrs zerglings. Heck, not too much is aside from archons and reavers. End result was he had five zerglings left when the smoke cleared and I lost my zealots.
Zergling blood vers 3.200102
Mass zerglings is a bad thing to face early game. I sent a cannon down to the bottom of my nexus, then set down a templar archives along with two more zealots. I used my dragoon to search for the overlord and found it just above my ramp. I started hammering on it until a swarm of zerglings came in my front door, then ran it back to my three zealots. I was facing about 14 zerglings with three zealots and a dragoon. I waited till the zerglings started hammering on my top gateway, then attacked them with the zealots. When they started fighting my zealots I ran them away until I was in cannon range, then used the close quarters of my base and the cannon to tear them up. I didn’t lose even one zealot. My next two zealots popped out and the templar archives finished warping in. I queued up a dark templar and a zealot. I sent my dragoon out to pound on the overlord some more, falling back again when I found another control group of zerglings and a few hydras at my ramp. Once the dark templar and zealot warped in I attacked towards my ramp, using the dragoon to finally kill the overlord. With my dark templar then having free reign I cleaned out the troops at my ramp losing only two zealots.
I bought myself a little bit of time with the dark templar. No ground attack was going to succeed for a little while. I took the opportunity to expand to my natural. With the pressure off I built a third gateway, and started the research for psi storm, dragoon range and ground weapons. Things were quiet… I was getting a little worried about the lack of movement. I sent a zealot each to the top and bottom starts and had them patrol from the mains to the natural. Nothing there. Getting a little more daring I sent a dark templar to Norm’s natural, which was still empty! I was even more worried now. I was facing a 1200 player who apparently didn’t expand as zerg. Something had to be wrong. Well, when in doubt do what Whoop does: macro like a whore. I set down another three gates at my main and concentrated on troops and probes. I also set up another forge and started getting ground armor.
I needed to get a handle on the situation so I sent a zealot to just above and below the temple. I was starting to suspect a drop… I also made a stargate and corsair and checked both islands…empty. Hell, I might as well attack and see what was really going on. Just as I took two control of ground troops from my main and started them running towards the enemy natural one of my scout zealots in the middle saw a mass of overlords floating overhead. I quickly recalled my troops and set them up a little bit in back of the edge of my plateau. As the first overlord came over my territory I let loos with a psi storm and sent in the dragoons. Norm had relatively quick reflexes and pulled back his troops without dropping, although he did lose two overlords before reaching safety.
The tide turns
Just then my doorbell rang. I paused the game and ran for the door “HiJimmyI’mPlayingLadderComeIn.” Jimmy knows about my addiction to starcraft so instead of “What kind of crack are you smoking” he asked “Are you close to winning?” I replied with “I always think I’m close to winning.” As I ran back to my computer I cried out to Jimmy “That bastard unpaused on me!” Jimmy added in a few choice comments on the apparent ancestry of Norm and suggested I attack him so we could hang out. The actual phrase was “Lay the smack down on him.” Sounded like a good idea even if Jimmy had never ever managed to beat me in warcraft. =]
I too my two control groups of ground troops and moved outside the enemy base. I noticed that some time in all the combat I had lost the dark templar at Norm’s natural. Not a problem. I used a dark templar to scout the enemy and found a large concentration of zerglings backed by hydras. I had the solution for that. What I did was place a templar just outside visual range. Then I attack moved in with a zealot and cast psi storm on the zealot once he has right next to the horde. The first wave of zerglings vaporized with the delay that hitting the zealot caused them. I cast the second storm just as they headed for the templar. The templar ran away into the safety of my troop. I saw a little bit of movement just as I started the main attack. Apparently Norm had moved up some lurkers. I cancelled my attack and started fishing for lurkers. I would send in a dragoon until it got hit, then storm that location. There were about five lurkers and when three were dead from my fishing expedition Norm sent out his remaining zerglings and hydras to attack. I used storm to clear out the last two lurkers, deciding that two control groups of toss ground was going to own a control group of zerglings and another of hydras. I dropped my final storms on the last troops and ended up with two templar and ten dragoons left.
I earned the right to party a little bit. I sent in the dragoons to his natural, where I happily began to pop drones. I left them blasting away and took the opportunity to expand to the bottom start location, keep up on my troop production, and order up a few more upgrades. Jimmy noted his approval with “Quit playing such easy new people.” I gave him a look that managed to convey the entire rules for the ladder system, my and my opponent’s current ladder score, and the entire history of starcraft ladder. Or maybe it just quieted him down. I dropped some gates at my new bottom expansion and sent the probes from my main there just as it was about to be mined out. Eight gates pumping troops kept me busy for a minute or two, then Norm struck back. He sent three control groups of zerglings to his natural, killing all ten dragoons with minimal losses. I was pretty sure he had the adrenal glands upgrade. This might be bad…. I warped the two templar from my attack into an archon and ordered the three control groups of troops I had available to just outside Norm’s natural. I made another archon, and launched my attack just as I hit 3/2/1. Norm poured more and more zerglings out of his main, probably another three control groups. My archons were doing well against them backed with the massed dragoon fire. I cast repeated psi storm just in front of the archons until the whole area was covered in zergling blood. I lost both archons and a dragoon by the time the smoke cleared. He lost a helluva lot of zerglings.
Finishing moves
It should be all over by now… I sent my troops to gather up at the top of his ramp. I wasted a minute or two messing around with psi storms before realizing that no matter how well Norm used his last six zerglings he wasn’t going to stop me. I patrolled in my two control groups of dragoons and got the following comment from Norm: “You cheater”. Jimmy’s reply was “Damn, you gonna let him get away with that?” I sat with my fingers crossed and hoped he wouldn’t disconnect as I replied with “Yeah, that psi storm control was clear sign of cheating.” The only reply was “=]” as Norm attacked with hi drones, then “Normar9 has left the game.”
Thank you for reading my report. I realize that it didn’t seem like Norm played as well as I would expect from a 1200 player. My only thought on this is that he might be a lot better in zerg vrs zerg games, and he might have had much better results if his drop had gone undetected. Please comment on the tactics we both used during the game, especially Silent-Strike on the timing of the templar archives. Thank you.
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