"Don't really get the game and this monitor is darker than my dog's ass (if you need to ask...) but I'd still give it a 9 on account of the high writing quality."
-maareek
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| Lings to goons | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 10/14/99 07:10 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 3, Max: 6, Min: 6
Lifetime Rating for Anal-banana: 6.0000 |  | Inspired by AQD3's recent tide of reports, I decided to try ladder for the first time. I poked around in nohunters a bit for a few warm up games of lost temple. The first game I played was against Pre-Archangel. I won a game of Toss vs his Terran with a standard dt rush. A couple came in, found one tower and a tank. One got blown up while the other ran to the peons. After that, I patrolled 4 dt's by his natural and choke and never let him expand. Teched to carriers/sairs and pulled out a cheap win.
The next game was Terran vs Terran. Knowing from many beatings that Terran vs Terrans is all about wraiths (and not tanks), I did a 1 barracks, 1 factory, 2 starport build (no academy or bay). Set up shop under his ramp with 3 tanks and 3 bunkers and cranked wraiths. I expaned to my natural when he dropped me with 2 tanks and 8 rines. Ouch. I had one tank defending my peon line. I clustered my peons around the tank and cloaked the wraiths. It took a while, but I dealt with the drop. Back to mining. I did some peon
killing of my own with cloaked wraiths until sat and scan came up. Expanded again, and was able to kill all expansions with my strike force of wraiths. A nasty suprise came when 8 BC's started hammering at my island exp. I wasn't too worried though, b/c I had a few valks, and he only had 1 SV. I waited for the bc's to hit my natural, and quickly killed the SV. The BC's fell soon after.
Pumped by these two wins, I decided for my first shot at ladder. I joined a game created by jumble of ASCII. He selected toss, I randomed.
I started out as zerg at the 3 position. What's the plan with zerg vs toss? The things I fear the most are reavers, templars, and corsairs, in that order. I decided I would try for a quick 6 pool to catch him if he was napping and put pressure. Then, I would rebuild my econ and tech to mutas for a peon line run if it wasn't defended. If that didn't work, cracklings and dark swarm.
That, at least, was the plan.
Hit fast and hard
My OL scouted north to 12 while my 6th peon built a pool. I rebuilt another drone meantime and sent him down to 6. With this, I would know as my lings hatched where my opponent was and not lose valuable time scouting with lings. Unfortunatly, my scouting drone cost me enough lost minerals that I had to wait a few seconds to build lings 5 and 6. Such is life.
Neither the OL nor the drone found my opponent. This meant he had to be at 9. I sent my 6 lings over while building four more. Taking a large economic hit for more pressure. I would rather have my opponent cannon up and be defensive, so I opted for an aggressive plan.
My first 6 lings found 1 gate with a zealot with a 2nd gate warping in. The lings hit the zealot hard, and he smartly pulled out before it was about to die. I was not about to give the zealot chase though, and hit the peons. I got about 3 peons when the 2nd zealot came to play. I knew I was not going to win this fight, so I decided to spread. Had 3 lings attack the zealot, then run around his base while 2 others hit probes.
After this quick micro, I went back to base and queued up drones. Back at his base, my lings were almost dead but I had 4 more ready at his choke. Sent those in to kill 1 drone, and then decided I had lost enough time rushing. He now had 4 zeals at his base and I knew lings would not cut it.
Knowing he would not waste time in counterattacking, I fortified my base. I put up 2 sunkens and a hatchery. One hatchery would be devoted to ling production, and one to drones. I had to catch up my slow econ ASAP while maintaining defense. My OL saw his zealots move out when he had about 10.
I put up a 3rd sunken and more lings. I had about 24 lings and 3 sunkens when I saw his zealots at my choke. He sent 1 zeal in and decided not to attack. I started a lair.
Meanwhile, at his base, my OL saw a 3rd gateway, gas, and a core. Goons weren't going to be long. He had me contained at my choke, and was either expanding, or preparing for an attack. I guessed he was probably doing both :). I moved my OL out before it got popped and started up a hydralisk den. The only thing that was going to effectively let me build in peace for a time was lurkers. I had 2 lurkers morphing when the OL at my choke got popped by goons. Damn. That hurt. The game could end right here.
Retaliation
I sent 1 ling out hoping to draw his troops into my sunkens prematurely. He didn't bite. Fortunately though, my lurks just finished when he did decide to move in. I had 2 lurkers, 3 hydras, 3 sunkens and 20 odd lings to his 10 or so zealots and 6 or so goons. He smartly spread his troops out of sunken range and started to let the goons fire. I sent the 3 hydras in to attack move first. Having the lowest damage throughput, they would serve to draw fire while the lings and lurks came in. I then clicked on the lurks and moved them to where the hydras were. I then took the lings and attack moved them behind the goons. I finally burrowed the lurkers.
Although my hydras died quickly, they served two important purposes. Firstly, they gave the lings time to move in to close quarters without getting hit. Secondly, they let the lurkers come in and burrow.
With the goons being assaulted by lings, the zeals had no choice but to come and help... right into range of the lurkers. But wait! My lurkers were getting hit by goon fire. Damn, he must have an observer. Not good.
The lurkers died, but the lings took out most of the force while 12 newly hatched lings mopped up the rest.
I was safe.. barely.
Safe for now
With a quick respite, I pondered my options. I didn't think I would have time to tech very much, so I had to continue troop production. I also had to upgrade. On the other hand, I didn't want to stick to lings and hydras. I decided I would go to mutas for mobility, expand, and upgrade while maintaining decent ling production.
I researched burrow at my hatchery for scouting. Burrow is one of the best investments in the game, and goes very well with mutes. A burrowed ling at each money sources gives valuable static recon, which your mobile muta force can respond very quickly with. Plus, it only takes 6 lings to cover each start and natural. I was hoping to keep my opponent to what expansions he had, and quickly take out any new ones with mutes.
I expanded to my natural, and researched zergling speed. I also put up an evolution chamber and got melee attack. With zerglings quick rate of attack, it only makes sense to upgrade attack. Zerglins win by dying while other zerglings kill. You don't want your zerglings tougher, you want them to be more deadly.
I maynarded half my peons to my natural while my spire was morphing. I had spent quite a good amount of money on teching, and went back to lings (and 1 lurker).
Just in time.
Another wave of goons hit my natural. My lurker on my ramp was getting hit by goon fire while my lings streamed down the ramp. The goons kept their fire focused on the lurker while my lings tore into them. Good lurker!!! Keep those lings alive. The goons started attacking the lings, and the lings died, but eventually newly hatched lings prevailed, and my 1 very badly hurt lurker was still there.
I put up a sunken at my natural, and sent 1 ling to each start and natural. Of course, the one going to his natural got wasted by goons. The others I burrowed. Good, he only has his main, natural, and mineral only. At least he doesnt have nexi all over the map. I started on mutes and lings, and burrowed the lings at my base.
Another wave of goons came in. I sent my now 4 mutes to attack them, and then unburrowed the lings and attacked. The mutes took a lot of fire but again, they let the lings live for the precious second it took for them to get close. I fended off the attack with only 1 mute left.
At this point I researched air attack upgrade. It effectively adds +3 to mutes air attacks, so it's a bargain for the price.
Hit him where he's weak
He was wearing me down. I was barely keeping up troop production to keep up with his constant attacks. I had to counter. As soon as I got 6 mutes again, I went to his main's peon line. I found it mined out, with a few peons sitting there and 1 cannon. I killed the cannon and probes, and set 5 on his cybernetics core while 1 mute went up to his natural to see what was there. The mute found 1 cannons by the peons. The other 5 mutes were hammering away when 3 new goons came out of their gates to attack.
At this point, more concerned with macro, I focused fire on the goons and left my mutes to their fate.. I should have attacked the natural's peon line though.
Back at my base, I tried expanding to the southern start while making a queens nest and hive. I knew he would no longer leave his peons unguarded, so I felt the only way to assault him now would be either cracklings and swarm, or guardians. Both of these required hive.
Another mass of goons came in which my lings barely held off. My lings were 1/1 to his 0/0 goons.
As I got hive and andrenal gland, my southern hatch was assaulted by goons. I brought my force of lings and 4 mutes down there, but not in time to save the hatch. The goons, however, were killed.
I tried to expand again north. As the hatch got ready, an army of goons came again. Again, I sent my lings but they were not enough. I made more at home and sent them, and they barely finished off the goons. Even before these goons were dead, another horde of goons came at my natural.
My burrowed lings plus the lings coming back from expansion defense tore into the goons and killed them. I was winning all the battles but I was hurting bad. The pressure was not letting up.
2 corsairs appeared, killing one of my overlords. Damn. I morphed scourge to deal with this new threat. New goons kept coming, and I started just running out of money. No more expansions, and I just could not keep up with troop production. I congratulated my opponent as he killed my natural and started on my main.
In the stats, he had outresourced me about 2:1. Even so, I had managed to barely hold the tide vs his unupgraded goons.
The game had lasted an hour.
Thanks for reading.
Anal-banana (or {AB}Multani)
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