"I'll make you famous"
-Mark4
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| A Tale of Two Terrans on Temple, Pt 2 | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 05/23/99 12:05 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | Starcraft(1), Text Only(1) | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 8, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for HydraDropper: 7.6667 |  | Okay, Part II. Having been schooled by an early tank push despite having good economy and many hydralisks, in a previous game, and discovering at the very end that the opponent had left himself wide open to counterattack, I was very conscious of this lesson. I played a ladder opponent, eastiger, on Lost Temple. Once again, I chose my beloved zerg and he chose Terran.
I spawn 12:00, which I hate because the natural expansion is recessed away from the choke point that would protect both bases, and for zerg, that means more creep colonies and time to get static defense for the choke. I usually compromise by building the expansion hatchery somewhat closer to the ramp and sacrificing some mining efficiency for faster defense.
I start with my typical 10/9 drone and early second hatchery at natural expansion, followed by spawning pool and some sunkens at the choke hoping to block both bases off from early rush. Quick lair, OL speed and transport research while building economy and hydralisks. During early build, a scouting scv comes up the ramp into my base. I start attacking it with a drone and he hightails out of the base, and I let the drone follow, hoping he will lead it straight back to his base so I will at least know the location.
The drone kills the scv at the bottom of the map, but he was prudent enough not to return the scv to base. I scout the drone to the 6:00 platform, where it is killed by a bunker at the top of the ramp. Enemy base location noted.
As my economy ramps up from both bases, I start making hydras from both bases, upgrading range, and researching OL speed then transport as noted above. Now passing out of early game phase, I start to send some zerglings out of my base to burrow at the various mineral beds of major expansions so I can see if they are safe or if my enemy is expanding. As the first zerglings head out, BOOM! They are slaughtered by sieged tank and marine fire. There are one or two tanks and a bunker already constructed in front of my choke, just out of the range of my vision. Not a lot of troops, but with a very solid defensive configuration. Hmm, this is not good. A quick sizing up of the situation shows that I could lose a LOT of troops trying to break out of the choke. I start cranking hydras out of both hatches as quickly as possible and keeping them out of tank range. My plan is for a hydra drop on the main to either destroy his base or force him to pull his troops back.
5 overlords full of hydras and a few spare zerglings head out from the side of my base away from the siege forces. They start making the lonely and risky journey to the enemy shore. While they are heading towards the bottom of the map, they pass a terran dropship heading north towards my base. I am committed to my path and will not head back with my drop forces to defend, I only hope the dropship is not filled with stimmable marines and firebats.
Meanwhile as the attack forces head towards the opposing bases, I have my two hatcheries hotkeyed and instruct them to continually make new hydralisks as the existing ones are ferried into battle. Soon the expansion hatchery is down, but I will not be deterred. My success or failure will hinge upon the success of this drop. I briefly glance and see that he has dropped a couple of siege tanks into my peon line but they are rapidly dispatched by newly generated hydralisks guarding the ranch before they are able to take out any significant amount of peons or do any substantial damage.
Showtime. My hydralisks disembark from their overlords and begin immediately trashing everything in sight. A wraith or two is present but are quickly destroyed, as the overlords are hanging around for detection for the now deadly hydralisks. His whole base is ripped from stem to stern, including CC. I don't notice any buildings flying away except for engineering bay which my hydras shoot into the yellow zone before it escapes.
The attack on my base has stopped with the destruction of the expansion. Hydralisks venturing from home base trash the offending bunker which was the start of the ill fated tank push and execute the troops which emerge from the rubble. I scatter zerglings and hydralisks to the various major expansion spots, burrowed and unburrowed, to check for expansions, as the enemy is bloody but as yet unbowed. No base is detected, but a scaterred buildings are discovered in hiding places, including the flaming engineering bay, which is destroyed, and an scv building an armory, which are also destroyed. I figure he has fled to an island, or just has a surviving depot or half built turret.
Simultaneously I take the time to do the following: Expand to the plateau at 3:00 and back to my natural, throw up a spire and queen's nest, advancing to hive. The game seems won, but I must make sure.
I send two overlords with hydras and a zergling to the NorthWest island. A lone SCV is builidng a command center there. The troops destroy both without a loss. The zergling is left behind and burrowed on the island to maintain vigil and detect any further insolent expansion attempt on the zerg soil. The veteran hydralisks are reloaded into their overlord transports to be delivered once again to distant and hostile shores.
Now all major resource centers are monitored by units burrowed and unburrowed, as well as overlords, save for the SouthEast island which must be the last refuge of the Terran forces. Main and two expansions are merrily mining away. It is time to either generate a massive siege force to take the island or perform a massive drop there, or some combination of the two. I fly two overlords full of units towards the island and as expected, take some fire from missile turrets as I approach the island. A force of marines is on the ground, and mining operations are in full swing.
Now the game is essentially won at this point, and since I obtain the huge majority of my wins without making any unit more advanced than a hydralisk I figure this is a great opportunity to utilize the flying and siege units, and maybe even a defiler to help crack the shell of the terran turtle. But I think I want to play a little game called "Death by Guardian". I begin the process of filling the skies around the island with mutalisks, and upgrading to greater spire. I transform a few of the mutas to guardians when spire is upgraded and begin sieging the missile turrets. So feared are the crablike behemoths that at the commencement of the bombardment, they are viciously attacked by cloaked wraiths. My unit control of the protecting mutas is poor, and I lose most of the initial guardian wing. I begin morphing more, but this time I have a bright idea: I drop a cluster of hydralisks onto the lower plateau at the periphery of the island. Not only can they reach some structures and units at the edge of the enemy base, but in combination with the watching overlord, they make an excellent anti air unit for counterattacking wraiths. The hydralisks and new guardians quickly take out the gas refinery which is vulnerable and at the periphery of the base. This spells the end of terran, as now the gas heavy wraiths cannot be replaced as attrition occurs.
The siege machine begins to encroach upon the inner base. Meanwhile, reinforcing mutalisks flying across the map detect two starports hidden in a secret base located near no resources, with a small marine escort. The starports are producing units. All remaining land forces and a handful of mutas are sent immediately to destroy the offending production facilities. As his last remaining means of harrassment or defense is destroyed, eastiger surrenders the game without a word. Unfortunately for me, my connection to b.net was reported lost a few minutes prior to that (after his main was razed, while I was establishing map control), and it doesn't appear that the win registers on my stats, although the loss seems to have registered on his since he surrendered. Stats nonwithstanding, this was a VERY satisfying win for me.
LESSONS:
1. Every strat can be countered. Even though I was locked up behind my choke and couldn't easily stop the tanks advancing, He had not prepared for the hydradrop countermove.
2. If you are committed to a tactic such as hydra drop, stick with your plan. I saw his transport when I was already near his base. If I decided to go back to defend I would have lost critical time, and still possibly lost peons etc. anyway. You have to take a chance that your drop is better than his and defend with what you have left at home. In this case it turned out that a handful of hydras near the drop zone was more than enough to handle the threat without ANY management from me.
3. Make sure your units are still being produced, especially for base defense, while your are heading into attack. Sometimes (not always) it is more important to macromanage production (through hotkeyed hatcheries etc.) than to micromanage units in a battle in progress, especially if there is little or no resistance in the attack.
4. As long as there is ANY detection around, hydras ROCK wraiths, pop 'em like they were nothing. Thus when hydra dropping a terran, leave at least one or two or maybe even all of your overlords around to detect those pesky wraiths.
5. Guardians are easy to lose, and very expensive. Even if you lose them you must at least get your money's worth, i.e. by slaughtering a bunch of units, taking down some buildings, or taking out the critical turret or two that lets your massive hydra/zerg drop disembark etc. I still haven't figured out this part well yet, perhaps having them hold position and a line of mutas holding position next to them. The hydra/overlord antiair/antiground fire station is a pretty nice thing to have, tho.
6. When the other guy is down, you must kick him to make sure he stays down. If I concentrated only on expanding and didn't look for the other island base, with two bases, a player can climb back from the dead and even win. This has happened to me several times. Especially a protoss player, can cannon up and bust out several carriers out of a base or two if you leave them alone long enough, and really ruin your day.
7. Think about and learn from your previous games. Since I had this exact scenario in a game I lost, I considered the hydra drop counterstrike as a tactic from the very beginning, and was mentally prepared to execute it as soon as the situation arose.
Thanx, any comments appreciated.
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