"Us 27 year olds are like fine wine. Er wait..I'm not really that good, so never mind..."
-SnowSquall
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| A Rook's Corner Special Report | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 11/11/99 09:11 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 3, Max: 10, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for Mark4: 8.6829 |    | A Rook's Corner Special Report
As most of you know, we here at BR.com have recently introduced the "Rook's
Corner" feature. The first interview was with Rook, our mascot. We'll be interviewing various not quite famous people in our battle reporting
community to let our readers get to know the people behind the online IDs.
The feature has two parts. We post an interview with the player in the
actual Rook's Corner, and link to a battle report of that player in the main report reading section. This is the report section for this weeks Rook's Corner.
This time our guest was no other than Ahscar-X. Ahscar is a legend in NWTR
and to a lesser extent in nohunters. I have quite a few painful memories of
getting handled like a newbie by this fine player. He's had a ladder high of over 1440, and played such greats as Xd'sGrrrr.... and Crazy~Jim~Lizard. So who the heck could I get to face off against him that would present a
challenge? Well, when you want someone to fight a legend like Ahscar you
have to get someone who won't back down from a challenge. Someone with the
micro of Johnny_Vegas and the macro of Whoop. And someone who will pull
out a strat as gay as T_mac just to keep Ahscar honest. Someone
like....King-Lewis.
So just how did Ahscar get 1440+?
I picked Dire Straits as the field of battle. Both players whined about
island maps for a good five minutes before my pep talk brought them around
=]. Ahscar randomned to protoss in the upper left as purple. Lewis chose
protoss and got the lower left as yellow. Ahscar complained about his early
unit rush not being viable on islands, then proceeded to try and prove
himself wrong. His build went like this:
Pylon
Gateway
Assimilator
Cybernetics Core
Pylon
Zealot
Robotics Facility
Pylon
Zealot
Zealot
Pylon
Gateway
Observatory
During this time Lewis was using what I regard as a somewhat odd build
order. He chose to go gas before gateway, and his first tech building was a
stargate. Not a bad build order if you are facing zerg or anyone going air,
but it leaves you open to a lot of things especially vrs random. Ahscar
loaded up his shuttle and took off as Lewis's first corsair came sailing
over the edge of his island. Against a strict techer Lewis might have had a
chance to sit his corsair over the robotics bay and make sure nothing was
coming out for a while, but Ahscar popped out a dragoon a second later and
chased the corsair off. Noting the corsair came in from the bottom, Ahscar
altered his shuttle's course from heading to the right top island to the
bottom left.
Lewis caught the incoming shuttle with his second corsair...over his island.
All four zealots hit the ground before the two corsairs managed to take down the shuttle. Ahscar quickly directed his zealots to start battering on the robotics facility, but changed his mind after a few seconds and started attacking into the probe line. A newly warping cannon was taken down before it could be effective. It was quickly proved that 4 zealots is greater than 25 probes.
Lewis managed to get out two zealots to counter, but not before there were
far to few probes to make a difference. Ahscar lost only one zealot of his
assault. A shuttle dropped of a probe at the mid bottom island to start an
expansion for Lewis, but it was too little too late. With a few comments
about the gayness of the game, how bad he played, and various Ducky style
threats to my life if this should ever get BRed, Lewis conceded the game.
What? This complete blow out of a report is what I'm submitting as the
official report for the Rook Corner interview? I must be out of my mind.
Yeah, that's what Lewis said too. Lewis made a few choice comments followed
by a little begging. Ahscar had no problem with a rematch, and I certainly
wanted a meatier report. With all the bitching about island maps on my mind, I made a new game on Rivalry.
The Revenge of Lewis!
Lewis had blood on his mind this game. He had been humiliated by his easy
loss to Ahscar in the first battle, and my taunts about how it was going to
be part of the battle report was making him see red. Let's just say it was a good thing we weren't all at an internet cafe together =].
With rivalry being a land map, both players felt confident enough to go
random. Ahscar drew zerg in the bottom left as green, and Lewis got brown
terran in the upper left. Ahscar started out with a flexible build order,
giving him a little power to start off:
8: Overlord
12: Hatchery (at the choke)
14: Spawning pool
Just after the second hatchery goes up, Lewis scouts Ahscar with a SCV.
Ahscar quickly drops down the spawning pool, then turns his overlord from
its scouting mission to the top left. A few seconds after the spawning pool
starts to morph, Ahscar makes an extractor, knowing he will need tech vrs a
terran opponent. Once the pool is done, six zerglings are created and sent
to the upper left.
Lewis has been hatching his own evil plan this time. He uses a standard
depot and double barracks build, but leaves his scouting SCV at the top of
Ahscar's ramp. His plans for an offensive bunker are put on hold as Ahscar's six zerglings mosey on down the ramp, leaving the scouting SCV untouched. His quick marine build gives him six marines at the top of his ramp by the time the six zerglings arrive.
A little bit of micro and the high ground advantage let the marines kill all the zerglings while only losing one of their number.
This setback is minor, but this early in the game it might be telling.
Ignoring Lewis' military superiority, Ahscar counts on the intimidation
factor he has to keep Lewis safely in his base while he takes a few gambles.
As the last zergling dies a drone morphs a hatchery at the mid bottom
expansion site. He also upgrades his hatchery to a lair and gets a hydra
den, going for the inevitable lurker tech. Military units are not totally neglected as spare larvae are used to make zerglings.
But Lewis isn't in the mood to be intimidated. He isn't in the mood for fun and games. And he definitely isn't in the mood for losing. Lewis assembles a battle group of all his available forces, consisting of nine marines, two firebats, and two medics, and takes off for Ahscar's base. Ahscar's first warning that something is wrong happens when he sends a zergling out to scout Lewis' choke. It turns into a little puddle of blood on the first bridge it tries to cross as Lewis' marines double time towards the ramp.
Ahscar marshalls his troops as Lewis comes up the ramp. Not letting the terran forces regroup, Ahscar attacks as soon as they are fully up the ramp.
Fourteen zerglings and four hydras engage the terrans, but it just wasn't going to be enough. Firebats and medics are a zerglings nightmare, and it got a little worse when the hiss of stimpacks was heard on the battlefield. When the bullets stopped flying and the napalm stopped burning, five marines, a firebat, and two medics still stood tall while the zerg forces had been overcome. A last charge of drones proved futile with the medics in attendance. A few hastily produced hydras had no luck in turning the odds. With a "GG", Ahscar left and Lewis had redeemed himself.
All tied up
Well, we can't have the Rook's Corner game a 1-1 tie can we? Nope, no way. With a whispered encouragement to Ahscar of "It would suck if you lost your interview games," I managed to get both players to agree to a tie breaking match. I had to think for a while about the map. I wanted one that would encourage a slightly longer game (although if you have a short game on islands like these two joker, what the heck can you do?), and I wanted to get away from the overplayed ladder map genre. I finally hit on Twisted Trail, which is like river styx turned on its side, with a couple interesting points. After listening to a minute of complaints about download time and new maps, I started the game. One interesting note, I made this game as team melee with myself on Ahscar's team so I could more accurately report build orders and timing from his point of view.
Ahscar randomned to red terran in the right start. Lewis drew blue protoss in the left start. Ahs started working with an early scout to heavy infantry strat. It went like this:
(keep in mind that team melee gave Ahscar a probe, two drones and a SCV to
start)
8: Depot
11: Assimilator (yes, protoss assimilator)
11: Barracks
13: Barracks
15: Depot
18: Academy
22: Depot
The scouting SCV showed Ahscar that Lewis had started with a one gateway build, and that he had not expanded to his natural yet. Ahscar talks about early terran rushes in his interview, and I was about to see it first hand. Ahscar had six marines ready to rock when his academy went up. He waited long enough for two medics and his comsat to build, then used his comsat for a quick scout.
It fully revealed Lewis' plan, the deployment of dark templar to gain map control. Ahscar wasn't about to tolerate any of that.
The six marines, two medics, and a SCV were selected and ordered off to inflict some havoc. Two firebats were added at the last second as they popped out of the barracks. When the terran force arrived at the protoss base they were greated by a welcoming committee of five zealots. Lewis is a tender hearted sort underneath his gruff exterior and when his zealots started complaining about how gauss rifle slugs were hurting thier pretty shields he ran them back to a newly warping cannon. Ahscar saw his opportunity and charged in, firebats now in the lead.
The cannon never got a chance to warp, and the zealots were barbecued with the loss of only one firebat.
Lewis still had a chance, for just as the last zealot fell two shadowy figures emerged from his gateways. Dark templar were on the field. Ahscar, being the master of micromanagement that he is, started his SCV on making a turret a little bit out of the way while trying to fight the dark templar with a comsat and some fancy marine and firebat dancing.
The terran marines are the first target for Lewis with his one attack/one kill motto. All the marines fall before a reinforcing SCV and two more firebats arrive on the scene, but the turret has been finished. Ahscar stims his firebats and even attacks with his SCVs, leaving him with two SCVs, two medics, and one lone firebat when the smoke clears.
Sensing his chance has come, Ahscar stims the firebat again
and begins a probe molestation campaign while making a bunker just in back
of the mineral line, and barely within turret detection range.
Three more marines come up to assist in the probe slaughter just as two more dark templar emerge from the gateways. Two of the marines are immediately cut down, but the firebat and other marine jump into the safety of the newly made bunker.
With the help of a comsat and some brave SCVs repairing, the bunker dies
just as the last dark templar goes down. Lewis sees two more marines charge
into his camp, and realizing he has lost his last probe, he surrenders.
A well fought series of games by each player. You can check out Ahscar's
thoughts on the games and some details about the man behind the player Here. My thanks to both
players for participating in this exercise, and I hope everyone enjoyed
reading the report =].
Mark4
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