"You guys are all gayer than ORC"
-Persian-POW
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| Aluminum Avengers | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 11/17/99 08:11 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 3, Max: 8, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for Dev: 7.8723 |  | If any of you are fans of Tin Kites, you'll like this report.
The Map:
Ice Floes.
The Players:
Dev (Tyderis, as usual): Random Red Terran, 12:00.
-DaHamma-: Random Green Terran, 6:00.
Part I: Artillery on Ice
I started out thinking to do a wall-in build and scout early... my build order would depend upon my opponent's race, and DaHamma had chosen random.
I built my first supply depot at my ramp at 8/10, and sent my 9th SCV scouting. The 10th built a barracks next to the depot at my ramp, and I started gas next to be flexible.
My SCV discovered the enemy as Terran, with gas and a depot started already. I didn't notice any other structures, but I decided my one-barracks build order would not be effective for rushing.
Actually, I probably could have dropped another barracks and run him over with M&M... but it would have been dicey... not like the rest of the game was a picnic, either.
Instead, I constructed a factory with a machine shop and began vulture production. I researched spider mines and built two vultures while filling a bunker behind the barracks and depot at my ramp.
For those of you not familiar with Ice Floes, there are really two ramps up to your main base... there's a small ramp from ice to level ground, and another up to your main base's cliff. My defenses were at the top of the cliff's ramp.
When mines were researched, I had added a second factory and was researching siege mode. A single siege tank was placed next to my bunker at my ramp. An armory was added shortly after.
I sent the two vultures off to scout; I placed the first pair of mines at the low ramp to my main, and the next two at the low ramp to DaHamma's main.
A comsat scan had revealed a building factory and one barracks earlier... I thought perhaps my opponent was a techer. Odd. I also noticed his engineering bay was still in the building process, when an odd idea found its way into my mind... wraiths!
I built twin starports, tacking a control tower on the first. I also research level one ship weapons. The thought of expanding also occured to me, so while the starports were building I did several things:
1) I sent the two vultures to the two nearest expansion points to DaHamma's main, and placed spider mines in the mineral lines there for recon purposes.
2) I built four marines and two siege tanks from my twin factories and single barracks, in preparation for expansion.
3) I sent my two vultures to the center to scout.
When the vultures reached the center ice expansion, I discovered a bunker and barracks at the north ramp. My plan was to take my miniature tank push and destroy the emplacement, and take the expansion for myself.
I was halfway down the ramp when I heard a very distinctive sound... sort of a crashing explosion and an odd, high pitched "pop".
That's right, kids... the sound of a siege tank unloading all over my SCV line. Great.
A dropship with three marines, an scv, and a tank are sitting on the low ground on the northwest corner of my base, firing up the cliff. DaHamma's dropship and comsat scouting is allowing him to fire for maximum effect, and I don't have any air power yet.
I order my SCVs to flee the mineral line and my tank push reverses direction just as DaHamma picks up his marines and deposits them next to my refinery with his dropship. The invaders destroy my refinery before I'm in position to intercede. My marines engage and destroy DaHamma's boys, but DaHamma's siege tank takes out four of my six troopers. Drat.
I move my two tanks into position and using my high-ground advantage and repairing SCVs, destroy DaHamma's SCV and tank. The dropship flees.
At this point, I make a major gamble. I blow my last 200 gas on a pair of wraiths at my starports, and empty my choke bunker. This leaves me with three tanks (one on ramp defense), six marines, and an empty bunker. I rebuild my refinery and order the SCV's back to work, then move two tanks, six marines, and a pair of SCV's to the center.
The bunker and around eight marines are blasted to oblivion by my miniature attack force, and the center is wiped clean of enemy presence. I use one SCV to construct a command center on-site, and another to build a bunker. I also find time to queue up two more marines at home at my still-lone barracks.
While the expansion is getting underway, I send my wraiths sweeping. They discover and kill a lone marine watching the 10:00 expansion site, the nearest mineral and gas expansion to my main base. I send them south, hoping for SCV kills in DaHamma's main.
No dice. There's a single missile tower in decent position to stop me, and I also notice a science vessel moving north out of DaHamma's main. Uh oh... he probably scanned my main and spotted the starports. My fighters beat a hasty retreat to my strength, at the center.
The expansion comes online. I park the two tanks next to my CC and stuff four marines in the bunker, with two vultures and two marines sitting nearby. I construct a refinery and depot and begin cranking SCVs. Two more wraiths join up from my main base, hot off the assembly line.
Boom.
That's the sound of five siege tanks firing on the bunker at my center expansion. They're in a perfect bombardment line, on the ice below the west side of the base. My bunker and all the marines in it explode in a haze. Both vultures are killed. One of my tanks also explodes after drawing the blood of one enemy artillery battery.
The refinery and depot at my expansion crumble. I'm forced to lift my command center and pull my remaining siege tank and marine back out of range to mount some sort of defense... some sort of defense against five tanks, five marines, and two science vessels. My income is flowing, but not for long... my expansion has just effectively gone off-line. Things are looking grim for the Devster...
Part II: The Aluminum Avengers!
One thing I did notice was that DaHamma was moving his Science vessels forward to spot for his tanks. Forward... and out of marine range.
The next time the science vessel ventures forward, it eats two salvos of gemini missiles and turns around REAL fast.
Not content, I take my four wraiths and break north, swinging around to the attack force's rear where the science vessel had fled to 'safety'. One more volley and the bulbous flying machine exploded with a very satisfying flash. A marine that wandered back was cut apart by burst lasers from my cloaked fighters for good measure.
There was still one science vessel escorting the attack group. I order my wraiths to strike it and they hit the afterburners.
Let the record show that five or so marines cannot shoot down four wraiths before the science vessel bites the dust.
Apparently my opponent was short of comsat energy, because nary a scan revealed my wraiths as the sliced the marines to bits. The tanks attempted to flee... my wraiths smoked two, but the others made it to the safety of a bunker/turret/tank defense at DaHamma's main. I pulled back quickly, not wanting to risk any more losses.
The game is still looking a bit grim. My assets total three marines (two in a bunker at my main), two tanks (one sieged at my main, the other at my expansion), and three wraiths. Luckily, I had managed to trade one wraith for the majority of DaHamma's attack force. My income is not all it could be, but I'm cranking wraiths non-stop from my starports and repairing my current group.
I land my expansion command center and restart SCV production. I have a healthy mineral flow starting when I comsat the 11:00 expansion for recon purposes.
Lo and behold, I reveal a just-completed command center, a pack of seven SCVs, and a single missile tower.
Taking another risk, I unload the two marines from my main's only bunker and target them at the missile turret.
By the time the marines begin attacking, I have seven wraiths in good repair.
One marine falls to attacking SCVs. The other has reduced the tower to 13 hitpoints when I send the wraiths. One shot from the burst lasers and all defense at the expansion disappears. Two SCVs begin to build missile towers and become next on the menu. My wraiths nail down all of the SCVs immediately, followed by the stillborn towers.
The wraiths have just begun to fire on the command center when I hear the message "your forces are under attack." I check the mini-map. My spider mine at the 8:00 expansion has been destroyed, and there is a command center with two siege tanks, a dropship, and a half-built missile tower at the expansion zone.
I send my fighters south, uncloaked. The command center at 10:00 is still being fired upon by the one remaining marine from my two-man "tower assassination" squad.
The wraiths arrive and burn down the tower immediately; one wraith explodes in mid-air. Another tower dies stillborn as I target the SCV constructing it. Both siege tanks pack up and head toward the dropship; my wraiths nail one before it gets there (it had been damaged by my spider mine), and the other dies as the dropship is shot down by my fighter group.
The six remaining wraiths butcher all the enemy SCVs, and DaHamma's command center lifts. The wraiths (now upgraded to 2/0) easily destroy the CC before it can reach safety. DaHamma also lifts the heavily damaged command center at 10:00 (the lone marine just couldn't blow it up) and tries to flee it north. The wraiths sweep in and pound it to atoms.
Another two wraiths are ready at my main base, and I add them to my squadron. With the income from my now unmolested center expansion, I repair my wraiths and order up four tanks and six goliaths from my pair of factories, in preparation for a decisive strike.
Before, however, I have SCV death on my mind. My eight wraiths are moving south to DaHamma's main with SCV destruction on the agenda, but as always, a higher priority crops up. A nearby spider mine notices another pack of siege tanks and marines moving onto the ice north of DaHamma's main, with a single science vessel in attendance. The tanks are moving toward my center expansion, with the meager defenses of a siege tank and lone marine to stop them.
Unfortunately for DaHamma, my wraiths descend from the heavens with the sunlight glinting from their aluminum wings, and relieve him of his only science vessel. As one, they cloak, and butcher the only marines and medics that defend his tanks from aerial onslaughts. A comsat scan lands too late, and the wraiths slice through the tank hulls before more than a handful of SCVs at my center expansion can be destroyed.
With a comment about the uselessness and slow speed of the Terran race, my opponent departs.
Part III: Obligatory Lessons
- My production was pitiful. I existed on a handful of ground units during the entire game; rarely more than ten or twelve. Luckily, bunkers can hide weakness from enemy recon.
- Two things won the game for me: Recon and quick response. Whenever I noticed an expansion, my wraiths knocked it out. When I saw DaHamma's attack force in transit, my wraiths knocked it out, too.
- I can't really say wraiths are still totally useful, but recon allowed me to capitalize on my opponent's MAJOR anti-air weakness. They fit the situation well.
Keep recycling those aluminum cans! They may end up constructing the wraith that will save your life someday.
Cheers,
Dev |
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