The Map: Rivalry

The Stats:

In The Beginning:

In the beginning, there were two players, Wisecrack as terran in the top left, and Lurker in the bottom right as protoss. Wisecrack ordered his SCVs to go forth and harvest minerals while Lurker did the same with his probes.

Pre-game Comments:
Wisecrack started out feeling very optimistic about his chances.

While Lurker lacked the confidence that a protoss player should have when facing a terran.

Preparation For Conflict:
Wisecrack started out with a depot, barrack, refinery, bunker build order. His initial build was quite sloppy. First, he built his barrack in the wrong place. It was in the way of future command center add ons, so he was forced to lift it off and move it. Then, when his bunker was halfway completed, Wisecrack decides that it's too far from his mineral patch so he cancels it and restarts it at a different location. With a marine safely in the bunker, he then begins work on two factories.

Lurker had no problem with his build order and he started out with a standard pylon, gate, pylon, gate, assimilator, pylon, cy core build. He sends out a probe to scout and discovers Wisecrack's location. The first three zealots that warp from Lurker's gateways are sent towards the terran base.

First Blood:
The zealots are able to climb the ramp into the terran base without meeting any resistance. The first thing they encounter is an SCV working on a factory. This building is out of range of the bunker which now has 4 marines inside, so Wisecrack cancels the building and runs the SCV for cover. Spurred on by this mini victory, the zealots move west along the edge of the plateau until they reach the edge of the screen, then they veer directly north into the mineral patch where SCVs are busily mining minerals. 4 SCVs go to the big command center in the sky before a vulture moves in and begins taking potshots at the zealots. The zealots move toward the vulture and the vulture pulls back trying to draw the zealots into bunker range. A small game of cat and mouse begins until a second vulture is able to join the first. Wisecrack then empties his bunker and attacks the 3 weakened zealots with these combined forces. When the dust clears, the 3 zealots are dead and the terran forces number 1 vulture and 2 marines which return to their bunker.

Back at home, Lurker hasn't been idle. He has constructed a Robotics facility and a Support bay to accompany it. He has constructed the buildings away from his main base on the edge of the plateau so that they are out of Comsat range.

Wisecrack restarts the factory that he had to cancel. He also starts work on an Academy and an Engineering Bay. Then in a gutsy move, he sends 3 SCVs over to the top right starting position and begins work on 2 barracks and a command center. The construction begins about the same time that Lurker's second reaver pops out of his robotics facility.

Return of the Toss:
Lurker loads the two reavers into the shuttle and flies out towards the terran base. The reavers land behind Wisecrack's mineral patches just as Wisecrack's first tank pops out of his factory. The reavers target a missile turret first and blow it away with the first salvo of scarabs. Then, scarabs start exploding among the SCVs. 8 SCVs are blown to scrap metal before the tank is able to seige up and start raining down artillery on the reavers. A second tank shortly joins the first and one of the reavers explodes while the other quickly pops back into the shuttle and flies off to the east. The shuttle heads toward the top right starting position where Wisecrack's expansion has just started to operate.

When Lurker's one remaining reaver arrives in Wisecrack's expansion, Wisecrack has produced a marine from each barrack and 6 SCVs. The marines get wasted, but the SCVs surround the reaver so it pops back into the shuttle and flies a few feet away and then pops out again. Unfortunately for the reaver, 2 more marines arrive freshly trained from the 2 barracks and they are able to dispose of the reaver and the shuttle flees back to Lurker's main base.

The Assaults Continue:

Lurker now moves in for the kill. He has 4 reavers loaded up into 2 shuttles. These 2 shuttles have the speed upgrade and fly out towards Wisecrack's main base. The reavers meet up with heavy resistance though. 4 unseiged tanks, 2 vultures, and 1 marine take on the 4 reavers. The terran forces come out on top with 2 surviving tanks.

Back at home, Lurker has once again expanded. This time to the bottom left starting point. His probe attempts to construct a Nexus but Wisecrack has placed a mine in that exact spot. Since Lurker doesn't have any mobile detection yet, he warps in a pylon, then a cannon. The cannon takes care of the mine and then the probe begins construction of the Nexus. Meanwhile, Lurker has started construction of a second Robotics facility back at his main base.

Meanwhile, Wisecrack's buildings have finally floated back to the safety of his main base. He sets down his 2 barracks on his plateau and floats his Command Center down to the valley where his mineral only expansion is located. He also begins construction of a Starport.

Once Lurker has gotten his second expansion warping in to his satisfaction, he decides that its time for another assault on Wisecrack's main base. He has been warping in Dragoons and Zealots out of his 3 gateways and he sends 8 dragoons, 2 zealots, and 1 probe out across the map with a shuttle packed with 2 reavers following.

The first thing that this force runs into is Wiscrack's Command Center sitting in his mineral only expansion with 3 SCVs busily mining minerals. The dragoons begin firing on the Command Center and Wisecrack is once again forced to lift it off and float it to the relative safety of his main base.

Gaining confidence with the lack of resistance, Lurker moves his ground troops to the ramp and they try to force their way onto the plateau. At the same time, he takes his shuttle with two reavers and flies it up over the edge of the plateau. Unfortunately for Lurker, his attack goes awry. His shuttle flies over 9 marines and gets blown from the sky before having a chance to drop its deadly payload. In the meantime, the 8 dragoons and 2 zealots run into a bunker and 3 sieged tanks sitting at the top of Wisecrack's ramp. There is no way that they can penetrate this defense and the forces that aren't slaughtered are forced to retreat.

With Lurker's forces repulsed, Wisecrack moves 9 marines, 3 tanks, and a vulture down the ramp. He then floats his battered Command Center back over and sets it down for his third attempt at an expansion.

Lurker's second expansion is now fully operational and he has constructed an Observatory, a Citadel of Adun, and a Templar Archives at his main base. He also begins warping in 2 Stargates at his expansion at the bottom left starting position.

Angry with his last defeat at the hands of Wisecrack, Lurker decides that its time for another assault on Wisecrack's base. He sends 9 dragoons out from his main accompanied by 2 shuttles filled with 4 reavers. They move northwest across the map. As they attempt to cross the bridge into Wisecrack's natural expansion, they run into 4 sieged tanks covered by a group of marines and medics. The dragoons get slaughtered trying to cross the bridge. Not one of them sets foot on terran soil.

Lurker's shuttles, seeing the fate of their comrades, decide to exact revenge by doing an end around. They fly around Wisecrack's deadly choke and up over the ledge into Wisecrack's main base. The reavers take out a turret and a few SCVs before a tank sieges up and starts firing on them. They slowly crawl towards the offending tank and blow it away. However, a group of 12 stimmed marines charge forward and are able to finish the job losing only 3 of their numbers.

After this 2nd failed attempt to overrun Wisecrack's position, Lurker warps in a fleet beacon and with 2 operating expansions, can anyone guess what might be coming?

Terran Strikes Back:
After two failed assaults by Lurker, Wisecrack decides that his opponent must be weak. Comsat has informed him that there is a thriving protoss expansion in the bottom middle. So after starting an expansion at the top middle spot, he moves a large force out to war. The force consists of 6 tanks, a group of marines and medics, and a vulture. This group begins to rain terror down on Lurker's expansion. Wisecrack meets no resistance and methodically tears it down.

However, the reason he met no resistance is because there are 8 dragoons up at his newly constructed expansion. The dragoons easily destroy the Command Center and the mining SCVs. Then instead of returning them to strengthen his position, Lurker moves the dragoons across the bridge into Wisecrack's natural expansion. Wisecrack hasn't left his position undefended and the dragoons meet strong resistance. The resistance consists of 4 seige tanks covered by a bunker. Lurker's troops once again get slaughtered and down in the south, A science vessel has joined Wisecrack's troops to act as a spotter for the ledge leading into Lurker's main base. The science vessel does its job and the seige tanks blow away the cannons guarding the entrance to Lurker's main base.

At this point, Lurker is hurting bad. His main is mined out. 1 of his 2 expansions has been destroyed. His only remaining expansion, upon closer inspection, has only 7 probes mining minerals. His troops consist of 1 shuttle, 1 reaver, 2 templar, and 4 corsairs.

The four corsairs, head out on a suicide mission to try and destroy Wisecrack's science vessel. Back and forth they go with the marines taking potshots at the corsairs as they pass back and forth overhead. Ironically, when the last corsair gets shot down, the science vessel has only 16 hitpoints left.

Even though Wisecrack hasn't met any serious resistance, he takes no chances. He methodically moves his tanks forward across Lurker's main base, always building a bunker first before moving his tanks forward. His conservative play is successful in destroying Lurker's main base, but it also gives Lurker time to get his final expansion fully operational. He still has his fleet beacon, and 2 stargates left and he begins to construct carriers.

By the time Wisecrack gets his troops over to Lurker's final base, Lurker has been able to construct 4 carriers.

But Wisecrack hasn't been idle during his long, drawn out tank push. He has built another expansion at the top right starting position and built another starport. The starports have been busy constructing cloakable wraiths and when Lurker's carriers start harrassing Wisecrack's troops, Wisecrack flies a group of 8 wraiths over to join the melee.

The only form of detection that Lurker has is the cannons surrounding his base. The trick for Wisecrack was to knock out the cannons with his tanks while covering the tanks from carrier harrassment with his wraiths. This technique proves to be effective and once Lurker's carriers get popped, he concedes.

The Final Scores:

Post Game Comments:

**Irrelevant comments blacked out for the convenience of the viewer.

Lurker owned the early game. I think the main reason for his downfall was lack of troop production. Even though wisecrack kept getting hit repeatedly and lost a couple of expansions, he never lost a lot of troops. Lurker, on the other hand, kept throwing troops into the meatgrinder. When Wisecrack finally made his move, his troop count was so much higher than Lurker's that Lurker really never had a chance to recover.

A very good game by both players. The first one I've seen in awhile that was worth reporting. Thanks for allowing me to observe guys and thanks for changing the map to Rivalry when I said I wouldn't report a game on Temple. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Regards,
Drefsab