"My troops were fighting the lurkers like endersshadow makes wall-ins. Not very well at all."
- ZerG~LinG's The Good Die Young
|
| Snowy vs Grunt: NWTR League Week 1 | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 12/07/99 09:12 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 3, Max: 7, Min: 6
Lifetime Rating for SnowSquall: 7.4828 |   | Introduction
Well the NWTR league has begun, and the week 1 matchup proved to be ironic, as I was matched up against my friend in RL, Gruntwrapper. The thing about this game that really worried me was that Gruntwrapper had never beaten me up to this point. Well, okay, he 4 pooled me on Blood Bath, but that doesn't count. It's not like we have played a lot of games against each though.. and I know he's better than what he claims and that I'm nowhere near as good as he claims I am. So I wasn't feeling too confident going into this one, because I realized Grunt had nothing to lose.. and I had everything to lose.
Grunt had home field advantage, so he chose the ladder map. It might not surprise you that it was....
Map: Lost Temple
SnowSquall: Selected Terran at 9:00
Gruntwrapper: Selected Protoss at 6:00
S.O.P.
Okay, so I'm playing protoss. I can deal. I decide to go with a traditional heavy metal opening. I wall off my ramp, and I don't even think Grunt tried to scout me. I ended up scouting clockwise, so I found him in the last spot at 6 of course.
I was able to bust through 1 zeal and 2 probes sitting on the ramp and came back with excellant recon. 2 gates, a cybercore, and citidal of adun in the warping stages.
Templar?
I'm working on my 2nd factory, and I quickly add an engineering bay to my encampment. A turret goes up at my ramp, and also a bunker/turret/tank quickly goes into place by my CC. No dark templar is going to bother me at home.
Meanwhile I'm working on a starport, get the addon, and build a dropship. My next 2 tanks seige up on my cliff overlooking the gully between our two bases. Yeah, that's right.. time for the infamous gully push. A turret is built there as well to detect any dt ninja-type guys. 2 more tanks get placed in the gully, and soon a 3rd joins them along with an scv which is building both a turret and an engineering bay to float.
A wraith pops out of my starport and I use it to scout clockwise around the map. The upper isle is empty.. but I come under fire as I head east across the 12 main.. eh?
Oh crap.
Grunt has a fully operational expansion at 12, protected with several cannons.. and to my dismay, a fleet beacon, 3 stargates, an observatory, and an arbiter tribunal already. The stargates are blinking, and 3 guesses as to what...
The wraith continues on to 3, and discoveres ANOTHER fully operational expansion protected by cannons.
This is not good. I only have 1 rax, 3 factories, and a starport, and a CC almost done to go at my natural. I quickly build another starport and add 2 more raxes and start pumping marines and wraiths. I get an armory under way so I can add goliaths as well.
I round up what standing forces I have, consisisting of 4 tanks and maybe a dozen marines, and head off to 12, intending upon stopping the carrier production. I get onto the plateau, seige up, place my marines in front of the tanks.. and the carriers had just popped out. Grunt flees west with the carriers, since they still dont have any interceptors.. but they're over cannons so my 5 wraiths can't get at them yet either.
I target the pylon supporting the fleet beacon and the stargates first, and then take out 2 stargates and then the observatory before the carriers come back and unfortunately evict my little sortie from his plateau.
I had bought a little time though.
Grunt immediately presses his advantages, bringing those 3 carriers over to my natural, taking down my refinery. My wraiths, now cloaked, engage. Unfortunately he has observers. 3 of them. Wraiths go boom left and right, and after I manage to kill the observers, he's forced to flee again with only 1 healthy carriers, and 1 severely damaged.
Now I'm frantically trying to build troops and recover at my natural, fully aware of the impending doom that's going to hit me in the face if I don't hurry. More wraiths pop out. More marines are trained, with a few medics thrown in. Another CC is started, intended for my mineral only natural. 2 more barracks are started.
Cheese tastes bad. VERY bad!
Another hastily assembled strike force heads off to Grunt's main. I had seen the presence of a high templar and I couldn't let those be around if I was massing wraiths and marines. Unfortunately for me Grunt had several cannons on his cliff as well as several templar.. and since I sent the force off (a few tanks and a dozen more infantry) with an attack move and went back to my base, it died rather abruptly to storm.
The telltale whirling and whining sound of carriers has returned to my natural during this time -- this time it looks to be 6 of them. Grunt has more observers with them, and my 8 wraiths simply are overmatched and basically useless. I haven't even come close to reaching critical mass on my marines yet, so while I'm able to kill a few interceptors, it's not enough to slow down the inexorable advance of the doom fleet.
As my last wraith falls, and my natural begins to fall, I quit, with the bitter taste of defeat in my mouth. Grunt gets his first win over me in a fashion that I will NEVER, EVER forget, and I fully intend upon it being the only win he will have against me. Snowy does not like feeling like a newbie...
Wrap Up/Lessons Learned
Maybe you noticed the slight mistake I made, that cost me the game. I forgot to build a vulture out of my first factory and scout with it. THIS IS IMPORTANT. If I had done that, I see those expansions before they get rolling and I crush them like a bug.
Grunt said after the game that he started his nexii almost right away at the 2 other mains.. but was forced to cancel one when my SCV came by scouting. He then restarted it. Another thing that should have tipped me off but didn't (maybe because it was 3 in the morning? I dont know) was the fact that he had 1 zeal and 2 probes trying to block his ramp.
He also did a great job of disguising his intent. To me it sure as hell looked like a templar tech, and he had 2 gates, not 1. He also put up a token fight with my gully tank push, bringing a scout over to chase my dropship off and try to peck at the tanks, and templar were nearby as well.
The other lesson is.. every once in a while, you're going to lose to cheese. It happens. It just had to happen in a game like this. :) Incredibly ballsy strategy by Grunt.. and 9 out of 10 times, it fails. SC is a cruel game though. Just when you think you're improving (and I know I have, I've beat some quality players lately), something like this pops up as a reality check or just to make sure you don't get too cocky. Heh.
To reiterate (mainly to myself), scout with a vulture made out of your first factory!!
I apologize if the game wasn't very interesting or exciting -- I fully intend upon writing a battle report for each of my league games (there will be 10 of them), so I'm sure there's going to be some duds in there. However, I think it will be interesting to see how I progress throughout the season.
My opponent next week will be PeonRapist. Anyone want to collect money for the Snowy R.I.P. fund? | | Battle Shots! | 
Coming through with the recon. I found a citadal was just starting as I got further in.
Starting to push across the gully here. A red flag went up when I saw the scout...
Hey look Heartcutter! I found one of those party balls too!
Uh oh! Looks like the bouncer has arrived!
Short, and definitely not sweet. Nay, bitter even.
|
|
|
|
Home
Forum
Starcraft Tournaments
