Players: Reporter~USE~ - Protoss [Z12]Anthrax - Protoss JimiTheProphet - Zerg Zalpus - Terran Map: Dire Straits Type: Four player free for all

          Despite Reporter's build order, Anthrax was the first Protoss to claim an expansion, taking the top middle island. While Zalpus was bulstering his defenses at his expansion with turrets and a bunker, Jimi took an expansion for himself at right middle. Not to be outdone, Reporter also calimed an expansion with a bold move to the right center island. Although it harbored much more resources than the smaller expansions, it would also prove harder to defend. Still, without any combat thus far in the game, Jimi calimed his second expansion, this one the left center island. Thus far, all of the expansions were claimed by a single worker and extremely vulnerable to an attack. These weakenesses were not exploited however and many of these expansions were soon heavily defended.


Part II - The First Strike:

          Looking to knock off the lone Terran, Zalpus first, Jimi loaded up his groups of hydralisks for a drop on Zalpus' expansion. Jimi commanded his overlords to fly through the terran missile barrage and was able to land enough hydralisks to secure a drop zone for reinforcements. The hydralisks successfully raised Zalpus' expansion. This was an extremely critical move by Jimi because Anthrax had just begun to colonize the left middle island. Now, Zalpus would be forced to reclaim his expansion before he would be able to stop the aggressive expansion of his two neighbors.

          Looking to finish off Zalpus, Jimi dropped another load of hydralisks, this time at Zalpus' main island. The hydras met fierce resistance and were slaughtered by stimmed marines combined with a barrage of seige tank fire.

          Jimi then tried to follow up this failed assault with reinforcements. This too was thwarted however when Jimi ran right into Zalpus' stimmed marines. Jimi now had to delay his progress to rebuild his overlord population before he could begin to mass produce hydras again.

          All four players now began to build up their armies and more importantly, fortify their expansions. Zalpus, still without an expansion built a covert operations add-on to his science facility. Zalpus was also taking this time to develop an air force which would help him to reclaim and hopefully sustain an expansion at the bottom middle island. In an interesting move, Zalpus constructed not one, but two command centers, which he floated under the protection of a fleet of wraiths to the lone remaining expansion. Here, Zalpus again constructed heavy static defenses and also dropped a team of marines and a seige tank to help guard the island. Zalpus used his tanks to harass Jimi's outpost at the left center island, directly north of Zalpus' expansion.


Part III - Struggle for dominance:

          As Zalpus and Jimi were engaged in minor skirmishes along the bottom of the map, Anthrax and Reporter both made the jump to air units. Both, knowing Jimi was Zerg began to pump corsairs in a rush to gain control of the skies. Anthrax was also not content with his two smaller expansions and began to look towards the left center island which was controlled by Jimi. Anthrax dropped two zealots, two dark templar, a reaver and a dragoon on Jimi's poorly defended second expansion. The Protoss forces made short work of the Zerg base.

          The reason for their success was immediatly obivious however. Jimi had all of his hydralisks en route to Zalpus' main base in an attempted finishing blow. As the hydras unloaded, they were once again met with heavy fire from marines and tanks. They did manage to kill a few scv's which were mining the remains of the few minerals left at Zalpus' main base, but the damage was hardly significant.

          Zalpus now began to harrass Anthrax's units that survived the raising of Jimi's expansion. Now, Anthrax chose to unvail the mighty armada which he had been producing. Seven corsairs and five scouts easily overwhelmed the six wraiths annoying Anthrax's helpless reaver. Only now, did Jimi make the jump to air units. Jimi built two spires at his now lone expansion at middle right in preparation for his bid for air dominance.

          Anthrax, another power hungry move started a colony at the left center island that he stole from Jimi, followed by a jump to carriers. He also began to get a little cocky, which is never advisable in a free for all.

          This drew immediate attention from all fo the players, especially Reporter. The previously non-confrentational Reporter cast down a massive wave of destruction upon Anthrax's first and heavily fortified top middle expansion. Reporter used disruption web to securing a safe landing for his reavers while his carriers dealt with the enemy templar.

          Anthrax wasn't about to take the assault lightly however and quickly responded with a massive air force of his own. Anthrax was successful in driving off Reporter's fleet, but not before the majority of the base was raised and most of the probes massacred.

          While Anthrax was distracted defending against Reporter, Zalpus took the opportunity to set up a seige tank and a few turrets right below Anthrax's left middle expansion. Anthrax was once again quick to respond to the threat of a seige tank pounding on his base, defended only by a few ghosts. These ghost proved to be extremely valuable however and were able to single handedly dismantle Anthrax's scouts.

Part IV - This map isn't big enough for the both of us:

          Zalpus' brilliant victory was short lived however. Jimi, who had been massing air units for quite some time slamed full force once again into Zalpus' expansion. Zalpus attempted to fend off the guardian and mutalisk attack force with cloaked wraiths, but Jimi was able to the fighters, spelling their doom.

          Adding to Zalpus' woes, Anthrax pured into his base with a new fleet of scouts. Zalpus' science vessels were caught out in the open and easily disposed of as Zalpus was frantically tending to the dismal scene at his expansion. Next came a Terran's worse nightmare as dark swarm poured over Zalpus' few remaining defenses.

          As if this was not enough, huge masses of Anthrax's scouts continued to pour into the embattled Zalpus' main base. This move caught Zalpus totally by surprise as he had been engaged almost exclusivly with Jimi the entire game.

          Two enemies, Anthrax and Jimi attacked Zalpus at exactly the same time and at exactly the right place. Zalpus could not possibly fend off these two massive attacks and conceded defeat as he watched his buildings burst into flames.


Part V - One down, two to go:

          As Zalpus was decisively eliminated, it was still unclear as to who had the upper hand. Anthrax had three colonies and a massive fleet of scouts and corsairs. Jimi however could not be counted out because of his massive hydralisk forces that would rip apart any arial attack. Reporter also had a shot at winning. He had been virtually unmolested the entire game and had built a signifant arial and ground force.

          Reporter was the first one to try to exert his dominance in this new phase of the game. As Jimi was concentrating on expanding to the newly freed bottom middle expansion, Reporter launched an attack on Jimi's middle left island. Disruption web nullified the spore colonies as zealots, dragoons, templar, scouts and carriers poured into the area.

          In a move reminiscent of the earlier downfall of Zalpus, Anthrax attacked Jimi's fledgling colony at bottom middle. The few hydras protecting the expansion were destroyed by scouts while corsairs eliminated the possibility of Zerg reinforcements.

          This was an especially devastating blow to Jimi because the map had become almost devoid of minerals. Reporter had only the lower portion of his right center base to mine from while Anthrax was able to gather minerals from his entire left center base and his middle left expansion.

          Sensing that Jimi was on the verge of elimination, Anthrax plunged deep into Jimi's base with scouts and corasairs, just as he had done with Zalpus.

Part VI - May the winner please step forward:

          Reporter did not call of his aggressive action either. Reporter's air forces once again paved the way for a land invasion of Anthrax's top middle expansion. Reporter's invasions, although successful, were ill placed. He twice destroyed bases that no longer offered any mineral reserves and could only offer a depleted geyser. Anthrax's much more fruitful expansions were unscathed during this period of intense conflict. As Reporter finished off Anthrax's top middle expansion, Anthrax sought to use this as the battlefield for the air war that would determine air dominance and perhaps the game. Aided by dozens of hallucinations, Anthrax led his damaged scouts against Reporter's fleet.

          The damage that Reporter was able to was only able to destroy harmless hallucinations. Anthrax's real scouts picked apart Reporter's fleet. Reporter, not knowing that he had used his valuable firepower mostly on hallucinations, calimed the battle as a victory.

          Jimi, who was left alone when Anthrax retreated to engage Reporter, vowed to destroy Anthrax. Jimi sent four suicidal overlords to scout Anthrax's territory to determine the weakest point. In his last moment of glory, Jimi unloaded his hydralisks on Anthrax's left center expansion.

          After leveling Anthrax's left center expansion, Jimi went on to attack the middle left island. He did not fare nearly as well there however, as corsairs helped to destroy the incoming overlords. The hydralisks that were able to drop were quickly destroyed by the cannon towers nearby.

          Jimi, having only 23 minerals left was effectively out of the game. Thus, the game came down to Reporter vs. Anthrax, one on one. Reporter took the intiiative by landing all of his remaining troops at Anthrax's main, hoping to catch him off guard. The resulting battle looked somthing like this:

vs.

          Needless to say, Anthrax won that battle quite handily. Anthrax then went on to pick apart the remaining enemy colnies on the map with ease.

          The final battle however took place at Reporter's main. Anthrax's carriers crashed into Reporter's dragoons and templar. At first, it seemed as though Anthrax would roll over his last opponenent, but a strong defensive effort by Reporter only served to delay the enevitable.

          Anthrax did defeat Reporter however, after Reporter's templar could muster no more psionic stroms. This was a very good game played between four, very good opponenets. It took massive, simultaneous attacks on two fronts to bring down Zalpus and Jimi. Reporter also did a good job of exerting his influence around the map, while staying out of trouble himself. Anthrax however did the best job of all. He secured three early expansions and sent his economy soaring. Anthrax rode this economy all the way to a victory by mass producing carriers. Overall, it was an exciting game to watch and I'm sure and even better one to play in.

- Skyblade

Final stats:

Total


Units


Structures


Resources