"oh nm, geocities is sucking incredible ammounts of anus right now"
-probe
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| Earthy. | | | Author: | | | IP: | 24.67.14XXXX | | Date: | 03/27/00 01:03 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 8, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for Fractal_Wave: 8.2537 |  | Richter 1.0
Last night, after having one of my NPCs get mad and attack me, killing everyone, while playing Baldur's Gate, I decided to move back to StarCraft. A good idea, it would turn out.
I ran into Sp+ne (better known as Sp|ne, but I call him Sp+ne) in NoHunters, and we found a 2v2 which we won, thanks to Sp+ne's zergy powering-ness, and thanks to no one attacking him while he powered. (They got me, instead...)
After that game, I ran in to one of my two Battle.net blood brothers, Shockwave ( the other being fractaled). We played three 2v2's, and I'm going to bring you a blow-by-blow of the 2nd game, because, except for some truley sexy mutalisk work on Shock's part, and some rather nice Terran Defense on my part, game was was rather boring. I beileive that The-Lakers is going to put together a nice, pretty-with-pics BR of the 3rd game, but I cannot speak for him.
Aaannnyways.
Richter 2.0
The Map: Aftershock, a 6-player, Ash map in your Brood-War Directory.(I sound like some game show host...sure, I'll take StarCraft for $400 Alex...)
Aftershock is basically a 6-player Temple. The mains are on high ground, with ramps leading down to natural expansions. There are NO chokes for the naturals, unlike temple. There's a convineint ledge beside each natural for tanking. Between each main, there's an island suitable for floating to. The map was meant for 6-player, 3v3, but rocks the house for 2v2s as well. The mains can be found at 9:30, 11:00, 1:00, 3:30, 5:30, and 7:00.
The Teams
Team Wave
Shockwave[xpow] randoms to White Terran at 3:30.
He does a classic wall-in at his ramp, and proceeds to factories.
Fractal_Wave selects Teal? Zerg at 5:30.
I pull an Extractor-Trick, and expand with my 10th drone, with a pool directly after.
Team The Other Guys
SoundScientist selects Yellow Protoss at 1:00.
Inadequate randoms to Orange Protoss at 9:30.
Well. Double Protoss are stacked against us. However, we're right beside each other, so we can support each other fast(a MAJOR asset where the blazing speed of the Terran army is concerned), whereas they're on opposite sides of the map.
Shock is justifably worried about being owned by two different flavors of protoss cheese at once, and plays the entire game in a state of fear.
I'm worried about the possibility of a hard protoss strike running me over while I power my expansion on-line. That ALWAYS happens to me for some reason.
Richter 4.0
Myself and Shock scout early and discover our opponents races. Or rather, they discover us. Inadequate's marauding probe finds my morphing hatchery and lays into it with his fusion cutters. I send down two drones to become sunken colonies as soon as the hatchery finishes. One drone goes to kill the probe, and sucseeds in chasing it off. Knowing that my poor expansion is likey to get zealot'd, Shock sends an scv and three marines down and builds me a bunker beside it. This would really save my ass.
Indeed, a token orange zealot does make an appearance, but quickly turns tail & runs at the sight of six zerglings, a sunken, and a bunker. It would seem I can expand in peace.
Ear to the Ground
I begin pumping out drones and zerglings in earnest, as well as getting gas and a hydra den. I send two zerglings out to our opponent's naturals to spot any incoming zealots. I notice, the hard way, that orange has taken his natural. Yellow, however, has not, and I burrow my zergling right where he would put his nexus. Tee-hee.
I continue to power drones, getting my economy up to proper, zergy, critical mass. However, my burrowed zergling sees a bunch of yellow zealots moving out. I tell Shock of this occurence, and note that their probably on me. Anyone who's tried to bust a terran wall-in with just zealots has got problems. Or about 1,000,001 zealots.
Well, they've only got about 15 together. Still enough to deal copious amounts of damage to my poor expansion. I build another sunken, begin cranking zerglings & hydras, and ask Shock for help.
It really is amazing how fast 20-some zerglings and three hydras die to 15-some zealots. You blink away to your main to build more hydras, and look back, and you;ve got three zerglings left, surrouded by pools of blood. Then they hydras pop, and you're left with two sunkens and a bunker (god BLESS that bunker), and troops spawning as fast as they can. And, a magic white line (I am not advocating drug use when you lose at StarCraft!!) of Shock's troops coming down to save you.
However, have you ever seen three zeaots try to work their way through 10 drones to get to a bunker. Now THAT is funny. they killed the bunker, but at a huge loss, and bought time for Shock's infantry squad to come & save me. Barely. My blood brother had two marines and a vulture left after pulling my chestnuts out of the fire. And, I was down about 7 drones. Not cool.
Not Fragile
This period of the game was exemplefied by a number of cute little maneauvers on the part of me and Shock. I re-built my natural, and got a 2nd hatchery there and began pumping hydras and zerglings. Shock inched his way out to his natural with tank support on his ledge. He also played some vulture games with Inadequate. A shame for Shock, that Dragoons out range vultures. I also noted, much to my disgust, that orange had taken the 11:00 main and natural. Yellow had also taken his natural, and had a disgusting amount of corsair. My overlord were quaking in their boots. My feeble attempts to take them back with token squads of zerglings met with annihilation from masses & masses of dragoons.
"dis bey not cool"
Fractal_Wave
I finally reached lair, and began getting speed and transporting. Shock's scans had shown distincly un-guarded mineral lines, and we wished to take full advantage of this fact. Shock dropped a tank and an scv on a ledge over-looking yellow, but was removed by an orange reaver.
I note that I have far too many minerals, so I begin a 3rd hatchery at my natural. I also get a queens nest so I can move to Hive post-haste.
Shock moves to drop in force, with 8 infanty and four tanking inside three drop ships. This force plops down behind SoundScientist's main, and begins blowing the heck out of his mineral line. To Shock's and mine abosolute horror though, yellow dragoons crawl out of the wood-work and blast Shock's squad to kingdom come.
"ouch"
-Shockwave[xpow]
"yeah"
-Fractal_Wave
So far, Shock and I have been denied at every turn, although Shock has floated a CC to an island I begin researching lurkers to better devestate naked mineral lines. For now, I take 12 hydras to the 11:00 main.
More Fragile
My overlord make their way around the massed dragoons of Inadequate, and drop my hydralisk pimp squad to one side of the base. They charge in, and Inadequate promptly flees his probes. I neglect to follow, knowing that I have only moment until the avenging dragoon hordes fall upon on me. Instead, I direct volley after volley of spittle-covered spines at the nexus, quickly reducing it to so much rubble. Then the cavelry came. What is technically known as a "butt-load" of goons and zealots removed my hydras, while yellow corsairs took out my three overlords.
Richter 12.00001
That was slightly more successful, but still not enough. I expanded to the 7:00 natural during the carnage, and have reached Hive and gotten Adrenalings
When all the screaming hordes of hell fall upon my partener.
Somewhere between one million and one billion dragoons with some token zealots slam in to the four or so tanks and bunker at Shock's natural. I hear the tell-tale "whhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhing" of interceptors above the battle. I snap my focus back to my base to send two lurkers on a mission to the 11:00 natural. When I snap back, there's nothing left of shock's natural save a burning cc and two marines. At least now the slavering protoss hordes will have to try to cilmb shocks' ramp. I see a floating barracks land and shut the proverbial door on the not-so proverbial attackers
"help"
-shockwave[xpow]
"coming"
-Fractal_Wave
I send my slavering hordes to Shock's aid. I don't even bother microing or watching the battle, being too busy moving out my built up army hydra-lings and morphing more. When I look back, I see the ground is a deep shade of purple, from blue dragoon blood and the dark red of zerg ichor.
But somehow, I've still got troops alive. I'd tell you how I did it, if only I knew. Suffice to say, when it was all over, I had guys on the battlefeild, & they didn't
"counter yellow?"
-Shockwave[xpow]
"sure, why not?"
-Fractal_Wave
Those troops rip in to the lone cannon covering yellow's natural, and send it to hell. Two carriers try to stop my advance, but my 15 hydras are set to deal with them, while my 2/1 cracklings have a field day in SoundScientist's yellow base.
I also remember my two lurkers. With a grin, I drop them squarley in to Inadequate's 11:00 naturals' mineral line, and laugh out loud when I see 3/4 of the probes explode on the 2nd volley of spines. Inadaquate runs his probes...directly into my on-coming hydras.
Shock contributes a few tanks, and we systematically rip apart the 11:00 nautral and main. My now 7 hatches are pumping hydra-ling like there's no tomorrow, and at my main, two defilers are being loaded in to overlords with two lurkers and many a zerglings.
SoundScientist concedes with a gg as his main falls to my zerg hordes.
I see Shock line up 5 tanks in front of Inadequate's natural as I drop 16 cracklings, 2 defilers and two lurkers on his main. Four badly-placed darkswarms are enough of my zerglings to seriousl damage his main, despite the efforts of a reaver and many a dragoon.
"well, we busted that one out, heya?"
Fractal_Wave
we did, didn't we?
Shockwave[xpow]
Inadequate surrenders with a gg, and myself and Shock raise the flag of victory over Aftershock.
Lessons
1.) Aftershock owns. Play this map. It's better than temple
2.) Cover & communicate with your partener. Shock saved my @ss early-game, and I saved his late-game. We talked so much, & always knew what was up.
3.) Scout like....some scouty thing.
4.) When I saw Inadequate's four expansions to my three, I knew I'd have to shut them down, and FAST. Hence the hydra and lurker drop. Remember: he can't have his dragoon horde in three places at once. So drop 'lings on 11, lurkers on 11's natural, and hydras on his natural. At the same time. Then ignore them & macro more.
5.) MORE HATCHERIES!!!
6.) More drones. Thanks Fiz.
7.) Shock's the man
Hope you liked it
plur
All the best,
Fractal_Wave |
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