Rumble on Temple...

"Temple is so overused..."

-A wise man

It was just another day on B.net. I was cruisin' around the
regular chat rooms like NoHunters and x17 (I might have even visited the Ladder
room where I was greated with weird symbols instead of words ^^ j/k) and was
looking for something interesting to play. Finally, someone gave the keyword
that ignited excitement into my vein: FFA.

Ok, stop laughing at me. Perhaps you were expecting something
a little more dramatic, but in all my experience with SC I have had little
chance to do a free for all. Maybe its the excitement, maybe its the mayhem....maybe
its because I was bored. Whatever the reason, i instantly hit the game. Inside
was the host...he remains nameless because I forgot his name. Good for me.
I'll name him 45 for now...I'll explain
later. Next comes Dark.Knight,

who promptly
states, "Bring it fools." Needless to say I was juiced. As
the countdown began, I felt a ping of excitement...

The opening...oh-so slow

As we spawned, I found myself with the hordes of the zerg army.
I smiled slightly because I felt confident of the opportunity to endlessly
power during the match. At the 6 o'clock position I knew I could defend
my natural fairly easily, but took no chances and started my second hatch
at my choke. My build went:

9 OL....12 Hatch at choke....12 pool....15
gas.....18 Hatch at natural

It was a fairly conservative build, but would let me power lings
early and eventually transition towards hydra-ling-muta combos. I did this
not knowing my opponents race since everyone randomed. Using my ovie to scout,
I found Dark.Knight at the 9 o'clock
position commanding the protoss forces. However, he already had several
cannons up which led my to believe that he went a Gate-forge or maybe even
a ballsy forge first build. Either way, with my un-gosu like micro I was able
to lead my ovie into most of the cannons and have it join the rest of the
horde in Zerg Afterlife...or Purgatory, whatever comes first ;).

I was swiftly on my way as I began my hatch at my natural. I
oversunked it, with 4-5 protected with 2 control units of lings. I felt naked
not knowing where exactly 45 was, so I
sent a lone ling to find him. As good ol' Sammy ran off, I continued
the escalation of forces by upgrading to lair and putting down a evo chamber
and a hydra den. Just as I was feeling more macro than ever, Sammy ran
into 45's natural. There he found a lone
SCV building a command center. I learned three things: 1) He was at the 12
o'clock position 2) He was going for a fairly early exp with no D
3) 1 Ling is > than 1 SCV ^^.

The SCV did not survive Sammy's rage, but he was overcome
by the 5-6 SCV's that rushed out from 45's
base to kill him. I was then a bit worried. Should I attack this expansion
now and not allow him to gain equal footing with myself in resources, or stay
neutral and not give Dark.Knight a shot
at my base. Oh, the joys of FFA. But wait, a slight turn of events...

How I named the host (and other assorted
topics)

Waiting for player (blah blah)....45 seconds remaining

You guessed it...the terran disconnected. Was it my mad skillz?
Was it the fear of Sammy coming back from purgatory to ruin him? Probably
not...maybe his connection just got disc'd. Oh well...

Well, 1x1 now. I felt a little more comfortable now, but tried
not to get too overconfident. I sent 2 lings to scout out Dark.Knight's
natural, but nothing was there. As they ran up his ramp, however, I found
myself pummeled by godly cannons. Now I was interested. By now I had up a
spire, upgraded speed for my ovies, and had setup an exp outside the 1
o'clock position. Don't ask me why there, I just did. I got suspicious
and sent two ovies out to scout, each to the islands at the corners. The lower
right corner found the terran setting up a command center. Doh! Good thing
that didn't hurt me. But wait...the other island's secrets haven't been uncovered.

Wait, where's my overlord?

A bit of the fog of war (yup, I said it) was lifted and I found
cannons protecting a Dark.Knight expansion.
No way I could attack with some form of air attack. Good job. Now, I had a
few hydras and lings, and was already heading towards Hive where I was eventually
going guards. Let me break down my base for you...my main Lair-Hive was protected
by one sunken, 3 hydras, and had a pool and spire. At my ramp were a hatch,
3 sunks, and about 6 lings. At my natural was a hatch, 5 sunks, and assorted
ground troops. And...wait, whats that! Its a shuttle dropping off a two reavers
near my Lair-hatch. Goody. Lets see his micro.

His reavers killed my three hydras with no prob, and proceeded
to take out my sunk. Then scarabs began pounding at my spire. Lings came out
from my ramp to fight the invaders, and in the end took out the reavers after
I micro'd one zergling to have two scarabs chase him. Yeah, he was that red
smear on the ground later that day. But the battle wasn't over. A carrier
arrived from the north....

....A CARRIER?

I took a breath, and re-evaluated the situation. I had about
8 hydras at my natural, but undoubtly he had more carriers. A new plan must
be hatched...

My hydras fought back the attack, but i was not out of the fire.
My plan was now simple, ling-scourge attack. It was on...oh god, it was on.

An upRAMP battle

Looking at my main, I saw that my pool and spire's hit pts added
up equaled my age combined. Not good. But remember my small expansion near
1 o'clock? Its not so small anymore because I had 5 hatches there now and
had placed emergency pool and spire there. I had excess minerals now and had
to spend. I had now upgraded ling speed and adrenalled glands, and was trying
to get +1 attack. At the same time I upgraded my spire to greater spire. Perhaps
I could be gosu today. At my main, choke and natural hatches I was constantly
producing scourge. The plan was ready, but would it work?

I was ready to attack, but needed insurance. I put up a defiler
mound to give my lings some "cover." Yes, zerg spells! My first
attack wave came in slowly. 3 control groups of lings, flanked by 2 defilers
came up to Dark.Knight's ramp. I sent
2 control groups of scourge at the edge of his base to sneak up on his carriers.
Suddenly Dark.Knight's cannons were blanketed
by a dark cloud, and lings stormed them unphased by any cannon shots. The
cannons were smoked. But the test had just begun. My lings ran head long into
the meat of the base, and met with carriers, cannons, and one reaver. My scourges
came in and took out about 2 carriers from the 8 present. In the end I took
out one or two buildings and carriers. Not cost effective. But I had plenty
of resources to burn, and was preparing more waves.

Then the bright lights of another shuttle appeared. Reavers
dropped from the heavens, and then I was assaulted. The reavers took out my
pool and greater spire, but I was able to straight macro their deaths with
lings. Now, I continued my plan about 3 more times. Each the same way, each
time I weaked the base. I was genuinely tired, so I decided to give the knockout
punch. 5 control groups of lings, 3 control groups of scourge, and 4 mutas.
With the wind to their backs they headed into the base once more....I tried
to take out as many carriers as possible, with the 5-6 that were there he
walked away with about 3. But a surprise appeared when he looked back.

My lings, upgraded and oh-so viscious, had knocked out half
his base, including the stargates, fleat beacons, and any support buildings
for his reavers. Then my assault concentrated on his nexus and probes. I saw
bursts from his carriers and then silence.

Dark.Knight has left the
game.

End thoughts

This was an interesting game for me, mostly because of the strategy
I employed and that of my opponent. I think I have to point out that my opponent
NEVER build a single ground unit besides reavers. His whole strategy
was built on reavers supported by carriers. This would have been successful,
had I not kept the pressure on with my waves of lings and scourging of his
carriers.

Also, my 5 hatches at my expansion which was never found played
an important part obviously. I think it goes to show that an island exp protected
with cannons/spores/turrets isn't just end game. With his main gone he could
not produce anything, which would not have been a case if he had expanded
to a regular spot.

Going all carriers could have been the end, but poor execution
really left him out of the loop. I think I really did a poor job with scouting,
being oblivious to the expansions at the corner islands, and I really could
have been more careful with defense. A learning experience =)

Still a good game though, and scourges aren't useless after
all. Sorry no pics, had to use words and my own personality. =) Hope it was
enuff. Thanks.

I'm only Half~Zerg