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The war was set in the Dire Straights, just one of many battles fought on these lands, or should I say, on these islands. Over the years armies and their commands have left shattered bones and fragments not only of their opponents bodies and buildings but also their own.

Although it'd be wrong to say that it's not often you find Zerg forces fighting amongst their selves but it's not often a human lives to tell the tail of the Zerg's ferocious terror bringing fear into it's own kind.

Intelligence Officer Daniel Simmons:

- Admiral, we've detected commotion on the planet auir, Zerg forces have spawned a couple of hatcheries in the Dire Straights region. They appear to be of separate broods, lets keep an eye on this it could be useful for our study.

The game started out pretty even, both players went straight to mutalisks, however we (the observers) noticed that FRiLgOrE was ahead slightly in the struggle to be first with the army.

FRiLgOrE went for a hatch off 10th drone using the gas trick, then lord off his 9th drone as soon as the money allowed followed by gas and then his spawning pool.

However Scorp-[JK] immediately got a second overlord quickly followed by a hatchery and then gas to pool.

FRiLgOrE scouted due east, and surely found Scorp-[JK]'s main base, Scorp-[JK] however sent his overlord to the NE start position to find nothing but those shattered bones we were talking about earlier :).

Both players got their lairs up quickly and researched their overlord speed, unfortunately for poor FRiLgOrE, Scorp-[JK] got up a evolution chamber and 2 spore colonies. Before FRiLgOrE noticed his overlord was surrounded by acid fire.

Intelligence Officer Daniel Simmons:

- Oh wow, those two broods are fighting each other!

FRiLgOrE then got up his evolution chamber and a couple spore colony's, suspecting mutalisks. Then both players decide to get Spires, we see here that FRiLgOrE's Spire is slightly faster than Scorp-[JK]'s. With both players suspecting mutalisks they both get yet another spore colony each to a count of three, then Scorp-[JK] is first to get a third overlord. Unfortunately no action had taken place, we were praying that this wouldn't be a repeat of

the last game, I quickly check each players mineral lines to see who would be comings out on top. With this the differences were again very slim. I suspect that Scorp-[JK] had a few more than FRiLgOrE but never counted.

As you can see both players had a fair amount of drones for zerg players. Unfortunately you'll find that they both use them to make buildings and don't replace the drones. From this point of the game it got exciting, Scorp-[JK] set up a third hatchery and hydralisk den, while FRiLgOrE made two more colonies and went for a expansion. He did a little tactic I thought was pretty good, he picked up his drone at the edge of his island.

FRiLgOrE was first to expand, this seemed to be a good idea but they both seemed to be defensive more than aggressive expanders. Neither had overlord speed yet so they weren't fast enough to expand everywhere early like I think they should have.

Private Mathew Urain:

- Boy these Zergs dun' seem to be doing much action of yet, you'd think they be settling in there or something!

Now FRiLgOrE starts his island expansion at the west neutral island, then turns his two new colonies into spore colonies, while Scorp-[JK] gets a bunch of hydralisks and zerglings ready for a drop. FRiLgOrE then gets ready to expand again, sends a second overlord carrying a drone to the center island between himself and Scorp-[JK].

And then Scorp-[JK] decides to attack, he sends his overlords and mutalisks to the right edge of FRiLgOrE's island. Luckily FRiLgOrE realizes this and brings his mutalisks back to his main base. (Mutas are at the #1 point on the mini map of the pictures to the right.) Take note of FRiLgOrE's expansion, his second expansion comes just below the #1 point on the mini map. Scorp-[JK] attacks, but unfortunately meets a better match, FRiLgOrE's spore make it impossible for Scorp-[JK]'s mutas to fly close.

Deeming his mutalisks useless, however FRiLgOrE seriously lacks any ground defense, bringing back his mutalisks was the only thing saving him, however he lost a deal of drones and a spore colony in the attack.

Now I'd have thought FRiLgOrE was going to win easily, all he had to do was mass sunkens and spore colonies at all his bases and keep up the mutalisks with a little eye on the map... Notice how neither player has any overlords or anything at the expansions. Now this wouldn't be a bad thing if they used the excuse; "I didn't want him to scourge my overlord." But I'm fairly sure it was just bad scouting as we'll see later in the game.

FRiLgOrE was getting two expansions up and still Scorp-[JK] had none. But as FRiLgOrE was expanding, Scorp-[JK] was amassing, and then he attacked again.

Scorp attacked FRiLgOrE's center expansion, and while doing so sent an overlord and drone to the East neutral. Notice that if Scorp-[JK] was to pull it off both players would be even, from FRiLgOrE's previous 3 bases to 1. Luckily for FRiLgOrE the attack was fended off by his mutalisk force which then went back to patrolling the west side of the map.

Admiral Westren:

- Oh wow, get a report done on this phenomenon immediately! And call in some Battle Cruisers, we'll clean up when the fight is over.

Unluckily for FRiLgOrE, Scorp-[JK] attacked again, bringing in a little taste of his true skill. A double drop on FRiLgOrE's center expansion and on FRiLgOrE's main base.

FRiLgOrE only had one pack of mutas, and found that his main base was the one which would need them most. Fortunately for him he didn't really have many drones at his expansion anyway so losing it wouldn't be all that big of a deal. Notice that FRiLgOrE has a good scouting radius, compared to Scorp-[JK]. However Scorp-[JK] is bringing the pressure on FRiLgOrE so he wouldn't even notice if he did lose the scourges and overlords at each mineral patch. FRiLgOrE is only missing two of the expansions with scouts, he never does scout the east expansion until it's too late.

Private Mathew Urain:

- If you were down there wouldn't you just wish you had a few tanks and goliaths. Bring in the Terrans baby year! Fry some zerglings.

Amazingly FRiLgOrE didn't lose either bases, his manuriable 24+ mutalisks cleaned up both bases, but once again to the down side of FRiLgOrE, Scorp-[JK] sent in 5 mutalisks to clean up his center expansion which had only 154 hp's left.

From the attacks we noticed that FRiLgOrE was lacking drones at his main base, this left Scorp-[JK] with an amazing lead in minerals. However FRiLgOrE's mutalisks we're very cost effective losing five or six in the double drop to Scorp-[JK]'s masses of hydralisks and zerglings. It was still a very close game but FRiLgOrE's lack of attention really lost it for him.

There was a chance for about 15 minutes where FRiLgOrE could have attack Scorp-[JK]'s east expansion, and it was guarded by no more than 6 mutas a few scourge and 4 hydralisks. However in not doing so FRiLgOrE allowed Scorp-[JK] to get his economy up and running there fearless of attack due to the amount of spores and FRiLgOrE's lack of ground units.

At this time FRiLgOrE was busy massing drones and a few mutalisks here and there, while Scorp-[JK] was busy massing his men at his main base. Scorp-[JK] took his time to expand to the island just to the west of his east base, and FRiLgOrE expanded to the NW start position.

Then Scorp-[JK] made a second double drop.

The first drop on FRiLgOrE's main base was only 7 zerglings, however the drop on his expansion was a herd of ground and air units. FRiLgOrE was to expand at the NW position at the #2 on the mini maps to the left, while Scorp-[JK] was to expand at the #1 position as seen on the mini maps. The real difference was FRiLgOrE had come from three bases to only one and a lightly defended expansion. While Scorp-[JK] now has 2 expansions with good defense. FRiLgOrE however did have a nice little army of mutalisks, 30 or so. And Scorp-[JK] only had a few mutas and a fair amount of hydras.

Admiral Westren:

- How often do you think Zerg fight each other? It can't be that often since there is always alot of them. That brood down there is really getting a hammering.

FRiLgOrE's expansion does survive, but not in it's best shape, but it too doesn't have enough drones to help FRiLgOrE's economy. FRiLgOrE's main base does lack drones, he takes his time watching the skys and defending but not enough time making sure he has the backup to support his men when they die.

A swarm of mutas is great, but they aren't that useful if you don't have any buildings. And FRiLgOrE's defensive game isn't very great if there isn't anything to defend. FRiLgOrE gets his NW expansion up and a couple of sunken colonies. Scorp-[JK] gets his expansion up with a few spore colonies.

Then Scorp-[JK] attacks FRiLgOrE's main base again with a nice swarm of hydras, mutas and scourges. This works to an extent, his hydras and mutas do a little damage, but FRiLgOrE loses quite a few mutalisks to well micromanaged scourges. At this point in the game it was still fairly even, apart from the fact that FRiLgOrE's economy was sliding and by his attack to defend ratio we might be up all night watching this game. However we were gambling towards Scorp-[JK] as soon as he got his expansion up and decided to attack FRiLgOrE's expansion as seen below.

Finally FRiLgOrE made an attack, after using the patrol command to search the middle islands with his scourge. FRiLgOrE sent in his big army on a make or break mission... Make a win or make a lose command. A single click on the mini map telling his mutalisks to attack was the finish. They attacked but lost.

FRiLgOrE's mutalisks were fronted with hydras, scourges, mutaslisks and spore colonies. as muta by muta fell to the ground. Below shows the upgrade differences, FRiLgOrE blue and Scorp-[JK] teal, I believe that the only reason he got armor upgrade for air units was so his scourges could get close.

Scorp-[JK] realizes with a lack of men FRiLgOrE must have been pretty much defenseless so he sent in zerglings to FRiLgOrE's mid west base and mutas and zerglings to his north west base. FRiLgOrE's main was pretty much dead after Scorp-[JK]'s attack upon attack upon attack. And FRiLgOrE gave up once losing his expansions.

This was quite an interesting match to watch, however pathetic I thought Scorp-[JK]'s double dropes were they seemed to trick FRiLgOrE enough to get hits on FRiLgOrE's expansions. bringing him down. I think FRiLgOrE had a very good chance for most of this game, but he lack the sight to see it.

Well played by both players.

Admiral Westren:

- Send in the Battle Cruisers!

Ideas that came to mind:

• It's easier to see mistakes while watching than playing

• FRiLgOrE needed to expand when he had the chance and attack Scorp-[JK]'s expansion when he had the chance.

• This report owns... Agree or I'll get mad and send a nuclear warhead towards your country :).

Special Thanks to:

Hogfather and Aus-1 for the Server.

Agamemnon(MT) for the announcements for the tournament.

Skywalk~WSC~ and SCN for the Tournament and stuff.

FRiLgOrE and Scorp-[JK] for playing.

Links:

http://www.aus-1.au.nu

http://www.starcn.cjb.net

http://members.dingoblue.net.au/~firefly1 (Not Finished)

Send all complaints or compliments to Firefly (firefly1@dingoblue.net.au)