T  i  m  i  n  g

W A R N I N G ,    I M A G E   H E A V Y  ! ! !

Introduction

This is my third effort at battlereporting. And what an effort it is... this one took me about six times the the time I needed for my "Mistakes, mistakes..." BR. Here I would like to inform you it's once again a game where I was  playing, and it's on LT as well. I guess raters won't like that. I don't care that much, since I can't do anything else right now anyway... I won't be boring you by explaining in detail  why I can't afford to observe and BR games played by other people, I'll just say it's because of my unstable Internet connection, and about the map - well I know and like some other  maps as well, but here in Bulgaria everybody plays just Lost Temple, Hunters and Challenger.

Please tell me, should I continue making those BR's? If not you'll have to wait a month or so before I put my hands on a better connection.  I'll give my best now, let's see what I can make of an exciting Terran vs Protoss game I had.

Game

I started at 3 as brown Terran, and I sent my SCV's to separate mineral patches. I didn't know my opponents race, so I started my initial Supply Depot at my ramp, followed by a single Barracks on 11, Refinery on 13 and Another Depot completing my wallin. [L5]KOI managed to sneak his scouting probe in before I had put down that second Depot though, and he tried his best to annoy me by attacking my hard working SCV's with it. At first I just ignored it, but I had enough of it when one of my SCV's had just half of it's HP left and the probe screamed it's last funny noise seconds later. I started dual factories (on 17 and 19) with a single marine as defense, building a machine shop as soon as the first one was ready and I started researching Mines.

My scouting SCV finally found [L5]KOI at 6, and It turned out he had started warping a Citadel of Adun and a second Gateway. I had to retreat my SCV to outside his base, since he followed it with two(!) probes when I tried to hide it in a corner of his position. A Citadel of Adun... well it didn't take much thinking to conclude he wasn't rushing to speedy Zealots ;)

At home I started an E-bay and a turret at my choke afterwards. I still didn't know if he wasn't going for the notorious DT drop so I put 3 turrets around my mineral line as well, and later I sieged a Tank next to my CC (yeah I researched Siege Mode after I had the Mine research done). Then I managed to sneak my scouting SCV around the Zealots [L5]KOI had used to block his ramp (they weren't on Hold Position so I made them run down the ramp and then maneuvered the SCV around them and into the base - a brilliant piece of micro indeed ;P ). I got a good view of his base before my SCV finally lost it's life, and there was no early Robotics Facility, so I didn't waste any mines around my mineral line, I just ran my 3 or so Vultures down towards 6, but they got intercepted first by DT's, and then by a bunch of Zealots, so I just managed to lay one mine, which hit an unlucky Zealot that was passing by minding his own business.

[L5]KOI tried attacking me with his DT's and Zealots, but I had enough units behind my megagosu wallin and it was no major problem, they all died and I just had to repair my barracks a bit afterwards. I started a CC inside my base and soon after an Academy. I also hovered my E-bay over the most important Turret at my main.

I was the next to try an aggressive move, by sending 2 vultures down towards 6, to try and see if [L5]KOI has DT contained me already and to lay a minefield in front of his base if not. But alas, he had sent 4 Zealots towards me already and I once again lost a vulture due to slow reaction... I ran the other one around the Zealots and I layed it's 3 mines at the bottom of his ramp, but he now had a High Templar already and he stormed one of the mines. The second mine hit some of the Zealots that were chasing the Vulture - those deserved it for sure. The third one was killed by a DT I think (Dark Templars can kill mines in a single hit as they approach them).

[L5]KOI was now attacking me again. Since I had just expanded, I was worried he would manage to force me to lift my expansion CC with his DT's (I had just my new comsat as mobile detection) so I floated my wallin Barracks over a Turret I had built at the bottom of my ramp. If I hadn't done this, he might have attacked the Turret with his Zealots and then he could bring his DT's into play. On the screenshots you can see me transferring some SCV's towards my natural ( yeah I'm Maynard now =] ). [L5]KOI tried denying me from getting that expansion working, but three unsieged tanks were blocking his way and not letting the Zealots get out of range of the sieged ones above. Only one of my tanks got destroyed by the Zealots and the splash of my own sieged Tanks that were pounding the Zealots.

He cleverly didn't use his DT's in that attack, he rather sealed me in with them and I had to build a Starport and a Science Facility before trying to break out.

When the dust settled after the initial skirmishes, there was a period of teching and powering... I started researching upgrades for my ground mech out of two armories and built 3 more factories bringing them to 5. When I had a Science Vessel, I chased the DT's away and finally had a chance to scout the map and see what's going on. First I scouted 12 and it's natural, then I scanned the bottom right island and 6's natural and gladly no Protoss presence was detected. I felt Ok at that moment, since I had an expo running and I still hadn't found any signs of [L5]KOI expanding... but then... oh well... it turned out he had control over the rest of the map!!! A real expansion whore he was!!! My SCV found Nexuses with probes working hard at 9's natural and main... and a scan of the top left island revealed a Probe hidden in a corner there, and just before I lost vision over the spot I saw the Probe decisively heading for the center of the island...

Let's see all this on the minimap:

Boy this felt bad... You can imagine I felt I was losing control over the game right now. I had to attack as fast as possible, but a scan of [L5]KOI's ramp revealed a control group of Dragoons and a Templar guarding it. What should I do now? Attack the expansions? If I attack with a small force he might save them, and if I send all I have, he might attack my main before I return... I knew for sure - if I am not efficient in my next attacks it's all lost! After putting down a sixth factory I decided to go for his main rightaway and use the next produced tanks to attack the expands as well, while containing him with the majority of my army... As soon as I arrived to his natural, I sieged up the place and layed some mines... then poor [L5]KOI "maynarded" a good number of probes right into my mighty 1/1 upgraded army... They all died indeed =]

But wow, what's happening now!!! Check out my expand, 2 Reavers and a Dragoon are having a grand time raping SCV's and taking out the CC!! Instead of lifting my CC in time, I try chasing the force away by quickly sending 3 new tanks down my ramp and sieging them out of the Reaver's range, but a badass Templar from hell storms them perfectly 2 times (that was awesome micro, [L5]KOI !) and the Dragoon finishes the only surviving one...  Before I realize how fast two Reavers can destroy a CC, it explodes before my eyes without me lifting it! Game lost? I had just my main that was about to dry out, and my opponent had 3 expands running...

There was a funny part of the action, as the Dragoon that was damaged by my tanks got finished by a miraculously surviving SCV! When the Reavers jumped into one of the two Shuttles that [L5]KOI had used for this super effective drop, that SCV was still there, and not really paying much attention to this until later when I was watching at the screenshots, I commanded it to attack the High Templar that was still hiding behind my minerals, and the heroic SCV recorded it's second kill and proceeded to start a new CC!

Okay now do I still have a chance? Well let's see what happened next. The Reavers headed for my main, and unloaded close to my mineral line (not in a perfect spot because of the Turrets preventing [L5]KOI from microing the Shuttle to his liking). My defense proved adequate - the Tank I had sieged there in the beginning and another new one managed to take out the Reavers before they did much harm! Then, [L5]KOI, probably not realizing how many Tanks I have in front of his base, and probably feeling the force after hurting me so badly decides his Dragoons and Templar can take them out and he sends not only those that were on top of the ramp, but also some coming from north that were probably defending his expands, to"flank" my tanks from multiple directions, but how can you flank 10 tanks and 3 Vultures and mines laying all over the place... ok I know you can =[ but he didn't have enough Dragoons to do so.

Why was that? Well I had the answer when I entered his base with my 6 remaining tanks, since it turned out he had a Fleet Beacon and FOUR(!!!) Stargates... I was like asdfdsfs##!!! At home, I researched my Goliath range upgrade and started producing mad 2/2 Goolies and sent 6 new Tanks to take out 9 and it's natural.

Down at his base I had nothing against air, I hadn't brought SCV's to build Turrets since I thought my Science Vessel was enough as detection. That's actually stupid because Turrets are also needed to avoid your tanks from getting dropped on. It was funny to see an Observer hanging besides my Science Vessel, both detectors were just watching the action bellow and not doing any harm to each other (That's because they are not able to do harm to each other, you fool!). But then 4 Corsairs arrive at the scene and start chasing my Science Vessel towards my main... They kill it in the process, then they destroy a new Shuttle that I was going to use to attack the top left island. But right at this moment there are so many battles taking place that [L5]KOI leaves his Corsairs do whatever they decide to and they attack the hovering E-bay, and die to all my gay Turrets (inclusive the one bellow the E-bay that they could NOT see :P even if that doesn't make a *huge* difference).

So it gets really complicated all over the map:

1. The Corsairs are annoying me at my main, killing everything that's airborne and not really paying attention to the Turrets

2. Six Tanks take out 9's natural and proceed up the ramp (that shuttle just passed there, dunno why. Maybe maynarding probes in a more advanced fashion this time)

3. The rest of my tanks are slowly destroying [L5]KOI's main

A minute later the Corsairs were gone for good... At 9 I was afraid to siege my tanks because [L5]KOI had some Gateways there and DT's were popping out occasionally. Since I was lacking mobile detection again I had to watch carefully both battles and do scans when necessary. At 6's main my tanks were still raising random buildings because I was afraid to target the starports and jump to another spot of the map.

That was working fine until four carriers arrived on the scene and halted the entire operation.  Just after they got rid of the Tanks, my first six Goliaths made it to the battlefield. [L5]KOI lost 2 Carriers and killed just 1 Goliath before realizing I had upgraded to 2/2 and the Carriers didn't have enough interceptors as well. He didn't have the option to retreat and use gay Carrier tactics around the map, since his Starports were all at 6. He did a good job building a reaver out of his Robotics Facility and retreating his remaining Carriers towards it dragging my Golliaths after them... Those Goliaths WERE nice...

Meanwhile I dropped some tanks on [L5]KOI's only intake source (you aren't paying attention? Ok I'm talking about the top left island). [L5]KOI now demonstrated how gay Carriers can be... he took out my expand once again and I transferred my SCV's to 12's natural, where I had just started a new CC...

And YES !!! He decided he didn't have any chances anymore and conceded the game. He just sent his carriers into my base to see what I had and he saw I had enough Goliaths to split my forces and defend everything I had while attacking any expansion attempts... I must say this was a very close game, it could have went totally different if I hadn't timed my attack that well (actually more by coincidence than skill).

Good Game [L5]KOI !

And here are the final scores... you can see he had just a bit more resources than me at the end, this means that his expands had just started working when I found them... Damn close game, if I was late with my attack I wouldn't have standed a chance against 4 Starports pumping Carriers...

I hope this BR was Ok, indeed I think it's fabulous and stuff but it's just me I guess =] j/k

BREEZE