"FLS, I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth. There is no place small, dark, and damp enough to hide your wretched carcass. And when I find you, your grandson will rather have his private parts infested with the fleas of a thousand camels than hear of your horrible fate."
-Mark4
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| Island Hop Zerg vs Zerg War | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 06/12/99 03:06 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | Starcraft(1), Text Only(1) | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 7, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for Helmintes: 6.8000 |  | This is my second report, my first got gold, so I thought I would add another.
Soon after returning from purchasing my first car (oh yeah!), I had the hankering for some Star Craft. I went online to find none of my friends were online. When this occurs, I usually play a 1v1 game. I don't like 2v2 games because there is the risk that my ally will be incompetent which would cause me to lose... and I hate that. I would rather test my own strenth and sharpen my skills.
I chose Island Hop because my island game needs practice. Soon after making a game, a fellow (I forgot his name) came in with an 9-8-0 record. I asked if he was ready to proceed, he said "no" so I waited a second (I always ask if everyone is ready so noone will be angry they did not pick the race they intended on playing as). He said,"Nice record." MY record at the time being was 284-56-16 (somewhere around that). So then he said he was ready, and I commenced the game.
Begining: We were both the race we picked, Zerg. I decided to go straight for Mutas, as an early speedy scout and annoyance device. I made an overlord at 7, pool and extractor at 9, and began to make another hatchery at 12. This was my first time going for this, so my order is not efficient as I had hoped. Soon his overlord wandered in my base. I had no hydras or spores to get it out. I decided against wasting my money and energy on destroying it, and stuck to my plan for straight Mutas. I hated the idea he could see what I was up to.
Then I got a message from my friend, {dl}Omnipresent. He said he wanted to play. I told him to hang on, and asked my opponent for us to ally so I could play with Omni. He replied, "No." I asked, "Why not? Please don't be [a jerk] about this. I just want to play with someone I know." He then said, "No, I want a win so I can play ladder." This got me angry. First he refused to ally, something I can understand, maybe he just wanted to play. But no, he assumed he could beat me without any knowledge of my skill. I hate cocky players. Now I was determined to destroy and humiliate him.
The First Conflicts: My mutas were up and I begun to scout. I was situated in the lower right corner, and I soon found he was in the top left. My mutas found his drone line with excitement. He had prepared for this attack, since he could see what I had planned with his Overlord. He had a spore colony in his chain. I decided to take the damage and engage his drones in an attempt to gain some economic advantage. To my surprise, he had mutas as well, four to my three. I knew it was a hopeless effort, so I retreated. He kept pursuing me, my mutas were now down to 2. They fought each other off his base perimeter, and mine died. I knew this was only a setback and not something to worry about. I decided to add hydras into my plan for defense and possibly drops later on. I expanded quickly to my left. I made a queens nest along with more mutas to help guard my new base. My Hive was soon up along with a nydus canal. I had about 4 hydras in my new base with 2 mutas when he came and attacked it. He had around 10-12 mutas assaulting me. My hatchery was up and so was plenty of creep. I knew my only hope to salvage my base was to get a canal there so I could load my hydras. I made a spore colony while my units fought to distract him. He killed all of my drones there and my spore colony. He completely ignored my canal that was being made. Soon, it poured in 12 hydras to attack, and the base was once mine again. At this point I decided to make a greater spire and scout with my 2 new mutas. After this event, I felt he might get his wish and beat me. It was a dark hour.
A New Hope: Scouts indicated he had not one, but 2 expansions: one to his east and one to his south. I knew he had little defenses at both of them, so I sent my scouts to attack the southern one. To my dismay, he had just made 2 spore colonies. I withdrew one muta to out of the spore's fatal reach and started attacking his gas income. Meanwhile, my base was growing stronger. My expansion had around 15 drones with 2 spore colonies, and 8 hydras. My main had a few mutas with around 20 hydras. I decided that now was the time to attack. I loaded up my overlords with hydras, I sent only one to his eastern base, and two to his southern. His eastern base had no defense at all, that quickly fell. His southern had no land defense, and his hatchery and extracter were gone shortly. He managed to save his foothold there by sending around 20 mutas to it. I knew he had been hit hard. Instead of growing in air power, he decided to counter attack extremely early. He had 4 guardians attacking my expansion. I knew my hydras couldnt take care of it. I was afraid to send in my mutas for no knowledge of his anti-air power there. I started to make 4 devourers and sent a lord to scout out his attacking force. Apparently, he only had 2 mutas excorting his guardians. With ease, my Devourers cut him down. I decided not to sit idle and make use of the surplus of hydras in my main base. I loaded around 20 of them into my lords and headed way for his main base. A lone muta found a perfect landing spot. I proceeded to land and had my Devourers in case he had more guardians. Much to my excitement, he only had a few spore colonies and 5 hydras, flanked by 2 mutas. I began destroying his base, the game was mine!! But... something happened. Without any lag or timer asking me to drop him, he was immediatley dropped from the game. Is this some sort of hack? If so, I'm appauled. Not only did he lose, but he is coward enough to drop himself, the LOWEST thing any player can do... it angers my blood. At least it counted as a win on my part.
Things Learned: Getting early air power is great, but it might leave your base open for drops. Even on island maps, its a good idea to have some sort of land defenses, even if it seems like your oppenent is going for air. A few lurkers could have stopped my advances cold. And when someone attacks with units that can only attack one form of enemy (guardians can only attack land), make sure they are properly escorted with units that can aid their weaknesses.
Scouting is CRUCIAL to winning. This gives you oppurtinities to possible weaknesses and placements of his base and expansions. Don't just load up your transports, make sure they can land as well.
Nydus canals are our friends. Thats the only reason I was able to get my hydras to save my expansion in time. You can also do that to an enemy Zerg player as well.
In the end, air domination is what lead me to be able to win and drop in his base. Never be afraid to attack. You might not be doing so well in your game, but your adversary might be doing even worse. Turtling in simply seals your fate. |
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