Warning, this is a text only reportThe date is November 16, 2000; it is a freezing cold day in New York State. The temperature outside slowly creeps up to a high of 40 degrees. {ahc}overmind (now known as I) slowly finishes his homework. My computer switches from the familiar life of windows, to my new screen saver, known as the seti@home project, which scans radio signals for any kind of messages from space. I decide to observe games between 2 of my friends who I know are on battle net at this time. I enter Starcraft Brood War, bravely make the journey through separate Starcraft menu screens, and press ok on the multi player screen. I enter Brood War USA-2, and whisper my two friends, sfynks15 and Admiral-Bednarz. They both respond, asking what I want.
Before I proceed with the events, I will give you descriptions of the two players. Sfynks15 has participated in a battle report I wrote on my own, and that I never published. Sfynks15 is a rather resourceful player, who was introduced to Starcraft by me in the 6th grade. While he may not be the greatest player, he certainly above average, prefers protoss as his race. When it comes to playing style, he is still in the stage where he likes carrier fleets, and builds photon cannons to defend himself instead of units. He has just discovered the secrets of psi-storm, and the art of the dragoon. Overall, I would give him a “B” if I had to rate him.
Admiral-Bednarz is an extremely arrogant player, believing he is the best Starcraft player in our grade. I have proven him wrong on numerous occasions, but he maintains that he is better than Sfynks15. He certainly has played longer than Sfynks15, about 2 years, opposed to Sfynks15 1. However, Admiral-Bednarz has huge gaping flaws in how he thinks strategically. His preferred races are terran and Protoss. He prefers to beat the enemy with huge fleets of capital ships. He does not commit his forces unless he is absolutely sure that he will win. When he loses forces, even if the tide of the battle is in his favor, he will retreat. He has huge problems expanding, and when he does expand, he overextends his defenses. His favored map is Big Game Hunters, and will use those mucho resources for capital ship fleets. He has been caught using hacks, and has since refused to use them against the enemy.
Thus, I meet these two in the channel that we named the official channel of Starcraft players in our grade. Sfynks15 has had a lot of experience with Lost Temple, Dire Straits, and other official blizzard maps. However, Admiral-Bednarz is all for Big Game Hunters. It takes a bit of arguing, but Admiral-Bednarz agrees to play on Lost Temple against Sfynks15. Thus, let, what in probability will be a battle of capital ships, begin. Also, let my first text only battle report. (If you are wondering why it’s a text only battle report, this br is comprised of huge amounts of Starcraft game play, about 2 and ½ hours worth. I also find that the screenshots I took, about 700 of them, aren’t too good. So this will be my first text only br.) Before the battle begins, I realize I have no paper, and I run out of my room, slipping on the wet floor, and fall on my back. Running towards the computer accessories room, I hit one of the walls with my hip, the pain kills me as I continue to run towards the computer room.
The game begins with the seat in front of my computer empty, while I find a sheet of printer paper, and run back to my room to observe the game. The race selection for both of them is not a surprise, showing that Sfynks15 has chosen the noble Protoss, while Admiral-Bednarz has chosen our human cousins, the terrans. Their locations state as follows, Sfynks15 is blue, and on the bottom part of the map, while Admiral Bednarz is Yellow and is on the top of the map. The last game I saw with this layout was in my first battle report, and the yellow terran player won with an overwhelming number of siege tanks.
Both players are very weak in the early game. A zergling rush could easily kill either player, but Sfynks15 is the first to warp in a building other than a pylon. By about the 5-minute mark, Sfynks15 has 2 pylons, 2 gateways, a forge, and an assimilator. On the other side of the map, The terran player, Admiral-Bednarzhas constructed a barracks, supply depot, refinery, and looks like he’s going to build a factory within a couple of minutes.
Time passes uneventfully, until Sfynks15 has constructed, in addition to what he had, 2 cybernetics cores, 3 stargates, a citadel of adun, and is preparing a defense of photon cannons on his choke.
Now, in probability, both players will go for their traditional capital ship fleets. Now, before you raters and critics go on talking about how these players aren’t good enough for any kind of br, I assure you that this game(s?) will be incredibly interesting, and contain lots to learn from these 2 average players. When you throw 2 fleets of capital ships against each other, rest assured, the result will be quite interesting.
Needless to say, the probe sent by Sfynks15 explored both places on the map that are uninhabited. The probe then moves up the ramp to Admiral-Bednarz’s base. The next thing that occurs in the mind is, how long does it take to blow that probe to smithereens? The answer, when we return, after these messages.
Need long, boring battle reports? Look no further, try {ahc}overmind, the biggest detail writer in a br on battlereports.com, so e-mail him at chief_dk@yahoo.com to tell him how boring his battle reports are.
We’re back, and the answer is 2 seconds. 1 second for the siege tank to aim the other to fire. Well, anyway, Sfynks15 now knows where Admiral-Bednarz is, but the Terran “Admiral” does not know where his opponent is. However, he continues going for his flashy spaceships, while his Protoss opponent constructs a templar archives, and a fleet beacon, preparing the way for psi-storms and carrier fleets.
Another 10 minutes pass, yielding results on both sides of the map, with Sfynks15 constructing his first carriers, along with a couple of high templar with psi-storm. On the other side, Admiral-Bednarz has constructed more Starports, and is building a large fleet of battlecruisers. A couple squads of wraiths will escort the fleet of Terran warships. One squad has already been completed. This squad starts exploring the map, looking in two out of 3 of the places where Sfynks15 can be.
At this time, both players have expanded to their natural expansion, and are preparing their respective fleets and armies. Sfynks15, at this time has changed pace, and is producing corsairs, dragoons, high templar, and is upgrading them. He has 2 expansions, his natural, and his mineral only expansion. Admiral-Bednarz has only expanded once, and is concentrating solely on getting his battle cruiser fleet into the air. The gigantic hulls start looming over the terran base, equipped with 8 Starports, a factory, a command center equipped with a comsat station, a barracks, a science facility equipped with a physics lab, an academy, an armory, and a number of bunkers, siege tanks, and missile turrets around the area. The gigantic ships are then equipped with Yamato gun, and are escorted by 2 squads of wraiths, the other scouting the map.
The wraiths now have the ability to cloak, and the squad sent to scout finally spots the enemy at the 6 o’clock position. The wraiths immediately clock, and start hitting the probes. A lone high templar, that is not near the gateways arrives on the scene and starts 2 psi-storms at the approximate location of the invisible wraiths. 3 red explosions, then 4 blue ones erupt near the Nexus. The psi-storm has obviously taken out the wraiths, but have also destroyed some of the Sfynks15’s probes as well. Both players now know the location of their adversary’s base, and the two step up the pace of building defenses and their respective armed forces.
By the time the two massive fleets and armies are ready, each player has expanded significantly. Admiral-Bednarz has constructed another science facility, with a covert ops attachment to it. He has also expanded to 2 different expansions. Meanwhile, Sfynks15, the conservative Protoss player has not been standing still during this entire time. He has constructed 8 carriers; all equipped with 8 interceptors each, 10 corsairs, 2 arbiters, and a couple of observers. Concerning land forces, Sfynks15 has constructed 10 high templar all equipped with psi-storm, and a sizable force of dragoons. The two armadas look invincible against each other, but one must look at what happened to the Spanish Armada in the 16th century.
In the late part of the 15 hundreds, Spain sent a huge fleet of galleons towards England. The force looked invincible, but was defeated by the smaller force of English ships that were more maneuverable, and had longer range than the Spanish vessels. Of the 120 galleon force sent by Spain, only 2 dozen returned. Why did the armada lose? Recent historical evidence suggests that the cannon aboard the huge armada were very defective. It appears that more Spanish ships sank because of its own cannon exploding, instead of English cannon balls hitting them. How can this be applied here?
We must remember that Sfynks15 tried upgrading as much as possible. All of his carriers are upgraded by 3 in each field. At the same time, the Terran force lead by Admiral-Bednarz is not upgraded at all. The fleets will inevitably have to slug it out somewhere, but where? In whose base will this battle be? Both players are moderately conservative, and want the advantage of having their cannons/turrets firing at the enemy. However, both do not know that the enemy has a fleet of Capital Ships. They only can assume because in their previous encounters that was what their opponent did.
The silence is broken when the Battle Cruiser fleet led by Admiral-Bednarz casts its lines, and head towards the Protoss base. Meanwhile, 10 seconds later, ,font color="blue">Sfynks15’s
carriers set off to attack the enemy base, but not directly. The Protoss fleet is going towards the right top part of the map, while Admiral-Bednarz is sending his fleet directly towards the protoss line of photon cannons. The two fleets pass each other within striking distance. But the players do nothing, preparing to attack the enemy, and encounter the projected enemy capital fleet.
The battle cruisers arrive at their target first, and the Yamato Guns start powering up. On the opposite side of the map, the protoss carriers let loose 64 interceptors. As the immense energy stored in the Battle cruiser’s batteries are let go, the interceptors fly out of their bays, raining blue streaks of death on the unsuspecting missile turrets that have been placed all around the plateau. The Protoss photon cannon is 4 deep completely encircling the Protoss plateau. The first line in the very center falls, but the 2nd line of photon cannons is alerted. So is the protoss fleet. The carriers turn tail, and head directly back to where it came from to engage and hopefully destroy the enemy fleet.
Admiral-Bednarz, realizing that a huge fleet of carriers and fighters are en route to attack his precious fleet, he orders the armada to send off another volley of Yamato blasts, and turn tail to engage the Protoss fleet as close as possible to his own base. Both sides are producing units as fast as possible to reinforce their fleets. Wherever the engagement is, the one whose base is closer to the attack will have the advantage. However, Sfynks15 has a small force of dragoons and high templar, who are en route to meet up with the protoss fleet.
In Lost Temple, the map played by all, a question that comes up is where the Lost Temple actually is. Well, if you look closely, you can see a small structure right in the middle of the map. The two fleets catch sight of each other, and I will make a story up about the battle.
The setting: Flagship of the Terran fleet, Enterprise. Alarms ring across the bridge as the huge protoss fleet appears on sensors. Admiral-Bednarz, who is personally commanding the fleet picks up the speakerphone and addresses to the entire fleet a message that, is carried out immediately.
Admiral-Bednarz: Red alert, red alert, all hands to battle stations. The fleet led by Sfynks15, the evil Protoss commander has been sighted. I expect the best of you; all wraiths scramble all other ships, move to your battle positions, and prepare to engage the enemy.
Bridge Sensors officer: Sir, the enemy have deployed their interceptors, they are en route towards the fleet. ETA is about 30 seconds.
Admiral-Bednarz: All hands brace for impact!”
The setting: Protoss command vessel, Adun. Psychically, the Protoss crewmembers communicate. There is no need for alarms or controls, all commands are relayed psychically, the Protoss commander, Sfynks15 prepares his men for the coming battle.
Sfynks15: Brothers, the time of battle is upon us. Remember that if you die here, you will see the Khalas light and be at peace for all eternity. All of you have lived fruitful and happy lives. Die here, and the greatest of honors will be upon you, you will have died in battle. If we win this battle, and you die, you will be honored forever in the annals of protoss history. Good luck to you all.
Psychicac message sent from the ship’s sensors: The enemy vessels are in range.
Sfynks15: Release the interceptors.
Outside the massive hulls of the Capital ships, interceptors and wraiths scream across their surfaces, shooting and fighting for survival. The interceptors, all controlled by a robotic mind, fight with huge efficiency. The wraiths and valkyries fight against the interceptors and scouts with all their power. One squad of wraiths, Red squadron, is ordered to take out one of the carriers.
Red leader: Alright boys, this is it, activate cloak, and power up lasers and Gemini missiles.
Red 1: Acknowledged
Red 2: Acknowledged.
Red Leader: Heavy fire coming up, the carrier’s interceptors are changing course, prepare to engage the enemy. Do not fire at the interceptors, attack the carrier only.
Red 2: Corsairs, coming in from the north, they’re going for the battlecruisers.
Red Leader: I repeat, we are to attack the carriers only.
Outside the wraith’s small cockpits, corsairs madly attack the huge battlecruisers. Amidst the falling interceptors, one of the battlecruisers falls to the ground. Then, one of the carriers fall to Red squadrons attack, bringing down with it 2 of red squadrons wraiths, a valkryie, and heavily damaging a battlecruiser. The battle rages for some time, with heavy casualties for both sides. Finally, one side, Sfynks15 decides to mini-mange his forces.
Sfynks15: Brothers, it will be more efficient if we all converge our fire on one target. Have all carriers attack the battlecruiser that is powering its Yamato gun.
The interceptors and corsairs suddenly change course and one battlecruiser falls to the ground. The battle rages with Sfynks15 easily getting the upper hand. But, what’s this? During the entire time that the battlecruisers were out of port, Admiral-Bednarz has been constructing valkeryies and goliaths. These units begin to converge on the battle, with the valkeryies easily arriving their first. But, remember those high templar and dragoons that Sfynks15 sent out? They arrive at the battle moments before the goliaths, 3 psi-storms rage across the battlefield, before the goliaths suddenly start shooting at the high templar. Suddenly, the high templar are killed, and in order to save his remaining ground forces, Sfynks15 orders the dragoons back. This alone changed the tide of battle in Admiral-Bednarz’s favor. The carriers are reduced to 2 heavily damaged and 2 corsairs, who retreat back to the safety of their base.
Meanwhile, Sfynks15 frantically prepares for the coming assault, building 12 high templar and reinforcing his dragoon force by 5. He also builds corsairs ton try and prepare for the battle in the air. But the attack does not come. Admiral-Bednarz is repairing and reinforcing his armada. He then orders the fleet to attack the enemy base directly.
At this time, the game has gone much in the favor of Admiral-Bednarz. We must recap on what has happened. Basically, both sides build huge capital ship fleets, and the terrans won the climatic battle. It seems like only a matter of time before the huge battlecruiser fleet smashes the protoss base. The battlecruiser fleet, right before it enters protoss territory, attacks Sfynks15’s expansions. The protoss player, realizing that his advantage is in the open with his psi-storms and dragoons, orders them out of the base and to attack Admiral-Bednarz’s invincible fleet.
The admiral apparently ordered his battlecruisers only to attack the nexus for when the dragoons and high templar came, the battlecruisers didn’t respond until the nexus fell. The high templar cast psi-storms, ripping the crews inside the battlecruisers into insanity. The battlecruisers finally turn to meet the attack, firing at the high templar, only to get dragoon fire hitting their hulls. The corsairs that have been constructed come from sfynks15 and attack the enemy’s flank. The protoss take many losses, but drag down the battlecruisers with them.
Admiral-Bednarz, thinking that his greatest threat is the corsairs, orders his wraiths and valkyries to only attack the enemy corsairs. Sfynks15, realizing that if he turns his corsairs around, and bring them into range of his 4 deep photon defenses, he might bring along a couple of enemy ships with him. The corsairs turn tail and run towards the base, literally all the wraiths and valkyries follow. The terran ships encounter the photon defenses, and are slaughtered.
Meanwhile, the battle cruisers have engaged the high templar, who are still psi-storming as their energy goes up, but the dragoons present the biggest threat to the massive ships now. The fleet is torn asunder, and now numbers less than 5 battlecruisers. Admiral-Bednarz, realizing that if he turns tail and goes back to his base, they will be destroyed on the way by the fast corsairs and dragoons. Thus, he orders the ships to fight to the last man, while he prepares defenses for the attack that will surely come when his fleet is eliminated.
The fleet is destroyed, and Sfynks15 sees the opportunity to destroy Admiral-Bednarz. When his probe was scouting, was destroyed by 2 siege tank blasts. If that happened, he could easily attack the enemy’s defense without suffering huge casualties. The dragoons start the hike towards the enemy, encountering the expansions made by Admiral-Bednarz. At most, the admiral protected each expansion with a bunker and 2 siege tanks. The dragoons crush the enemy expansions, and prepare to attack the enemy defenses.
Siege tanks blasts float over the dragoons. A couple fall to the blasts, while other dragoons attack the bunkers. A high templar start psi-storming the tanks. 2 psi-storms successfully are cast, and the 4 tanks protecting the bunkers are killed. It is just a matter of time before the dragoons overrun the bunkers, and start attacking the heart of the Admiral’s base. The admiral, realizing the battle is lost, concedes the game.
When we meet back in the chat room, the admiral challenges Sfynks15 to a 2 out of 3 game. Sfynks15 is naturally reluctant, but agrees. The map this time is dire straits; the second most played ladder map there is. Sfynks15 is placed in the northern part of the map on the right, while Admiral-Bednarz is directly below him. Sfynks15 is Zerg, cause he accidentally left the race selection on random, and Admiral-Bednarz is terran.
Basically, Admiral-Bednarz just does a drop with siege tanks, and kills the Sfynks15. But here are the specifics. The terran player goes straight to get siege tanks and drop ships. However, the enemy, Sfynks15 hatches mutalisks, and fights with all his strength. Plainly speaking though, Sfynks15 cannot win with Zerg. So the terran player drops 4 siege tanks and 4 goliaths on the Zerg player’s island, and the mutalisks that are scouting the opposing islands all come back to their base and fight the invasion.
Now, most players believe that when you are against enemy air units and your terran, you should use airborne units. However, the best counter against airborne units is ghosts and goliaths. The ghosts can start lockdown on the enemy ships, and the goliaths can easily crush them. However, when fighting a biological enemy (hint hint, Zerg.) the best counter are science vessels and goliaths. The science vessels will activate irradiate, and the goliaths will finish the enemy units off.
The mutalisks speed back on those huge wings to fight the enemy. While the siege tanks fire their first round of shells, Sfynks15, who has constructed 2 hatcheries, has the hatcheries produce zerglings as fast as possible, while the sunken colonies on his ramparts are eliminated by the siege tanks. As the zerglings are spawned, the siege tanks stop siege mode, and move inward towards the heart of Sfynks15’s base. By this time, the mutalisks are prepared to attack the enemy forces, and in conjunction with 12 zerglings, do just that.
When one thinks of the Zerg, they think that only a huge force of cheap units will win. This, my friend, is in most cases truth. The 12 zerglings and 5 mutalisks are barely a swarm. The siege tanks at this moment are just starting to siege, and the attack is well timed. But the goliaths in the area begin to deal with the enemy mutalisks easily, killing them with those 20 damage missiles of theirs. At the mutalisks die, the sieges start opening fire on the zerglings. Realizing the game is lost, Sfynks15 concedes the game.
Back in the chat room, the two agree for a final fight on a map of my choosing. I decide to pick a map the two don’t know, called Gemini Station. This map, well I’ve never seen it played on ladder. Only I have played it once when I accidentally picked it for a ladder game. For those who want to know what the thing looks like, I have included a screenshot.
 The red is Admiral-Bednarz, who is protoss. The blue is Sfynks15 who is also protoss.
The game starts with both players going for a zealot rush. However, Admiral-Bednarz is focusing less on constructing zealots and more on building photon cannons. However, when he has 7 zealots, they move towards Sfynks15’s base, which he knows is probably on the other side of the map, somewhere. Sfynks15 has 15 zealots, and 8 of them go scouting, right when they leave, Admiral-Bednarz’s zealots arrive at Sfynks15’s base. Sfynks15 has 4 zealots engage the enemy head on while the other 3 go around the zealots and attack from behind. Sfynks15 wins this small skirmish. However, he finds his zealots are attacking Admiral-Bednarz’s base.
Admiral-Bednarz had set up 4 photon cannons, and these are easily killed. Realizing the game is lost completely, along with the series, Admiral-Bednarz surrenders, leaving the victor to be Sfynks15. The series is over, and in the chat room, Admiral-Bednarz vows revenge. Sfynks15 assures him he will fight anytime, anywhere, any, uh, well, it doesn’t matter. The battle of 2 fairly good people, is over, for now…
Lessons learned
1) Psi-storm can be vital when it comes down to battles.
2) Micro-management can change the course of battles
3) Always expand.
4) Always, when Zerg, try and overwhelm the opponent.
5) Units are a better defense than buildings.
6) When dealing with huge capital ships, your own capital ships can beat them
7) Always upgrade your units
8) Feedback is good for a battle reporter, comments, insults, something about how the world is unfair? Just post a comment. Specifically, I want constructive criticism.
|
Home
Forum
Starcraft Tournaments
