| Corbalt vs Astic-X | | | Author: | | | IP: | PPP-155-XXXX | | Date: | 02/24/01 06:02 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 3, Max: 9, Min: 9
Lifetime Rating for DrAwesome: 9.0000 |  |
Starring in:
M'm M'm Good!
I have recently had the luck to be able to obs a few games among very good players. This game in particular, Corbalt vs Astic-x was a superb display of micro and macro. Just watching players on this level has helped my game so my thanks goes out to the "gosus" who I have been obsing and playing with recently :D
In case you are wondering what happened to the Corbalt vs Apex tournament finals BR, well, to tell you the truth, I don't really know where that stands. Me and Testo have both suffered (him mostly ^_^) from a lack of time to work on it and right now I'm not sure if it will come out. (Don't worry, the games weren't so spectacular anyways, bleh...)
On to the game
Map: Lost Temple
Corbalt: Chosen teal protoss at 3:00
Astic-X: Randomed yellow protoss at 9:00
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Early Game
Both players had similar early game builds, but after they got their cyber cores, the builds diverged.
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Build Orders
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Corbalt
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Astic-X
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Pylon
Gate
Gas
Cyber Core
Citadel
Archives
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Pylon
Gate
Gas
Cyber Core
Robo Fac
Observatory
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As you can see, Corbalt opted for the raw power housed within the archives. DTs, psi storm, and archons can all be instant game turners. Going down this path, however, left Corbalt with a lack of detection and mobility issues (no transports).
Astic-x chose the much more commonly used and often more reliable robotics facility. The support units - observers and shuttles - make it worth getting on their own. Reavers, on the other hand, are most protoss player's unit of choice in PvP. We'll just have to wait and see which tech leads to victory.
Both players scouted early - Astic-x a few seconds before Corbalt, allowing him to find his enemy early enough to shape his build order. The turbo obs/goon build was what he chose, and it worked out well.
The first action of the game occured when Corbalt's first dark templar warped in and was sent to Astic's base solo. A quick look back at Astic's base showed me that he could be in a little trouble.  His observatory was at 139/250 - not a good place to be if there is a DT knocking at your door =[
The DT arrived at the ramp and immediately began chopping down the goons standing guard at the top. You see, it was walled out - Astic didn't do it on purpose, but it managed to hold back the DT until Astic retreated to his worker line. It chopped down 5 or 6 workers before an observer finally came online, ending the valiant DT's short - but sweet - life.
Both protoss commanders built second gateways, followed by simultaneous expansions. As I pondered the almost identical bases, and whether maphacks were involved, Astic moved his force of 7 goons and 1 zealot towards Corbalt's base. It seemed as though Corbalt would have no trouble holding it - he had 5 goons, 1 zealot, 1 cannon, and 1 high temp on his cliff, but when Astic's forces arrived, chaos ensued.
Corbalt somehow managed to set up this attack so that only 2 of his goons and his 1 zealot could hit Astic's forces at once, while every yellow goon could hit every goon on the cliff all at once. When Corbalt finally got his goons into a good position, Astic pulled back, drawing 2 of Corb's goons away from the cliff. When Astic charged again, he ran up the ramp and onto level ground with Corb's now reduced numbers. Things were looking grim for Corb until he finally made use of that templar tech. A psi storm erupted over the yellow dragoons, severely damaging the clumped up army. The tables were turned and after a few more moments of fighting, all that was left of the two, once proud protoss armies was a single teal dragoon.
Time passed - by the time the next bit of action occured, each player had their naturals online and were producing fulltime from 3 to 4 gates each.
 Each player decided that it was time to put their techs to the test. Corbalt had sent out a lone DT during the past battle, but after the attack was routed, he had forgotten about the cloaked ninja. When he finally sent it to Astic's base, there were observers all around - and astic was doing something of his own. A shuttle flew directly over the DT on a direct course for Corb's natural.  I was jumping with joy - we would finally get to see some reaver action! But, Astic lets us all down and simply unloaded 2 range upgraded dragoons atop Corbalt's natural cliff.
Ok, back to Corb's DT. It wandered into the natural expansion only to meet up with - a bunch of probes and an observer...  Well, it happily set about chopping down probes, and by the time dragoons finally showed up, it had taken down 10 mining probes, giving it an excellent worth/cost ratio.
Corbalt's little expedition had met up with some very unexpected success - as did Astic's. The shuttle unloaded 2 dragoons directly on the cliff overlooking Corbalt's natural. Astic's goons had a field day, killing as many workers as Corb's DT had, before the probes were evacuated. When Corbalt sent his goons over to retaliate, they did just about as much good as the probes. Corb's non-range upgraded goons filled in the crevasses around the minerals, usually in positions only allowing 1 to attack at a time. Seeing the futility in this, Corbalt retreated his goons and sent them somewhere where they could be useful - Astic's natural.
Corb sent his 8 dragoons on the long trek across the temple towards Astic's natural and quickly engaged Astic's 9 defensive goons in a firefight. Plasma fire erupted across the whole screen as the two forces neared each other. Corbalt's +1 attack upgrade was quickly swinging the battle in his favor, when both protoss forces decided to back off.
Corbalt was waiting for some reinforcement dragoons (and 2 High Temps -_-!! ) and Astic was attempting to abuse the high ground advantage he could gain if he could get some goons on the cliff overlooking the natural. When Corb charged again, Astic was ready.. well it looked like he was. His goons had piled up on the cliff and were sniping down at the teal goons below them. Storm was the deciding factor here, however, and a storm on high ground hit Astic's entire army, forcing him to retreat back down the ramp again.
Corbalt moved his men between the natural nexus and vespene geyser so he couldn't be hit from the cliff. When Astic was ready to attack again, his 4 goons charged in from the ramp, his mining probes surrounded the enemy goons, and 2 goons that had been transported behind Corbalt's troops in a shuttle attacked Corb's flank.
Corb's psi storm for free hack had once again proven to be successful, as each of the three armies were stomped down in turn. A dozen probes were stormed first, followed by the four goons from the ramp that had clumped up, followed by the 2 goons that had attempted to pincer his men.
Despite the psistormage, Astic's dancing had enabled him to take out the large majority of the enemy attackers. Seeing his attack dieing, Corbalt began morphing an archon out of his templar and continued to attack probes and the nexus with his 3 remaining dragoons. When Astic had grouped 5 dragoons, he began hit and run campaigns on the 3 goons and 1 archon force that was still attacking the nexus. Taking out the enemy 1 goon at a time, Astic finally managed to crush the invasion.
Astic chased the single archon, but Corbalt had a little surprise for him in the middle of the map. A DT began chopping down the small group of yellow dragoons, which retreated and called an observer to their aid.
Mid Game
 During the previous attack, Corbalt hadn't been idle. Expansions had been started at the 12:00 natural and the 3:00 mineral only natural. Discussion among the observers came to the conclusion that, if Corb could hold these 2 new expansions, the game was his.
Astic had other ideas, however, and sent his growing force of now +1 attack/+1 armor goons to just outside Corbalt's natural choke point (note: he still had no knowledge of Corb's expansions). As soon as he arrived, he noticed probes being maynarded to the mineral only and, after curling back towards his base and around the temple wall, attacked the mineral natural from the north.
Before you could say "plasma" Corbalt was on it and had his forces running out to meet up with the enemy attackers. Corbalt's goons surrounded Astic's at first by sending half south, around the temple wall and sending the rest up around the nexus. Astic retreated - just enough to avoid being surrounded while still keeping the battle on Corb's land. Corbalt's men were out-upgraded and out-numbered, but then again, there was psi-storm (and reinforcements hehe).
Astic took down the first wave with ease - losing only a small number, but, when the second wave came, psi storm evened the odds. Goon soup began to cover the ground as thick as creep when both sides began losing troops in violent plasma explosions. When it was all over, Astic lost all of his troops, but managed to take down a lot of Corb's as well, so its hard to say who won.
Back at Astic's base, goons were still being produced out of 5 gates and another expansion had been started at the 9:00 mineral only. Back at Corbalt's base, things were quite different.  He began his new strategy - mass gateways. Apparently, he planned to fill the whole map with so many gates that Astic would be unable to build and concede.
Well, maybe not, but he was getting like 21903582470 (rounding) new gateways to complement his new expansions.
The next action occurred as Corbalt, sick of being on the attacked end, attacked Astic's new expansion at his natural. Corbalt was severely outnumbered, once again, but, once again, there was storm :D
JK, storm didn't do shit because of some nifty dancing and manual targetting of templar. :D
Astic wasn't about to sit there in peace after getting attacked like that! No, he wouldn't have it, and quickly retaliated with about 10 goons on Corbalt's mineral only natural. Meeting up with only limited defense, they quickly had made it past the defenders and had begun attacking the nexus. Focused fire brought down the nexus in record time, as Corbalt, in a smart move, retreated his probes back to his natural to avoid letting Astic know about his budding expansion in the north.
Us observers had begun talking, and we basically all agreed that this meant game for Corb. "Unless he has like 3k minerals in the bank hes screwed." Being out-upgraded and losing one of his only working expansions set Corbalt back quite a bit.
In the end, the back and forth action ended when Corbalt's massive macro finally began paying off.
During the battle, to make up for his loss of the mineral only expansion, Corbalt began a new one at the 12:00 main. Things were beginning to look up for Corb again as he gains control of his economy once again and, once again, counterattacks Astic with all of his goons.
When he arrived at Astic's mineral only, Corbalt's troops numbered 9 goons and 1 zealot all at 1/0/0, still below Astic's 1/1/0 upgrades. Not only was he out upgraded, but he was out-numbered too, but only by 1 goon.
 The battle started out with Corb having the distinct advantage. He arrived before Astic could arrange his troops, allowing him to focus fire much better, but in only a few seconds, and only after 1 of Astic's goons fell, the yellow protoss was into position and firing back. The battle was short, but one of the bloodiest.. err, soupiest :D, of the game.
Astic technically "won" that battle because he forced Corbalt's troops to return home, but both sides lost large numbers of dragoons.
*sniff* the cost of war *sniff*
haha JK, watching the soup spill is one of the most entertaining parts of the game :D
End Game
Ok, at this point, one of the most confusing, yet important 5 minutes in the entire game occurred. It all started when Astic sent a probe to the 12:00 main to expand, only to find an almost functional expansion beginning there. Well, he wouldn't stand for this, of course, and sent his entire army north to counter this expansion.
 Corbalt knew the attack was coming, I'm sure, but, at this point, he made one of the most risky decisions of the game. Instead of defending his expansions, he mustered his entire army and did a massive counterattack on Astic's base. 2 battles going on at once - the things that try battle reporter's souls.
When Astic's forces arrived at the 12:00 ramp, Corbalt was in the middle of maynarding dozens of probes to that expansion, and, in one of the most hilarious moments of the game, Astic's goons (set to "move") couldn't get up the ramp while they waited for the probes to get out of their way. This didn't last long, of course, and when Astic noticed what was going on, the genocide began. After killing the probes, his dragoons just sat there... not returning, not attacking... just sitting there. The reason for this was, of course, the battle going on at his mineral only expansion. A few moments later, Astic continued the attack on the 12:00 expansions, which would last throughout the battle at his base.
Seeing his expansions at 12:00 getting trashed, Corbalt sent a probe south and built a nexus at the 6:00 mineral only expansion.
The attack on Astic's natural started out as, and continued to be, absolute ownage. A full dozen of now 2/1/0 upgraded goons and a half dozen zealots sliced through the mineral only's defenses like a chainsaw through butter. Astic's forces took out most of the first wave of troops, but along with the second wave came templar and many more goons. Not being able to defend, Astic moved his men back into his natural.
Once the mineral only was finished off, Corbalt pursued his opponent's forces towards Astic's natural expansion, only to get caught in a trap... well, sort of. You see, while Corbalt had been finishing off the mineral only nexus, Astic had been preparing for his arrival. 4 goons were stationed on the cliff, while the rest of his forces filled up the space around the nexus. In the end, this entire formation only managed to reduce Corb's numbers to 7 or so goons and 2 templar, but that was more than he could have done in any other situation.
 As the last of Astic's goons were dying, Corbalt's templar were having an absolute field day storming everything in sight. Probes were incinerated and goons exploded under the storms' fury.
As Corbalt attacked the probes and nexus, Astic was busy rebuilding an army. Out of 6 gates, it usually isn't that hard to gain control of your base again, and, using the cliff advantage, Astic finally managed to evict the last of Corbalt's goons.
During the previous battle, Astic hadn't been slacking off, oh no, and, by the time he finally gained control over his natural, both of Corbalt's 12:00 expansions had been destroyed. Astic had even begun to build his own expansion at the 12:00 main with a probe he had brought along. Things were actually beginning to look bad for Corb; he was down to 1 expansions: his natural and the 6:00 mineral only (remember that?), which he was mining with like a billion probes.
After his successful campaign in the north, Astic began sending his veteren goons home, only to meet up with another of Corb's armies that was heading back to Astic's base to finish off the enemy. Astic saw the futility in attempting to win with his small force and retreated to his natural, where the rest of his forces were waiting.
Corbalt's new army was very zealot heavy. There were 6 zealots, 4 goons, and 2 high temps that charged into the pincer that Astic had set up outside of his natural. The dozen and a half goons under Astic's control had NO trouble at all taking out the small attack, and, after quashing the threat, counterattacked Corb's natural.
 At first, the slow trickle of Corbalt's troops was powerless to stop Astic's large army, but soon, Corb's macro began to pay off. Using his position, Corbalt managed to flank Astic by sending half of his troops north, between the mineral only expansion and the temple wall, while the other half of his forces went out the main way. Separating Astic's troops worked to Corb's advantage (think "divide and conquer") and, with his recently aquired 2/2/0, Corb managed to smash the invasion where it stood.
Corbalt's dragoons raced to Astic's natural, close on the heels of their bretheren. Upon arrival, Corbalt's superior numbers managed to absolutely rape any defense Astic could muster. As the natural nexus was blasted, no high ground advantage would save Astic's crumbling city. A few successful storms later, and it was all over. A dozen and a half of Corbalt's dragoons streamed into Astic's base, smashing all opposition. Astic um.... "gracefully" quit =].
Don't worry, it was all in good fun... (i think :] )
Scores
you'll note I only included overview and units, because, well thats all anyone really cares about. (oh no, he built 25 buildings, that changes everything :] ).
AfterGame Thoughts
Both players played absolutely amazingly. The one factor that I attribute Corbalt's win to was Astic's relative lack of scouting. I still maintain that, had he found the 12:00 expansions OR the 6:00 mineral only expansion earlier, the game would have turned out much differently.
Upgrades were also a big factor - It seemed like, whoever had the upgrades won the battles. When Astic was leading, he was winning... When Corb was leading, he won =]
Good Game! And remember, goon soup is M'M M'M GOOD!!!
:D
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