"man, he dances around storm like he actually knows what he's doing"
-RS~Darkrogue
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A 4 FFA on Octopus
All mistakes fixed, plz delete prepost =O | | | Author: | | | IP: | static-4XXXX | | Date: | 03/23/01 04:03 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | Famous Reporter(1), Starcraft(1), Great Writing(1), Long(1) | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 9, Min: 9
Lifetime Rating for |]agomar: 8.6667 |  |
A 4 FFA on Octopus
Hello, and welcome to yet another |]agomar battlereport. This is now, I believe, the 7th report with the gosu terrain background. Woohoo! Go me.
I am writing this with my own stupid little br.com quote glowering down at me. I reloaded 24 times in order to get my "I am the god of preposting, yah!" blurb at the top of the page. I consider it a good omen, even as I am embarassed that of all the funny ( at least I hope so ) things I've ever said, this crazy line, which nobody thought was humourous AT ALL, is splashed right atop the best website ever. I must confess I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw it the first time, though.
Just before I get to what I assume you all want to read I'll just say that this is, according to me, by far the best report I've ever produced. It's also rather enormous - plan to be stuck in front of your monitor for a while!
Pregame . . .
I staggered into Nohunters around 6:00 on Febuary10, to the glorious sight of three afk unknowns. I yelped with dismay, began editing the pics for my upcoming Homeworld br, returned, saw much the same sight, left, returned, attempted to play a 2v2 ( but everyone dropped out in the first 10 seconds =/ ), left, returned, left, returned, saw ~Br0ken ( SCV's smurf ) left, realized who I'd seen, and tumbled back into the channel with a grin on my face. We ended up having a relatively intelligent, deep, and downright enlightening Nohunters conversation, mostly involving screaming about who was, in fact, the best superhero. Ok.
Slowly, as the next 45 minutes or so crept by, Overmind and his gang of ruffians filtered in, having learned through our trusty br.com forum of my battlereported game on Octopus. I'm not exactly sure what happened here, but some kind of confusion commenced resulting in us having a whopping 3 players geared up and ready to go. Luckily, our salvation, taking the form of the hallowed aussie Cearas, stumbled into the channel in the next 10 or so minutes. His entrance was welcomed with a salvo of exalted screams, and soon enough we were good to go.
The hallowed ~Br0ken, whom I shall from now on refer to as SCV, descended his hulking Command Center around 1:00, uttering threats and being downright irritating, while the dreaded Dragin phased in a glittering new Nexus at 11:00. The insidious Overmind raised the spines of a hideous new hatchery at 4:00, as the noble Cearas warped in his glorious new Protoss settlement at 3:00. As you can see, all the players were rather close to one another, and it seemed apparent that the first battles would involve the closest warriors, determining mastery of either the North or South. Over the shadowy, dimly twinkling landscape of the dark templar a mighty war was about to erupt, and only the magic Kakaru knew the outcome. Let the battles begin!
Early Game . . .
Shockingly enough, scouting was the first order of business, and soon enough every player had sent a pack of valiant probes out to scour the map. Various threats filtered through the message board, although SCV seemed content to confuse his opponants with ridiculous commentary. The peons soon found their targets, with a new salvo of whoops, howls and yelps being released into the atmosphere as they did. This soon died down, however, as each commander settled down to the somewhat serious business of winning a war.
Cearas shifted into battle mode with alarming speed, rapidly constructing multiple gateways, obviously preparing for victory through infantry. He teched up relatively slowly, arduosly creating a cybernetics core while pumping out hoardes of probes and zealots. Apparantly, he feared an early Zerg rush - yet Overmind was up to a greater evil than that . . . .
Down at 4:00, the hideous Zerg leader was already working on a Spire, while building a second hatchery and fortifying his base with a couple sunkens. Overlords had also been dispersed across the map - but so far only one had found an expansion. The Protoss Executor, huddling deep within his smoothly glowing castle just a few miles to the north, seemed utterly unprepared for the muta assault already in the making.
Meanwhile, up in the extreme North, Dragin focused on a rapid tech to scouts, corsair and templar, defending his base with an armada of photon cannons. Each player had vast swarms of peons swarming about their mineral lines in record time, and all were quick to construct a refinery.
SCV seemed to be following Cearas' strategy word for word, yet even at this stage he was a hair's breadth ahead. Erecting multiple barracks with impeccable skill, the grizzled Terran commander seemed ready to sieze what was his. An academy was the next step, and a quick glance at Dragin's base told me the white Executor was in mortal danger.
But the other Protoss seemed doomed. With three gateways busily training zealots and his first cannon warping in, two mutalisks, intent on carnage, were already flapping their way over. Soon enough their spiny shadows darkened the purple probeline, and the entire swarm of busily mining worker robots was soon engulfed in a sickening barrage of acid fire. Cearas wailed in horror as his probes were crushed, one by one, and another pack of mutas erupted from their eggs.
Yet an aussie doesn't give up that easily. Digging in for a bitter struggle the Executor initiated Dragoon construction at his triple gateways, while phasing in another two cannons near his probeline. This attempt was quickly crushed as the three reinforcing mutalisks joined the party, reaking ever greater havoc upon the poor little probes. Cearas' inner base construction, although excellent for crushing melee ground attacks, turned into a death trap for the peons, and ever more lost their lives in the confusion. When the Dragoons finally popped out of their gateways only one or two could fire upon the mutas at a time, and subsequently all were ground to rubble in moments. I winced as another two mutas joined the assault, and ever more were morphed at the Zergish home.
Finally, the greater bulk of the probes was either evacuated or smashed, while two pylons detonated in twin explosions, and another troop of goons appeared, ready for combat. Outnumbered heavily Cearas nevertheless fought with great valor, and, although his goons were eventually obliterated, he managed to phase in a couple cannons in highly advantageous position around the growing muta swarm.
Overmind was relentless, however, and quickly crushed two warping cannons and another newly materialized one in the following seconds. It appeared as if the Zerg fleet would sack the Protoss base despite the couple remaining cannons, yet suddenly another three heroic dragoons emerged to - barely - save the day. The few surviving probes were sent back to work, and soon enough a couple more cannons were phased in around the peon line, discouraging any future Mutalisk rampage. The Zerg commander seemed to realize the same, for he quickly shifted to hydralisk production, morphing the from his now triple hatcheries. Both players - and Cearas especially - emerged from this bitter struggle well behind their counterparts to the north, where SCV now seemed to have the definitive lead. Although the outcome was still anyone's guess, the war now leaned strongly for the Terrans.
About now, Cearas decided to take his first stab at his fellow Protoss to the North, and in some badly warped gesture initiated a cannon push around the Northernly chokepoint to the white main. With what might have been a bemused raising of an eyebrow, Dragin crushed this pitiful attempt under an Iron boot only moments later, causing a good -natured chuckle from his fellow Toss.
A long, long, long lull followed. Expansions were raised, forces were mustered, research progressed. Dragin established a bustling expansion around 9:00, while Overmind did much the same at the first mineral node above the purple Protoss main, while showing signs of interest in a semi-central 5:00 expo site. SCV began construction of a new base to the East, as Cearas sent to a probe to the central resource node closest to him. The Terrans were moving rapidly to dropships, ghosts and nukes, while producing ever more infantry from a great many rax. The purple Protoss, with the second largest standing army ( although probably in third place overall behind the Zerg ) continued to train zealots and goons, while teching to templar.
Overmind was pumping hydras from three hatcheries, though he was primarily focusing on a solid economic base. Dragin had perhaps the weakest forces on the battlefield, almost certainly due to his quick, well defended expo. What's more, he was turtling, creating a strong airforce, along with templar, while huddling behind cannons and goons.
In case you didn't know, Nukes > Turtling.
Mid Game . . .
Mid game comes with, well, a bang. A flotilla of Terran dropships hurtle down south to the white Protoss main, but one, containing dual ghosts, some marines and an SCV, branches off to construct double turrets just beyond the Eastern cliff of Dragin's main. This would rpove vitally important later on, but what preoccupies me at this point is the fact that a nuclear alert has just been sounded.
A silently cloaked ghost peers down from a little ledge looking down upon the vast bulk of poor Dragin's defending forces, aiming a flashing target directly at a humming line of photon cannons. The sinister ghost creeps away as the nuke comes-a plummeting down, and detonates with an apocalyptic explosion, instantly vaporizing perhaps two thirds of the Protoss base defense. As you can see, it is anything but a pretty sight. Well, I'm not so sure about that ;)
A followup drop immedietly follows, executed with sublime grace and precision . . . except that the massed infantry charging out from their dropships stumble straight into a crackling psionic storm. Two more storms and a dead templar later, and the glorious invasionary militia consists of exactly . . . 3 marines, 3 firebats, 2 medics. Not much of a match for quadruple scouts and a couple sair =O.
Despite his latest disaster, however, SCV is absolutely relentless. Knowing he's caused at least as much devastation upon his rival as he's wrought upon himself ( cough ), he launches yet another nuke, from the same site, just as his foe rebuilds his cannon line in that sector. Down comes the missile, away slips the ghost, out comes the spam, and the entire defensive bulk of poor Dragin's base is once again swept away in a blaze of infernal glory.
Now a third nuke is launched, again from the exact same position! The white Protoss is not that much of a total fool, however, and thwarts this attempt with a healthy dose of plasma fire. He sends a brigade of goons down South, yet these are met by a troop of their purple counterparts, supported by zealots, trampling up North. The battle is quite brief, and Cearas pulls out an easy victory as he finally gets that expo up and running.
The pressure on white is unceasing. Once again, a nuclear launch is detected . . . now from that exact site, to the East, where SCV had thrown up those pesky turrets. Dragin, no doubt chuckling to himself at his opponent's impudence, sends an observer down to reveal the bold little ghost . . . only to have it run into a barrage of hurtling missiles! Seconds later, the nuke comes tumbling down, and there goes the Eastern cannons, along with a templar or two. In spite of myself, I burst out laughing like a wombat.
This time, the white Protoss is angry. Cursing to himself, he resolves to make a stand, rallying his remaining troops and sending them along the twisted trail to the Terran main. Should he lose this battle, he's out of the game, but one doesn't come anywhere wihout taking risks. Staunching himself for battle, the Executor marches on his way, his militia consisting of a hoarde of goons, 5 templar and a couple zeals.
What he doesn't know is two rather important things. First, the seemingly superior army of Cearas, consisting of 18 or so speed-upped zealots and roughly twelve goons, is advancing rapidly towards his own 9:00 expansion. What's more, a sizable army of ghosts is trekking up towards his main. If all continue on the course they'll meet in a titanic three-way about at almost the exact center of the Northern half of the map!
But, of course, it doesn't exactly work out that way. While the ghosts sneak up North, fully cloaked, the two Protoss collide head on in the mightiest all-Toss battle of the war. Dragin seems stunned for a moment, then quickly retreats his forces so that his back is against the edge of a lagoon. Next, he completely smothers the unrushing infantry in rippling waves of psionic storm, while holding fast with his own goons and opening up a devastating barrage. Nevertheless, although massive numbers of goons are sliced to smithereens the zealots stomp right through the white ranks, quickly crushing the goons and smashing the templar beyond them. Although about half of the purple militia is no more, Dragin now has no army to speak of at all.
Oh, and there's another nuke coming down upon the Eastern edge of his main.
Plus there's an armada of fully loaded droppers cruising his way.
So, with a final, somber "gg," the hopelessly double-teamed Executor hops onto the back of a trusty probe, and rides off into the sunset just as that nuke slams into his base. Now things get really interesting . . . .
And Then There Were Three . . . .
With the demise of Dragin the war takes a definitive shift. Both the remaining Protoss and the Zerg now recognize the Terran as the main threat, and will do anything to destroy him. Meanwhile, SCV readies his gargantuan militia for a drop, while marching the first few ghosts down south. With two expansions towards the East and full domination of the North SCV not only has the largest standing army, but the distinct economic advantage as well. It seems his only true enemy right now is overconfidence.
Cearas, having sent observers all about the map, now spots the Zerg expansion above his main. He sends in a little strike force, consisting of a dt and some goons, yet Overmind now has a nydus canal - and queens. The hydras tear apart the dragoons, while the queen ensnares the poor templar, exposing it for the hydras to kill. Quite pitiful.
In retaliation, the hideous red commander drops a ravenous hoarde of hydras at Cearas' new island base to the bottom right of the Zerg main. All opposition is brutally squelched, while Overmind continued to amass hydralisks at his sole expansion. Bringing his overlords in, he marches his minions to the North with the intent of obliterating the Terran expansions.
Overlords drop upon the sprawling human base just above the Zerg expansion, while more hydras pour in to attack from the front. The battle is vicious, with countless casualties on both sides, yet eventually the frantic Terran resistance is overcome and the outpost goes down in a blaze of glory. If it were not for the two-pronged Zerg attack, the assault would have been an utter failure. Now there's a lesson!
Here Overmind becomes a little too ambitious. Not content with this spectacular victory, he pushes on towards the upper right Terran base - and here he makes a rather glaring tactical error. Rather than deploying all his forces in one militia ( which is the way to go in this situation, considering the peon line is exceptionally hard to reach ), he instead drops about two thirds on a narrow little platform of raised ground, from which they can't do all that much in the way of attacking. Only four or five are left for a frontal assault - and their outlook doesn't look all that great when a gargauntuan Terran army of about 40-50 m&m&f drops down in their midst.
They manage to destroy a supply depot before they are ground to rubble.
Meanwhile, two gleaming Protoss shuttles hurtle up North to attack the very same Terran base - not knowing it is effectively defended against southern drops by over half the human militia and a hoarde of slavering hydras. On his way, however, Cearas passes the bustling Zerg base, and he simply can't resist this opportunity to exact his own vengeance upon Overmind. The base is obliterated within seconds, and the hovering shuttles load up once again, continuing on their merry way.
By now, the Zerg force, having taken some potshots at the marines down below, has been thuroughly dropped upon. Flailing hydralisks are blown to bits as the Protoss shuttles clear the horizon, only to run into a hail of gauss bullets. The sleek purple craft whirl about and coast back, yet a red overload, carrying its hydralisk complement, did manage to flee from the failed assault. It has unloaded its deadly cargo, which immediately open fire upon the leading shuttle, sending it tumbing down to the ground, its tail a ball of fire. The other shuttle wheels around once again, and manages to pilot safely back to its home.
Got all that? No? Oh well ;)
Unfazed by all this commotion and loss, SCV resumes his previous plans for total domination, as the Zerg expand to that central resource node I talked about earlier. A couple ghosts are dropped off around the sole Protoss expansion, and within seconds a nuclear alert is heard. The poor purple aussie must have searched frantically for the flickering puple dot, but it was to no avail as the missile thundered down just the same, blasting a large chunk of his cannon defenses.
Through the rising smoke of the explosion a mighty dropper fleet sailed in for the deathblow, yet SCV had vastly underestimated the power of the Protoss defenses. Suddenly he found his fleet encircled by continually firing photon cannons, with droppers detonating left and right. Desperately he unloaded his remaining ships, yet all was pummeled to oblivion in a hail of plasma without the loss of a single Protoss unit. Now that's a disaster.
Yet just then a large Zerg overlord fleet descends down upon the Protoss main, unloading perhaps two groups of hydralisks upon the high ground. The vicious beasts rip into the happily mining peon line, shredding it to bits, then turning upon the nearby structures. Reasonably well spaced and lined up they brace for a staunch defense as they tear through the bottom of the Protoss base, smashing countless pylons to mere dust before psionic storms and plasma bolts hail the beginning of purple resistance. The Hydras hold their post, yet ever more dragoons pour into battle finally slaughtering the last remaining Zerg attackers, albeit with heavy losses.
Cearas no doubt gulps down a bottle of flat Australian malt liquor in celebration, only to see yet another nuke alert blarring to life at the bottom of his screen. SCV decides to completely bash the cannons this time before sending in a consolidating infantry brigade, and he seems to get his way as the next nuke destroys the power source of an entire wing of cannon defenses.
Yet this victory is short lived, for now the entire titanic bulk of Cearas' army marches in, annihilating any ghosts in sight. Almost simultaneously a major Zerg drop consisting of perhaps 24 hydras lands down upon the cliffs surrounding the entrance to the
Terran main, where it immediately encounters stiff marine resistance. The micro is appalling as bits of the Zerg forces bumble around in different directions, exposing only little bits at a time to wildly firing human infantry. Only a couple Terran buildings are destroyed in the resulting chaos before the seemingly strong Zerg assault turns into an absolute route. In the end, not a single hydra survives.
Seeing that the Protoss base will simply be too difficult to penetrate, and lusting for vengeance, SCV sets his sights on the vulnerable Zerg, rallying his entire army to the very mouth of the crimson main. As he does so, yet another nuke is launched, landing square upon the only remaining Zerg expansion and completely blowing it to a bloody destruction. Although this is a major blow, the Cerebrate seems to take little notice, continuing to rally his troops for some unrelated operation.
Indeed, it is at just this time that Overmind embarks for another drop upon the purple main. He loads a number of hydralisks that could have been used in the upcoming battle against the Terran militia, flying them up north and unleashing them once again upon the strip of raised ground. This time, however, Cearas is fully prepared, and a couple storms later the core of the Zerg army lies shattered upon the twilight ground.
Then, with a quick stim, the human infantry streams into Overmind's base. Cursing furiously the Cerebrate desperately attempts to defend his sprawling infestation, with a mixture of sunkens, hydras and zerglings taking their toll upon the invaders. Yet SCV micros his forces well, quickly encircling every defensive structure two by two, healing his forces as he presses on. Overmind manages inflict enormous casualties upon the attackers, yet this still leaves 4 marines and two firebats to finish off his spire. Squealing in fury, the poor red Cerebrate flees to the bottom right island to establish a new Zerg presence upon the map, now virtually from scrap.
Now the stage is finally set for the epic confrontation between the two dominant commanders of the war . . . and it's not looking good for Cearas. Both of his bases are totally mined out, and he'll have to make his move right now if he's even to have a chance of stopping the indominatable Terran juggernaut.
Late Game . . .
Now, as if suddenly making his mind, Cearas commands his entire armies to the North, consisting of perhaps 2 or 3 groups of zealots, well over a group of goons, and a large number of templar. What's more, he now has reaver tech, and sends one in to support his militia in a newly made Shuttle.
The Protoss minions encamp just outside the human base for a brief moment. Then, it begins - Cearas' great, decisive, desperate battle against his mightiest foe.
A wave of zealots smash into the leading cluster of depots, bunkers and rax that formed the front of the Terran main. The human commander lets out a surprised yelp and rushes his defending marines out to intercept, yet finds the attackers mightier than expected and is quickly crushed by reaver scarabs, psionic storms, zealot blades and plasma bolts courtesy of the resident goons. The zeals cut through the leading depots like a knife through hot butter as the dragoons crawl through on the smoldering rubble. Explosions riddle the landscape as more Terran troops race to reinforce, and soon, with the entire South Western side of the Main base reduced to nothingness a battle emerges between three dozen or so marines and the remnants of the purple army. Although losses are great on both sides a flurry of psionic storms quickly exterminates human resistance, and the demolition job continues. The core of SCV's production capabilties are in turn set upon, yet the majority of his barracks farther to the North remain intact. There he quickly marsheledsa new army, only to have it ground to dust once again by three perfectly aimed psionic storms. The greater war seems to have taken an amazing twist in favour of Cearas , but just as the Protoss proceed to crush the last Terran infantry-producing facilities an immense new orange army marshes in to the rescue. SCV's troops flank their enemies and with startling speed the Protoss invaders are completely annihilated, leaving me to gape at the screen like a deceased guppy fish.
The turn around is so quick that I'm left in utter shock, yet the purple aussie, having saed four templar from the chaos, now quickly goes about gathering an equally powerful militia at the Terran choke. Showing ultra-gosu macro skills he's got an army of around a group of zealots, the same number of dragoons, a couple archons, a reaver and those templar all lusting for battle just seconds away from the regenerating orange main.
Throwing all he has into this final battle, Cearas knows that a loss here would cost him the entire war. Nevertheless, no doubt with a sigh, he sends his noble Protoss warriors into combat, opting to finally crush the Terran leviathan once and for all. Slightly outnumbered he hopes for the best, as psionic storms once more riddle the landscape, spidery dragoons blast their foes, god-like archons vaporize their cowering opponents and zealots leap into battle under a dark, evil sky.
The valiant aussie heads through the rubble of his previous assault and throws himself with all his combined might upon the dug-in Terran defenders. The zealots split into two packs and scissor in upon the desperately firing human infantry, while their dragoon supporters continue their deadly barrage, taking some casualties. Archons bear down upon their pathetic foes, illuminating the dark twilight realm of this cratered battlefield.
The Terrans fight bravely, and indeed it seemed at first like they’d win. But purple’s superior micro and devastating units of mass destruction wrought absolute havoc upon the tightly clumped human defenders, and eventually the Protoss utterly, utterly crushed their foes. Not a single marine or medic remained, and now the whole rest of the sprawling orange main was but the psi-blade.
Every building that could took to the skies with a buckling hiss, and lumbered off beyond the ragged black cliffs to the last remaining Terran expansion. A bold human task force of a dozen grizzled marines marched down from the foothills to combat the rampaging Protoss, to buy their Commander time for a desperate defense. Of course, it was of little use. Corsairs screamed up form the south to slice into the fleeing structures, while the Protoss minions slaughtered the Terran counterattack in record time.
With his final expansion about to mine out, with his last production structures being pummeled to the ground, with no remaining military forces to speak of and with his supply in dire trouble, SCV realizes he is in no position to combat the relentless Protoss. The once seemingly invincible Terran Commander bitterly concedes to his foe, and while he’s forced to give over his entire medic harem, at least he escapes with his life.
End Game . . .
So, it’s down to two. Or rather, one and a half. For, as you remember, Ovie’s main is gone, and although he’s been desperately reconstructing his shattered hive cluster on both the bottom right island and the center bottom resource node, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be enough.
For, just as he’s heavily fortifying both bases with sunken colonies, Cearas soars north with a deadly shuttle flotilla. The Protoss warriors disembark away from the defensive structures at 5:00, then rush in with a vengeance, quickly sacking the entire base with extreme efficiency.
The cerebrate squeals with rage, and frantically founds a new colony around 7:00 as the sleek shuttles bear down upon his other base. The slimy bionic settlement is bristling with sunkens, yet even these are no match for the upgraded enemy. The hard-hitting hammer that is the Protoss dashes the bottom center base with few casualties, sacking every last structure and creature. By now Cearas is somewhat annoyed that his opponent hasn’t surrendered yet, and scours the land for any last vestige of the crimson Zerg.
Out of the darkness there suddenly appears to his sniffing shuttles the last real Zergish encampment, clustered about a central hatchery and heavily defended. The Executor merely smiles a pitiful grin, and, dropping straight into the midst of the sunkens, slashes Overmind’s last hope of victory. Obliterating the hatchery Cearas finally ends his conquest, and so the epic war upon the vast twilight realm of Octopus finally reaches its end!
So, c’est tout. This goes to show you that Australian Protoss-players own all =). It is worth noting how close purple's and orange's scores were; in units orange was actually way ahead!
My next reports won’t be quite as enormously gigantic as this one - they’ll probably be about half the size, with half the pics. I’m thinking about doing a StrifeShadow Interactive br very soon . . . stayed tuned for that one!
PS sorry for the prepost. All mistakes ( except the odd typo ) should be fixed here. For some strange reason the quotations didn't transfer at all from WP to the submit report box . . . oh well =). |
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