"Newb Eye for the SC Guy"
-Newbeye
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| L33T 1v1! With Pics Even! | | | Author: | | | IP: | 206.10.1XXXX | | Date: | 08/06/02 07:08 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 10, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for Decay: 8.0385 |   |
Hi again, this will be another report by me, Decay. I promise that this one will be better, though, mainly because it doesn’t star me and my laughably ridiculous StarCraft skills or my mediocre friends in a pubbie FFA. : / It will star, instead, two people that you should certainly have heard of before, as they are both very good. Unfortunately, neither of them randoms very often and they are both hardcore Protoss Commanders with able skills and quick clicking fingers. So without anymore blustering from me, on with the game!
Before reading, pray to the StarCraft gods that my
HTML works and blesses you with happiness.
Map : The Lost Temple
In case my HTML is being ‘teh ghey’, the players are Zileas, under the surname of MaryJoanne, and Xaanix, both of whom are excellent Protoss players. Xaanix’s Dragoon micro is excellent, and Zileas’ Reaver/Shuttle micro/macro is the stuff that legends are made of. People watching their replays stare in awe, while people on the other side of the game have nightmares of ‘the Evil Toss Men’.
Zileas warps his red Nexus in at the six o’clock plateau, along with his four Probes. They were expertly maynarded, and began to gather the resources  that would be necessary to fuel a massive army. Xaanix also warps in a Nexus, although his is brown and lies on nine o’clock mesa. (Since brown doesn’t show up well on a black background, I’ve decided to use this color.) Zileas took an early risk, and made an interesting early tech choice at the same time. Indeed, I have never seen this strategy succeed before on ‘The Lost Temple’. Indeed, he chose to place his opening pylon above his natural expansion instead of actually in his base, which is not entirely unusual, but then, in a seemingly newbie fashion, he warped in a forge instead of a gateway, also at his natural. Thus, with Xaanix’s opening of a standard double Gateway, he had three Zealots before Zileas had a Gateway. However, Zileas did warp in two Photon Cannons, which was enough to fend the Zealots off. Xaanix’s small force had to be content to contain the early expanding Executor. After the small invasion was repulsed, a probe opened the warp rift for a Nexus, which would easily give Zileas the advantage in resources early on.
The opening build orders were:
Zileas
7 Pylon
10 Forge
12 Photon Cannon
12 Photon Cannon
15 Nexus
15 Pylon
16 Assimilator
17 Gateway
19 Photon Cannon
20 Cybernetics Core
Xaanix
7 Pylon
9 Gateway
10 Gateway
13 Pylon
14 Pylon
14 Assimilator
15 Pylon
16 Cybernetics Core
20 Robotics Facility |
Knowing full well that if he were out-resourced this early, he would lose, Xaanix expanded quickly to his natural, followed by a quick probe maynard. The expansion was protected by a cannon above his ramp, a small force of Dragoons, and his three initial Zealots, still waiting for orders outside the six o’clock natural. Both of the Protoss Executors guarded their mineral lines carefully, with Dragoons (Zileas had finally built a pair of Gateways)  and photon cannons. Zileas then warps in a Citadel of Adun, which was followed by a Templar Archives. The High Templar ability, Psionic Storm, was quickly researched while the High Templar themselves were joining the Dragoons in the mineral lines.
Xaanix, with his new expansion, also had a surplus of resources, which he used to warp a Robotics Facility and a Robotics Support Bay. Later he warps in an Observatory, and soon the mini blimps were hovering over key areas of the map, scouting the enemy movements and searching for rogue expansions. Xaanix, making the first offensive move of the game, (the Zealots had run away when they saw the Photon Cannons) placed a Reaver and a Dragoon in a Shuttle and flew it towards  Zileas’ main mineral line. Seeing the Dragoons and Photon Cannons, he unloaded farther back, and one of the goons was blown away before the others could react. The Templar waiting amidst the probes was of no help, as Psi Storm was not yet done researching. The remaining four Dragoons focus fired on the Shuttle, causing it to explode while others ran from the front lines to help. After the Shuttle was destroyed, another goon popped under the incredible pressure of the Scarabs. The reinforcements arrived then, focus firing the Reaver until it was no more. Xaanix’s remaining Dragoon managed to take one of Zileas’ with it, but ultimately, Zileas had won this confrontation, losing only three goons to Xaanix’s Shuttle, Reaver and goon. Seeing the drop tactic was not going to work, Xaanix warped in two more Gateways, near the others, and began to pump Zealots and Dragoons, rallying them outside of Zileas’ expansion.
After the failed Reaver drop, Zileas decided to show Xaanix what Reavers were really capable of. He warped in a Robotics Facility, followed immediately by a Robotics Support Bay and another Facility. He also later gets an Observatory. After queuing up Shuttles and Reavers, Zileas begins to coordinate a ground attack on Xaanix’s base. He sends a Dark Templar, which sneeks past the containment force of several goons  and Zealots, and destroys a warping Cannon, leaving the one Cannon on the ramp as the only form of sight for the expansion. While observers were called from different places of the map,the probes ran up the ramp and the DT began to rip up the Nexus. Most of the containment force outside of Zileas’ natural was also sent to deal with the threat once the observers could identify it. With only  a few goons left to guard the expansion, Zileas is able to cast two quick storms and send his own Dragoon force to help the lone DT. They were able to raze the nexus before being chased away, losing only three Dragoons and the Dark Templar.
Xaanix, vowing not to fall behind in resource intake, begins to rebuild the Nexus. He also expands to the three o’clock main, putting up a cannon and a gateway as a defense. Zileas had, however, just moments before, sent an Observer to scout the possible expansions, finding it before the buildings were done warping. Zileas, in a rather condescending move, sent his probe in, and warped in two Pylons, on either side of  Xaanix’s still warping Nexus. Xaanix,
knowing what was coming, loaded a Reaver in a Shuttle, as well as sending his ground force of Zealots and Dragoons. The red troops arrived first, though, and ripped down the enemy buldings. But while Zileas thought he would take this plateau for himself, Xaanix had other plans. While Zileas’ Nexus warped in, Xaanix’s Zealots ran up the ramp. As we all know, usually Zealots rape Dragoons, and this was no exception. To add insult to injury, the Reaver landed behind the battling armies and destroyed the Probe, the Nexus, and the Pylons.
Xaanix, wanting to mass a greater army, chose not to re-expand there, but to keep it under close watch. As his Natural was again up and running, he had a good cashflow again, anyways.
Zileas, looking back to his bas, realized that his three Reavers were done. Putting two of them in a Shuttle and sending the third to the small army at the natural, he decided to pay Xaanix another visit at home. The Reavers  dropped not on the mineral line, as that was well defended, but rather near the mass of Gateways. They focus fired the Pylon that powered them, but were quickly chased away by Dragoons reinforcing from the natural. Apparently, however, this was Zileas’ plan, as he quickly picked up the Reavers and flew them to the now unguarded natural, the Shuttle taking only a few potshots from the remaining Dragoons. The Probes ran away, but not fast enough. Most of them exploded with the two scarabs shot forth by the deadly Reavers. In the ensuing chaos, Zileas expanded to the twelve o’clock mineral only.
Game Recap>
Units :3 Reavers, a Shuttle, and a many Dragoons and High Templar
1 Reaver, a Shuttle, 14 Zealots and nearly 20 Dragoons
Expansions :2
1
Infuriated, Xaanix ordered an attack on the base at the six o’clock position. Zealots move to the front lines and ran in, followed closely by Dragoons. Carnage ensued. The cannons were engulfed by the wave of Zealots (which were now 2-1) and the reinforcing Dagoons. Several of Zileas’ High Templar were present, and storms were flying crazily across the screen. The hard shells of Dragoons popped under the pressure, taking with them the enemy forge, and leaving their Zealot comrades behind. The Zealots managed to take nearly all of the enemy Dragoons and Templar with them, before succumbing to the wrath of the returning Reavers.
Xaanix, realizing that it would take a much larger force to crack Zileas’ shell, once again tried to expand to the three o’clock main. Zileas, fearing that another Zealot/Dragoon  force would come and attempt to unseat him from his natural, also expanded, to the southeast island. Xaanix once again used a Cannon/Gateway defense, while Zileas went with a more un-orthadox single Reaver defense. Both of them are now dancing a deadly dance in the middle of the map, each with mostly Dragoons, Xaanix’s being backed up with Zealots, and Zileas’ with Templar. Neither of them manage to gain an advantage, however, and eventually, both depleted armies return to their respective bases.
Suddenly, just as Xaanix expands to the nine o’clock mineral only expansion, his three o’clock base is ripped apart by Reavers and Dragoons.  The Reavers then fly to the new Mineral only expansion, but are seen by an Observer, and are chased away without casualties. Xaanix, determined not to let Zileas  be the only expansion killer, once again orders an attack on the six o’clock natural, this one bigger even than the last. However the defending forces are bigger as well, and as Zileas’ last defending Dragoon is popped, a storm breaks out over the remaining attacking troops commanded by Xaanix, and another stalemate is accepted.
Zileas, now having a surplus of money from the yet unseen island expansion, decides to spend it. Four, count ‘em, four Stargates are warped in at the six o’clock main, followed closely by a Fleet Beacon.  As the Cy Core began to research better Air Weapons, and the Beacon began to maximize Carrier Capacities, his deadly plan was unveiled. Four Carriers were queued, as Zileas, fearing that the failure of this expensive strategy could spell his demise, expanded nakedly to the twelve o’clock main and the corresponding natural expansions. While the four Carriers were finished and began making Interceptors, four more Carriers wer ordered up. It appears that Zileas is creating a mobile and deadly fleet, which none but the most determined adversary would be able to repulse. Once the eight Carriers were done and full of Interceptors, it became a waiting game for Zileas. Once he knew the bulk of Xaanix’s army was far from home, he could strike, quick and hard.
Xaanix, still unknowing of the aerial threat, as none of his observers could penetrate the Cannon web in Zileas’ base, thought that perhaps Zileas was  mineral starved, expanding naked all over. (He still did’t know about the island expo) Thinking the that Zileas relied heavily on these new expansions, he sent nearly his whole force at the twelve o’clock bases, leaving only his Reaver, two Zealots, and six Dragoons at home.
Once the twelve o’clock bases had fallen, Zileas made his move. As the Dragoons crushed his Nexii, far from home, he struck the heart of the enemy. Interceptors swooped through the nine o’clock main, slicing through buildings like a hot knife through butter. The six remaining Dragoons tried valiantly to quell the threat, Xaanix even had the presence of mind to dance them. Unfortunately for him, eight Carriers focus firing one Dragoon doesn’t leave much time for Dragoon micro. Once the Carriers reached the four clustered Gateways, the source of nearly all of Xaanix’s offensive units, he honorably surrendered the match to Zileas, and his fleet of Death.
WINNER : ZILEAS
The scores were :
Lessons learned:
1. Giving up early game units to expand can pay off, big time.
2. Reavers > Probes
3. Zealots > Dragoons
4. Carriers > almost everything (especially an undefended base)
5. SCOUT!! Had Xaanix found Zileas’ island expansion, there’s no way he could have saved enough to buy those Carriers.
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