"Mark4 is God!! He could play Starcraft, talk on the phone, do pushups, and still kick ass!!"
- The.Confessor
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| Upper-Downer | | | Author: | | | IP: | 064-084-XXXX | | Date: | 11/29/03 05:11 | | Game Type: | Warcraft 3 | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 6, Min: 6
Lifetime Rating for Soren: 6.0000 |  | I must start off by saying that 1.10 has revitalized Diablo II, it is quite fun to play, but after 8 non-stop hours of building synergies and whining about how rushing ain't quite what it used to be, there is only one cure for LoD poisoning: WarCraft III. StarCraft would have taken this role, but one cannot go four months without so much as looking at a Probe without losing just a bit of skill. Translation: I didn't want to get whipped, so my CD tray was happy to receive Arthas rather than the Lurker.
The game involves myself and a fellow by the name of desktopwarzone. It took place on Twisted Meadows, thanks to my forgetting to thumb it down before hitting the quick play button. I chose Orc and found myself with a yellow Great Hall in the top-right position; desktop, as he will be referred to, chose random and spawned a cheery red Tree of Life at bottom-right.
Twisted Meadows, we're all familiar with it: my plan was to find him, hope that he wasn't Night Elf, and keep the pressure up so as to keep those nasty summonables out of his hands and in mine. Or at the least, out of his. I was feeling pretty good; several friends were generous in their item-giving in the Rogue Encampment, and my Paladin was coming along quite nicely. Unfortunately, he and his hammer weren't here. In his stead, I found myself with a nostalgic Farseer by the name of Kazragore, while desktop, in a move that shocked and pleased me, chose a Warden by the name of Marin Bladewing.
Desktop chose to build his structures in a rough semicircle about halfway from his ToL and the two entrances to his base; Moonwell - AoW - Altar - Moonwell was his game. I opted to stay close in, clustering Burrows, Altar, Barracks, Lumber Mill and Voodoo Lounge (can't beat that funky beat) close to the comforting presence of my Hall.
As soon as Kazragore found his way out of the Altar, he sent two wolves out to scout, one south, the other east. Top-left was filled with creeps, but bottom-right proved to be populated by the Night Elves. At which time I steeled myself for gruntapult, gruntapult, gruntapult, hoping that tech would keep the undoubtedly coming Beastmaster at bay. I was pleasantly surprised, though, to find Marin and an Archer lazing about, and my wolf chomped down on a wisp or two before it was detonated into oblivion. A waste, really: three wisps for one wolf.
During this time, I creeped the Gnolls just to the east of my main, using my Farseer to take the lumps so as to preserve my slowly growing number of Grunts. When the Gnolls were disposed of, I grabbed some Healing Salve out of the Voodoo Lounge, slapped some on Kazragore, and with two Grunts in tow and another half-done in the Barracks, headed south.
We caught Marin and four Archers creeping their own Gnolls, but fortune wasn't smiling on the Horde for the moment. Instead of acting like good little creeps and letting me jack desktop, the Gnolls turned and started whaling on my Grunts. In the space of a moment, I was the one being creepjacked, which was rather annoying. I pulled back, and so did desktop, leaving the half-dead Gnolls to me to be wiped out a few seconds later.
At the moment, I had the initiative, and my Grunts had been upgraded to 0-1 (Weapons-Armor). My Stronghold was about three-fourths of the way done, and desktop only had Marin, now five Archers, and a Hunter's Hall building. GG...?
Orcs are not smart. Well, not Grunts. I charged in, wolves howling, Grunts telling me to stop poking them, Kazragore spouting off about how this land was once his and would be his again, and almost got my ass handed to me. desktop had uprooted his Ancient of War, and an Ancient Protector was being built behind the Moonwells and now-finished Hall. It was a strong fishook defensive formation, Moonwells and Altar in that rough semicircle, Hall on the right end just below the final MW, and the ToL, which was upgrading, below it, and several angry tons of wood charging from the left. With the Archers behind the Wells and Marin content to FoK any Grunts trying to get in, it was time to go. The Archers took some potshots, my Grunts said some bad words, we retreated to the Gnoll camp above his base, the one that contains two Gnoll Wardens and a Gnoll Overseer. Creeping it rewarded me with a level-up for Kazragore, and Chain Lightning was quickly chosen as my new skill.
My Stronghold was done upgrading, though, and a Tauren Chieftain by the name of Malar Plainstrider charged out of my Altar, a split second before a Catapult left my Barracks and headed south.
I now had a level two Farseer (Chain Lightning and Wolves), a level one TC (Shockwave), six 1-1 Grunts, and an 0-1 Catapult. with more on the way. Hopefully, the game was over. No amount of Archers could stand up to siege and an old bull.
desktop had not been idle, though. Out of a newly-built Ancient of Wind several Druids of the Talon appeared, though no new hero was forthcoming from his Altar. He now had no less than 12 Archers and 2 Huntresses, though Marin was still level one. With the ability to dart out and kill my Catapult (Destroyer sounds so... so... its a catapult, dammit) with minimal losses and force me to back off and wait for more siege to arrive, desktop had the advantage if I made a dumb move.
The Catapult crept up and started blasting away at desktop's Altar, which was the closest building to my army. I had my Grunts to one side of the 'pult, Farseer and TC to the other, with a Fortress on the way and another 'pult heading down towards my army. desktop did not disappoint, as he ran his forces out to focus fire on my Catapult, which was quickly taken to the back of my units after receiving a few potshots.
The Ancients were too far away, the Archers too frail, Marin too weak. I had the game. But... where were the Huntresses and DotT?
Desktop took them around the long way and started hitting both my catapults from behind, placing me in a sticky situation. I could destroy his army, and was doing so, but my TC's health was dropping at an uncomfortable rate, and even if I did annihilate his men (and women), I wouldn't have the force to put him down for the count. I pulled out yet again after a few seconds, having lost one Grunt due to my breakdown after seeing Hunts and Druids raping my Catapults, but I did kill 4 Archers and one of the Druids.
Which didn't make up for anything. Both my 'pults were in the red and I was in a headlong retreat for home, desktop pursuing. Out in the open, I could take him, but if he sacrificed an Archer or two to kill my siege, I'd be delayed even longer. I kept running. My Fortress was done by now, and a Tauren Totem was being thrown up, while desktop seemed fine with pumping Archers, Huntresses and DotT from one AoW(ar) and one AoW(ind). I thought I was doing fairly well, my TC was almost level two, I had a good flow of cash, it was obvious that I could overpower him if he didn't get some pressure on me...
Over twenty Night Elves and Marin, now level two, crashed into my base as I was arranging my forces for the next charge. I was outnumbered nearly 3 to 1, but now had sufficient siege in the form of three catapults, one quickly-filled burrow, and 1-2 Grunts.
Desktop microed pretty well, taking out two injured Grunts in quick succession with Shadow Strike before I could get them out of harm's way, but what micro is going to save Archers, DotTs and Huntresses from Shockwave, Chain Lightning and catapults? None that I know of. Marin bit the big one pretty quickly, and with his units dropping like flies and my FS achieving level 3 and TC reaching level 2, desktop ran with 5 Archers (out of 12) 1 Huntress (out of 5) and 2 DotT (out of 4) surviving. I had lost two Grunts out of 7 and nothing else. With two Tauren, the five surviving Grunts, four 'pults and my two heroes, I drove south to face desktop's last stand.
I disposed of his army with no losses, pounded on his Altar and then his two AoWs, and finally took down his AP with my 'pults. GGs were exchanged and we went our separate ways, the Horde undisputed masters of that imbalanced cheese-fest known as Twisted Meadows, this time. I am pleased to say that desktop didn't run for a BM (though that would have been advisable), and we both eschewed summon items. It was a fun game, flushed that D2x poisoning right out of my system, and although I had control pretty much throughout, I did panick a bit when he came after my 'pults and when he attacked my base. I had fun playing the game, and I hope you had fun reading it. Later! |
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