Hello.
Again.
*Sigh*

Today I have another starcraft game for you to enjoy, the first of two TvP matches, on, c'mon you know it, that's it, Lost Temple. It was after reviewing some zerg games for poor_lil_newb that I realized watching massive attack move armies isn't much fun. At all. So I figured that my readers, and more importantly the people who scroll down the report without reading it, would like to read about/see some tanks, storms, and SCV vandalism (more on that later).

I got these replays off sc.replays.net, and if you need any I suggest you go there as well; they have an extremely easy and effective layout that allowed me to find these in a few minutes of searching. (Thanks to melvin in the forum for showing me the site).

I also feel that this intro is running a bit long so here we go.

Both matches were played between Acesaga and Star.HL, both Korean players as far as I know. Both players went the same strategies as my last report, the 'toss going fast goons while the terran went fast metal. To make the reading and skipping process even easier for you all, I've decided to not include their build orders in the text, but rather a non-invasive list format.

• 8 pylon
• 10 gateway
• 11 assimilator
• 13 cybernetics core
• 15 pylon

Star.HL:

• 9 depot
• 11 barracks
• 13 extractor
• 16 depot
• 17 factory

When a scouting probe of Acesaga's found a Terran wall-in at the 9:00 posistion, a dragoon was instantly sent to harass and hopefully cause some damage. When it walked up the ramp with the original scouting probe it was greeted by a local marine by the name of Bob.

Now, Bob was definitely no soldier, and had enlisted for the terran military only because a stray bengalaas had eaten his herd of ragnasaur back home. A guy's gotta make his living somehow, ya know? When he stepped out of his barracks in the early morning, only to see some weird spider robot frontin' on his farm, years of rodeo training kicked in and he set to work. Leaping on the back of the shiny bugger, he pulled out his age old lasso and friend, Karl, and hog-tied the legs to that son of a bitch. Tipping his hat to the impressed probe spectator, Bob left the squirming robot and turned around to head back for the barracks to tell the captain of his deed. Then he got hit in the back with a Dragonball Z knock-off laser and exploded.

This is not Bob's story. Nor is it the story of the famed rodeo clown killing dragoon named Pete. It is however, a story that will end now so that the battlereport may resume.

With Bob out of the picture, Pete and his probe lackey were left free reign over the depot and barracks wall in. Three scvs were dispatched to repair it at half health, and with some careful micro the depot was repaired without losing a single worker. At this point a second goon marched up Star's ramp, and things looked bad for the Terran commander. Remember that he had teched hard to factories, the only non-scv unit produced at this point Bob. The same three scvs were sent to repair, but had to pull back this time to repair each other from the protoss attacks. By this point in time a single tank had rolled out of the factory next to Star's command center, and it was immediately sent north to stall the Protoss invasion. (Another tank was ordered after the first as well as siege mode in the machine shop).

A third goon joined its comrades at the top of the ramp, and a short battle ensued between them and and the tank. The tank was quickly brought down to half health but stubbornly fought on as those three scvs ran over and started repairing it. The next tank ran past the first after completion, and started attacking the goons from the very edge of the wall-in. It was also brought down to around 15 health before a total of now five scvs began repairing it. Acesaga was smart however, and immediately switched attacks to the first tank who was now without repair from the scvs. It exploded the same moment the first goon went under. Both of Acesaga's goons concentrated fire on the last remaining tank, but could barely scratch it under the mighty repairing power of five scvs. Both were promptly destroyed.

It should be noted that by the end of this battle a robotics facility had warped in for Acesaga, while a starport with control tower add-on had completed for Star. A support bay was also started for the Protoss, but was canceled to make an observatory.

After creating a drop ship, Star quickly loaded two tanks into it and sent it off to the Protoss base. It took a fairly direct route to the base meeting no dragoon resistance, and unloaded next to Acesaga's gateways. A dragoon who had just finished training tried to escape the tanks by fleeing into the mineral line, but was eventually destroyed. At this point the probes, pissed from being interrupted from their mining duties, took up arms and rushed the tanks. One tank was loaded back onto the drop ship, but the other was left to the workers and was destroyed under the awesome weight of six 5 damage particle beams. Two more goons walked out of the gateways as the drop ship flew away, and managed to bring it down to 17 health before stopping at the ledge.

Early game: Fin.

Both players took their naturals after the attack, and Star sent out another drop ship attack to buy time to get some defenses online. The drop ship was met by two goons near Acesaga's mineral line and forced away again at 17 health. This is where the fun started however; as two idle goons sent to the middle of the map were quickly sent to Star's natural. The goons were immediately targeted by six vultures and some mines, but it was too late. The damaged drop ship flew over the expansion's ledge (the one where a turbonewbie would normally be set up) on its way home and was promptly killed by the two goons. One drop ship and two tanks down with one hit :). The two goons were then destroyed, but not before bringing down a vulture with them. Definitely a win for the Protoss side.

After the drop ship sortie at 9's natural, Star decided to return the favor by sending five vultures towards the protoss expansion. No goons were at the entrance to Acesaga's natural when the vultures arrived, allowing them clear passage to the juicy probe line. After some normal stumbling down the ramp, some goons managed to destroy all of the vultures after losing nine probes. A tank rallying towards the expansion was also destroyed after being forgotten by the Terran commander.

A player who most definitely takes no shit, Acesaga prepared some reavers for his opponent. Loading one reaver and two zealots into a dropship, he sent them on a roundabout path before arriving at the Terran main. The results for the Terran side were catastrophic. As most metal players opt not to get an engineering bay, they are often found without turrets. This was exactly the case. The sound of an unloading force sounded over Star's mining scvs, and a surprisingly late reaction saved roughly fifteen of them from both scarabs and psi blades. Seven were not so lucky. Again surprisingly, the protoss forces had almost a full minute to run rampant in the Terran base before a small force of three vultures and a tank were sent to dispatch them. It's here that the shuttle comes in.

Using the patented 'Slayers'_Boxer "pop" technique, all four metal units were dispatched with ease. For those of you in the dark, his "popping" technique was invented when he used a single tank and shuttle to destroy two full health, fully scarab-stocked reavers. He did this by repeatedly dropping the tank, firing, then a split second later "popping" it back into the shuttle while the scarabs launched by the reavers exploded harmlessly underneath the shuttle. This move is still admired by many Koreans, and many starcraft players such as myself.

Getting back to the game, Acesaga's drop force was finally destroyed by some newly made tanks. The damage had been significant, however. Star lost nearly 3 minutes of mining time at his main, almost twenty units, and allowed Acesaga time to get a templar archives up. (As soon as it finished he began pumping dark templar out of five gateways).

Another minor battle took place at the 3:00 natural, as a protoss observer spotted ten vultures mining the nearby 3 main. Nine goons were dispatched to destroy them, and they clashed at the ramp. A Terran dropship following the vultures (and more importantly carrying two tanks) dropped them on the expansion ledge, and as the tanks sieged it looked as if Acesaga would be decimated.

But we must remember, protoss = tricky bastards!

For Acesaga also had a dropship in the sky (shuttle, dropship, what have you) loaded with three dark templar. All three were unloaded on the defenseless sieged tanks, and they were destroyed. With the artillery on the 3 ledge silenced, the protoss goons decided to stay and stubbornly fought on. The clarity at which Acesaga must have been thinking during the fight was amazing; that or he was incredibly lucky. As it became clear the vultures were losing the battle, they began to lay mines ALL OVER THE NATURAL. Sacrificing them in the process, Acesaga sent two goons foward and set off half the valley. When the dust settled two vultures (originally 7) were left from the mine explosions. They were destroyed as the goons exited the valley to return home.

During the battle Star had constructed an engineering bay, and proceeded to place turrets at every possible entrance to his base. This probably had a negative effect on Acesaga's mood, as another reaver drop was attempted, only to end in utter failure at the hands of a wraith and turret.

At this point both players took their mineral onlys and kept powering. It should be noted at this time that Star had a huge build up of metal sitting in his expansion, while Acesaga seemed content with approximately fifteen goons and some assorted templar/dark templar. Rather then sit on his hands however, he decided to actually use his units and loaded up four dark templar into a shuttle. He dropped them again on the Terran main after dodging some turrets, immediately destroying the comsat attached to the command center. As the overdone picture can certainly tell you, they killed their share of scvs before being comsatted by the natural command center and subsequently killed by four to five vultures. If Star didn't get in this game quickly he would continue to have his main decimated by drops.

After this attack Acesaga attacked in a surprising move. I say surprising because his opponent had up to that point in the game had not been overly agressive; instead Star was content to sit and slowly produce metal units (despite him having six factories). If Acesaga had simply continued to produce more goons and dark templar while dropping the Terran main, I feel he could have easily won. But unfortunately that did not happen, and I get back to the attack.

Twelve goons with an observer for mine detection led the first assault of what was to be a continuing battle that would last the remainder of the game. Star had been keeping an eye on the Protoss army with comsat however, and knew immediately when the goons began to move. Quickly grabbing his vultures, he laid a field of mines that completely encircled his mineral only expansion. After laying down the field he simply moved his tanks over and sieged them behind the field- the few goons sniping mines in the head of the column were utterly destroyed in one round. Noticing the huge number of tanks that had up to this point been laying dormant, the Protoss forces retreated under some sporadic bursts of vulture fire.

With the surprise over but succesful, Star's metal beast awoke.

Consisting of over thirty tanks and sixteen vultures, I felt scared observing the terran army. Faced with seventeen goons, fifteen zealots, and five templar, this battle would undoubtedly decide the match. As soon as Star's tanks got into firing range the sound of some thirty-odd machines sieging came across my speakers, and Acesaga's army surged forward. The beginning of the battle looked to be on the Protoss side, as three tanks went under before the rest even finished sieging. They were affordable casualties however, as they bought time for the remaining tanks to finish their transformation(?). After that it was a slaughter. The sixteen aforementioned vultures came out from behind the tanks and flanked the goons who were bringing up the rear, and nearly four-five zealots were going down under every volley of nearly twenty five tanks. Acesaga tried his hardest, even managing to "pop" some templar in and out of another shuttle he had created and casting storm over the majority of the tanks. It wasn't enough however, as all of his zealots were gone by that point, with only a choice few goons left. A small force of randomly assorted Protoss units (who would later be destroyed) retreated to the 12:00 main with the intact metal army on their heels, and the first match went to Star.HL as the base crumbled under siege.

An excellent match to both players; the first time while watching the replay I had a difficult time telling who would win up until the last battle. Anyone looking for a good PvT match should download the replay (found here).