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2 2-on-2s for the Price of 1

Welcome, readers, to yet another StarCraft battlereport. Actually, two battlereports, as you might have gathered from the title. I downloaded two replays and couldn't figure out which one I wanted to report, so you're getting both. Poor you.

Both replays were lifted from YaoYuan.com, a Chinese SC site. The first report is on a match played by a quartet of Koreans, and the second report is on a clan war between European teams. It's a pity the replays weren't saved with Penguin Plug; reading the communications of better-than-average StarCraft players would have provided valuable insights for us mere mortals.

This is not a racist joke. Although, Europeans, ew.

This report is about 1MB in size, and was crafted with a resolution of 1024x768 in mind. 100% of the report works in Moz. 95% of it works in IE. 13 15 teh suck :*(

Anyway, without further ado, our first game.

That is, unless you'd like to skip to the second game.

This first match, a zerg-on-terran team game, will play out on the PGT map known as Blade Storm. The four starting locations are raised areas, each with one off-ramp leading to the base's rear corner,

Blade Storm. POSSIBLY NAMED FOR THE SHAPE OF THE MAP.

and another pointing toward mid-map. The corners of the map contain mineral outcroppings, and make for relatively safe border extensions. The front expansions, though having both minerals and gas, are smack in the middle of the land route into the main, so early territory grabs there could be dangerous -- especially in a team game like this one.

Aside from the four corners of the battleground, there are full resource nodes at the 3- and 9-o'clock positions, which are blocked off by a butte. There's nothing all that special about the middle of the map, criss-crossed with more unappealing fissures than your grandmother's wrinkled... never mind, except for its distinctive, straight-as-your-grandpapa's... what the hell is wrong with me?

Um, to our players, then. WisnerJennifer (YaoYuan actually says this is an AKA for FreeStyle) and bakuri (apparently IntrO:)Chao) have united their zerg broods in the northern half of the region, whereas neverlove-dodo and The_NuCleaR have allied their terrans to the south. Will the voracious swarm end up shaking salt and pepper over tasty marine drumsticks at dinner time, or shall the warlike terrans be tossing some more zergies on the barbie by day's end? There's only one way to find out: Gogogo!

WisnerJennifer and bakuri's initial overlords float their way south as all four gamers sentence their peons to hard labour in the mineral mines. Both terrans opt to construct their early depots and barracks near their CCs. WisnerJennifer shows signs of teching, pooling and gassing early, while co-cerebrate bakuri pumps drones and powers, taking his anterior expo.

The terrans scout. A red SCV swoops past a pulsating teal hatchery at the northeastern natural and invades bakuri's main, spying on the gathering operations there. neverlove-dodo's inquisitive SCV arrives just in time to see a morphing lair, and then runs into a six-pack of WisnerJennifer's zerglings. A single nip in the leg is enough to convince the worker that discretion is the better part of valour, so he'd better use his discretion, and, like, valourously run away.

WisnerJennifer's cute hatchlings harry the lowly worker all the way back to neverlove-dodo's base. Dashing into enemy territory, they find a sizeable garrison of marines. The zerg must retreat. But neverlove-dodo is not content with merely putting fear into the hearts of the zerglings -- he pulls off some miners to tank for the rines, and the rines

blow their horns, signalling the official start of the 2006 Zergling Hunt. White zerglings fight a retreating action across the cracked plains at mid-map, managing to damage the SCV hounds when they stray too far ahead of their marine escorts. Obviously, Blade Storm has no leash bylaw in effect. By skirmishing, WisnerJennifer pursues a far more important goal than killing SCVs -- the delay buys precious seconds for WisnerJennifer to hatch warriors and bakuri to send help. 'Cause WisnerJennifer ain't got much. One sunken, two hydras, and the returning zerglings comprise his entire force. He was clearly rushing for lurkers, but with the enemy coming for him, he can't even spare the cash to research lurk tech.

SCV stands dumbly under a lord. Doesn't he know birds poop in flight?

In the southeastern corner, The_NuCleaR has likewise marshalled SCVs and infantry into an early expeditionary force. As they run down the front ramp, they cannot help but exclaim, "Jackpot!" because bakuri, in his zeal for map intelligence, piloted a second overlord over to the edge of The_NuCleaR's territory. Red-jacketed marines spit gauss ammo into the poor zerg airhead, which pops and sprays the SCVs below with yummy lord innards.

The_NuCleaR's troupe marches for bakuri's expansion, but upon sighting a sunken and a morphing colony, they withdraw and start heading for WisnerJennifer's base. Though bakuri harasses the fledgling red army, there aren't enough zerglings to overpower it. White lings and hydras stand at their ramp, but their numbers are too few to rebuff the invading orange units. Once the marines slaughter the lings, the hydras retreat.

neverlove-dodo's SCVs and rines park themselves behind WisnerJennifer's mineral line; thanks to the bad placement of the lone white sunken, the terrans are free to take potshots at the drones. However, the white cerebrate micros his drones and hydras, preventing a wholesale slaughter of his developing brood.

Things start looking really bad for WisnerJennifer when The_NuCleaR's forces join up and an orange SCV starts

o-bunkering, but a fresh batch of bakuri's speedlings spring into action. Claw and tooth tear jagged holes in red armour suits as white hydras spit needle spines in support. Three desperate OJ rines run for the safety of the completed bunker, but the zerglings are thick around them, and only one makes it inside. In the blink of an eye, the terran attackers have been wiped out.

The early terran offensive thus yields no major dividends, with both sides losing resources, due either to destroyed units or in lost mining efficiency. Both terrans have finished their academies, added medics to their corps, and are subsidising Pfizer's stimagra research (ah yeah, that's definitely the stuff). WisnerJennifer is evolving lurker aspect, and bakuri is mutating a lair in a bid to unlock more advanced strains.

bakuri sends his zerglings toward the southwestern corner to retaliate, and WisnerJennifer sends his hydras to the map's centre to incubate lurkers. This posturing sets off a series of battles.

neverlove-dodo's infantry, guarding his ramp, try to spoon lead into the teal lings' gaping maws. The zerg youngsters understandably flee from the generous offer of free food, since lead is kinda poisonous. Meanwhile, The_NuCleaR's replenished forces, en route to another offensive, trip over lurker eggs on the arid plains of Blade Storm. The marines pause to inject some hard drugs before opening fire on the helpless ova, only to be flanked by the returning teal zerglings.

The lings leap into combat, but the cowardly rines arrange themselves behind their nurses and the attacking zerg have problems getting around the curvaceous womenfolk (not to mention being distracted by the high-pitched cries of, "OHHHHH isn't he a cuuuuuuuute puppy! Come kiss mummy!" punctuated with lingering caresses on silky smooth chitin). (I'm gonna pause for a second while you think about the caresses of curvaceous womenfolk.) (Back yet?) In this way, the infantry are able to chip away at the zerglings. However, the spending of these not-so-valuable brood lives takes up the red army's attention, buying enough time for the white lurkers to mature and polish off The_NuCleaR's troops. (You're still thinking of the medics, aren't you?) Then, neverlove-dodo, alerted to the lurker pack, orders his army to engage. With both terrans having bountiful energy stored up in their scanners, it is simple to nullify the burrowed threat. (Pervert.)

The surviving humans push onward for WisnerJennifer's ramp, where a burrowed lurker forces the expenditure of yet another scan. WisnerJennifer recalls the subterranean spiker from the point position, as he's going to need to concentrate his strength to repel the coming onslaught. Two lurkers and a sunken will have to stand against the terran bio units.

neverlove-dodo again sneaks his soldiers behind the white mineral line. The drone leaders call for a work stoppage,

citing "unsafe working conditions". I tell ya, these unions are gonna be the death of the StarCraft economy. With nothing to fight in the rock formations, commander neverlove-dodo manoeuvres his folk behind WisnerJennifer's geyser. Spotting scabs tilling the gas mine, the orange-vested troops open fire in an expression of solidarity with the blue-collar miners. Who are actually wearing white collars. Um, so use your imagination for that.

WisnerJennifer doesn't stand long for this work disruption; swelling his lurker ranks to five, he

Hm, the womenfolk don't do so well without men hiding behind them.

quickly lines up and relines his spine warriors, convincing the unwanted visitors to turn tail. Sadly, there is to be no escape, for bakuri arrives with another clutch of zerglings. Combined with lurkers along the terrans' exit route, the allied cerebrates annihilate the would-be conquerors. White drones are marched sternly back to work, having won no concessions from their employer in their wildcat strike.

A fair bit has been going on behind the scenes. neverlove-dodo (40 control) has added a factory and starport to his

Temporarily turning maphack on so we can check out the situation.

manufacturing quarter, while The_NuCleaR (50 control), with four barracks, is clearly sticking with meat units. More than eight minutes into the match, both terrans are only now ordering U-238 shells. WisnerJennifer has borne the brunt of the assaults so far, and a census of his hive cluster -- 25 control, with just one hatchery -- is a testament to this. On the other hand, bakuri (40 control, three hatcheries) is the only player with two resource nodes. The land entrance to his base is well-guarded by a sunken formation and a lurker on loan from WisnerJennifer. As for the teal cerebrate's plans? Well, when there are two zerg players, and one has gone lurks, the other must make mutas. That's gotta be a law somewhere. Both zerg have parked overlords to snoop on the land bridges leading out of the southern settlements.

Back to the action! Having successfully defended his home from the terrans, WisnerJennifer unearths his lurkers and scurries them onto his frontal node. Alas, they run into a team of The_NuCleaR's M&M, trying to keep the pressure on the northwestern lair. Three of WisnerJennifer's costly burrowers expire, taking a handful of rines to the grave with them. The remaining lurks fall back to the ramp, balking the reds when they attempt to steal in. Teal muta/ling spit/nip at the routed humans, sparing none.

Everyone heads for the middle. Two white lurkers dig into the soil, watching ~~over~~ under teal zerglings. As bakuri dips his mutalisks toward the orange main, the central zerg forces spy a stream of new marines flowing from the bottom half of the map. The populous terran squads overpower the zerg campers, and bakuri must adjust his flight plans.

The two servants of the Overmind join up in front of WisnerJennifer's natural, where his second hatchery grows like a tumour upon the land. The_NuCleaR loses a chunk of his command due to inattentiveness to spine attacks, but once the humans stop milling about aimlessly, the zerg do not yet have the numbers to surmount the stim and healing barrier. The terrans wait for reinforcements, in the form of orange science vessels and tanks.

However, when the orange and red troops drift apart, surely due to some miscommunication --

Ironically, Google translator seems to convert the Chinese "zergling" into "dog".

Sorry, where'd that come from? Anyway, bakuri capitalises on the lower marine density, swarming the red troops with zerglings and his burgeoning muta flock. The zerg blow up an orange tank and clock the red rines before the orange g-riflers react and scare off the fliers, sniping a spying overlord in the process.

The exchange pulls the earthling armies to the east, and bakuri, knowing this, turns his air force back to northern climes, adds some newborns to his aerial army, and glides them counter-clockwise into neverlove-dodo's main. Heading for the terran ramp, bakuri's mutas meet resistance in the form of bunkered marines, but the concentrated glaive wurm razes the protective structure. Land-lubber zerglings hop uphill and join the fray, and the zerg defeat the orange reinforcements coming from the barracks.

As neverlove-dodo brings his army home from the field, the teal units penetrate deeper into his stronghold. The mutas, hurt from the battle with the infantry, cannot take on the turrets protecting the SCV mining area, so the two surviving zerglings are dispatched to demolish the turrets while the mutas concentrate their fire on the terran academy. Unfortunately, neverlove-dodo's troops have made good time; the marines kill the twin zerglings, while science vessels irradiate two airlisks. Two injured mutas evacuate, flapping unsteadily toward the horizon. Overall, bakuri's attack was unsuccessful; he lost almost his entire attack force, did not destroy a single worthwhile building, and did not slow down neverlove-dodo's resource intake.

With the southwestern terran able to handle the problems in his own base, The_NuCleaR draws battle lines in front of WisnerJennifer's

Vegan lurks, with nary a crumb of bread in sight, must eat rines.

natural. Upon the return of the orange science vessels, the terrans learn the extent of WisnerJennifer's burrowed defenses. And in the most stunning abdication of responsibility since the words "Then let them eat cake" were uttered, The_NuCleaR calls for an attack. His rather small contingent, clumped into two separate clusters, stands no chance given their scientist supporters have little energy left to bake the lurkers where they sit.

With the marines shredded finer than WorldCom's accounting statements, a new group of teal mutas tries to knock the despised SVs out of the sky, only to be outgunned by neverlove-dodo's arriving marine force. bakuri's muta/ling regroup at his natural, as terran flesh units jog up to white cerebrate's doorstep and WisnerJennifer morphs lurkers like mad in preparation for the coming siege.

However, bakuri once again prevents an assault on his ally by launching a preemptive strike. Guiding his air warriors

straight south, he catches an orange gauss-toting squad and tears it apart. Both terran armies scramble to meet the airborne threat, giving WisnerJennifer some breathing space. bakuri exploits his mutas' mobility, leading the enemy infantry on a merry chase, stopping to attack only when the zerg happen upon a group of terran stragglers. bakuri's minions, making it as far as The_NuCleaR's ramp, send a good number of UED conscripts to their graves before the terrans organise themselves and shoo off the alien bugs.

This brings us to the 14-minute mark of the match. By this time, both cerebrates (50 white control, 70 teal) have developed productive mining

"Maps" backwards is "Spam". I'm just saying.

operations at their forward expansions, and are readying claims to their mineral-only nodes. Both terrans' (60 red supply, 70 orange) starting bases show evidence of running dry, so they've laid foundations for new CCs at their posterior mineral sources. Since the humans have been producing mainly marines, an additional gas source is not as critical for them. WisnerJennifer is genetically engineering ground armour for his broods, while ally bakuri has forgone upgrades thus far. The main hatchery in the white corner is busy evolving into a hive. The_NuCleaR is about to hit 1/1 infantry, whereas neverlove-dodo has but +1 armour.

Team south tries to regain lost momentum; both commanders' followers march lockstep across the flatlands, while neverlove-dodo's science vessels irradiate white sentry lurkers at mid-map. The terrans rally to a familiar spot: WisnerJennifer's front lawn. Before they can initiate hostilities, bakuri moves his army into radar range. The zerg force is too large to ignore, and the terrans must, once again, abandon the offensive to pay attention to bakuri's actions.

bakuri circles his army around the plains of Blade Storm. His agile mutalisks avoid contact, but his zerglings, despite their speed, cannot dodge the large body of rines strung out across the middle of the map. Few of the younglings survive to tell the tale of their escape. bakuri's distraction has served its purpose, though, allowing WisnerJennifer to bolster his lurker ranks and start adrenal gland upgrades. Although, ironically, he doesn't have any zerglings.

The terrans form up at the white choke. They attack this time. Really, they do. Sort of. Four orange science vessels

Teal air force keeping red troops on their toes.

float into range, and descrying WisnerJennifer's lurkers, drop dirty bombs. But bakuri's air force -- it just keeps showing up -- swoops down on The_NuCleaR's ramp. With the bulk of his infantry containing WisnerJennifer, the garrison is too small to be a danger to the mutas. The_NuCleaR orders his people back to base, and bakuri, perhaps sensing their imminent arrival, decides to fall back instead of pressing on. Indeed, the zerg flock wings over the returning red army, and several mutas, delicate skins perforated by the small arms fire below, drop lifeless to the earth.

The terrans meet again in the northwest, and this time, they really do attack. They also introduce some new

hardware, with neverlove-dodo supplying a pair of unsieged tanks, and The_NuCleaR contributing one with the artillery upgrade. With aid of the sharp-eyed science vessels, the tanks deal with the white lurkers. The marines protect the scientists from scourge attacks, and prevent WisnerJennifer's adrenalings from targeting the tanks. In short order, the joint terran task force reduces WisnerJennifer's hatchery into mulch. Things look very bad for the white cerebrate, but then the cavalry rides in. bakuri thrusts mutas, hydras, and lurkers straight into the action, while white zerglings sandwich the terrans from the other side. Half of bakuri's lurks burrow when they get into range, while the other half snuggle up close to the marines for maximal effect. neverlove-dodo and The_NuCleaR cannot deal with the sudden influx of zerg bogies, and their troops will be wiped out. To make things worse, the last communications from the dying medics indicate the presence of white ultralisks -- with the carapace upgrade.

Teal lurkers divulge their recipe for Swiss Cheese Marines. The secret sauce? Blood.

Things really start heating up. The northern alliance gathers their military and sets out for an attack, but the southerners have much the same idea. All four players meet in the centre of the map. The_NuCleaR's marines courageously hold ground as white ultras bear down on them. neverlove-dodo's gunners slay white zerglings and teal hydras, keeping out of

Sickened ultras sharing radioactive hugs with their new marine friends.

lurker range, while science vessels dive low and provide the ultralisks with complimentary, but unwanted, and at the same time quite lethal, dental X-rays. Good thing, too, 'cause eating all that sweet gauss ammo surely causes cavities, and as you know, ultras are all teeth. The humans emerge victorious, and resume their course. The_NuCleaR, with a tank and a small meat squad, heads for bakuri's choke, aiming to arrest any help the teal cerebrate might send to WisnerJennifer. He might be needing it soon, given neverlove-dodo's marines are making for the new hatchery at the northwest natural.

The orange group easily succeeds in cleansing the node, but must race to form up with The_NuCleaR's retreating containment

Teal troops determine that discretion is the better part of valour.

force, fleeing from superior zerg numbers. The combined terran forces convince the bloodthirsty teal units to return to friendly lines. After a

OJ SVs X-raying OLs for contraband cargo.

brief moment of reflection, neverlove-dodo pursues, SVs in the lead. The mad scientists mercilessly zap the overlords at bakuri's natural. Well, this is really kinda sorta inconvenient for bakuri, given that he was in the middle of loading those lords for a drop. Orange rines advance toward the sunken line, but decide that the static defenses are

too much, and wait for The_NuCleaR's supplementary units to make their way north. Hot on the heels of the red-uniformed UED foot soldiers, though, is a newly hatched bunch of WisnerJennifer's ultra/ling. The children of the Overmind engulf the hapless attackers, leaving them nowhere to run. The humans must go down, but they go down fighting, leading this reporter to predict that all minstrels into perpetuity shall sing songs describing the valour of one D-matrixed marine as he looked Thanatos full in the face.

The elapsed time hits 23 minutes, and that brings us to the final status update for this match. WisnerJennifer (60 control) has

I'd say something clever here, except it's a minimap.

claimed four resource patches, though his main is just about dry. His melee units, in addition to the genus-specific evolutions, have sharpened attacks to +1 and hardened shells to +2. bakuri (100 control) has run out of mins at his main and natural, leaving many drones unemployed. Shoulda unionised. However, he's got a hatchery morphing at the blocked-off expansion in the east. As for upgrades, he doesn't even have an evo chamber yet. Both The_NuCleaR (60 control) and neverlove-dodo (100 control) have mined out their primaries, but their supplementary colonies are still lucrative. The terran infantry are at 1/1, with The_NuCleaR working on a second level of weapons upgrades.

New terran bio units trek toward WisnerJennifer's natural. neverlove-dodo's conscripts target the hatchery and its defending adrenalings, while The_NuCleaR, noticing teal zerglings on their way to the south, branches his force off to intercept. Little does he know that within seconds, bakuri will be executing the plan that was foiled by the preceding encounter at his own base.

Teal overlords unload their cargoes of lurks and lings atop of the red terrans' plateau. The zerg hatchlings prance into the heart of

The_NuCleaR's operations, meeting little resistance. The southeastern commander has little choice but to lift off what buildings he can, and allow the invaders to tear down his precious infrastructure. neverlove-dodo must move his own reserve units into The_NuCleaR's base to secure the area. The terran war effort in the north also fails; with waves of defending ultra/ling coming from two sides, the attackers barely have time to wish for a quick death. Things are beginning to look very bad for the terran team.

WisnerJennifer urges his melee broods toward neverlove-dodo's choke, but a contingent of tanks and M&M,

along with the promise of nearby help, convince the cerebrate to retreat. Just as neverlove-dodo mops up the last of the teal units in the red base, bakuri visits the indignity of a peon drop on The_NuCleaR's battered main. Incensed, orange marines butcher the drones that couldn't afford a ticket on the last overlord flying out of town. That certainly gives tourism a bad name. The terran infantry armies, The_NuCleaR's numbers noticeably more meagre, pick their way into zerg lands in search of vengeance.

Roving scourge crash into science vessels, but there aren't enough of

the suicidal sky bombers to fell all of the UED's

The zerg don't mind dirty. In fact, they quite like dirty. Like many BR.com visitors.

airborne researchers. The_NuCleaR irradiates some of his SVs, then streaks them low over the zergling hordes on ground level. However, the sheer numbers under the sway of the cerebrates are enough to transform the terran meat into, well, meat. The victorious zerg forces gallop for The_NuCleaR's holdings. The commander, having but science vessels to his name, must be writhing in agony at his impotence. Minds out of the gutter, people. The word means "powerlessness".

To compound the red commander's agony, bakuri has burrowed lurkers directly in the path between neverlove-dodo and

The_NuCleaR's towns, so that neverlove-dodo's first rescue attempt doesn't even make it to his ally's base! The second attempt punches through, thanks to some liberal lurker irradiation, but the onslaught continues. bakuri sends a spy lord into the northern part of neverlove-dodo's base. Discovering no defenses, the OL gives an overlord's equivalent of the "thumbs up" (it looks curiously like it's trying to flash you) to its brethren, laden with lings and lurkers. The teal units debark from lords being pulped by turret fire, and start trashing the place like the parents are out of town and it's tiiiiime tooo parrrtaaay. But the neighbours call the cops, and a nearby orange SWAT team returns to enforce all applicable noise and/or violence bylaws. neverlove-dodo sustains only minor damage, though such a close call will surely leave lasting psychological scars.

The southerners move out, incidentally thwarting a ling attack aimed at finishing The_NuCleaR. The commanders direct their troops to that fateful part of the map where so many zerg and human souls have transcended their mortal existence, and attained the enlightened state known as "dead". All four players meet on the northern plains of Blade Storm. Zerglings push their way through solid walls of gauss pellets, only to expire before they can take a single swipe at their tormentors. Science vessels, using their fancy remote-controlled microwaves, cook lurkers in their own juices. Siege tanks shell the area all around. But don't mistake terran bravery for assured victory, because the zerg are legion. Row upon row of the zerg pour into combat, and once the ultras arrive to sponge up the damage, the swarm reaches critical mass and steamrolls over the southern army.

Lots of blood spilled, with more to come. Mostly terran.

Except for a successful last-ditch dropship attack by neverlove-dodo on WisnerJennifer's 9-o'clock expansion, it's all over. The terrans are broke. Insatiable zerg melee warriors overrun the terran bases. The game goes to team zerg.

Though neverlove-dodo and The_NuCleaR dictated the terms of the early game, by mid-game, my opinion is that it was a case of the southerners losing rather than the northfolk winning. Here's why.

During the mid-game, there were lots of points where the terran team looked like it couldn't decide which way it wanted to go. Armies split in half, or starting an attack on one player and then moving to attack the other player instead of going for the jugular. In contrast, though they didn't mount joint attacks, the zerg cerebrates were constantly acting in unison when they were on the defensive, swarming terran incursions.
Given that they were pumping infantry, the terrans upgraded infantry weapons and armour too slowly. This was especially evident in later skirmishes involving ultralisks, and fights against bakuri's units -- which he never upgraded! Also, firebat vs ling anyone?
Irradiate vs lurks? Sorta slow, expensive, and dependent on the enemy being too slow to scourge the science vessels. In theory, tanks surrounded by infantry provides cover against mutas, lings, and scourge, and the extra firepower would've helped against the zerg hordes and ultras.
Um, I'm just gonna go on record and say that I don't actually know what I'm talking about, 'cause my terran game sucks.

The original replay of this game can be found on YaoYuan. Alternatively, you can download it from the replay section here at BR.com, which has been looking decidedly StarCrafty of late.

OK, that's game one. Onto game two...

Game two of this report features some clan warfare on Gaia, a map divided in half by a jungle river. Once again, the

Gaia. Pronounced "GUYuh"; I actually looked it up.

starting positions are on mesas, with naturals at the foot of respective ramps. Wide, artificial bridges lead directly out of the secondary nodes and into mid-map, so the dangers of early expansion in our first game are mimicked here. The min-only nodes are across the bridges, with the resources for 12- and 6-o'clock significantly further away than those for the 1- and 7-o'clock positions. Halp, imba :*( The eastern and western ridges, with inclines allowing access at both the north and south reaches (and within and beyond each starting area's natural, to boot), round out the available raw materials with a full vespene and mineral source.

Each main's closest neighbour is just a short transport ride across the waters, but safely out of tank range. The middle of the map is flat land, much of it unbuildable, connecting the two halves of the region across the river.

The clanmates start out on the same side of the river. iG.KaaZ's hatchery at 12 is allied to ig.naranjit0's nexus at 7, whereas mYm.Raven's CC on 6 has thrown its lot in with mYm.Blackman's (ironically, brown) hatchery on 1.

As everyone starts mining, the opposing cerebrates in the north start a cultural exchange program, the first participants of which are their initial overlords. May this be the first of many fruitful meetings of like minds. The cerebrates both build hatcheries early, mYm.Blackman at his natural and iG.KaaZ at the top of his ramp. The two southern generals scout each other with peons; dual gates warp in in ig.naranjit0's village while SCVs construct dual rax in mYm.Raven's camp. Interestingly, mYm.Raven eschews building at his ramp, preferring to locate his early infrastructure close to his command centre. Though ig.naranjit0 chooses to be a jerk and buzzes the orange SCVs, it amounts to nothing. A newly completed barracks lights up, indicating that a marine has started playing pinball inside. It's only a matter of time before mYm.Raven takes his balls away and sends him to the front lines.

ig.naranjit0's probe hovers into mYm.Blackman's corner and beep boop dooweeps at the early expansion attempt. Going up the zerg ramp, the protoss roboworker observes that the brown cerebrate has started extracting vespene. Clan iG decides to attack the enemy zerg, hoping to set him back in the starting minutes of the match.

mYm.Blackman's first zerglings, chasing the scout probe, run afoul of the other team's strike group. Luckily, the

Zealots watch and learn from sensei probe.

brown natural has been fortified with a sunken and new hatchlings. Despite the red probes' efforts in demonstrating advanced zergling-killing techniques to their z-lot comrades, mYm.Blackman sends the attacking forces packing. Ally mYm.Raven, seeing the situation happily resolved, stops his rescue rines en route. In retribution,

he rudely commissions a refinery on top of ig.naranjit0's geyser. When confronted by a trio of offended probes, the scout SCV abandons his petty vandalism and scoots away.

Developmentally, ig.naranjit0 has three gateways and no tech yet. His partner iG.KaaZ has a morphing spire and the speedling upgrade, but his base is defended only by a sunken atop his ramp. Indeed, the iGs have massed their troops at the bridge to mYm.Blackman's secondary node. The brown cerebrate has three hatcheries to his name, and is evolving zergling speed. His lack of anti-air will start hurting soon if neighbour iG.KaaZ's ambitions aren't contained. Clanmate mYm.Raven, with three barracks and stim in the works, is busy equipping mixed infantry.

ig.naranjit0's khalai lead a charge of team iG's Z&Z force into mYm.Blackman's expansion; iG.KaaZ divides his lings. The larger group rapidly purees one of the defending sunkens, and the other aids ig.naranjit0's zealots in clearing the brown zerglings. As mYm.Blackman's last sunken bursts in a shower of blood, the western warriors focus their efforts on the hatchery. Razor claws and glinting psi blades hew in unison, their wielders oblivious to wounds inflicted by reinforcements converging on the hatchery. Just as it seems mYm.Raven and mYm.Blackman have gotten the fire under control, a red zealot, his breath rattling in his throat, jabs his weapon into the beleaguered hatchery. The collapsing zerg building splatters the zealot with gore, streaking his face like warpaint, an instant before he flares into a wisp of psi.

The west invades, as the east sends reinforcements.

Doh. Don't you just hate it when that happens?

With the western squad's offensive quashed for the moment, the protoss executor diverts three zealots into mYm.Raven's territory. However, the terran's barracks have been busy; with a pair of bats and a medic at the ramp, the Z trio burns.

In the north, mYm.Blackman earmarks a drone to remorph his destroyed hatchery. With mYm.Raven generously lending troops to guard the brown quarter, the eastern cerebrate sends his lings to survey ig.naranjit0's holdings. Between zealots refusing to budge from their ramp, cannons warping in, and white zerglings prancing in from the north, the brown exploratory force is lost.

A quiet minute follows, which is broken by more scouting activity. iG.KaaZ hatches twin scourge and pilots them to the south. Finding mYm.Blackman's initial overlord, the suicide bombers mindlessly slam into the hostile ovie and deny mYm.Raven of free detection at his ramp. mYm.Blackman sends a youngling to eyeball ig.naranjit0, and the pup catches the protoss warping defenses for their secondary node. mYm.Raven's infantry amble toward the red bridge, and mYm.Blackman tacks on a small -- with the death of his overlord, he is under-supplied -- brace of lings, making sure to start creep at his hatcheries.

A white ling on patrol chances by the eastern team in transit, spoiling the surprise factor. iG.KaaZ bashes a bottle of champagne against a muta's head, giving his blessing to the zerg fleet before it embarks on its first mission. mYm.Blackman's zergling force climbs up the ridge at 9-o'clock and emerges behind ig.naranjit0's lines, but with finished cannons bolstered by white air power, the tiny brown zergling company has little impact. Darned whiteys; always finding ways to keep the brownies down :*( mYm.Raven's infantry fare little better; the marines have too many targets, and the firebats are literally cannon fodder the whole time it takes for them to close to flamer range. Though a number of iG.KaaZ's mutas fall victim to the gunners below, the terran troops succumb one after another as they abort their attack.

Clan iG, feeling the momentum shift their way, hustles a gang of muta/zeal into mYm.Blackman's re-creeped expansion.

Lazy drones stop working so they can watch the fisticuffs.

The mutas helpfully target the orange firebat there, evening the odds for the zealots. Marines and a spore colony prevent the mutas from engaging head-on, though, leaving the protoss to weave through morphing sunkens and drones running interference. The zeals' leg upgrades come online too late to be of use against the drones waging urban warfare, backed up by mYm.Raven's +1 rines. The mYm contestants have successfully eased the pressure their opponents have been building since the first bloodletting.

In fact, despite mYm.Blackman's troubles in the early going, the teams have drawn even now. Two nexuses anchor the gathering

Here lies another wasted opportunity to say something clever.

of the protoss tribe, and ig.naranjit0's 50 psi is being augmented with dragoons. Though iG.KaaZ's mesa is secured with creep at the ramp and he supports a healthy 40 control, he still holds only one resource cluster, with a white drone just now sniffing at the natural. mYm.Blackman, at 30 control, will soon be a real power, with three hatcheries (one a lair) and two functioning colonies. And mYm.Raven, with troops scarfing down 60 supply in the cafeteria, has the most infrastructure of all four players. He's recently floated a CC onto his natural, which will help support his new factory and starport. Two engineering bays take up prime real estate in his settlement, allowing for quick upgrades.

As iG.KaaZ's demoralised mutas flap away from the northeast, mYm.Raven and mYm.Blackman gather their military on the plains. Brown zerglings and orange M&M pick their way slowly into enemy territory. The nearer they get to their enemies, the more agitated mYm.Blackman's lings become; they split into separate groups, racing to and fro, ranging far away from their marine backup. Thus, when hostile units ping on the minimap, the brown lings are out of position.

When ig.naranjit0's attempt to draw the aggressors into his cannon line fails, the iG team's armies encircle the mYm clan. White mutas and lings descend from the north, bearing down on mYm.Blackman's disoriented zerglings. Meanwhile, ig.naranjit0's goons advance, the wide bridge nullifying any innate disadvantage imparted by their fatness. By the time the brown zerglings have manoeuvred to flank the goons, the combined firepower of the western troops has decimated the marine force. Though continuing will ensure their destruction, the eastern lings redouble their efforts to deal death to ig.naranjit0's four-legged troops. The reincarnated zealots, fearing a second, more permanent death, crab-walk all the way into iG.KaaZ's natural, where white warriors eradicate the brownies and their loyal veterinarians.

After being backdoored by the mutas, the zerglings backdoor the goons.

The contestants begin getting greedy; iG.KaaZ finally puts a hatch at his natural, and partner ig.naranjit0 has a probe ready on the 9-o'clock ridge. mYm.Raven is busy solidifying his claim on all four nodes in the southeast corner, whereas the westerners have just slaughtered a brown drone at mYm.Blackman's min-only.

Indeed, with the ground soaked with so much fresh eastern blood, iG has moved out, trying to recapture the momentum that's been theirs for so much of the game. But as they prepare a thrust into the heart of mYm.Raven's stronghold, disaster strikes.

mYm.Blackman, having suffered so much in the initial raids, has come back with some lair tech. Brown mutas make the

short flight between the opposing broods, expectorating at the lone spore colony guarding iG.KaaZ's main. The western cerebrate extricates his mutas from iG's strike force, but after a minor exchange of muta fire, he quickly realises he doesn't have enough numbers to match mYm.Blackman's air power. As the drones at his main are pulverised, he sends his mutas south to attack mYm.Raven.

In stark contrast to the disaster in the white cerebrate's base, ig.naranjit0's offensive, supported by iG.KaaZ's lings, is going well. His tough protoss units

easily roll over the small tank/rine garrison tasked to guard the min-only expansion, despite a disparity in upgrades (ig.naranjit0's +1 weapon/armour against mYm.Raven's +2 infantry). The CC goes down in flames. The iG squad strides into mYm.Raven's natural, razing three hastily erected bunkers and converting their inhabitants into puddles of meat. The executor splits his force in two; some concentrating on the natural command centre while the rest climb up into mYm.Raven's base proper, accompanied by iG.KaaZ's mutas. The terran, with his military completely wiped out, is in dire straits.

That is, until mYm.Blackman arrives to repay his terran friend for his assistance in the early game. Brown

muta/lings, with a level of armour upgrades each, bounce and flap into the OJ natural. Enemy goons, violently intent on the CC, are caught by surprise in a storm of glaive wurm and claw. In addition, the dispersion of ig.naranjit0's forces allows the brown cerebrate to concentrate the attacks of his larger group, killing the enemy faster at lower cost. Though iG.KaaZ's mutas and the up-ramp goons react, it is too late. iG's invasion slams up against a wall, and mYm.Blackman directs his mutas to finish iG.KaaZ.

The executor is outnumbered, which means it's time for high templar. With three mining operations up and running, all

Can the protoss hold off mYm with psi storm?

vespene-enabled, ig.naranjit0 can certainly afford to splurge on some psi masters. As he researches storm, a string of his units congas into ally iG.KaaZ's corner, being systematically taken down by brown mutas. However, the iG allies conclude that iG.KaaZ is too far behind to be of use. ig.naranjit0 pulls his khalai out, and orders them to hit the terran commander instead.

mYm.Raven has a group of infantry and tanks guarding the outside of his bridge. Zealots, led by a DT, sprint into the marine line, gauss bullets causing their shields to flicker and dim. The orange tanks and goons exchange fire; the artillery shells softening the protoss mech walkers for the marines. But then ig.naranjit0's languid templar finally catch up with the rest of Aiur's finest, and flay the infantry's minds with psionic energy. A small contingent of red units arrives, reinforcing ig.naranjit0's survivors while two HT, drained of energy, decide to get a little romantic and meld into an archon.

The protoss cross the bridge, making quick work of the natural CC as frightened SCVs hightail it outta there. But ig.naranjit0's attempt at gaining mYm.Raven's ramp fails, for the orange commander has been busy rousting marines from their pinball games to partake of warfare. Sigh... If there were more pinball machines in the world today, it'd be a much more peaceful place. Anyway, the marines, joined by vultures, intimidate the khalai into retreating. Though ig.naranjit0 has one templar in his force, his powers were squandered on a storm dodged by brown airlisks doing trick turns.

SCVs stand dumbly in the middle of a war zone.

These selfsame mutas badger the routed red troops all the way into the western half of Gaia. The lisks dart this way and that to minimise the impact of the archon's wild swiping. Then newly arrived protoss warriors push out onto the plain, and mYm.Blackman's air returns to the east, where mYm's armies have been summoned.

mYm.Raven litters (max. $500 fine) the mid-map with mines, and ig.naranjit0, lacking mobile detection, is forced to

sit until he can complete observer tech. But mYm.Raven's vultures, mine bays empty, rev their engines and vroom into the middle of ig.naranjit0's army. Deliberately targeting ig.naranjit0's high templar -- unfortunately standing in the front lines -- in a courageous, but suicidal move. Now, with the stormers out of the way, mYm.Blackman is free to unleash the swarm.

A gigantic flight group of mutalisks blots out the sun as zerglings kick up clouds of dust in their eagerness to reach their enemies. The goons buckle under the mutas' projectile chains and the zerglings' gashing blows. The eastern team pours into ig.naranjit0's ridge expansion, sheer numbers breaking the resistance. ig.naranjit0 has no choice but to traverse the warp gate back to Aiur and lick his wounds.

Game goes to mYm.Raven and mYm.Blackman. GG, iG.

I found this a pretty fun game to watch. There was quite a lot of back-and-forth action, and a bit of a comeback on mYm.Blackman's part. Both the iG and mYm players exhibited lots of teamwork, moving in concert and helping each other out. The key to this match, I think, was mYm.Blackman's persistence in nurturing his economy. Despite his suffering in the first few minutes of the battle, once he started raking in the resources he was able to out-produce his evil zerg twin, beating iG.KaaZ at his own muta game.

The original replay was lifted from YaoYuan. Again, I've helpfully placed a copy in this site's replay section.

And that's that. As usual, dear readers, I hope you found some measure of enjoyment from my writings. But though this ends the battlereport qua battlereport, I've got a little more to say...

If you're a rater, and you're going to rate this, go do your thing and if you're curious, come back and read the rest when you're done.

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