Map: Lost Temple *yawn*
[HS]Merlin: Zerg at South
Prozerg-Hybrid:Protoss (duh) taking the western front.
Notes of interest (plugs for myself really :)
Having removed me in the "final four," PZH had advanced to the finals of the momentous event that is AHSCAR'S MINI TOURNY!!!! I had played a member of the [HS] to advance to my game with PZH and I greatly respect their abilities as any of the three races. I knew that this game was going to be a great match up and was deeply interested in seeing the BO and tactics that led to my defeat. (really it was me screwing the crap outta one key battle that led to my defeat but anyways :) So basically if you're playing tonight I think it would be to your advantage to browse this AAR in order to better understand two great competitors that will very likely be in most of Ahs's future tournies. Anyhow, without further ado here is my boring BR of what transpired that fateful evening four winks and 1/3 moon ago :)
Basic BO's
PZH has an interesting strat. He opts for an early forge and then gateway. Merlin having scouted his opponent with an olie sees this and continues with his early exp hatch. PZH is obviously teching with his hard gas movement. Merlin on the other hand uses his resource advantage to quickly mass hydralisks with the intention of making short work of the teching protoss.
PZH makes no attempt to scout his opponent as he already knows where he is due to the olie sighting. (not to mention a good deal of comfort in his strong BO.) For defence at this point PZH relies on one cannon and one zealot at his choke and a cannon buried behind a couple gateways and assorted other buildings along side his nexus. Merlin, on the other hand, relies on the fact that his opponent has obviously gone hard tech and proceeds to mass hydras and get a good econ going.
For tech PZH has gone early temps and reavers (temps arriving first of course :) PZH takes an expansion team of one probe and one zealot to the north position to set up a resource camp. (This base later turns into an elite dragoon training grounds as around 20 goons are produced at this site :)
Some may argue that DT's have no place in the protoss army when battling a zerg but they are great exp killers:) Merlin takes time to lick his wounds and continues to go hard econ and hard hydralisks (but no queens no upgrades and no airs to deal with goons, temps, and reavers oh my!)
Zerg forces engage protoss main!
Moments after PZH's exp team has left for the northern starting point, 12-15 hydralisks arrive at PZH's choke and quickly deal with the original (plus one newly warped) cannon. Pausing until all of his hydralisks, with 6 new recruits, are at the top of his choke Merlin prepares his assault. Unfortunately for him PZH's templars had warped in JUST as his cannons came under attack. Furthermore, PZH's exp has come online with two cannons at his choke and around 3-4 around his new nexus. Merlin rushes in and rather than attack the templars standing vigil around the protoss encampent loses around 8 hydralisks instantly to two well placed storms. During this assault one reaver is warped in from PZH's robo facility and slugs to the front lines. Interesting note, PZH made great use of a shield battery to keep his units alive during the onslaught :) With the aid of two newly warped dt's and Merlin's olie deciding to stay behind at the hydralisk staging area outside of PZH's main, PZH is able to easily quell the zerg uprising in his base. During this battle Merlin takes advantage of the confusion to expand to his min only and to the eastern starting position.
Licking the wounds...
Some may argue that DT's have no place in the protoss army when battling a zerg but they are great exp killers:) PZH illustrates this fact by sending two DT's to Merlins fledgling eastern base and decimating a good deal of drones and severly crippling the hive cluster there before an olie arrives to detect the dark assasins for two awaiting hydralisks.
Merlin takes time to lick his wounds and continues to go hard econ and hard hydralisks (but no queens no carapace/missle upgrades and no air units to deal with goons, temps, and reavers oh my!) It is then that Merlin discovers the dragoon training camp at the extreme north of the map.
Merlin sends a control group and a half of hydralisks to where he sees only two goons. However, PZH must have been preparing for an assault as just before the hydralisks reach there target PZH unloads his goons from his traning facility and hell fire rains down on the poor kiss blowers :( Sad thing really, so cute those moo cows :)
PZH begins his hell march for Merlin's main. At this point, Merlin has finally decided to get a spire and queen's nest but it is far too late. With the aid of four reavers and a healthy mix of templar and UPGRADED dragoons PZH makes short work of Merlin's natural and ultimately Merlin's main. It should be also noted that PZH took the time to expand to the north west island exp. Merlin morphed around 4-5 guardians and tried to use his hydralisks but never engaged the annoying reavers or templar with the well endowed guards. The swarm fell and gg's were exchanged...
Lessons learned:
- PZH can be taken early with a good force of lings and lurkers. Lurkers work great against PZH because of his lack of mobile detection (storm makes up for this nicely tho :) Also against a toss like this I would recommend religously scouting exp's and also getting burrow. Believe it or not 12 hydras and 24 lings popping out from underneath PZH's attack force would have easily crushed the assault :)
- Merlin did the right thing by expanding early but after seeing PZH's tech to temps and reavers should have gotten a stronger air force to deal with drops (scourge) and reavers on the land (kamikazee mutas)
- Further get the damned olie speed upgrade not only can you get better recon but you never know when a dt may come along and get cheap hits on yer exp's mineral line :(
- This is was a quick BR just to give everyone in the tourny an idea on what happened hope you enjoyed it, and could overlook my total lack of journalistic talent :)
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