"Once upon a time blah blah blah nohunters blah blah gogogogogo"
-Rumpelstiltskin
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| How the probes saved the day, three times! | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 08/07/99 11:08 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | Starcraft(1), Text Only(1) | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 4, Max: 7, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for -Flathead-: 6.5588 |  | The battlefield resonated with the sound of dying zealots as the mighty probes ripped into the enemy troops with their mining tools. On this day, the probes had been called into battle three times, each time playing a more important role in saving their mentally challenged commander, -Flathead-.
The game had commenced not 15 minutes earlier on the Challenger map, with both commanders choosing the protoss forces for their race. -Flathead- went with a 2 gate opening, and was planning on transitioning to templars and dragoons. His worthy opponent, who shall be called GZR (good zealot rusher), tipped his hand when a scouting probe of -Flathead-'s revealed that GZR had gone forge-first, a sure sign of an early cannon push. Knowing that a push of this nature can be deadly on challenger, -Flathead- began to look around near his gas vent for the tell-tale cannons. He found a pylon and probe just to the right of the gas vent, and just at that moment GZR started warping one, then another cannon. -Flathead- looked, and realized very quickly that his first zealot, still building, would not be able to kill that cannon before being killed himself, and that would be the beginning of the end.
So 12 probes were commanded to ATTACK!!! Knowing this would put him far behind economically, -Flathead- hoped that he would be able to at least take out one cannon as it was warping. GZR, however, noticed that the probes were attacking, canceled the warping cannons, and typed "LOL" as his probe was killed. The zealot popped, and began working on the pylon as the probes went back to work. -Flathead- commended his probes on a job well done.
At this point, -Flathead- had lost hundreds of minerals worth of mining time, and knew that even some early zealots might not be able to end the game vs. GZR. -Flathead- tried, though, sending his first three zealots out for enemy blood. When he got to the enemy base on the bottom of the map, he was met with two gateways, a forge, and 4 zealots. The 3 zealots retreated and made their way back to base.
Amazed as he was, the probes being distracted actually had caused -Flathead- to fall behind in troop production. This was a serious blow to -Flathead-, who had mistakenly thought he was ahead on troops and gone ahead with a Cyber core and assimilator pretty early. As the zealots retreated, -Flathead- pondered whether he was going to be killed by zealots before he could get out enough troops.
As the third dragoon popped, 12 enemy zealots ran into -Flathead-'s base, seriously outnumbering the defending troops. GZR typed "gg" as his troops slammed into -Flathead-'s.
Knowing he was outnumbered, the protoss commander fled with all of his dragoons and zealots into the middle of his peon line. As his troops, being chased by enemy zealots, got into the peon line, -Flathead- again ordered his probes to attack-move towards his enemy. Then an amazing thing happened:
-Flathead-'s probes and dragoons killed the entire attacking force, while the enemy zealots tried in vain to wade their way through to the dragoons. The enemy, surrounded by probes with mining tools, typed "Unbelievable" as the last of his zealots were vaporized. -Flathead- quickly took stock:
2 zealots and 2 damaged, range upgraded dragoons were alive. He still had 2 gates, but neither was producing because the probes had been fighting instead of mining. There was simply no money in the bank. The probes went back to work and the gateways were soon in operation again. -Flathead- used some spare minerals to start a citadel, hoping a transition to Templari would be able to save him from the constant rush of zealots.
Then, about 2 minutes later, GZR again typed "GG"
Alas, before the citadel was even built, more troops rushed into -Flathead-'s base. -Flathead- looked and noticed that this time he was *seriously* outnumbered, 2 troops to 1. 16 zealots attacking, 4 zealots and 4 dragoons defending. -Flathead- sent the zealots to their deaths, and AGAIN ran his dragoons into the middle of his peons. After the attacking zealots dispatched the defending zealots, -Flathead- thanked his lucky stars that he had gotten the dragoon range upgrade.
The enemy zealots, who were commanded to attack -Flathead-'s pylons, were being attacked by dragoons out of the peon line. As they were attacked, they immediately responded by storming into the peons to kill the dragoons. This is the time that the probes were ordered to fight with their mining tools once again!!
The enemy zealots ran around, trying to engage the dragoons while probes attacked them from all sides. In a scene that was worthy of a screen shot, but much too hectic to provide one, approx. 40 units scrambled around in the peon line, tripping over each other. Every now and then GZR would tell his zealots to attack the probes, but alas as soon as the probe attacked was killed they'd try to acquire the dragoons again. During the 90 second battle, 4 probes and 4 zealots were lost, and the entire force of 16 attacking zealots had been killed again. To which GZR replied with an "Ugh".
At this point, -Flathead- had won 2 extremely pitched battles, and felt like he actually had the upper hand. 3 dragoons and 2 zealots more had popped during the battle, and 3 more troops were on the way. His probes now mining again, -Flathead- built a templar archives and attacked with
everything he had. 6 dragoons, 2 zealots. He was met at the enemy choke with 4 zealots, which means that his opponent had probably teched up, although -Flathead- had not yet been able to look at the enemy base. As the last of the enemy zealots died, the 3 remaining dragoons ran smack into 2 reavers being dropped out of a shuttle, and died a very very quick death. As the blue goo soaked into the ground for the first time at the enemy base, -Flathead- cursed himself again as he had again not been building units at his main. He warped in a fifth gateway and qued up units in his other 4. Psi-storm research was started, and the first of several templars began to warp out of the gateways, along with supporting dragoons.
Then, there was a lull of 1-2 minutes while both commanders built their forces again. Deciding to take the fight to him, -Flathead- once again ordered his dragoons into battle. 8 dragoons left for the enemy base, supported by one templar and 4 zealots. At the enemy base, there was very little resistance, one reaver and a couple of zealots were all that were there. The reaver was quickly dispatched, as were the zealots, at which time -Flathead-'s troops began to whack on GZR's main, specifically the gas assimilator, and supporting probes. Then -Flathead- looked at his base, and saw that there were 2 reavers whacking on the two cannons he had built near his peons.
-Flathead- sighed, and suspected it would be a contest to see who destroyed who's base sooner. 3 dragoons were ordered to attack the 2 reavers after they had run out of scarabs, and a templar commanded to psi-storm the spot the reavers were sitting in. The psi-storm hit with full force, causing GZR to climb back into his shuttle and limp away. Lucky, lucky psi-storm on that one.
-Flathead- now knew that he had the upper hand. Knowing that GZR would retreat and try to rebuild on the challenger islands, -Flathead- built 2 rob facilities and started up another base in the destroyed main of GZR. More templars and dragoons were qued up, and as the first shuttle popped, an archon and a dragoon went to -Flathead-'s island expansion to check for the enemy. Sure enough, a nexus had just warped at the expansion, and two peons were mining. The archon and dragoon quickly dispatched the probes, then the archon loaded back up and the shuttle went back to pick up another archon. The dragoon was left behind to (eventually) dispatch the nexus that had been built there.
Upon scouting the first of the two mineral only islands in the middle, -Flathead- saw an enemy shuttle, providing recon for the island. Both archons were dropped, and the enemy shuttle dispatched.
It was an exact replay at the other mineral only island in the middle, archons dropped, recon shuttle dispatched.
When the archons, now 4 in 2 shuttles, reached the enemy island expansion, there were three cannons protecting. -Flathead- managed to drop all 4 archons, which made short work of 3 cannons and began working on the enemy's last base. GZR called "gg" and the commanders decided to call an alliance, after a hard fought battle.
As the battle wound up, GZR asked -Flathead- "How'd you get so many guys?"
-Flathead- mentioned that the question would have gone the other way had there not been two slaughters in the peon line, and said the micromanagement is what had won him the game, not troop count.
That's when -Flathead-'s probes collapsed, their mechanical bodies worn out and ruined by the constant fighting. They had saved the day THREE TIMES, and it was miller time. |
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