(2000th post) Battle Reports

I spawn at 4 in red, while the zerg spawns at 7 in white. I choose not to forge-FE, but to 1-gate tech. He opts for a 12hatch opening with a drone scout on 9 - being as keen on scouting as he is, he still sends his first overlord in a direction where no base is located on Moon Glaive.



His drone scout is more effective, finding me right away ...





... and I find him first too, just in time to disturb the placement of the hatchery.












While he is distracted placing his hatcheries and killing off my probe, his drone falls victim to my first zealot.



Hence he cannot see my choice of fast tech, which starts with a stargate.



(When attempting this strategy (why would you?:-p), please keep in mind that Scouts are expensive (275 minerals!!! You can get a carrier for 350), and they also take up 3 supply. Which is just odd. But I digress.)

With my weird timing attack coming (messing so much with his early build order surely helps), I move out with a handful of troops front. Realizing he doesnt have much to defend with, he throws down two sunkens in panic.






While moving out, I start preparing the transition, which includes more aggression, and eventually, an expansion. (Also, I know my macro's gonna suck once i get lost happily in the small scale micro battle, so additional production facilities wont do any harm.)



And now, the element of surprise:












But I assure you, this is not over yet.



Let's speed up on the events a little, I dont want to bore you.






Ranged goons, some zealots for cannon fodder, and a crucial probe (not clumsy unit grouping, no), and the battle unfolds just outside of his natural.








Let's take a look at the broader picture. You can clearly see that there's not much to see. Zerg is currently without units, and supply capped.


As Chill would say, this game is anything but over. The final moments:





For the record, ggs were exchanged too. Good game indeed. I enjoyed it at least, I hope you liked the battle report.

Oh, if anyone's interested, here's the basic outline of the build I used:
10gate
12assimilator
17core / 17 supply block yourself
20 stargate
28 scout
33 supply block
49 supply block.

pylons accordingly.

He spawns as red terran in the bottom left, I'm the white protoss in the top right. I start off with a scout after pylon, with no cheesy intentions whatsoever.




While he starts his rax peacefully.



Skipping the zealot, I put my core down by the time he starts scouting himself.



Turning on his maphacks, he scouts cross position, and finds me first. (Curse the cheesy reputation of protoss!)




In his base, I scout 3 SCVs on gas, and a factory going down.













And I throw down a robotics facility after disposing of his scouting worker. The idea of going fast reavers crosses my mind briefly, but I end up sticking to my plan, which starts with a safe 2-gate obs.









This is the moment when he starts moving out....






He sends his supporting SCV too far ahead, and I snipe it before the tanks get into range.



I try to delay him by moving to the side and threatening a flank




In the meantime, I start my offensive teching in my base. The all-popular 2-base stargate, but please note that I dont have a Citadel of Adun, let alone a Templar Archives.



Back at the bridge in front of my natural, I observe that he's laying mines, and I decide it's time to move in. Having delayed him a little, I now have two additional goons on the other side of the bridge, and two more in the making.







I could have saved more units, but he gets lucky with a mine going off in the last seconds of the battle. His first wave of reinforcements is late, and I emerge victorious with a single hero dragoon standing.









Meanwhile, his wasted first attack has delayed his expansion greatly, and I presume he's preparing for a desperate other wave.






This is when i notice he decided to move out again...






I'm really not sure what makes him think that roughly the same amount of forces could set up a contain on me 3 minutes later.


















The fleet beacon is researching the Argus Jewel reactor upgrade, or whatever its called, while I'm taking a third, to stay ahead on bases.






Time is short, for he's started moving out, when my disruption web research has just started!




Thankfully, he does not intend on pushing just yet, only securing a third.



I'm taking control of the events now:







He reacts surprisingly quickly, and starts unsieging his tanks.






He gets lucky as I very stupidly waste my two remaining d-webs on his front turrets, creating a funnel for my own troops towards his sieged tanks.






I faint an unsuccessful attack on his third:




Realizing this weakens his front more than ideal, I dont wait for additional macro cycles, I engage with my moderate army.















Physically stunned by my attack, he does not bring his troops back from his third, so I waltz in with a merry group of dragoons.






GG.

He spawns as orange protoss at the 9 o'clock base, I'm blue at 3. Our builds start out rather similarly:










4 minutes into the game, finally some minor difference arises:




I know he went two gate too, but i still test his front...




No major engagement, no casualties at all, nothing too interesting yet, but finally our builds are becoming majorly different.







He drives my forces off his front without revealing his shuttle:






He's faster with his observatory too, and is scouting my base already when I have my first observer warping in:










Now I might not be the best strategist, but I think this is not the best formation to approach and engage in:



Now lets do a quick unit count: 17 dragoons on my side, 12 goons + a shuttle with a reaver and 2 zealots in his. As we realize that it's not fair that I only have dragoons while he has dragoons, a shuttle, a reaver and zealots too, we devise some elaborate cooperative plan to serve justice:



In my defense, the reaver would have fallen anyway, but maybe he could have used those two zealots, or even the shuttle as cannon fodder.









Having a strong lead now, I deny some scouting attempts






Expanding himself, and having built up a new army, he moves out again



But I catch him from the side in the middle, summoning my (still pure goon) reinforcements from three directions:


I manage to snipe his shuttle with a reaver in it. (on my own this time, though with serious losses, only after both reavers have fired off some scarabs)



(On a serious sidenote, if you ever play pvp versus me, make sure to just protect your reaver and shuttle, and I will suicide most of my army in attempts to snipe it.)

In the meantime I get up my third nexus, and my two stargates.





The battle finishes as a draw, as I can finally drive him off the ridge with my shorter resupply route



Still behind in economy, he also starts taking a third



My first carriers are now out, still hidden from him. (Though hiding them is pretty much just mind games, as a normal midgame PvP army has plenty of the soft counters to carriers, dragoons and high templars regardless.)



Losing two reaver-goon armies already, he still believes they can be counter to my play.






But soon, having completed 4 carriers, I decide to move out.




And knowing my Starcraft 101, I expand at the same time.







And he decides to move out too, which results in the following pretty screenshot (as with all higher resolution screenshots in my reports, you can click on it to get the full version, and I advise you do so):




The funny/mildly amusing thing about the positioning is that we're pretty oblivious to each other's operations so far:






But soon the inevitable engagement happens in front and north of and his natural:






It's interesting to note that he decides to send down his precious shuttle (maybe as part of some attack-move?), in which he safeguards his two beloved reavers. Following orders, it flies right above a group of my dragoons, and gets properly shot down, as it's seen in the following panorama strip:



Now I might be appearing to be losing the battle...







Lacking any upgrades whatsoever is not helping him out much either.






I close in on his entrance with some new reinforcements, including a freshly made carrier



And he's forced to surrender.