EPTPractice Game 1:
Opponent: Bot; Terran. (Hard)
Warsaurus: Protoss
Outcome: Loss.
Reason: Early Pressure.
Terran attacked early. I had warning, my scouting probe was useful as a warning system. Parked outside their base, it died, gave me unit info, and the obvious conclusion that my opponent was attacking. With one warp gate operational, and two morphing, I had very few units. My robotics bay was just created, but it’s Immortal was not only too slow at building, but too expensive to hedge my bets on it. Created as many units as I could. Held off attack, lost two Pylons, and my entire army. Economy would never recover. Terran's larger army eventually wore me down.
Conclusion: Must build more starting units. The rush was NOT that early, it was fairly standard play. Either refine my build so that it is faster, or change my strategy entirely.
Practice Game 3:
Opponent: Bot; Terran (Hard)
Warsaurus: Protoss
Outcome: Victory.
Reason: Larger Economy, Larger Army.
Huge Success! My build worked as it should with little tweaking in the order/units. Merely my ability to refine my work, and nail down exactly when things should be built helped me hold the pressure, and win the game. I supply blocked myself at the 26th Pylon, and that is a shame, because other than that, the game went almost perfectly to plan. My Robo after my 3rd Gate produced my observer which helped me time my attack (Though against a Bot, you attack directly after they attack you.) and the led me to victory.
Conclusion: Must work on not supply blocking myself. Must research when observer is needed, my reasoning on Obs is not scouting as much as Banshee/Dark Templar harassment, so I want to know the min time it takes to deploy those units, so I know when my Observer needs to be up and running.
Game 1: Rank: Placement
Opponent: ‘SCUDY’ (Terran)
Warsaurus: Protoss
Outcome: Victory.
Reason: Economy, better Micro/Unit choice.
The game started as normal, I was a little flustered, it being a Placement Match and all, so my refinement wasn’t up to par. However, I managed, 3 gated, 1 Robo’d, scouted late (Must work on this on larger maps). After awhile I gained excess minerals and expanded to my Natural. An attack followed (Known about beforehand through scouting) and I countered it easily with some cannons and Warp-units. I then attacked. I dealt unit damage, but not enough. A counter-attack followed, and I thought for sure I had lost. My natural was destroyed, but with a few stalkers warped in at the last moment, I destroyed his Marauders. Building back my ruined base and economy, I decided that my only option was to attack. SUCCESS! My opponent had forgotten about his unit building while he was absorbed in his attack! Crushing his few units, he quickly GG’d me, leaving me to celebrate.
Conclusion: PERSISTENCE! Even when you think you’re beaten, keep playing until the end, your opponent may just make a mistake! Luckily, in this case my opponent had done just that. Next game however, I must work on my economy and unit building. I was too low on population that game, I don’t plan on making that mistake again if I can help it.
Game 3: Rank: 33 Bronze.
Opponent: ‘aeci’ (Zerg)
Warsaurus: Protoss
Outcome: Victory.
Reason: Economy, Micromanagement.
Opponent tried to 6-Pool. I scouted early, anticipating this very thing, and I was able to counter with a quick Gate-Way zealot, and Forge. I didn’t create my usual Cyber Core, instead opting for just Zealots until the rush was held. After holding the rush through Micro-managing some probes, I pushed back. After several bouts of back and forth, my economy, still strong, eventually out-produced my opponent, leading to his GG.
Conclusion: Scouting is essential to holding off early pressure and all-in strategies from opponent. Also, the mantra given to me from Day[9] of “Just go and Kill them” helped greatly, thank you, Day[9]. Instead of over-thinking anything, I decided that his army, could not reasonably be Larger than mine, and at the greatest would be equal. Therefore, my attack was successful, leading to my win.
End Rank: 19 Bronze.
Game 5: Rank 14 Bronze.
Opponent: ‘Sneak’ (Terran)
Warsaurus: Protoss
Outcome: Victory
Reason: Larger Army.
Having played one game against my opponent beforehand, that ended in an SCV rush by Sneak, and his loss because of it, I was fully prepared for any strange/random strategy to be employed. However, my opponent, was a great sport, and told me that he had been wanting to lower his ranking, and was doing things like that. However, We decided to have a fully fledged game, and see what the outcome would be. My opponent early expanded, as was seen by my probe. Knowing his army would be small, I decided to stay on 1 base, and push quickly. Gathering my forces, I attacked with several stalkers and a random zealot or two. As I pushed I gathered resources to expand should this attack fail. Sneak made a mistake with his micro as I was able to catch his army on the move, and pick off several Marines before he could engage. Retreating to his base, I was able to overcome his army quickly. Sneak, always the good sport, GG’d with a smiling face.
Conclusion: If I’m ever caught off-guard by an early expansion, attack. Unless you catch their expansion right at the beginning, you can’t ‘catch up’ to them in the early game. Therefore, a successful early attack is your best strategy if the variables factor in your favor. If that attack fails, try to expand, and build a defense, though you have little hope, perhaps your opponent will make a mistake. Also; Having a good attitude, and being a good sport about the game, not only means that You will have more fun, But everyone else will too. Much respect to Sneak for being a nice guy.
End Rank: 3 Bronze.
Game 13: Rank 12
Opponent: I forgot his name. (Terran)
Warsaurus: Protoss
Outcome: Victory
Reason: Macro, Better unit choice.]
It’s been a long day. Being sick, and playing Starcraft II for several hours straight takes it out of you. The game started by the Terran walling off and sitting tight in his base. I started work on my regular array of Warp-Gate units, supplemented with Colossi. An un-expected attack before my Colossi finished, made me lose my newly made expansion, along with several Pylons. My opponent was not happy when I then brought my units (That had retreated earlier) down from my Main along with 2 Colossi. The game then went on for a long time, me controlling the map, keeping him on 1 base. Eventually wearing him down, I brought Void Rays against his Siege Tanks and Marauders to win.
Conclusion: Starcraft has it’s ups and downs. Today has been a lot of Up’s, and for that, I am a happy player. Some luck, and some skill has lead me to victory most of my matches. This match however taught me Map Control. If your opponent is heavily defending one base, you can easily control the rest and force him to surrender by attrition alone. That aside, I need to work on Macro in late game. It slips, I gain too many minerals and spend too little. More production facilities as I expand, better Macro in general. Not a bad day though.
[Edited for spelling.]
