Ladder Blog #15

ESV Bardiche
Created by: Neobowman, AKA Einhart

Based on the Brood War map, "Moonlight Punch Romance" by TwoS.
Pronounced: Bar-deesh
Destructible rocks obstructing the centre path have 1000 hp and 1 armour each.
Line of sight blockers on the edge of the main are uinpathable.
High ground at natural is unpathable.
Rich mineral fields have 1 rich vespene geyser each.

A small map with a triple path layout. The central path is short but is blocked off with destructible rocks. The other two paths lead to expansions.

I'm still pissed about the maps (I'd complain less if my map was in) but I haven't been getting them as much so I'm less annoyed.

I've been trying out the 13 scout on 4 player maps, but I found that you can delay the scout on 2 player maps a lot. On Xel'Naga, I send my 14th drone out when it pops. Not 14 supply, but my 14th drone. That lets me get in just in time to decide whether to 17 pool or 18 pool. Not that it matters a whole lot. 18 pool probably gets you around 20 extra minerals at max.

Blue flame hellions are still annoying. It gets really hard to scout when a couple of those run around the map picking off lings at the watch towers. All you have for information are overlords around your opponent's base. You don't even have that many because it's too risky to send out overlords aside from your first one and sometimes your second one.

I think the new overseer patch will help out a lot. Blue flame helions, not so much. They'll still roast lings 2 shot so personally, it doesn't matter that much. If they get in the mineral line, they'll still cause a ton of damage. Since I wasn't a big infestor user in the first place, I don't really care about that.

I'm having trouble remembering to get the bane nest when the spire pops. That's generally the time that Terran comes with a big push, (if he scouts it and if he's smart). I'm pressured since I have to think about expanding, gathering up my mutas, setting up my zerglings and timed against the push. I think I'll need to mentally put that at the top of my priorities.

Here's a replay of a game I played just recently.

I... actually haven't played any ZvZs since my last update. It's already my best matchup so it's not too bad I guess.

I've mostly been facing a few bad 1 base all-ins. For educational purposes, I'll describe what happens here.

In one game, I open up standard with my 11 pool on Shattered temple. Now the probe wanders into my base around 2:20. This means that he's cross position. On larger maps like Tal'Darim, the probe will arrive at 2:40 if it's cross positions. If it's earlier OR later than that time, then he's in one of the close spawns. Since I know his position, I send my overlords to the perimeter of his base right away.

With my first three lings (my fourth ling is scouting out for proxy pylons), I pressure his cybernetics core. If I keep attacking it and he doesn't try to annoy my lings with his zealot, then the cycore will die. Thus, he has to take a risk and pull his zealot out of his wall-off to try and poke at my zerglings. I pull back and wait for my fourth ling and start hitting the cycore again. I manage to get into his base after he pulls his zealot, losing 1 zergling, getting 2 in, and running away with the other (I send this survivor to the watch tower). I spot that he has 2 gas and try to do some probe harass, but a stalker appears and I just leave them for dead.

So at this point, I know he's not going 3 gate expo. It's probably stargate, possibly some 4 gate push. A bit after my drone dies, I send in a sacrificial overlord to see what he's doing. I see 2 extra gateways. That and that gateway at his front means 3 gateways. Some sort of warpgate push.

Now at this point, the Protoss knows I've spotted his gateways. Some guys will try to be clever and expand off of that, hoping I overcommit to defense. As a countermeasure, I place my survivor ling behind his natural mineral line, spotting for an expo. As soon as I see him pop one down, I'll start droning, but I don't see one so I keep making lings and spine crawlers, adding a lair and evo chamber just in case he actually goes for some stargate play.

I eventually see him moving out with a big gateway push. I didn't get the exact composition but I saw a lot of stalkers and a few zeals and/or sentries. He pushes, I found out he has blink, but it doesn't matter since I only made 4 spines and have a bunch of speedlings. I kill his push, he types out.

Guess that's my little battle report for those who wish to get better. I was going to do another game too but I think the blog'll get too long and that game's a bit hazy in my mind anyway.