Liquid_Nazgul doesn't hotkey his units in PvT

Nazgul starts as the Blue Protoss at 12 o'clock, Klyaksa as Purple Terran, 2 o'clock.


I don't know if that's actually a wall-in. It's irrelevant to the game, but I just found it interesting.


The Terran goes for an aggressive two factory build...


while Nazgul is opening with a Nexus after 3 Dragoons. Needless to say, this isn't going to be pretty.


Interestingly, Nazgul opens up with a 3rd gateway after expanding rather than going for robo tech.


Klyaksa moves out! It's time for our first micro battle of the game!


Speed kicks in for the vultures as the Terran army approaches Nazgul's base, but Nazgul microes his dragoons well to snipe the mines before they can do too much damage.


Still, 2fac vs 1gate expo is going to be rough no matter how you cut it, and Nazgul is forced to throw up a shield battery near the choke.


Not a good location for the crucial robo facility, as Nazgul's front is about to break down.


Klyaksa sets up well, and the combined might of mines + tank fire decimates Nazgul's army.


Looking pretty bad for our Protoss hero. (in any battle report by FunnyTOSS, expect the Protoss to always be heroic) In the meantime, our Terran's CC is halfway done already. It's pretty much over.


Seeing his expansion as a lost cause, Nazgul starts researching Zealot leg speed and prepares to make his break out attempt.


Klyaksa inches his tanks forward. I don't know who he is, but he's a pretty good player, judging from this game. The tanks are in perfect position to siege the base while staying just outside of dragoon range, making it so once the dragoons take hits their AI will spazz out and make it living hell to come down that ramp.


TANK RANGE IMBA. There's a reason tanks were feared in Brood War, before they were utterly emasculated in SC2. Yes, that's a tank shooting across the entire fucking screen. And while most units have a 50% miss chance when shooting uphill, the siege tank isn't really affected that much because splash damage will hit regardless so it's always going to be doing a lot of damage regardless. It's OUCH vs BIG OUCH.


The moment of truth!


Nazgul attacks with perfect timing, just as the turret finishes, allowing all four zealots to drop from the shuttle, taking out the mini contain with minimal losses.


Except some pesky spidermines don't approve of this all and take out a dragoon while heavily damaging the others. Nazgul's going to have to wait for observers if he wants to move out safely.


When in doubt, do a DT drop!


... I have this feeling Klyaska will see this coming. Just a gut feeling.


The harass begins! Nazgul must do some damage with his investment as he's already a bit behind from losing his Nexus. Klyaska hasn't started his academy yet, but is quickly throwing up turrets and mines to ward off the harass.


Nazgul loses his DT to a mine fairly quickly and the harass is shut down with minimal Terran losses, but simultaneously he moves out to dispatch a small Terran scout force at his front, gaining himself a bit of breathing room.


Shuttle/Dark Templar harass part 2!


Klyaska is well prepared, and again Nazgul is repelled.


The vulture picks off the probe just after the Nexus is started. The most crucial timing in the matchup is coming up, where the Protoss has just taken his 3rd and the Terran must decide whether to attack now, or counter-expand!

Klyaska decides to attack, feeling confident that his army size will fare favorably against Nazgul's, which has been weakened by the early game attack.


The two players are almost equal in supply at this point, and Nazgul attempts to buy some time with his shuttle.


He loads and unloads his DT for a few swipes at the tanks, picking them up just in time to avoid taking any hits.


Instead of directly engaging, Klyaska cuts toward the 9 o'clock base...


and Nazgul finds his main army out of position to defend.


The tanks focus fire on the Nexus, taking it down quickly, and due to the peculiar architecture of Gaia, can continue to move along the high ground to get into prime sieging position outside Nazgul's natural.


In the meantime, Nazgul, having recognized fairly quickly that nothing would save his third, moves his troops in to cut off any reinforcements.


The second siege has begun!


Nazgul drops his zealots with expert timing, bombing several of the tanks successfully.


The turning point of the game? Rather than take on the entrenched tanks on his high ground, Nazgul instead decides to counter-attack. Because Klyaska had pushed out so aggressively and covered so much ground quickly, he had neglected to adequately mine up the path towards his base!


Nazgul makes... ARCHONS?


There are simply too many tanks...


Run away, probes, run away! MEOW!


In the meantime, Nazgul's dragoons attempt to focus fire on the Command Center, but their AI bugs out and Klyaksa's able to repair it just in time.


The goons take more damage than they could have while freaking out too. Fucking goons. The hallmark of an expert Terran player is that he will abuse the shit out of tank range.


A fresh wave of pure zealots comes out for Nazgul, and he cleans up the remnants of the Terran force,


Three dragoons that had survived the assault on Klyaksa's position move to the high ground outside the base, and in the process come across an SCV attempting to set up a CC, taking it out and delaying Klyaksa's expansion attempt.


Klyaksa moves out once more! Deja vu?


Well-timed scans make quick work of the delaying DT.


However, as the vultures move forward to secure the forward position with mines, the tanks are left exposed and Nazgul wastes no time in taking advantage and dropping the remaining troops of his shuttle right on top of the tanks.


Nazgul fights back with a small force, and the game seems really back and forth at this point...


Mines and vultures are actually quite effective against dragoons in small numbers.


But wait! Nazgul simultaneously drops a shuttle load of DTs and zealots on Klyaksa's natural! He swiftly targets the comsat center, and... Klyaksa only has 7 energy on his remaining comsat station!


The Dark Templar goes to work, forcing turrets and generally causing mayhem while Nazgul attempts to stabilize his position.


After successfully adding a few well placed turrets to his natural, Klyaksa pushes once more, this time with a turret to defend the position from drops.


But he doesn't have enough time to lay mines in front of his troops, and ARCHONS assault the position, gliding right over the few mines that were placed.


Hard to imagine that this game started with Nazgul losing his natural to a 2 factory push. He's now starting his 3rd, and things appear to be looking up for our Protoss hero!

Klyaksa quickly responds with a 3rd of his own at a mineral only base. It's in good position, allowing his tanks pressuring the front line to simultaneously defend. Gaia is quite a different map when played in close positions, when compared to cross.


Vultures swoop in at the Protoss 3rd, but no probes have been transferred yet. Note how low Nazgul's minerals are - he can't really afford to build any cannons or even pylon walls at this point. All spare minerals are going into units which he desperately needs to fend of Klyaksa's constant aggression.


The dragoons force the vultures back, but not before exhibiting their trademark stupidity and walking straight into easily avoidable mines.


Pylon wall? Why pylon wall when you can DRAGOON WALL?


Gaia's interesting architecture screws Nazgul over, as the marauding vulture gang simply goes around the dragoons through the lower ramp, and take out almost all the probes at the 3rd.


Nearly 24 minutes into the game, Nazgul is just starting to research storm. It's been a fairly low tech affair so far.


At this point, Klyaksa has been on 6 factories for awhile, with the income from his 3rd base now just kicking in. He's also been macroing excellently, minerals staying below 1000. That's the +1 ground attack upgrade, by the way. We're a long way from the 3/3 200/200 deathball style.


SHUTTLE + ARCHON = SHARCHON! Nazgul spies a tank and an escort of vultures, and decides to engage in a risky skirmish.


He uses the shuttle to close in on the ranged forces without taking any hits...


and attacks!


While the mini micro battle has been going on, Nazgul maynards the probes from his now depleted main to the 3rd, while beginning shuttle speed research. Omens of what is to come...


Klyaksa begins his 4th Command Center directly south of his 3rd. When in close position, the Terran in TvP can easily split the map with a HUGE defensive fortification, making it total hell for a Protoss to try and break it. Seriously, just look at all that purple in the minimap.


Nazgul has other plans, however...

*cue Ride of the Valkyries theme"


The Terran is forced to pull some troops back to his main. I can imagine he's wondering who in the world he's playing, and why this Protoss hasn't heard of Arbiters.


The shuttle-recall draws the tanks all the way into the main, and Nazgul takes his own 4th base in relative safety in the meantime.


The trapped forces are doomed! But...


DUN DUN DUN


The tanks are forced to race back to the front once more to save the 4th!


After forcing a lift-off, Nazgul's dropship forces relocate to the high ground, and force Klyaksa to defend his new in-construction command center.


MORE SHUTTLE DROPS! I'm trying to think of something that will capture the spirit similar to RECALLUUUU!!! Perhaps SHUTTLE DROPUUUUUU?


"Goddamnit, not again."


The Protoss airborne force is determined to put the hurt on the defenders before they die.


Things are starting to look relatively... standard?


Another airborne unit descends upon the southern min only position, this time successfully destroying the command center!


Nazgul then immediately picks up the troops and swings over to the high ground base.


Klyaksa sieges up on the low ground and somehow manages to keep the CC alive. Tank range imba?


No, repair imba!


With nothing else to do, 3 dragoons from the previous drop force stroll over to the 6 o'clock location and destroy some turrets.


Apparently those turrets were quite precious to someone, because Klyaksa brings a disproportionate amount of firepower upon the 3 trespassing dragoons.


and... you guessed it, Nazgul drops another pimp platoon into Klyaksa's main in the meantime.


No supply drop for you, noob!


*sigh*


A lone SCV scouts a newly constructed Protoss base at the 8 o'clock position! Knowing his time upon this beautiful land is limited, he is determined to go out with glory.


The hero SCV takes out two probes before being overwhelmed by probes with frikkin' laser beams attached to their foreheads.


Nazgul continues to bypass the frontline fortifications, with another drop on the southern mineral only.


The force is wiped out, but not before decreasing Klyaksa's tank count considerably.


And, after 35 minutes of non-stop action, we start to see a kill count reminescent of a TvZ, not a PvT. Did you know that there are hidden replay commands? Most of us BW players sure didn't, until nearly 10 years into the game. Hint: "/replay show kills" is pretty cool.


157 supply to 76 supply. Klyaksa has to be shaking his head at this point. "How did I lose to a guy playing like it's 2002?"


Archons are the new unit of choice in PvT!


Hero unit of the game? The shuttle.


As Nazgul shuts down the last Terran mining base...


GG.