EPT
vs YoonYJ - or why you shouldn't hellion expand
The map is Akilon Wastes, which is a two player map using a new desert texture (which, imo, looks like the unused Helios texture from WoL Beta). I spawn in the bottom right and open with my new go to vT,vP opening - the 15/15 gas with 2 workers in each. I find that this opening gives you enough gas for Mothership Core while staying reasonably close to the standard timings on a regular 1gate expand. YoonYJ spawns in the top left, and is going for a gas first build. With factory play so strong at the moment, this can only mean that he is planning to go for a factory play.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/HotS/BR1/1.jpg)
I continue with my build - Stalker/Warp as soon as core finishes with a chrono on each, and then add my mothership core at 26/26 while my pylon finishes (mothership core takes no supply, which is nice). From this point on I will be more or less making stalkers non stop and rallying them to my opponents base. YoonYJ meanwhile has added a factory and switched a reactor to it to begin building hellions. He also has started his expansion.
My first stalker arrives and greets two hellions, it is able to kill off one before a second stalker arrives. YYJ retreats with his lone hellion to grab his two fresh hellions. Meanwhile my stalkers have killed off the building SCV on the CC. YYJ converts one of his hellions into a battle mode and surprisingly, it is easy to kite with stalkers.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/HotS/BR1/2.jpg)
It is easily picked off. But YYJ has a marauder en route, and the marauder and hellion are able to kill one of my stalkers. But by now another stalker has arrived and I'm able to kill off the marauder and beat back YYJ's army.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/HotS/BR1/3.jpg)
Seeing as he can't get his expo up, and probably a tiny bit frustrated to how the game is unfolding, YYJ ggs. The influx of mech builds means that Stalker harass is somewhat viable, like goon vs Terran wall was in BW. Even one gate stalker pressure can mess up a hellion first player.
EDIT: Played a game against SKTrain (dno if it's a smurf, didn't seem like it) and when I did this build vs his Terran he simply ran his hellions past. It was very effective. Then again, he wasn't hellion expanding, rather hellion/marauder pressure, but its something that I need to factor in in future.
vs White-Ra - or PPPPvP - Plexa's Purifier Push PvP
Silly names aside, this game kinda illustrates why the mothership core should be stationary. The map is Korhal City (which has a dumb ramp) and I spawn at 12 and White-Ra at 9. Korhal City is unique in that it has an inbase natural (similar to Katrina, for you BW old timers), so I expected White-Ra to play an economic game. Knowing that he is the far better player, I decided to try out my experimental purifier push that I had been thinking up.
I open up with a 12 gate, gas/gas build like I discussed above, while White-Ra did a 1 gas build but had all his building at his ramp; another indication that he wanted to play macro. Indeed, he went for a 22 nexus while I went for a 3 stalker build - both of us got our Mothership Cores at around 26 supply. We both went up to 3 gates, but I added a twilight council for blink. Once my core popped, Instantly I sent my core towards Ra's base, while he kept his at home for defense. Ra also added a Robotics Facility.
Finally, my Core had reached Ra's base and with the help of a near by pylon, I had a nice big army ready to launch the attack. Both of our Cores went into Purifier mode and the battle commenced.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/HotS/BR1/4.jpg)
I just had too many units.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/HotS/BR1/5.jpg)
While the purifier is slow, given favourable positions, it can reach the enemies base around the time a normal attack would be hitting. This evens out the playing field in the battle (since both of you have cores) and once again makes pvp look a bit silly. Whether or not this will be standard or not, I'm not sure, but initial testing suggests that there might be something here.
vs PainUser - or how quickly mech can win a game
PvT is without doubt my worst matchup, and well, PainUsers TvP is bad as well - so this game wasn't going to end pretty. The map is Korhal City (same as vs White-Ra) and I spawn at 9 while PainUser spawns at 3. PainUser opens up with a 15CC while I go for the same build as always - pylon-gate-gas-gas, but since he 15CC'd I got my nexus before rallying stalkers. PainUser decided to play a mech style but opened with hellions, which gave my stalkers a window to harass.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/HotS/BR1/7.jpg)
But because of a bad rally, my stalkers are late and my stalker pressure starts to be pushed back. Nevertheless, I do about as much as I can but lose all my stalkers in the process. Oh well. In this time PainUser has gotten his third orbital up, but hasn't floated it to a base yet and has gotten two armories for upgrades (which are awesome for mech). Meanwhile I have gone into DT tech - the reason for that is that DTs are surprisingly good against mech at the moment (cheap archons + map control + nice to mix into your army).
PainUser tried to set up some mines for defense, so I had to sacrifice a stalker to get rid of all the mines to make a path for my DTs. I split them into his main and the bottom right (where his third would be flying to). They did moderate damage before being killed off, but did delay PainUsers third by a bit which gave me time to get my own up in a more respectable time.
We decided upon our armies compositions - for me it would be chargelot/archon with DTs for surprise, and for PainUser it would be warhound/battle hellion with widow mines scattered about. A big difference between us was that I only got double forge by the time PainUser was at 1-1 and halfway to 2-2 - this would come back to haunt me. We both got our fourths and began to mix in immortals and tanks respectively. PainUser also started to do some minor harass with a medivac/warhounds.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/HotS/BR1/8.jpg)
As PainUser's 2-2 finished and we both approached 200/200, I added in some colossus because well, they're good. And PainUser added in Thors for himself, probably to tank as well as be safe from any potential air. We both moved out around maxed and our armies met in the middle of the map:
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/HotS/BR1/9.jpg)
My position was bad, and I didn't have the ability to remax so I lost a lot more from this battle than PainUser did.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/HotS/BR1/10.jpg)
Now that PainUser had the upper hand, he continued his push towards my base. Meanwhile, I had taken at base at 12, hoping it wouldn't be seen. PainUser split his army so that he could as many places as possible at once, but as 2-2 had just finished for me, this meant I was able to take out the biggest portion of his army while cleaning up the smaller bits - but not without taking a big hit to my probe count. (DTs really helped, I love them)
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/HotS/BR1/11.jpg)
But with an economic lead, a massive bank, and map control PainUser could do whatever he wanted. So he set up a siege line in the middle of the map while trying to take out my base at 12 with hellions. Some defensive warpins stopped that, and also prevented PainUser from expanding to 12, which was nice.
PainUser kept pushing forward with his mostly tank army, and it was clear there wasn't much I could do. He took out my fourth base then retreated so that he could meet up with his brand new BCs in the middle of the map. Once I saw his unified army, I knew there was no hope and tapped out.
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/HotS/BR1/12.jpg)
After losing the center fight and being down economically, there was no way I could have won this game
gg wpClosing thoughts:
My 1gate stalker rally build gets crushed by Warhound first builds, I have a good illustration of that for anyone that is interested. I will refine it a bit more and see if it is viable against them. Sorry that there wasn't any zerg games in this batch, there just weren't any interesting ones
except for a semi-rushed Swarm Host build. Next batch I'll try to include more Zerg, and a good game against a Terran played a few hours ago. Here's a bit of a preview of that game:![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/HotS/BR1/13.jpg)
![[image loading]](/staff/Plexa/HotS/BR1/14.jpg)
