I randomly decided to get onto ICCUP today and play a game of BW. I haven't played in several months, and I haven't played a serious game in over a year and a half now (thanks to SC2). And the last serious game of SC2 I played was still over a year ago (I burnt out quick after running my University's CSL team for a 2nd year in a row).
I play a couple of single player campaign games just to get the feel of using my keyboard, as well as the hotkeys, but nothing major.
I look for a D-level game, cause I know that I'm going to be really, really bad after taking this long off of playing. I honestly don't remember any of my build orders, or any of my drone count numbers that I used to always keep track of. Nothing.
I find a game, on Python (I have no idea how the newer maps look, so I stay away from any I don't know). I choose Z (my most comfortable race), and my opponent decides to go as P.
I open overpool 11 hatch (no real build order after this point, putting down a 3rd hatch before I take my gas), finding him with my overlord at close air positions, and make 4 zerglings, sending 1 to chase his scouting probe, while the other three to harass his forge FE. I am successful in killing 2 probes while attacking his nexus due to a building placement error on his cannon, while losing 1 zergling. I also manage to force him to slip up and lose his scouting probe, so I feel like things have gone my way so far.
I delay making more zerglings, and that comes back to bite me when he sends out his first 2 zealots to attack me, I end up losing 2 drones, but taking minimal zergling losses in the process, so it could have been worse. At this point, I decide to put down a 4th hatch in my base, and put down a hydra den, and go for a large mid-game presence while securing a 3rd, having not noticed a stargate at this point, and expecting templars.
But, stupid me, I took my 2nd gas way too early, and by the time I realized, I was floating nearly 1k gas. Duh. And, of course, this is right at the point where +1 attack finishes for him, and he has a small force of zealots streaming towards my base. I kill them all, but take some pretty heavy losses in the process (which could have easily been avoided if I built things in a more optimal order.....). I still feel like I have the advantage at this point, but not by as much as I did have.
I take my 3rd, and start a spire for some mutas to snipe templar, and to just cause some general chaos in his base. What else was I going to do with all the gas I had saved up (I don't like using lurkers in zvp, they feel way too immobile)? He sensed mutas somehow, and built a lot of cannons which finished just before I got into his base, so they did very little damage, however, I feel that his overreaction is what sealed the game. Because he built about 15 cannons, his ground army was far weaker than it should have been. This, coupled with the fact that I was intentionally going for a larger mid-game presence, led me to have insane map control in the mid-game, and easily secure a 3rd while denying him when he tried to take it.
Of course, when storms finished and he had a decent sized army (I did snipe a few templar, but lost all of my mutas eventually), he did try to push out and expand behind it. I split my army, keeping the bulk of it to attack his army, while sending a small amount to kill his expansion and the probe. With a bit of fancy micro, I managed to kill a few more of his templar that he left exposed, which really helped me out later, but I lost most of my army in the process of killing those templar and denying that expansion temporarily.
He managed to secure his 3rd right as his main was mined out, however, at this point, I had my 4th and 5th up, and just crushed his army with pure macro (I'm surprised at how well I was dodging his storms, a lot of them completely missed, or only hit like 1 or 2 hydras). With no real army left, no resources in the bank, and only 2 mining bases (soon to be just 1), he left.
After the match, I look up his match history, and in a previous season, he was C high. The rest of the time he was sitting at D+ with decent win ratios, so I know he's not completely terrible. Not stellar, but not terrible.
I did not even get any upgrades during the game, I completely forgot lol. I feel like I played way worse than I can potentially play (I made so many mistakes, I got supply blocked so fucking often, I was floating more resources than I should have at a few points, etc). But winning that game was soooooooo satisfying, I'm not sure why. It wasn't a particularly impressive game.
But it reminded me why I love BW. That game was more fun than any game of SC2 I've ever played. There's something about that shitty, old, ugly interface that leads to absolutely amazingly fun games. It felt so good.
He tried expanding, so I killed it a minute later (not really worth putting a picture of it, I'm sure you can get a good idea of what the minimap looks like when it's missing a few red dots.
Wait, you went 4 hatch 2 base? Where did he place those cannons, any at the front?
Especially if he put down some at the front he may have expecting some sort of bust as a zerg on 4 hatches on 2 base, or a long time 2 base w/o going straight muta may have had him thinking some sort of allin/bust was headed his way.
Nice job, I was thinking of getting back into BW myself but have been a bit uncertain about how many people would actually be on ICCup at the moment. How easy is it for you to find games?
On December 11 2012 16:45 kollin wrote: Nice job, I was thinking of getting back into BW myself but have been a bit uncertain about how many people would actually be on ICCup at the moment. How easy is it for you to find games?
Pretty easy at D, and at C-; gets harder after that. Pretty much gotta go to channel and msg people for games and hope they won't dodge or be afk. At that point most players head over to fish though.
On December 11 2012 15:06 L_Master wrote: Wait, you went 4 hatch 2 base? Where did he place those cannons, any at the front?
Especially if he put down some at the front he may have expecting some sort of bust as a zerg on 4 hatches on 2 base, or a long time 2 base w/o going straight muta may have had him thinking some sort of allin/bust was headed his way.
Nice job on the win haha!
Yea, he put up a few extra at his front, but I was expecting to see that after he scouted 4 hatch in my base, and early hydras. And I also would have expected a couple of cannons in his main against mutas or drops, but he made an excessive amount imo. I'll post pics later to show what I mean.
I did delay taking my 3rd, because I know that I found you really don't need it early on with a 4 hatch hydra opening (if he sent his +1 zealot attack at my 3rd, there was no way I would have been able to hold it imo, but I didn't need it for the gas yet, nor did I need it for mining, since I wasn't overly saturated on either my main or natural until my 3rd finished). It's probably not optimal, but it's a small thing I know I used to do, so I just did it again anyways. I haven't played in a long time.....
On December 11 2012 16:45 kollin wrote: Nice job, I was thinking of getting back into BW myself but have been a bit uncertain about how many people would actually be on ICCup at the moment. How easy is it for you to find games?
No idea, but it was fairly quick to find a D level game. It doesn't seem to be as busy as it used to be though
On December 11 2012 16:45 kollin wrote: Nice job, I was thinking of getting back into BW myself but have been a bit uncertain about how many people would actually be on ICCup at the moment. How easy is it for you to find games?
On December 11 2012 15:06 L_Master wrote: Wait, you went 4 hatch 2 base? Where did he place those cannons, any at the front?
Especially if he put down some at the front he may have expecting some sort of bust as a zerg on 4 hatches on 2 base, or a long time 2 base w/o going straight muta may have had him thinking some sort of allin/bust was headed his way.
Nice job on the win haha!
Yea, he put up a few extra at his front, but I was expecting to see that after he scouted 4 hatch in my base, and early hydras. And I also would have expected a couple of cannons in his main against mutas or drops, but he made an excessive amount imo. I'll post pics later to show what I mean.
I did delay taking my 3rd, because I know that I found you really don't need it early on with a 4 hatch hydra opening (if he sent his +1 zealot attack at my 3rd, there was no way I would have been able to hold it imo, but I didn't need it for the gas yet, nor did I need it for mining, since I wasn't overly saturated on either my main or natural until my 3rd finished). It's probably not optimal, but it's a small thing I know I used to do, so I just did it again anyways. I haven't played in a long time.....
Yea the pics should be interesting as 15+ cannons is truly a crazy number. I mean 4 or 5 at the front and then 5 in each mineral line...sounds a little overkill haha.
I mean you do need em, esp if you skipped stargate, and obviously muta can do okay vs cannon with good mirco....but you still usually have an archon coming out or something to help.
He tried expanding, so I killed it a minute later (not really worth putting a picture of it, I'm sure you can get a good idea of what the minimap looks like when it's missing a few red dots.
as long as you can make games you won't have any problems finding better opponents than yourself unless you're a top nonkorean. if you can't make games, expect to spend quite some time looking- so many people can't make anymore that public games are joined immediately, and chat channels are mostly just for chatting. :p
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