Phalanx's Daily #77: NAC vs GTn

So I gotta be quite honest, I don't understand the TvZ match up at all, so everything just looks weird to me. I guess I can just talk about timings and what not, but I'm clueless as for why some things are done... Blades goes for a 15 hatch before pool (seems standard).


Uhh... that is DEFINITELY a hatchery. And I do believe that it's building.

Meanwhile the terran goes for a build that really seems weird, even from a completely obilvious standpoint. After making his rax at 12, he proceeds to get double gas at 16 or so... now correct me if I'm wrong, but getting that much early gas as a terran only is useful if you're going for something like a super fast cloak banshee... which this guy didn't do.


Uh... yeah I really don't get ZvT. I just see the pros make MMM and banelings then micro.

So the terran strategy turns out to be get the gas, make a techlab for the factory, rush out a tank, and THEN expand...
...
Why, I must ask. Do terrans really need that much help to stop early pressure while expanding? What's even wierder is that the zerg isn't pressuring at all early on, so the rush for the tank really is just a huge waste of money. That probably could have been done a lot more effectively and economically.


I don't know enough but I really think this isn't good.

Blades, meanwhile, used his gas wisely and teched up to spire. I like watching spire play very much in ZvT, especially when the mutas are very well micro'ed. Blades looked to be going for fast mutas with very little defense at home, but I think that it was probably a good choice to make because the terran was turtling with tanks.


Huzzah a spire, something that I do know about!

The mid game composition from the terran is mech. Yet another thing that I do enjoy watching, although it sadly isn't as viable in most cases as bio. If I had the ability to actually play terran, mech would be what I always do. There also was a tiny bit of banshee harrass going on too.



The terran was turtling hard and gave a ton of time to Blades to safely macro up and even go down a new tech choice rather than ling/bling/muta... A very interesting choice in my opinion, teching to swarmhosts. Swarmhosts never seem to be used form what I see in ZvT, so maybe at the pro level they're dealt with too easily, but in this game it sure looked viable.


It gets really hard to make any more comments than "oh he's making x" when i'm watching matches without protoss...

Until the swarmhosts came out, Blades' mutalisks basically acted only to deny the terran's 3rd base. Containing him to 2 bases was very well played, and the mutalisks constantly picked off SCVs or building command centers, paving the way for the swarmhosts' siege.



As the swarmhosts by Blades begin the siege, the turtling terran severly lacks in his tank count. For rushing tanks early on he only had 2 or 3 tanks, while he did have a bunch of thors. Surprisingly enough thors don't do very well against locusts. At the front of his ramp the terran did start tyring to make a planetary fortress, which I think was a good decision.


Aw yeah little things!

And now began the siege... behind the siege Blades teched up hard and expanded as much as he could, while the terran was constantly under fire and constantly denied his 3rd. It actually was one of the few times that I enjoyed watching the siege. Since there's not much to comment on for the siege, I think I'll just give a bunch of screenshots.



Well... you know, free units going in and dying. the usual stuff.

The teching by Blades behind the swarmhost siege basically was going to be killer for the terran in the end - broodlords. A good deal more of the sieging went on, but I'll just give some more pictures form big battles.


Thors with a sexy skin fighting the first few broodlords


So many free units.


A fungle catches the tanks... good bye AoE.


The coupe de grace.