I'll try and quickly sum up what my blogs are all about. Here's what to expect:
-A D-level Terran player rambling about playing Starcraft.
-Battle reports of entertaining games, chronicling my progress and what not.
-Hot sexy pictures of Tossgirl >_>
Anyways, this past week or so I've been trying to concentrate on TvZ. Not that my other match-ups are better (or even good), but I know that TvZ is the hardest and relies on the T being aggressive, something that contradicts my TvP style. But before we get into some select TvZ games, I first have to show you a rofltastic TvT match.
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Match 1: TvT on Python
As you can see in this game, my opponent was tired of playing standard TvT. REALLY tired of it. Let's get started:
All aboard!
This is hilarious because in my last blog where I was at 6 on python, I made the exact same wall-in mistake. Sigh. Anyways, I open up 1fact into CC, but I have no idea what he's doing because his marines deny my scout entry. But I do eventually get a glance at something suspicious...
What's also funny is that at the last second of the fog of war (after my SCV died), I saw a dropship load up these marines.
ROFL. Anyways, I was lol'ing too much to be afraid of losing. I had to take SCVs off my main, and then I slowly inched up tanks to his marines. Eventually he packed up and tried dropping on my tanks. Observe:
Well then...Looks like I'm not the only one who doesn't like TvT. Since I haven't been following SC2 much, I have a question to the readers: any ideas what TvT will be like in SC2? Will infantry still be worthless? I read somewhere tank splash is currently keeping things that way.
Hope you liked that random TvT. Now onto the TvZ matches, where I got to practice with some people from TL! They were all better than me so I thank them for spending time with a scrub like me. I remember sometimes how annoying it can be practicing with a weaker player, even though it benefits them.
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Game 2: TvZ on Andromeda
Well for this particular TvZ game I decide to go non-standard and screw around with mech! Don't worry there's a pretty good game after showing me play standard. But I figured this could be fun for some people. And since Terrans are so predictable, maybe adding this type of play style to my repertoire could be good in the future.
I play a normal FE build, in order to get 2 gases up ASAP. Then I try and get enough Goliaths and turrets up to defend from mutas. Unfortunately, he spots out my build...
From here the game gets weird for me. I don't see any mutas coming, and my scans don't reveal much about his army, save for a few groups of hydralisks and zerglings. I macro up a storm of metal and push out into the unknown, only to be ambushed by an army I am not expecting:
I think Terran metal is sexier than Pamela Anderson on Baywatch.
Zerg creates an amazing surround on my forces, spelling doom for me. Just look at that mini-map!
Epic battles like this are exactly what SC is all about. Even if I'm on the losing end, I can still fight it out Sparta/300 style to the death and have a good time playing. Another reason that battle was lost was because of the Zerg's superior unit composition.
But after losing such a big battle like that, there's just no way I'm gonna hold any longer. At this point I'm also very gas-starved with a few thousand minerals in excess. GG.
Thanks to Shallow[bay] for playing that game with me, in case you guys were wondering who the sexy Zerg commander was =)
Replay: [url blocked]
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Game 3: TvZ on Blue Storm
Here's a really cool game I played with another TL member, whom I think goes by the name of Gyabo. In this game I actually gain a winning advantage in the early midgame, but cannot take it home. So yet another good game ends in tragedy for your Terran hero.
Remember how in the SC cannon the Terrans are all criminals or something that start their own space society? Well, this SCV right here - let's call him Jamal - was one badass motherfucker. He was locked up for murder, rape, arson, drug trafficking, and stickin' it to the man. I needed to scout the Zerg, and knowing this would be a tough job, decided to call up my boy Jamal. And being a strong ass mofo, he takes down a drone all by himself!
Meanwhile, back at base, his white comrades John and Smith hunt down an overlord, giving the Terran forces a further early lead. Oh and by the way, I do 1rax FE in every TvZ pretty much, this game being no exception.
I try and force some sunkens, but after mistakenly MOVING my force into zerglings outside my base (instead of attack moving), I'm left with a pathetically small force. Regardless, he makes 2 more sunkens so I guess I somewhat do my job.
The muta harass comes, kills a few turrets, a couple of SCVs, then subsides. Overall not too big a blow to me. With 4 raxes pumping and my first vessel out, I move out against his third base, knowing that the game could depend on this battle. M&M armies are kinda cool, but mech armies are more manly IMO. Maybe I should try mixing them sometime...
The muta-ling army defending there dies, the lurkers are late to show up, and the third hatchery dies! Of course these are some angry lurkers, and want to engage my dudes:
Let's see how good my M&M micro is against lurkers...even though I barely do these types of engagements. In fact I probably should have ran back.
I kill a few more lurkers as well as some ling reinforcements, but ultimately I can't pass. Oh well, I took out his third! Props to anyone who got the Monty Python reference in this pic
With a newly macro'd army, I venture onto his side of Blue Storm, as he's retaken his third base. But against the darkswarms I can't really make any progress. From there I go for drop tech and try to take my entire half of the map. Unfortunately, this allows him to get back into the game, and I really should have kept up the pressure. The next important part of the game is my (somewhat failed) drop:
The drop doesn't do too much. It takes out a hatchery (lol), the ultralisk cavern (which he rebuilds quickly) and the Queen's nest (FUCK YEAH!). But I haven't been able to fortify the bottom right, or my side of the map =( So now even though I had a huge lead, I am in trouble. The failed drop investment didn't help either. Anyways, I decide to add some metal to my army.
I hold, then try and push across to his side with all my tanks, getting my vessel cloud and M&M groups plagued.
I now try and push out against 6 o'clock. At this point in the game I got that feeling that I'm playing bad, but for some reason I didn't do anything about it. Maybe I psychologically want to lose games, it would explain me throwing away things like this. I call this "savior syndrome".
...Yep. Elvis has left the building.
All in all though, that was the most solid TvZ I have played, I actually moved out and did something early on at least. My late-game economy management was weak, and I couldn't press home my advantage. It feels like my TvZ doesn't have a "winning spark" to it just yet, even if my mechanics are improving. But hey I'll admit it - I'm not a natural SC player. I'm someone who came rather late to the competitive scene and used VODs/replays to learn the game quickly. But I'd like to change that at least for when SC2 comes out.
Replay: [url blocked]
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Well that's about it for this week's blog. Please tell me how you guys are finding these, what you like, what you'd like to see different, etc. Also if you guys have any random requests for my next one, throw them out there.
OH - I almost forgot, Tossgirl!
Rawr
I'd like her to S my TX if you know what I mean.
That skirt is much too long...
Enjoy.
- Ryot