Fanfic in honor of SC2's beta.
No, I don't have a Beta Key yet. Sniff.
Anyway, this is a fanfic of Sputnik casting a series of Starcraft games between Skorpion and Ash. I think the rest explains itself.
Hi guys, this is Sputnik, and I'm casting a very exciting game of Starcraft tonight. Well, okay, it's not that exciting because Jaedong isn't playing, and I'm an inveterate Jaedong fan, but it's pretty cool anyway, because these are people I've actually met! Not friends, exactly, because they're kind of weirdos. But they're people I know. They're going to be playing a short series, one game for practice and one real game.
They've sort of billed this as a man versus machine sort of game, at least that's how they explained it to me. So I'm going to start the replay on the exhibition game going, and explain during the boring part at the beginning where they're just building units.
Okay, lets see... This exhibition game is on Big Game Hunters. Damn do I hate that map. It's a money map, so it leads to uninteresting play, no ledges which is boring, and it's unbalanced. Some starting locations have cliffs on which a pretty much invincible tank drop can be placed, right over the initial base. Horribly unbalanced for Terran. So I'm really glad this match doesn't count for anything.
Okay, looks like we've got Ash in the northwest spawn point as Protoss, and Skorpion due south as Terran. The distance is a good thing, because it means Ash won't just 2-gate or 3-gate zealot rush Skorpion and end it before he knows what's happening. Because I should mention, before they build too much stuff, that this is Skorpion's first time playing against a human opponent other than the AI, while Ash regularly plays on Battlenet, with her friends in the big Largo dorm where she spends most of her time, and she watches proleague, too. So there's a huge experience deficit in Ash's favor. On the other hand, Skorpion says he's got perfect reflexes, and can micromanage his units flawlessly. I remain to be convinced, but we'll see in this game.
Looks like Ash has gone forge fast-expand. Kind of overkill on a money map. I think there's some kind of head game going here, like she knows Skorpion won't apply early pressure, or maybe that he can't because it's an 8-player map and there's a lot of spawns to search. Ash sends out her first pylon probe as a scout. On Skorpion's end, I see a supply depot first at the shared choke between the northwest and north bases-- good placement there, so clearly he's figured out some game mechanics you wouldn't just learn from the computer. Okay, another supply depot, barracks going up. Meanwhile, Ash has skipped cannons. Maybe she noticed Skorpion's not scouting? And there's the nexus. Ash will have a significant economic advantage if Skorpion doesn't get his harass on.
Okay, first marines coming out for Skorpion. He's fanning them out, looking for Ash's base. I see a refinery going down. Looks like he wants to go mech, which is a good choice against the Protoss. Marines eat up zealots and dragoons, but 2 out of 3 of the Protoss' mid-level tech choices-- the reavers and the various templars, can one-hit marines. Ash's gateway is going down now. This is one problem with forge-first-- it slows down your tech tree since the tech all comes off the gateway.
Looks like Skorpion's sending out an SCV for... looks like another command center. So this is going to be an even heavier macro slugfest than I realized. Ash's cannons are nearly up. She doesn't really need four of them, that's kind of overkill. But wait, the marine gets there first. It's running past the cannons! It's in Ash's probe line! Probes coming off the line. Run marine, run! Probes are faster than the marine though. Ooof. Poor conscript never stood a chance. But now Skorpion knows not only where Ash's base is, but that she took a fast expand. Ash's gateway is just warping in, and she's got no gas mining yet. Skorpion's first factory is down. Will he have the game sense for a quick two-factory push?
Oh, right, I forgot-- Skorpion one-racks into expand himself. Okay, so neither of them is in a position to rush the other. The next stage will probably be the harass. Another refinery going down for Skorpion. And Ash is putting up her core and two assimilators. She shouldn't let her minerals build up that high, kind of wasteful. Skorpion puts down a pair of machine shops. Not sure if he's going for a heavy vulture harass or straight into tanks because of those cannons. It's a classic new player mistake not to realize you can run vultures by and inflict significant damage. Ash is teching up too. Looks like a robotics facility and a citadel of Adun. Dark templar drop, is what I'm thinking, which is a good choice. Skorpion has no detection in his base at the moment-- not even spider mines. And there's a probe sneaking out. Another scout, it looks like. No, it's another nexus! Ash is going for another base. She's not even defending it with a pylon wall. Very risky, and kind of an unnecessary risk. It's BGH after all. There's plenty of money left.
Okay, both machine shops spinning, and the factories are producing... tank and a vulture. Upgrades are siege mode and spider mines, so he will have detection. Meanwhile, Ash has the templar archives going up. Shuttle going up. Will she also go for a reaver harass and stretch her resources too thin? Nope, but an observatory. Okay, now that risky hidden expansion is getting a pylon, presumably for cannons. And she's scouting to make sure SKorpion hasn't done the same.
Skorpion's taking... yeah. He's taking the shared expansion between those two bases. He's going really macro heavy here. It's going to take him a while to move out at this rate, but when he does, it's going to be monstrous, assuming he can control all those units.
Okay, now we see Ash is building... high templar, not dark templar. Interesting! So it's going to be a storm drop, not a DT drop. That means the damage will be much more limited. Maybe Ash is toying with him? And a lot of gateways going up, because templar are mineral cheap, so she's going to supplement. Probably with zealots, since I see speed legs being researched as well. And... yup, there go the +1 weapons.
Skorpion's putting down more factories now. Wow. A lot of factories. That looks like, eight, nine factories. He must've been hoarding gas. Yeah, the two existing factories are just building vultures for now. Lotta spider mines going down, in fact. Wow his multitasking is really good. All of the vultures are placing mines at once without any delays at all. Okay, this could actually be a pretty cool match.
Ash's templar is up in the shuttle. She's sending it out immediately, no scout, storm not researched, presumably to achieve maximal surprise. She's building more templars, and there's a bunch more gates, a bit later than Skorp's factories. But her bases were up earlier-- they're actually equal for bases. Normally this is a win for Terran, but Ash's bases have been up longer, and saturation is really important on BGH. Templar's going in. She has no idea about the mines. Wait, she's not going for the mines. Skorpion hastily puts down a pair of armories. He needs anti-air, like, yesterday. And he's building marines too. He does not want this shuttle to live. Ash takes a good long scout, goes for the main. Okay, storm researched. There are vultures following, but wait, they can't see up onto that crappy imba ridge at the northwest. There's the drop. Psi storm! Oof. Skorpion loses a dozen SCVs. I thought he was supposed to have good micro.
Wait, wait, something's been typed. "Nice dodge." Wow, Ash is kinda being a bitch about this.
Skorpion's putting up a starport. And there go the golliaths. Charon boosters already upgrading... done. Ash had better get that shuttle down. He's going for +1 weapons and armor too. Ash's shuttle gets out of there just in time. Now Skorpion's army is moving out. Another message. It's Skorpion this time. "Dodge this."
I remember Ameryll saying something about Ash being a bit manipulative, and it looks like she's bringing that to Starcraft, too. Skorpion's army is not big enough for this yet. Ash has speedlots, DTs, high templar. Skorpion's only detection is still mines. He really needs to macro up to at least 120 pop, and go in vultures first to scout the defenses. Also he needs an engineering bay to deal with those DTs. Here's the push. Vultures slip through. Wow, those units are moving all as one big mass, I can't even tell what's control-grouped together. Maybe his macro is up to snuff. Ash is teching to arbiters but they're not going to be done in time. She's positioning DTs out way in front as tanks. The taunt totally removed the element of surprise. Nice play there by Ash with the mind game. And she's got a pair of observers. Now she's trying to mass up dragoons to deal with all those vultures. They're not going to be out on time.
Vultures reach the cannons. Ash dodged with her DTs, so he doesn't know they're there unless he saw the blur. Wait, another wave of vultures. I think he must've speed upgraded while I wasn't looking. They're putting mines down but, oooh, not bad micro from Ash, chopping the mines down and then retreating with the DTs. Looks like the front vultures got creamed against the cannons. Sniped off some speedlots, but they died too fast to tempt Ash's units out of the cannon line to their deaths. She's bringing the DTs back, observers can easily see that mine field. Skorpion sieges up. Very nice formation, well, actually, I take that back. They're very close together, which is important because BGH gets cramped, but it's totally storm-bait. Also bait for-- yup, there's the zealot bombs.
Uh, for those who don't watch pro Starcraft, you load for zealots into a shuttle, and fly them into the enemy's tank formation. Tanks have a minimum range when sieged, so they can't pick 'em off, and your allied tanks hit your own tanks with splash trying to destroy them. Very annoying. The same three hit it takes to kill the zealot, also kills all adjacent siege tanks.
It's actually working surprisingly not-well. It looks like... wow. Skorpion is targetting the mines he laid. So that the zealot bombs don't get to bomb. They're still doing substantial melee damage-- there, vultures picked 'em off. Damn, that was amazing. I've never even seen Flash do something like that. I didn't even know that was possible.
Ash is coming back for a second helping. Looks like DTs this time. Did I mention Skorpion has no detection but mines? Oooh, this is going to be painful. Yeah, tanks unsieging and running like hell. DTs get one, two tanks. Mines going down, no, Skorp, you dont' want to do that! Mine drag! Okay, that exploded too fast to tell, but I think those four DTs sold themselves for eight vultures and eight tanks. That is an excellent trade, considering Ash's macro was behind. Ouch. She's going back for more in the shuttle, oh wait, all she's got are dragoons. No harass for you. And Skorpion's got golliaths to ward the shuttle away, so no more zealot bombs for Ash.
Okay, one DT coming back in along the ground, but has to stop because of spider mines. So until Skorp gets some more active detection-- with three bases, a comsat station wouldn't be a bad idea, they're at a stalemate. But Ash has arbiters. She's pushing out with the speedlots under arbiter cloak. Mines going off. She's not spreading her zealots out far enough. Vultures wall off against the cloaked zealots. Very nice. But vultures aren't that though. Wait, he's targetting his own vultures with the splash from his siege tanks. Cute, but Ash's zealots outnumber the vultures at this point. Unsiege, yup, he's backing off until he can find detectors.
Let's look at the macro. Wow, Skorpion is way ahead of Ash. He was macroing this whole time. Looks like, yeah, he's already back at 200 pop, and storing up minerals. A bit gas bound. Looks like he's making marines to burn minerals-- kind of a waste of pop, but it's BGH, so this happens sometimes. HE should really sack some SCVs to make room for more tanks, I think. Yeah, Ash has to macro and tech up, or she's going to get totally run over.
Looks like the shuttle's back out to harass. DTs this time. There's the drop-- oh, nice dodge of the spidermine. Right, because she has observers and can see them. Going to work on the SCVs. Skorpion's got an e-bay somewhere, because turrets are going up everywhere. Wow, that's a lot of turrets. Shuttle barely gets away. SCVs pick off the DT. I guess that's payback for that marine at the beginning. Another taunt, Skorpion this time. "Come on, Ash, I thought you were good at this."
I don't think she can afford to respond, no, wait, she's risen to the bait. "I'm playing off-race, n00b." But honestly, she really needs to concentrate on her macro. Yeah, Skorpion's pushing out again. He went for a science vessel instead of comsat. I guess with arbiters out, that's the better choice. The vultures lead. Looks like he's just throwing them away, and the marine too. The cannons go to work. Yup, bye bye vultures. Let me look at upgrades. +2/+2 for Skorpion's mech. Ash has weapons and shields. I'm not sure I agree with that. I mean, sure, shields help buildings, but armor stacks with built-in armor bonuses, you know? Skorpion's main force, which is tanks and golliaths, is approaching the center of the map. Ash goes in with the arbiter and speedlots, but the science vessel sees it all. Massive siege shot. Zealots popping all over the place. Ash falls back. Lost about half the force, I think.
So Ash is in trouble now. Skorpion's army is nearly maxed again, and she doesn't have much of a tech advantage. Looks like-- wait, is that a fleet beacon. Please tell me she's not teching to carriers. That'd be handing Skorp the game on a silver platter. No, wait, it' worse! Corsairs! They can only attack air, so there's only one thing she can hit-- that science vessel protected by Charon boosted Golliaths. That's not going to-- oh, I see. Disruption web on all those turrets in Skorpion's base, so she can recall there on his factories. That might work, if she can survive. Skorpion's force moving out. Ash stasis fields right in the choke. That's going to keep Skorp from pushing in immediately but it also blocks Ash's zealots from doing damage to Skorp's mech army. Looks like he still ranges the mineral lines on her expansion too. Oooh, that economic damage is painful to watch. But then, she has two mains, so she should be mostly ok.
Lots of dragoons coming out. She has to clear a wider corridor through her own cannons to make maneuvering space. Oh, I see-- with the tanks statiss-ed, she can snipe-- yup! Got the science vessel. Now she's moving out with everything under arbiter cloak. But she can't fit past the stasis wall she made. Oooh, crucial planning mistake. Skorpion's got some turrets going up in back. Golliaths pick off the arbiter. Everything falls back but the DTs, and they can't get through the wall!
Okay, stasis wears off, but Skorp has two more science vessels now. The whole army's pushing forward again. He's hanging a little further back with his science vessels now to avoid a snipe. Another arbiter up to cover advancing-- oh man. This is gonna hurt. Those templar have been charging energy this whole game. Psi storm! Psi storm! More psi storm! Science vessel goes up. Will it be an EMP? No, the tanks pick off-- wow! The tanks picked off only the templars who hadn't stormed yet. One storm left-- it's gone. That was really impressive. Normally I would say Ash did a bad job for not backing up her templars with zealots, but in this case it looks like it wouldn't have mattered. Skorp's army is on the move again. They siege up. Oh man, that expansion is hosed. Ash scrambles to put up another line of cannons. Goliaths charge! They're battling the dragoons. Okay, tanks getting position now. Ash falls back. Skorp lost quite a few dragoons to that, but having smashed a base, maybe he doesn't care. Disruption web! Okay, Ash was forced to reveal her corsairs, but at the price of saving your main, I think it's worth it. Zealots going in-- they're not much use under the d-web. Okay, here come the goons to clean up. But Skorpion's rear tanks are still doing some damage. Splash is hitting his tanks too-- that must be why Ash chose zealots. Skorpion picks up and moves out from under the d-web.
Wow, this game has turned pretty epic. The only thing I haven't seen Ash use is mind control. Speaking of which-- I shouldn't have said anything. She's researching it now. But Skorpion's got-- yes, Skorpion has gone battlecruisers with yamato. Not in a big way, he's only got two starports. Man, Ash could really inflict some critical damage right now if she had more energy for d-webs. Arbiters coming out. Some stasis fields again. Loses an arbiter. Out come the zealots. She really wants to polish off Skorpion's army, but I don't think it's worth it. Look at Skorpion's base now. He has 20 factories with machine shops, all running. If this weren't a money map, he'd be so broke. Running a few marines out to try to harass the arbiters. They're not even upgraded. Ash ignores them. She's probing the turret lines, but there's no holes for a recall. Yamato! Boom, one less pesky arbiter.
Another taunt. "Battlecruisers are for n00bs" from Ash. I think FirebatHero would have some words with her for that. Though honestly, Skorpion could do some serious damage with wraiths and obs-sniping. His micro's plenty good and Ash only has four observers out.
"I've only been playing this for 25 minutes." Nice. He certainly doesn't look like he's only been playing for 25 minutes. His tank and goliath control would be well-regarded even in Korea, though his unit mixes aren't quite as good as Ash's have been. And he's had a few really sick micro plays as well. Battle cruisers coming out. Looks like he's picking at Ash's cannons. That's not a bad choice actually-- his multitasking is better. If she can't keep up with all the harassment, her defense will end up with holes and Skorp can drop her mining. She's already economically behind from losing the expansion ten minutes ago, so that'd be pretty much gg.
Got some action from Ash's end. Looks like corsairs, a shuttle, and an arbiter. THey're going out. Turrets firing. Disruption webs all over the place. But Skorp's turrets literally cover his whole base. There's no soft spot to do a DT drop. No, wait, it's a dark archon. It comes down in the minefield, but mines aren't triggered by hovering units like archons. Mind control... recall! Ash steals an SCV. If she keeps that alive, she can build the whole damn Terran tech tree in her base. Well, not in her base. There's no room. But somewhere on the map. This is so crazy!
"All ur base r belong to us" from Ash.
"r u sure?" from Skorpion. Honestly, it sure looks that way. Skorpion's had a lot of trouble coming in by land, so Ash's tech steal is looking pretty safe at the moment. Battle cruisers coming in again. Another mind control! Skorp yamatos it into oblivion. That's gotta hurt, having to yamato your own battlecruiser. And the DT gets away to a nearby shield battery to recharge. 'scuse me. Dark archon. Not DT. I was playing with Ameryll a week ago, and she tried to do this, but it looks like Ash's arbiter control is just a little better. Certainly better than mine.
Ton of SCVs coming out for Skorpion. Maybe he wants more pop for tanks? Nope, they're going to the west and southeast bases. Looks like, yeah. He's doing a siege surround with turrets. It makes sense-- they take no pop. Also siege tanks coming around. Yeah, it's going to be a full surround. Not that effective with disruption web in play, to be honest. The pop cap's just too low to really have enough army left with a surround to also push in. No, wait, he's not at 200 pop anyway. Lemme check out his base.
Ah, that's why. Skorpion is building nukes. Again, trying to press Ash's multitasking to the limit. And he's got lockdown. A couple of ghosts coming up the center. This should be pimp. Scanner sweep. Locks down a pair of obs on the way. He's right outside Ash's primary cannon wall. Nuclear launch detected. Psi storm! Both the ghosts go down. I sense a taunt coming. Yup, there it is. "That was kind of obvious. Largoist." Ah, the MegaTokyo references start. No surprise there-- these are both diehard fanb-fang-- fanpersons? I hate English sometimes.
He's persisting with the nukes, though. Couple more ghosts coming out, going to the siege lines. Oh, nice, they're going to nuke across the water. And he's gathering up some dropships and BCs. This is really going to hurt, and Ash can't see it because her observers can't approach the turret lines. Ash has, looks like she's up to factories, teching straight to starport units. She's going to go for the all-in air push. If she can survive long enough, Skorpion can't possibly hold that back. He just won't have enough units against 400 combined pop. Maybe with a lucky nuke, but I don't think Ash is raw enough to let him get away with that.
I don't think it's going to last that long though. Nuke goes off. Ten dropships going out with battlecruiser support. Dropping tanks. Skorp's main army is unsieging. He's laddering the whole damn army into Ash's southwestern base. Zealots aren't doing so hot against the battlecruisers. Manages to mind control one, but she doesn't have the unit control-- things are going in piecemeal. Now she's stopping and gathering up. Skorpion yamatos one of the high templar! Ouch, that one was full. Here comes the next load of drop. Wait, Ash is countering at Skorpion's main. The wall-in is still up though. Skorpion sieges up behind. There is no way Ash can break that. Corsairs coming in to d-web the drop, but the area's too big now. Yeah, the tanks are just unsieging and moving. And the BCs still have free reign. Zealots get... yeah, just one. Corsairs engaging the BCs. That's not gonna work. Arbiter coming in... EMPed! It doesn't get the stasis off. Buildings are popping all over the place. Ash gets a ghost out, but there's no research. Skorp's smashing the tiny little Terran area Ash put together.
Ash GGs!
Wow, that was a totally crazy game. I suppose it should be expected that someone with Skorpion's micro, multitasking and macro would have to win out if the game went long on a money map. But of course, this was only a practice game. Next game, Ash will be playing on-race, and they know each other's styles now. Should be awesome. I can't wait.
(Next game will be in a future post, depending on when I feel like it, and how much people liked this post.)
Anyway, this is a fanfic of Sputnik casting a series of Starcraft games between Skorpion and Ash. I think the rest explains itself.
Hi guys, this is Sputnik, and I'm casting a very exciting game of Starcraft tonight. Well, okay, it's not that exciting because Jaedong isn't playing, and I'm an inveterate Jaedong fan, but it's pretty cool anyway, because these are people I've actually met! Not friends, exactly, because they're kind of weirdos. But they're people I know. They're going to be playing a short series, one game for practice and one real game.
They've sort of billed this as a man versus machine sort of game, at least that's how they explained it to me. So I'm going to start the replay on the exhibition game going, and explain during the boring part at the beginning where they're just building units.
Okay, lets see... This exhibition game is on Big Game Hunters. Damn do I hate that map. It's a money map, so it leads to uninteresting play, no ledges which is boring, and it's unbalanced. Some starting locations have cliffs on which a pretty much invincible tank drop can be placed, right over the initial base. Horribly unbalanced for Terran. So I'm really glad this match doesn't count for anything.
Okay, looks like we've got Ash in the northwest spawn point as Protoss, and Skorpion due south as Terran. The distance is a good thing, because it means Ash won't just 2-gate or 3-gate zealot rush Skorpion and end it before he knows what's happening. Because I should mention, before they build too much stuff, that this is Skorpion's first time playing against a human opponent other than the AI, while Ash regularly plays on Battlenet, with her friends in the big Largo dorm where she spends most of her time, and she watches proleague, too. So there's a huge experience deficit in Ash's favor. On the other hand, Skorpion says he's got perfect reflexes, and can micromanage his units flawlessly. I remain to be convinced, but we'll see in this game.
Looks like Ash has gone forge fast-expand. Kind of overkill on a money map. I think there's some kind of head game going here, like she knows Skorpion won't apply early pressure, or maybe that he can't because it's an 8-player map and there's a lot of spawns to search. Ash sends out her first pylon probe as a scout. On Skorpion's end, I see a supply depot first at the shared choke between the northwest and north bases-- good placement there, so clearly he's figured out some game mechanics you wouldn't just learn from the computer. Okay, another supply depot, barracks going up. Meanwhile, Ash has skipped cannons. Maybe she noticed Skorpion's not scouting? And there's the nexus. Ash will have a significant economic advantage if Skorpion doesn't get his harass on.
Okay, first marines coming out for Skorpion. He's fanning them out, looking for Ash's base. I see a refinery going down. Looks like he wants to go mech, which is a good choice against the Protoss. Marines eat up zealots and dragoons, but 2 out of 3 of the Protoss' mid-level tech choices-- the reavers and the various templars, can one-hit marines. Ash's gateway is going down now. This is one problem with forge-first-- it slows down your tech tree since the tech all comes off the gateway.
Looks like Skorpion's sending out an SCV for... looks like another command center. So this is going to be an even heavier macro slugfest than I realized. Ash's cannons are nearly up. She doesn't really need four of them, that's kind of overkill. But wait, the marine gets there first. It's running past the cannons! It's in Ash's probe line! Probes coming off the line. Run marine, run! Probes are faster than the marine though. Ooof. Poor conscript never stood a chance. But now Skorpion knows not only where Ash's base is, but that she took a fast expand. Ash's gateway is just warping in, and she's got no gas mining yet. Skorpion's first factory is down. Will he have the game sense for a quick two-factory push?
Oh, right, I forgot-- Skorpion one-racks into expand himself. Okay, so neither of them is in a position to rush the other. The next stage will probably be the harass. Another refinery going down for Skorpion. And Ash is putting up her core and two assimilators. She shouldn't let her minerals build up that high, kind of wasteful. Skorpion puts down a pair of machine shops. Not sure if he's going for a heavy vulture harass or straight into tanks because of those cannons. It's a classic new player mistake not to realize you can run vultures by and inflict significant damage. Ash is teching up too. Looks like a robotics facility and a citadel of Adun. Dark templar drop, is what I'm thinking, which is a good choice. Skorpion has no detection in his base at the moment-- not even spider mines. And there's a probe sneaking out. Another scout, it looks like. No, it's another nexus! Ash is going for another base. She's not even defending it with a pylon wall. Very risky, and kind of an unnecessary risk. It's BGH after all. There's plenty of money left.
Okay, both machine shops spinning, and the factories are producing... tank and a vulture. Upgrades are siege mode and spider mines, so he will have detection. Meanwhile, Ash has the templar archives going up. Shuttle going up. Will she also go for a reaver harass and stretch her resources too thin? Nope, but an observatory. Okay, now that risky hidden expansion is getting a pylon, presumably for cannons. And she's scouting to make sure SKorpion hasn't done the same.
Skorpion's taking... yeah. He's taking the shared expansion between those two bases. He's going really macro heavy here. It's going to take him a while to move out at this rate, but when he does, it's going to be monstrous, assuming he can control all those units.
Okay, now we see Ash is building... high templar, not dark templar. Interesting! So it's going to be a storm drop, not a DT drop. That means the damage will be much more limited. Maybe Ash is toying with him? And a lot of gateways going up, because templar are mineral cheap, so she's going to supplement. Probably with zealots, since I see speed legs being researched as well. And... yup, there go the +1 weapons.
Skorpion's putting down more factories now. Wow. A lot of factories. That looks like, eight, nine factories. He must've been hoarding gas. Yeah, the two existing factories are just building vultures for now. Lotta spider mines going down, in fact. Wow his multitasking is really good. All of the vultures are placing mines at once without any delays at all. Okay, this could actually be a pretty cool match.
Ash's templar is up in the shuttle. She's sending it out immediately, no scout, storm not researched, presumably to achieve maximal surprise. She's building more templars, and there's a bunch more gates, a bit later than Skorp's factories. But her bases were up earlier-- they're actually equal for bases. Normally this is a win for Terran, but Ash's bases have been up longer, and saturation is really important on BGH. Templar's going in. She has no idea about the mines. Wait, she's not going for the mines. Skorpion hastily puts down a pair of armories. He needs anti-air, like, yesterday. And he's building marines too. He does not want this shuttle to live. Ash takes a good long scout, goes for the main. Okay, storm researched. There are vultures following, but wait, they can't see up onto that crappy imba ridge at the northwest. There's the drop. Psi storm! Oof. Skorpion loses a dozen SCVs. I thought he was supposed to have good micro.
Wait, wait, something's been typed. "Nice dodge." Wow, Ash is kinda being a bitch about this.
Skorpion's putting up a starport. And there go the golliaths. Charon boosters already upgrading... done. Ash had better get that shuttle down. He's going for +1 weapons and armor too. Ash's shuttle gets out of there just in time. Now Skorpion's army is moving out. Another message. It's Skorpion this time. "Dodge this."
I remember Ameryll saying something about Ash being a bit manipulative, and it looks like she's bringing that to Starcraft, too. Skorpion's army is not big enough for this yet. Ash has speedlots, DTs, high templar. Skorpion's only detection is still mines. He really needs to macro up to at least 120 pop, and go in vultures first to scout the defenses. Also he needs an engineering bay to deal with those DTs. Here's the push. Vultures slip through. Wow, those units are moving all as one big mass, I can't even tell what's control-grouped together. Maybe his macro is up to snuff. Ash is teching to arbiters but they're not going to be done in time. She's positioning DTs out way in front as tanks. The taunt totally removed the element of surprise. Nice play there by Ash with the mind game. And she's got a pair of observers. Now she's trying to mass up dragoons to deal with all those vultures. They're not going to be out on time.
Vultures reach the cannons. Ash dodged with her DTs, so he doesn't know they're there unless he saw the blur. Wait, another wave of vultures. I think he must've speed upgraded while I wasn't looking. They're putting mines down but, oooh, not bad micro from Ash, chopping the mines down and then retreating with the DTs. Looks like the front vultures got creamed against the cannons. Sniped off some speedlots, but they died too fast to tempt Ash's units out of the cannon line to their deaths. She's bringing the DTs back, observers can easily see that mine field. Skorpion sieges up. Very nice formation, well, actually, I take that back. They're very close together, which is important because BGH gets cramped, but it's totally storm-bait. Also bait for-- yup, there's the zealot bombs.
Uh, for those who don't watch pro Starcraft, you load for zealots into a shuttle, and fly them into the enemy's tank formation. Tanks have a minimum range when sieged, so they can't pick 'em off, and your allied tanks hit your own tanks with splash trying to destroy them. Very annoying. The same three hit it takes to kill the zealot, also kills all adjacent siege tanks.
It's actually working surprisingly not-well. It looks like... wow. Skorpion is targetting the mines he laid. So that the zealot bombs don't get to bomb. They're still doing substantial melee damage-- there, vultures picked 'em off. Damn, that was amazing. I've never even seen Flash do something like that. I didn't even know that was possible.
Ash is coming back for a second helping. Looks like DTs this time. Did I mention Skorpion has no detection but mines? Oooh, this is going to be painful. Yeah, tanks unsieging and running like hell. DTs get one, two tanks. Mines going down, no, Skorp, you dont' want to do that! Mine drag! Okay, that exploded too fast to tell, but I think those four DTs sold themselves for eight vultures and eight tanks. That is an excellent trade, considering Ash's macro was behind. Ouch. She's going back for more in the shuttle, oh wait, all she's got are dragoons. No harass for you. And Skorpion's got golliaths to ward the shuttle away, so no more zealot bombs for Ash.
Okay, one DT coming back in along the ground, but has to stop because of spider mines. So until Skorp gets some more active detection-- with three bases, a comsat station wouldn't be a bad idea, they're at a stalemate. But Ash has arbiters. She's pushing out with the speedlots under arbiter cloak. Mines going off. She's not spreading her zealots out far enough. Vultures wall off against the cloaked zealots. Very nice. But vultures aren't that though. Wait, he's targetting his own vultures with the splash from his siege tanks. Cute, but Ash's zealots outnumber the vultures at this point. Unsiege, yup, he's backing off until he can find detectors.
Let's look at the macro. Wow, Skorpion is way ahead of Ash. He was macroing this whole time. Looks like, yeah, he's already back at 200 pop, and storing up minerals. A bit gas bound. Looks like he's making marines to burn minerals-- kind of a waste of pop, but it's BGH, so this happens sometimes. HE should really sack some SCVs to make room for more tanks, I think. Yeah, Ash has to macro and tech up, or she's going to get totally run over.
Looks like the shuttle's back out to harass. DTs this time. There's the drop-- oh, nice dodge of the spidermine. Right, because she has observers and can see them. Going to work on the SCVs. Skorpion's got an e-bay somewhere, because turrets are going up everywhere. Wow, that's a lot of turrets. Shuttle barely gets away. SCVs pick off the DT. I guess that's payback for that marine at the beginning. Another taunt, Skorpion this time. "Come on, Ash, I thought you were good at this."
I don't think she can afford to respond, no, wait, she's risen to the bait. "I'm playing off-race, n00b." But honestly, she really needs to concentrate on her macro. Yeah, Skorpion's pushing out again. He went for a science vessel instead of comsat. I guess with arbiters out, that's the better choice. The vultures lead. Looks like he's just throwing them away, and the marine too. The cannons go to work. Yup, bye bye vultures. Let me look at upgrades. +2/+2 for Skorpion's mech. Ash has weapons and shields. I'm not sure I agree with that. I mean, sure, shields help buildings, but armor stacks with built-in armor bonuses, you know? Skorpion's main force, which is tanks and golliaths, is approaching the center of the map. Ash goes in with the arbiter and speedlots, but the science vessel sees it all. Massive siege shot. Zealots popping all over the place. Ash falls back. Lost about half the force, I think.
So Ash is in trouble now. Skorpion's army is nearly maxed again, and she doesn't have much of a tech advantage. Looks like-- wait, is that a fleet beacon. Please tell me she's not teching to carriers. That'd be handing Skorp the game on a silver platter. No, wait, it' worse! Corsairs! They can only attack air, so there's only one thing she can hit-- that science vessel protected by Charon boosted Golliaths. That's not going to-- oh, I see. Disruption web on all those turrets in Skorpion's base, so she can recall there on his factories. That might work, if she can survive. Skorpion's force moving out. Ash stasis fields right in the choke. That's going to keep Skorp from pushing in immediately but it also blocks Ash's zealots from doing damage to Skorp's mech army. Looks like he still ranges the mineral lines on her expansion too. Oooh, that economic damage is painful to watch. But then, she has two mains, so she should be mostly ok.
Lots of dragoons coming out. She has to clear a wider corridor through her own cannons to make maneuvering space. Oh, I see-- with the tanks statiss-ed, she can snipe-- yup! Got the science vessel. Now she's moving out with everything under arbiter cloak. But she can't fit past the stasis wall she made. Oooh, crucial planning mistake. Skorpion's got some turrets going up in back. Golliaths pick off the arbiter. Everything falls back but the DTs, and they can't get through the wall!
Okay, stasis wears off, but Skorp has two more science vessels now. The whole army's pushing forward again. He's hanging a little further back with his science vessels now to avoid a snipe. Another arbiter up to cover advancing-- oh man. This is gonna hurt. Those templar have been charging energy this whole game. Psi storm! Psi storm! More psi storm! Science vessel goes up. Will it be an EMP? No, the tanks pick off-- wow! The tanks picked off only the templars who hadn't stormed yet. One storm left-- it's gone. That was really impressive. Normally I would say Ash did a bad job for not backing up her templars with zealots, but in this case it looks like it wouldn't have mattered. Skorp's army is on the move again. They siege up. Oh man, that expansion is hosed. Ash scrambles to put up another line of cannons. Goliaths charge! They're battling the dragoons. Okay, tanks getting position now. Ash falls back. Skorp lost quite a few dragoons to that, but having smashed a base, maybe he doesn't care. Disruption web! Okay, Ash was forced to reveal her corsairs, but at the price of saving your main, I think it's worth it. Zealots going in-- they're not much use under the d-web. Okay, here come the goons to clean up. But Skorpion's rear tanks are still doing some damage. Splash is hitting his tanks too-- that must be why Ash chose zealots. Skorpion picks up and moves out from under the d-web.
Wow, this game has turned pretty epic. The only thing I haven't seen Ash use is mind control. Speaking of which-- I shouldn't have said anything. She's researching it now. But Skorpion's got-- yes, Skorpion has gone battlecruisers with yamato. Not in a big way, he's only got two starports. Man, Ash could really inflict some critical damage right now if she had more energy for d-webs. Arbiters coming out. Some stasis fields again. Loses an arbiter. Out come the zealots. She really wants to polish off Skorpion's army, but I don't think it's worth it. Look at Skorpion's base now. He has 20 factories with machine shops, all running. If this weren't a money map, he'd be so broke. Running a few marines out to try to harass the arbiters. They're not even upgraded. Ash ignores them. She's probing the turret lines, but there's no holes for a recall. Yamato! Boom, one less pesky arbiter.
Another taunt. "Battlecruisers are for n00bs" from Ash. I think FirebatHero would have some words with her for that. Though honestly, Skorpion could do some serious damage with wraiths and obs-sniping. His micro's plenty good and Ash only has four observers out.
"I've only been playing this for 25 minutes." Nice. He certainly doesn't look like he's only been playing for 25 minutes. His tank and goliath control would be well-regarded even in Korea, though his unit mixes aren't quite as good as Ash's have been. And he's had a few really sick micro plays as well. Battle cruisers coming out. Looks like he's picking at Ash's cannons. That's not a bad choice actually-- his multitasking is better. If she can't keep up with all the harassment, her defense will end up with holes and Skorp can drop her mining. She's already economically behind from losing the expansion ten minutes ago, so that'd be pretty much gg.
Got some action from Ash's end. Looks like corsairs, a shuttle, and an arbiter. THey're going out. Turrets firing. Disruption webs all over the place. But Skorp's turrets literally cover his whole base. There's no soft spot to do a DT drop. No, wait, it's a dark archon. It comes down in the minefield, but mines aren't triggered by hovering units like archons. Mind control... recall! Ash steals an SCV. If she keeps that alive, she can build the whole damn Terran tech tree in her base. Well, not in her base. There's no room. But somewhere on the map. This is so crazy!
"All ur base r belong to us" from Ash.
"r u sure?" from Skorpion. Honestly, it sure looks that way. Skorpion's had a lot of trouble coming in by land, so Ash's tech steal is looking pretty safe at the moment. Battle cruisers coming in again. Another mind control! Skorp yamatos it into oblivion. That's gotta hurt, having to yamato your own battlecruiser. And the DT gets away to a nearby shield battery to recharge. 'scuse me. Dark archon. Not DT. I was playing with Ameryll a week ago, and she tried to do this, but it looks like Ash's arbiter control is just a little better. Certainly better than mine.
Ton of SCVs coming out for Skorpion. Maybe he wants more pop for tanks? Nope, they're going to the west and southeast bases. Looks like, yeah. He's doing a siege surround with turrets. It makes sense-- they take no pop. Also siege tanks coming around. Yeah, it's going to be a full surround. Not that effective with disruption web in play, to be honest. The pop cap's just too low to really have enough army left with a surround to also push in. No, wait, he's not at 200 pop anyway. Lemme check out his base.
Ah, that's why. Skorpion is building nukes. Again, trying to press Ash's multitasking to the limit. And he's got lockdown. A couple of ghosts coming up the center. This should be pimp. Scanner sweep. Locks down a pair of obs on the way. He's right outside Ash's primary cannon wall. Nuclear launch detected. Psi storm! Both the ghosts go down. I sense a taunt coming. Yup, there it is. "That was kind of obvious. Largoist." Ah, the MegaTokyo references start. No surprise there-- these are both diehard fanb-fang-- fanpersons? I hate English sometimes.
He's persisting with the nukes, though. Couple more ghosts coming out, going to the siege lines. Oh, nice, they're going to nuke across the water. And he's gathering up some dropships and BCs. This is really going to hurt, and Ash can't see it because her observers can't approach the turret lines. Ash has, looks like she's up to factories, teching straight to starport units. She's going to go for the all-in air push. If she can survive long enough, Skorpion can't possibly hold that back. He just won't have enough units against 400 combined pop. Maybe with a lucky nuke, but I don't think Ash is raw enough to let him get away with that.
I don't think it's going to last that long though. Nuke goes off. Ten dropships going out with battlecruiser support. Dropping tanks. Skorp's main army is unsieging. He's laddering the whole damn army into Ash's southwestern base. Zealots aren't doing so hot against the battlecruisers. Manages to mind control one, but she doesn't have the unit control-- things are going in piecemeal. Now she's stopping and gathering up. Skorpion yamatos one of the high templar! Ouch, that one was full. Here comes the next load of drop. Wait, Ash is countering at Skorpion's main. The wall-in is still up though. Skorpion sieges up behind. There is no way Ash can break that. Corsairs coming in to d-web the drop, but the area's too big now. Yeah, the tanks are just unsieging and moving. And the BCs still have free reign. Zealots get... yeah, just one. Corsairs engaging the BCs. That's not gonna work. Arbiter coming in... EMPed! It doesn't get the stasis off. Buildings are popping all over the place. Ash gets a ghost out, but there's no research. Skorp's smashing the tiny little Terran area Ash put together.
Ash GGs!
Wow, that was a totally crazy game. I suppose it should be expected that someone with Skorpion's micro, multitasking and macro would have to win out if the game went long on a money map. But of course, this was only a practice game. Next game, Ash will be playing on-race, and they know each other's styles now. Should be awesome. I can't wait.
(Next game will be in a future post, depending on when I feel like it, and how much people liked this post.)