Starcraft II: Unorthodox? No, I’m Atheist

It’s darkness here and I’m here to blog about a pair of rather unusual games as of late!

Early Bird?

In this first game, I am playing Terran vs. Terran (known to the higher-up as TvT, appropriately) on Xel’Naga Caverns. I thought, hey, I’ve been playing Discord IV for such a while, maybe I’ve improved well enough to try a 1v1 fight.

What subsequently happened… well, I wouldn’t call it a test of my knowledge.

I’m on the bottom left, building approximately a standard Terran early build (build to 9/11, then supply depot, while going to 11/11 while it finishes). About halfway into the supply depot, I find–to my utmost surprise–a small army of SCVs charging my position!

(Incidentally, I had the good fortune to watch on Youtube a game in which a bunch of SCVs were able to overrun a Protoss base in the first minutes of the game. It is a very odd technique, and it really only works if you can catch your opponent off guard or unprepared for such a type of rush, like if he or she didn’t move the builders off the mineral line in time.)

So, the enemy had the seven SCVs (six starters, plus the one built with the only 50 mineral at the beginning of the game) versus my ~10/11 SCVs.

It was actually quite intense; because the other player had the luxury of first strike (and I therefore had the disadvantage of responding), he was able to do away with many SCVs. However, I was able to pull my SCVs out of the mineral line just as he waltzed near the command center, so I was on about even footing with the peculiar foe. He did some reasonable damage, but when it came down to the last few SCVs, my supply depot builder finished his job (why didn’t I pull him off the task I don’t know). That extra SCV gave me just enough leverage to deal with the last SCV. Final count: 0 SCVs him, ~1.5 SCV hitpoints me.

GG.

Without a Paddle

Here we are again, back to Discord IV, with a full-on Terran 2v2 game. Actually, it was more 1v2, as the opponent had one very easy AI instead of another player. Unfortunately for me, that one player knew how to play… something.

I decided to go 3rax for this game, later going for a few tanks from the factory and medivacs from the starport. Normally, the main forces group around the ramp for the significant height advantage over any approaching ground troops, a typical defense force early in the game. However, they don’t really do that well against, oh, say, reaper raids?

Incidentally, I was expecting some sort of raid from the enemy, so I built some missile turrets near the vulnerable area. However, reapers are not known to fly–they are cliff walkers, so they don’t count as air units, but they can be some seriously annoying harassing units.

Now, here’s where it got interesting. In recent games, I’ve been met with some kind of hit-and-run strategy that amounted to massing reapers. Normally, players would use few reapers, maybe four, for scouting and harassing purposes. Instead, this player corralled about a dozen, wreaking havoc throughout the base.

This first strike really threw me in for a loop–it crushed my entire starting mineral line, as well as a few buildings, including the initial command center. My ally, being placed further away from this hoopla, was more fortunate. Meanwhile, my economy went down the toilet, being reliant on the few SCVs that remained on my expansion.

Around the same time, I sent a pair of medivacs filled with marines to harass THEIR bases, incidentally hitting most of the AI structures since they were the closest. I eventually succumbed to superior base forces, but did significant damage nonetheless. I tried again later in the game, but then missile turrets were up, and the attack was not as fruitful.

After that, the second wave of reapers suddenly attacked. It destroyed my command center, AND every SCV I had. He followed up with a torrent of marines and such units, but all of them were ultimately defeated. Unfortunately, my time was now short.

Without any SCVs, I could not mine, could not go for gas, could not build a command center to build more SCVs, could not build buildings… well, you get the point. I had about a few thousand minerals left, plus a bit of gas. So what more could I do?

Stick it to the man. That was the only way left to go.

I mustered all of the marines and marauders I could, supported them with medivacs, and made a beeline for the enemy base. With literally everything I had left, I pushed, and overwhelmed the base defenses, and crushed everything in sight. Armories, fusion cores, barracks, factories, engineering bays, orbital commands, missile turrets, marines, marauders, tanks, hellions… they all seemed to disintegrate before my wrath.

I thought I was going to lose that game for sure, but apparently fate was kind, or my opponent was hesitant. Either way, it was one of the most exhilarating game I’ve played yet.