Random vs Random, he rolled Protoss and I rolled Terran. I got my Barracks building and sent my SCV out to scout his base...as it was leaving all his probes rolled into my base and started attacking my SCVs.
WTF.
So I pulled most off mining and sent them into attack, set my scouting SCV to attack his one remaining Probe and...well..defended.
He eventually GG'd out. Odd.
Oh well, I'll take it.
+20 Points, Silver League Division Rank 6
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
300th League Win
I'm not yet entirely sure what the differences are between The Lost Temple and The Shattered Temple. This was my first time on the new one, though. It played roughly the same for what little time I played on it.
I rolled Terran vs Protoss and set my plan "Marauder heavy MMM with concussion shell first". He did a 4 warpgate open and tried to push on my base. Because I had been contending for the middle Xel'Naga I saw it coming and threw down a bunker behind my wall-off.
I pretty much won the game here, I defended reasonably well and he didn't seem to know what to do after the push failed. I expanded and built more barracks and MMM. Expanded again to my close Gold and took the center. Started building Vikings and then decided to push a bit and see what he had.
He was just getting his Collosus up and just didn't have the army count he needed to defend.
+20 Points, Silver League Division Rank 7
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/145037-1v1-terran-protoss-the-shattered-temple
I rolled Terran vs Protoss and set my plan "Marauder heavy MMM with concussion shell first". He did a 4 warpgate open and tried to push on my base. Because I had been contending for the middle Xel'Naga I saw it coming and threw down a bunker behind my wall-off.
I pretty much won the game here, I defended reasonably well and he didn't seem to know what to do after the push failed. I expanded and built more barracks and MMM. Expanded again to my close Gold and took the center. Started building Vikings and then decided to push a bit and see what he had.
He was just getting his Collosus up and just didn't have the army count he needed to defend.
+20 Points, Silver League Division Rank 7
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/145037-1v1-terran-protoss-the-shattered-temple
How many stalkers can he build?
This was my first game in Typhon Peaks. I didn't learn anything.
Yet again I failed to come up with a plan. I early expanded, popped out a few queens and connected my base and injected larva and got my speed upgrade and made lings.
Then at the 8 minute mark he rolled out with 8 or 9 Stalkers plus a few Zealots and a Sentry and *rolled* over me. It wasn't even close.
Lesson learned - screw 4 warpgaters. I don't know... I failed to have a plan so I had no direction. If I had one would it have been different? Maybe.
-14 Points, Silver League Division Rank 7
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/145035-1v1-protoss-zerg-typhon-peaks
Yet again I failed to come up with a plan. I early expanded, popped out a few queens and connected my base and injected larva and got my speed upgrade and made lings.
Then at the 8 minute mark he rolled out with 8 or 9 Stalkers plus a few Zealots and a Sentry and *rolled* over me. It wasn't even close.
Lesson learned - screw 4 warpgaters. I don't know... I failed to have a plan so I had no direction. If I had one would it have been different? Maybe.
-14 Points, Silver League Division Rank 7
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/145035-1v1-protoss-zerg-typhon-peaks
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Bleh
I lost in 7 minutes. Sometimes I feel like the worst player ever.
He one-based roaches. I had an original plan to go for mech and when I scouted the roaches thought "hrm...I'm going to want banshees".
To be clear, I don't have a solid mech build. I don't have an early banshee build. So after that it just fell apart for me. I was stuck in the middle of basically doing 3 different builds and all of them badly.
So, today's lesson is - it's more important to choose a game strategy I'm comfortable executing than one that might be best suited for what I'm facing.
-14 Points, Silver League Division Rank 7
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/145033-1v1-terran-zerg-xelnaga-caverns
He one-based roaches. I had an original plan to go for mech and when I scouted the roaches thought "hrm...I'm going to want banshees".
To be clear, I don't have a solid mech build. I don't have an early banshee build. So after that it just fell apart for me. I was stuck in the middle of basically doing 3 different builds and all of them badly.
So, today's lesson is - it's more important to choose a game strategy I'm comfortable executing than one that might be best suited for what I'm facing.
-14 Points, Silver League Division Rank 7
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/145033-1v1-terran-zerg-xelnaga-caverns
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Not like yesterday's game
Yesterday I played a PvT against a brand new player. Brand new. First game on the ladder. He warned me ahead of time that he was awful, and he was right. No offense to him, he just wasn't practiced or familiar with what he was doing. I rolled Protoss and futzed around for a while with stuff before I blinked into his back and rolled Zealots and Immortals up the front of his base.
Tonights game was not like that one. I played on Metalopolis vs a Random (turned out to be Zerg) player. I put some early pressure on him with Stalkers and some Sentries. I failed to make a plan though, so I just kinda built more Stalkers and expanded when it felt right. He early expanded so he couldn't do much about the pressure, but eventually (surprise) once his economy and tech got up he rolled me with zerglings, roaches and hydras.
I don't play versus many zerg and less who use that style. I'm totally familiar with the zerg ability to do that, just rarely see it...so it was actually kinda fun.
I did poorly and spending my money. And I failed to make a plan. So, tonight's lessons:
- need to keep up with building structures that allow me to build stuff that kills stuff
- need to remember to make a plan, always come up with a plan
-11 points, Silver League Division Rank 7
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/144110-1v1-protoss-zerg-metalopolis
Tonights game was not like that one. I played on Metalopolis vs a Random (turned out to be Zerg) player. I put some early pressure on him with Stalkers and some Sentries. I failed to make a plan though, so I just kinda built more Stalkers and expanded when it felt right. He early expanded so he couldn't do much about the pressure, but eventually (surprise) once his economy and tech got up he rolled me with zerglings, roaches and hydras.
I don't play versus many zerg and less who use that style. I'm totally familiar with the zerg ability to do that, just rarely see it...so it was actually kinda fun.
I did poorly and spending my money. And I failed to make a plan. So, tonight's lessons:
- need to keep up with building structures that allow me to build stuff that kills stuff
- need to remember to make a plan, always come up with a plan
-11 points, Silver League Division Rank 7
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/144110-1v1-protoss-zerg-metalopolis
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Even when I know it's coming...
I rolled Zerg vs Terran on Scrap Station. I got utterly rolled by this Terran. He went with a double reactor fast banshee play. I saw it coming...and just failed. I didn't have any detection so I threw down a spore colony or two before they got to my base. They still did damage.
Once he started hitting me, the hits never stopped. He one-based the whole thing, my army of zerglings outside his ramp did no good.
My plan was to go muta / zergling. I did an early expand and was trying to tech quickly to the mutas but...I don't know. I don't know where I went wrong. His banshees just ripped me apart and I couldn't get enough of anything going to stop them.
Once my mutas finally got up (the spire had only just started when the banshees showed up) he rolled in with marines and marauders.
I brought the lings back and cleaned up, but it was a pain. I couldn't morph overseers because my gas had been spent on my first batch of mutas and I couldn't spawn queens because he'd destroyed my spawning pool.
I had my early expand keeping me in the money so I could keep fighting him off. But he had a huge upper hand. I needed banelings to better hold off the marines that were coming in waves, but I couldn't get them without sacrificing my queens or my mutas when I also needed at this point.
One thing I failed to do was spend my money. My queens were dead so I wasn't getting any larva injections so my money was stock piling. I finally realized and threw down an extra hatch, but it was too little too late. I needed 3 extra hatches, and more room to place them in.
I guess maybe that's the solution to try. Don't worry about banelings, next time I see this kind of continued banshee harassment do my best to hold while keeping drones and protecting the key structures as best I can. When my money gets high, I need to be aware right away so I can start throwing down extra hatches to keep my production up so that when I wipe his army (as happened a few times) I'm not left in a worse position than him.
-11 Points, Silver League Division Rank 6
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/143740-1v1-terran-zerg-scrap-station
Once he started hitting me, the hits never stopped. He one-based the whole thing, my army of zerglings outside his ramp did no good.
My plan was to go muta / zergling. I did an early expand and was trying to tech quickly to the mutas but...I don't know. I don't know where I went wrong. His banshees just ripped me apart and I couldn't get enough of anything going to stop them.
Once my mutas finally got up (the spire had only just started when the banshees showed up) he rolled in with marines and marauders.
I brought the lings back and cleaned up, but it was a pain. I couldn't morph overseers because my gas had been spent on my first batch of mutas and I couldn't spawn queens because he'd destroyed my spawning pool.
I had my early expand keeping me in the money so I could keep fighting him off. But he had a huge upper hand. I needed banelings to better hold off the marines that were coming in waves, but I couldn't get them without sacrificing my queens or my mutas when I also needed at this point.
One thing I failed to do was spend my money. My queens were dead so I wasn't getting any larva injections so my money was stock piling. I finally realized and threw down an extra hatch, but it was too little too late. I needed 3 extra hatches, and more room to place them in.
I guess maybe that's the solution to try. Don't worry about banelings, next time I see this kind of continued banshee harassment do my best to hold while keeping drones and protecting the key structures as best I can. When my money gets high, I need to be aware right away so I can start throwing down extra hatches to keep my production up so that when I wipe his army (as happened a few times) I'm not left in a worse position than him.
-11 Points, Silver League Division Rank 6
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/143740-1v1-terran-zerg-scrap-station
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Always have a plan, never have details
Before I took my break from the game, I played about 10 or 12 games against a friend of mine. He wanted to try out some bunker strategies and I wanted to try defending myself against bunker strategies...so it worked well.
Going into the games I was afraid I'd bias my build / actions towards something that would be good vs his early bunker rush, so I would make a decision, "I'm going for X". Just some really super basic strategy, like Dark Templar, or mass Blink Stalker or early Zergling pressure into Roach / Hydra.
I rolled my friend. Hard. Eventually he gave up the bunkers altogether and just played and I, keeping my "come up with a plan first" strategy, continued to beat him game after game after game.
I find that having a plan, even a simple outline of one like that, makes a huge difference. It takes some of the pressure off, I don't have to worry about coming up with a good strategy based on what he's doing. I just focus on my game, scout, defend and attack when appropriate. A big battle happens? No need to think during the fight, I already know what I should be doing when I throw in my macro, and when the fight's over I can go right back to full time macro. No "okay..what do I need to build now" thinking time.
So going into these fights, that's the most important thing for me. I see the opponents race and the map and once I spawn I see my race. I set my guys to mining and then take a second to think "alright, what's my plan".
Opening into the game today I saw I was playing on Scrap Station vs a Terran. Personally, I hate Scrap Station. As any race, really. Something about the way it's laid out..I never feel totally comfortable. When the map finished loading I was it would be a TvT and I needed a plan.
My Terran play is very simple. Build Marines, build Marauders, don't stop building Marines or Marauders, get upgrades. I then take this and do slight variants. Some Siege Tanks, or Vikings or Medivacs. Sometimes a game calls for Thors or even Banshees or Ghosts. But usually Marines and Marauders and I'm set.
So given the layout of Scrap Station my thought was "God I don't want to be running my Marines around here" so I decided to go for an even Marine / Marauder / Medivac build. I finalize the "plan" in my head and tell my opponent "gl!" He responds "prepare to win". Great...
I wasn't entirely sure if he was just having a bad day, or a bad week and just expected to lose. Or I know some players are "intimidated" by the Random during the load screen and assume I must be good. Either way I went about building my SCVs and Barracks.
Typically I open heavy early Marauder with Concussive, but vs Terran I opt for a Marine heavier build with Stim first.
He opted for Turtling. This isn't the most uncommon tactic for Terrans from my experience, and when I'm also Terran I'm more than happy to see it. You want to build Bunkers and Siege Tanks and protect your little one-base? Please...please do. I'm happy to have free reign to build.
Finally I pushed out with a little force of Marines. I killed his Expansion that was starting and then broke myself on his Banshee and Siege Tanks...but it was okay. I cost him 400 minerals in his Natural's CC and I saw what Tech he had. I also hadn't stopped building stuff so at this point I already had two Medivacs with Marines and Marauders heading towards the back of his base.
He had a Sensor Tower up at this point to protect that angle...but must not have been paying attention to it because I'd destroyed all of his SCVs by the time he reacted, allowing me to retreat with no losses.
I paused for a few minutes here (in terms of agression) to get my expand fully up and running and do a little base management. I need to get better at doing that stuff while doing other things....I'm not sure how other than keep trying. He took the opportunity to sneak a few cloaked Banshees into my main mineral line which cost me a few SCVs before I was able to get my Vikings back there with Scan to destroy them.
Ultimately I did win. I pushed and destroyed his expand again while double expanding and when he pulled his army out to defend his Natural I loaded into my Medivacs and dropped into his main. Siege Tanks are great for defense, but when you roll them out against a more mobile army...it never really ends well.
Anyway, one win for me. Though I feel bad for him. I looked at his stats, he'd lost the previous 4 or so games he's played today. He's Gold Leagued but with only 10 games or so under his belt, so I'm guessing he placed there (unlike my "last in the Bronze league" initial placement).
+ 26 points, Silver League Division Rank 5
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/143741-1v1-terran-scrap-station
Going into the games I was afraid I'd bias my build / actions towards something that would be good vs his early bunker rush, so I would make a decision, "I'm going for X". Just some really super basic strategy, like Dark Templar, or mass Blink Stalker or early Zergling pressure into Roach / Hydra.
I rolled my friend. Hard. Eventually he gave up the bunkers altogether and just played and I, keeping my "come up with a plan first" strategy, continued to beat him game after game after game.
I find that having a plan, even a simple outline of one like that, makes a huge difference. It takes some of the pressure off, I don't have to worry about coming up with a good strategy based on what he's doing. I just focus on my game, scout, defend and attack when appropriate. A big battle happens? No need to think during the fight, I already know what I should be doing when I throw in my macro, and when the fight's over I can go right back to full time macro. No "okay..what do I need to build now" thinking time.
So going into these fights, that's the most important thing for me. I see the opponents race and the map and once I spawn I see my race. I set my guys to mining and then take a second to think "alright, what's my plan".
Opening into the game today I saw I was playing on Scrap Station vs a Terran. Personally, I hate Scrap Station. As any race, really. Something about the way it's laid out..I never feel totally comfortable. When the map finished loading I was it would be a TvT and I needed a plan.
My Terran play is very simple. Build Marines, build Marauders, don't stop building Marines or Marauders, get upgrades. I then take this and do slight variants. Some Siege Tanks, or Vikings or Medivacs. Sometimes a game calls for Thors or even Banshees or Ghosts. But usually Marines and Marauders and I'm set.
So given the layout of Scrap Station my thought was "God I don't want to be running my Marines around here" so I decided to go for an even Marine / Marauder / Medivac build. I finalize the "plan" in my head and tell my opponent "gl!" He responds "prepare to win". Great...
I wasn't entirely sure if he was just having a bad day, or a bad week and just expected to lose. Or I know some players are "intimidated" by the Random during the load screen and assume I must be good. Either way I went about building my SCVs and Barracks.
Typically I open heavy early Marauder with Concussive, but vs Terran I opt for a Marine heavier build with Stim first.
He opted for Turtling. This isn't the most uncommon tactic for Terrans from my experience, and when I'm also Terran I'm more than happy to see it. You want to build Bunkers and Siege Tanks and protect your little one-base? Please...please do. I'm happy to have free reign to build.
Finally I pushed out with a little force of Marines. I killed his Expansion that was starting and then broke myself on his Banshee and Siege Tanks...but it was okay. I cost him 400 minerals in his Natural's CC and I saw what Tech he had. I also hadn't stopped building stuff so at this point I already had two Medivacs with Marines and Marauders heading towards the back of his base.
He had a Sensor Tower up at this point to protect that angle...but must not have been paying attention to it because I'd destroyed all of his SCVs by the time he reacted, allowing me to retreat with no losses.
I paused for a few minutes here (in terms of agression) to get my expand fully up and running and do a little base management. I need to get better at doing that stuff while doing other things....I'm not sure how other than keep trying. He took the opportunity to sneak a few cloaked Banshees into my main mineral line which cost me a few SCVs before I was able to get my Vikings back there with Scan to destroy them.
Ultimately I did win. I pushed and destroyed his expand again while double expanding and when he pulled his army out to defend his Natural I loaded into my Medivacs and dropped into his main. Siege Tanks are great for defense, but when you roll them out against a more mobile army...it never really ends well.
Anyway, one win for me. Though I feel bad for him. I looked at his stats, he'd lost the previous 4 or so games he's played today. He's Gold Leagued but with only 10 games or so under his belt, so I'm guessing he placed there (unlike my "last in the Bronze league" initial placement).
+ 26 points, Silver League Division Rank 5
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/143741-1v1-terran-scrap-station
Just a little about me and this...
The original Starcraft came out my Freshman year of college, followed by Brood Wars the following year. I played them quite a bit, mostly on the LAN at school and then sometimes BattleNet. I was never a great player, but I was decent. After my friends stopped, I kinda stopped to - but always missed the game and frequently came back to play vs the PC or through the Single Player again.
With SCII coming out, I've enjoyed diving back in and want to keep playing, which in large part means Laddering in the 1v1 side. Which is fine and dandy, I look forward to the challenge, but I sometimes struggle with it.
And by "struggle" I mean "get stuck in the Silver League". I've taken a little break and am now ready to come back and play some more.
I started this blog as a way of keeping track of my games and retrospection on my play. It's primarily a tool for myself, but I've made it a public blog here incase others want to commiserate with their own experiences, or just laugh at the newbie who can't get out of the Silver League.
I tend to play Random, though Zerg is my preferred race and Terran is probably my best race. I'm currently ranked 6th in my Silver League division with a 55/60 Win / Loss history. That adds up to a total of 793 points for now.
We'll see how I do...
With SCII coming out, I've enjoyed diving back in and want to keep playing, which in large part means Laddering in the 1v1 side. Which is fine and dandy, I look forward to the challenge, but I sometimes struggle with it.
And by "struggle" I mean "get stuck in the Silver League". I've taken a little break and am now ready to come back and play some more.
I started this blog as a way of keeping track of my games and retrospection on my play. It's primarily a tool for myself, but I've made it a public blog here incase others want to commiserate with their own experiences, or just laugh at the newbie who can't get out of the Silver League.
I tend to play Random, though Zerg is my preferred race and Terran is probably my best race. I'm currently ranked 6th in my Silver League division with a 55/60 Win / Loss history. That adds up to a total of 793 points for now.
We'll see how I do...
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