This was a TvT and it was unique in that someone did my similar 3 'Rax opening against me. He got a quick 3 Barracks built, faster than mine in fact, and quickly pumped out a bunch of Marines and sent them in at me.
The difference was, in order to get that extra speed and agression he had to sacrifice both economy and tech. His Orbital went down later, after my natural expansion was up, and while he had a factory up before me, I had upgraded Marines before him and my Factory / Starport quick caught up.
Also, not to take away from the success of his early agression, I screwed up my defense by putting my Bunker in a bad spot and poorly controlling my Marines. POORLY. Anywho...
Once I killed the reinforcements to his push, he didn't seem to know what to do. His production ceased altogether for a moment, where I can just see him thinking "okay...well what do I do now?"
He expanded to his natural and put down a second Factory and a Starport. Unfortunately I'd already really won. +1 weapons was in for my Barracks units, my siege tanks were on their way and my production capacity was getting caught up with my economy which had grown while I was busy defending the base (something I need to get better on not letting slip, btw).
Once he got busy trying to do a Siege Tank push on my base he didn't keep up with the rest of his base. Before I crushed that push, my supply count was already higher. Once I did it I knew I was pretty much free to do as I wanted. I started further upgrades and tech towards BCs, expanded two more times and started the one and only push I ended up needing.
Lesson Learned - There was a lesson here. I didn't macro well enough. My economy was good but...I was mining much more than I was spending most of the time. I need to do better at recognizing when those Barracks need to go up when the money starts to get there, not when it's already past. Part of that is just memorization I think, but part is also just knowing when I have this many SCVs on this many bases I can afford that many Barracks.
Either way, my 3 Barracks opening continues to pay dividends. The TvTs in Gold have been more challenging, but it continues to be my best match.
+ 24 Points, Gold League Division Rank 32, Remaining Bonus Pool 185
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/5664
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
I hate banelings
I lost. I couldn't get myself agressive enough to stop his macro. He very quickly expanded to almost every mineral node on the map and I just couldn't do anything to stop it.
I don't know what I should have done differently. Drops? Banshee harass? I don't like to open mech, I'm not good with it and it's just not my style.
I saw him expand to what I figured was his third, I tried to push on it and got wiped. At that point I knew it was pretty much over, but I crossed my fingers and just hoped. I built a strong force and just kept building but I couldn't ever get out of my base. I tried to do some harass with Vikings and had some success, but not enough. I expanded to a third but it was really over. My only hope was for him to mine out most of every other base on the map and then I could maybe get lucky.
I didn't.
Lesson learned - be more agressive.
- 12 Points, Gold League Division 32, Remaining Bonus Pool 209
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/5527
I don't know what I should have done differently. Drops? Banshee harass? I don't like to open mech, I'm not good with it and it's just not my style.
I saw him expand to what I figured was his third, I tried to push on it and got wiped. At that point I knew it was pretty much over, but I crossed my fingers and just hoped. I built a strong force and just kept building but I couldn't ever get out of my base. I tried to do some harass with Vikings and had some success, but not enough. I expanded to a third but it was really over. My only hope was for him to mine out most of every other base on the map and then I could maybe get lucky.
I didn't.
Lesson learned - be more agressive.
- 12 Points, Gold League Division 32, Remaining Bonus Pool 209
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/5527
Sunday, June 12, 2011
100 1v1 Random Victories
Hooray for another Achievement Milestone. Does 100 wins count as a Milestone? Whatever, I'm counting it.
The game was pretty straight forward, he put on a lot of pressure with Roaches and Zerglings. I defended solidly enough and kept macroing until I got my Mutas up. They got up just a little before his and I was able to keep a higher count. He expanded to his third at the same time I crushed his army and produced a lot of Roaches, so I just went to his base and killed him.
Today's Lesson Learned - Is actually the same as yesterdays, I just hadn't figured it out yet yesterday. Macro's slipping a lot. I'm doing "okay" at constantly producing units out of the appropriate structures but my money's still slipping high. Forgetting SCVs/Probes and even to an extent Drones. I get caught up with my 60-80 target by the end of the game, but I should be getting there sooner.
Also I'm forgetting about upgrades. I'm remembering to build the structures and start the first round but I forget to keep checking the buildings to make sure they're producing the next upgrade, and the next and the next. I'm not being punished because apparently in the Gold league people don't get upgrades, but this is something I need to work on if I want to keep getting an advantage over my opponents.
+ 24 Points, Gold League Division Rank 30, Remaining Bonus Pool 191
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/5316
The game was pretty straight forward, he put on a lot of pressure with Roaches and Zerglings. I defended solidly enough and kept macroing until I got my Mutas up. They got up just a little before his and I was able to keep a higher count. He expanded to his third at the same time I crushed his army and produced a lot of Roaches, so I just went to his base and killed him.
Today's Lesson Learned - Is actually the same as yesterdays, I just hadn't figured it out yet yesterday. Macro's slipping a lot. I'm doing "okay" at constantly producing units out of the appropriate structures but my money's still slipping high. Forgetting SCVs/Probes and even to an extent Drones. I get caught up with my 60-80 target by the end of the game, but I should be getting there sooner.
Also I'm forgetting about upgrades. I'm remembering to build the structures and start the first round but I forget to keep checking the buildings to make sure they're producing the next upgrade, and the next and the next. I'm not being punished because apparently in the Gold league people don't get upgrades, but this is something I need to work on if I want to keep getting an advantage over my opponents.
+ 24 Points, Gold League Division Rank 30, Remaining Bonus Pool 191
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/5316
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Haven't played in a few days...
...how bad could it be?
Pretty Bad. TvZ in close positions on Metalopolis. I'm not going to beat around the bush. He crushed every pressure I tried to put on him, macro'd like freaking crazy and just contained the living crap out of me. I lost wholly and completely.
No lesson learned. I'll rewatch it at some point and try to gleam some kind of..knowledge form it. Right now I just freaking suck.
- 13 Points, Gold League Division Rank 30, Remaining Bonus Pool 226
http://www.sc2repalyed.com/replay-videos/5161
Pretty Bad. TvZ in close positions on Metalopolis. I'm not going to beat around the bush. He crushed every pressure I tried to put on him, macro'd like freaking crazy and just contained the living crap out of me. I lost wholly and completely.
No lesson learned. I'll rewatch it at some point and try to gleam some kind of..knowledge form it. Right now I just freaking suck.
- 13 Points, Gold League Division Rank 30, Remaining Bonus Pool 226
http://www.sc2repalyed.com/replay-videos/5161
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Rolled in PvP
I still don't have any answer to PvP. I have to either hope that my opponent totally messes up, or I get super lucky in some other way.
I don't know what else there is to say, really. "Close" positions on Tal'darim, he did a 3 Warpgate Robo and piled on the pressure. I defeneded with 3 Warpgates and loss. I'm terribad at Protoss and even worse at Protoss v Protoss.
Lesson Learned - I don't know, learn more Protoss? I honestly don't know how to defend a rush as Protoss from other Protoss.
- 13 Points, Gold League Division Rank 27, Remaining Bonus Pool 192
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/4712
I don't know what else there is to say, really. "Close" positions on Tal'darim, he did a 3 Warpgate Robo and piled on the pressure. I defeneded with 3 Warpgates and loss. I'm terribad at Protoss and even worse at Protoss v Protoss.
Lesson Learned - I don't know, learn more Protoss? I honestly don't know how to defend a rush as Protoss from other Protoss.
- 13 Points, Gold League Division Rank 27, Remaining Bonus Pool 192
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/4712
Monday, June 6, 2011
3 Barracks TvT opening continues to bring success
Close Positions on Delta Quadrant, I scouted him going 1 Barracks Refinery which basically told me he wasn't doing a 6 Barracks all-in. So I brought my 3 Barracks worth of units around and put a little pressure on the front. Nothing really..just a few exchanges between Marines, scouting out his numbers and reaction.
I didn't see a lot of Marines so I figured he went for a second gas and a Factory so I put up a few missile turrets to hedge against any cloaked Banshee play. None came. He went mech.
I wasn't really prepared for that, strategically, but I scouted it and was at least able to not accidentally send my Marines to a horrible death. Instead I scouted the rest of the map, threw down my third and started teching up to Battlecruisers.
When he started scanning my bases a lot and the gold next to my 3rd I figured that was probably him expanding to his third, why else would he think I was on mine if he wasn't thinking about his right? So I sent a Marine in to check it out who found and killed an SCV putting up the Command Center.
I didn't really see the whole force he sent in for that 1 Marine. What I did see was a bunch of Medivacs. I immediately guessed that he was over reacting and just sending his whole force - which would mean that either his Marines would be out of positions to protect his Siege Tanks from my stimmed Marauders or his Tanks would be unsieged and out of position. Turns out it was both, he moved his whole force and let me move in and take position right outside the entrane to his base, destroying his Gold and his Third.
With the huge positional advantage, my 1/1 army with a few 0/1 Tanks beat his higher supply 2/2 + 0/1 army cold. Supply counts went from my 177 vs his 197 to my 129 vs his 49. At that point it was over, my BCs were being produced, level 2 upgrades were done and my economy and macro potential were just higher. I double expanded, threw down a bunch more Barracks and Starports and waited for him to run out of cash, occasionally destroying his buildings and units at the front.
Interestingly this was my 6th win in a row...7th win in 10 games and 14th in 20. I don't think I'm necessarily playing any better, but I do feel like some of my builds and strategies are feeling more refined. And that refinement certainly adds to my comfort level, leaving me free to focus on other things in the game. I don't know if any of that has anything to do with my recent increase in success..but I'll take it.
+ 22 Points, Gold League Division Rank 24, Remaining Bonus Pool 178
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/4528
I didn't see a lot of Marines so I figured he went for a second gas and a Factory so I put up a few missile turrets to hedge against any cloaked Banshee play. None came. He went mech.
I wasn't really prepared for that, strategically, but I scouted it and was at least able to not accidentally send my Marines to a horrible death. Instead I scouted the rest of the map, threw down my third and started teching up to Battlecruisers.
When he started scanning my bases a lot and the gold next to my 3rd I figured that was probably him expanding to his third, why else would he think I was on mine if he wasn't thinking about his right? So I sent a Marine in to check it out who found and killed an SCV putting up the Command Center.
I didn't really see the whole force he sent in for that 1 Marine. What I did see was a bunch of Medivacs. I immediately guessed that he was over reacting and just sending his whole force - which would mean that either his Marines would be out of positions to protect his Siege Tanks from my stimmed Marauders or his Tanks would be unsieged and out of position. Turns out it was both, he moved his whole force and let me move in and take position right outside the entrane to his base, destroying his Gold and his Third.
With the huge positional advantage, my 1/1 army with a few 0/1 Tanks beat his higher supply 2/2 + 0/1 army cold. Supply counts went from my 177 vs his 197 to my 129 vs his 49. At that point it was over, my BCs were being produced, level 2 upgrades were done and my economy and macro potential were just higher. I double expanded, threw down a bunch more Barracks and Starports and waited for him to run out of cash, occasionally destroying his buildings and units at the front.
Interestingly this was my 6th win in a row...7th win in 10 games and 14th in 20. I don't think I'm necessarily playing any better, but I do feel like some of my builds and strategies are feeling more refined. And that refinement certainly adds to my comfort level, leaving me free to focus on other things in the game. I don't know if any of that has anything to do with my recent increase in success..but I'll take it.
+ 22 Points, Gold League Division Rank 24, Remaining Bonus Pool 178
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/4528
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Gold's not that different from Silver...so far
Of course that may simply be because I was mostly playing versus Gold players before I got promoted.
I don't understand why people don't check the Xel'Naga watch towers. I kept my initial scouting SCV on the tower between our bases the *entire* game.
So PvZ on Backwater Gulch, I spawned top left and he spawned bottom left. We scouted each other early and he tried to hide a probe in the trees on the edge of my base but, wary of any cheese, I spotted it and took it out with an SCV.
He built 4 Warpgates and expanded on that. Now....I'm a big fan of the Gateway heavy Protoss, I am. But I don't think you can do it by just building a huge economy and waiting until you're maxed. If you're going to go for max, as protoss, you need a heavy hitter. Collosi or something. After his second expansion and a few more Gateways, instead of putting any pressure on me (after defending my pressure just fine) he expanded again to the main at the bottom right and put down 14 more Gateways.
At which point I just went and killed him with my MMM + Siege Tank. I'd taken the Gold as my third at that point, was about to move my 4th Command Center to a base and had already gotten some of the Battlecruiser tech up and ready to go, so I felt prepared to lose my force and defend until the BC's were produced..but it never happened. Gateway units without a lot of pressure and probably also without a lot of Sentries just can't deal with MMM that well, IMO. Maybe with good Templar play, but he was just warping in Templars to make Archons.
+ 22 Points, Gold League Division Rank 26, Remaining Bonus Pool 175
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/4410
I don't understand why people don't check the Xel'Naga watch towers. I kept my initial scouting SCV on the tower between our bases the *entire* game.
So PvZ on Backwater Gulch, I spawned top left and he spawned bottom left. We scouted each other early and he tried to hide a probe in the trees on the edge of my base but, wary of any cheese, I spotted it and took it out with an SCV.
He built 4 Warpgates and expanded on that. Now....I'm a big fan of the Gateway heavy Protoss, I am. But I don't think you can do it by just building a huge economy and waiting until you're maxed. If you're going to go for max, as protoss, you need a heavy hitter. Collosi or something. After his second expansion and a few more Gateways, instead of putting any pressure on me (after defending my pressure just fine) he expanded again to the main at the bottom right and put down 14 more Gateways.
At which point I just went and killed him with my MMM + Siege Tank. I'd taken the Gold as my third at that point, was about to move my 4th Command Center to a base and had already gotten some of the Battlecruiser tech up and ready to go, so I felt prepared to lose my force and defend until the BC's were produced..but it never happened. Gateway units without a lot of pressure and probably also without a lot of Sentries just can't deal with MMM that well, IMO. Maybe with good Templar play, but he was just warping in Templars to make Archons.
+ 22 Points, Gold League Division Rank 26, Remaining Bonus Pool 175
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/4410
Nothing gets my heart rate up like ZvZ
We both went Random but quickly scouted each other, cross position, as Zerg. I went for a 15 hatch into Speedling and Roach. He...did a 10 extractor - 13 pool opening (?) into mass early Speedling with a proxy Spine Crawler. It almost won.
Fortunately he failed to ever check the Towers so I had plenty of map information and warning to see when the attacks were coming and be ready. By the 9 minute mark I'd fended off a few attacks and taken an economic lead.
He went for fast Mutas after that and had some decent harass, but again with my map control I got a good look at them early and was able to mitigate with Queens and Spore Crawlers until I had my Hydras up. Once I had a good Roach / Hydra army up, I pushed and won.
+ 22 Points, Gold League Division Rank 26, Remaining Bonus Pool 182
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/4368
Fortunately he failed to ever check the Towers so I had plenty of map information and warning to see when the attacks were coming and be ready. By the 9 minute mark I'd fended off a few attacks and taken an economic lead.
He went for fast Mutas after that and had some decent harass, but again with my map control I got a good look at them early and was able to mitigate with Queens and Spore Crawlers until I had my Hydras up. Once I had a good Roach / Hydra army up, I pushed and won.
+ 22 Points, Gold League Division Rank 26, Remaining Bonus Pool 182
http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/4368
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Uh oh, "You've been Promoted!"
What am I going to name the blog now?!?
TvP on Slag Pits. We were both Random, actually, spawned in Cross Positions and scouted each other pretty casually. He went for a one-base quick Collosus build which I scouted out when I did a somewhat late early-game push with my Marines and Marauders. I got some Vikings out and when he pushed me..well I panicked a bit, cancelled the CC I was building but kept calm enough with my unit control to win the encounter.
TvP on Slag Pits. We were both Random, actually, spawned in Cross Positions and scouted each other pretty casually. He went for a one-base quick Collosus build which I scouted out when I did a somewhat late early-game push with my Marines and Marauders. I got some Vikings out and when he pushed me..well I panicked a bit, cancelled the CC I was building but kept calm enough with my unit control to win the encounter.
After that it was just a game of head-on monkey-style agression which is something I feel somewhat comfortable with vs Protoss as Terran, as long as I can keep my Upgrades researching, keep an eye on the tech he's creating and keep a macro / supply lead on him. I kept up some pressure, coming out ahead (if sometimes just barely) in all the fights and keeping him from expanding too aggressively and eventually he had to GG out.
Mostly importantly, I've been promoted to the Gold Division. Interestingly, the Gold Division I joined is brand new. Everyone's rank indicates that they joined it in the last few days so I wonder if I would have been promoted earlier had there been a Gold Division with room? I've been playing almost exclusively Gold players the past few weeks.
+ 26 Points, Gold League Division Rank 28, Remaining Bonus Pool 186
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