Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Random = Protoss Again + mini meltdown

Before Replay:

Because, of course, I can't seem to improve at it, I rolled Protoss again.

I really thought I had been improving, with all the games I was playing, but clearly not.  Tonight is teaching me that I was waaaaaaay wrong.

PvZ, he just did his own thing and built to Broodlords and kicked my ass.  I thought I had a big enough upgraded enough army to deal with the massive Broodlords / Infestors what with all my Carriers, Zealots and Stalkers who got right up under there and tried to deal with it.  But I was way wrong.

Wrong wrong wrong.

So what should I have done?  Quit when I saw I was Protoss?

The problem with Protoss is I feel like I can't harass.  Not that *Protoss* can't harass.  That I can't.  That I can't make good enough use of the units to harass effectively.

He killed all my probes too...I don't know what happened to them all but suddenly I didn't have any.

I'm getting super ragey here so clearly I'm done for the night.

After the Replay:

Something I know before I start the replay - I wasn't making very good use of my money.  Of course.  Should I be more aggressive with my Zealots?  I can't seem to balance out when I have gas and when I have minerals.  I *understand* what I was doing before, but suddenly can't recreate it tonight.

I was sooo high on minerals but couldn't get gas.  Suddenly I had nothing but gas and no minerals.  I can't seem to build the right units and predict.  Maybe I just don't have the right mindset right now.  Or maybe I'm just getting so off tilt when I see I've spawned Protoss again that I can't think straight.

It's interesting because, with Protoss, I feel like I can't win.  I should qualify that I guess..

With Protoss, I feel like every decision I make is the wrong one.  If I choose to be agressive with my early units, I shouldn't have because he built a lot of Lings and by the time I find out, my units are dead and he's in my base.  If I play conservative then I should have been more agressive.  If I scout and he's conservative, he suddenly builds a bunch of Lings, and if I scout and he's got a lot of units then I spend money building for defense of an attack that never comes.

You know, if I want to harass I should just fucking harass.  I did some DT play but I couldn't get them in the main.  I never bothered to watch to see why, but he had a bunch of Spine Crawlers and Overseers there.  If I'd dropped a few DTs in the back his Greater Spire would have been gone in no time.

My style is tech switching, harassment and large scale production of units.  I know that's mostly geared towards Zerg but I've been able to make it work in other match-ups.  I just have to get my head out of my ass and be willing to make it work.

Nothing I didn't already know in the replay.  I had plenty of great vision on him, I just didn't realize that his army would so cleanly destroy mine the way it did.  Once again I find myself wishing my friends still played SC2..it'd be nice to have some friends to play and practice with.  But like many other games, my friends all like games I'm not a huge fan of and they generally aren't interested in playing the games I enjoy.  Board and card games tend to fall into this category too.

- 10 Points, Silver League Division Rank 15, Remaining Bonus Pool 101

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=273257

BWAR@#!$@#!(*&

That's all I have to say about that.

Before the Replay:

WTF.  So many stalkers?  I just got my ass handed to me in like 8 minutes.  It felt like I could do *nothing* about it.  I couldn't macro because he kept me so busy attacking my front base, I couldn't stop paying attention to my units without * guarantying* I'd lose all of them.  And everytime...everytime what?  Lost my train of thought.

After the Replay:

Nothing of value here either.  WTF am I getting so much PvP recently?  Or why does it feel that way?

I don't know what to do in this scenario.  I mean, I know I need to macro better but I can't seem to do it?  And I don't understand why.  Do I not understand the units?  The tech structure?  Can I not wrap my head around what Pylons I need when?  I don't understand the barrier.

If I felt like I could say "okay, this.  Work on this!" I'd feel better but now I don't see anything that I can do.  Any one thing.  Pissing me off because I know there's something, there's thousands of somethings, I just can't identify it.

- 12 Points, Silver League Division Rank 14, Remaining Bonus Pool 101

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=273254

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

More PvP

That sucked.

Before Replay:

I should have won that game.  I supply blocked myself early, wasted my money, didn't build my Gateways fast enough, all the normal "I'm terrible at Protoss" stuff that I usually do.

He did a tight Colossus ball which I knew was coming and I just wasn't ready for it fast enough.  My money got high and I wasn't spending it properly.  I don't know why Protoss is so hard for me to play?

After Replay:

Yep.  I should have had such the advantage.  I was ahead before he attacked, I was ahead after I defended and then he pulls *way* ahead while my money just climbs quietly and stupidly.  Enough said.

- 10 Points, Silver League Division Rank 14, Remaining Bonus Pool 101

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=273252

Failed Bunker Rush = Lose?

It always surprises me when I come across something like this.  I face a moderately cheesy rush from a player who loses and then GG's out.  6-Pool, Cannon Rush, Bunker Rush...it's odd.  And they're almost always in a higher division than me.

Does this rush always work?  Were they just trying it on a lark?  Is this just their bad matchup?  Sometimes you can tell from his match history, and sometimes you can't.

Before the Replay:

ZvT on a big map, so I opened 15 hatch, pool, extractor to get my economy up early.  I got a few Lings out early and caught his scout SCV trying to bunk the base of my expansion ramp, so I put an end to that quickly but his Marines at the tower killed my starter Lings.

No big deal, I threw down a spine crawler, got a few more Lings and Queens, started my Baneling tech and went back to Droning.

Not long after I'm moving my creep tumors out and he comes rushing in with most of his SCVs and a handful of Marines.  It doesn't work and I hold off the push, he GG's out.

#boggle

After the Replay:

So he goes for a quick 2 Rax followed by 2 more.  He gets an early gas geyser but doesn't use it for a while until he eventually puts an SCV in it.  He never uses the gas.  Then he sends 13 Marines with 10 of his 20 SCVs into my base.

End of the game...fascinating.  At least I held it off I guess?

+ 36 Points, Silver League Division Rank 14, Remaining Bonus Pool 101

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=273251

Monday, October 22, 2012

Well, at least I wasn't Protoss...

Before Replay:

I don't really know how to play TvP.  I hate Mech, I mean I really hate it.  I like my Siege Tanks but I can't stand to go mass Siege Tanks and I don't like to go with a Cloaked Banshee rush and I cannot do enough damage with early Hellions to justify it.

So I don't know what to do with TvP because if I move out quickly, I'll just get run over.  If I wait and let him do what he wants, I'll get run over.  If I try to harass, he's faster than I am and more able to split his units.

So instead I lose.

After the Replay:

Nothing really surprising here.  I never stood a chance, he had me beat from minute one.

Maybe I should try turtling up and going Thor?

Absolutely nothing of value in the replay other than reiteration of the fact that I had no idea what I was doing and no chance from start to finish.

- 7 Points, Silver League Division Rank 14, Remaining Bonus Pool 111

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=273214

Thursday, October 18, 2012

I'm tired of playing Protoss now

5 games in a row, Random = Protoss.

Before the Replay:

Man, I don't know what happened.  Okay that's not totally true.  I threw away my army trying to be too agressive on his doorstep.  This whole thing is built around my macroing and building a lot.  I didn't have enough gateways, I didn't take a 4th early enough and I threw away my army in a stupid attack.

PvP, by the way.  I don't think I lose more games in any matchup...

After the Replay:

Watching through, he's got a solid build and a plan.  Lots of strong Robo units and a good mix of others.  But my macro is better, faster on the expands, more probes and a higher unit count.  Food's constantly pulling away from his too...slow but steady.

I moved my army out when I spotted his 3rd going up.  He sees the army moving out and cancels the Nexus.  I should have considered that a win, and to an extent I did.  But when I see the Nexus going back up I decide to advance again.  Stupid.

And at that point it's GG.

- 10 Points, Silver League Division Rank 13, Remaining Bonus Pool 81

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272934

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Protoss #4

Before the Replay:

My Protoss play is getting plenty of much needed practice.

This was a PvP, he scouted me pretty heavily early.  I don't know if he macro'd because he saw I was macroing or if he didn't have an agressive 4-Warpgate descendant build like what I usually see in PvP that kills me early.

I struggled a bit at the beginning to get everything off the ground, or at least it felt like it.  I didn't have many units, I didn't have many upgrades, but I just kept at it and he gave me time while trying to get his Colossus death ball up.

At that point it was all about having plenty of capacity for reinforcements, upgrading and tech switching.  Got my Archons up then got my Carriers up.  He didn't seem to expand as much as I did, once I destroyed his 3rd pretty thoroughly he GG'd out.

Expanding for gas has been critical to my ability to pull off a win with this build.  I'm going to need to keep that in mind if I run into situations where that expanding isn't an option.

After the Replay:

He didn't build his Gateway until he saw I was going for mine.  Then he threw it down and almost instantly also a forge.  He wanted to get that expand up asap.

Except...not.  After the Gateway / Forge he threw down another Gateway and a Cybernetics core to start researching Warpgate.  Also a cannon at the front, but he's not really blocking off the ramp.

Once he could afford it he got +1, but it wasn't right away...I think the Forge was a waste of money?  At least for a while.  He got an early +1 which I suppose may have been good if I were rushing him...? But if that's what he was afraid of wouldn't have have been better off to build a better wall?

Anyway, by the time he's got Warpgate done, 3 Gateways, his Twilight Council started and his expand Nexus begun warping in I've already finished my expand Nexus, I have 4 Warpgates, admittedly no upgrades but a 16 food lead in army (pretty even in Probes).

Within a few minutes that's a 26 food lead and now I'm starting to pull away from him in Probes.

At 14:20 he spots my 3rd with his Observer and drives his army in.  My food lead's up to 40 now, 13 of those in Probes and we pretty much draw even in the fight, coming out with an unchanged food differential.

As he gets his 3rd up and starts building his Colossus army I pretty much pull away.  The Colossus helps his food catch up, but I'm on 4 bases, throwing down a ton of Gateways and leveraging my stronger income.  I probably could have harassed some here...but I don't think I needed to.  I think until I'm maxed it may suite me better to just upgrade, expand, get my ability to reinforce up to par and prepare to tech switch.  When he attacked at 21 minutes the game was basically over, I instantly shot up to a 60 food lead and started countering to win.

+ 28 Points, Silver League Division Rank 10, Remaining Bonus Pool 66

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272856

Protoss...again?

He was pretty good humored at the end, but still didn't GG when I won and he quit.  *shrug*

Before the Replay:

Wow...Protoss again.  3 games in a row now I think?  It was...hard.  I did basically the same thing I did last time.  Just tried to macro smart, build, keep up with warp-ins, not get supply blocked, etc, etc.  I did..okay.  Still got blocked but not as much as before.  Had trouble remembering to turn my Gateways into Warpgates, whoops.

He tried to proxy me with a Barracks.  3 or 4 times.  He was surprisingly not behind for how many times he tried and canceled....so I was impressed by that.  His plan was pretty simple, build a lot of Rax units, hit me in a few different places with drops, try to out macro me.

After defeating a few drops I hit my supply limit and just rolled him.  My upgrades were in, I was getting my infrastructure set to switch to Carriers and he actually did me a favor by killing off a few probes so when I countered, it was over.

After the Replay:

It really seems like all his proxy Barracks were a real waste.  After we're pretty even, but he could have been way ahead if he hadn't wasted so much time and money.  My harvesters quickly outpaced his and despite his MULEs my income followed.

I could have done a lot better job spending my money.  I should have been pushing out sooner, tech switching sooner, maybe expanding even more for better gas income.  The big problem was I felt I wasn't making decisions fast enough, I suppose that'll just come with practice.

+ 24 Points, Silver League Division Rank 11, Remaining Bonus Pool 80

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272850

Friday, October 12, 2012

My goal is 15 ladder games a week...

Seems likely that I won't be hitting that this week.

It comes out to 3 a day, M-F.  Maybe more some days, less others.  Only 2 a day including the weekends with 1 day having 3.  It doesn't seem like it should be too many but...it's hard to make the time.

Never the less, it seems like a good goal to shoot for.

Before the Replay:

So I rolled Protoss again and again I flubbed just sending my probes out for their initial mining.

Smooth.

So I resolved myself to do better.  I payed closer attention to my food count, I tried to make a lot of use out of my Chrono Boost and just constantly build stuff and look for expand timings.

I don't know if I did badly somewhere and it worked out or if I did well or if he just did badly, but it worked.  He tried to hit me with a relatively early Marauder + Thor comp that I held off reasonably well.  I didn't counter, just kept teching, upgrading and expanding.  Quickly went for Archons and once I started getting close to my supply max planned a tech switch to Carriers.

Once I hit max and completed an upgrade I sent my Archon / Zealot / Stalker army into his base where they were destroyed by his army.  No worries, I had built a lot of Gateways and quickly replenished my Archons.  Then I used my Warp in Rounds to make more Zealots while all my gas went to upgrades and Carriers.

Maxed again I sent in the Archons and Zealots, again they were crushed.  This time I remade only Zealots with all the gas going towards more Carriers and upgrades.

I'd sent probes to a bunch of bases to pylon block expansions and eventually saw him trying to expand out.  I used my Zealots to harass his expand opportunities and moved my Carriers across for the kill.

After the Replay:

Early on he cut SCVs at around 25 or so.  He put up 4 Rax and a Factory.  Maybe this was supposed to be some kind of all-in timing attack?  It looks that way, his push out was timed with when his Stim, Concussion and + 1 Vehicle attack would all be done.

He expanded behind in, I guess incase it failed, and it did.  After that he started making SCVs again but only 3 bases to his 2 with 60 to his 30 harvesters, even his Mules weren't going to be enough to easily catch up.  By the time he was on 3 bases, I was on 5.

I don't think he was a bad player, at least no worse than I was.  He just didn't play aggressively enough for his low econ style.  At least that's how it looks from here.

+ 24 Points, Silver League Division Rank 16, Remaining Bonus Pool 62

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272671

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Been outta town for a few days...

Let's see how I do.

Wanted to try something new today.  I'm going to post my thoughts on the game twice, first before I watch the replay and second after.  I'm interested to see how my analysis changes between what I "felt" and what actually happened.

Before the Replay:

Rolled.  A little hyped up about it but trying not to be too upset.  PvT so it's not like it's a huge surprised, and I had all kinds of mechanical failures.  Missed a few starting probes on minerals, miss-queued a few things, forgot upgrades all kinds of fantastic stuff.  Even forgot probes pretty often.  And of course got supply blocked like crazy because I can't remember to build pylons in a timely manner.

Meanwhile built MMM and just rolled me with it.

I actually managed to repel the first wave, but the second wave totally crushed me.  He had so many Medivacs there was just nothing I could do with my crappy gateway units.  But I was so strapped for cash I couldn't afford a tech switch.

After the Replay:

Yeah, his units just demolished mine in that second attack.  I shouldn't have even stuck it out, it was GG already.  I suppose I was hoping he'd just futz up somehow.  I guess maybe I should have tech switched, because maybe that would have given me some small advantage, but I was so strapped for cash after losing so many probes.

I should have sent my expansion base probes running when I saw my initial defense failing.  Maybe that would have given me more cash to recover quickly and put up a good second fight.  So that's a lesson learned.

And I *have* *have* *have* to get better at building Pylons.  I don't know why they're so much harder than Supply Depots and Overlords.  Maybe I'm just not used to the inflated unit cost of Protoss? No idea but I need to get better at it.

- 5 Points, Silver League Division Rank 18, Remaining Bonus Pool 67

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272632

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

RvR

I've had quite a few Random v Random games tonight.  Didn't use to be so many, I wonder if more people are playing Random these days or if it's just a fluke tonight?

ZvP on Tal'darim.  He didn't expand very fast and forgot to build Warpgates.  It looked like he knew what the Protoss could do, but just wasn't that good at executing it.  Felt familiar, really =)  So I took advantage, just kept harassing him with Zerglings and Mutalisks and just kept making Drones.  He did a good job of defending but couldn't keep it up.  Eventually he'd lost most of his probes and had to GG out.

+ 26 Points, Silver League Division Rank 14, Remaining Bonus Pool 7

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272301

Proxied!

TvP.  I quickly scanned his base to check for cheese and saw no buildings   No pylons, nothing but his Nexus, Assimilators and Probes.

So I assumed he was building near me.  I sent a marine to scout it out a bit, not wanting to over react, he did and didn't find anything.  I continued with my build to get some banshees up and a decent ground army.

Soon I spotted a pylon.  Okay, so maybe he just did a single pylon proxy?  I went to investigate and my Marine found a large group of Stalkers.

Game was soon over and his Stalkers charged my ramp and could do nothing about it.

Lesson learned.  I'm going to stick with a modified version of my TvT opening for TvP.  Get a lot of units up, focus on core upgrades, be prepared.

- 12 Points, Silver League Division Rank 16, Remaining Bonus Pool 20

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272300

Lots of BCs!

I did not think I was going to win this one.

Random v Random, turned out we were both Terran.  I got more Marines out faster but he upgraded faster.  He quickly proved his army was stronger than mine, but my macro was better.

I realized I was quickly approaching a supply max so I just kept filling out my Marine / Medivac / Siege Tank army while also putting up a bunch of Starports and double refinery expansions.  Eventually I took a chance at an attack and lost.  I was expecting that though and immediately began producing nothing but Battlecruisers and Marines.

At that point it didn't take long.  I'd go in, throw away my whole army and take a good chunk of his.  Then I'd immediately do it again.  Then again.  Eventually it wore him out.  He was also using BCs in his army and siege tanks and Thors.  Made him slow and my BCs + Marines eventually ran him out of units.

+ 26 Points, Silver League Division Rank 14, Remaining Bonus Pool 20

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272298

Redemption!

Another ZvZ.  At the beginning he didn't respond to my gg for a few and then said "sorry, was AFK....gg".  I figured he was probably telling the truth, but could have been using that time to start a 6 pool or something, so why risk it?

I went 14 pool, got up some defensive Zerglings and then took my second.  He didn't attack until I had my speed upgrade on the way.  I countered after defending, upgraded to Speedlings just as I got to his base and he managed to defend.  We went back and forth while I tech'd to Roaches, but I was doing more damage and eventually won before I could get my first Roach out.

+ 26 Points, Silver League Division Ranking 18, Remaining Bonus Pool 33

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272297

P.S. Turns out he was AFK, his first build action was a drone at 24 seconds.

Roaches + Infestors beats Roaches every time

I don't know why, but whenever I use Infestors and fungal growth it never seems to impede my opponents armies much.  But when my opponent uses it on me, it always seems to totally hose me.

Perspective?  Or am I doing it wrong?

Either way, ZvZ loss.  He tried to rush me with Zerglings, I defended and macro'd up and tried to push when I wasn't sure if I had an advantage   I sorta did, but then I tried to push too hard again twice and eventually it came back to bite me.

- 6 Points, Silver League Division Rank 19, Remaining Bonus Pool 45

http://www.gamereplays.org/starcraft2/replays.php?game=33&show=details&id=272296

Changed replay sites again.  Hopefully this one will stick around for a while...

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Stalkers > Void Rays

Okay maybe not.  But with a greater economy and better build mechanics (and more upgrades!) I pulled it off.

We were both Random =)

+ 26 Points, Silver League Division Rank 17, Remaining Bonus Pool 38

http://sc2rep.com/replays/test_1349228866/20980

Not sure about this URL?  It may need to change...

10 Pooled. Sad face.

I fucked up my wall-off and left just enough space for a Zergling to get by.  So as soon as I was able to get a single marine out, he had 6 run into my base.  Shortly there after I was overrun.

Nothing more to say.  I couldn't tell if it was blocking the ramp or not when I put it down, clearly it wasn't and therefor I lost.

- 6 Points, Silver League Division Rank 20, Remaining Bonus Pool 51

http://sc2rep.com/replays/%28T%29tbear_vs_%28Z%29Bmatsui/20979

Another new site for Replays.  We'll see if this one sticks.  URLs are harder =)