I didn't use to blog every game...

But I feel like I'm playing so many less now a days that it feels like I should?

PvP cross positions on The Shattered Temple.  You'd think I would have lost that straight out of the gate.

We both did Gateway heavy builds.  I just out macro'd him a bit and went for Blink Stalkers where he went for Charge Zealots.  Blink > Charge and I won.

It was a good practice game for focusing on my macro.  Making sure I build more buildings when it was time, and constantly built out of them.  Using my chrono boost when I meant to.  Keeping up probe production and going back to use my warp gates even when I was trying to use my units in his base.

 + 30 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 43, Remaining Bonus Pool 231

http://drop.sc/147922

Continuing the same practice

And I got my ass handed to me again.

ZvZ this time on Shattered Temple.  He was super aggressive.  Lots of Spine Crawlers in my main right off the bat.  I was 15 hatch / 15 pool opening and thought I fended it off okay.  But apparently I didn't or didn't recover well after because he quickly had his expand up and a crap ton more units.

I got supply blocked quite a few times.  Not focusing on the macro I need to be focusing on.  It's just very hard to ignore my units being destroyed constantly or the tactics being used forcing me into emergency management.

I remember when I went through this previously that it was both hard and a bit exhausting but eventually got easier.  Of course I was fighting less skilled opponents then too...=)

More practice needed I guess...ZvZ is my least favorite after PvP.

 - 10 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 46, Remaining Bonus Pool 246

http://drop.sc/144754

...and then totally rolled

Got rolled by a Zerg on Shattered Temple who was just a hell of a lot better than I was.

He made so much more stuff than me and I did terribly at continuing to produce and running a smooth build.  Then I kept throwing away units trying to do pressure.

There's really not much else to say.  I played awful compared to him.  My production was terrible, I got supply blocked quite a few times and I just engaging in terrible situations.

- 11 Points, Platinum League Division Rank 45, Remaining Bonus Pool 215

http://drop.sc/139738

You win some you lose some...I guess?

Had a hard time finding a win this morning.

First game was a TvT, we both were Random, close positions on Metalopolis.  I scouted him him out and he was going one Barracks Refinery so I figured Hellion or Banshee play.  I pushed a little with Marines and he had a few but not a huge number, I figured a second Barracks in the back.

Nope.  He'd cancelled his Refinery and gone 6 Rax.  I lost to a huge swell of Marines shortly thereafter.

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/3440

Second game PvT...ugg.  I had a decent force and stopped his first push but he turtled up at home pretty good.  I expanded and then tried to expand again.  I thought I was doing a good job of getting Tech and Units up quickly but apparently I wasn't because he pushed again and just *crushed* me.  I hate playing Protoss, I'm so awful at it.

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/3441

Third game was a TvZ, close positions on Shattered Temple.  He scouted me super quick with a drone so I knew without checking we were in close positions and just kept my SCVs on the line and walled off incase of a 6-pool.  I know from experience that putting early pressure on a Zerg can totally screw their game so I tried to just keep hitting him with my Marine / Marauder force.  He made a lot of lings, threw down Spine Crawlers and brought his Queens to the front which pretty much stopped his larva production and what larva he did have turned to Zerglings so despite his 15 pool, I was able to retain an econ advantage.

He GG'd out at 15 minutes.  I was just putting too much pressure on him, he couldn't keep his fragile Lings / Banelings alive, I wouldn't fight him on creep and he wasn't making drones.

+ 30 Points, Silver League Division Rank 8, Remaining Bonus Pool 182

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/3442

PvT Frustrations

I don't know why, but when I play Protoss against a Terran I just don't feel like I can keep up.  I can't get my expansion up I'm too busy spending all my minerals producing out of my gateways and when I finally do...I just can't catch up.  I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Is it the assumption that I should be catching up?  If he's being agressive and expansion heavy...what am I supposed to do?  Build Phoenixes and harass?  DTs and hope he doesn't have detection?  He's got this huge army parked outside my base waiting for..something and I feel like engaging it is a mistake.  Finally I've got some good ugprades and I go for it and I just get smashed, proving it was a mistake.

There's something about Protoss I just don't get.  Still.  I don't know how to figure it out either.  Playing Protoss is just such a frustrating experience for me.

Anyway, Shattered Temple..close positions...he had a good Bio Ball faster than me with heavy Medic support and just sat grouped up and expanded and expanded.  I tried to catch up and I couldn't.  I took a risk to snipe his Command Center and failed and he won.

Lesson Learned - I don't know.  I know I should have waited for Charge to Finish.  I thought that the moment I Blinked my Stalkers in.  So that was a mistake.  I should probably build better units for handling Terran bio too.  I'm just not comfortable with Templars or Colossus..I want to believe there's a way to beat Terran without them.  I just don't know what yet.

Also probably that my early expansion is super important against Terran.  I need to get more production sooner which may mean taking a bigger risk early.  I think that's the only way to get more Gateway units than him faster.  Or at least, comparable.

- 8 Points, Silver League Division Rank 35, Remaining Bonus Pool 346

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-video/1159

Expand, Expand, Expand, Battlecruisers!

Got to try my new TvT with heavy early Marines again today.  It went well, but I'm not sure if that's because the build was good or because my opponent was...less than good?

I don't want to say less than good.  He did the typical Terran "turtle on one base until 200/200".  At least I'm assuming he was 200/200 when he pushed out?  I'll have to go back and watch.

Anyway, I tried to push in on him but he had a good turtle started already so I just pulled back and expanded.

I tried to push a little again and he had not only not expanded, but turtled more.  So I expanded...again.

I scanned him and saw he still hadn't expanded and was just massing up, so I expanded again.

At this point I was getting close to 3/3 upgrades for my Barracks and Stargate units and was producing Battlecruisers.  I pushed out, killed the expand he'd finally started, lost my barracks army to his big army, defended his big army push at my base, expanded 3 more times and pushed back out with my Battlecruisers.

Probably didn't have to take as long as it did, but it felt safe and strong and I enjoyed it.

+ 36 points, Silver League Division Rank 52, Remaining Bonus Pool 354

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/171676-1v1-terran-gutterhulk

How many expands is too many expands?

I expanded 5 times in this last game.

It was Shattered Temple and we spawned in close by air positions.  He was scanning me a lot and not putting any pressure on me by ground so I figured he was going to go with drops.  Which he did.

The problem was he waited a long time...he shoulda dropped me when he had that first Medivac out.  That would have done a good job of pinning me in my base.  I had 3 warpgates online and was just barely able to afford each production cycle.  But he waited a little too long, until I'd gotten my Robo up and running and was expanding and it was just too late.

At that point I was already pretty sure I'd won so I cleared the rocks at my Gold, started making Immortals to handle his Marauders, started the tech for my Blink upgrade, expanded to the Gold and started building as many Gateways as I could afford to.

It still took 15 minutes from this point.  I tried to force my way into his main once but lost most of my units destroying most of his army so I pulled back, rebuilt, expanded a third and fourth time (to his second) and maxed on my Immortals, Blink Stalkers and Charge Zealots.  Eventually I got my fifth and rebuilt my base there when he sacked mine with his third drop.  But at the same time my army was destroying all his buildings, so it was effectively over.

+ 26 Points, Silver League Division Rank 62, Remaining Bonus Pool 193

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/164985-1v1-terran-protoss-gutterhulk

Way to talk smack!

Man did I lose that game.  After talking so confidently about my PvZ I went and lost tremendously tonight.

He did gateways and robo, pretty strongly.  Slow expand but that's not un-normal for what I see.  I did an early expand with zerglings and roaches.  Unfortunately I failed to think *Past* that.  I droned horribly and he stomped me with his first push.

I defended, barely, and remacroed tremendously well.  But I did it too hard and didn't build units fast enough so when he came in again, I got rolled...again.  I just didn't tech fast enough.

He earned in.  And had nice manners, I GG'd out but he sent me a /message after just to be sure I wasn't mad.  So I respect the guy for that.

- 11 Points, Silver League Division Rank 62, Remaining Bonus Pool 95

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/160369-1v1-protoss-zerg-gutterhulk

ZvZ is always so frustrating for me

I guess I lost because I didn't scout his expansions well enough?  He'd expanded up the other side and I didn't spot it.

We both went for Broodlords.  He got there with a mix of almost all types of units.  I went heavy Roach with Zergling backup until I could get my Hive up.  I thought I was doing so well...for a while I was doing so well..but at the end he had more bases so when my units rolled him, he wasn't dead.

I failed I failed I failed I failed I failed.  I failed.

- 11 Points, Silver League Division Rank 8, Remaining Bonus Pool 2203

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/151847-1v1-zerg-gutterhulk

More Harass - Reapers this time

I've played a couple of games since my last post.  Not every game inspires me to write something down, at least not always right away...

I won a Protoss v Zerg where I built a bunch of Sentries early and failed to stop his Zerglings.  I technically won because he D/C'd but I was about to win for real anyway...but I had a moment where I remembered something I posted earlier.  It's important to choose a strategy that I'm comfortable with.

I'm not comfortable with sentries.  I could (and should) practice with them.  They're a powerful spell casting unit that I could probably do some great things with. I'm happy to have a few in my army for guardian shield or to push SCVs away from Bunkers I'm trying to kill, but otherwise I don't often use them much.  Outside of "practice" time, though, I should focus on strategies that involve units I enjoy using.  And if I don't win with those, I should keep trying until I find a way to win.

Anyway, tonight I played a TvZ.  He opened with a one-base Roach expand.  I had just finished watching the Day[9] Daily from Wednesday where, at the end, he told us about this next week's Newbie Tuesday where he wanted us to submit Speed Reaper build games.  So I thought "Hrm...I could open with Speed Reapers".

Speed Reapers were my favorite way to open as Terran before they got nerfed to need a Factory first.  I hadn't done it since, preferring to open with Marauders.  But I figured I'd give it a try...man did it work great.

I walled off while I got my base up and running.  The bunker deterred his early Roach push and I countered soon after with my Reapers.  I had two good spots to hit him with the Reapers and tried to keep going back and forth between them, keeping the Watchtower also clean and using Scans to push his creep back (or at least try to prevent it from getting too far towards my base).

He couldn't leave.  Everytime he'd try my Reapers would be in his base, shooting his men.  What happened eventually was he split his Roaches between two spots and went with a Spire to get Mutalisks because he didn't know how else to get out of his base.  By the time his Mutalisks were moving out to attack me, my army was ready to go and I was moving on his base.

He had a good Roach count and Mutalisk count but he didn't have a lot of upgrades and his economy wasn't as deep as mine, so I was able to keep pushing on him until he had to GG out.

+ 20 Points, Silver League Division Rank 6, Remaining Bonus Pool 2196

http://www.sc2replayed.com/replays/151656-1v1-terran-zerg-gutterhulk

Edit: Briefly featured on the Day[9] Episode.  I am, of course, relatively terrible...but it was still fun to watch.

http://day9tv.blip.tv/file/4925514/

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