click to download the scx
| Date: | Mon 22 Mar 1999 (maybe Sunday? Tuesday?) | click to download the scx |
| Narrator: | Josh Levenberg | |
| Human Players: | Josh Levenberg (Terran), Jeff Robbins (Zerg), and Christopher Alexander (Protoss) | |
| Computer Players: | Protoss, Terran, Zerg, Random, Random | |
| Version: | Broodwar v 1.05 | |
| Map: | Desert Islands, 192x192 (custom) |
We wanted to play a 3 vs. 5 on an island map but the only one provided with Starcraft/Broodwar is Primeval Isles. It is a huge map with tons of resources and a bunch of expansions. We started one game on it, I forgot what happened. Maybe Jeff or Chris will fill in the details. Anyway, Chris later made a much smaller map which was much more what we had in mind. It has some normal expansions, but the interesting feature of some double mineral expansions, and some double gas expansions.
So we start on this new map. Chris warns us that some of the starting positions are smaller than others or may otherwise be unequal. I started out at the 7 o'clock position, Chris and Jeff on the other side at 1 and 2 o'clock. Again we had some problems and ended up restarting. Chris was having trouble with his ISP (as we will see later) and maybe he had to disconnect. After restarting, we got the three center spots. I was at the bottom left; Chris was above me; Jeff was to my right.
I merrily set up defenses and do some preliminary scouting. I'd like to expand but I don't know the map well enough. I'd like one of the balanced expansions, but I do know that there is a double mineral expansion to the right of where I started in the last game. I think Chris set up a bunch of cannons on his coast and Jeff was playing pretty defensively as well.
At this point Chris' connection dies. Jeff and I wait around for a fair bit, mostly not paying attention (I read my Game Developer Magazine). Eventually Jeff thinks I'd be bored and drops Chris. I think we saved the game in hopes that we could restart with Chris -- anyone know if this works? He ends up talking to Chris on another line, meanwhile for fun I continue playing somewhat half-heartedly (hey, why not?). Jeff even told me not to bother we were going to restart. Anyway, I start setting up at the double mineral expansion at 6 o'clock.
After about 5 minutes of doing absolutely nothing, Jeff starts fiddling with the game, to fight off some attack or something. Somehow, without really discussing it, we end up continue playing. Maybe just to see how long we can last against such silly odds.
I defend my mineral expansion and expand again to the the double gas spot at 4 o'clock. We definitely should have taken over Chris' base, but I don't think we were thinking too hard about what would have been tactically best. We were just continueing to play as if he was still there.
Meanwhile, Jeff has filled his island with sunken and spore colonies. He hasn't expanded, and is doing a lot of fighting. He's being hounded by guardians, carriers, troop drops, you name it. I'm building battlecruisers hoping to make a nice fleet. I try and help Jeff out when I have some free. At one point, he was in trouble and I brought in my fleet to save him. I wanted to do the Flight of the Valkyries thing that the seige tank does if you keep clicking on him. It ended up with me typing "Ba ba ba ba ba" or something. Jeff thought I was imitating a sheep.
I head off to try and take the expansion at 3:30 with about 7 battlecruisers. I do serious amount of damage and was about to clear the island when a rather formidable force of anti-air shows up. There were scourges, goliaths, and a bunch of other stuff. I end up losing my entire fleet, though taking quite a few with me. My defenses at home and at my expansions have been holding, so I just start making more. I build a few more starports, and make some science vessels as well (now that I'm getting lots of gas). I've start doing a better job of retreating and repairing, keeping my air forces alive and at full strength.
Jeff is really feeling the heat. I try emping enemy carriers and irradiating everything else. The forces keep coming though and soon Jeff says he's out of minerals. He thinks he's done for. Luckily my second (and larger) battlecruiser fleet now augmented by dropships with marines and science vessles had taken over that expansion at 3:30. I've set up a command center there, but I let Jeff take it over, since he definitely needed it more than me.
Now we are united, but we need more resources if we're to win. Once Jeff gets set up and the money starts flowing again, and I've repaired my fleet once again, we concentrate our forces at his base and launch an attack to the spot right above. There's a good fight, but by now I have a quite mighty fleet, and Jeff and I were pretty cooridinated. I ask how many minerals Jeff has, and he still has many fewer than me (I have like 1700 minerals). If I remember correctly, I was at something like 197 supply anyway. So Jeff gets his second expansion. Jeff decided to build a bunch of queens to support my battle cruisers.
These are the last minerals on the map. The computer still have bases everywhere, but most of his airforce is gone, especially after our next attack. We had to conserve our forces. I constantly repaired, but those Dark Archons kept feedbacking my science vessels and controlling my battlecruisers. I try emping them, I try yamato, I still lose bcs. My eleven strong fleet got whittled down to seven or eight. My seven or eight science vessels shrank to a mere 3 or 4. I'm saving all my resources for repairing (I ended up spending eight or nine hundred minerals and similar amount of gas on repairing during this final stretch). Jeff is valiantly sacrificing his queens, and casting spells wherever it will help. I couldn't have delt with those darn templars nearly as well as Jeff's broodlings. I'd probably Yamato and get psi stormed anyway. (Jeff complains the Yamato gun is nowhere near as powerful as the original which blew up an entire floating continent) It becomes an intricate dance, with me comstating to see what's going on in the base, both of us trying to get into a position to strike without getting destroyed
Eventually we make it through the Protoss. As would be expected, the terrans have a huge number of goliaths, towers, and ghosts so our job is still hard. We slowly work our way through. I try and emp the ghosts. By now Jeff has some guardians and can take out things at range. I defensive matrix anything locked down. Somehow we don't lose too much of our force. Enough to continue to the next terran island, and the next terran island. We try all sorts of things. I defensive matrixed Jeff's guardians when they were in trouble. I fire yamatos at everything in sight. This goes on for several islands until, somehow we clear the map.
Of course the computer managed to set up an expansion somewhere. For sheer silliness value, I send all my buildings flying to the four corners of the map. Once we found it, my factory was the first to get there. I made a vulture and a goliath to help tear down the scv and comm center before the fleet arrived. All told, this map took three hours. Chris had even managed to switch ISPs while we played.