Losing to Zerg

Last night I lost a TvZ and a TvT, both on the same map, Nerazim Crypt. I can't hold it against the map though, hehe, as I've been losing in all maps equally ;) So as of this morning, I had lost 9 of my last 10 games. Not encouraging.

But I skimmed through the two replays and noticed that my worker production was sorely lacking. I was so focused on army producing structures and expanding that I wasn't continuing to train SCVs - and my opponents were. I was also getting supply blocked many times - through no feat of my opponent.

So this morning I figured I'd focus on making SCVs and Supply Depots. Battle.net found me an opponent and the game was on the Shattered Temple map (whew - it wasn't Nerazim Crypt!) and I was playing against Zerg. I would have casted this game - but the mic on my headset wasn't just getting noise, it was occasionally recording nothing :( So here are the highlights - in pictures :)

7:16 minutes into the game. We started in close-by-ground positions, and my first attack group arrived just as my opponent was about to finish his expansion Hatchery. Unfortunately, I did not have Stim Pack researched, so they were unable to destroy it. Since the Marines focused their fire on the Hatchery, the Zerglings and Queen made short work of them.

10:36 - Here is my attempt at being "smart". Rather than bringing these two Siege Tanks behind my second wave of Marines, I thought I'd get them set up in this corner above the expansion Hatchery ahead of time. Too bad the Overlord in the upper right saw everything. It also didn't help that the tanks started shooting a Spine Crawler (it's off the screenshot on the bottom) instead of the Zerglings. I tried to unseige the tanks and load them back into the Medivac - one was saved :)

10:44 - Here's that second wave of Marines. They're greeted by 3 Spine Crawlers, 2 Queens, and shortly, a bunch of Zerglings bummed that they didn't kill both tanks. The Marines were able to kill both Queens. The funny part? I thought the Zerglings were the only army units - so was surprised when I rescued the tank and my Marines were nowhere to be seen. Whoops.

18:20 - So at this point, my goal of building SCVs and Supply Depots was working - and I had more resources than I could spend. So I expanded and made lots of stuff. I had tried a drop earlier and spied a bunch of Roaches, so I made lots of Siege Tanks, Marines and Medivacs. This is a pretty formidable front line!

18:20 - And this is the back of my main base. You never want to see this - a dark spot in your base where you have no vision (upper right) - and a stream of Roaches and Zerglings coming out of it. Nydus Worm attacks are hard to pull off if your opponent is scouting. I was not scouting. Funny part? I heard the scream of the Nydus Worm finishing - and was like "What a weird sound. Wonder what that was." Duh. (facepalm)

18:47 - It was a brilliantly timed attack. I reacted to the Nydus Worm by sending all my SCVs from the main mineral line to my expansion. And moved all my mobile army (the Marines) back into the main base to defend. That left my front line with only Siege Tanks, which can't attack air units. So besides a few Missile Turrets, I was powerless when a ball of 15 Mutalisks arrived. The tanks and SCVs were destroyed in a few moments. All I could say was "nice - very nice". We exchanged gg's and I surrendered.

So on one hand, it was discouraging to lose again. But I reminded myself last night that my goal was not to win all the time - that's an unreasonable expectation - my goal is to get better. As day[9] would say, "Be a better gamer." So in that regard, this game went pretty well - I kept up with building SCVs, and was only supply blocked once (I think) in the first half of the game.

I've heard many times to focus on one thing at a time - until that thing is second nature. So expect to see lots of SCVs and Supply Depots in future games :)