BYOB: You're Full of Surprises

Since my final Terran ladder game on Monday, I've been pondering some aspects of that game - particularly the progression of the handful of army engagements.

Despite it being very late last night, I really wanted to get this review done and uploaded - one more step towards finishing out Season 5 and moving on to Season 6. Well, that and my wife had just started another episode of The Office, and I was waiting for laundry to finish - so I had some time :)

So some interesting things to keep in mind when I start playing against Terrans as Protoss next season! Now for a few retrospective posts and a goals post for Season 6!

BYOB's Final Stand

Monday night I played my last Bring Your Own Banshee game in Season 5 - vs a slightly favored Protoss player. In typical BYOB fashion, I had to try to end the game at a particular time, but it was a spectacular end to a good season!

So that was fun - despite the outcome - and I look forward to reviewing the replay as part of my end-of-the-season activities. And yes, I really look forward to switching to Protoss for Season 6!

Defense: Banshees Optional

Last Tuesday, I got to play against a Protoss on the 1v1 ladder - a rarity apparently at my level!

The outcome of the game itself was a surprise to me - as at some point, I decided my banshees weren't needed for base defense...

So upon review, it was the execution of base ramp attacks and the consistency of unit production that shaped the final outcome.

Now whether I'll remember that for next time is another thing - as you'll see in my next cast!

Lessons From A Protoss

Last night I did a review of my first BYOB game versus a Protoss, and we learn some things about assaulting ramps and keeping production structures busy - from both players.

(I also try casting again as "CuePhoenix, your gosu dad")




One of the things I love about StarCraft 2 is that at all levels of play, there's something to learn from your replays. There's always room for improvement, and you can learn so many things about the game just by watching your own play!

First TvP with BYOB

Last night (Tuesday) I got to play a bunch of SC2. First, I played 3 games of 2-player co-op w/ CmdrTallon (my wife was watching Hoarders and then Cake Boss in the background!).

After midnight, while waiting for some laundry, I played a quick 1v1 on the ladder. This time, BYOB flexes its muscles against a Protoss player - and of course, there has to be an external timing, and this time I keep to it!



Despite his Gold league status, I later learned that my opponent was new to the game (or at least his account was), he had only won 7 league games. It's possible this was one of his qualifier games.

Regardless, I'm interested in doing a review - you can learn things even from a simple game.

A Surprising Game Against Protoss

I meant to cast this game several days ago - both my wife and my opponent wanted me to cast it for the blog. It turned out to be a great game, so I'm happy to have it be my first game with my new headset!

Apologies for the loud voice volume and some of the awkward comments - I had some trouble getting familiar with the new setup, and it's been a while since I've casted a sportscast-style game...

Hope you enjoy it :)




Update 11/1/2011: I updated the video to point at my new YouTube channel.

Feeling Cheated?

Last Saturday, I finally broke a terrible losing streak - 9 games. My winning streak only lasted for 3 games, but I think the Battle.Net matchmaker finally realized I wasn't top Silver material ;-)

After winning 3 times, I lost a TvT, then played a TvP on The Shattered Temple, in close by air positions. I sent a group of marines to the ramp - to find 3 Photon Cannons - I heard a swish - Dark Templars!

I watched the cloaked DTs make their way down the map and towards my ramp...

9:39 minutes - Here they come up the ramp - and straight into my base. They kill one of the marines instantly and then waltz right in.

9:39 - This is all my tech towards detection - a half-built Engineering Bay - and enough energy in the Orbital Command for one Com-Sat Scan. I waste the scan when there's only a few units in range - none of the DTs are killed. I was able to build 1 Missile Turret - 2 others were destroyed while being built. But by then all my army units were dead - so I didn't have anything to kill the DTs.

When the DTs came up the front ramp - I had all my army units in the back of the base staging for a drop into his mineral line. In some ways, I should've gone ahead with the drop - at least put on some counter-pressure.

But the really interesting thing was my emotional reaction - I was sighing and arrggh-ing, so my wife asked what was the matter. I explained that he did something perhaps cheesy, but legal, something valid, and not cheating. She asked "Uh, how can he cheat?" I explained that since SC2 is played via the Blizzard servers, you basically can't cheat.

But her question pointed out something - I felt cheated. Logically I knew it was a fine tactic - and I was irresponsible for not having any detection or at least walling off the front door. But I had this gut reaction that somehow his victory was not earned fairly.

It's hard to lose. And having lost so many games and seeing your mistakes so clearly and having limited playing time makes it worse. But I love this game and it's intricacies - one of which is the meta of cloaked units. Getting better at any competitive sport or game requires losing a few games (losing a lot of games!) and using those losses as learning opportunities.

Now the funny part - the next game was TvP on The Shattered Temple again!

I commented about losing the previous game to DTs. The guy said he didn't like DTs. He proceeded to stomp me - without DTs - and my only recourse was a counter-attack - with cloaked Banshees. He had no detection back at his natural expansion, so he had to retreat. I even destroyed his Robotics Facility so he couldn't make any more Observers - but his deathball still squashed me.

In some ways, I'm glad - cloaked Banshees are so imba* ;-)

(* imbalanced)

Losing to Protoss

Two weeks ago - there was a day (a single day) where I had a 5 game winning streak. To be honest, they were odd games.

The first was a TvP where the Protoss went straight for air units - and only had 2 units for ground defense. I won the next game within seconds - the Zerg player had forgotten to veto the map and quit immediately with an explicative (in a form the language filter didn't catch!). The next was an intense TvT battle of micro skills as we fought with a few Marines at a time in the first few minutes. The fourth game was a TvT where he just trained 2 Reapers - my workers and a few Marines held him off and he surrendered when my handful of Marines went up the ramp. The last was a great TvZ - too long to cast sadly - which ended with floating Orbital Commands and a handful of cloaked Banshees saving the day.

But this post is about my latest TvP loss. As you can see from the ladder summary on the homepage, I've had some trouble playing against Protoss. 4 wins and 9 losses. Last night I played my 32nd game of Season 3, and it was tragic.

Here's how the game unfolded - this time in pictures :)

5:03 minutes into the game - and I am down by 4 workers already - you can tell where this is going...

10:31 - I send out my first attack force - much delayed. I move them up the left side of the map, trying to sneak into the backdoor of the natural expansion. But of course, there's a cloaked Observer watching everything. You can see I'm behind by 15 workers at this point - he has almost double the workers I do.

12:20 - "It's a trap!" Admiral Ackbar was right. You can see the 3 key parts: In the upper left, the Observer watching my troops move in. In the lower left, a few units placed to close in behind and if necessary, Sentries to force field my escape route. In the lower right, the main attack force closing in.

12:25 - Aren't EMPs pretty? This was the 2nd one - you can see the depleted shields on almost all the Protoss units - my 2 Ghosts did a total of 4 EMPs - one of them on units that already had no shields :( If you look closely, you'll notice that none of my units are attacking - that's because I ordered them to Move to the back of the mineral line - and didn't tell them to Attack Move when the trap was set off. Micro FAIL.

12:44 - The body of the last Marauder hadn't even hit the ground yet (he's behind the Units Killed banner) and the Protoss army is already headed towards my base. Notice the Immortal in the lower right - who barely survived the encounter.

14:03 - The opening shots of what is essentially the last battle. Luckily, I had time to build a few bunkers. Unluckily, they would contribute to a horrendous miss control of units.

14:08 - Is this guy good or am I just this bad? Probably both are true. Ignoring how much they are overlapping, the force fields were brilliant - preventing the forward troops from retreating to the covering fire of the bunkers. You can see how I selected a bunch of units - and told them to move into the bunker on the left - that only 2 Marauders could fit in. Brilliant. See that marine? The one in front of the force fields and about to be hit by four Stalker laser beams? Yeah, he dies.

14:42 - This sums up the game well - despite Terran heroics, Protoss units are amazing. That blue explosion is a hero Marauder - my one micro-management victory. Him and his buddy were off to the side of the big battle - I stimmed them both and they killed a few units before getting the attention of the main force - and actually scared the Immortals away momentarily. Momentarily. That Immortal on the bottom - who's about to be hit by two Marauder grenades? He survives with 5 hit points. Protoss units are SO powerful!

The game lasts for a few minutes longer - but that was basically the end. We chat for a little bit - as he destroys my base - and he was pretty cool. I complimented him - "nice! I just don't know how to deal with protoss!" He replies "GG THO!". I say "ghosts are great - if you can control them :)" then "gg" He says "gg man" - and I surrender. Good sportsmanship - one of the aspects I love about SC2!

So winning against Protoss continues to elude me - and my winning streak vs. Zerg has ended - I've lost my last 3 TvZ games. Of course, I didn't build Banshees ;-)

Anyone have tips for a Terran player who's in a slump?

Finally, A Protoss Videocast!

After doing a bunch of posts for StarClass, I got back to playing some 1v1 ladder. I had a 5-game losing streak, but my first game broke it - and I got my first TvT win this season.

My next game was against Protoss, and I was 0-4 vs Protoss this season. So, I got to test a theory I had for playing against Protoss - use Ghosts.

I had tried this before, and 419fish (who plays Protoss) recommended it. But for whatever reason, I hadn't used them at all this season. Watch the cast to see how it went!





It didn't quite go as I expected when I started, or even at the first attack, but it works :)

Update 11/1/2011: I updated the video to point to my new YouTube channel.