Beat the Staff I: Battle Report

I was crusing around the SC Sites, and I found a notice on SC Millennium's page, saying that they would hold a beat the staff day. I figured, since I didn't have anything else to do, I went ahead and participated.
SpaceDominator (Writes Strats, therefore, a cool guy =) and -.Overlord.- showed up.
SpaceDominator told us to go ahead and play. So we did.
Map: Big Game Hunters
Me- Zerg, upper left
Overlord- Protoss upper middle
My overlord found him a bit late, as I had forgotten to send him out. I found him, but I was puzzled, as I saw no gateway. With a sickening feeling, I ran a Zergling to my choke only to be met with.... Photons. After exchanging pleasentries on that variable,  I bolstered my defences with Sunkens and Hydras, as he was sending in small groups of Zealots in. I was hustling to Lurkers as I didn't want him to advance his Photons. I obtained 4 Lurkers, and burrowed them in.
I was desperately trying to figure out how to break the Photons Defences, when I hit upon the idea of a drop. I obtained the necessary upgrades, and loaded 16 Super (Adrenal Glands and Speed upgrades) Zerglings in 2 Overlords. I went WAY around the photons, as I didnt want my overlords harmed. I found a colony in the upper right, with a Nexus and 9 or 10 Pylons, and destroyed it. Feeling cocky, I tried to drop on his main, only to have my overlords killed before I could drop anything.
Guardians. I hadn't seen any Templar or Scouts around, so I set my Spire to morph to a Greater one, and morphed 6 Mutas. 6 Guardians were morphed, and I felt that I was ready. I had 4 Mutas and a gaggle of Hydras for anti-air, but I was sure he didn't have any. He did, in the form of 8 1/1/1 Scouts. I ran the Guardians away, and toasted the Scouts. The Scouts had made an impressive dent in the Hydra population, so I made 4 more, in addition to 2 Mutas. The two Mutas were morphed into Devourers. I also morphed 6 Scourge as an added precaution. The Scout population fell, but not before I heard the sound of Shuttles unloading. I didn't have a single bloody Spore, as I was going to doom drop him. 8 Archons (I didn't have time to check the stats=) dropped in, and I eliminated them minus my Hydras and Sunkens. As I was pounding on the Photons, 3 new Scouts came to see  my Guardians. My Scourge automatically dove into one Scout, killing it, but my 2 Devs were still alive (mercifully) and I used them to their fullest potential, losing both of them in addition to my Guardians.
I sat back and analyzed the game, and realized I was getting slaughtered. I figured on him trying to kill my Spores and Sunkens off, then Storm my units.
I doubled up on my defences, and set to make more Hydra.
Things were looking up, save those Photons in the front. I hit upon an idea. I morphed 6 Guardians, and had 24 Hydras. I set upon using my Hydra as anti air, and the Guards as Photon smashers. Scouts came. Scouts died, as Archons did. I slaughtered his expansion, and started on his main.
Which had nothing except Photons defending it. He said 'GG' and I figured it was over. I was in the middle of slaughtering his town, when he made several cheap, yet so effective manuvers. He would run a Probe out, then back to his Photons. Not paying attention, my entire force took the bait, and died.
I was beyond mad. I was royally pissed. I morphed NEW guardians and NEW Hydras, and slaughtered the rest of his main.
Here's where I made my (not first) biggest mistake. Instead of sending 1 Hydra to every position, I manuvered my entire force to each position. I finally found him at  the bottom middle. I figured it was his last gasp at winning, so I went ahead and started beating on his Photons. But instead of starting to kill them from the front door, I went in from the lower right corner. Scouts came, and with my Hydras on their way to knock on his front door, the Guardians were doomed. I sighed, thinking it would be over soon anyway, and marched 12 Hydra in.
I might have gotten 5 shots off. 6 Photons pounded away who, stupidly, were in single file, and were ordered to move, instead of attack move. After my Hydras were demoolished, and more pleasentries exhanged on the sexuality of the Photons, I made another move.
I think I embaressed him later when I called this move brilliant.
I had 8 Hydra, an Overlord, 3 Lurkers, and an assortment of Mutas guarding his base. Another dumb move by me was to place them all in a close group. Suddenly, half my town started to blink red. There were Scouts everywhere! I scrambled everything I could and managed to defeat them, but then my force by his town blinked red, and disappeared rapidly. 2 successive Storms had decimated  my attack force.
I was now left with half a town, and 2 Hydras to defend myself with. I built up several groups of Hydra and made my last critical mistake. I made 12 Mutas and mutated them to Devs. He had thrown millions of Scouts at me, so I was going to start throwing back. as I was rebuilding, he swarmed my base with lots of units. But what units you ask?
Zealots, Archons, Templar.
All ground units. Not a single air unit for my Devs to whip. In desperation I went to his town, and found the sides pretty much undefended, and killed a shuttle. 2 more Archons were morphing. Probes were mining. Not a single air unit. My town was as dead as it was going to get, I made  few good natured comments, and grouped my Devs close together so he could storm them all at once.
This was one of my most enjoyable games I had played. It defined seesaw action, and showed what kind of differences a unit or two can make.
Lessons I learned:
1) For gosh sakes! I should have been monitering my attack, instead of goofing off in my town, letting my force get Photoned to death.
2) Lack of Recon. I didn't build a Queen in the entire game for reasons unknown (Save stupidity of course=). 2 or 3 Queens with Broodling would have helped me eradicate the Templar/Archon problem. Also, with a little recon, I would have seen that there were no Air units, and Morphed them to Guardians.
3) Stupidity. This comes natural with me, and it showed big time. Why didnt I build Defilers to take out the Photons? Why didn't I drop 12 Hyras in his back door? Why didn't I scout around when I saw he wasn't running his Probes off in my initial attack? Why did I forget to send my O-lord out to Scout? Stupidity.
4) Players can switch strategies. First he went straight Zealot, with Photons. Then he went Scout, the he used a combo of Templars and Archons. I stuck with Gurdians and Hydras the whole game. See stupidity above for a detailed of stuff I could have done.
Lessons he learned.
1) He really hates Guardians.
2) Templar are useful
3)He really really hates Guardians.
4) What about Reavers? He had a number of Drops, a Reaver or two would have taken out my Sunkens, or my Spire. Reavers would have won it easily for him.
5) He really really really hates Guardians.
6) To avoid the Guardian problem all together, he should have built his Photons further back, so Dragoons and Templar could fire at the Guardians more effectivly.
That's it, send all comments to me here
LorDeep of the Starcraft Network