Battle Report

Battle Report: Hide & Seek in Sherwood Forest by Vorlon

Map : Sherwood Forest

Game : 4 FFA (fastest speed)

Position : Middle-left position

Hotshot and I were Terran with Khan and Cockguy as Zerg.

Early SCV scouting found Hotshot at the vulnerable bottom position and Cockguy
at the top-right position. A rich resource patch was ripe for the plucking at
the bottom-left position. Built a second Command Centre and floated it there.

Once my 24 Marines and 2 siege tanks were ready, I left base to attack Cockguy.
Along the way, I spotted Hotshot's defenceless second Command Centre at one of
the central mineral patches. Being too near my base for comfort, I destroyed it.

Proceeded to attack Cockguy. Intercepted by a squad of Hydras who perished
rapidly under a blaze of raging gun-fire. Stomped unopposed into Cockguy's
base. True to his name, Cockguy had zero forces at his home base. An easy kill
for me.

Being the typical hard-to-kill obsessive builder, Cockguy had already fled and
expanded elsewhere.

Like a bloodhound smelling a wounded prey, I relentlessly hunted Cockguy. Hot
on his trails, I crossed paths with Hotshot's evacuating Starport and Factory.
His main base had just been overwhelmed by Khan's Guardians. Could not resist
the temptation to blast them out of the sky.

Back on the hunt, I found Cockguy at the top-right position. Screwed him good,
but full satisfaction was denied to me as he still had hidden structures.
Resumed the long hunt.

Found Khan's expansion at the bottom-right position. Legions of Marines were
posited to strike when a scout discovered Cockguy had re-established himself at
the top-left position.

Edgy from many fruitless search-and-destroy forays, my forces marched
northwards with furious pace. Pented-up tension was explosively released in a
carnage of stimmed madness.

Determined to prevent another resurrection, I built a Command Centre and mined
with a vengeance.

Khan now turned his awesome might on me and tried to storm through my main base
with a Guardian and Hydra combo. The sturdy bunkers and siege tanks kicked ass
with my Science Vessels (SVs) happily spreading irradiate on the Guardians.

Repelled, Khan's Hydras paid an unwelcome visit to my bottom-left expansion.
Ruins laid in the vicious aftermath.

Unknown to me, Khan had also built a Hatchery at the bottom-leftmost edge of my
main base. This gave him a platform to mass produce Hydras. Concurrently, he
used plague and Mutas to distract and harness my rear. The filthy Defiler and
Mutas were eliminated by my SVs and Wraiths. A few unprotected Guardians also
got a hot roasting.

Waves of Scourge blitzed my SVs and Wraiths. Retreated to anti-air defences
which picked off most of the doom-seeking Scourge. Alas, enough penetrated to
fatally damage my precious SVs.

Khan's surprise force of foul-mouthed Hydras barged in and acid-bathed my base.
Only my Command Centre survived and re-rooted at a nearby (but semi-secluded)
resource patch.

Chronically injured, I needed respite to recuperate. Khan allowed me no such
opportunity as his Hydras found both my remaining bases. Barely managed to
salvage a Command Centre and a Barrack. The barrack was floated above a hill,
away from major troop movement paths.

The Command Centre miraculously endured a Long March unmolested to land at
Cockguy's previous home base. The low minerals provided the only subsistence to
re-built my army.

Left with 2 Wraiths and 1 SV, my only viable option was to go hard Marines. As
soon as 3 squads were assembled, they raced to rally outside Khan's main base
at the middle-right position. Encountered an early warning alarm of Zerglings.

Anxious to prevent Khan countering the looming assault, I stimmed and rushed my
Marines in. They died horribly from a wall of well-positioned Hydras.

This was the last straw. Exhausted and exasperated, I messaged the other
equally worn-out players and we chose to end the hour-long game of hide and
seek in Sherwood Forest.

Lessons learnt :

1. Resurrect. Rise from the ashes and re-built at your old base. The enemy will
not expect you to expand there again.

2. Suck it dry. To prevent your opponent from gaining an after-life, mine all
the resources at the conquered base.

3. Be paranoid. Always expect an attack. Set up early warning systems like
Vulture mines.

4. Fools rush in. Never run in front of a firing squad. Sacrifice a Marine  to
see the enemy's strength before committing or withdrawing the bulk of your
forces.