Battle Report

Battle Report: The Almighty Battlecruisers by Hannibal

This is one of the better games I've played recently. The map is Dire Strait. To those of you unfamiliar with this ladder map, it is an island map. Starting positions are at island NE, NW, SE and SW. Expansion islands are at N, S, E, W, CE (center-east) and CW (center-west). I've never played the map before though I know very roughly what it is like from the scenario editor. I played terran and my friend was zerg. In this story you will be able to tell zerg is not invincible on an island map. I started out SE and my friend started out SW. 

Knowing it is an island map, I built only one barrck and hoped to reach starport asap. Knowing that zerg can build mutalisks very fast, I figured that being able to get that first expansion is the key. I gambled a bit and have minimal marines as defense and built my second command center even before my first factory. While the command center was building I also worked on the engineering bay. When my command center was done I flyed it towards the S expansion island. At that time I didn't know he started out at SW or I would have picked a different site to expand. On my way I spotted some patrolling overlords and that got me real worried. I landed the com-center quickly and started building SCVs like crazy. I had all of them worked on missile turrets until I had 4-5. He sent his mutalisks over when I had only two done. Luckily he had may be about 3 mutalisks, he withdrew quickly instead of pressing the attack. A close call I must say. 

To round out my defense at the expansion, I built a barrack and some bunkers too. Meanwhile my first startpost was done at home and I had it build a dropship. My aim eventually was to get battlecruisers as quickly as possible as they are the best unit against mutalisks and guardians. I therefore quickly worked on my second starport and get that science facility finished, with physics lab of course. While waiting for my battlecruisers to arrive, I built my second expansion at the NE island, as far away from the zerg as possible. 

By the time my second expansion was finished, I had 3 starports building battlecruisers at all times. Meanwhile my zerg friend was very quite but my com-sat reveals he had expanded to NW and W islands as well. With 5 cruisers and 2 dropships, I thought I'll start the fight. I loaded 2 dropships of marines, and had all of them with the cruisers moved to the S island. I scaned the north part of his starting island and it was empty. Then an evil idea came to my mind. I lifted the barrack from the S island and had the cruisers and dropships escorted it to the northern tip of his starting island. He was only aware of my presence after I landed the barrack and marines from dropships. Then you should have seen the sight. I had never seen so many mutalisks in my life. My cruisers killed wave after wave of mutalisks and they still kept coming. He also attempted to send some hydralisks to meet my marines but they were killed off. Remember I had new marines coming out from my barrck all the time as well. Anyway, by the time the fog has cleared, I had no cruiser left but he still had 2 mutalisks. I then began the painful process of moving the barrack back to the S island for repair. With only 2 mutalisks attacking my barrack, he couldn't kill it and so withdrew when I landed because of the defense on my island. 

I repeated the same attack the second time very soon because I had all 3 starports producing cruisers at all times. This time some guardians from his N expansion joined in the fight as well, togeather with his many mutalisks. His guardians killed off many marines so I used yamato cannons to kill all of his guardians off. Here is the twist. While I am busy dealing with guardians and mutaliks, I heard "Your base is being attacked." I scrolled back to my main base quickly and saw 7-8 ultralisks going berserk at my lovely base. I didn't expect that and had not very many marines defending. Worse, I saw lots of dark swrams forming all over the place. This made my not so elite force of marines less than useless. Two things saved me. My buildings were closely packed and I had 3 cruisers at my base which meant to form my next wave of air assault. I had to wait until the effect of dark swarm wore off. Without dark swarm, he knew his ultralisks were in trouble. He withdrew all his ultralisks through a nydus canal at his new hatchery he managed to build at the edge of my base when I was concentrating on attacking him. That was bad. At least I com-sat quickly and managed to kill off some burrowed defilers which I knew must be there. So, I proceeded to destroy his new hatchery and his canal. The total lost of his raid was a science facility with add-ons and a couple of supply depots. When I turned my attention to my attcking force, my marines and my barracks were no more. My cruisers got plagued and most were killed off before I could withdraw them to the safety of my S island. Well, at least one made it for repair. 

The lucky thing was I still had 3 more cruisers to use. The bad thing was I couldn't build any more cruisers because I had no more physics lab. I started rebuilding my science facility slowly, this time at the NE island. I was hoping to spread my risk a little bit. That turned out to be a mistake but more on that later. While waiting, I com-sat all his expansions. I found that he had probably colonised the whole map. This is a bad habit of me. When I am fighting, I sometines forget to expand. So, I quickly grabed the E island and defended it with bunkers and turrets. By the time I finished, my cruiser production was running again and before I knew I had 7 cruisers waiting for me. Again I loaded up 2 dropships of marines and took all my cruisers to the S island. I com-sat my favourite attack spot and found that he built a hatchery over there and surrounded it with spore colonies. Ok, he got smarter so I must too. I took my force to the southern tip of his base and landed my marines there. This time, the resistance was suprisingly light. Still some ultralisks charging at my marines and some mutalisks attacking my air fleet. But now I had 7 cruisers instead of my previous 5. Then I knew why he didn't have many mutalisks. "Your base is under attack." 

I checked and this was my NE island expansion under attack. I had some bunkers and turrets there but when I saw 6 guardians attacking, I knew it was a lost course. I checked my main base and saw only one cruiser available, so I moved that to my E island to stop him ravaging my E expansion next. By the time he finished destroying everything at the NE island, I had 2 cruisers waiting for him at the E base. In the mean time the attack of his main base was going smoothly. I scaned his base time and again to spot burrowed defilers. I didn't want them to plague my cruisers again. Other than that, I had little trouble finishing off his base. At the E island, my 2 cruisers was desperately trying to hold out against a pack of mutalisks. In the end, one cruiser survive with 56 hit points left. With no mutalisk left, even one cruiser can finish off all his guardians quickly. 

The exchange of attack meant that he was short of a main base and me an expanion. Time was on my side. But my science facility was built at the NE base remember? Well, no more. I had to rebuild my science facility for the second time. There was one thing going for me though. I had another science facility at the NE base before it was killed off with covert-op attached. My research of cloaking and ocular transplant was finished as well with 2 ghosts waithing at my main base. I quickly built my nuclear silo at my main base and arm a nuke. While I was waiting for a nuke, I of course kept up my cruiser production going. When the nuke was done, I lifted 2 ghosts and sent them to hit his N expansion. I cloaked both ghosts and used one ghost to nuke his lair. I quickly ran the second ghost towards his overlord. They were quickly killed by his mutalisks guarding the base. But when the real nuke came, all his mutalisks and overlords are anhilated. 

By that time I had 2 fleets of cruisers. The first fleet from the attack of his main base which all got repaired nicely. The second fleet were all fresh from starports. I proceeded to kill all his less well guarded expansions with my second fleet and re-established a base at the NE island. I needed the minerals there. After all his easy pickings were gone, only his NW and W expaniosns are left and were heavily guarded, especially with spore colonies. I paired up my cruisers and yamato as many spore colonies as I could and moved in for the kill. The only thing worth mentioning was my second nuke with my remaining ghost was killed off by his hydralisks before I could blink. 

The moral of the story is you really have to get that first expansion going against a zerg player on an island map. Also, cruisers really work against mutalisks. I killed off so many mutalisks that I had lost count. I harvested less resources than he did but thanks to cruisers, I killed off a lot with minimal lost. Mind you he used everything against my cruisers. Scoures were killed off by the dozen before they managed to get one or two hits. Plague and ensnare were used pretty creatively by him. If he used more hydralisks though, combining with plague, that could have spelled doom to my air force. Also marines are really no match against ultralisks, with the support of dark swarm, they are pretty invincible.
 

Some suprising results: 

1 cruiser kill 5 mutalisks 
2 cruiser kill 9 mutalisks 

firebats kill both zerglings and hydralisks very well. 
A suprising result but very true. 

6 marines without stim pack cannot kill an ultralisk. 
With stim packs, they have no problem.