SC2 BattleReport 2 Released!

I'm a bit behind. What are the MULEs?

Otherwise, great game, very solid play by both players, though Z easily could have had it at multiple points.

 

They're basically temporary speed miners for the Terran. They cost energy and last for a short period.

 

These guys are crap (no offence dakim and mcooper, you guys are cool in my books)! I wanna see some fast paced pwnage like i see with pro SC atm. I'm really annoyed at this battlereport. I mean, I do like all the animations and units and models etc. But i feel this report, and the last one, are a let down gameplay wise. They should get some real players in the game for the next report. I'm disappointed..

 

I don't see how watching fast-paced pwnage will really help us learn about the game. We can watch professional micro whenever in normal StarCraft matches, and I certainly don't see that being the point of the Battle Reports. On top of that, not only was there some pretty fine unit control in both the games, and in other StarCraft2 videos we've seen, but it's not like professional players will instantly have these skills just because they're professional. They're still new to the game, and for obvious reasons. Seriously, one of them didn't even know if Burrowing stopped Hunter Seeker missiles. Besides, also from what we've seen, it's the game as a whole that counts, not just micro. It's about strategies and counters. You could probably have the best micro in the world and still get your arse served to you on a plate if you're countered properly. Yes, it's still important and an obvious factor in the game, as we saw, but just because it doesn't occupy every second second of the game it doesn't mean the Battle Report's disappointing.

 

In addition, pre-balance work stats would result in extremely short pwnage situations, since the higher the standard of play the more crucial balance becomes.

 

What I dont like is not their ****ty micro (really, Dustin is talking like they are pro, next time he gets an orgasm!? ), but those strategies that are so obviously "set-up". The bunker in the start was epic fail, so misstimed (earilier barracks if you want that, like 8 barracks in sc1). And the Terran should not go out before he had a decent army, and should he get some helions or tanks? ANd the Zerg not expanding when he had mapcontrol, is that what they want to show us!?

Some good things - but a lot of bad!

 

What's with everyone having a go at micro now? What did you expect to see them do?

As for the Bunker rush, how on Earth did that fail? He tied up the Zerg player for two full minutes, during which the Zerg player couldn't mine and even had to pull Drones off his first base to try to take out the SCV, for two fifty minerals all up. You can see that that Bunker took up almost all of the Zerg player's focus for that whole time, while taking up next to none of the Terran player's. The Terran player's got two Barracks and has teched to a Merc Compound, while the Zerg player had, what? Zerglings. And a heavily delayed attempt at an early expansion.

Also, why should he have had Hellions and Tanks? What was wrong with what he used? Reapers were so much more useful than Hellions would have been, and the D8 Charges literally ripped the Zerg player at some literally vital times. As for Tanks, they would have served little use. There was no ideal place to deploy them for defence, and they could easily have been overrun.

 

I'm with furrer on this one. Tanks were an obvious 'yes' in my eyes. If i recall correctly, tanks 1-shot roaches. 1-SHOT!?!?! If he had 2 or 3 tanks he woulda ripped the zerg a new one, and don't say he didn't have the resources to go a different tech, because he in fact had over 1000 minerals.

And why the hell would you build a supply depot above your rocks? I know its for the vision but as if a tank up there wouldn't be more effective. 1 spot where it's a good idea to put a tank. And all along his cliff. He'd easily range over that canyon and hit the lings and roaches... Don't say "There was no ideal place to deploy them for defence". You know thats a lie.

 

The splash would have hit the rock, which seems a little unnecessary. Some Marines, possibly in a Bunker, would have sufficed, since they would have outranged the Roaches anyway.

 

But the tank would scare him off before he even reaches the rocks. Would you keep attacking the rocks if a tank was above it?

 

As GasMaskGuy said, a Tank would have been more of a hindrance than a help. Not only would it have severely damaged the rocks, but the Zerg player could have easily have spread out a few Zerglings and consciously used the Tank to help him get through.

As for the cliff, there was a large crevasse between the cliff and Zerg anyway. If he'd've tried to have it closer to the ramp, it could easily have been overrun. The Zerg were at that stage most of the time anyway. They had an Infester there at one point as well, which could have simply thrown some Infested Marines up there. On top of that, I can't see that it would have really helped with anything. The Zerg could have simply hugged the opposite cliff to get through to the expansion.

Why does everyone think Tanks are so necessary anyway? The front was constantly moving, so the Tanks would have constantly had to have been constantly redeployed, and more Bunkers would be required to offer them protection. Besides, I thought you guys wanted to see micro.

 

I think i read somewhere that these battle report videos are selected from a bunch of games played over a fairly long time. So blizz would not include games which last less than 15 min or go for more than 45 so the rushing micro riddled games may not fit into that time period. Also "micro" isn't particularly entertaining for most people when we don't give a damn and just want to see SC2 in action =P. "Glares at all the videos showing stalker micro".

This game was probally just picked because it demonstrated hunter seeker missiles, reapers,banelings,roachs and MULEs. Which havn't really been shown in their most recent forms. It would've been nice to see siege tanks and medivacs though.

 

To delay the zerg.

And it worked! While the zerglings were killing off the supply depot, the terran player was moving his forces into his eastern bunkers.

As for tanks and hellions, it's nice that StarCraft II promotes multiple strategies. Also, tanks siege mode is higher tier and tanks are more expensive; they're rarely the first choice in defense anymore.

 

I know tanks aren't the only option, he did win without them, but the would help dramatically. And expensive? Not with his excess resources.

Hey, i never once said the word 'micro', but now i have I'll use it a bit more often. I'm not saying i want a 5 minute game, the longer the better, i just want to see some real gameplay. We all know what the units do, we don't need to be shown them over and over again. I'd just like to see how the game stacks up against number 1 when the same level of skill is applied.. Wouldn't you?

Also, the macro of the zerg player was terrible. Zerg need at least 1 expo over the terran to be at least on par with them. He could of at least built another hatchery or 2 to keep up with the unit production. The only macro that put a smile on my dial was when i saw the marines come in at 20:54 to defend the terran expo. if he had of got that amount out earlier he would of dominated.

 

More Banshees would have also have helped dramatically, and Vikings would have as well. Same goes for Battlecruisers, and Ghosts would have worked well with Sniping the Banelings. Hellions would have been good as well, and even Thors. Medivacs would have helped with the infantry, too. So what was that you were saying about Tanks?

And you weren't talking about micro? What was that fast-paced pwnage you were talking about then? Did you just want all units to start on half health or something? And yes, we would like to see that. It's what we saw.

And yes, it's been established that the Zerg player should have expanded earlier. He obviously just got cocky, or focused too hard on his attempts to breach the Terran base instead of focusing on expanding. Most of the time, though, when you think you've won, the need to expand isn't really on your mind. Anyway, regardless of how terrible it was, and no-one's saying it wasn't, that isn't enough to make it a disappointing Battle Report.

 

watch from 21:35 in the minimap how the zerg player moves away his queen to the uper base so he grants his loose.. complete set up

 

Actually I think the idea of infested Terrans coming from eggs is a good idea. Well as i see it there are 3 ways they could be created.

1. Like SC1. From an infested Terran building.
2. From an egg. And this egg can come from the hatchery or another Zerg building.
3. Infest the Terran unit itself on the battlefield with a zerg unit. Kind of like how it happened in the movie Aliens. Does an already existing unit have a spore that it shoots into the Terran unit to infest it? This would take a lot of energy to do in my opinion. Or is there a new sacrificial unit made that can only run up and infest a Terran unit? For my liking this infestor unit would be small, weak though fast. Very fast. Like 2x a zergling at least.

And of those options all 3 are viable within the game's lore. Option 1 is saying infesting the building is the zerg stealing the human DNA on file there and using that with their own Zerg DNA to create infested units. Option 2 is possible saying that Option 1 already happened in SC1 and they have incorporated the Terran DNA into their DNA strains now. As they do with all captured species. And they can now use this Terran DNA at will. And Option 3 is just saying they have evolved/mutated a new unit or creature that can forfill this new task.

And the 2nd question is what weaponary and armours should a infested Terran unit have.
Well for Option 1 I think either a ranged unit or melee. Either way I'm ok with it. Just not a mobile bomb as it was in SC1. Because it'd overlap with the baneling. Melee would be claws and ranged would be some sort of spore gland attached to their arm or something to shoot spines or goo at the enemy. It's just then messing around and adding some of their own strains of DNA to the Terran DNA.

For Option 2, pretty much the same as Option 1. Popping out of the egg with armour and guns is silly. Zerg do not have access to Terran hardware. And even if they did, would they be able to know how to use it. I think not.

For Option 3 I think they should be infested. By a unit or a spore either way. But then they are out of action for a few seconds. For the infestation to take place. Should they be encased in a egg or cocoon for the infestation process? I dunno. But they can keep the guns and armour they had in their former not infested lives. And post infestation they can use their old guns against the new enemy. Though this assumes that the infestation process does not screw with their brains too much. Cause afterwards they still need to remember how to use the guns. And would they have any memory of their former preinfestation lives as Kerrigan has? I dunno. But if they did, it could be worked into the story for some rather interesting plot twists.

And which option would I go for? I think 2 or 3. As this is SC2. Things have moved on. And it would be new tactics people would have to learn. To use or counter.

 

I think only putting a supply depot by the rocks was a fine idea.

- He has to build supply depots anyways.

- If the zerg doesn't attack it, oh well the terran isn't down any resources.

- He might have thought his reapers had enough range to shoot the zerglings without having to jump down the cliff, making any hard defense unnecessary at that point because losing his zerglings would have crippled the zergs attack.

- He did build two bunkers in his base that covered that attack point, perhaps he didn't want to put them right at the rocks because he was worried about them getting hit by ranged attacks while they were building, or he wanted the bunkers to be able to defend against raids as well.

- They had probably decided not to show off too many units, which is why he never got tanks even later on.

Or maybe it just wasn't the best idea at the time, they weren't playing in super-competitive mode anyways.

 

Whenever I play TvZ, I RARELY get tanks. And if I do, it's because my M&M combo isn't working. Terran Infantry is cheap, and the best counter to zerg. Unless the Z player went Ultralisks, there would be no need for tanks.

 

@CodyFallsForth: When playing against someone who has any skill, you're definitely going to want to get a few tech units like Tanks.