Link: Replay
Opponents' Rank: Plat 16
Recap:
A very strange opening again. Z went 10 pool. Since I had gone FFE, I was worried about early lings and cut probes to finish my wall off and get a cannon. He proceeded to make only 2 lings and expand. My overreaction cost me heavily in probe time and Z had me at a worker disadvantage until the midgame.
I timed my push out with DTs better this time, but my first push still got surrounded by speedlings and killed.
I have some pretty bad supply block issues through the midgame and Z gets maxed long before me. Z pushes out with ultra/roach/infestor and beats my near-maxed ball at my third expansion.
Lessons:
I have a hard time with sppedlings in big numbers. Honestly, I copied my blink stalker approach to the FFE from Huk, and I might just not have the control to make it work. I lose them to speedlings, infestors, and sometimes just roaches. I could go with more of a gateway mix, with more sentries and zealots and maybe get charge instead of blink first. That would give me a style I'm more comfortable controlling while not changing the resource profile of the build that much.
All of these games felt very different, but they all fell apart at the same place-- losing too much in my first push and not being able to reinforce. I'm going to adjust the unit mix of that first push.
Also, the first thing I do when I move out is take the towers. I need to take advantage of my map control to put up my forward pylons.
So, that it. Identify a common problem, a root cause, and a concrete step to fix it. Let's see how it goes.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
PvZ, Searing Crater, Loss
Link: Replay
Opponents' Rank: Gold 5
Recap:
A very unusual game plan from my opponent.
Z opens hatch first, and since I don't think I can FFE on this map, I 3-gate expand. This lets Z get way ahead on drones. I move forward as usual with a few gateway units after the expo, and Z puts out a couple of waves of speedlings. I handle this with FFs well at first, but then I try to pull back and the lings flank me by an alternate path and I lose a lot of sentries. I think this is the problem I'm recovering from the rest of the game.
Z charges in with the rest of the lings, but I manage to hold without taking too much damage. Now, having seen nothing but speedlings, I suspect mutas, which calls for a deviation from the usual robo plan. I put down a TC and an extra gateway and start moving towards blink stalkers when Z hits with a ling/infestor force instead. I just barely hold this off but all the infestors escape and he returns with a roach/infestor push, which I'm poorly prepared for because I was getting ready for lings. I get DTs just in time to hold this off, get a third up and use DTs to stay in the game a while but never recover.
Lessons:
I didn't think this game was very similar to last one, but it breaks down in a similar place-- when my first push gets trapped and killed. Part of this was being surprised by a feature of the map-- that second path out of the natural-- but another part was the same. I didn't put up a forward pylon. A warp-in of 4 zealots would have let me continue to put on pressure and possibly allow me to keep all of that force.
Otherwise, I really only hung in as long as I did because of my opponent's slack macro.
Opponents' Rank: Gold 5
Recap:
A very unusual game plan from my opponent.
Z opens hatch first, and since I don't think I can FFE on this map, I 3-gate expand. This lets Z get way ahead on drones. I move forward as usual with a few gateway units after the expo, and Z puts out a couple of waves of speedlings. I handle this with FFs well at first, but then I try to pull back and the lings flank me by an alternate path and I lose a lot of sentries. I think this is the problem I'm recovering from the rest of the game.
Z charges in with the rest of the lings, but I manage to hold without taking too much damage. Now, having seen nothing but speedlings, I suspect mutas, which calls for a deviation from the usual robo plan. I put down a TC and an extra gateway and start moving towards blink stalkers when Z hits with a ling/infestor force instead. I just barely hold this off but all the infestors escape and he returns with a roach/infestor push, which I'm poorly prepared for because I was getting ready for lings. I get DTs just in time to hold this off, get a third up and use DTs to stay in the game a while but never recover.
Lessons:
I didn't think this game was very similar to last one, but it breaks down in a similar place-- when my first push gets trapped and killed. Part of this was being surprised by a feature of the map-- that second path out of the natural-- but another part was the same. I didn't put up a forward pylon. A warp-in of 4 zealots would have let me continue to put on pressure and possibly allow me to keep all of that force.
Otherwise, I really only hung in as long as I did because of my opponent's slack macro.
PvZ, Shakuras Plateau, Loss
Link: Replay
Opponents' Rank: Plat 55
Recap:
I open with the FFE, and the Zerg opens hatch first. Z catches my cannons at the natural and kills it with drones. We both go full workers as I get up to 5-gate blink/DT and Z gets a roach warren and infestation pit.
I move out right when Z's third is going down and try to pressure it with blink stalkers, but get caught and killed. (I'm supply blocked here and it makes a big difference in the number of stalkers I have.) My wave of DTs does no damage at the natural but does shut down mining at the third for a while.
At this point I've been slightly ahead on workers all game. I put down the robo for colossus and put up a third. We skirmish a bit for position in the middle of the map, but no major changes in the power balance occur. The Z's 4th goes up.
The decisive battle happens when I'm maxed and the Z gets brood lords. We sort of pass each other so positioning is odd, but the Z has the brood lords parked over one of those raised islands, which is terrible for me, so I back off. I do slightly better once we re-engage, but he cleans up with a bunch of roaches and 2-3 brood lords left and I can't recover.
Lessons
This whole plan of the FFE revolves around being able to put on pressure once I move out, and that fails miserably here. There were a few issues here, but they boil down to that first wave of stalkers getting trapped and killed.
To make that wave hit harder, I should adjust a few things.
First, not getting supply blocked, naturally.
Second, and I think this is something I should have carried over from the 3-gate sentry expand opening, my pressure needs a forward pylon for reinforcements.
Third, I want to coordinate the use of my DTs better. In a case like this where he has to bring his overseer and an army with him, I should put my stalkers in the way and intercept that army, buying time for the DT and maybe catching him by surprise.
To bring it all together, the new plan is: be active on the map with my first set of stalkers, clearing the towers, but stay off creep. Use the map control to put up a forward pylon and reinforce. Wait for the first wave of DTs to go in, then catch Z's army leaving the main. Do damage, stall for time, maybe snipe the overseer.
Opponents' Rank: Plat 55
Recap:
I open with the FFE, and the Zerg opens hatch first. Z catches my cannons at the natural and kills it with drones. We both go full workers as I get up to 5-gate blink/DT and Z gets a roach warren and infestation pit.
I move out right when Z's third is going down and try to pressure it with blink stalkers, but get caught and killed. (I'm supply blocked here and it makes a big difference in the number of stalkers I have.) My wave of DTs does no damage at the natural but does shut down mining at the third for a while.
At this point I've been slightly ahead on workers all game. I put down the robo for colossus and put up a third. We skirmish a bit for position in the middle of the map, but no major changes in the power balance occur. The Z's 4th goes up.
The decisive battle happens when I'm maxed and the Z gets brood lords. We sort of pass each other so positioning is odd, but the Z has the brood lords parked over one of those raised islands, which is terrible for me, so I back off. I do slightly better once we re-engage, but he cleans up with a bunch of roaches and 2-3 brood lords left and I can't recover.
Lessons
This whole plan of the FFE revolves around being able to put on pressure once I move out, and that fails miserably here. There were a few issues here, but they boil down to that first wave of stalkers getting trapped and killed.
To make that wave hit harder, I should adjust a few things.
First, not getting supply blocked, naturally.
Second, and I think this is something I should have carried over from the 3-gate sentry expand opening, my pressure needs a forward pylon for reinforcements.
Third, I want to coordinate the use of my DTs better. In a case like this where he has to bring his overseer and an army with him, I should put my stalkers in the way and intercept that army, buying time for the DT and maybe catching him by surprise.
To bring it all together, the new plan is: be active on the map with my first set of stalkers, clearing the towers, but stay off creep. Use the map control to put up a forward pylon and reinforce. Wait for the first wave of DTs to go in, then catch Z's army leaving the main. Do damage, stall for time, maybe snipe the overseer.
PvZ Game Plan
Since the start of the new season, PvZ has gone from being one of my strongest matchups to one of my worst. After losing all of my PvZs today, I thought it might be time for some serious reevaluation.
So, to start out, let's go over the game plan. This will give me something to refer back to and change iteratively as I go over today's games.
Opening: While I prefer to stick to a single opening, I've found that I need to be map-sensitive in PvZ. On maps with a good choke at the natural, I do a FFE. On maps without, I do a 3-gate sentry expand. Either way, the idea is to open safely and stay close to even with a droning Zerg through the opening.
Then, I begin putting pressure on. The idea is to force units instead of drones, and get a good idea about the Zerg's unit composition by forcing a confrontation.
At this point, I want to put up my third and start my second tech tree. (FFE leads to TC, upgrades, and a dark shrine, so I add the robo. 3 gate sentry leads to a robo, so I add a TC.)
From here, I want to macro up, pressure the Zerg's attempts to expand, and win with a "death ball".
So, let's look at some games from today.
Links:
So, to start out, let's go over the game plan. This will give me something to refer back to and change iteratively as I go over today's games.
Opening: While I prefer to stick to a single opening, I've found that I need to be map-sensitive in PvZ. On maps with a good choke at the natural, I do a FFE. On maps without, I do a 3-gate sentry expand. Either way, the idea is to open safely and stay close to even with a droning Zerg through the opening.
Then, I begin putting pressure on. The idea is to force units instead of drones, and get a good idea about the Zerg's unit composition by forcing a confrontation.
At this point, I want to put up my third and start my second tech tree. (FFE leads to TC, upgrades, and a dark shrine, so I add the robo. 3 gate sentry leads to a robo, so I add a TC.)
From here, I want to macro up, pressure the Zerg's attempts to expand, and win with a "death ball".
So, let's look at some games from today.
Links:
Friday, August 5, 2011
Mission Accomplished!
My placement match for Season 3 put me into Platinum.
It's not Operation: Diamond Protoss, of course, but I can't change the name of the blog.
I'd honestly been massing games too much and not logging them here and going over the replays. Now that I have a long way to go before I'm looking at my next promotion, I'm going to start doing that again. Probably not every game, because some just aren't educational. But more.
It's not Operation: Diamond Protoss, of course, but I can't change the name of the blog.
I'd honestly been massing games too much and not logging them here and going over the replays. Now that I have a long way to go before I'm looking at my next promotion, I'm going to start doing that again. Probably not every game, because some just aren't educational. But more.
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