The Forum Replay Thread

[Accname]

Hi everyone.
After playing a couple of matches today i thought maybe it would be a good idea to open a replay thread for our fellow starcraft addicted forum members.
To make something happen in this forum just as well.

I will start uploading some replays here which i think are either funny to watch, outright cool or educational.
I will also give some commentary about them (in form of text, not recorded) to let you know what you are about to watch.

Of course everybody is allowed to hijack this thread and upload some replays of his own.

Tell me what you think about this idea and maybe leave some comments about the replays as well.
(As a sitenote, i am not very good at this game. Decent maybe, but not good. Dont expect GM-Level play.)


Here we go, the first educational replay "For the Swarm" is going to show you a random (protoss) Accname versus some zerg player who was (if i remember correctly) platinum league.
It is a very good example of how a zerg player should not play.
I opened up with forge fast expand on shattered temple. Then i teched to stargate for phoenix play when he suddenly started to throw his units mindlessly into their deaths.
What he should have done instead? Double expand, macro and scouting for my tech to deal with possible harass. He didnt macro, and didnt scout, but you will see a crapload of zerglings getting bashed by probes in this replay.

And some rather funny replay "Defend early Pressure" which demonstrates some sick grandmasters level micromanagement from my part (random protoss). Watch how i fend off an incredibly early and unsuspected timing push by this high level terran player without losing a single unit.
Thats crazy micro, i tell you.

 

[Bloodcount]

I like the initiative. Sticky.

 

[Accname]

Well, the replays are definitely not the best, but i just felt like trying to increase this forums activity.
i am hoping to see some other people participate and uploading some exiting replays.

 

[Bloodcount]

I might cast a few games in english as well...

 

[Accname]

Two casual matches against Bloodcount shortly after we played our tournament matches.
I really wanted to play some zerg that day, unfortunately i only got terran and toss in the official matches T_T.

The first game "RootingForZerg" is a little cheesy, but its a nice example of zerg vs zerg. For all of you who would like to know how to end a zvz quickly, or if you like to know what you need to watch out for, watch that first game.
Most important note in a zvz: 6 pool doesnt work, thats only effective against forge fast expanding protoss or stupid players. A ten pool however is fairly effective to counter your opponents fast expand.
But dont try to pull off a ten pool in close air spawns in maps like shattered temple, metalopolis, and similar ones because if your opponent scouts your early pool its almost gg from that point.

Second game is some standard zerg vs protoss. You see the forge fast expand, you see muta ling vs blink stalkers and you see the base race.
Only one thing to say: it was close... Like, really close.

Enjoy the games guys, id like to hear some comments!
And a merry gg + well played to bloodcount.

 

[Bloodcount]

Also don't watch the protoss build order. It was that bad due to the map. This is not a ffe map. Go for a 3 gate expand, since you can't defend any type of all in with lings/blings/roaches.

 

[Accname]

Here are 2 new replays from today!
Just felt like playing some matches again because of the tournament.

I play random but in both of those replays i got zerg, once against protoss and then against terran.

I used pretty much the same strategy in both of those matches to end the game very quickly.

What i was trying to do:
Do as if you do the standard play. 15/14 hatch 15 pool 15 extractor. 4 lings etc etc.
Eliminate the scouting worker, thats important.
let the enemy know that you are going for expansion first though, he should fast expand himself!
scout his fast expansion with your overlord. (you will need a small map for this or alot of luck!)

Now, what is the situation?
Enemy knows we do standard zerg early game with fast hatch into crazy macro.
Enemy goes for a fast expansion himself and is in a vulnverable spot.

put down a roach warren, do not build any more drones, while the roach warren is building get some additional overlords, id say about 20 supply spare is good.

roach warren done? Pump a gigantic mass of roaches with all your saved resources and push out for a killing blow.

What to expect:
Is it protoss he will usually have some cannons and a bunch of sentries. rarely stalkers sometimes zealots.
although sentries have force fields, at this point in the game they have too few energy to really lay down alot of them at once. And the dps of the protoss force will be minimal so your roaches will pretty much rule the game.

Is it a terran, he will most likely have 1 or 2 bunkers filled with marines. No terran goes marauders in the early game.
If he teched he will either have a single siege tank, likely siege tech will not be finished, or, more likely, a bunch of hellions. Either will not be enough.
Although siege tanks are good against roaches, going for such a fast tank will limit his marine production alot.


Attached are the replays against either race, against the terran it was especially well executed, against the protoss i really screwed up but won never the less.
Hope you learned something guys.

Replays uploaded.

 

[Bloodcount]

I will upload an exclusive grandmaster replay pack in a couple of weeks.

 

[UndeadDragon]

I will upload an exclusive grandmaster replay pack in a couple of weeks.

You have just reminded me that I also have a replay pack from a previous tournament with many well-known players (including MarineKing, MC, JYP etc). I will upload this when I get a chance.

 

[Accname]

Why dont you guys upload some of your own replays? That was the idea behind this.

Nevertheless, here is another ZvZ replay by me.
It was pretty interesting although there was little to no aggression for the majority of the game it was the way the final battle went which was surprising to me.
To make it short. Fast expand by both of us, i went for quick lair, then into my third and then into fast mutalisks from which point i was massing mutalisks. I thought that was a great idea.

So, now what he did, after expanding he got his roach warren, went into lair, double evo chamber and got 2/2 upgrades for his roaches. Massed a gigantic army of roaches and pushed out.

At first i thought i had it in the hand, with my 25+ mutalisks but then i realized thats not going to end well for me. In fact, he won pretty easily, those roaches destroyed my base completely and my mutalisks at 1/0 dealt hardly any damage to him.

I learnt something in that game, thats for sure.

 

[Accname]

Here is yet another replay.
A really great game, 42 minutes long, full of macro and some micro.

I played random protoss vs a zerg player who was quite good, or at least, on my level.
I played my standard pvz game. He played a very passive broodlord infestor ling.

At the end almost all resources on the map were used up, all expensions taken, ten thousands of resources in units lost for both sides. Many big engagements with fair trade offs.

Would like to get some feedback on that one because in my opinion that was my best game so far.

 

[Slapshot136]

Would like to get some feedback on that one because in my opinion that was my best game so far.

my thoughts: you should have gone around the back when you saw the mass spines, or get immortals/collosi/air at least

you should have gotten blink stalkers to chase and kill the infestors

you should have an obs to counter burrow

after your main mined out, you oversaturated your 3rd, you should have gotten a 4th or sent some to your 2nd

you were floating quite a bit and could have ended it earlier, maybe with a proxy pylon in the bottom right corner when you destroyed those rocks

when you got your gold, you had 2x as many probes as you needed

after you defended your gold, you didn't go chase the infestors with your stalkers

 

[Accname]

i didnt think immortals would be a good idea because the enemy didnt have any armoured units. Only broodlords, infestor and links.
Collosi wouldnt be great either against broodlords and the corrupters he had on the field because of the broodlords. Would have helped against the zerglings maybe but i think archons and zealots did the job pretty good.

Teching to void rays might have been an option but i was already at 3/3 ground upgrades and i didnt think 0/0 void rays would help much now that the enemy had infestor broodlord. Would be pretty easy to get many corrupters.

i had blink, but i used it to blink underneath the broodlords instead of getting the infestors.
I had an observer but didnt use it in my main army because the enemy didnt burrow at all.
Maybe some high templar with feedback on the infestors, but my APM is too low i think to do it. If i was to feedback his infestors i dont think i could have blinked and sniped the broodlords.

You are right about the macro, it is pretty hard to keep up for me.
After my initial one or two expands i usually stay at those expos without going for more for some reason. I always fear a timing push right the moment when i am building the base up and i have too little APM to build it while i am pushing myself.

But thank you for the feedback. Looking forward for some more replays from you guys.

 

[Slapshot136]

i didnt think immortals would be a good idea because the enemy didnt have any armoured units. Only broodlords, infestor and links.
Collosi wouldnt be great either against broodlords and the corrupters he had on the field because of the broodlords. Would have helped against the zerglings maybe but i think archons and zealots did the job pretty good.

>> for the spine crawlers, and I was thinking around the time you saw infestors, not way later after he had BL's

Teching to void rays might have been an option but i was already at 3/3 ground upgrades and i didnt think 0/0 void rays would help much now that the enemy had infestor broodlord. Would be pretty easy to get many corrupters.

>> void rays > corruptors, his air was also un-upgraded, but your air would have had the shield upgrades atleast

i had blink, but i used it to blink underneath the broodlords instead of getting the infestors.

>> again, I was thinking about blink way earlier (I should post times)

I had an observer but didnt use it in my main army because the enemy didnt burrow at all.

>> he never researched burrow, which was odd, but you could of still killed the creep and forced him to retreat with all those spine crawlers, leaving his expansions exposed

Maybe some high templar with feedback on the infestors, but my APM is too low i think to do it. If i was to feedback his infestors i dont think i could have blinked and sniped the broodlords.

you did feedback some infestors, but in like 2 or 3 encounters, you would kill the broodlords, he would run with his unprotected infestors, and you would retreat instead of chasing the infestors

You are right about the macro, it is pretty hard to keep up for me.
After my initial one or two expands i usually stay at those expos without going for more for some reason. I always fear a timing push right the moment when i am building the base up and i have too little APM to build it while i am pushing myself.

>> the opponent had an extra expansion on you pretty much the entire game, but I suppose that is part of playing zerg

you still won though, so don't let me criticize you too much ;P

 

[Accname]

Got some fresh replays for you guys, played just this evening.

TerranVSProtoss is a fairly standard game with lots of macro, big armies and many upgrades. I am really trying to improve my macro, building a ton of rax and constantly keep pumping out units.

ProtossVSTerran is a very short match against a terran player who tries to marauder rush me while i attempted a 3 gate expand. At first it didnt look very good for me, some bad micro mistakes made me lose my early units.
But after his attack was stopped i counter attacked and took him by surprise with a fast charge upgrade.

Like always, like to hear some comments and see some of your replays.

 

[Slapshot136]

Like always, like to hear some comments and see some of your replays.

here are my comments:

game#1 - you would of had a lot easier time with those marauders had you recalled your 2 stalkers from their attack.. the terran blocked his ramp, an attack with 2 stalkers wouldn't do much, but it would of saved you quite a few zealots

game#2 - a bit late on the worker transfer to the 3rd base, and you didn't get the 2nd gas on your 2nd expansion until way too late.. stim was also a bit late, if you had stim when your drop occured, you could have probably taken out the nexus as well (and if it was late enough for your opponent to have collosi.. you can have stim), you were floating quite a bit of minerals (im guessing due to the lack of gas)

 

[Accname]

here are my comments:

game#1 - you would of had a lot easier time with those marauders had you recalled your 2 stalkers from their attack.. the terran blocked his ramp, an attack with 2 stalkers wouldn't do much, but it would of saved you quite a few zealots

game#2 - a bit late on the worker transfer to the 3rd base, and you didn't get the 2nd gas on your 2nd expansion until way too late.. stim was also a bit late, if you had stim when your drop occured, you could have probably taken out the nexus as well (and if it was late enough for your opponent to have collosi.. you can have stim), you were floating quite a bit of minerals (im guessing due to the lack of gas)

Yeah, in the first game, i was really surprised to see him push out that early.
I really slipped my micro quite alot there, it was very dangerous and i made quite a few mistakes because i was a little bit in panic.

In the second game i had way too little apm to use stim on that drop anyways. And i dont think terran needs that much gas, i was building nothing but marines and marauders and the occasional medivacs.
But thanks for the comment!
Always looking forward to improve.

 

[Accname]

Here another ZvZ.

He went ling baneling, i got roaches fairly early. He teched to infestor and i got some mutas.
I think the micro in this match is quite okay, especially at the beginning.

Some ZvZ tips:
missle upgrades make roaches kill lings with 2 shots instead of 3 if he doesnt get armor. Very very useful in the beginning.
You dont need banelings in the early game if you play defensive and have the APM and micro skills needed to snipe banes with sacrificial lings. Additional spines help you to get up your roach forces.

Mutalisks might sound really good to counter roaches but they deal too little damage to protect you against a massive wall of roaches. Especially if the roaches got armor upgrades.
I dont really advice you to go mutalisks because your opponent, if he knows the game well, will just steamroll over you.

 

[Slapshot136]

again you floated a ton of minerals with no gas.. and you are the one who got mutas, your opponent went infestors (although never harassed with burrowed infestors for some reason)

 

[Bloodcount]

http://drop.sc/159371

Watch it from my (Furby) point of view, to the end.

Replay featuring: Max macro orientated + pressure builds, my perfect force fields and a surprise