Blizzcon 09

After a lot of confusion and badge shuffling, I was somehow bestowed with a press badge. Let me say, being press is nice. The press room has a live feed of significant panels right up front. Additionally there were beta versions of WoW, SC2 and Diablo 3 single player lining the walls. Most importantly the press are giving top priority on the gaming floor. Instead of questioning it, I headed to the SC2 play area.

I was able to walk up to the SC2 play area, ask for a station and I was instantly obliged. I have to say I felt incredibly guilty after seeing the length of the line.

There was some trouble finding me a match so eventually they paired me up with a very nice Blizzard employee.

Game 1 Diggity v Blizzard employee (P v T)

After the 2v2 tournament a lot of questions were rattling around in my head. I really wanted to examine what I considered to be the most powerful features of each race while exploring the new macro mechanics.

For Zerg, I wanted to see if there was really a point to going past 1 base, queen, zergling.
For Terran, I wanted to explore the extent of the reactor cores early game strength.
For Protoss, I wanted to see just how easy it was to seal and defend new expansions with warpgate mobility.

The Protoss option seemed the sexiest to me. It would be extremely entertaining to control 5 bases in the mid game with an excessive amount of warpgates to back them up. With decent scouting, I could produce a makeshift infantry army as I needed it to defend forward holdings. The ability to make troops where I need them would give me a death grip on map control.

The one major problem with this concept is the core problem of any macro based game in Broodwar. Whenever a player goes for an early economic game, he must find a way to hold back early troop pushes for a long enough time for the economic advantage to translate into superior troop count to gain the advantage in the mid game and with any luck a death grip for the rest of the match.

I decided to see if 2 gate, expansion to 4 gate with a warp gate upgrade to follow would hold against my opponent.

Again didn’t know the map name. It was two player. My opponent spawned in the bottom left as blue terran while I spawned in the upper right. The terran walled in before I could sneak a probe scout in the front door. I placed a pylon near the front for scouting and the threat of warp gates while taking my expansion.

I skipped unit production altogether, placed a nexus and shortly after 2 gateways. At this point I still didn’t the terran making any moves so I decided to upgrade to warp gates. As warp gates were about half way finished, a large force of marines walked into my natural expansion. I realized this was one of those maps with the breakable rocks allowing for an additional exit expansion. While I was scouting the terran’s natural expansion I complete ignored the other exit.

One thing I did notice is zealots melt to marines.

GG.

Moletrap Diggity screw around game

Moletrap and I decided to just test out various Zerg v Protoss match ups. We didn’t really attack each other, just sort of got a feeling for all the units. I have to say Colossus are really fun to use.

Game 2 – X

The rest of the matches inbetween I am not really going to go over as they were against far lesser skilled players. I am unsure if I managed to win due to superior strategy or simply superior RTS experience. Queens were still easy to focus fire, but not as easy with 2v2.

I did find that 2/3 rax reactor core into expansion seemed fairly powerful for early game terran. Additionally 1 hatch Queen with spawn larva was just as powerful as expected.

During this time I hadn’t yet played TvT.

After one of the progamer matches I conferred with Hotbid, Kennigit, Chill and a few others. I was low on sleep but I ranted about how early mass seemed to be the way to go across the board with each match up. Chill mentioned that Siege tanks own TvT, but I couldn’t see 1 or 2 siege tanks stopping 20 marines.

What we are going to call the Real Game 1 (yeaaaa!) Machine v Diggity

After Effort took the championship, I wandered toward the fansite tournament area with Psyonic, Phrank, Deja vu Machine Ret and some others. I didn’t want to ditch them so I ended up staying in a line that seemed to last at least an hour. Eventually I just gave up, grabbed Machine out of the line and walked over to the other play area where I could use my press pass to sneak in.

I decided to take on a player I knew would test me. I sat down opposite of Machine.

Sadly Psyonic had been praising spawn larva for the past 20 minutes. I knew Machine would be going zerg and abusing Queens for all they were worth.

I went random and ended up landing on zerg once again. I didn’t really have any builds of worth since all my prior experience had been with 2v2. I decided to simply 1 hatch, pool, Queen spawn larva since our bases were at what looked like close locations.

Before his overlord managed to position above my base I snuck 6 zerglings around towards his natural expansion. It looked like he had done a delayed pool build on the opposite side so I felt wary. I was more concerned about comparable Queen timing than pool timing since Queens basically function like a second hatchery. Those additional larva are like gold ZvZ. My Queen popped long before his did and I sent a stream of zerglings toward his natural. I assumed since the positions were so close he would be overwhelmed shortly.

I began to micro my lings in his natural, waiting for my additional lings to arrive, waiting for that troop advantage…. waiting….

I realized that my reinforcements were coming faaar to late to be effective. I took a look at the map and realized there was yet ANOTHER rock formation between our bases. The development team must have a real fetish for these because they seem to make an appearance on every other map.

I tried to take down the rock formation, but I knew Machine had a Queen, enough lings to hold me back, and he was taking his expansion. Even with MBS I was sure he would be able to out macro me.

I tried to rush to roaches but ended up constantly being at least 10/15 supply behind in pure mass on the ground.

GG

Game 2 Diggity v Machine P v Z

This time I decided to field protoss and take that Queen early. The plan was 2 gate zealots into 3 warp gates and stream zealots from there.

Machine opened up 12 hatch at a cross map position and pushed my initial zealots back after the Queen spawned. Knowing that spawn larva gave a hugeee troop boost early I decided to pull back until I could get warp gates in the mix. After I had a sizable army of zealots with warpgates upgrading I moved out with a probe towards Machines natural expansion.

At this point I proved my noobie micro skills even in Sc2. Machine had placed 2 hatches in his secondary with a spine crawler and multiple lings. His building placement created a nice wall against incoming attacks. Fortunately for me his Queen was spawning larva at his secondary to gain a quick economic boost. I rushed my zealots in, and tried to focus fire the Queen. It was at this point I found out that auto surround had been nerfed a bit. My zealots ran into the Queens hindquarters one at a time, sort of lagging behind while trying to chase her up the ramp. The entire time the spawn crawler and zerglings pounded away at my zealots thining them out. Through poor micro I managed to lose my entire zealot army at Machines natural. At this stage I could not attack, not expand, and Machine still had a Queen.

I decided to all in gateways in a desperate attempt to slow Machine’s economy down. In the 2 minutes it took me to build more warpgates than I could sustain (it looks like 5 is the maximum for a single base by the way, that may change down the line), Machine jumped at least 60 supply.

Every time I moved out I ended up facing a wave of Zerg that I could not handle.

GG

Game 3 Machine v Diggity T v Z

I decided to try the 3 reactor core rush to at least get a win. Zerglings could not handle marines in mass and hydras weren’t all that powerful in the prior build I played. I scouted Machine in the bottom left of the map. I sealed my front and instantly placed the reactor cores. Once I had sufficient mass I pushed out towards Machines base, killing a couple of Overlords and lings on the way.

Along the way I ran into 5 hydralisks. Even with the ramp advantage this shouldn't be problem for 16 marines with reinforcements coming in route right? Wrong. After the fight I was flabbergasted. I knew the match was over.

I GGed for the sake of science and brevity. I asked Machine to hold position a hydra so I could get a read on how many hits a marine required to take one down.

It takes 14 shots to manage a single hydralisk. It takes 4 shots to take down a single marine. I realized that without focus fire my attack was doomed from the start.

GG

So after being face stomped 3 times in a row and not putting up much of a fight in two of the matches, I decided to switch opponents. I thanked Machine for the pride stomping and pondered over the results of our matches.

I had played a single v zerg match during the entirety Blizzcon 09 prior to Machine. I hadn’t really thought about facing down spawn larva. It was a daunting task indeed.

Game 4 Psyonic v Diggity (T v T)

Having some success with the reactor rushes I decided to employ a 3 rax opening once again. I had experimented enough to find that 3 rax into expansion with a 4 rax with reactor cores lining the side allowed for a continuous marine pump into the mid game.

Once again I produced 20 marines and marched out to Psyonic’s base. Right outside of his natural expansion I saw a Command center being placed. Bingo! A few moments later I took a single siege shot. I quickly ran my marines to get in underneath the tank. For whatever genius reason, my marines decided to bunch up so the next shot would kill those who took the initial damage, and nearly kill the rest. I managed to kill the first tank but a second tank took a shot and finished off what was left of my squad.

So 2 tanks took out 20 marines. That’s 1000 minerals in 3 shots. Include all the investment in barracks and reactors, plus Psyonic’s expansion and I was out of the game.

GG

Game 5 Psyonic v Diggity (Z v T)

I think we ended up on the same map. Psyonic spawned bottom left and I spawned top right. I decided to test 3 rax into 4 rax with expansion again but this time with FOCUS FIRREEEE.

Psyonic teched to hydra but ended up later on his Hydra than Machine. After the initial fray inside Psyonic’s base, I had to continually pump marines just to keep a force on the ground. Psyonic was still finding ways to take his natural and keep his economy running.

Psyonic ended up a bit frustrated. He felt like I was going all in. I felt like I was barely hanging on in the fight even with focus fire. Hydras are increeeedibly buff.

After taking my expansion I managed to plant down 2 more rax with tech labs. Marauders to the rescue! The Marauders just about stood toe to toe with the hydras. Mixed in with superior numbers of marines I was finally able to swarm Psyonic and take out his natural.

While I was planting down additional barracks he actually managed to take out the force I sent in. But I was swift to get another army to his natural to force him to cancel his new hatchery.

At this point Psyonic didn’t have the economy to keep up with me while I was moving out to take a 3rd.

GG

Game 6 Psyonic v Diggity (P v P)

This match I decided test a tactic reversal. I would create a large amount of stalker, deny Psyonic his natural while I expanded early. The plan was 2 gate to warp gate followed by a dark obelisk and a nexus.

I managed to deny Psyonic's scout fairly early with a perfect wall and a zealot on the corner. In the meantime I kept my scout in his base for a decent amount of additional time. I saw stalkers but not the next level tech switch.

I managed to pump 12 stalkers before Psyonic moved down his ramp. I noticed that Psyonic had nullifiers in his grouping and far fewer troops overall than I so I decided to hold off on the nexus and try to push the ramp.

Psyonic then pulled one of the most heads up brilliant maneuvers I had seen all day. Instead of engaging my forces or letting me breach his base, he cast force field right on his ramp to buy himself some time. Absolutely brilliant.

At this stage I figured that I had the game. I placed my second nexus and transferred a few probes. I debated adding on an obelisk before additional gateways. I concluded that an additional base was enough of a macro bonus, I only needed to worry about the all in troop count. I started pumping units and rallying them to Psyonic’s front.

A bit later Psyonic came charging down his ramp with a nice unit composition. Then I realized that somehow he had a larger troop count. I figured it wouldn’t last long since I had two bases while he was isolated to his main. Yet after two engagements, Psyonic kept pouring the troops out. After a few back and forth battles, Psyonic managed to take out my secondary just as I was running low on resources in my main.

I really wish I could look at a replay of the match. I didn’t miss a single obelisk buff or unit production moment. The build even felt smooth. Psyonic told me he placed his Obelisk a lot earlier than mine but I couldn’t convince that at most 2 minutes of faster mining would make such a difference in the 2 v 1 base mid game.

By this time Blizzcon was closing up shop. I was somewhat disappointed by pure number of matches I managed to sneak in. I was either watching the progamers to the right of the RTS stage, watching Artosis and Tasteless commentate or eating. Somehow the days just seemed to slip away.

Lessons learned.

1) The new macro mechanic abilities are a nice solution to put in new apm tasks. Unlike the gas mechanic I actually enjoyed going back to my base to cast the worker boost spells.

2) Unfortunately the new macro mechanic created some confusion for me as far as base transfer and expansion went. Sometimes I didn’t want to transfer probes from lacking mineral piles as Protoss for example because I didn’t have an obelisk at my new expansion. I also want to explore the cost/gain difference between a nexus and an obelisk. I worry that the existence of obelisk’s diminishes the importance of taking expansions in the mid game.

3) With all the rapid unit spawn capacities in the game (reactors, spawn larva, warp gates), the early expansion and defense windows seems to be really small. I almost hope that all the macro mechanic and rapid unit production capabilities get pushed further back up the tech tree. I am going to refrain from commenting on this further as it could be the case that there is a larger window than I realize and I was simply not utilizing the proper unit combinations to execute fast expansions.

4) The Queen’s spawn larva ability worries me a lot. For Zerg unit production and economic production are tied together in the larval system. Its going to be difficult to balance out any larva boost and it almost feels necessary with all the other rapid unit production capacities out in the field.

I think it would be wise to separate out spells for economic unit production and attack unit production. Perhaps one spell (how about egg mitosis) can cause attack unit eggs to duplicate while another spell would cause workers to instantaneously morph and divide. That would also seem disgustingly Zerglike.

5) Tanks own marines. I think they will own most infantry now based on how units bunch up when they move.

6) Mutalisk’s ended up nerfed somewhere along the way and Hydras were buffed and dropped to tier 1. Lair tech units for zerg seem like a total wash. Roaches end up facing down direct counter units as they are spawning. Mutalisks would be incredible in large numbers still but in smaller numbers they didn’t seem nearly as effective as hydralisks. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of motivation to push out of tier 1 or hang around lair tech.

7) The base on base balance is completely revamped. Where before Zerg player required two bases to keep up with a terran’s single base in the early game, now it seems like zerg is stronger off a single base than terran. I couldn’t really take the upper hand from Psyonic until I managed to take my expansion. He was still giving me a run off his main.
This again could be due to lack of experience and unit selection.

8) ALWAYS LOOK FOR BREAKABLE ENVIRONMENTAL PIECES. They seem to blend into the mini map. I wish that the minimap would change the color of event objects to a bright blinking neon orange so I wouldn’t miss these things when I move out. With the new upgraded AI pathing, units don’t even walk stupidly into the barricades anymore to indicate a problem.

9) The warp gate protoss mechanic is REALLY fun. At times in battle it almost felt like the complete unification of micro and macro. I can see why a lot of the progamers want to switch to protoss. Warping in units and microing existing armies around them almost feels like painting. It feels like you have a brush in your hand and the map is your canvas.


10) Things always take more time than you think they will, whether that be writing, or playing sc2 at blizzcon. It might take awhile for the beta to come out but I think we can all be forgiving in the meantime.

Warp in seems really interesting, the way you put it. I'm not a big fan of the gas or macro mechanics though. Nor MBS.

It's interesting that the number bases balance between races has changed so much, i'd love to learn more about that. And with so many games played, how do you remember what happened in them all so well? i know if it was me i would confuse them a lot

Sweet write up. I'm look forward to beta!

Thanks again for the in depth analysis Diggity, I really appreciate it. This game looks great!

The gas mechanic is out. The macro mechanics are really smooth though. You feel more like you are cycling through your base then pausing and tapping on things.

Good writing. <3 Dig.

I think Zerg will still need to keep up one base ahead. When it comes to saturation of workers per base, only Terran and Protoss can exceed the resource income return cap that Zerg cannot ever breach.

Nice article. The rock fetish sounds like a common comment.

>> << I can't wait til I hear/see someone's warp prism cheese.

Thanks for these gigantic write-ups, it is gold for the rest of us who are starved on Starcraft 2. Keep it up, and GG writing!