419 Prehistoria - The Battle of Wits - Kheve vs. FreeFrag

As promised, another 419 prehistoria battle report, this time between Kheve (Yellow Toss) vs FreeFrag (Orange Zerg) in the classic lost-temple, the RAMP-map . The Yellow starts at the bottom left while the Orange is situated in the top middle. As expected of most battles, there would be early skirmishes but an unlucky timing by Yellow to send his troops out allowed the orange to penetrate an undefended ramp, and straight to the booty, the yummy workers.

While initially a slight setback as innocent probes were gobbled by zerglings, Yellow rebounded by positioning a squad of zealots at the ramp to prevent any more mishaps (Game Time 7:52). From this point onwards, it’s the battle of wits, the red carpet encore of this game. Orange went on producing more ground troops and went full steam in mining for its natural expansion while Yellow tech-up and went for 4 corsairs.



Then the hunting time starts and Yellow's corsairs reduce Orange's supply from 65 to 27 (Game Time 9:52) in less than a minute, truly a nightmare for Orange. However, Orange being FreeFrag (this is the epitome of what the HORDE means), mass churn overlords (possible since Orange expanded) and send in to all possible locations and it paid off. By (Game Time 10:57), 3 overlords escaped unscathed while the rest are being hunted by corsairs.



Orange did produce mutalisks ASAP after corsair sightings on the horizon but the numbers were not there initially and the hunt continued. Predicting a windfall, Yellow prepared 18 zealots (Game Time 12:17) and went straight for the drones. Given two bases, Orange will definitely resupply fast enough to produce a sizable amount of mutalisks to kill the corsairs (Game Time 12:25). When Yellow waltz right into Orange's expansion, he walk into a deathtrap of sunkens, mutas and zerglings.



While the rush left Orange’s expansion with most of the workers gone and several mutas alive, Yellow is made much worst off as he lacks an expansion and must now not only re-build his air force but also replenish his troops guarding the ramp. At (Game Time 14:10), Orange retaliated by sending at least a squad of mutas to break Yellow’s ramp, defended by several zealots and 3-4 corsairs. Quite unexpected (maybe to to reduce losses), both withdraw from the ramp (Game Time 14:22), a sight you seldom see, a wide open inviting ramp.



Now, Yellow retaliated by sending his remaining corsairs to hunt overlords. Though initially successful, Orange is prepared now and the hunter became the hunted at (Game Time 15:18). However, Yellow quickly resupply with more corsairs, and the hunt starts all over again (Game Time 16:40). Orange responded by pumping more mutas and the hunter and the prey role is reversed again (Game Time 16:46). Its like watching a corsair-muta tug-of-war (Truly micro micro micro ....).



At the end of the day, Kratos smiled on Orange as this was a numbers game. While Yellow successfully countered the air and pressured Orange's supply, this puts a constraint in its ground force since he had no expansion. Slowly but surely, every hunting trip by Yellow slightly ends with Orange in a more favourable "numbers" advantage. Finally, the hammer stikes when4-5 squads of Orange's zerglings went for a direct frontal assault against Yellow's ramp, defended by a Templar and several zealots (Game Time 17:24).



Author’s Note:
One corsair to another “Wanna go hunting ?, that fat flying cow-shaped ugly sag of meat with tentacles look easy !!”

Chronicles of Kratos 01 - The Offensive Defense

Kratos might be the main character in GOW series but the Greek mythology figure is what is of interest. Take a look at this description from wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cratos

“In Greek mythology, Kratos ("strength") was a son of Styx and Pallas, brother of Nike, Bia and Zelus. He was the personification of strength and power. Kratos and his siblings were all companions of Zeus.”

In simple words, when one mentions Kratos, it simply means “I am power ”. This game will tell it all, briefly, we have Team 1 (Yellow Terran-Akira at the top left and White Terran-Kratos at the bottom right) while for Team 2, we have (Blue Zerg-Raz on the bottom left and Orange Toss at the top right).

Early into the game (Game Time 4:05), Orange Toss and Blue Zerg went for a quickie rush trying to penetrate Yellow’s base. What follows is Blue and Orange cheap tactics of ganging up on one work and the ramp has been opened. From this point onwards, it’s Kratos’s offensive defense or a.k.a. OD (not overdose). Kratos quickly began production of vultures the moment his ally fell in battle.



The Orange Toss thinks he could break the ramp so he went all the way in. However, Kratos knows best and sent five vultures to slowly decimate the Toss (Game 6:45). Naturally, Orange wasted his troops, thus leaving Blue to penetrate the ramp by himself. Once again Kratos says let them come, let them talk to my vultures (Game Time 8:33) and more casualties for blue.



Once bitten, twice shy, Orange and Blue decides to tech-up and build, however, once again, Kratos knows best, strike when the iron is hot (Game Time 10:32), or the start of his OD plan. With a squad of vultures, they ravaged the hatchery while Orange and Blue who have not tech-up watch helplessly.

Orange sent 3 DTs but it’s like trying to outrun a car on foot and eventually sacrifice his DTs to prevent more mine-laying (Game Time 12:02). With the hit-and-run and mining, Kratos achieved his greatest resource in the game, “time”, sufficiently enough to have an expansion while denying the Orange and Blue expansions, given their paranoia of walking in a minefield.



We shall fast forward to (Game Time 15:35) where Kratos upped his OD plan by camping outside Orange’s expansion and then attempting to attack Blue’s expansion (Game Time 19.23). Given such a predicament, as Orange lack the resources to mount any air offense to break-out, Orange simply message blue “You dropping rite?” and decides to camp and hopes blue saves the day.



Blue’s response (another Kratos or Zeus himself, more to be revealed in time) was “Let them camp all they like” and proceeds to muta (take out turrets) and hydra-drop (eliminate ground troops) simultaneously at the weakest part of White’s OD plan, a lightly defended HQ (Game Time 20:03). This is truly battle of the titans and Kratos decides to call it a day. Hence, one would expect to fall back and camp when his ally KO’ed early in the game, but to go on OD on 2 expansions and fight a two-front war is truly “power”, or simply put "I AM KRATOS !!".

PS: Eligibility for being a Kratos disciple requires a sacrifice. More will be revealed as the author finds out more on how to apply to be a Kratos apprentice