The Wrath of Pip

Two weeks. Two weeks without Starcraft because of his internet being accidentally disconnected from him. Pip had missed the cry of battle for the past two weeks due to some moron in the telecommunication industry had accidentally disconnected him off from the World Wide Web. What really ticked him was that they tried to cover up their mistakes. But now, through a little “persuasion”, the higher powers have decided to give him a little “upgrade” when he goes online to cover up for their mistakes.

As he entered into the hallowed channel of 419, he was greeted by 4 other Starcraft players – GAME, YC , Raz and Druggy. But an eerie and cold feeling began to overwhelm him. In his absence for the past two weeks, the members of 419 were plagued with spitefulness in their battles. Despite the cheerful greetings, the members of 419 had one thing in their mind: spitefulness. Yet, such thoughts did not bother him at all. If it was anything, what mattered to Pip was honor. It was good to see that while spitefulness reigned in 419, a glimmer of honor still remained.

The latency in the Internet connection of other members of 419 showed him that during his absence, they had gone lax. “ Yellow and red bars – are these people preparing for new year of something?” thought Pip. The lethargy of 419 members was subsequently confirmed when Druggy, the former map creator of 419, requested that Pip create the map. Perusing through his own training database, he found a map where he was familiar with: The Dream of Bahlea, a mutli-layered map with no ramps or entrances. What made this map unique was that players need to transport their troops to a lower level unless they plan to do battle in their own bases.

The game started off with an uneasy alliance between Pip and Raz, as Terrans, commanding the left half of the map while the maniacal GAME and evil YC as Protoss and Zerg in the other half. Seeing that both of his opponents are playing their strongest race, Pip thought that what was necessary to win this battle was not by physical brute force but by attrition. A true genius he is, Pip began to switch his normal gaming style – from pure melee troops to a mixture of melee and scientific troops. Such troops would, in the long run, provide Pip with an added advantage against an assortment of sorties.

It was no more than a few minutes into the game, Pip’s base was bombarded with 8 Zealots descending from their dropships. Pip hated the fact that he had to deal with someone coming from behind his base. Such an act was dishonourable and cowardly but still he had to give GAME credit for attempting such a move. But for some strange reason, Pip felt that GAME’s troops were moving so slowly. It must be due to the new connection that everything seem to move so slowly.

Swiftly adopting a defensive posture, Pip summoned his troops to form a wall so that his siege tanks may provide additional supporting fire. The marines and medics aimed madly towards the crazed zealots bringing two of them down before falling down. Yet, all was not lost-the siege tanks manage to take out four more zealots. The remaining two zealots made a mad dash for the SCVs mining. To the Zealots horror, the SCVs stopped mining and charged towards them. Armed with their precision cutters, the SCV sliced through the Zealots through sheer brute strength alone.

As he breath a sigh of relief, another dropship slowly appeared at Pip’s base. However, this time it was different.

The dropship began unloading dragoons – GAME must have anticipated that Pip would have teched straight to tanks to counter against any further troops. Little did GAME knew that he was not just dealing with tanks, but SCVs as well. The dragoons, like the last two zealots moved closer towards the mineral patch only to find SCVs charging towards them instead of running away. Needless to say, all that remained in the battle field shortly were dragoon remains.

The UnHoly Alliance – Pip and The Defender of the Universe

Meanwhile, Raz was dealing with his own problems. YC was dropping off tons of zerglings into his base and causing mishaps towards his natural expansions. “Argh...” struggled Raz. The might of YC as a Zerg player was truly strong – it is no wonder that he was the King of Zerg for 419. Raz had earlier dropped unsuccessfully a few Vulture bikes at YC’s base only to have them destroyed through overwhelming number of Zerglings. In his usual self, YC had laughed at Raz’s failed attempts of attacking him at his strongest.

However, the laughter was short lived when a couple of Terran dropships bearing the insignia of Pip’s began dropping tanks and marines. Carefully placing siege encampments in a quadrant like position, the troops began to siege YC, crippling him temporarily. It was only until a huge sacrificial amount of zerglings that Pip’s shock troopers were brought down.

“Thanks.” typed Raz.

“No problem. Maybe you can help me out with GAME then” replied Pip. Within the snap-trap mind of Pip, there were two reasons why he needed to rescue Raz. Firstly, Raz’s incredible macro skills with his ground troops proved to be a formidable force against any ground force regardless of what troops they were confronted with. Secondly, it was very difficult to land towards GAME’s base as there were anti-air cannons and troops waiting for his troops the moment they land-it was a fool’s choice to drop at GAME’s base. Seeing that his troops needed additional support fire and flexibility over the steep terrain of Bahlae, Raz realised that such an alliance would be beneficial to both parties. Pip’s nimble and mobile force would be a perfect addition to Raz’s force. But what made the Alliance really interesting was the fact that Pip had some big big Battle Cruisers.

Albeit the differences in game play and tactics, the troops of Raz and Pip slowly began to gather at the Centre of the Dream. Vultures bikes deployed spider mines to prevent anything from disturbing the meeting of this two great forces. True enough, YC was waiting for Pip and Raz for revenge over what they did to his base. YC’s main economy was all but lost and the remaining auxillary bases had some slight problems in terms of producing troops. YC’s ally, GAME, had troubles on his own also. The Protoss had some slight mobility issues when it came to a multi-layered map like Bahlea. Only two troops were able to transport them to a different level of the map: The Shuttle and the Arbiter. The trouble was that the Shuttle could only load very few troops while the Arbiter required energy to transport it troops. GAME was practically a prison in his own base.

Hoping that a variety of troops would provide some sort of resistance against Pip and Raz, YC crossed his fingers that GAME would bring as much as possible troops to the place of confrontation.

Scurrying all remaining zerglings to his command and morphing all available troops to higher level units, YC began to carry out a suicide attack against the forces of Pip and Raz. Needless to say, the combined might of Pip and Raz proved to be too formidable. YC’s troops were slaughtered and did not even know what hit them until it was too late.

GAME’s reinforcement arrived a little too late to leap into the battle fray as Raz’s tanks took out any remaining ground infantry easily. The additional meat shields provided by the Battle Cruisers absorbed most of the puny damage that was inflicted towards them while the tanks and vultures finished off any remaining ground force.

Special Mention – GAME, The Micro Assassin

Anyone looking down on GAME’s micro ought to be shot. Amidst the havoc of sieging laid down by Raz and Pip, GAME had finally revealed his favourite play – the Dark Templar assassin. Prior to Raz and Pip expanding, GAME had secretly hid a few Dark Templars at the natural expansions of Pip and Raz. Such a bold move was never anticipated by Pip and Raz as they kept on sending SCVs to establish a new base – only to find them dead minutes later.

But what made GAME’s game play shine were not the assassination of SCV’s, but the assassination of siege tanks and marines. Amidst the chaos of being sieged by Pip and Raz, GAME had manage to give an illusion that there were multiple DT’s attacking Pip and Raz when in truth, there was only one DT. By skilfully making critical hits (but not killing) the tanks and marines, a player would not really know that he was under attack by DT until ALL his troops are killed off in one strike. When Pip and Raz had realised this, it was already too late – nearly half of their troops were dead. A careful scan eventually revealed the DT, but the DT was soon replaced by another DT. As the cycle repeats, Pip and Raz eventually had to fall back as they ran out of com scans.

One begins to wonder how does GAME execute such a brilliant move under such conditions? Only a professional player would be able to execute such moves against TWO players. The swiftness combined with guile and stealth was truly a force to be reckoned with.

It was after 54 minutes into the game and Pip was nearly running out of minerals. All that remained in the attacking force was nothing more than a few SCVs and tanks and two dropships. In a last desperate attempt, Pip divided the remaining SCVs and tanks and loaded them off into the dropships. One shot – he had all but one shot. The dropship hastily made their way to their destination with Pip’s hope. “Pip Destroying Technique - SCV Tank Attack!” yelled Pip. As they descended upon their destination, the tanks began to siege and the SCVs began to attack. Never in the history of 419 did a player used his workers as an attacking force especially after a big game. It was an act of desperation for Pip. Such an act brought fear and shock to YC and GAME – the sight of troops covered with blood lusted eyes was enough to tell them that the battle was over.

As the last hatchery began to bleed to death – Pip felt triumphant. There can only be one reign in this map – His reign.

Drop Wars

As the Light has now taken away my PC, the nerfing up of Raz will have to wait. All the replays of Raz domineering 419 were all stored in the old PC so until the suppliers provide me with a new replacement, its back to the old and plain posts once again. But the loss of one PC does not stop the flow of evil in 419. Cruelty still prevails over 419 and it is up to me again to write this sad chapter of 419 – The Drop Wars.

The game started out as follows: YC (Brown Protoss at 4) Raz (Blue Protoss at 7) versus Pip (Yellow Zerg at 1) and Druggy (Red Terran at 11). The map tile set was none other than Andromeda 1.0, a map obtained out of Raz’s training database. No sooner than 1 minute in the game, YC pulled his first dirty tactic, allying Druggy. By allying Druggy, YC gained full sight of Druggy’s base allowing him to save the hassle of scouting. Innocently, YC apologised to Druggy on the pretext of always forgetting who his team mate was. Druggy, not certain of whether that this was a trick or an “accident”, grumbled, and brushed off YC’s apologies.

But Druggy’s misfortune did not stop there. Pip, his ally, suddenly realised that he had forgotten to block the ramp at his base. The sight of an open ramp was a dangerous one. Enemies such as the Protoss dark templars could slowly creep into the base and cause havoc. It was no later than three minutes of blocking his ramp, the sight of dread began to approach Pip. Two brown Corsairs immediately flew into his base and started attacking his poor unarmed Overlords. Fortunately, by this time, Pip had a few Hydras running to provide some flak against the Corsairs. Yet, a dark shadow was seen looming over Pip’s base. The sight of the Corsairs being turned away by the Hydralisks made the dark templar turned away from Pip’s base. “How evil! The KV tactic” yelled a spectator observing the match.

In the midst of the battle between Pip and YC, Raz had successfully manage to infiltrate Druggy’s base with his Observer. Once again, fog of war was no longer relevant in Starcraft. To make matters worse, Druggy had no idea that the Observer had opened exposed the blind spots in his base and defences. Meanwhile, back at Raz’s base, a Protoss shuttle was slowly loading up Reavers. “Druggy will never know what hit him” thought Raz. Watching professional Starcraft players against each other had helped Raz improved his game tremendously. Even the reigning champion of 419, GAME, has a hard time dealing with Raz now. “Research complete” the artificial AI informed Raz. The Protoss shuttle ship was now upgraded to travel faster. Aligning the Protoss Shuttle in a straight line, Raz manoeuvred the Protoss shuttle straight into Druggy’s base utilising the blind spots.

“Your base is under the attack!” prompted the Computer. Druggy immediately saw the Protoss dropship unloading two Reavers. But it was too late, the Reavers had already unleashed their Scarabs against the harmless and defenceless SCVs. The sight of the SCVs exploding in a straight line was akin to a heavy bombardier executing a series of carpet bombing. But in Starcraft, what was more damaging was the players economy. Druggy’s economy had already suffered a huge downturn due to the damage done by the Reavers. Recovery was only possible thanks to the help of a Siege Tank.

“Revenge. Dammit” thought Druggy. Nothing was more important now than getting revenge for those SCVs. Unloading his own Terran Dropships with marines and medics, Druggy began to scurry over his Dropships to the nearest available base: YC’s. But this was all leading to nothing but a great big trap set by YC. The sight of dropships did not bother YC at all. He had anticipated this miserable attempt of dropping for awhile already. The Observer in Druggy’s base had given all the information he needed. As the marines began to pour out of the dropships, the atmosphere became dark and uneasy. “Aaaa!” echoed the dying marines. “A psi-storm?” thought Druggy. But there was no High Templar at sight. Unknown to Druggy, YC had used the most forbidden technique in 419 ever. Psi-storming from a ledge. With only a handful of marines left to take out YC’s base, the marines scrambled to try and do as much damage as possible to YC’s base.

A sight of relief came for the marines though when a half of dozen Overlords began unloading Hydralisks on YC’s base. The Hydralisks began to attack everything at sight, destroying YC’s probes and finally the Nexus. Alas, victory was short lived when the forces of Raz arrived with Zealots and upgraded Dragoons. With the aid of YC’s high templar, the game was starting to look solid and sexy. “Aaaaa” more marines yelled. This time however, they were joined with the screams of Hydralisks. Blood flowed in the battlefield and what was left remaining in the battlefield were pools of blood. “Ouch That’s got to hurt” a spectator yelled.

“Gather up! It is time we take this battle to their base” yelled Raz. Cracking his knuckles, Raz began to type his instructions to YC. “Fall in line! Fall in line” Raz typed. Like a commander leading his troops, Raz slowly merged his forces with YC. Moving in unison, they moved towards Pip’s base slowly. “Send in a scout” yelled Raz. A small probe was sent in to check on the new battlefield. Scouting carefully, the probe began transmitting information over the battlefield to Raz and YC. Pip had carefully built sunken colonies all over the ramp. To charge blindly towards the ramp would be suicide. Worse, if Druggy were to siege them from the above, the casualties would be catastrophic. But Raz had a plan…

Raz knew that he would need some support fire to entrench his position but at the same time he would also need to be on guard against artillery siege from the above. Carefully selecting the scouting probe, Raz began to warp a Pylon and this was followed by several cannons. So far so good. To carefully counter against the unseen siege, an observer was despatched to provide line of sight against siege tanks at the upper ledges. It was all according to plan, no sooner than a few minutes of warping in the cannons, Raz charged. The sight was a blood bath. Hydralisks were busy blocking any attacking forces from coming in but it was all in vain. A psi-storm electrocuted the defenders leaving nothing but horrors and fear. Druggy failed to even loan his support to Pip as the observer had taken care of the tanks at the ledge. Eventually, Raz had to pull back for awhile to replenish his troops.

As Pip surveyed the remains of his base, a surprise awaited him. His workers were all gone as a result of a splash attack. Closer inspection by an Overlord revealed four high templars at a ledge below together with another observer providing line of sight. “Dammit. YC. “ he muttered. As the spitefulness began to cloud Pip’s mind, he began loading what was left of his own troops for one last attack. Like Raz’s observer, the overlords travelled in a straight line utilising the blind spots until they finally approached YC’s new expansion. Once again, the Hydralisk began to shoot with all their might, taking out the expansion and its probes. But once again, Raz’s troops leaped into the pray wiping out the remaining of Pip’s troops. “Mercy” Pip typed. “Mercy....” he typed again. The cry of mercy was soon heard by Raz and out of pity, Raz left what was remaining of Pip’s base and turned to the last of his enemies, Druggy.

Druggy too shocked to react, was busy placing siege-emplacements on his ramp. He had to defend his base until he can muster enough troops to launch a counter attack. The siege tanks were backed up by marines to provide an additional support fire – just in case the tanks weren’t enough. Suddenly, the ground shook.....

The SCV’s in Druggy’s base began to explode due to a psi-storm assault from the ledge below. “Dammit. Not again” thought Druggy. True enough, there were two High Templars at the ledge below. Laughing. But the assault did not stop there – Raz began to move in with his troops. With troops fully upgraded with speed, Raz added one special unit to soak the damage from the siege tanks – Archons.

Seeing that all was lost, Druggy had no choice but to click “Exit”.......