Tech Trumps All: A Comparison of Eldar and Tau

Somehow, our group had ignored the Eldar for a long time; I was naturally a little familiar with the lore and idea beyond the Space-Elves, and I had glanced through their codex, but been put off with their standard troop choice wielding S4 AP5 18" weapons (coming as a Tau player, this seems inexcusably bad for a shooty army).

However, it had been quite a while since I had tried out a new army, and a discussion with Max reminded me how they were supposed to be a shooty army, and thus I decided to give the Elfdar another chance and give the codex a full and close reading. As you can suspect from me writing an entire blog post on this, I was happily surprised.

We're Gonna Need A Lot of Wine Barrels: The Problem of Cheese

Ah, cheese. It can mean a great many things, depending on the context, ranging from a popular overpowered choice in a game, a risky early game choice, or just using something that's incredibly annoying. In any game that involves strategy & choices, whether's it's Warhammer 40k or SC2, accusations of cheese and cheese use are abound. It's always a question; if it works, why not use it? Does it cheapen the win to know you're using something "overpowered," or is it simply stupid not to use what the game gives you (although this idea treads dangerously to the Dark Side of glitch abuse).

It's an interesting question, and I'm afraid I can't give you any answers, but I can provide some (hopefully ) hilarious examples. You see, I've always been mostly against cheese, except in specific situations. For instance, 2 common "cheeses" of the Protoss army in SC2 are the cannon rush and Void Rays. The former is the kind of "risky early game strategy" kind of cheese, while the "Cheese Rays" are more the type of thing often considering overpowered (OP). I'd never been a fan of the cannon rush, the only time I've employed it was to annoy Aaron (and it only worked once out of the two times I've used it). On the other hand, I like Void Rays, but recently I've been trying to avoid them in order to a) not be so predictable and b) improve the number of options I can bring to the table in a game.

However, this was all to change.

Starcraft 2: A Children's Story, Part 3: Of Tactics Large and Small

Three races, three men, one team. Rome, Aaron and I banded together for an epic night of Starcraft 2-ing, and although 2 of the more memorable games were when Rome dropped, I now present to you the second of 3 parables designed to inspire young minds to greatness. And by that I mean there's going to be lots of pictures.


After Aaron left us for the night, Rome and I decided to try a ranked 2v2 match. All seemed well and good, except Rome dropped 2:21 minutes in. Still hearing Aaron's voice in my head to believe in him that believes in him, and because I wanted to try out the early Void Ray rush strategy, I decided to try and play anyway, controlling both Rome and my own units, despite knowing nothing about the Terran tech tree. Rome's advice? Just spam Marines.

Rome drops and we all offer our condolences.

What to do, what to do... well, those barracks there looks good. All unspent crystal goes into Marines and Supply Depots to feed them.

Meanwhile, all my base has been doing period is harvesting Vespene like a madman and maxing out two Starports to build Void Rays. I get about 6, then decide to launch the offensive

The surprise Rays catch the bottom player completely off guard (Blaykakudori) and I proceed to wipe out his entire base.

Meanwhile, his small Reaper force sits there, unsure of what to do and impotent against air units. This will be important later.

While I'm busy annihilating his companion, top player wisely starts mass producing missile turrets, which at the time I can't see.

I find the small force, my Ray explodes the one Marauder and the rest of the Reapers take flight and fleeeeeee.

A couple reinforcement Rays arrive, and I attack the upper base to find a line of towers. Nooooo. Some of my rays go down.

However, enough survive to get fully charged, and then the missile turrets cease to be a problem.

Pew pew.

Meanwhile, the Reapers arrive and find a lonely supply depot they decide to attack. I don't think they can see any farther.

"Oh man, killing these supply depots is easy. Oh hey, wait, what's that in the distance?"

"OH EMPEROR WHERE DID THEY ALL COME FROM" And thus ends the saga of the Reapers.

Having stripped the defenses, the Void Rays (reinforced for the 3rd time) wreck their trademark havoc on the base.

Good end!

So despite my lack of faith in myself, all I had to do was believe in me who believes in Aaron who believes in himself. I can't say I two managed two bases super well, but it did end up working. I'm also proud to say my APM shot from about the usual low 30s up about 44, which while still a far cry from Aaron's average of like 80, is a noticable improvement. I've also since this game become a large, large fan of the "Cheese" Rays and Carrier combo and have used it to large effect in a number of games. I feel like in general in a two player match having one teammate go lots of tier 1 and the other mass tier 2/3 units can be good as long as you don't get rushed by both enemies. In any case, I've found that I do well as Protoss, but only if I have good teammates covering for me during the initial phases of the game (Luckily Aaron and Rome fit that description more than adequately). But for now, I hope you enjoyed this trilogy, and expect something that's not SC2 next time (maybe).


-HTMC

Starcraft 2: A Children's Story, Part 2: Of Airships Great and Small

Three races, three men, one team. Rome, Aaron and I banded together for an epic night of Starcraft 2-ing, and although 2 of the more memorable games were when Rome dropped, I now present to you the second of 3 parables designed to inspire young minds to greatness. And by that I mean there's going to be lots of pictures.


We began a game, but about 10 minutes in Rome's copy crashed. I thought all was lost, but Aaron told me not to believe in me, or believe in him, but to believe in the him that believes in... him. Anyway, I persisted, took screenshots, and I present you the following parable (Warning: lots of pictures).

Early on in the game I am struck by a number of opposing Void Rays, who smash my base. Luckily I have a second one up, and hey, I still have two functioning teammates, right?

Oh no wait, Rome dropped. Despair sets in, children, but the brave Aaron tells us to hold our chin high and believe! 

I believe, but that doesn't stop my rebuilt 1st base from getting hit... again. Just as I was about to construct defenses, too. Luckily I still have the second base. Remember children, learn from your mistakes or your opponents are doomed to repeat them on you.

Even if you do adjust, your enemies are wily and crafty. They will improve and continue to harass you.

Fortunately, I have begun to catch up, although obviously still a bit behind. But now I challenge their carriers with my own void rays!

Fire, void rays, fires! Yours will be the ray that pierces the carriers!

No void rays! Don't give up! Believe in yourself!

You can do this!

C'MON!

Ok, you can't do it, but you got close. And anyway, I am no longer one step behind. Carrier has arrived! Enemy proceeds to go boom. 

Meanwhile, children, it is important to keep production up. By this point I have 2 expansions, a fully functioning primary base, ad 6 starports continuously pumping out ships and other buildings researching upgrades. 

Wait a few minutes, and eventually you get this. This, children, is called playing your opponent's game better than he does.

Due to poor micromanagement, the Void Rays rush ahead. It's ok, though, they got this. Totally guys.

Oh no where did all those battleships come from??

Oh Emperor the pain!!

Never fear, my small flying brethren! CARRIER HAS ARRIVED.

All the lasers go pew pew pew!

Line of siege tanks? Blocking my ally? I don't think so!

Reveeeennnggeeeeeee

Regroup! I mention how the previously (trash) talkative enemies have suddenly stopped talking.

They agree

Together again at last, the xenos horde does what it does best: Blast the Imperium.

All's well that ends well! Remember, children, the key to victory is to do whatever the enemy does better than they do. And also learn a couple new nifty strategies.

So yes, overall Aaron and I managed to succeed against 3 despite having lost Rome's talent, which surprised me at best. Also, obviously both of these past accounts have focused mainly on my doings, which leaves out what Aaron is doing the entire time till we meet up (which is usually a lot). The early void ray hampering was incredibly effective against me when my opponent employed it, which made me curious whether I could pull it off? Could I? Tune in tomorrow to find out.


-HTMC

Starcraft 2: A Children's Trilogy, Part 1: Of Robots Great and Small

Three races, three men, one team. Rome, Aaron and I banded together for an epic night of Starcraft 2-ing, and although 2 of the more memorable games were when Rome dropped, I now present to you the first of 3 parables designed to inspire young minds to greatness. And by that I mean there's going to be lots of pictures. But to begin with, the first short story, in which early in the game Aaron recon'd that the enemy was massing carriers and foot soldiers. Protoss counter? Colossi and Stalkers.

This, children, is the Colossus. When sent to an unprotected base, they wreck havoc untold. Fun times for everyone!

When the opponents fail to learn from their first mistake, the only thing to do is repeat the lesson. Base #2 = dust.

Meanwhile, back at the old farm, the counter-strike force continues to mass, as the fatherly Colossi tend to their smaller Stalker brethren. This is how you should get along, children.

In order to reach objectives, namely the enemy base, sometimes obstacles must be overcome. This is best achieved by teamwork, children.

While this was going on, having a teammate who has been similarly massing units can be a great boon. Find and keep treasured allies like this, children. And while the enemy is distracted...

Strike with everything you have! Wipe your enemies from the face of the planet! Show them no mercy, for you shall receive none!

Thus the shiny robots and their terrible xenos brethren triumphed over the enemies, all because of synergy and teamwork, and lots of lasers. Check back tomorrow and the day afterwards for more stories, and sleep well.

-HTMC

Starhammer 20k: Initial Impressions

Thanks to Aaron's generous gift of a 7-hour guest pass, I today finally got to try out Starcraft 2, and after a handful 6 hours of games as the Eldar Space-elves Protoss, Aaron as the Tyranids Zerg, and his friend Brandan playing the uncountable Imperial Guard Manspam Terrans, I feel like I have enough to comment on.

First off, my relationships with RTSs is somewhat odd. I'm always a big fan of single player campaigns, but my ability in regards to multiplayer has always been somewhat lacking. I'm usually fine on the macro side of things, but when it comes to managing units closely (especially abilities) we start to get difficulties, to the point where I'll buy a universal upgrade or passive upgrade over an active upgrade every single time, because I know I'll always forget to use them. In addition, my play style has always been "wall in and wait until I can build enough big units to hit cap." Multiplayer doesn't usually support this, and the only time I've had any success period online was playing team matches on Company of Heroes, which is a bit easier due to more intelligent AI in terms of unit design (i.e. Oh hey, there's a unit over there firing at some of my allies, I think I'll keep just standing here). Thus on the whole I stick to things like FPSs for my multiplayer fixes.

With that said, I decided to try online with Aaron since I was promised to be playing with others, i.e. on a team. I did some research on how the game worked and/or differed from SC1, and some general intro game tips for playing the game and particular playing as Protoss, which I think later helped. I played one game Saturday night against two Easy AI with another on my team, just to familiarize myself with the units and buildings and tech tree.

Sunday was actually game day, and then I truly got to play some "real" SC2. Thankfully I had watched some videos on gameplay, so I wasn't surprised by what happened there or misunderstood what needed to be done. The first couple games against AI went well, and then we moved onto live opponent. We played quite a few games, and I'm happy to report that we won far more than we lost. I think my particular favorite deserves some screen caps. It was 3v3 and featured early on the opposing Protoss playing Cannon-spamming, actually forcing Aaron to abandon us, and kept me constantly the defensive as the space next to me, previously occupied by Aaron, was now full of enemies. Aaron somehow escaped and completely rebuilt, and never even got raided again. Maybe they forgot he existed?

"Oh hey look there a zerg base"

Oh wait nevermind, they just failed in general. Despite pushing up and keeping us on our toes (In the minimap I'm yellow, Aaron is purple, Brandon green, and the other colors bad guys) they never really pressed their advantage. Thus, Aaron, free to roam and and practice his trademark dickishness, decided to go hunting.

Aaron successfully wipes out most of Yellow's base with a well-timed Roach/Gargoyles(?) strike, completely wiping out his yellow base and shooting down his Metal Boxes as they flew, slowly, away.

But Aaron was not alone! As if connected through some kind of Brood Telepathy, without actually talking to one another, I had chosen that moment to launch an all out attack that killed all my units except three carriers at the cost of all  of Blue and Yellow's units at the top. 

But 3 Carriers was all I needed!

Defenseless, Yellow was hit at both his bases at the same time without any planning on our part. We're just that awesome.

Eventually with help from Brandon we swept through the last two players, and as you can see below, everything ended well, happy Xenos together at last.

Good End!

So yes, I discovered that in a team setting, my play style could actually be useful. Protoss excel towards the endgame, so with Brandon and Aaron there to keep me alive and harass the enemy at the beginning, I could actually be useful (And I helped!...  kind of). I also could tell playing consistently with a couple of excellent players helped my skills grow too, since I could see a large difference in how I was playing even a couple hours in. Another favorite moment was later at a different game, where I got raided early on, fought it off with help, and just kept chugging along with 3 bases alive and well. 10 minutes later, I hit unit cap with a large number of Colossi, Immortals, Carriers, and a platoon of Zealots, and marched by through all 3 enemy bases supported by the massive waves of the Imperial Guard Terrans. Good times. 

Obviously I still have a lot to learn and a lot more to improve upon (I'm just starting to get a hang of what counters what, how to recon properly, etc.) and I suspect SC2 online will be much like L4D/2, a game that I really only play with I have some teammates online as well. 

In terms of the game itself, I think I was slightly deceived by all the previews and reviews. There are lots of changes, sure, and plenty of new things, but as someone who played SC1 8ish years ago and hasn't touched it since, it feels exactly the same. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since it feels kind of throw-backish, but it definitely feels different than something like any of Relic's recent titles. But, as you can tell, I had a lot of fun and even tried a little of the campaign out. Enough fun, actually, that despite my numerous talks against buying it to various friends, I actually bought it >_<. I blame Aaron, as usual.

Anyway, more updates to come as gameplay continues.

-HTMC