My Brief Romance with Protoss

Coming Clean

Haven't posted in a while and that is because I was engaging in a secret relationship with Protoss. After a particularly grueling spat with Terran (detailed below), I decided we were through! It was time to try something new! This is my confession...

If you can't beat them...

...join them, right? Many of you reading are going to go, "What? You have trouble beating Protoss as Terran? What are you, a noob?!" To which I will politely respond, "Yes I am!" After suffering yet another loss to a Protoss Deathball (Archon/Colossi/Zealot/Stalker/High Templar), I decided it might be time to give in. I harassed, attacked, dropped, split units, teched and did everything I knew how to do and simply couldn't seem to break through the Protoss. I had tasted the power of the First Born and it was time to give in. 

So, I've been playing Protoss for about a week and guess what I discovered last night! I discovered that I really don't like the Protoss. I love them from a lore and visual perspective (they have some very awesome looking units), but I simply don't like the way they handle. The ability to build units with one Probe is pretty nifty and I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy Force Field and Graviton Beam but when it comes down to it, the Protoss don't have Siege Tanks or Ghosts. 

The break up...

After my brief (and now, not-so-secret) affair with Protoss, I decided to play Terran again just before finishing for the night yesterday. I found myself locked into a 30 minute TvT against a Platinum player (I'm still Silver). The game opened with me deciding to take a 1 Barracks, fast expansion build while my opponent stayed on one base and teched into 1-1-1. (1 Barracks, 1 Factory, 1 Starport). I quickly took both gas after my natural Command Center was down and dropped a Factory as soon as I could. I scanned my opponent in time to see him preparing for a drop and positioned my (two) tanks in my main to gun down his forces as they dropped (I had lined a few turrets around my minerals and upper edge of the base so he could only really (safely) drop in one area). After repelling his drop with minor damage, I decided to counter drop with a couple tanks of my own. I managed to kill a couple of SCVs and a few Marines before he destroyed my drop. 

I then decided to drop again, this time at his natural expansion (which he had built up after his first drop). I managed to kill quite a few SCVs but the drop was ultimately repelled. Looking back, I don't think either drop was a very good return for me. Finally, I dropped a third time in his main with a few Marines, upgraded Hellions (blue flame) and tanks. I killed most of his Marines and a good portion of his SCVs before he managed to beat me back (finally, a good trade!). At this point, I had built a third base and was preparing to take a fourth as I moved across the map with my superior force of tanks and Vikings. I quickly destroyed the third base that he had established and set up a small contain. 

After a few minutes of being contained, my opponent decided it was time to bust out of prison and sacrificed the lives of countless Marines to beat back my tank wall. It was at this point that I realized...I had 13,000 minerals!!! I couldn't believe it, what was I doing?! That's way too much money, I could have crushed this guy if I was putting that money to use! UGH!!!

Panic Mode: Engaged

So, at this point I started panicking. Here I was completely in control of the game and I stopped spending and now look at me! He's literally banging on the front door!!! So I quickly built five more factories, three more starports and a fusion core. Tanks, Thors, Battlecruisers and Vikings - GO! After a few very explosive exchanges in the middle of the map, I broke through his contain with a line of Thors, four Battlecruisers and about fifteen Siege Tanks. I destroyed his third base (again) while taking my fifth and sixth. I then moved up and set up an offensive siege of his natural. After destroying his mass of Marines, he left without saying "gg." 

I think I made too many...

I watched the replay to find out exactly when and where my money got out of hand. It was basically right as I took my third, I didn't build any extra production facilities and so my money started building up. Since I was winning, I didn't really think about the fact that I might need more units at some point in the game. Of course, the fact that I had built ninety-three SCVs might have also contributed to it. Yes, 93. Almost half of my maxed out supply was in SCVs. I'm pretty sure that's a lot more SCVs than I needed. 

What I learned..

Losing consistently to something doesn't mean you give up, it means that you adjust your play style to try and overcome the obstacle. 

Building 100 SCVs is WAY too many, you only need about 18 SCVs for each base to mine minerals and 6 for gas. 

Just because you're winning doesn't mean you stop spending, always assume you're going to need more units and need them quickly.