Grayfox (Gold Protoss) vs Jimbo (Silver Protoss)Game 1: Ruins of Tarsonis (Jimbo’s Home Map) http://drop.sc/339112» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «
Jimbo spawns at the 11 o’clock position while Grayfox is at the 5 o’clock position.
Jimbo surprisingly builds a pylon at 7 supply, then goes 9 gateway then 13 gas. Weird build, but I hope he has a plan with this.
Grayfox goes standard 9 pylon 13 gateway with a double gas by 17 supply. Looks similar to Liquid’Hero’s 1 base build. But he fails to make the cybercore once the gateway finishes. Grayfox’s mistiming allows Jimbo to get an earlier cybercore and thus, an earlier warpgate upgrade.
Grayfox has 100% energy on his nexus and misses opportunities to chrono his warpgate upgrade. He starts his robo and gets twilight council shortly.
Jimbo doesn’t get any tech, and simply gets a 2nd gateway, a forge and takes the 1 o’clock base, and a 3rd gateway shortly.
Grayfox finally uses his chronos to get a 4 stalkers out quick and used a chrono once on the nexus. He also gets blink, then takes the 7 o’clock base. His small stalker/zealot force moves out towards Jimbo’s ramp and places a proxy pylon for warp-ins. The blink upgrade is more than halfway through.
Grayfox pushes up the ramp, loses a couple of zealots and a stalker. Jimbo throws a couple of forcefields and loses only 1 zealot. Grayfox pulls back, not wanting any more of his forces to get caught by the forcefields. Grayfox pokes one last time, but pulls back again because he’s clearly outgunned. He doesn’t use his blink even once.
Jimbo kills the proxy pylon and is now ahead in probe count, 31 to 25.
Grayfox starts his Dark Shrine while Jimbo starts his Robo. Grayfox warps in 4 DTs. Fortunately for Jimbo, he sees the DTs move into his base and his observer finishing shortly. The DTs focus on the nexus, but only manages to kill its shields and around 50% hull damage. Grayfox is now behind 30 supply.
Jimbo wisely places cannons on his ramp to prevent future DT run-bys.
Grayfox goes triple forge to upgrade +1 ground weapons, armor and shield all at the same time. He also starts charge upgrade for zealots and a warp prism which he will bring towards the back of Jimbo’s weakened 2nd nexus. He also starts his 3rd base at 8 o’clock position.
Jimbo luckily has made 1 cannon near his damaged nexus and starts his 3rd at the 10 o’clock position.
Grayfox adds 4 more gateways and his warp prism barely misses the cannon and manages to warp in 9 zealots that finally take down Jimbo’s damaged nexus. Not a very big victory though, as he lost all 9 zealots and is now down 55 supply and 13 probes behind in economy.
Jimbo moves ahead in tech, making a colossus, immortals and void rays while Grayfox has 13 stalkers and 5 archons. Grayfox is ahead in upgrades (+2/2/2 vs Jimbo’s +1/1/0).
22 minutes, Jimbo moves his stalker/immortal/sentry force out towards Grayfox’s 3rd base at the 8 o’clock position but only manages to kill a couple of cannons. Jimbo pulls back but runs into Grayfox’s 16 stalkers and 10 archons. Jimbo gets decimated and Grayfox almost pulls equal in supply.
Grayfox pushes towards Jimbo’s base at the 10 o’clock position. Jimbo has a handful of cannons and positions his voidrays to defend and reinforce. Grayfox does manage to kill off the 10 o’clock nexus but he is still down 30 supply.
Grayfox takes a 5th base while Jimbo rebuilds his 3rd. Grayfox is now at +3/3/3 ground compared to Jimbo’s +1/1/1. Grayfox makes more archons, while Jimbo makes more Void Rays. Jimbo fails to relocate his idle probes from the main base to another mining base.
Grayfox warps in a round of stalkers and pulls almost even in supply with Jimbo.
Jimbo pokes in with a small force and sees Grayfox’s 5th base. Jimbo pulls back and warps in a round of stalkers to max out. Grayfox warps in a number of zealots on Jimbo’s 2 o’clock base to destroy it and also kills 20 probes in the process. He loses only 1 zealot to Jimbo’s void rays then pulls back.
Grayfox wisely moves his stalker/archon force towards Jimbo’s 10 o’clock base, destroys the nexus and kills all 25 probes. Jimbo does not make any attempt to defend the 10 o’clock base. Grayfox sends his zealots towards Jimbo’s ramp and destroys all the cannons. Jimbo does not remake the 10 and 2 o’clock bases even though he has more than enough minerals to do so.
With no mining bases, Jimbo pokes towards Grayfox’s 8 o’clock base and sees the archons. Jimbo pulls back and pokes the 5th base and sees a lot of cannons. He pulls back towards the middle of the map but finally runs into Grayfox’s deathball.
Grayfox’s upgrade advantage and unit composition is just better than Jimbo’s stalker/void ray. Jimbo loses 100 supply in a mere 21 seconds.
GG. Grayfox wins.
What Jimbo could have done better:
Upgrades. Despite being up in supply and economy for a good part of the game, Jimbo couldn’t match Grayfox upgrade-wise.
Unit Composition. Voidrays do not do well against Archons simply because Archons are not considered “armored” units, thus, the “+4 vs Armored” damage bonus will not kick in. However, Voidrays do 20% bonus damage to massive units, which an Archon is, but this only translates to an additional 2 damage, not much help.
What Grayfox did well:
Upgrades. Going triple forge helped him a lot despite being down in supply for most of the game.
Unit Composition. His early game composition of BlinkStalker/Zealot didn’t work well against Jimbo’s Stalker/Sentry to the point that using the blink may have actually worked against Grayfox. His transition to Archon really worked wonders going to the late game.
Expand. It’s a no brainer actually. No player could survive the midgame if he does not expand constantly. Tier 3 units need copious amounts of gas, and 6 geysers just isn’t enough.
So how do you beat Grayfox’s Stalker/Archon? To start, you have to be even in upgrades because Archons do 34 damage and Stalkers do 13 at +3 attack upgrades. Void ray is not a good choice against Stalker/Archon because it only does 11 damage at Stage 2 and +3 air attack upgrade. Do note that Void Rays will require the air attack upgrade which is an extra investment on top of the ground attack upgrade. Including the stalkers, a better choice would be a combination of Immortals and Colossi, because:
Immortals do 26 damage at +3 upgrades, and does +39 bonus damage against stalkers (because stalkers are considered “Armored”. Also, the Immortal’s 100-point Hardened Shield reduces all damage (greater than 10) inflicted on the shields is reduced to 10. Both the Stalker’s 17 damage (including +4 vs Armored bonus) and the archon’s 34 damage is reduced to 10 until the Immortal’s shield is broken. Also, Grayfox does not have Zealots which work well against Immortals.
Colossi do 42 damage, and with 9 range, they will do damage to the Archons from distance, and could hit multiple Archons if clumped.
But of course, it’s not enough to just 1-A this Stalker/Immortal/Colossus/Mothership composition against the Stalker/Archon ball. I would have the Immortals in front, followed by the Stalkers, then the Colossi. The Mothership throws a vortex to reduce the Grayfox’s unit count actively engaging. A good concave will help greatly. Another way to engage is to have the Mothership go to the opponent’s main base, then recall all the units. When Grayfox turns back to defend, throw a vortex on the units to reduce the enemy unit count.
Jimbo made 22 Void Rays in total, investing 5500 minerals, 3300 gas, add to that the 100/100 for the +1 air attack upgrade and the 450/450 for the 3 Stargates. These resources could have gone to:
1 Mothership = 400 minerals, 400 gas (Jimbo already had made a Fleet Beacon at the 30 minute mark)
10 Immortals = 2500 minerals, 1000 gas
9 Colossi = 2700 minerals, 2200 gas (and Extended Thermal Lance upgrade 200 minerals and 200 gas)
And 2 more Robotics Facilities at (200 minerals and 100 gas each) for faster production
Total cost: 6050/3850 (for mass Void Rays) vs 6200/4000 (for Immortal/Colossus/Mothership)
You may ask, “But what about the supply?” It’s covered. At 31 minutes, Jimbo had 20 void rays and was at 162/200 supply. Remove the 60 void ray supply, that gives us 102 supply. Add back 9 immortals (he already had 1 immortal), that gives 138 supply, then 54 supply goes to Colossi, and the last 8 goes to the Mothership and you’re maxed out.
Also, “Would Jimbo have had the time to make all those units?” I think yes, if he had 4 robotics facilities, he might have pulled it off.
Game 2: Cloud Kingdom (Grayfox’s Home Map) http://drop.sc/339113» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «
Jimbo spawns bottom left while Grayfox spawns top right.
Both players open similarly as the last game. Now it’s clear to me that Grayfox is saving his chrono energy to get stalkers out quickly, purposely not boosting his warpgate upgrade or getting faster probes.
Grayfox pushes out with his 5 stalkers and 2 zealots. Jimbo only has 2 zealots and a stalker and a sentry. Grayfox could win this game this early.
Grayfox destroys Jimbo’s units and appears to have already won. But he doesn’t go up the ramp before Jimbo starts a cannon and a robo.
Grayfox starts his natural base, and runs up Jimbo’s ramp anyway, focusing on the cannon first, then the sentry, then everything else. Grayfox micros his stalkers nicely, focusing on units, bringing the weak ones behind the ones with full health.
Grayfox manages to destroy Jimbo’s cybercore but pulls back even though he is still up 7 stalkers to Jimbo’s 3 stalkers and 1 zealot. Grayfox could have already ended this game if he didn’t pull back. Grayfox pokes up again, and destroys a pylon then retreats back to his proxied pylon.
Grayfox goes triple forge and Twilight council while Jimbo rebuilds his cybercore then makes a couple of Immortals and makes a stargate for void rays. Jimbo also gets a robotics bay for Collosi.
Grayfox secures a third after poking and confirming that Jimbo has not even started his natural base.
19th minute, Jimbo’s main is mined out and he’s 40 supply behind. Jimbo’s observer sees Grayfox’s zealot/stalker/archon force but builds his natural nexus anyway.
Grayfox sacrifices a zealot but doesn’t realize how much stronger his force is compared to Jimbo’s, in addition to how much ahead he is. He could have ended the game now.
Grayfox pulls back and secures a 4th base while he is 70 supply ahead. Grayfox also moves a warp prism at the back of Jimbo’s main and warps in 12 zealots. He initially focuses on the nexus but refocuses on the stargate.
The initial 12 zealots manage to destroy the stargate. Grayfox decides to warp in 12 zealots more and focus on the Colossus. The Colossus miraculously survives with 2 HP. This could have been a good time for Jimbo to start his 3rd base.
Not a good tradeoff for Grayfox, losing 24 zealots and a warp prism (2600 minerals) for 1 stargate (150 minerals and 150 gas). Grayfox is still up 60 supply and has 3 mining bases compared to Jimbo’s 1 (his natural base).
Grayfox maxes out on a zealot/archon/stalker force and takes the top left base while moving out. Jimbo sees this fearsome force, but makes his 3rd base anyway. Luckily for Jimbo, Grayfox falls back.
Nothing happens between the 30th and the 33rd minute until Grayfox decides to poke into the third. Jimbo’s force melts away, Grayfox pulls back for a short time to warp in a round of stalkers before finally pushing into Jimbo’s natural base.
GG. Grayfox wins the series.
There’s nothing in particular that we need to highlight in this 2nd game. Both players played similarly on both games. But let’s talk about one aspect of game sense, which is knowing when you are behind, knowing when you are ahead, and most especially, knowing when you are ahead enough to overwhelm your enemy with what you currently have.
Most of us may have heard Artosis’ favorite saying: “When you are ahead, get even more ahead”. Grayfox did a lot of this in both his games against Jimbo, for example, when he pulls back to warp in a round of units before hitting again.
But actually, Grayfox could have ended it at the 10th minute. Or at the 21st minute. Or at the 30th minute.
Game sense is far easier now compared to Brood War. In StarCraft 2, all you need to look at is the in-game clock. You just have to have some mental cues to gauge how ahead or behind you are.
As a Zerg, here are some of my own mental cues in any match up:
- If I don’t have my 3rd base by the 9th minute, I’m behind. Conversely, if my opponent doesn’t have a 3rd base by the 9th minute, and I do, then I’m ahead, but he may be gearing up for a 2-base all-in, so I have to sacrifice an overseer to check.
- If I don’t start Hive by 16 minutes, I’m behind.
- If I don’t have +3/3 upgrades by 18 minutes, I’m screwed.
- I just mined out my main base, this would also mean that my opponent has mined out his main, and should have at least 3 bases and possibly making a 4th.
So you just have to figure out things that work for you.
This post has been edited by EnTaroAdun23: May 30 2013, 11:22 PM