I Should Have Lost…
By all rights, I should have lost the game of StarCraft I played this morning, a replay of which I saved (requires the Brood War extension to view). I started in the southwest corner, and within five minutes had two trenches dug at what I considered to be the most likely points of initial attack. Two minutes later, as predicted, a group of Marines supported by medics launched an attack on the eastern front where I had placed the most defenses. They were quickly dispatched, only slightly damaging my bunkers. I repaired them and then prepared for the next wave. Whether it was a mistake or not, I concentrated on building my second base rather than erecting a factory to build a defensive line of tanks. The game might have progressed easier if I had chosen differently.
Just after the 13-minute mark, another group of Marines supported by medics plus five tanks broke through the front just north of my original base, the tanks destroying everything in their path. In desperation, I sent all my SCVs mining minerals in the west over to destroy the tanks. They demolished one, but all were lost in the attempt. It took the tanks two minutes to destroy everything, stopped only by an unbunkered group of four Marines. Time to quickly rebuild.
Before I had time to build a factory, and just after re-creating my barracks, I was attacked at the 17-minute mark by a ghost with a nuke. So much for my eastern border! While still rebuilding my defenses, BLAAMM! Nuke number two! After building up this section for the third time, I managed to bring in two tanks to defend against the long-distance ghosts — just in time to avoid another nuke. Twenty-eight minutes into it, another nuke got me just outside my tanks’ range on the eastern border. Once again, rebuilt just in time for what turned out to be the computer’s final major two-wave assault on my borders.
The computer wasn’t smart enough to start mining unused mineral deposits just outside its main bases, even though it had absolutely no minerals left. Me, I would have sent out all my spare CSVs to bring back whatever minerals they could, sneaking them around any obstacles. I’ve even had SCVs go mining distant resources and flown them back in a transport ship to return the minerals to the closest base. The computer sat there for the rest of the game. If I’d known that I might not have built up two more colonies, but the cleanup went very smoothly. Considering how little of the map I possessed and the number of potential bases the computer could have had, I expected major attacks for the rest of the game. They never came.
Hey, it’s my vacation. I can spend it doing whatever I want!!
Don’t ya just hate that? Thay get you with a devastating attack and you spend the rest of the game worrying that they’re out there just waiting to get you again, building up your forces, getting nervous. And then it never comes. But enough about current events….
I think that it’s time that you found a real job.