I have a blind spire!

Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999

images from Blizzard's site Narrator: Josh Levenberg Human Players: Josh Levenberg (Random) and Jeff Robbins (Random) Computer Players: Protoss, Terran, Zerg, Random Version: Broodwar v 1.05 Map: River of Light, 128x128

On this map you only start with 5 crystal patches. When we first played, we both were playing Random: I got Protoss and Jeff got Terran. Jeff expanded very early and I expanded a bit later. Things were going pretty well until he got hit by dark templars. They did a fair bit of damage and slowed Jeff down a lot. I tried to help, but my only detectors were some photon cannons at my entrance. Well, then the real forces came and I held them off for a while with cannons and zealots, but then I or he got overrun, I can't remember (probably me, now that I think about it).



So we start the map over, and this time we both draw zerg. I'm thrilled since getting the expansion is critical with so few mineral patches. I'm at 9 o'clock, he's in the lower-right. We get expansions at about the same time, pretty early but not instantaneously. I make a critical mistake skipping the one right outside my base and get the mineral-only one a little bit farther up. I figure no problem: I need the minerals more than the gas since I need the sunkens, and this way I claim that expansion before the person above me gets it. I assumed it would be no problem getting the one between later.

Meanwhile I've sent my overlords to scout above and below me, both spots have Protoss. I'm merrily setting up sunken colonies at my expansion and even setting up a third hatchery at the expansion I had skipped when my overlord finds a marine. Its still pretty early but I don't have any defenses at my main base let alone the hatchery I'd just started. Well, I run my overlord to some high ground but then the marine joins up with two buddies and starts gunning down the hatchery I'm building. Unfortunately, since my first expansion is far away, my defenses there aren't going to protect my home. I'm frantically trying to set up some sunken colonies at my home base and fight off an attack at my expansion. At the last second, I cancel the hatchery. The peon dies, of course, but I've bought enough time to set up a couple of sunkens at home -- certainly enough to deal with the three marines. I was left with one very bloody sunken at my expansion, so I plow the 300 minerals I got from cancelling into more sunkens.

At this point, I'm continually making peons and sunkens. Wave after wave of attacks (mostly batches of 4-6 zealots, but hydras and marines too) tear down my sunkens as fast as I can build them. The tides finally turn when I get a few zerglings there to distract them before they attack the sunken colonies. I'm finally able to expand and build up a modest force of zerglings. Meanwhile Jeff has had no problems. His initial batch of sunken colonies at his expansion held against the initial attacks. He then added several more sunkens so the 3 zealots that were occationally thrown at him were no problem. He did report to me that he had a blind spire. I thought that was hilarious. He later explained that a couple of medics had made it past his defenses (presumably by continuously healing themselves). Right as he got around to killing them off, one of the medics throws an optic flare. It takes him awhile to realize that a drone was blinded. He thinks, "No problem, that drone was scheduled to make a building anyway. I'll make it into a spire." Lo and behold, the spire, once built, is blind!

Anyway, Jeff expanded to the island at 6 o'clock. I launch an attack or three against the Protoss above me. He never expanded so eventually he runs out of defenses, and I over run him. By now I have about 35 zerglings and want to attack the other Protoss so Jeff sends some Mutalisks to help attack. This protoss hasn't expanded either and he's essentially defenseless. While I'm tearing down buildings, the zerg and humans launch a large joint attack at my expansion. My six sunkens are not going to hold so I cry help and run my forces back home. Luckily, my sunkens buy me enough time and take a significant chunk out of the zerg and terrans. All in all, I lost 17 sunkens this game! After surviving that attack, all that remained was mop up. In fact, Jeff ended the game with 90 kills and only 1 loss.

Later research revealed you can build a blind version of any zerg building except extractors, infested command centers, and the second half of a nydus canal. You can also blind a larvae or an egg and the unit produced will be blind. Blind, parasited units only give one unit of vision to the zerg who did the parasiting. Blind hatcheries produce larvae that can see. Blind spore colonies are not detectors. You can not restore a building (or blind it for that matter) once it is built.

Connie asks: What if you blind one (dark) templar which then merges into a (dark) archon? Is the archon blind? Anyone want to check?

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