Starcraft AI blog

I thought these 2 games showed interesting mistakes.

Steamhammer-McRave

This game on Circuit Breaker was kind of disorganized on both sides, but fun. Steamhammer played its usual low econ zergling pressure, and McRave opened with cyber core before second gate, which was slow enough to give the pressure a chance. After a few tries, Steamhammer killed enough probes to make up for its own weak economy, and the game was on.

The fight went back and forth, the sides seeming about equal in economic growth, tech progress, and missteps. It was fun to watch.

Steamhammer: It’s only an overlord. No need to keep it safe. And that? Oh, it’s only another overlord.
McRave: Huh? Why wouldn’t I awkwardly split my army?

Then dark templar came out, and Steamhammer fell over. Zerg did not understand.

Steamhammer: What danger? I don’t see any protoss units that I can’t fight.
McRave: Exactly.

Steamhammer-KillAll

This game was a win but... ugh. Only because KillAll went above and beyond to play worse.

KillAll did its thing and sunkened up for safety. Steamhammer understands in outline how to win these games: Place zerglings in a containing position so the enemy can’t expand or attack, make drones while teching, then win with mutalisks. But (as against ZZZKBot in AIIDE) Steamhammer did not execute well. It placed the zerglings in a position that contained nothing, and in fact left the barn door wide open. Steamhammer even stepped back to let enemies pass, in reflexive fear of the distant sunkens.

Below you can see that Steamhammer is ahead in economy, tech, and army—yet Steamhammer is in trouble because its force is out of position, standing outside an enemy base that it cannot threaten while its own base is under attack. Meanwhile, KillAll decided that its attackers should focus down the lair to the exclusion of all other targets, so that Steamhammer’s drones were able to clear the zerglings with no losses.

I can’t say it’s an undeserved win. The winner made smaller mistakes. Only not small mistakes.

Next: Thoughts on the gas steal.