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the Steamhammer-Krasi0P match

Yesterday’s loser’s round match KrasioP-Steamhammer ended up with the result I expected, but not in the way I expected. Krasi0P has two builds, cannons in base and proxy cannons. Steamhammer can easily beat either one if it correctly predicts it, but it is poor at predicting. The wins tend to go in streaks, Steamhammer loses a bunch in a row then wins a bunch in a row, because both bots are somewhat slow at reacting when the opponent’s build switches. And Steamhammer’s recent games against Krasi0P, the 2 games in the SSCAIT round robin, were losses. So most likely the losing streak would continue.

1-1 after the first 2 games was good. In the last game, my initial diagnosis was the same as the commentator’s: Steamhammer was going to play 1 hatch muta, an excellent choice that should win. I was suddenly looking forward to a surprise match victory. But when I saw the second hatchery start, I knew something had gone wrong. Steamhammer ended up playing a nonsense build that countered nothing, a sure loss. After seeing the cannons it should have turned a few planned zergling pairs into drones; that part looked OK. I’m not sure what failed, but my best guess is that something caused Steamhammer to break out of its opening build and fall back on the strategy boss, which is buried up to its neck in ZvP weaknesses (it’s Steamhammer’s weakest matchup). Those mistakes look like strategy boss mistakes. But nothing I saw in the game should have caused it to break out of the opening. It may be a bug I haven’t seen before.

In any case, the fixes in version 3.3.6 made Steamhammer substantially stronger against Krasi0P (and many other opponents). Steamhammer will look impressive if it ever gets into a tournament with all the major bugs fixed before instead of after....

Really next, no really, this time I mean it: Steamhammer’s experience versus cannon rushes.

funny fast burrow game

Randomhammer protoss has been rolling up opponents with its dragoon build, thanks to improved macro. Though there’s plenty of room to improve it further. Randomhammer terran looks as erratic as ever, sometimes wiping out zergs with efficient marine attacks but more often goofing around. Overall, a worthwhile update for the short time I spent on it.

I thought this game was funny: Steamhammer-Krasi0 on Empire of the Sun. Krasi0 opened with risky aggressive 2 barracks in the middle. Steamhammer, purely by chance, decided to play a build that it does not understand how to exploit properly, 9 pool speed burrow. Different burrow tricks are possible, but the main idea behind getting burrow so early is to run lings into the enemy main and use them to cause confusion and delay, harassing and then burrowing whenever in danger. This game did not go that way. Burrow finished just as marines entered the zerg main with murder in their eyes, and the rest was inevitable. It looked as if it had been custom crafted.

zergs versus Krasi0

These two games were played a few days ago, after Krasio was updated. Krasio apparently forgets its learned data on update, and against some opponents takes a few games to remember how to win again.

Steamhammer-Krasio

In Steamhammer-Krasio on Moon Glaive, Steamhammer started aggressively with overpool (overlord on 9 drones then spawning pool), and the early zerglings prompted Krasio to play defensively with a bunker at its ramp. But sneaky sneaky Steamhammer made few lings and instead added a second hatchery and teched to lurkers. Despite some clumsy zerg play, the lurkers delayed terran from expanding until around 11 minutes into the game. In the picture, lurkers are about to deny Krasio’s attempt to take its natural.

lurkers deny expansion

Krasio did at last successfully double-expand, but by then zerg was ahead and was soon able to destroy the terran third.

breaking a terran base

The next terran expansion was too far away to defend, and the rest of the game was zerg all the way.

Microwave-Krasio

Microwave-Krasio on Icarus, Microwave opened with a hatchery on 12 and went for mutalisks. The early mutas made more losses than gains, but notice the strong zerg economy. Microwave did not fall behind in supply for the whole game—a sign that Krasio was doing something wrong strategically, since the terran unit control was clearly superior.

probe defeat

In the middle game Microwave switched to ground units, overrunning Krasio’s third base in the lower left. For the late game it suddenly switched back into mutalisks and amassed a sky-darkening cloud. Mutas erased Krasio’s second attempt at a third base, in the bottom right, and then it was too late for terran.

probe defeat

comparison

Despite the different unit mixes and play styles, the games are strategically similar. In both, Krasio did not play its best opening and fell behind early. The zergs were able to roll up outlying bases with relative ease because terran did not have the mobility to defend them, and then were so far ahead that they could win by brute force.

Krasio wins when it starts well, of course, and it usually starts well once it has a little experience. The top zergs have gained enough skill to be a threat, though. Both have adequate macro and know how to choose a poorly defended expansion to attack, skills that many bots lack. In the last 7 days, BASIL gives Steamhammer 4-4 versus Krasio, and Microwave 2-5.

When you can’t defend your own expansions, you need to keep your opponent off-balance instead. It’s an advanced skill, and even Krasio does not have it. Against the lurkers, terran could have tried vultures, or drops, or perhaps wraiths—harassment that lurkers will be poor at responding to. Against the mutalisks, terran had enough valkyries to be safe, but seemed to deploy only 1 or 2 at a time in any given fight. Also, since terran was behind, the goliaths were not the best unit choice because they slowed down army movements. Without them, a larger marine and medic army would have been able to maneuver rapidly in defense, or cross the map to threaten zerg bases. I think bots are starting to play well enough that this kind of strategy knowledge will help.

let me help you with that

This Steamhammer version is showing clear superiority over the previous one. I expected a small improvement that was hard to be sure of, but got an improvement that’s easy to see. Nevertheless, there is one new misbehavior: It takes bases in a poor order on some maps. On Heartbreak Ridge it takes the center base far too early, among other expansion order mistakes. Using the resource tracking info threw the base scoring out of whack, and my attempts to whack it back into whack were not enough. I have to hit it harder.

A funny picture:

probe defeat

Krasio is taking its third base as it should, and mining out the blocking minerals at a good timing so that it can transfer SCVs along the back path. Steamhammer has 2 drones in view. The drone on the right also wants to take the base, and is just noticing the command center in its way; it will give up and return home. The drone on the left knows, “We’re about to take this base, so I’d better clear this path that’s near it.” The SCV and drone are cooperating to mine out the stacked minerals, entirely to Krasio’s benefit.

Steamhammer stands at an advantage in this position, but ended up losing, most importantly because it took bases in the wrong order. Terran pushed out, and by the time zerg gained the strength to break the attack—which it did—the center base had already fallen. Many bots expand unsafely to that center base.

Krasio versus Locutus; Steamhammer crash

2 recent events with a connection to Krasi0.

Krasi0 updated

Krasi0 has been updated with terran wall skills. Locutus doesn’t understand the wall, and Krasi0 is winning against Locutus again. Bruce predicted it would happen before AIIDE, and here it is. With a wall, Locutus cannot run by into the terran main, and Locutus does not have the skills to pressure the wall.

I think Krasi0’s wall build versus Locutus leaves protoss with an advantage, because the terran natural is delayed. But Locutus, showing its Steamhammer heritage, is impatient and presses too hard early, falling behind. Krasi0 has been winning most games easily.

I’m sure that in time we’ll see a Locutus version addressing the weaknesses. For now, the elo ratings of the 2 bots are converging. Will Krasi0 be able to pass Locutus in elo? Even with wins head-to-head, that might be hard.

Steamhammer strange crash

Here’s a new one. In Krasi0-Steamhammer on Icarus, Steamhammer lost its main and natural and was left with only its third. It’s a situation Steamhammer has been in many times, and zerg normally recovers if given time. It can win the game if the opponent never finds the base, or is also crippled.

This time something went wrong that I’ve never seen: Steamhammer rebuilt drones up to 14, which is abnormal. It is coded to replace the spawning pool at 9 drones. Then, even stranger, with an idle drone because there were too many and its minerals piling up, it got into a loop where it made nothing but overlords. It seemed to be in Plato’s cave, watching a bad movie that had nothing to do with the game.

Then it crashed. Some data structure must have broken. :-(

Proxy updated; Locutus vs. Krasi0

updated Proxy

New bot Proxy is—I can almost add “of course”—updated already. The obvious change is a zergling build if the opponent is zerg; the hydralisk build was too slow for ZvZ. The zergling build is successful, and Proxy’s elo has climbed over 2000. It is now an average bot, maybe better than average. That is excellent for a newcomer.

Locutus and minimum tank range

When Locutus runs dragoons by Krasi0’s bunker, Krasi0 (in games I’ve seen by the current version) has 1 siege tank available as its main interior defense. Terran sieges the tank and Locutus loses its dragoons, doing less damage than it should.

dragoons keeping their distance

In a broad sense, this is why I haven’t implemented runby in Steamhammer. Running by fixed defenses is easy, but playing well after you have run by is not so easy. The runby units become desperadoes, expecting to die and seeking to deal as much destruction and distraction as possible until then. Steamhammer’s units normally retreat from too much danger; desperadoes may be able to retreat, but can’t count on it. They have to make different decisions about what to shoot at, when to run away, and where to run to.

In this case, the important thing to shoot at is the tank, which limits the dragoons’ freedom too much. The dragoons should rush inside the sieged tank’s minimum range. They’ll win the fight and live to cause more trouble. Dragoons that wander too far off or take potshots at SCVs are not contributing as much as they could.

I think it’s complicated to handle all the defenses terran might try. I guess it’s a matter of taking one step at a time.

two upsets

Two surprise upsets today caught my interest.

new from MadMix

The game MadMix by Oyvind Johannessen vs McRave surprised me.

McRave fell out of the top ranks a while back, but has lately been climbing back up. I’m guessing that some new subsystem was switched in a while back, and it has taken this long to work the bugs out. After a long drought and a bunch of tries, the new version of McRave notched its first recent win versus Steamhammer today (and another shortly after). I expect McRave will keep rising and return to the top 5 before long.

MadMix is brand new, but already has a big update. The initial version made most units for all races, but never researched upgrades or tech. Today’s version researches most upgrades and at least some tech, so the mix is even madder!

In MadMix versus McRave, random MadMix rolled zerg and started off with fast lurkers. McRave is much higher ranked and has a better build order, better tactics, and better micro. McRave had a vastly superior force in the early game, but for some reason chose not to engage—mistake #1. When the lurkers came out, McRave had no detection and was contained despite MadMix’s poor combat skills.

MadMix slowly expanded to many bases while McRave was contained. McRave made a robo facility but never added an observatory, so it had no detection—mistake #2. I’m sure it’s an oversight or bug and will be fixed before long. McRave still could have made a nexus at its natural, added cannons for detection, and maintained a chance to win, but instead when the protoss main mined out, McRave resorted to long distance mining—mistake #3. Even so, McRave’s macro was stronger and the protoss army remained dominant. In smaller attacks, MadMix retreated support units and unburrowed lurkers each time targets moved out of range, so the forward lurkers tended not to live long. For a lurker, staying underground and restricting your enemy’s mobility can be more important than having a target.

McRave was strangely passive this game, moving its army mostly in response to immediate threats. With zerg on many bases and protoss long distance mining, the writing was on the wall. Eventually MadMix started mass attacks and broke through to win. The picture is from shortly after MadMix’s army first became the larger one (notice the worker counts). In the upper left you can see lurkers holding an isolated protoss force at bay; for some reason, MadMix made better use of its lurkers during the breakthrough attack.

MadMix upgrades tab

The upgrades tab shows that MadMix did a ton of upgrades this game, even overlord sight range. You can see scourge, and offscreen is a devourer, even though McRave never made an air unit. The zerg unit mix is genuinely mad. It did not make queens, which may mean that it realizes it needs to know how to use the spells first.

Maybe another update soon will see MadMix using most tech, too. In any case, MadMix is already ranked higher than Travis Shelton, the other random bot with a wide choice of units.

Randomhammer gets a win over Krasi0

Randomhammer scored an upset win over Krasi0 with a vulture drop. I knew the drops would pull some good wins.

Randomhammer (this time) sent its dropship the short way around the edge of the map to Krasi0’s base. Randomhammer’s vulture micro was disappointingly poor, but even so the drop was moderately successful; it killed few SCVs, but stopped mining for a surprisingly long time as Krasi0 cautiously backed away.You can see in the production tab that Randomhammer is expanding and adding units while Krasi0 is producing nothing.

Randomhammer’s drop

Krasi0 may have seen the building starport just before its scout was chased away by marines. In any case, it made goliaths with a few tanks mixed in, a good counter to the air units and vultures which were the only units it had seen indications of. But Randomhammer immediately switched to tanks (it’s a hardcoded tech switch—Steamhammer’s terran and protoss strategy is ultra-simple), and expanded not once, but twice.

Krasi0 delayed its expansion and did not have enough gas to make many tanks alongside the other tech it wanted. With 3 geysers, Randomhammer had greater tank numbers and was able to push through and win despite Krasi0’s superior tactics and unit control. Knowing how to position tanks on high ground is great, but if you have 2 tanks versus 6, it’s not great enough.

Randomhammer’s push

strange games

Two strange events.

let’s put the expansion right there

In a game versus Krasi0, Steamhammer decided to go three hatcheries before spawning pool. It’s a greedy opening, a sensible choice against Krasi0’s slightly less greedy opening. Of course, when you’re trying to win by greed you tend to scout late, so when it was time to place the 3rd hatchery, Steamhammer did not know where Krasi0 was. The expansion drone walked past a bunker under construction and started the hatchery in the terran natural.

misplaced hatchery

Steamhammer had the good sense to cancel the morphing hatchery before it died, but still.... Opening build: Failed.

When the enemy base location is unknown, MapTools::getNextExpansion() is supposed to choose the free expansion closest to home by ground distance. It should have chosen the 6 o’clock base, not the enemy natural. It’s a bug.

wait, is this the same game again?

Steamhammer played against Microwave 2 times in the last 2 days: Yesterday’s game and today’s game. Both games were on the map La Mancha, which is a little surprising since there are 15 maps. Both games had the same positions, Steamhammer in the upper left and Microwave in the lower left. OK, it could happen sometimes. And in both games, Steamhammer played its overgas 11 pool opening, a risky opening that it is set to play just under 1% of the time.

That does not happen! This is a coincidence that should come up 1 time in 18,000, more games than Steamhammer has played. Did somebody take control of the random number generator?

Microwave was blue in both games, but Steamhammer got different colors. Whew. The games were similar, as you might expect. Microwave played overpool and was almost but not quite able to capitalize on its earlier zerglings...

zergling advantage

... then lost to the fast mutalisks that Steamhammer got by going gas first.

mutalisk advantage

A third game today between the two bots was completely different. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

a dark templar drop game

Steamhammer's web page is updated with source.

I enjoyed this game of Randomhammer versus Krasi0. It was played by the test version of Randomhammer, before the release version was ready.

Randomhammer ended up protoss and tried its dark templar drop strategy. Here the shuttle has taken the long way around the map, following the edge counterclockwise, and unloaded dark templar next to the mineral line. The dark templar killed a number of SCVs plus a goliath and delayed the academy, while disrupting mining.

the drop disrupts the main

Two tanks at the front had been keeping the protoss field army at bay. The tanks pulled back to help defend the drop (in this picture they are on the high ground), which allowed Randomhammer to break the bunker and wreak more havoc in the natural.

the followup disrupts the natural

At the end of the fight, Randomhammer had its own natural up and was ahead in workers by 33 to 16, which should have been a decisive advantage. Then, of course, Krasi0 played the rest of the game much better and won regardless.

The dark templar drop is dangerous. Krasi0 was prepared: It had turrets up for detection and goliaths to shoot down the shuttle. Terran could detect the dark templar most of the places they went, and yet struggled to defend. Randomhammer did not understand that the turrets were key targets and ignored them. With sharper play during the drop, protoss might have won outright despite Krasi0’s preparation and fast defensive reactions.

It was a fun and instructive game. As protoss, Randomhammer plays the dark templar drop around 15% of the time, depending on the map and matchup.

Krasi0 and other updates

I count 10 bots updated since the mini-tournament. That’s a lot. 5 Pool started losing some games and was disabled, with a message “Want to create a bot which doesn’t only 5 pool.” I think the strategy is showing its limits. Once you’ve seen the range of followups, it seems to me not all so hard to counter all of them.

I miss Pinfel, disabled before the mini-tournament with a losing score of 3-10. It played a zealot-probe all-in bringing every single unit, unlike any other bot. I recommend occasional all-ins for strong bots, even if they’re risky. If you have opponent modeling, recognize greedy opponents and bust them; if you have good judgment, recognize opportunities and seize them; if you’re not that bright, like Steamhammer, then randomly all-in (say) 5% of the time to keep ’em on their toes, to challenge their opponent models and judgment.

A few observations on Krasi0’s new play:

• I thought Krasi0 was more cautious about detaching groups and sending them forward without enough support. That’s an improvement. It also seemed even more hesitant than before to expand, at least while under pressure. I suspect that a bot which could keep up constant pressure while simultaneously defending its expansions from vulture raids and harassment drops might starve out Krasi0 and win.

• Against Iron, Krasi0 backed up its bunker with a vulture, which appeared to forestall Iron’s runby—and then went 2 port wraith! Is that a new build, or is only the vulture new? An early vulture seems normal in a 2 port wraith build. Anyway, it worked well enough; Krasi0 beat Iron, which it has rarely done lately.

2 port wraith could be deadly against macro zergs, or against any bot which doesn’t grasp air defense. For terran against Iron, for the middle game I suggest a tank-heavy army with some goliaths mixed in. I think that meets all of Iron’s preferred unit mixes.

2 starport build

• In the most recent games, I noticed that against Steamhammer’s mutalisk play, Krasi0 made turrets only near the bunker where Steamhammer persistently maneuvers. Against 5 Pool’s mutalisks, Krasi0 made turrets all over its base before any attack, which was helpful given how that zerg plays. What’s the difference? Is it a hard-coded behavior, or is it the result of opponent modeling? Or did I watch the wrong games?

a win and a loss against Krasi0

Steamhammer got its first win against Krasi0 after many many tries. The map was Python, where starting positions are important, and the two bots got neighboring positions. Steamhammer went 9 pool speed, as it does 10% of the time versus terran, and Krasi0 was unlucky and scouted the wrong way around the map. Zerglings ran past the scouting SCV before it could reach the zerg base. The bunker in the terran natural was late and never finished (a bunker in the main could still have saved the game). Once zergling speed completed there was no hope for terran.

That apparently used up Steamhammer’s supply of luck, because it was immediately tied up in a string of losses. The loss against XIMP showed a bug I hadn’t seen, where Steamhammer repeatedly tried to take the third base that is a crucial part of its build order, but each time the drone lost interest and went home. Some weird macro bugs are lurking.

The most informative loss was another game against Krasi0, where Steamhammer first gained a winning advantage, then lined up its bugs and limitations in a row and held a parade. This time Steamhammer opened 12 hatch into 2 hatch muta. The bunker was again late, this time without excuse (is it a newly-introduced error?). The initial 6 zerglings got SCV kills that they did not fully deserve and, more importantly, slowed mining for a time as SCVs were pulled. With more smarts they could have stayed in the terran base and marauded for a time.

When the mutalisks came out, Steamhammer’s eyes lit up with crazed aggression. It flew over the bunker to kill every SCV that came near while ignoring the bunker itself and probably laughing maniacally. If it knew to fly to the mineral lines instead it could have won on the spot, but as it was the loss of workers set terran far back for the middle game. It was a decisive advantage and would have been a sure win with good followup.

Krasi0 countered the mutas with goliaths, which Steamhammer countered with hydralisks, which Krasi0 countered with tanks. That’s how you play the game. Steamhammer went up to 4 bases and brought out ultralisks while Krasi0 was still on 2 bases. Here you can see that Steamhammer has a larger army and more workers, and the production tab shows that zerg is outproducing terran even though minerals are accumulating. The terran 3rd command center is under construction in the lower left natural.

zerg is way ahead

In the later game, Steamhammer, showing the other side of its mad streak, made 3 deadly mistakes and a bunch of smaller mistakes. Avoiding any of the 3 deadly mistakes might have been enough to win.

1. Steamhammer chose the unit mix hydra-ultra and became pinched for gas and unable to spend all its minerals. I overlooked a couple of important factors in the calculation. Hydra-ultra is useful in rare situations, and especially in situations nothing like this one. With zerglings instead, the zerg army would have been larger and deadlier and there was likely nothing Krasi0 could have done to hold it off.

2. Due to a bug, zerg was unable to take a 5th base. This bug I’ve seen before; it is not the same one as against XIMP. Getting the 5th gas would have made hydra-ultra more playable.

3. Zerg never scouted the terran 3rd base. It’s a limitation; I haven’t gotten around to middle game scouting yet though it’s a basic skill. See the expansion attempt, kick it down before it starts with a few units, starve out the terran. The hydra-ultra army should have been enough to keep the terran army bottled up if a few zerglings spotted expansion attempts.

scourge turn aside

Here’s another weakness: This is the 4th pair of scourge to chase this dropship, and the scourge is veering away for no reason. The 5th pair finally caught it. Suicide missions are hard to recruit for. Steamhammer showed hesitation with scourge and in shutting down vulture harass. In this picture, Krasi0 has turned it around and is winning by a mile.

SSCAIT semifinals and third place playoff, part 2

Today is the second and more interesting part of the SSCAIT 2016 round of 4. Krasi0 fought XIMP, with the winner to move on to the final. The loser went to a 3rd/4th place playoff match against Iron.

Krasi0 vs XIMP

Game 1 was on Empire of the Sun. XIMP is the carrier bot. Terran Krasi0 saw what was coming and chose to attack with tanks and early goliaths before the carriers had all their interceptors. The tanks were somewhat inefficient in sieging down the cannons (most bots are), but they were fast enough. XIMP was in trouble regardless, but losing too many probes sealed it.

Game 2 was on Heartbreak Ridge, a 2-player map. It has many cliffs which favor carriers, but it also has low-ground bases and a short ground distance between the mains, which favors mech attacks. Krasi0 attacked with the same timing as the previous game. Krasi0 again killed the natural, but terran reinforcements chose a path through the center which took them next to the protoss base, distracting XIMP into playing correctly against the reinforcements instead of the main terran force. Krasi0 could have sent fresh units the other way around the center of the map, where carriers could not have engaged them until they arrived. Then the mech army would have stayed compact.

But as it happened, the diversion toward reinforcements and Krasi0’s difficulty in attacking the protoss main through the very narrow entrance meant that the carriers were able to build up interceptor numbers. XIMP defeated the goliaths and started chasing the terrans away. Krasi0 sent goliaths piecemeal toward the front and lost them a few at a time.

While one carrier group fought terran units around the center, another group departed on XIMP’s trademark edge crawl to survey the bases around the map and attack from the rear, a slow but dangerous plan. Both players were in some trouble. XIMP had only its main left and no long future unless it could take and hold another base, while Krasi0 had 2 bases but not enough anti-air to stop the carriers. What would happen?

XIMP’s front carriers played poorly and lost numbers. They could have returned through the center to cover while XIMP retook its natural, or they could have joined the attack on the main where cluttered buildings made goliaths awkward, or they could have circled the terran natural and attacked it from above the cliff, but they insisted on attacking from the front without the advantage of a cliff. With that decision, Krasi0 had the lead. Terran should have sent its ground army, minus air defense, to the protoss base, which would either cause a base race or bring the carriers back home to defend. Instead Krasi0 left tanks and vultures idling around the center of the map. Krasi0 did not use its lead.

Neither side was making the most incisive moves, and the outcome was unforeseeable. Fun game!

Krasi0 got a third base up. XIMP had no money but destroyed the terran main, slowly. Krasi0 did not try to float its factories, but rebuilt from scratch instead. Finally Krasi0 built up enough stuff to start hitting carriers, and that was enough.

Both players fought like lions. After mistakes all around, the victory was narrow. Krasi0 won and went to the finals.

Lesson: You never know what little thing will make the difference. A small improvement by XIMP (try to attack from above cliffs, or destroy bases more efficiently) or a minor weakness in Krasi0 (build the 3rd too late, be unable to recover from losing all tech) could have given us a different result.

Iron vs XIMP

Iron is far more aggressive than Krasi0. Iron attacked with infantry and tanks, sieged down the cannons, held off carriers with marines and turrets, finally added valkyries almost as an insult, and won easily. The second game went about the same way. A group of carriers escaped and caused damage, but only until the undefended protoss base died.

It’s not easy to beat XIMP, or more bots would do it, but Iron made it look easy.

SSCAIT 2016 round of 8 - second half

Here is the second half of the SCCAIT round of 8. Today I’ll go over the later 2 matches of the 4, from the second video.

Bereaver vs XIMP

The newcomer protoss Bereaver versus the old school carrier bot XIMP.

XIMP always cannons itself in and goes carriers. The strategy seems easy to counter, and yet somehow it is not so easy; XIMP is still highly successful. I think protoss has the most difficult time countering the carriers. Terran can make tanks and blast down the cannon wall, and zerg can stop the carriers and prevent all expansions with hydralisks. Protoss has counters too, but they are not as simple to execute.

In game 1, Bereaver opened with two gates. On seeing the cannons it had the sense to immediately start its own natural and soon take its 3rd as well, pulling ahead in economy. Bereaver added some scattered cannons of its own, which seems strange and inefficient to me, but also got templar tech and started storm research, which is good play.

When the carriers arrived, high templar apparently did not yet have storm energy. Bereaver caught XIMP’s third starting and stopped it, which was necessary, but had made too many zealots and cannons and not enough dragoons, which was not promising against carriers. If Bereaver had mineral excess and gas shortage, then it probably should have taken a 4th base sooner.

But Bereaver did get a 4th soon enough, built more goons, and with help from some poor tactical decisions by XIMP, defeated the carriers using dragoons and storm. Bereaver had held off the carriers and stopped expansions, so it won.

Game 2 followed a similar course, but XIMP’s carriers took the long way around the map and XIMP successfully started a 3rd base (on its second attempt), while Bereaver saw nothing and opted to attack the cannon wall, setting itself back. Bereaver ignored the 3rd too long and XIMP got cannons up there, while Bereaver didn’t spend its extra money on a new 4th base after losing its first attempt to the carriers. Bereaver’s game plan failed and XIMP won.

I noticed movement on the minimap which looked like a failed reaver drop in XIMP’s main, but we didn’t get to see it in the video.

In Game 3 Bereaver got confused by the map, Heartbreak Ridge: It sent a probe to take a 3rd but was unable to navigate the mineral block. The probe wandered aimlessly. “This way! No, it’s closed off. This way! No. This way!” Bereaver went down without much fight.

XIMP, by the way, understands mineral blocks and is able to mine them out. A bot has to do a lot right to play well, and XIMP does a lot right. Bereaver is strong but doesn’t quite have the same robustness.

Krasi0 vs Tscmoo protoss

Krasi0’s game plan is to expand and build up while holding off any attacks with efficient terran defense, then move out with a large force that is difficult for any enemy to oppose directly. Tscmoo protoss is unpredictable, but it has played many games lately with ceaseless pinprick harassment. The clash of styles between two top bots promises to be fun!

Game 1. Tscmoo opened with scouts, expensive units with powerful air attack and puny ground attack. On the one hand, objectively scouts are poor at harassment. On the other hand, opponents have proven weak against widespread harassment and protoss has few other options for it. Tscmoo has won games this way, including against Krasi0.

As the game went, the scouts stopped mining at Krasi0’s natural for too long; air defense took a while to kick in. Tscmoo quickly went up to 5 bases with a fleet beacon to upgrade the scouts and shuttles with reavers to add firepower to the harassment. Krasi0 was satisfied with 3 bases for the time being, which seems fine to me.

Well, Krasi0 built many turrets and had good enough positioning, and Tscmoo’s harassment achieved nothing. Krasi0’s first push won outright. Oh well.

Game 2. This time Tscmoo went dark templar. Krasi0 the strong defender was of course prepared, and the dark templar never got close.

Tscmoo followed up with arbiters and researched recall. Arbiters started flitting irregularly across the map looking for openings, but Krasi0 had again built many turrets in its main and there were few openings to find. An arbiter finally recalled the 3rd. It stopped mining for a time but was not fully successful because the zealots in the recall did not feel like giving their lives for Aiur. Units with no escape route need the all-in mentality: “Die I must. Let me sell my life dearly.”

Krasi0 pushed out and started taking down bases, and Tscmoo never made a strong move to defend itself. Arbiters flew around stasising random units but not firing. Krasi0 built an absurd number of turrets but was too far ahead to suffer from the needless expense. Tscmoo's play was not focussed enough to make progress; it came across as scattershot and ineffective. Of course, that is largely because Krasi0 defended with cautious thoroughness.

Next I’ll cover the round of 4, likely tomorrow on the same day that the finals are broadcast. I didn’t catch up with real time after all.

Iron’s runby skill

Back in March, one of my early blog posts was about a game between Iron and Killerbot in which Iron successfully ran by Killerbot’s static defenses with vultures and SCVs and cleaned out the main. At the time Iron didn’t have the skills to seal the win, but it was a promising start.

Soon after, author Igor Dimitrijevic turned off the runby feature. I suppose his development strategy was to get the basics down before adding such a risky skill. But more recently the runby feature is back. I saw Iron do runbys in September already.

Here’s a game played today where Iron rolled Krasi0. Iron opened with two factories making vultures followed by a starport. Krasi0 made a barracks and then immediately expanded behind a bunker. With repair, the bunker can stop most early game harassment. It’s a good opening.

The moment that Iron gathered 3 vultures outside Krasio’s natural, it ran by the bunker and into the main, like so.

Iron runs by Krasio’s bunker

1 vulture was lost in the attempt. The other 2 stopped all mining in the main. Notice the kill count—that vulture got 8 SCVs and 1 newly-made Krasi0 vulture.

Iron’s vultures stop all mining in the main

Meanwhile, wraiths from the starport flew over as they were made and also stopped mining in Krasio’s natural. Krasi0 specializes in defense, but could make only feeble attempts to ward off the attack.

Runbys still rule, especially if you have aggressive micro skills like Iron. Lessons for the defender!

  1. If you see a runby coming at you, you may be able to pull workers to physically block the runby. Then your static defense will drive it off. It’s an advanced skill, though.
  2. You can place buildings to restrict the path for the runby. Krasi0 could have landed its barracks and/or built a depot near the bunker. Stopping runbys is one of the ideas behind IceBot’s building placement. Killerbot also has anti-runby building placement, though it’s not enough in itself to stop a runby.
  3. Krasi0 could have defended better after the runby. The SCVs were too fearful. Krasi0 needed to gather resources and produce defenders to defeat the few attacking units; it’s no use to retreat SCVs at the cost of resources needed to win. In recent years I notice that pros increasingly often leave workers at work when a base is under attack, instead of running them, and I assume that’s their reasoning.

humans don’t understand bots

Igor Dimitrijevic’s comment on yesterday’s post reminded me: It’s difficult to understand much of a bot’s behavior by watching it.

Krasi0 is a good example. In the last several months I’ve watched the old veteran bot grow much stronger, returning to the top ranks. I can describe in general terms some things Krasi0 has improved at: It is more aggressive, it is better at protecting its workers from danger, it is smarter about where it sieges its tanks. (It also solved crashing bugs.) But I feel sure that the points that I’ve noticed are only the tip of the iceberg. There must be not only details but whole classes of behaviors that I did not pick up on at all—otherwise it could not have improved so much.

I guess humans don’t have the perceptual bandwidth to take it all in, at least not without the experience or prior knowledge to know what to look for. Starcraft play is too complicated for us to follow! I’m sure I could understand more if I studied replays closely.

I’ll take it as a reminder not to be too glib in drawing conclusions.

Speaking of glib conclusions about bot behavior, MaasCraft looks more interesting when it plays against more interesting opponents. I concluded earlier from watching 2014 replays that it mostly moved its army forward and back along the path between bases. Well, that’s what its opponents were doing too, so it may not have had much choice. Today’s bots try more complicated maneuvers, and today’s MaasCraft reacts with its own more complicated maneuvers. I’ve seen it (seemingly intentionally) split its army to trap stray units, for example. It reacts sensibly to multi-prong attacks.

MaasCraft is still scoring poorly, but now its tactical search is showing sparks of promise—I suspect due to changes in its opponents, not itself. As a reminder, LetaBot has a search descended from the same code, turned off in some versions but likely to be turned on in final versions.