Zerg Tips and Gas Spending / Tech Choices

I've been laddering a bit and playing with friends, and watching "learning" videos again.

Here are some of my takeaways and thoughts on gas-spending:

Tips:

• More gasses at 35 drones
• Get to 70 drones!
• 5min macro hatch w/ling/bane
• Use extra queen energy on 4^th base hatch (you can stack injects, did you know?)
• Expect the 5 minute push
• Leave some units in main base, to handle drops, and have them on a separate hotkey

Early Gas usage choices:

• 100 - lair
• 100 - ovie speed
• 100 - +1 melee or ranged
• 100 - ling speed
• 50 - bane nest
• 50 - 2 drop ovies (needs lair)

Next tech choices:

• Nydus
• Roach speed
• 3x ravager
• +1 carapace
• Hydra den

Choices by Goal:

Map presence choice (first 300 gas):

• Speed, +1 melee, bane nest, 2 banes

Tech choice (first 300 gas):

• 100 - ling speed
• 100 - lair, roach warren, evo
• 100 - +1 ranged

… into speed roach.

Heavy-Harass choice (300):

• 100=Ling Speed
• 100=lair
• 100=ovie speed

… into heavy expand or Nydus. Build units based on scouting, and start double upgrades!

Tech Progression Choices:

#1:
Roach/Ravager/Overseer + Viper/Corruptor (to protect the vipers), Maybe Add Swarmhosts (since we did ranged upgrades)?  Endgame = Corruptor/Viper/Broods

#2:
Ling/bane/hydra/Overseer + Infestor (Endgame = Ultra/Corruptor/Infestor)

… if Nydus and Hydra, harass or defend expansions with Lurkers.

... add burrow for Banes/Roach tunnel/Infestor

Learning ZvT and TvZ from Neuro

Introduction

Neuro is a Grandmaster Zerg-only player.

I just watched "How to Endure a Turtled Terran", and here are my take-aways.

Terran

• Mules help you get your Production up (Barracks, Factories), and hit the Zerg with some mineral-only units (Marines, Hellions) to keep him from getting out of hand.
• Try to entice  your opponent to fight into Planetaries, chokes points guarded by Siege Tanks, and to defend Hellbat harass with Zerglings.
• When you run out of cheap, buffer units like Hellions, you need to pull back and merge your forward army, with its remaining expensive units, with your reinforcements.  "Going for the kill" against a Zerg that can re-max, is a good way to throw away all your slow, expensive units (Tanks, Thors)
• 
  

Zerg

• Don't force your way into a Terran's turtled position.  Instead, take the map.  Once you have a mineral bank, you can start dropping static defenses at your outer bases.  Ensure that you have at least 1 spore and 2 spines on the way to many bases, to enable you to deter ghosts.
• Creep spread is your friend, and allows you to use one of your best units and only healer, the Queen, in mid-map fights.  You need to learn to use Rapid-Fire for creep spread, as it can get you ridiculous numbers of tumours, so even clearing them takes the Terran player long enough that you can rally units to prevent them from killing all your creep.
• You need Queens on a hotkey.
• If you have a big pack of Swarmhosts, which helps you pressure the Terran without throwing away units, it's better to save a few locusts so the Terran doesn't immediately push after you send a locust wave.
• The more of the map you have, the more you can spread your units, and then retreat and collapse to concentrate your army when the Terran pushes forwards.
• Take the farthest bases when you can.  You want to mine out his side of the map, and slow him down from taking corner bases and immediately plunking down a Planetary, which is difficult to dislodge.
• Gas is very important to Terran lategame composition.
• You need to cap yourself at 70 drones in late game.  If your drone count is too high, your army will be too small.
• Your goal is to re-max with better units (Roaches that die should be replaced with gas-heavy units like Broods, Infestors, etc).
• Creep slows down the Terran push, and speeds up your response
• Try to pick Green as your colour against Terran, as it is easiest to find the nukes.  Orange and Red are the worst colours.
• Neuro says:  "Starcraft is a game of:  'What is the most important thing to be paying attention to at any point in time'".

Zerg Summary

Take the map

• Creep spread, and replace cleared creep
• Mine his side of the map
• Spread units defensively, then retreat and collapse vs. big pushes
• Slow down his pushes with static defenses

Harass with Free Units

• Swarmhosts
• Pull units with Vipers
• Broodlords

Endgame Composition

• Queens, Broods, Hydras, Swarmhosts, Infestors, Vipers, Overseers
• Max 70 drones
• Drones into static defenses, especially vs. nukes

Zerg Strategy: Stupid mistakes even pros make

I've watched a couple of Day9 dailies and GSL pro games lately, and I was struck by the following mistakes by Zerg players:

• Making a Spine Crawler wall without any Spore Crawlers for detection
• Making Spines to protect against marine drops, but no Spore to kill the medivac, such that the marines can just pick up and fly away again.  Spines also suck against upgraded marines, by the way!
• Poor building placement, and not using buildings to wall off against hellions, for example
• Failing to spread creep in one's main:  for vision, Queen movement, and so that Spores can be placed to ward off drops and air units
• Forgetting to retake Xel'Naga watch towers
• Not building a single Overseer to accompany one's lategame army.
• Attack-moving up a ramp with one's whole army, leaving all the units except one to dance around trying to attack the one cannon at range instead of mowing through the wall.
• Overproducing Hydras.  Seriously - Hydralisks suck for almost everything (other than perhaps defense against a Gateway army by Protoss), and even if they help you defend a push or air attack, they are terrible at counterattacking due to their low speed, and should be considered more of a slightly-more-mobile fixed defense.  I think they are even worse than fixed defenses because of their low hp.
• Moving your Infestors with the same hotkey as the rest of your army.  Nothing gets these expensive, awesome units killed fast than letting them A-move to the front lines and get pulverized without doing a damn thing.

While I don't advocate working on this at the expense of your macro if you haven't hit Diamond yet, if you're going to fix a few last things about your game play, do these too.

Zerg Build Orders You Really Shouldn't Try

I just watched a GSTL match between Zenex and OGS, where the Zerg player, with the match on the line, used a Roach-Hydra based army in a ZvT.

Why is this a bad idea?  Simply put, Terran almost always uses Tanks against Terran, and Roaches die quickly to tanks, and don't even do well against upgraded marines because Roaches are too big to get a good position against the tightly-packed marines before they lose too many of their number.  Worse, Roaches are nice beefy units, but aren't very supply-efficient.  Thus, using Roaches in the later stages of the game is a bad idea.

Starcraft 2 - Remembering What "All-In" Means

Ever try an all-in, and then think you can come back from it?  There is no better way to frustration and the desire to BM your opponent than the thought that his build is unfair because your all-in failed and you couldn't come back from it.

This situation happened to me the other day when I did a Roach/Ling all-in against a Protoss FFE and then railed at the unfairness of a 2-Stargate FFE build.  Now - if I had made Hydras, this would be much less of a problem.  However, after spending that much gas on Roaches, and cutting economy to get enough Roach/Ling produced, there's no way to truly come back from mass Void Rays - Spore Crawlers get picked off gradually, as do Queens.  The Void Rays deny anything else until you get swarmed by Gateway units (even just Zealots + Voids will kill you at this point).

What you have to remember when you choose that strategy is that if it fails, and you can't continue to push because he's hard-countered you (meaning his units will just crush yours no matter what you do), you might as well leave the game right then.

FFE and the Roach All-In

I've come across a dilemna regarding the Protoss FFE - at the time you decide to all-in, you cannot tell if they are going double Stargate (your Overlord won't be there in time).  If you try to Roach-Ling all-in the Stargate build, you will lose, because you won't have enough to stop that many Void Rays (even multiple Queens die too fast to that many Voids).  Even if you do a lot of economic damage and balance the scales, 5-6 Voids will take your base apart.  Throwing up a ton of Spores doesn't work because they can simply avoid them or pick off buildings outside your Spore Coverage.  Your only way out is to build Hydras, which requires a Lair, which you won't have if you tried a Roach attack.

I suspect Protoss players are gravitating towards this build because it forces Hydras, which are slow, cannot counterattack worth crap, and are vulnerable to Zealots (which Protoss can make after spending all their gas on Void Rays).

Time to give up the Roach-Ling all-ins...

Starcraft 2: Roaches do not stop Bunker Rushes

I was trying this new(er) Zerg build order:

• 15 pool
• 14 gas
• 16 hatch
• 18 Roach Warren
• 18 Overlord
• 18 Overlord
• 8-10 Roaches
• Queen

... but it's still weak to a bunker rush IF YOU LET THE BUNKER FINISH.  The Roaches do NOT counter a completed bunker (unless you can hit it from the high ground, maybe), and DEFINITELY does not counter the ramp double-block.  I suggest going Banelings if you get contained, and break out ASAP and counterattack - you'll be too far behind otherwise, especially if your expansion hatchery is destroyed.

Starcraft 2: ZvT Troubles with Thor+Hellion

I had an interesting game against a Terran player, where I could have held off his pushes with better building placement and better scouting.  I was actually ahead in economy the whole game, but just couldn't fend off the last push (due to poor micro).

The replay shows that the Terran player was doing a 1-base push the whole time, where Zerg was on 2 bases.  I think what did me in at the last was larvae - I had tons of resources but no way to spend them.  An in-base hatch would have been the answer.  Ah, beautiful hindsight.

Starcraft 2: Learning to All-In

A lot of us are of the opinion that a failed first rush pretty much dooms your macro.  While this is true, it doesn't mean you can't all-in and counter your opponent's attempt to "get more ahead" by expanding.  The following pro game shows how a failed 6pool rush by July leaves him very far behind in economy.  However, instead of his Protoss opponent going for a 4-gate counter, HongUn decides to "get more ahead" (as emphasized as the "right" thing to do by Day9 and Artosis), and expand off 3 gates.


JulyZerg vs. HongUnPrime

July foils this attempt with a large Zergling push, which, despite forcefields, allows him to eliminate his opponent's army and push him back into his main.  July Zerg expanded just prior to the push, leaving him on 2 bases to his opponent's 1 base, and able to make drones without fear of counter.



I'll leave you to watch the game (which anyone should be able to watch, even without subscription), to see how it ends.

Starcraft 2: Countering Proxies as Zerg

I just wanted to go over a defensive decision that all Zerg players should make part of their Starcraft 2 decision-making toolbox.

The subject today is bunker rushes and proxy barracks / gateways.  If you open with a hatch-first or early-hatch build with Zerg, YOU NEED TO CANCEL IT when you scout a lack of Gateways / Rax in the enemy base.

Immediately throw down a pool if not already started, and you NEED to get a spine crawler up.  I also recommend Roaches over Banelings, because early banelings can be kited and killed by good marine micro, and Roaches use less Larvae, which you will be severely limited on.  Roaches are surprisingly good against small numbers of un-upgraded marines.  But again, it's more about the larvae, so make sure to build a Queen, or replace her if you lose her.  However, if you are really tight for money, build 2 Roaches instead of 1 Queen.  However, chances are, with no Queen and only 1 Hatch of larvae, you will have plenty of minerals to build Queens with.

If your opponent is NOT all-in (and most proxy rushes are), you can't afford to just make spines and be contained, because your larvae count will suffer.  Make sure you check just how many marines your opponent continues to send to your base, even if he dares not attack because of your Spine Crawlers.  If he expands and doesn't keep building marines, you need to bust out ASAP, and either expand yourself or counterattack.

Counterattacking is always a good strat (if you manage to get units out of your base), because without his early barracks / Gateways at home, he won't have a wall-in.  Even a few Zerglings, if you attack when he's also attacking your base, may go undetected long enough to kill a LOT of workers.

Starcraft 2: Zerg Strategy and Upgrades

Well, I just played a game today where something very interesting happened:  my upgraded Roaches (+2/+2) took on a Protoss army built to counter it (Stalker/Immortal/Colossus, although not many of the latter two), and absolutely destroyed it.  While I think micro had a lot to do with it, as well as Zergling support, it really emphasized for me the power of early upgrades, especially when you can stay ahead of your opponent.

The difference becomes really evident when the numbers of units get higher - you don't want to upgrade early so that your early units are effective - when you're pressed, it's better to spend the gas on more units than on upgrades that you don't get as fast as you get units!  Also, upgrades are no good if you have no units left for them to affect...

The key to the game I linked above was probably offensive play.  It's important for your opponent to feel pressured, and it's important, as Zerg, to have forward-positioned units to see attacks coming so you can pump reinforcements.  Delaying my opponent's third, while getting my own up and running, was also highly effective.

I also realized just how effective even 2-3 Infestors can be in slowing and damaging an approaching army.  It's the only AOE (area of effect) attack that Zerg has, but it's very very good.  The problem is that making TOO many infestors costs a lot of gas that could become units that keep attacking, rather than having energy-depleted infestors trying to clean up the last few units.  Again, if things are tight, don't go with a pile of Infestors - get a base army going, THEN pile on some more Infestors.

Yes, my macro could be much better.

Roach before Queen Zerg Build Order: Adaption

I both love and hate the late-Queen, early-Roach Zerg build order.  On the one hand, you can expand versus Terran or Protoss without worrying about an early couple of units taking you apart - slow Zerglings are easily killed by Zealots or Marines, but Roaches aren't.

However, the key to this build isn't executing the build, it's using your firepower properly.  In short, you sacrifice early counterattack capability (Sspeedlings) for a secure early expansion (Roaches).  You also get the option of a Roach all-in if unscouted.  But, if you are scouted just after your Warren goes down, you'd better switch back to your usual unit mix (i.e. Roach/Speedling vs. Protoss or Speedling/Baneling vs. Terran), or else you are going to lose.  While Roaches work very well against small numbers of Marines, they fair poorly against larger numbers of Marines with upgrades.  Speedlings are required vs. Protoss Stalkers, too, or your Roaches just get kited to death.

For those Zerg players who hate-hate-hate bunker pushes against an early expand, this build is for you.  However, I would recommend transitioning out of it before Terran opponents build Marauders, or else going all-in and trying a 8-11 Roach push.  Don't wait for your last Roaches to come out, though, or he might have Siege tanks.  Bring your first 5-6 Roaches and attack, rallying the others to his base.

Tip:  Have an Overlord to give vision of the high ground, so you can snipe buildings from below.

Tip:  Get Speed (Metabolic Boost) AFTER you've committed (or not) to a Roach push.  If you get speed first, you won't have enough Roaches for a push, but you need Speed later.

ZvT - The new Roach Rush

I came across this Zerg build order on the TeamLiquid forums, and thought it was one of the best Zerg Strategies to come out in awhile (thank you JulyZerg!.

The build order
*from TeamLiquid forums*

The Build
(Optional early drone scout)
15 Spawning Pool
15 Extractor
16 hatchery
(Optional 0-6 Zerglings)
(Optional Metabolic Boost research)
@150min Roach Warren
Overlord x2 (Optional x1 if you made 4-6 lings)
Roach x8-11

* If you opt for 6 lings, you can allow meta boost to finish, and not impact your roach timing.

* Be sure you have OLs spotting the ramp. Due to your map control, you should be able to position two overlords (one on either side of his ramp).

I like it because it's tricky - it shows the player one thing, and does another thing.  Perfect scouting would cause this not to work, and it wouldn't work against Zerg, because without a Queen to chase away the Overlord, your opponent could simply park an Overlord above your base and see everything he needs to see.

I've also been having an issue with ZvT lately (stupid bio pushes!) so this might be a good, aggressive answer to Terran stim pushes.

Starcraft 2 Zerg Strategy - An alternate Spanishiwa Build

Despite what it says on the Team Liquid Wiki, Spanishiwa has altered his build on occasion to the following (you can see it in some of his replays):

This Zerg build order is good in ZvT match-ups.

• 9 Overlord
• 13 Hatch
• 15 Spawning Pool
• 16 Overlord
• Double Queen when Spawning Pool finishes
• 2 Zerglings for scouting
• Use both Queens for Creep Tumors first
• Spinecrawler at Expansion
• Once at 40 supply, take all 4 gas
• Double Evo Chamber
• Lair with first 100 gas
• Roach Warren
• +1 Range / +1 Carapace Upgrades
• Roach Speed
• Lots of Roaches, big Roach push to deny expansions
• Infestation Pit
• Spire ---> Greater Spire for Broodlords

This list isn't a complete step-by-step for this build - it obviously starts changing depending on what your opponent is doing.

Starcraft 2 Zerg Strategy - How to, the Spanishiwa Style

Well, after some more laddering with the Spanishiwa style that I referred to in my last blog post, I've learned the following:

Queens:

• You HAVE to make 4 Queens as soon as you possibly can.  Building this many Queens doesn't come naturally, and it feels weird, but is absolutely essential.
• Queens must be used to block your ramp
• You must not fail to transfuse your Queens.  Try to use your Queen energy such that you have at least 1 Queen that can transfuse in the early game, and make sure that Queen isn't the first one to engage the enemy!
• When fighting against Zerg, put your Queens between a Spinecrawler and your expansion Hatchery.  Zerglings will do very little damage to them if they can't get a surround.

Timings:

• In general, you're supposed to make drones until 40 food with this build, THEN get gas.
• Despite the above, if your opponent slows you down for any reason (such as a bunker rush), you need to get the gas earlier, or you will die to things like Marine / Tank pushes.  You MUST have banelings and Speedlings by that time, or you are dead.
• Don't be afraid to abandon the build if you see your opponent 10-pool, for example.  While it's possible to hold it off, it requires really good micro.  If you're not a high-ranked player, you're risking a loss.

Scouting & Creep:

• Creep spread saves your Zerg in this build.  You NEED to be able to move your Queens between bases quickly, and you NEED your slow-Lings to be on creep.  The creep also helps banelings, because you won't have speed for them for awhile, either.
• Scouting on 9 is key.  There are games I would have lost if my opponent had scouted and pushed just a bit earlier, and there would have been nothing I could do.

Rush Defense

• If you suspect your opponent is going to go for some early pressure with Zerglings or Marines, a Baneling Nest becomes very important.
• Alternately, plan on building at least 1 Spinecrawler, and vs. Zerg, if he's 1-basing, expect a Zergling Rush, and you can defend it with your own slow-lings and Queens.  Make sure you snipe Banelings with Spines or Queens.

Starcraft 2 Zerg Strategy - Discovering the Spanishiwa Style

So I recently discovered the Zerg style of Spanishiwa - a heavy macro-style Zerg with early-game weakness traded for mid-to-late game dominance with Broodlords.

You can see the guy's stream at Justin.tv - here's a sample of some streamed games.

Anyway, what's intriguing about the style is that it works against all 3 races, but takes gas REALLY late. This means no speedlings almost until getting your third base! He drones heavily until about 40 food, then takes all 4 gas. He takes his third around 50 food typically, and relies on an early 4 queens (that means ASAP), Spinecrawlers and Zerglings to defend even against ground pushes. None of these things require gas, meaning a massive mineral surplus.

I think one of the strengths of the build is that it plays upon the strength of Zerg - with a lot of minerals you can build workers faster than any other race, and as long as you can hold off a few early pushes, your midgame soars because of your high drone count. You can even get Hive around the 16 minute mark! You can also get a lot of gas-heavy units and sustain their production once you are on 3 bases with 6 gas, and Zergling / Speedling / Infestor into Broodlord seems to work pretty well for Spanishiwa. He often throws in Roaches and/or Banelings, and 5-10 Mutas for harassment.

Other tricks I've seen him use:
- Burrow banelings beneath your opponent's next expansion mineral line. 4 Banelings means a lot of dead workers, and they are pre-positioned!

Experimenting with 1-base Zerg

Experimenting with 2-Hatchery, 1-base Zerg

So, I know this isn't a pro-level Starcraft 2 strategy, but I'm a bit curious why 1-base Zerg, by design, frankly sucks.

Ever notice that:
Extra Hatchery + Baneling Nest + Spawning Pool:
minerals = 300 + 150 + 200 = 650
gas = 50

2 Barracks + Factory + Starport
minerals = 300 + 150 + 150 = 600
gas = 200

3 Gateways + Core
minerals = 600 (+50 for Warp Gate)
Gas = 0 (+50 for Warp Gate)

All three indicate an early-game building set.

Looks similar, doesn't it? Why doesn't anyone build the macro hatch where it's safe, and 1-base until after the first push, or until you hit 24 Drones? All you're doing is getting on equal footing with the Terran or Protoss player, who can build extra production buildings, and can still build workers while they build military units!

I had this done against me once in a 2v2 - the Protoss player went Zealot / Sentry, and the Zerg player built a macro hatch FIRST, then proceeded to roll us over with 40 Zerglings plus the Protoss force.

While I see the economic weakness in 1v1 vs. Terran (who can drop MULES), and it doesn't quite match the ability of Protoss to chrono-boost upgrades, we still have the Zerg strength of massive unit or drone production, due to larvae.

I won a game against Terran (as Zerg) in this replay with a macro hatch first.

EDIT:  Here is a very interesting article from the Teamliquid forums that discusses the use of an in-base Hatch.

Starcraft 2 Strategies That Stop Working

I was doing very well with one of my 2v2 partners originally doing a Roach + Marine rush.  Very powerful, tends to annihilate one opponent, and then easily fend off the reinforcements / counterattack by the other opponent.  However, as we started playing against Diamond and Platinum teams, our super-strategy stopped working.  Why is this?

Simply put - scouting and preparedness.  Good opponents know how to interpret what they see in your base, even if it's just gas and when your buildings get produced.  The trick is to do this yourself, and counter what they are doing.

For example, we lost a game recently to a Zealot - Marine all-in, which was obviously directed at me, the Zerg player, since I can't wall off my base and shoot the attacking units.  I scouted it, but didn't build Spine Crawlers to fend off the massive push.  Even with my ally matching the Marine numbers of the attackers, I couldn't take on the Zealots without Roaches or Spines, and lost (despite my banelings).

This situation is similar to what cannon-rushing opponents sometimes find as they climb the ladder - eventually their cheese stops working, and they have to abandon the strategy and start learning new ones.

Morale:   Brush up on other races' builds, not just your own, and know what's coming, and when.

Why two Macro players are hard to beat

My Terran partner and I had two games in a row against the same two Zerg players, and they creamed us both times.  Sure, we drew out the game, felt like we were doing well, but they either out-expanded us or out-tech'ed us in both games, leading to a loss.

Despite repeated aggression (but no harassment sadly), we weren't able to match them on macro.  The second game, we prevented them from expanding to more bases than us (and for Zerg, that's pretty good), but they proceeded to stomp us with Ultralisks off of 2 bases each.  Strangely, no mutas that game.

What lessons were learned?  Well, Zerg certainly have mobility, and can harass you pretty much anywhere on the map with 12 Zerglings.  Double-Zerg is doubly dangerous because they could either both 10-pool you and crush one player, or they could both macro hard.  I think the trick is for one of them to do the 10pool and then both macro hard, scouting enough such that an army can be spit out if the enemy approaches.

I think their weakness would have been a marine drop, or even just repeated drops before Mutas were started in quantity.  Honestly, I don't know how to beat that.

Zerg Strategy: Timing the Opponent's First Push

I was recently playing a series of games against Terran and Protoss Very Hard computer opponents, and I noticed that as Zerg, you had to make Drones constantly until about 30 supply, and then spam either Zergling / Baneling (vs Terran) or Zergling / Roach (vs Protoss) or I'd lose horribly to the computer's massive push.  Occasionally, the Protoss opponent would push slightly later, adding Immortals or perhaps a Colossus.  Making an excess of Roaches to defend this second push would render me very, very dead, even with 2 Spine Crawlers, unless I built a ton of zerglings to rip apart the Immortals and Stalkers.

So... figuring out when your opponent's first push will likely come, and with what units, will allow you to defend it without drones, and if you do this, you will be ahead in economy, and even a simple double-larvae spawn + all military units might let you counter-push and win the game, even on low-tech.