Help with this toss strat please (mass dt+zealots)

Just played my first placement match and lost to a mix of zealots and dts - and stalkers. I tried to go mass roaches as they seem to counter zealots and as zerglings are too fragile against them.

What can be done against at least 6 warpgates pumping dts and zealots?

I attach the replay if someone can be bothered to watch it. Would be grateful for any input (besides my failure to expand).

 

Massing roach would have done fine in beating Zealot/DT - you could have also done mutalisk, roach/hydra, or roach/ling.

Your macro and economy were terrible that game - and that's largest reason why you lost... You had a better strategy/unit composition, but he mass a lot of stuff and overwhelmed you.

There were times when your Queen/Hatchery was sitting idle doing nothing but filling up energy and on full larva. You had the resources to use them, but at many times you neglected to do so. This isn't good. Even though you can get distracted by battle, you MUST dart back to your base and keep building units. Imagine if you used that excess ~2250 Minerals and ~750 Gas for Roaches? ... That would have been 30 roaches added to your army, and with that you would have easily evaporated his "mass Zealot/DT combo." The main difference between you and him, was that he kept his money around 700 minerals and 500 gas. He kept producing units, and by sheer numbers he overwhelmed you - it wasn't due to his strategy.

Your second problem is that you didn't expand very well - and you expanded too late. Generally I open with building drones, build a Spawning Pool at 14, and expand at about 16 food in a Zerg vs. Protoss match-up... It might feel early, but notice that he had only probes until about 5-6 minutes in - most cases expanding that early is possible... As a Zerg, you must be able to secure your expansion before he does - and get comfortable building it up and defending it. Instead of putting Spine Crawler in your main base, throw them down at your expansion so BOTH bases are defended from ground forces.

So here's a few tips:
- Consciously try to keep your money low... Minerals don't kill people, neither does gas - if you want to win, you need to use it to expand, build an army, or upgrade. The difference of using your money wisely and letting it sit can cost you the game... It takes time, even I have this problem in the later stages of the game.
- Hotkey your Army, Queen, and Hatcheries using the Ctrl+# keys... Using control groups and hotkeys are essential to multitasking in Starcraft II.
- Try to expand earlier, and get a couple lings/spine crawlers to defend it depending on what your opponent is doing... 30 food is a little bit late, try to get a second hatchery down around the late teens or early twenties.
- Use your Overlords/Lings to scout enemy expansions and poke around - if you see an opening, try to destroy it to set back his economy.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself!!

 

Thanks a lot, ExcelNaota. I knew that I sucked at expanding. That my money was stockpiling I didn't even realize in the heat of battle. When I saw his many gates (and this was the first match w/o the protective rocks) I somewhat panicked and thought that I had to finish him right away. This is why I didn't take any time for proper macro and expanding. I thought a massive zealot push was about to come and considered the rest of the match a lengthy "last ditch attempt". So apparently seeing his many gates gave me the wrong mindset to play properly.

At least you say the unit compostition was right. I thought, hydras were too fragile for dts when I saw how many roaches it took to take out a few of them. Should I have done anything differently in his base (eg attack other buildings than I did)?

 

Again, a lot of your problem lies with simple macro/economy... Try to focus on improving that first because that's your biggest weakness at the moment - not so much your strategy.

Pure roach would have got the job done just fine, Roach/Hydra would just be more "well rounded" I suppose - if he decided to throw down Stalkers or Void Rays. Roach/Ling would have let you bounce to his new/undefended expansions with your lings and take them out quickly.

But to answer your question about hydras, since hydras have longer range than Roaches, they usually end up BEHIND your roach line, so they don't take as much damage. Yes, they are a bit of a glass cannon (hydras), but if you cover them properly with Roaches or Zerglings they usually hold up just fine against any gateway units... They get crushed by Collosi though.

Micro-wise, here's a few things I would have done differently.
- When you rushed his base early with Zerglings, I wouldn't have attack his probe line behind he was covered with cannons... Don't get me wrong, you did the right thing by jabbing into his base to see what he had and to see if there was an open spot to attack, but it may have been better to poke at his undefended buildings - There's NO reason to suicide units just to try to make an opening, keep your zerglings alive... You could have placed them at the Xel'Naga watchtowers to keep an eye out for expanding probes or an incoming army, you could have placed them at mineral expansions to see when he expands, or you could have used them to break destructible rocks to open up his base, or as a lead into your second expansion. MAP CONTROL and knowledge of your opponent's whereabouts, can be just as good as harassing his base.
- I would have focused more on taking out his third/fourth expansion (and use my overlords/lings to scout when he expanded there). Remember, 6 gate means nothing if you don't have the economy to support it. You don't need kill all his unit producing buildings to have an edge over him, just kill his expansions which were less protected and it would have put you in the lead.
- Spread creep towards your expansions and to his base, the more mobile your army is the better off you'll be attacking his base while defending yours... Roaches and Hydras are terribly slow off-creep.

 

Thank you very much for your thoughts!