New Zerg looking for help

Hey all, pretty new to the game. Been looking around the web for various strategies so I'm learning lol. I'm uploading 3 replays of recent matches. I just want some feedback like what i did well, what i really sucked at lol. No hating please, just looking for help. I think those replays are ones I won but I just picked at random from the replay folder. Feel free to offer other strategies that you like, I'll take any advice. Thanks all

 

You can use your speedlings for map control and denying expansions. I'd also consider making hydralisks instead of the spore crawlers. They cost less and are mobile. Pull out of battles sooner when you know you're not going to win, you might save some more units that way instead of throwing them to lasers to watch them melt. If you're going to throw up an expansion, know you can defend it. Otherwise it goes ((.

 

commenting as I go along... watching the xel'naga replay btw

1. use your hatchery rally point instead of just individual egg rally points. You can actually have a rally point for minerals that only applies to drones and a second rally point for everything else (although doing it the egg way does increase your apm and is better practice in the long run, you might not have time to do so or might forget when you get to high levels of gameplay).

2. scouting. it really is important to pay attention to what the opponent gets. you didn't send your overlord immediately. It wandered over at 45 seconds, and it stopped just outside the enemy base. you essentially sacrificed an overlord to gain no information. You can sit your fat overlord *** over his pylons until you see a cannon being made or a completed cybernetics core before you run the OL out of there. You can see if he is going 1gate/cybernetics or 2gate, and you can plan accordingly. you could have even seen the quick stargate if you got lucky

3. micro. not too great in the first voidray push. you sent in 4 mutas after the voidrays had charged up on your hatch. perhaps you could have run in and distract them from the hatchery then run back and make them follow you so they uncharge, or even just let the hatch die and waiting for those 3 hydras would have been more efficient. and I thought for sure you would kill the voids with those 3 hydras, but you didn't get your queen in there. it would have made the difference and saved a hydra or 2.

3b. second wave of void rays... you moved your hydras forward instead of backward, which would have lured them into spore crawler range. Having the hydras and spores attack together would be more effective. hmm... nvm, you did that, just not immediately.
--third wave of void rays, same as second. sure you won the battle, but you could have won it by more if you had brought them back to the spore crawlers. that is what they are there for after all.

4. resources. you have 1700 right after the voidray attack... quite excessive. make a point of keeping your resources low (never let it rise above 500) while at the same time saturating your minerals (2 per mineral + 3 per gas at every base). Also make sure you completely mine out a base. you had some spare minerals in your main that felt sad they were abandoned. It is very common for zerg to always have at least 2 bases being mined at once, and quite often 3 or more. I just watched a replay of IdrA (watch his games for tips, he is one of the best zerg out there) where almost every expansion on the map was taken.

5. multiple tech paths. you got a hydralisk den and a spire right off the bat, which is a bit inefficient. I would have gone for roaches first, then either hydras or mutas, not both. you do have limited income and larvae. This isn't to say that having both is bad, just that having both so early puts you a little bit behind I might get one and then wait until base 2 is saturated, or even wait for base 3 before building the other, unless I was planning some sneaky tech switch to throw him off. They both has similar effectiveness against voidrays, and it is a matter of higher gas for mutas or less mobility for hydras.

6. creep spread. your queen in your main had quite a bit of excess mana which could have been used for creep tumors. your units have increased speed on creep, and since hydras are pretty slow, it really does help a lot to make a creep highway to your opponents base. if you did it quickly and efficiently, you could even bring some spore crawlers to back you up (not a normal strat but it would be pretty cool to see lol). keep in mind speed for your units is a lot more valuable than just getting around the map. Having a good arc when you enter combat means that more of your units can attack at once than his units. essentially you get his units kinda balled up and yours more spread out so you can attack more efficiently than him. Your units will do this automatically if they can.

7. multiple sources of focus and control groups. this goes along with apm (actions per minute) and micro in my mind. while you attack, make sure you are still producing at your hatcheries. During an attack that looks like it will succeed is the best time to expand and make a bunch of drones. I also noticed you didn't have your hatcheries in control groups. I personally put every hatchery I have together in control group 1 and set the unit rally point all in the same place and put my worker rally point in my newest unsaturated expansion.

8. Map Control. What the guy above me said. Make use of those speedlings early game and deny that expo. Don't allow him to expand as fast as you. Hold him down and run him out of resources. A strong economy is the key to success, and you could have limited his quite a bit by keeping those speedlings at his natural expo instead of in your base.

--- in games like this, the "strategy", by which I feel you mean unit composition, isn't really as important as just playing well. Expanding, keeping money low, and map control are the key to victory. If you had played more efficiently, you could have beaten that guy with mass queens and spore/spine crawlers if you wanted.

 

Thank you for detailed analysis lol. I will definitely go back watch the replay a few times and try to improve. Keep the feedback coming everyone =P

 

lol no prob I enjoy it. Going through it helps me as well. I'll watch the others but idk if I'll have much to add. a lot of the stuff is pretty general and applies to just about every game.

 

so second game, ZvZ on scrapstation... You won purely due to unit composition. He went roach and you went muta and you won right there. You had decent micro and good thoughts on attacking and such, but your economy was dumpy. I don't think you ever got up to 20 drones. and 3000 minerals... A lot of the time when people go for mutas, they also get lots of zerglings. they deal with hydras pretty well which is a good counter to mutas, and they don't take any gas from your muta production. ZvZ is an interesting matchup IMO. roaches are damn powerful, and a lot of people go for zerling/baneling in ZvZ, but you can never go wrong with mutas. Unless of course he rushes you or goes for mass hydras. I noticed he got his roach warren after lair, so he screwed himself there. he should have done hydras, and kept up hydras production instead of mutas to counter your mutas more effectively.

 

not much to say about game 3, ZvT... same stuff involving your minerals. you could have gotten a third and possibly even fourth base with all that and at least doubled your muta production. Also, I might have switched tech after seeing the double starport, but luckily the other guy decided he didn't need many vikings. If he got more vikings/marines/any medivacs at all, he would have done a lot better.

 

Well looking at the first replay, one thing really strikes me out as a weakness.

You hardly have any idea what going off about the map.

A few well placed burrowed zerglings can tell you alot of what your oppoments up too for very little cost. And if you see alot of unprotected probes, then consider sending a quick wave of speedling, even if he has flyers. By the time all the zerglings are dead, your foes probes should of took a heavy hit.

Also if you have alot of spaire minerals, consider buying alot more queens. There prety hardy ,have a ranged attack and only cost minerals, making them a excerlent way of increasing your defence againt void ray attacks without effect your larva.

 

^ if you do mass queens make sure not to make too many tho and remember to use there energy, (mass tumors and healing structures or stuff during combat) also if you get so many queens make sure to use the larvae ability and keep at least one queen at each expansion.

 

There no such thing as too many queens for base defence!

Serously tho, there a good choice for anti air if you can't aford the gas for hydralists becuse your gas is going into something else ( like your own air force or infestors).

 

Thanks for all the great tips and feedback guys. Did a little more online play today after going back and watching my replays, had quite a bit more success lol and I feel i managed my resources at least a little better, along with scouting better. So yeah, thanks again all lol and I will be back again and again =P

 

Too many queens won't be cost effective, if you make units/base defense structures then you can counter attack.

 

I don't know, comparing them to the alternatives to air defence:

Queens: Cost 150 minerals, 2 control and you build them directly from the hatchery. The fast on the creep and slow as hell off it. Making them prety good in your base aeras, but terrable for direct attacks

Hydralisk: Cost 100 mineral, 50 gas and 2 control. There fast on the creep and slower off it, but still mobile enough to make a good attack force

Spore crawler : cost 75 plus drone, so effectively there 125 each. Cost no control, act as detectors and can't attack ground targets. Very limited moblity.

Mutalisk: Cost 100 minerals and 100 gas cost 2 control and fly very fast about the map

Corrupter : cost 150 minerals and 100 gas and cost 2 control Fairly fast and great against other air unit, no ground attack however.


IMHO if you want to stop some pesky early air raid, a few well placed spore crawlers and queens the way to go. There also a good unit to build on the side when you have plenty of minerals on hand.

Course if you being attacked by a large and powerfull air fleet, get the proper counter units. But queens, unlike spore towers, can move to counter opptunist air attacks on your base and are way easier to get than the hard counters.

 

what server are you on?? cause maybe we could practice together i would really like to practice with a zerg player so i can get better at zerg vs zerg :3

 

(I'm in bronze league xD fail, but you can add me if you want. (I don't have any friends that play T_T)

I'm not trying to point out that they wouldn't be good anti-air defence, (cuz they are until the enemy has more then a couple void rays (with you only having a couple queens.) What I'm trying to point out is that if you mass to many queens, you will have too much energy, meaning that there aren't doing much, and there food supply also eats into the Zergs already small army size. So if you mass too many then you will have a harder time winning because you can't counter attack and its basicly giving the enemy a free chance to expand all over the map and completely out macro you.

 

if you have excess queens, they can be put to good use with your army. You should have loads of creep tumors all over the map and your queens can follow your army to transfuse the roaches/ultras, or anything with decent health that needs it.

 

That will slow your push if your using queens with you army, and they would only be helpful if you had like mass ultra, something you shouldn't be able to get if your facing a bad player.

 

I beg to differ.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOfp7We1qss

he starts talking about the game at 2:20, kinda rambles before that. actual game starts at 6 minutes.

 

Lemme know your names on sc and ill add u guys lol i could use the practice

 

I've recently been using ALOT of rushes lol mainly 6 pool. Really really good against all the protoss I've gone against, not so good against zerg lol and for terrans I've been doing baneling rushes which also work quite well, especially in one where he didn't wall off but sent his marines out soon as I sent my banelings in. Boom there goes the army lol he actually laughed at that