Zerg Strategy/Build - Speed/Baneling 2x Hatch

First off, hello. I'm new to these forums and I've been looking for an active forum community to discuss SC2 on.

I don't put a lot of stock in rankings right now, but for those that care I'm currently relearning Zerg (played SC 1 a lot) and at the top of gold in my division right now, waiting for the next league assessment (last one being a couple of days ago). I've been tweaking a 2x hatch tier 1 build and settled on the following, let me know what you think, especially if you've fought against it and what you feel its weak points are. I've been working on this for 2v2, but I don't see why it wouldn't be applicable in 1v1 as well.

Build Order

1. Morph drones to 10/10 supply.
2. Fake morph vespene extractor to morph another drone to 11/10 supply.
3. Make Overlord.
4. When Overlord pops morph drones to 14/10 supply.
5. Morph spawning pool.
6. Morph drones to 16/18 supply.
7. At 150-190 minerals send drone to morph 2nd hatchery.*
8. Morph drone to 16/18 supply.
9. Make Queen (18/18).
10. Morph Spinecrawler (17/18).*
11. Morph Zergling for scouting (18/18).
12. Morph extractor (17/18)
13. Morph drone to 18/18 supply.
14. Make Overlord.
15. Make 2nd Queen.
16. Build more workers as you see fit, begin upgrading speed for zerglings, put down Baneling nest next, and begin pumping zergling from 2x Hatcheries fed by 2x Queen spawn larvae ability.

*Position of 2nd Hatch depends on map, if the opponent is rushing, long term plans, etc. You can build it at your natural expansion if you want, but it will leave you more vulnerable to an early rush and leave you more ground to defend against the opponent's tactics (e.g. if they rush air). On the the other hand, it can later upgrading/tech transitions (say to Mutas) more convenient as you will have ready access to additional vespene.

**The order of the spinecrawler/zerglings/drones/et cetera here will depend on what you know about the opponent, e.g. is he rushing or teching.

Strategy

The goal here is to create an early massing station (2x hatch, 2x queen) that you will use to stage a mid game speed/baneling attack. This takes advantage of the fact that:

1. It is extremely easy/safe for Zerg to 2x hatch due to mechanics that allow its tier 1 buildings/units to serve multiple functions (Hatchery being both worker and combat unit building, Queens defensive capability vs early units, and spawn larvae pumping).

2. Zerg have the advantage in tier 1 once banelings get involved. Whatever tier 1 units the opponent has built when you attack are going to fall fast to a combined baneling/speedling attack due to the splash damage from the banelings.

3. Speedlings shrink the effective offense travel distance to nearly zero for you. This is extremely important for timing purposes and following up after the inital attack. Since you morph the Banelings from the Speedlings it also makes the travel distance for the combined speedling/baneling assault effectively zero (although opens it up to the risk of attack during the morph into baneling).

4. Banelings work as a tier 1 anti-tower/wall-in unit. No other race has this capability. Also, while banelings have their weaknesses when used in this fashion later in the game, they tend to be perfect for the time period in which you are looking to attack with this build. And unlike other siege options (say a siege tank tech by a terran), as a sacrifical unit built and immediately used to create your opening they really aren't as vulnerable to planned/targeted fire. An opponent relying on towers or wall-ins (Terrans especially, but also Protoss) will be easily broken by using 4-5 Banelings (shielding from fire by a few leading Speedlings) to tear down their towers or wall-in structures, allowing the Speedlings to pour in.

5. It also sets up your expansion right away for when you make the mid-game transition, especially I imagine in 1v1 where you do not have to worry about team attacks on your base and thus can 2x hatch to your natural expansion a lot more safely.

Using this build I've found it to be fairly effective against the more popular builds out there, e.g.:

1. Roach techs (enmassed speedlings tend to win against this build).
2. Muta tech. The key here is to attack just as or before their Spire finishes. The mutas will clean up your units, but not before so much damage is done to effectively cripple them. Meanwhile you should already be building a few Spore Crawlers which prevents them from trading off.
3. Reaper harrass -- 2 Queens and a few early lings defend against this quite well until you speedlings. At that point the equities (massing speedlings + a few banelings vs their tech) favors you. Collapse their bunker wall with 4-5 banelings and gg.
4. Stalker tech/mass. Speedlings are great here.
Et cetera.

Don't get me wrong, I know it can be countered. But I right now I'm rarely see properly used or teched banelings or whatever they are calling the new vulture/firebat hybrid in use this early in the game. Most of the weaknesses I have encountered in practice have more to do with it being a 2v2game.

 

It seems like a pretty solid build to use. You cover your defensive and offensive strategies pretty well with the variety of units that the Zerg have available. I can tell you've practiced a lot with this build. I'll have to test it out first before I give a good review on it because I can't say it's good or bad depending on what race you're playing against without properly testing it.

 

I don't play zerg so i'm not sure about the exact BO, but this basic idea is common (because it works) at the upper levels of 1v1 zerg play. It generally evolves into mutas or a mixed army with hydras as the next step.

 

This is pretty similar to what I find myself doing, and it does work! The ony diff is I try to fet gas going pretty soon after my pool starts...I try to get access to Blings ASAP because they're so effective early on!

*edit to add*
i have a hard time even considering spine crawlers since they're so expensive and IMO pretty weak. My first few games, they did absolutely nothing for me aside from take up resources I could have used for a second hatch or more lings.

 

I typically build one for a powerful ranged attacker that can fend off early rushes with minimal ling support (which are there to beat on attackers while they try to reach the spine crawler, and then kite them when they try to kill the lings). The fact they can be moved also provides natural expansion defense for your fast 2x hatch, which the opponent is just going to be drooling over to attack. Also, in 2v2 you need to be able to solo defend against 2x rushes, and you're very limited at how many zerglings you can build that early due to larvae shortage.

Offensive wise I don't need the baneling nest that early, since I usually won't have enough attackers at that point to launch an assault anyway. So long as the next finishes by the time my lings arrive near the enemies base (where I morph them), its all good.

Defensively...well, you can NEVER have banelings too early in terms of defense heh. I've even considered building the baneling nest before getting speed for the lings. The main reasons I don't are speed is so important to push out later reaper rushes, trap retreating units, assist your partner, etc.