Zerg Strategy Discussion

1. If your macro is spot on then you don't need internal hatcheries but since most of us are non-pro gamers, you can get away with having 1 on 2 bases and 2 queens. Basically the more internal hatcheries you have the more there is room for improvement on your part.

2. Use infestors to hold his army in place. Be sure to flank and meet his army cost. It's generally a good idea to check the replay afterwards and see if your army cost met his. If it didn't then your problem lies in preparation, if it did then you need better micro and positioning.

 

Thanks! If I understand you correctly, you wouldn't make an extra queen for the hatchery ("having 1 on 2 bases and 2 queens")?

 

Yes. If you think of hatcheries and queens as units of your lack of macro skill, it's easy to follow.

0 additional units is the optimal state.
1 additional unit would be a hatch, where you can get rid of excess energy on your queens.
2 additional units would be a hatch+queen to inject your macro hatch.
3 additional units would be 2 hatches+queen.
etc.

The more you invest into these, the less you will have for troops and reactionary spending, but the easier you'll be able to catch up with production. Over time, if you constantly improve, you'll notice that no matter how hard you focus on production and macro you can't get rid of your idle larvae. That's when you can shed 1 unit off. Until then, feel free to put additional units into macro since 300 minerals (+150, etc.) minus isn't that much when you can't macro properly and are floating minerals. At least you spend it that way. Spending is the most important thing.

 

Typical noob-question: How do I survive a 4 gate push? I lose so often to that crap...

Either they come with mass zealots or (more often) with mass stalkers plus a few zealots. Mostly I can hold off the first wave... but the second wave is just too much. Especially when I expand early I lack ressources and larvae for mass unit production. If I tech to roaches for the zealots, what I normally do in zvp, it's even worse because I will have even fewer units. But I feel just massing lings leaves me too far behind...

 

Have at least 2 crawlers at your natural and mass lings. No time for teching to roaches as you said. What you need to keep in mind is that yor income is about 50% better than theirs and your saturation is worse, leaving room for easier and faster improvement when he stops pushing. That is to say, your sole purpose against a 4-gate is to produce lings and inject properly because time is on your side, plus you have the advantage of the defender (short rally time). Also remember to connect your natural with your main.

Remember to send your first overlord towards their base to scout. Leave outside until about 5.50-6.50, plus ~4 lings (2 on towers, 1 at their entrance, 1 further back if foremost one gets killed).

 

And some more questions from a zerg beginner:

When and against what does one get ultras (besides pf)? It's sometimes hard for me to decide when ultras and when brood lords are appropriate (e.g. mass marines etc).

Are mutas viable against voidrays (when hydras are no option due to map size and mobility issues)?

Is neural parasite ever useful (except for the single thor who is never single)?

Am I right, that corruptors beat mutas in zvz? And are roaches a wise choice against mass lings - it sometimes appears to me that lings own roaches.

And what can I do when a terran goes mass viking/banshee? It happened once and I still won, but I felt that I only won because I had outexpanded him - could have gone the other way. Mass (and I mean MASS) vikings are good against mutas (esp when you don't expect them and have other units on the field as well, thus not having a super high muta count) and snipe overseers, which in turn makes hydras worthless against cloaked banshees. (I know, the obvious answer would be to scout mass vikings...)

 

1. Generally you want broodlords as with ground support they are deadly. But sometimes (mostly against T) ultras are more viable because you'll be getting melee and carapace for your ling/bling/muta anyway. That said those boost the effectiveness of brood lords as well. I mostly see lords first then ultras when T has gone for vikings to counter lords, but you still need fungal to help ultras... though I'm not sure how the new fungal helps. I don't see ultras against P much because most of the P army deals extra damage to armoured.

2. They are but there is no reason to get them just to counter void rays. Mobility shouldn't be a problem because on creep hydras are good, are cheaper than mutas and deal a lot more damage as well. Void rays are either harassing (countered by leaving some hydras back or just using creep) or are with their army (in which case mobility isn't an issue).

3. There are extreme cases where they are invaluable (e.g., infestor on high ground and no blink researched) but generally it's better to spam fungal.

4. Corruptors counter mutas, roaches counter zerglings. Just bear in mind that lings don't necessarily fight roaches (run-by, mobility abuse). But as I've said earlier, it's important that counters don't counter their units if they are overwhelmed - you have to meet their army cost and micro as the unit needs you to (move roaches next to cliffs/crevasses, keep them together, etc.).

5. Hydras+infestors. You'll need ~2 spores at each base to stall harassment. Get pathogen glands and use fungals wisely (against cloak or when they are out of position). You can afford even more spores since you won't be creating lings against this combo.

Also I just read these posts and I wanted to make it clear that I'm just high diamond so I'm not sure how much authority I have in giving advice. These are merely what I think I'd do and I know it well that it's easier said than done and that thinking during a match can be quite hard

 

I have to agree with you guys on my previous post =.=
i just realized that i might have been wrong about hydras countering stalkers...