How to micro infestors most effectively

Question

I've been trying to get better with infestor usage. If I have just a couple of infestors, I seem to be able to use them OK against marine balls with a double-fungal. When I start getting 5+ infestors and trying to use them with zergling/roach to take on protoss balls/terran mech thor/hellion/tank compositions I am running into problems.

I normally have my lings/roaches on 1/2 and infestors on 3. I try to engage with lings/roaches and then tell the infestors to fungal, but with the delay from individual infestors moving into range and casting, the fungal doesn't always land on the targeted units.

Another problem is I frequently in the heat of battle end up mis-selecting and instead of my 3-f-click-f-click-f-click casting three fungals, I select some other unit by mistake and then my infestors proceed to mill around and die.

Before the neural parasite range nerf, I found it easy and effective vs void rays, tanks, colossuses etc. With the new short range I cannot seem to find a use for it. Any advice?

Finally with infested terrans it can be hard to spawn large numbers of eggs quickly, resulting in infestors being killed with high energy. I tired right clicking then shift+t queuing up large numbers, but then the infestors all cluster in a huddle trying to move into the "firing" position one at a time resulting in a slow deployment.

Thanks!

Asked by Nick

Answer

For the first question. I would suggest microing the Infestors to stay in the middle of the pack, possibly selecting the infestors and using the fungals first. Then quickly selecting the other units. I would almost tell you to consider having them all selected (Roaches,Lings, and Infestors) and then fungal growth as your units are moving in. Otherwise you would require a high APM to move those groups almost simultaneously to engage the enemy.

Also, you don't need to keep selecing the control group again for multiple fungals you can simply F-Click, F-Click, and repeat. As for triple clicking that is simply something you need to work on.

If you can manage to have some Burrowed infestors behind the enemy as he is moving up (already seen the attack coming and assuming he doesn't have detection) have them on a control group and burrowed and let the enemy pass then pop up from behind and take the key units under your control.

And for Infested terrans, you can have those Infestors burrowed and spam the "T" button and left click on the map where you want it. You again, don't need to select the control group again and again and shift clicking will not help at all. Simply T-Click, T-Click, and repeat. Do this very fast to spew out terrans. If burrowed you can move without getting hit typically. Even if they have detection I have noticed they don't seem to target burrowed units until there are no other attacking units in range. So just T-Click very rapidly.

Edit: As a side note, I tested Dbemerlin's idea and it does work to right click (Move) all infestors to start getting into range.

Answered by Nick122

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How to maximize Zergling/Roach army by the 12-minute-mark?

Question

I know it's possible to reach 200 supply in under 12 minutes playing as Zerg.

Assumptions:

• not attacked by opponent
• Queen injects larvae on time

How can I efficiently and quickly create a max army of Zerlings and Roaches?

Asked by ClarityForce

Answer

Since Stephano is famous for doing the 12 minute roach max, i would suggest watching his stream and trying to copy his play. He perfected that strategy to a point where 12 minute max is quite late for him (11:04 with harass is his record).

Also, you might want to check out this TeamLiquid Thread for more in-depth info on how he does it and how to get there: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=324733

Answered by dbemerlin

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How to Combat Protoss Walling in a Zerg's Base

Question

Recently I had a game where I went for a risky Hatch-First build except before the hatch was close from being completed the Protoss walled off my main's base with pylons exactly like the picture below.

Then he continued to create photon cannons behind this wall. How do I combat this? I tried getting roaches up and moving spine crawlers up, however my spine crawlers miserably failed as he broke through one of the pylons and moved them to the spaces not covered by my creep in my main. How do I prevent this? How can I stop this after it has begun? Killing the probe I am sure would be the priority. This, however, can be a difficult deal when he protects the probe by the cannons behind it.

As a side note, I understand that many tournament maps have a neutral supply depot to prevent just this. Here is the link to the article.

Asked by Nick122

Answer

There's a very popular way to break out of this wall in called the drone drill.

Essentially you will be puling most/all of your drones and making them all focus a single pylon. It's very micro intensive, but you can break out of it very quickly.

Psystarcraft has a tutorial on how to do this here:

Answered by Sorean

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How do I effectively counter a cannon rush with Zerg?

Question

I was a victim of a cannon rush in my last Starcraft 2 game. I was playing Zerg and my opponent was playing Protoss. About four minutes into the match, cannons and pylons started going up in front of the only entrance to my base.

What is the best strategy for handling such a tactic? Massed banelings seemed to be pretty effective, but I couldn't get enough of them to break through.

Am I better off attacking the cannon cluster directly, or should I ignore it, push to mutalisks/brood lords and attack my opponent's base?

Asked by peaches

Answer

If he's got cannons + gateways just outside your ramp, chances are he has minimal forces at his main base. Get a few mutalisks and/or Nydus worms to harass.

You might want to build a second hatchery to facilitate unit production. The reason a contain (not a 'cannon rush', as you labeled it) works so well against Zerg is because they typically need that second hatchery to keep up with (or surpass, usually) their opponent's unit production.

If you can, use your overlords to scout -- a protoss cannon contain might be annoying, but until he expands, you're just as well off economically as him.

Answered by Raven Dreamer

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2v2: ZP/T vs TT - how to not fall behind

Question

This is a specific 2v2 question regarding my partner and I as Terran/Zerg or Protoss/Zerg respectively, against a team of Terran/Terran. Assume 6+ player map, possibly shared base.

I find that we keep falling behind. We scout and see they are walling in. Should I tech to banelings immediately? Fast expand? Should we harass the wall?

It seems often I find we get behind in drone count and army composition OR we simply fall to smart counters. So my question is when opening in 2v2, on a large map, with opponents that are probably going to wall in, what do I need to do as a zerg player to compliment my partner who will either be Terran or Protoss?

How I tend to play is that I seem to be a stickler for early speedling play off of one base, moving into a roach/hydra combo OR ling/muta depending on the early pressure. Expansions are often late, imo.

Asked by Robb

Answer

Barring scouting some kind of all-in rush coming from the terrans, you should probably be expanding before the 26 food mark. Personally I would recommend 14 pool, 16 hatch, and getting two gas geysers up at ~21 food. If you want to play it safe though you can go 14 gas, 14 pool and get the hatch around 24. If you want to be a little risky for more economic gain, go 14 hatch 14 pool. The larger the map/distance between you and your enemy the safer the fast expand is. I would generally recommend getting speedlings with your first 100 gas, and a baneling nest with your next 50. Banelings are never a bad thing to have vs terran.

As for mid-game, muta-ling is generally superior to hydra-roach in team games, as the bigger maps makes the mobility and map control provided by the mutas and speedlings more powerful.

If you are falling behind, you likely are not building enough drones early. Drone hard early game, keep lings at the towers and one outside their ramp to spot when you need to start pumping units like crazy. With two queen boosted hatches you can get a lot of lings out by the time they walk across the map.

Personal Credentials: 1200+ diamond 2v2 team with both of us playing random.

Answered by en1gmatic325

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What are good Z+T strategies for multiplayer Starcraft 2?

Question

In a 2v2 game, if two Zergs are in one team they often do a "double-6-pool-rush". Even though almost everybody knows this opening, it is still very difficult to counter it, although possible.

Does there exist a similarly good opening for a Terran and Zerg team?

Asked by Budda

Answer

If you just want a basic rush opener for Z+T, you can go 6-Pool and Mega-Rax. Mega-Rax is the same sort of thing as 6-pool, just build lots of barracks and marines. Skip gas collection, but do get an Orbital Command for MULEs. Build 3 early barracks and more as you can afford them. One advantage of the Z+T composition is that Zerglings can form a front, tanking damage, while the marines can stand behind them and dish out damage. You can Google "Mega Rax" for more ideas or an exact build order.

However, I'd encourage you to broaden your horizons. These "builds" are all-in rushes. If they do not work, for example if your opponents have defended walls, you are left with a slow economy (especially for the Zerg), no tech advantages, and only the capability to build the most basic units. Opponents going for Roaches, Marauders, Tanks, Stalkers etc will steamroll you if your initial wave doesn't win the game.

So, of course feel free to play with rushes if you enjoy them, but you may also consider looking at other nice strategies and synergies, such as Medivacs healing Zerg units, or maybe Muta harassment + tank pushing, etc.

Answered by Wikwocket

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ZvP How to Defeat FFE? [closed]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
How to counter Protoss' fast expand as zerg?

Lately I have had trouble while playing Zerg defeating a Forge Fast Expander. The trouble is that I can't break his walls quickly or easily. I have tried searching for strategies online about breaking a FFE however no good results appeared. I did beat one by using a Nydus canal but the player wasn't quick enough to respond and surely could have defeated it if given a few extra seconds.

So what are some good strategies to defeating a Forge Fast Expander as Zerg?

Asked by Nick122

Answer

The correct way to beat FFE is not to all-in or go for early aggression (which can work but is gimmicky and not reliable) but to expand faster yourself. Think about what your opponent can't do when he FFEs... correct, punish you for greed.

Take for example games of stephano where he gets his third as early as 4:30 and that way has a far stronger economy that allows him to just overwhelm his opponent with the sheer number of roaches whenever the Protoss tries to be aggressive.

The usual followup to that is to tech up to hive and break the wall with infestor/broodlord/corruptor.

Take a look at this Day9 episode which - while focussed more on lategame - still shows some early/midgame stuff.

http://blip.tv/day9tv/day-9-daily-429-p1-stephano-s-zvp-late-game-style-6009413

Answered by dbemerlin

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Zerg late-game strategies

Question

I am a Zerg, and after a lot of sweating on battle.net I managed to get to the point where I survive with minimal losses to a number of rush waves.

My problem is that once I have enough resources to start massing advanced units I just don't know what to do!

Just as an example, lately I've been experimenting with loads of Mutas and a bunch of broodlords but getting obliterated by massed Hydras.

Can more experienced players provide examples of late-game strategies against different races?

Any input appreciated.

Asked by JohnIdol

Answer

The problem with most people transitioning with zerg to late game is that the other two races have what most people consider a "late game" unit. Carriers & Battlecruisers. This is a carryover of playing against the computer where you turtle until you build your "finger of god" army and then wipe the computer. Truly though, those 2 units are not good as a "single unit army" late game against a decent opponent. They won't let you turtle and build up like that.

Zerg has the ultralisk, but since it doesn't fly it's not the same as the other two races. As such, in SC2, late game zerg MUST be a mixed army, and it must be a LOT of units.

The best example of this is watching pros play. Check out this Day9 cast: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPdpFWzSgxo it's a great example of how the zerg player plays to zerg's strengths vs terran. he doesn't attack the mmm ball where the mmm ball has the advantage. he uses mutas (yes mutas) and lings & roaches. Particularly watch from 35:00 to 36:00 as he talks about WHEN & WHERE the zerg player should have attacked the terran player. fantastic commentary about using WHAT you have correctly, vs. worrying about what you SHOULD have. And what's great about this example is that essentially, when he finally brings in just a few brood lords but uses them correctly by 1. understanding what the enemy has, and 2. utilizing them accordingly, it's the brood lords that are a key part in giving him the win.

There's no "one size fits all" late game army composition, but here are some examples of good late game zerg armies:

1) roaches, banelings, speedlings & mutas. The power of this army is it's speed, but it's no slouch in a straight up fight. Be careful of fighting a mainly MMM ball in the open. Choose carefully when to engage them. It's weakness is anti air, but your ground units cost so little gas you should have masses of mutas, and if they go hard air units, just ignore and destroy them economically with your lings & banelings. Mix in some ultras for a good MMM busting mix, or some brood lords like in the video, or some infestors.

2) roaches, hydras, brood lords. as long as you keep your roaches in front this is a deadly combo. hydras are made of glass but they have good dps. the 3 different units will have a bit of speed difference so keep aware of that. Throwing in any other units will still help. infestors to lock down a mmm ball, ultralisks for more tanking, corruptors for stronger anti air and corrupting big units like titans, bc's etc.

3) speedlings/banelings, corruptors & brood lords. Keep your brood lords where the enemy can't get a bunch of units to single target them. so off a cliff or something.

4) just about any combo of units as long as you use them correctly.

Answered by Hurrikane

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Dealing with supply block as zerg

Question

So pretty basic question but how do you guys avoid getting supply blocked? Do you have a rule of thumb where you build X overlords at a time or something?

I don't get supply blocked too regularly but it happens often enough that I feel I need to fix my problem.

Answer

I normally build my overlord when I have 4 or less supply left.

My starting BO involves:

• 9 Ovi
• 16 Ovi
• 22 Ovi
• <4 Supply left.

I think this really helps.

Additionally if Larva have popped from one of my Hatcheries, I usually spend 1 on an Overlord if I'm going to use the other 6 on units.

Hope this helps.

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Do Infested Terran benefit from unit upgrades?

Question

Question doesn't really need an explanation. Do Infested Terran get any benefit from weapon/armour upgrades?

Answer

According to Team Liquid's Liquipedia 2 article, Infested Terran benefit from Zerg Ground Carapace and Zerg Missile Attacks. These attack upgrade benefits would be shared with the Roach, Hydralisk and Queen. While obviously the ground upgrades would benefit all zerg ground units.

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Which Zerg units beat that ball?

Question

Which Zerg units would be good to counter that Protoss group?

Answer

It depends on what tier you've reached at this time:

• 2: roach + corruptors - classic
• 2: baneling drops are pretty good against stalker heavy army, muta will take care of collusus
• 3: broodlords + mass roach / infestors

Some hint when you want to attack:

• harass opponent so it move this ball... and ball will become line or two smaller balls
• attack from different directions at once (in this case - flying from minerals, one group from N and another from W) so opponent will move army and not attack you for split a second. Plus 3 sentries will not be able to wall-off all front

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How to discover PsyStarcraft's build orders?

Question

I am looking for PsyStarcraft's favorite/most common build order(s). I'm a bronze-level and I find it hard to obtain just from YouTube replays (even when he says what's going on :). I'm especially interested in the following replays:

LIVE Rapz[P] vs [Z]vilePsY

SC2 LMntStallion[T] vs [Z]vilePsY

SC2 akrhRH[Z] vs [Z]vilePsY

How can I tell what exact build orders is he using?

Answer

Game 1: Live game (no production tab), I'll do the best I can.

• 11 Pool
• 15 Extractor
• 16 Overlord
• 16 Queen
• 18 4 lings
• 21 Hatch
• 23 Overlord
• 26 Queen
• 30 Overlord
• 34 Drone transfer (Nothing else was going on)
• 42 Hatchery
• 43 Macro Hatchery
• 48 3 Extractors
• 49 2 Overlords
• 59 8 Lings
• 60 Lair
• 60 Evolution Chamber
• 61 Metabolic Boost
• 76 Roach Warren At this point he just started massing lings to counter all the zealots that were coming.
• 68 Evolution Chamber Run by as soon as ling speed finished. Roaches made as soon as roach warren finished.

Game 2:

• 15 Hatch
• 16 Pool
• 18 Overlord (He supply capped himself :P)
• 18 Extractor
• 18 2x Queen 4 lings
• 25 Overlord
• 26 Spine crawler
• 26 Overlord
• 30 Ling speed
• 31 Overlord
• 31 Evolution Chamber (Side note, he could have built the evo chamber under the spine to force the hellions to have to run around the spine. In other words, he could have used the evolution chamber as part of a wall.)
• 35 Roach Warren (He mentions that it is late).
• 35 8x lings Can't really get the build order after this point since he's losing units and reacting.

Game 3:

• 15 Hatch
• 16 Pool
• 17 Extractor
• 17 Overlord
• Soon as the overlord finishes
• 18 2x Queen 4 lings
• 26 Spine crawler
• 26 Overlord
• 28 Roach Warren
• 29 Overlord x2
• 36 Roaches

Cut Drones Roaches all the way through. This takes you up to the 6:30 Mark

• 2x Overlord
• 2x Extractor
• 56 Supply by this point.

That should pretty much cover the early roach aggression that could have been done. Everything else was reactionary to what he saw.

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What do carapace upgrades do for damage in Starcraft 2

Question

How does a zerg carapace upgrade change inflicted damage on a unit? Is it worth purchasing?

Answer

The equation is very simple for armor (much simpler than Warcraft 3 for example).

Each unit has a number of attacks. Zealots for example hits 2 times for 8 damage each shot

Each unit has a number of armor points. Each armor point reduces damange by 1 by attack

Each race can upgrade armor (protoss shield works the same way). Each armor upgrade gives +1 armor.

So if a zealot would hit a zergling with carapace upgrade 1 (Total armor = 1) the calculation is as follow

(8 - 1) x 2 = 14 total damage

Now Starcraft 2 units gets bonuses versus particular types of units

Suppose that a Viking (2x6 +8 vs armored) would try to shoot down a battlecruiser (3 armor). The calculation goes like this

(6 + 8 - 3) x 2 = 22 damage

So you can say that multiple hits is a weakness, since the armor gets deduced multiple times.

Now for the second part of your question, is carapace upgrade worth it? I'd say yes, but the real answer is "it depends on when to get it". Starcraft is a game of tradeoffs, so getting upgrades is good, but losing because your enemy has more units/firepower than you is bad.

The question becomes "when is it safe to upgrade?". As a rule of thumb, I'd say that whenever the game gets lengthy, that you can secure an expansion for the extra gas this cost, do it.

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Which units are low on larva?

Question

I'm watching Day[9] Daily #194 and he just said something like that:

Rely on 'power units' - they are low on larva. So that way you can spend the rest of your larva on drones.

What does it mean? Which particular units?

Answer

found this on TL

Power Units

Power units are something Day9 talked about in many of his dailies.

What is a power unit?

This is simply a unit that is cost efficient and can keep your opponent at bay, making him think twice before moving out to attack you.

For Terrans these units are: Banshees and Tanks

For Zergs these are: Infestors and Mutalisks

For Protoss these are: High Templars and Dark Templars

Why are they important and when do you use them?

These units should be used all the time because they are really powerful, hence the name. These units give you time to do more things without fearing a attack at every corner. these units, in other words, control space and this is an important thing in all RTS games.

Once you have these units your opponent will focus on them in fear of counter attacks in their bases, this takes their focus away from your own bases, so power units can allow you to expand and tech more and get more ahead.

Don't get the wrong idea, power units will not win you the game, nor should you use them thinking that, there will be times where you will surprise your opponent and win that y but the core principle for using these units is to get further ahead.

In Artosis' words when you are ahead, get further ahead.

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Counter mass Thor + SCVs as Zerg

Question

Recently I've notice that Terrans do less bioball/tank against Zerg and go for a thor heavy play. The first problem with the mass thor push is that it's really difficult to distinguish from a standard mech play (hellions, tanks, thors) when you scout the Terran base (you just see "a lot" of factories with Techlabs on them).

The second problem is that this push often occurs before the Zerg player techs up to broodlords, which could be a pretty good counter to this.

What can Zerg do about it ?

Answer

As Artosis said, an army made mainly of Thors is quite immobile so you can abuse this with Mutalisks and Zerglings.

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What's the best counter to marine spam?

Question

I've seen this cheesy strategy a few times now - loads of marines with all the upgrades and medivacs. This wasn't a rush but still wasn't able to counter playing as zerg.

What's the most effective (zerg) way to counter this strategy?

Answer

There are a number of ways you can handle this, and I'll try to break them down for you:

• Roach Work
• Baneling Style
• Infestor Harassment
• Brood lord
• Back Dooring

Roaches are what many people consider the Marine's natural Enemy. With high HP (almost 3 times a Marine) and that 1 base armor its not surprising people would believe this. Unlikely in Starcraft 1, Marine's can't upgrade their attack range, so the shorter range of the Roach is punished less. The biggest issue you have to worry about with Roach based play is where you engage your opponent. Ideally you want to engage on open ground, on creep, and with a nice arc. Try to remember that because of the Roaches' short range remember to "move" into melee range, instead of "attack move."

Baneline Style is very popular against MMM in general, and usually used to compliment Roach or Hydra work. If you initially engage with your Roaches (in more Marauder based play you'd use Hydralisks here), and then bring in Banelings from the side or behind (flanking in military terms), you can usually make quick work of any Marine based force. Remember you never attack with Banelings, as they explode on death to do damage. Instead just "move" near the Marine force and let the Marines kill them off. I cannot stress how important baneling speed upgrade is against a Marine force, even on creep.

Infestor Harassment is also a nice compliment to dealing with Marines. While Medivac will heal most of the damage quickly, in the middle of a fight, Infestors can prevent Marines from backing up, while dealing incredible dps (9*#of marines). They are an excellent compliment to a Roach or Zergling based strategy. If you're dealing with Infestors alone, remember that it will usually require 2 Fungal Growths to kill a pack of Marines; where "usually" is influenced by the use of Stim and the presence of Medivacs.

If you're coming from a late game Air strategy it'll make more sense to use Broodlords. Brood Lords are effective because of their high damage, and because Broodlings draw fire from Marines. Because Broodlords are slow, its normally useful to engage from the edge of a cliff, where few Marines can hit you. Unless you have a very large number of Broodlords, this kind of play is unlikely to be effective on its own, and is best complimented with a cheap ground force (something ling based).

Backdooring is usually an effective technique for shutting down late game Terran pushes. Terran style tends to be fairly turtle dependent, so most Terran players will run for their base when ever its in trouble. You can leverage this with Muta Harass, Zergling Drops, or even Nydus Canal. The very fact that you are in his base will often make a Terran call off his assault, giving you more time to prepare.

With the exception of the last strategy, all these strategies are what I like to call "meat and potatoes" strategies. They have some method for killing the Marines and some method for distracting them. This is because Marines are extremely cost effective dps and once they hit critical mass, almost impossible to destroy for a short range based Zerg force. You strategy should look something like this: I need something for him to hit (let's say Ultralisks) and something to kill him (let's say Hydralisks, two units I didn't recommend). You would then engage with your Ultra heavy force, backed by long range Hydra. The Marines will naturally target the Ultra who have high HP and Armor, while the Hydra do the lion's share of the damage. When designing an anti-Marine strategy keep this in mind.

---

I used to include an explanation of Arcs here, but I've since moved it

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How to harass Zerg with Terrans (in the early game)

Question

I saw and read a lot of recommendations to harass Zerg if you play Terran (1x1). From one perspective it should pretty easy: put bunker and 4-8 marines there... actually anywhere you want to have a pressure point. It can be expansion, choke point, whatever.

BUT. There is "but" my concern here is that such "pressure" point is very vulnerable to bannelings/roaches. When Zerg detects this pressure he will get bigger army and wipe-out bunker with marines. If I had marines only - he could kill them with bannelings easily. If I have bunker - he will destroy it with bigger amount of roaches. So I will need to have constantly increasing forces close to the bunker... that means my base will be undefended...

I could add 1-2 siege tanks, but it is already mid game

So the question is: how to harass Zerg with Terran (in the early game) properly?

Answer

Before we talk about "how to harass" you first need to know why...

Why do you want to harass Zerg early?

The Zerg race is like a virus, it will spread out and overwelm you.

So, if you don't want to be overwelmed, you will have to deny your opponent from spreading out.

This is where a harass comes into play: You essentially prevent your opponent from performing a part of his plan. By placing your Bunker at the bottom of his ramp, you delay him from performing an Fast Expand and sending Zerglings towards your base / expansion / ...

As a bonus, you force him to create counter units against your bunker. This allows you to anticipate...

Why can't I keep the pressure up?

The Bunker is like a firewall, it will work until the virus takes it down.

BUT! As you see: Unless you have planning on performing a cheese inside his base, you will be unable to keep up the pressure. This is why you only send what you need for the harassment to work and no more. So that you can keep your defense up, take the Xal Naga towers, and so on...

How can I keep the pressure up?

The law of diminishing returns: Putting too much effort into something specific isn't worth it.

So, once your harassment is in place forget about it. Instead, work towards your next harassment.

Your opponent will manage to start spreading out so we need to figure out three things:

1. Where does your opponent spread to? --> Scouting
2. How can I efficiently prevent or deny him from spreading out? --> Harassment
3. What unit composition will he use to overwelm me? --> Scouting

As your opponent has Zerglings and Banelings or Roaches, your Marines will not help you in preventing him from the spread. They aren't fast for scouting purposes either. But, there is an unit in the Terran repository which answers these three questions quite well! The Hellion:

When playing Zerg, Hellions can also be used to ravage Drone lines. They are also effective against Zerglings but will fall to larger numbers of units quite quickly. With good micro, Hellions can take out large numbers of Zerglings (even Roaches prior to their range buff in patch 1.12 1).

This fast driving unit allows you to gain excellent map control to figure out where your opponent is, with a bunch of them you can easily take out Drones and Zerglings. As Roaches and Banelings are slower they are less likely to be at his non-natural expansions. And if they are they probably aren't in his natural base, allowing you to let the harassment take place if he didn't build up defense against it.

So, together with scanning his creep for buildings this perfectly answers the questions!

But what about Banelings and Roaches?

If the virus gets stronger, so should you.

Let's see how useful your Rax still is and what else you can use the Fact for:

Counter against Roaches:

• Marauders, instead of wasting minerals into self-suicidal Marines you can now reuse your Rax.

• Tanks, in an unsieged mode do nice DPS and can be turned into sieged mode against swarms.

Counter against Banelings:

• Marines, if you have any left, can be spread out to waste the Banelings.

• Marauders, again, have Consecutive Shells and can tank Baneling damage.

• Hellions, can kite Banelings if you micro properly.

A word of caution: Don't take Marauders out alone on the battlefield, they are easily overwelmed.

Supported by Hellions in the front and/or Tanks in the back they are a deadly anti-ground force.

Don't forget to expand when you move out!

But what about Mutalisks and burrowed Roaches?

If you don't take the necessary precautions, a virus will infect you.

You can do four things, perhaps combine them:

1. AA turrets, a static defense. A must for your mineral line, also helps you see cloaked Roaches.

2. An armory, which is essentially needed for a Mechanical play-style. Besides allowing you to do upgrades for both Vehicles and Air, they give you access to the powerfull Thor. Word of caution is that this is a slower unit and is more a kind of static defense, they should only be taken on the field if you have enough map control or AA turrets in your base to anticipate your opponent...

3. A starport, which gives you access to vikings, hellion drops, raven, banshees, and BC!

4. Stimmed Marines, just swap addons with a Factory and you can quickly transition into them.

Vikings are also useful to take out overlords/seers and become essential against later brood lords.

You are talking about some kind of Mechanical play? Interesting!

Sometimes, you have to use 'the stuff that you barely use' a lot!

This is a popular way to deal with Zerg, see the Mech tree in the left side at LP II - Terran Match-ups.

If this doesn't work out, it also lists a 3 Rax +1 Timing Push and the fresh 4OC economy-wise play.

Why does an attack I planned fail?

Turn your opponent crazy! But secure your expansions against a counter attack...

Don't focus on getting a single thing out, if the Zerg figures out that you are going to attack something specific (he can figure that out by creep, which gives vision; overlords and burrowed units) he will have his army ready to counter you. Instead, you might want to attack at two places at the same time: Attack the closest expansion with your army while dropping hellions at one of his other expansions or his base; similar you could kite units away, or force them to run away by using the Raven's abilities...

Bonus: Demonstration VOD

Because a video tells you more than a thousand words.

In a 1:1:1 setting, I found a replay for you that has a mix of game-play summed up in this answer.

Although I couldn't find better quality because it's RO32: GSL Season 3 - TheBestfOu VS Liquid`Ret

Unless you don't care about a non-english version that starts with an advertisement.

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Is a Zerg fast expand impossible to stop with Terran?

Question

A friend (platinum) told me that early Zerg expand cannot be stopped by Terran. In 99% of games a good Terran can build a bunker and can bring ONLY 1 marine inside. The Zerg's task here is keep 6 zerlings running between the bunker and pass from which Terran reinforcements are coming and kill all incoming reinforcements.

In this case 1 marine in a bunker won't make a lot of problems for the hatchery.

He also told me that next task for Zerg is to build one Spine Crawler far away from the bunker, but in way that it will be able to kill the bunker. In the same way if the bunker doesn't reach a mineral line the hatchery can produce drones and that can gather minerals...

From what he is saying, I see that Terran can NOT prevent Zerg from early expanding. He can (and MUST) only delay a quick Zerg expansion.

Is this true? Are there any other ideas here?

Thanks a lot!

Answer

Starting based on my previous answer, which explained why:

Why can't I keep the pressure up?

The Bunker is like a firewall, it will work until the virus takes it down.

Some opponents will scout and be smart enough to prevent you from throwing down the bunker by scouting for your incoming SCV and deny him from finishing the bunker. Or deny the marines from getting inside the bunker. With the bunker and marines you damaged his worker and army, forced zerglings and delayed him... Nothing more!

But I want to deny his expansion.

Because in theory, that could make me win the game...

BUT. You can't, let me quote IvoFlipse:

The problem with a Zerg going for a Fast Expand is that a Hatchery
is also his Barracks, Factory and Starport all mixed into one building.

It would be unbalanced if you were able to deny Zerg from getting additional production.

The Bunker Rush is less effective if your opponent scouts it and uses enough micro...
See Donblas A for other alternatives, or give up and transition into Hellions or Medivacs or Banshees.

Let's look at it from the other side!

Because you can think the way your opponent does.

Terran can create an extra CC in his main and then go and drop it at his natural, Zerg can only prevent CC from being dropped there by placing Zerglings at his natural which the Terran has to build something against in order to remove the Zerglings so he can land. With the Zerglings he forces and damages Marines, also resulting in the FE to be delayed... Nothing more!

And yes, he has alternatives: Deny you from gas by placing Extractors in your main, go Mutalisks, ...

Another idea...

Because theory crafting could result in succes...

We had a conversation about this based on your questions, and came up with the following idea:

• Produce 6 Marines, 3 Hellions and 2 Medivacs.
• Run the 6 Marines towards your enemy exposition.
• Slightly after, drop Hellions into his Mineral line at his base, focus on Queen and Workers.
• Heal and pick up up units once they get heavily damaged and retreat to protect your natural.

While in theory you can pull this off, it is once again based on how well you both micro.

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What build order should I use for Zerg in StarCraft 2?

Question

I'm familiar with the general mechanics of the game, but what's the best build order for the beginning of the game?

Answer

An opening dictates how you are going to start the match.

The basic Zerg openings:

• 6-10 Pool (Rush)
• 13-14 Pool (Standard)
• 14-15 Pool, 16 Hatch (Macro)
• 14-15 Hatch, 15-16 Pool (Macro+)
• 14 Gas, 14 Pool (Speedling)
• 12 Pool (Sen Style)

How to read these: The number indicates the number of drones you should build before your first structure. Since you can only build 10 before an overlord any number over 10 indicates building an overlord on 9 or 10 (9 or Extractor trick is the superior choice). Pool indicates building a Spawning Pool. Hatch indicates building a Hatchery. Gas, indicates building a Vespene Extractor on your nearby Vespene Geyser.

Which opening you choose usually relies on two things:

1. Your Opponent
2. Your Build

The Rush: A Rush opening is necessarily an all in, so that is a decision you are making prior to starting the match.

Standard: 13-14 pool is considered standard play, it can easily lead to fast expo or 1 base or speedlings or any of another things. Its considered standard play because of the options it offers you. I believe Slush of Root Gaming still runs this build.

Speedling: This is a strat that cropped up near the end of Beta mostly on Korean servers. If you build your gas before your spawning pool and immediately throw 3 drones in it on completion, then you will have exactly 100 gas when your spawning pool finishes. This leads to early speedlings for heavy pressure. Artosis is a large proponent of this build.

Macro and Macro+: Both of these are fast expansion builds designed to get up a very good early economy. They are very vulnerable to rushes, and require good scouting to support. The advantage of these is that if you can scout when your opponent leaves his base you can quickly put together a large force that will be ready just as he arrives allowing you to hold off the assault and be in better economic position. Idra and Machine tend to run this build.

Sen runs a 12 pool to give him a larger advantage against more aggressive zerg opponents, which are common on the asian server. Outside of him, it is not a very popular build.

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9 Overlord vs 10 Overlord

There has been a lot of debate as to getting your overlord after your 9th drone or after your 10th drones. To add confusion it is possible to get your overlord after your 11th drones by building a vespene extractor, building the 11th drone and then canceling the extractor to get your drone back. It is usually agree that getting your Overlord on your 9th drone, or building it after your 10th and then using the extractor trick to get an 11th while your overlord is building are the better choices.

There is some evidence to indicate 9 overlord is slightly better.

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I first wrote this post shortly after beta and while most of what I wrote here still rings true there has been a shift in the Meta game in that time. While 13-14 Pool is still an effective strategy, many more Zerg have shifted towards more Macro oriented builds. 14-15 Hatch in particular has really caught on in ZvT. Everything in the post remains valid but I think its still worthwhile to update on some of the newer developments.

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What's the advantage in upgrading your expansion into a lair instead of the main?

Question

I saw quite a lot of games where the zerg player chose to upgrade his natural into a lair. Usually I transform my main to a lair, because I feel like it's better protected. What's the advantage in upgrading your natural expansion instead of the main?

Answer

Simple answer: more health for the opponent to work through when it gets attacked.

Longer answer: see above. :) That's really the only reason the expansion gets upgraded first. But it also is a little map dependent too. If they can only reach your base early in the game via the front (i.e. Xel'naga Caverns) you'd want it to have more health so that you can hold onto it a little easier (i.e. buy you more time for your army to get there to defend it). But if they can walk into your main from another route, then there really is no advantage and just a matter of where your army is.

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