EPT
So, yeah, write 4 blog posts, get 2 closed by mods.
What did I learn today? Don't ask for strategy-based advice in blogs. I'm informed that doing so is in violation of the policies and that any post asking for strategy-based advice (I think) should go into the strategy forum (and obviously, conform to those guidelines). Fair enough!
I guess I will have to keep my questions rhetorical from now on to avoid the appearance of asking for strategy-based advice and to try to keep my blog posts open. Maybe I'll post a disclaimer or something like, "All questions are rhetorical! I am NOT asking for any strategy-based advice!"
So, let's try that last post again without asking for strategy-based advice.
I'm currently on an awesome ZvZ tear - I know I am 18-7 in my last 25 games according to SC2ranks.com and I vaguely remember most of those wins being ZvZs.
But my last ZvZ was a loss and it has been a game that I've been giving a lot of thought to.
So, first, the recap.
The map is metal, and we spawn at the 9 and 6 o'clock close-by-air positions. We see each other with an OL passover so I don't send out my usual 9-drone scout. I leave my OL near the ledge, on the nat-side, so I can see what's going on. I open 14p/14g and make 6 lings and a queen when I can.
My opponent (henceforth "villain") has a slightly faster pool but a slower gas and slower meta-boost. He gets his queen out and starts to attack my OL. My OL floats (ever so slowly) away from his base, across his nat, and he sends his queen to follow. My slow-lings, who were on their way to scout his base anyway, get there /just/ as he snipes my OL (but his queen is now off-creep in his nat and slow as shit), so I manage to trade a OL for his queen.
Meanwhile, I started a baneling's nest and made more lings. He had some lings in his base but he wasn't quite ready to come out yet. Unfortunately, I don't see that he hides about 12 lings near the mineral line of his nat - I take 5 banelings and a bunch of speed-lings (I attacked after my meta finished but while I saw that his meta wasn't yet) and go into his base. His lings are sitting at the top of his base and I end up trading 5 banelings for about 6-8 lings. The 12 lings outside his base come rushing back in and clean it up.
I continue to press with speedlings and banelings while trying to drone-up and toss down a roach warren. He has his roach warren down much faster than me and puts four roaches on top of his ramp, ending my harassment. I take my units home, and start making roaches.
He counter-pushes, and after a bunch of back-and-forths, manages to do a lot of drone damage and finally, I gg out.
When watching the replay, I noticed that during his second push out (I manage to hold his first), he also expands into the gold - I didn't have my OLs in the usual places and so I didn't spot that, otherwise, I think I could have done some heavy economic damage at that point (I had cleaned up his roaches and he didn't have any lings or roaches on the field at the time.)
So, a few mistakes that I noted.
1) I shouldn't have rushed into his base after sniping the queen - I was up 50 minerals at that point, in addition to killing his scouting drone, so I was up 100 minerals.
2) Even after suiciding my lings/blings into his lings/queen in his base, I think I was still up minerals, but I pressed the attack without thinking too clearly.
3) I need a defined point when I stop sling/bling and move to roach and it has to be before he already has roaches up. I think this is going to be somewhere at the 24-ling mark. An initial push with 16 lings and 8 blings, and then the followup is roach/ling, I think.
4) I think that I should have tried to scout for roach earlier and if I did, I should stop my sling/bling harassment.
5) I should have targeted my blings for his workers and not his lings - this is actually a trick that I've used in the past and should have done it this time as well. On metal, from the ramp to the mineral line is such a short distance that you can actually just run past spines or lings or whatever, and just go for the workers with your blings. With 6, you can usually get 4-5 close enough to do some serious damage. The only reason that I didn't, in this game, I think, was because I thought that he didn't have very many lings and that I could clear it out first with blings, instead of thinking that I would do maximum econ damage first.
6) I /missed replacing the OL/ and got supply-blocked at 28. /That/ was embarassing.
7) Macro-hatch to produce overwhelming larva/lings in this situation without going roach, maybe? I don't know. (This is a rhetorical question and not asking for strategy-based advice!)
Anyway, this one game has given me a lot to think about and a lot to process. It's actually been on my mind ever since I took the loss last night and I think it has clearly been one of those "good" losses that will teach me a lot.
