EPTAfter several months working on my macro zerg, I've gone from silver to platinum, and my games are finally starting to look like macro zerg games (also much more fun). I've seen a number of posts from people who want to play a macro zerg, and I think I've learned some things that other people might find useful.
My first "real" macro game - protoss goes nexus first, and when his first push hits, I've got 3 bases, 66 drones, 1 zergling, and some spines/spores, but I manage to hold and then swarm back over the top of him. WARNING: NOOB VS NOOB, many mistakes on both sides, but damn was I happy :D - http://www.sc2replayed.com/replay-videos/10884
Macro vs Decision making:
Something that screwed me up a *lot* was confusing macro and decision making in the early stages. A "Macro style" is an Idra/Ret/Dimaga inspired style, that can be roughly described as "Make as many drones as you can get away with", but this is primarily about the choice of drones vs unit. Macro itself is largely mechanical, and very specific.
Macro is:
* Injecting on time
* Timely overlords
* Spending your money
* spending your larva
* spreading your creep
This list of things is Good, with a capital G. You should always inject on time, avoid getting supply blocked and spend all your money. The times when these rules are broken are very specific, and always for a good reason. It's well worth practicing these things, and getting better at them will only improve your game. Everything else is either micro or decision making.
"Macro Style" is:
Build as many drones as you can without dying ( and then bury your opponent in unrelenting waves of units).
It's more like an art form than directive. You basically have to take the entire game into account to know whether it's safe to build drones - your army, your opponent's army, map control, available tech, intelligence, attack timings, how good you are at defending, the map, the time of day, your mother's maiden name, the lot.
There are rules of thumb here, and personal tasts, but no hard and fast rules. Sometimes you can get more drones by building some army first and then droning behind it (e.g. muta harass), and sometimes you'll get more drones by droning up as hard as you can before you need an army (e.g. taking a 3rd when you scout a fast expansion).
The most critical thing about "Macro style" as a lower ranked player is that you need as many defences as *YOU* need to survive, *not* as many defences as Idra/Ret/Dimaga do. Sure they can hold off 4 hellions with 1 crawler and one queen, but you're going to die. Get enough defence to survive. If you hold the attack off easily (or they just go home), get slightly less in future.
So, rule #1 of macro: Know what macro is, and know what macro isn't.
