Ladder Blog #12

A general rule I follow when developing my own strategies or tactics is to look back on Brood War. From there I created my original spine crawler rush vs forge FE build (you can defend it easily if you know how but if you don't it's easy win) after remembering the proxy hatch strategy on Medusa back when the center was completely buildable. I also made my choice to switch to 15 hatch after going over Brood War strategy trends.

There's a standard set of timings in Brood War. Off of two base, one would go for a spire, using a set of 11 mutalisks to keep the Terran in his base while securing a third gas. Then, a transition into lurkers would follow, ideally just in time to defend against a push from a Terran who's stabalized against mutalisks. After that, a quick hive with a defiler transition would take the Zerg into late game.

I thought about ways to incorporate this into SC2. Brood War ZvT was largely gas heavy, without a need for many mineral units. In comparison, Zerg vs any race in SC2 is all about getting the high drone count up. While I'm not sure if cutting drones is the right way to do things, I might try to play a less drone focused style. Instead, I want to go for an early mutalisk timing to secure a third base, transitioning into burrowed banelings.

11 mutas might be a bit too few, since this is Starcraft 2. Still, I'll use time bought from that to position some burrowed banes in key locations and grab my third. The banes either force scans or kill him outright. Either way, I'll keep a zergling counterattack force positioned at his back to backstab as soon as he moves out. I'll use mutas to stop drops and use the time to tech to hive.

This is where it gets tricky. There are no defilers in SC2. I'll probably have to go directly into ultralisks. Infestors is the other option but personally, those are less of a game-ender unit and more of a mid-game option akin to mutas.

That said, I've never even tried this once in a game. Ever. So there's a fairly good chance that everything I'm saying is complete rubbish and it won't work. I'll be trying it out next chance I get.

I've picked up a few tricks in ZvZ and I think it might work. Before, when I watched the Nestea game, I went to sc2rep.com and searched up nestea. I used the game against ZeNEXKyrix as my baseline. Unfortunately, since that was mostly just cheese defense by Nestea, I didn't get THAT much.

Then, I watched three of the four games against Losira and I figured out a lot more.

Nestea opens up with a 10 pool in two of the games. In one of the games, Losira goes for a standard gas pool build and Nestea simply transitions like normal, making use of the quick queen to spawn larva and catch up economically. He blocks his ramp, adds a spine crawler, everything normal, and ends up winning. In the other game, Losira goes for a hatch first and Nestea goes for a ling/drone spine crawler all in, winning the game and making it look easy. I notice that he sends a drone out to scout around the 1:40 mark and only checks the natural base, heading straight back home. I'll definitely be studying the build more.

In the third, he simply goes for an early hatch and beats Losira standard. I learned most out of this replay I think, as Nestea rushes for the spire and deals with the infestors very well. The mutas allow him to take a third base super fast and with the extra minerals, he puts up spine crawlers to defend against roach busts. Also, he cuts roach production entirely after the first batch and makes zerglings, clearly to save up gas for his mutalisks.

In the 10 pool game where he transitioned into macro mode, he didn't get a lair at all. He simply abused some very nice... Something to win with roaches. I actually have no idea how he worked that one to his advantage. I'll need to check that again too.

Unfortunately, none of these games have replays, and only chinese commentated VODs. I muted because I honestly don't like listening to the chinese language that much. They'd be great for people who understand though.

So I hear about some sort of 4/5 hatch before gas build being used in ZvP. Unfortunately, I have no idea how this goes. If someone can link me to a VOD or even better, a replay, I'd appreciate it.

So I've lost to a 6 gate even though I scouted it, (I should've countered), I beat an all-in and not much else. If I get into mid-late game, I'm golden.

I've made a modification to my 11 pool build. Instead of:

-Gas trick
-11 pool
-Gas trick
-11 overlord

I instead go:

-Gas trick
-11 pool
-10 overlord
-Gas trick

I think it gets me SLIGHTLY (I mean like 5 or 10) less minerals but my overlord pops faster (for scouting) and my larva pops faster too. Good tradeoff I think. Other than that, ZvPland is wonderful.