Ladder Blog #17

As of the moment, about 70% of all the Terrans I'm playing seem to be going for mech. And I can do pretty well against I feel. My opening build is

• 13 scout
  
• 16 hatch
  
• 18 pool
  

Quite often, I scout a command centre first. I have no idea if this is even economically efficient but I've come to make a third hatch before pool at 18 supply followed by a pool at 17 and then an overlord at 16. I only make two queens but it's been working out so far. BW mentality setting in I guess, though in BW, you wouldn't scout the 14 cc before going 3 hatch before pool.

Anyway, I'm not exactly sure what gas timing I should do. I generally get double gas somewhere between 5-6 minutes but I find that a single gas just to get ling speed against hellions works too, followed by more gas geysers later. I try to go with only speedlings in the early game and they're really versatile against pretty much any opening Terran does.

Once I get lair, I love my mutalisks. Fast, manouverable, and I can attack in two different locations in conjunction with my zerglings. Now, if they're going mech, it's pretty simple. If I haven't expanded to my third because of hellions, I'd probably have droned up a ton. Clean up the hellions with the mutas if I haven't done so already, double or even triple expand, then delay him with mutalisks while my expansions set up and mass up roaches. If he makes a bunch of turrets, try to poke holes while feeling secure in the fact that he invested a huge ton of money in turrets and can't attack. Then just smash his head in with a blunt hammer of roaches.

Now, I feel that most players are incompetent while playing mech. I recently saw a stream of Liquid'Sea playing (HE LEFT TEAM 8 BUT I STILL LUV HIM) and he just crushed this poor Zerg with a giant mech ball. Unfortunately I only saw the tail end of the game and most of my games, I've won before this stage but I imagine he harasses and stops Zerg from droning up hard. So far, not a problem. I feel that bio's a lot harder to deal with but banelings and zerglings seem to deal with it okay.

Zerg vs. Protoss, I'm feeling great, but haven't had many chances to play. General gameplan, stephano build but less push-focused and more economy-based. Reinforce with Zerglings and mutalisks and threaten counterattacks. If I feel I can't push with my initial roaches I just expand and hold back waiting for counterattacks. Now the problem with roaches with counterattacks is that they're not expendable and you need a good bunch of them to deal damage to buildings properly. So if he comes back and kills the roaches, I'm pretty screwed unless I can get another counterattack force up in time. And base races are pretty easy since it's simpler for me to get drones out than it is for him to get probes out (lings can chase down probes, I have more expansions spread out so I can sneak units out more easily).

• 15 pool
  
• 16 hatch (I send out two drones, one to his expo. If he pylon blocks and probe harasses me like hell, I pop a hatchery down on his natural.
  
• Continue Stephano 11 min attack style
  

In the late game, I'm learning how to use Broodlords. Before, I've always preferred ultralisks but I'm starting to feel their limits because of immortals kill them so easily. Broodlords are soooooo slow but definitely pretty good if I position them properly. That's something I still need to work on, along with infestor control. Basically, the late-game's my biggest problem. Getting there, not so much.

This is the matchup I had the most trouble with before, but I found that I have a nice little setup now. 15 gas, 15 pool, pull drones when 100 gas and get speed. I don't save larva for zerglings unless I spot any enemy zerglings coming with my overlord. I just drone as much as possible and then get a couple of lings when my pool is done. Expo at nat, then my build diverges.

If he goes pool first like me, then I just make a few lings to compensate for how behind I am since I didn't save larvae, then just get a roach warren and restart my gas mining, playing reactively to the oppponent. If he expands, then try to harass with zerglings, if he attacks, hold with roaches.

If the opponent 16 hatched, then he'll usually have zerglings before I can get there since I didn't save larva. With my initial pair of lings, I'll just wander around his base but I'll get a set of eight or ten timed with my larva inject and ling speed. I can usually do a bunch of damage with that and/or make him paranoid about all-ins. While that happens, I get a roach warren and retreat with the lings if possible. I make a few roaches to guard for a counterattack, but if there isn't one, I'll just push to in front of his natural with the lings and roaches and pull back, forcing him to make a bunch of defense.

I get lair when I feel like it (I should come up with a better timing) and get spire first. Once I start it, I'll switch to zergling production and go attack his third if he's started one while starting my own, and counterattacking if he attacks at all. Once my spire's done, same deal. I like to consider my decision-making my strong point so I can generally pull ahead with this tactic. I only make an initial round of mutalisks and switch to infestor/roach. I've been learning how to get better with infestors but I try to go to ultralisks asap.

I've found that ultralisks pretty much can only deal with roaches if they have a bunch of infestor support to hold them in place. Before, I've tried pure ultralisks and the roaches can just kite too well. Ultra-infestor works really well though. By then, I've usually secured an advantage and just a-move to the win.