EPTwe're so high at this point that we're traveling back in time, literally. time is of course a very complex subject, and if you would like to know more about metaphysics of time you can read my book, which i plan to complete next year. it's true that time would continue whether there was no earth tomorrow or if there had never been an earth. from the perspective of time this is actually an important question time like anything else is shaped by the observer. if there was no earth there would for instance be no physics, and if we had no physics that universe would have a different clock.
for these and other reasons we start playing Zerg, which is basically what you would look like if time left you behind. for all intents and purposes the Zerg are just a blob of physical matter running around with no real agency. the only opinion that matters is the opinion of the overmind, which in some sense writes everything relative to the Zerg including math, physics, philosophy and art. thus the only thing meaningfully traveling forward in time is the Overmind, whlie the rest of the Zerg travel backward in time relative to the Overmind. Since they don't care about anything else, the Zerg just kill all the other stuff because it impinges on the Overmind's authoring.
the first replay
we decide to harken back to the early days of Starcraft: Brood War and adventure with the upgraded Zergling build. for this build we won't be able to do anything on the map because we won't have detection. therefore our goal is hamper the Protoss third with 1-1 speedlings and to shore up our main and expansion with basic defenses.
the rationale for our build is that we will actually have a lot of extra Vespene even though we don't have a third. this is true because all we're building is upgraded lings as we go for the fastest Hive possible. we turn to Queens and Ensnare which will be our only detection. the Queens are of course safe from everything because we have Parasite and Ensnare. the Protoss is forced to make some difficult decisions as he cannot have Templar or else we can Spawn Broodling.
Thus our most likely enemy composition is Zealot Archon, which of course is also a good counter to upgraded Zerglings. Thus for our build to work we need to make some timing attacks with our Queens: ensnaring the Archons and separating them from the speed zealots. We also will be producing Ultralisk quickly which if necessary can trade well with Zealot Archon when the numbers are in our favor. Thus we are playing around Ensnare quite a bit and hoping to create some diversions like Zergling drops. This plays nicely into our build since we are getting the strongest possible Zerglings.
In the ideal scenario we delay our third and forth bases and take them rapidly as the situation permits. We have maximum focus from playing only two bases and can use our Zergling-Queen to take some advantageous spots. We might also look at upgrading two Lairs for more drop potential. This doesn't really cost us anything extra and is another avenue other than Hive and would allow us to maximize our value from Ensnare. The biggest advantage to our style is the Protoss cannot easily reinforce because of Zergling intercept and cannot retreat because of Ensnare.
the second replay
brief foreward
we are of course really really really high now, and everyone is awake so we are playing at around 100 APM below where we want to be. there seems to be no way to solve the quantum mysteries except to get higher even while we play Starcraft, so getting high while playing might slow us down.
discussion
i didn't think there would be much I could contribute to ZvT. the matchup seems pretty "solved". but now i am having some second feelings as we can see in the reVOD. for instance a lot has happened since i last investigated ZvT, and probably the most important aspect is the Terran opener. it is pretty unacceptable for Terran to take such a fast expansion and go unpunished. this seems to be the big lesson of this game.
however awe-inspiring mutalisk micro proves to be, we cannot assume this to be the solution to a comprehensive starcraft. therefore we should analyze this replay closely. although we max out our two-base economy and tech (1-1-1 &
2-2-2) we are still way behind where we would expect to find ourselves. this means there is a way for Zerg to take a second expansion a la ZvP. it seems only hydralisk could be the answer to this question.
there is not much more to say about this replay other than there is clearly a problem with the ZvT macro meta.
