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Active: 6542 users

Part 4: Oh, the Terran!

Blogs > jpunshon
Post a Reply
Aus)MaCrO
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
Australia349 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-09-30 06:21:59
October 06 2008 02:56 GMT
#1


****
Athos
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
United States2484 Posts
October 06 2008 03:02 GMT
#2
Work on your mutalisk harass. That's probably the most crucial time in the game for Zvt. If you can keep terran in his base long enough, you can establish a superior position for the late game. Just play game after game of zvt on iccup until you improve your play.
KwarK
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
United States44041 Posts
October 06 2008 03:28 GMT
#3
Glad to hear you took my advice about 12 hatching regardless of 2 gate zvp on board. It always annoys me when people ask for help and then ignore it.
As for ZvT standard games, if you can't mutalisk harass, learn. The UMS to pick it up exist and with low latency on icc there is no reason you can't do it with practice. When practice maps for specific micro scenarios exist you really have no excuse for poor micro. Trying to learn muta harass by mass gaming ZvT is the wrong way to go about it. With enough games you'll get the hang of it but you'll be doing very little harass in each game. Just use the UMS to get the timing and grouping down, then work on execution in game.
That said, if you really cannot learn mutalisk micro then drop muta from your game. Don't get too hung up on what the pros do if you can't emulate it at even a low level. That's not saying don't go spire, it's important to have the threat of muta (maybe even make a few and show the terran them if he doesn't scan it so he turrets up and camps) and scourge tech is vital but if you can't rape his scvs with 9 muta then why make 9? If they're not cost efficient in your hands then use units which are.
You don't need to mass expand, in fact that often won't help you at all. Terran blobs reach a point where it doesn't matter how many hydraling you throw at them because medics are quite frankly imba. Rather than trying to sauron you should be concentrating on having 1 more gas than the terran has in the mid game and having decent upgrades and defilers late game. It's the crackling defiler combo which will save you from that blob and that takes gas for upgrades, scourge and defilers but not all that many minerals. Once you've swarmed all over that first push and stopped spending money on tech etc you can start sauroning and heading to the cows.
ModeratorThe angels have the phone box
meathook
Profile Joined December 2007
1289 Posts
October 06 2008 17:43 GMT
#4
On October 06 2008 11:56 jpunshon wrote:
So far, I have mostly talked about my 2 gate woes, and my 9 hatching to combat those 2 gate woes. Thankfully, I am now pretty good at combating it with the trusty 12 hatch, so I can move on to bigger issues, specifically what to do against D grade Terran.

D grade Terran are actually pretty good! Granted, they may not be D grade at all - people could simply be playing on their alternate account, or they could have just started playing. Most Terran's wall off (which I hate! - Let me scout wankers!) and they tend to play fairly standard. There isn't much rushing. A lot of players open 2 rax, but since I usually go overpool against Terran (today I will be 12 hatching a little - should be interesting), it isn't very effective. From here, they tend to wall off and proceed down three basic paths.

1. MnM + A few tanks + Vessels - I truly hate this build. I am sure Terran players love it, since it is so very strong, but for Zerg it is so very annoying. I for one cannot deal with this head on, so I try to take advantage of the relative slowness of the build and expand a lot along with executing plenty of drops. Alas, the Terran ball usually reaches my front door, and I cannot break out. The problem I guess is that my mutalisk harass is usually pretty ineffective, and I do not get Defilers fast enough to strengthen Lurker/Ling.

2. Cloaked Wraiths - Usually, I can spot this coming. The Terran will wall off more or less no matter what, will build bunkers even without much aggression on my part, and won't move out with their first Medic and Marine group as is standard in order to get the Zerg to sunken up. Basically, they turtle up to get their precious wraiths. Overlord speed is a must to combat it, as are plenty of hydralisks. Mutalisks can work certainly, but the Terran usually follows the wraiths up with the standard MnM + Tank + Vessel seen above, so getting the hydras and skipping mutas allows getting lurkers faster to combat it IMHO.

3. Mech - Tanks, Vultures, Goliaths OH MY!

The "it" build for T v Z at the moment, the Terran player will turtle up much like above, and will lead out with Vultures (speed upgraded, mines) and will assault your drones/lings freely. Overlord speed as always, sunken up a bit to wear off the harass, expand everywhere ala GGPlay and mass mutalisks! Seriously, I don't quite know how to combat this mech stuff. I figure mutalisks would just melt to goliaths, and going for hydra/ling doesn't seem to work either (see Midas Vs thezerg - OSL ro16 - mind you it is on Plasma). Any help would be appreciated on this one.

If 2 rax is not effective vs your overpool, then T does not know how to micro.

1. Not only you cannot deal with this head on, no zerg with a brain should deal with this "head on", unless you have 3:1 advantage and/or hive tech.. search forums for "beating the ball" or something like that... I remember there was a huge thread about this.

2. Mutalisks and overlord speed counter cloaked wraiths better than hydras.

As for the mech stuff, you should do search the strategy forum, there are a couple of threads about it. It should be countered with upgraded mass lings and hydras, iirc.. I never do this build though, so don't take my word for it. How many times have you encountered this anyway? I cannot imagine many terrans doing this on iccup.
An ugly planet. A bug planet.
Rayzorblade
Profile Blog Joined September 2004
United States1172 Posts
October 06 2008 21:19 GMT
#5
I have to agree with meathook (although I'm only C- Zerg) that mutalisk+overlord speed is MUCH better to counter cloaked wraiths because (with proper micro) you can kill the Terran outrigtht if he went cloaked wraiths - they're so weak vs. muta; add a scourge or two in and it's even easier. vs. any kind of gas-first build I go 2hatch muta anyway.. though if that's wrong I'd hope a higher-skilled player would correct me!
Pokebunny
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
United States10654 Posts
October 09 2008 11:47 GMT
#6
@ meathook: I've started going mech a lot recently in TvZ (I'm D/D+) and you really need hive tech to beat it, once I start getting some units. I've lost a few times to 9pool and even 12pool speed.
Semipro Terran player | Pokebunny#1710 | twitter.com/Pokebunny | twitch.tv/Pokebunny | facebook.com/PokebunnySC
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