Zerg Army Composition?

On April 23 2010 04:34 Bwenjarin Raffrack wrote:


Because of how old Brood War is and how long we've all been playing it, TL tacitly, perhaps unintentionally, assumes a modicum of basic knowledge that generally goes unspoken on Liquipedia and the fora. For newcomers to the game, or those with no prior RTS knowledge, that assumption leaves a distinct gap between just picking up the game and readily absorbing information off of Liquipedia.

Indeed, I'd imagine it would be very difficult trying to sort through the wealth of information around here for the first time. However, if you do put in the effort of reading Liquipedia, the Recommended Threads, and watching VODs, it is not difficult to ascend quickly past that initial learning curve and beyond. After that, opportunity for discussion isn't lacking. Present yourself well, formulate your ideas well, and you'll probably be received well.

Not sure if I should really be responding to the OP, but I will anyway. Edit: Regretting this decision now.

ZvZ

Your composition analysis is generally correct. Extreme focus should be given to the initial build orders. ZvZ as a match-up is very volatile, and tactics and micro reign supreme.



ZvT

Standard ZvT against bionic is a match-up of ebb and flow, as evinced by the reactionary tech transitions, swings in map control, down to even the cyclical nature of drone production.

While Terran expands, zerglings gain early-game map control. After Terran gets his academy, stim, and medics, he's in charge, forcing the Zerg to build sunken colonies while he techs to mutalisks. The mutalisks keep the Terran hemmed inside his base because of the threat of harassment. Terran's economy from his expansion kicks in, and he finally gets a large enough army to be able to move out onto the map.

Zerg uses lurkers (and the threat of hold lurkers) to counter the Terran's growing, roaming bionic army while he quickly makes his way up to hive tech. Terran gets tanks, which out-range the lurkers, and science vessels so that he can push his way across the map to the Zerg's natural and break through the sunken colonies. Zerg burrows and unburrows his lurkers while forcing the Terran to siege his tanks with his mutalisks so that he can buy time for defilers and consume. Terran reaches Zerg's natural, but defilers arrive just in time to push him back with dark swarm.

Zerg pushes further out onto the map while he upgrades ultralisks (armor first or else they get murdered). Terran irradiates defilers and ultralisks to soften them up, and Zerg gets scourge to kill vessels and plague to weaken the Terran ball and minimize the vessel count. The game continues to go back and forth until the Terran is crushed underfoot or the Zerg is starved.

Of course, many refinements have been made and variations can occur throughout the whole game. Hydra/lurker, late game hydra/plague, fast mutalisks into guardians, crazy Zerg ultralisk rushing, etc. One thing to note is that Zerg's "timing" opportunities are somewhat more rigid because of the nature of hatchery production. Also, it's not only that lurkers require detection but also that they are simply strong units in general.

Against Terran mech, Zerg plays with his unit combination to delay the Terran push. Making more mutalisks forces more goliaths, until Zerg switches to making hydralisks to force Terran to wait for tanks. Terran must be incredibly mindful of his unit combination and tread a very fine line when he steps outside to secure another base. Also, rushing to hive tech isn't as critical against mech.



ZvP

Assuming forge FE, pool-first openings are to force Protoss to build cannons before the nexus and to prevent scouting after the first probe is dead. Before he can confidently proceed, Protoss needs to build a stargate and scout with corsairs. Zerg builds a spire to gain early air dominance with scourge. The staple Zerg unit is the hydralisk, and mutalisks (or queens, if you're ZerO) later to snipe high templar. Lurkers ward off masses of zealots and are used for contains, of course, while sniping observers with scourge. After Protoss gets his standard ball rolling, Zerg usually transitions into ultraling with defiler to nullify dragoons and archons, but hydralisks and lurkers are also effective combined with plague. Sniping expansions with dark swarm and cracklings is critical, as well as late game doom drops on the main.

If the Protoss goes corsair/reaver, zerglings are burrowed around the map for vision while hydralisks are burrowed in strategic locations. If Protoss transitions into corsair/carrier, we usually see the most exotic unit composition. Queens, devourers, defilers for triple the goop against corsairs, carriers, arbiters, archons, dark archons.


In short: