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Hi there - beware, noob post (and no replay).
Lately I lost a few ZvT games on LT (sorry, no replays available, for I am at work) to early wraiths - I was surprised by them.
My problem is I lose my scout in his base before I see terran going port, T blocks his ramp so I do not get anouther ling/drone through, and I do not want to sacrifice an OL (no speed upgrade!) to see T's tech.
Perhaps my own tech (den, spire) was late (securing natural)?
Suggestions welcome.
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scout his numbers.
Early wraith is strong, so you might need to quickly switch to hydras or evo.
Im a 3 hatch into spire. Sometimes wraiths arrive whne my spire is half done, some other times when its almost done.
Its situational. I might wait for scourges and thats it. Since im confident with mutas i dont fell bad if i lose some seconds before attacking with mutas.
Early wraiths is less units for him.
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scouting is key! and while it may seem impossible to see his starports building, there are other things you can look at to find out if he's doing some sneaky strategy.
with your initial drone scout, which should make it into the T's base for sure, there are 3 things i generally look for:
a) the timing of his barracks. you'll develop a feel for what standard barracks timing is, and if you see one that's blatantly early, you can pretty much assume he's going to rush you, so get ready to pull those drones. b) the number of barracks. 2 is pretty standard, whereas 1 generally signifies an FE or some kind of tech strategy. if i see a terran building only 1 rax, sometimes i steal his gas so as to force a fast expand. a lot of nasty things can come out of a tech build, (acad rush, tank rush, vulture rush, proxy fact, fast wraith, fast drop) so sometimes it can help to just take his gas and eliminate the unknown variable. c) whether he takes his gas or not. if you see him take his gas quickly, you know off the bat that something tricky is coming your way and you can prepare for it.
your ling scouts will also give you an idea of what he is doing if your drone scout didn't relay proper info back to HQ. place one of your initial zerglings behind his nat minerals to check if he is fast expanding, and use another one or two to run up his ramp and check his marine count. if he has a high marine count, it is likely that your zergling friends will die. however, you now can rest assured that he is not going to be doing some surprise vulture rush or super fast wraith. if he has a low marine count, then be wary.
a) watch your sunken timing b) be ready to block your ramp with your nat drones if he tries to run vultures by c) be very careful of the dark corners of your base
because he's sacrificing unit count for crazy tech, 2 hatch muta builds work pretty well.
now, if you get the worst case scenario and really do get surprised by wraith, run hurt drones back and forth while your spire/den finishes and try to lose as little as possible, and most importantly, be mindful of the transition to fast droppp! if a group of m&m lands in your base after you chase off that pesky wraith, you are pretty fucked.
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On September 27 2007 21:29 Metaspace wrote: Hi there - beware, noob post (and no replay).
Lately I lost a few ZvT games on LT (sorry, no replays available, for I am at work) to early wraiths - I was surprised by them.
My problem is I lose my scout in his base before I see terran going port, T blocks his ramp so I do not get anouther ling/drone through, and I do not want to sacrifice an OL (no speed upgrade!) to see T's tech.
Perhaps my own tech (den, spire) was late (securing natural)?
Suggestions welcome.
Well if you scout him making a Starport + Control Tower but no Science Facility, then obviously you should be expecting either:
a) Early Dropships to annoy you  b) Cloaked Wraiths to annoy you 
Either way, getting Hydralisks is the first thing you should go for, and then Spire + Scourge to deter Dropships, etc.
Just a stupid noobie question: If T decides to go early Wraith/Dropship should I just go for Lurkling after I deter his drop? Or just go for Mutaling or something?
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if you see fast gas on T, always make 2 hatch fast lair into mutas. And if you suspect something but cant see what he is building, just try to get that spire up asap and 1 spore in main + exp til you get your spire done so that you wont lose too many drones... Build 1 creep in main coz if wraith doesnt appear you can make a sunken coz he might drop instead. if wraith is scouted and spore is on its way, just make another one in your exp and you should be fine ;O
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Calgary25977 Posts
On September 27 2007 21:29 Metaspace wrote: Hi there - beware, noob post (and no replay).
Lately I lost a few ZvT games on LT (sorry, no replays available, for I am at work) to early wraiths - I was surprised by them.
My problem is I lose my scout in his base before I see terran going port, T blocks his ramp so I do not get anouther ling/drone through, and I do not want to sacrifice an OL (no speed upgrade!) to see T's tech.
Perhaps my own tech (den, spire) was late (securing natural)?
Suggestions welcome.
More annoying Chill trying to mould the strategy forum.
This is an ideal OP for this kind of thread. It's concise and to the point. First, he let's you know his skill level so you aren't giving him advice that won't apply. Then he quickly introduces the problem. Finally, he takes a stab at answering the question himself. As you will see in the new guidelines (soon), this is pretty much the exact formula we want these kind of posts to follow.
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On September 27 2007 22:58 Chill wrote:Show nested quote +On September 27 2007 21:29 Metaspace wrote: Hi there - beware, noob post (and no replay).
Lately I lost a few ZvT games on LT (sorry, no replays available, for I am at work) to early wraiths - I was surprised by them.
My problem is I lose my scout in his base before I see terran going port, T blocks his ramp so I do not get anouther ling/drone through, and I do not want to sacrifice an OL (no speed upgrade!) to see T's tech.
Perhaps my own tech (den, spire) was late (securing natural)?
Suggestions welcome. More annoying Chill trying to mould the strategy forum. This is an ideal OP for this kind of thread. It's concise and to the point. First, he let's you know his skill level so you aren't giving him advice that won't apply. Then he quickly introduces the problem. Finally, he takes a stab at answering the question himself. As you will see in the new guidelines (soon), this is pretty much the exact formula we want these kind of posts to follow.
Hooray for Chill!
Why in the world did you say that first sentence in third person -_-;;;
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On September 27 2007 22:53 Equinox_kr wrote:Show nested quote +On September 27 2007 21:29 Metaspace wrote: Hi there - beware, noob post (and no replay).
Lately I lost a few ZvT games on LT (sorry, no replays available, for I am at work) to early wraiths - I was surprised by them.
My problem is I lose my scout in his base before I see terran going port, T blocks his ramp so I do not get anouther ling/drone through, and I do not want to sacrifice an OL (no speed upgrade!) to see T's tech.
Perhaps my own tech (den, spire) was late (securing natural)?
Suggestions welcome. Well if you scout him making a Starport + Control Tower but no Science Facility, then obviously you should be expecting either: a) Early Dropships to annoy you  b) Cloaked Wraiths to annoy you  Either way, getting Hydralisks is the first thing you should go for, and then Spire + Scourge to deter Dropships, etc. Just a stupid noobie question: If T decides to go early Wraith/Dropship should I just go for Lurkling after I deter his drop? Or just go for Mutaling or something? if the Terran goes fast starport, his transition to normal play means he's going to have higher tech but very reduced unit count. his vessel will come out faster than normal, so if you try to muta harass like normal, it won't last very long (irradiate). my response would be to do what damage you can with your initial mutas and save the rest to take care of any raiding parties he sends out, that way you can take expansions safely since a full pushout is going to be significantly delayed, and you will have a much stronger economy than he will.
as for which units to power, check what his production facilities look like while you're muta harrassing. if you see a lot of raxes, hydralurk is the obvious transition. if you see 2 fact instead, get hive and lurkling with swarm.
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Norway28614 Posts
if you dont know what the terran is up to, you should most definitely, always sacrifice an overlord.
while I kind of agree that 2 hatch muta is a good anti-tech build, I do not at all think it's the ideal 2 port wraith counter. it's more like ideal against 1 wraith then drop builds.
the ideal anti 2 stargate wraith build is building 1 spore in both main and nat, powering as long as possible and then going for a 3 hatch hydra lurker drop with ensnare rush thing. my timing was so godly for this years ago cause playing random, I got to face 2 starport wraith like 25% of my zvt games
now i dunno how to time it anymore but i strongly believe that against 2 starport, getting ensnare, fast drop and mass hydra with a few lurkers is ultimate counter.
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Hello again - thank you all for your very good advice - I see much clearer now.
Also thank you Chill for honouring the way I posted as such :-) (Spontaneous idea for posting guidlines title: "Zen and the art of posting strategy issues" *g*)
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On September 27 2007 22:09 yubee wrote: now, if you get the worst case scenario and really do get surprised by wraith, run hurt drones back and forth while your spire/den finishes and try to lose as little as possible, and most importantly, be mindful of the transition to fast droppp! if a group of m&m lands in your base after you chase off that pesky wraith, you are pretty fucked.
Fucked, you named it...,the one time I got surprised and somehow managed to fend of the wraiths....I then put up quite a number of spores and made a bunch of mutas (no lings), just to be pulverized by about two groups of m&m dropped in my main :-)
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On September 27 2007 21:29 Metaspace wrote: and I do not want to sacrifice an OL (no speed upgrade!) to see T's tech.. That's like saying "I don't want to kill or in any way 'hurt' my opponent" and then asking "How do I win the game".
Sacrefice that damn ol or lose the game, that's it. If you're going to guess what he's doing you'll be fooled far more oftenly than you'll make the right choice.
Also, I think daze is horribly wrong. Wraiths will arrive before the spire is done, even when quick teching. Then they'll proceed with killing a few ols, deleying the hatching of any anti-air defense. Once your muta scourge is succefully out the terran will have researched cloak (preventing you harassing him) and have a good pump/an expo running.
Of course a 'straight to air rush' might work if the terran for some strange reason aren't teching at full speed, like if he can't wall, but I don't see anyone trying that without beeing very very deceivious.
Better sacrefice the ol and go 3 hatch drones/hyds-->Lurk+scourge if it turns out he's wraithing. Consider the idé of hitting his wall with some lings at the same time as you move in the ol, just in case it dies before anything is revealed.
You'll need ol speed anyway (detection), so getting drop can be a good idéa.
Spores is always the way to go if you're catched off-gaurd. Spores don't require supply and therefore can't be deleyed, which is why they're best.
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In the OPs defense, any decent T will hide their tech in a position where a slow OL will be unable to get to before it gets shot down. It's not a matter of whether or not you're willing to sacrifice the OL, it's a matter of simply not wasting 100 min and 8 supply for no good reason whatsoever.
In which case, all you have to go on is the knowledge that he's not fast-expanding and so he's either fast-teching to wraiths/dropships, tanks, or acad. So as Daze said, in the situation that you don't know what the T's doing, and you want to play it safe, you can go 2-hatch muta as a general all-purpose counter to T fast-tech/non-FE. With double gas you're going to be able to pump significantly more mutas than he'll have wraiths, and (I'm not sure of the exact timing) but I think you will have the mutas soon enough that he won't be able to do that much damage and in the end you should be slightly if not a decent ways ahead.
However, I think if you are at cross positions and he can't reinforce/repair so easily, it can also be fairly safe to go 3-hatch. The advantage here is that you'll have an incredible economy while he's going to be trying to play catch-up off of 1-base fast tech. That means you can sacrifice the minerals to drop a spore at both min-lines while you wait for your spire to morph in, knowing that he can't do much damage and most likely won't be able to set you back far enough to get him back into the game.
In my opinion, the counters to fast wraiths are numerous and simple, and really if you're losing to the build it's probably just because your opponent is significantly better than you.
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On September 28 2007 00:27 ZerG~LegenD wrote:Show nested quote +On September 27 2007 21:29 Metaspace wrote: and I do not want to sacrifice an OL (no speed upgrade!) to see T's tech.. That's like saying "I don't want to kill or in any way 'hurt' my opponent" and then asking "How do I win the game". Sacrefice that damn ol or lose the game, that's it. If you're going to guess what he's doing you'll be fooled far more oftenly than you'll make the right choice.
I was a bit unclear. I meant I did not want to sacrifice an OL early (i.e. before natural running)...but after some things others pointed out, I seem to power to much when I should have realized something is fishy (only one Baracks, few units, early gas..)
I think kewlsunman also made a good point!
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is awesome32274 Posts
I agree with yubee 100%, but he forgot to mention to suicide an overlord. If you really don't know whats hes up to, suicide an overlord. Even if you don't see anything he will send marines to kill it (you can see how many marines, some tech buildings, and if hes going with all his marines for your overlord then you can sneak a ling inside to check everything out.
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you can go hydra den without teching to lair, and power hard while having a group of 12 hydras, going three hatch:
you could face fast tank rush, and you only need to snipe the tank with hydras while making mass lings to kill all the rines.
if you face wraiths, you can just tech normally and you'll have very strong eco so you can deny his expand with your overwhelming numbers
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By the time wraith gets there you should either have den finished or spire coming or both. If spire, build a pair of scourge (maybe another for additional wraiths) and rest mutas. Mutas >>> wraith, and be sure to clone scourge to 1 per wraith for max efficiency. Since he's low on unit count, harass w/ mutaling and take map. Steamroll w/ ultralingdefiler. Thats ideal at least, even if it doesnt turn out that way.
I prefer to leave a few hydras unmorphed (i like to open lurks) and use them to chase off wraith. If he's persistant with the wraiths, i'll usually switch to full on hydralurk. Since he went wraith he spent gas on them instead of tanks, so it wont be much of a problem for the time being. It also means he'll already be well on his way to vessels, which hydras are excellent at killing. You can eiether take map or tech to defilers, or some happy combination of the two. Attack when you get defilers if you cant take him w/ your initial hydralurk. If the douche bag did go tank heavy, stop w/ hydra and go ultra if you have the econ.
This post felt more like a bunch of thoughts that run through my head when i see wraiths instead of actual help, but yea
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Um... I'm actually interested in the Terran side of the coin: how do I maximize the advantage of having a Wraith inside an enemy's main? Do I go after Overlords, or Drones? Do I keep harrassing when he has AA, or do I resume the push?
I actually tried this a few times. Seems pretty fun, but the other guy just sucks it up and steamrolls me with expos. I can't even drop freely, because now he has AA everywhere. 
Okay, I'm exaggerating. I did get a bunch of Overlords, Drones and even Scourge, with cloaking. But is it worth it?
Edit: and just to get the strategic juices flowing...
This is what a Zerg could do when faced with a Wraith.
It may come at the expense of tanks, SCVs and expos, but... beware my uber micro!
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To all those of you who recommend to go hydras/spore collonies, on LT that is taking a WAY bigger risk than mutas... In my experience half of the terrans who goes wraith on LT follows up with tankdrop on your cliff .. if you went hydra you will have to let your expo die to tankfire and be unable to do anything before your drop upgrades finnish. It isn't hard to beat wraith with 3 hatch mutas as long as you take your gas early enough and such get up out your scourge before he takes out to many drones, not a problem with 2hatch either of course. When your spire is up you just hatch some scourges ,watch out so he cant establish himself on your cliff and upgrade olspeed in case he goes for cloaked wraiths. after that it depends on his marine numbers/if he keeps on building wraiths etc.
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3 hatch dies to fast tank drop on LT, but works on maps without cliffs. which means 2 hatch muta is the way on LT vs fast tech terran.
in most cases 3 hatch works fine, and u don't need to sacrifice an ol, u just need to be prepared to defend everything, good news its not very hard. when i open a 3 hatch build and noticed terran going gas early, i put down a creep colony at 18 supply, have lings check on fast academy units near his choke, it also protects against the 1 vulture that might precede other tech units. lair at 100 gas, ling speed with the next 100, den with the next 50, and make 1 hydra per mineral line when den finishes to defend fast wraith. while spire is going up, u should have 2 group of lings protecting ur base from dropships (follow the dropship with lings under so he can't unload without getting killed), when mutas are out u'll be safe.
u need to understand the terran's objective, fast tech is not an all-in rush, because terran can transition easily with cloaked wraith while taking the natural and pump marines like they normally do. a fast tech terran does not assume he can kill u immediately, his build is meant to slow u down a bit by forcing u to defend while he gets the macro going first. compared to normal 3 hatch build, if u have to defend fast tech, u'll have 8 less drones before muta production, but good thing a tech terran doesn't have that much of an econ either so u are fine. only thing annoying is u can't expo before mutas since u lack the cash and ur priority is on mutas.
u also need to understand the downside of tech terran, what changes the game dynamic a bit is the gas factor. if terran goes for the clocked wraith transition (i think that's the only way to take his natural fast) then he is severely limited on gas, and what is not in his unit combo is tanks. what i usually do is take my third gas with mutas and whore drones to get the econ back up and go for a transition to hydra/lurker. personally i find SK terran to be the most logical follow up of teching, and tank strategies will delay his push by quite a bit, and that's never a good thing for terran.
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