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This is a guide to how to play a macro based 3 hatch mutalisk opening vs Terran fast expanders and academy rushers during the early game. There's also a very large section about early game scouting, and how to modify your build order.
The build order part applies for maps with a -not too wide- choke point and a total of 2 gases in your main and natural together. Examples of maps where this guide applies is Longinus, Luna and Python. Examples of maps where it does not apply is Vampire (3 gases), Rush Hour (too wide choke point) and Estrella (island map).
I must stress the point that there are indeed builds meant to counter specific situations that are slightly, in some cases almost unsignificantly, better than this one. But finding out exactly how the terran is dividing his resources during late early game is one hell of a task which you probably won't succed with. And if you guess wrong, you'll fall terribly behind instead. This build is meant to give you a safe walk into the mid game and put you in a good situation no matter what he does, as long as it's some kind of fe into bionic. It gives you a good stamp off to abuse surperior midgame skills, if that's not your forte you might pick a cheesier build or experiment some with lurker openings.
Build Order
12 hatch version:
9 Overlord
12 Hatchery
11 Spawning Pool
13-15 Hatchery
12-14 Extractor
16 Overlord
Somewhere in-between here you'll probably have to fit in your first creep, you might be able to skip out on it though.
27 Overlord
27 Extractor
26-27 Spire ,depends on if you'll have to fit in a second creep before the spire or not.
Throw in ling speed here, exact supply count doesn't matter.
33-35 Overlord
33-35 Overlord
33-35 8 Mutas
33 if you've made 4 sunkens, 34 if 3 sunkens, 35 if 0-2 sunkens
Your next 50 gas goes into a hydralisk den (for lurkers) and then the next 100 minerals into an overlord. Then the next 300 into an expansion. If you want to hive rush you can lay down your qnest and still have 200/200 before the hydra den finishes. Either way you'll get lurk evo asap.
There are exceptions to this, like if he's massing marines forcing you to make sunkens. If that's the case I'd rush to gaurdians but that's mid game and there's plenty of ways to play there, so I won't talk about it.
Note that this build order should apply no matter when or how many sunkens you make, as long as his harass does nothing more than force defences, i.e. he doesn't kill any drones. What will differ dependant on how many sunkens you make and when you make them is when you can lay down your fourth hatchery or get lurker or hive tech.
When your natural expansion first finishes you only want to maynard one single drone, and that's so you can quicker build a sunken should the need arise. When your extractor finishes you'll have to pull 3 drones to it and your drone count in your main will sink to 8 or 9. From here on you can rally all hatches to the nat until you've got one drone on each mineral patch in the nat too, as well as 3-4 on the gayser. This would be around the time your lair finnishes. Now you can switch the main hatch's rally to the main again. In that way your drones will be equally spread out.
Rallying drones like this is slightly, maybe unsignificantly, better than maynarding them. No matter what you choose to do you will have to send the same amounts of drones to the natural and will therefore lose the same amount of mining time while traveling, but when you rally your units that loss will come later into the game, which is better. The longer the distance to the natural the larger's the differance between maynarding and rallying.
This is an all drone early game build. One might ask why no zerglings (except 2 to chase the scout and/or stack the mutalisks) are made, here's the answer: They are not needed. The purpose of this build is not to deal hefty damage early on, and for defensive purposes they're too risky. Zerglings only, as early game defence might work, but vs some builds you're absolutely screwed. A mix of sunkens and zerglings can actually be more efficient than only sunkens, but it is more likely to be slightly less efficiant. If you make 10 extra lings, instead of 5 drones, at 30 supply you need to get away with two less sunkens than you would have without the lings in order for them to have been efficient. However, that is not very likely to happen unless you're playing a terran who likes moving out but suffers from backstabb paranoia, which in itself it paradoxal. And that is why only sunkens are used.
The zerglings needed further in the mid game can and will be made once your mutalisks are out but before that they aren't needed. Making 5 drones followed by 10 zerglings grants you a better economy than altering 1 drone with 2 zerglings, right? Why? Because you get your drones out faster and they can therefore mine for a longer time. This is the principle this build is built upon.
Overlord Scouting
Where to send the first overlord? This depends on whether you want to find one base as fast as possible, two bases as fast as possible or if you want to reach a camp able spot overlooking his choke as fast as possible.
If I 9 overpooled on a 4 player map I'd want to find 2 bases as fast as possible. If the bases are placed like on Lost Temple or Python, then I'd send my first overlord to the second closest base, if I'm at 6 then that's the 3 base. Then I'd send my my second overlord to the closest base, if I'm at 6 then that would be the base at 9. In this way I will successfully have scouted 2 out of 3 bases with only my overlords in time for my pool to finish. This means I'm 100% sure where my opponent is and that I'm guaranteed to send my zerglings to the right position. However, on some maps, like Luna and R-Point, there are no close base and no far base, all bases are far away. This means that you need to bring a drone off and scout with it if you want to 9 pool on these maps. But it also means that these maps are worse for 9 pooling as you has to bring the drone off.
Let's take another example. I'm going to 12 hatch expand on Longinus. I spawn at the 3 position. In this case I want to send my first overlord to the far away base, at 6. More precisely the cliff overlooking the choke of the 6 base. Then you send your second overlord to the cliff overlooking the choke of the 11 base . You want to manually micro your second overlord so it at all time is seeing as much as possible of the ground path between your base and the 11 base. However, you mustn't see too much as that would mean you won't be able to reach the safety of the unreachable high ground before you die, in case a marine should come walking there. The reason you send your overlord like this is of course to see if he sends his first marine to harass you or not. When sending your overlords like this you won't need to drone scout on Longinus. The same principle is usable on Tau Cross at the 9 position, except a 8raxer will be able to kill your second ol if he's at 1. If you're at 1 you can still do it, but your second ol dies if found no matter the build, as long as it's the second ol and not the first whom is traveling the right way.
If you 9 pool or 9 overpool on a 3 player map you want to send your first overlord to the closest base, in order to as fast as possible know where to send your zerglings, and if you're lucky get to know the strength of your opponents defences.
If you 12 hatch on a asymmetrical 4 player map (like Temple (except the 6 pos) or Python) you send your first overlord the the closest base, if he's not there you move on to the far away base. Your second overlord is sent to the second closest base. If I'm at 3 on Python this means that my first overlord goes to the 12 base and then continues to the 9 base while my second overlord goes to the 6 base and stays there.
If it's a symmetrical 4 player map (like Luna) the situation gets more complex. These maps can look like anything! 2 different maps can, and are very likely to, have 2 different scouting patterns.
Lastly, remember that that not all maps have safe scouting paths nor safe camp spots overlooking the chokes. With a 9 pool (or similar) your objective is always to determinate where your opponent is with as little drone scouting as possible. If you 12 hatch your objective is to find a camp spot overlooking his choke as fast as possible. Go figure how to do on more maps.
Drone Scouting
There is not much to speak about here. There are only three questions to ask. When shall I drone scout? What shall I do once I'm inside his base? And how long shall I stay outside his base?
Generally this applies, but there might be some exceptions, like maps with HUGE distances. If you send your drone at 12 you will be able to enter one base before he gets a marine out while if you send it at 9 you will be able to enter 2 bases.
So if it's a 3 player map you 12 drone scout, or don't drone scout at all, see the Overlord Scouting part above. And it it's a 4 player map you 9 drone scout. Once you're inside his base you want to look at the number of barracks, and if he's taking the gas or not. There might also be dead give-aways, like a Command Center building or an academy going up. A gas is likely to mean an academy rush but could also mean some kind of cheese build.
Only 1 barrack but no gas means he's either fast expanding or building proxy. If he has only one 1 barrack and has taken his gas you want to sacrifice your scouting drone to find out what he's up to. A drone is faster than a marine but the marine has perfect acceleration so you want to travel in as straight paths as possible abusing your maximum speed. Going through his mineral line is another trick to use. All in all you might not be able to stay alive for a very long time but he will have to make his tech buildings quickly so you might be able to find them anyway, unless they're proxied.
On to the last question, if he's 2 raxing, or 1 raxing without gas you want to move out of his base in time to save your drone and place it in his choke so that you can see if he moves out to harass you. Stay there until he moves out or until your overlord arrives to take over the duty.
Note that if he's 8 raxing you won't be able to enter the second base with a 9 scout nor the first base with a 12 scout.
When to add Sunkens Colonies?
You want to get away with as few sunkens as possible, as late as possible, but still live. How many you need do of course depend on how large army he has, but that's something you'll have to learn your self. Generally 2-4 should be enough unless he goes 3 or 4 rax.
What's easier to tell is when you need them. The first thing you need to ask yourself is this: Is the time it takes him to walk to my base from the position where my scout is placed longer than the time it takes to build a sunken? If the answer is yes, then you only want to add sunkens when you see him move out. If the answer is no, then you want to pre-add creep colonies, but do not morph them into sunkens. Morph them into sunkens only when you see him move out.
So when to pre-add the creeps? Add the first one around 20 supply, unless he moves out before of course. But if he moves out before you should be able to fend him off even if the sunk isn't completely finished when he arrives. If he tries to run by you do of course pull off your drones.
The second one should be pre-added just before you make your spire (this means the spire will be made at 26 instead of 27) and the third one just after you make your spire. Unless you've managed to scout a fast expansion build. Then you can add the second one just after the spire is laid down, and the third once he gets medics out. If you don't know if he got medics or not then add the third slightly after the second, maybe 3-5 supply inbetween.
OMFG IT'S A SWIZZERCHEESE!
How to tell a cheeser from a player whom this build is meant to counter? Asuming our scouting drone finds nothing? An academy rusher is most likely to move out in the time frame around when your lair finishes (1 rax acarush would be faster, but also weaker), a fast expander is likely to have taken his expansion even earlier. That is what we're going to use. Instead of trying to tell if he's cheesing we're going to find out if he's not cheesing, and then assume that he's cheesing if it turns out he's not doing a non-cheese build. So if he has neither moved out nor expanded by the time your spire has started, let's say been morphing for a while. After all some people are doing slow academy rushes. Though they're not as efficient as quicker ones they do still exist, and a stupid move can turn into a genius one if we assume he will not do it. So, if he has neither moved out nor expanded by the time your spire has been morphing for some 10-20-30 seconds (pick one! I'd get get suspicious of him at 10 and convinced at 20) - he's very likely up to something sneaky. Now you have very little time to prepare for a cheese, but little is better than none at all.
Some General Advice
- Always pre-add overlords during mid game. Having to wait for an overlord to finish is far worse than having wasted 100 minerals on an unneeded overlord.
- Put a fourth drone on your natural's gas if it's placed to the right or below your natural hatchery. If your main gas is placed to the right or below your main hatchery, then place your third hatchery below or to the right of the gas. If that's not possible then put 4 drones on the main gas too.
- Spread out a few zerglings across the map during the mid game so you always know where your opponent has his army.
- Always try to flank your opponent. Flank=attack from at least two sides. The move might take some multitask to pull off but practice makes perfect.
- Always try to delay the fight with your opponents main army. Terrans tend not to reinforce their main army once it has moved out. Use this to your advantage and reinforce your own army for as long as possible.
- Plague owns anything that is bionic.
- Always keep zerglings patroling the remote exps that you have not taken. The terran mustn't get another base without fighting for it.
- Use a trapped zergling to stack your mutalisks. Look at this:
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Very nice. 
I was going to find some questions to ask but there really aren't too many left to answer.
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So much good, solid contribution in the strategy forum lately. I happen to be terrible at early game zvt management and reading the part on sunken timing looks really helpful. Very impressive guid, well put together. Thanks for the hard work.
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Nice guide, the only thing I object against is the trapped zergling. 2 useless zerglings is one drone less and I just don't see the need. It's partly the principle and partly the small disadvantage it gives but I would never play like that. Reassigning the overlord once or twice in a game is hardly a big deal. Sorry to focus on a small detail, and once again good job.
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On October 15 2007 23:35 ZerG~LegenD wrote:Some General Advice- Plague owns anything that is or is not bionic.
True true
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Great guide for fledgling muta players! I have some comments.
∙I assume the point of the build is to get mutas as early as possible with a 3-hatch build. To that end, I think adding some statistics would be useful. What is the cooldown between generating larvae from a hatchery? What is the build time for the spire? What supply do you want to be at when the spire finishes? I can try to answer some of these.
The ideal situation to be in is, when the spire finishes, you want to have AT LEAST 18 supply free (for 9 mutas), all 3 hatches should have 3 larvae, so you can instantly build 9 mutas once the spire is finished, and lastly, you need 900 min/900 gas to build the mutas. Does your build order do this? I haven't tested it out myself yet, but I will as soon as I can. I am typically sitting at 59 supply when my spire is done (7 overlords + 3 hatcheries). This means I want to be at 33-35 supply, so I can make my initial 9 mutas, and quickly make 2 more when the next larvae come in. With the next 3 larvae, I usually make 1 overlord, and 2 more muta after the initial 9, giving me 11, the optimum stackable number. Notice that overlords and mutalisks have the same build time (40), and so once those last 2 mutas are made, the overlord will be done as well, giving you uninterrupted supply flow after your 11 mutas are done. After that, I switch to expanding/lurkers/upgrades. Anyone who does something different can offer any input.
∙Also, that picture with the trapped zergling is very small, and I can't see where it is! Can you post a bigger one or explain how to trap & use a zergling?
∙lastly, plague owns more than just bionic, it owns anything except shields >
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Nice guide. I don't think overpool is an ideal build vs T, except maybe on Tau because he can send 1st rine and block ur choke with supply. You can't really do much damage with your lings and your economy is not as good as it would have been if you 12 hatched so you pretty much get shafted both ways instead of either commiting to a rush or playing macro style.
Also, from what I've taken is that your 3 hat build gets gas earlier for the fastest muta possible, but I don't think you would have enough mins to get your 3rd expo while your mutas are coming unless you have very few, if any, lings.
Also, trapping lings IMO is wasting 50 mins when it takes like less than half a second to change ovies when they are in danger.
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Belgium9946 Posts
On October 15 2007 23:35 ZerG~LegenD wrote:
When your natural expansion first finishes you only want to maynard one single drone, and that's so you can quicker build a sunken should the need arise. When your extractor finishes you'll have to pull 3 drones to it and your drone count in your main will sink to 8 or 9. From here on you can rally all hatches to the nat until you've got one drone on each mineral patch in the nat too. Around the time your lair finnishes you can switch the main hatch's rally to the main again. In that way your drones will be equally spread out.
I beg to differ
you lose alot of mining time by rallying drones to your natural. I know you also lose mining time maynarding them, but if you maynard them your count is nicely spread out and drones never have to move a long way after being made
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I think if you just rally your main to your main and your other 2 hats to the nat, it balances out fine when spire is put down. I usually maynard 2 drones when the nat is finishing up.
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On October 16 2007 01:59 RaGe wrote:Show nested quote +On October 15 2007 23:35 ZerG~LegenD wrote:
When your natural expansion first finishes you only want to maynard one single drone, and that's so you can quicker build a sunken should the need arise. When your extractor finishes you'll have to pull 3 drones to it and your drone count in your main will sink to 8 or 9. From here on you can rally all hatches to the nat until you've got one drone on each mineral patch in the nat too. Around the time your lair finnishes you can switch the main hatch's rally to the main again. In that way your drones will be equally spread out.
I beg to differ you lose alot of mining time by rallying drones to your natural. I know you also lose mining time maynarding them, but if you maynard them your count is nicely spread out and drones never have to move a long way after being made
Rallying and maynarding are the same thing. It's just moving drones from the main to the nat. In both your case and the OP's case, you're either maynarding or rallying to prevent a situation where one set of minerals is beginning to be saturated while the other is not (i.e. showing any signs of a nonlinear drones mining to minerals/sec ratio; when you have more than 1 drone per mineral patch).
The only difference is the time when you're moving drones from one place to the other, and that's where you're taking the mining hit. You're going to move the same number of drones in both cases so that's not an issue; likewise, the hatcheries are going to be producing the same number of drones. So if you rally instead of maynarding, you're delaying when you're losing the mineral intake. Maynarding in this situation is choosing to delay your mineral intake earlier, which is a bad choice considering that you want your Lair as fast as possible.
Granted, the difference is pretty small.
edit: Yeah, actually I'd maynard two drones because you don't want to have to fight the scouting SCV 1 on 1 and lose.
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12 Extractor w/ 3 hatch build? been a while since I played, but isn't that suicidally fast?
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Calgary25977 Posts
There are some things I'd like the OP to clarify, because I've never seen them done or don't understand why he's doing something:
1] Do you think it's worth it to cut 6 Drones to have 12 Zerglings? I've been doing this a lot recently, making 12 Zerglings at around 23 supply. I find my economy isn't affect much in the short term, I can make less Sunkens, and it helps me control Terran if they are trying to move out at the end of the early game.
2] Maynarding only one Drone? Why? I always Maynard 4-5, and keep my main Hatch rallied to my main, and all others to my natural. I've found my distribution usually ends up fine.
3] Gas on 12. Why? I've never done it before 15, and again I have 900 when the Spire finises (after getting Zergling speed). I also get my natural gas when my Lair starts (or before). Do you think getting faster gas and a later second gas is advantageous to a later first gas and quicker second gas? Obviously you would get your Lair up a little faster, is that the main reason?
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Just to sorta contribute to the dicussion with Chill:
1] I also like lings to have some map control, scouting, and threat while teching up. I'm wondering how much lings he gets.. Chill, you don't make lings before 23? I'm sure you make 4-6 lings when pool is done?
2] I usually maynard 2-3 drones, I don't know about 4-5 since you have two hats rallied to your nat and main to main, you'll have more drones at nat than at main. I haven't tested and counted, but I find that when my spire goes up the # of drones I have at nat is pretty equal or little more than my main.
3] I also don't know why he gets gas so fast, unless like I previously mentioned it's meant to get lair asap -> spire asap. Other than that is the affect it has on mins, which I'm not sure he'll have enough for a 3rd expo right away, assuming he made lings early on.
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Well, if you're going to essentially play a no-ling-before-muta style off of a 3 hatch opening, 12 gas would be the way to go, wouldn't it? Without lings, mutalisks slower than that are kind of bad.
Essentially, this build sacrifices lings for more drones and earlier mutalisks, with the potential to do really well if the harass goes reasonably well. There's also a huge problem if the Terran turrets up to quickly negate harass and tries to contain you before lurkers pop, as you're going to be stuck in your base not getting that 3rd gas for a while.
Or at least that's how I see it.
This is an all drone early game build. One might ask why no zerglings (except 2 (6 in the overpool case) to chase the scout and/or stack the mutalisks) are made, here's the answer: They are not needed.
But yeah, the question is: even if they're not always needed, are they wanted?
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great effort!
the only thing i find odd is the 13 extractor in the 12 hatch version, that seems a bit early. i think a few people have mentioned this already, but extractor at 16 and 25 works perfect in the timing of 900 gas when spire finishes. i noticed that ur second extractor is at 27, so may be the earlier first extractor and later second extractor cancel each other out in gas count?
also, to clarify on the zerglings. do u mean to have only 4 zerglings until mutas are out? cuz i have 4 lings until 27 supply then i add 8 more to make one group (we spent gas on ling speed anyway...), the mineral count works out perfectly as well, with only 12 lings, i can expo when spire is 2/3 done, and have 900/900 to pop 9 mutas immediately.
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Yeah, extractor seems early. I go 16 ovie 16-18 gas. Also, I'm not sure advocating not using a drone to scout is a very good idea, you'll essentially be playing blind until your slow-vie reaches the Terran.
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SHIT.
This is exactly what I was looking for.
No more 2 Hatch Lurker builds for me :D I can go gay Savior style <3
Thanks a bunch!
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On October 16 2007 06:34 Equinox_kr wrote:
SHIT.
This is exactly what I was looking for.
No more 2 Hatch Lurker builds for me :D I can go gay Savior style <3
Thanks a bunch!
No not another one T_T
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On October 16 2007 08:12 HellAngel wrote:Show nested quote +On October 16 2007 06:34 Equinox_kr wrote:
SHIT.
This is exactly what I was looking for.
No more 2 Hatch Lurker builds for me :D I can go gay Savior style <3
Thanks a bunch! No not another one T_T
Hahaha
I can finally put my Mutalisk control to some use -_-;;;
Before I was so scared of making that third hatchery that I always just made 6 Mutalisks and added more later -_-;;
I don't even play Zerg properly anyway 
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Let's start with the fourth hatchery. The 12hatch 12gas version of this build will deliver a spire at 6:00, asuming the main gas is a quick one. An 18 gas build will do it at 6:45. A spire takes 1:20 to build. If I start my hatch 20 seconds after the spire is done, which would be when the mutas would pop out - it would be at the same time as if I started the hatchery when the spire was 70% done with a 18 gas build.
Mapcontrol.... Why would it be needed before mutas are out? Besides, mutas are out faster with this build, fast enought to secure mapcontrol in time for you to expand, which is when you'll need it. If you're going to expo during the midgame you sneak out a drone before he contains you, so the lings are not needed to chase him away from your choke.
Whether you get drones or lings first you'll still need the same number of drones to support your economy. If you chose to get lings first you'll have to make more drones later. So in the end both variations end up with the same number of lings, drones, mutas and lurkers. Except that one version gets more minerals, which is could be used for even more stuff, and one version gets their fighting units out alittle earlier.
Anyway, I'll put some effort into playing around with 12 lings at 26-29 supply, maybe I can get away with a sunken or two less. In which case it might be worth it. Don't do them before you've laid down your spire though. You don't want them if he aca rushes.
The maynarding issue, I think Myrmidon explained it kinda well. Maynarding more drones is cutting your income earlier than if you rally drones instead. The drones will not exceed the 1 per 1 mineral ratio in any of the cases anyway.
Earlier spire-->earlier map control from mutas-->less lings needed-->more drones-->earlier spire
Earlier lings-->less drones-->later spire-->earlier lings needed
At least to me one is an evil circle while the other is a good one. The only situation when those lings would be beneficial would be if you make them without cutting tech speed and they allow you to get away with less sunkens. As I said, I will do work on the subject.
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27 second extractor ? ahaha.
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So what's wrong with that? 9 mutas or 8 mutas and speed, significantly faster than if you take the first one slower and the second one quicker.
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Adding some 10-12 lings after you make the spire is worth it if it saves you 2 sunkens or if he screws up at lets you run by and deal some serious damage.
If it only saves you 1 sunken all drones and another sunken is better.
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Valhalla18444 Posts
the number of lings you should make sort of depends on your mutalisk control
if your mutalisk control is very good, then having 12+ speedlings at the right time can cripple or even kill the terran. without those lings you don't have that opportunity and you're obviously playing for a 4 gas hive endgame as fast as possible
think about that when you're considering whether you want zerglings around that time. if you see the opportunity you don't have time to make zerglings and bring them over, they have to be alive and kicking already
i think thats just a matter of preference but i really prefer it because i'm pretty aggressive
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Yes, I guess it comes down to a matter of play style. I like having at least a few lings for scouting purposes and keeping the terran honest. I also like aggressive play rather than passive, but that's just me. But I think I might try this build out because I enjoy mutas and having them out sooner sounds like more fun for me ^_^
Zerg~Legend: Would you mind uploading a rep(s) of you doing both builds? So we can all see how the timing works, etc. Thanks
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On October 16 2007 20:26 FakeSteve[TPR] wrote:
the number of lings you should make sort of depends on your mutalisk control
if your mutalisk control is very good, then having 12+ speedlings at the right time can cripple or even kill the terran. without those lings you don't have that opportunity and you're obviously playing for a 4 gas hive endgame as fast as possible
think about that when you're considering whether you want zerglings around that time. if you see the opportunity you don't have time to make zerglings and bring them over, they have to be alive and kicking already
i think thats just a matter of preference but i really prefer it because i'm pretty aggressive
Playing aggresive is a gamble, you don't know if the oppertunity will arise or not. Which is why this guide about an opening that favors a passive playstyle.
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legend, i still prefer 16 and 25 gas. with 16 gas spire is put down at 5:00. 4th hatch down by 6:00, and spire complete by 6:20. that is of course the execution by savior, for normal people a few seconds late make no difference in actual game. i think 13 gas is too early, and 18 is too late.
u said 4th hatch 20 seconds after ur spire, which completes at 6:00, so ur 4th hatch is actually 20 seconds slower. but u get mutas 20 seconds faster, so i think its a personal preference. u can do more harassment with earlier mutas, but faster expo is more to my taste. either case mutas come out right on time to force the terran back, i don't see how 20 seconds earlier with mutas can do much good in a passive opening. i think ur build is used by july as an aggressive muta/ling build, the earlier mutas with 2 groups of lings is how he plays.
fakesteve. building more than 12 lings is not needed in a passive opening. 1 group of m&m will be ripped apart easily with 10 mutas and 12 lings, just snipe the bat right away and lings will take care of everything, u won't even lose mutas. and if he somehow pushes out with 2 groups of m&ms right after ur mutas are out, his natural is definitely defenseless which is just begging u to counter with muta/ling. that'll buy u enough time for lurkers to come out. generally more than 12 lings are not needed before lurkers
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Remember, if you take your gas later you mine less gas, just as you mine more gas if you take your expo later. In the end they -almost- take out each other. Asuming you can get that hatch down and keep spending the larvas at the same time you'd gain 2 extra larva by taking a later gas, but hardly any gas.
I must stress the point that there are indeed builds meant to counter specific situations that are slightly, in some cases almost unsignificantly, better than this one. But finding out exactly how the terran is dividing his resources during late early game is one hell of a task which you probably won't succed with. And if you guess wrong, you'll fall terribly behind instead. This build is meant to give you a safe walk into the mid game and put you in a good situation no matter what he does, as long as it's some kind of fe into bionic. It gives you a good stamp of to abuse surperior midgame skills, if that's not your forte you might pick a cheesier build or experiment some with an extremely counter based build.
Added that last part into the guide into too. And updated a few sections.
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You left out the lair timing with the OP build. And I can't tell wtf is going on in that pic with the zergling.
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What about the lair timing..? It's always first 100 gas and in this build, it's sooner because he's getting his gas @ 12 or 13.
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Belgium9946 Posts
On October 16 2007 02:53 Myrmidon wrote:Show nested quote +On October 16 2007 01:59 RaGe wrote:On October 15 2007 23:35 ZerG~LegenD wrote:
When your natural expansion first finishes you only want to maynard one single drone, and that's so you can quicker build a sunken should the need arise. When your extractor finishes you'll have to pull 3 drones to it and your drone count in your main will sink to 8 or 9. From here on you can rally all hatches to the nat until you've got one drone on each mineral patch in the nat too. Around the time your lair finnishes you can switch the main hatch's rally to the main again. In that way your drones will be equally spread out.
I beg to differ you lose alot of mining time by rallying drones to your natural. I know you also lose mining time maynarding them, but if you maynard them your count is nicely spread out and drones never have to move a long way after being made Rallying and maynarding are the same thing. It's just moving drones from the main to the nat. In both your case and the OP's case, you're either maynarding or rallying to prevent a situation where one set of minerals is beginning to be saturated while the other is not (i.e. showing any signs of a nonlinear drones mining to minerals/sec ratio; when you have more than 1 drone per mineral patch). The only difference is the time when you're moving drones from one place to the other, and that's where you're taking the mining hit. You're going to move the same number of drones in both cases so that's not an issue; likewise, the hatcheries are going to be producing the same number of drones. So if you rally instead of maynarding, you're delaying when you're losing the mineral intake. Maynarding in this situation is choosing to delay your mineral intake earlier, which is a bad choice considering that you want your Lair as fast as possible. Granted, the difference is pretty small. edit: Yeah, actually I'd maynard two drones because you don't want to have to fight the scouting SCV 1 on 1 and lose.
yes but if you maynard only one and youre at about 15 supply, when your hatch finishes, you have 14 drones on 9 mineral chunks and 1 on 8 or 9 mineral chunks
like you said, you want the mineral intake delay as LATE as possible, and since rallying/maynarding will make the same distance to be travelled, there is no real difference in that, but having 14 drones on 9 minerals gives a permanent mineral in function of time loss.
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You're getting a turbo gas and 3rd hatchery with this build, so I don't think you're going to be at 14 drones on 8-9 mineral patches. But yeah, now that you mention it it does look like there's a small drone surplus at the main?
I don't remember the exact drone saturation times with respect to the build order, so I had just assumed 1 drone maynard was enough, like the OP suggested, to avoid a drone/mineral patch ratio > 1 at the main. It's not the point I made, but definitely most people maynard too many, as it's more efficient to transfer as late as possible. Whatever number prevents having oversaturation is the one you want.
Actually, given the nature of the build you care more about the early Lair (mutalisks are the only hope in stopping a tank rush or putting any sort of pressure, etc.) than anything else early game. And given how 10 drones will mine 8 patches only very slightly slower than 10 drones on 10 patches and certainly faster in the short term over an 8-2 distribution where the 2 have to maynard, oversaturating isn't necessarily a bad idea.
Again, these are details in minutia, like people microing workers early game to make mining faster.
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9 drones it is, and 8 mineral patches at main is a rare sight. So there won't be a surplus
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Belgium9946 Posts
you're still losing mining time because you're sending drones to patches further away than they would at your natural
but I certainly believe your statement that people in general tend to maynard too many is true.
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Okey... so what do you not get?
The earlier I send the drones the more I lose. So what would be the point in sending more than the surplus in main? Which is 1 drone.
Or do you not get that when the exp finnishes I have 13 drones, I send 3 to the gas and 1 to the exp. Which leaves 9 in main. But I've already said that 3 times. So I don't how you could have missed that.
Or are you trying to imply that it would be more efficient to mine only the fastest patches in each base? Now I can tell you that maynarding for that purpose only is not worth it. Go try it out your self.
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Crap i accidentally posted something here. I'm sorry for reviving an old thread. 
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"Put a fourth drone on your natural's gas if it's placed to the right or below your natural hatchery. If your main gas is placed to the right or below your main hatchery, then place your third hatchery below or to the right of the gas. If that's not possible then put 4 drones on the main gas too."
May i know the reasoning behind this? im confused.
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Well, i just read the first couple of paragraphs, and i gotta say, 2-4 lings are A LOT cheaper than a very early sunken colony, also, its best to maynard always 3 maybe even 4 drones to your natural.
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