• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 07:20
CEST 13:20
KST 20:20
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO4 & Finals Preview1[ASL21] Ro4 Preview: On Course12Code S Season 1 - RO8 Preview7[ASL21] Ro8 Preview Pt2: Progenitors8Code S Season 1 - RO12 Group A: Rogue, Percival, Solar, Zoun13
Community News
Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO8 Results2Weekly Cups (May 4-10): Clem, MaxPax, herO win1Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule !11Weekly Cups (April 27-May 4): Clem takes triple0RSL Revival: Season 5 - Qualifiers and Main Event12
StarCraft 2
General
Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO4 & Finals Preview Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO8 Results Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO12 Results Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - The Finalists MaNa leaves Team Liquid
Tourneys
KSL Week 89 2026 GSL Season 2 Qualifiers Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule ! $5,000 WardiTV Spring Championship 2026 SC2 INu's Battles#16 <BO.9>
Strategy
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
Mutation # 525 Wheel of Misfortune The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 524 Death and Taxes Mutation # 523 Firewall
Brood War
General
BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ vespene.gg — BW replays in browser BW General Discussion ASL21 General Discussion Pros React to: TvT Masterclass in FlaSh vs Light
Tourneys
[ASL21] Semifinals B Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL21] Semifinals A
Strategy
Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Hydra ZvZ: An Introduction Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Starcraft Tabletop Miniature Game PC Games Sales Thread
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread UK Politics Mega-thread YouTube Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread McBoner: A hockey love story Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
streaming software Strange computer issues (software) [G] How to Block Livestream Ads
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
How EEG Data Can Predict Gam…
TrAiDoS
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1414 users

Can zerg beat mech without queens?

Forum Index > Brood War Strategy
Post a Reply
SiarX
Profile Joined December 2021
133 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-05-13 16:39:33
May 13 2024 15:40 GMT
#1
Mechs is so cost efficient and does not care about dark swarm, that queens seem to be the only possible counter. Or maybe smth like mass mutalisk can work?
Mutaller
Profile Blog Joined July 2013
United States1051 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-05-13 16:48:06
May 13 2024 16:46 GMT
#2
Yes mass muta is very good against mech. Zerg expands and drones heavily while using mutas to defend, and researching hydra upgrades at the same time. After the upgrades finish zerg can transition into mass hydra, and the terran tank count will be low because they need to build goliaths all game long. Soma has a game demonstrating this in the School for Zerg discord, but that requires money to support the project.
"To practice isn't for you to get better now in the present. Practice will never betray you and will always come back for you in the future." -Jaedong
SiarX
Profile Joined December 2021
133 Posts
Last Edited: 2024-05-13 22:12:00
May 13 2024 22:11 GMT
#3
On May 14 2024 01:46 Mutaller wrote:
Yes mass muta is very good against mech. Zerg expands and drones heavily while using mutas to defend, and researching hydra upgrades at the same time. After the upgrades finish zerg can transition into mass hydra, and the terran tank count will be low because they need to build goliaths all game long. Soma has a game demonstrating this in the School for Zerg discord, but that requires money to support the project.


What if terran builds valkyries instead of goliaths? Valkyries shut down mutas pretty hard.
Piste
Profile Blog Joined July 2006
6183 Posts
May 14 2024 01:52 GMT
#4
U can build anything vs mech. If you can't attack his army, don't do it.
Severedevil
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States4839 Posts
May 14 2024 02:14 GMT
#5
Mech needs lots of gas but struggles to spread its units to take lots of geysers, because its units are slow and fight poorly when spread. If mech needs lots of tanks (to stop your hydras or ultras) but also needs lots of goliaths or valkyries (to stop your mutas or your overlord drops), mech struggles to afford all that gas.

On the other hand, if mech can mitigate those problems with minerals instead of gas (missile turrets vs air, vultures or building walls vs ground), then mech isn't so squeezed on gas and becomes a lot scarier.
My strategy is to fork people.
iopq
Profile Blog Joined March 2009
United States1084 Posts
May 14 2024 07:41 GMT
#6
Yes, ling/ultra drop is a very easy way to overwhelm the mech switch. I've tried the other ways, but they are much more difficult to pull off, while hitting a drop timing and then overwhelming them by attacking every position at once is easier on the Zerg player than the Terran player scrambling to defend every location

it's not a good way to attack a heavily defended Terran position, that's actually going to be the zergling/lurker dark swarm creep where you bunt the zerglings to advance lurkers under dark swarm
Liquid`Drone
Profile Joined September 2002
Norway28797 Posts
May 14 2024 07:44 GMT
#7
A bit map dependent. The answer is basically 'zerg needs the threat of queens to deter a full turtle-terran, but zerg can easily beat a non-full-turtle terran mech without queens.

If there is a map with 3 reasonably easily accessible gasses, then terran can choose to play very slowly and meticulously, not moving out until they have many irradiates and a whole lot of tanks. If zerg is on hydra/muta and facing 2/2 tank goliath with 12+ tanks and 4+ vessels, zerg becomes incredibly cost-inefficient. A terran who simply waits and never really attacks until they are at this stage, and at this stage only moves out to secure another trio of bases rather than attacking into zerg, will beat a zerg who does not have queens.

I recall watching games on colosseum where zerg literally had twice the resources of terran, but still lost, because they did not make queens. Colosseum being a map where this turtle terran approach is the best - only 12 bases total, and they're in four clusters, and every base has gas. Now, on colo, zergs can absolutely win games without making any queens - they can get to 6 gas muta with relative ease, and that crushes most move outs. But if a terran knows that zerg won't build any queens under any circumstance, they can choose to simply sit until they have 180 supply, 10 irradiates, and then move out to establish themselves on the least mined quadrant, then it doesn't really matter if zerg has 60 mutas and the ability to make another 60. They're just gonna melt away. Z can get some stuff done with ultralingdefiler drops but this is still contingent upon finding some holes in terran's defense.
Moderator
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
RSL Revival
10:00
Season 5: Playoffs Day 2
Clem vs Rogue
Bunny vs LamboLIVE!
Tasteless1129
IntoTheiNu 1121
Ryung 452
RotterdaM367
TKL 273
IndyStarCraft 157
Rex100
3DClanTV 65
CranKy Ducklings54
CranKy Ducklings SOOP8
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Tasteless 1093
Ryung 451
RotterdaM 355
TKL 261
Lowko215
IndyStarCraft 150
ProTech137
Rex 99
mouzStarbuck 77
MindelVK 17
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 11491
Sea 5690
Mini 293
firebathero 272
ggaemo 258
Zeus 214
ZerO 194
Mind 183
Last 143
Soulkey 116
[ Show more ]
Pusan 80
Bonyth 73
Rush 57
Hm[arnc] 53
Liquid`Ret 31
Sacsri 27
Backho 26
hero 22
Noble 21
Nal_rA 16
Sea.KH 13
soO 11
Barracks 6
Dota 2
Gorgc4327
League of Legends
JimRising 387
Heroes of the Storm
Trikslyr30
Other Games
gofns26744
singsing2008
byalli259
crisheroes251
DeMusliM119
monkeys_forever101
XcaliburYe35
ZerO(Twitch)10
KnowMe1
Organizations
Counter-Strike
PGL41425
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Adnapsc2 16
• iHatsuTV 10
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 3
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Nemesis1753
• Jankos1329
• Stunt516
Upcoming Events
IPSL
4h 40m
Dewalt vs nOmaD
Ret vs Cross
BSL
4h 40m
Artosis vs Sterling
eOnzErG vs TBD
BSL
7h 40m
Bonyth vs Doodle
Dewalt vs TerrOr
Patches Events
11h 25m
GSL
20h 40m
Cure vs herO
SHIN vs Maru
IPSL
1d 4h
Bonyth vs Napoleon
G5 vs JDConan
BSL
1d 7h
OyAji vs JDConan
DragOn vs TBD
Replay Cast
1d 21h
Monday Night Weeklies
2 days
Replay Cast
2 days
[ Show More ]
The PondCast
2 days
GSL
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
GSL
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
Replay Cast
6 days
RSL Revival
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Escore Tournament S2: W7
WardiTV TLMC #16
Nations Cup 2026

Ongoing

BSL Season 22
ASL Season 21
IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
Acropolis #4
KK 2v2 League Season 1
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
SCTL 2026 Spring
RSL Revival: Season 5
2026 GSL S1
Heroes Pulsing #1
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2

Upcoming

YSL S3
Escore Tournament S2: W8
CSLAN 4
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Maestros of the Game 2
WardiTV Spring 2026
2026 GSL S2
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.