• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 11:00
CEST 17:00
KST 00:00
  • 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
ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play3Team Liquid Map Contest #22: Results and Winners7Code S Season 2 (2026): RO4 and Finals Preview12TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection7Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview8
Community News
MC vs IdrA, Boxer vs Nal_rA to be Legacy Matches @ BlizzCon175.0.16 Hotfix (June 30) - Balance + Bug Fixes20Weekly Cups (June 22-28): Zergs thrive in new patch2[TLMC] Summer 2026 Ladder Map Rotation05.0.16 patch for SC2 goes live (8 worker start)99
StarCraft 2
General
MC vs IdrA, Boxer vs Nal_rA to be Legacy Matches @ BlizzCon 5.0.16 Hotfix (June 30) - Balance + Bug Fixes 5.0.16 patch for SC2 goes live (8 worker start) Is the larve respawn broken? ByuL, and the Limitations of Standard Play
Tourneys
RSL Revival: Season 6 - Qualifiers and Main Event Douyu Cup 2026: $20,000 Legends Event (June 26-28) Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule ! INu's Battles#17 <BO.9> Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
New Map Maker - Looking for Advice - Love or Hate Work In Progress Melee Maps [D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3
External Content
The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 532 Nuclear Family Mutation # 531 Experimental Artillery Mutation # 530 One For All
Brood War
General
ASL 22 Proposed Map Pool ProGamer Paychecks Story BW General Discussion Best thing happen to StarCraft since Remastered? Data needed
Tourneys
[Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL21] Grand Finals The Casual Games of the Week Thread [BSL22] GosuLeague Casts - Tue & Thu 22:00 CEST
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Creating a full chart of Zerg builds Relatively freeroll strategies Why doesn't anyone use restoration?
Other Games
General Games
ZeroSpace at Steam NextFest - Last free demo Nintendo Switch Thread Path of Exile Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Beyond All Reason
Dota 2
Looking for a Dota Mentor Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug
TL Mafia
[94721]Better Good-Health Signs Than 3-15 Bans/Yea TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Men's Fashion Thread Canadian Politics Mega-thread The Games Industry And ATVI
Fan Clubs
The HerO Fan Club! The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
Movie Discussion! Series you have seen recently... [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books [TV/BOOK] *SPOILERS* Game of Thrones Discussion
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion McBoner: A hockey love story Cricket [SPORT]
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
How to clean a TTe Thermaltake keyboard? Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Listen To The Coaches!
TrAiDoS
An Exploration of th…
waywardstrategy
I'm an arrogant trash talke…
FlaShFTW
Gauntlet SC2: A Retrospectiv…
Ctone23
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Evil Gacha Games and the…
ffswowsucks
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 3691 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 States1121 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
Norway28831 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
Kung Fu Cup
11:00
KungFu Cup 2026 Week 13
IntoTheiNu 1106
RotterdaM902
WardiTV776
TKL 301
SteadfastSC165
IndyStarCraft 149
CranKy Ducklings59
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RotterdaM 902
TKL 301
Ryung 242
SteadfastSC 165
IndyStarCraft 149
ProTech122
SHIN 103
RushiSC 34
trigger 31
StarCraft: Brood War
Britney 34362
Shuttle 2175
Sea 1922
EffOrt 1011
Hyuk 799
Light 738
firebathero 603
Soma 593
Horang2 456
BeSt 433
[ Show more ]
ggaemo 236
Snow 233
hero 175
Rush 167
Soulkey 151
Zeus 142
Last 136
Hyun 87
Dewaltoss 79
Pusan 71
Aegong 45
[sc1f]eonzerg 40
Free 34
sorry 31
ToSsGirL 31
scan(afreeca) 24
Sacsri 16
Shine 15
Bale 14
zelot 12
Rock 1
Dota 2
Gorgc6182
singsing3633
Dendi1085
qojqva942
Fuzer 636
XaKoH 594
XcaliburYe131
420jenkins113
Counter-Strike
x6flipin355
kRYSTAL_34
Super Smash Bros
Mew2King73
Other Games
hiko1179
B2W.Neo1035
FrodaN509
DeMusliM371
crisheroes320
ceh9270
Hui .195
amsayoshi29
KnowMe29
Trikslyr6
Organizations
Dota 2
PGL Dota 2 - Main Stream229
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 16 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• EnkiAlexander 31
• mYiSmile112
• CranKy Ducklings SOOP9
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• FirePhoenix0
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Nemesis4040
• TFBlade750
Upcoming Events
Replay Cast
9h
CrankTV Team League
20h
Bombastic Starleague
1d 5h
The PondCast
1d 19h
HomeStory Cup
1d 20h
Replay Cast
2 days
HomeStory Cup
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
HomeStory Cup
3 days
OSC
3 days
[ Show More ]
Sparkling Tuna Cup
4 days
WardiTV Weekly
5 days
The PondCast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

YSL S3
Douyu Cup 2026
Murky Cup 2026

Ongoing

IPSL Spring 2026
Acropolis #4
CSL Season 21: Qualifier 2
SCTL 2026 Spring
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026

Upcoming

CSL 2026 Summer (S21)
ASL Season 22:Wild Card Qualifier
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
RSL Revival: Season 6
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
HSC XXIX
Light Tournament 2026
Eternal Conflict S2 Finale
Heroes Pulsing #3
Eternal Conflict S2 E1
FISSURE Playground #5
BLAST Open Fall 2026
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
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.