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[Q] ZvZ hydra VS muta - Page 2

Forum Index > Brood War Strategy
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SCC-Faust
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
United States3736 Posts
July 21 2008 03:05 GMT
#21
The standard ZvZ Hydra Build I use is the same that Satanik used verse Lowely on Baekdu in WCG 2007. It is in highlight videos and the replay is floating around somewhere.
I want to fuck Soulkey with a Zelderan.
LonelyMargarita
Profile Blog Joined August 2007
1845 Posts
July 21 2008 03:07 GMT
#22
Just think of sheer numbers. For 300/100 you can get 4 hydralisks (for a total of 20 damage/shot vs small units and 320 hp) or 1 mutalisk and 8 zerglings (for a total of 49 damage/shot and 400 hp). While they cost the same, the latter is faster, they have more total hit points, they do more total damage, and the mutas fly (more mobile). The only advantage of hydras is that they have range while half the opponent's army doesn't (and maybe that you have fewer units to hotkey LOL). In numbers the ranged attack no longer matters because the lings will swarm over the hydras while the mutas take the first salvo of shots. Expanding the numbers, you'll get an initial small army of 32 hydralisks vs 8 mutas and 64 zerglings. It's easy to see who wins. The ratio of 8:1 lings:muta might look odd, but when someone goes hydras both players will powerdrone, making their min:gas ratio much higher than a normal zvz.

On top of that, the hydra army needs spores and sunkens to protect against muta and hidden ling raids, since his units are so much slower and can't fly. It comes down to hydras being most viable when you have a huge econ advantage vs your opponent, in which case going muta/ling will win even more easily. The only time I can see going hydra as the best option would be if he contains you to 1 gas while he gets two, but he sacrifices econ to do this, so you have a much higher mineral:gas ratio than he does.
I <3 서지훈
GoShox
Profile Blog Joined December 2007
United States1844 Posts
July 21 2008 03:42 GMT
#23
I'm no Z player, but I recently watched that Satanik vs. Lowely game (I saw it on a highlight video a while back and DL'ed and watched it 2 days ago), and it was pretty awesome.

The replay is on the WCG site, but you have to go through a bunch of stuff to get through it, so I uploaded it to RepDepot:

http://repdepot.net/replay.php?id=5883
Andaroo
Profile Joined March 2007
Canada70 Posts
July 21 2008 05:09 GMT
#24
hydras work nicely if you can somehow protect your mineral line from muta harrass. and prevent the enemy from simply going AROUND ur army when you move out and counter by attacking ur base.
Stimpacked
Profile Joined June 2008
Philippines368 Posts
July 21 2008 06:40 GMT
#25
1 muta 2 lings(150mins 100 gas) vs 2 hydras (150mins 50 gas) = who would win? i think if you micro correctly hydras would win and you hav 50gas advantage well i dont know... and maybe if he goes 1muta 8 lings (300mins 100 gas)can easily overcome 4 hydras(300 mins 100gas) but if he goes 2 mutas and 4 lings its different story. so it all depends on the unit mix and the way he flanks coz sometimes lings come in line while the hydras are grouped together and very easy to micro... yes the satanik build is better because of FE but it's like a macro game attack and what if he goes guards your totally screwed up you need swarm to counter it and theres lings to eat your swarmed hydras so you must have lurkers etc... but for 3hatch 1 base its like suprising him with a lot of hydras in just one base, the aim is to kill him fast bec of your 3hatches and the drone count would almost be equally the same than FE'ing since most zergs will not make that many drones in each expo and you can also limit the number of lings and its much safer... with equal bases considering he didnt FE'd you can fight him off...
live and let live...
iakNab
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
131 Posts
July 21 2008 06:55 GMT
#26
On July 21 2008 11:08 HeavOnEarth wrote:
eh u wanna zvz im EzPzLmnSqz @ iccup and heavonearth @ west
Muta microing hydras should be fun <_<
PM MEH


u got one gay name there buddy


hydra completely viable, i pulled ridiculous wins with it. Opponents most likely wont be quite ready for it either.
aja ja
Blind
Profile Blog Joined December 2002
United States2529 Posts
July 21 2008 07:18 GMT
#27
On July 21 2008 12:07 LonelyMargarita wrote:
Just think of sheer numbers. For 300/100 you can get 4 hydralisks (for a total of 20 damage/shot vs small units and 320 hp) or 1 mutalisk and 8 zerglings (for a total of 49 damage/shot and 400 hp). While they cost the same, the latter is faster, they have more total hit points, they do more total damage, and the mutas fly (more mobile). The only advantage of hydras is that they have range while half the opponent's army doesn't (and maybe that you have fewer units to hotkey LOL). In numbers the ranged attack no longer matters because the lings will swarm over the hydras while the mutas take the first salvo of shots. Expanding the numbers, you'll get an initial small army of 32 hydralisks vs 8 mutas and 64 zerglings. It's easy to see who wins. The ratio of 8:1 lings:muta might look odd, but when someone goes hydras both players will powerdrone, making their min:gas ratio much higher than a normal zvz.

On top of that, the hydra army needs spores and sunkens to protect against muta and hidden ling raids, since his units are so much slower and can't fly. It comes down to hydras being most viable when you have a huge econ advantage vs your opponent, in which case going muta/ling will win even more easily. The only time I can see going hydra as the best option would be if he contains you to 1 gas while he gets two, but he sacrifices econ to do this, so you have a much higher mineral:gas ratio than he does.
Can you do more calculations, but include the cost of 3-4 lurkers with the hydras? I'm interested to see how the result would look. Either way, looking at just pure numbers can be misleading since different styles will require different economies.
Metaspace
Profile Joined November 2006
Austria670 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-07-21 10:12:30
July 21 2008 10:11 GMT
#28
On July 21 2008 16:18 Blind wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +
+ Show Spoiler +
On July 21 2008 12:07 LonelyMargarita wrote:
Just think of sheer numbers. For 300/100 you can get 4 hydralisks (for a total of 20 damage/shot vs small units and 320 hp) or 1 mutalisk and 8 zerglings (for a total of 49 damage/shot and 400 hp). While they cost the same, the latter is faster, they have more total hit points, they do more total damage, and the mutas fly (more mobile). The only advantage of hydras is that they have range while half the opponent's army doesn't (and maybe that you have fewer units to hotkey LOL). In numbers the ranged attack no longer matters because the lings will swarm over the hydras while the mutas take the first salvo of shots. Expanding the numbers, you'll get an initial small army of 32 hydralisks vs 8 mutas and 64 zerglings. It's easy to see who wins. The ratio of 8:1 lings:muta might look odd, but when someone goes hydras both players will powerdrone, making their min:gas ratio much higher than a normal zvz.


On top of that, the hydra army needs spores and sunkens to protect against muta and hidden ling raids, since his units are so much slower and can't fly. It comes down to hydras being most viable when you have a huge econ advantage vs your opponent, in which case going muta/ling will win even more easily. The only time I can see going hydra as the best option would be if he contains you to 1 gas while he gets two, but he sacrifices econ to do this, so you have a much higher mineral:gas ratio than he does.
Can you do more calculations, but include the cost of 3-4 lurkers with the hydras? I'm interested to see how the result would look. Either way, looking at just pure numbers can be misleading since different styles will require different economies.


You need respectable hydra numbers to prevent mutas sniping lurkers; so I imagine you will not afford lurker tech until comparatively late in the game (in terms of ZvZ).
And you have to expect your opponent to adapt his muta/ling mix seeing your lurkers - what you have less in hydras to allow for lurks, he will have more in muta.

And even lurkers still do not solve the problem of your inferior mobility - even if you have enough hydralurk to be on par with his muta/ling, they cannot be in two places at once :-)
I.e., when you move out far enough, you'll have tons of mutas tearing up your nat, being back in time to defend your push.

I do not have to point out that this means map control for your opponent and wild expoing :-)
Wir haben zuwenig Vespingas!
Chill
Profile Blog Joined January 2005
Calgary25998 Posts
July 21 2008 12:30 GMT
#29
If you are D, Hydas are viable. Hydras benefit from being in a huge group, so try to draw the game out and stall for +2 carapace.

If you are C, Hydras are useless. Your base and stray Hydras will be picked apart by Muta micro. The second you move out you will lose your main.
Moderator
GoShox
Profile Blog Joined December 2007
United States1844 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-07-21 14:46:33
July 21 2008 14:43 GMT
#30
On July 21 2008 21:30 Chill wrote:
If you are D, Hydas are viable. Hydras benefit from being in a huge group, so try to draw the game out and stall for +2 carapace.

If you are C, Hydras are useless. Your base and stray Hydras will be picked apart by Muta micro. The second you move out you will lose your main.


So just sort of a random question, assuming you saw the Satanik vs. Lowely game, why did it work so well for Satanik?

He spent so much money on Spores to defend (even doing this he lost many Drones and Hydras to harass anyways, plus all the Drones used to make buildings) and it took him forever to get enough Hydras. Did Lowely just not harass well enough, or should he have tried to take more of the map rather than just the one expansion he took?

I'm not saying that since it worked for Satanik it would work for every player, plus it was only one game, I'm just curious as to how he didn't lose that game.
Chill
Profile Blog Joined January 2005
Calgary25998 Posts
July 21 2008 15:03 GMT
#31
On July 21 2008 23:43 GoShox wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 21 2008 21:30 Chill wrote:
If you are D, Hydas are viable. Hydras benefit from being in a huge group, so try to draw the game out and stall for +2 carapace.

If you are C, Hydras are useless. Your base and stray Hydras will be picked apart by Muta micro. The second you move out you will lose your main.


So just sort of a random question, assuming you saw the Satanik vs. Lowely game, why did it work so well for Satanik?

He spent so much money on Spores to defend (even doing this he lost many Drones and Hydras to harass anyways, plus all the Drones used to make buildings) and it took him forever to get enough Hydras. Did Lowely just not harass well enough, or should he have tried to take more of the map rather than just the one expansion he took?

I'm not saying that since it worked for Satanik it would work for every player, plus it was only one game, I'm just curious as to how he didn't lose that game.


I haven't seen the game, just random highlights from a video. I'd assume Lowely didn't overexpand or lost his Mutas instead of balling up.
Moderator
cyronc
Profile Joined March 2008
218 Posts
Last Edited: 2008-07-26 12:47:44
July 21 2008 17:40 GMT
#32
watch the replay of satanik vs incontrol on some space tileset map( i think its in the gg.net replay db)
awesome ZvZ play!!!! (almost every Zerg Unit used!!!!)

EDIT: yeah like Shallow pointed out its XiaoZi in this rep against Satanik not Incontrol (must have mixed up the ToT)Players( at that time sorry), no matter what that rep is possibly the best ZvZ ive seen in a long time.

props to tsunami for being one of the most inspiring Zerg theorycrafters and to satanik for being one of the few to have the guts to pull unorthodox strategies out of his bag every now and then!!!!
iH82G8!
Breavman
Profile Joined September 2004
Sweden598 Posts
July 21 2008 17:48 GMT
#33
The fact that muta/ling is more cost efficient than hydra doesn't really matter. The point is to get a fast expand and have more drones than opponent so you can have more units at a certain point of time. It's possible to both power and defend since you don't spend minerals on tech.

Playing this way, there will probably be a timing window where you can attack (not too late since he must not have enough mutas to kill you when you move out). Remember that sunkens are pretty weak vs a hydra/ling force if there is enough room to attack. If he gets a sizeable muta force early you will be ahead in economy and play defense. But the problem is that you are playing blind with no way to scout so you pretty much have to guess the best time to move out and attack.

He could be teching hive in which case you want to attack before guardians/defilers are ready. If he just masses mutas you might want to delay the attack but then again he can't be allowed to build a superior economy and it's hard to tell. Against lurkers it will be a hive vs hive game. And no, a good player will usually not lose to a pure hydra timing attack but Satanik and others has shown that similar builds can work.
Day[9]
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
United States7366 Posts
July 21 2008 21:52 GMT
#34
wtf hydralisks are EXTREMELY EXTREMELY good in ZvZ

i went like 53-1 ZvZ going only hydralisks

its the best man

hydra >>> muta ftw
Whenever I encounter some little hitch, or some of my orbs get out of orbit, nothing pleases me so much as to make the crooked straight and crush down uneven places. www.day9.tv
Day[9]
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
United States7366 Posts
July 21 2008 21:54 GMT
#35
like srsly crunching A-/A Z players daily w/ it

you just have to have the right build and it plays really weird the first few times you try it
Whenever I encounter some little hitch, or some of my orbs get out of orbit, nothing pleases me so much as to make the crooked straight and crush down uneven places. www.day9.tv
Day[9]
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
United States7366 Posts
July 21 2008 21:56 GMT
#36
i especially like it on tau cross where its nice and open

guards aren't even concerning there.

even then, guards aren't too bad at all
Whenever I encounter some little hitch, or some of my orbs get out of orbit, nothing pleases me so much as to make the crooked straight and crush down uneven places. www.day9.tv
Durak
Profile Blog Joined January 2008
Canada3685 Posts
July 21 2008 22:10 GMT
#37
On July 22 2008 06:56 Day[9] wrote:
i especially like it on tau cross where its nice and open

guards aren't even concerning there.

even then, guards aren't too bad at all


It would suck if they morphed them over your ridge though.
Day[9]
Profile Blog Joined April 2003
United States7366 Posts
July 21 2008 23:38 GMT
#38
On July 22 2008 07:10 Durak wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 22 2008 06:56 Day[9] wrote:
i especially like it on tau cross where its nice and open

guards aren't even concerning there.

even then, guards aren't too bad at all


It would suck if they morphed them over your ridge though.


its ok if they do that because you'll have mutalisks by then anyways
Whenever I encounter some little hitch, or some of my orbs get out of orbit, nothing pleases me so much as to make the crooked straight and crush down uneven places. www.day9.tv
MrRammstein
Profile Joined May 2008
Poland339 Posts
July 22 2008 00:31 GMT
#39
Day[9] give us some reps please ^^
account abandoned:P RIP
SCC-Faust
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
United States3736 Posts
July 22 2008 00:35 GMT
#40
The cool thing is using 2/3 Lurkers which just mutilates every single Zergling, and that means your opponent has to rely on his Mutalisks only. So that is when the true macro fight comes into test.
I want to fuck Soulkey with a Zelderan.
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