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[Q] ZvP Dealing with Mass Corsairs

Forum Index > Brood War Strategy
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alt.tday
Profile Joined April 2009
United States180 Posts
July 14 2009 01:00 GMT
#1
So I get that when facing a toss that goes sair-reaver you need to get mass hydras, burrow tech, etc. But I face a couple problems I dont know how to handle. He turtles by blocking out his choke with 2 gates, canons, and reavers, a defense I cant cost effectively break with hydras. But this is not the problem. The problem is this: How to deal with him killing my ovies. If i keep them all above my mass of hydras, he just sacrifices his corsairs to kill like 40 overlords. If i split them up, easier kills for him. By mid game he has 2 hotkeys of corsairs and its EXTREMELY annoying to keep losing and losing overlords.
The Second problem is this: He expands by building 6 canons at the choke of another main and brining 4 reavers there so I cant break his choke. So i cant break his main or his choke, I cant drop him because of his corsairs, I keep losing ovies. What do I do???
♠Spades ♣Clubs ♥Hearts ♦Diamonds ★★★★★
Silverhorde
Profile Joined May 2009
United States32 Posts
July 14 2009 01:03 GMT
#2
I sometimes face this problem too. I'm sure most people will say that your opponent is terrible and wasting tons of resources (which I'm sure is true), but it's still hard to exploit that when he has such a ridiculous amount of defense that you can't attack at all. Plus Corsairs.
ultramagnetics
Profile Joined March 2009
Poland215 Posts
July 14 2009 01:48 GMT
#3
Hmmm, I'm not a z player but if he is really massing corsairs doing the following things should definitely help ( in no particular order):

1.)Upgrade flyer carapace.
2.)Expand like crazy (he doesn't have an army to 1a2a3a your expos) with multi sunk/spores at expo.
3.) Burrow zerglings throughout the map to maintain map-vision.
4.) Do all you can to stop protoss from getting his third (burrow a zergling at where he would build nexus and maybe above the ramp so you can see cannons warping in.
5.) Make a bunch spore colonies through out your main/natural to ward off sairs.
6.) Don't over-cluster your overlords because he will take them all out while sacrificing only a few sairs- Keep them spread around your main/nat and around spore colonies.
7.) Have a bunch of scourge ready to pick off his shuttle (or corsairs in some situations).
Hmmm, that's all I can think of for now. I hope it helps
ActualSteve
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States627 Posts
July 14 2009 01:58 GMT
#4
The damned Protoss is a difficult animal once it reaches critical mass.
Punish him if he's going to spend the time / resources on enough stargates for 24 corsairs, early.

Sairs are devilish when they aggregate.
You are now breathing manually.
Ideas
Profile Blog Joined April 2008
United States8167 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-07-14 02:02:55
July 14 2009 02:02 GMT
#5
I find the best solution is to not let him get air dominance. +1 carapace scourge/muta (and like MASS scourge) are the best counter to maintain air dominance. Then go for upgraded hydras and go for drops.
Free Palestine
Stimpacked
Profile Joined June 2008
Philippines368 Posts
July 14 2009 02:14 GMT
#6
mutas/scourge cant just overpower if he really likes to devote to sairs.. dont waste mutas just scourge/hydra, ambush sairs w/ scourge when they're moving not attacking.. and yea try your best to deny his 3rd or your dead his gonna get carriers and distruption in the future which is really annoying leading to a macro game which mostly favors protoss.
live and let live...
Gogleion
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
United States534 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-07-14 03:03:08
July 14 2009 02:59 GMT
#7
In later game devourers and guardians are very good for what you're describing.

Devourers have a base armor of 2, meaning that if neither of you upgraded, it would take the corsair 83 hits to take one down (3 damage per hit). Guardians have a greater range than cannons and if his only anti-air attack is sairs, then you can use devourers.

It might take a while to get to this tech, but if he turtles, you could have time to tech up.

EDIT: Fixed my math
EffOrt. That is all.
XXehh
Profile Joined May 2009
Canada122 Posts
July 14 2009 03:02 GMT
#8
IMO the most important part of facing mass sairs is the midgame. If you protect your overlords as much as you can and do it well enough (not letting it supply block you, only losing 3-5 MAX) then he won't be able to stop mass hydras. Hydras >>>>> cannons once you have a couple teams.
Probe.
Profile Joined May 2009
United States877 Posts
July 14 2009 03:05 GMT
#9
Get defiler. Take the map since all he really can do is harass. If he really does sacrifice corsair to kill ovies then that shouldn't be a problem at all for you. Upgrade hydras and keep them in key positions around the map. Try queen plus ensnare if it gets late game on his corsair. Instead of them flying by and killing 20 ovie losing little corsair ensnare can help you get them all. Mass drops and denying expo is all you can really do vs turtle toss.
meow
Mystlord *
Profile Blog Joined July 2008
United States10264 Posts
July 14 2009 03:40 GMT
#10
It sounds like you're camping in response to his corsair play. That's not really the right way to approach this. Your Hydras should be out roaming the map and stopping any expansions that Protoss might try to throw up and to intercept his Corsairs/Shuttles.

Frankly, 2 control group of corsairs is a ton of money that could be invested into other things. If you see mass corsair play, start getting Air Carapace upgrades and don't stop researching them. Defiler + Plague is a must since it basically takes off like 60% of their total HP. Queens + Parasite + Ensnare can be useful, but it's more of a one trick thing because Queens die in about a second to enough corsairs. Finally, just three or so devourers work wonders on corsairs. Each acid spore decreases their base armor by 1 so it makes them really easy to pick off.

And don't be scared to do a drop. Use an overlord to scout to see if his corsairs are there before dropping. His corsairs can't be everywhere at once.
It is impossible to be a citizen if you don't make an effort to understand the most basic activities of your government. It is very difficult to thrive in an increasingly competitive world if you're a nation of doods.
Indreide
Profile Joined July 2008
United States23 Posts
July 14 2009 04:09 GMT
#11
In addition to what Mystlord has stated, the best way of dealing with mass corsairs would be to prevent them from adding up in the beginning. It wouldn't hurt to add burrow here and there, with the addition of some parasites from your queens, you can know when and where the corsairs are headed. Scatter your overlords, but keep the majority well within the reach of your hydralisks. Don't invest on scourge once they have more than 5-6, hydras will do the job if your overlords are close enough to be protected.
Jaedong/Zero/Fantasy fan. ICCup ID: Indreide/VandLize: looking for friends to play/practice with!
rredtooth
Profile Blog Joined December 2008
5464 Posts
July 14 2009 05:08 GMT
#12
On July 14 2009 11:59 Gogleion wrote:
In later game devourers and guardians are very good for what you're describing.

Devourers have a base armor of 2, meaning that if neither of you upgraded, it would take the corsair 83 hits to take one down (3 damage per hit). Guardians have a greater range than cannons and if his only anti-air attack is sairs, then you can use devourers.

It might take a while to get to this tech, but if he turtles, you could have time to tech up.

EDIT: Fixed my math

go watch stork vs luxury, shinhan proleague final.
devourers die.

you just have to overexpand when he turtles (it will take him a while to get enough sairs, even with 2 stargates). don't get ultras, they die FAST to reavers.

definitely need defilers. he can't really move out so its okay to skimp on units and get early upgrades (3/3 hydras are deadly to sairs).
[formerly sponsored by the artist formerly known as Gene]
sixghost
Profile Blog Joined November 2007
United States2096 Posts
July 14 2009 06:25 GMT
#13
On July 14 2009 11:59 Gogleion wrote:
In later game devourers and guardians are very good for what you're describing.

Devourers have a base armor of 2, meaning that if neither of you upgraded, it would take the corsair 83 hits to take one down (3 damage per hit). Guardians have a greater range than cannons and if his only anti-air attack is sairs, then you can use devourers.

It might take a while to get to this tech, but if he turtles, you could have time to tech up.

EDIT: Fixed my math

You are forgetting to take into account how fast sairs attack, and the fact that P will have +1 at the very least, most likely even +2 if they have this many sairs. Especially considering how often this type of play transitions into mass sair reaver carrier.

That's not to say they arent good vs sairs, but they aren't the perfect counter.
mG.sixghost @ iCCup || One ling, two ling, three ling, four... Camp four gas, then ultra-whore . -Saracen
Zvi
Profile Joined April 2009
Israel29 Posts
July 14 2009 07:03 GMT
#14
I'm not a great player but i think you can out-spread him if you do decide to go air. If you decide to use the great spire tech people have been suggesting, then you would need to make mutas anyway, and while he can't efford to split his corsairs too much to defend all of his expansions, you can be annoying / force way more cannons by sending up a few smaller groups of mutas to his expansions.
mutalisks are fast so with the right timing you should be able to escape back to your spores before his sairs get you, i think. Getting some scourge to delay him chasing your mutas might also work.
:o
stroggos
Profile Joined February 2009
New Zealand1543 Posts
Last Edited: 2009-07-14 07:44:13
July 14 2009 07:43 GMT
#15
if he has 2 groups of sairs you'll want tons of hydras burrowing and intercepting them all over the map plus 3 evo chambers and 2 sunkens at each expansion so they cant exploit with Dt's as well.

Also get a queen for ensare/hydra ownage on the sairs if ya want.

2 groups of sairs means you should be able to easily have 4 bases and them having 2 due to their lack of army size.

research drop and ovie speed if you'r not afraid of a mass hydra drop interception from corsairs.

Combat them late game with carapace upgraded devours/ensare and some plagu's

hi
WeSt
Profile Blog Joined April 2008
Portugal918 Posts
July 14 2009 08:57 GMT
#16
If you like the typical 3 hatch spire bo try to kill the first 2-3 corsairs at all costs with scourge while massing hydras. Get +1 attack for hydras not carapace. Expand like a mad man and have at least 1 spore and 2 to 3 sunkens per exp. Remember to put a sunken close to the mineral line so he can't get free hits with the reaver. Once you have hive tech you can go either defilers or devourers... or both! plaguuu is a nice option since his corsairs will always be together in a big cloud. These plagued bastards will die so quickly vs hydras... then if you have too much trouble taking his expansions get guardians protected with scourge and devies.
zvz is imba
GoAudio
Profile Blog Joined November 2008
Sweden400 Posts
July 14 2009 11:25 GMT
#17
hydras is the rape
EffOrt[fOu] & Hyvaa[S.G] <3 :D
Stimpacked
Profile Joined June 2008
Philippines368 Posts
July 14 2009 12:30 GMT
#18
wait dont forget theres carriers and there is disruption and reavers too.. k? so its harder than you think.. when those reavers position on the choke and sairs disrupt lower ground theres no way you can prevent him from expanding.. plus he can take island if he wants to bec of air control.. thing you should do is just take as many expos as possible to be ready for late game with upgrades..
live and let live...
Polis
Profile Joined January 2005
Poland1292 Posts
July 14 2009 12:40 GMT
#19
On July 14 2009 15:25 sixghost wrote:
Show nested quote +
On July 14 2009 11:59 Gogleion wrote:
In later game devourers and guardians are very good for what you're describing.

Devourers have a base armor of 2, meaning that if neither of you upgraded, it would take the corsair 83 hits to take one down (3 damage per hit). Guardians have a greater range than cannons and if his only anti-air attack is sairs, then you can use devourers.

It might take a while to get to this tech, but if he turtles, you could have time to tech up.

EDIT: Fixed my math

You are forgetting to take into account how fast sairs attack, and the fact that P will have +1 at the very least, most likely even +2 if they have this many sairs. Especially considering how often this type of play transitions into mass sair reaver carrier.

That's not to say they arent good vs sairs, but they aren't the perfect counter.


Against corsairs they are great, each of they attack has area spell that makes corsair fire less often up to 9 when they fire would fire very slowly but even few is very noticeable.

go watch stork vs luxury, shinhan proleague final.
devourers die.


Not to corsairs.
Kenny
Profile Blog Joined October 2004
United States678 Posts
July 14 2009 12:44 GMT
#20
If hes at 2 full groups of corsairs hes either:

1) Camping
2) Running around pwning ovies and you aren't minimizing corsair numbers.

I like to think of zvp kinda like zvt when they go corsairs. Imagine the corsairs are vessels and you need to continue to minimize those numbers throughout the entirety of the game.
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