[SC2B] Zerg: The Evolution (or Devolution) - Page 16

This thread is not about racial imbalance. But it is about how one of the defining features of the Zerg race - glass on glass - has dramatically reduced the role of the in Starcraft 2.

All units in any RTS, or any game for that matter, have a certain DPS and a certain hit point; essentially, the ability to dish damage and to take it. Very loosely, this ratio, if low, makes a unit a "tank" or a "meatshield;" if high, you're looking at a "glass cannon."

If you're working with an army of mixed composition, then your goal is for your meatshields to take the hits while your glass cannons dish damage with impunity. When a unit with a low ratio is determined to take damage in lieu of high ratio units, it's known as tanking.

It's easy, then, to see why a mixed army can easily dominate a uniform army if this tanking is done properly. However, if your meatshields are unable to tank for the glass cannons - say, in the case of zerglings which are always going to be in front - then a mixed army, generally speaking, is worse than a uniform army since in glass with tank backup, your glass is killed and at the same time the tanks do not deal much damage during this process; better to have glass with glass support so that when the front lines are broken, the backup has already dealt a whole lot of damage, or to have tank with tank support.

As an illustration, consider a modified version of Starcraft with Attack Marines and Defense Marines; where Attack Marines have double damage but Defense marines have double health. Attack Marines and Defense Marines are, of course, tied in head-to-head combat as one group's doubled damage is negated by the other's double health. In addition, if a combined army is well-mixed and the enemy units acquire targets at random, this is effectively identical to a uniform group of either. However, if a mixed army is able to put Defense Marines in front; the mixed army is more effective than a standard army; if the opponent can find a way to target Attack Marines first, the mixed army is less effective than a standard army and you should have gone with all one of the other.

Tanking, of course, very obviously present in Starcraft 1 as well as Starcraft 2. In Starcraft I dragoons tank for reavers and vultures tank for tanks; in Starcraft 2, roaches tank for hydras and zealots tank for colossi. However, there are many unit compositions without designated tanking units - for example, the Zerg in Starcraft I are an entire race of glass cannons with one major exception, the Ultralisk. In this case, zerglings are doing the tanking, but they are being supported by other glass cannon units - fragile mutalisks, massable hydras, or splashing lurkers. As another example, both zealots and dragoons pack a respectable punch as well as many hit points.

Anyway, where does this bring us?

Right, the Zergling. Perhaps surpassed only in damage output combined with fragility by the REEEEEEEBOOOOOOOOOO, and the bread-and-butter unit of the Swarm, the Zergling is one hell of a glass cannon. And they're good at what they do, destroying marines in open combat, and tearing through cannons like they're not even there. But this raises a question - why the hell are glass cannons front-line warriors? In Starcraft I, the first answer is easy - because everything in the Zerg army is a glass cannon, as I said before. Mutalisks and hydralisks pack a punch, and in fact properly positioned lurkers are even more of a glass cannon than even the zergling. (There is a second answer, and that's the fact that in mixed combat Zerg units really just dish out more damage pound for pound than their Protoss or Terran counterparts, which makes up for this; it's why avoiding the zerg flank is so important; and perhaps a third point, Zerg mobility makes up for this as well when the massive Protoss ball is frequently too strong to throw zerglings at head on. But this is a digression.) As the game progresses and critical masses of ranged units begin to render zerglings (and other melee units) at a disadvantageous position, hive tech gives the zergling is given a new lease on life through three awesome forces - adrenal glands (even more damage), ultralisks (the new meatshield for glass cannon zerglings), and defilers (rendering the glass part irrelevant.)

What of Starcraft II?

Simply put - roaches and zerglings do not go together. They hate each other. It's about as Attack-Marine in front Defense-Marine in back as you can get. More often, you'll see zerglings and mutalisks charging into combat together, or hardy roaches tanking for relatively more fragile hydralisks. Furthermore, in the late game, the zergling has nothing to compensate for the fact that they're really bad at engaging gigantic armies. Between the comparatively sturdy hydra-roach combo, and the ridiculously-hard-to-kill-with-anything-ground-based broodlord, there's not very much glass cannon behind the zerglings to back them up in their suicidal charges. They can still pull their weight early-game when it's viable to have nothing but zerglings, or nothing but zerglings, banelings, and mutas, but come late game they utterly vanish.

This is why the zerglings of Starcraft II cry themselves to sleep at night, with collective memories of the glory days, when minimally supported zerglings could level expansions and slaughter mispositioned armies with ease, running through their primitive, restless minds.