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Zerg and flanking
Zerg has always been the race that benefits the most when flanking. As Zerg you need to deal a large number of hits to kill the enemy, while your units die to comparatively few enemy hits.
In a choke point only a few Zerg units can deal damage at the same time. The units need a lot of room to deal the maximum amount of damage.
![[image loading]](http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp259/ASDFfighter/educational0.png)
You want to do the surround!
How to do the surround
![[image loading]](http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp259/ASDFfighter/educational1.png)
Split your army and attack. It's that simple.
Creep gives zerg a very unique bonus in the form of speed and information. By carefully positioning your army, you can gain a dramatic advantage when engaging the invading army.
The enemy will decide when the attack will take place, but you decide where the attack takes place. Position your army so that the enemy can't help but get surrounded, if he decides to attack.
![[image loading]](http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp259/ASDFfighter/educational2.png)
It is best to use 1 control group for the split army since you want to attack with all your army at the same time. The best way to go about hotkeying your units is probably putting a-movers in one group and units that require special micro (banelings, infestors, mutas) on other hotkeys.
One thing you need to consider when splitting your army, is that the unit composition should be the same as your main army. Don't put just roaches on one side and just hydras on the other. That would just make your hydras melt. Different units work best together.
![[image loading]](http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp259/ASDFfighter/educational3.png)
Setting up a flank requires very little effort on your part and it forces the opponent into a disadvantageous position. One way for the opponent to avoid your flanking is to attack from a route you do not expect.
![[image loading]](http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp259/ASDFfighter/educational4.png)
This, however, is easily countered by repositioning your army.
![[image loading]](http://i417.photobucket.com/albums/pp259/ASDFfighter/educational5.png)
Now the enemy is yet again in a disadvantageous position if he decides to attack.
When looking at a map it is always a good idea to check for wide, open areas, where flanking maneuvers are possible. Army positioning is one of the strongest tools in the zerg arsenal, so it is essential that a player uses maps and their features to their fullest potential.
With this in mind, good luck in your future battles, cerebrate!
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Simple tactic, but a nice guide with good illustrations none the less ^^
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Indeed, always good to point out as there surely are a lot of not too good players who are too busy with other things to focus on flanking.
A good flank can easily double (or more) the effectiveness of your army, especially against tanks or storm.
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The problem with this flanking is that it doesn't delay the enemy. Delaying T attacks are crucial since you will need all units possible. You have to force him to siege and then back off to force the unsiege, and there you won 5sec. Do it again, 10sec, do it again, 15sec and so on. But you can't really do that with a flanking force as easy.
I just noticed I suck at explaining things in english so I can't explain why but you may get the picture. Otherwise great painting :D
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Nice work, you should put this on liquipedia there isnt a page for it. very usefull and well explained as it is but liqupidea has a nice structure to follow.
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hahaha if only idra would look at this before running ultras into tank/PF chokes and crying imba =P
good pictures, especially the part about repositioning your flank.
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A nice small guide for newer players. I disagree on one point though. You state that the army composition of your flanking force should be the same as the army composition of the main force, however due to speedlings being much much faster than anything else in your the zerg army I always put all of my zerglings on a separate flanking force.
An advantage of having zerglings as a flanking force is that they can easily maneuver to another position if their current position does not offer an advantage anymore.
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One tough thing about flanking is the speed of zerg units - especially the last example is very hard to do if you have hydras or infestors in your army.
Still, nice guide, it's something that can win you a battle even when you have 50% the army value and put you in a great position to enter lategame.
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those are some great pictures, and good advice
kudos
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Couple points:
(1) You have 3 groups in most of the pictures. 2 is really fine in almost all cases. Zerg units are faster. The attacking units won't be able to retreat even if there's an angle that you're not flanking from.
(2) Having a separate hotkey for your flanking force is a good idea. You say you want to use the same hotkey so they attack at the same time, but you really want to be able to move the groups separtely. First, the distances might be different, so you might need to start your flanking force earlier or later than your main force. Second, you hit on this, but you'll often want to reposition your forces independently before engaging. Like you mentioned, this can happen if they attack from an angle you don't expect.
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There is an issue when splitting up your forces on some of the locations you pointed out.
If you're playing against a Protoss player, they can forcefield so that they only have to deal with one attack at once. The Zerg player has basically split up his forces for the benefit of his opponent.
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How does this benefit air units?
Also, would burrow be a key element in flanking?
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On February 13 2012 12:12 JagerGard wrote:
How does this benefit air units?
Also, would burrow be a key element in flanking?
This does not benit too much to air units as they stack, and anyway mutas are so fast they don't really care .
I don't think you want to burrow to flank, as it's a huge risk : if your opponent randomly (read : skillfully) scan the area where you group of unit is borrow, they will all die for free. Considering the speed of zerg army, they don't need burrow to position well. If you want to use borrow, just do it with some banelings (but it's not a flank anymore).
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On October 21 2010 23:10 n3mo wrote:
hahaha if only idra would look at this before running ultras into tank/PF chokes and crying imba =P
good pictures, especially the part about repositioning your flank.
tanks/PF are designed to limit the pathing that zerg can take
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On February 13 2012 12:12 JagerGard wrote:
How does this benefit air units?
Also, would burrow be a key element in flanking?
I don't think your question is enough to revive such an old thread.
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On February 13 2012 12:12 JagerGard wrote:
How does this benefit air units?
Also, would burrow be a key element in flanking?
sure why not but its often easier to burrow banelings bwahahahahha
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On February 13 2012 14:38 CreepyNA wrote:Show nested quote +On February 13 2012 12:12 JagerGard wrote:
How does this benefit air units?
Also, would burrow be a key element in flanking? I don't think your question is enough to revive such an old thread.
what else should he do? start a new thread? Every negatory response NEED to be followed up with an alternative suggestion. Nobody is entitled to criticize if they cannot ultimately improve the situation.
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TL;DR http://www.thefreedictionary.com/surround
..lolz just kidding. Just wanted to mention that this can be applied to all the races and that it is also good to stick to a choke sometimes if you are outnumbered for example *cough* TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL *cough*. In general it benefits melee units mostly, but can also benefit ranged units when you have numbers while the opponent has powerunits (TvP bio vs deathball). In the end its always about to try to have as many dudes firing while denying as many of his dudes to fire.
Well written guide nevertheless! 
Peace
Dan
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EPT
