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ZvT Marauder/Blue Flame Helion Rush

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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McDaddyJesus
Profile Joined January 2011
United States8 Posts
February 23 2011 06:10 GMT
#1
2900~ Diamond Zerg player and I must start by saying that I have had trouble with this rush in the past. Majorly due to the fact that early zerg units consist of roaches and lings and this hard counters both especially with concussive shell. In the replay that follows I open with a 11 pool 18 hatch to be able to both keep a heavy drone count with early larva and also react to early pressure with access to early lings/speedlings.

I scout a single rax and I don't see anything else for a fair amount of time while trying to get as much info as I can with my scout. I see a single gas go up and continue to delay the second gas hoping to force him into marines and then follow up by throwing a bane nest when I think that this is working due to the marines being used to attack the extractor.

A bit earlier I do scout for a proxy and see none so I feel comfortable droning and mixing in a healthy amount of lings as well. I do have slight map control early game and I do see the rush coming.

I throw down a roach warren in hopes of being able to defend but the marauders smash them to bits. I then am forced to resort to pulling back to my main and attacking with drones and holding off the first rush. My losses are too heavy and I do scout the expansion coming up and figure my only hopes of winning this game is to take a 3rd along with my natural *due to the fact that it had been destroyed early game.*

Of course, to no avail, he has a second force ready to move out and secure the win while I attempt to macro.

I just cant seem to find a way around withstanding this rush. Any advice is appreciated and do please watch the replay.

Replay:
http://www.mediafire.com/?iwx5yxe72dpqia7
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
skypig
Profile Joined November 2009
United States237 Posts
February 23 2011 06:18 GMT
#2
Didn't watch the replay, but pure theory will tell you that marauders/hellions can be beaten by roach/ling, as long as you target the right units - focus down the hellions with roach fire and then surround the marauders with lings and clean up. This method requires that you have the right roach/ling ratio; if you see mostly marauders and only a couple hellions, then mass lings and only throw in a few roaches to take out hellions. If you see 6+ hellions, get 10-12 roaches or so and use your speedlings to surround the marauders once the hellions are out of the picture. Yes it requires micro - since you knew the rush was coming, it would've been good to keep your army hidden so you could come in from behind his army with lings to take out the marauders and attack the front of his army with roaches to get the hellions (usually hellions are at the front to waste lings, and marauders in the back to add their concussive support fire).

An alternative approach would've been to drop 3-4 spine crawlers and create a defense wall; then you could've harassed his attacking forces with roaches from behind the crawlers, or run in behind his army and surrounded with lings or something.

Sorry I didn't watch the replay; don't have time right now.

McDaddyJesus
Profile Joined January 2011
United States8 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-23 06:31:25
February 23 2011 06:30 GMT
#3
On February 23 2011 15:18 skypig wrote:
Didn't watch the replay, but pure theory will tell you that marauders/hellions can be beaten by roach/ling, as long as you target the right units - focus down the hellions with roach fire and then surround the marauders with lings and clean up. This method requires that you have the right roach/ling ratio; if you see mostly marauders and only a couple hellions, then mass lings and only throw in a few roaches to take out hellions. If you see 6+ hellions, get 10-12 roaches or so and use your speedlings to surround the marauders once the hellions are out of the picture. Yes it requires micro - since you knew the rush was coming, it would've been good to keep your army hidden so you could come in from behind his army with lings to take out the marauders and attack the front of his army with roaches to get the hellions (usually hellions are at the front to waste lings, and marauders in the back to add their concussive support fire).

An alternative approach would've been to drop 3-4 spine crawlers and create a defense wall; then you could've harassed his attacking forces with roaches from behind the crawlers, or run in behind his army and surrounded with lings or something.

Sorry I didn't watch the replay; don't have time right now.



Appreciated, and I did indeed enter a micro intensive stage but the problem being that his army was much larger and my roach warren wasnt thrown until I saw his rush coming. I dont see a way around it really. Ideally in my tvz I will go speed/bane/muta and transition into roaches replacing the lings to create more worthy army. But I don't see it possible unless I predicted his marauder/blue flame rush and throw down a much, much earlier roach warren.

The reason I couldnt predict this was that he literally waited untill he had enough marines to take out my drone before throwing anything up and I sent my first expendable overlord after the initial rush.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
Nisani201
Profile Joined September 2010
United States1400 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-23 06:36:15
February 23 2011 06:34 GMT
#4
I have been up against this before, don't build any lings unless there are not many hellions; throwing lings at a large amount of blueflame hellions is always a bad idea, especially with Marauders in the back to back them up. Be extremely Roach heavy but focus on getting Mutas which will be able to hard counter their force. Even though Marauders are strong against Roaches, all of the money they spent on Hellions will be nearly useless. However, if it looks like they are starting to loosen up on hellions then that is the cue to build more lings.
Enjoy your day.
Magni
Profile Joined September 2010
Canada40 Posts
February 23 2011 06:40 GMT
#5
If you know this is coming (sacrificial overlord is really the only way I think), then I think a couple extra queens and a few spines, map depending (I wouldn't recommend defending with just spines on xel naga, LT though is a great map for this, for example) would be most cost efficient while quick teching to mutas, which would shut this down immediately (and might even win the game outright).

I've struggled with this comp a lot and I really think dealing with just roach/ling requires a huge blunder on your opponents end (micro or macro).
The Infernal Pre-Igniter.
Alphasquad
Profile Joined August 2010
Austria505 Posts
February 23 2011 11:35 GMT
#6
you can also stop this with speed/bane and 2-3 spine crawlers which is imo more supply friendly than roaches and the advantage is that neither of your units are very vulnerable to marauders - you need to surround the marauders when they start to attack your crawlers and then chase the hellions with banelings and attack them if they stay on creep - else just retreat because the advantage is yours

the real challange is to scout and anticipate this strategy imo - then its quite similar to zvp 4 gate
Diderick
Profile Joined November 2010
Netherlands298 Posts
February 23 2011 11:42 GMT
#7
Banelngs are not very good against helions, way to easy to split imo
Alphasquad
Profile Joined August 2010
Austria505 Posts
February 23 2011 11:54 GMT
#8
On February 23 2011 20:42 Diderick wrote:
Banelngs are not very good against helions, way to easy to split imo


and roaches are awful against marauders - roaches need 7 hits to kill one hellion while banelings need only 3; against roaches and lings the terran army is able to stay close together which means that your roaches have to come into marauder range to kill hellions - the goal is to make hellions run away

but maybe im the only one who doesnt like to make roaches in zvt especially because one roach needs the supply of 4 lings/banes and too much early overlords are quite of an investment
Cibron
Profile Joined March 2010
Sweden253 Posts
February 23 2011 11:58 GMT
#9
I play terran and this is a really good opening if you know how to follow it up. I ussually skip the blueflame in favor of a reactor on the fac and push out when I have 6 hellions and stim. I beat zergs waaaay past my skill level with this... its awsome.

The best counter I've seen so far is a guy who sacrificed an ovie at about 4:30 - he realized what I was doing and cut drone production. He skipped the warren completely and waited with 3 spines and a shitload of slings and surrounded my hellions while the marauders were killing the spines.. I actually had a worker advantage after the battle but he denied my expo with his remaining lings and stomped me after that.
ZOMGY (¬O_o)¬ || BeastyQQ FTW!! ||
koveras
Profile Joined January 2011
163 Posts
February 23 2011 13:23 GMT
#10
On February 23 2011 15:18 skypig wrote:
Didn't watch the replay, but pure theory will tell you that marauders/hellions can be beaten by roach/ling, as long as you target the right units - focus down the hellions with roach fire and then surround the marauders with lings and clean up. This method requires that you have the right roach/ling ratio; if you see mostly marauders and only a couple hellions, then mass lings and only throw in a few roaches to take out hellions. If you see 6+ hellions, get 10-12 roaches or so and use your speedlings to surround the marauders once the hellions are out of the picture. Yes it requires micro - since you knew the rush was coming, it would've been good to keep your army hidden so you could come in from behind his army with lings to take out the marauders and attack the front of his army with roaches to get the hellions (usually hellions are at the front to waste lings, and marauders in the back to add their concussive support fire).

An alternative approach would've been to drop 3-4 spine crawlers and create a defense wall; then you could've harassed his attacking forces with roaches from behind the crawlers, or run in behind his army and surrounded with lings or something.

Sorry I didn't watch the replay; don't have time right now.



You can do it with just lings if you scout it in time.
“That’s amazing everyone ‘Likes’ my status but you, you’re my wife. You should be the first one to ‘Like’ my status.
Flyingpants
Profile Joined February 2011
79 Posts
February 23 2011 13:28 GMT
#11
Hellions are killed easily enough by lings provided you surround them, and in a situation where he is micro'ing both hellion and marooder, you can flank surround and trap all his units between a spine and a bunch of lings.

Like most things, it's easy enough to stop if you scout it and anticipate, unfortunately zerg do not have any ability to to do things like that. So essentially you have to glance up at his wall and blindly guess what he is gonna be doing.

Extra lings is always good tho. Lings beat everything terren has in cost effectiveness, provided you get a decent enough surround.
pedalpusher
Profile Joined December 2010
United Kingdom56 Posts
February 23 2011 14:04 GMT
#12
I like Sling and spines to defend from Hellion or Hellion/Marauder. Place the spines next to your hatch and force him to engage on your creep, Hopefully you have some creep spread going if not then its going to be more difficult to get a surround on the hellions. You'll lose a fair few lings killing the hellions so keep making them until the attack has ended.
We make a living with the things we are given, we make a life by what we give ~ Winston Churchill
gejfsyd
Profile Joined September 2009
Poland156 Posts
February 23 2011 14:17 GMT
#13
you can counter it with lings and maby few spines. you just need a good creep spread. speedlings on creep are faster than helions, so just surround Them to reduce splash and dont let Them escape and kill them. maruders shouldnt be a problem than. while defending this push tech to mutas and counter him. you should have enough gas if you were making only lings. than you can deny his EXPO for a Long time with mutaling or even kill him right away
drcatellino
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada346 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-23 15:05:10
February 23 2011 15:04 GMT
#14
Hold off with a few spine crawlers until you get up to quick mutalisks.

As Terran, I can say I had many "oh shit, forgot about mutalisks, gg" moments when producing too many ground units, focusing too hard on winning the game quickly rather than thinking about my opponent long-term plan.

The problem with roaches is that they put you in a defensive mold. Mutas can both defend and harass. And end the game if your opponent don't have engineering bay+turrets / lots of marines with stim.
quote unquote
nath
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States1788 Posts
February 23 2011 15:09 GMT
#15
theres a harder push with reactored hellion into hellion, marine, marauder, medivac. the rines allow you to survive initial mutas and win the game right there.

but for this, muta + spine/ling solves
Founder of Flow Enterprises, LLC http://flow-enterprises.com/
YakiSOBA
Profile Joined December 2010
30 Posts
February 23 2011 15:26 GMT
#16
Can any fellow terrans share their replays of blue flame/non blue flame + bio openers? I've been having a lot of trouble with zergs lately... thanks!
Dante08
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
Singapore4141 Posts
February 23 2011 15:34 GMT
#17
Hmm for now I can think of morrow vs idra IEM game 4 on steppes of war where morrow went for a 3 rax marauder and one reactor factory push. And also thebestfou vs ret game 2 on jungle basin. Should be from gsl 3.
ekra
Profile Joined December 2010
Spain52 Posts
February 23 2011 15:43 GMT
#18
The ideal way to deal with this would be mutas. So if U have any clue that this is comming, thorw down a spire ASAP.
Anyway, if you have to face this with no mutas, I would thorw down 3 spines, and make as many lings as posible (if U surround the hellions, they're not that effective against lings). It would probably be a good idea to take some of your lings out of Ur base (hidden somewere) so that U can have a flank on him and surround easily when U engage. Also, U should be careful about when to engage.
Flyingpants
Profile Joined February 2011
79 Posts
February 23 2011 15:49 GMT
#19
Muta is not an answer, this arrives well before muta does. And even then it could kill both your hatches before the mutas kill the marooder.
Meff
Profile Joined June 2010
Italy287 Posts
February 23 2011 15:49 GMT
#20
Specifically on this replay: I think that the leading problem is that at 6:47 you have a third extractor up and running, but you won't be able to gain benefits from that gas for a long time. If you go mutas that's another 60 seconds (lair at 20/80), plus 100 of spire, plus 33 of build time: 193 seconds. Infestors are, similarly, 190 seconds (60 lair + 50 pit + 30 glands + 50 build). You can only do that if you're sure that a timing push won't hit you, otherwise you're several hundreds resources down (700 unspent gas when the push hits you, to give a specific example). Fixing this, either by not getting the third gas as quickly or by refining your scouting, should probably be enough on its own.

Other factors/suggestions:

- the composition could have been spotted a lot earlier. Running a zergling up the ramp can give you a lot of information, for only 25 minerals and half a larva (assuming you do lose the zergling, that is. If not, all the better). Of course, this is not failproof as T could deny scouting by not holding all of his troops at the choke, but in this particular case it would have worked.
- pay attention to the minimap. At 8:10, you can clearly see that you have an incoming push (and not just some hellion harass to cover an expo), but you do not look and check the composition. In fact, I suspect that you were thinking that all that was arriving was hellion harass and that T was going mech. The placement of the spine crawler and the fact that you spent 150 minerals on tech (roach warren) is why I'm saying that. A more correct reply for that specific situation would have been to morph banelings with that
- you could improve the distribution of mineral-digging drones between your natural and the main. It wasn't an enormous problem, but I think that you would have been able to scrounge up an extra 100 mins or so (drones after the 16th give much less income, as the difference between 2 and 3 workers per patch is not as big as that between 1 and 2).
- creep spread. Consider altering your BO to get a third queen, or if you don't do that then you could babysit the one tumors you lay at the start more closely. One of the factors that went against you in the fight was being blindsided by the hellions on the left side of your natural. Having creep to cover the left side of the hole in front of it would have warned you of their approach.
- micro. You ran your troops into enemy fire, then withdrew them after no or minimal engagement. This sort of potshots cost you a significant fraction of your army (6 zerglings out of 22 at the very start of the engagement, to cite one moment). This probably ties in with the lack of creep spread and of minimap attention, as you might have done that in reaction to seeing a larger army than what you expected.

Hope it helps.
monkxly
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Canada241 Posts
February 23 2011 16:00 GMT
#21
Im having a lot of trouble with hellion harass -> expo -> hellion marauder push on Xelnaga Caverns

A lot of the top terrans have been doing this push recently, and here's why I think this build is hard to deal with.

1) Early hellions = complete map dominance and forces defenses from z
2) Deny Scouting: a good t will not let you know whether he expoed or not for a while
3) Marauder hellion(reactor or blue flame) is so cost efficient such that you need a large army to crush his attack. Making units that early for z puts z very far behind since t already has a base up.

Spines can't cover all the open space on Xelnaga and taking an early third on Xelnaga is also very difficult to defend.

I feel that after this push, i'm always far behind the terran's economy
get a spire
DusTerr
Profile Blog Joined January 2011
2520 Posts
February 23 2011 16:01 GMT
#22
you needed to scout earlier... either sac an overlord (100m and supply) or just sac a ling up the ramp. Sending a 25m ling up the ramp won't give you that much vision of his base, but 99% of terrans keep their defensive force at the ramp. Knowing his army comp would have encouraged you to get roaches much sooner. (Obviously, replace the ling at his natural with another.)
You supply capped yourself @52 and then made FIVE overlords. (I don't play zerg much, so I could be out of line, but) that's at least 300 minerals that never got put to use! Your ling at the natural got roasted quick so all you could have seen of his army was hellions. You didn't throw up your first (and only) spine until you saw his army at the XNtower. You had almost 300 minerals banked; probably would have helped to throw down at least 2 more spines (again, don't forget the wasted minerals spent on overlords).
Finally, when he engaged you attacked with your lings before your spine completed AND out of range. Try to hold off enemy forces until your D finishes (either spines or whatever units you're producing). Your slings might have been toast to his army, but when you saw his army move out you could have at least had a small force of them try to run up his ramp (when he was at the XNtower) and delay his attack by a few more seconds (or longer).
Dante08
Profile Blog Joined February 2008
Singapore4141 Posts
February 23 2011 16:01 GMT
#23
The key here is to hold off the first push with spines and as many speedlings as possible. Wait for the Terran to come into the creep and if possible try to flank with speedlings. Meanwhile you should be teching to mutas. If you don't take too much damage from the push the game is yours
Magulina
Profile Joined May 2010
Sweden152 Posts
February 23 2011 16:03 GMT
#24
Definitely go roach warren, sure roaches are bad vs marauders but not that bad vs marauders without medivacs, and the hellions are almost useless vs roach. Some lings can be good aswell, the more marauders the more lings, the more hellions the more roaches. Focus down the marauders with the lings/roaches and then its usually blue hellions vs roaches in the end
babysimba
Profile Joined November 2010
10466 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-23 16:49:43
February 23 2011 16:47 GMT
#25
What i do is go lings heavy and surround hellions at all cost. Use all the remaining gas to fast tech into mutas. Just minimize damage done to your drone while delaying with your zerglings. Once mutas are out, you will have tons of zerglings left + mutas to gain map control for you to power drone back.
If you have too many zerglings left, you could do ling/bling aggression on their natural once your mutas scouted that they are vulnerable to it.

I don't know if roach lings are viable against hellions marauders, since if terran has proper micro he will be the 1 taking initiative to aim the targets that they are cost efficient to (maruders to roaches, hellions in the backline just covering for any lings that surround marauders). Its similar to how roach ling has an advantage in taking out a zlot stalker 4 gate.
Rakanishu2
Profile Joined May 2009
United States475 Posts
February 23 2011 16:49 GMT
#26
Lots and lots of speedlings. spread creep, spine crawlers and queens, survive until you can get out mutas.
10 G's in the packet and I'm ready to roll, on fire like a rocket and I'm ready to blow
Azzur
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
Australia6260 Posts
February 23 2011 17:00 GMT
#27
Ok, I just watched the replay. Tbh, I believe that your title is a little bit misleading. This is because it wasn't the terran unit composition that killed you, rather that you failed to stop a 1-base all-in.

The terran's strat had a major tell - the lack of a fast expansion. At that time, you could've guessed that he was 1-basing. Coupled with the fact that you stole his gas meant that it was very unlikely to be 2-port banshee. Or if it was banshee, 3-4 queens could've dealt with it since it'll be late.

I would've built lots of spinecrawlers (minimum 2-3), lings, queens, and stall for mutas. Once they pop, you should win from there. I don't believe roaches was the right response, rather it would've been better if the money were invested elsewhere.

A game you may like to watch is Idra vs Clide, GSL4 in Xel'naga Caverns. Clide went a 2-base helion/marauder push (incidentally, I believe that is stronger). Idra held with heavy losses and a counter attack by mutas won the day.
McDaddyJesus
Profile Joined January 2011
United States8 Posts
February 23 2011 18:44 GMT
#28
On February 24 2011 00:49 Meff wrote:
Specifically on this replay: I think that the leading problem is that at 6:47 you have a third extractor up and running, but you won't be able to gain benefits from that gas for a long time. If you go mutas that's another 60 seconds (lair at 20/80), plus 100 of spire, plus 33 of build time: 193 seconds. Infestors are, similarly, 190 seconds (60 lair + 50 pit + 30 glands + 50 build). You can only do that if you're sure that a timing push won't hit you, otherwise you're several hundreds resources down (700 unspent gas when the push hits you, to give a specific example). Fixing this, either by not getting the third gas as quickly or by refining your scouting, should probably be enough on its own.

Other factors/suggestions:

- the composition could have been spotted a lot earlier. Running a zergling up the ramp can give you a lot of information, for only 25 minerals and half a larva (assuming you do lose the zergling, that is. If not, all the better). Of course, this is not failproof as T could deny scouting by not holding all of his troops at the choke, but in this particular case it would have worked.
- pay attention to the minimap. At 8:10, you can clearly see that you have an incoming push (and not just some hellion harass to cover an expo), but you do not look and check the composition. In fact, I suspect that you were thinking that all that was arriving was hellion harass and that T was going mech. The placement of the spine crawler and the fact that you spent 150 minerals on tech (roach warren) is why I'm saying that. A more correct reply for that specific situation would have been to morph banelings with that
- you could improve the distribution of mineral-digging drones between your natural and the main. It wasn't an enormous problem, but I think that you would have been able to scrounge up an extra 100 mins or so (drones after the 16th give much less income, as the difference between 2 and 3 workers per patch is not as big as that between 1 and 2).
- creep spread. Consider altering your BO to get a third queen, or if you don't do that then you could babysit the one tumors you lay at the start more closely. One of the factors that went against you in the fight was being blindsided by the hellions on the left side of your natural. Having creep to cover the left side of the hole in front of it would have warned you of their approach.
- micro. You ran your troops into enemy fire, then withdrew them after no or minimal engagement. This sort of potshots cost you a significant fraction of your army (6 zerglings out of 22 at the very start of the engagement, to cite one moment). This probably ties in with the lack of creep spread and of minimap attention, as you might have done that in reaction to seeing a larger army than what you expected.

Hope it helps.


Thank you, and you're spot on with the assumption that I assumed some kind of early helion harass into mech because I didn't notice the marauders in the comp until they were Almost in my face. I guess it was just a matter of being caught to early, I took my third gas in hopes of being able to pump out mutas once my spire was completed and it was much earlier then I normally do take one. I think the way to have properly handled the situation requires 2 things

1) I needed to scout with an overlord near his base around 5 minutes after I had seen no aggression or expansion. The ling up the ramp would've also allowed me to get the spine crawler earlier but I still wouldn't have made more than one due to the fact that he's blocking his ramp with helions and I wouldn't have seen the marauders.

2) Build more spine crawlers and dedicate all of my larva to slings and try to hold off the initial rush and continue my transition into mutas.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
Johnny_Vegas
Profile Joined December 2007
United States239 Posts
February 23 2011 19:04 GMT
#29
The answer to this is probably going to involve adding banelings and more Queens to whatever composition you chose.

Banelings because they are not "armored" or "light" units, meaning blue flame hellions and mauraders do no bonus damage to them, plus they are decently fast on creep, even without baneling speed. Meanwhile they do bonus damage to hellions.

Queens for the same reason, hellions and Mauraders do no bonus damage to them.
battlereports.com (co-founder/developer), Nohunters Discussion Forum operator
savagebeavers
Profile Joined October 2010
Canada108 Posts
February 23 2011 19:05 GMT
#30
Your main problem was your scouting, you saw that the Terran was on 1 base so you should know there was some sort of all in coming. You have to bee poking up that ramp with a ling to see what kind of units and tech building he has. If you would of gone up that ramp you would of seen 2 rax with tech labs, a hellion from a factory with a tech lab, with an upgrade on the way. At this point you can throw down a couple spines and a roach warden.

I had a practice partener that always did this to me and i defended fine with a roach ling army. There may be more than one way of dealing with this, but that is what i found most effective. The main problem is scouting it in time to get the roach warden down. But his tech was right by the ramp it would of been easily scoutable, hope this helps.
pingy[wen]
Profile Joined June 2010
United States157 Posts
February 23 2011 19:25 GMT
#31
in response to the "build roaches, hold out and make mutas,"
from a terran perspective, i would normally plop down a semilate OC expo and an armory, get +1 vehicle upgrade and once i start to see the roach numbers increasing beyond my hellion/marauder numbers, i will swap to marine/thor and continue my harass from there. there's about a 30 delay from stopping the hellion/marauder and switching to thor/marine when the zerg feels like its safe to drone up a bit but they really arent. if you really wanta end it with a strong two base push, build a reactored starport for medivacs and bring scvs (healbus ftw). note: it WILL require some micro.
i've had solid results, but since i dont have a solid build order for this or much practice with it, i feel like it could be better...just dont have the time to fix it up. =(
this strat like all XvZ strats works (generally) because you're forcing the zerg to not drone up.
DestroManiak
Profile Joined December 2010
257 Posts
February 23 2011 21:11 GMT
#32
can anyone show me a perfect execution of this Marauder/Hellion strat?
The player in the replay had a lot of extra minerals, supply capped himself etc.
thanks
Fruscainte
Profile Blog Joined December 2009
4596 Posts
February 23 2011 21:15 GMT
#33
Honestly, all it requires is:

* You fight on Creep
* You have 1-2 Spine Crawlers
* You have Ling/Bling

Send in the lings first to draw the Concussive Shells, blings tear into Hellions and Lings clean them up. Get Queens to block your ramp to make sure the Hellions dont get into your main.
itzdeity
Profile Joined January 2011
United States8 Posts
February 25 2011 17:51 GMT
#34
2.9k diamond Zerg and I too have been seeing this build much more frequently and I have yet to find a way to beat it if the Terran player doesn't make a huge mistake. Scouting it isn't the problem at all, half the terran opponents don't even bother hiding it, it's just defending what I know is coming. I've tried everything from making 6 or more queens, spines, mass ling mass roach or a combination of it all. What seems to be the best from my experiments is roaches with crawler support. With that I can generally hold off the initial push but then they come back with thors and tanks so transitioning to mutas won't help with their second push. The reasoning is that I've spent so much larvae on units and don't have the economy to support more than 8 or so mutas to fight against there next push. I also tend to favor Infestors over mutas but I won't have the numbers needed to stop that next push which is fatally brutal if I haven't researched np. Maybe a baneling bust could stop this if scouted quickly enough before their hellion numbers increase to that critical mass, I'm not sure but I don't think it would have a good timing and I prefer macro games. I'm going to mass some ladder games tonight so hopefully I will be able to add a few replays for critique or maybe even a solid way to defend this. I miss two rax openings
Mr_Kyo
Profile Joined November 2010
United States269 Posts
February 25 2011 17:57 GMT
#35
Marauders arent THAT good against roaches without stim; they are only slightly more efficient. If he's 2-rax/1-fact then 100% roaches would win as helions will do nothing. If he only has a few helions then mass lings would win easy. Or build spines.

I use to do maraduer/helion rushes, but its mostly spines that detour me. They at least buy you time.
PkP
Profile Joined April 2010
Sweden54 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-25 21:07:43
February 25 2011 20:43 GMT
#36
Mass Ling is the answer you are looking for. Scout it early and stop drone production around 20ish, get a extra queen for creep spread and 1 spine all this while getting a quick lair and spire. If well executed you will have Mutas out approx 30 sec after the push hits, when it does use a good number of Lings to flank once he goes on creep and hits your natural. Proceed to clean up his mineral line with Mutas before he gets too many marines or turrets, you should still be on 2 base so catching up economically shouldn't be a issue with the map control Mutas provide.
Growing old is mandatory, growing up is volunteery!
Hawk2
Profile Joined August 2010
United States229 Posts
February 26 2011 01:41 GMT
#37
Hi vileHawk here, I'm a top NA player and will provide an analysis of your game and tell what I think is better possibilities.

Firstly, let me say that your opening build left you economically behind, you used a 11 pool which is safe, but is unnecessary. Using 14 gas 14 pool is just as safe as an 11 pool but is much more economically efficient, as an added bonus it gives you map control through a fast speed upgrade.

Secondly, your scouting was a bit lacking, he didn't hide the fact he was going 1 base helion maruader though most Terrans usually do in this case you should usually try and sack and overlord vs a 1 basing terran.

Now the proper response to a 1 base helion maruader build is to go lair with roach/speedling, NOT go mutalisks, those who say that that is the counter are mistaking it with the 2 base play. If Terran does not expand, a Zerg player will not be able to defend with just speedling/spine against helion maruader until mutalisks.

You have to be careful against this build and make sure not to drone too hard, just scout that he is going helion maruader then make a roach warren while getting lair and start making roach/speedling. The problem in your game was that first you had all zerglings, and then later, all roaches, ideally when he attacks you want your roaches and 1 spine crawler to tank then have your speedlings surround. A 2 base Zerg that focuses on roach speedling should be able to overpower this build in all cases.

As a followup after you beat his rush you will have a huge economic lead off of 2 bases and can play the game as you would have normally (i suggest transitioning into mutalisks for harrassment, scouting, and map control).

Now I will touch a bit on the 2 base variation of this that is more common at higher levels. The basis of this is to expand then later do the same attack helion maruader just later in the game, now if they are on 2 bases the counter is different, going roach speedling will cut your economy too much for very little compensation, the best response in this case is to spine/speedling defend until mutalisks, you should have ample time to get your mutalisks out against this 2 base build.
Techno
Profile Joined June 2010
1900 Posts
February 26 2011 01:43 GMT
#38
I would think the best response from zerg is simply speedlings. With a surround they will kill the hellions, and the marauders will easily follow suit.

Spine crawlers should be standard in any Hatch first play as well.
Hell, its awesome to LOSE to nukes!
(Albert)
Profile Joined October 2009
France6 Posts
February 26 2011 02:34 GMT
#39
Hey,

When I get terran, that's one of my favorite oppenings vs zz and I can tell you that every time it fails, it's because the zz has 3-4 queens and 1-2 spine, depending on the map and the timing of my push. Basically 3 queens and one spine is a must-have and you can add 1 queen and 1 spine when you spot the push. You should also start a bunch of speedling to finish the left over of their attack and try to catch any reinforcement. This oppening also counter the banshee rush thanks to the queen, so that's quite safe as zz. In addition it's not gas intensive at all and can thus be followed by mutas. Going roach is, I think, a mistake because I usually follow this oppening with banshee if I see roaches.

But yeah, it's a tough one...
an eye for an eye makes the world blind
alonth
Profile Joined February 2011
Israel36 Posts
February 27 2011 20:07 GMT
#40
listen i get to win terran who use this open alot as u know the most importent thing is to scout with lings over lords(according to the timing) now if u see fac with reactor and rax with tec lab 95% its heli murader next u got to options best is to get mutas if u can cus then he will lose seacond is ling bane not ling roach if u can get banes to heli(wich are light armor) they will be butchered and the maruders will be yours to slaughter now i think u need nither good creep or 2 spines for defense line in order to succed roach ling may seem good with the right focus but if he keeps maruder heli in ball u will lose so try to get mutas when u scout it and if u cant just try what i suggest
muta-T-REX WITH LAIR TECH
Darpa
Profile Blog Joined March 2010
Canada4413 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-02-27 20:21:47
February 27 2011 20:21 GMT
#41
This build was huge in the beta, and seems to have rekindled. The times that I lost while doing it, it was always because of a fast spire, you might lose your natural but he will have literally no anti air.
"losers always whine about their best, Winners go home and fuck the prom queen"
Blamajama
Profile Joined September 2010
156 Posts
February 27 2011 21:42 GMT
#42
In my thread I focused on the mid game follow up of this. But this is what I use for zerg as terran. Basically, it's nearly unstoppable on caverns. The natural is too open for harass.
jdr_
Profile Joined October 2009
United States78 Posts
February 27 2011 22:04 GMT
#43
Just make speedlings, a few banes(like 8~) and make sure you spread your creep very aggressively.

As long as he has to come deep into your creep territory, you can just surround his ball of units and run the banelings into the surrounded hellions.
"The left hand side is really going to be a bit of a nervewracking occassion" -Artosis
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