*I have searched the forum before asking* >.<

From what i have seen on the forum Zerg is a more defensive race and react to what the opponent is doing. With that in mind, when i play zerg i tend to just macro up, scout and contain the opponent, but never actually attack their army directly unless absolutely necessary, ie my base is going to get destroyed.

So my question is should i ever be aggressive with my army, or should i just play passively until (like others have hinted) t3 units or 200/200 supply is reached.

Juffalo

United States155 Posts

June 14 2011 14:11 GMT

Woah.......

I don't blame you for making a new thread because what you asking is a biggggggggg question and you are not going to find it boiled down neatly into a couple of easy to digest posts.

What you should be doing differs greatly by matchup. You can never leave a protoss to macro unmolested but you can usually get away with playing defensively in TvZ. ZvZ you need to very aggressive with you information gathering because the matchup is very volatile in the early stages of the game.

I'm guessing you are in one of the lower leagues. The best advice I can give you is to pick one matchup and watch a lot of replays/VODs of good players and just get a feel for the matchup by watching others play. You also need to know the build orders that protoss/terran are going to use against you. Very often as Zerg it is just as important to know your opponents timings as well as your own.

The most important thing build wise you can do early on in your career is get your opening down. I strongly recommend 14gas/14pool/21 hatch speedling expand. Or even a 13pool/15gas/21 hatch speedling expand (slightly faster pool better against cheese).

You are going to have a LOT of questions but as you slowly gather more information on the match-ups you will get a feel for when you can attack and when you need to drone.

Probe1

United States17920 Posts

June 14 2011 14:17 GMT

What race are you? In life, it doesn't matter what you are on the surface. But in Starcraft, it makes a hell of a difference.

primebeef

United States140 Posts

June 14 2011 14:22 GMT

-As zerg you should just macro up fast, but harass while your doing it. If you have units that aren't doing anything, they are wasted resources.

-A basic of when to attack is if your opponent does a fake push, and suddenly you are left with this huge army. If possible try attacking with those units(make sure to not mindlessly run them in for a suicide, fight winable battles, else just harrass)

-Out macro and out mass them

-Another time to attack is when they are trying to take a 3rd base or so, you want to try and prevent that(usually comes off of a fake push)

-timings and when to attack comes from how you play and based off of experience, it is different for everyone else

>>>>Your question is too broad

Arisen

United States2382 Posts

June 14 2011 14:23 GMT

It depends on what your strategy is and the matchup is. If you're going for a 6 pool, start attacking as soon as lings hit the field. If you're going for a ling infestor style in ZvT, you only engage when your opponent is out of position, threatening your position, or you're maxxed. If you're playing a roach style in ZvP you need to be aggressive and dropping and dual pronged attacking. If you're going roach infestor in ZvZ, the goal is to turtle to max, and trade effectively, whereas if you're going for a ling/bane build, the goal might be to put on a lot of pressure early.

You need to be intimatley familiar with what the goals of your build are.

That being said, attacking headlong into a huge seiged terran or colossus ball is just a BAD idea unless you know you can smash the shit out of it, so in the case that you can't use your army in a backstab/dual pronged attack/drop kind of way to deal damage in these scenarios, it's best to wait for broodlords.

FlaminGinjaNinja

United Kingdom879 Posts

June 14 2011 14:26 GMT

On June 14 2011 23:17 Probe1 wrote:
What race are you? In life, it doesn't matter what you are on the surface. But in Starcraft, it makes a hell of a difference.

I think he's Zerg, if you read the OP thats the only race mensioned.

Anyway, on topic:

I tend to play very defensive and expand alot in ZvT and ZvP, wait unit im happy with my base advantage and army comp and then go poking around to see what i can do. Obviously i, not saying don't do anything until you have your idea army, ling run bys, small drops and infestor play is needed the whole time so they don't get to their ideal army and crash you.

That being said i find that counter attacks work well if you manage to shutdown a push hard enough while keeping the majoritory of your army.

Attacking as Zerg is always difficult, you have to scout allot to make sure you attack at the right time otherwise your just going to waste your army and possibly loose the game because of it

King of Town

Netherlands26 Posts

June 14 2011 14:28 GMT

You choose what to do based on the following 2 criteria:
- Will I survive
- How much profit can I make

Starcraft is an economic game. Because in early and midgame zergs have to choose between drones and units, the only reasons to make units are:
- need to defend
- attacking their vulnerable spot will give more profit than drones.

Try to learn how you make profitable attacks as zerg. This depends heavily on the positioning of your opponent; ramps are bad, banelings are good vs balls, etc. The insight in when you will win the battle is not simple. Remember that it's worth it if (and only if) attacking yields more profit than not attacking.

jhk0219

United States189 Posts

June 14 2011 14:36 GMT

You can get away with being passive and teching to tier 3 in ZvT, since our end-game units are very strong (broodlord+ infestor, ling/bling/ultra/queen).

Depending on your playstyle, you have to be more active in ZvP. If you're one of the players who go for roach/hydra/corruptor in to broodlords, you ideally want to utilize your roaches to put pressure on the protoss's third.

nttea

Sweden4353 Posts

June 14 2011 14:40 GMT

It's easy, anytime you spot a weakness. Keep in mind that you as zerg always have the choice to stop drone production and go complete army, anytime you think you can beat your opponent by going aggressive you should do it. Use these experiences to know when you should be offensive and not, there will always occur situations when an enemy might be low in army but high in economy and you will be the other way around, these are usually the easiest positions in which it is right to attack. Another example i liked to use with zerg when i was playing alot was to trade armies with protoss once he was almost at collosus tech, you can trade armies much more cost effectively before protoss has alot of collosus than after. Terrans also do that alot.

Madkipz

Norway1643 Posts

June 14 2011 14:50 GMT

#10

If they go with a sentry 3 gate expand you should try to be agressive with a batch of roaches and lings so their sentrycount dwindles. It helps alot later on when they either have infinite forcefields or have had to remake a ton of those sentries. ergo less gass for heavier tech.

Also there is nothing wrong with having an agressive counter attack force on the map that enters their natural the second their army is gone. In turnament play you can also mix in baneling busts vs forge first or fast mutalisk / hydra with drop.

I guess what i want to say is that there is no real benefit to engaging their army unless you can outright destroy it but there are timings you can explore that can give you significant leads into the later stages of the game.

ClueLessx3

Australia53 Posts

June 15 2011 01:44 GMT

#11

So to sum up when i attack as zerg is when
- I see a weak spot
- I try to stop a 3rd or any further expansion for that matter to come up
- I know the build and know that i can take on the army head on
- Plus the ones i have mentioned before
- ZvZ i want to be aggro
- Trading army and the resource lost is in my favour

Otherwise:
- Macro up/Tech up
- Contain

If that is correct. Thanks for the guidance <3

*I did play protoss as my main but just trying to learn how to play zerg and understand the race better so that i know what a zerg player hates

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