Great write-up!

I enjoyed the humour and the facts. But! I did not like the overall topic, because I AM A TERRAN PLAYER. Oh well, I was starting to have ravens in that matchup anyawys.

Baneling landmines can win you the game easily. When those marines are gone it's pew pew for the mutalisks to clean everything up. I still don't understand why Zerg players use this more. In GSL I have seen every single pro player start doing the mines but not on ladder.

Grr Arr Rawr

United States108 Posts

July 26 2011 03:40 GMT

#25

On July 26 2011 10:38 MonsieurGrimm wrote:
Here are some examples of effective lures:

i. Overlords

Retard magnets, how I doth love thee.

On a more serious note, this is an excellent post. There are so many things like this in SC2 that remain largely unexplored (for every race, but mostly for Zerg, I feel) and should be standard play, but just... aren't. It makes me really excited for the future of the game, though, when you think about how awesome and entertaining it is as spectator sport right NOW, and then consider how much better it will be when exciting stuff like baneling mines, Ravens, and (dare I say it) Motherships see more regular use in play.

As well, since this is fresh in my mind (having just seen it), this entire match is a good example of great baneling placement: Spanishiwa vs DDE (Sunday Night Fights) Game 3

As the OP said, Baneling Mines are not a strategy you should ever count on to win you the game, but it's a pretty small investment for the potentially massive payoff, particularly in the mid-late game where resources are plentiful.

edit: That VOD does not appear to be ready quite yet, but the link is right for whenever it fully uploads to the archive.

Optimist

Australia161 Posts

July 26 2011 03:42 GMT

#26

Nice guide, and if nothing else I learned that scans are above ground level :O

Probe1

United States17920 Posts

July 26 2011 03:48 GMT

#27

Thanks MonsieurGrimm

I didn't learn anything but the sweet, angelic pictures of melting marines kept me reading. Cheers!

KimJongChill

United States6429 Posts

July 26 2011 03:48 GMT

#28

On July 26 2011 12:05 MonsieurGrimm wrote:
thanks for the positive comments guys :D it really means a lot (Whole can tell you)

Show nested quote +

yeah I considered this as well, if you go 15 hatch 15 pool 17 gas and then with that gas you go speed -> baneling nest -> lair and then add more extractors when you start your lair and then when lair finishes get burrow immediately you can have it around that 10:00 push timing. however, you can't really use that to be any greedier because if Terran saves scans or prevents the mines from getting in place, you're kind of fucked. Maybe you can check for saved scans ahead of time with an ovie, though... it seems very map-dependent but it might work on maps like Xel'Naga or that stupid new lava map.

Oh wow, that's pretty fleshed out. Against that timing, I've read that roach/ling/bane is strong, since saving money for muta/infestor will get you killed. However, I like to idea of just having the mines out for some extra punch, and it's always nice to delay attacks as zerg, since I can't tell you how many times I've been caught pants down after a huge 12 drone cycle.

Whitewing

United States7483 Posts

July 26 2011 04:06 GMT

#29

There's a huge advantage you didn't cover in the OP, although your guide is good, in that after you've revealed your baneling land mines, you effectively have a pin on the terran, much like Dark Templar for protoss. They can't leave their base until they save up a bunch of scans (and they stop dropping mules) or until they have ravens out, so just using them at all can be a great delaying tactic to take another base or tech/mass up, even if you don't get kills with them.

Morning

18 Posts

July 26 2011 04:14 GMT

#30

Great guide! I think the minimal cost is definitely worth making the terran build a raven or spend potentially infinite scans, especially since he'd probably be wasting scans on places where banelings aren't, too.

Tsuki.eu

Portugal1049 Posts

July 26 2011 04:18 GMT

#31

i lost 70 food to a bling mine once :/

dlcofls21

71 Posts

July 26 2011 04:23 GMT

#32

Something I do in almost all of my TvZ's is burrow 2 sets of 2 blings at the Terran's 3rd base mineral line. After they transfer then Boom!

Good guide btw :3.

MaBe

United States97 Posts

July 26 2011 04:23 GMT

#33

Nicely done guide. I'm an infested Terran at times and when I play Zerg I love zerglings. Anything to make my lings more scary.

Afaik, GSL is the only tourney play, I've seen, where a player uses banemines. It's like you said very situational risk that can become a huge pay out. Better call to the heart of the cards for it to pay out or at least gain valuable scouting info.

Well done guide, the pics were awesome.

Lmui

Canada6215 Posts

July 26 2011 04:33 GMT

#34

A few things I want to add.

Good placement locations include

Just outside the terran's natural
(Most terrans do not scan at all until they first hit creep or are halfway across the map.)

Luring using infestors. I think baiting with infestors, you actually want to use an infestor with one fungal so that any marines that do not die to the landmine will be severely injured.

Paper117

United States210 Posts

July 26 2011 04:36 GMT

#35

On July 26 2011 13:23 dlcofls21 wrote:
Something I do in almost all of my TvZ's is burrow 2 sets of 2 blings at the Terran's 3rd base mineral line. After they transfer then Boom!

Good guide btw :3.

Yeah! I try to do it in other match ups too, but Protoss sometimes have cannons up before there's a worthwhile amount of probes there. I've killed a ton of drones though.

Brotatolol

United States1742 Posts

July 26 2011 04:36 GMT

#36

Nice guide

Also, where did you get the picture of my van from?
Jk, jk

ClysmiC

United States2192 Posts

July 26 2011 04:38 GMT

#37

I've always thought that landmines were a very underutilized tactic in ZvT. I think they even have a place in midgame ZvZ. Anyway, great guide with awesome pictures

Darathor

United States327 Posts

July 26 2011 04:41 GMT

#38

Wow! This is a very well-thought out and useful guide! Some of these are common knowledge, but some of these are actually quite interesting. For instance, I was unaware that a scan was floating off the ground like that when placed.

Again, very well put-together guide! Thanks!

Janders

Mexico222 Posts

July 26 2011 04:46 GMT

#39

rofl nice idea with the overlord pooping creep being chased by marines