[G] PvZ Gateway Forge

Incidentally, in the interim between my writing this and my posting it, I tuned in to the middle of a tournament game where it looks like Kiwikaki did a build similar in principle to this one. I think he had opened with a FFE, though, based on his building positions. Importantly, his +1 Weapons kicked in about 90 seconds later than mine does, so that his opponent had so many Roaches up that when a handful of Zerglings blocked the ~9 Zealots' retreat path the Roaches did entirely too much damage to them; Kiwikaki then transitioned into a cheesy Void Ray play which got smashed because apparently that's what he did the last game too.

I have some respect for the 3-gate Sentry-expand openings, but those still hinge on the fact that just Zerg doesn't know whether your force that is moving across the map is going to commit to the attack or not - if he guesses correctly and either makes all units or all drones, you're going to be way behind, so the Sentries are still sort of cheesy even though there isn't anything that the Zerg could have scouted to get the data they needed to build-order-counter you.

Even though they could have had a Drone in your base watching all of your not-at-all-hidden buildings throughout your opener, so apparently they elected to be super cheesy by favoring 1 more worker over having perfect scouting data.

this build is not so lean that it requires the 13-gate to function. The main effect of a 12-gateway is that the expansion will be up a few seconds later. If your opponent's chat, name, or reputation suggests a very early pool could be incoming, a 12-gate is fine.

You want the forge to be placed at around the same time as you put guys in gas; this way you will have your 100 gas mined in time to start the +1 weapons at around the time the forge finishes.

I'm starting to think that getting some extra minerals early on is worth delaying my attack a little bit by getting an Assimilator on 15 or even 16; you'll see this in some of my more recent replays.

What's this, you say? Now there's Roaches coming after your base? Zealot+Cannon actually does fine vs Roaches; the Cannons mean the Roaches can't kite the Zealots for free, and the Zealots mean the Roaches can't just walk past the Cannons or even attack them without getting pummeled. Even if you slowly lose ground from suboptimal Cannon placement, soon it'll be Zealot+Stalker+Cannon or even Immortal+Zealot+Cannon. If he goes all-in, you should come out way ahead unless you miscontrol.

If he's massing Speedlings as his answer to your Zealots, just make sure your Zealots stay together. Try to get to the Hatchery if there's no Spine Crawler and hold position; the extra wall provided by the Hatchery keeps the Zerglings from surrounding you and now removing your Zealots is only going to happen at an extreme cost for the Zerg. Even if he surrounds you before you get your back to a wall, the +1 Weapons means that you're killing a satisfactory number of lings. Remember, every two lings killed is effectively a drone.

If he never showed Roaches at all, I prefer the Twilight Council tech path. Infestors and Mutas seem fairly likely here, so having Blink and High Templars just one more investment away is nice. Also, this lets you continue upgrade production with your Forge.


If there are Spine Crawlers completed, make a judgement call. Often you can just walk past them and go into the main, but this could get you trapped if Roaches are about to pop. Sometimes you can kill the Spines if they're either incomplete or too few in number. If there's an excess of them being made / completed, stick around to ensure they don't get canceled and be content that Zerg just spent a lot of resources on static defenses so you can power hard at home.


If you can surround a Queen or catch it off creep (some Zergs try to block the ramp like it's ZvZ) then kill it. Otherwise, only ever chase after it with one Zealot, and only do that if the Queen is standing as the only defense between you and killing the Hatchery.


Try to avoid getting surrounded by Drones, and definitely don't waste your time chasing after those speedy things. Yes, killing the Drones would be nice, but they're actually not as much worse than lings vs weapons upgraded Zealots as you'd think because the Zealots still take 3 attacks to kill one.

I have Tal-Dariim Altar, Backwater Gulch, and Searing Crater downvoted. The slower scouting and slower Zealot walk time on Tal-Dariim are both bad news for this build - the Zerg can make one more round of drones before Roaches need to be up, so he comes out slightly ahead of you rather than even or slightly behind. Backwater Gulch and Searing Crater are hard because cannons have a hard time defending your main and your natural simultaneously.

Some Zergs see an unusual Cannon + Zealot based defense and realize that Banelings are pretty decent at killing both of those. I've only died to this once out of ~8 encounters, though. Your attack at the beginning should force his hand, and once you see that mass lings are coming you can add more cannons (spread out to defend the whole natural, rather than all at the front like vs Roaches) then even when he breaks your wall he won't be sufficiently cost effective at killing workers so long as your control is solid.

Maybe this is just a result of my liking Immortals too much, or my hating Stalkers too much, but when I face Roaches with this build I often get tempted to have precious few of the worst-ground-unit-at-straight-up-fights-in-the-game, the Stalker. (Seriously, if a Stalker doesn't run away, WORKERS kill it cost effectively.) This, compounded with my early game featuring primarily Zealots, sometimes means that I get caught with insufficient AA if Mutas come. So either get an Observer early-ish (as you move out with a 1 or 2 Immortal, +1/+1 timing attack is good) and look for a Spire, or just grin and bear the embarassment of having Stalkers in your basic unit composition.

The most "typical" game I've played in a long time. He counter attacks me after my initial attack, but doesn't deal economic damage before I get an Immortal out. He could have microed better (he blames his cat at the end), and I could have macroed better, but what this game really shows is that you can hold the Roach counter attack (it wasn't even close), and that if the Zerg commits to an attack and fails you come out far in the lead.

My biggest mistake is forgetting to start Warpgate research until awfully late; I generally intend to do it when I put guys in my second gas, but at that point I was still focused on killing the Roaches and I forgot to get back to it for too long.

I proceed to get supply blocked at the point when I intend to move out with my Blink timing push, while he fails to push an advantage while he has it before my Storm research finishes. Point is, I hit the midgame way in the lead as I generally do vs Speedling openers.

This is what happens on most maps if they try to defend the Zealots with Spine Crawlers. I know Roaches aren't coming anytime soon because he went Hatch first and made Spine Crawlers so early.

This is a typical game for when they go with Banelings. I could have split my Zealots better on multiple occasions, but I still came out pretty well.

This game was a little strange, as he had Zerglings denying my ability to put down a Nexus but not in position to see that I'm moving out with my Zealots. He loses his Hatchery and so is unable to spend his money.

What should have happened here is he would make a lot of Zerglings upon seeing me leave the base and then surround and engage me as I hit the Creep. This would result in him losing almost all his lings while allowing me to get my expansion up earlier, putting him economically behind me, but at least he wouldn't have lost the game outright.

This is actually a Funday Monday submission - no Stalkers is the rule, so I need Stargates to protect against possible Mutalisk transitions. He fails to cancel a Hatch I deny early on (even accidentally speeding me up in killing it), then I miscontrol my air units.

My point here is that Stargate tech is a doable transition for this build - you certainly don't HAVE to go for Carrier silliness, though if they have Roaches out they'll probably go Hydras as their answer to the Void Rays, so Carriers actually make a lot of sense.