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[H] ZvP vs archons

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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Cram
Profile Joined December 2010
France13 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-07 09:20:50
October 07 2011 08:08 GMT
#1
Hello,

I am a platinum zerg player, and I have difficulties agains protoss at the moment.
I try to play ling infestors like destiny, but I don't manage to fight the protoss army efficiently.
Maybe I misues my infestors, or I don't have good flanking enough ?

In this game he went archons and templars so i prefered roaches over zerglings (unfortunately i forgot ranged upgrades).
But I don't seem to be able to deal much damage to him, everytime I engage I lose the fight, even with 200 population.

Do you experienced players have any tips on how to play this infestor style, and how to fight archons ? I find this unit so painfull ...

Thanks for your help

Cram

Replay link :
http://marco.kun.free.fr/sc2/replays/2011-10-07 Aliocha vs Cram PvZ Grottes abyssales.SC2Replay
Obaten
Profile Joined December 2010
United States730 Posts
October 07 2011 08:11 GMT
#2
Replays would be wonderful to actually tell what went wrong.
Choros
Profile Joined September 2007
Australia530 Posts
October 07 2011 08:26 GMT
#3
Hydras can do well against archon due to their ability to target the archons at range before they can attack. Good thing about archon is that their gas is limited and you have to deal with less storm. Even so with zelots to charge the hydra it can be tough. Im thinking a hydra roach and a few baneling (for the zelot) would be the go.

That said im not having too much luck v protoss at the moment. Not having ups will kill you too.
ThomasHobbes
Profile Joined October 2010
United States197 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-07 08:31:41
October 07 2011 08:31 GMT
#4
Ling / Infestor is a difficult style to master, it's quite fragile and infestors are not the most mobile of units.

That said, roaches are my preferred unit when combating archons, although roach / hydra / ling should serve you fine for any templar / archon based army.

Winning any mass-engagement against Protoss is a tricky business, they're intentionally stronger than zerg when it comes down to food for food. It will come down to good positioning, good surrounds, and avoiding storms as they go down.

Because of the inherent difficulties, you should not rely or expect to necessarily beat a Protoss 1:1 in a main engagement, you need to constantly wear down his death-ball and keep his unit count low. That requires macro, and if you show me a replay, I (and other posters) can tell you where exactly you went long.

Good luck.
"The life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."
Cram
Profile Joined December 2010
France13 Posts
October 07 2011 09:21 GMT
#5
Sorry i thought i had linked the replay.
Here we go

http://marco.kun.free.fr/sc2/replays/2011-10-07 Aliocha vs Cram PvZ Grottes abyssales.SC2Replay
rsvp
Profile Blog Joined January 2006
United States2266 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-10-07 09:50:48
October 07 2011 09:49 GMT
#6
1st big engagement: poor army management on your part. You sent your roaches in first, and half of them died before your brood lords actually got in range. When you have BLs, keep your roaches under them and let BL engage first. Another big issue was that you didn't use your infestors well at all. You had about 10 or so of them, all at full energy, and all you did was cast a few fungals. You should definitely NP some archons and throwing some infested terrans isn't a bad idea either when you have that many infestors/that much energy.

2nd big engagement: this was much much better. He just had a better army though. Whenever your army consists of mostly roaches, you can't expect to win a 200/200 battle against a stalker/archon/ht/immortal ball like that. What you can do however is kill the majority of his expensive units, and then remax faster and win in round 2. The other solution is to just make a stronger death ball yourself - less roaches, more brood lords, maybe more infestors too (you didn't have that many during this second battle). You seem to always stop at 5 brood lords - why not make more?

3rd big engagement: why the ultras? You already knew he has a lot of immortals + archons. Don't make ultras. Make more brood lords.

So to sum it up:
- More brood lords. Less (i.e. NONE) ultras.
- Keep roaches under brood lords, don't let BL wander off by themselves and don't run roaches into battle first.
- Better infestor usage - NP the archons/immortals, throw some infested terrans

Also you could have taken your 5th base much faster. You were low on gas and had thousands of minerals throughout the game, there's no reason not to get an extra free 2 geysers.

EDIT: btw, ignore the 2 posters that posted before me. Hydras are garbage. Especially against archons and zealots.
Sareth
Profile Joined June 2011
Germany1008 Posts
October 07 2011 10:10 GMT
#7
+1 Archons oneshot lings and blings,
+2 Archons twoshot hydras (?),
Mutas clump up and get raped by the splashdamage,
Ultas are 'ok' against archons, but the zealots will take them on easy,
forget about hydras... they suck in general, but against chargelot archon they are likely the worst choice.

Either go pure Roach with fast upgrades and be always attacking to trade armies, or go roach/infestor/broods. Then in the engagements fungal the zealots, they tend to clump up a lot and are then no match against your roaches. Neural can be usefull, if you can take archons from behind your roaches.
Dont forget the upgrades! You dont want to fight zealot/archon with an upgrade disadvantage.
BinxyBrown
Profile Joined December 2010
United States230 Posts
October 07 2011 10:25 GMT
#8
Ultras are terrible vs Archons the blue post was completely correct, vs Archon zealot in small engagements neural is great on archons they kill zealots really fast as those are biological as well.

Otherwise just listen to what Ani wrote.
Banelings are like Ice Climbers if they grab you... your dead.
Blu3
Profile Joined August 2010
United States126 Posts
October 07 2011 10:56 GMT
#9
Lings are small and will get eaten u with the archon's aoe attack as well as storm. Don't use them vs this build, switch to roaches would probably be the smartest idea here. Especially because he will have zlots to fill out the army.

As for those infestors, use the IT!!!! The fungals won't do as much as you think vs this protoss build. Try and throw some behind their army to both act as your surround and keep them from running. The roaches will hold the line and the IT actually will do a great deal of damage.

Both roaches and IT benefit from the same upgrades as well, making this somewhat efficient from your tech switch!
Blu3
Blu3 is the color that wins
Cram
Profile Joined December 2010
France13 Posts
October 07 2011 12:35 GMT
#10
Ok guys thanks much for these answers, there is a lot of interesting stuff in what you wrote there. I'mgonna try fixing my game an not make again the mistakes you talked about
Glon
Profile Joined December 2010
United States569 Posts
October 07 2011 16:31 GMT
#11
You are missing the point of ling infestor: it is good vs gateway + collosus balls, NOT good vs arcon and HT. As zerg, get overlord speed immediantly after initial lair upgrades/tech buildings. Scout his main with 1, natural with another, spread other overlords around map, ect.

the point: vs arcon or HT, infestor roach is the correct unit comp. I would even get away from ling infestor -- roach infestor with lings added in (still getting ling upgrades for hive tech units) is by far more efficient + better.
@QuanticGlon https://twitter.com/QuanticGlon
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