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ZvT Stopping mass marine drops

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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1 2 Next All
Duban
Profile Joined July 2009
United States548 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-12-09 23:11:24
December 09 2011 22:13 GMT
#1
I have a chronic problem with this strategy in ZvT, Masters league. It's not that I can't stop the drops. I always put them down time after time, game after game. They rarely do any damage while my focus is on them. The attacks themselves are easy to defeat.

The problem comes when I try to attack. I'm too busy stopping the constant drops to attack my opponent and if I attack anyways I lose my base and am unable to reinforce said attack. I'm always stuck at 200/200 food while the T builds up to match me. I'm told the counter is supposed to be Mutalisks but their drops are still going to keep them too busy defending to counter-attack.

What am I doing wrong?

edit: Sorry this should be labeled [H]. Could a mod fix it?
An ignorant person makes a mistake. A stupid person makes it again.
llKenZyll
Profile Blog Joined November 2011
United States853 Posts
December 09 2011 22:59 GMT
#2
Well hes sacrificing bits of his army to attack you, doesnt it make sense that you should dedicate some to stop them?

Spotting overlords and mass Mutalisk > drops

At your third and fourth just start making 3 spines and a spore, that will make it a bit easier.
And just leave 20 ling at home.
20 zerglings = 10 food
8 marines + a medivac = 10 food
So yeah, it's only fair you have to sacrifice a bit of YOUR army to deal with HIS sacrifice.
http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/nd6nd/tang_in_his_natural_habitat/
Flexx
Profile Joined August 2010
United States87 Posts
December 10 2011 17:28 GMT
#3
On December 10 2011 07:59 Lebzetu wrote:
Well hes sacrificing bits of his army to attack you, doesnt it make sense that you should dedicate some to stop them?

Spotting overlords and mass Mutalisk > drops

At your third and fourth just start making 3 spines and a spore, that will make it a bit easier.
And just leave 20 ling at home.
20 zerglings = 10 food
8 marines + a medivac = 10 food
So yeah, it's only fair you have to sacrifice a bit of YOUR army to deal with HIS sacrifice.


Mass Mutalisk is a sure fire way to die against mass marine. You won't do much damage to his base, you can't fight his army in a straight up fight, and you have tied up all your gas in units that can't kill marines cost effectively.. Mass muta is not the answer.

However, I do agree about leaving lings at home.

OP, imo, you need to leave some lings/banes at home with a handful of mutalisk. (I prefer to put this small group of units on a single hotkey as a "drop killing task force")

That leaves you with the bulk of your army to deal with the bulk of his army. You can always small box some lings/banes off and send them via the mini map to deal with drops if he does multi drop.
HeavOnEarth
Profile Blog Joined March 2008
United States7087 Posts
December 10 2011 17:33 GMT
#4
Spine up potential drop locations. leave a few zerglings around if u see them coming, rally a few eggs from production to drop, shiftclick a portion of your army to your expo and continue to attack/engage/set up counter attacks
"come korea next time... FXO house... 10 korean, 10 korean"
Fairchild
Profile Joined February 2011
133 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-12-10 17:54:39
December 10 2011 17:51 GMT
#5
leave 16 lings in your main and 3rd. Mutas help of course. Watch towers + OL spread, watch that mini-map.

I've been placing 3 - 4 spines at my 4th, 5th, 6th, ect base just because how annoying it is to defend that much area.

You should be discouraging the Terran to drop by vigilantly popping those plump marine filled medivacs mid transit.

So again,
1) OL spread, most important
2) leave 10 - 15 slings at home
3) active mutas will shut down drops

llKenZyll
Profile Blog Joined November 2011
United States853 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-12-10 17:59:12
December 10 2011 17:57 GMT
#6
On December 11 2011 02:28 Flexx wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 10 2011 07:59 Lebzetu wrote:
Well hes sacrificing bits of his army to attack you, doesnt it make sense that you should dedicate some to stop them?

Spotting overlords and mass Mutalisk > drops

At your third and fourth just start making 3 spines and a spore, that will make it a bit easier.
And just leave 20 ling at home.
20 zerglings = 10 food
8 marines + a medivac = 10 food
So yeah, it's only fair you have to sacrifice a bit of YOUR army to deal with HIS sacrifice.


Mass Mutalisk is a sure fire way to die against mass marine. You won't do much damage to his base, you can't fight his army in a straight up fight, and you have tied up all your gas in units that can't kill marines cost effectively.. Mass muta is not the answer.

However, I do agree about leaving lings at home.

OP, imo, you need to leave some lings/banes at home with a handful of mutalisk. (I prefer to put this small group of units on a single hotkey as a "drop killing task force")

That leaves you with the bulk of your army to deal with the bulk of his army. You can always small box some lings/banes off and send them via the mini map to deal with drops if he does multi drop.

If you watch any progamer that goes Mutalisk-Baneling-Ling, you will see that they get around 25 mutalisks and pick off drops of 8 marines all game. You wont lose any Mutalisks to eight marines because they die so quickly
Yes, Mutalisks obviously die to mass marine but if he has less than 50% of the mutalisks you have, then you will clean up the marines by losing one mutalisk at the most.
http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/nd6nd/tang_in_his_natural_habitat/
RuneSeeker
Profile Joined July 2010
Canada5 Posts
December 10 2011 17:58 GMT
#7
You could also leave 3-4 banelings burrowed in your mineral line, and unburrow them when a drop happens and kill all the marines before they even have a chance to be picked up. This will tie very little food (<2 food) and few resources compared to what he'll lose. 20 lings are good, but that's a bit much and usually the marines will just get picked up before you can kill much. Spines or spores can also discourage drops. All of this is much cheaper than teching to mutas and investing tons of gas into them.
Improvise, Adapt and Overcome
heroofcanton
Profile Blog Joined August 2011
United States167 Posts
December 10 2011 17:58 GMT
#8
To echo what was sad above, Overlord spread and minimap awareness are CRUCIAL. If you see drops coming than they are easy to stop. Also, if your mutas are just sitting still they are being wasted. Mutas should always be active, forcing your opponent to multitask or waste minerals on turrets and feel skittish about expanding.With good OL spread and active mutas, Terrans will think twice about dropping on you.
The hero of Canton, the man they call me.
Flonomenalz
Profile Joined May 2011
Nigeria3519 Posts
December 10 2011 18:04 GMT
#9
Well I play Ling/Infestor into BL or Ultra, I just leave a around 4-6 lings, 2 banes, and an infestor at my first 3 bases, then for the rest, 4-5+ spines.
I love crazymoving
llKenZyll
Profile Blog Joined November 2011
United States853 Posts
December 10 2011 18:06 GMT
#10
On December 11 2011 03:04 Flonomenalz wrote:
Well I play Ling/Infestor into BL or Ultra, I just leave a around 4-6 lings, 2 banes, and an infestor at my first 3 bases, then for the rest, 4-5+ spines.

You can do this if you want if you are a Ling/Festor goer.
Naturally, its harder to deal with drops if you go Zergling/Infestor but you can definitely do this.
http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/nd6nd/tang_in_his_natural_habitat/
IamPryda
Profile Joined April 2011
United States1186 Posts
December 10 2011 18:30 GMT
#11
Two or three spines in your 3rd and fourth bases fungal growth are good for drops and mutas obviously. I find also when you are maxed its a good idea to build a second spawning pool somewhere nothing is worse then losing your poool when u need to make lings or banelings
Moar banelings less qq
ImustnotfeaR
Profile Joined February 2011
United Kingdom154 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-12-10 19:01:45
December 10 2011 18:58 GMT
#12
from the OP i think his problem is being aggressive WHILST stopping the drops. Drops are easy to stop defensively with awareness and multitasking but its hard to harass whilst your gas units are tied up in defence, esp as his army is mobile and good in small numbers vs your lings (ie vs runbys).

I think your best option is to concentrate on expanding and securing your economy and tech at a GREATER rate than you usually would, given he is not (and cannot be) attempting any big pushes due to his lack of factories, as opposed to committing yourself to a lair tech maxed army that he can pin down to being defensive only.

Key to this style I think is map vision so he cannot surprise you with any oddly timed pushes. Also you want to expand to closer bases rather than distant ones so as to be easier to defend, and also easier to manage when you make your hive tech moves.

'Fear is the mind killer'
PhiliBiRD
Profile Joined November 2009
United States2643 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-12-10 19:04:54
December 10 2011 19:04 GMT
#13
mutas are the obvious way to quickly respond. having your lings in a centralized location is always good. ovies to cover empty air space to spot for drops.

and then the most underused except at higher masters/gm, is to just build lots of spines. all ur expos should have a few. this buys you critical time to respond to the drop and not lose drones/queen or even the hatch. some maps you shouldnt be afraid to drop as many as 4-6 crawlers to properly defend.
Seiferz
Profile Joined May 2011
United States640 Posts
December 10 2011 19:05 GMT
#14
On December 11 2011 02:58 heroofcanton wrote:
To echo what was sad above, Overlord spread and minimap awareness are CRUCIAL. If you see drops coming than they are easy to stop. Also, if your mutas are just sitting still they are being wasted. Mutas should always be active, forcing your opponent to multitask or waste minerals on turrets and feel skittish about expanding.With good OL spread and active mutas, Terrans will think twice about dropping on you.


He doesn't have a problem seeing the drops, the problem is that preventing drops from doing damage is allowing the terran to macro and stay safe at home so he can't kill their 200/200 push.

I'd say just practice amoving with the minimap to deal with drops if you want to harass as well. It takes godly APM to effectively harass and deal with a drop all game.
Kluey
Profile Joined April 2011
Canada1197 Posts
December 10 2011 19:06 GMT
#15
Here's what I think.. If the Terran is any good he should stop doing drops when you get mutalisks out. If he keeps doing it, great! Take the free kills and tech up to broodlords. Do counter attacks with your zerglings and expand everywhere. In your 4th,5th and maybe even 3rd put down 4-5 spines to deal with drops. You should be ahead if you are macroing properly.


HaXXspetten
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Sweden15718 Posts
December 10 2011 19:23 GMT
#16
You don't deal with marines

jk
In all seriousness though, I agree with above posters that you have to give up a bit of your army to deal with his, and you need to have good vision with spotter overlords, lings and creep to be prepared on time, and having a healthy mutalisk flock doesn't hurt either.
_-NoMaN-_
Profile Joined May 2011
Canada250 Posts
December 10 2011 19:35 GMT
#17
I am a diamond player myself, so my advice, it is what it it is .
What i have been doing myself is when i take my 3rd, i put 2 spines @ my 3rd an main mineral lines, respectively, eventually adding a 3rd at each. Mass (5-6) spines at 4th as building, using ovies for creep. the main advantage of this style is the low food/larva --> power ratio (also eliminating the advantage terran gets from dropping rines in a crevice behind/between mineral patches) as well as the low (0) gas cost. This allows u to aggressively position your army to crush his potential push through the center, or counter attack his weakened defensive position. the key is to ff the queen onto the medivac without losing it, let the spines kill rines.
HypernovA
Profile Joined October 2010
Canada556 Posts
December 10 2011 19:57 GMT
#18
Can you please upload a replay as per strategy guidelines?

It is kind of hard to analyze what you are doing wrong if we have no replay.

The only thing I can say is to have better overlord spread in order to intercept the drops more frequently.

It also sounds like that you are playing with infestors so this style will be vulnerable to drops. Don't hesitate to drop spine crawlers as defense near your bases to buy you time.

Anyways, replay please. I'll be able to expand more.
EndOfLineTv
Profile Joined February 2011
United States741 Posts
December 10 2011 22:23 GMT
#19
On December 11 2011 04:04 PhiliBiRD wrote:
mutas are the obvious way to quickly respond. having your lings in a centralized location is always good. ovies to cover empty air space to spot for drops.

and then the most underused except at higher masters/gm, is to just build lots of spines. all ur expos should have a few. this buys you critical time to respond to the drop and not lose drones/queen or even the hatch. some maps you shouldnt be afraid to drop as many as 4-6 crawlers to properly defend.



What Bird said.


Also. having great ol placement will just win you games. Knowing its coming and being ready. will punish terrans who que up drops and forget.
laroche_05
Profile Joined March 2011
Canada52 Posts
December 10 2011 22:54 GMT
#20
i usually like the muta play but lately i replaced them with infestor and imo they are badass i normally leave about 10 zergling and 1 infestor at each of my base and with a good ol spread you can defend that easily

if i get a 4th/5th base i always make 3-4spine crawler to make the defense easier.

muta are really good aswell but i think infestor is a pretty good respond to mass marines
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