I find myself in positions in games sometimes where I feel it completely safe to drone and continue droning. Anywho, I'm a plat level player. I'm just starting to play diamond level players.

My question is, I will have full saturation on 3 bases and at times feel I have the ability to put some workers on a 4th.

At one point do I start to have too many drones? Is 3 bases full saturated the right amount or should I work on fully saturating a 4th.

I'm just wondering because I don't want to find myself in a position as to where I max out my army and still have way too few units to hold an attack.

Thanks in advance guys!!

AcesAnoka

Belgium262 Posts

January 12 2012 15:15 GMT

You should have around 80ish as zerg and toss and i've heard 70 suffices for terran.

Ntwadumela

United States65 Posts

January 12 2012 15:16 GMT

Nice. Thanks !!!

OxyFuel

Canada195 Posts

January 12 2012 15:19 GMT

I think anywhere from 75-90 is good (90 is pushing it though)

EndOfLineTv

United States741 Posts

January 12 2012 15:22 GMT

If you are Ret or Sheth, maybe 110 :D

wheelchairs

United States145 Posts

January 12 2012 15:25 GMT

i have also seen pros adapt their harvester numbers to their strategy in each particular game.
For instance, i watched Top play a TvZ where he got his 3rd base fairly quickly, after he managed to kill zerg's third base, he knew if he could put on nonstop pressure, he could win. Over the next couple minutes he boosted up to OVER 90 scvs, which gave him insane production and he rallied his many rax/factories to the zerg and overran him.

This was a wakeup call for me, i normally have a set # of workers i will produce, but this strategy/game by Top shows that pro players can make workers at specific times with a specific plan in mind, knowing how to abuse high worker counts to gain advantage over their opponent.

Zerg could end with anywhere from 75-90 drones in TvZ, but the question is, when to make them?

Ntwadumela

United States65 Posts

January 12 2012 15:31 GMT

Thanks for all the answers guys. This will help me.

scruffeh

England196 Posts

January 12 2012 15:55 GMT

Ret mentioned he likes 90 at the last HSC. He did concede that with his current results, it might not be the best idea. It depends on the type of player, Ret and Sheth are eco players, whereas someone like Julyzerg might be comfortable with far fewer. I guess it depends how regularly you want to attack/trade armies in the mid-game.

blinkblue

United States119 Posts

January 12 2012 16:04 GMT

Also, once you get on 4+ bases and are constantly getting maxed, I've seen some pros make a fuck ton of spinecrawlers and then remax on drones.

You can also start making a ton of spines, re-max to 200, and then cancel all of the spines for a 220 food army.

Others have said enough about your max drone count.

Tobberoth

Sweden6375 Posts

January 12 2012 16:04 GMT

#10

I would say that as Zerg, 3 saturated bases is the bare minimum unless you want to end the game on some wierd timing. That means you need at least 16 x 3 for minerals, 48, and 6 x 3 for gas, 18. 48 + 18 = 66. This is, however, not enough if you want to use hive tech, you need at least another base with full gas, so that's an extra 6, taking you over 70 drones. Personally, I feel 90 etc is way too much, it limits your army supply too much and since Zerg has the most worthless army, I feel you have to optimize. If you're Sheth or Ret and can keep minerals low even though half your army is drones, I'm sure it works out fine, but for those of us who already have minor issues keeping money low in the end game, I'd say stick to between 70 and 80 drones.

Host-

New Zealand459 Posts

January 12 2012 16:07 GMT

#11

Essentially you want 3 fully saturated bases at all times (3*16+6 =66) and then atleast the gasses at a 4th base, and a reasonable amount of drones there aswell ~10, which puts you at 80 ish drones. Higher than that and your army is shit,

Mahtasooma

Germany475 Posts

January 12 2012 16:23 GMT

#12

Ret said that it is NEVER reasonable to have more than like 70 drones at any given time in any situation.

And we're talking about the king of drones here.

ixi.genocide

United States981 Posts

January 12 2012 16:46 GMT

#13

i like to get 16 drones per mining base x3 and get 8 gas of drones for a total of 72 drones

Br3ezy

United States720 Posts

January 12 2012 16:51 GMT

#14

if you oversaturate early on, you mine your base out faster so as a result, you have fewer mining bases (ex. 4 bases but two are mined out) so you don't need anymore dronesthen 70-80 because you have fewer mining bases but if you drone up heavily later on, you will have more bases running (ex. 4 bases but 1 is mined out in a faster macro game) so you can benefit from getting above 80+ drones.

Example of this is in ZvT, when you are between the lair and hive tech units transition. You usually need 4 bases (8 gas) to support hive tech and so having a higher drone count, lets you mine slightly faster for a little bit of time then you can use them to make spine crawlers, hatcheries, and spores which takes away from your drone number and evens the count down

Kitzz

Australia27 Posts

January 12 2012 16:56 GMT

#15

Nestea said Zerg doesn't need more than 60 drones.

Vul

United States685 Posts

January 12 2012 16:57 GMT

#16

On January 13 2012 01:23 Morghaine wrote:

Ret said that it is NEVER reasonable to have more than like 70 drones at any given time in any situation.

And we're talking about the king of drones here.

I think if you guys are going to argue about whether Ret said 70 or 90 drones, someone needs to post a link. Those of us who don't know are curious haha. Does anyone know for sure?

That's helpful, I have another question for you if you don't mind, how do you quickly determine that you have enough drones? Do you just go through and count?

Whatson

United States5357 Posts

January 12 2012 16:59 GMT

#17

It really depends on the game and the player. Aggressive Lair-phase players like July and Moon only make ~60-70, but economic players like Ret and Sheth go up to ~100 or so.

peppilepew

93 Posts

January 12 2012 17:13 GMT

#18

I sometimes drone to like 100+ but then make like 20 or spines in my transition to broods

Disarm22

United States151 Posts

January 12 2012 17:14 GMT

#19

in a recent interview NesTea said that you only need 60-70 drones in ZvZ. If playing a macro style vs Terran or Protoss, pros such as, Ret, Idra, Stephano, usually get 80-90 and sometimes even up to 100. That's roughly 3 fully saturated bases and your gases at the fourth base.

Skytt

Scotland333 Posts

January 12 2012 17:18 GMT

#20

On January 13 2012 01:57 Vul wrote:

That's helpful, I have another question for you if you don't mind, how do you quickly determine that you have enough drones? Do you just go through and count?

When you select your drones, two full rows of drones = 16, you can also just double click them and take away 4-6 for the number of gas drones selected

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