• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 05:56
CEST 11:56
KST 18:56
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO4 & Finals Preview0[ASL21] Ro4 Preview: On Course12Code S Season 1 - RO8 Preview7[ASL21] Ro8 Preview Pt2: Progenitors8Code S Season 1 - RO12 Group A: Rogue, Percival, Solar, Zoun13
Community News
Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO8 Results2Weekly Cups (May 4-10): Clem, MaxPax, herO win1Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule !11Weekly Cups (April 27-May 4): Clem takes triple0RSL Revival: Season 5 - Qualifiers and Main Event12
StarCraft 2
General
Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO4 & Finals Preview Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO8 Results Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO12 Results Team Liquid Map Contest #22 - The Finalists MaNa leaves Team Liquid
Tourneys
KSL Week 89 2026 GSL Season 2 Qualifiers Maestros of The Game 2 announcement and schedule ! $5,000 WardiTV Spring Championship 2026 SC2 INu's Battles#16 <BO.9>
Strategy
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
Mutation # 525 Wheel of Misfortune The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 524 Death and Taxes Mutation # 523 Firewall
Brood War
General
vespene.gg — BW replays in browser BW General Discussion ASL21 General Discussion Pros React to: TvT Masterclass in FlaSh vs Light BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/
Tourneys
[ASL21] Semifinals B Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2 [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [ASL21] Semifinals A
Strategy
Fighting Spirit mining rates [G] Hydra ZvZ: An Introduction Simple Questions, Simple Answers Muta micro map competition
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Starcraft Tabletop Miniature Game PC Games Sales Thread
Dota 2
The Story of Wings Gaming
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread UK Politics Mega-thread YouTube Thread European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread McBoner: A hockey love story Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
streaming software Strange computer issues (software) [G] How to Block Livestream Ads
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
How EEG Data Can Predict Gam…
TrAiDoS
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
Funny Nicknames
LUCKY_NOOB
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 2027 users

[G]Zerg vs Terran A roach opener - Page 3

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
Post a Reply
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next All
Bertibums
Profile Joined January 2012
3 Posts
January 27 2012 09:49 GMT
#41
funny, this kind of opener is just what i was playing with in my mind after being hellion-f'ed up on TDAltar once again... thanks for that, gonna try it! much appreciated!
Linz
Profile Joined February 2011
Belgium151 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-01-27 10:27:41
January 27 2012 10:25 GMT
#42
How do you deal with the 16 marine drop with this style? Do you have banelings or something? Because roaches melt pretty hard to stimmed marines + medivacs, and so do lings I feel.

Edit: and as it seems, I can't download the 3 replay pack
"The plural of anecdote is not data."
T.O.P. *
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Hong Kong4685 Posts
January 27 2012 11:38 GMT
#43
On January 27 2012 18:20 blade55555 wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 27 2012 18:17 T.O.P. wrote:
The problem is that terran can get cloaked banshees and you won't be able to take a 3rd until you get mutas out. Which are gonna be super delayed.


Well again if I see cloaked banshee's i'm not just going to keep doing what I'm doing and not getting lair till super late. I do adjust if I see something like that.

Weird thing is lately nobody has even been hiding their expansions from me. Their plopping them straight down at the natural so I don't even have to worry about 1 base cloaked banshee .

Have you played any terrans that started a tech lab on their starport as soon as the hellions see the roaches by your natural?
Oracle comes in, Scvs go down, never a miscommunication.
darkscream
Profile Blog Joined December 2010
Canada2310 Posts
January 27 2012 12:16 GMT
#44
On January 27 2012 11:47 blade55555 wrote:


Actually the 4 queen style is where I got this idea. I remember watching MVP vs Nestea on daybreak and nestea did 4 queens no gas. I just adjusted it to 3 queens (I feel you don't need 2 extra queens for creep spreading) and added the roach warren.


The reason I like 4 queens over 3, is both for serious creep spread (I like to creep all of my main for vision, and then send that tumor off the back cliff), but also for extra transfusion. In the same way that protoss players get sentries early to build up energy, I find it really valuable to have 3-4 transfusions ready to go, while not missing any injects.

I may start mixing in this roach opening on some maps though.. especially rocks maps.
Tsubbi
Profile Joined September 2010
Germany7996 Posts
January 27 2012 12:46 GMT
#45
Thanks for the well written guide. I've been trying various roach openings as well with the same goal of getting a quicker 3rd.

Your approach is way more defensive than the ones i tried though. From the first look at the build it seems like if the terran reads your build well and doesn't invest into defense at all you'd struggle against various 9-10 min pushes with marine medivac + either tank or marauder, but i'm sure gonna try out your build as well and see how it plays out.
TheKerwin
Profile Joined November 2011
United States21 Posts
January 27 2012 13:07 GMT
#46
I <3 Roach openers because i like to spread creep :D
oOOoOphidian
Profile Joined January 2011
United States1402 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-01-27 13:31:19
January 27 2012 13:27 GMT
#47
Late ling speed and no baneling nest along with a sizeable investment in roaches makes this very vulnerable to any 1 rax FE -> bio builds, or even 1 base all-ins like 2 tank pushes. There's also the popular heavy marine/hellion push, which you typically need to have banelings to deal with the stim marine/medivac/hellions in those numbers.

Yes it can be a decent build against reactor hellion, but even then they are supposed to have a marauder in a bunker and ~6 hellions will keep you at home while they take a fast 3rd. Pushing creep and spines forward and getting mutalisks is still the best way to deal with this. While roaches can get your creep and 3rd base a bit faster, they leave you very defenseless against any quick timing push. I think if you want to play like this it would be better to go for roach/baneling aggression and secure a third behind that, as it will put the terran on the defensive and potentially kill them, meanwhile you are safe to drone up, take a third, and spread creep.
Creator of sc2unmasked.com
Macpo
Profile Joined September 2010
453 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-01-27 13:36:43
January 27 2012 13:33 GMT
#48
On January 27 2012 22:27 oOOoOphidian wrote:
Late ling speed and no baneling nest along with a sizeable investment in roaches makes this very vulnerable to any 1 rax FE -> bio builds, or even 1 base all-ins like 2 tank pushes.

Yes it can be a decent build against reactor hellion, but even then they are supposed to have a marauder in a bunker and ~6 hellions will keep you at home while they take a fast 3rd. Pushing creep and spines forward and getting mutalisks is still the best way to deal with this. While roaches can get your creep and 3rd base a bit faster, they leave you very defenseless against any quick timing push. I think if you want to play like this it would be better to go for roach/baneling aggression and secure a third behind that, as it will put the terran on the defensive and potentially kill them, meanwhile you are safe to drone up, take a third, and spread creep.


well the idea here is precisely to not put pressure with roaches, so I don't get the point about marauders and bunkers...
against 1 rax expand, I feel it's ok as you will expand too.
as far as 1 base all ins are concerned, it's up to scouting and adapting in time, but with roach tech think u can deal with almost any 1 base all in correctly, with zergling and queen support...
"Courage consists, however, in agreeing to flee rather than live tranquilly and hypocritically in false refuges." G. Deleuze
Jojo131
Profile Joined January 2011
Brazil1631 Posts
January 27 2012 13:57 GMT
#49
blade55555 always bringing in the quality stuff
copacetic
Profile Joined November 2010
56 Posts
January 27 2012 14:52 GMT
#50
did not read any comments - but ill post my thoughts about why going roaches is painful in the early game

It really hurts your economy - I'm all for opening speed first - ex: 15 hatch / 15 gas / 15 pool something like that. Going roaches + taking your 2nd gas really makes your 3rd base delayed, which is counter productive considering you're talking about taking an "early" 3rd. If you open speed first and send a drone to your 3rd base before hellions come, you can drop it before they can deny the drone. As we all know hellions are not too great against buildings =D

I agree about the map control aspect, but as a zerg i'd way prefer early economy over early map control, you really should be dedicating any gas u do get to upgrades and lair, and you shouldn't be grabbing more than 1 gas until after lair is finished. Plus once u have a fully saturated 2 base and waiting for 3rd to pop, you can produce enough lings not to KILL the hellions, but to push them back and regain map control, and the creep spread part, well, if you aren't pushing creep with spines/queens then you're doing it wrong.


Pharnax
Profile Joined October 2011
Denmark42 Posts
January 27 2012 14:56 GMT
#51
Nice, never really experimented with delayed gas, but this build looks like a nice way to do it
Tobberoth
Profile Joined August 2010
Sweden6375 Posts
Last Edited: 2012-01-27 15:22:25
January 27 2012 15:22 GMT
#52
On January 27 2012 23:52 copacetic wrote:
did not read any comments - but ill post my thoughts about why going roaches is painful in the early game

It really hurts your economy - I'm all for opening speed first - ex: 15 hatch / 15 gas / 15 pool something like that. Going roaches + taking your 2nd gas really makes your 3rd base delayed, which is counter productive considering you're talking about taking an "early" 3rd. If you open speed first and send a drone to your 3rd base before hellions come, you can drop it before they can deny the drone. As we all know hellions are not too great against buildings =D

I agree about the map control aspect, but as a zerg i'd way prefer early economy over early map control, you really should be dedicating any gas u do get to upgrades and lair, and you shouldn't be grabbing more than 1 gas until after lair is finished. Plus once u have a fully saturated 2 base and waiting for 3rd to pop, you can produce enough lings not to KILL the hellions, but to push them back and regain map control, and the creep spread part, well, if you aren't pushing creep with spines/queens then you're doing it wrong.

Your post just reeks of unrealistic strategy since I've pretty much never ever seen any pro send a drone to take a third before hellions come.. the terran can just allin and win immediately.
copacetic
Profile Joined November 2010
56 Posts
January 27 2012 15:35 GMT
#53
On January 28 2012 00:22 Tobberoth wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 27 2012 23:52 copacetic wrote:
did not read any comments - but ill post my thoughts about why going roaches is painful in the early game

It really hurts your economy - I'm all for opening speed first - ex: 15 hatch / 15 gas / 15 pool something like that. Going roaches + taking your 2nd gas really makes your 3rd base delayed, which is counter productive considering you're talking about taking an "early" 3rd. If you open speed first and send a drone to your 3rd base before hellions come, you can drop it before they can deny the drone. As we all know hellions are not too great against buildings =D

I agree about the map control aspect, but as a zerg i'd way prefer early economy over early map control, you really should be dedicating any gas u do get to upgrades and lair, and you shouldn't be grabbing more than 1 gas until after lair is finished. Plus once u have a fully saturated 2 base and waiting for 3rd to pop, you can produce enough lings not to KILL the hellions, but to push them back and regain map control, and the creep spread part, well, if you aren't pushing creep with spines/queens then you're doing it wrong.

Your post just reeks of unrealistic strategy since I've pretty much never ever seen any pro send a drone to take a third before hellions come.. the terran can just allin and win immediately.



lol.. how are they gonna all in you? hellions and scvs? this is a response to reactor hellion EXPAND... and if u havent seen an early 3rd like this well then you just dont watch enough games, its very standard to stop mining gas and take ur 3rd around 5 min mark.
nunez
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Norway4003 Posts
January 27 2012 15:36 GMT
#54
love it. good guide, good replays. thanks buraiduuuu.
conspired against by a confederacy of dunces.
copacetic
Profile Joined November 2010
56 Posts
January 27 2012 15:38 GMT
#55
and considering i am GM on EU and NA im pretty sure i have more knowledge about the game than you. Don't post shit like that if you have no idea what you're talking about, in fact most of the time terrans open 3 orbital 2 base before deciding to attack, so really you need to either post relevant shit or dont post at all.
ElPeque.fogata
Profile Joined May 2010
Uruguay462 Posts
January 27 2012 15:45 GMT
#56
hi blade. thanks for the post . the build whole idea feels a lot like i've been doing for a while. (like lings don't give you map control but roaches do, and in the same way taking a third.) So id like to know if you've tried something like mine and evolved into your build and for which reasons. In all, critique mine or somehow convince me that yours is in general, a better idea.

I feel you could cut some corners like i've been doing. I'm refering to this part:


as soon as pool finishes 4 lings and 2 queens (1 for each tower, 2 to scout around)
24-25 - make a spine (2 on maps with big naturals will explain more later)
Make a third queen as soon as your first 2 finish
gas at 5 minutes if 1 spine, 5:20-5:30 if 2 spines (will explain reasoning later)
2nd gas at about 5:40-5:50
6:10-6:30 - roach warren


I always drone scout, so in case of two rax or any early aggresion i adapt to invest in safety, but i see you make a lot of stuff as standard instead of reactively. But this is the build i do for example against a reactor hellion (and adapt if is into expand or allin).

Differences.

- When pool finishes, just 1 set of lings and double queen. One to chase the scout and then get into the tower in path to his base. The other to check his ramp for a second time (first was the scouting drone) and then hide behind his natural's minerals to spot for expansion. No spines and no third queen just yet, just drone. Nothing can surprise you at this point except a marine/scv allin, which is cheeze and will not discuss, but blindly defending for it is a waste.
- While queens build, keep droning and drone as larvae allows, eventually you have 200 in the bank and can afford the roach den and gas. I noticed that this timming lets you continually make drones, and get 2 roaches just as the den pops, which also times pretty nicely with the fastest 2 hellions that are about to arrive. Keep droning and add roaches up to 6 as gas allows. The second 2 roaches are done around the time the hellion count is 4 (they usually stop making them at that). Its amazing how much you can drone this way, as roaches are much more larvae efficient than lings.
- On 6 roaches (number adjusted to hellions comming into the field), you can spare 2 to take watch towers and basically keep them forever. No way a push will come that you will not see. They take forever for hellions to kill them, and say in metalopolis, can't even kite them cause they need vision to attack the roach. And even if they are fancy and have apm to spare, i send another roach just as he begins killing the first one, and replace it with another.
- unless he is making a lot of hellions, forcing more roaches, as soon as you get 100 gas, make speed(This is important for early pushes.), next gas lair.
- On maps with easy 3rds like metal, i take 3rd really quick, like when you send the 2 roaches to the towers. Else i macrohatch and start killing rocks with the roaches. As soon as i get 300 in the bank while droning, the hatch goes down. When i put it down, i make the 3rd queen, which will be able to creep once and move to the third with almost mana to inject.

From here it varies a lot, but i usually change to mutas while scouting a lot to check wether i need to pump a lot of units to stop a push and get into midgame with (hopefully) and advantage. And as lair is done i overseer sucide mission check for marinetank or mech.

The core idea is that you get map control, are pretty much immune to the earliest harrassments (reaper/hellions) and are incredibly rich in larvae. So if you play your scouting cards right, at any time you can EXPLODE in drones, or in army.
GribStream.com - Historical Weather Forecast API - https://gribstream.com/
nunez
Profile Blog Joined February 2011
Norway4003 Posts
January 27 2012 15:51 GMT
#57
oh btw, i am having trouble opening replay 4.
it says: the launch of this game makes reference to mod or map dependencies which are no longer available.
so i guess it doesn't work on eu server.
no biggie, other 3 worked fine.
conspired against by a confederacy of dunces.
Catgroove
Profile Joined June 2011
Sweden67 Posts
January 27 2012 16:01 GMT
#58
On January 28 2012 00:35 copacetic wrote:
Show nested quote +
On January 28 2012 00:22 Tobberoth wrote:
On January 27 2012 23:52 copacetic wrote:
did not read any comments - but ill post my thoughts about why going roaches is painful in the early game

It really hurts your economy - I'm all for opening speed first - ex: 15 hatch / 15 gas / 15 pool something like that. Going roaches + taking your 2nd gas really makes your 3rd base delayed, which is counter productive considering you're talking about taking an "early" 3rd. If you open speed first and send a drone to your 3rd base before hellions come, you can drop it before they can deny the drone. As we all know hellions are not too great against buildings =D

I agree about the map control aspect, but as a zerg i'd way prefer early economy over early map control, you really should be dedicating any gas u do get to upgrades and lair, and you shouldn't be grabbing more than 1 gas until after lair is finished. Plus once u have a fully saturated 2 base and waiting for 3rd to pop, you can produce enough lings not to KILL the hellions, but to push them back and regain map control, and the creep spread part, well, if you aren't pushing creep with spines/queens then you're doing it wrong.

Your post just reeks of unrealistic strategy since I've pretty much never ever seen any pro send a drone to take a third before hellions come.. the terran can just allin and win immediately.



lol.. how are they gonna all in you? hellions and scvs? this is a response to reactor hellion EXPAND... and if u havent seen an early 3rd like this well then you just dont watch enough games, its very standard to stop mining gas and take ur 3rd around 5 min mark.



So what you're saying is you can verify they expand (and not marauder hellion allin) behind hellions before they even are out, every game? God you must be good.
rustypipe
Profile Joined November 2010
Canada206 Posts
January 27 2012 16:08 GMT
#59
I've been experimenting with a build very simular to this where my wall off at my nat consists of my evo chamber and my roach warren. I think make roaches if I see more then 2-4 hellions, or the terrans hellions are really giving me trouble. I also delay my lair a little longer and get the +1 carapace first after ling speed prior to the lair, so far I have found this is working rather well and only delays the lair a little. The reasoning for this is because I find A LOT of terrans on ladder now are going for early timing pushes / aggression to end the game really fast or do massive amount of damage. I find +1 carapce makes my units much more cost efficenet vs the terran horras tatics till my muta / infestor pop out. Letting me drone a little harder, however I am still testing it.
The beatings will continue until moral improves!
ShinyGerbil
Profile Blog Joined June 2008
Canada519 Posts
January 27 2012 16:31 GMT
#60
Cool guide, I use a similar build very often. One big problem i've come across is a fast 1-1-1 marine hellion drop on 1 base. The drop comes around 6:50 (your build doesn't have roaches until 7:42) with 3-4 hellions and 6-8 marines with a medivac to elevator into your main. so far I haven't found an adequate adaptation to dealing with this, since when you see no reactor on the factory you need to be prepared for both this and cloak banshee, which means you also need an earlier lair so you can't also afford the gas for earlier roaches. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on how to adapt vs no reactor factory.
[s]savior[/s] jaedong fighting! // member of LighT eSports
Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 4m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
Tasteless 192
ProTech161
RotterdaM 140
mouzStarbuck 60
Rex 3
StarCraft: Brood War
Soma 267
Zeus 186
Mind 179
Dewaltoss 93
Hm[arnc] 80
ggaemo 72
Backho 35
ZerO 30
Noble 25
Sacsri 21
[ Show more ]
Bonyth 2
Dota 2
Gorgc412
League of Legends
JimRising 453
Heroes of the Storm
Trikslyr31
Other Games
singsing1378
crisheroes187
monkeys_forever107
XcaliburYe8
ZerO(Twitch)2
Organizations
Counter-Strike
PGL16830
Other Games
gamesdonequick667
StarCraft: Brood War
UltimateBattle 21
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 15 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• LUISG 42
• Adnapsc2 7
• CranKy Ducklings SOOP3
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Jankos2032
• Stunt467
Upcoming Events
RSL Revival
4m
Clem vs Rogue
Bunny vs Lambo
Tasteless192
RotterdaM140
IntoTheiNu 106
Rex3
CranKy Ducklings2
3DClanTV 0
IPSL
6h 4m
Dewalt vs nOmaD
Ret vs Cross
BSL
6h 4m
Artosis vs Sterling
eOnzErG vs TBD
BSL
9h 4m
Bonyth vs Doodle
Dewalt vs TerrOr
Patches Events
12h 49m
GSL
22h 4m
Cure vs herO
SHIN vs Maru
IPSL
1d 6h
Bonyth vs Napoleon
G5 vs JDConan
BSL
1d 9h
OyAji vs JDConan
DragOn vs TBD
Replay Cast
1d 23h
Monday Night Weeklies
2 days
[ Show More ]
Replay Cast
2 days
The PondCast
3 days
GSL
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
GSL
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Sparkling Tuna Cup
6 days
Replay Cast
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Escore Tournament S2: W7
WardiTV TLMC #16
Nations Cup 2026

Ongoing

BSL Season 22
ASL Season 21
IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
Acropolis #4
KK 2v2 League Season 1
BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
SCTL 2026 Spring
RSL Revival: Season 5
2026 GSL S1
Heroes Pulsing #1
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026
ESL Pro League S23 Finals
ESL Pro League S23 Stage 1&2

Upcoming

YSL S3
Escore Tournament S2: W8
CSLAN 4
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Maestros of the Game 2
WardiTV Spring 2026
2026 GSL S2
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.