I feel like you neglect to mention that spinecrawlers albeit slower to root has an additional armor making them better at tanking damage as a static d and does additional dmg vs armored (hellion, marauder).

I really like the idea of having overlords near your mineral lines to just pickup and leave with drones incase of a runby. That is a really good use of otherwise useless overlords in the mid/late game.

I think another question is how do place the fewest static defense against drops that intend to kill the hatchery?

Incorrect information: Hellion is light not armored.

xHerodotusx

United Kingdom114 Posts

June 04 2012 04:33 GMT

#22

Oh man, this is fantastic, great guide! I have significantly underestimated spores and will give them another shot!

Most pro zergs I watch don't even leave a handful of lings in their mineral lines during the late game, which I don't understand. A smart terran player always keeps some marines in a bunker or a few siege tanks at home to deny zerg runbys (since we have no real drop potential until the late game), but zergs rarely leave their bases adequately defended, causing their army to be forced out of position, attacks to turn into retreats, and economic advantages to quickly disappear.

usNEUX

United States76 Posts

June 04 2012 04:58 GMT

#23

I think the most significant aspect of my sim city is keeping a lot of my important tech structures (including lair/hive) at my natural, usually against the wall of my main. I've found that my natural is far less likely to be dropped than my main and any other outlying expansions. You also have the added benefit of the Terran often wasting scans on your main. If he manages to push into your natural to destroy your tech you've probably lost anyway and it wouldn't matter if these buildings were in your main.

A trick I picked up from watching Stephano is to drop 3-4 spines in your main as you move onto 4+ bases. I like to do this as well as have 4 spines in and behind my min lines at my 3rd+ bases as I start to pile up minerals in the late game. It will buy you more than enough time to save your drones.

But.... the best defense is a good offense! Work in OV speed/drop research into your play around 14 mins and take the harassment to him. So many Terran seem to think that only mutas can turn up in their bases... The amount of e-bays I have sniped makes up for all the times I've had a mineral line wiped out.

Chaosvuistje

Netherlands2581 Posts

June 04 2012 08:59 GMT

#24

On June 04 2012 13:26 Advocado wrote:
I feel like you neglect to mention that spinecrawlers albeit slower to root has an additional armor making them better at tanking damage as a static d and does additional dmg vs armored (hellion, marauder).

First off, hellions are light, not armoured. So they don't take additional damage from Spines. It hardly matters though since Spines simply shrug at Hellions.

Secondly, yes Spinecrawlers have 2 defense while Spores only have 1. If we take the humble Marine, unupgraded he does 6 damage a shot. Without taking regeneration into consideration, a Spinecrawler would take 75 shots to kill while a Sporecrawler takes 80 shots to kill. When upgraded with +1, Marines take 60 shots to kill a Spine but 66 to kill a Spore.

Yes they have additional defense bonus, but that hardly matters in the grand scheme of things. They both just serve other roles.

On June 04 2012 13:58 usNEUX wrote:
I think the most significant aspect of my sim city is keeping a lot of my important tech structures (including lair/hive) at my natural, usually against the wall of my main. I've found that my natural is far less likely to be dropped than my main and any other outlying expansions. You also have the added benefit of the Terran often wasting scans on your main. If he manages to push into your natural to destroy your tech you've probably lost anyway and it wouldn't matter if these buildings were in your main.

While I agree that the natural tends to be dropped the least ( which is a nobrainer considering most of the maps have a layout that tucks it away between your third and main, and the zerg army tends to hang around there when inactive ) I prefer keeping my tech structures in my main because if he does push through into my natural, I can sack it and go for a large counter attack to try and pull him back while taking out a base or so. If he does go into my main I can make it a longer base trade and perhaps even trap the terran in my main if I have some way to take his army out regardless.

NDDseer

Australia204 Posts

June 04 2012 09:24 GMT

#25

I almost always patrol 1-2 corruptors over the cliff edge of my main and/or my 3rd/4th (location obviously depends on map and spawns), and they do an incredible job of shutting down unmicroed jobs, most of the time I don't even notice them taking out a medivac until I watch the replay or use my queen to pick off the one marine that managed to get out.

Advocado

Denmark994 Posts

June 04 2012 09:26 GMT

#26

On June 04 2012 17:59 Chaosvuistje wrote:

Show nested quote +

I should stop writing teamliquid strategy posts at 6 am. Hellion is light. What I also meant to emphasize was that spines wont kill a drop very effectively, they will tie up forces more than say a marine group as they can simply waltz by the spore. I guess without the medivac they will easy pickings any ground forces.

I am going to give this sporecrawler style a try versus the next drop terran I play.

michaelhasanalias

Korea (South)1231 Posts

June 04 2012 12:17 GMT

#27

Thanks for posting this, and the argument about sporecrawlers is great. I always drop a spore and a spine or two at expos late game, but I just kind of throw them haphazardly, usually in the mineral line itself. Using them to zone seems like a great idea. Also, I'm not sure how I played 3k games as zerg and never realized spores are both meatier and cheaper than spinecrawlers. Next thing you'll tell me is that they do more damage!

edit: :O

romelako

United States373 Posts

June 04 2012 15:32 GMT

#28

Great guide. Very insightful and explores all of Zerg's options. Drops are an integral part of Terran gameplay so it's only right that more Zergs are aware of it and plan their bases accordingly. I think it's very easy for Zerg's to get into the mindset that because they're Zerg, they need not worry about building positioning and defense against drops.

This definitely deserves a sticky!

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