[G] Belial's Comprehensive Guide to Overlords!

Example replay: Myself vs Ladder

initial - To watch ramp from main and natural of opponent, as well as spot for expo timing, and then for drone counting and gas at the natural (the most important overlord of them all, checking the opponent's natural's drone count is as important as your pool in ZvZ). I hotkey it, and reroute it as necessary on 4 player maps, and so I can get it out of the way quickly if the opponent has a queen around. I position in a place that if a queen comes, it can escape (near a ledge, etc). Once the natural finishes, I will move it to behind the opponent's mineral field, to check his early game drone count. I will put this overlord to watch the mineral line of the opponent to make sure he has 5+ drones immediately after his natural pops, or else he's ling/bane all-inning, and that he makes 16+ drones there by ~50 supply (which is when your natural should be saturated as well, for comparison) or else he's doing a hatch tech roach/ling all-in, and later around 30+ I'll slightly move this hotkeyed overlord to spot for the opponent's gas timing, so I can tell if he's going 2 base muta/infestor (2xGas) or fast third (1 or none of the gas accompanied by full mineral saturation) or roach/ling all-in (no additional gases, very few drones). If he takes 2 gas in natural before 50 supply, it's probably 2 base lair, which you can confirm with you 26 or 32 overlord or a few speedlings and seeing no quick third before 50 supply taken (which is the standard macro based play in zvz these days) You can also poke into the main of the opponent if they go Hatch First, to count his gas and if he makes lings or drones.

9 - I put this on the edge of my creep to watch for spines, then re-route it to in front of the opponent's natural to spot for army move-outs. Once I confirm the opponent is not doing an early pool (either by drone scout or by my overlord), I send it to in front of the ramp of opponent to watch for army move outs. Super important, always do this (put it in front of the ramp, at least, that is). I hotkey it so when my drone scout or overlord arrives to their base, I can send it out asap if they aren't early pooling. It will arrive in time to spot initial lings moving out when I do this. I drone pair my first 16 drones meticulously so I'd rather have the overlord by creep than use a drone to look around at 16 supply. If you want to just send it straight out, that's fine too.

17 - Near opponent's main, also to spot gas (hopefully the opponent takes the other gas as his initial gas, but whatever, I use it to make into an overseer, and spot for lair timings or to poke into his main real quick and pull back before queen kills it, as necessary). Most people use this overlord to put in front of their base to see morphing banes, but my first 2 overlords can see if he streams out lings and it'll be obvious if he's massing lings out front anyways because of the first 2 overlords, and me taking the towers with lings anyways, and with all my overlords moving out over in front of my base. On larger maps you really gotta send it with this overlord if you want to spot for lair timings or roach/ling all-ins, any later of an overlord wont be there in the time to spot quick lair. It's up to you whether you want to send this in front of your base or by the opponent's main.

26 - Opponents third. This is to check for zergs who go fast third before lair (which is standard, but I need to know their timing). On very large maps, like condemned, it wont get there in time if he goes third before lair, but will get there if he goes 2 base lair before third. Very useful overlord imo anyways

32 - Finally, in front of my base. This is when ling/bane comes anyways, so this is why I put it so late.

36 - By my third, to see if he puts a ling there or ling/bane there to deny me when I try to take my third. this helps save a lot of drone losses, really, avoid those obnoxious singe lings killing your drone trying to take a third. I eventually move it up a bit when I take third to see if he morphs banes out front of it to do pressure.

51 - To make into an overseer if I lost one of those initial overlords. Usually to the fourth.

      Additional overlords rallied around my front to make an instant creep highway to connect my natural and third bases, especially if you play a turtle style like mutas or especially infestors, as well as spread some overlords to spot for drops. By this time you can usually tell if he might be going muta or not, which is when I'll start to spread overlords all over the map for vision.

Example replay: Myself vs Ladder

initial - Watch for him taking his natural, then re-route to spot for army movement (Cloud Kingdom)or to sac into the main (Daybreak).

9 - Make sure he isn't making a bunker at my natural, eventually move it to somewhere to sac into his main later on. Have to take outer routes but it will arrive in time to sac at 40+. I hotkey it so I can do this on the fly as I micro drone pairing, putting down a pool, etc. It's best to put this overlord slightly forward, that way you can see if an SCV comes into your natural suspiciously, as well as Terran's who make a bunker a little bit out (which can really suck on maps like Daybreak - you try to kill a bunker building SCV only to find out a bunker is already done behind it). I also recommend you queue a route to the natural to make sure he didn't do anything like send an SCV or two right when the game starts to make stuff in your base (Belshir can be nasty for this, and MMA did this famously against MVP on Daybreak in the Blizzcon Finals). In order to get in position to sac into terran's main, you will have to send this overlord as soon as you realize he isn't bunker rushing (if you drone scout, make sure to take a route that the opponent's SCV would approach, like the opposite path on Daybreak that your worker would naturally incline towards if you just click the opponent's base, that way you can rule out an SCV in your base and just send it right away). If you keep this overlord by the natural to spot for bunkers, you will need to take a long, out of way route to make sure Terran doesn't run into it. However, you are safe to send this overlord straight by Terran's main on most maps if you send it directly after spawning, and use a well routed drone scout to make sure no bunkers are building, as well as sending your 16 drone down to your natural to make sure no SCV is down there (it is extremely important to sac an overlord into Terran's main, so the ~15 minerals you lose checking for bunkers manually with a drone, is definitely worth it, and you can use this drone to look around for proxies as well).

17 - Takes a very long route to spot for Terran's third, or to put in a cute location to spot army movement (like on daybreak, that fan at the outer ramp to natural).

26 - Terran's third or just an inconvenient location in general, that would be a good spot for an overlord.

32 - My third, to make sure he isn't putting a bunker or ebay block down there

      All future overlords rallied as eggs to spot for drops. By the time dropships come out, I have full vision around my base. Nestea is particularly good about this - if you are good with this, you will never need overlord speed, and should have full, complete coverage of the map by the time dropships are out, because you had overlords as early as in the 30's going all the way around the edges of the map to spot for incoming drops in distant corners.

Example Replay: Myself vs Ladder

initial - Where toss puts his natural, slightly to see up ramp too. Spots for FFE or if he's opening gateway first at the top of his ramp. Also to spot his timing of gateway, forge, cybernetics core, gas in natural, if he chronos, if he is making a zealot (cyber isn't done) or is making a stalker (gateway is chrono'd when cyber is done). Not like he can kill it for a long time, then I move it to over his natural's gas, out of range, when cybercore completes. If toss is opening 1 base, this overlord will spot if he expands on time (by 5:31) or as a follow-up to the opener (if he 4 gated, if you 7 pooled vs FFE, etc), as well as make sure he doesn't do a Nexus cancel.

9 - Watch my natural for cannons, when natural pops or my first queen is done (I inject in main, make another queen, then a-move it to my natural, inject will pop same time as 2nd queen made in main pops, this is also to prevent him from sneaking a probe around and into my base or to cannon my natural when my lings chase his first probe and check for pylons at my third). Like in ZvT, you may want to queue a route so that it spots if Toss throws down a cheeky pylon in your main when he comes in and acts like nothing happened (Ohana can be nasty for this).

17 - Rallied to a spot to sac at Toss' main, to see what his follow up is to his expansion.

26 - Toss' third. Spots for super fast thirds that don't make sense, and to put down creep against standard thirds. If you find out that toss took a 6:00 third when his 2 cannons are already done, it's too late, you lose. So a very important overlord.

32 - Put it somewhere by my third to spot for super popular pylon placements (ie on Shakuras, at the fourth by that ledge overlooking third, or on Ohana, by the fourth in the nook where they put the pylons, or on Daybreak, at the fourth again, at the nook they put pylons at).

36 - By a cliff in my main to make sure he doesnt do that thing where he warps into your main with a pylon on the low ground using air units, observer, warp prism, etc. Suuuper important on maps like Antiga where they just always do that.

      Next overlords are just sent around my main and third to make sure his warp prism doesnt fly into my base undetected, if he does something like that. Basically like zvt, to spot for drops, but not as much because of void rays, I usually send a lot of them to spew creep in front of my bases and connecting my bases, as I don't use creep tumors in zvp, yet my creep spread is just as strong. Instacreep is sooo amazing, by the 15:00 mark I have a little banked energy on queens from slightly late injects that suddenly I have 3 tumors that are very far out and active.

Of course, you never want to lose your overlord, so try to be cautious and just poke in at first. Buildings, especially ones that aren't yet complete, do not have the same range as an overlord, so you might be able to spot that starport with a tech lab without losing the overlord. If you have 2 overlords, like one from the natural, this becomes much easier to do.

ZvZ: In the other 2 match-ups, overlord sac'cing is the only way to glean what the opponent is doing, but in ZvZ, you can completely figure out what ythe opponent is doing by seeing the opponent's gas count at his natural, his drone count at the natural, and with speedling run-ins to see if he made roaches or a lair. Overlord sac'cing isn't as game deciding in ZvZ, it's pretty obvious he's going 2 base lair if he takes gas, or if he's taking a third because there's a freaking hatchery at his third. But sometimes you might want to know his lair timing, like if you are wondering if he's doing the same thing you are (2 base muta or 2 base infestor) and so you want to make sure how your lair timing compares to his, or maybe what his follow-up is to his aggression earlier on. But same time that you would go lair on 2 base or take a third if you are going standard play, is when you might want to poke into his main. The overlord by the natural seeing his drone count and gas count at natural is really, much more important. This overlord is really sent compared to what you could do, and what you need to know to do what you want to do (ie you plan to go fast third before lair, but quick mutas are something that can give you a lot of trouble). In short, 40+.

ZvT: Sac an overlord at 40+ into main. If you explicitly do not see a 1 rax FE on the low ground, CC First on the low ground, or reactor hellion on the low ground by 30, then poke in at 30. You should know by 30 that terran expanded though. 40+ is when starport for banshees is started, so sac'cing it at 30 sucks but sometimes you have to do it. Terrans rarely not put a CC on the low ground at all though, and if they do it's their loss.. soo... 40+ supply, 30+ if you aren't sure Terran expanded.

ZvP: 7:00+ vs FFE. Against Gateway Expands, sac it around when the Nexus finishes, to see what their follow-up is, if you haven't figured it out already (such as mass gates as part of the wall-off, or his army standing behind the main wall-in and you poking with speedlings, checking).

Yellow lines for routes, Red boxes for stop points, Stars for other, noteworthy places to eventually put an overlord

ZvZ:
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ZvT:
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ZvP:
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