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Greetings, some of you might remember me from Guides such as 3 Roach Opener vs Terran and the Swarmhost Infestor Style vs Protoss.
Who am I / Credentials
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I am a Swiss Grandmaster Zerg residing around 6.1k MMR on EU and in the top 50 on NA. I also stream most of my games on twitch @ http://www.twitch.tv/railgan
The Idea:
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Terrans almost always open with a Reaper. By sending two Lings around the reaper we are able to do economic damage and get good scouting Information. It is very early on that the Terran decides what kind of opener he is going for.
Further we get a quick evolution chamber into +1 Carapace Upgrade. This allows us to be completly versus the 16 marine drop. We try to aim for an early game drop with 8 lings by using the evolution chamber. The 8 lings can deal a good amount of damage and provide valuable scouting.
In the Mid Game we use mass Hydras on a fairly low eco to stop the Terran aggression. Once we have our 1/2 Upgrades, the Lurker Den and Overlord Speed complete we are able to start attacking the Terran with both drops as well as frontal attacks.
If we are unable to close out the game here we will add either Broodlords, Vipers or both to our endgame composition to close out the Game.
Further we get a quick evolution chamber into +1 Carapace Upgrade. This allows us to be completly versus the 16 marine drop. We try to aim for an early game drop with 8 lings by using the evolution chamber. The 8 lings can deal a good amount of damage and provide valuable scouting.
In the Mid Game we use mass Hydras on a fairly low eco to stop the Terran aggression. Once we have our 1/2 Upgrades, the Lurker Den and Overlord Speed complete we are able to start attacking the Terran with both drops as well as frontal attacks.
If we are unable to close out the game here we will add either Broodlords, Vipers or both to our endgame composition to close out the Game.
The Build Order
http://lotv.spawningtool.com/build/47543/
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EARLY GAME
13 Overlord
17 Pool
18 Hatch
17 Gas
16 2 more drones rally them to the gas
@Pool 2 Lings try to evade the Reaper with them and send them to the Terran Natural
Queen use it to defend vs the Reaper and inject
@100 Gas Lingspeed
20/22 1 more drone send it to the Gas
22/22 1 Overlord
@Queen start another Queen in the Main
@Natural start a Queen at the Natural (total of 3 Queens)
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Now build only Drones and Overlords
@3:00 Evolution Chamber
@3:15 Optional 8 Lings for Drop --> rally them to the Overlord to drop. Drop the Lings immediatly versus Hellion Openers and Drop them @5:00 vs 16 Marines Opener.
@150 Gas Carapace Upgrade (+1 Armor)
@100 Gas Lair
@32 Drones on Minerals (around 3:30-4:00) 3 more gas
@4:20 Mass Ling Production
@Lair +2 Carapace Upgrade, Evolution Chamber for Missile Upgrade, Hydra Den + 3rd as soon as you feel save
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MID GAME
Feel free to delay droning your 3rd
Build mass Hydras. All gas goes to Hydras
@Hydraden -> Hydra speed
@ Hydra Speed --> Lurker Den + Overlord Speed
@3rd saturation start 4th
Morph 5 Overlord
@Lurker Den --> morph Lurkers (atleast 6)
@Lurkers -> Drop 4 Lurkers + 11 Hydras + 1 Queen (5 Overlords) into the Terran base while pushing / defending.
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LATE GAME
@Drop build Infestation Pit
@Infestation Pit Start Hive + Spire
@Hive Vipers / Broodlords and many upgrades
Adjustments:
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Vs 16 Marine Drop (2 Barracks)
Delay the 3rd and you might want to go for 5 total Queens. Build a lot of Hydralisks and play defensive. Drop 8 Lings around the 4:50 when the Terran moves out. You can also poke him at the front with some lings at the same time. If you do this it will be really hard to defend you 3rd base though. It's completly fine to delay your 3rd until your Hydras are out and upgrades are done.
Vs Single Factory
Usually Hellions so just make sure that you have an overlord spotting for hellion drops in your main / natural. Drop Lings early on when you notice his Hellions move out.
vs Double Factory
Usually Hellbat Cyclone what you need is 3 defensive Queens. Build a Baneling Nest early on. Ling Queen Bane should do fine. If you are really worried throw down a spine and feel free to delay your 3rd. You might want to play 2 Hatch Mutalisks instead. Be careful of Liberators / Banshees!!!
vs Banshees (Techlab Starport)
Usually coupled with Hellbats / Hellions. Use a defensive overseer and you might want to add a spore per base and definitly go up to 5 Queens total. Definitly get Overlordspeed so you can catch the Bancheese.
vs mass Tank (midgame)
Some Terrans will just drop everything they have while turtling with tanks at home. Mass ling is very useful here and it will be hard to push into the Terran. Instead try to use drops to your advantage and get to Vipers / Broodlords as quickly as possible
vs pure bio (midgame)
He should not be able to push into you at all. Use some defensive Lurkers / Hydras to shut down drops. If you can land a good drop or move into him you can straight up kill him. Mass Hydra alone should be almost enough to completly kill your opponent.
vs mass Banshee / Liberator
Use mostly Hydras / Queens here. Should be pretty easy to shutdown the build.
vs Ground Mech
Try to cut lurkers they won't do much. Go for a fast Hive and use Ling Hydra Viper Broodlord (Queen). You can also use a classic Mass Swarmhost style to shutdown the Mech build.
vs Mass Raven
Cut Lurkers. I prefer using infestor corruptor swarmhost versus this composition. Mass Hydralisk instead of Corruptors can do really well especially if you don't have as big of a Lead.
The Composition
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The build uses 3 Core Units:
Lings help versus tanks and "tank" damage for your Hydras and Lurkers
Hydras do erally wel versus bio Terran and shutdown medivacs and drops.
Lurkers can be used as drop defense, as push defense, are strong when dropped themselves and can also be used offensively in pushes.
The build uses 3 support Units
Queens are used to tank damage in the early / mid game versus Marine Pushes. Their Health and transfuses should not be underestimated.
Vipers are used to abduct tanks and blinding cloud them.
Broodlord are used to break through mass tank lines.
Using Lurkers
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Lurkers can be burrowed at your own bases together with a spine to quickly clear drops. Keep in mind that a Lurker alone will cause the bio to still kill your drones. If you have a spine they will shoot the spine instead.
They can be burrowed "randomly" on the map to force scans from the Terran.
Dropping them into the Terran Production together with some drops will completly shutdown his production and is a easy way to secure a win.
Keep them away from the Tanks!! It's okay to be pushed back in the midgame while you are going for your own Drop. Don't throw away your and instead force your opponent to attack into you. Once you have vipers you can counter his push.
Vipers vs Broodlords
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Vipers are better if your in a worse situation economically. Broodlords are more effective if you already are in a good situation.
The more Tanks the better the Broodlords get. If you have Lurkers underneath your Broodlords it will be almost impossible for your Opponent to push into them with Marines.
Using Vipers
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I almost never use parasitic bomb except versus mass vikings. Usually try to abduct stray tanks and if you can hit 2-3 use blinding cloud. The blinding cloud is also very useful when you have Terran bio pushing into you to create space betweent he bio units and your Lurkers.
Videos
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If you want to see the Build in Action you can always watch me on Twitch @ http://www.twitch.tv/railgan
Thank you all for reading
