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Hi forum,
I'm currently Gold Zerg player and I wonder what maps currently are good/bad for Zerg. I think it's very important to discuss this, since we have three votes for maps. Lets look at map pool:
(2) Blistering Sands
(2) Desert Oasis
(2) Scrap Station
(2) Steppes Of War
(2) Xel'Naga Caverns
(4) Kulas Ravine
(4) Lost Temple
(4) Metalopolis
(4) Delta Quadrant
I currently have Desert Oasis and Kulas Ravine voted down. Desert is just bad for my style of play, and Kulas ravine has vulnerable natural. As third I was thinking Delta Quadrant but I'm not sure.
What do you think?
PS. If this is already discussed, I apologize. Thanks
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I have Desert Oasis, Kulas Ravine and Delta Quadrant vetoed.
Desert Oasis because everyone goes air and Hydras are probably the most boring unit ever created in an RTS game. I think it's a good map for Zerg because of no cliffs but the distance between main base and natural expo is too far.
I voted down Delta Quadrant for pretty much the same reson, although I'm thinking about switching it for Lost Temple since Lost Temple is on par with Kulas Ravine as the most imbalanced map for Zerg.
Kulas Ravine because it's simply unbalanced.
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All maps besides scrap and meta are bad for Zerg. 
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The usual ones to ban as zerg is LT and kulas because of the cliff at the natural. I'm zerg and i only banned LT because i like kulas, but zerg is very bad at both because of the cliff. I'm writing from an iphone so please excuse my text
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But i also think that delta is à bad map since you easily can have three bases but you only have to defend one of them (the outer one). My tactic as zerg is often to limit the enemy base count to 2 (and then i'm going for 3 or 4 myself), but that's hard on delta. But i'm still not banning that map since it's à cool one
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Most of the maps are pretty bad.. but I vote down steppes of war (mech is ridiculous), desert oasis for reasons already mentioned, and blistering sands. kulas and lost temple are pretty imbalanced but ive always like 4 player maps in 1v1
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as far as favor, if I had to list them:
F: Kulas, LT
D: DO, Delta quadrant
C: Steppes
B: Blistering, Xel'Naga,
A: Metalopolis, Scrap station
Most of these are only bad because of ZvT matchup, P is great on LT and Blistering Sands because of the power of FFE, but on everything else seems pretty even. Delta quadrant, I totally agree with Skirmisher - they can take a 2nd completely safely, but Z needs to expand before it can break those rocks, so it needs to take the very hard-to-defend natural.
I have Kulas, LT, and DQ downvoted. ZvT on DO is pretty retarded though.
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Kulas is an absolutely abysmal map for zerg, lost temple however with cunning overlord placement and spinecrawlers on the edge of your cliff is actually quite easily defended, and a sloppy terran will suicide two tanks before he realizes.
Desert Oasis is abysmal for ALL races, unless you have a very refined cheese build in which case I say play it like crazy and crank out the easy wins. Do not get tricked into thinking that standard play is at all viable on this map however, either cheese hard or thumbsdown it.
Delta Quadrant is the other map I would veto, mainly because as other posters have mentioned the main advantage of a Zerg is outmacroing your opponent, on this map you will both be tied on three base, and zerg does not win in 3base vs. 3base pretty much ever.
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I have Kulas and Delta down voted. I don't know why but I absolutely hate Delta Quadrant. I don't mind LT, then again I haven't really had my cliff abused.
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On August 15 2010 03:13 StarcraftGuy4U wrote:
Kulas is an absolutely abysmal map for zerg, lost temple however with cunning overlord placement and spinecrawlers on the edge of your cliff is actually quite easily defended, and a sloppy terran will suicide two tanks before he realizes.
Well, there's two issues: 1 a siege tank at the far end cannot be reached by the spine crawlers and can power them down
2: a viking can scare away the overlords and there's not a damn thing you can do about it unless you have mutas
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I'm Zerg and I have Scrapp, Steppes, and Kulas voted down. I just hate scrapp, I don't get how it's Zerg favored at all, I always lost to forces busting those middle rocks  (
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Blistering Sands, Kulas Ravine and Lost Temple.
All are heavily terran favored. 
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Ideal Zerg Map:
1. Long rush distance
2. No natural cliff
3. Open map
4. Short distance between main and natural
5. Small (queen-blockable) natural ramp close to natural expansion
6. Closed natural (think LT vs Metalopolis)
7. Small main base (easier to overlord scout)
8. Short air distance (easier to overlord scout)
Examples:
Desert Oasis: 1, 2, 3, 8
Scrap Station: 1, 2, 8
Blistering Sands: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (backdoor is a big problem for 2base Zerg vs 1base T/P though)
Xel'Naga Caverns: 2, 3, 7
Kulas Ravine: ...
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I don't understand why everyone hates on Desert Oasis. I have a sneaking suspicion it's because 1base all-ins are significantly less effective on that map...
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On August 15 2010 03:13 fdsdfg wrote:
as far as favor, if I had to list them:
F: Kulas, LT
D: DO, Delta quadrant
C: Steppes
B: Blistering, Xel'Naga,
A: Metalopolis, Scrap station
Most of these are only bad because of ZvT matchup, P is great on LT and Blistering Sands because of the power of FFE, but on everything else seems pretty even. Delta quadrant, I totally agree with Skirmisher - they can take a 2nd completely safely, but Z needs to expand before it can break those rocks, so it needs to take the very hard-to-defend natural.
I have Kulas, LT, and DQ downvoted. ZvT on DO is pretty retarded though.
It depends a lot on matchup.
ZvP:
F: DO
D: Xel'Naga, Blistering
C: Kulas
B: Metalopolis, LT, Delta Quadrant, Steppes
A: Scrap Station
I don't care for Metal that much vs Protoss because of the open natural, dangerously close starting positions (vertical) and how it can be tough to grab a 3rd/4th if you're in vertical positions. Meanwhile the problems with DQ and LT are mostly issues vs Terran and Zerg can have a pretty good time on these maps.
ZvT:
F: DO
D: Kulas, Lost Temple
C: Delta Quadrant
B: Xel'Naga, Blistering, Scrap Station, Steppes of War
A: Metalopolis
As you can see this is quite different. Since you rely much less on static defense metalopolis and Scrap Station become much better maps. Scrap Station would be A for me, but a dedicated hellion harass can be really tough to stop because of the long ramp and main/nat distance. Maybe Xel'Naga is an A vs Terran; it's a really good layout to play vs Terran, but I'm not ready to call it A yet. I think Steppes of War is one of the best maps to play vs Terran. The rush distances are small, but that's not too important vs Terran, what matters more is how well you can defend your natural + main and secure a 3rd. Tank pushes are dicey on this map until you get the middle gooped up then they're managable. It also helps that the sides of the main are wide open for air harassment.
If I were to down vote any maps it'd be:
DO, Kulas, LT as I find the D maps vs Protoss to be a little more manageable than the D maps vs Terran (as in it's easier to have the game go longer so you make the map less relevant).
@ Saracen
DO is bad because 1) The natural is way far away and really open to harassment (or you defend nat and leave main open) and 2) There's a TON of room to hide cheese vs Zerg..
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I have Kulas and Delta thumbed down. Kulas because its plain ridiculous, delta because its so easy for Toss and Terran to expand while Zerg has to FE out in the open. Just don't suit my style of FE play. I think DO is fine. I normally go Hydra with Nydus because they walk so damn slow out of creep or Mutas. But really have to watch out for cheese in DO. Its a map that encourages freakin' cheesing. Steppes is fine just have to watch out if you want to FE and Mech (really powerful in Steppes). LT is perfectly fine against Protoss, but against terran.... I mean seriously that race is already OP yet so many maps are still largely in favour of them?
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On August 15 2010 03:19 fdsdfg wrote:Show nested quote +On August 15 2010 03:13 StarcraftGuy4U wrote:
Kulas is an absolutely abysmal map for zerg, lost temple however with cunning overlord placement and spinecrawlers on the edge of your cliff is actually quite easily defended, and a sloppy terran will suicide two tanks before he realizes.
Well, there's two issues: 1 a siege tank at the far end cannot be reached by the spine crawlers and can power them down 2: a viking can scare away the overlords and there's not a damn thing you can do about it unless you have mutas
If he has tanks, medevacs, and vikings, and you have NO answer, you are going to lose for other reasons. The FAST tank drop is the problem, not ANY tank drop.
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On August 15 2010 02:48 Blood-Sin wrote:
Hi forum,
I'm currently Gold Zerg player and I wonder what maps currently are good/bad for Zerg. I think it's very important to discuss this, since we have three votes for maps. Lets look at map pool:
(2) Blistering Sands
(2) Desert Oasis
(2) Scrap Station
(2) Steppes Of War
(2) Xel'Naga Caverns
(4) Kulas Ravine
(4) Lost Temple
(4) Metalopolis
(4) Delta Quadrant
I currently have Desert Oasis and Kulas Ravine voted down. Desert is just bad for my style of play, and Kulas ravine has vulnerable natural. As third I was thinking Delta Quadrant but I'm not sure.
What do you think?
PS. If this is already discussed, I apologize. Thanks
Kulas Ravine is the worst map. Cliffs over every single expansion and rocks all over the place which take zerg the longest to destroy. ZvT on that map is so heavily stacked in favor of T it's simply insane. If I could only X out one map, that would be it.
Scrap Station is obviously preferred by most zerg. Easily accessible third, expansions lead away from the enemy, decently open, no stupid cliffs. Very short air rush distance on a 2p map means you don't have to drone scout as the overlord gets there pretty fast (just beware of proxy). The middle rock-choke can be kind of a bitch against terran if he manages to get tanks sieged since it can bisect your bases, but this is still a good map for zerg.
Delta Quadrant is also retarded. I've only ever played one ladder game on this map and immediately X'd it out. Extremely open natural that might as well be in the center of the map, third is blocked off by rocks and has a cliff over it. As mentioned, this basically hands a free expansion to terran/protoss while crucifying zerg in the middle of the map. No thanks.
Lost Temple is my third X, since I'm simply fed up of the ridiculous power of a thor/tank drop on the nat ledge. It's simply too easy for the terran to do, has practically no risk, and is way way way way too hard to stop (if it's even entirely stoppable when done properly - the games I've won when that happened have been when I double expanded crossmap and the other guy was too happy killing the nat to notice). Honestly, having cliffs be such a huge racial weakness for zerg is a terrible game design decision that's really hurting the map selection. They're simply too ubiquitous.
Blistering Sands is good against terran, but 4gate P pushes through the backdoor are extremely difficult to stop since you NEED spines to defend against a 4gate and with the 12s burrow time you can't reposition them in a hurry. If he knocks down the back and sees you've moved them up to your main he'll just loop around and wreck the nat and vice versa. I feel creep spread against P is absolutely vital on this map against 4gate as you need to get those spines to the mid where they can cover both chokes with heavy speedling assistance. Still a good map overall.
Steppes of War has been treating me well lately, despite the short rush distance the middle is VERY open and has some awesomely positioned grass/ramps that let you hide units and set up some terrific flanks. I've been doing well on this map even against T as long as you can contain him to 2-3 bases (although if he takes a third you practically need to take the entire map to win). Also has an easily defended third, and the rocks are also easily knocked down with the few spines you'll always make so you don't wind up with your army out of position at a bad time.
Desert Oasis used to be one of my highest win% maps but lately it's been annoying me with the massive distances between bases. Even with proper creep spread split attacks can be a huge headache to deal with. I feel nydus is absolutely mandatory on this map if you're going any kind of ground army. The cliff/ledge right next to the main's gas provides huge opportunity for blink stalker/siege tank/thor/marauder abuse (hell you could probably just keep launching nukes from there as terran) but the main area is at least fairly open.
Metalopolis is solid unless you get same-side positions (especially against T) in which case you'll have to take your third cross-map most likely and you'll have a lot of fun defending a siege tank push on that short of a rush distance. Anything other than same-side positions works great though since you're expanding away from your opponent. Ling runbys on expos also work well here, forcing them to make PF/some static defense.
Lastly, Xel'Naga Caverns seems like a decent map. Logical third/fourth to take, open mid with good flanking opportunities. Rocks at the third don't actually block the third, so like on steppes you can start building your third and then knock them down after. Nat is very open, but tucked close to the main and not terribly difficult to defend. I think this map is one of the better designed ones.
Probably more text than most will read!
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On August 15 2010 03:37 Saracen wrote:
I don't understand why everyone hates on Desert Oasis. I have a sneaking suspicion it's because 1base all-ins are significantly less effective on that map...
Becouse the nat is so far away from the main and there are 2 entrence to the nat. Making it easy to hellion harras or just rush up as p and forcefield the ramp.
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EPT
