I believe I have found a way to play zerg that avoids the late game pitfalls that you fall in to with roach/hydra/corruptor. Below I outline the general strategy, and compare it with roach based play via an analysis of the recent code S match between + Show Spoiler +
Julyzerg and MC
Supplementary Replays
some recent ZvP replays
About Me
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I played starcraft from 1998-2002 before I raged at goliaths and got sucked in to counter-strike. I came back to RTS during SC2 beta, so I have been away for a while. I have been casually watching pro brood war and GSL throughout this ~12 year timeframe. Playing around 3400 masters on the ladder. I am old.
Basic Strategy
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This has nothing to do with build orders, it is just a loose framework of how to approach the match-up. The aim is to do the following, in no particular order:
- Get an expansion
- Get ling speed
- Get melee/armor upgrades
- Get banelings
- Get more bases
- Get overlord upgrades
- Get infestors
The aim is to reach the midgame with upgraded ling/baneling and infestors. Hydras or Ultras are added when econ allows for it
Why these upgrades? Why these units?
- You are going to be using a lot of lings, so get ling speed.
- You are going to be using banelings against sentries, so get drops and over lord speed
- +2 melee for your core army/allows 1 shot kills on workers with banelings/smooth ultra
transition
- +2 carapace keeps your ling armor on par with zeal attack upgrades, smooth ultra transition
- Infestors step in to mitigate damage once colossus hit critical mass. They also compliment
baneling drops when sentries are still in play. In other words you get extra force field
management at tier 2 instead of waiting for ultras. They are relatively safe from getting sniped
when there are baneling linebackers in front of them, making NP not a waste of time and energy
- Once infestors are in play, It is no longer pointless to invest in hydras vs colossus. Just as
banelings protect the infestors, the infestors in a way protect the hydras. In return the hydras
protect infestors from anything that gets by the banelings, such as unexpected flanks, phoenix,
and blink stalkers. This unit chemistry reminds me of a strong chess position where the pieces
work in unison and allow their teammates to play at their maximum potential (like D ROSE).
- Focusing on banelings rather than roaches opens up more early game larva for droning. The
simple ability to morph or not to morph should not be overlooked when squeezing out as many
drones as possible. With roaches you get safety right this instant, with zergling/baneling
you get econ right this instant, and safety when you need it.
When should I take my third?
- Against heavy sentry: as a general rule, if you have any chance of being monster ranched by
forcefields, you want to time it so that overlord drops has kicked in.
- Against anything else take it early. upgraded lings against stalkers is fun. Early void rays can
be annoying to expand against but if you plan ahead with an extra queen or two connecting your
your natural and third it should be easy to hold it. If you even think they are doing anything
more than one void ray, build a spore and walk it over there so you can plant it as soon as the
the hatch finishes or your creep gets there, whichever comes first.
What if they go dts and I wasn't ready for it?
- 4 emergency manually detonated banelings per dt is better than losing the game.
- Get an expansion
- Get ling speed
- Get melee/armor upgrades
- Get banelings
- Get more bases
- Get overlord upgrades
- Get infestors
The aim is to reach the midgame with upgraded ling/baneling and infestors. Hydras or Ultras are added when econ allows for it
Why these upgrades? Why these units?
- You are going to be using a lot of lings, so get ling speed.
- You are going to be using banelings against sentries, so get drops and over lord speed
- +2 melee for your core army/allows 1 shot kills on workers with banelings/smooth ultra
transition
- +2 carapace keeps your ling armor on par with zeal attack upgrades, smooth ultra transition
- Infestors step in to mitigate damage once colossus hit critical mass. They also compliment
baneling drops when sentries are still in play. In other words you get extra force field
management at tier 2 instead of waiting for ultras. They are relatively safe from getting sniped
when there are baneling linebackers in front of them, making NP not a waste of time and energy
- Once infestors are in play, It is no longer pointless to invest in hydras vs colossus. Just as
banelings protect the infestors, the infestors in a way protect the hydras. In return the hydras
protect infestors from anything that gets by the banelings, such as unexpected flanks, phoenix,
and blink stalkers. This unit chemistry reminds me of a strong chess position where the pieces
work in unison and allow their teammates to play at their maximum potential (like D ROSE).
- Focusing on banelings rather than roaches opens up more early game larva for droning. The
simple ability to morph or not to morph should not be overlooked when squeezing out as many
drones as possible. With roaches you get safety right this instant, with zergling/baneling
you get econ right this instant, and safety when you need it.
When should I take my third?
- Against heavy sentry: as a general rule, if you have any chance of being monster ranched by
forcefields, you want to time it so that overlord drops has kicked in.
- Against anything else take it early. upgraded lings against stalkers is fun. Early void rays can
be annoying to expand against but if you plan ahead with an extra queen or two connecting your
your natural and third it should be easy to hold it. If you even think they are doing anything
more than one void ray, build a spore and walk it over there so you can plant it as soon as the
the hatch finishes or your creep gets there, whichever comes first.
What if they go dts and I wasn't ready for it?
- 4 emergency manually detonated banelings per dt is better than losing the game.
Strengths
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This is an extremely focused strategy where each upgrade works together cohesively with the rest of your gas investments. This focus opens up more opportunities for droning harder, and in turn exponential gains on your way to the late game. Hydra drops compliment this style well, whether he is going colossus or not. Having a strong baneling foundation allows for two amazing units, hydra and infestor, to be added without a huge "what-if-he-transitions-to-x?" risk. I'd like to emphasize the fact that you get comfort at tier 2 without any huge rush to get to tier 3. A very natural and focused tech progression with a clear plan leads to confidence and smoothness in your play and should not be understated.
Weaknesses
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Strong tactical play from the protoss is the biggest weakness. Any experienced protoss will be picking off overlords filled with banelings by using blink stalkers or anything else that shoots up. You can help with this by prioritizing sentries with fungal growth and a follow up drop on them. Once they are removed you no longer need to haul banes in overlords. Archons are sexy as hell against ling/baneling. This is balanced out by them being a prime target for NP. High temps are obviously a great choice against this, even just feedback is huge for increasing the potency of the toss army by taking away any advantages infestors give. Immortals are strong if you can avoid having them get surrounded by zerglings. Finally, you are vulnerable to sentry based attacks before drops come in to play, which is why it is critical to have drops done around the time a typical 6 gate timing hits. I will take playing with these weaknesses over supply hogs like roach/corruptor.
Comparison with roach/hydra and a Code-S case study
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JulyZerg is fucking awesome. If you watch his game against MC:
http://www.gomtv.net/2011gslsponsors2/vod/61321
He played a strategy brilliantly. He maxed out fast against a stalker/sentry/col army with roach/hydra/corruptor/banelings in overlords. That is a sick composition, but he got absolutely and utterly destroyed. Why? I think it's for a several reasons. Let's go with the obvious fact that MC is amazing. His micro was flawless, expansion timing was godly, and his transition to HT was completely smooth. What could July have done? How could he have balanced his roach/corruptor/hydra composition so that he had a chance to even approach MC's army? Would he have done better to just not do banelings at all? Maybe, but my answer to this question is, I don't think there is really any possible way he could have balanced that better other than the fact he overproduced corruptors. But what would he make instead, more roaches? Sure he sloppily attack moved after his baneling drops got managed, but the game was over before that happened, and July knew it.
I think a better question to ask is, what is wrong with his composition and what could be changed? Roaches and corruptors are supply hogs. Overproducing corruptors allows you to get a litttle bit suicidal on colossus to open up attack potential. Even after the colossus go down, sentries still stand. Roach/hydra isn't that good against stalker/sentry, especially when you have overproduced corruptors and are playing against a 3-4 base toss that is already transitioning in to high temps to make your hydras useless. July knows this so he gets baneling drops, the idea being that if he can get rid of the sentries his roach/hydra can actually attack. MC, being a step ahead made it impossible for july to get rid of sentries by keeping them back, and keeping overlords at bay with blink stalkers. Now July has killed the colossus sure, but he is left with a mostly useless roach army that gets dominated by forcefields, and a wasted investment of banelings and overlord drops.
At the core of this scenario is one driving theme: the roaches keep you alive and allow you to max out, but your chances of attacking are absolutely nil with sentries in play. Your anti sentry plan got anti-anti-sentried so you're now stuck with 80-100 supply of useless roaches, no hive tech, and shitty upgrades.
July's strategy, and in my opinion the current zerg approach lacks focus. There is no smooth hive transition because you spend all money(and supply) on corruptors. Against a player like MC, shit gets real before you have a chance to safely get to hive/brood lords. There isn't enough gas to go around for hive, 3-3 upgrades(let alone 2-2), corruptor upgrades, greater spire, banelings, and overlord drops. The composition is spread way too thin to have any chance at a reasonable time.
Think about this: The entire point of going roaches is they are great defensively against gateway based attacks, and alternatives like ling/muta absolutely suck balls in this matchup. The transition to corruptor is pretty smooth as well once colossus are made in response. Roaches are simply not an effective core unit against protoss in the late game. I firmly believe they become obsolete against any 3+ base protoss. Starting with ling/baneling drops circumvents this need for roaches, and allows real chances for guaranteed sentry removal with fungal growth and banelings. Even if you can't attack, you can safely expand and naturally make your way to 3/5 ultras which decimate stalker/col/sentry/temp. I don't know what a player like MC would do against this defensive baneling drop in to infestor+hydra style, but I can almost guarantee it will look completely different than stalker/sentry/col.
http://www.gomtv.net/2011gslsponsors2/vod/61321
He played a strategy brilliantly. He maxed out fast against a stalker/sentry/col army with roach/hydra/corruptor/banelings in overlords. That is a sick composition, but he got absolutely and utterly destroyed. Why? I think it's for a several reasons. Let's go with the obvious fact that MC is amazing. His micro was flawless, expansion timing was godly, and his transition to HT was completely smooth. What could July have done? How could he have balanced his roach/corruptor/hydra composition so that he had a chance to even approach MC's army? Would he have done better to just not do banelings at all? Maybe, but my answer to this question is, I don't think there is really any possible way he could have balanced that better other than the fact he overproduced corruptors. But what would he make instead, more roaches? Sure he sloppily attack moved after his baneling drops got managed, but the game was over before that happened, and July knew it.
I think a better question to ask is, what is wrong with his composition and what could be changed? Roaches and corruptors are supply hogs. Overproducing corruptors allows you to get a litttle bit suicidal on colossus to open up attack potential. Even after the colossus go down, sentries still stand. Roach/hydra isn't that good against stalker/sentry, especially when you have overproduced corruptors and are playing against a 3-4 base toss that is already transitioning in to high temps to make your hydras useless. July knows this so he gets baneling drops, the idea being that if he can get rid of the sentries his roach/hydra can actually attack. MC, being a step ahead made it impossible for july to get rid of sentries by keeping them back, and keeping overlords at bay with blink stalkers. Now July has killed the colossus sure, but he is left with a mostly useless roach army that gets dominated by forcefields, and a wasted investment of banelings and overlord drops.
At the core of this scenario is one driving theme: the roaches keep you alive and allow you to max out, but your chances of attacking are absolutely nil with sentries in play. Your anti sentry plan got anti-anti-sentried so you're now stuck with 80-100 supply of useless roaches, no hive tech, and shitty upgrades.
July's strategy, and in my opinion the current zerg approach lacks focus. There is no smooth hive transition because you spend all money(and supply) on corruptors. Against a player like MC, shit gets real before you have a chance to safely get to hive/brood lords. There isn't enough gas to go around for hive, 3-3 upgrades(let alone 2-2), corruptor upgrades, greater spire, banelings, and overlord drops. The composition is spread way too thin to have any chance at a reasonable time.
Think about this: The entire point of going roaches is they are great defensively against gateway based attacks, and alternatives like ling/muta absolutely suck balls in this matchup. The transition to corruptor is pretty smooth as well once colossus are made in response. Roaches are simply not an effective core unit against protoss in the late game. I firmly believe they become obsolete against any 3+ base protoss. Starting with ling/baneling drops circumvents this need for roaches, and allows real chances for guaranteed sentry removal with fungal growth and banelings. Even if you can't attack, you can safely expand and naturally make your way to 3/5 ultras which decimate stalker/col/sentry/temp. I don't know what a player like MC would do against this defensive baneling drop in to infestor+hydra style, but I can almost guarantee it will look completely different than stalker/sentry/col.
Muta/Ling Is Terrible
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I'm going to go out on a limb here and say muta/ling is terrible against toss and should not be bothered with. The reason being you are critically vulnerable to forcefield pressure before your spire is up, and even after that, gshield is so good, as are phoenix transitions. Great harrasment combo for sure, but you eventually need to kill the death ball to win. I think some kind of ling/muta/corruptor combo has promise against phoenix/void/col, but un-upgraded muta/corruptor are too quick to become useless after a complete non-colossus transition to ground. For it to be useful there would have to be a well thought out path to broodlord and I don't see that happening while getting upgrades for both air and ground. It's possible, but not focused. As an example of a pretty good player falling in to this trap, watch + Show Spoiler +
Conclusion
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Check out the replays for a basic idea of what you can get away with, and where there is room for improvement. There are like 10 games in that rep pack, but to make it easier I plan to edit this post later with replays that demonstrate all the key points against toss that I feel are stronger. I will also comment a couple of losses of mine that showcase mistakes I've made that are completely avoidable, such as overdroning, approaching a death ball the wrong way, impatient attacks, and trying to force a win and losing an advantage.