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[G]Nerchio +1 Roach Speedling Expand ZvZ

Forum Index > StarCraft 2 Strategy
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DeltruS
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada2214 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-06-02 23:04:33
May 31 2011 22:48 GMT
#1
Nerchio +1 Roach Speedling Style ZvZ
Replay can be found here:
http://www.esl.eu/eu/sc2/dailymotion/playoffs/download/25462676/
[image loading]
_______________________________________________________________________________


BO

14 Pool and rally the 14th drone to the enemy base to scout.
15 Gas (drones on gas asap)
15 Overlord
15 Four lings and queen as soon as pool finishes. Send lings to scout.
19 Roach warren
19 Overlord
21 Four roaches
31 Expo (pump drones and roaches at your discretion at this point)
30 Overlord
35 Evo chamber
~38 Queen at main and transfer old queen to expo
~40 Missile attacks level 1
Transfer excess drones at hatchery completion
~43 Get a second gas gyser (put only 1 drones on it, more if needed)
~46 Metabolic boost


EDIT: Nerchio himself has stated his opinions on the style in the comments below.

From here on, get a decent saturation at your expo. A Destiny style +1 roach ling all-in is very easy to do at this point. Larva production is very high, so the 35 lings in the screenshot could have easily been a large amount of drones. The build transitions easily into standard 2 base infestor roach.

From what I can see, this build is safe to EVERYTHING in the zerg verses zerg match-up and is very easy to do for lower level players. Any player below grandmasters should be able to safely outplay their opponent.

The Destiny style roach speedling all-in can be easily countered by getting a baneling nest around the time of the metabolic boost. One can tell the opponent is going for the Destiny build by seeing the spine crawler in the mineral line with the first four zerglings. While very similar to the Destiny roach ling all-in, this build has two gasses, has upgrades, and is slightly slower, improving economy.

This is my first of many guides that I plan to do. Many thanks to Nerchio!
http://grooveshark.com/#/deltrus/music
VoirDire
Profile Joined February 2009
Sweden1923 Posts
May 31 2011 22:55 GMT
#2
Nice! I hope this thread turns out better than the "[D] Zerg equivalent to a 4-Gate"-thread.

I think this is stronger than the destiny variation as the +1 roaches eat lings and almost nullifies a speedling counter, plus it's not as much of an all-in.

I'll quote my post from the other thread:
Nerchio did a similar (but a little later with a little more eco, 28 drones) build vs morrow in the Dailymotion Cup Grand Finals.

Nerchio opened 14p into 4 lings and he moved out at 8:43 with 12 roaches. When he arrived @9:25 he had 12 roaches with +1 attack and 20 speedlings, with an additional 1 roach and 12 lings reinforcing and another 12 lings just about to hatch.

It was a really nice timed attack with impeccable execution.

Here is the rep:
http://www.esl.eu/eu/sc2/dailymotion/playoffs/download/25462676/
VoirDire
Profile Joined February 2009
Sweden1923 Posts
May 31 2011 23:03 GMT
#3
Btw, this isn't a speedling expand. It is a semi all-in timing attack. It opens up roach expand, the ling speed is the last thing you build.
DeltruS
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada2214 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-05-31 23:21:27
May 31 2011 23:11 GMT
#4
On June 01 2011 08:03 VoirDire wrote:
Btw, this isn't a speedling expand. It is a semi all-in timing attack. It opens up roach expand, the ling speed is the last thing you build.


While it ended up all-in in the replay, speedlings and +1 roaches are very usefull in the mid to late game, and a player can easily drone up instead of going all-in. Even after going all-in, there is a great eco to back it up, so even masters players can back off and still have a ton of useful units.

If the enemy is going heavy ling baneling ---> all in.
If the opponent is going heavy eco ---> all in.
If the opponent is going roaches and has either 1 base or 2 bases with low saturation ---> drone up, get four gasses, get lair and +1 carapace. Roach pushes aren't a danger to this build, especially if one wants to be safe with a spine crawler.

I do somewhat agree that it isn't a speedling expand, and more of a style.
http://grooveshark.com/#/deltrus/music
VoirDire
Profile Joined February 2009
Sweden1923 Posts
May 31 2011 23:31 GMT
#5
On June 01 2011 08:11 DeltruS wrote:
Show nested quote +
On June 01 2011 08:03 VoirDire wrote:
Btw, this isn't a speedling expand. It is a semi all-in timing attack. It opens up roach expand, the ling speed is the last thing you build.


While it ended up all-in in the replay, speedlings and +1 roaches are very usefull in the mid to late game, and a player can easily drone up instead of going all-in.

If the enemy is going heavy ling baneling --> all in.
If the opponent is going heavy eco ---> all in.
If the opponent is going roaches and has either 1 base or 2 bases with low saturation ---> drone up, get four gasses, get lair and +1 carapace. Roach pushes aren't a danger to this build, especially if one wants to be safe with a spine crawler.

The build clearly builds up to that one timing attack from the start.

Notice how ling speed and +1 finishes just when he gets to the opponents base. Notice how he stops building drones after 28 and barely has enough money to sustain constant ling production. Notice how he has 3 roaches on his ramp all the time to deny scouting of the lings building up in his base.

As he didn't have speedlings, he couldn't even scout the defenses before the attack. He had no idea at all what his opponent was doing. The opponent might even have canceled his expand and gone for 1 base muta for all he know. He had to make that attack. It was borderline all in.
Griefer
Profile Joined December 2010
Australia171 Posts
May 31 2011 23:55 GMT
#6
He makes a good point, you're sacrificing all scouting info until lair tech. Plus a build that opens with roaches for defense completely sacrifices all forms off early aggression meaning your opponent can drone as hard (harder than you can) as he wants until you have enough units to stop him from destroying your nat. It then splits your forces and makes your initial timing push weak.
I honestly think you need to add banes to this build, otherwise you're relying on your opponent to not be confident with his micro and take the gentlemens agreement to build just roaches.
VoirDire
Profile Joined February 2009
Sweden1923 Posts
June 01 2011 00:00 GMT
#7
On June 01 2011 08:55 Griefer wrote:I honestly think you need to add banes to this build, otherwise you're relying on your opponent to not be confident with his micro and take the gentlemens agreement to build just roaches.

Roaches with +1 attack demolishes lings as they die of just 2 shots (instead of 3 shots with unupgraded roaches). Mass ling isn't that much of a problem.
DeltruS
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada2214 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-06-01 00:05:33
June 01 2011 00:01 GMT
#8
Hmm, so under weaknesses we can put fake expo into 1 base muta, and really good drone timing with a hatch first and speedlings. The drone timing would have to be really good to have a better eco and army if the user of this build decides to go all-in.

EDIT: Wouldn't 1 base muta just die to any type of roach ling timing even if the mutas pop before the roaches move out?
http://grooveshark.com/#/deltrus/music
VoirDire
Profile Joined February 2009
Sweden1923 Posts
June 01 2011 00:13 GMT
#9
1 base muta was just an extreme example of a zerg build I used to illustrate the point that he had no scouting information until he attacked.

Let's say instead that his opponent recognized the timing and had something like a few roaches, 5 spine crawlers and a couple of banelings in preparation for the attack. His timing would have been nullified and he would have been to far behind in eco to ever catch up in eco with that level of opponent.
DeltruS
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada2214 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-06-01 00:19:13
June 01 2011 00:15 GMT
#10
On June 01 2011 09:13 VoirDire wrote:
1 base muta was just an extreme example of a zerg build I used to illustrate the point that he had no scouting information until he attacked.

Let's say instead that his opponent recognized the timing and had something like a few roaches, 5 spine crawlers and a couple of banelings in preparation for the attack. His timing would have been nullified and he would have been to far behind in eco to ever catch up in eco with that level of opponent.


Couldn't he just back off and get a third while containing his opponent with a larger army? He could pump drones nonstop while this is happening. 5 spine crawlers is 500 minerals and 5 drones.
http://grooveshark.com/#/deltrus/music
VoirDire
Profile Joined February 2009
Sweden1923 Posts
June 01 2011 00:45 GMT
#11
To back off and work on a 3rd could work if the opponent has committed too much to static defenses. But he would still be at just 28 drones and have invested in 44 lings with limited attack power due to banelings. I feel that he would have a hard time defending a counter roach timing-attack from 2 saturated bases.

The 5 spines might or might not be overkill, but a properly prepared defender will always has the economic advantage due to faster reinforcements and the relative cost effectiveness of static defenses.
AustinCM
Profile Joined May 2011
Canada275 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-06-01 02:23:18
June 01 2011 02:15 GMT
#12
I have been facing this a lot lately and I can easily deal with it by making 2 extra drones after pool pops and pumpings lings and my first injects worth of lings and sending them out to deny his expo while already having mine on the way and there is nothing he can really ever do i drone behind it tech to roaches have an earlier 2nd hatch and more drones and just push out before his eco kicks in.

Btw i do 14g/14p and around 21 hatch
"Somewhere, Something incredible is waiting to be known." -Carl Sagan
Jermstuddog
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States2231 Posts
June 01 2011 03:12 GMT
#13
Variations of +1 Roach timings are showing up a lot on the ladder lately. It makes for some annoying early-mid play as your expansion sets you behind 350 minerals and the gas deficit of a FE vs 1 base play is quite significant.

You end up with a few too many drones and not enough time to make your money back before the timing attack comes.

Word to the wise would be to keep even on drones with a 1-base player (or as best you can guess), put down 2 or 3 spines in a position to protect both your nat and the ramp to your main, and wait for him to attack in to you while you wait for your expo to pay itself off.

This timing attack isn't a guaranteed win if you play it right on the other end, but it's easy to mess up, and even if you DO play it right, it's nullifying the benefits of having an earlier expo.
As it turns out, marines don't actually cost any money -Jinro
.Mthex-
Profile Joined May 2011
United States168 Posts
June 01 2011 03:23 GMT
#14
Good general use build, could see it having a lot of trouble against a speedling baneling expand simply because of the mobility and harassment, but overall nice solid opener.
"If you tricked him, then he is tricked" - Artosis
Steel
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Japan2283 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-06-01 03:32:37
June 01 2011 03:32 GMT
#15
How do you survive a 15 hatch into ling all-in, or simply a ling all-in?

I tried this build twice, and died twice to this.

When the all-in comes you are doing

21 Four roaches
31 Expo (pump drones and roaches at your discretion at this point)
30 Overlord
35 Evo chamber
~38 Queen at main and transfer old queen to expo


When your hatch pops you have 2 queens, 4 lings if they survived scouting and 4 roaches. Yes you can scout a 1 base all-in easily, but you can't vs 15 hatch, and with a 14 pool it's pretty much impossible to punish a 14 hatch nowadays unless there's a micro mistake. You don't have ling speed before him so you can't scout anything but worker saturation on most map, and I don't think that is sufficient to know you need to produce more roaches. Yes you can hold the ramp with 2 queens or 3 roaches, but you'll lose your expo guaranteed.

I'd love to do your build because I love roaches but now I just lost twice and ZvZ makes me rage. Please enlighten me.

Edit: Oh yeah, please tell me how to pull this off, but also how you modify this build for maps such as scrap station and taldarim altar. Thanks
Try another route paperboy.
DeltruS
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Canada2214 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-06-01 03:54:42
June 01 2011 03:51 GMT
#16
On June 01 2011 12:32 Steel wrote:
How do you survive a 15 hatch into ling all-in, or simply a ling all-in?

I tried this build twice, and died twice to this.

When the all-in comes you are doing

Show nested quote +
21 Four roaches
31 Expo (pump drones and roaches at your discretion at this point)
30 Overlord
35 Evo chamber
~38 Queen at main and transfer old queen to expo


When your hatch pops you have 2 queens, 4 lings if they survived scouting and 4 roaches. Yes you can scout a 1 base all-in easily, but you can't vs 15 hatch, and with a 14 pool it's pretty much impossible to punish a 14 hatch nowadays unless there's a micro mistake. You don't have ling speed before him so you can't scout anything but worker saturation on most map, and I don't think that is sufficient to know you need to produce more roaches. Yes you can hold the ramp with 2 queens or 3 roaches, but you'll lose your expo guaranteed.

I'd love to do your build because I love roaches but now I just lost twice and ZvZ makes me rage. Please enlighten me.

Edit: Oh yeah, please tell me how to pull this off, but also how you modify this build for maps such as scrap station and taldarim altar. Thanks


In the replay in the OP, MorroW had to get a fast roach warren or he would die to banelings if Nerchio decided to go them instead of roaches (he couldn't see the roach warren at that point). Overall, mass speedlings are usually somewhat of a gamble, or at least that is what IdrA constantly says.

I'l try to get more experience with ling all ins. I think that on 2 player maps, overlords should be enough to scout drone saturation and speedling amounts. The initial drone should be able to scout any fast gas for speedlings. Nerchio had 6 roaches at the time when MorroW chose to build drones instead of speedlings. Overlord scouting is really easy on scrap station, but on Tal'darim this build would be very hard to pull off. Speedling into roach would be much better for both maps.
http://grooveshark.com/#/deltrus/music
iNViCiOUZ
Profile Joined January 2011
Germany364 Posts
June 01 2011 08:40 GMT
#17
This is sure a solid opener vs early pressure
But you can't put any pressure to 14/15 hatch nor to a 21 speedilng expand.

On both you can just pump more roaches from a better eco.
Nerchio
Profile Joined October 2009
Poland2633 Posts
June 01 2011 09:27 GMT
#18
I don't think you can put this build order in a strict food count because the timings differ on what your opponent is doing(harass, ammount of units etc.). Some people say it's not so safe or it's easy to counter but from what i understood up to this point it's one of the safest builds in ZvZ(as safe as possible and at the same time with quite good economy - talking about expanding not the roach/ling attack @ about 9 mins).
We must also remember it's ZvZ so there will never probably be 100% safe build ever.
Progamer"I am the best" - Nerchio , 2017.
Kraelog
Profile Joined April 2010
Belgium194 Posts
Last Edited: 2011-06-01 10:42:02
June 01 2011 10:40 GMT
#19
I don't really like Roach expand on maps with a semi-open/open natural.

A speedling expand build can easily deny the expo for a significant amount of time which weakens the all-in alot. Also you have zero scouting and a counter attack (or just ling runby) is really easy since you delay meta boost that much.

P.S. your title says "Roach Speedling Expand" but you get your slings way after expo'ing.
Jermstuddog
Profile Blog Joined June 2010
United States2231 Posts
June 01 2011 14:52 GMT
#20
On June 01 2011 19:40 Kraelog wrote:
I don't really like Roach expand on maps with a semi-open/open natural.

A speedling expand build can easily deny the expo for a significant amount of time which weakens the all-in alot. Also you have zero scouting and a counter attack (or just ling runby) is really easy since you delay meta boost that much.

P.S. your title says "Roach Speedling Expand" but you get your slings way after expo'ing.


Having an open natural isn't really much of an issue with this build. The big deterrent is having a wide ramp to your main. On a map like Tal'Darim or Scrap Station, it just doesn't work because speedlings can runby and kill your drones.

On a map like Xel'Naga Caverns, it's not much of an issue because your Roaches can block the ramp while providing cover for your natural hatch.

In fact, if you continue to spend speedlings on denying my nat, I will just wait until I get a mass of roaches then go kill you.

That's where the strength of the build comes. Your opponent HAS to let you expand or he risks losing the game outright.
As it turns out, marines don't actually cost any money -Jinro
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