EPTHow to use Baneling Landmines Efficiently & Effectively
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/2XNW0.png)
Hey TL! For my 2000th post, I'd like to make my first real contribution to the community with a guide. This guide will be focused on a tactic that most people agree is excellent, yet most Zergs do not incorporate into their play. I'm talking, of course, about Baneling Landmines.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/dtJHU.png)
Bang.
Introduction to Baneling Landmines
What are they?
For those who don't already know, a Baneling Landmine is when a Zerg player burrows a Baneling, then detonates it when enemy units are on top of it using the Explode key (usually x).
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/b6k8W.jpg)
When should I use them?
Baneling Landmines are very situational. They must be employed much more conservatively and much more strategically when your enemy has an Observer, Overseer, or Raven. They should only be used against compositions which involve large numbers of Light units, such as Marines, Hellions, Sentries, High Templar, Zerglings, or Hydralisks. For these reasons, they are most commonly used in Zerg vs Terran against compositions which involve large amounts of Marines, since Zergs and Protosses will often keep an Overseer or Observer with their army. Their use in this situation will take up the majority of this guide. Baneling Landmines are most effective on large maps (such as Tal'Darim Altar) and maps with many chokes/obstacles (such as Crossfire)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/vC7pG.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Otdlg.jpg)
Making your Landmines effective
Positioning
Proper positioning of Landmines makes a huge difference in determining whether you get a hit or a miss with your mines. While proper placement does not guarantee a hit, it drastically increases your chances of getting one.
i. Basics - Hugging and Pathing
To understand proper placement, you also need to understand how the pathfinding in Starcraft 2 functions. It's very simple - units will always take the shortest path to their destination, and will hug walls and corners along the way to maximize their efficiency. What this means is that you should place your Landmines along those walls and corners on the path that you expect your opponent to take.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/o30tE.jpg)
An example of poor placement
The image above shows where someone might place their Banelings in an attempt to get a good hit when a group of units. Their thinking might have been that the middle of the corridor was the most likely place for units to pass over - while it's wrong, I see this kind of thinking happen often. This placement defends nothing - the only time it would get a hit is if Terran is moving erratically or perhaps if Terran is attacking Zerg's third base or the 6 o'clock island, but if the third base were up there would likely be creep nearby and thus Terran would scan anyways to kill it off.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/TrXaA.jpg)
Much better.
This new placement is nearly guaranteed to have a group of units walk over it at some point in the game, unless your opponent scans it or decides to take the long route.
Let's look at another scenario:
ii. Placement in Open Areas
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Cross Positions on Shattered Temple - not hugging the obstacle?!
This positioning breaks the rule mentioned above, which states that your Landmines should be placed hugging obstacles and walls along the path your opponent is most likely to take. While this position is not perfect, as it's possible for a player with no idea of the mines' presence to travel along a normal path and miss the mines completely. However, the mines defend both the path between your and his natural as well as the path between his natural and the right side of the Gold. While the area looks very open, his optimal paths are actually quite limited.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/hmYYW.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/asaXj.jpg)
As you can see, there's really not that much room around them
To get around these, a player would need to manually curve their units (units won't do this naturally because it isn't the shortest path) around the Banelings, which is very unlikely, or would need to beeline to the far right side of the map (and they're pretty close to the banelings when doing this, as well), but there would be no reason for them to do this unless you have a base on the far right. Figuring out the placement here is a little trickier than the Scrap Station example because you have to consider the intersection of multiple possible paths, but it can still be done.
Finally, lets take a look at positioning multiple sets of mines:
iii. Spacing
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/9C6Rm.jpg)
They're all in good places on optimal paths, but there's something wrong:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KTfnJ.jpg)
One scan can detect them all
Landmines should be placed in such a way that one scan can only ever detect one pair of Banelings - 270 minerals for 100 minerals and 50 gas of Banelings isn't a very good trade for Terran, but 200 minerals and 100 gas definitely is. You can still cover those paths, but you should space out your Landmines. Here's an example of better placement:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/OoDGe.jpg)
Covers the path to your third
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/YANm2.jpg)
Covers the right-side path to the area in front of your natural
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/q6Rc7.jpg)
Covers the left-side path to the area in front of your natural
All of these mines are spread out in such a way that no single scan can detect more than one pair, and they can cover the same paths as the previous setup. If there is enough room, you can set up multiple Banelings along the same path to force more scans out of Terran or get a hit after Terran clears out one set of mines and thinks it's safe to move ahead. This is why Landmines are more effective on large maps.
As a rule of thumb, a scan covers an area a couple spaces larger than the diameter of a creep tumor's spread:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/uvXxu.jpg)
P.S The scan is not to the left of the tumor as it may appear - the animation is higher than ground level
However, you cannot always predict enemy movement patterns: in those situations, you should employ a tactic called Luring:
Luring
Luring is when you use a unit (or a group of units) as bait in order to get a group of enemy units to walk over your landmines. This tactic is important in situations where predicting enemy movement is difficult or impossible, or if your Banelings are placed in areas which are off the enemy's optimal path. Your enemy should see the bait as a free kill, unaware of the danger he's put his units into. Lures also give you vision around your mines, which helps when it comes to detonating them at a good time.
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Pretty much the same idea
Here are some examples of effective lures:
i. Overlords
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gT1K9.jpg)
Overlords are my personal favourite when it comes to lures. They're cheap, they give you vision, they alert you automatically to the presence of the enemy and they run away automatically. Since they float away automatically, enemy units follow them directly on top of the Landmines and you have a good amount of forewarning so that you can react and detonate in time - I'll generally put an Overlord around every mine I place just for the added vision.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/UnjC1.jpg)
Overlord runs away, Marines give chase...
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/CwVOR.jpg)
Result
ii. Zerglings
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/wIhQy.jpg)
A flock of zerglings is something you'll almost always have in ZvT (in other matchups, Roaches with speed can work too), and you can use off a small chunk of these Zerglings to lead your opponent into a set of mines. In order to keep your opponent on your tail, you should poke at his army with your lings, but never overcommit - dance in front of him, and waggle your chunk of units like a carrot in front of a rabbit, leading his army exactly where you want it. If he doesn't bite, no big deal - just regroup with the rest of your army and play as usual.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zW5A2.jpg)
Attack...
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/WJi0D.jpg)
Retreat...
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/jKPLa.jpg)
iii. Mutalisks
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/b92qJ.jpg)
Mutalisks are a great lure, simply because they're fast, so they can get away almost unscathed, but expensive, fragile and annoying, so the enemy really, really wants them dead and will likely chase them in an attempt to get a kill. Same technique for Zerglings applies to Mutalisks - stay close enough to keep their attention, but far enough to not take too much damage, and you can lead your opponents units into your trap.
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/3dqKA.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zNSEY.jpg)
At this point I'm just throwing the detonations in because they're awesome
The next two lures are expensive and will probably die for the mine hit, so you might want supporting units (such as zerglings) hidden nearby to clean up after the explosion and increase the bait's chance of survival.
iv. Infestors
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/gfyPa.jpg)
Infestors work because they're expensive, and thus they're a juicy target. However, they're slow and fragile, so you should be careful to react and run them away from the enemy units in time. Also, you should use drained Infestors - an Infestor with energy will probably scare the enemy away, not lure him towards your mines. Make sure you place your Infestor on top or a little bit behind your landmines so that you have a chance to escape, and consider having extra hidden units nearby to clean up any surviving enemy units as well as potentially save the Infestor.
v. Brood Lords
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/1xnk4.jpg)
Brood Lords are very similar to Infestors - they're expensive and slow. Place them behind your Banelings, because there's no way a Brood Lord can escape any enemy units, but try to also attract the enemy's attention to them however you can. If someone sees a lonely Brood Lord, they'll almost certainly try and pick it off. Also, consider keeping hidden units nearby to clean up and protect, same as with the Infestor.
Miscellaneous Stuff (Odds and Ends)
Opponent has detection?
When your opponent has a Raven, Overseer, or Observer, you can still use Baneling landmines, but they're much more situational and you need to use them differently. You need to split up your opponents army, so that one half does not have detection and can still fall victim to the mines. Multi-pronged attacks or harassment are good ways of doing this.
Also, placing Banelings in the minerals lines of expansions you think your opponent is going to take, then detonating them once the mineral line is saturated can work if your opponent doesn't check them for burrowed units - however, if your opponent builds Cannons, or Turrets+Planetary Fortresses, or Spine+Spore crawlers (as players often do) at those bases and they complete before the base is saturated, your Landmines can end up doing nothing. However, the risk is miniscule compared to the potential reward.
How many Banelings to a set?
A set of mines should be the minimum amount of Banelings you need to kill a group of the unit type you're targeting. Any more than that, and your landmines cost more for no real reason.
Unburrow vs Explode?
Explode. Timing is extremely important when it comes to detonation, and unburrowing imposes a delay on that timing. Auto-Unburrow shouldn't be used for the same reason, unless your map awareness and multitasking is honestly that bad. Also, you want to detonate in the middle of the enemy units, but Auto-Unburrow means your Banelings will detonate on the outside of the enemy's group.
Incorporating them into a strategy?
Burrowed Banelings are great because like DT's, they give you map control against someone without detection - any Terran player who wants to move outside his base needs to save scans to do so, or he runs the risk of losing all his Marines. You might be able to incorporate them into your play by taking a faster 3rd behind the landmines, although you would need to be aware of his Orbital Commands' energy and whether or not he has a Raven - I'll try this out and get back to you.
Why don't more people use them?
They're not necessary to win, and they don't solve any problems. They're not a solid play - they're a risk, they won't always work. However, the risk is tiny (only a few minerals and gas), and the reward can sometimes be winning the game. For this reason, most players agree that Zergs should use them more often.
Coming Soon...
- After Season 3 starts, I'll start making placement guides for all the maps in the pool.
- Things you suggest!
Thanks to Whole for helping me with the image grabs and for the tips, thank you for reading my guide!
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