[G] Zerg versus Protoss: Aiurs Armageddon

Regular Four gate



This is the most common kind of Four gate rush there is. It is not as all in as the previous and with a reasonable damage done and a well timed expansion, the Protoss can transition out of it relatively well. Never the less, it does hurt his standard play because midgame tech like the blink, robotics facility or stargate are all delayed.

This variation of the build has more than one gas geyser, but it has a few more probes. It doesn't save up as much Chronoboost as the Zealot Stalker 4 gate. The biggest call whether or not he will one base you is the expansion timing. If he isn't going for an expansion around the 6:30 to 6:45 mark, he will most likely go for a one base all in.

Now this is the best place to train your gasematics. As I said earlier, one gas gives you 120 per ingame minute. Four gateways allow the Protoss to build waves of four units at a time, with different build times and gas costs. In our 12 gate-15 assimilator example where the Cybernetics core finishes around 3:41, we can make a little table of how much gas the Protoss has when the warp gate research finishes in terms of Chronoboost usage.

If one Chronoboost is used, the Protoss will have mined for 2 and a half minutes which gives him 340 gas when the warp gate is finished. If he has made a Sentry during that time he will have 240 gas to his disposal and with a Stalker they will have 290. That means with their first wave of warp ins they can make all Stalkers.

If two Chronoboosts are used, the Protoss will have roughly 320 gas to spend, so that gives the Protoss the same abilities warp in wise. They can warp in a Sentry earlier and still have enough for one huge wave of Stalkers at the start. At four Chronoboosts though, 280 gas is mined. Which means that at the first warp in can only be three Stalkers and a Zealot if he has gotten a Sentry beforehand. An extra Stalker will give the Protoss a regular full Stalker warp in. With a full round of Zealots warped in first, the Protoss saves the 300 gas for future warp ins, which means the Protoss can warp in two round of Stalkers behind eachother.

Looking at the build times, the regular unchronoboosted Zealot builds in 28 ingame seconds. The Sentries and Stalkers have the same build time at 32. That way we can take every half minute as a benchmark for warp ins. If we notice a faster warp in we know he is chronoboosting, if we notice a slower warp in, we know he SUCKS at warp ins . The other big weakness to a Four gate rush is that the Protoss cannot sustain constant production from it if he does good warp ins, so the warp ins will continiue to be further apart and the reinforcements will weaken in numbers.

Every 30 seconds, a one gas Protoss will mine 60 gas. So with every warp in they can only build Zealots and perhaps one Stalker. If he has two gasses up, he mines 120 gas with every 30 second. This means that if you notice two warp ins, both with two Stalkers or one Sentry warped in, you can safely say that he is on two gas.

Stopping a Protoss Four gate attack is hard for a new Zerg, but it will get gradually easier when your injections get more well timed. You have some leaway of tech in this four gate because it doesn't come so quick nor is it so all in that the Protoss feels urged to attack right away. This way you can get out an evolution chamber and get the +1 Melee upgrade. It will not finish the second the attack starts, but over time you can delay the Protoss advancement and get your 20% stronger Zerglings up to crush the attack. You can also drone up to around 25 or 26.

Now that we can calculate the amount of units and what kind of units he can warp in, we know what to expect from the Protoss. You know that the Protoss cannot warp in a full round of Stalkers unless he sucks at constant warping in. You know he cannot possibly warp in two Sentries in a later warp in on one base. So now we'll look at our defensive arsenal; Queens, Spine crawlers and Zerglings.

As I said before, Spine crawlers take a lot of hits from a Zealot at 21. It takes 25 shots from a Stalker and Sentries really don't do any damage at 4 damage every ingame second. These guys can take a lot of shots, and not only that, they deal a lot of damage too. It kills a Sentry in 4 whacks and Stalkers and Zealots in 6. Queens also take a lot of beating so these two options give you a great defensive entrenchment. Zerglings are great for defense as they are fairly cheap and gateway units can't attack multiple targets at once. Double spawn larva on two hatcheries gives you an extra 16 larvae per one and a half minute. That means with ever 3 minutes you can make 64 Zerglings with just the Spawn larva abilities. The regular larva spawned from hatcheries give you 8 larva every minute with two hatcheries every ingame minute. That's another 16 lings.

This huge surge of units makes Zerglings, Spine crawlers and Queens the best way to respond to a Four gate rush. If you make the Zerglings just before the first warp in of the Protoss, you can have an overwhelming force that can surround the warp ins. With these early Zerglings you should take the Xel'Naga towers and scout for hidden back doors with Zerglings for proxy pylons and probes. Taking out the probe or the pylon will delay the whole rush by a lot and give you a lot of time to get the Spine crawlers up. You should always have the Zerglings out on the map scouting for the reinforcement pylon to put pressure back onto the Protoss in a small way.

Three Spine crawlers will stop the Protoss from advancing into your natural for a long long time, especially when a large body of Zerglings is on the map. This delay will give you the time needed to get the upgrade or roaches out. With good injections and macro, you will overwhelm him easily and delay his expansion with this large mass of Zerglings and thus win the game.