Zerg Tips - SC2

[Hardcore]

I don't know how many people we have here that actually play Zerg as a main race- but even if you don't, i'd love to hear some tips on builds and counters for other races!

[aeria.]

Invest more, attack less.

It works.

[Hardcore]

Zerg has all but no defense tho, you have to be offensive as a means of defense.

[Festus]

 Ok Hard Core here are the basics of the Zerg.

1 Expand! Expand! Expand!
Zerg are the earliest expanders in the game since we need the economy to support are numbers. and always remember to throw down some spine crawlers to defend.

2. Zerg Rush!
Zerg also spawn in large numbers and get their basic attack unit the earliest, so as soon as you have two hundred minerals make a spawning pool and apply pressure with Zerg lings.

3. Control the Map
Zerg players should always control the map and scout regularely stopping the enemy from expanding so we can bleed them out and make strong pushes with our large numbers.

4. Spread your Creep
Creep heals zerg units, allows faster movement reveals the fog of war and stops enemies from building.
 
Zerg Builds and tatics.

1. speedling rush
as your building your spawning you should have Drones working on gas so that you can buy the speed upgrade for zerglings alowing them to move extremly faster easily swarming enemies.

2 Hydralisk and Roach build
As soon as you start building a roach warren upgrade to a lair and build a Hydralisk Den. These two units work extremly well together as the roaches take a lot of the hits that would destroy a Hydralisk, while the hydralisk has a amazing support attack and shoots down pesky medivacs.

3. Mutalisk rush
If you can try to harass opponets economy with mutaliscs and they work well against protoss players this does require at least two early expansions and you will be a little underguarded but if you manage everything properly it will work great but always build a support unit.

Watch out for Mass Marines, Mass thors, and Banshee rushes.
   
   
  This is what I usually do and it works.
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Invest more, attack less.

It works.

Zerg should always apply pressure to the opponet and bleed their economy by stopping expansions otherwise you will be over run.

[Blade]

Alright, alright, alright. An SC2 thread. This is legit.

ZvT:

14 expo w/ a 14 or 16 spawning pool. Get a gas @ 16. Get speed if you think their going hellions, if not tech to roach if you want to go roach hydra (not what I do), or just get speed then tech to lair. By the time lair pops, you should have 4 gases up, throw down a spire. By the time spire pops go for mutas, and throw down a bainling nest. Harrass T's mineral lines with mutas, this will take some micro. Transition into bainlings. If things work out, this could be GG with some bainling pushes, if not, tech to ultras or infestors (your choice), and then finish them with that.

ZvP: if you scout the P and see no gate @ 10, go for 14 expo. Pool @ 14, gas @ 16. Get roaches. Tech to hydras quickly - you need some coming or some out by 7:00 mark if you scout the protoss has 4 gateways. If he does expect a push @ 7:30. You'll need hydra/roach and spinecrawlers to survive normally. If you survive, great he was all in off one base, take an easy 3rd and macro up for the GG, if their is no push and he went 3gate expect harass that you wanna defend. Expect some sort of attack around 6:00-8:00, if he doesn't get an army but macro like crazy and take a 3rd, but make sure to scout. Anyway, after 8, he'll be going collosi/stalker/sentry (most likely) hydra/roach aint bad, throw in mutas or ultras and you'll be ok if you out macro him. Don't let him get to 200/200 a 200/200 protoss army slaughters a 200/200 zerg army. Trade units constantly. Harass his nat and 3rd with lings.

ZvZ: I'm not even going to try to explain this one, it's such a dice roll. It's a balance between rushing for roaches/mutas but having enough stuff to D a bainling push.

I main 'toss so I know the most about ZvP, feel free to ask for more info about that. I'm pretty knowledgeable in SC2, my mechanics fail though. But yeah, Zerg is basically get as many bases as is safe, and get as few attacking non drones as you can, and of course keep up on larva inject and creep etc. Watch Idra, TLO, machine, Ret, and Korean Zerg replays.

[Festus]

 Hey guys my player id is 170 so add me and lets have some matches.

[vf501]

Blade has the right idea.

You can also try a 6 pool for early aggro, but 14 pool 15 HatchFastExpo wins games more often at higher levels.
Banelings+Muta mix can dominate Terran Bio/Mech builds
Overlords+Sacs&Speed+Banelings= Bombers

Go gas at 10, put 2 drones on, drop Pool at 14, then once its done you can get Zergling speed started instantly.

Against Terran you also want to scout if they have a Factory, that means they are getting 1-4 Hellions to harass your workers, if you see one, drop 2 Spine Crawlers in defensible spots and keep 1 queen and 8 lings around.  Then send 6-8 more lings to harass their mineral line.

@Festus.  The MassMassMass units only works at Bronze-Silver levels.  Go watch some Pro games, they show you how to defend early pushes and macro up to gain the advantage.  At high levels of play, every movement and choice matters.  Choosing when to expo or push can make or break a player, same for the area of conflict.

One game I saw, the Zerg player had the macro advantage and total map control.  The terran player won because he used the wide open zerg territory to his advantage.  He triple dropped units into 3 zerg expos and gave the zerg player too much to handle at once.  Then he moved from the outward in to the center of the map, massed all 3 groups and pushed onto the main.  All the while keeping up the pressure with small drops here and there.

Drone up, Drone hard, Drone fast. Expand fast and don't leave idle workers.  You're whole game is to macro up your economy so you can keep reinforcing as you lose units.

[Festus]

 

Blade has the right idea.

You can also try a 6 pool for early aggro, but 14 pool 15 HatchFastExpo wins games more often at higher levels.
Banelings+Muta mix can dominate Terran Bio/Mech builds
Overlords+Sacs&Speed+Banelings= Bombers

Go gas at 10, put 2 drones on, drop Pool at 14, then once its done you can get Zergling speed started instantly.

Against Terran you also want to scout if they have a Factory, that means they are getting 1-4 Hellions to harass your workers, if you see one, drop 2 Spine Crawlers in defensible spots and keep 1 queen and 8 lings around.  Then send 6-8 more lings to harass their mineral line.

@Festus.  The MassMassMass units only works at Bronze-Silver levels.  Go watch some Pro games, they show you how to defend early pushes and macro up to gain the advantage.  At high levels of play, every movement and choice matters.  Choosing when to expo or push can make or break a player, same for the area of conflict.

One game I saw, the Zerg player had the macro advantage and total map control.  The terran player won because he used the wide open zerg territory to his advantage.  He triple dropped units into 3 zerg expos and gave the zerg player too much to handle at once.  Then he moved from the outward in to the center of the map, massed all 3 groups and pushed onto the main.  All the while keeping up the pressure with small drops here and there.

Drone up, Drone hard, Drone fast. Expand fast and don't leave idle workers.  You're whole game is to macro up your economy so you can keep reinforcing as you lose units.

I've never avtually tried to use overlords as bombers, but seems like a fun concept  . Do you guys find that in late game that mass Thors dominate Zerg? I mean zerglings which is there mass weakness can't get a surrond on a large group, mutalisks take splash damage and the only way you can stop that is by a magic box but you still need a high thor to mutalisk ratio, and hydras and roaches are blown away. So how do you combat that?

[vf501]

If they can mass Thors it means one of two things.  They are not getting other types of units leaving the Thors vulnerable, or you're doing it wrong.

Against Thors, just go for a zergling surround and follow up with Banelings rolling in via Centrifugal Hooks upgrade.  Alternatively push some Infestors in, drop a few fungal growths and pop off a ton of infested terrans, then back out your Infestors quickly.  Fully upgraded Ultralisks can also go toe to toe with Thors.  Trick is to focus down each Thor without committing too man units to each kill.

Infestors are really, really good.  More so when combined with a ton of Roaches and Banelings.

[Blade]

Ultras, lings, and infestors if your feeling like a boss work v thors. Thors are also slow, so use mutas to harass min lines. But yeah, they should not be getting to "mass" thors. If they are, you're not harassing enough.

[Festus]

 What do you guys usually do against a turtiling Terran

[Blade]

Expand a lot while slowly teching to broodlord.

[Festus]

 Should i attempt to stop him from  expanding or turtle my self and harass with mutas

[Blade]

Hes not really turtling if he's expanding past his nat....

[Festus]

 No i mean should i attempt to stop his natural expansion and then just wait him out