Alright, I won't dwell long on the situation. IdrA screams "imba" because he got pissed and a billion shrieks from a billion little zergs blot out the sound-space.
So I figured out a different way to play off two bases against Terran, and it's contrary to a lot of Zerg play that we've seen so far. Cept it works.
The Idea: Use T1 units/tech to play from two bases while securing a third. Very simple stuff, but has a lot of thought behind it.
The Logic: The Tier 2 options for Zerg are very nice, but they tend to have very little effect for the purposes they serve because they're so damn expensive.
If you try constructing a Hydra + X composition from two bases, the costs for the Hydra wind up cutting into your army heavily, and there are key periods where you're a squishy mess asking to be torn apart by a timing push.
If you go for Mutas, a reasonable Terran will see them coming from a mile away and have prepared air defenses, typically in the form of Thor. The 700/700 cost of going those first 7 mutas is never vindicated, because you can't harass efficiently with the 10-range bastard firing volleys at you. You can try to abuse the fact that 5 Mutas can take on a Thor, but chances are that it's marine or turret supported. It's a dead cost that returns nothing for it's point in the game.
Nydus is stupid for mid game. Just get drop.(Suppose I should elaborate. Basically, the costs of the Nydus worm don't make very much sense for that early in the game. It's like a surprise drop maybe. But from my experiences it works more like a cheese.) Annnnd Infestors don't exactly stand up to standard timing pushes.
Really though, the first three units you can make are the most effective against T en masse. Most combinations of Roach/Speedling/Baneling can kill a range of T pushes very efficiently. The other key to them is that they mass extremely well from 2 bases, allowing for aggression.
Aggression? But wait, what about air?
Here we kill two birds with one stone, and raise the Queen to the pedestal. Queens are nice for macro, but they're also nice for pushing and defending air. Typically with this approach, I'll build 2-3 queens extra for the pushing ability and transfuse.
The pushing ability is a thing of beauty. Creeping the map this quickly REALLY gives you map control, and allows roaches to work at expansion denial before speed upgrade hits. You can actually launch attacks at the natural if it's scantily defended with a baneling/roach combo. The roaches run the banelings in, basically. And with this deal, there's no way a T is going to grab their third when you've basically creeped it.
At the same time, Queens can actively work to defend against banshees and vikings, since your creep perimeter is large enough to not hinder their movements. Any pinpointed banshee attack can be defended by gathering some of the macro queens as well, and the invis isn't really that useful because you're getting the lair upgrade anyway. Just buckle down and defend, build spores if you really need to.
Three Bases: Here there's multiple USEFUL transitions to T2 tech, and they come at a very nice timing this time. Generally, you'll get your third up very quickly because there's less of a threat from ground pushes that you can see from a mile away. You can do roach burrow against mech pushes, baneling burrow against bio pushes, transition to 3-hatch muta or 3-hatch hydra, even add Infestors to your ground army. The possibilities are endless, and I haven't come near to exhausting them.
Basically Terrans would need a Raven to start pushing for real, and a not-shit-composition. HF crapping on people kiddies. I'll post reps as I play genius games that show off this approach's power. |
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