¥Zerg Continued¥

From my own personal experiences, I have found protoss players to be precision people. They like executing good control over their units. They also tend to follow build orders. And all protoss players, I mean every single one of them, absolutely hate hit and run/harrassment tactics before they are set-up in their unit production.

I cannot stress this enough, but zerg players must learn to keep the pressure on. This means getting in the Protoss' probes, attack buildings, run around, and be a general nuisance.

An effective way to do this is to get an earlier spawning pool, before your second hatchery, and send 6 zerglings his/her way. I would pool on 8 if I was intent on doing this, as protoss players are very slow early on, then explode into a state of readiness. Therefore this attack is only useful in the very early stages of a match. This means before cannons, before 2 zealots, before any assault unit whatsoever.

Ok I'm on the way to the Protoss base with my badass zergling assault force what do I do when I get there?

Situation 1: If he/she has a poor building placement, and you find that their gateways are powered by only one pylon, then by all means rip it down! If there are zero to one zealot, pursue this option. Gang up on the one zealot and then take the pylon. I will never forget the time I made that error and a zerg rusher took power from my gateways just as 2 zealots were about to pop out.

Situation 2: The gateways are safely powered, and there is one zealot to greet you. If you choose to take down the zealot, you are going to lose one zergling. For all their speed, zerglings are not very robust. Losing these 6 original lings is not an option. It is crucial that you keep them alive at all costs. A nice option here is to split your forces and do the following. Take one group of 3 and select 5 or so probes to attack for them. Do this by shift-queing the probes. Do not just tell the zerglings to sit in the probe line, this is wasteful and accomplishesnothing. With the 3 other zerglings, attack buildings, especially pylons. Try to get the zealots on a runaround game. If the zealot chases one group, send the other to the probes and so on. Once he/she has 2 zealots or is aggressively assaulting with his probes(there are more than 4 chasing your lings), then its time to withdraw. Keep in mind that you have hopefully killed some probes, and you have severely pissed them off.

Situation 3: There are 2 zealots waiting for you. Turn around and withdraw. Concentrate on something else. Consider expanding and change gears to hydras/lurkers.The key to this harassment is your ability to continue training drones, making that second hatchery, getting gas, and building your sunkens all the while controlling your units. In situations 1 or 2 the protoss will not be building anything except zealots in a desperate attempt to get you out. Keep in mind it takes 3 zerglings around 2 to 3 seconds to kill a probe. Also, killing 5 probes is considered a very successful attack. Between your 2 groups, you have to find 15 seconds of time in the probe line. When you think about it, its not that hard to do, the key is control.

Zerg Vs Zerg

After watching many top Korean players and X'Ds~Grrrr… I learned a great deal about how to play the Zerg vs. Zerg matchup better in Korea. With a quick glance of how far you are on the tech tree or a glance at your Zergling numbers they seem to have some sort of technique response that works. I have a list of several notes that might improve your Zerg vs. Zerg game:

General notes - Most of the top players went Overlord and then Pool and Extractor. As soon as they could afford Lair they upped it and plopped a second Hatchery soon afterwards. From here they play for air dominance or make a preemptive strike upgrading Zergling Leg Enhancements just before the Spire finishes to follow up with Scourges and Mutalisks.

X'Ds~Grrrr… - He makes his Second Hatchery and Spawning Pool before his first Overlord which he says is immune to early Pool and allows him to climb the tech tree very quickly.

GoodGameMan[sg] - While playing against Ssamjang, SsamJang started getting a Lair. Instead of matching the Lair, Good Game Man slapped down a 3rd Hatchery and researched Zergling Speed. Halfway when SsamJang's Spire was finished, GoodGameMan just bum rushed up SsamJang's ramp and overwhelmed him with Zerglings. Ssamjang's first Mutalisk popped out when his last Hatchery and his extractor was going down.

[B&G]TheBoy - He makes an early Spawning Pool and scouts early with a Drone. If he sees you Power, he'll Off-Sunken you and rush hard. Or else, he'll race to Mutalisks and play it from there. Some top players in Korea say that he's the best Korean Zerg vs. Zerg player.

Muzel[sg] - He races to Spire and makes getting air dominance a priority. He control groups is Hatcheries and pumps troops in the middle of his fighting.

Ssamjang[sg] - He played the power tech game and lost. 4 Pooled and won the next game.

Zerg Vs Zerg

(more tips)

If your opponent goes all hydra, then you go all hydra. There are a few variations that come with an all hydra strat. He may have gone 2hat lings => 2hat hydra (no expan). In this case, I suggest you do the same unless you feel confident with your #s of hydra (or you know gosu strategy 3) and you wish to expand. If you do not feel confident, just mass hydra and wait for him to make a move to determine the proper course of action (e.g., if he expands, then so should you because unless your hydras outnumber his 1.5+:1 then probably any attack on him will fail or be only marginally successful, because he will have battleground choice, thus an advantage... hydra v hydra wars usually involve very little micro and thus sheer numbers is the only way to counter his battleground selection advantage 4). Or alternatively, you could switch your strat to lurk/ling* which is very effective vs all hydra. In either case, upgrades are important. If you choose to go hydra upgrade attack, or if you choose to go lurk/ling* then get carapace.

The difference between your opponent going all hydra and hydra/ling is not much, but not negligible. It really depends on the proportion of hydras:lings to decide how to counter. However, your best bet is to stick with the strategy you are already doing. If you are going all hydra then perhaps you should just add 6-10 lings to your regiment to be safe. If you are going lurk/ling1 then you don't need to adapt at all, since you already counter lings. The reason I do not mention the possibility of you going all ling or mute/ling vs him is because I do not think that that is advisable; all ling and mute/ling do not fare well once your opponent has amassed 30+ hydra (I will, however, provide some insights in case you do decide to take one of these routes). Also, I do not mention the possibility of your opponent going hydra/ling/ensnare because in my experience, ensnare does not affect hydra significantly (although perhaps it does... I have not tested this out myself mathematically, however in my experience ensnare does not turn the tide of battle when used on hydra).

If your opponent go mute/ling (late expansion or no expansion), then you should go hydra/ling/ensnare. Always make sure to make your ensnare count. It essentially takes the mute/ling movement down to a crawl, and slows their attack rate greatly, thus diminishing the relative power of mute/ling to hydra (e.g., 24 hydra can take 30 lings and 12 mutes if the lings are ensnared well). [I'm astonished I did not include more detail on this strategy in my old strategy guide -- hydra/ling/ensnare vs mute/ling is my major accomplishment in sc]

In executing a good hydra/ling/ensnare vs mute/ling, you need to make 4-6 drones after your 2nd lord is morphed. If he is going really fast mutes or going straight lings with only 8-10 drones mining, then set up your den and ev chamber immediately after those 4-6 drones have hatched; sometimes an earlier den is required or skipping hydras temporarily to make lings. If you lose the cliff early on, its no big deal because you'll be forced back to your main anyway when mutes arrive, so don't sweat it (set up a sunk if he greatly outnumbers you). The purpose of defending from the cliff early is to take out as many of his lings with yours as possible, and to delay him so you have time to make hydra. Once he has mutes, then fall back to your main and just mass. At this point your opponent may switch to lurks 1, expand, or just mass themselves. I will address the last possibility first.

If your opponent is massing lings and mutes and not expanding, then you should continue to mass yourself. DO NOT EXPAND.This is committing suicide. One of the advantages of mute/ling is the ability to attack multiple fronts at once. If you expand and you have to defend there, mutes may overtake your main, and when you go to help defend your main, lings may run in and own your expansion. Meanwhile, the mutes with escape basically unscathed. This is true when you have less than 30 hydra. Once you have about 3 groups of hydra and ensnare, however, the tide turns. Ensnare just owns hands down. Also, the power of hydra increases rapidly with numbers. At this point, almost all mute/lingers have already expanded and you should go attack (if they expand really early, you should attack sooner...i.e., before amassing 30 hydra). Usually, he'll have a ling scout to know you're coming, and will make adequate preparations. Start sending 2-3 lords to his expansion (explained below). This is the time for you to expand yourself, and get some spores at main if you feel more comfortable that way. Also, send a drone out of your base to another mineral patch... not to scout or expand, but to make an extractor in case you have to (explained below).

There are a few different ways a mute/linger can defend from hydra/ling; mass sunks, burrowing lings, hiding lings in middle so that he attacks you from all sides when you attack, having his whole force in the middle waiting to ambush you, or lurks1. Before I mention the appropriate counters, I'd like to say that when you leave to attack your opponent, he may rush in with mutes to kill your main, or even with his whole force. If its just mutes and your hydra are far away, send the queen to ensnare the mutes, so that they cannot get back to their doomed home in reasonable time, and burrow your drones. You should not worry because mutes kill buildings VERY slowly. Your hydra should own his expansion and main faster than his mutes own yours, and just in case, you do have that extra gas chamber to keep you alive ^^. You should not really worry about his lings running into your base either because your recon should be good enough that you know whether or not that's his plan.

ANYWAY (jesus, there so many fuxing possibilities).... Against mass sunks (5+) I know the hard way that attacking is not a good idea if he has 12+ mutes. In this case, simply focus on your economy and perhaps get drop to drop him {can ya run that by me again?? get drop to drop him???}. Or, you can go mutes yourself once your expansion is running up. Against burrowed lings, you should not have a problem because of the 2-3 lords you sent to his expansion {or did you?}. Against your opponent hiding lings in middle, your recon should take care of. If you can split up his army and attack them one at a time, do it. Ditto with his army in the middle waiting to ambush you. Ensnare and own. If he has switched to lurks1, then you may have to switch strategies yourself. If he has only a few lurks, then continue as planned and attack his expansion (making sure to kill any stray lurks). If he has many lurks, defend at his choke and concentrate on economy 5. You are now officially in the shithole since he's ahead in economy and your only hope is to go mutes. If you manage to survive, then there are some eventualities you'll have to deal with that are beyond the scope of this guide. However, I may one day write up a "Long Game Gosu ZvZ guide", depending on how many of you upgrade from this freeware version of my Strategy Guide to the shareware version by sending $15 to 507 IAmADipshit Drive, SCisMYlife City, Korea. {does shareware include britney nude site PW's???}

I Don't think you'll remember, but there were 3 late-early game routes the mute/linger could've taken (for reference, switch to lurks 1, expand, amass forces). I covered the last one. Now I will cover the 2nd one, which Thank the Lord will NOT be longer than last posibility. However, I had to cover it in such exhaustive detail for those of you that really do care about becoming good at the game enough to read through that. Alrighty then. If a mute/linger expands very early then I believe you should consider going mute/ling yourself. A 3hat mute/linger has a hard time keeping up with a 2hat mute/linger because unless he makes extra drones which cost him lings, he won't be able to support all 3hats while teching to mutes. Thus, you should outproduce him in mutes unless you allow his economy to surpass yours. (Do NOT interpret this as a signal to make more drones yourself. If he makes drones, you'll be ahead of him in the short run in terms of units, and thats when you should take advantage of him. In all likelihood, you'll get to mutes before he does and since he has multiple fronts to face, you shouldnt' have any problem taking him down.) If he goes for lurks instead of mutes then continue your mute/ling strat and perhaps take a gander at the Zerg vs Early Expander/Kali Strat section immediately below this section. Also, if he goes for lurks instead of mutes WITHOUT expanding, then you may have to alter strategy. However, I am not the expert on the topic since I've never seen that happen. I assume that mute/ling should own it, although I wouldn't bet my cheddar on it (for reference to the slang, see Romeo Must Die).

Well those famous Kali'ers have done it again. They've gone ahead and created what they believe is the best ZvZ strategy. And it is formidable, yes, but remember these are the same people who congratulate eachother on being Masters of the Universe day-in and day-out. I specifically refer to many of the "WC Gods" back in the day who, when losing to someone responded not by saying "gg," but rather, "jesus. i'm too lazy for this shit... and lol, i got beat by a newbie." After the game, he feels better though as his friends reassure him he is God and that he was just not concentrating since the other guy sucks so much. Many of these "gods" have filtered into the SC realm and now occupy a new Mt. Olympus in their own minds.

Getting back to the matter at hand; when I refer to Kali strat I mean someone who expands early (usually 4hat slow lings) => hydra. Now, although they are correct in believe hydra is the way to go, I do not believe they are correct in their philosophy of expanding. In beating this strat, as any strat, you have to analyze it for weakness, and how those weaknesses change as a function of time 7. Some are easier than others: this case, for example. Its not a stretch of the intellect to figure out that if you give them enough time, whether they are from kali or not, their expansion strat will beat the best non expansion strat. Thus, you must hit early. More often than not, your opponent will be prepared for a simple ling rush. In fact, much of the time they will be prepared even for a 24 speed ling rush. However, mutes change everything. Once you have made your 4-6 drones after 2nd lord, you should have scouted your opponent, and should commit yourself to a strat. After those drones, do not make anymore the whole game, unless your mutes fail. Go straight speed lings => mutes. Since he'll run his lord from your mutes most the time but you'll still have yours in his base, you'll have the advantage (most notably, the liberty to change strategy with impunity).

Your opponent will go all lings for a while, set up a sunk or 2 behind a hat, and then start going drones. When he expects your mutes, he'll either put up spores or go hydra, and if he goes the latter you should win easy. This is cuz hydra suck without upgrades and in small numbers vs mutes. If he has a decent number then just micro your mutes (by both attacking hydra one at a time and runnning an almost dead mute which the hydras will either follow, or start attacking another mute). If he goes spores, however, you'll have a problem. The problem is that until you have 8+mutes, spores own them. And since time is the crucial element in laying the smackdown on their strategy, you'll be forced to do something quick. It really depends on how many fronts he has to wage war. If he expanded without a hat on the cliff, then he has 2 fronts, and with the hat on cliff he has 2+1=5 fronts. Err, you know what I mean. If he has 3 fronts, then thats an extra place to put up spores, and he won't have enough dough to make enough without seriously hampering his economy. You can proceed to own at your discretion in that case. Unfortunately, these kali foo's aren't half bad (ain't half good either. HuK~HuK~ I make USA joke^^). So, most of the time you'll be facing two fronts to take advantage of.

Usually, your opponent will only be able to make 3 spores, leaving one spot undefended, since it takes 2 spores to properly cover a base. Because of this, you can harass him, and possibly kill a sunk, lings, or sometimes even a hat. Or, in the case that he goes 4 spores and does cover his whole base, you need not go mutes at all. Use the spire as a diversion. Since most the time he'll retreat his lord, he wont' even see you making lings instead of mutes. Or, in the rare case he does leave it there in case you change strat on him, save up 6 larva for right when the spire finishes. Set their rally to the choke of his expan, and make all lings. This'll make him think you're making 6 mutes. Almost always, your 3.5+ groups of lings you have should be able to take his 2 groups,1-2sunks, and maybe some drones. Don't let your lings waste hits on hats, and if drones get in the way, micro to kill them. When you win though, don't expect too many bragging rights cuz you did, after all, only beat a kali foo ; ) (Note: also, he'll prolly say that you suck and retreat back to the Fatherland to be consoled by his comrades)

There are other variations on Kali strat, but you can figure them out yourself. Most strats on Kali are so homogenized, however, that you'll probably only find variation in bnet people's strats. If you can beat one kali foo, you can beat them all.

©Tranman2001