"Nice, except for the fact that all you chess pansies are a bunch of map hackers."
-Mark4
|
| Class Description: Zerg 1 | | | Author: | | | IP: | csdi2-prXXXX | | Date: | 05/02/00 06:05 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 7, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for Fox^1: 7.3810 |  | Class description: Zerg 1
Hey everyone! I will be your student teacher today. My name is Fox^1. I am not a Zerg master yet. But as one in training I have been assigned to teach this class today. So if anyone has any questions or comments please feel free to post them at the end of the Class. We will be reading out of the book Zerg for dummies. This is a book that I wrote myself of my experiences and strats with this race.
Chapter 1:Scouting
Please open your books to chapter1: Scouting. As you know scouting is an important part to Starcraft. If you do enough of it, you will be able to prepare yourself for whatever tech your opponent has, whether he has expanded, or if he is attacking or defending. Notice example 1 where Mark4 playing toss vs. myself on the map known as Fading Realm. First off I would like to mention that most of you here probably are taking Lost Temple 1 as well. Let me tell you now what you are learning in that class is irrelevant to this matchup. Fading Realm is more balanced in this matchup and I would never try to take an early expansion on this map the way you learned to do on Lost Temple.
As you can see in example A. I opted to go with a 13 pool followed by a hatchery. I was planning on massing lings backed with hydras/lurks. My overlord had arrived at Mark4’s base it showed me that he only had 1 gate and early gas. This told me that he is teching. I moved my overlord away from his base after the cyber core started to warp in. I then sent 1 drone and soon after my First 6 lings to try to do some damage. Mark4 saw this with another scouting probe that he had sent. Which enabled him to prepare for my attack. I came in and did what damage I could, but with some zealots and newly made goons I had no chance. I had been rather productive back at home, getting gas, a den, and a lair for hydra/lurk power. I sent a zergling to scout my opponent’s base. I saw that he had a stargate coming, and soon after that my ling was cut down by a darktemplar.
Can you imagine what would have happened to me if I didn’t scout. I might have sent all my troops to attack Mark4’s main and then got cut to shreds by DT’s. I then started the overlord speed, because I knew that he was making corsairs and he had a few DT. I had two lurkers just morphed and I ran them straight to Mark4 base. I ran by a few DT and was able to burrow behind his peon line and take a few probes. But my lurkers were easily dispatched by psi storm as shown in example B
I showed you what you could learn from scouting. Scouting told me that Mark4 had DT and corsair action which allowed me to adjust according. In Starcraft there is no such thing as to much scouting. I unfortunately thought there was such a thing and didn’t scout any of the expansions until it was to late. At the top right expansion Mark4 had an expansions going strong with 3 gates producing units. I knew from this point the game was over. There is no way that a Zerg player can have a smaller number of expansions then a Protoss player and expect to win. I tried to do what I could to win, but Mark4 Just ran me over with his superior numbers and I have him a GG.
So as you can see if I had denied Mark4 that expansion the game may have been different. So it is imperative that you scout. Lets go over 3 main points of that chapter now
1. Play on other maps besides LT.
2. Scout till you turn blue in the face
3. Do not play Mark4 he unless he randoms terran =p
Chapter 2: Zerg vs Zerg
Now on to Chapter 2 where we are discussing the Zerg vs Zerg matchup. Why would this matchup be in the 2nd chapter of this book you ask? To have any success with Zerg you must be able to play this matchup. All Koreans = Zerg and if you ever want to play at high levels with this race you better be prepared for this matchup.
As you can see in the first example which shows me building a 9 pool on LT. I was playing a player named HappyHydra=D He was at the 6 position and I was at the 12 position. I would advise to do a 9-13 pool on LT when playing against another Zerg player. If you try to power to hard, and the other Zerg player 9-13 pool you will lose. I scouted with my drone since my overlords weren’t doing #$*& for me. I found him at the 12 and saw that his spawning pool was 1/3 through morphing when mine was done, and he had a second hatchery at his choke 1/3 starting. I assumed that he went 12 hatchery 12 pool.
As you can see in Example B I sent my 6 lings to attack and morphed a sunken on his creep with my drone to keep him busy till my lings got there. I also queued my hatchery to his choke and started on a second one myself. I was going to run him over with lings. I was surprised to see when my creep colony was done and starting to morph to a sunken, that he was only attacking it with 3 drones. When my lings arrived when his spawning pool was done and he started on his 6 lings. I killed the second hatchery and removed the 3 drones from pounding on my sunken. It was at 60 health. His lings then spawned and attacked me but with my own 6 lings and a sunken I fought him off with 2 losses. More lings came and he gave me a GG.
Notice that he powered a little to hard and I ran him over with a 9 pool. 9 Pool is the safest. If you do this not only can you defend against a 4-6 pool, but also you can defeat someone who powers to hard. 13 pool is good against someone who 9 pools, but can be defeated by 4-6 pool. Also as you can see on Example B with the sunken being built on his creep. Do things to distract your opponent. It is only 75 minerals give you opponent something to worry about. You’re not trying to be nice to him. You want to defeat him. All right lets go over the main points of that chapter
1. Taking risks against a Zerg opponent can spell your doom since this matchup is quickly decided. Unless you know your opponent and feel that you can get away with it. Be safe. Better safe then sorry.
2. Once again scouting is imperative in this matchup. If I didn’t scout with that drone then I wouldn’t have rushed him with my lings. So if I had waited for my overlord to get there to see that he was powering then tried to rush him. He would have had sufficient defense to stop me. Once that happened I would have lost the game since he would have been ahead on money.
3. Practice makes perfect. You need to practice this matchup more then any other one to get good at it. I have played plenty of games and I am still not good.
4. Don’t play Koreans there hackers :D
5. Don’t play Non-hacking Koreans they will destroy you. =[
All right we have enough time left in the period to do 1 more chapter.
Chapter 3: Don’t follow a specific strategy
When you play against certain races especially against the Protoss you like to follow a set build order. Most people go with
9 overlord
12 hatchery
12 pool
14 hatchery
This is a strong build, but most toss players out there are expecting this and try to fast expand themselves or tech quickly. So changing not only your build order but also your unit’s types you can catch a player off guard and defeat him.
A great example is the game between myself and Gigolo. He spawned in at 12 while I spawned in at 6. I opted to go straight to 3 hatch lings instead of powering hard. My build was
8 overlord
10 pool
12 hatchery
My overlord finally got there and quickly retreated when I saw that he had gas and only 1 gate. So I attacked with 12 lings. While they were heading up to his base, I started to get gas for the speed upgrade and a third hatchery. 3 zealots met up with my lings when they arrive. I was able to kill all three but 2 more zealots were able to reinforce and dispatch the rest of them. My speed was done and I sent 12 more lings to his main. I attacked again and defended by 2 zealots and 1 goon. I was able to dispatch the goon and 1 zealot but with the help of probes he fended it off. My third hatchery was done and I sent 12 more lings to his main. Then kept my production up so that I could keep the flow of lings into his main. I attacked with 12 lings and 2 zealots, 2 goons, and 2 warping cannons met them. When they started to engage the forces 6 more lings were ready at the choke to join the attack. They turned the tide. If had not acted sooner the cannons may have warped in time and my hopes for a quick win might have been over.
I sent wave after wave, and finally Gigolo gave me a GG. If he had not teched and went just straight zealots then teched he would have defeated me. But he was guessing I was powering hard and wanted get either templar or reavers. As you can see all three of these examples are short, but not lacking in lessons they teach. Let’s go over the points made in this chapter
1. Mix up your game plan against terran and Protoss. You will be surprised how well you will do when you mix it up.
2. Be smart. Don’t try to engage a choke with 4 zealots and 2 cannons if you only have lings. You are not going to win. Pick and choose you attacks the most cost effective way. Zerg are the least cost effective, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to make them that way. I kept attacking because I knew that it was cost effective for me. If he raped my attack I wouldn’t try it again.
3. Learn to Macro well. While I was attacking I was building lings, if I didn’t do this, and waited till the attack was over to build units. Those 2 warping cannons would have made it in and I would have been fucked.
4. If you’re a Zerg player going against a toss player and he does not want to play on Lost Temple agree with him and play on Medusa. You’ll thank me for it.
Questions Comments? Feel free to post them
Fox^1
|
|
|
|
Home
Forum
Starcraft Tournaments
