Zerg v. Terran - Fast Expand and Infestor play
In the beta, probably the most interesting matchup for me has been ZvT - simply because of all the things you can “get away with” and the amount of mid-game push strategies employed by both sides. I’ve been trying out a variety of openings and unit comps and thought I’d share a few of the most successful I’ve found.
Also - must say http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=115102 is a very pretty good article, but I feel it still fails to do the match justice (the replay is here: (http://omploader.org/vM3Q0MQ watch it! A commented youtube version is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs6Ljkyd7io but I feel like there’s a lot of little things KHB does that makes downloading the replay worth it.) It completely changed my view of the infestor in this matchup and showed that FE v Terran seems to work (even on Steppes, which I think is the smallest map).
Early Strategy:
- Fast Expand at 14. I haven’t seen a Terran who can stop it, even on the smallest map, without the Zerg making a very obvious mistake. Your pool is going to want to come immediately afterwards, and then comes a delicate balance of zerglings/power econ/and spine crawlers to ward off the first attack.
- Early game should be Zerglings/Banelings with speed upgrade and burrow to hold of the +1 M&M Timing attack. You can also use the banelings to break his wall and rush in speedlings if you suspect fast-tech.
Mid-game
- Around this time is when your FE kicks in hard, as long as you held off wave 1. You have the freedom to choose the flow of the game with your extra income and there’s two endgames you can aim for.
- One is to transition to a few mutas if you see a hellion build, but don’t stick with them as a mass viking strategy can dominate it. The key is making a few for scouting and make him transition away from hellions to vikings without a slowdown to your build.
- Second is Roach/Hydra, especially if he’s still pushing bio. Keeping a few banelings around is still good though, as they tend to make T paranoid and waste scans. Speedlings are still required, especially if tanks are incoming.
- On every unit comp, go fast infestors. You need to get them out quickly in T2 to store up energy. Why? Fungal. Creep. Is. Overpowered. 6 seconds of snare and sick damage. Absolutely melts bio, and is the perfect counter to a Thor build.
End-game.
- If you went for the Spire, start pumping Brood Lords. These guys are sick. Once their damage ramps up, it’s equivalent to 200dph. Yeah. Ridiculous. Make sure you have Hydra/Corruptor backup if you encounter mass vikings, and Infestors for Thor/Marine counter.
- If you went roach/hydra, your endgame is fully upgraded Ultralisks. Slams through a bio line, but you need solid amounts of hydras to ward of the air. Infestors are again key for holding shit still and mind-controlling anything annoying.
Tips:
- Scout! Overlord sac to keep ahead of his tech. An overlord is 100 minerals - he’s using 200+ minerals on EVERY scan.
- Map control! Burrowed zerglings at expansion points, overlord spread and vomit for even more control (until he makes vikings - PULL as soon as you see that starport up). Burrow Banelings along unit paths - keep him on edge, try to make him waste scans (There’s no real detection for T until T3 Ravens, and again each scan is 200+ minerals).
- Make a queen spawn a creep tumor and then leapfrog tumors all across the map. This is something that should be done whenever you have a free moment of attention.
- Mind-control goes on their most crucial units. Ravens and Thors are a great use, but don’t be afraid to mc vikings if AA is getting hairy.
- Spam fungal creep. SPAM. FUNGAL. CREEP.
- For your FE, he might try to build a bunker next to it while the sight range is low. Don’t be afraid to PULL ALL DRONES.
- Wall up with spine crawlers, especially if you see double/triple rax. Make sure your ramp is fully blocked, or else a hellion rush will incinerate all your drones before you can blink. You don’t want this to happen to you. I learned this the hard way (and so did KHB in that replay).
- Similarly, one or two spore towers in each drone line will save you vs banshee harrass. Make sure to upgrade a overseer in case you see double-starport cloak strategy.
- Upgrades are critical - I’ve been experimenting with double evolution chamber in T2 and it seems worth it, especially once your econ gets rolling.
- Expand often. Especially in the T3 transition, when you pretty much have full map control and tons of minerals to spare. Gas is going to be your limiting factor for the rest of the game.
That’s it! More and more waves of SC2 Beta are coming out - hope this helps and look forward to seeing more of you online =D
