"Have fun with that last gateway, you're gonna need it"
-Dev
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| "New" Zerg strat vs. Terran | | | Author: | | | IP: | XXXX | | Date: | 12/11/99 04:12 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 3, Max: 8, Min: 6
Lifetime Rating for SisterRay(RLA): 7.3333 |   |
SisterRay(RLA) vs |:ReV:|-GyuHo
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Before this game, my ladder record was 1307, which happens to be my old high. Since I figured I would get a good game at this level (and I believe I did), I meant to take screenshots and make the game into my first BR. ReV had something like a 1310, very close to my rating, and a record of about 21-8, pretty close to my 20-7. Not surprisingly, I forgot all about the screen shots after the first few minutes of the game. Nevertheless, I thought a text report of this game would be helpful because my opponent used a "new" zerg vs. terran strategy that some of you may not be aware of. Please excuse my lack of pictures or text formatting. My HTML knowledge is pitiful, and I don't feel like bothering with a pretty report until I have some decent screen captures to work with :P
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Map: Lost Temple (Surprise!)
Positions: Me at 12:00, picked Terran
ReV at 3:00, picked Zerg
Early builds:
I used my usual terran vs. zerg build order, which I very rarely find any reason to deviate from:
8-depot (scout when done)
10-rax
14-rax
15-depot
18-refinery
depot
academy
depot
btw, just assume I'm pumping SCV's the whole time, because that's pretty much what I did.
I put my buildings in a loose sort of wallin... I never block myself off entirely because I believe it's far too passive a move against zerg, nor do I use any static ramp defenses.
My scout found him starting a hatchery at his ramp. I'm pretty sure he went 8-ol 12-hatchery. He was starting a pool right as my SCV reached his main. No gas yet.
I expected him to soon build a third hatchery at his expansion, and parked my SCV at his natural to see if and when he did so. When no expansion came, I went back into his base and saw 6 zerglings popping out, as well as an extractor about half built.
And I think to myself, what the heck is a 1300+ zerg player doing against terran with only one base and relatively late gas? Only one answer came to mind: getting 'lings with... burrowing?
I put the word "new" in quotes simply because I haven't seen this strat used at higher skill levels in a long time lately. I did see it before, however, back in the ol' River Styx days when a quick marine rush was about the worst thing a zerg player had to deal with.
Anyway, if he wasn't going to expand, I wasn't going to bother him for the moment. I was hitting the 6-8 marine mark at about this time, and against an quick-expanding or heavy-teching opponent, I would use this force to establish position at his choke. However, doing that against someone with heavy lings would get me killed. Like a smart little boy, I parked my marines at my ramp.
My academy comes online; I do the usual and research range while starting comstat and building medics. Stim would have been a better choice at this point since I was dealing with mostly lings, but I got away with it. I also send an SCV toward his base to see if he's expanded yet as well as a marine to patrol the other mains. I see about 36 zerglings parked outside my base. Sheesh.
I grab three SCV's and send them toward my ramp, hoping to block it off for a little while and reduce casualties, but he was already starting to charge in. He did the smart thing and right-clicked the first group up the ramp and then attacked. I did manage to get a couple of the SCV's to the ramp, where they managed to clog the zerglings a little bit. I also had medics coming out, and promptly ordered them toward the battle. I came out with about 6 of 12 marines as well as my medics. I think the SCV blockers made a pretty big difference.
I don't like being defensive against zerg. In fact, I hate it more than N'sync. More than Bjork. More than even Matchbox 20.
So I built up a group of 10 marines, 4 medics, and 2 bats, with stim and range, and headed to his base to wreak some havoc. I also start a factory for good measure (more accurately, in case I ran into lurkers or heavy sunkens) and continue to pump marines.
Halfway to his base, I see enemy blips on the minimap charging into mine. Yep, he burrowed lings at my choke. That bastard. I instinctively stimmed my attack force and ran it back towards my base. However, my semi-walled buildings and constantly pumping marines allowed me to stop the zerglings with very little losses. (I think a couple of SCV's died). What if he had burrowed ALL of his stuff at the choke instead of attacking? I dunno. Chances are he could have inflicted some serious wounds before my attack force got back and stopped him. Then again, I would have comsatted my choke before sending a full-force attack.
Wizened, I make a bunker next to my CC and then resume my attack... I also start a starport because I had the gas to do so, as well as a tank + seige mode.
Then the bastard hits me with 6 mutas. They start wailing on the part of my peon line unprotected by the bunker. I flee those peons to the protected half of my minerals by right clicking them to a single patch (harvest pathing allows them to get out of the way a LOT quicker). I also once again grudgingly withdrew my attack force to chase the mutas out of my base. Some zerglings ran in there too (probably from somewhere burrowed), but my bunker was pretty well placed and I had more troops popping out, so they didn't do much. I built a second bunker, protecting my entire peon line, and started up a science facility, hoping to end this burrowing fest and grab irradiate for the mutas. My patrolling marine hadn't seen anything interesting, and I comsatted his natural to see if he'd expanded yet. None there. I also comsatted his ramp to see nothing interesting (couple of sunkens), and his main, where he was building a hydralisk den. Switching to lurkers. No sweat, I already had tanks and sci vessels on the way. I almost ran him over with a group of marines and medics at that point, but he had burrowed a bunch of zerglings behind his ramp and kicked me around.
I start a CC at my natural and build a third barracks. Won the game pretty easily from that point with the usual tank/infantry/sci vessel attack, although it took me about 5 minutes to get through his ling/lurker charges and stupid scourge killing my sci vessels. I kick back and enjoy my new ladder high score. (I'll probably lose it next game anyway )
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Lessons Learned:
1. Watch out for goofy zergling strats as Terran, especially against higher rated players. Chaces are these players have higher ratings because they realized that the standard Zerg vs. Terran lurker strats don't work too terribly well. I think lurkers are more suited to the mid-late game, where they can be used to protect remote expansions or when you have a lot of garbage to run at them.
In 1200+ games, most of the ones I've played vs. zerg involved lings in the early game, but only this guy has been smart enough to throw in burrowing.
2. As zerg, give burrowing a shot. It's pretty effective and really stylish.
3. My opponent probably shouldn't have attacked me with those 36 lings. Maybe it would have worked against just the 12 marines, but with SCV's getting in the way, he really didn't have a chance of getting up the ramp fast enough. He should have burrowed them all outside my base or just kept them there for some momentary containment. He probably would have been in the best position if he had burrowed them without me ever seeing that they were there in the first place.
3.5. Burrowed lings in front of light sunkens will rock terran infantry. 2 sunkens and a 12 burrowed lings can be better than 4 sunkens or so, because a smart terran player won't attack 4 sunkens with infantry unless he's got a whole lot, but will probably charge right into two of them.
4. My opponent should have expanded. I don't think he built very many drones past the intial 18 or so. If he had comprimised a little bit of speed for a better economy, he might have been able to expand easier. Zerg cannot beat a decent terran past the early-mid game if they do not expand.
5. As terran, your building formation should be conducive to on-the-fly defenses. Practice it 'till it's second nature. I didn't take a screenshot of my setup, but if you need visual examples, look up some of Heartcutter's reports. It works against zerg too. My building formation really helped minimize the damage done by his surprise attacks.
6. Always evaluate your opponent's resources when you scout early on. Look at more than just what buildings they have; check out how many peons they've built, how early they start mining gas, etc. Someone with late gas and one base was obviously not going to rely on tech. Two hatcheries on one base, a pool, and an extractor might look like a lurker/ling build, but not if he's gotten 15 drones before starting. If the early build looks unusual, they're probably not using a usual strategy.
7. Normally, I would suggest upgrading range before stim. With it, you stand a much better chance against lurkers, muta raids, etc. However, against heavy lings, I think stim would be a better choice.
8. Don't bother replying to tell me that you've been doing some clever burrowing trick since computers were made of whale bone. I know it's not a genuinely new strategy, and I'm sure the idea has occurred to many players in one form or another; I just wanted to let everyone know that it might well become a popular zerg vs. terran trick. Also, just because I won the game doesn't mean it isn't an effective strategy. Props, however, to HappyCrap{RLA} for standing by his beloved zerglings from day one.
9. I with the game could have been on Rivalry instead of temple. Terran vs Toss on that map is more fair imho, and so is Zerg vs Terran.
Thanks, comment away!
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