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| Man on a mission | | | Author: | | | IP: | csdi2-prXXXX | | Date: | 04/23/00 07:04 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 2, Max: 8, Min: 8
Lifetime Rating for Fox^1: 7.3810 |  | Well lately I have been playing lots of SC if anyone has noticed. Primarily because I need to practice my Zerg skills. I can do decent Z vs P and Z vs Z, but Z vs T I have problems with. So for the past 2 weeks I have been playing a lot of Z vs T. I went around and played random ppl in nonhunters and kali. I won about 70% of my games, and close to 50% of that being Z vs T. I also learned a lot about the terran zerg matchup.
From that learning experience I learned that in the zerg vs terran matchup. Keep changing you strats. I mean in a Z vs Z game you go muta/ling or hydras(although I think it muta/ling is better still). Or against Protoss mass expanding to hydras/lings and other random units. But against Terran you need to mix it up. I played a total of 3 games that I want to share with everyone in the Z vs T matchup.
So I was in nohunters last week and I ran into Johnny_Vegas. After seeing his great terran skill in the Vegas Merlin match, that I was an observer. I decided to challenge this Terran Gosu Nuke God with my new Z vs T mindset. Johnny being the nice guy says. Sure. So I bring you.
My mission to master Zerg vs Terran
Round1 Johnny_Vegas vs. Fox^1
Johnny_Vegas spawns in at the 9 position on the wonderful Lost Temple with…. TERRAN!!! OMG and I spawn in at the 6 position. I scouted with my overlord and decided to do a 9 pool to maybe catch Johnny_Vegas off guard. My Overlord found that he was terran at that position and then I went up to his choke to monitor his buildings. As I started my pool I noticed something verify horrifying. Johnny_Vegas was building barracks first then depot. Strong. I knew that with that build may early rush may have no effect. I flew my overlord to his natural for some further scouting.
As soon as my Six lings came out I sent them to wreck havoc on Johnny_Vegas's base. I got 3 more drones and then gas for some Lair action. I was thinking lurkers since our bases were so close I might be able to slow fly 2 lurkers and maybe sneak a win out.
My 6 lings arrived at Johnny_Vegas's base to see a really good wall in and already 3 marines. Combined with the wall-in and the power of a hulking SCV Johnny_Vegas dispatched my early lings with no casualties. Hmmm Plan 1 failed. On to plan 2. Lurkers. I started my lair when my scouting overlord saw that Johnny_Vegas was sending me 2 firebats 1 medic and 3 marines. Hmmm I had no defense, besides 6 new lings, but those guys don’t count since Johnny_Vegas had 2 bats with him. I put up 2 quick sunkens and lucky for me they both finished when Johnny_Vegas ran at my base with the small yet elite force.
He retreated wisely knowing that he would lose more then win in that exchange and I was able to take 1 firebat with me. My lair was getting done and I added my Den, and a second hatchery as well. Surprisingly I only had my main and no expansions. As a zerg you might think that it would be hard to win. Well it is, and I knew that I needed to get an expansion soon.
My hydra den was done and I started to make hydras. Then since I had so much gas when my lair was done I started on both lurker and overlord sac upgrades. When I had about 6 hydras I dispatched the little Johnny_Vegas force at my choke and then took a drone and expanded to the 12 position. 12 you say? Why? Well I was going to use all my units to drop and if he attacked me at 12 then I could counter and maybe hurt his tech enough to get me a win.
When the 12 position was morphing my lurker aspect was done and I morphed 3 lurkers. Soon after that the Overlord sac was done and I loaded 2 lurkers for a short trip to Johnny_Vegas's main. Unfortunately Johnny_Vegas had a new wraith and it began attacking my overlord. I thought I could make it to the other side in time, but missed it by about 1 second more. So my drop was fought off and I started to panic. I had not hurt Johnny_Vegas at all and he had really set me back early and mid game with good terran moves.
I started an expansion at my natural as well to maybe lure Johnny_Vegas over and camp outside there and do a slow tank push to leave my 12 alone. My 12 position was up and running and had not noticed yet by Johnny_Vegas, so I slowly kept it growing. I also researched the hydra speed and overlord speed and told myself that it is do or die time. I am going to drop Johnny_Vegas's main and if I lose it then I lose, so I knew that I had to make this work. Also Johnny_Vegas had expanded to his natural so this drop was even more important.
I had about 16 hydras or so when Johnny_Vegas started to attack my natural. I knew this was my chance I dropped Johnny_Vegas's main and started to wreck havoc. I SV or 2 came in and irradiated 2 of my hydras, but I moved them not to hurt the other guys and kept at it. I took about 5 supply depots and other random stuff and eventually lost to some new MM with SV support, but the damage was done, and I took a few SCV’s and quite a few buildings. I was keeping production up and dropped Johnny_Vegas's main again with about 12 hydras.
My natural fell and I knew I better hurry up and take him. My 12 hydras dropped and took most of his main base, but unfortunately I scouted with a random ling and saw that Johnny_Vegas had about 3-4 Rax at his choke and natural and he ran in with MM and stopped my attack. Then his tank push came to my main and razed that too. I had my 12 running but unfortunately no tech. I took Johnny_Vegas's main but he was still running on all cylinders. I gave him a GG and left.
Zerg lessons I picked up from that game
1. Zerg drops are strong it forces a terran to split his forces up at his choke or main to keep the drop from reeking havoc.
2. I didn’t expand as much as I should have. If I had a better income and another hatchery earlier I might have pulled this one out.
3. Never to play Johnny_Vegas again, I think he was about to nuke me ;)
My second game was also in nohunters against some guy that I forgot his name. So we will call him Terran for now I apologize to this guy cause he was really nice. Pha’][‘man~pk was an observer in this one on the new map I call Lost Temple…. IT’S NEW TO ME!!!
Round 2 Terran vs Fox^1
I spawned in at the 3 position with zerg(Not again!) and Terran spawned at the 9 position. This time I decided to do a power build of
9 overlord
12 hatchery
12 pool
13 hatchery
6 lings
14 Gas
16 Gas(at natural)
I sunkened up my natural hard with like 4-5 sunkens. As you can see I have early gas going. I was heading straight for mutas. Terran was sitting pretty with a wall-in at his choke. I put a 5 or 6 sunken =p bah I am the sunken man!!!! Got a lair as soon as I could and soon after that a spire, but I put the spire down at my choke and then built a hydra den at my main.
So if he scanned me he might be fooled in think lurkers instead of mutas. I am not sure if he did scan me, but when my spire was half done. I noticed a bunker being constructed outside of my base. I sent 1 ling and saw a decent number of MM I did a good job of luring some of those marines to my insane sunkened up natural. Just to keep Terran on his toes. My super slow overlord had finally parked himself on the natural cliff . This allowed me to see that he had 1 tank sieged and 2 bunkers. But no turrets. Hmmmm.
This whole time I had also been sizing a large ling force. To me lings are better against bunkers, because they can’t be stimmed easily. So with enough lings I may overwhelm him. I also had an overlord below his main to check if he had any defense. I suicide my overlord but he told me that he had no defense to mutas. My spire was done and I started on 6 mutas. They finished and I had six more on the way, since I had to build another overlord, because of the suicide. As soon as I saw him starting a turret. I attacked. Why did I wait? Well if the SCV is working on the turret then he cannot repair his bunkers unless he cancels the turret. So I sent in about 26 lings and 6 mutas. I easily broke this containment then took my total of 12 mutas and went to his main.
I think I faked Terran out on this and went to his main and took most of his peons, but a turret just got done being made and some marines came to reinforce it. I waited for more muta support and started to peck at his supply depots. He finally came in with his marine force, and I retreated to the east side of his main. When I had about 20 muta’s I attack again and took his main. We exchanged a gg and talked a little. Pha’][‘man~pk talked a little junk to my opponent after I took his main but stayed quite during this game. No serious he did =P
Zerg lessons I picked up from that game
1. Mutas are strong!! They are really fast and can really hurt a terran player who is not prepared for hit and run attacks.
2. Fake your opponent out. Building 1 hydra den cost less then 1 muta, yet it can through you opponent’s game off big time.
3. Even though lings don’t do so well against infantry combined with mutas or another supporting unit they can easily overwhelm your opponent and they do wonders against tanks.
My third game came against Mark4. I was on Kali today and decided to look for a game. I saw Mark and I wanted to try his toss for TAO ladder. Side note: Before Mark and I played and he raped me Toss vs Zerg. But I thought I could take him. Unfortunately Mark4 wrecked me with the most gosu move ever. He build his gateways close to my base so his zealots could get there faster. He wrecked my expansion and I lost. But forget that game. It has nothing to do with the T vs Z BR. I reported and asked for a rematch on the TAO Ladder. Mark said sure and hosted. His graduated student Punck~ watched part of this game, but had to leave mid-way.
So I bring you!
Round 3 Mark4 vs. Fox^1
Once again we played on the fun yet unused map of Lost Temple. Mark4 spawned at the 6 with a godly random terran power!!! And I spawned in with chosen zerg at 9. I didn’t know what Mark4 was and was going to get and overlord on 8 and expand at 11. But my scout showed he was terran and I decided to power harder. Since I had success last time I decided to expand to my natural using the same build order as before but instead of a spire I went straight for a hydra den. I scouted Mark4 to see that he didn’t have a wall at his choke but 2 barracks. My hydra den was done and I started the lurker aspect as well as the overlord drop power. I had about 2 hydras when Mark4 drops me. With 4 firebats, 2 medics, and 2 rines if I recall correctly.
I was surprised how fast this drop was! I ran my drones to my natural and then started on my hydras. Mark went straight for my Lair. Since he had more firebats then anything. I knew that my lair had more time before it fell. So I waited until I had about 6 hydras and about 8 lings and fought off his force. Mark then started to peck at one of my Overlords with a wraith. I moved my hydras over there and dispatched the wraith and got my mining back up and running.
I kept building hydras and when the lurker aspect and transport for overlords was done, I started 3 lurkers, the hydra speed, and the overlord speed. I waited till the overlord speed was done. I dropped both my lurkers down at Mark4’s north ledge at his main and tried to do some damage . They were successful at first, but mark brought in MM and with his sieged tank at protecting his CC dispatched my lurkers with a little comstat. That didn’t work out as I planned.
So I prepared a second drop with 16 hydras and 4 lurkers. I dropped to the left side of his 6 main. I was able to kill 5 supply depots, an academy and a Eng. bay. I knew that mark would be coming soon with his force. So I spread my lurkers out and had my hydras behind them. Mark4 Then attacked with his rines and 2 tanks. I was surprised to see me come out victorious with few casualties. Mark tried to turbo newbie me, but I was able to drop 8 hydras on the ledge before he could do serious damage.
I then took Mark4’s main and since I had 3 bases going, I easily was able to overwhelm Mark4 with his 1 expansions and Mark gave me a GG. I think that when Mark dropped me in the beginning if he had more rines and less bats and instead have gone for my hydra den, it may have won him the game. But my lair was able to withstand the attack long enough for me to keep it.
The last 2 games I played were rather short, but they were intense. The game with Mark4 lasted less then 15 minutes. 10 of it just building. I hope it didn’t seem like I started slack towards the end of this BR.
Zerg lessons I picked up from that game
1. Don’t panic. When Mark4 attacked me with that first drop I just moved my drones away and waited for enough support to remove his attacking force. I didn’t lose that much mining time since I had my natural going and Mark4’s only source was his main. So we were still even.
2. Spread out lurkers. Tank splash doesn’t wreck them and some of them may not be detectable by a comstat.
3. Don’t play Mark4’s toss it’s to gosu!!
I hope you liked this BR. I tried to make it as readable as possible for those who love pics. I also used a little more HTML besides colors. Thanks to my 3 opponents in this BR you guys were all strong players.
Wow I got paid to write this BR =]
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