Starcraft Zerg Strategy - Zerg Vs Zerg  | read this item

Following his look at taking out Terran air units, one of our forum go’ers set out to make another guide to help out Zerg players.  Papp’s last guide has helped new Zerg players take out Terran players with even greater ease.  So a huge thanks to Papp for giving us another great look at utilizing Starcraft 2 Zerg forces. Now, Papp takes on other Zerg players.  Nothing is imbalanced in a mirror match, but there are still counters to use and tactics to employ.  He takes a look at how best to deal with all the threats that the Zerg bring to the table.

Papp takes us through the various stages of a standard Zerg build and identifies the threats you’ll face as a Zerg player yourself.  Anything from Zerglings to Mutalisks, Papp has you covered.  He sets you up to get the counters in place so that you don’t lose in a mirror match.

From a Guide Posted by Papp:

First off:

You have to realize that the basic laws of Zerg gameplay don’t apply to Zerg vs Zerg games. For example, usually you want as much creep as possible, but if I am going mostly zerg air, i don’t want to expand my creep because my enemy might get more use out of it, especially if he goes hydra. Also the rule that zerg can only build structures on creep becomes a nightmare if you catch him with planted spine crawlers on your creep.

Vs. Zergling/Speedling:

Some people will say use roaches, but I find that if I get a Roach Warren I will only have a few roaches by the time the rush comes, and you risk the Zerglings just running by your defenses into your base. I suggest Banelings to deal with this problem. Mix 2 Banelings into your swarm of Zerglings and you should be safe against a larger force of Zerglings. Having a few Spine Crawlers to stab at Zerglings in combat will even farther improve your odds. Also use Infestors if you have them.

Vs. Roach

Roaches are a predictable escalation after a zergling rush, but they are slow and their low range makes them bad against ranged defenders like queens and spine crawlers. My favorite way of dealing with fast roaches is to let em in my base and then surround with lings and let queens and spines attack from afar. this only really works with zealots and roaches, stalkers will blink and marines can be killed in easier ways.

Vs. Mutalisk

If you don’t see any Roach action after the initial attacks expect Mutalisks. These are easily defended against if you are ready for em, so i opt to get a Evolution Chamber early so all i need to do is pop down a few Spore Crawlers near my minerals when i see his Spire (scout for this often!) I always have one more Queen than I have hatches, so by the time i have to worry about Mutaslisks, i should have at least 3 Queens, more if possible. When the attack comes don’t panic, if you have an extra Queen you should always have some extra energy so use it on transfusing your fellow Queens and Spore Crawlers, sooner or later the Mutalisks will get the point.

Vs. hydra ball/mix

When i see a hyrda ball coming at me i smile, because i know that his only units that deal real damage will die without any trouble. Its important to know your armour types for this reason, the hydra is light armour, and you should already have some units that do massive damage to light armour. your banelings of course! since hydras are light those banelings will rip through em like warm butter as long as they can get close. So for maximum damage i suggest burying them and waiting for the bulk of hydras to tread over top.

Mid/Late game:

Many zerg(including myself) get sloppy when the late game rolls around, i tend to sit atop a massive pile of minerals and micro manage small forces when i could be building a whole new army. DONT DO THIS! if you see your money get too high just pump out units, do anything, expand and get even more, but keep building units and keep spawning larva. Also infestors would be a good choice because they can spawn an army on the spot for free, so spend some of your money on them.

All in all, i think the one unit you need more of is infestors. buy em, use em. zerg doesnt have fast healing medics or shields, those fungal growth attacks cause real damage that cant be healed quickly. dont bother getting neural parasite in zvz, it doesnt work against ultras a vs. protoss strat is next, but expect a separate infestor guide as well in the future. maybe a baneling guide as well.