ZAM's Starcraft 2 Race Guides: Zerg [Starcraft II]

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Hello and welcome back to ZAM's Starcraft 2 race overviews, where I've decided to do some quick coverage of the three races in SC2, including some of the most commonly used strategies that I've gone up against while playing in Diamond League (which was formerly known as Platinum League, pre-patch 13). We've already covered the Protoss, which you can check out here, so let's get right into it with the Zerg!

Zerg

The Zerg are often considered to be the race requiring the highest amount of macro management skill, as well as being the most flexible of the three races. One of the Zerg's most unique, and often frustrating, features is having that all important Hatchery and the spawn larvae that come with it. This stems mostly from the fact that spawn larvae come out rather slowly, and since these little worms are, literally, the source of all Zerg unit creation, good Zerg players must learn early on to manage their larvae, ensuring that they have the right amount of larvae to produce the right units at a moment's notice.



Of course, this also contributes to the Zerg's incredible flexibility when it comes to making game transitions. For Terran and Protoss, if you want to make that big transition to stronger units, you need to erect that unit producing building, and even then, you need to wait while the units are being produced. Often times, even if the Terran or Protoss player erects multiple buildings (which are expensive, remember!), this can mean that they must spend at least a few minutes making that transition, including the time it takes to get those slow-making units out (even if the Protoss player is chrono boosting his buildings).

All Zerg require is that one building needed to unlock the life form, and then they can pump out a good number of units (depending on the number of expansions the Zerg has, and if he's been using his Queen's Spawn Larva ability well) in the time it takes to create the unit. Not only is this much cheaper, from a building standpoint, but if a player lets the Zerg expand too much, the sheer number of spawn larvae available can mean that the Zerg can, literally, replenish their entire army at a moment's notice. It's this flexibility that really helps the Zerg, and given their speed bonus on creep, a good Zerg who is building proper "creep highways" (as in using creep tumors to link up their hatcheries) can mobilize and re-assemble his or her army virtually at will.

With that being said, there are a number of strategies available to the Zerg at any given point in time, but with Hydralisks being so strong right now (in conjunction with Roaches falling out of favor with many Zerg players), many Zerg strategies simply revolve around hitting that critical mass of Hydralisks that can gobble up virtually any army.

Hydralisks: There are a number of strategies for getting to Hydralisks as fast as possible, with one possible setup dubbed the macro-intensive "IdrA" build, where the player gets a spawning pool at 15 drones, an expansion hatchery at 16 drones, produces a few defensive Zerglings (and perhaps a Spine Crawler if he or she expects early aggression), and then they play defensively, getting to those powerful Hydralisks and expanding even more if their enemy doesn't play aggressively. The reason why Hydralisks are currently so powerful really comes from the fact that they attack fast, they deal fairly decent neutral damage to all units, they're quite speedy on creep, they're fairly cheap to create without being vespene gas heavy, and they build quickly.

Prior to this, many Zerg players typically liked to also get the powerful Roach unit mixed in with their Hydras, or even just go Roach / Zerg in early games before transitioning to the Hydralisk later on, but Blizzard stepped in and made the Roach cost 2 supply instead of 1, thereby making it more difficult to generate massive groups of Roaches in early games. In response to this, some Zerg players have decided to simply skip that early aggressive Roach play, and instead they just go for Hydralisks, forcing a macro management heavy game.

Mutalisk Harass: Mutalisks are the super-fast air units of the Zerg, and if players don't see it coming, a few Mutalisks can effectively destroy a player economy in the blink of an eye. These days, unfortunately, players are getting more tools to counter the powerful Mutalisk, with Terran Thors able to explode large masses of Mutas, seemingly at will, and Protoss Stalkers and Phoenixes both having the ability to out-maneuver the Mutalisk, the former being a huge nuisance with the Blink ability, and the latter gaining the invaluable ability to attack while moving while also having a damage bonus versus light units (which the Mutalisk is). You can also use the Mutalisk as a heavy harassment unit - scouting the map and hitting at random times, thereby forcing your opponent to play much more defensively.

The "Baneling Bust:" Most often used early against players who like to block their entrances with buildings or units. It's a bit riskier to use it against Protoss players, who can use their Sentry Force Fields to deny access to the powerful Baneling, but, because the Baneling can be somewhat surprising, these little bombs have taken many enemies by surprise. Simply make your way to Banelings as fast as possible, all the while producing little Zerglings, and when the time is right, lead with your Zerglings (to absorb the hits) while rolling your Banelings in to blow up buildings, or (if you're lucky) your opponent's entire mineral line. Interestingly, the Baneling Bust is mostly seen on maps with wide ramps, like Scrap Station, where Banelings can roll up that short, wide ramp and melt an opponent's defense wall like it was butter.

Spine Crawler Rush!: This is really a bit of an odd strategy, and it only works against an opposing Zerg player, but it's quite funny if you pull it off properly. The Spine Crawler rush is essentially where the Zerg player gets an early, early Spawning Pool, builds a few Zerglings and then rushes his opponent's base with his Zerglings and two drones. Make sure that you have at least 200 resources once you attack, and then rush your Zerglings and Drones in. The moment you get to your opponent's base, set your drones to become two Spine Crawlers on your opponent's creep, and use your Zerglings to defend the Spine Crawlers as they build. If you were fast enough, your opponent shouldn't be able to get both of your building Spine Crawlers down in time (especially if you use your Zerglings purely to defend), and once your Spine Crawlers build, they'll destroy anything and everything nearby.



And these are just a few Zerg strategies that players can employ when first learning to play the Zerg. Remember, these are simple, basic strategies that I've run into in all levels of play in Starcraft 2. Once you decide to really master this race, you should learn to adapt these strategies to your own style of play. Roaches are still a powerful choice for the Zerg race, and many players overlook the awesome power of a burrowed Roach rush, so also realize that these strategies don't even begin to cover all of the possibilities available to the Zerg. Learn to experiment! Tomorrow we'll be covering the Terran.

You can read our overview of the Protoss here!

 



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