Travels on the Creep Highway (2): Mo Minerals, Mo Problems
By XTraFries 5 Comments
original post
Today I'm going to talk about my first three matches and what I've been able to take away from them, hopefully being the first steps on the path to Zerg mastery (or at least, Zerg adequacy). I'll start by just giving a brief overview of each match, then go into the common trends between them which I feel are the first hurdles I must learn to jump in Zerg play.
Match one placed me against a Protoss on Jungle Basin. I attempted to go a fairly standard 15 Hatch, 14 Pool into Roaches. It's something I've seen Dimaga do recently and it seemed like as good a place as any to start, since he is a straight baller. The Protoss went a standard 3 Gate Robo, pushing with 3 Zealots, a small number of Stalkers and one Immortal for good measure. He pushed, I didn't have enough units, I lost.
Match two was against a Zerg on Jungle Basin (a map I had never played before today, btw). I stuck with the same attempted build as the previous match. My opponent went for a 14 Pool and went in when he had about 20 lings, just as my first handful of roaches finished. Held off the first wave, I tried to make lings to hold them off, but this of course didn't work and I lost.
Third match, another Zerg, but on Blistering Sands this time. I decided to change the build up: 13 Hatch, 14 Pool going for ling speed and banelings. This actually gave a bit of an advantage when he sent a dozen or so lings to my base and I held it off with ease. I went in for a counter attack, again to surprising success. I crippled his economy, taking out all but 10 of his drones while I was still on 2 bases (with absolutely horrible saturation, but that's a point to make in a bit). He then went all in and made nothing but roaches, sending them right to my base. He ended up winning this game because I supply blocked myself and his roaches overran me.
These three matches were pretty terrible, all things considered (the last one being respectable until my fumble at the end) but they showed the first major hole in my Zerg play: Larva management. I have been doing for an early-expend play, so drones are essential. However, I continually find myself with hundreds of minerals banked and not knowing how to spend it. Do I build more drones? Do I get a Roach Warren or tech to Lair? What about a third expansion or an in-base Hatch? In each match there was a moment of noticing how high my minerals were and fumbling to spend it. When I played Terran the answer to this problem is "Well, build more barracks so you can build more units and spend that money" or "hey, do a push and expand". I find myself making units either too slowly or too rapidly, either situation leading to a lost game. But in the time I'm fumbling with ideas, my larva build up and my opponent catches me with my pants down and I'm done.
Another hole I noticed is that I was making units at times which could have lent themselves greatly to a little harassment, but I didn't act until it was too late. In each game there was a window where if I had pushed out I could have done some serious damage. Learning the timings for Zerg is another thing I'm going to have to get a feel for (unless they start letting Zerg 4-Gate. Then I'm gold)
Here's what I'm thinking for my next round of matches: Holding off on the expansion, using my units, and making sure every larvae is spend wisely. Maybe try some 1-base Roach and expand as I push out like I was used to doing.
I'll do another post tomorrow after I play another round of matches and see if I've learned anything from today. Let me know if you guys have any tips, advice, or if you want to hit me up for a match.
TL;DR: I'm still bad at Zerg, but I'm starting to see why and hopefully can get better.
Keep it classy, y'all. I'll be creepin' it up till next time.