Experiment in Tier 1 Play: Zerglings, Roaches, & Banelings! Oh My!

You might be wondering why I have a picture of an Ultralisk here at the top of a post about Tier 1 play as Zerg. I would agree that your question is a valid one and the reason I have chosen to taunt you with this image is because if you make the crazy decision to only play Tier 1 in Starcraft II, you will never see this unit. You will never hear the majestic flapping of a Mutalisk's bat-like wings or the musical "Screeeeeeeee" of a Nydus Worm bursting forth into an opponents undefended base. If you limit yourself to Tier 1, you will experience the game in a whole new way.

You might ask why anyone would decide to only play using Tier 1 tech in any serious match? My first guess was that these insane players might have read Rahlekk's post on what he so aptly calls "Hatchery Tech" and wanted to give it a try. Hopefully that's the reason, because the others involve imbibing large quantities of household chemicals and listening to a talking rat that sits beside their computers.

For your approval, I submit the following two replays, here and here. The first replay shows a loss at the hands of a Terran and the second a win at the hands of a different, though equally dastardly Terran. If you give them a watch, I think you will notice a certain trend in these games.

Things I Liked About Tier 1 Tech

Big Numbers - You never have to worry about not being able to make enough units. When you can max out all your upgrades and build all your buildings for around 1000 minerals and some gas(I only roughly tallied it), you end up with a lot of surplus money with very little to spend it on.

I'm not sure if it's a testament to my skill or lack there of, but I rarely hit 200 supply in my games. I hit it in the first replay. The second, I kept my units a bit more conservative, but still 100 supply of Tier 1 units is a lot of units.

Less Macro Required - Since you finish building/upgrading relatively early, you really don't need to focus much on macro. You can and should still build static defenses(Spine/Spore Crawlers) and maybe an extra hatchery, but besides that your base building is done.

You Are The Swarm - With just Tier 1 units, you actually feel more Zerg-like than you normally do when mixing units. 200 supply of a mixture of Hydras, Roaches, Infestors, and Ultras is one thing. 200 supply of almost solely Speedlings is like watching a tidal wave of claws rushing towards your opponent, leaving nothing in its wake.

Things That I Didn't Like

Cloaking - You have one way to detect cloaked units in Tier 1-- The Spore Crawler. That's nice, but it means you have to be careful when your units are away from your base and you need to build a bunch of them inside your base to avoid blindness should they focus-fire one down.

Islands - Oh my god. It didn't occur to me when I began that this would be an issue. Both of my games resulted in my opponent lifting off and setting up shop on an island or two. My win probably would have stayed a win, since I could keep expanding and had an economy. My loss I think was because of the islands; if I could have pressed the attack after I destroyed his main, I think I would have won.

Easily Countered - This didn't happen in either of my games, but Ling/Bling/Roach is not exactly immune to hard counters. Hellions, Siege Tanks, or a large amount of any anti-ground flying unit would have ruined my day. 

All in all, it was an interesting experiment and you really learn to appreciate Tier 2 and Tier 3 after something like this. By the second game, I was ACHING for Overlord Speed. I challenge all of you to give this experiment a try and see what you learn. If you do, please leave a comment here and tell me how it went!