Replay: Defensive Victory

You can find the replay here.

After watching Day[9] commentate on Artosis and his interesting style of play here and here, the idea began to really appeal to me. It seems contrary to the way you would think Zerg should be played; they're fast, cheap, and seem perfect for lightning quick assaults and sneaky back-door attacks.

Essentially, he focuses hugely on economy, at least in these beta games, and makes just enough of an army to respond to whatever his opponent throws at him. It takes a watchful eye and amazing micro and macro management, but it's awesome to behold when done correctly as Artosis seems to do.

I think that mindset is influencing my play and in a positive fashion. So I present you with a replay of my own to watch if you want and some of the lessons I took from the game. Please note, I'm aware a lot of mistakes, dropped balls, and such were made in this game. I'm learning and hopefully reducing the glaring errors as I progress. But if you see something I haven't touched on that I did wrong or could have done differently, by all means point it out.

So here it goes...



Paranoia
Whenever I face another Zerg player, I am immediately paranoid of them 6 or 8 pooling for the quick win. I used to do it and I know how much it frustrates others and how ineffective it is at anything but the lowest skill levels, so I have trained myself not to do it. However, in order to counter a 6 or 8 pool, the only method I know of is to do something similar.

So I start off with an 8 pool just to get some units to scout/counter a rush with. I also end up using them to scout and kill a queen early on before settling in defensively. This hurts me economically early on, but my paranoia about early rushes is quite powerful.

Gas Before Pool
Notice when I get my gas ahead of my pool, my pool finishes just as or just before I get 100 gas. This lets me immediately start evolving Metabolic Boost(zergling speed) and is key to a solid defense with zerglings early on.

Habits to Improve
Scout early, scout often! I suffered several times for not scouting properly. I got surprised by banelings(I knew he'd be making them, but didn't see them until they were on their way) and missed that gold expo for quite some time.

Spread Creep! There are several reasons creep = awesome. It allows more defensive buildings to be built at choke points and marched ahead when necessary. It gives a significant speed boost to all zerg units while they're on it, allowing for quick reactions to attacks anywhere on your creep. The psychological edge it gives you is fairly important as well. Spreading creep increases the perceived size of your bases and establishes that you are in control of everything it touches. Nothing is more intimidating than looking at the minimap and seeing half the map one solid color when it's not yours.

Use what you build! Several times, I built things and then proceeded to either use them too late or not at all. My expo spine crawlers are a good example. Who knew they ran like headless chickens if caught uprooted? Another super embarrassing example was my evo chamber; it sat there for 4.5 minutes before I started evolving my first upgrade. I was disgusted with myself once I counted that time during the replay.

Units
The standard ZvZ strategy is quick zerglings and then banelings. Properly used, that usually ends things pretty quickly. I agree that it's effective, but not efficient. Since I was playing defensively, I decided to build roaches which are great against banelings because of their high armor. However, my first expo didn't fair quite as well.

My queens are a source of constant frustration for me. I'm always forgetting about them and letting them languish with far too much energy. Always remember to spawn larvae with all your queens. Control groups(I didn't use them in this game. Bleh.) are great for this. Also, queens are the only ones who can repair your buildings. I lost my first expo because I never repaired it. Always repair buildings with queens, even at the expense of spawning.

I stole my roach/hydra combo from watching Artosis, but I'm sure it's a common one. Yes, roaches got nerfed between beta and now, but they're still great shields for squishier units like the hydralisks. They're there to soak up banelings and hold off zerglings while the hydras go to town on them. Good, solid combo that I intend to make more use out of.

Stay Defensive/Stick to Your Plan
The main theme of this replay is staying on the defensive. Notice that aside from my initial 6 zergling kamikaze scout and the attack on the expo(which was far to exposed), I stayed entirely on the defensive waiting for him to come to me. I worked my economy(most of the time) and responded to what he sent at me with a reasonably sized force, all the while expanding and solidifying my control of the map. At least, that was the plan.

Even when he baneling busted my natural expo, notice I immediately rebuilt it and reinforced it to prevent that from happening again. Stick with your plan and as soon as the crisis is over, continue on like it never happened. I'm not saying blindly keep building that hatchery again and again while watching it get busted, but after reacting and reinforcing you need to resume your original plan.

All in all, that game taught and reinforced a number of lessons that hopefully I'll retain and remember. If they prove useful to any of you, even better.

Cheers!