Lately, I've stopped avoiding ZvZ and have decided I want to start learning this match up.
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When I joined bw half a year ago, people described ZvZ as being intense and micro focused with little to no strategy. I've come to learn however that it feels incredibly important in ZvZ to make the right decisions constantly. Having great micro allows you to win despite making less than optimal decisions but I would say decision making trumps micro.
I want to say this is also the case at all skill levels, but I refrain from doing so as I'm not good enough yet to make such a comment.
Basically, the openings in ZvZ can give relatively significant advantages to one player. It's critical to know how to respond to every different opening and to what you're opponent is doing. It's important to know whether you should keep pressuring with your zerglings or retreat and block your ramp for example. Do you make another drone or do you need more zerglings? Can you save larva for mutalisks or will this backfire when his lings are ravaging your drone line before mutas spawn...
I want to say this is also the case at all skill levels, but I refrain from doing so as I'm not good enough yet to make such a comment.
Basically, the openings in ZvZ can give relatively significant advantages to one player. It's critical to know how to respond to every different opening and to what you're opponent is doing. It's important to know whether you should keep pressuring with your zerglings or retreat and block your ramp for example. Do you make another drone or do you need more zerglings? Can you save larva for mutalisks or will this backfire when his lings are ravaging your drone line before mutas spawn...
For now I've settled on 9 pooling every game, trying to gain some experience and feeling for what I should be doing versus all the different openings, how I can translate advantages into wins and negate disadvantages to get back into the game.
Currently I'm having a problem when I play 9 pool versus one base 12 hatch. I'm not sure whether I'm making the right decisions, maybe I end up overstaying my welcome and eventually start to lose too many lings for nothing which weakens my mid game? I tend to always harm his economy substantially and manage to survive his inevitable ling flood while I save larva for mutalisks.
I generally don't have any problems when they go mutalisks themselves since I know what to do versus them and through my early mutalisks I manage to secure a natural expansion. I also have relatively good control in mutalisks battles and versus scourge.
But... I do have problems when they go hydralisks on one base. I'm confident that I'm making the wrong decisions. The game always end up the same.
1. Their spores make any initial harass ineffective
2. They get a strong economy through having 2 hatcheries, while I have 1.
3. My mutalisk number is way too low when they eventually move out and their reinforcements come a lot faster than mine.
One of my problems is that I don't know how to get a strong enough economy and enough army in such a small time window, mainly because I'm so limited through larva.
This is a game I've played recently which perfectly illustrates my problems.
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https://www.dropbox.com/s/ofjk778mfcb9q28/1424%20gogames%20CrispyDrone.rep?dl=0
I've analyzed the game and there are quite some superficial mistakes, which if I had not made them, I might have hold his push.
But I'm hoping to find some deeper flaws related to strategy, what should I be doing, what should be my goal?
This is what I've come up with:
1. I think it's important to get my mutalisk number to around 6-7 as fast as I can. This number of mutalisks can deal with lings quite effectively. Furthermore 6-7 mutalisks force him to invest in more spores and I can one-shot drones quite easily.
2. After making these mutalisks, I think I should take drones off gas and invest in 2 hatcheries, one at my natural expansion. I'm always larva starved on two hatcheries. If I want to make lings as well, I definitely need a lot of larva. After I make the two hatcheries, I can put drones back on gas.
3. It's very important that I harrass his drone line even if I take damage on mutalisks. Every drone that I kill forces him to waste larva to remake it (and minerals). It significantly delays his push!!
4. Drone really hard, get second geyser and start making mutalisks.
I have been considering something drastically different. Can 3 hatch speedlings beat 2 hatch hydras? I think so when I think about the numbers. About 4 larva spawn per minute per hatchery which means 8 hydras per minute versus 24 zerglings per minute.
Do you think it might be a lot more effective to just make speedlings from 3 hatcheries to overwhelm him when he moves out and then start making mutalisks? Since there's such a short amount of time to make 2 hatcheries, get enough drones to support mutalisk production and then also make enough mutalisks to actually beat the push...
Thanks for any help. Much appreciated.