Please post zvt strategy! I only have about 5hr/week to practice, but I'm studying vs terran.
So, I am about c-b at zvp and zvz, so I've been massing my worst matchup: vs Terran.
It's a troublesome thing, because I'm torn between my "bagofbuilds" style, and standard 3hat muta, and all it's variation.
I'm decent, so I know what to do vs fast fact/wraith etc, just have a lot of trouble dealing with how powerful marines are early, if anyone wants to talk about the 3 hat muta style, that's cool, I think that's really what's necessary to master:
Here's an example replay of me playing vs a standard Korean:
He's not so aggresive as a gosu, so I'm able to get my lair up on spot time, and can do the recent "kill his army" muta/ling thing, until I get my tech/power going. He's so defensive it was pretty easy, but if anyone has the time, any errors you notice in my order would be greatly appreciated by me.
2. Here's a style I've been trying, just something I've made up, but it relies on speedlings into a drone mass, into a lurker/hydra style.
I did well early, my speedlings spotted vulture, so I made an emergency sunken, then I was smart with em, and kept him quite annoyed, and massed drones off a hidden base, which I quickly defended with lurkers, then I began a mass lurker/hydra rally, with +range, and eventually got everything.
Some mistakes:
I got ahead, and didn't claim the middle base, thinking I would win off having the two middle island, and I think I would have won anyway, if I had not done my muta switch as mass muta, as I got irradiated badly, and I think I could have gone guardians, but I was supply capped, and he went heavy turtle mode.
Any comments on 2017 zvt strategy, even if it's perfecting my 3hat muta, or perhaps your own creative approach to this matchup can go here.
1) terran suffers A LOT from chaos, be it few lings in the main, successful muta harassment sniping key scvs or a lurker drop (preferably with swarm). The more mechanically demanding you can make the game the more difficult it will be for terran. (in a sense that it will in most cases require more APM for terran to fix his macro than for zerg to cause the problem) 2) ZvT is about initiative. By principle, when you go standard 3 hath your army will be weaker through the whole mid game. Realizing that will always help you to determinate next move: you either create a threat (backstab, harassment) or you just sit still and tech/macro/defend. Option of being aggressive in mid game/early late game is usually a mistake, unless in huge lead. Also realize that swarm is the point where you can start taking fights. 3) Understand terran. Let me speed teach you some of the biggest terran dilemmas: A) speedling bust - always a consideration for all terrans. Terrans on all levels die to speed lings. Try to turn that into your adv (for example small pack of speed lings can pose a big threat in terrans mind) B) figuring out if zerg wants to play aggressively or defensively - terran has to find out if zerg is going for ambitious muta/ling into hive or safer muta/ling/lurker, and zerg has to understand the implications of that. Let me give some examples: if you go muta/ling without sunkens (with your 3rd base), you can expect a terran to try abuse that and put his M&M between your and his base - zerg has to be ready to either counterattack or try to smash the army (zerg cant wait for marine ball to grow). On the other hand, if you go 4-5 sunkens to defend, terran will add more turrets and may go for a quick tank, in which case forces zerg to go for either a very quick defiler or more reserved-defensive muta play to snipe a tank. There are quite few of these scenarios. 4) for late game, depending on map and position, terran has 2 choices: Sk terran (that can transition into bio tank) or mech. Its important to find out asap to adjust. If terran makes upgrades after 1-1 its 90% sk terran and best answer from zerg is swarm/plague asap, take 4th gas, make a lot of scourge/dropship defense and get relatively fast ultralisk. If terran goes mech (many vultures, low vessels, lifted barracks/ebay), the best answer is to start upgrading drops asap and follow up either with more dropships with ultras or a muta switch. Ultras are less important than constant drops or ling attacks. You can also add queens as an alternative to ultras.
So I played 5 zvt's today, and the korean pressured before medic, causing me to build lings, then we were neighbors, so I ended up building 2 sunkens, he had 20more mandm than he should have, ran straight to my distant 3rd gas, and killed it, then just was ez mode as he took his third and established a mine/marine/tank wall and sent out strike groups to hunt my hatcheries.
On November 28 2017 08:31 james1024 wrote: So I played 5 zvt's today, and the korean pressured before medic, causing me to build lings, then we were neighbors, so I ended up building 2 sunkens, he had 20more mandm than he should have, ran straight to my distant 3rd gas, and killed it, then just was ez mode as he took his third and established a mine/marine/tank wall and sent out strike groups to hunt my hatcheries.
I need my mutas out at 6:20... Will keep going!
The timing for how many sunkens you need to stop marines is something that will come with time, but in general at least 1 sunken per medic that he has, if not more.
As for defending the 3rd, assuming you're going mutas, I believe by the time mutas are moving out, you should also be ready to move 3 hydra to your 3rd already, and morph into lurkers when they get there, on the ramp, to stop those attacks. In the meantime, use your mutas to distract him, so if he goes out with marines to stop your 3rd, either kill stranded marines with micro, or attack his base where it's weak. It's hard for terran to be everywhere so you have to abuse his weak spots. Don't be afraid to kill a turret here and there to force him to come back. Also, practice muta micro using the muta micro map.
On November 28 2017 08:31 james1024 wrote: So I played 5 zvt's today, and the korean pressured before medic, causing me to build lings, then we were neighbors, so I ended up building 2 sunkens, he had 20more mandm than he should have, ran straight to my distant 3rd gas, and killed it, then just was ez mode as he took his third and established a mine/marine/tank wall and sent out strike groups to hunt my hatcheries.
On November 28 2017 08:31 james1024 wrote: So I played 5 zvt's today, and the korean pressured before medic, causing me to build lings, then we were neighbors, so I ended up building 2 sunkens, he had 20more mandm than he should have, ran straight to my distant 3rd gas, and killed it, then just was ez mode as he took his third and established a mine/marine/tank wall and sent out strike groups to hunt my hatcheries.