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Hi TL!
Today I spent all day working on a build that I invented. As hard work means absolutely nothing to everyone on TL, I'm a 1800+ Diamond who went up ~150 points today doing this build and nothing else. It's the +1 Speedlings Build. Similar to Promethium's +1 Roach Build which I just saw just now , (though I didn't see that build until after I had collected a bunch of replays of my +1 Speedlings build) it relies heavily on extremely early upgrades for, you guessed it, Speedlings.
The theory behind this build is, a +1 upgrade to zerglings give an obscene +20% attack boost, which is extremely significant. With proper surround, you get insane DPS to crush your opponent, and then run into their mineral line to cripple their economy by overrunning their mineral lines with units that put up a significantly better fight than non-upgraded lings. This build absolutely punishes FE and gives you huge flexibility in what to do next because you're only investing in el cheapo zerglings.
Anyway, without further ado, here is the build:
10 Overlord 11 Scout 14 Gas 14 Pool 14 Evo Chamber (Save up 125, then build) @100% Evo Chamber, +1 Zerg Melee Attack 16 Queen 18 Overlord -During this time, you should get your second 100 gas. This should go towards Zergling Speed-
After this, build up some drones (in what I considered one of my best games, it actually hovered around 18 drones (!!) for a long time) and then start making ZERGLINGS.
Good Against: -Zerg Fast FE (Zerglings destroy spines in numbers, more on that later) -7 Roach Rush -1 or 2 Base Muta -Small amounts of banelings (with proper micro, obviously)
Bad Against: -A lot of banelings -Mass Roaches
Execution Follow the build order. Your first 100 gas should go to +1 attack and your next 100 gas should go towards zergling speed. If timed perfectly, they should finish at the same time, a timing that made me extremely happy (inmypants). From then on, start pumping Zerglings. What you're aiming for is a critical mass of zerglings of about 25-30 that will allow you to surround basically any unit aside from zerglings, which you'll be able to kill significantly faster anyway due to your +1 attack. If they're droning up super hard, don't be afraid to punish them earlier though. Depending on how well you do, you can choose to either continue to push with more lings, expand, or make an inbase hatch. When you get 150 gas, you should have the resources to choose between +1 armor or a second hatch. Because you have speedlings, you should have free reign over the vision of his base. Use it to scout for lair tech and react accordingly.
Against Air Now I know what you're thinking: what about Voidrays, Banshees, and Phoenixes? Zerglings can't attack air! Or can they?
No, they can't. I take a leaf from Saracen's Help Me Thread Sheth's Zerg FAQ someone's guide and suggest that you build Spore Colonies around your base at around 6 minutes. I usually inbase hatch for fear of air myself: 2 queens and 3 or so (well-placed) spores can repel just about any early air harassment.
Notes First and foremost, this is not a "follow this build and GG" build. While it can force victories, against better players adaptation is an absolute necessity. Transitioning into hydras to account for any air attacks is what I generally do, but against banelings roaches are viable too. Secondly, this build can be as all-in as you want. As I said, you can constantly produce zerglings from up to TWO queened hatcheries on as little as EIGHTEEN drones, but if you feel like building up your eco after the initial push, be my guest. Lastly, this build works against ALL races! It's true! It's effectiveness is diminished by icky Terran walls and beefy Zealots, but if there are backdoor rocks, it's still fair game. Destructible rocks seem to go down in half the time with the +1 upgrade, so don't be afraid to wail away at them for an additional line of attack or taking your "safe" expo on Delta Quadrant.
Replays (because you wouldn't believe me without 'em)
(opponent was not great, and close rush distance, but does show importance of the sub-8 minute timing push and surrounds)
If needed, I will collect more replays upon request. Obviously the strategy isn't perfect, and my macro is, frankly, atrocious. Let me know if it works out for you, too!
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I believe what you post is essentially the same as this +1 speedling timing attack build: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=166252
As mentioned in the thread, the built was designed for ZvZ, and it works very well there (my standard opening at 2k diamond, and I have well over 50% zvz win rate).
For ZvZ, a few remarks based on experience: - Any standard 1-base roach push is easy to defeat by a-moving zerglings. The only exception is very late pushes with large roach groups (hard to get surround). You need to tech up to beat those. I haven't played vs fast +1 roach, those might be a counter to this. - FE into roach is usually easy to beat if you don't try to force up the ramp. Just snipe his FE and expand yourself. Watch out for muta transition if his ramp is blocked. Roach/bling is more dangerous. - If the opponent FEs, it's often possible to either kill his nat or run-by and kill his drones. If he splits his army, attack it. Watch out for banelings. (You also want to expand yourself in the meantime.) - sling/bling is dangerous against this, and you will need blings too. You have an advantage due to +1, but it often boils down to whoever has the best ling/bling micro. And obviously, you don't want to stay on speedlings forever, but in ZvZ you can do very well in the early/mid-game with +1 sling and bling as necessary. If he blocks his ramp/adds spine crawlers, abuse map control to expand and deny his nat.
I haven't tried this against toss/terran, but perhaps I should.
One question: How do you deal with 2-rax aggression?
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Just so you know if you are suspecting alot of banes, switch to +1 armor, and you instantly double your survivability vs banes. my ZvZ uses fast armor. and it helps alot. if i see roach warren i cancel armor and get attack and do pretty much this, but i like to transition quickly and stay on top of everything, different style. but yeah upgrades are good.
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Actually this is the third time this build has been submitted to team liquid see:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=152128
and
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=166252
I use it a lot myself even though I get speed before +1.
Against roaches you need to attack as soon as you have speed and as soon as your +1 attack finishes or else the opponent will have critical mass. Another thing to look for is an evo in the opponent's base for +1 range attack. If he does that you need to spend 150 minerals into +1 carapace. If he ever gets +2 (unlikely but it can happen), you can't do anything about it (+2 carapace won't counter it roaches will 2 shot zerglings anyway). Throughout the game keep upgrading melee attack, and snipe buildings / queens / drones. Get lair fast (100 gas after both +1 and speed are done) and then tech to infestors. Eventually go to ultralisks / infestors with some speedlings. This composition will hard counter mass roaches, roach /hydra (if a lot of hydras make a lot of lings and upgrade carapace).
General thoughts on the build:
-17 drones is all you need per expos as long as you keep making lings and overlords. I like to make 1/2 more in order to be able to tech / expand at the same time in a timely fashion. - If you lose your first 10 lings you're way behind against most other builds so try to keep most of them alive. Your lings are precious and must keep being a threat for the whole game (keep poking, try sniping stuff). - If you see banelings upgrade carapace and micro snipe banelings with 1/2 zerglings. If you manage to isolate the banelings you won't lose any lings. - You need to be aware of mutas. Thankefully you already have an evo up so against fast muta, you need to drop a few spores. Later on you will have infestors.
-I disagree with the OP : it's a ZVZ build which doesn't let you do a lot else. It's decent against some protoss builds (kills 4gate, pretty good against blink stalker rush), good against marauder / marine early game. It's autoloss against some other builds (turtle based strats, upgraded zealots, mass sentry, fast air,...). However it's not really the same build. In ZvZ you'll be mainly all-in, which you can't be against toss / terran (more drones, faster expo)...
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I haven't seen many fast upgrade builds and I thought I was the first. Silly pride.
Anyway, Roach critical mass is a hard counter, but you get ling critical mass much sooner than that. Most games 25-30 zerglings can be out by 6 minutes, which is the usual timing for a 7rr. With queen and spine support, that can easily be surrounded and killed. From then on, a counter will prove effective in killing drones, and getting roaches in bad positioning.
2 rax aggressions, while I haven't run into much of it, can be stopped with a spine and drones, Idra style. The 11 scouting drone will tell you what they're up to (I've found it being able to get through the wall most of the times. Keep it alive and you'll know what's coming.
Finally, its a circumstantial build. I do believe in the viability of this build against other races if you're on a map with destructible rocks to circumvent their walls. As I said, rocks go down extremely quickly with that +1.
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I used to do a +1 3 hatch speedlings build vs 4 gates and it worked perfectly, I win the game right after the 4 gate. I think many people should start using +1 lings early game, it's insane.
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Having watched the replays, it seems that your opponents made some poor decisions which ended up in your winning the game.
Game 1 - ZvT on steppes Terran scouts the early pool, evo chamber and gas, but doesn't wall off. Later on another scouting SCV finds no expansion, and gets killed by a ton of lings. He proceeds to go for his expansion while also mining from 2 gas while only having a moderate number of marines to defend. He does eventually get a couple of bunkers by the ramp, but it's not walled off so you just run by.
Game 2 - ZvP on lost temple Again the protoss scouts the pool/evo/gas opener on 1 base, and the later scouting probe gets picked off by a ton of zerglings. Meanwhile, he has ... 2 gateways (no warpgates) and 2 stargates. His ramp opening is also quite large, the width of 2-3 zealots, one of which is not on hold command. This allows your lings to slip through, after which mayhem ensues.
For these two opponents, it seems that they both did a poor job of walling themselves, and decided to tech or expand despite seeing you build up a fairly large amount of lings early on. The ZvZ games seemed more reasonable, where aggressive early ling play is more common.
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I've tried builds like this in ZvZ. It seems that every time I do, my opponent scouts before I can get a ramp block/zergling speed, sees no tech in my base, immediately knows what's going on, and just plugs up his ramp with hold position roaches while going for some lair play that I can't scout let alone adapt to (sometimes mutas but most commonly mass +speed roaches.)
I've had success with little speedling rushes that don't use an evo chamber. You can't ramp block those without seriously hurting your economy, so I'm still in the game then. But evo chamber upgrades take too damn long.
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If they ramp block, tech to lair, sac an overlord or get an overseer and adapt from here. He just gave you the whole map to play with in the mean time (expand). If there are backdoor rocks, kill it and autowin. If he wants mutas get infestors anything else: outexpand and macro.
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sounds like regular speedling bane would pretty much stomp over this. +1 doesnt do tooo much in ling battles(if the lings reg 2 hp it does nothing) while banes can turn battles around pretty easily.
but yeah overall +1 speedling isnt a bad opener and has a good chance to give you full mapcontrol for quite some time
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Nice build, i will surely test this out for my zvz.
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Hey long time lurker here . I actually only play this build in ZvZ but your build order is very weak against any speedling build. You state above that its a 20% damage increase with a surround but if your opponent goes regular spellings your goin to lose to many lings to his due to his ability to surround yours and the key is to have a critical number when your +1 finishes. The build is solid but your risking a lot not getting the speed first. I have actually been seconds away from loses games because my speed disnt finish fast enough going speed first.
Just food for though
I'm currently 2215 with less then 250 games played.
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Against speed/banes with good micro it can hold it off until you can get a +1 carapace which takes 2 banes to kill lings which is a lot more cost effective against it.
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This is nothing more than a 1-base all in. 1-basing for 6 minutes as zerg? Spending 3 consecutive larvae injects on pure ling? Upgrading melee attack when there is only one unit in the zerg arsenal that actually benefits from it in the first 30 minutes of the game? Yeah... this is incredibly unstable and will lose to pretty much any player that actually decides to scout you more than once.
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On December 02 2010 01:13 Devook wrote: This is nothing more than a 1-base all in. 1-basing for 6 minutes as zerg? Spending 3 consecutive larvae injects on pure ling? Upgrading melee attack when there is only one unit in the zerg arsenal that actually benefits from it in the first 30 minutes of the game? Yeah... this is incredibly unstable and will lose to pretty much any player that actually decides to scout you more than once. zvz it works fantasticly well. i wouldnt say its my standard (i actually go for a handful of roaches to defend, start getting upgrades for them. then tech quick to lair, get 6 mutas to force hydra, then pump roaches on 1 base.) but i do it whenever i see someone 14 hatch (out of the 20 or so times people have tried 14 hatching against me, +1 lings has failed 1 time and that was on scrap).
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I like +1 speedling but I think you have to get your own banelings at some point or risk being stomped by your opponent's banelings. Also the only effective mid-game unit seems to be mutalisks since you don't have the good ranged units to abuse fungal growth, and you don't want to build hydralisks since they also get dominated by banelings.
Just saying, if your opponent goes roach infestor, and you go zergling infestor, or transition to roach infestor, you're sort of behind in the roach count at that point, since you built zerglings, and you might be behind in upgrades, so you're going to have to make up for it by having map control and being able to contain them in their base while you get an expansion up.
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On December 02 2010 02:34 Vaporized wrote:Show nested quote +On December 02 2010 01:13 Devook wrote: This is nothing more than a 1-base all in. 1-basing for 6 minutes as zerg? Spending 3 consecutive larvae injects on pure ling? Upgrading melee attack when there is only one unit in the zerg arsenal that actually benefits from it in the first 30 minutes of the game? Yeah... this is incredibly unstable and will lose to pretty much any player that actually decides to scout you more than once. zvz it works fantasticly well. i wouldnt say its my standard (i actually go for a handful of roaches to defend, start getting upgrades for them. then tech quick to lair, get 6 mutas to force hydra, then pump roaches on 1 base.) but i do it whenever i see someone 14 hatch (out of the 20 or so times people have tried 14 hatching against me, +1 lings has failed 1 time and that was on scrap). It works "fantastically well" because you are playing an incredibly volatile all in against bad players. 6pooling bronze leaguers works "fantastically well" but that doesn't mean a 6 pool is an intelligent or stable build.
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I used this build in platinum, and it worked great there. Once you get people actually scouting you, all it takes is a few banelings to completely ruin this. Also this is pretty all-in, since if you don't win straight up with it, you're pretty much just guaranteed to lose, no?
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I've used this build in ZvZ in the past with moderate success, especially during the beginning of heavy Roach play. Getting a solid amount of lings along with some harassment and good timings can wreck a lot of standard timings, especially on fat ramps like Metalapolis. However, as others have mentioned, the reliability of this build drops significantly in the other match-ups, the +1 to attack provides minimal improvement in takng down Terran with repair/bunker or against a Toss Zealot funnel wall-in.
The OP mentioned backdoor rocks, but most builds can take advantage of backdoors too, although I could see this working out against a Toss walled in to tech Blink Stalkers or Terran going Banshees on something like Blistering sands: would have to test the timing to break in and take out buildings before those got out.
My credentials as an SC player are low, but it's fairly evident there's far more solid builds for non ZvZ. Easily wrecks early expansions though, as with other 1 base "all-ins".
Basically: there's better builds for ZvT and ZvP so why not use those instead? Perhaps a fun alternative to humdrum monotonous play.
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On December 02 2010 03:03 Devook wrote:Show nested quote +On December 02 2010 02:34 Vaporized wrote:On December 02 2010 01:13 Devook wrote: This is nothing more than a 1-base all in. 1-basing for 6 minutes as zerg? Spending 3 consecutive larvae injects on pure ling? Upgrading melee attack when there is only one unit in the zerg arsenal that actually benefits from it in the first 30 minutes of the game? Yeah... this is incredibly unstable and will lose to pretty much any player that actually decides to scout you more than once. zvz it works fantasticly well. i wouldnt say its my standard (i actually go for a handful of roaches to defend, start getting upgrades for them. then tech quick to lair, get 6 mutas to force hydra, then pump roaches on 1 base.) but i do it whenever i see someone 14 hatch (out of the 20 or so times people have tried 14 hatching against me, +1 lings has failed 1 time and that was on scrap). It works "fantastically well" because you are playing an incredibly volatile all in against bad players. 6pooling bronze leaguers works "fantastically well" but that doesn't mean a 6 pool is an intelligent or stable build. how is it incredibly volatile? it will absolutely (no contest) crush any 14 hatch. blings are the only counter (blind blings no less because i will deny scouting, and when u 14 hatch that bling nest is usually just completed when i roll in), if he gets them it requires micro instead of a-move. i send my swarm right when +1 finishes. if he is droning then its just laughable. you can block your ramp with roaches, but then your expo will fall, and i will have the advantage. if the roaches come off the ramp then they will die and so will your main. lings +spines will do nothing.
its simple math. he spent resources on a hatch at the very least (always comes with drones+queen+spines too), i spent those resources on lings only and upgrades. i hit him before he can gain the economic advantage. its not hard to see why this works.
of course its all-in. thats the whole point. like i mentioned roach->muta->roach is my standard zvz. if someone is playing greedy then i end the game with +1 lings. if u can micro, banelings will not stop this. you can even fuck with his head. show his scouting overlord early game a roach warren. cancel it and go +1 lings. he will be fucked.
hatch first is a greedy build. it can be punished with +1 lings. 2k diamond. nothing else to say on this matter.
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