[G][D] My ZvT strategy (with hydras)

I'm a bit hesitant in posting this here because I don't know if it will become new metagame or not. I sure hope not cause I like having my unique playstyle. I'm a high master Eu zerg player and I recently joined the dutch clan [Knights-Gaming]. I'm also writing this because everyone I played or spoke reacted astonished after they saw me use hydras. Just opening a nice discussion here.

This strategy involves hydras because hydras deal damage fast and hard. On top of that, they kill air units, making banshees a bit useless (which is metagame right now) and drops much easier to handle. Infestors will only have to cast IT to soak tank shots, saving lots of energy for fungals in the lategame to support the broodlord army.

This style uses a combination of four units to stay alive to get that late game zerg army. Hydra ling baneling infestor. With the dmg and range, hydras can kill small marine skirmishes coming forward without suffering tank fire. Lings are there just because they are good in zvt (they are the main unit in every build so upgrading them is pretty crucial for this strat) banelings are there to kill clumped units, doesn't matter if marines, hellions, tanks or marauders. Infestors lock everything down so he can't kite.

Note that I choose to keep this general because there are many ways to enter the mid game. Gas first or even 6 queen openings. The key here is to just spread the creep midgame and kill pushes as fast as possible to suffer the least ammount of damage. For the players that like build orders though:
hatch 1st
gas after 4th or 6th queen
lair
double evo
speed
3rd
after lair hydraden
8 hydras and at least 20 lings to defend
infestation pit after hydras are out and 3rd done

If you choose to not get more queens than hatches early game, I strongly suggest adding 2 queens midgame to spread creep. This helps a ton late game and mid game against pushes and harrassment. Even spread in your base.

http://drop.sc/271904
This game he goes makarax and I go gas after pool, meaning I won't have the minerals to go additional queens. Even though he delayed me, the game was played on tal darim altar, which means I will see his push coming from miles away.

In this scenario, he went for 3cc and double factory. Hydras do well vs tanks if only they are attacking. Use lings as damage tankers. He made lots of tanks so it's only logic he would be in a disadvantage once I got my bl out.

Note that I engage on creep and that I spread my units out and use IT to soak tank fire. There were no hydras lost 1st and 2nd engagement.

burrow
Get this after 6 infestors. It's very helpful to deny expos and hide infestors. Also forces scans if you burrow some units around while he sees it.
Overlord speed
Always helpful if he decides to use the vikings to kill overlords instead of chilling and wait for the main battle. Also very helpful to scout tech switches. Get is together with burrow cause you'll forget.
Overlord speed
No. I don't get this because overlord drops are unneccessary. Once you drop, the units won't be able to defend and will be lost if the terran just stims in and kamikazepushes you. It's only good vs mech and even then I would still prefer teching to bl very fast.
Nydus
I know this is no upgrade but I still think it's kind of an upgrade. nydusing is only good late game and even then not good enough.you should do it to spread extra creep and get his army out of position. It's very difficult to pull off and not worth the apm. Since you will have 200/200 bl infestor corruptor, there won't be any units to go inside the nydus.
range attack
This is very helpful if you decide to help out your late game army with some hydras. Even if you don't it's still good with infested terrans. A free unit that gets upgrades.

So just get ovie speed range upgrade and burrow.

I remember always forgetting overlords when I played the 4-6 queen openings. So I figured out when to make overlords: 9, 17, 25, 32(double) after that I go freestyle

Pros
high speed on creep
less apm spent on defending drops
slows tank marine pushes
high dps
good support for broodlords
extra dps on top of lings
more energy on infestors late game due to no IT thrown to kill drops

cons
delayed tech
squishy unit (this problem can be dealt with. Just retreat and kite to slow pushes)
Bad (depends on how many lings you have and if you can retreat in time) off creep

because they are so cost effective against marines. I like cost efficiency, hence the hydras. They also do well vs hellions. Often mech players will have 20+ hellions in front of the tanks to deal with swarming. Banelings kill them pretty fast, leaving tanks unprotected.

after making the first hatch, saturate main for up to 16 drones (2 on each ofcourse, this takes practice, sometimes there will be 3 drones stacked on 1 mineral). rally rest to natural. After 16 drones are reached at natural, rally main hatch to main minerals.Having efficient mineral income helps.

Defending against small marine pushes (8-10) should be pretty easy since you don't have a 3rd and have 4-6 queens. Hellions shouldn't be much of a problem either. Just position the queens so he will have to risk everything if he goes in for drones.

In the midgame just defend and after getting infestors, drop spines and spores. Against terran they only serve to delay damage dealt to economy or tech, send lings and hydras to deal with the drop. Just position the spines and spores like I do and you'll be fine.

You should have infestors popping out (about 6). You can make more but as I said, going hydras frees energy to use on fungals. Always have 5-15 banelings depending on marine and tank count. I rather use the rest of my gas to tech to broods.

hive and spire at the same time. 100 sec for both so you can make greater spire immediately.

Now you should have brood lords. Secure up to 5 bases or more to mine the gas. make spines and spores and replace the drones.It's ok now to have minerals banked. Also, queens won't be needed to spawn larva so I suggest spreading creep instead and transfuse low hp broods infestors or corruptors.

Bring in the queens. They help push the creep forward and transfuse.


I usually don't remake hydras if I lose them. I think my gas is better invested in corruptors but having 8 hydras is always a good idea. The ones you make should be kept alive by retreating and microing.

With hydras on creep, your army mobility is pretty fast. Having creep reaching all sides of the map is in my opinion quite handy in the midgame to deal with pushes. spread your army out and 1a into the terran army. I'm talking about flanking. You should always do that if you can. Why not? you got the creep to retreat and vision to feel safe.

Vs tanks you should summon some infested terrans to soak the damage, then 1a. An infested terran egg has 100 hp so at least 2 tank shots will be wasted.

If you have many lings, just select half of them, move them forward and 1a again.

Spread banelings so that one tank won't splashkill all of them.

Broodlord control
I use ctrl to select all broods or all corruptors and my main army hotkey (1) to select all attacking units. If you see viklings just move bl back and attack with corruptors. fungal ftw. Microing big armies requires practice (although I don't think you need to practice too much to learn zerg micro, its pretty easy).

Vs hellions, move units so they line up horizontally, fungal then 1a.

Isolate the hellions

try to kill the rest. If outnumbered, retreat

Against mech it's actually pretty easy to pull off. The hydras will remain behind the lings and tanks will naturally focus fire the lings. If he focus fires the hydras, he will lose all tanks anyways to lings because of surround. I had a game where he went 2port banshee and I just made 20 hydras. He pushed with 8 or so tanks and bf hellions and I just crushed the push losing 0 hydras. If he does not go banshee it's even better. It means you will have bl faster. You can still make 15 or so but they are mostly used for defense.
http://drop.sc/273154
This is the rep.

Start out with 2base hydra. Going 2base will grant you earlier hydras and earlier upgrades. Once you get better at microing them and moving them around and engaging, you can move on to the 3base hydra. This is how I learned it and I suggest you give it a try. There is no reason not to try this out.

This is the first time I use it I think. It's been a while so It's kind of outdated.
http://drop.sc/264851
Here are the reps you should watch to learn something
http://drop.sc/269726
http://drop.sc/269727
http://drop.sc/269728
http://drop.sc/269729

http://drop.sc/269811
http://drop.sc/269812
http://drop.sc/269849
http://drop.sc/269850
http://drop.sc/269859
http://drop.sc/271907

Couple of months ago, I started doing 2base fast hydra instead of fast muta. I liked that so decided to use it on ladder. It worked pretty well and now that queens can defend a lot of terran aggression, I think this is pretty safe to do. Now that creepspread isnt a problem anymore (mass queen energy) There is more option for the hydras to come into play. Don't you agree?

So I went from 2base hydra rush to 4-6 queen 2base hydra. The metagame right now allows for it. Terrans are more greedy so the pushes become defendable. They can kill some creep but it wont win the game for them. Just respread.

I've been planning to write this for a while and I think I never put so much effort into a guide before. Be sure to leave a comment and fill the polls. Got any suggestions on how to make this guide more readable/enjoyable? Should I add something? Leave a comment below. Also thanks for reading this.

I kind of listed the pros and cons above but lets get deeper into the differences between the three main choices of tech. Going mutas requires lots of apm to keep moving with your army and keeping track of his. Harrassing requires lots and lots of apm so you will have less to spend on macro and creep. I'm pretending you have limited apm so I think that's a huge deal. On some maps, you will be able to deny the 4th base just by spreading creep. Furthermore, going mutas eats gas. Tech will be delayed and if the game extends to the map mining out, you will lose most of the time just because mutalingbaneling is less cost effective than broods infestors. I have had lots of games where I go mutas and just lose my ability to play further at my 100%. This strat is way easier to use.

Going fast infestors will grant you more gas in the end but marauders will start becoming a problem. They deal a lot of damage to infestors and don't die to 2 fungals. Also, you will need more energy to deal with drops (spawn infested terrans and keep meds locked). Having hydras is quite helpful against banshee harrass (mech).

You don't outline the pros of it over other substitutes.

What makes your build actually better? Sure, you can say it "makes banshees useless" but hydras don't come in time when the first 1 or 2 banshees come out. At the same time, you don't elaborate on what to do with them. You make 8 hydras total then never build more? They're super expensive, they're NOT good vs hellions beyond low amounts (assuming you stick with 8), and a baneling/hydra composition would get utterly stomped by mech.

Your initial build order is a little irrelevant as well, since it's no different than the standard meta. You don't really need it, it felt tedious reading, as I was waiting for something new. You need to convince us why hydras are worth their very expensive investment, when Roaches are cheaper, their speed upgrade is cheaper, and they move much faster and are tankier. While Roaches cannot shoot banshees, queens are adequate at defending, and hydras aren't used for their offensive potential anyways.