This is example is from Idra vs Elfi VOD cast by Crota. I like Crota's casting, he is so enthusiastic about Starcraft, please follow his youtube so he will keep bringing us games like this one!
Unlike previous post about Protoss dropping Zerg, this Zerg (Idra) has very good Defensive Mechanics, I think of Idra as a Mechanics focused player.
Elfi uses a beautiful Strategy to clear those Overlords so he can make a successful drop. I provide my detailed thoughts below the embedded VOD.
Elfi uses Phoenix to clear both scouting Overlord(s) & the "Picket line" (my term) of Overlords that provided vision to spot incoming Drops.
They also snipe the Queens, which reduces Idra's immediate defense, but also hurts his economy and production. With no Queens for Larva Injections, there will not be many larva for morphing into units or drones.
Let's pause a moment and note that even if nothing else is done, these are three small advantages (Map Control/Vision, Loss of Supply, Production/Economy/Larva injects) that Elfi has gained. Not game winning, not even permanent. But real and useful none the less.
But like a good Chess or SC2 player, Elfi leverages these two small advantages into a bigger one.
He flys a Warp Prism into a corner of Idra's Main, in which the Phoenix have denied vision, and starts warping in Zealots directly into Idra's main. [There were some lings that the Phoenix missed in the middle that the Prism flew over, but if Idra saw it, he probably did it is Idra, I'm guessing he thought it was a Phoenix on Rally or scout path.)
Beautifully timed +1 Attack for the Zealots!
Elfi focused down the Spores, which I thought was a mistake the first time I watched.
Then I realized that he was planning on using the Phoenix and Zealot together in Idra's main, so he wanted the Spores gone so they would not hurt the Phoenix.
Phoenix do bonus damage to light, they actually do 18 DPS to the Hydra's vs the Hydra's 14 DPS, not to mention the Phoenix have 100 more HP/Shield total than the Hydra (120hp/60 shield vs 80 HP).
This was a solid, beautiful, Strategy. Lot more than trying for a simple hard or soft counter.
Elfi had a clear transition planned out, he already had Robo Support bay warped in (I spotted it on the Production tab) and was researching Thermal Lance for Colosus when Idra GG.
Right when Crota is saying Elfi doesn't have a Transition because he is on two bases, a Probe is moving to put Nexus down at the safe close 3rd, outside the Main's ledge, and there is a Robo just above that spot building a Colossus.
And at 12:36 when Crota puts camera on Elfi's main you can see the Robo Support bay is about 20% done with Thermal Lance. It is hard to see but there is also one Robo making something, certainly a Colosus IMO at top left of the camera view. [I really want this replay]
Also note the Resource Tab for Elfi, he has banked a ton of Gas so he can start pumping Colossus, which will rip apart the Hydras that were only unit Idra had been making!
Deepest layered Strategy I have seen so far in SC2.
Think Day9 will like this one to.
[edited to add below 10/13/2011 @ 17:08 CDT]
I have been thinking hard about what Zerg should have done differently.
A few things stand out:
- Poor Defensive Creep Spread
- No Nydus
- No Burrow
- Not Enough Queens
- No Counter Attack
IMO the best Defensive Mechanic for Zerg is make a NYDUS!!! So you get surprised by Banshee, Voidray, Drop, the Nydus defensivly lets you save more drones! Lets you move units around faster to defend. Also enables many Counter Attack threats. You can even use it for vision and creep spread.
A Viking or Phoenix can kill or push away Overlord Picket line, but they can't do that to Nydus worm. Yes Viking could land and attack, but lings work pretty well vs ground mode Viking, and I am not saying it is permanent response, but a Reactive one. So the air unit is pushing your ovie away from coner of base that doens't have creep yet? Throw down the worm!
Burrow should be researched evey game for Zerg like Warpgate is for Protoss. You can always burrow drones to try to save them, you can burrow any attacking unit when it gets low HP, not just Roaches.
For base defense Burrow, also allows you to save units till you can mass enough to attack in useful fashion, let the buildings tank damage for a bit. You can always unborrow one or two units at a time for quick harass to delay focus fire on buildings if you have the APM to spare.
When I have seen Idra rage about Blink Stalkers, I really want to ask him why he doesn't use Burrow Micro to try and counter it? Yes, if they have detection it may not doing any good, but then again it might. They would have to spend more time/money/gas/apm on detection & if they are using Blink Micro they are probably near their APM limit already.
Zerg players do tend to have better APM & unit control because they need it to control Zerglins and Mutas effectively. So they might do okay with this even if enemy has dection, though I think Overseers Contaminating Robo or Raven producing Starports could help a lot with this.
Queens have the same DPS as Roaches, they also have the same ground attack range as old Roaches, but they have 30 more HP. They also have Transfuse and Spawn Creep Tumor, very powerful spells. Queens are neither Light or Armored so they don't take bonus damage from any unit except Archons or Snipe becasue they are bio. They are also the only Magic Unit in the game that doesn't cost gas!
The Phoenix would have needed ~20 shots to kill queen vs 5 to kill Hydras. The Zealots need 10 hits to kill a Queen vs 5 to kill Hydras. That doesn't even count Transfuse!
Queen + Hydra has a lot of synergy!
Counter attacking is always something to think about, when possible it is a more efficient defense. In Chess one of the more important lessons to learn when you spot an attack is, can I ignore it? Which means not wasting resources on defense. Because defense does not win the game. Creep makes all Zerg offensive ground units faster.
As Zerg if you make more Queens and less Hydras to defend vs Air Attacks, including drops, once you have denied enemy, or even before, you can work hard on a fast creep highway straight to the weak point of their base. Hydras on creep move as fast as Stimmed Marine/Marauder. Off creep they move same speed as unstimmed Marine/Maurader.
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