Quote:
Originally Posted by goofyballer
Hahaha.
wrt scouting, I will give you THE GUIDE TO SCOUTING ZERG
Typical Zerg opening against Terran is to go hatch first, then take a pool, and take gas at some point later. The important thing to keep in mind is that until they take gas, the ONLY units Zerg can make are slow lings, which aren't good for much. You can tell a ton about what Zerg is planning based simply on when they take gas - until they do, they can't attack you.
If they do take gas, there's still a question of what they're spending it on. You should be able to tell with your scouts if you...
a.) click on the extractors and see how much gas has been mined from them, and notice how many drones (if any) are still mining from them
b.) are aware of what buildings the Zerg has in their base
Zergling speed is usually the first thing a Zerg spends their gas on; it costs 100 gas. Zergs will sometimes (probably not in silver, but good Zergs do this) pull all their drones out of gas after they get 100 if they don't intend to rush to further tech/upgrades, since continuing to mine gas is just costing them minerals if they don't plan to use the gas right away. The spawning pool will appear to shake somewhat rapidly while it's upgrading, to help you confirm if it's being upgraded.
The next thing you'll see is a baneling nest, which costs 50 gas; and of course, to actually make banelings they have to continue mining gas (a baneling costs 25 gas). Remember these will be slow banes.
The last thing a Zerg might spend gas on early on is roaches, but that's only if it's pretty much an all-in attack if they have no lair. The roach warren costs 150 minerals (no gas), but each roach costs 25 gas.
The very important thing you should try to keep track of is when the Zerg starts their lair.
The lair costs 100 gas and signals that the Zerg wants to go in to the midgame. A typical lair timing is around maybe 7 minutes or so (I'm really bad at knowing timings like that, just a guess). If you ever see something like a 5:30 lair, it's super early and the Z will likely be very vulnerable for spending so much on tech early on and having very few units. Remember that while on hatchery tech, these are the only units the Zerg can build:
Lings (fast or slow, depending on whether ling speed is upgrade)
Slow banelings (bane speed requires lair)
Slow roaches (roach speed requires lair)
This is something that took me awhile to realize as a Terran - based simply on knowing whether or not the Zerg has their lair, you have a ton of information about the types of attacks that can come at you in the early game.
Lair tech enables...
- spire (200 gas, plus 100 gas per mutalisk; a Zerg going mutas will usually have all their extractors taken pretty quickly, I think, cause they need a lot of gas to make them)
- baneling speed
- roach speed
- hydralisk den
- infestation pit
The infestation pit is something you should look out for, not just because it might mean the Zerg is making infestors, but because it's required for the Zerg to get a hive. Hive is necessary for...
- ultralisks (popular)
- greater spire (not so popular these days)
- 3/3 upgrades
- adrenal glands (faster ling attack)
So, a Zerg getting a hive wants to transition to the late game.
A lot of this was stuff that I didn't understand very well when I played T, so hopefully it gives you an idea of what to look for and how to tell what's coming at you before 10 mutas show up at your natural when you don't even have an engineering bay.
A couple of things worth mentioning:
You neglect to mention evo chambers, upgrades and timings which are crucial in ZvT.
Generally in a standard macro style game 1/1 will start before baneling nest OR lair.
Roaches can also come before lair without it meaning all in, roaches are a common safety unit to deal with things like hellbat drops etc, and are also powerful in the midgame.
A completely standard macro zerg style in the current meta the gas spending will go zergling speed>1/1 upgrades>lair>baneling nest>roach warren (optional)>2/2>spire>baneling speed>infestation pit>hive>3/3 and adrenal glands>ultralisk cavern.
So from this you can notice variations which can give clues as to the build.
Two all ins you might fear are the roach, baneling, ling bust which hits at around 8:30, and a 1/1 or 2/2 roach baneling ling speed timing. Obviously in lower leagues the timings are not as important.
However you can spot a roach baneling ling bust by spotting the lack of lair, lack of taking more than 2 gases, lack of evo chambers (probably the biggest clue) and an early roach warren. One tank and some rudimentary micro and you win if you know its coming.
To spot a later speed bane roach timing with 1/1 or 2/2 you need to scout the lack of spire or infestation pit after lair, that's the biggest clue. That means they are not teching so their entire econ is going to roach, ling bling, must be a bust or super aggressive midgame coming.
Dropping is the best form of scouting, so thats another tip, when dropping don't just focus on doing max damage, try to use it to pick up information.