An artist's depiction of an Extended Unit Death
Disclaimer: I am a Silver League player (placed in Bronze, then worked on my game, went to Silver in ~10 games) that always plays Random.
The lack of a Queen early game is honestly what killed you. It's hard to give advice based on the replay, because when you make a mistake like that, it really doesn't show how you would play otherwise. Here's some notes, though:
- You went for your first gas much too early. I would have thrown down the Spawning Pool first (I like to go 10-pool just to get my Queen out early). If you noticed, you didn't spend the gas until you reached 200 (you used it on a Lair, which only requires 100 gas). The build would have been perfect if you got Zergling speed as soon as you got your first hundred gas.
- You were lacking in hotkeys, aside from your army. What I like to do is have my Hatcheries on one and Queens on another, so I can quickly inject/select larvae. (Side note: if you have a group of Queens selected and tell them to inject a Hatchery, it will pick the closest Queen, so you don't have to worry about it). You can use the backspace key to automatically move your screen between bases, which is quite useful for Zerg.
- Hydralisks (although I know you like them) weren't the appropriate response when you saw the factory tech appearing. Hydras are great against Barracks units, but put them in front of a tank and it's lights-out they require support (normally Roaches) because they're fragile.
- In general, you do not want to engage an army with your units off of creep. Your main and natural weren't connected by creep, which can sometimes be a problem.
- Having more than one Queen per Hatchery will help with creep spread. Creep is also a great way to gain vision.
- Your scouting Overlord!!! You do not want to lose those 100 minerals and cause a supply block so early into the game. When you see the Barracks producing a Marine, you have overstayed your welcome (likewise, when a Cybernetics is up and a Gateway is producing, or when a Spawning Pool is up and the Hatchery is making a Queen).
- You did a great job with hovering Overlords around the edges of your main.
- Your APM is not too shabby.
- You had good saturation on your Main, but you needed quite a few more drones on your natural expansion.
- Upgrades are relatively cheap and benefit you greatly.
Regarding "How do I macro?":
- Try to always have a Queen injecting your Hatchery. It's easier to manage multiple bases if all the Hatcheries are injected around the same time. (See the hotkey tip above)
- If you're not comfortable taking a third base, stick with two. If you're floating a lot of resources and are nowhere near max supply, make a macro-Hatchery in your main. However, you should consider grabbing a third, even if it's only for gas.
- Drone up as fast as you can. You want to have enough resources income to quickly resupply yourself after losing your army in a battle.
Regarding "Should I scout with Drone or Ovie?":
- For this map, your scouting was absolutely correct. If your opponent had not spawned close-by-air, you should send a drone to locate him.
- Generally, you want to send your Overlord towards their base. If it's a long distance, I would order it off to the side of the base so they can't snipe it with early Marines/Stalkers/Queens. You can sacrifice it later if you feel the need to scout.
- If it's a long distance, send a drone.
- If you're going against Zerg, you can spread Overlords around the map, as air-attacking units don't normally appear until mid-to-late game, and this is a good way to see the map. I usually don't do this, though, because I'm always nervous about my poor Overlords dying.
This is my general build for Zerg:
- 10 Pool, 9 or 10 Overlord
- Once pool is up, make a Queen
- Many, many Drones
- Expand
- Start second Queen before expansion is up
- Spam Drones again (there's an Overlord or two in here somewhere)
- Send first Queen to expansion a bit before second Queen is up
- When expansion is up, send some drones (depending on mineral-line saturation), throw down two or three spine crawlers
I like this build if I want to get a good economy going (even though it's not an economy build). Of course, this varies, and you shouldn't follow it by-the-book but rather find something that works for you.
New build:
- 9 Overlord
- 14 Hatch
- 15 Pool
- 16 Extractor
- Drone/Overlord until Pool is up, start Queen(s)
- Roach Warren
Changes based on what I see from my opponent, but I've been favoring early Roaches.P.S.: Some other responses you may get in this thread may say things like "You need to scout more; sacrifice those Overlords," "You absolutely must spread creep everywhere," "Go with this exact build," "Expand immediately and always have one base above your opponent." While these may be good advice for higher-level players, it is almost complete garbage until basic game mechanics are mastered. (For example, I was playing ZvZ and the other player was determined to have a third base, but it was never populated because he couldn't handle the macro. I would waltz in there with a group of Lings and Roaches, destroy the Hatchery and the 1-2 drones he had there, leave, and come back later when he built another Hatchery).
Edit: I'd like to point out that I'm the only one who's actually watched your replay, so I'm not just giving generic advice.
Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on Jul 16 2011, 11:35 pm by Roy.
