[nirvAnA]

Replay Analysis #4 - Silver Featuring Baugi

This is the 4th instalment of our Replay Analysis series for TGM subscribers and part of our new content being produced every week! I've decided to release it to everyone so other BSG players may benefit from it as well as to show you what else TGM subscribers will get - and that we are really doing our best to help you improve This analysis contains a lot of common mistakes lower league players make that they might not be fully aware off that are keeping them from promotion, and suggests what you can do to improve them.

If you are a platinum league and above player, please don't read it this any further, you probably won't learn anything from it as it focuses on basic mechanics / scouting. You would however benefit from the plat/diamond replay analysis links at the bottom which focuses on more subtle strategy.

Disclaimer: The sole reason for this series is to help our replay submitters and similar level players further improve their game and hopefully break the next barrier to promotion. As such, if I sound harsh it is not intentional, please do not take any of the suggestions/advice the wrong way! You have been awesome to put yourself out there - big props to you this is already a great learning attitude to have. What's also great is you will also be helping similar players of the same level learn!

Next up in our TGM Member Replay analysis is American Silver League player Baugi ! Thanks for sending in your replay which can be downloaded here.

First off I'll like to start with the things i liked.

Hotkeys - Good usage, loved how you hotkeyed all your queens and hatcheries and most good zerg players use a similar set-up as well. A slight tweak will be to separate your army hotkeys into 3 rather than all in 1. roaches would be in hotkey 1, hydras in 2 and corruptors in 3. This would make it much easier to reposition your army during battles, so your roaches tank and stay infront of your fragile high dps hydras and also so you can use corruptors to quickly focus down collosi.

Build order / Unit composition - This was generally good, loved the upgrades and your unit composition was great vs his strategy. For BSG players, it is common to note that their strategy is normally more than adequate, but it is their mechanics that hold them back from getting promoted.

I will focus on two key areas you need to improve to let you almost instantly jump out of silver.

Minor Suggestions - Lack of map control

Zerg are the race with the best map control so you have to use that to your advantage. Heres a quick snap shot at the 18 minute mark.

Overlord spread - The very first two overlords were spread around the map great but as the game progresses, don't leave them in your base - you should be spread them throughout the map.

nirvAnA passed a legislation banning all Overlord Parties in bases

Creep spread - You need a 3rd queen asap and have to focus more on your creep spread, perhaps after using your injects. This is a huge factor and a third queen also helps stop cheese easier. Also you need to make it habit to always control the watch towers, this is extremely important. I noticed you spread your single creep tumor gradually throughout the game. You could improve on it by doing it at a faster rate and also imagine if you did this for not one but 5 tumors simultaneously all over the map! You would have had total map control and your army would be alot more mobile as they move faster on creep and your roaches would have had lots of fun hit and running and sniping stuff.

At this point of the game, try to aim for your creep and overlords to cover half the map!

Importance of Scouting from TGM: This is probably the #1 most important mistake which i notice lower league players making, they simply do not scout enough. Starcraft is a game of imperfect information. If both players had all the right theoretical knowledge and equivalent mechanics, the thing that would decide the winner will be the player with the most complete information. The player with the better information will be able to make units that better counter his opponents so when they do engage he wins the battles and later the game.

An extremely important thing to do is to try and keep control of the Xel'Naga towers whenever possible. Xel'Naga towers not only give you important updates on the opponents army composition, but they also warn you of any impending attacks. You don't want to be caught by surprise with your units out of position but instead be prepared for the attack with your units already positioned optimally in an arc to do the most damage to the incoming enemy army.

Another big trouble spot for lower league players is that they don't seem to pay attention to the mini map at as much as they should. Careful attention to the mini map will allow you to respond quickly to any drops or movement and also quick let you glance at an opponents army composition and position your units correctly. And if you're zerg make every game a mini-game where you're on a mission to make the world purple.

Finally what do you do with this information? USE IT!! Say you built up a specific army to execute a timing attack but you scouted and it turns out your opponent has built the perfect counter army that will crush it to the ground. Do you still commit attack into certain doom? HELL NO! Run your ass back to home, rebuild your army into a different composition or create another opportunity for yourself later. This is one of the simplest yet most common mistake seen in low level games.

For inspiration: Map Control Defined! - Notice the overlords around his base too

How a zerg's minimap should look in the early and later the middle game

Major Suggestions

The key at this stage will be to improve your mechanics. This is by far the biggest problem and once this is improved you will get promoted in no time.

Idle Larva - This imo is the biggest mistake and it happens throughout the game. Your queen injects are generally good, but you always have idle larva and you let your money pile up fast. I noticed you hotkeyed your hatcheries i guess you're just forgetting to make units. You should make it a habit to remember to make units each time after injecting at all your hatcheries, so incorporate that in your larva injecting routine - that will solve the problem!

Or maybe you're unsure if if you want to make drones or combat units so you delay using the larva. This is the wrong approach, most of the time larva should be used as soon as they spawn as you are losing very precious mining time. If you are unsure if u need to make combat units you need to scout and if there is a delay it should be no more than 10 seconds, you could always make drones first with most of your larva and save a few to make them into units/drones after you get that scouting information.

Lastly, you need to take a third base much earlier and continue to expand throughout the game.

Excess money - Well this comes from the idle larva problem. Your queen injection has been great throughout the game but you do not follow this up with using of the larvae to make units. This is quite an uncommon situation but it also means you can improve so fast because you already got the hang of the queen injecting routine so remember once again to make units as soon as you inject/the larvae spawns out! As the game progresses, always keep an eye on your resources and make sure they don't exceed 500 minerals. The general rule is 1.5 hatcheries to a fully saturated base, so 3 hatcheries for your main&expansion. So if you need help spending your money throw down macro hatches and make extra queens! In this game if you had spent your money you would be 200/200, 50 food above him and you would have rolled over your buddy's army

Grandmaster Tip: It is almost always a "better" mistake to slightly overbuild production facilities which your income cannot support then it is to have money piling up with not enough structures to support spending your resources. So make those buildings!!.

These idle units could have been used to break down the rocks to take your 2nd expansion earlier or for poking and pressuring

Too defensive - Zergs are to play reactive but that doesn't mean they never attack. You are just supposed to be reactive till your resource advantage kicks in, then you can carry out some offense! Once you have built up a nice roach ball you can try poking and if you see a bigger army you can always use burrow and tunnelling claws and run away with minimal losses. Make full use of your map control to find holes and carry out multi prong attacks. Being aggressive once you have the advantage leads to games being ended early instead of dragged out.

Summary

Thank you once again Baugi for sharing your replay!

I believe for now just focusing on improving your Map Control and Macro will lead to a big jump in skill. Also as you have more actions to perform in the game now, that will naturally lead to a higher APM which is good as it lets you react to events faster. I've hope you've enjoyed this analysis, and i hope to see your quickly get promoted from silver after incorporating these suggestions into your game

TGM subscribers can access the other Replay Analysis games below.

Diamond: with FaDenArd TvP!
Platinum: with Zeion PvP!
Gold: wtih BadgerWatch PvZ!

[crAzerk]

And if you're zerg make every game a mini-game where you're on a mission to make the world purple.

LOL HAHAHA

Awesome analysis as usual ! That line stood out for me though haah

[Baugi]

Thank you so much! I just seem to get scared when playing vs. Protoss. I'm sure that with the tips of gotten here about map control and scouting, it will help me overcome it. Thanks again!

[Baugi]

Wow after playing with some of these in mind, It feels SOO much better. Using the larva spit rotation to time when I make units and drones and also to time my creep spread...i'm SOO much busier now lol. (my bad habit of randomly making drones and units is OVER!!)