Damn the feedback you guys give back is pretty insane. Perhaps when I become better I'll try to help you guys out!
I usually don't share replays because I usually know how any why I lost, but this game I'm pretty clueless. I guess my summation of this game would be: my Brood/infestor gets owned by mediocre Protoss mass. It's relatively similar to Paroxysm's game except my comp didn't include T1-2 units.
Alright, had a look over the replay and I must say, there wasn't actually that many mistakes made by either of you. I think this is because the deciding factor mainly came down to the macro, which is less obvious.
This is quite late in the replay but I actually think its your first mistake. Normally I would suggest preventing the third from coming up but when you pushed up the ramp to deny it, the Protoss had a huge army so it was probably good you retreated. In this image we see you getting corrupters. Now this is a great choice in this game because he is getting Collosi. However, you have no scouting of this having only scouted a robotics facility. If he had been mixing in a lot of Immortals instead of Collosus, you would have likely lost from the empty supply corrupters take up. Always send an overseer in just to confirm what he is doing.
Here your economy is booming and you are basically maxed out. You are floating a lot of minerals but aren't taking the additional bases available to you. This is ALWAYS a good choice as you may not have time/money to do so later on. At this point you really need to start trading armies because you have better economy but not a better composition, with much of your supply taken up with Roaches.
You decide to kill off your Roaches to make supply for Brood Lords. I would normally suggest a Nydus/Drop with them but you decide to charge on through right in front of the Protoss army. You snipe his barely mining natural and then do only shield damage on the third, not killing a single Protoss unit.
You have Brood Lords and Infestors but you are missing out on a key unit. The Hydralisk. This is great for taking almost any Protoss unit except the Collosus, which the rest of your army can handle. Roaches this late in the game are going to be a waste of supply and money.
Now you completely switch to Brood Lord/Corrupter which isn't the best choice. With no back up units such as Hydralisks or Infestors, the Brood Lords are wasted by Void Rays.
You make a heap of corrupters against the void rays which doesn't turn out to be the best choice. After morphing Brood Lords right next to the Protoss army, you get into a very bad fight.
You snipe the fifth base of the Protoss but exchange a good fight for it. Again, your composition is weak without Hydralisks. There is only ONE collosi now!
Miss rallied roaches do absolutely nothing. Your money is running low now, not because you don't have a good enough economy, but because you are replacing armies constantly.
You have a tonne of larvae and a decent amount of money but are not spending it on anything but Brood Lords and corrupters. With the Protoss army attacking at that moment, you need to pump out roaches and lings (and Hydra dens...).
With no real army, you are forced to GG.
Two other points:
Creep spread - I felt that with the amount of spines you had, better creep would allow you take more of the map by gradually advancing the Spines.
Harassment - Luckily for you, the Protoss didn't harrass you at all during the game. However, this does not mean you shouldn't either. Drops, Nydus, Burrowed Infestors/Roaches are all viable options. The Protoss was never really sore for minerals/gas because his bases were basically left untouched.
Silver Terran, used to be a Platinum Zerg but switched. Having trouble with TvZ. I feel scared to leave my base and not sure what to do. I did a few drops and felt my upgrades were okay as far as progression through the game. Doing my own analysis through the replay, I should've made a lot of production facilities after getting my 3rd mid to fully saturated.
Switched to Terran a couple of weeks ago, been struggling a lot against Protoss in particular. I find I either stomp them, or get stomped myself. Firmly placed in Platinum League for now.
Here's a replay of me getting particularly stomped. It'd be great if someone could go over it for me, no rush though
My analysis:
Supply blocked waaaay too many times
First push was really dumb (especially cross spawns). That said, how can I punish his probing so hard (lol) He was eight workers up, and still had more army than me so early in the game.
I saw twilight pretty early, made a ghost academy that was never used.
Missed with all my scans.
Drop attempt was rather miserable.
Saw the collosus at a decent time, responded with vikings. Generally, this early in the game my opponents make either collo or chargelot/archon. I'm not sure how to deal with both, I don't feel like I can support vikings (for collosus) and ghosts (for chargelots) this early in the game.
Last engagement was actually lol worthy, but I'd already lost by this point.
Everything above may very well be wrong (I'm super chobo and only recently started terran), so I'd appreciate it if someone could help me out
Silver Terran, used to be a Platinum Zerg but switched. Having trouble with TvZ. I feel scared to leave my base and not sure what to do. I did a few drops and felt my upgrades were okay as far as progression through the game. Doing my own analysis through the replay, I should've made a lot of production facilities after getting my 3rd mid to fully saturated.
Switched to Terran a couple of weeks ago, been struggling a lot against Protoss in particular. I find I either stomp them, or get stomped myself. Firmly placed in Platinum League for now.
Here's a replay of me getting particularly stomped. It'd be great if someone could go over it for me, no rush though
My analysis:
Supply blocked waaaay too many times
First push was really dumb (especially cross spawns). That said, how can I punish his probing so hard (lol) He was eight workers up, and still had more army than me so early in the game.
I saw twilight pretty early, made a ghost academy that was never used.
Missed with all my scans.
Drop attempt was rather miserable.
Saw the collosus at a decent time, responded with vikings. Generally, this early in the game my opponents make either collo or chargelot/archon. I'm not sure how to deal with both, I don't feel like I can support vikings (for collosus) and ghosts (for chargelots) this early in the game.
Last engagement was actually lol worthy, but I'd already lost by this point.
Everything above may very well be wrong (I'm super chobo and only recently started terran), so I'd appreciate it if someone could help me out
Apth voice is clear, my mic definitely is bad. Has to change that.
Basically, you should:
Deny expanding with a lot of units from your 2 rax OR cut some units (as you did), expand and then defend with 2 bunkers and units. You cut units, expanded and pushed and got crushed.
Exploit timings just before taking your 3rd and be aggressive you must be aggressive with , be more active with your units, trade for small groups, force him to break his ball
Make some ghost for good EMP, you have the Academy
Hey guys, lately i haven't been having problems with most zergs as i would go ffe/1 gate expand into a 6/7 gate all-in with +1 attack. However this time i decided to go for a 3 gate expand into robo with collosus and blink stalkers transitioning into ht tech.
I reviewed the replay myself and i think i played turtle a bit too much as even though in one of the major fights i managed to kill his roaches with storm + force fields but due to my turtling, i gave him time to build up some brood lords, and everything went downhill from there despite trying to focus fire them down with stalkers blinked right below them.
Late game PvZ has been a problem for me despite being on even bases, thus it would be nice if someone could give me some help?
I come to you on hands and knees. At the begining of this seaon I got placed in gold after spending oh so long in silver. I immediately started tearing it up. Killing every gold and most Plats that came my way. Then about two weeks ago, every Toss except about 3 went FFE. I killed the 3 who didn't and got killed by the rest. No longer was I tearing it up in platinum from the gold bleachers. Instead, I started losing to mid-level silvers doing FFE. http://www.sc2sea.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=704
So my basic plan going into an FFE game is as follows. Obviously there is a lot of macro going wrong here, but I feel he and I are generally on the same macro level although the upgrade disadvantage obviously was a big reason behind losing the engagements.
Basic game plan against an FFE:
speedling expand (6 lings to get rock down faster for quicker 3rd if required)
6ish min roach warran followed some roaches to defend earlier pushes
drone whilst containing him to 2 base (didnt try this game, not gonna put myself in that little laneway against a Toss).
8 min macro hatch
10 min lair (defending with queen and static if needed before then, trying to spend minerals instead of gas)
immediate hydra den
14 min attack their 3rd/take my 4th and lay spire for muta or corruptor transition and/or infestation pit
So obviously I didn't hit these timing as cleanly as I should have and I didn't roll my upgrades (I get a bit happy with the R and H buttons tending to leave me with too little gas come upgrade time, am I starting my upgrades late? I have no idea about timings. I play very instinctually).
Looking forward to some insights and particular things to do with strategic shifts in the build. I have no idea about general times against an FFE, I haven't seemed to be able to pick a weak spot except early early game and I dont like using rushes cos I suck at them.
I'll have a look at the replay in a bit if I have time, but probably a better opener to try out:
speedling expand (some players favour pool/gas since speed doesn't really do much besides snipe a stray probe in the early game so no point rushing it)
Quick 3rd (I get mine straight away on 30 or something)
Scout his wall-off buildings - Gateway into CC or two Gateways? Does he chronoboost his Forge?
Drone to 50-55 (assuming no 2 gate pressure), get Overlords in position to scout his Geysers at both bases (main and expo). React according to the number of gas you see (e.g. 4 gas taken early could indicate Stargate/double Stargate play, if only 2 gas it's most like a 5-6 gate all-in, etc)
Some players don't like the quick 3rd as it's susceptible to air and zealot rushes on some maps, so macro hatch is fine as well.
But I don't think in silver/gold there are many 2 gate Zealot pressure or 6 zealot +1 pressure, so the 3rd should be alright. Remember to spread creep well so you can shuttle your Queens around easily to fend off simple 1 Stargate pressure which is fairly common.
There's ALOT of scouting to be done which you seem to have left out - You can't enter the game with a set build in mind, that's just not how Zerg works. For instance, I reckon a 5-6 gate +1 timing all-in would kill you, especially if you made roaches in the early game (and delay your Drones, which results in less Roaches to defend the big push)
------------------------
Had a look at the replay
1) Nothing much to say about early game, maybe tighten up your timings (e.g. you got your Hatchery at 400 or 450 minerals or something). You can send your Drone out towards your nat when you have 200~ minerals
Btw his building placement is just asking for a Roach Bust. Wide open cannons, easy win. But I suppose you want to win by macro games so let's go on.
2) What's the 7:00 spine for? No point getting it at this point, too early, and it's not like he's moving out anytime soon (5-6 gate hits at 8:30 I believe,
3) Same question about the Roaches.
You're making your units too early, it's critical to be droning up in the early game especially when you don't anticipate pressure. A failure to Drone up at this point snowballs into a big deficit later on.
9 minutes into the game, you're only at 33 drones, while he's already at 42 Probes.
(Lol like 40 seconds after this you make 13 drones at a go, but these 13 could have been alot earlier)
You could try out quick Lair - the Overseer would help SO much in your scouting - which you do almost none.(And your sac OL which was too late anyway to catch any tech got killed) Lair would also open some tech routes like burrowed Roaches to counter 6 gate, Overseer for DTs, Hydras for air, etc.
5) 14:10 - Not sure what you hoped to accomplish with those lings
6) The clash at 15+ mins wasn't ideal as you were off creep and didn't have a good concave on him, and DTs were really tearing it up.
7) You never really recovered from the loss of Drones after your 3rd base got taken out, and as a result you could not keep up the production.
Summary + General Tips
Drone harder in the early game. Go to 50 for starters if you feel scared, but take the risk of pushing out more Drones rather than less, and you'll get a sense of how much you can get out. A good number is 55, which will be just nice to deal with any 5-6 gate timing pushes, but if it's a delayed push like what he did you can go up to 60~ or more.
As they say - it's better to over-Drone and lose than to not make enough Drones and wonder why you lost.
Tied in to the first point, don't make units too early. The early Drone cushion REALLY REALLY helps a lot.
This is something I get told a lot because I like Roach/Hydra as well, but 'Roach /Hydra sucks'. TDA is a nice map to try Ling/Muta, so you may like to give that a go. If you want to use Hydras, read the next point
Work on your creep spread! Your creep spread kinda stopped after it reached the little corridor to your 3rd. You NEED good creep spread to make Hydras work, so you can get a good concave or re-establish it after Forcefields.
Try to macro while engaging. This is a tough mechanics issue that if you can get a hang of, will allow your skill level to rocket up. While fighting, don't be afraid to look away from your screen to hit your Injects, press Hatcheries and S and train units. From what I saw in the replay you have 0 production during engagements.
Scout earlier. I may be wrong on the exact timings here, but check on his gases at 6-7 mins, and float an overlord in at 7:30 to find out his tech. React according to what you see.
I like that you bothered upgrading, many BSG dont' really upgrade. But you kinda stopped at 1/1 (and 2/1 eventually I think) when you needed to keep going (he was at 2/1)
Last edited by crAzerk; Fri, 20th-Jan-2012 at 11:26 PM.
I've been playing a few games of TvZ and have been pretty successful lately as far as pushing out and such. I'm a bit confused as to how the Zerg was able to get so far ahead. I realize my scv production isn't constant constant but I feel it has improved a considerable amount from my last submission. I know my micro is non-existent but keep in mind that my latency is around 200-250, so the best I can do is stim and the other way while my tanks do the damage.
Hey guys, lately i haven't been having problems with most zergs as i would go ffe/1 gate expand into a 6/7 gate all-in with +1 attack. However this time i decided to go for a 3 gate expand into robo with collosus and blink stalkers transitioning into ht tech.
I reviewed the replay myself and i think i played turtle a bit too much as even though in one of the major fights i managed to kill his roaches with storm + force fields but due to my turtling, i gave him time to build up some brood lords, and everything went downhill from there despite trying to focus fire them down with stalkers blinked right below them.
Late game PvZ has been a problem for me despite being on even bases, thus it would be nice if someone could give me some help?
3gate expand vs speedling opening. You both sit back and macro. You push out will collosus/ht force, he has roach corruptor broodlord. You fight, losing all of your collosus but he loses all of his broodlords. He reproduces his army faster and overwhelms you.
Game Analysis and Tips
It's hard to say exactly why you lost. I think you played a pretty good macro game. Well done
1)Timings.
What happened this game was, you sat back and played defensively while teching. This is a good thing to do against an aggressive zerg, since they can't really kill you and they aren't teching that much themselves while they are attacking. However, against a defensive zerg who is teching himself, this isn't good. Zerg can tech and get their economy running faster than you, so it's up to you to be the aggressor and force him to make more units so you can be even-ish in economy and tech.
So if you know your opponent is going to be aggressive, sticking back and teching to collosus and ht is fine. However, if your opponent plays defensively like in this game, you'll have to do a timing push of some sort off two base. Looking at your opening, I would suggest a collosus push of some sort (3gate expand into 6gate robo forge).
So let's look at your buildings.
6:35 - nexus goes down. This could have been a bit earlier. You had enough money at 5:50 for the nexus, and just stockpiled up to around 700 before you put the nexus down. Build the nexus earlier (you can build it before warp gate finishes, and you will still have enough to warp in the first 3 sentries). If you're afraid of a lot of hidden speedlings, don't be. Just back up to the ramp and cancel the nexus, and wait for your next warp in before putting down your nexus. Even though it might delay your expansion by a minute, the zerg invested a lot of potential-economy into having those speedlings in the first place, so you aren't really behind.
7:20-7:30 - you add robo, gateway, forge. This is good. But I think you should put the robo down earlier, as soon as you have the resources. If you dont research hallucination, you want a quick observer. Plus, if you're going for a collosus push, you want the robo done as soon as possible.
8:00 - you add on two gateways, bringing it to a total of 6gates, robo, forge. I don't like this. You can't afford to use them. Try not to put these down too early. Use the money to warp in units, pylons and probes. I noticed you stayed on 7 sentries and a zealot for a long time before warping in more units. If your opponent went for an all-in, you probably would have lost.
8:28 - your robo finishes. If we want to do this timing push, we want to do it as fast as possible, so as soon as your robo finishes, throw down the robotics bay and make an observer. Unfortunately, in this game, you can't afford that because you made those 2 extra gateways.
At about 8:45 you have enough for the robotics bay. At 11:11, you finally build it. If you refined your build order, you could have had your first collosus 3 minutes earlier!
If you decide to opt for the robo tech path, make sure your robo is always active. Observers are always good. Immortals are always good (if he's going roaches). Collosus are always good. Make sure you prioritise your robo.
By the time you finally move out of your base (around 15 minutes), your opponent already has 4bases, corruptors in production, and hive halfway done. And naturally as zerg, he is about 30 supply ahead of you.
If you did the same push 3 mins earlier, you could have probably won with that. At 12:00, his spire is halfway done, so he's stuck on zerglings and roaches. You know what beats zergling and roaches? Collosus.
You decide not to engage him and move back. I don't think that was a good move. You should have at least tried to attack his fourth base. Against his zergling roach corruptor army, you could have just forcefielded to snipe the fourth, and run home.
I have to hand it to your opponent though, he denied your observers well. It's not easy knowing when to attack without observer vision, but make sure you don't overestimate his army. Forcefields are good.
2)Dealing with the zerg deathball.
Army composition:
So at around 18:30, you're maxed out with collosus and ht, which is good. You have 2-1 upgrades against his 2-2, which isn't good, but it doesn't matter too much. He has 8 broodlords, 3 corruptors, and a metric shittonne of roaches.
Roaches are good against zealots, especially ones without charge. I usually don't include zealots in my main army unless I know that they have a lot of speedlings. So your 24 zealots aren't going to be of much use in the upcoming battle. That's about half of your army, almost useless. This leaves you with 11 stalkers. That's not enough against 8 broodlords.
So keeping that in mind, let's see how the battle goes. Your zealots walk in and get about 10 swipes between the 24 of them, and evaporate. Fortunately, he isn't paying attention to his army and doesn't spread or kite, so his roaches get decimated by forcefield, collosus, and storm. Even though you kill all of the roaches, you don't really have an answer to the broodlords so you have to retreat to your stalker reinforcements.
If your army composition there had been better, say, if those 24 zealots were stalkers, you would have won right there. So next time, try to not have so many zealots in your 200/200 deathball. Zealots are good, but not in a deathball vs deathball scenario.
Engagement
A lot of it also came down with the way you decided to engage his army. When zergs have their broodlord deathball, it's tough for you to engage their army head on. It's kind of like a role reversal: usually the zerg can't engage the protoss army straight up. So you have to abuse the immobility of broodlords.
You attack straight into his army. If his broodlords weren't out of position, and if he had a couple of infestors, your army would have been absolutely crushed.
So what you have to do is attack somewhere where he isn't. Maybe you could have went around and sniped the gold base.
Ideally you would have sniped his fifth base, but he didn't have one. But just try to hit him where he isn't. In this particular situation, that isn't really possible. So maybe you shouldn't have attacked at all. When you're maxed, you don't have to attack. Especially if you know he's maxed out too.
-You could have done a big warpin of zealots in his main to snipe the hive and the greater spire, and other tech structures. Notice how this also takes care of the "too many zealots in deathball" problem. It's very hard for zergs to deal with this type of warp prism harass. If you're lucky, he'll move his entire ground army to deal with the zealots, and you can just blink in and kill all of his broodlords while the army is away. Or you can snipe the fourth.
-You also could have warped in a few dts. Lategame dt harass can win the game for you if the zerg isn't prepared for it. Your opponent wasn't prepared. His only detection was the overseer in his main army.
Micro
So, you engaged him anyway. Those psi storms were good
Your army is on a move command. The broodlings are getting a lot of free hits. Make sure you attack-move, and then individual control the stalkers to focus fire the broodlords.
Don't let your collosus die. They're a lot harder to remake than stalkers.
Zerg remakes his army faster than you, so most of the time it's better to remax to 200/200 with collosus again before you attack, unless you are sure about his army size. Maybe you should have remade some sentries, forcefields would have helped a lot here. (i didn't get the high templar in the screenshot, but they are also there)
Well, the high templar only get one storm off before they die, anyway.
In Summary
If the zerg isn't playing aggressively, you have to play aggressively
Refine your build order a bit. Robotics bay as soon as robotics facility is done, just like how core immediately after gateway. Keep the robo bay as active as possible.
Zealots aren't too good in lategame army compositions, usually
Against broodlords, try to attack where their army isn't. Sniping bases. Zealot warpins in the main. Dark templar. If the broodlords are out of position, engage! (just like against unsieged tanks)
You have solid macro play, and aside from that, there wasn't much fault in your mechanics. Good on you
Last edited by xGKingdelete; Tue, 24th-Jan-2012 at 1:14 PM.
I've been playing a few games of TvZ and have been pretty successful lately as far as pushing out and such. I'm a bit confused as to how the Zerg was able to get so far ahead. I realize my scv production isn't constant constant but I feel it has improved a considerable amount from my last submission. I know my micro is non-existent but keep in mind that my latency is around 200-250, so the best I can do is stim and the other way while my tanks do the damage.
Thanks =)
Vyderac vs kornbeaner
League :
Map : Tal'darim Altar LE
Length : 27:42
Version 1.4.2
6:02 : You're doing a special build 1 rax Expand 2 more rax and 2 gaz with only 2 SCV on them. I would not recommend making weird builds like that, even if they are correct (found on TL or on streams). If you want to learn, you must be perfect first with the standard build Expand into Hellions into 3 tank push at 10. The problem of this build is you're not harassing the . he was ahead and droning even if he pooled first. Imagine if he had hatch first ...
6:02 : That's why I don't like this too much. You have 3 nude rax not doing anything and 100 gas in bank not used. If going heavy bio, rush the infantry upgrade, shield, steam, +1 attack or defense + rush medivac too.
6 :31 : Bad placed bunker. He must protect the route to your nat.
10:22 : You had an awful supply block for 9:36 to 10:22 at 70 supply. Watch that point. You're teching hard now but took only 3 gas. You need to take more gas quickly. Put reactors on your barracks to pump marines more quickly.
13:29 : You come out of the first fight largelly ahead, but because you didn't had enough gas to make medivacs, your marines are badly hurt.
15:34 : What are you waiting for ? You must send that command center, you must push with that scary army. You're far too passive at the moment. You're lucky he had no muta to harass you.
16:21 :You're pushing in the wrong timing. You should have installed your 3rd with a PF before and then pushed with all your units while it was morphing. Now your 3rd is in great danger.
16:54 : Now your isolated groups and expand are in danger. You must secure place by place and then push with all your units. Push with scouts in front of your army and siege when arriving near the creep, not in the middle of nowhere like that.
17:09 : Lift ...
17:52 : Now he has too much mutas, you're in big trouble now.Time to begin making Thors. Since you lost your third, you should have lost the game from that point.
25:01 : You're playing well and you are back in business. Pushing and disturbing him. You just need to finish the job with ALL your combat units. let the produced forces defend your base.
25:26 : Nice save. You clearly have more than silver level.
26: 29 : Not the best place to take a 4rth. Too exposed. Make PF for each exposed expansion. With some turrets it's unbreakable until you actually loose. Especially since your OC is not in your hotkey to call down mules ...
26:53 : You're broke because you have a lot of idle SCV's. Be sure to make them work.
27:32 : take ALL your units when pushing. protect with static defenses, Bunker, Sim City, PF, units under production.
27:39 : That's why ...
Strong points
Quite good macro and precise build order even if I don't like it.
Quite good micro.
What could be improved
Consider that if you haven't harassed or pressured a by a mean or another before the 10 minute mark you have lost the game. You were far too passive before the 15 minutes. A must put the on his heels before that point.
You make too many gas buildings without producing enough with them and not enough Barracks. Marines are the best mineral dump of the game and your best damage dealing units. Make tons of them. other units are here only to allow them to live.
You need to push with all your forces, Your base can defend itself and when you push with all what you have the will have to concentrate all his forces on your army so you're quite safe behind.
Very cool! I was feeling that since I can't harass to much with hellions alone, I should just skip them completely. I'll see about doing a marine hellion medivac drop into expand (fact react barracks reactor into nude starport). Was feeling that if I can't do a good harass at the beginning I'll have a strong push later on. For some reason the list of points and screenshot doesn't show up in the post. I clicked reply with quote on your post and was able to view all of the links and screenshots I can copy paste into the browser. No biggie, just want to let you know. I'll definitely to sim city a lot better and bring all my stuff when I attack since reinforcements will be coming really soon.
Click the "replay analysis" link in the text, it then expands the analysis and screenshots.
You don't have to attack with the hellions, pressure him, deny the creep and any third. It's not a bad idea to make a OC quickly, but put the under pressure nonetheless..
In this game i feel like i played reasonably well, and watching the replay myself i felt i was ahead and should have been able to close the game out. what i've personally taken away from watching it is that i desperately need to pay more attention to the mini-map ( i had an overlord spotting his third but i didn't notice it) and refine my build order which i feel needs an earlier macro hatch.
I'm very interested to see what you guys who know what you are doing have to say about it and i'd really appreciate some feedback on my play in general and what i could do to improve
I normally try and send an overlord into his base at about 7:30 to see what's up but in this game i didn't do that because i forgot to rally my first one up there after it scouted the left.
Click the "replay analysis" link in the text, it then expands the analysis and screenshots.
You don't have to attack with the hellions, pressure him, deny the creep and any third. It's not a bad idea to make a OC qickly, but put the izerg under pressure nonetheless..
Oh oh I see now. Was right clicking and opening up the link in a new tab. Very cool. Thanks again for the analysis.
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