[ddengster]

I had intended this for a weekly, but since the weekly is absent for now I'll post it here before it gets too old.

A look at 1.3 ZvT

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Map - XelNaga Caverns

iaguz(red Terran) spawns at the top, inf(pink Zerg) spawns at the bottom

From the SEA StarLeague games comes a game really worth looking at. This is a high stakes 3rd place Zerg vs Terran match played on XelNaga Caverns. iaguz, our red terran, opens up with a standard 2 barracks pressure build whilst building an expansion CC. Targa, the pink zerg, does a hatch first before pool. With the information his first scouting drone brings, Targa makes a precautionary - but slightly earlier than needed move. He takes 2 drones to scout around the chasm to his natural expansion.


Definitely a hater of bunker rushes

iaguz makes a threatening push with 7 marines whilst his expansion command center is building up. He kills off a few zerglings, and forces drones to evacuate the natural expansion, then decides to back off via the natural expansion's side alleyway before zerglings hatch.


Wise decisions

Targa is not one to take it lying down, however. His zerglings lie in wait at the path to the right of the gold base take out the retreating marines.


Lings with a vengeance!

iaguz micros the marines to the best of his ability, but is unable to overcome the zerglings. Both players start transitioning into the mid-game. iaguz claims his expansions, sets up 2 bunkers over there, and grabs siege mode research while producing tanks, marines and medivacs. Targa has started teching to lair, grabbing a baneling nest on the way while pumping lots of drones and claiming a third expansion in his valley. Once his lair tech is done, he grabs an infestation pit and starts researching energy for infestors.


Patch 1.3 fotm

iaguz had been turtling really hard; he moves out with his marines to find that the creep had expanded to his gold base. He utilizes a scan to take out the creep tumors and begins tearing down his gold rocks, then goes back to creep tumor clearing. He ventures too near Targa's infestors and too far away from his tanks, resulting in a bunch of marine casualties coupled with many red life marines.


Score! Could've been better though

Meanwhile, Targa delays iaguz's gold base from landing with a burrowed zergling. He also takes 2 infestors to tunnel underground to iaguz's natural expansion, where he kills a few scvs and a maurauder.



iaguz mounts an attack at Targa's third base with tanks and his bioball. It is completely crushed by the combined zerg force of zerglings, banelings and infestors. iaguz had also sent some marines to kill some drones harrassing the back of the 3rd base's mineral line, but infestors clean it up easily.



This time, Targa decides to attack he manages to net some more marines kills., but ultimately retreats with his infestors.



Targa's worker count is now 70 as compared to iaguz's 48. Iaguz has his gold base as his 3rd expansion, but Targa has 4 bases in total. Concerned about the increasing infestor count, iaguz resolves to deal with more tanks, and drops down 2 additional factories with tech labs. However, Targa is one step ahead of him. He has already obtained hive tech and is teching towards a greater spire. He even has mutalisks out harassing the scvs of iaguz's gold base. iaguz, probably realizing that he is behind makes a push with tanks and bio towards Targa's 3rd base.



Though he succeeds in taking out the zerg base, his own gold base is under mutalisk pressure. Nearly ALL of his scvs mining at the gold base is taken out before the mutalisks are chased away. iaguz finally meets his end as a significant number of broodlords, combined with banelings, zerglings and infestors crash into his siege tank line and overwhelms it easily. iaguz ggs.



Afterthoughts

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Will there be a metagame shift into more infestor play thanks to patch 1.3? Targa definitely showed us the effectiveness of infestors. I don't think he's the best infestor user yet, but we all can see how effective it can be based on this replay.

Fungal growths likely made iaguz think twice about doing more drops, because the more medivacs you lose, the harder it is to heal your marines - and the drop could be shutdown really easily given targa's fantastic creep spread and overlord vision. The growing infestor count prompted iaguz's decision to get an increased number of tanks and even marauders to withstand the fungal growths. This gave Targa the time to get broodlords and utilize his mutalisks to exploit the lower marine count. In the past, the damage of fungal growth was really slow, but now the damage can really hurt. It's time to take a good look at infestors again.

[nirvAnA]

Great report as usual

Infestors seem super strong now