Prelude – Orders – Protoss – Zerg – Terrans – Wrapup

This is the second out of three race-specific posts, again I’ll try to make it newbie- and advanced-player-friendly, and I’ll be happy about factual errors that I didn’t catch sneaking into my posts.

Generic Zerg Strategy

In many ways, the Zerg are the opposite of the Protoss, the ones my first post was about. Where the Protoss are defensive, the Zerg are aggressive, where the Protoss have strong health support cards the Zerg give their troops more attack, where Protoss like it quiet early on the Zerg can really shine in fast and furious first-turn rushes, Protoss have few strong units while the Zerg rely on masses of cheap ones, where the Protoss leadership cards are laid out for the long term the Zerg want immediate gains.

Add the ability to draw an additional combat card after every combat, and cheap troops, and the Zerg can overwhelm an opponent in a whim. However, their unit power is somewhat limited, so they necessarily have to rely on numbers even in the late game.

I’ll make no mystery of it: The Zerg are my favourite race – I just love their aggressive, all-out, honest attitude. They merely want to annihilate everything, who can blame them?

Strategic Focus

The Zerg basically have the option to either go head first into combat in the first turns, or wait it out and come in force a bit later. Zerg do have one building that is exclusively for assist units, the Queen’s Nest, which isn’t always brought to tier 2 – making the Defiler a very underplayed unit, much to its chagrin as it’s actually quite good. The fact that the Zerg tech hierarchy is pretty broad instead of deep thanks to three units (Lurkers, Devourers, Guardians) being buildable as aspects enables them to field units faster yet again.

A prime strategy for Zerg is the Zergling rush, something that FFG transported really well from the computer game. Since the Zerg’s unique spawning mechanism lets them build more units faster, it’s possible to build 6 Zerglings with just two regular build orders and 7 resources – leaving two orders for mobilization and maybe even tech:

• First build order, build 2 Zerglings and a Queen’s Nest – 2 Minerals, 1 Gas
• Second build order, build 4 Zerglings – 4 Minerals

Of course, there’s many situations where you want to build more than that: You do want to keep your neighbor small, make him have to relocate or at least lose troops and resources to your offensive. But you also don’t want to have wasted everything in that first attack; you want more workers for later turns, maybe an R&D module (for a 7th Zergling? – you can use a special order in the first turn already if you build the R&D module before it), maybe you want flyers later and thus prefer an early Spire to an early Queen’s Nest, or maybe you see an opponent building air troops and thus even already need Scourges. Keep in mind, only 5 combat cards work for Zerglings (plus 2 tech and 3 for Scourges), so keep your hand supplied with research orders – but, as Stefan pointed out in the comments, other card’s minor values work very well, too, as the Zerg usually have reasonable minor attack values.

The Rush is something that really only works for the first few turns. Although masses of Zerglings can still be useful later on (as Splash eaters, or as defense for your back planets), the opponents will probably out-tech you fairly quickly, and the unit limit on your areas will play against you. You have to change to another strategy after the first 2-4 game rounds.

• Tech isn’t really necessary, although of course Metabolic Boost is nice, particularly if you keep the pressure up into the second round. Pneumatized Carapace helps with overwhelming opponents with numbers. If you’re up against Terrans, getting a Queen alongside the Zerglings and attempting to make use of Infest Command Center is tempting – and it threatens the opponent with Spawn Broodling as well, making him fear making cheap units as counters to yours. If you want to keep rushing, get Dark Swarm and maybe Plague (against sole strong units).
• Strengths, nobody can keep up with your speed. No other race can produce as many units as quickly, no other race has the Zerg’s +1 attack card, and Zerglings have the distinct advantage over Marines that their combat cards are more varied, getting them a 6-attack card from the start. Also, it’s no big deal if one or two front-line units die, it’s in the numbers that the rush finds strength.
• Weaknesses to keep in mind, there are mostly two: Often, defense is neglected while the Zerglings are busy rushing the enemy, and the home planets are barren and inviting invasion – avoid that. And second, air troops can do horrible things to Zergling-only armies.
• Variants are limited, as the necessary speed really mandates that not much else beside Zerglings can be built. Where variants come into play is, which secondary building is built first and thus, which way you want to go later, and how long you keep up the rush before you make the transition to another strategy.
• Countermeasures are aplenty, although the very first thing you should get is an air defense module. Then: One option is air with Wraiths, Scouts or Mutalisks (but avoid Scourges). Another option is, strong base defenses like Shield Battery, Bunker, Medics with Heal, Queens with Ensnare. Or you can lose a few areas and then strike back with higher tech and splash damage; Reavers, Firebats, Lurkers, Spider Mines, Spawn Broodling (which isn’t technically splash damage). Just make sure you’re not eliminated before you get those goodies.

Thanks to Brood War, the Zerg now have a viable possibility to go with flyers. Big Mutalisk hordes like the ones we love in the computer game aren’t possible, but thanks to Devourers, the Zerg can now field a good 9 airbound units plus Scourges. Just see to it that you get up your Spire in the first rounds and try to be faster than the enemies – as their air is, fully teched out, stronger than yours, but yours is cheaper and faster to obtain. Juggle Guardians and Devourers depending on the opposition you face – many ground units, build more Guardians, many air units, build more Devourers (whose air splash is particularly nasty against Carriers and the likes). And make sure you send your Scourges against any forming opposing air before it reaches your flyers. Nice: you can use 14 combat cards for this strategy, add a few back turf Zerglings and only one single card goes unused.

• Tech are a few obvious ones: Guardian and Devourer Aspect for sure, and without Improved Flyers your investment is wasted. Improved Carapace to stay alive against Scouts. Since you’ll probably want (flying) Queens over Defilers, get Parasite if your opponent stealths, maybe Spawn Broodling against Terrans.
• Strengths are that it’s a pretty fast way to build an air army, you’re flexible because you can specialize your Mutalisks if needed, and Scourges make it possible to maintain air superiority. Also, collateral damage (Guardians) and splash (Mutalisks, Devourers) are a nice bonus.
• Weaknesses, the Zerg flyers just aren’t as strong as a Carrier or a Battlecruiser (with tech), so the Zerg player needs to stay on his toes.
• Variants are somewhat limited, since it’s still only 9 “real” units, 3 Scourges and 3 Queens that are airbound. You can spice it up by adding some ground troops after all, maybe a Defiler with some Zergling support, or tech for Ultralisks for a nasty surprise.
• Countermeasures against air are all around. Scourges, Dragoons with Singularity Charge, Goliaths with Charon Boosters. Or get air of your own, particularly Valkyries or Scouts work well – or against Mutalisks and Scourges, Corsairs. If you can get Yamato Gun or Increased Carrier Capacity and use them well, the Zerg has problems. Generally, see to it that you don’t let the Zerg air lead the offense, pick your battles and skirmishes.

The other possible strategy is ground-based troops, up to and including the tough Ultralisk, which will be the tip of your offense. The thing is that the Zerg, if there’s not too many planets forcing you to go into the air or the opponents insist on making you build Devourers, don’t really need flyers – they’re fairly strong on the ground. Get Lurkers early, exploit that cloaking, support them with Scourges, and then go for Ultralisks. Unfortunately, the Hydralisk is not that strong, but still he can help you out against enemy air, so having a few standing around is not bad. The Defiler is the perfect companion here, with his wide array of tech, but the Queen makes sense as well (see unit combinations below). This strategy has only 4 combat cards unused as well.

• Tech is most plentiful in this flexible strategy. Of course you want Lurker Aspect, and then Chitinous Plating for your Ultralisks. Since you’ll only attack later, being a bit defensive with Sunken Colony and Improved Carapace can’t hurt. Consider the underused Defiler techs (Dark Swarm against enemy ground units, Consume, Plague). Also, this is the only place where I see Burrow making some sense. You might want a support module here. If you want to use Hydralisks against enemy air, bring many of them, with Pneumatized Carapace.
• Strengths are that there’s no enemy ground unit that is as strongly armored as your Ultralisk, and the Zerg assist units (unsung heroes of the strategy) are fairly strong. And still, you’re fairly fast.
• Weaknesses are enemy flyers. As said, the Hydralisk isn’t that strong against them, and the Scourge has mixed card qualities (9, 8, 7 attack). On the ground, if lacking Zerglings, splash damage can be a problem. Also, this is the most convulted of the strategies here, takes the most time, which can be bad for Zerg.
• Variants, go for Queens instead of Defilers, or throw in some Mutalisks (that use the remaining 4 combat cards). More or less Lurkers in relation to Ultralisks, more Hydralisks (masses work for them as well) if you see the enemy go air.
• Countermeasures, go air and kill the baddies from above. Well, if you want – or you can try bringing splash damage in the form of own Lurkers, Reavers, Siege Tanks (just make sure you tech them first) or even Spider Mines. Make your attack stronger so you can penetrate the Ultralisk armour – Psionic Storm, Irradiate, the Zerg +1 attack are nice.

Specific Units

As with the Protoss, some specific units and combos are worth pointing out:

• If you have an Ultralisk, and you think he’s tough, try adding a Queen and Ensnare, preferrably recharging the tech. See this thread. – MrWeasely again
• Scourges are very well-suited for defending air only spots, for example those with conquest points. Your opponents will have to bring overwhelming force in order to both destroy them and then keep the area – something that might well deter them from entering in the first place. After all, entering a spot just for you not to get the points makes less sense for them than entering another spot and getting conquest points themselves. And Scourges are cheap.
• I mentioned the Defiler a couple of times in this post – he sees play way less regular than I mentioned him here. He’s regularly overlooked, despite being really good – try building him more often.

Other Tech

The Zerg being very offensive in nature, even less things than with the Protoss wasn’t already mentioned. Let me briefly reiterate some techs though:

• Gamete Meiosis, the Zerg’s version of the “recharge and have more hand cards” tech, is as awesome as the Protoss version. Get it if you can afford it, particularly once you have a reasonably diversified force and want to keep more hand cards.
• Burrow is, unfortunately, not that good. Or more specific, it’s purely defensive, and only works for Hydralisks and Zerglings, both of which are both cheap and best used in the offense. If you have only few areas and troops remaining, it makes sense to preserve them, otherwise the tech is better left unresearched. Maybe I just haven’t gotten it to work properly yet though, feel free to comment if you disagree with my assessment.
• Parasite is good as soon as the opponent has cloaking units. Or when he builds on many tech-based assist units – then you know at least whether he has the good hand you’re fearing or not, and can keep your good cards for another day if it’s hopeless anyway.
• Infest Command Center, I briefly mentioned it, is tricky. When you have a Terran nearby, it might make sense to research it early, or you’ll be left with a Queen near a base after a combat without the tech. But if you research it, it’s very possible that you won’t get to use it after all, because other things were more pressing I see it mostly as a nice flavour thingy that’s great to get when you do, not something that it’s possible to build a reliable strategy on.

Blarknob made very good points and additions in the comments, be sure to check them out!

Factions and Leadership Cards

The Overmind, the great schemer. He’s better suited for higher-tech approaches, as his leadership cards are all about overwhelming the opponents in the long run. His leadership cards are equally powerful over all stages, more or less – he’s a constant threat throughout.

• In stage 1, you decide how Zerg-y you want your army to be. Do you want to spread out and fortify with bases, or do you prefer slowly gaining conquest points even if you don’t invade enemy planets?
  • The Swarm, the overmind’s special victory condition – you don’t even need to control the entire planet, so it’s possible to sneak in a victory by getting a sole third base when stage 3 is near. The alternatives are quite good though, so even this somewhat easy special victory condition might not be the most attractive choice.
  • The Overmind himself, all vulnerable and exposed, while very powerful (I found this to be the way that makes winning via conquest points easiest so far) makes it also easy to early lead on the conquest point track and necessarily make you a (metagame) target – particularly if there’s many air-only conquest point areas and the opponents don’t go for air first. It might even make sense to leave some conquest point areas on your planets unoccupied, so you can get them later when nobody else can catch up fast enough with you before you win. Did I mention I love installations?
  • About Endless Hunger, I said it before that I find the leadership cards only providing resources to be rather boring. And, they don’t scale well, unlike the Tassadar Orbital Platform or Jim Raynor’s Storage Facilities. While the Zerg don’t need pesky insurances, it’s still nice and makes you less dependant on the planets you get for growing quickly.
• Stage 2 is already predetermined by two things that might have to be weighed off against each other: Whether you have or are going to get tech for Ultralisks, and whether you have space (areas, planets) available to protect another installation.
  • First, there’s Torrasque. He’d be the weakest hero of them all – after all, he doesn’t have a special ability. However, he is a free Ultralisk every round. I say “every round” because if you don’t kill him every round, you waste his potential. He’s an offensive powerhouse. Or some base defense, if desperately need be. He’s best if you have Ultralisks the tech goodies needed to make him really powerful.
  • Cerebrate Doggath is, together with the Overmind, the prime reason why I think the Overmind faction works best for long-term strategies. Having 5 orders every round is very strong. But you will need to protect your installation(s) well – if you can’t do that, you’re better off taking Torrasque. That’s the only downside however, the potential in this cerebrate is huge.
• The Overmind stays strong in stage 3, either gaining some added game board control or letting him build his winning army. Or maybe letting him build his desparate last defense, who knows.
  • The Swarm Flies is good if your prime enemies at the time rely on structures spread out over multiple planets, if they really need their transports. You can interrupt operations at the other end of the galaxy as well, hurting everyone – and this late in the game, you do want to do that, as everybody will be tangled up in their own fights. However, I actually like this card less than the alternative.
  • Teeming Spawn is truly a Zerg card. The heck with whatever they do over there, just overwhelm them with sheer numbers. Terran Civilization comes close in building power (and has a different focus) but doesn’t give the immediate benefits that Teeming Spawn does. Just make sure you have enough space to actually build stuff – this card does require some preparation to work really well.

The Queen of Blades, rushy from start to end. Even more than the Overmind, she likes the game fast and furious, and over quickly – and she does have the leadership cards to help her with that plan. Her strongest cards are in stages 1 and 2, unless you choose the special victory condition; then stages 1 and 3 are the most powerful. You’ll probably want to start the game with a Zergling Rush – unless you know your opponents expect you to, then you can always tech quickly while they’re still afraid of your Zerglings. Don’t underestimate politics

(The Sarah Kerrigan image is an official Blizzard wallpaper, and subject to this copyright notice.)

• Stage 1 determines how fast exactly you want to play your Zerg after all. There’s the immense rush, the rush, and the maybe rush.
  • Forward Planning is the immense rush. The starting units spell the direction this is going to take, so many Zerglings can’t lie. The two bases give (hopefully) plentiful resources, and multiple attack points. Make sure you don’t spread out too thin, rushes leave your back bare, so you should place your two planets close together and try to have just one enemy. Then, ruthlessly destroy him in the first turns.
  • Glimpse the Future is the rush. So much board control, the Z-Axis connections really are what shapes the final board layout. You can determine which neighbours you want, and who’s going to be next to who else. Set up the Protoss next to a Terran (or another Zerg) and give him a hard start. And, give yourself a (just one) neighbour that’s slower than yourself (to overwhelm and annoy), or maybe access to remote resource-rich locations. Just keep in mind that event cards can change Z-Axis connections later.
  • A New Power Rising, meh. It’s the special victory condition and can work really well, although everybody will probably like conquest point areas. It’s better-suited for long-term planning, so the Queen of Blades can do that, too. Consider playing the Overmind if you want that though, since he does it better.
• Stage 2, what you choose here depends largely on your goals, and your strategy so far. If you rushed a lot, you don’t want the game to take forever, as the other races will likely have out-teched you at this point. Or you can tech as well and catch up quickly – just make sure you don’t get caught before your new higher-tech units are built.
  • The Sarah Kerrigan hero is probably the most flexible of all the available heroes – great at killing stuff, with cloaking and splash and everything. You get your free tech with her, too. She’s most powerful if you have one of the top-tier unit techs – Chitinous Plating or Improved Flyers – so either make sure you have them already or get them quickly. So, she’s the longer-term choice.
  • Hasten the End on the other hand both gives you potentially powerful event cards (remember, they’re stage 2 cards, too) and moves the end of the game rapidly closer. Since it doesn’t scale with player count, it’s probably best with 3 or less players (where 4 cards are a large portion of the stage 2 event deck). If you’re still in the lead, but don’t know how long that’ll last, choose this one.
• Stage 3 either finishes the game or makes sure it doesn’t progress in ways that hurt the Zerg too much. It’s very good if you chose the special victory in stage 1, otherwise it’s rather mediocre.
  • Subtle Influence is subtle indeed, and doesn’t always work. If you have an endangered planet, or you still need time to tech up and catch up with everybody else (or overtake them), it’s very nice. It keeps you out of the fray really. It works well together with the secret objective, too, particularly if you have a planet with 2 conquest point areas – protect that one, then you need just one more of those areas.
  • Deathblow is good if you need a good offense to win. Might be that you want to deny somebody else victory, or you’re sitting on just one conquest point area and need another two for the special victory, or you just got your high-tech toys and no chance to use them yet (with enemies dug in and all). You can place build orders as second order on a planet and still use them as mobilize, abuse that flexibility.

Prelude – Orders – Protoss – Zerg – Terrans – Wrapup