The 'Kill' switch of Zerg

This is just a short writeup which I originally wanted to post this as a Road To Masters (RTM) column but my games all didn't turn out how I wanted them to be to illustrate this, so I'm just posting this early.

I probably won't post a RTM post this week, as I'll probably be covering the SEACL (hopefully) so that'll take up my time. Also, I want to ladder more, so less writing!

[spoiler=Introduction (skip this part if you have no time though I encourage you to read because it provides context)]

I start this column off with a question: "Name a word or phrase that describes some aspect of 'standard' zerg play."

Chances are, some of the words that you came up with would be 'reactionary', 'macro', 'weak in early game strong in mid-late game'.

I would like to draw your attention to the last phrase. Most people, even Zergs themselves, expect Zerg to macro up in the early game, get a strong Drone lead, then power ahead in the mid-game with an explosion of strong upgraded tier 1/2 units, and perhaps eventually tier 3.

Thus, many strategies of other races involves denying this - Terran has a wide variety of harass from hellions/banshees/bunkerrushes to slow the droning up of Zerg. Protoss has the 1 stalker into 3 stalker/1lot harass. There are also some strategies that are designed to hit Zerg just before their economy kicks in, like the stim/combat shield timing push, the hellion/marine timing push, 4gate, etcetc.

While playing standard Zerg CAN win games, it often means having to deal with a large variety of harass play by the other races (ZvZ is obviously a different story) in which you have to be 'reactionary', have to scout (which can be often denied), etc.

[/spoiler]

Recently, I observed a tournament in which nGenMaster, a high level Zerg, single-handedly 4-0 a very strong aLt team. People who know his style of play knows he's a very aggressive, often unpredictably so, kind of zerg. He doesn't sit back and macro when you expect him to - he pumps a round of units and comes knocking at your front door. If you're not ready, you're screwed. If you are, it's fine, he is already droning up heavily behind this first round of units, and has the defences for any aggression you may throw at him.

JulyZerg is also known to be a very aggressive Zerg, and commentators have mused that he has a 'kill' switch, which when he flicks on, he goes all out aggressive and has only one goal - to kill his opponent. And he knows precisely when to flick this 'kill' switch, even if it's not at a conventional, expected time.

These two players have inspired me to revamp my outlook towards Zerg play, to try to incorporate this aggressive style into my play instead of playing standard (or spanishiwa-style (well actually his style involves being aggressive at a certain point, but the early game is way too defensive)). This strategy involves

- Being aggressive at times when you normally wouldn't be (early game!). Pressure pressure pressure, contain contain.

- Droning up hard behind this aggression

- Adapting an aggressive mentality ALL the time, always be ready to throw the 'kill' switch!

- However, the 'kill' switch doesn't mean 'go all-in'. You should have something to fall back on... though in MOST situations you should aim to win it there.

And why this works is

- Your opponent won't expect it.

- Under this pressure, he will probably overproduce units and won't carry out his normal game plan. Basically, you'll put him on edge.

- If you turn on the 'kill' switch at the correct time, you should win anyway. the problem is knowing when is 'the correct time'.

Let me illustrate this with some games :)

So I went on to play ladder, with this new mentality in mind.

1) vs Wyfor (Master League Protoss) on XNC

I didn't really have an aggressive gameplan for Protoss besides just the roach-ling semi-allin. Hopefully I'll collect more games after this which I have a strong, pressure, aggressive early-game plan to handle protoss, besides roach/ling.

Anyway, this game, on my 10 scout I saw this:

Gateway/Forge on the lowground!

Only means one thing, fast expansion!

What does this mean? It means..

KILL SWITCH ON

The problem with a Protoss FE is that it's rather vulnerable to a roach bust, and you have to react accordingly (more cannons) if you know one is coming. Also, a FE on this map isn't really easy to defend due to the wide choke at your expo.

The problem with a roach bust is that it is rather all-in, and if it fails (he threw down enough cannons) you MAY be behind.

So my plan was clear - I was going to attempt a roach bust with just 6-7 roaches, and I'll expand/ drone up behind that. And because I went 14pool/14 gas (my usual Toss opener) , it perfectly transitions into a 7RR.

Now, he sent out another Probe which spotted my Roaches running towards his base, so he reacted with:

Simcity - about 4 cannons? Lol

So when my roaches reached his base, I kept trying to find cracks, where I could snipe a building or two. His cannons were pretty well-placed as you can see, but I eventually found a sweet spot:

And I forced the cancel on the nexus! 

He did try to throw up some cannons within range of my roaches, but I denied them all.

Now what is the typical follow-up after a 'roach bust' fails? Many Zergs would just retreat and then drone up heavily and try to 'recoup' their losses'. But with the aggressive mindset in place, I was thinking 'I don't want him to feel comfortable. I shall keep pressuring him'

Constantly denying anything he tries to put down out of range of his cannons. Look at how many extra cannons I made him throw up due to this aggression!

All this while, I was droning up, expanded, teching to lair. I didn't make any more roaches besides these initial few.

At this point, in 'Resources Lost', he had already lost 1200 resources in cancellation. (Probably should take 75% of that since it isn't accurate)

Your thought process needs to be clear here - what can a Protoss do on one base?  Yes, tech to either DTs, Stargate, or Blink. (or even colussus, though it would be hard to sustain production)

Thus I threw down a hydra den, and got some spores.

I decided to keep up the aggression, and:

Snuck (sneaked?) in a Nydus! 

Unfortunately, he had Void Rays ready as you can see, so it wouldn't kill him outright, but :

Zerglings running riot in his mineral line

I killed a total of 12 probes with this attack, and definitely made him even more afraid and contained, on top of powering me ahead in economy.

At this point, his entire army was defending his expo (probably afraid of roaches coming in again) while he sent his Void Rays out to try to do some harass.

Luckily for me, I had already pumped out a round of hydras, and I pushed this away easily

After this, I knew I was ahead, and given how he probably only just expanded, I knew I had to

FLICK THE KILL SWITCH
(RANDOM note - 'flick' looks like something else when the L and I are capitalised)

I began rallying my roach/hydra army forward, and true enough:

He just didn't have enough. GG

Of course, this game was partially won because of his faulty strategy (Seriously, who does a FE on XNC), but I just wanted to highlight the advantages of being aggressive and hitting quickly and decisively, instead of sitting back and macroing up (if I had done that, he would probably have won because we would both be on 2 base)

Game 2 - vs Canx (Diamond Terran) on XNC

Against Terran, I used to do the Spanishiwa opening, but I decided to try a more aggressive style this time round. My goal was simple - defend any bunker rushes he attempts at the start, make a round of roaches and go knock on his front door while I drone up hard and tech to lair.

My scouting Drone spotted an early gas, so I immediately guessed reactor hellions. Even better for my strategy! Roaches >> Hellions. (Even if he was rushing double starport banshee, it would be vulnerable to this strategy as well)

Indeed, my ling spots the reactor on the Factory, which means reactor hellions

First batch of hellions can't do shit against Roaches

He tried a few more times with 3-4 hellions but my roaches easily fended him off.

Now, a typical Zerg makes about 3-5 roaches just to defend against Hellions, then proceeds to Drone up behind this. Because I need to be aggressive, I made 6 Roaches instead, and pushed his base!

Panic bunkers - I sniped the SCVs easily and began sniping marines/hellions

I kept this up for quite awhile - all this while droning up behind this aggression. Remember, aggression =/= all-in. I think I killed about 3 hellions, 4 SCVs and a bunch of marines before he finally reduced my roaches to 3 and had too many marines. Well, what really drove me back was a BANSHEE that popped out.

As you know, a Banshee beats a Queen 1v1, so I was in a spot

I was throwing down spores and making extra queens, so I managed to fend off the banshee harass. I decided to transition to mutas/bling at this point (mutas for banshees, bling for marines, lings/roaches for tanks)

Barely survived.. 1 HP!!

He then hit with some sort of slowpush with quite a handful of marines, 4 tanks and some banshees. I waited on my banelings before engaging:

BOOMZ!

Roaches actually do pretty decent DPS against tanks, just that you need something to support them like lings/mutas or something, as they die pretty fast to tanks too. But they're good for soaking some hits while your banelings/lings roll in.

By now, I had grabbed my 3rd, and with my little flock of mutas, I decided to poke around to see what he had.

Well-placed turret, ok. Armory building.. ok transitioning to Infestors for neural parasite 

But wait, I wanted to see his main army, so I flew up towards his entrance deliberately

I saw this army....

And I was thinking... WHAT? This is it?

Obviously...

KILL SWITCH ON

Immediately rallied all my roaches /blings forward and started pumping pure units

I even deliberately flew my mutas in a bad arc to bait his marines, and let him catch up with me to snipe my mutas

But I was just buying time while my army was moving in:

What happened next is too gruesome to watch so I will skip that

And with the 'kill' switch on, I streamed in never-ending zerglings, roaches, mutas, whatever key my fingers hit first

GG

Granted, his macro wasn't really good (didn't constantly make SCVs) so his army wasn't big enough, but the roach pressure at the start probably delayed his CC (since I killed so many units and forced bunkers) and considering aggression right after the contain won me the game.

~~

Just to end, yesterday I was watching mOOnGlaDE (no idea how he capitalizes his nick) stream for about 2-3 hours (he streamed for longer than that, just that I watched for this amount only) and I realized he also has a similar aggressive playstyle, at least against Terran.

His gameplan is something like this - get some Roaches or speedlings to hold off early aggression, then Drone till 2 bases are saturated, and when almost so tech to banelings and lair and start massing roaches/lings.

Then he morphs all his lings into banelings and does a timing roach-baneling push that somehow always catches the Terran offguard!

And if you think about it, Roach/bling beats just about any combination the Terran has, besides mass marauders.

How about mech? you might ask. Ok I wish I had the replay to show you or some screenshots to prove it, but this particular game stood out - his opponent did indeed go mech, and had like 4-5 thors with 5-6 tanks and marauders/marines/hellions. Glade had more or less played in the dark and just got roaches/blings blind and was taking his 3rd when his opponent decided to push out.

So naturally, you'd think he was screwed right? How will banelings beat a big mech force?

With his 20 roaches and 30+ banelings, he saw the Terran moving forward and his 'Kill Switch' flicked.

UNSIEGED TANKS. IN I GO.

and he engaged - he basically used the rolling banelings like speedlings and got a surround around the mech army and BLEW IT ALL UP. 

The roaches streamed in... but all the mech was dead!! 

Yes, he killed a  big mech ball with just banelings. 

everyone on stream was going crazy when he did that, as it seemed so unbelievable. And of course Glade just followed up with some roaches/lings and cleared out he Terran.

Playing an aggressive-style Zerg is really strong. I hope to hone and develop my own Kill Switch!