Tonight's Game:
Z v P on Newkirk Precinct.
I spawned in the lower right of the map, he in the lower left. First thing I did was send out a scouting overlord - more on that later. I had watched the replay from my first game (I lost because my army was tiny) and learned one crucial thing: DRONES! From my first game, my mineral lines were hardly saturated and my gasses went untapped for most of the game. This time was different - I made a conscious effort to keep droning up, expand every now and then, and tap dat gas all the time. I quickly expanded to 3 bases before my opponent (a bronze player) expanded at all. I pushed a roach/zergling attack but had to retreat due to air and stalkers at the ramp choke point. I macro'd up from there, expanding again and going roach/hydra to fight the air units. I also research overlord speed and drops so I could make use of the unguarded back door.
My opponent tried some oracle/void ray harasses but they were either thwarted by low numbers of my queens.
I executed a successful drop and destroyed my opponent's main, but since the drop was all roach/ling (I have to get better control of my army) I still got roasted from the air. I knew skytoss was coming, so I went 100% on the hydras. My opponent sent in a few more void rays and roasted my expo and most of my main before queens and hydras pushed it out.
Since I destroyed my opponent's base (I didn't see him expand), I was waiting for the reveal but none came. I decided to expand again (to a fifth, should have been like an eighth or so) and I discovered a hidden expo. I sent my (now massive roach/hydra/1 or 2 ling army and levelled it. No reveal, so I scouted all over with speedlords. Found another hidden base, my opponent rebuilding his main, and expanding to his natural (finally). By this time my hydra/roach ball was big enough to obliterate so I A-moved and took him out. Fun game, nice to win one.
Things to take away:
- SCOUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- I CANNOT STRESS THIS ONE ENOUGH!!!! If I had done semi-competent scouting (send some speedlings around the map!) I would have discovered and denied my opponent's hidden expos. If he tried a cannon rush or other proxy cheese I would have been dead. Use the overlords and lings to scout man!
- Macro
- Have to get better at spending my money. I was sitting on thousands of mins and gas at the end of the game - that shouldn't be happening. I need to be more mindful of my upgrades, unit production, and expanding. I should be taking expos faster than I can consume them (duh), and should have discovered the hidden expos just by my own expanding. I should have also started into ultras, brood lords, or mutas. Probably should have upped to hive too...
- Queen usage
- I was decent at larvae injections initially, but once the attacks started and I had an army to manage, the injections kind of fell by the wayside. I did it when I remembered to inject, but too often I totally forgot until I was at my base by some accident.
- Creep Spread
- Zerg are faster on the creep, Steve. Use it! My first game I made a conscious effort to spread, but my mind was on droning and expanding this game. I'm glad I made that the priority but I wish I had spread out more. Even more vision, unit speed - all very nice things.
- Static Defenses
- A few times my drones got roasted by oracles - and one attack levelled my expo thanks to void rays and oracles. Static defenses would have prevented all that, and I had larvae to spare on it. I need to put 2-3 spore colonies in my base (when taking on toss) to prevent just this harass.
To recap: I'm glad I finally won one! To be honest, it's been so long since I've competed against another human being at something like this - my adrenaline is pumping and I'm pretty fired up. I was able to get a lot out of this game - scouting, macro, etc - to improve my own game and move it forward.
On to tomorrow and placement match 3! Bronze/Silve here I come!
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