Category:Zerg versus Terran

Introduction
This article will concentrate on using the Missile Style, the other ZvT styles may not be particularly deeply examined for a long time.

Creepspread
While extremely important in all matchups it could be argued that it is most important for ZvT. It spots any drops that come in through land way, so you only need to cover airways with Overlords. It helps your ground forces to respond to drops. It makes engagements so much easier to close the gap to stimmed Bio, Tanks and Mines. It also either delays a Terran push by a ton while burning Scans (which are worth 270 Minerals each, that are over 5 Marines!), or it gives you a major advantage if you can engage a Terran army which is covered in Creep 360° around it.

Using Missile Style
This Style uses mostly Roach/Hydra. It has reliable tankiness (except versus Tanks) and damage. However, it does not have any burst or splash damage. That means you are completely reliant on outdpsing stimmed Bio healed by Medivacs. For that reason i cannot stress the importance of early and continous double Upgrades.

Roach Hitsquad
Early Roaches can easily get you a huge lead, while on other times set you behind a bit. The key is to use them when your chances are best. It basically works versus Reaper openings and versus all 3 OC openings. You want to do it only if you see a Reaper or a CC first. You want to get 14 H 15 P 18 OL 2x Queen 1x Gas and then get 1 set of Lings to kill the scout SCV or get 2 set of Lings if you see a Reaper going across the map. In case of Reaper keep in from scouting your Roach Warren, of course it would best to just kill it. Get Roach Warren once the scout is shoed away.

Lategame
In Lategame Roach/Hydra is not at its best, because of its low Strength/Supply quotient. However you can use your Infestation/Hive Tech and your Gas cashflow to support your Roach/Hydra with super supply efficient support units like Infestor and Viper.

When you use Roach/Hydra you either need to
 * hit an early timing when you still got superior army strength
 * use supplyeffective support units (namely: Viper, Infestor and Baneling) to make them less cloggy, and let their cost efficiency shine again, so you can stand up in 200 vs 200 fights

Description
This Terran composition focuses on mobility and high potential for cost efficiency in skirmishes. It mainly revolves about the three units: Marine, Widow Mine and Medivac. A Terran player might add in a few Marauders to soak up Baneling shots, or more Marauders in Lategame to counter Ultralisks. Some will also use a few Hellbats for better Zergling clearing power and they are also looking to trade themselves costefficiently for a few Banelings.

Using Mutalisk/Zergling/Baneling/Overseer
To combat this composition we need something to take out Medivacs, or their cost efficiency will get out of control over time. Here our best bet is the Mutalisk. Mutalisks are small in low numbers, but in high numbers they consume a lot of Gas. So we need to dump our Minerals. Here the Zergling is our best option. Now we have Mutalisk/Zerling vs Bio/Mine/Medivac. Healed Marines will wreck both of them, so we need some hard splash damage to take them out quickly. This comes in the form of Banelings. The last thing we need to worry about is that Widow Mines also get extremely cost efficient if they survive, and like the Medivac, are the only hard things to reproduce for a Terran. So we need some Overseers to make sure we can clear them out after they fired their first shot. So our final composition is: Mutalisk/Zergling/Baneling/Overseer

Using Roach/Hydra/Overseer
While this style is very bad once your opponent is ahead on upgrades or army supply, it is very stable if you play it right. Unlike in Mutalisk/Zergling/Baneling style, a single Mine will not instantly ruin your day. If you don't lose stuff to harrass while building your economy and upgrades, this style will defeat straight up Bio. The things you need to watch out for are Tanks. Once your opponent has amassed enough Tanks you can not push him with Roach/Hydra anymore. Luckily HotS introduced the Viper, which shines in this situation. To have them ready for many timing pushes you need to get the Infestation Pit and Hive as fast as possible.

When you use Roach/Hydra you either need to
 * hit an early timing when you still got superior army strength
 * use supplyeffective support units (namely: Viper, Infestor and Baneling) to make them less cloggy, and let their cost efficiency shine again, so you can stand up in 200 vs 200 fights

Importance of Creep Spread:

Creep will give our Speedlings and Speedbanes the ability to catch up to stimmed units. This way our Banelings are way more likely to make good connects, especially making it much more likely you can catch the Marines right above the Mines.

Also the vision the Creep grants can be used to make superior decisions on how and when to engage his army.

Getting a great Creep Spread:

Bio/Tank (comeback after tank buff?)
Advantages for Tanks over Mines:

-sustained AoE damage

-long range AoE

-higher Supply efficiency

Disadvantages for Tanks over Mines:

-immobile

-more expensive, especially more Gas intensive => fewer Medivacs

-no Anti-Air

-visible

-even slower production

Description
This composition has very high fire power, especially because every single unit has AoE damage. That makes it inherently strong versus the swarmy playstyle design of Zerg. Once he gets this army well-rounded and in a high army supply, it is very hard to fight directly. However, it is not very mobile, and he can not allow to trade anything but Hellbats and Mines, because of the high Gas cost and slow production time of Tanks, Thors and all the air units. So we need to exploit these weaknesses by abusing our mobility for harrass and by picking of his Gas heavy units, so he never gets to that well-rounded and high army supply Mech army.

The different approaches to pick away at a Mech player
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Description
A Sky-Terran Transition is the case when a Terran player who uses the Mech style is trading out most of his Hellbat/Mine/Tank/Thor army for an even more Gas heavy composition of Raven/Viking/Banshee/Battlecruiser. This composition is extremely strong versus Zerg because the Raven's PDD counters the majority of Zerg's Anti-Air options. This problem is more closely looked at by the next section.

Point Defense Drone as the main problem
The PDD is strongest versus Zerg, because *all* regular Zerg Anti-Air units are firing projectiles. The actual list of which Zerg units are affected by PDD: Queen, Hydralisk, Mutalisk, Corruptor, Spore Crawler, Locust;

The only three direct options we have to circumvent the PDD so that we are still able to shoot down Sky-Terran units are: Infested Terran, Fungal Growth, Abduct;

All of the three options are Spells, that way EMP is a strong counter play. Aside from that, Infested Terrans aren't really hurting fully plated air units, as they themselves do not scale on upgrades anymore. They need to be kinda close and Hellbats will eat them before they do enough damage. Fungals rely on clumped units as well as a streched fight, which can be outplayed by a good spread or sniped by Hunter-Seeker Missiles from the Raven. Abduct sounds like the best of the three, but only is really effective versus Battlecruisers. And you will kind of only be able to use ground to air to then acutally shoot the unit down, because you can not grab a bunch of Viking ripping through your Corruptors or even Mutalisks.

The last and indirect way to circumvent PDDs versus a Sky-Terran is to bait out a bunch of PDDs and then instantly withdraw from the fight. The problem here is, if the PDDs are in an important position, they rule that area for 180 seconds (or with the upgrade even 240). In that time the Ravens will regenerate a lot of energy and you have not gained much.

Seeing all the problems with the only 4 ways to avoid PDD costefficiency, it is very clear that we do not want to play versus a well balanced, well upgraded Sky-Terran army with energy heavy Raven support. As a Zerg we should play that aggressive that the Terran player never gets the chance to transition into a strong Sky-Terran army. To maximize your chances for achieving that, you should focus on the main section on how to play against (Ground-)Mech.

PBE: With the aim to also combine Mech and Sky-Terran offensive upgrades, stopping the Terran from getting to Sky-Terran becomes even more important.