EcoLings
From Liquipedia StarCraft Brood War Wiki
Zerg VS. Protoss build order.
This is a build order that can be used a lot in ZvP (not All-in), and is great for mixing up the standard 3 hatchery spire into five hatchery hydralisk build. Works especially well on iccup as its the sick lovechild of 12Pool and 9pool and thus can confuse opponents, causing them to not respond properly. This build is very adaptable because you can transition nicely back into a defensive/macro heavy posture, or an aggression frenzy to Kwanroll opponents. The general timing results in 8-10 speedlings just outside his natural as metabolic boost finishes, creating a runby opportunity.
Build Order[edit]
- 9 - Build Overlord
- @100% Overlord Build 2 Drones
- 11 - Build Spawning pool
- 10 - Build Extractor
- 9 - Build Drone
- 10 - Build Drone
- 11 - Build Hatchery at natural (as the 11th drone pops Extractor will complete)
- @100% extractor 3 Drones on gas
- @100% Spawning pool build 2 Zerglings
- @80 gas pull Drones one by one (leaving you with 104 gas)
- @100 Minerals and 104 gas, Metabolic boost
- Build 8 to 10 Zerglings after Metabolic boost
- 16 - send Drone to second natural.
Speed will finish as your zerglings are approaching his natural, leaving his response time to actually seeing speedlings at a minimum.
Build Order Clarification[edit]
- Drone scouting with this build can be pretty technical so it's useful to scout with one ling and harass the scouting probe with your first two lings (directly after the spawning pool and before researching metabolic boost) just keep a mindful eye on the scouting zergling because you cant afford to let it get killed by cannon fire.
- 10 zerglings is recommended as it leaves you the option for attacking the cannons if they are poorly guarded or simmed, but 8 can be used too. avoid going for more than 10 because you cant afford to wait.
- It's a good idea to build two additional zerglings to block scouting, fully taking advantage of the speed upgrade. If you want to save APM you can sit them on your main ramp and hold position (avoid pulling a Bisu, press H).
Build order follow ups[edit]
Viable Transitions + general build outline: If your runby fails you can still successfully deny scouting with the early speed upgrade.
- This assumes that you built 10 lings and 4 of them survived the runby. Obviously this will change game-to-game but its a somewhat probable situation.
Natural cannon break.[edit]
- 18 - Build Overlord
- 18 - Build Fourth Hatchery
- 18 - Resume Gas Mining
- 23 - Build Den
Research range and then speed
Justification :- This is a good follow up because the protoss (assuming you did economic runby damage) will not have enough minerals to :-
A) Tech
B) Produce units
C) Guard the front
- Range first is preferable to speed because you can safely damage the outlying buildings (Forge and Gateway) at the natural while speed is researching. Also, you can abuse the positioning of cannons more to reduce damage taken if you go in for a cannon kill.
- You can skip the fourth Hatchery in order to get faster Hydralisks. This is a very strong option.
3 hatch spire follow up[edit]
This one is pretty basic
- 16 - resume gas
- 18 - Overlord
- @100gas Lair
Going into more detail isn't necessary as every game is different and the supplies will be totally different. you can easily go into 5 hatch from the spire or you can go for the Mutalisk option, if you are unsure about when to take the second gas in order to have enough for 9 muta, take the second gas when your Lair has about 2 bars to finish mutating and make sure you have at least 2 free overlords so you don't get supply stuck.
Adaptation[edit]
Ok, so you can't always be setting the pace of the game, here are some adaptations to some viable builds the protoss could try to pull.
- Against a greedy Protoss only building one cannon you can easily surround and kill the cannon, resulting in GG.
- Against a Protoss 2 gating make sure you continue zergling production. Still try to secure the natural with the aid of speedlings and make sure not to give up your ramp. If you hold it off successfully its a good idea to place a third hatchery in your main and Tech to Lair and hydralisks. make sure not to overextend.
- Against a Protoss that goes 1 gate tech - expand to your natural like normal and maintain vision on the ramp as its possible to build 10-15 zerglings and break his ramp if he tries to skip units for faster tech. Again, a 3 Hatchery Hydralisk follow up is safe, make sure not to overextend.
Counters[edit]
Countered by[edit]
Hard Counters
None
Soft Counters
2 gate
Counter to[edit]
Hard counters
Forge FE
Soft Counters
None
Notable Maps[edit]
Maps with open naturals or two player maps are good such as:
Strong
On maps with a mineral backdoor, send the ninth drone out and mine it, it will delay pool slightly but if the Protoss does not scout it, it is an instant gg. Destination is a good map to try it on and catch the Protoss off-guard.
Weak
Mentality[edit]
Replays[edit]
This replay is NOT an example of the build being pulled off perfectly. It can show you how to adapt if the Protoss decides to be annoying.
VODS[edit]
Links[edit]
--The Australian 10:38, 13 July 2009 (UTC)