The Art Of ZvP 2
Welcome to SieGe’s first SC2 guide. I used to write a lot of these back in Brood War. I'll describe a a macro style of play based on Roaches and Hydras.
 
Edit: This guide makes no mention of the mass Void Ray style which have grown increasingly popular these last few days. Perhaps I'll get around to it when I myself have more experience against it.  
 
Table Of Contents
 
Code:
 
0.0 Opening BO
1.0 Flowchart
1.1 Defensive Timings
1.2 Economic Timings
2.0 Scouting
3.0 The Economic Builds
3.1 Warpgate Expand
3.2 Nexus First
4.0 The Defensive Builds
4.1 4 Gate
4.2 Immortal Push
4.3 Warp Prism
4.4 Blink Stalkers
4.5 DT Rush
4.6 Stargate
4.7 The Unknown
4.8 Cannon Wall-In
4.9 1 Zealot 2 Stalkers Push
5.0 General Tips
5.1 Dealing With Limit
5.2 Army Usage
5.3 Creep Tricks
5.4 Injects
5.5 Overlord Theory
6.0 Offensive Opportunities
6.1 All-In Vs Nexus First
6.2 All-In Vs Warpgate Expand
6.3 Baneling Bust On Scrap Station
6.4 Roach Poke On Blistering Sands
7.0 Replays
8.0 Afterword
 
 
The numbers are there to allow you to use the search function to get straight to the sought-after section.
 
 
0.0 Opening BO
I use the good old Speedling opening when playing against Protoss because I think it’s the opening with the best worst-case scenario. It might not always be the best opening, but it’s very stable and allows you to make good use of superior knowledge and mechanics.
 
Here’s the opening build order:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Code:
 
14 Gas (at 100 minerals)
14 Pool
15 Overlord
16 Queen
18 Zergling Speed & pull Drones from Gas
18 Zergling
19 Zergling
20 Drone
21 Expand
 
 
I honestly hasn’t played a 2 Gate opening in weeks so I ain’t covering it in this guide, but if you happen to face one your Overlord should have found it out by now and you should stay on one base and get Roaces asap. Just mine enough gas for around 3. You don't need more than that to stay alive and more than ain't gonna do more damage to him either, so don't get more. Then push him back and expand and continue normally.
 
So let’s assume you ain’t playing a 2 Gate, here’s how we continue:
 
Code:
 
Make a Creep Tumor with your first Queen’s second round of energy.
First Queen Done: Second Queen
Second Queen Done: Put Drones back in gas.
Get a Spine Crawler around the time you start your Lair, unless he forces early Zerglings with Stalker pressure.
 
 
Note that if you instead make a Creep Tumor with your second Queen’s first round of Energy your Queens won’t line up their Injects as well as if you do it this way. Also get a Spine Crawler around 5:00 if the distances are very short, like on Metalopolis’ close positions.
 
1.0 Flowchart
Here’s a flowchart I made, it should provide a basic summary of this whole guide, but it doesn’t go into the details. Right-click and press View Picture for the full view.
 
 
 
1.1 Defensive Timings
Here’s a compilation of some Protoss timings I use to motivate my strategic choices.
 
Tech Stuff:
 
Code:
 
WarpGates Ready: 5:40 (2 CBs)
Warpgate Expand Build Moving Out To Natural: 5:30-6:30
 
Twilight Council Started: 5:00 (Nazguls Blink Build)
Blink Done: 7:10 (3 CBs)
 
Twilight Council Started: 4:30 (Common DT Rush)
Dark Shrine Started: 5:20
DTs Out: 7:10
 
Stargate started: 4:30
1 Phoenix Out:  6:05 (1 CB)
3 Phoenix Out:  7:15 (3 CB)
Hallucination Out (No Chrono): 8:30
2 Void Rays Out:  6:55 (4 CBs)
 
Robo started: 4:20
Warp Prism Out: 6:05 (1 CB)
Ob+2x Immortals Out: 7:15 (4 CBs)
 
 
Note: A full CB removes 10 seconds, no matter what you cast it at.
 
1.2 Economic Timings
Here’s a summary of how your economic situation is supposed to look vs a WarpGate Expand build. Create a table of your own and compare, perhaps it can make you realise just how important Larva and Overlord management is. Or perhaps you’re keeping up - good work!
 
 
Code:
 
Drones at 5:00: 18
Drones at 6:00: 29
Drones at 7:00: 37
 
Zergling Speed Done: 5:00
Lair Done: 7:20
 
 
P.S I normally only hit these in YABOT. There’s so much to think of in real games, hence I tend to lag behind. However, the better you are the closer you’ll get.
 
2.0 Scouting
In the order they are likely to occur in a standard game:
 
Ling Scouting
When your first Zerglings pop, immediately rush one of them to his ramp to confirm his opening build order. The remaining ones should chase down the scouting Probe and then check the map for hidden Probes and Pylons. This alone could make the difference between a win and a loss against some Protoss builds.
 
From here on we must always keep track and the Protoss’ choke so that no Probes sneak out. It’s THAT important.
 
Overlord Sacrefice
Most Protoss tech buildings are started around 4:30, sacrifice an Overlord at 4:45 and we should be able to get in before his second Stalker/Sentry pops out and we will have great chances at seeing not only his tech but also his Gateway count.
 
Front Poking
Constantly running a Zergling up and down his ramp or in and out of his choke might revel a lot about his army composition which will be very useful when we decide when to stop Droning.
 
Another Overlord Sacrifice
Eventually it will be time for him to choose his midgame tech: Colossi, Templars or just mass Gateway units? Scout his main as soon as Overlord Speed is done and keep poking around till you know what choice he made.
 
Templar tech means we’ve more leeway to Drone hard while 6 Gateways would indicate that we’ll be struggling to stay alive with little ability to Drone at all. The first battle will most likely be decisive in this scenario.
 
Robotics on the other hand is a middle path. Get some Drones but more importantly, get a Spire. Corruptors are essential against Colossi.
 
Watchtower Control
In the mid and late game it will be very important to keep tabs on his army’s whereabouts, Xel’Naga Watchtowers help greatly in this so try to control them as often as possible. Also spread out Overlords to see as much of the map as possible.
 
3.0 The Economic Builds
Standard Protoss play generally means that he will expand, macro up some and push out around 7-9 minutes into the game.
 
3.1 Warpgate Expand
Tech to Lair as soon as 100 Gas is reached for the second time, then get Roach Warren asap and follow up with a second Extractor. Poke around a lot at his expansion to keep him feeling pressured and perhaps score a Probe kill, Drone hard in the meanwhile.
 
Make Zerglings to defend any push before Roach Warren is done and Roaches if the Warren is done. I think this can be rather tricky. Don't be afraid of throwing up a second Spine Crawler on small maps.
 
When the Lair completes, get Roach Speed as soon as possible, then take your third Extractor. If you suspect a mass Gateway build (try to judge the size of his army), get Burrow else get Overlord Speed and scout him as soon as it it's done.
 
Once you feel safe you want to Drone towards 50 and expand.
 
When 3 bases are secured you want to take your 4th, 5h & 6th gas very soon and get double Evolution Chambers as well as Hydra Tech. However, unless he's going Gateways only, stick with Roaches till you've forced a few Immortals.
 
Work your way towards 60-70 Drones on 3 bases.
 
3.2 Nexus First
Against the very fast expansion builds you could do a 5RRand try to harass him and force him to spend all his cash on cannons while your Hatch completes. Hit anything that’s out of Cannon range while you switch macromode back at home.
 
You could also go straight for the macro and Drone hard. Get his scouting Probe out quickly and make him wonder, laying a Roach Warren and canceling it once he’s gone can be a good idea. Don’t let him know he’s safe.
 
After that you can treat it very much like a Warpgate Expand. His initial push will be later but he’ll be able to go up to 5 or 6 Gateways earlier.
 
4.0 The Defensive Builds
These builds present a great opportunity to gain an early advantage if we scout them. However, if we don’t we’ll have to make a guess and might end up losing in a silly manner.
 
4.1 4 Gate
On some maps this can easily be held of with Spine Crawlers, but not on all so I’ll describe my Spine Crawlerless way to do it.
 
Lay Roach Warren at as soon as you know it’s a 4 Gate, preferbly at around 25 supply. Cut Drones at 31 supply (23 Drones) and don’t tech to Lair. First get some Zerglings to avoid wasting Larva while Roach Warren morphs and then get Roaches as these take some time to come out. Switch to Zerglings as the battle starts, this should also free up gas for Lair.
 
Kite his Zealots with Roaches and run your Zerglings around to hit his ranged units. Target the Sentrys first if you’ve got the speed and accuracy necessary.
 
Make sure you have Overlord support up to at least 60, this is when the first battle is likely to occur.
 
Also, it’s worth killing his proxy pylon with some Zerglings while the battle occur, even if you might lose the first fight your reinforcements will be far greater and the rush is basically held off once the Pylon goes down, unless its a Steppes sized map.
 
Avoid getting kited off creep by Stalkers, only chase him down if you can block him with Speedlings or have a ton more stuff than he do. Instead, turn into standard macro mode once the rush is defended, you should be at an advantage.
 
4.2 Immortal Push
Treat this as a 4 Gate but give priority to killing the Immortals first. After that he’ll mostly have Zealots which are easy prey for Roaches.
 
4.3 Warp Prism
You normally won’t be able to tell the difference between this and an Immortal push if you just scout a Robo. However, a Warp Prism build can support more Gateways than an Immortal Push. If you see a Robo and 4 or more Gateways it’s most likely a Warp Prism.
 
Good Overlord spread is paramount, you want those extra seconds to position your army correctly before he unloads. Also try to Snipe the Prism with your Queens while it’s in Warp-In mode. Whatever happens, don’t let him unload and forcefield your ramp!
 
If you can beat him back once you’ve probably got the game, economy-wise, treat the Warp Prism rush just like the 4 Gate and the Immortal Push.
 
4.4 Blink Stalkers
Against a Blink Stalker build you can get away with a few more Drones than against a 4 Gate. However, don’t go over 30. Tech to Lair and take a second Extractor as against an expand build. Against this build you want to mass only Speedlings while teching to Infestors. Get the Infestor Energy upgrade and start your Infestors, 2 of them should be enough, when the upgrade is at 30/80. The progress is visible in numbers if you hover the mouse over the progress bar. This will allow you to cast Fungal Growth 14 seconds earlier. One good Fungal is all you need to end the game, Stalkers are useless against Speedlings without Blink.
 
Even if you don’t scout a Twilight Council there’s a good chance that he’s doing this build if he has a lot of Stalkers early on. If you want to expand you generally want to make a lot of Sentrys as a Stalker/Zealot expand cannot hold Speedling/Roach aggression. Getting Sentrys early also allows him to save up a lot of energy. Hence he’s unlikely to make a lot of Stalkers unless he wants to be aggressive.
 
Edit: After further testing, I actually think I prefer teching to Hydras rather than Infestors. Sub 30 Drones mass Zerglings stays the same though.
 
4.5 DT Rush
A DT rush is really all about knowing that it’s coming, get that Overseer up and you’re ahead, miss it and you’re behind. If he does a normally timed DT rush you will need to start that Overseer right as your Lair finishes in order to have it complete before he gets to your base.
 
A DT rusher will generally build his Twilight Council about 30 seconds earlier than a Blink rusher. If the Council is just started as you Overlord gets in there he’s more likely to be Blink rushing while the DT rusher’s Council will be close to finished. The number of Stalkers may also tell the difference if you poke around his front with a Zergling every now and then.
 
4.6 Stargate
It won’t be till a little after 7 minutes that he is able to do damage to you with this build, and even then only if he catches you with your Queens split up. None the less, get a third Queen asap, get an Evolution Chamber at 6:00 and one Spore per mineral line to be safe. Tech to Hydras.
 
Your Spore Crawlers won’t be able to save every thing from Void Rays, but they will provide a safe haven for your Queens which you can use to perform hit and run tactics. Make sure your base ain’t built as a maze.
 
4.7 The Unknown
This position sucks to be in. You realise he hasn’t tried to expand yet and is sticking to one base but you don’t have a clue what he’s teching.
 
I’d get a third Queen, the Spore Crawlers (Evolution Chamber at 6:00, remember?) which will help us defend both DTs and a Stargate build. Then I’d tech Hydras which is good vs Stargate and decent vs Blink Stalkers. I’d cut Drones at 30 and mass Zerglings in the mean while.
 
Poke his front a lot, if you realise that his unit count is too high you better throw down some Spine Crawlers and prey he’ll give them time to complete.
 
4.8 Cannon Wall-In
One of the best things about a Pool first build is that you can easily throw down a Roach Warren and just bust out at an advantage. Don’t over commit, just break the contain and switch back to macro mode. If he expanded behind the contain it doesn’t hurt to poke around some afterwards, Zealots are notoriously bad against Roaches so make sure he either techs to a Stalker right away or has every thing covered with cannons. This will slow him down.
 
4.9 1 Zealot 2 Stalker Push
This is especially common on Blistering and Steppes. He’ll chrono boost out 1 Zealot and 2 Stalkers, all rallied to your natural. Speed will finish as the second Stalker arrives. Make 12 Zerglings and let him hit the Hatchery while you wait for speed to finish. Beware of him claiming your ramp though. It’s better to hide your initial Zerglings on the outside than on the inside.
 
5.0 General Tips
Here’s some general tips for the match up.
 
I cannot stress enough how important Corruptors are against Colossi. You won’t have any chance at all without them if he knows the basics of Forcefield micro.
 
Don't neglect air upgrades. Air attack is awesome for both Corruptors and Brood Lords, armor ain't as good though.
 
Never go over 80 Drones, more than that simply isn’t useful and will only weaken your limit army.
 
Add extra Hatcheries if your macro is bad so that you can spend those resources. Wasting minerals is bad but sitting with them in the bank is most often worse.
 
5.1 Army Usage
A combination of Roaches and Hydras are better than either or. Keep the Roaches in front to soak up damage, and long ranged but fragile Hydras in behind to boost your damage output.
 
Make sure your front is very wide or that you’re flanking. Avoid battle in bottlenecks or other slim areas where he can easily split your army in half with forcefields.
 
Sometimes it’s better not to engage if he has the greater army, sacrifice an expansion but save the Drones, then smite him on his way back. With your superior mobility you should be able to stop him from reinforcing his main army. Counter attacking could also be a good option in this situation.
 
If you want to play aggressive outside of your creep, bring a bunch of speedy Overlords to generate Creep over the battle. This is especially good when you have a lot of Hydras. In general, don’t use Hydras where there’s no Creep. They won’t be able to chase down a fleeing enemy, the won’t be able to flee themselves and microing them is that much harder.
 
5.2 Dealing With Limit
Dealing with limit can be hard. Mostly you'll be sitting back while gathering, Larva , resources and teching to Hive. You will lose the first battle if he engages before you have Brood Lords. However, with sufficient Corruptor numbers you should be able to take out his Colossi and his Sentrys won't have energy for a second round of forcefields so when your rienforcements pop the battlefield should be ripe for your victory. However, it's important that you don't let him back off and gather another huge army so try to force the battle this time around, even if it means attacking him.  
 
Also, try adding Spine Crawlers on all locations he's likely to attack. Spine Crawlers doesn't take up supply and even if he can outrange them this means leaving his Colossi open to Corruptor snipes so they should help some in the first battle.
 
If you still cannot beat him you need a quicker Hive.
 
5.3 Creep Tricks
A Creep Tumor has a cooldown of 15 seconds, however, it takes longer than that to spread creep to its full range. The creep will spread faster if you create a new Creep Tumor as soon as the cooldown is ready, however it will spread even faster if you use a speedy Overlord to generate creep at the maximum range and then move the Overlord to the new maximum range once the new Creep Tumor is down.
 
Here’s some data, it’s the time taken to spread creep a fixed distance on Shakuras Plateau.
 
 
Code:
 
Almost Full Range Spread: 5 minutes 20 seconds
15s Spread: 4 minutes 10 seconds                        
Pre-Genereated Spread: 2 minutes 30 seconds
 
 
If you want to spread creep fast, it’s worth to micro a little with a speedy Overlord.
 
Furthermore, it takes 70 seconds for 1 Overlord or 1 Creep Tumor generate a full circle of creep. However, it also takes 70 seconds for the creep to disappear once the source is gone. If you use an Overlord to generate creep over all empty expansions you will not only spot an expansion attempt right away, but also force him to bring an anti air unit and if that wasn’t enough he’ll have to wait 70 seconds to expand after he has chased away your Overlord. This is fucking awesome!
 
Also, you can cancel a morphing Creep Tumor (unless it’s the first one) and be able to make a new one. This can be very helpful if he attacks while they’re morphing.
 
5.4 Injects
Larva management is the backbone of Zerg macro and Injecting properly is about half of it. If your screen is in your base when they Larva pop you will hear a familiar noise indicating that its time to Inject again. However, you shouldn’t spend much time looking at your base so this is a bad tell.
 
Instead, make it a habit to check your main Hatchery as often as possible and take note of the Inject timer. One full timer is 40 game seconds or 29 real seconds, try to figure you how much time you have left before it has run out. It’s better to be too quick than it is to be too slow. If there’s still 10 real seconds left when you check you can figure out a 10 seconds task to do and then check back again, but if you are 10 seconds too late you’ve wasted a little more than one Larva per Hatchery.
 
If you pay attention to your Injects, you will perform good Injects. However, you will have a harder time thinking strategically during the game. The key to high level play is to enter the game well prepared; knowing how you want to respond to all sensical opponent strategies so that you don’t have to think too much about it in game and instead can focus on your mechanics.
 
At the same time you mechanics will start to grow into a habit which will release more attention for the strategical part of the game. However, if you’re busy thinking about strategy before your mechanics are well you’ll form bad mechanical habits. Also, the strategical feedback generated from each game will be much more diffuse since you can’t make full use of your strategies.
 
Sometimes I count seconds in my head while practicing. The information generated by this isn’t really useful, but it forces me to pay attention to my Injects.
 
5.5 Overlord Theory
If you make Hydralisks or Roaches or Corruptors 1 Larva in 5 will need to be an Overlord, if you make Drones or Zerglings it’s 1 in 9. A perfectly macroed Hatchery generates, on average, 0.167 Larva per game second.
 
Let’s say you’re massing Roaches off 2 Hatches, which will be a very common scenario. Here you would need to start one Overlord every 15 seconds, which is actually less than the build time of one Overlord so even if you are constantly producing one Overlord it won’t be enough! With 3 Hatches it won’t even be enough to constantly be producing 2 Overlords.
 
Do not underestimate how many Overlords you will need to make, it’s almost always better to have way too many than to get supply blocked even once.
 
6.0 Offensive Opportunities
Sometimes it’s worth it to play very aggressive in the early game. For most part I don’t think it is, but sometimes...
 
6.1 All-In Vs Nexus First
Normally it’s beneficial to do a small Roach poke against these openings but sometimes you can go all-in on either 1 or 2 bases. If you win with this I think its really the Protoss who lost the game and not you who won it, but if you’re desperate it might be worth a shot. I won’t describe how to do this as there’s so many different ways.
 
6.2 All-In Vs Warpgate Expand
This is an easy win if he makes Stalkers instead of Sentrys, be he should be able to hold it off with sufficient Sentry numbers. Anyways, it worked twice for Ret at MLG so I think it’s worth mentioning: Cut Drones around 25 get some 10 Roaches and pull Drones off gas and switch to mass Zerglings. Don’t get a Lair, use all energy from both Queens on Inject and place your Roaches in the front to soak up damage.
 
6.3 Baneling Bust On Scrap Station
If you want to Baneling Bust, this is the map. Here’s the BO:
 
 
 
 
 
Code:
 
14 Gas
14 Pool
15 Overlord
16 Queen
18 Zerglings
20 Baneling Nest (After Scout is chased away)
 
Get 6 banelings and go for the Zealots then run your Zerglings in. Get the Pylon if he Forcefields his Zealot.
 
 
6.4 Roach Poke On Blistering Sands
Having your backdoor broken is a pain in the ass during the midgame for a Protoss player. On this map its often a good idea to get some early Roaches to kill the rocks before the Protoss can defend them, even if you don’t plan to play aggressive in the early game.
 
I’ve also seen TLO do a 10 Pool and take the rock down with 6 Zerglings before the Protoss could defend it properly. I only think it works if he gets a Sentry first though, and even then it requires some micro as you want to keep your Zerglings diagonal to the Sentry to stay out of its range.
 
7.0 Replays
Notes: I reworked the opening in a minor update. The orginal replays display the old opening.
 
Stalker Pressure Into 2 Base 8 Gate All-In vs puckelrygg
Notes: I don’t think his Stalker/Chargelot composition is optimal, mining more Gas and going pure Stalker (with a few Sentrys from early on) feels much stronger. I forgot my upgrades after 2-1. Played this one before I reworked my Roach Warren timing, follow the guide on that. Broke his 20 game win streak xD
 
Warpgate Expand into Templars vs AiSeiplo
I think I played well overall this game. I've got my doubts about the Templar tech choice though.
 
Warpgate Expand vs Void
Notes: Now this guy had pretty weak macro so I finished him early. However, I finished the game with 0 energy on my Queen so I’m pretty proud of that. Also, I kinda forgot my gas in the start so it was a little late, but I managed to trap his first Stalker so it didn’t matter.
 
4 Gate vs ZeroControl
Notes: These are pretty harmless unless you miss a proxy pylon. Kite his Zealots with Roaches before engaging, I suppose I could have saved my first round of Zerglings till after I’d gotten the Zealots.
 
Zealot/Cannon cheese into 2 Base Blink/Colossi vs Rotterdam
Notes: Mostly here for the cheese. I did overestimate his dedication to the Blink push and should have expanded earlier and resumed my upgrades had I known he was teching Colossi behind it. In the end it worked out well anyway.
 
Phoenix Into Expand vs YoaM
Notes: Admittedly, this guy ain’t the best one around. His opening is inefficient but I couldn’t find a better Stargate replay at the moment. I was a little sloppy with my Overlords too ;-) Don’t attack head on into his natural unless the game is already over. It’s a finishing move, not a cost efficient one. Made my Evo a little too early, but delayed the Spores so they came out as I described.
 
I also compiled a pack of MLG replays where Machine, IdrA and Ret play very similar to this. Though they tend prefer their own openings and a few other details differ too.
 
MLG ZvP Roachstyle Pack
 
8.0 Afterword
StarCraft is a lot about the small details and you’ll probably have to go through some trial and error to get them right. Don’t give up on a style of play because it doesn’t work the first time. Analyse your mistakes and improve with every game. I keep a log where I write down every reason to every game I lose.
 
Now, go bash some ugly Protosse