When I first started playing this game (and playing zerg to be specific), I started taking notes on various things that I thought I had learned from playing the game and reading some forums. While it's not a comprehensive guide, here are some random tidbits I discovered in this game.
Terminology
-FE = fast expand
-AOE = area of effect
-AA = anti-air
-MBS = multiple building selection
-NP = neural parasite
-FG = fungal growth
-FF = force field
Early Game notes for standard play
-Make workers, then drones to gather @ 0:01 time mark.
-Better not to micro them, you don't gain anything and risk misclicking.
-Send them to the closest mineral patch
-9 overlord, continue droning for a standard build order
-Extractor trick seems useful for getting an 11 scout out, but isn't more economically sound than a 9 OL build.
-A fast expand hatchery has very little line of sight, so keep overlord #2 there to scout for proxy bunkers/cannons, etc. Careful not to loose it to marine rushes.
-When placing your pool, it should go one one of two places:
a. to block from lings running into your mineral line
b. to block reapers from coming in from behind your mineral line.
c. you never want it to be placed on creep close to your enemy, they can more easily scout it, and more easily destroy it in early game pushes.
-can drop an extractor before pool to get faster speedling upgrade
-building a 2nd hatch in your base is a mistake
Some Builds... (basic)
1)14 pool, 15 hatch
2)10 pool, ling rush
General Tips
-burrow a few zerglings at expansion for scouting/drone harassment, almost all zerg units can burrow. Burrowed roaches/infestors can be moved across lowered supply depots. Unlike cloaked units such as observers or dark temps, they can not be revealed with the help of an emp round
-a planetary fortress on an island expo (like scrap station) can stop a zerg from dropping or nydusing there
-test rock boundaries to run in the back door and raid
-use buildings like evo chambers to make your mineral line harder to harass
-using attack move isn't always the best idea, since getting a good surround is important. But when moving blindly ( to somehwere without line of sight), always move with attack move.
-Zerg ground units receive a 30% movement bonus on creep, with the exception of the Hydralisk - 50%, Queen - 170%, Spine/Spore Crawlers - 150% and Drones - 0%.
-units can be shift qeued when burrows (shift+r) so they pop out at a certain location
General Notes
-units on ramps or cliffs deal 100% damage to units and viceversa (this is different from sc 1, since units on the lowground did less damage)
-in team games, medivacs can heal your zerg units
-keep hitpoints bars on all the time, that way you can focus fire injured units, especially large units like thors
-ctrl + f1 selects all idle workers
-build two nydus networks side by side for faster ejection of units (if your spawning end of a nydus network dies, you DO NOT loose the units inside, you have to release them at your initial nydus location)
-you cab place a creep tumor on enemy creep for vision
-when deciding to mass army (lings for example), don't press s-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-, press s and HOLD the Z button down. it will mass faster than you can click.
-zerg fight well in wide open spaces, not choke points... terran do well in choke points and cliffs, especially
-keep a zergling at each xelnaga watch tower if you can... theyre cheap anyway
-roach hydra combo seems like a mistake vs. terran mech.
-zerg army is mobile in general, especially with creep highways
-faster moving units make a concave shape when fighting (for example, stalkers will concave when fighting hydras, and hyrdas will not since they are the slower unit)
Map Notes
-Desert oasis - hard to take natural expansion, but zerg can fast air rush, and speedlings can make it hard for opponent to take natural, really long rushing distance here... however, a bunker on the low ground can kill all your workers, so scout for cheese
-Metalopolis - hard to take natural expansion
-Inceneration zone - really hard map for zerg -> hard to take natural, not many good places to fight, back door rocks don't work well since you need to break two and you leave yourself open to attacks... seems like an auto-loss vs terran
-Steppes of war -
-Lost temple - seems well balanced? I think so...
-Kulas Ravine - seems well balanced too?
-Scrap station - seems like a FE build is the way to go... from here you can go just about any build
Zerg Units
Banelings - suicide units, can burrow, can explode when burrowed. Own all initial units (lings, marines, zealots).
Roaches - own helions, do well against thors. Have a tech that lets them heal fast when burrowed, for a bit later in the game.
Ultralisks - can absorb so much splash damage, though their bulky size may limit their value.
Overseer - contaminate - stops buildings from making units - i.e. starport-> banshee, does not stop static defenses like cannnons. Contaminate stops a floating terran building from being landed, or an orbital command from finishing. Contaminate with 2 overseers can stop command centers from making scv's... nice to slow down an enemies scv production.
Overlord - research speed upgrade at some poing, great scout, spew creep so that enemies can't expand on islands, etc (needs lair tech)
Infestors - with a group of infestors, keep the group selected and just press e on different units, this will neural parasite without having to select infestors one by one. Also, dropping infestors in the mineral line can work - > two casts of fungal growth will kill workers, one cast leaves them with 9 health. Fungal growth in a normal fight is quite nice as well, seems nice vs terran.
Corruptors - can attack collossus ( a ground unit).
Mutalisks - get owned by thors! Great for raiding and keeping expo's in check.
Infested terrans (from queen) - Infested Terrans can be used as a form of worker harassment. Infested Terrans can soft counter harassing air units. The duration is not long but it can buy the player time to build spore crawlers. A bit pricy at 125 energy.
About thors
Mutas stack, therefore thor splash damage + bonus against light = thors owning mutas.
Broodlords are a deecent counter to thors since they are armored and have long range, not a micro intense unit either.
About Helions
Helions own zerglings, especially with pre-igniter upgrade.
About Vikings
Can be used to harass overlords early, they do a good job at it.
About Ravens
Seeker missile tech can cause problems if a few are included in a terran mass
About Stalkers
Blink! Can get them to high ground, make for nasty hit and run, etc... still works even with a unit has been fungal growthed.
About Banshees
They kill workers so fast, and sometimes they get cloacked. Need an overseer for detection. Sometimes 2 queens per hatch can defend.
About Sensor Towers
Pricy, but they provide HUGE vision on the map.
About Planetary Fortress
Upgraded command center, also has a range upgrade too. Common to see many scv's repair it while being attacked.
Insanity???
Overlord+Infestor+Overseer Harass:
Unload the infestor, fungal growth the entire mineral line, drop 1 or 2 infested terrans, retreat. Poof, 20-30 miners gone in the blink of an eye! Can happen so fast that static defenses aren't that effective, and armies cannot retreat.
Baneling Drops
Drop banelings down on the opponents mineral line and BOOM! 20 Workers gone! Combine this with other in-base strategies. (Nydus Worm in the back, fake doom drop while attacking another expo, etc.) you can even use my favorite unit the Overseer to poop a couple of infested terrans at the ramp, so that if workers manage to get away then ITs can sJapanesee some of them as they fly right towards them.
Discuss.
