Unit Strategies

Queens
Queens are the unquestionably the best counters against the large units like the Reaver, Siege Tank, and Ultralisk. The only unit that is better against these units are Dark Archons which are described in the protoss section of the site.

The spell Spawn Broodlings is what makes the queens so dangerous against the large land units. When cast on these units they instanly turn into little zergling-like units called broodlings.

Another effective spell that Queens posses would be Ensnare. Using the spell greatly slows the speed of any units caught within. The best thing about this spell is that when cast on cloaked units, they become visible and open to attack. Cast this spell on wraiths or any units for that matter to greatly slow down thier attack.

The spell parasite is a great spell if used properly. This spell allows you too keep a constant eye on any units that have the parasite cast on them. When parasite is used on large units, it allows a player to have a bit of a warning before the opponent makes an attack. When cast on "peons" you can see what they are up to.

Defilers
Defilers are very much like the death knights of war2. The spells that they posses are very similar, and as you read on you will see the likeness of the two.

The greatest spell that the defilers have would have to be the plague. Almost like death and decay for the death knights, this spell causes a great amount of damage to a large group of units or buildings with a red film that sticks to units and buildings. This spell does not kill any units or buildings but does deal up to 300 damage or drains their energy down to 1. This makes it much easier and faster to kill a lerge group of units with ease.

The spell Dark Swarm is like unholy armor. This spell creates a cloud that makes anything under it invincible but with one exception, those under the cloud can only be damaged by melee attackers. There are two ways you can effectively use the spell.

You can cast the spell over your own units during an attack. Or you can also cast it over your enemy and send melee attackers in to deal some damage.

The final spell that the Defiler posses is the consume ability. This spell allows the Defiler to "consume" on of your own units to bring its health back. It is best to consume small units or units that are on the verge of death since no matter which unit it is cast on it always brings back around 30 energy.


Lurkers
Before brood war and the 1.04 patch zerg were not known for having much land defense and had to rely on units like the hydras alone to help defend. Lurkers change all that.

When you have lurkers, the best way to keep players from attacking your resources with land units would be to burrow lurkers near them. Basicly use lurkers just like sunken colonies by burrowing them at key points within your base. Unless the player has detectors your lurkers can quickly deal with any land units near them without a heavy loss to your own units.



Build Strategies

2 Hatching
This strat involves expanding to another base extremely early in the game. While this strat does bring in a great amount of resources, it does leave leave you a little open, so you will mainly have to concentrate on building defenses for each of the bases until they are well developed.
The steps to 2 hatching:

1. Build of to 7 drones to go on minerals.
2. Build an overlord.
3. 8th drone to go on minerals.
4. 9th drone builds a spawning pool.
5. Build up to 13 drones to go on minerals.
6. On your 13th drone look for an expansion, have it build a hatchery.
7. Either build more drones for minerals or build a
   vesp. gas chamber to collect gas.
8. Create a few drones to make creep colonies,
   about 3 or 4 should do, along with a few zerglings.
9. When your 2nd hatch is finished start building up on resources
   for that area as well, along with defenses.
10. If you have enough minerals at this point make another hatch.

At this point in the strat you can continue to build whatever is needed. If you went for extra mineral drones in step 7 then you can just build up on zerglings while you have a chance to collect gas. If you collected gas at step 7 start pumping out hydras. Since you have 2 bases you will have twice the gas and also twice the minerals than if you would have done a normal one hall.


Power zergling
This strategy allows you to build a massive swarm of zerglings fairly early in the game. Due to the great amount of units you can simply kill your enemy by greatly outnumbering him. The details of the strat are as follows:

1. Build 7 drones for minerals.
2. Create an Overlord.
3. Have your 8th drone on minerals and 9th
   create a spawning pool.
4. Continue building drones, and have your 13th build a hatch.
5. Build a few more extra drones to mine, have your 16th drone
   build another hatch.
6. Next step is to just constantly build zerglings.

Also note that increasing zerglings speed is very useful as well. If you have a spare drone, anytime after you build your 3rd hatch you could build a vesp. gas chamber and collect gas.


Power Zergling into Hydras
Basicly this strategy is just a follow up of the one above. When you have 3 hatches, just build a vesp. gas chamber and start collecting up on gas. Build a hydralisk den and start building up on hydras when you feel they are needed.


Power Hydras
This strat allows you to build up on a mass of hydras, almost completely skipping the building of zerglings unless needed to defend. The aspects of the strat are as follows:

1. 6 drones to minerals.
2. Overlord
3. 8th drone to minerals and 9th makes Spawning Pool.
4. 13 on minerals and one build a hatchery.
5. 15th or 16th gets another hatch.
6. Next drone morphs into a vesp. gas chamber.
7. Create a hydralisk den.
8. Continue to build drones until all hatches are done.

For defense, just in case you fear an early rush coming on, build a few sunken colonies to protect yourself and a few zerglings for support.

Note that with all the strategies above it does not say when to build every drone or overlord, this is left to the player to decide when he feels they should be built. Follow the Mineral Rule, making sure that you have enough drones to gather resources on different sized maps.


Zerg Theories / Concepts

Playing Defensive
With the addition of the 1.04 patch, zergs defenses are better than ever. Sunker colonies are now much more useful and worth building. When building sunkern colonies, or any defensive buildings, back them up with units.

If there is one unit in the game that is great for defense it would have to be lurkers. Use lurkers just like you would sunkern colonies, but make sure to place a couple of them together. Since lurkers burrow, you can place them right inside your mineral line w/o getting in the way. This is great for when players try to go for your minerals.

Zerg have the greatest defense on elevated maps. Place units around the rampway or entrance of your base to keep players from coming in. The best units to use are hydras, backed by a few burrowed lurkers. You can also build sunkern colonies there to back up the units as well.

Playing Offense
When playing the offensive with zerg, you rely mainly on large numbers and overpowerment to win. This is true in almost any case, but there are some other aspects that can greatly aid you in battle. One is the usage of Queens. When playing against Terran players the Queen is one dangerous unit to them. Ensnare can be used to counter stim packed marines, Broodlings can be used to get rid of Siege tanks, and parasite could be used to keep an eye on your opponent. The Defilers are also a great addition to your arsenal. Using Dark Swarm allows your units to last much much longer in battle. Plague is great for reducing a large number of units HP status to 1, allowing you to kill them off with ease.