Baneling play against Protoss

If you’re hanging around the lower leagues (not Grand Master yet) you may not have seen many people using Banelings against Protoss. This is because the general consensus for quite a while was that:

1. Banelings are great against Terran, and that’s where we think they should stay – This may be due to the pure effect Banelings have against Marines, compared with something like a Stalker.

2. The Shields of Protoss units add just another layer that the Banelings have to destroy, as Banelings only live for one attack, with just that idea we being to think this isn’t really a great strategy to have in a game.

There are more reasons and deeper strategy behind it but the important thing is that a few months ago not only did people not want to use Banelings in a ZvP but they also didn’t expect to see it used against them.

(Banelings, Banelings, Banelings woaaaaah! - HuskyStarCraft)

So why are Banelings useful?

Banelings can be a great and relatively cheap way to kill off the tier 1 units. Stalkers and Zealots are rather weak against Banelings which makes them a very good method to thin out the Protoss army both quickly, and efficiently.
They are also rather powerful units, as we know they cause Area of Effect damage meaning they can wreak havoc in a matter of seconds and totally decimate.

Although they are cheap, it’s important to use them correctly, you can’t have them attacking the higher tier and armoured units. This will be a waste and they aren’t quick to make again (unless you have free Zerglings ready to morph).

When is the best time to place down the Baneling Nest?

I’m not going to give you an exact time, because every game is different (if he’s going Voidray’s you probably won’t be making Banelings). However if he has a lot of Stalkers or Zealots, a Baneling nest after taking a third base is an awesome idea.

(Just thrown down my Baneling Nest and starting my second gas in a TvZ!)

I’m saying after your third base because it means you have the economy to support the production of Banelings without sacrificing much of a defence or aggression due to the change in tech. A lot of the time when teching to a unit such as Infestor’s you may not be so aggressive until you have them with the desired upgrades.

This same sort of effect occurs when teching to anything really, you need to drop back a little bit to ensure you can keep unit production up to support the new unit’s your making. Losing half your army while trying to produce a lot of something else never turns out well, right?

I find I have a very stable and happy economy at three bases against a Protoss, and when I feel I’m in a good position I will begin to get my Baneling nest and speed.

One side point to note, if your creep spread hasn’t been particularly great for the match you may wish to hold off on morphing any Banelings until you have the upgrade Centrifugal Hooks because you’re going to be losing a lot of Zerglings to make a slower unit, this will sacrifice map control. It will also really hinder you if your against Blink Stalkers, they will just blink away and kill your Banelings and you’ve suddenly lost a massive chunk of your army.

Using Banelings effectively

It’s really important to control Banelings properly, in an ideal world your units will counter that of the Protoss anyway, but this is only effective if they are fighting that unit. Often a death ball is hard to play against because it’s all down to micro and all about targeting the correct units.

(These bad boys are about to take out the Terran Army, little do they know it shall cost their lives *sad face*)

Banelings are great against Zealots and Stalkers; you shouldn’t be aiming for anything else unless you have some left over at the end. If you just let them run (or roll) after any unit they like you’re going to lose them to high armoured or health units such as Immortals or Colossi or even Archons. This is a massive waste of units and as they die on impact you’re going to lose a large part of your army.

People do it in different ways, so use separate control groups for their Banelings, personally I prefer to just Ctrl + Click a Baneling, this enables me to select them all and micro them as I wish without using another control group.

And if that gets boring, you could always carry out Baneling drops into the Protoss’ mineral lines!