ZvP: Baneling Ultralisk Infestor play

The idea of this composition is to have a strong economy as well as a “beefy” army, in order to fully replenish your army after crushing the opponents! You’ll be expanding fairly aggressively when you can, and also getting a good grasp on creep spread and the map.

Now many guides will show you a direct build order with supply numbers and timings, I’m not going to do that this time because this isn’t a perfect composition. The concept is being played around with by a number of people and so to try and give you a direct build order probably isn’t the best thing right now.

Opening concepts

You’re not going to rush for your spawning pool; this is a much more Macro style of play so there’s no point in taking an early spawning pool, I’ve been taking mine at around 14 without any gas. This means I can focus on lots of drone production.

Due to having a lot of drones you’re going to have high minerals and therefore you’re going to be able to expand fairly early at around 16 or 17 supply. We all love expanding fast as Zerg but don’t forget to scout for possibly proxies or early aggression! This build will work fine if the Protoss is passive in the early stages of the game.

(Tip: If the Protoss blocks your natural expansion, just take what would normally be your 3rd. This provides a really easy base to take later on as well.)

You will need to start your first queen as soon as the Spawning Pool is complete, and then another from your natural as soon as it’s complete. You will want to reach a total of 3 queens before you throw down the 3rd hatchery, this means you can have two inject queens and one for creep spread.

(Creep makes a difference in any fight, if you can engage an army or even a small group while on creep, you have a massive advantage!)

So when should you begin to take your gas? Well I’ve been taking it as soon as my second hatchery pops and once I begin to produce drones on the natural expansion. Because my minerals are about to leap up due to two bases it’s important to take gas so we can begin upgrades, such as speed for your Zerglings but also prepare for your other upgrades. Get speed as soon as you have 100 gas!

(Have you guessed the map I was playing yet?)

Once you’ve got your gas, it’s time to start with the Baneling Nest!

 

(While playing around with the build order I attempted the Roach and Evo chamber before, my matches had "mixed rewards", try it for yourself and let me know in the comments any thoughts you have on the matter.)

If the Protoss is being fairly aggressive you may wish to make a handful of Zerglings because creep is really important for the mobility of your army, and as you’re going to have an army that is somewhat mobile, you will want to have a lot of speed to position your army well. Just remember not to run the Zerglings to their doom. (Don’t forget speed as soon as you can afford it).

So the basic opening idea is:

- Don’t rush for a spawning pool; you’re playing a macro game so take it around 14 or 15, focus on drones.

- Take an expansion at around 16 supply and keep droning, the faster you can get it up the better but don’t over drone. (You will need a few Zerglings to be roaming around the map and scouting.)

- Keep up with injects and get up a creep queen, try and ensure all your bases are connected.

- Then you will move on to taking a 3rd base, getting up a roach warren, evolution chamber and then later on a spire. You’ll be taking the Roach Warren mostly just incase, you should be getting a Roach Warren almost every game you play against Protoss because it will really help you with defending against any unexpected aggression. Think of it as your security blanket!

Where do I go from there?

Well it’s actually really simple from there and even though I haven’t covered when to build everything, it actually just happens one after another! As soon as you have the Baneling Nest up you’re going to begin lair tech, get a number of Zerglings and begin upgrades with your evolution chamber. Feel free to go double upgrades if you’ve got the money and your opponent is being fairly passive to you at this time!

So you’ve got Lair tech, you’ve got a Baneling Nest and three mining bases. Get yourself an Infestation Pit and start those all-important upgrades for Baneling Speed and the extra energy on your Infestors!

Once you’ve got your Infestation Pit you’re good to go with your Ultralisk Cavern and then you’re ready to take some really big engagements and attempt to crush his army. Just make sure that your micro is good, his force fields won’t help at all with your Ultralisk’s stomping all over them!

(Am I the only one that think the Ultralisk Cavern looks like a failed Ultralisk?)

The one important thing to remember though is that your opponent isn’t going to sit back and let you macro (if he’s any good), he’s going to harass you and probably won’t leave you alone much. This is why we get an early Roach Warren and we get a Spire. The Spire can be used for either Mutalisks to push back with some nasty aggression using a few Mutalisk’s or you can build a few Corrputors to take out any Collosi he may have built.

The idea of the build is to get this army up as fast as you can and max it out. As soon as you’re maxed out at 200 supply you want to get ready to attack! But don’t go right for his base, try and take out his army first in the middle of the map. The idea is that your economy should be good enough to then re-build what you've lost and take them by storm!

A few acrediting mentions:

As you may have known, this build was posted earlier in the week on SixPoolGaming.com with a video by EG.IdrA. His video shows him playing a longer macro game of him making the build work. It explains some of the negatives to the build and a few things you may wish change or think about. I didn’t want to repeat him word for word so here’s a link to the video article, I highly suggest you watch it before you start playing with it!

source: http://www.sixpoolgaming.com/videos/idra-zvp-ultra-infestor/