So, I’ve been playing quite a bit of Starcraft 2 recently. I have yet to finish the campaign, but I have been playing a lot of ladder matches. And I apologize if you have no interest in Starcraft. You’re gonna want to skip this post as it is pretty geeky and technical.

As of this post, I’ve played 270ish games, 250 of which were as Zerg. Yeah. I like the zergies. For those of you interested, I thought I’d share my general starting build order to get a glimpse of how I play.

I like to play pretty aggressively in the beginning, and I like to start with a Zergling rush. Many people will think that’s sorta cheap, but I feel like it is an advantage the zerg possess that should be utilized or wasted. Because honestly, Zerg suck. (The longer a game progresses.)

Here’s the ugly:

8 pool to 7

9 Overlord

9 Six Zerglings to 12

13 Queen

13 Roach Warren

13 Extractor

Here’s the pretty:

So in the beginning, you start off with 50 minerals, 1 overlord, and 6 drones.

Mine minerals while my overlord is sent to explore. Spawn 2 drones to 8/10 supply. Save to 200 minerals, and build a spawning pool. Spawn drones up to 9/10 supply, followed by an overlord. The spawning pool and overlord finish at the same time as you hit 150 minerals, at which point I spawn 6 zerglings, sending me to 12/18 supply. Then a drone, followed by a queen to 15/18.

If it is a small map, I do not need to know what the opponent is doing. If a terran or protoss player decides to build an advance base, this build usually crushes them. Their base is undefended, while I get to build defenders quickly if they assault my base. A queen + some good micro should be able to fend off against these tactics employed by other players.

If it is a larger map, I will send my 9/10 supply drone to the area my overlord is not exploring. Once again, I do not need to know what my opponent is doing, only where he is. This does not delay you very many minerals, and changes my build little.

If the zerg opponent decides to stay at 6 drones and get a spawning pool early, he will probably get his zerglings in your base before yours finish. But not for long. Your own zerglings combined with drones should be able to fend them off. Coupled with your economic advantage, you should be able to rally back stronger with roaches or speedlings.

With the exception of anything cheesy, you should be hitting them first. I believe zerg is all about the constant pressure.

Key things to note:
This is all about economy disruption rather than over powering your enemy.

If enemy is terran and has barricaded, you want to attack the supply depots. Losing an early depot is fatal for the T player, and you want to force a response. You want him to draw SCV’s away to repair, or have him build marines earlier, eating into his minerals for more barracks/SCVs.

If he has failed to barricade in time, you destroy the remainder of his barricades/barracks and leave his SCVs alone. You want to force the SCVs to deal with your situation. If you manage to break through, you be able to kill his puny marines as he’ll only be able to pump them one at a time.

If enemy is protoss and has barricaded, oh well. Pull back and build up. Usually they’re a tad bit slower than a Terran player, and you might be able to run past. If there is only 1 zealot, swarm and kill it and try to knock out the pylon. Leave the gateways and move to the probes, while microing to make sure your lings don’t die. The goal is to get the probes away from the minerals.

If he has failed to barricade, run straight for his mineral line and harass. During this time, you’ll want to tech to roaches immediately and start spawning units.

If enemy is zerg, obviously there’s no barricade. Micro well and hit his queen first if he has one, and otherwise hit the drones. Skip all buildings unless he puts down a late spine crawler or pool.

The key with any of the races is to keep your lings alive as long as possible. During your attack, you need to level up your resource gathering and tech to something appropriate, based on what the enemy is doing, assuming you don’t just win off the bat.

But yeah. Zerg is a weak race compared to the other 2, so you have to play fast or be left behind. I’ll post more later.