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| (discover the strenght of Roaches!) |
This Zerg, going by the name of "Kim Tae Gyun" opened the GSTL Preseason game of NSH vs MVP and was paired up with MVP_Killer, who he managed to take a win over by the usage of the fearsome Swarmhost Corrupter composition and then went on to play MVP_Dream. Eventhough he lost that game the opener he played made me curious and I broke it down and realized that it's an effecient opening for Zergs to play in order to get ahead early in Heart of the Swarm Terran vs Zerg.
(The VoDs of the GSTL PreSeason are free to watch for everyone so click here in order to watch the game yourself)
Long story short, here is the "17Gas Roach" opener that I first saw being executed as a non allin build by NSHoseo SSanaEE.
General idea
With the tools Blizzard gave us Zergs for the Hatcherytech we are once again up to do some early aggression. SSanaEE took this to heart and decided to put together an opener that consists of early Roaches with Burrow to delay the Terran and even potentionally killing him if he doesn't scout and react at all.
The advantage the new Roaches have is the ability to disengage without the need of the Roachspeed upgrade.
This means that even if the Terran is not opening with Hellions (which is the ideal opener to play this opening against) you are at least even. In fact you can still get ahead by proper Roach control and Burrowmicro.
The Buildorder
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| (start droning after you move out) |
15 Natural Hatchery
16 Pool
16 Pool
17 Gas
17 Overlord
@100% Pool; 2xQueen
27 Roachwarren
26 Overlord
26 Overlord
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| (transition against Mech) |
@100% Queen; start Burrow
32 2x Overlord
@100% Warren; start 5-6 Roaches
44 Overlord
(alot of droning and standartalysed play)
7:00 Third Base
Tipps:
Use the main queen to spread creep once after the Roachwarren finished because you are not going to have the Minerals to turn all of those Larvae into Drones just yet.
It's just an opener, to transition from it properly make a third queen in your nat and either use the next 100
on the Speedling upgrade if you see massive Bio play that you need to combat with alot of Lings early. If you don't just put down two Evolutionchambers and upgrade either +1Meele or +1Range in combination with +1Carapace depending on what the Terran plays (Bio or Mech) and how you react to those.The execution
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| (Burrowmicro is similar to Blink Stalkers) |
As soon as your Roaches reach his base you have different priorities. If he doesnt have a Bunker and only has 2 Marines and 2 Hellions you can engage him head on with burrow micro. However if he has a bunker up, which is the most common thing to encounter, you want to focus down as many SCVs as you possibly can without losing any Roaches. The key to this opener is it to not only kill his SCVs and keep him busy, it's also to waste Scans and if you execute your attack properly you can force up to three and sometimes even more scans out of the Terran.
In the following I will post Replays of me trying (really trying, my macro and transitions are mostly really terrible in those games) out the Roachopener with good execution.
G1 Starstation (edited)
These were random laddergames that I played against more or less good opponents. It's just about the way I tried to engage and burrow that might interest you.
Let's summarize it all
The 17Gas Roach opener is not on the same level of standart like the 4 Queen opener is but it is definitively a build that you can frequently throw at your opponent especially in a best of 3 or in the Ladder where you are not playing against the same opponent over and over again because this build got it's weaknesses like Hellions just bypassing and running into the Zergs Mainbase etc. but if it's surprising the Terran and especially looking like an all in at first sight it's going to go pretty well for you.
I hope this helped some of you out, especially the ones struggeling with mech because this opener is basically made to counter mechopenings with that really early Roachwarren and Burrow.
As far as that goes, Myu~
I hope this helped some of you out, especially the ones struggeling with mech because this opener is basically made to counter mechopenings with that really early Roachwarren and Burrow.
As far as that goes, Myu~
also check out SSanaEE stream at http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/SSanaEE
