This week's prospects

[BSOS]

this week with zerg i will be experimenting a few builds and report upon how effective they are:

1) multiple queens in offensive push, or just multiple queens in general
2) 10 pool, early queen > 16/17 hatch

>1) the idea here is that the zerg's only other spellcaster besides infestor is the queen and isn't used offensively, i am determined to make it useful on the front lines healing and wutnot (they only cost 150 minerals anyway...)

>2) this is a build i saw in a replay recently where the zerg player got an early spawning pool so that he could get out his queen early for extra larva to boost his economy, then fast expanded. I'll be working on this to try and figure out whether i want to use the queen for early defence, economy, or zerglings.

any ideas/thoughts?

[Arovien]

You should try to have creep support with the offensive queens. Have overlords (with the speed upgrade) laying creep on your army; them queens are way too slow when not on creep.
Say goodbye to rauders/stalkers kiting your roaches, everyone knows overlords pooping creep counters marauders.

[BSOS]

got the fast queen build to work here... then again idk if i won because of the build... but it definitely gave me an early economic boost
http://www.mediafire.com/file/wzuzmmozggm/fast queen build 2.SC2Replay
fast queen build 1.SC2Replay queen build 1.SC2Replay

[BSOS]

ok the verdict is in:

fast queen build finalized as follows

10 pool
10 overlord
13 queen
17 extractor
17/18 hatchery
__________________________________________________ _______________________________

you can trade some drones for lings if you want.. but until you plant the hatchery at 18, you shouldn't be making any zerglings.

the early queen is vital to getting that fast expansion up.. without it, you won't have enough larva to fuel the economy needed for that point.
unlike a 13 pool zergling rush, you don't have the time to fast expand, you would have to set aside time and sacrifice possible lings to save up enough minerals to FE.
getting the early queen pays for itself very quickly, almost right away, you'll notice how many more minerals you have than if you had gone 14 pool.

the only problem with this build is the late gas. like most fast expansion builds, you probably shouldn't be pushing too hard so early, and should focus on early defense. This means that things like zerg speed, or lair tech won't happen as soon as you may like.

I recommend this build against terrain, seeing as they have a hard time taking care of a fast expanding zerg, especially if you already have a queen out.


some other things to note. to help defend against early air i HIGHLY recommend getting at least 2 more queens, pump them out of your expo. in the best case scenario, you stop any air harassment and you can heal micro each other queen to keep them alive, in the worst, you make a couple creep tumors and heal whichever injured units you have sent back to your base. i find this very effective if you get several roaches to defend with and heal them while they take damage. the enemy find this very annoying, and you practically always win the fight. you can do the same thing for injured mutalisks, i also highly recommend sending back injured mutas to heal from ur queens.

Against a zealot rush: you will probably lose, UNLESS you get a spine crawler or 2 at your expansion, and use your queen(s) to keep them alive while making zerglings and eventually roaches. I have lost to zealots a couple times, just because at that point in time i didn't have enough to deal with zealots. Queens aren't very effective damage-wise against any ground unit, especially zealots)

[BSOS]

if you decide to fast expand, it could be a bit more effective than a simpler fast expand build

ex:
15 hatch
14 pool

with the fast queen build, expanding early is easier because you have early defense (queen)

with the FE build above, you are banking on the fact that the enemy won't rush you with 6 zerglings or their first zealot or two.
bunker rushes are fairly ineffective against said early queen build

[BSOS]

to this fast queen build....

pros:

-fast queen means more larva = more of anything
-because of the time you spend waiting around because of having such an awesome early economy, this build enables a fast hatchery if needed, or faster defense.
-fast queen means more energy on the queen faster, so making a creep tumor earlier is very possible, it also means more healing
-drone count comparable to protoss probe count


Cons:

-the build is more defensive than offensive (i.e. wasting the first 150 gold on a queen once the pool pops instead of zerglings for a possible push
-small window where you can be rushed