The Zerg Race is meant to be highly dynamic and reactive. As a Zerg player we need to be able to balance a timely response to the four gate all-in, and battle hellions for instance with the need to macro up and build towards the swarm that is essential in mid-late game play.
The difficulty is knowing when it's safe to macro and when it's time to build an army. Furthermore, being the reactive race it's critically important to build the right units. It doesn't help at all if we've massed lings against an opponent going for skytoss and a heavy turtle style.
To achieve this balance its incumbent on us as Zerg players to have a really strong game sense. We need to remain in command of the many game resources at our disposal including minerals, gas, queen energy, larvae and food. It doesn't help for us to have perfect macro and for us to have used the last of our larvae on a round of drones when a marine / widow mine procession is heading our way.
The number one way for us to maintain a constant game sense and to win more games is more consistent, meaningful, and frequent scouting. Be careful not to trivialize the importance of this aspect of gameplay. Keep in mind that Zergs have a distinct advantage over the other races when it comes to tech switching. We're able to drop a tech building and instantly produce swarms of units from every active hatch. Contrast that with the other races who need to drop the tech building, and then build a good number of production facilities before they can produce any appreciable quantity. For these reasons it's very difficult for the opponent to surprise us with a unit composition if we're scouting properly and its very difficult for us to miss the tech path our opponent is going for due to the lead time. This assumes we know how to interpret the signals and non-signals coming from our opponent. We should constantly focus on learning this code by asking ourselves whats possible based on what we see and by analyzing our losses.
There are numerous ways to improve map presence and game awareness. A few key tips include:
- Early overlord positioning and scouting at 6:00; consider overlord speed instead of zergling speed
- Massive creep spread - YouTube AcerScarlett for inspiration
- Burrow or spread lings across the map
- Use a small force to poke their natural to see what their composition is
Try practicing one or two of these techniques per week. You'll notice a dramatic difference!
