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The Starcraft Command | home
Mass Hatchery Strategy
This strategy was sent in by StoneCold2, thanks a lot!
The base of this is around MANY hatcheries, at LEAST 20. More or less, to your own tastes. This may seem really weird and overkill, but just try it. I'm sure you will like it. (BIG NOTE: ONLY WORKS W/ MUCHO MONEY MAPS, AND DOESN'T WORK TOO WELL W/ BGH!)
Send your drones to different mineral patches, and keep building drones until you get to 9/9 control. With your 8th drone, build a spawning pool and the 9th, build an extractor. Then build a drone and an overlord. With the drone, build a hatchery right next to your first one. Keep pumping out drones, send 3 to the extractor. Once you have enough gas, build a Hydralisk Den and upgrade to Lair. As soon as you have 300 minerals, build a 3rd hatchery right next to your other 2. Once that is started, focus on your defense. You can either go Sunken Colonies or Lurkers, depending on your preference. Sunken Colonies are good because they do not add to your unit population, but lurkers are good because they are cloaked. I prefer the lurkers, but that's just me. If you're like me, research lurker ability and build them. Once your defense is stable (8-12 lurkers, 6-8 colonies), build an expansion. Send a couple of lurkers or drones with it to provide immediate defense. Meanwhile, build lots and lots of drones back at your main base, and send them to mining minerals. 2 drones per mineral patch works for me. You may notice that your control level is getting kinda high for just having workers and a few lurkers, but don't worry, just keep with it. As soon as your expansion is ready, start mining money there. Send drones from your main base over to the the expansion before the hatchery is done so that you can start mining or making defense as soon as possible. Once your money is about up to 2000 minerals/1000 gas, you can begin phase 2.
Build some more drones, and pick a spot to start your hatchery building. Build as many hatcheries as your cash flow will allow. I like to start w/ a group of 10, laid out like this, either horizontally or vertically aligned:
|H|H|H|H|H|
|H|H|H|H|H|
Ultimately, you want about 3 sets of 10 hatcheries for the plan to have maximum effectiveness. While you're doing all of this work w/ the hatcheries, build more extractors and begin your attack plan lay out (air, ground). I prefer mass hydras, but you may wish to do something else. Build the appropriate buildings for the upgrades (evolution chambers, spires) and begin the upgrades as soon as possible. Your money will never be an issue, so keep the upgrades coming.
You may be thinking that while you're doing all of this, you're leaving yourself susceptible to an attack. Well, if you're not comfortable, build spore colonies around the base perimeter, and most definately, put lurkers under all of your workers to eliminate the threat of a drop.
Keep making the hatcheries until you have the suggested 20-30. I say build as many as the map you're playing allows. THIS is where the beauty of this strategy comes into play. INSTANT armies. If you're going for hydras, you can go from having no troops to having 9 squads of 12 hydras in under 2 minutes with this plan. Once you have as many troops as you need, attack! Set the units on patrol and send them to attack. While they're on their way, start building more troops. If you're about to max out at 200 control, adn you feel you have WAY more money than you'll use, take some of the drones that are mining money and make colonies with them. Just make sure you leave yourself enough money to continue with the rapid troop production. The whole point of this is to flood your opponent with an endless supply of troops. The key is to just make sure you keep making them! The real fun will begin when all your upgrades are complete, all abilites researched, and all buildings into play. If you realize your opponent is geared with a good ground defense, you can switch to air at the drop of a hat and never miss a step, and vice versa. If you have any suggestions as to how to make this plan work better, please feel free to give me suggestions as StoneCold2@collegeclub.com. Thanks!
Another quick lil sub-strategy:
Nydus Canal Attack
If you are playing as zerg, one of the most underutiitized buildings is the Nydus Canal. Several of them strategically placed can mean the difference between keeping or losing an expansion. But the best way I have found to utilize this building is to use it as a form of stealth attack on another zerg player.
(Note: This only works if you are attacking with ground forces)
Find your zerg opponent with an overlord, and scout the perimeter of his base. If you can get to his minerals without being detected, that's the best way. Try to avoid highly used areas of his base. (i.e., Hatchery groups, upgrade buildings, etc.) The great thing about using an overlord is if he has lurkers guarding his minerals, it will reveal them. If so, then find a different inconspicuous place. You should already have the Nydus Canal entrance built in your base. Once you are sure you haven't been spotted, start building the exit inside his base on the creep. Once it's done, FLOOD his base from within. I caught someone trying this on me the other day, and had I not just happened to look at it, I would have been dead. I've used this about 10 times now and it hasn't failed me yet. The great thing is that a person usually pays no attention to their minerals, so they won't see it unless they spot the color difference on their minimap. Also, most people generally have their essential buildings (spawning pool, spire, hydralisk den) very close to their minerals, and will be among the first things to be destroyed. Once you destroy them, and if you kill all of their troops, it will be free reign over their base. Try it out, and tell me what you think! Write me at StoneCold2@collegeclub.com if you have any suggestions as to improving this strategy! Thanks!
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