A Sinister Turn

I've switched to Zerg. It's what I've wanted to play all along, but I thought I'd learn basic Terran first. However, Zerg is so different, I felt I might as well just start from scratch with my race of choice. I thought I'd give you my noob view of Zerg.

While Zerg requires good play, in some ways I actually feel that the race is also more forgiving to new players. The reason is simple - Zerg production is very centralised. Everything happens at the hatchery. It's where units are produced, it's where you make workers, it's where you inject and where you check your larvae. There's also a ton of tech happening right there in the hatchery. As a Terran, if you want to quickly replenish your bio army, you need a million barracks with appropriate add-ons. As Zerg? Throw up a Roach Warren, get speed in that building and after that, just hit your injects and your hatchery will spew out roaches. It's also much easier to get vision of the map with a few well-placed overlords and highly mobile, cheap zerglings. It's especially a blessing against Protoss in Bronze, since you can almost always expect a proxy pylon somewhere. Everyone four gates. Everyone.

If you mess up as Zerg, you often have a decent backup plan. Forgot to make units while busy elsewhere? As long as you hit your injects, you have a party of larvae ready to be morphed - simultaneously - from one single building. Eat that, wimpy Terran reactors! Is he suddenly producing air units? As long as you got a single spire, you can get mutas quickly. Tech switches are quick because there's no need for unit-producing structures, just a few simple structures to enable the tech. Didn't hit your injects? Spend the energy spreading creep. Not ideal, but still somewhat of a recovery. Supply blocked with money piling up? You can throw down some spine or spore crawlers, freeing up supply and also adding defenses instead of just idly waiting for a new supply depot. I want to emphasise that it's not good play and that I'm working on simply not ending up in those situations, but still, it's nice to have a backup when I do.

On the other hand, Zerg is horrible for new players since you need to be very active. You can't really do a Terran turtle as a Zerg. You need map control and you need to scout as well as harass. This requires solid macro, a larger presence and view of the map, and most importantly, the ability to multitask and micro if you end up in tough spots. This is where I fall short. I can't really keep three bases running smoothly, I'll inevitably miss injects and creep spread, making myself poorer and less well defended. I have a hard time scouting and staying on top of the situation while still doing well at home. The instinct to turtle and keep the screen on the base is strong. This is why I really love Zerg, I've lost a ton of games and I know exactly why. I need to learn these things, and I think that Zerg is the perfect practice.