Tier 4 – Information: The Intelligence Department

It is time for us to move into the next tier of the Starcraft Pyramid!

We are going to talk about “Information”. In short, “information” is what you see, and what you know while in the game.

Budha, in his team liquid post, says this about the Information tier of the pyramid:

“Information is what is displayed to you in-game. This starts out with what race your opponent is playing. Then, where he spawned on the map, what he decides to show you, and finally scouting. With proper scouting, you will gather all the information necessary to capitalize on your new-found knowledge of the game and enable you to actually start making on-the-fly decisions about your game specifically. The information gathered will of course enable you to make the correct in-game decisions and follow the right strategy to plow through the opponents that have not achieved this rank yet!”

So the information step starts out in the “game loading” screen. What race are you playing against? What map are you playing on? Is it a 2 spawn position map, or a 4 position map?

Then the game starts, you send your drones to mine and spawn another drone. From this moment on the game itself will not volunteer any more information. StarCraft itself will no longer tell you anything. There is only two ways to get information:

1. Scout with your units to survey your opponent
2. See things that your opponent reveals by coming into your view

Reactionary

Information is more important to Zerg than any other race, because Zerg is the “reactionary” race. As Zerg you don’t choose a build order to follow, and then push out. Instead, you must base what you are going to do (what units you are going to build) based on what your opponent is doing. Thus, if you don’t know what your opponent is doing, than you can’t react.

Terran act, Protoss act, but Zerg REACT. And you can’t react with out information.

The Intelligence Department

So how do we get this information? Well the zerg have several ways of getting scouting information.

• Overlords
• Overseers
• Speedlings
• Burrowed units
• Changelings
• Mutas
• Creep Tumors

In the early game overloards and lings are your best resource for scouting around the map. In the mid game Overseers, burrowed units, and Changelings add to the effectiveness of the others. As the game progresses good creep spread can give you all kinds of information and a flock of Mutas (or even just one lone muta) can move around the map quickly and easily.

When, Where, How

Here are some suggested scouting tactics.

• Send your first Overlord to the nearest spawn location
• Send your second overlord to your front ramp to watch for probe cheese or bunker rushes
• Send your 12th drone to each spawn location, in the opposite rotation as your overlord. Use this drone to check the early game actions of your opponent and then come home.
• Take the Xel’naga towers early with your first lings
• At about 6 minutes use a ling to poke up the enemy base and see what buildings he has
• At about 8 minutes send an overlord over the enemy base to check what buildings and units the enemy has, be prepared to lose this overlord
• Get a 3rd Queen right away and use her to help spread creep, the creep tumors give vision as they count as “buildings”.
• Place an overlord behind the enemy natural to watch for the timing of the expansion
• Get overlord speed (it works for overlords and overseers) and spread your overlords around the map. Drop creep on enemy expansions.
• Use Overseers to drop Changelings in enemy bases.
• Attach Changelings to the enemy army.
• Spread creep across the entire map, where ever you can. (remember, creep spreads faster when multiple tumors are placed next to each other)
• Use lings and mutas to constantly patrol the map
• burrow units, lings especially, at chokes, mineral fields, high ground, next to Xel’nagas and anywhere else. A ling only costs 25 minerals, it is so worth the chance of losing a few to get better information.

The more you know about your enemy, his army, his tech, and his movements the better chance you will have at winning. Sun Tzu dedicated an entire section of The Art of War to the use of spies and getting information. He knew he would most likely lose if he didn’t have good information about his enemy.

Get out there, see what is going on, and ……..keep on creepin’!

~Mycotoxin.