This is a great replay demonstrating how a Zerg player can effectively stop the mass Reaper strategy. Below
the video, I will highlight the key points such as build order and pivotal moments in the match.
The announcer by the way goes by HDStarcraft and has a lot of great videos on youtube. I don't agree with
everything he says strategy-wise, but he is easily the best and by far the most entertaining Starcraft 2 announcer
and I could watch his videos for purely entertainment purposes.
Zerg Build Order:
9 Overlord
14 Spawning Pool
15 Hatchery (all Drones up to this point)
16 Extractor
17 Roach Warren
This is a typical fast expand build order. You cannot exactly see where the Extractor and Roach Warren goes
down, but this is a typical build order.
Key Point #1 - 1:55 (time in the video)
Note that the Drone almost gets blocked out of the base; I normally would recommend scouting by the 11th Drone
to make sure the Drone gets inside the Terran player's base. The Terran player will have to go for a Tech Lab first
to mass Reapers, so there are two options:
1. You can sit in the Terran player's base and put the Drone on patrol (the Terran player cannot kill
the Drone unless he makes a Marine).
2. You can throw down an Extractor AT the Terran player's base, which slows down the gas count
significantly. It takes forever for a Marine to kill an Extractor.
The Terran player is clearly going for Reapers with the early second Refinery and the second Barracks coming
down early.
Key Point #2 - 4:00
The Reapers are now making the first attack. At this point in the game, the Zerg player could have improved his
situation by connecting the creep between his natural expansion and his main base. I would hold off on throwing
down a Spawn Larva at the natural just to get the creep connected.
Zerg units run so much faster on the creep, and Speedlings on Creep are faster than Reapers. The Terran player
could have done major damage by sending his Reapers into the main base instead of just pushing the expansion, only
because the Creep was not connected.
Key Point #3 - 7:00
Note how the Zerg player lets some of his Roaches get killed in order to pull his Zerglings back. The Zerg
player pulls his Zerglings back in order to get his Zerglings BEHIND the Marauders. If the Zerglings attacked from
the front, the Marauders would have provided a nice meat shield for the Reapers.
Reapers do great damage to Zerglings, so the Zerg player made sure he could get his Zerglings behind the Reapers
where they could not run away. This is a key way to beat Reapers as Zerg - you need to surround the Reapers with
your Zerglings before you allow the Zerglings to attack. Use the "move" command and then allow them to attack once
they have surrounded the Terran units.
Another thing of note is that the Terran player practically suicided there by going for the Hatchery in the
midst of the Zerg army. If that Hatchery popped, the Broodlings would have quickly wiped out the Terran army.
Killing the Hatchery would be much more minor than the unit losses the Terran player would have experienced; the
Zerg player could have then just easily counter-attacked with all his saved units thanks to Broodling
assistance.
Key Point #4 - 9:50
The major way to win this game as a Zerg player is to hold on long enough to get Mutalisks. The Zerg player just
needs to hold onto two bases long enough to get a nice Mutalisk base. The Terran player will not be able to compete
with Mutalisks off of 1 base.
If the Terran player switches into mass Marine mode, the Zerg player can always throw down an Infestation Pool.
It will take too long for the Terran player to get the Factory + Starport needed for Medivacs, especially while
running off of 1 base.