Jaedong vs Snow game analysis Ok, I decided to analyze a ZvP this time. I wanted to do a Zero (another progamer) game, but as I was looking through his list, I kept thinking back to this one, so I decided to do another Jaedong analysis. I picked this one because it's long and complicated and also because I remember when I watched it live I thought Jaedong would lose, so I wanted to see why he won here. As always, please comment and correct anything I say wrong or missed. Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this Jaedong spawns bottom left and scouts towards the natural in the correct direction. Snow sends out a probe to warp a pylon so that he can fast expand. Jaedong over pools just before his overlord reaches Snow's natural. If he had waited until he saw it, he would have been able to 12 hatch, but it would delay his tech and allow snow to nexus before cannons, so it's not really a lost opportunity.
Snow scouts top right first so he does not know Jaedong's build order. He is forced to make a forge before nexus, which is the best response close position vs overpool anyways, especially because JD's overlord is there and he can use his first 3 larvae after expanding to make zerglings and run by if Snow doesn't go forge first. Jaedong sends out his 11th drone to expand to his natural. It arrives before it has 300 minerals to expand with. JD is at risk of getting his expansion blocked, so he hides his drone until he can afford his hatchery. Snow's probe goes by Jaedong's drone and goes into his main base. Even though Snow knows that Jaedong is at bottom left and probably suspects Jaedong hid a drone, he has to go into Jaedong's main rather than try to block the natural in case a very fast zergling build is incoming. Jaedong successfully expands.
Snow sees three larvae for Jaedong and since none of them pop early as a drone, he can guess that they are all zerglings. Snow warps a second cannon at his natural choke. 6 zerglings can kill 1 cannon if they get a good surround. Snow may have been able to hold the lings off by pulling a few probes to block the cannon, but he decides to play safe instead. Jaedong can see the two cannons warping at the natural and knows he has no hope for a runby. He pulls his zerglings back to kill off the scouting probe and sends a drone to the bottom right natural to take his third base.
Only one drone mining at Jaedong's natural suggests that he did not transfer any drones from his main base. The reason for this is probably that he is nearing 100 gas and he needs the extra minerals immediately to have 150 when he gets 100 so that he can morph his lair. Lair starts. Snow takes his second gas. His cybernetics core is probably near completion and he's going to need the gas for his stargate, citadel and attack upgrades.
+1 attack starts. This allows zealots to 2-hit zerglings so it's a very handy upgrade. Jaedong sees it with his overlord. Jaedong's lair finishes and he plants his spire immediately. It's standard to get a spire before other tech because scourge handle corsair openings quite nicely and mutalisks handle citadel opening quite nicely. Snow tries to sneak a probe in to see JD's spire timing/make sure he's not doing anything unorthodox, but Jaedong blocks his ramp with two zerglings and keeps Snow in the dark.
Snow's stargate finishes and he starts building a corsair immediately. His citadel is almost done as well. Now that his spire has started, Jaedong gets his 4th and 5th hatcheries. While Jaedong has not scouted Snow's main, he seems to be making an educated guess that Snow went stargate first and he plans to play 5 hatch with ground units and scourge rather than getting mutalisks. Snow sends his first corsair to Jaedong's main where he gets his first glimpse of Jaedong's tech since his initial probe was killed. Everything is pretty standard and he judges from the HP on Jaedong's spire that he has time to harass overlords a bit before scourge drive his corsair off.
Second gateway is finished for Snow. With +1 done or almost done and speed on the way, he will soon be able to move out and make a bid for map control with his zealots. Scourge finish and end Snow's corsair harassment. He managed to get one kill, but most Zergs account for this and JD is surely not supply blocked. Snow starts his templar archives a little after the scourge pop in standard 3 hatch spire play.
4 zealots move out. Jaedong has around 8 speed zerglings in the center of the map, which allows him to spot the zealots. He cannot directly engage them with his ling count. However, with excellent micro Jaedong manages to find a straggler and picks it off before it can catch up with the other zealots. He manages to kill of two zealots without losing all his lings, which effectively ends any hope Snow may have been entertaining to pressure JD's 3rd base. Snow managed to keep his first corsair alive, which is critical because now he is pumping out more and massing them up under the protection of his cannons. He may be setting up for drop play or he may just want corsairs to divert Jaedong's attention and larvae away from ground combat.
Jaedong is getting his second evo chamber at his main base (the first was part of his sim city at his third). If he plans on getting a big hydralisk force he will probably research missile upgrade, whereas if he's planning to go lurker ling, the melee upgrade is more likely. Snow sends his corsairs down to harass the overlords. He wants to try to force Jaedong to make more scourge than he needs, which cost precious larvae and gas. Jaedong fends them off with hydralisks. Jaedong evidently researched lurker aspect before getting the speed and range upgrades for his hydralisks. This means he will be taking a more defensive posture and using lurkers to contain and defend while he takes his fourth base and techs to hive.
Snow sends a probe to the 12 o'clock expansion to take his 3rd base. His robo is also almost completed, meaning he will have mobile detection to combat the lurkers. With an excellent sense of timing, Jaedong sends zerglings up the 12 o'clock base just as Snow is trying to expand there. Snow is forced to give up his plans to expand for the moment; with lurkers out he can ill afford to send his army to secure his third as it would leave his natural too vulnerable. Jaedong is morphing his 6th hatchery at his main base. He seems to be following the convention of having 2 hatchery for each base.
Jaedong's 4th base is completed. He has enough larvae elsewhere for his army so he chooses to make drones and get the base mining. He goes for minerals because lurker ling hydra is more mineral than gas heavy and he wants to get a bunch of units to hold map control. Snow has researched storm and has high templar out to defend his natural against any kind of bust. Note that Snow is still in a defensive posture and does not feel ready to try again at taking his 3rd. Jaedong burrows 3 lurkers outside Snow's natural to set up a contain. He wants to keep map control so that Snow cannot attack his expansions. As a bonus, if Snow does not respond properly he could lose his gateway and/or his forge. Meanwhile, Snow somehow managed to get a probe to the 12 o'clock and is trying to get his 3rd up and running once more.
Snow responds to the contain by loading his dropship with templar and trying to move out. He sends his corsairs first to prevent the overlord from scouting it and block any scourge that might try to pick off the dropship. Jaedong guesses what Snow is up to and pulls around ten hydras from his natural to his main to defend against a drop. The contain is still in effect. It forced Snow to build another cannon, but so far he has not lost much materially from the lurker pressure. However, he has no map presence at all and if his 12 o'clock expansion gets scouted he will have virtually no means of protecting it.
Snow moves out with an observer and some zealots to break the contain at his natural. With only a few lings and 3 lurkers in position, JD will be forced to concede his siege. However, if you look at the minimap, you can see why JD doesn't mind much--he is moving a force to pick off Snow's 3rd. Having been deterred from dropping JD's main by the hydralisks, Snow chooses to go to the natural instead. He drops next to the mineral line and kills off a lot of drones. We can see that Jaedong has dealt with Snow's third once more, so he moves to Snow's natural to set up another contain. This time his lurkers are backed up by several hydralisks, forcing Snow to choose what he storms.
Snow finds a clever solution in the form of dark templars. Having already killed the overlord Jaedong had at his natural, Snow is able to get a few free kills before Jaedong is forced to pull back. Snow heads with his corsairs and dropship to JD's 4th, but Jaedong, aware that drop play is Snow's only option, has posted hydralisks there to deflect the harassment. Snow once again finds success by relocating to the natural (JD's 3rd) and dropping a high templar to storm a lot of drones, basically emptying the base of most workers.
Still on his back foot, Snow cannot get his 12 o'clock expo, but he desperately needs a 3rd at this point. He settles for the nearby mineral only expansion in hopes of getting more gateways and zealots and muscling his way up to the 12 o'clock gas expansion. By placing his army in between his natural and his 3rd, Snow can easily defend both. Jaedong spots the expansion with a small zergling force, but is unable to kill it with all of Snow's army positioned to defend it. Snow gets a reaver out and puts it in a dropship. He can use it to continue his harass play or he can keep it with his army and use it to bust up lurkers and clumps of hydralisks.
Jaedong does not get greedy with his army. He knows that he is still vulnerable to harassment, so he leaves a contingency of hydralisks to defend his main base against drops rather than moving them up with his main army. Snow moves out into the middle and Jaedong moves down to cut off his retreat path and trap him on the middle platform area. Snow fights back to ensure that he does not get flanked hard as he tries to move through the middle. Jaedong is teching to hive. Also note Jaedong's zerglings at the top right making sure that Snow doesn't take a sneaky expansion.
Note the number of drones at Jaedong's natural. He has not been concerned about resaturating it after he got storm dropped because doing so would mean he would not be able to put on the necessary pressure to prevent Snow from taking his 12 o'clock base. Snow moves across the middle and with some clutch storms and scarabs wins a critical fight. He can now continue his push towards Jaedong's natural. But Jaedong's reinforcing units prove to be too much. His thinly spread lurker field constantly forces snow to stop and storm before he can continue to advance, which buys Jaedong time to muster a hydralisk and zergling force to fight Snow's army back.
Snow's attack towards Jaedong's natural may not have done any damage to Jaedong's economy, but it allowed him to safely put up a nexus at 12 along with a bunch of cannons. Jaedong will be unable to damage it without defilers. Jaedong does guess what Snow's up to and sends some zerglings to try to stop Snow once more, but this time Snow's army is in position and he is able to defend his 3rd gas comfortably. Jaedong made a 2nd hatchery at his 4th to keep that 2:1 hatchery to base ratio.
Snow goes for a drop, but Jaedong has had his hydras positioned at the top of his base for most of the game and Snow is unable to do damage. Snow once more swerves to the natural, but this time Jaedong has scourge protecting it. They drive off the shuttle but are unable to kill it. Jaedong has been amassing lurkers at his 3rd base and he feels it is time to spread them out to prevent Snow from walking freely across the map. [image missed here] Snow continues his shuttle harass by dropping at Jaedong's natural. Note that Jaedong has no vision of Snow's side of the map except for the lings at top right so Snow can easily get in without being intercepted by an overlord.
While he is dropping at bottom right, Snow's main army swings down to Jaedong's natural to put on some more pressure. Jaedong's lurker field + hydra ling can hold it off, though. Snow takes the opportunity to take the 9 o'clock base while backing up with his army to the high ground. He does not need to break Jaedong's defenses as long as he can keep up with him on expansions. Note the drones that just finished at Jaedong's 3rd. The end of a big battle like the one that just occurred outside his natural is an excellent time to start rebuilding one's economy.
Snow moves his army over to Jaedong's 3rd, but Jaedong has defilers to lay down plagues and dark swarm so Snow wisely retreats, but not before getting several units plagued. Jaedong's ninja lings scout Snow's fourth base, but are unable to kill it off. Snow tries to attack from the high ground, but Jaedong's lurker + defiler combination is impregnable and Snow quickly backs off to ensure he will have enough units to defend his 9 o'clock base.
Knowing that Snow is concentrating his defenses on the 9 o'clock base, Jaedong sneaks an attack force up the right side of the map to attack Snow's relatively unguarded 12 o'clock expansion. Notice how bad Snow's cannon placement is for defending against lurkers. They are able to burrow out of cannon range and still hit the nexus. Jaedong does massive damage to the base but Snow is able to kill off most of the attack force. When he has got him down to 2 lurkers, Snow waits for reinforcements to clean up the attack. Reinforcements arrive. With almost no health left on the nexus, snow is able to kill off the last lurkers.
Jaedong continues to abuse the mobility of his Zerg army. Now that Snow is all the way up at 12, he can move his units right up to the 9 o'clock base and put on more pressure. The defiler breaches Snow's defenses, rendering cannons ineffective with a dark swarm and plaguing Snow's reaver, making it an easy target for Jaedong's hydralisks. Looking back at the 12 o'clock, we can see how much damage Jaedong's attack did there. He may not have killed the nexus, but with 6 or fewer probes mining, he might as well have.
Jaedong takes his 6 o'clock base and the mineral only near his 3rd while he is attack Snow's 9 and 12 o'clock bases. Snow moves down with an attack force and picks off Jaedong's mineral only expansion with little resistance. Jaedong brings in about 8 overlords to drop on Snow's 9 o'clock base. The overlords contain hydras and lurkers, which are much more effective against cannons if they do not have to approach.
Jaedong drops two lurkers to finish off the 12 o'clock base he brought down to its last HP earlier. Meanwhile, he is deep into Snow's 9 o'clock base and Snow is moving up to take out his 6 o'clock base. Jaedong knows that even if he loses 6, if he can take out 9 and 12 he will have won the game. Snow cannot get his units back in time to defend his bases so he needs to do massive damage to Jaedong to stay in the game. If he can take out both bases at the bottom right, Snow will be in good shape, but Jaedong, aware of this, has lots of defense amassed at his natural choke. 12 o'clock is dead.
Jaedong's defilers keep him alive against Snow's attack. His lurkers under swarm can only be killed by storms or scarabs, which means his hydras won't be taking splash damage and their ranged attacks cut through Snow's plagued units. Snow's attack fails. 6 o'clock is dead. 9 o'clock is dead. After all the carnage, Jaedong is left with 4 bases and Snow is left with 3, one of which has no gas. Moreover, because of Snow's harassment and the nature of the match-up, Jaedong has more resources at his bases than Snow.
Snow sends a few desperation units, which Jaedong easily kills off. As Jaedong walks into Snow's undefended 3rd, Snow is forced to gg. [Originally posted by nbaker in teamliquid.net Broodwar Strategy forum]