ARGH I hate PvZ =[

[TheRabidDeer]

So, basically Zerg is the ONLY race that really beats me. I usually beat other toss and most T fairly well. But for some reason, zerg just kills me. Take this game for example:
We spawn cross position on KR, I figure he wont do much early game as he is going for a FE too, so I want to tech just a bit so I skip 2 gate. He ends up ling rushing and I hold it off fairly well losing pretty much just a pylon and a bit of mining time but we are still relatively close.

After that he goes into roaches and I am in all out defensive mode, I have pretty good FF's the entire game and we are on even footing until his big push. Our armies are about the same size but his completely crushes me and outside of quick thinking on what I couldve done (blink up to the cliff, but that wouldve still resulted in losing the expansion) I dont see any other alternative. If I lost that expansion then I wouldve lost anyway.

So, yea... what could I have done differently in this game that wouldve let me come out ahead?

PS: Ignore the starting split, my mouse was freaking out >.>

[SuperKiller]

actually the early lings hurt you alot more than 1 pylon and a little mining time

3 pylons
2 zealots
1 sentry
alot of mining time
delayed everything else quite a bit.

i'm looking at unit lost score now you lose 1000+ minerals of stuff him 150 with lings still in your base at 6 ish minutes. you have 2 zealots an unpowered gateway and no probes mining. pretty much lost the game here. the only reason you aren't totally behind is because his production sucked big time and makes it look like he's in worse shape than he really should be.

simple wallin would fix that. if you don't know if you want to 2 gate, or not use pylon for baneling bust just put pylon in a place that lets you do a gate/core or gate/gate wall.

4 gateways and twilight council is a bit much to just expand after getting them. you also upgrade blink but can't really afford to have the units you need and expand with all that and thats why you had a little trouble with defense, but FF kept you safe so you were ok.

towards the end supply might have looked even but you were much more probe heavy he had more army and you got caught off guard with the burrowed roaches which is what took you out.

keep in mind that the early wallin also helps deal with zergling runbys later in the game so its still pretty important, especially on a map like kulas where you can't 1 FF block it.

[TheRabidDeer]

Yea, he randomed as Z which is part of why I didnt wall in (I hate walling in against P and T on kulas because then it just gives them free shots at your gate while your units funnel out, I always exploit this against walling T/P myself). I did keep 2 sentry by the main of my base pretty much at all times though since I didnt have said wall (which saved me a bit).

Looking at it now, I thought I had a lot more probes than that when I expanded... I really shouldnt have dropped that down. I had to get twilight council though as I really wanted to grab blink since mutalisks are so popular these days with Z, and if nothing else it would help later on against any zerglings.

Army wise at the end I was actually slightly ahead (4125/1850 vs 3850/1175) but his burrowed roaches turned the tide. I am kicking myself over not blinking =[

So from the sound of things though, I wouldve probably beat him if I hadnt got hit by that early rush. Guess I will just always open with some kind of 2 gate against zerg or if they werent randomed zerg at least wall off my choke.

[SuperKiller]

well in that case the key is to not let that 1st zealot die so easily, and get a 2nd one before getting a tech unit out. its defendable, just can't be careless about it.

[Todie]

Yea, he randomed as Z which is part of why I didnt wall in (I hate walling in against P and T on kulas because then it just gives them free shots at your gate while your units funnel out, I always exploit this against walling T/P myself).[...]

i get that

[...]
So from the sound of things though, I wouldve probably beat him if I hadnt got hit by that early rush. Guess I will just always open with some kind of 2 gate against zerg or if they werent randomed zerg at least wall off my choke.

wall off your choke against zerg sounds wise, but if you dont want to do it vs random, thats understandable.

... if you do wall off against zerg, you can feel more safe against those early pressures, not walling off is less safe, but i wouldnt open 2gate vs random out of sheer hopelessness & desperation to such rushes.

.. if youre not walled off, yuo just gotta change up your priorities a bit; it was sweet that you blocked his expo hatch for a few seconds, but in this situation, the information you could have gotten by hanging around his main for 15 seconds was much more valuable; is he saving larva for when pool finishes? - you can even hang around to see how many lings pop out the first past-pool batch; youll probably get home safe anyway.

... if you had that information early on, you would probably not have made cybercore before your first zealot; you could have CB'd gateway to almost have 2 zealots out by the time the lings arrived - instantly backed that up with a few probes and warded off the entire attack (save maybe a few annoying lings scouting about inside for a bit)

... ill watch the rest of the game now

edit: notes about rest of the game:
you could have CB'd your probes more to catch back up faster and prepare to saturate your expo.

spending your money when it mattered could have made a difference here; even when you made an effort to spend all, you still had 500+ minerals left; you needed some more gateways - or just use them more - on zealots. a few less stalkers to afford charge and +1 atk would have gone well along with this. (Z was banked alot too, but he spent the mienrals that crucial minute before launching the deciding attack ....)

when you go colossus its important to get them in numbers asap. your first col started building at least 25 seconds late.

finally, positioning last battle was far from ideal; you neeeded to be pulled back behind the choke i think - and have obs on him, or at least a man at the watchtower.. you want to stall for time untill you have enough colossi to seriously tear it up.

gg. hope i dont come off too harch; just trying to be helpful

peace out.