It’s like comparing an ant to a dinosaur. The zerg obviously.
4 Likes
Love that this thread took off after it got necro’d. Even funnier when it’s scourge related too
9 Likes
The Zerg infestation virus would likely not affect most of the Scourge. They aren’t alive and don’t have pumping blood. It might affect the pseudo-living members like the Nerubians and Death Knights (depending on how their physiology works), but the majority of undead are little more than automatons of half-attached muscle, ligament, and bone puppeted by magic, and therefore invulnerable to infestation.
The Scourge plague of undeath would probably infect a couple dozen Zerg before the Zerg develop permanent immunity. Of course, that’s assuming it would even work on the completely alien and already incredibly disease-resistant physiology of most Zerg.
Their Blight would probably end the same way. It would get a bunch of Zerg, and then they’d “evolve” immunity to it. Hell, Ultralisks and flying Zerg wouldn’t even have to worry about the Blight anyway, since it’s heavier than air and would sink below their head-level.
I highly doubt either the Zerg or the Scourge would actually deal any non-negligible damage to each other with their signature diseases.
It’s actually the other way around.
There is one, literally one, scenario where the Scourge would beat the Zerg, and it is exactly the same one in which the Terrans are able to beat the Zerg without resorting to the Nuclear Option or an equivalent.
The Zerg have two options for invading. They can either just drop a pack of Leviathans into orbit and then shower the surface with thousands of drop pods a day, or they can do it more covertly and send only a drop pod or two in, carrying some Drones and a small combat force to protect the Drones.
The former is pretty self-explanatory, and is usually what happens when the Zerg want to make damn sure they conquer a world. To my knowledge, neither the Protoss nor the Terrans have ever successfully defended against such an attack, so there’s literally no way in hell the Scourge could.
The latter takes time and subtlety, requiring them to establish a Hatchery, Spawning Pool, and Creep Tumor network as well as morph a Queen.
During this phase, which usually lasts no more than a week or two, the Zerg are very vulnerable. Almost all of their resources go into expanding as quickly but also as sneakily as possible. They don’t morph large bioforms or groups of them, as that will quickly attract attention before they are fully prepared.
Like the Terrans and Protoss, if the Scourge discover the Zerg during this phase, they could easily wipe them out, even without calling in the big guns.
However, if whoever is attempting to defend against the Zerg does not discover the hive cluster before the Zerg being growing a Lair and additional Hatcheries, their chances of victory begin to drop precipitously.
This second phase is when the Zerg begin significant production of combat units and defensive buildings. Creep would begin spreading rapidly, overtaking hundreds of miles of ground within days. Dozens of Hydralisks, Roaches, Mutalisks, and Corruptors and hundreds of Zerglings and Banelings can be bred every day by a single Hatchery in full combat-unit production mode, and Lairs can pump out even more. Spine and Spore Crawlers would start popping up to defend the Zerg’s territory, and while they may look silly in-game, these things are insanely strong.
In this phase, it’s hard not to notice the Zerg presence, which is why most Zerg infestations are caught at this point. Unfortunately, the presence of so many Zerg, especially the Spore and Spine Crawlers, makes the hive cluster practically unassailable without overwhelming firepower. At this point, the only way Terrans would win is by dropping nukes or calling in a fleet to scour the area from orbit. Unfortunately for the Scourge, they don’t have nukes or Battlecruisers, so they wouldn’t actually have a way to stop the Zerg’s advance at this point, only slow it. And that would not help, as even behind this relentless expansion the Zerg would still be evolving.
This phase often takes the longest, as the Zerg will meet direct resistance from the locals that will slow them down. Depending on the level of the resistance and the how aggressive the defenders are, this phase can potentially drag out for months, though the Zerg will usually either break out or be eradicated by the overwhelming response of the Terrans or Protoss within a couple weeks.
The last phase is game over for the planet. At this point, at least one Hatchery would have fully mutated into a Hive, and the production of the truly scary units would commence.
Hydralisks and Roaches begin morphing into Lurkers and Ravagers; Swarm Hosts, Ultralisks, Brood Lords, Vipers, and Infestors join the production queue in the Lairs and Hives; Nydus Networks begin unleashing fully grown Nydus Worms into the crust to undermine and circumvent even the strongest of defenses. The sheer number of Zerg would overwhelm anything the defenders had in place, and the amassed Spore Crawlers and Corruptors would make attempting to orbitally bombard the planet suicidal.
At this point, there is no option but to abandon the planet or die in vain. The only way to defeat the Zerg at this point would be going full WH40k Exterminatus on the planet, which would also make it unlivable for yourself. It would literally be mutually assured destruction, abandoning the planet and just nuking or glassing it to 
.
This phase never lasts more than a week. There are just too many Zerg, and new Zerg are morphed in literally as fast as you can kill them. They control the skies, they flood across the surface, and even the ground under your feet rumbles as they burrow beneath and behind you. More often than not, the Protoss or Terrans just bail on the planet at this point, starting planet-wide evacuations to cut their losses.
In summary, the only chance the Scourge have of beating the Zerg would be to catch a fledgling Zerg infestation in that first phase and wipe it out before it could become a real threat by reaching the second phase.
If they fail to discover it or are unable reach it in time, for what ever reason, they would be doomed. Their lack of anything comparable to the Terran and Protoss Nuclear Options leaves them pretty much helpless against a more advanced Zerg infestation.
4 Likes
Last Night something came in my mind: Abathur doesn’t understand how undead actually can move and “live”.
When the Evolution-Master doesn’t understand how the scourge works, the Zerg Evolution will be much slower and undirected. So the scourge gets an advantage.
This Thread is going to be intriguing
1 Like
The whole point of Abathur existing is to figure stuff like that out and either see how it can be assimilated (if possible) or countered.
Like I mentioned with the disease tactics, it would take probably a couple dozen Zerg getting infected with the undead plague for Abathur to figure out a way to counter it, but he almost inevitably would. There’s literally no one in the universe, Starcraft or Warcraft, with a better understanding of how genetic coding works (who isn’t a literal god of creation like Amon) than Abathur.
He’s basically the personification of the “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome,” meme. He’ll figure something out.
4 Likes
If anyone is interested, here is a canonically accurate size-estimation chart for the Zerg.
Those unlabeled buildings are (from left to right) a Spawning Pool, a Hatchery, and a Nydus Worm.
For better resolution, download it from the source:
Since Leviathans aren’t on there, here’s another to give you an idea of how big they are.
Please note that that is only the first 1/4th of the Spear of Adun. The full size comparison between it and a Leviathan is in that small box at the top of that frame.
Source with download link:
6 Likes
Space-age starships and alien beasts a hundred feet tall that can resist tank-fire, vs a bunch of skeletons with swords and axes… Sure the Scourge have zombie dragons, but I don’t see a dragon doing much to a leviathan.
5 Likes
Damn, look at everyone nerding out, trying to apply biology to fantasy. How amusing.
1 Like
Meanwhile sargeras comes, cleaves all of them with one slash of goribal and goes back feeding mid with illidank.
The adventurers lost and died. They won only cuz the Light.
Frost wyrms.
I mean… Kerrigan is a mary sue, ofc she would destroy everything and win on almost every team.
I think Undeath wins over Evolution. Magic wins over Biology. And Kerrigan was written to be so op that she would win, but that’s not this is about.
If we but Kerrigan and the Lich King away, the Scourge. Because it is stated by lore that the Scourge is stronger without its ruler/prisoner.
The zerg can’t make the undead part of it, but the undeath can take over the zerg.
1 Like
Yeah, but as others have said, Nerubians are immune to the undead virus-thingy, and the Zerg could assimilate that trait (if it’s a biological trait, and not a weird magical immunity that won’t transfer over to clones or alien hybrids).
Like I mentioned before, I might be wrong, but the Lich King controls (and limits) the Scourge through psychic power. That’s the same way Zerg operate.
So I’m not convinced that a Broodmother or even an Overlord couldn’t just dominate the undead if the Lich King was gone and they were “feral” (to use Zerg terminology).
In other words:
… Or can they? 
2 Likes
That’s the thing. I think it’s magic and not anything biology related. Void Lords, Old Gods, Titans, based on what we know, it’s not sure that those are scientifically “alive”.
And the Nerubians are their magical creations.
Maybe. But I’m pretty sure the Helm of Domination rules over any SC psychic ability or WC mindcontrol. That Helm is so strong it shattered reality on its destruction.
But if there is no Helm, maybe the Zerg could do as such. Would they?
And you think being crushed under thousands of tons of Zerg would be less effective than that why?
Arthas may be powerful, but he was felled by mere mortals, even ones buffed by the Light, meaning his power is limited.
Range in size from less than 1/10th of an Ultralisk’s size to 1/4th.
Sindragosa is literally about the same size as an Ultralisk, likely actually a bit smaller, and she’s nowhere near as durable.
Corruptors are bigger than most Frost Wyrms, and Mutalisks easily match most of them in size.
Not necessarily.
Like technology, and sufficiently sufficiently advanced biology could be indistinguishable from magic. There are some pretty absurd things in the real world, like pistol shrimp being able to generate plasma with their claw snaps and spiders creating silk threads 5 times stronger than steel by weight.
Telepathy is even theoretically possible IRL, especially if quantum communication is actually possible. An organ that acts as a quanto-comms system would allow instant communication over any distance between two organisms.
Still no.
The Zerg hold way too many advantages over the Scourge. They are more lethal, they are more durable, they are more numerous, they are more mobile, they are more versatile. They are superior to the Scourge in almost every single way.
Outside of that single specific scenario I described above, the Scourge literally stand no chance against the Zerg.
Already covered that. Zerg physiology doesn’t necessarily lend itself to raising from death.
There’s also the issue of whether the Helm of Domination would even be able to overwhelm the Zerg’s hive mind if they did raise a Zerg, which I’m not confident it would be. The Terrans were only able to control the Zerg by mimicking the hive mind’s psionic signature to trick the Zerg, not directly override it. I doubt the Helm would be able to match that.
Again, different mechanisms.
I find it unlikely the Helm would be able to dominate even raised Zerg due to the strength of the hive mind.
However, the Zerg hive mind functions fundamentally differently than the Helm. Psionic capability requires a certain biological trait, likely some sort of additional structure in the brain (or other part of the nervous system, if it is decentralized). This is why some Terrans have psionic potential and others do not.
Since the Scourge of Azeroth would lack this physiological trait, they would likely be psionically impotent.
Additionally, the Zerg are not able to psionically dominate non-Zerg. This is why they use infestation to actually convert non-Zerg species into Zerg, allowing them to control them. However, as I mentioned above, it is unlikely the infestation virus would work against the Scourge.
More likely, they would use Infestors’ Neural Parasite to puppet the Scourge’s bodies, and they’d be able to do this regardless of the Helm’s control since they’d be directly interfering with the nerves.
Unfortunately, this yet again runs into the complication of the Scourge being undead, meaning their effectively bone-and-sinew-puppet physiology may not have any coherent or functional nervous system to take control of. It would likely only work on those same pseudo-living units as the infestation virus, like the Death Knights and Nerubians.
1 Like
You doubt a lot about WC magic but doubt nothing about SC “magic-biology”.
You have an opinion that Zerg > Scourge, I have another, but I at least don’t go
In reality, the two franchise and world are not compatible.
We know nothing about their laws of nature and small details.
I approached it from the Undeath vs Life root. And Magic vs Biology root.
WC is high fantasy, meaning that their magic is unlimited in potential.
And since both the living and the undead are reanimatable, and the undeath can spread like a magical disease, I highly doubt that the zerg could eridicate it.
No, but we have a very good understanding of each of their general capabilities, and those of the Zerg vastly exceed those of the Scourge.
The Terrans could easily overwhelm all of Azeroth with a single fleet.
The Zerg can and do overwhelm entire Terran worlds on an almost regular basis, let alone the fleets defending those worlds.
Again, forget the Scourge, the Zerg could walk over all of the forces on Azeroth. Probably the only force in the entire Warcraft world that could stand up to the Zerg would be the full might of the Burning Legion and all of its deity-level beings, including Sargeras.
The Scourge < All of Azeroth < The Terrans < The Zerg.
Ergo: The Scourge < The Zerg
1 Like
Why do you think the Terrans could overrun Azeroth? Immortal demons with their planet-sized planet-slicer leader failed to defeat them (while it wasn’t even fully united).
It’s ok to be a fan, but you overlook that how different those two worlds are.
Even WC and SC hunans are not the same and WC humans are seemingly more durable, thanks to their “giant” heritage.
1 Like
Really? Sargeras who can crush planets and defeats legions of demons is gonna be bullied by zergs?
Kerrigan Xel’Naga and Amon could easily defeat Sargeras.
Because of how modern warfare works versus ancient warfare.
Deadliest Warrior did an episode of “knights vs. pirate”, and as much of a fan of knights I am the pirate won substantially solely due to two inventions: a hand grenade and the blunderbuss.
The only thing that makes it a “?” is the magic part. Magic is a wildcard, suffice to say it’s weak in the hands of typical soldiers but vastly powerful in the hands of specific individuals.
Now if we had advanced space necromancers one could argue that the Scourge would win handily (due to the fact that Zerg relies on expendable troops, while Scourge relies on repopulating its forces with the dead.)
A) Only so many demons cross over to Azeroth at a time. That’s why they needed the Great Portal, and were unable to launch any significant assault on Azeroth once it was destroyed/closed. The defenders of Azeroth effectively managed to catch their invasions early enough to cut them off (just like the Terrans have to do with the Zerg).
B) The demons are only immortal in that their deaths aren’t permanent. If you slay them, they’re banished back to the Twisting Nether where they must reform, and that can take a while.
C) The Legion was being attacked from behind and within by the Demon Hunters, forcing them to split their focus. This pressure increased when the allied forces counterattacked into Argus.
D) Sargeras very nearly succeeded in destroying Azeroth anyway, and was only stopped by the direct intervention of the other Titans. It literally took multiple gods to stop that god, there’s no way the forces of Azeroth alone would have held.
E) The military might the Terrans could bring to bear on Azeroth would be vastly beyond anything the Burning Legion ever managed to. After all, they don’t need a ground-anchored portal like the demons, they could just warp-jump a whole fleet into the system and sit in orbit.
And once they touched down, they would be harder to catch off guard, they’d have massively superior firepower, they’d have total air superiority, and they’d have an insane range advantage on every single one of their weapons.
And if all else fails, it’s not like they wouldn’t have their Battlecruisers in orbit ready to unleash a torrential downpour of plasma and laser fire on any target proving annoyingly tough to crack. A single Yamato cannon shot would be able to obliterate half of Stormwind at once, and there’s nothing the Azerothian forces could do to stop that.
And that’s ignoring the fact that they could just Korhal-IV Azeroth if they decided they just wanted to kill everything on the planet.
Oh, I absolutely recognize how different these worlds are.
But I don’t think you do.
Everything in the SCU is massively scaled up.
Our most powerful modern weaponry are peashooters compared what the SCU Terrans use.
The Zerg nearly match that same level of firepower through biological means.
The Protoss are even further beyond that, able to casually glass an entire planet.
Short of those deity level beings getting involved, there is nothing on Azeroth that can match up to the sheer absurdity of the SCU. The power and scaling difference is just too large.
I know you want to say, “both sides have a chance,” but that just isn’t the case. Literally every one of the 3 races from the SCU would steamroll Azeroth, they’re just so far beyond them in capabilities and numbers.
1 Like