Kerrigan spawns into the game after 4 minutes.
On most maps, by the time the first attack wave arrive at my base, Kerrigan is already ready to fight.
There are also a few maps where first wave arrive at my base a bit earlier than usual, but for those maps, I just let my Hatchery soak the damage as Kerrigan spawns only momentarily after the first attack wave hits my base and my Hatchery can survive that.
The only map that gives me problem is on Rift of Korhal map, where the first attack wave comes super early, and they arrive at my base when it is still 50 seconds or more before Kerrigan spawns. I usually rely on my ally to deal with first wave. I tried many different build orders to start that map but none of them are satisfactory.
I usually start by building lots of Drones, and build overlords as necessary. I don’t put any drones on gas until I have 18 drones.
If I build a spwaning pool without building a queen, then I don’t get enough Larve for me to build zerglings. If I build a spawning pool and a queen to spawn more Larve, then I don’t get enough minerals to build Zerglings. If I try to build spawning pool and then stop building drones and wait for minerals to pile up before building Zerglings, then it hurts me economically in the long run. So regardless, on that particular map, I just haven’t been able to find a way to deal with the first wave other than relying on my ally.
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There’s a 100 mineral building used to defend against enemy units, I hear you can also heal it using a queen.
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If you’re really committed to being able to defend the first wave on RtK (and not rely on your ally - a good idea, since your ally won’t always be able to take it), you need to have a RtK-specific build order. Yes it will set you back slightly. But less so than losing drones or your hatch to the wave.
Build 1-2 spine crawlers, a queen, and as many zerglings as you can. My strategy on this map is 1) never stop worker production so I’m not totally set back, and 2) all resources should be devoted to defense till the wave is dealt with. The plus side is most commanders can convert their defense to clearing the xpac, so it’s at least not a total loss.
There is no real great way to deal with it.
You can opt to make sunken as suggested if you see your ally clearly has nothing. Don’t worry about the economy, you’re not that behind.
Alternatively, you can pull a drone to aggro them. Doesn’t work against Vultures or Reapers, then again you can always make buildings as a trick. Overall, it’s pretty rare as I’m sure you know. These tricks can help you “cheat” save some of it.
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To defend on rifts to korhal with kerrigan, you have to build 2 spine crawlers. If your teammate is a commander that can easily defend the start then you can just let your teammate defend it. Zerglings aren’t going to work very well for defending the start.
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Build zerglings and draw their attention with zerglings outside your base until your Kerrigan pop out.
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There is not really any great way to defend.
Your best bet is to build at least 2 Spine Crawler and pray that your Kerrigan is out by the time enemies kill the spines.
I played on Hard. The wave is as early as 2 minutes.
The time they take to reach your base will vary depend on what kind of units they are.
Some super slow units will take around 30-40s.
Normally they reach your base at <30s.
If they are zergling or vulture or Hellion, it may be as fast as 25s.
Spine can delay them “on Hard” up to 30s or more.
On Brutal? I don’t know but you are dead if you don’t prepare.
Considering this map is not really hard, you can afford to be much slower in eco.
There’s a nice defense from Kerrigan on RtK in this video.
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I usually build 3 spine crawlers to fend off the 1st wave. Same with Stetmann, but he is better, because the spines can move at full speed and then destroy the rocks.
if you wanna do it cheap get some zerglings and micro.
they should be able to kite.
If the enemy is faster then place a hatchery or evo chamber close to the ramp/entrance point - they will aggro onto it and waste a looooot of time attacking it while kerrigan gets “ready”.
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I cherrypicked this one because of the chat. I would normally build 3 spines to make absolutely sure the wave died, and this typically assumes the ally will not assist in any way.
I also do this on Void Launch against Zerg, which also assumes the ally will not be helpful.
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I usually build just one spine OR a handful of lings (like 6). I don’t use them to fight the wave head-on, I just use them to stall the enemy until kerri pops. when the spine is getting low I just uproot it and run it away. I use the lings mostly just to aggro the enemy units, never full-on committing.
My advice is to just leave it. This happens so rarely that it isn’t something you need to deal with on a more serious and committed case.
And there’s some simple tells of your ally’s build order to see if you do need to do this. Combined with checking for terrain to identify Zerg enemy and the speed of wave 1 spawn, you have a good idea what the threshold of that wave will do/be.
I’ve generally just used drone to aggro and kite to bridge that time. The sure way is following the 2-3 spine opener. Though to be that’s a 99% efficacy increased to 100% efficacy. That 1% is where that build order comes in. So know it and use it only if you come across it.
Basically on RtK (especially because of how Kerrigan can basically hero solo that map as soon as she’s out) the best solution is to put a macro hatch next to the ramp with 3 spines clustered behind it with a tiny choke-point of access to cause lings to derp out and not surround the spines. As long as they have the positioning, 3 spines is enough against any enemy comp.
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Place your buildings such that you can put your queen in a small choke, and make one spine crawler, again walled off by your buildings.
If they can just directly attack the spine crawler and queen and surround them, obviously that’s not going to work as well.
Yes. The Spines may die, but Kerri will finish taking her time long before anything important dies.
The spines won’t do much for you after the first attack wave, so it’s no real loss.
Yup, even vs, reapers. It’s only 6 reapers, so 3 spines can actually handle it just due to overwhelming dps for those flimsy reapers.
Like how have people been handling it, outside of the known strategy? Cuz it sounds like somehow this is news to some. What have people been doing? I’m just curious.
If you gonna do that, why not just put down 3 Spine crawlers.
