Starcraft – How do we defend against double 6 poolers in 2v2

starcraft-2

I play Zerg and my partner plays Protoss. Today we got double 6 pooled by a pair of zerg players. We scouted it, but we didn't quite know what to do. Obviously they came after me because the toss was walled in.

Normally I know the theory of fending off a 6 pool – use my workers to attack the lings until my own lings pop. (When I scouted the 6 pool i put down a 10 pool.) But when there are 12 enemy lings instead of 6, this doesn't work so well.

And my partner can't really help or effectively counter attack with his one or two zealots. (this was a map with a bit of distance between allies bases.)

Am I supposed to just sacrifice myself, and hope that my partner can tech up and out econ the stilted economies of the 2 6 poolers? Or is there a way we can coordinate our defense such that we both survive?

Best Answer

There are multiple ways to deal with this cheese in 2v2, I'll list the ones I have had the most success with.

  • If possible, both wall off or almost wall off (leaving a one gap with a hold position zealot would be what I consider almost walled off)
  • If not possible, you can actually try to fend it off by pooling most of your workers together until you have your own combat units. One base worth of workers holds off 6 lings...two base worth can hold off 12 lings. This can be a bit tricky to do depending on the map, and you have to be careful to not spend too much time chasing the zerglings (if they don't fight you) instead of mining.
  • If you are quick enough in spotting it/pumping units and/or defenses, simply sending units as you produce them can sometimes hold this off.
  • In the case of a zerg/protoss pair, you can try sacrificing the zerg, walling in the toss, and getting a quick void ray up. Their economy will be so weak and zerg anti-air comes so late that a single void ray (or at most 2) will generally suffice to kill one if not both of them.

Some people suggest spine crawlers or other base defenses, but I haven't had much luck with these. They aren't up in time and they will usually simply focus fire them while they are building, leaving you down money and drones with no real gain. Any reasonable player will also do things like focus fire your hatch if you try to run around stalling for your partner to arrive, and 12 lings take down a hatch fairly quickly.

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