This is actually the best possible thing to happen for you as a zerg player. He's running just Phoenixes and he has given you map control FOR FREE.
Your Strategy is going to be as follows:
- Build a couple spore to stop early Phoenix harass.
- Expand to 3 or 4 bases
- Spread your creep
- Build pretty much any unit, you're going to run over him
He's giving up the Macro advantage as you now have map control. You can build Hydras as a direct counter to Phoenix and they have the nice benefit of being strong against 4 gate.
Now if he pushes out a more standard 4 Warpgate play, you just FE and play normal vs a 2 Base Protoss. By the time you make a serious push, the Photon Cannons will be a small factor.
Btw, what do people feel about the plural of Phoenix? In Roman mythology there was only one Phoenix in the entire world so the word had no plural. I've been using it as both plural and singular (like fish) as a result.
First off, you should be getting Stim before Concussive, I'll explain why in a second.
The Marauder is both a vastly overrated and underrated unit. It has pitiful dps (against anything that isn't armored) and largely exists as a meat shield for the much higher dps, much lower hp, Marines. The ideal Marine/Marauder ball is relying on Marauders to tank while Marines dish the damage. Let's take a closer look at the Marauder:
125 HP
1 Armor
10+10 damage (or 6.67+6.67 dps)
Against your average Zealot that 1 armor is going to cost him ~15% of his damage, while the much more cost effective Marines dps him down. Additionally, any Stalkers only do 70% as much dps (as the Marauder).
So Marine/Marauder is already set up nicely against Zealot/Stalker, which brings me to Stim. Marines, being your real dps here, really need Stim to help take out the slower Protoss units and it also gives them the ability to kite. Compared to that Concussive Shell is just icing. In fact, you'll see a lot of Terran (like Jinro) move out just as Stim finishes and Concussive starts, because they want to maximize the timing window Stim represents (and because Concussive's shorter build time often means it'll finish just as they start engaging).
Now you asked about earlier pushes than Stim, and the list is very short:
Both of these plays fail against a 1 basing Protoss player. The truth is, Stim is very early, and very powerful, you're not going to find anything better before it. If you're consistently losing a Marauder heavy ball while dealing early pressure, then I suggest you reexamine your composition. Most 3 Rax play has an even amount of Marauders and Marines. Earlier pushes (like 2 Rax), tend to be very Marine heavy, with a few Marauders thrown in to act as meat shields.
I hope this helps
Best Answer
In the situation you described above: Target drones.
The reasoning is because that is guaranteed damage. The drones will die; if you target the hatch, it might live and his drones can happily go back to mining after your army is killed/driven out.
Killing drones also gives you an economic advantage. With the zerg race, the player has to actively make the decision of, "Am I going to spend this larva to make a drone, or an attacking/defending unit". By killing the drone you slow down his economy, force him to spend the larva to keep up with you economically (assuming you keep making harvesters/expanding), and weaken his attacking/defending force because he used the larva to produce a drone instead of a zergling, roach, muta, etc.