Roach Play

[Tivia]

So I have been experimenting quite a bit with roaches lately. I have seen a few zerg using them, but I don't see them terribly often. I am curious as to why any of you do or do not use roaches.

Pros- Insane regen when burrowed. If you can take a moment to micro on a
roach push, you can make a handful of them seem like double the amount because of this. (Provided they don't have detection). They just regen INSANELY quick when burrowed.
Fairly decent meat shield
Good for defending against early pushes pre speed upgrade.
Good against most ground army compositions after speed upgrade.
Don't block off banelings.


Cons

Pre speed upgrade, painfully slow off creep.
Require burrow to really take advantage of their abilities
Light on gas but heavy on food.


As mentioned I have been trying to deviate from the all too common muta/ling builds that are getting countered right now. roach play forces me to micro harder but I think it compliments the heavy baneling style play that I am currently using as they do a better job "mopping up" then lings and leave my lings free to be converted to banes.

I have found this particularly effective against standard T bio as the Bio tends to focus on the roaches while allowing me time to position banes. Plus the roaches with their higher survivability don't fold quite as quickly. It also works well for pulling their army away from their base long enough for me to bomb their mineral line. The big plus for me is microing them is as easy as select and burrow instead of trying to constantly move low health units, and after a few seconds instead of shuffling low health units I now have full health units again.

[Aldriana]

I think the generic answer is the scaling issue induced by their short range. That is: if you have 10 roaches fighting against a comparably sized P or T ball, you can generally do pretty well (assuming you have a way to prevent them from kiting you). But if you have 50 roaches, the short range means they won't all be able to attack unless you have a *very* wide front, particularly since they're quite a bit fatter and slower than lings so can't get into position as quickly.

So: they're definitely a useful tool, and you do see people build them, but there are limits to what you can do in the lategame with them.

[Zapron]

I think the generic answer is the scaling issue induced by their short range. That is: if you have 10 roaches fighting against a comparably sized P or T ball, you can generally do pretty well (assuming you have a way to prevent them from kiting you). But if you have 50 roaches, the short range means they won't all be able to attack unless you have a *very* wide front, particularly since they're quite a bit fatter and slower than lings so can't get into position as quickly.

So: they're definitely a useful tool, and you do see people build them, but there are limits to what you can do in the lategame with them.

One way of mitigating that drawback is by utilizing their ability to move while burrowed. Tunnel underneath the enemy and then pop out in the middle of them. That would allow 50 roaches to all engage in combat.

[Aldriana]

Assuming your opponent doesn't have an observer/raven/overseer, anyway. Which, if you're going mass roach, is a relatively poor assumption, as I, for one, make a point to build sight against mid and late game roach play for exactly that reason.

It is worth noting, however, that the range increase in 1.1.2 will mitigate this problem to some extent.