I’ve seen a lot of Protoss players in despair over swarm host play recently, and it has come up in pro play more and more frequently at the moment, a good example would be Stephano’s play in WCS EU. This isn’t really going to be a fully fleshed out guide, it’s just some ideas that you should try to incorporate into your play.

BASETRADE

If a swarm host player moves forward to assault a nexus, do NOT try to defend it, nothing is worse than losing expensive units for locusts which are essentially free. You want to try to outmaneuver your zerg opponent. To do this keep obs on the map and keep track of his army movement, the instance he moves in one direction you go for a base that he has taken in the opposite.

Another great reason to basetrade is because you want to eliminate his static defence whilst making your own strong army.

Mothership core is essential for a recall, incase you get fungalled and need a clutch escape.

Base trading will almost always put you ahead against the immobile swarm host army. I’ve personally never had any problem with basetrading against this style.

UNIT COMPOSITION

I had some help from xzam regarding unit composition against swarm host play. Once again I stress that you should be base trading while building this composition. The Ideal composition in my opinion is heavy collosus void ray with templar support, this should be able to engage fairly cost effectively against swarm host compositions. The reason you need void rays alongside your collossi is simple: corrupters, corrupter swarm host is near impossible to beat without void rays to deal with those corrupters.

A strong collosus void ray high templar ball is cost effective against any swarm host composition as long as they do not have static defence in play. Base trading will eliminate their static defence, and if you can get enough time for collosus void ray ht you should be fine in direct engagements from there.

CREEP DENIAL

Why does this get it’s own category? The answer is simple, creep denial against swarm host play is more important than against any other zerg playstyle. Army movements are key, you don’t want the zerg player to know where you’re headed.

If there is no creep left on the map, something great for protoss becomes very likely. You have a high chance of catching swarm hosts unburrowed and un-prepared, if this happens, the game is yours. Take it. Accept the gg gracefully (or in my case tell your opponent to get the **** out).

Creep denial should come naturally if you’re base trading.

WARP PRISMS

Be in more than one place at once, warp prisms and warp prism speed become very handy to pull the zerg player apart, force them to go in one direction and then go the other with your main army.

Dark templars can also be useful but use them sparingly, as your gas should be going predominantly into void rays.

DAYBREAK

Either leave at the start of the game or 2base all in. I prefer the former.

Replays

I’ll upload more as I play more but for the moment I think these show pretty well the power of base racing.

http://drop.sc/339495

http://drop.sc/339496

Extra Input

Light “You have to react immediately, not decide to “oh I guess I need a warp prism” 5 minutes after taking locust fire”

About me

I’m a high master/GM NA player (lol, seriously top 5 masters on the server deserves gm tt).