Which units are low on larva?

Question

I'm watching Day[9] Daily #194 and he just said something like that:

Rely on 'power units' - they are low on larva. So that way you can spend the rest of your larva on drones.

What does it mean? Which particular units?

Answer 1

found this on TL

Power Units

Power units are something Day9 talked about in many of his dailies.

What is a power unit?

This is simply a unit that is cost efficient and can keep your opponent at bay, making him think twice before moving out to attack you.

For Terrans these units are: Banshees and Tanks

For Zergs these are: Infestors and Mutalisks

For Protoss these are: High Templars and Dark Templars

Why are they important and when do you use them?

These units should be used all the time because they are really powerful, hence the name. These units give you time to do more things without fearing a attack at every corner. these units, in other words, control space and this is an important thing in all RTS games.

Once you have these units your opponent will focus on them in fear of counter attacks in their bases, this takes their focus away from your own bases, so power units can allow you to expand and tech more and get more ahead.

Don't get the wrong idea, power units will not win you the game, nor should you use them thinking that, there will be times where you will surprise your opponent and win that y but the core principle for using these units is to get further ahead.

In Artosis' words when you are ahead, get further ahead.

Answer 2

Larva is specific to Zerg.

The power units in Zerg are Infestors, Mutalisks, Ultralisks and Broodlords.

Why is this particularly important for Zerg? Because unlike Protoss and Terran, which have dedicated production buildings, each unit made for a Zerg army means one less drone.

Take the scenario where a Zerg needs to kill 5 marines. Instead of making 12 zerglings, which costs 6 larvae (6 less drones), the Zerg can make 1 ultralisk and 5 drones (assuming resources aren't the limiting factor).

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This actually relates to another interesting discussion in Theorycraft. When engaging a Zerg army, it's generally good strategy to target down the "power units", the ones that have high gas costs (infestors, mutas, ultras, broodlords), because gas is a limiting resource.

But some people argue that it can be useful to target units that have high larvae cost, mainly zerglings. Since zerglings need to used in large numbers to be effective, replacing an army of 60 zerglings indirectly hurts the Zerg player's potential to pump drones and scale the economy.

Answer 3

Units that are costly in resources, like Ultralisks or Brood Lords.

Units like zerglings or roaches are high on larva.

If a unit is "larva-cheap" it costs proportionately more per larva; this allows you to remax quickly without using too much larva.