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Recently I've notice that Terrans do less bioball/tank against Zerg and go for a thor heavy play. The first problem with the mass thor push is that it's really difficult to distinguish from a standard mech play (hellions, tanks, thors) when you scout the Terran base (you just see "a lot" of factories with Techlabs on them).

The second problem is that this push often occurs before the Zerg player techs up to broodlords, which could be a pretty good counter to this.

What can Zerg do about it ?

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    Note that the armory is the biggest giveaway they are going thors. Especially if the armory isn't actually doing any upgrades, then it's probably there just to give access to thors.
    – tenfour
    Apr 22, 2011 at 8:40

4 Answers 4

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As Artosis said, an army made mainly of Thors is quite immobile so you can abuse this with Mutalisks and Zerglings.

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    To add to this answer as to why, if they attack you, just run by or attack their main with mutas. They'll be forced to deal with losing their base or continue to push ahead. Spine crawlers will also help during defense for those times (unless they have tank support as well).
    – Sorean
    Apr 22, 2011 at 14:39
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    +1, cause the glaive wurm will kill the scv's over time as well. but make sure to learn the magic box technique to avoid too much splash damage Apr 22, 2011 at 14:41
  • I feel as though in light of the comments here, this answer could use a lot of expansion as to why this works and the techniques involved in making it an effective tactic.
    – Mana
    Apr 24, 2011 at 2:20
  • I don't think this is quite the counter. The Terran can continue up to the Zerg's bases and simply use Missile Turrets for Mutas and keep a few hellions in the base for lings.
    – Nick122
    May 3, 2012 at 14:38
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Neural Parasite from infestors are pretty good against thors and I've had lots of success running those against terran players. Fungal growth is great to have as well vs blink stalkers as well, so I really like infestors in general.

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  • the problem i have with this is the infestors will be shot dead right when they use neural, plus you've only got 15 seconds before the thor reverts, so you'd better be smart about what you target with them. If you do try to mass neural, you at least need a roach wall or something to protect your infestors. Just popping up a group of infestors doesnt work too good.
    – jzn
    Apr 24, 2011 at 4:04
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The usual zerg answer to thor in the midgame is to use roaches, and possibly lings as well for extra DPS and tanking shots. Roaches are fairly cost effective vs thors, at least before the thors hit 3 attack upgrades, but they are horribly supply inefficient, so they will only work for so long. If they are bringing a lot of SCV's, you'll want banelings to deal with those as well.

Late game, ultras work alright if you are not fighting in chokes, and broodlords work fantastically as long as you have enough of them. Again, use banelings if they have a lot of SCV's with them as well.

Infestors are also an option, as you can neural the thors. This requires some more micro though, and you have to manage to keep your infestors alive long enough for the captured thors to do their work.

And as meta mentioned, you can also just attack wherever they are not, as thors are horribly slow.

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  • good point about choke points. Ultras wont work in a choke point. Infestors though, be careful. Neuraling the thors is ONLY effective if you have a roach army or something between the infestors and the terran force. Neural is a huge waste if the infestors get picked off right after casting it.
    – jzn
    Apr 24, 2011 at 4:00
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If you absolutely have to engage the Thors, rather than avoid them and attack elsewhere, Ultralisk/Hydra can be very helpful.

Try for least an equal number of ultralisks as they have Thors. The hydralisks will do massive damage to the thors, and the ultra wall will buy them enough time to do so.

Thor armies are so dps-heavy, that if you don't have the supply and unit mix quite right, all your units can die before they really start doing damage. Because of this, a close loss can seem like an absolute slaughter.

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