what is the most cost-effective unit

[laesperanzapaz]

read the title. also, doesnt have to be a specific # of units.

me: crackling

[Hayley]

Miners, they pay for themselves :)

[aak]

Vultures.

[Moser]

Vultures.I agree.

[Jorix]

ok i dont feel like getting into this one again, as i went through this for over 10 pages of posts on bf...

1. zergling
2. vulture

everything else is after that.

[Hayley]

Umm, I don't see why miners wouldn't be the most cost effective -.-

[Ghost_of_doom]

A group of marines with about 3 medics

[Hayley]

I don't think that's cost effective vs either vultures or lings =(

[Jorix]

lings are cost effective against everything except for vultures (and firebats and zealots, in certain situations that put the lings at a big disadvantage)

vultures come in second because of mines, but because they do concussive damage, they still have trouble with some units

[Hayley]

Lings aren't cost effective vs flying units ^.~

[Jorix]

sure they are, they can level enough structures or other units by the time they die to make up for their cost...plus they are faster than most (all but scourge?) air units anyway ^^

[Hayley]

Mutas have the same speed as speed upgraded zerglings, and once you get a certain amount of muta they can kill lings faster than lings can kill structures :)

[Jorix]

so split them up...each ling does 40 damage in the time it takes a muta to fire once, and since were talking cost effective, were dealing with 12 zerglings for EACH muta...

edit: so we tested it, and even though hayley stacked it as much as she could against the zerglings with a horrible choke and no upgrades...the lings still leveled my base. ^^

edit2: and when i controled lings with speed and actually tried, i mowed her down ^^

[Hayley]

Edit 1 is false~! He attacked his own base with muta after my zerglings failed :P

[Jorix]

i think youre getting it confused...you forced your lings to get stuck on eachother, go in a singlefile line, have no speed...and you STILL leveled my base...

the only base attacking with mutas was done by you in the second game, after i had leveled yours and you went and started to kill me T_T

[Sambo83]

rofl... you guys are idiots.

Miners are of course most cost effective unit. And after that it's high templar. And hydralisks are more cost effective and versatile than lings or vults. Lings do piss poor on their own after the very opening. They need a unit like ultralisk with them to soak damage so they don't die really fast.

[Jorix]

high templar would be cost effective if storms did instant damage or something, but rarely will you catch 14 zerglings in your 3 storms before they mow you down unless the lings are extremely stupid...and even a single zergling can kill a hydralisk...the only advantage they have is they can hit air, but they arent as cost effective against that, either.

[Sambo83]

It's impossible to dodge storm with zergling. Storm kills them pretty much instantly or at best leaves them fodder for whatever units or cannons you have lying around. If zergling are so cost effective, why don't you just bulid pure zergling all game? Especially since they're more cost effective than hydralisks vs air (according to your post), you should need no unit but zergling.

[Jorix]

you generally do build them all game, you simply pair them with other units to make them even more effective.
hydraling...
lurkling...
mutaling...
ultraling...

[Hayley]

The problem zerglings run into in the real game is that once Protoss gets archons + templar it becomes hard to replace the zerglings fast enough even if you are winning the resource war. Zerglings become much stronger on maps such as Nostalgia with no gas at your nat, since then they end up fighting far fewer archon/templar, and thus when they are upgraded + adrenal gland you can just like 8hat ling. Here's an example OgOgO vs Legionnaire in a Liquibition game.

[thefazant]

lings and vultures arent cost effective, they die by the dozens.
maybe you will get some extremely cost effective ling or vult now and then, but 20 probably died useless to compensate for that.

most cost effective are probably templar siegetank vessel arbiter, and the winner, carriers tvp, there is no costeffective counter for that.

[Jorix]

faz, just because a unit dies fast doesnt mean its not cost effective...because lings and vultures are extremely cheap.

[okplayer]

i think superkiller made a long post about how siegetanks are the most cost effective unit. i agree with him.

[Jorix]

yes, they must be. especially because 2-3 zerglings kills a tank...and the 14 you get for the same amount of resources as the tank would absolutely RAPE it.

sigh.

[okplayer]

jorix it seems you dont understand the concept of cost effectiveness.

[thefazant]

jorix, there might be a moment in a game somewhere where 3 lings kill a tank, but there will be A LOT more moments were 5 bats slaugther 40 lings, or you have to suicide 50 lings to get youre lurks in a good position to burrow.
lings are NOT cost effective in a real game. only cost effective zerg unit i can think off is the ultra, maybe the guardian or the defiler.

[Jorix]

yeah sure, you lose 50 lings to something that costs more than those lings, and then you rape. sigh...im tired of going over this again and again, so im done in this thread

[thefazant]

youre tired of this because youre just wrong.
lings are EXTREMELY cost effective against pure goon or pure tank, too bad no one ever goes that against lings.
they get killed by the dozens by m&m, bats, archs and temps.
same story for vults.

you might get some very cost effective vults sometimes when a big group of goons runs in a minefield, or when you can slaughter an unprotected min line, but for the rest, they are just fodder

thats like saying mutas are really cost effective against lings.


the real cost effective units are units like arbs, or carriers or temps, which youre enemy has to spend a lot of money to counter, or who will kill a lot of units.

[aak]

It actually's a pretty hard question, because the cost-effectiveness depends on how many you have. Miners become less CE the more you have (best to spend money and supplies on other stuff) but if you have few miners, they are definitely the most CE.

[Ragnarox]

In my opinion, I believe goliths are the most cost effective unit in the game, superb GTA attack and a so so GTG attack with medium armor and a fair amount of hitpoints for only 100mins and 50 gas. Sounds like adeal to me. However, I do have to agree that lings are extremely cost effective units:)

[okplayer]

if any zerg unit was cost effective, then zerg wouldnt need to expo so much to win