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This section gives info on each of the Zerg units.
These guys have two jobs: gathering resources and mutating into buildings. Make about 1.5 drones per mineral clump, plus 3 or 4 per gas geyser. Don't forget to make more drones after you morph them into buildings. :) With the burrowing upgrade drones can ride out attacks until help comes; otherwise they'll have to fight for themselves or run for it.
Overlords provide control, detection and (when upgraded) transporting, all in one convenient package. Spread them out over your bases and you have an early warning network. You have to make them anyway, so put them to good use. Send some with your attack groups and keep some near your rally point. Park a few over enemy bases (when it's safe) and over unoccupied expansion spots, especially islands. Keep them away from enemy anti-air, as they are defenseless. Don't clump them up!
These basic attackers are cheap and fast -- cheap enough that you can pump them quickly with only a few drones mining, and fast enough that they can cross large maps to do an early takedown. Zerglings are great for early attack or defense, and burrowed observation of expansion sites. They fare decently against zealots (at a 4 to 1 ratio) or small numbers of marines or hydras but they die fast to large groups of ranged units, and especially to firebats and bunkers. When upgraded for speed and damage zerglings can be effective in the mid game as a fast 'fire brigade' force, for hit-and-run, for taking down undefended expansions, and to draw fire away from hydralisks. With the adrenal glands upgrade, zerglings become a late-game terror, capable of reducing towns to ashes in seconds. And since zerglings require no Vespene, they make a great complement to gas-hungry units like mutalisks, guardians, and hydras, right up to the end of the game.
Hydralisks are the Zergs' main land weapon: the most versatile, cost-effective unit in the game. They have a ranged attack that hits ground and air with a decent punch, they are cheap (75/25), they use up only one control point, they have a decent movement rate once upgraded, and to top it all off they can burrow. Make them by the millions. Research speed and range for them. Use them for destroying air forces, taking down expansions, sealing off choke points, defending bases, scouting while burrowed, holding high ground, killing flying buildings, securing strategic areas, and winning games in general. Their main weaknesses are heavy Terran defenses (use mutalisks and guardians to crack these) and special powers such as psi-storm and irradiate.
Mutalisks are expensive and weak, but they are effective for hit-and-run, scouting, diversionary attacks, busting up undefended expansions, and hitting things that can't hit back, like zealots and siege tanks. They also do a good job of covering guardians from air-to-air attack (scouts, wraiths, etc) and chasing down Terran buildings that are trying to escape. Unless they are in overwhelming numbers, keep your mutas away from anti-air ground troops and towers. They love to rush into danger and get themselves killed, so watch them carefully. On islands, this unit is your lifeblood, so make lots of them and be careful with them.
Scourge rule the skies. Once the enemy has air, always keep a decent-sized flock handy. Escort them with overlords for detection. Aim them at carriers, guardians, arbiters, science vessels or most any flying unit you want to make disappear. They are particularly effective against carriers, but they die hard to massed battlecruisers. Set scourge to patrol between unoccupied expansion sites. Use them as expendable scouts.
Lurkers are the Zerg's only cloaked attackers. They are great for defense of towns, choke points and heavily-trafficked areas. Burrow one where you expect your opponent to expand. In numbers they work well on offense if there are no detectors around. Drop them into an opponent's worker fields. When detected, lurkers die to tanks, air attacks and reavers. Psi storm is also dangerous, so keep your lurkers spread out. Science vessels with irradiate are a lurker's worst enemy. However, in groups of 4 or more, lurkers eat marines by the dozens, even if detected. Lurkers do splash damage to all units, including your allies', so keep them away from your teammates' forces and don't keep them in your teammates' towns.
Queens are a niche unit -- don't make too many. Their parasite ability is useful in cracking tough Terran defenses, or spying on stacks of big air units like guardians, carriers or battlecruisers. Broodling instantly takes out seige tanks, templars, ultralisks and defilers. Ensnare is good for exposing cloaked units and slowing down enemy air forces. Queens really shine on island maps, where all of their abilities come into play repeatedly.
Guardians are the game-enders for the Zerg. If you have enough of these and you protect them properly, no defense can stand. Guardians have nothing to fear from marines, dragoons, missile turrets, spore colonies, etc. Their weaknesses are air-to-air attacks, psi storm, irradiate, and upgraded goliaths. Guardians are slow-moving, expensive and take a long time to build, so protect them well with overlords, hydras, scourge and mutalisks.
Devourers' main job is the killing of big stacks of battlecruisers. Start making devourers as soon as you see evidence of battlecruisers (such as a physics lab). Use devourers, mutalisks and shift-queueing to kill the BCs. Ensnare them too if you can. :)
These little guys are tricky to use correctly but they can really put the hurt on an enemy. Plague will absolutely devastate an attacking air force or a mass of troops. Dark swarm protects your forces from incoming ranged fire. Keep your defilers burrowed while they build up mana!
These are also a niche unit. They are high on the tech tree, don't do much damage, and cost a lot, both in resources and control. But they have their place. With the speed and armor upgrades (and melee and carapace upgrades) they are powerful, particularly in conjunction with dark swarm. Ultras are very tough, and since most enemies give them highest attack priority, they are good for soaking up punishment while your other units deal out damage.
I have never been able to use these in an actual game. If I ever do, and I have a Terran teammate, I'll ask for a defensive matrix before I go looking for trouble.
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