From: lhuynh@sloth.Reed.Edu (Falcon Feather)
Subject: zangief
Organization: Reed College, Portland, OR
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 08:55:55 GMT
Reply-To: lhuynh@reed.edu


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=  zangief  =
=============

"my strength is much greater than yours."


all opponents
(offensive)

zangief, though slow, is very powerful, and those that have the spinning 
pile driver down can use it for a deadly attack. he defends well against 
players jumping in as well.

zangief's best moves are his long range sweep and his jumping in with the 
knees (or other jump moves), landing and executing a throw.  once cornering 
a victim, it is not too hard to change up the attacks (aerial knees, body 
slam, kick) and ground attacks (throws, sweeps) to good advantage.

his by far best move is to jump, do a roundhouse kick (which is hard to 
counter a lot of the time) and after you hit the roundhouse button, do 
the spinning pile driver move.  his range for grabbing opponents in that 
move is very long and this is a very good combination to use.  it's the 
zangiefs that can do this move at will that are the most dangerous.

the most difficulty people have with the spinning pile driver is that they 
don't move the joystick in a complete, but fast, circle and hit the punch 
button (any of them work) at the >end< of moving the joystick around.  
with a little practice, it isn't that hard to do.

(defensive)

defensively, zangief is pretty tough.  his best defense is the sacrifice 
hit/throw combination (explained below).  his other good defense is simply 
the standing or crouching punch when an opponent jumps in.  this works 
very well.

the sacrifice throw just consists of walking into the character when they 
have leaped towards you, take the hit and go for a throw.  zangief can win 
these easily all of the time and his damage from his moves is sure to beat 
any of the hits he takes when a character jumps in.

lastly, be patient using him and block a lot, sweeping when you can (which 
rules over a lot of other characters sweeps).  if a character jumps in from 
a little ways out, a good method to use is to sweep just as he lands.  
this works well.

ken/ryu ---

ryu/ken can never jump in effectively against zangief, as the crouching 
punch will work exceptionally well against this.

zangiefs sweeps far outreach and outmatch ryu/ken's sweeps, so use these 
a lot to get in close to do a body slam or knee drop in on them.

doing the spinning lariat is a good way to dodge fireballs as well rather 
than trying to jump them.

and once ahead in health and time and ryu/ken need to take the attack to 
you, let them try to jump in or sweep.  block their sweeps and punch their 
jumps.

if ken/ryu are stupid enough to try spinning kicks against zangief, hit 
them with a crouching punch.

lastly, if they are foolish enough to try a sweep/throw combo against 
zangief, just go for a throw right away.  your reach will  pick them up 
every time.

e. honda ---

fight against e. honda about the same as you would ryu/ken.  that is punch 
his jumps when he jumps in, block his sweeps, and use the spinning lariat 
against his flying head rams.

as e. honda cannot effectively defend against zangief's air attacks while 
on the ground, you shouldn't have a problem getting in close.  and to 
counter all of e. honda throw's attempts just try to throw him at the same 
time.  the sacrifice throw will work fine.  and just block a lot otherwise.  
zangief blocks excellently (without letting characters walking up and 
throwing zangief too easily).

blanka ---

blanka can be pretty tough, as he can jump in easily on zangief. to counter, 
just use the sacrifice throw or block.  your sweep should work well on blanka
too.

a very good attack against blanka is to back up when he jumps in and then 
sweep when he lands.  as blanka's jump is short and quick this is not all 
that hard to do, and if timed right, blanka cannot hope to defend in time.

use the crouching jab to counter the ball attack.  when carrying the attack 
to blanka, jump using the roundhouse kick a lot.  that move makes it hard 
for blanka to knock you out of the air and when you land, you can often 
sweep him (if he has tried to claw you when you were in the air and missed).

once in close, the regular attack combinations work very well against blanka.

guile ---

fighting guile is little different from fighting ryu/ken.  between the 
tactics there and the "all opponents" tactics should be  sufficient.

lastly, guile's jab/throw combo can be countered just like ryu's but you 
can also block and then go for the throw when guile does. zangief has one 
of the highest priorities for throwing, so this shouldn't be too hard.

chun li ---

chun li is a little tricky, as she can jump in well against zangief (i.e. 
he can't punch her out of the air) and her sweeps are fast and long.  use 
the sacrifice throw on her a lot and  otherwise just block a lot and try 
to get in close to do a lot of body slams and knee drops (with the knee 
drops he can do any move, but the best are the crouching medium punch 
throw or the spinning pile driver).

lastly, as chun li jumps so high, if she does a lot of jumping, try walking 
under her, turning around, crouching and hitting fierce (where he picks 
her up by her ankles and throws her over back past himself).

dhalsim ---

if it wasn't for dhalsim, a good zangief could last forever (or very 
nearly so).  the best way to fight dhalsim is to fight defensively, 
spinning through his fireballs, and trading damage with him whenever 
possible.

to counter his kicks, use the crouching punch.  to counter his punches, use 
the sweep (though this takes incredible timing for it to work), and when 
jumping in the air against him, use the roundhouse kick button to try to 
hit him when he kicks you.

if you can get in close, you can resort to the "all opponent" tactics 
which work very well.  of course, the spinning pile driver combo (with 
the roundhouse jump kick) is the best  combination to use.

if dhalsim comes spinning in, the crouching or standing punch will work 
well (sometimes blocking until he has made contact). if he slides in, 
just block, sweep and then jump in to press the attack.

if you're up against a master dhalsim, you will need a lot of luck to win 
as well.

lastly, you just need to block a lot and try to close the distance to be 
able to jump in at close range (where jumping in will be effective).  
just block and walk in, and if he uses the kicks, crouch punch.  if he 
fires a lot, jump and try to kick out at the same time as dhalsim to 
trade damage. good luck.


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