Changelog

20/1/2011 – Added Foreword, Introduction, Fundamentals (Know Zangief)
21/1/2011 – Added Fundamentals (Footsie and Spacing), Fundamentals (Defense)
28/1/2011 – Added Reference Information (Match Up Listing)
1/5/2011 – Added Combos

Foreword

First of all a little bit about myself, I’m an avid SF Gief player from the Hong Kong and Singapore scene and have traveled around the world, as well as attended various tournaments such as Tougeki. While I’m certainly not a master tournament winner, nor the very best, I have played with some of the best players in the world and I do believe I have an understanding of the character and the game at a high level that I hope I can share and discuss with everyone. This guide is intended for both intermediate and advanced players as this guide goes over more than just combos and techniques, but rather also the mentality and specific match up details.

I’ve been playing AE since it came out and with AE DLC coming, I hope I can share more indepth details regarding Zangief’s changes in AE for those who have not had the fortune to play AE in an actual arcade, as well as to use this guide as a platform for further constructive discussions/brainstorming of strategies. Please feel free to leave comments or suggestions whether you may agree with or disagree with the contents and perspective of my guide.

For this guide I’ve taken a similar approach to Air Ryu’s Blog where he broke his guide down into fundamentals and matchups, as well as adding a few extra sections. Now moving on to the meat of the discussion…

First rule of thumb, to play Zangief, you need to learn all of the nuances of his moves, as well as the correct answer to each situation in every matchup to be successful. This game is about knowing what counters what and applying them to all the situations. This character is really not for the faint hearted as you need to be extremely patient at times and requires a lot of focus to do well. This can also be a frustrating character to learn as a lot of the counters to “scrub moves” aren’t easily learned by new players. However if you enjoy footsies, grabs and a challenge, then Zangief is not that bad of a choice ;) .

That being said this guide is organized into following sections:

I.   Introduction – http://community.round1.sg/carzydogken/ae-changes-and-what-they-mean/

  • Changelog since vanilla
  • So what do these changes mean?

II.   Fundamentals

  • Knowing Zangief
  • Footsie and Spacing
  • Defense
  • Combos and Special Moves
  • Option Selects

III.   Matchup for Specific Character  (Divided into Characters)

  • Matchup
  • Ground Game
  • On Zangief’s wakeup
  • Counters:
  • Mind games and O/S
  • Things to be aware of

IV.   Reference Information

  • AE Zangief Frame data
  • Video Links