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If you are winning a lot as Spawn against other rookies, it may be worth experimenting with adding one or two Splatters and Spitters to your force, and seeing what they can do. You'll probably still win, most of the time, and the experience will stand you in good stead when you move up the League.

For me, Splatters and Goo Spitters are two of the key Spawn units, particularly against Greys and Marines. There is a lot of material on this S&T forum about them -- use the Search function, and check it out. In brief, though:

* Use your Goo Spitters to lock your opponent's game down. It's not a nice thing to do. But it works. Key targets for Goo are Missile Tanks and AIs, in a Machina game, or Queens in a Spawn game, or any units that are clustered round an HQ. However, unless you are very short on Spitters & Spitter health, consider Gooing anything you can hit! 2 points of damage a turn is not that much, but it does mean 4 points gone, over the 2 turns the goo lasts (and of course, you can goo it again just before the goo goes away -- it's not like the gooed unit is going anywhere). More importantly, that unit is stuck. It's not running into cover, or charging forward to lob grenades at you. It's not reloading. Medical units can't get to it to heal it. If it's a Grey unit, the goo damage is equivalent to what it would naturally regenerate each turn -- which means it's not dying, but that every time it shoots at you it's getting more & more vulnerable. I like to take 3 Goo Spitters in a 20-point game -- that way, even if I lose one, I have 2 left to cover both flanks.

* Splatters are the only Spawn unit that can reliably take out multiple opponents instantaneously. They're slow, and half-blind, and very expensive compared to other factions' explosive units. But against certain key foes -- all Marine & Grey units (especially if you walk the Splatter INSIDE a Guardian's shield, something that grenades, missiles, & warps can't do), and Buzzers, and Hunters -- they're devastating. Against Spawn, a Splatter will also SERIOUSLY affect the health of a Drone rush, or (if you can get it close enough), a massed group of Spikers or XTs. Splatters and Queens are your main defence against Drone rushes in Spawn vs Spawn games -- put a Splatter and a Queen together, and the two of them will take out way more than 5 points of Drones between them (and the Queen will shrug off most of the explosion damage). Splatters require a LOT of sneakiness to work well. Try to move your Splatter so that it finishes out of sight but within 10 seconds' walking distance of the target at the end of one turn. Then, next turn, move it for up to 9.9 seconds, so it's right in the middle of your foes, then hit Halt at the end. If that worked, explode it manually at the start of the next turn. If you expect it to get shot at en route in, try to draw fire with a Drone or something.

Drones are awesomely powerful, and it's definitely worth becoming competent with them. They're MUCH more powerful when used as part of a balanced force than when used in mobs, though. Think of using them more like the critter in the first Alien movie -- sneaky, devastating, capable of popping out of cover at just the right time, biting someone's face off, then ducking back -- rather than like the mobs in the second Alien (dangerous, but mowed down in droves). The big drawback with massed Drones, in a longer game against a good player, is that when they die (and they do) they die far from your Queen, and don't get recycled. When I use Drones, it is generally as part of a wearing-down plan. I'll have them hidden, close enough to the opposition that they can nip out and attack, but far enough away that they're safe (tricky balance to get right, admittedly). So, ideally, I have one or two full-health Drones to nip out & kill vulnerable or strategically important units, or to draw fire as I move my Splatter into position, or to head the long way around enemy lines & hit the HQ from an unexpected angle, or to work together to bite through a destructible wall so (again) they can spearhead a surprise attack. In a perfect world, those one or two Drones will be able to head back to the Queen, wounded, once they've done their job, and get recycled. Even if they die before that happens, I've only lost one or two Drones, rather than a whole squad. The movement orders you can give one or two Drones are more precise than you can give a mob, too -- they don't get in each other's way as much!

Buzzers, likewise, you will probably find you use even less of than Drones, as you get more experienced. They're great scouts (by far the Spawn's best unit for that), OK for taking out HQs, but only mediocre combatants. It's worth having maybe 1 to 4 in a typical game (I rarely have more than 3, even in 30 points).

A quick word on Spikers. I take more of these than either Drones or Buzzers, in most games (HB will disagree with me on this one & prefers Drones over Spikers in some games, depending on what faction his opponent is taking). As has been mentioned, they're inaccurate & slow. However, they are also durable, so that you will get a lot of shots out of them before they die -- and they can shoot from right across the map (inaccurately), so that they are probably the easiest Spawn unit to recycle. They are best used against targets that are large and/or stationary, from as far away as possible. Play the long game. If you have an AI gooed, or an HQ in sight, shoot it with 2 or 3 Spikers from right across the map, rather than from close up. It might take 5 turns to take it out, but once you do, you can recycle the now nearly empty Spikers, and lay more stuff to mop up the remaining foes.

Yeah, agreed, both styles seem to work.

I think that makes a key point about Spawn, though -- in almost any Spawn game, you're going to want at least 1 of every unit. And at least 2 of most of them, except maybe Queens, in low-point games, though I did once win a 15-point Golden Egg (Spawn vs Spawn) match with 2 Queens.

So, combined arms is the way forward for Spawn. Since you will probably have a mix of unit types -- and if that's (in 20 points), 1 Queen, 3 Spitters, 2 Splatters, 3 Buzzers, and 8 (in total) Drones or Spikers, it doesn't make a lot of difference whether you take 2 Drones and 6 Spikers, or 6 Drones and 2 Spikers, or somewhere in between. Depending on play style, and opponent faction, either is probably going to work OK.

I'm not saying other deployments don't work, BTW, but I would say that in 20 points, you want at least:

1 Queen
2 Spitters
1 Buzzer
1 Splatter
2 Spikers
2 Drones

That leaves 8 other units, to include maybe a further...

up to 1 Queen
up to 2 Spitters
up to 3 Buzzers
up to 2 Splatters
up to 7 Spikers
up to 6 Drones

... depending on the map, and what faction you think your opponent will take, and your play style.