Final thoughs on UNSC vs Banished balance

Games Halo Wars Series
1

Constructive replies only.

Any skilled banished player can own early game:

In the current meta, choppers are BY FAR the best opener, making it nearly impossible for UNSC to mount an early offense against any Banished leaders.

Marine w/Grenades: Marines get slaughtered by chopper ramming, and vortex. Dying breath is also a huge factor. Banished also have healing units at t1. Assuming you manage to survive the chopper rush, you are now at a significant disadvantage. The banished player will beat you to tech 2 and have map control and a much better eco.

Turtleing : You are going to need at-least 2 anti-vehicle turrets to stop the chopper rush. that is an investment of 600/600. Any skilled banished player will simply take map control(power nodes,minibases, and possibly an expo), and build banshees, locusts or reavers. UNSC has two options, go hornets(which are easy prey for reavers), or cyclops and/or wolverines. With only 1 base and the banished player having map control, you will not be able to sustain your eco building power-expensive unit.

Also, unless you see them coming and have 3 anti-infantry turrets and/or snipers, jump brutes will stop any turtle attempts.

Banished has much better late game:
For late game, UNSC’ best units are Scorpions ,Colossus, and/or Vultures, yet Banished can easily counter them.

Scorpions: Canister shell does shred Hunters, BUT, simply building 1 or 2 shrouds stops canister shells… Want to counter the hunters with snipers? Shroud stops snipers too. Colossus fare even worse.

Vultures: Reavers destroy all UNSC air units VERY easily.

Blisterbacks are also WAY overpowered. 3 blisterblacks w/shield gen and cloaking make taking out a late game Banished base very difficult and potentially

Condors in UNSC, vsUNSC feel like an ultimate unit. Against Banished, they are an expensive liability.

Winning late-game against a skill banished player as UNSC is nearly impossible. A few shreds, army of hunters, 2 or 3 blister-backs and reavers and there is not anything a UNSC player can do. Banished can also attack with a few tanks, setup blisterbacks behind their army and complete destroy your army. Kodiaks and siege turrets are stopped by shrouds.

343 seriously needs to address the balance issues with this game. Playing Banished vs Banished does feel balanced, but playing UNSC vs Banished feels like your are playing at a significant disadvantage

2

banished is pretty goid in there current state. honestly the only nerf needed is chppers, choppers are where jack rabbit use to be and thats a huge problem undermining unsc not having any early game capability.

simply nerfing ram is not enough since they shred infantry even with shrapnal rounds so if they want to give unsc a xhance then bring cho0pers way way down to where jack rabbits are

3

Imo Choppers should receive more damage from ramming, and grenades should be buffed a tad. I feel like that solves both the early game and mid game problems since Banished no longer have complete map control.

However I disagree with your statements on late game. Scorpions are and end-all unit. Shrouds stop Canister Shell but only one at a time. Need a whole lot more than two to stop them from wiping out your Hunter army.

4

I agree that it’s just the choppers that need to either sustain more damage from rams or reduce the splash damage significantly. The gameplay is so close to being balanced enough that I fear that 343 may screw it up in the next title update.

5

> 2533274812029040;1:
> *Constructive replies only.***Any skilled banished player can own early game:**In the current meta, choppers are BY FAR the best opener, making it nearly impossible for UNSC to mount an early offense against any Banished leaders.
>
> Marine w/Grenades: Marines get slaughtered by chopper ramming, and vortex. Dying breath is also a huge factor. Banished also have healing units at t1. Assuming you manage to survive the chopper rush, you are now at a significant disadvantage. The banished player will beat you to tech 2 and have map control and a much better eco.
>
> Turtleing : You are going to need at-least 2 anti-vehicle turrets to stop the chopper rush. that is an investment of 600/600. Any skilled banished player will simply take map control(power nodes,minibases, and possibly an expo), and build banshees, locusts or reavers. UNSC has two options, go hornets(which are easy prey for reavers), or cyclops and/or wolverines. With only 1 base and the banished player having map control, you will not be able to sustain your eco building power-expensive unit.
>
> Also, unless you see them coming and have 3 anti-infantry turrets and/or snipers, jump brutes will stop any turtle attempts.
>
> **Banished has much better late game:**For late game, UNSC’ best units are Scorpions ,Colossus, and/or Vultures, yet Banished can easily counter them.
>
> Scorpions: Canister shell does shred Hunters, BUT, simply building 1 or 2 shrouds stops canister shells… Want to counter the hunters with snipers? Shroud stops snipers too. **Colossus fare even worse.**Vultures: Reavers destroy all UNSC air units VERY easily.
>
> Blisterbacks are also WAY overpowered. 3 blisterblacks w/shield gen and cloaking make taking out a late game Banished base very difficult and potentially
>
> Condors in UNSC, vsUNSC feel like an ultimate unit. Against Banished, they are an expensive liability.
>
> Winning late-game against a skill banished player as UNSC is nearly impossible. A few shreds, army of hunters, 2 or 3 blister-backs and reavers and there is not anything a UNSC player can do. Banished can also attack with a few tanks, setup blisterbacks behind their army and complete destroy your army. Kodiaks and siege turrets are stopped by shrouds.
>
> 343 seriously needs to address the balance issues with this game. Playing Banished vs Banished does feel balanced, but playing UNSC vs Banished feels like your are playing at a significant disadvantage

OMFG I never thought of shell canister as a projectile that could get killed by shrouds. Now this is some good tech right here.

Snipers don’t counter hunters late game anyways, especially if you have like 4 Goliaths leading the way. Maybe if you spent about 40 pop on them.

The thing UNSC has late game is air really and that’s it. Banished if they are actually pushed to the breaking point can almost always double scarab out of it. Also You are forgetting the fact that shrouds make your units invis and even with snipers, most your army will go unseen by them. And when you get late game nothing pisses you off more than the fact they are invisible. Nothing, literally nothing is more enraging than rolling up to a base to get the finish only to discover you can’t actually see the damn thing.

Have you seen the three’s strat where double banished build nothing but shrouds and engi’s while one UNSC builds triple Condor’s? -Yoink-'s broken.

6

In 1v1, if you’re a really good Cutter player you’ll be alright. But, in 2v2 or 3v3 Banished owns. 8 of top 10 in 2v2 are Banished players, and 9 of the top 10 in 3v3 are Banished players. When you have multiple guys with ghosts, engineers, and brute rushes you can just have map control easy and it’s just a down hill battle from there the entire game.

7

How do shrouds stop canister shells? Im still new, keep getting steamrolled by Isabel tank +wolverine spam. Not even a full pop of fully upgraded hunters can beat that…like wtf…

8

> 2533274875084332;7:
> How do shrouds stop canister shells? Im still new, keep getting steamrolled by Isabel tank +wolverine spam. Not even a full pop of fully upgraded hunters can beat that…like wtf…

Shrouds have a passive ability that shoots projectiles out of the air. Shell canister is a projectile.

9

> 2533274875084332;7:
> How do shrouds stop canister shells? Im still new, keep getting steamrolled by Isabel tank +wolverine spam. Not even a full pop of fully upgraded hunters can beat that…like wtf…

As long as the Shroud is near the point of impact it shoots down the canister shell automatically

10

> 2533274846367343;8:
> > 2533274875084332;7:
> > How do shrouds stop canister shells? Im still new, keep getting steamrolled by Isabel tank +wolverine spam. Not even a full pop of fully upgraded hunters can beat that…like wtf…
>
> Shrouds have a passive ability that shoots projectiles out of the air. Shell canister is a projectile.

> 2533274927740213;9:
> > 2533274875084332;7:
> > How do shrouds stop canister shells? Im still new, keep getting steamrolled by Isabel tank +wolverine spam. Not even a full pop of fully upgraded hunters can beat that…like wtf…
>
> As long as the Shroud is near the point of impact it shoots down the canister shell automatically

Thanks to both of you for explaining that! I will now put hunters+shrouds!