Hey there community. I was thinking of making a thread about strategies in Halo Wars. And this is that thread. Please have a polite discussion about Halo Wars strategies here.
There’s so many strats. I don’t know what to start with haha. However, if anyone has questions about how to play a certain match-up, I’d be happy to give some advice in this thread. Hopefully it gets lots of replies.
scarab and as much engineers as the eye can see. Troll strategy lol. Watch out for anders cryo and ODST that can trap your scarab and try to get veterancy with the scarab ASAP.
> scarab and as much engineers as the eye can see. Troll strategy lol. Watch out for anders cryo and ODST that can trap your scarab and try to get veterancy with the scarab ASAP.
That’s the one strategy I can never seem to counter.
Forge Standard Tank Build + Expo (2v2 and 3v3)
Supply Pad x4 > Fortress > Reactor x2 > Vehicle Depot
Once your first tank is out, go and clear out an expansion. On your expansion, build:
Supply Pad > Reactor > Vehicle Depot
Research Canister Shell and upgrade your expansion accordingly. Once you have about 6-7 tanks, start thinking about researching Power Turret. Do NOT research Grizzly Tank. Believe it or not, Power Turret tanks are stronger. If your teammates are fairly stupid, then you’ll need to scout the enemy and mix in some counter units (usually wolverines) with your tanks. NEVER make cobras. They are too immobile, fragile, and you can’t harass with them.
It’s been a while, so forgive me if I mess up some of the names of units and buildings, but the strategy is sound. I used it quite a bit and won about 90% of my online games with it (at skill ratings between 20 and 30), simply because it’s so versatile. Think on your feet and micro manage well, and it’s absolutly amazing.
Strength: Large economy, strong leader to be used as a early deterient.
Weakness: Weak to fast raids, don’t confuse this with a rush. If the enemy rushes, Regret can kill most ground units easily with his ability, and air units, which he is particularly poor against, won’t come til later when you’ll have a better defense against them, so you really don’t have to worry about a full on rush, but quick raids, particularly by warthogs, or other covenant leaders can be devestating.
Play as Prophet of Regret.
Starting base: Build 3 warehouses, then temple, warehouse, upgrade base, then 2 more warehouses, buy both level 1 upgrades to prophet. Use ghost and Regret to capture nearby supplies, while you wait.
Once your base is near completion, send prophet out, ASAP, and capture another base, if there is a completly empty base, use the ghost instead, if rebels own it however, use Regret to destroy it, and claim it.
Now build 2 warehouses, 3 barracks (or whatever the covenant equivalent is), and 2 summits, upgrading your base when neccisary. You may choose to build 3 warehouse and 2 barracks instead, whichever compliments your play style more. Also at this point, I recommend you tech up, by upgrading to the next research level at the warehouse, and raise both of Prophets upgrades to tier 2 at this point. Also if you’re ever floating resourses, upgrade your warehouses, as a future investment.
Now this is the point where this plan is most likely to fail, because the only real unit you have is Regret, and it’s been about 10 minutes into the game, so your enemy could stage an attack very soon so it’s time to pump out some units.
At this point I do a jackels-hunter-vampire triple threat with engineer supports. These are the ONLY 4 units to focus on. The only ones you should be spending money on, period. Consider your population, you can have a total of 40 or 50 with an upgrade. Jackels and Engineers cost 1, and hunter and vampire cost 2. The best combination I found is about 8 vampires, 8 hunters, 10 jackels, and 8 engineers which will completly fill out 50 population, feel free to experiment and don’t forget to scout, and consider your enemy. If your taking on anders, expect hawks, for example and adjust accordingly. But essentially determine the right combination, and then just start filling your ranks with some of the best anti-infantry, anti-vehicle, and anti-aircraft units in the game. And for the love of God, upgrade. Jackels should be at least at tier 2 in their upgrades, hunters and engineers should get all possible ugrades, and vampires should at least get the first, though I reccomend you get them all. And now, if you’re still going strong, you basically can’t be beaten if you’re good at micro managing, because each unit will absolutly wreck one of the 3 types. But be warned they are also poor against the other 2, so it is imparitive that you have them attacking the right one.
You may assume jackels are unecissary as they are weak and most plays forgo infantry units after the early game, but I highly reccomend them all the same, as they have 3 primary advantages. a. they can hold map specific advantages like reactors, sniper towers and resource buildings b. They preform phenominally against ODST squads, which many players will call in through drop pods in a tight spot (if they’re using that leader), and c. they rape spartans, which are your vampires biggest threats. Seriosly, spartans usually call for a player to be scared but with upgraded Jackels, they become easy kills, and virtually every human player will make them so it’s an easy countermeasure.
Hunter will of course make short work of all vehciles, though be very wary of tanks with the canister shell upgrade, and keep your hunters spread apart if you see your enemy using it.
And Vampires are one of my favorite units thanks to their ability, which when upgraded becomes debvestating. simply put vampires ability is a stasis drain that makes any air unit hit with it unable to due anything, as it slowly is drained of health. Which can be converted into health for the vampire, with an upgrade. This is extremly useful, becuase it means with 8 vampires you can essentially stop and destroy 8 enemy aircrafts, which won’t be able to do anything. This is particularly helpful as it prevents them from fleeing, so when an enemy attacks, hit their aircrafts with stasis, move in with your ground units, to distract their ground units from attacking your exposed vampires, move your engineers in to heal any units taking fire, and then have the prophet come in, and hit the slower moving ground units (particularly tanks) with his ability. Doing this, I have literally fought battles where I have suffered 0 causualties and wiped out the entire enemy army, simply by getting the right units to attack the right units, and placing hunter at the front and jackels in the rear. Hunters have significantly more health meaning the engineers are much more effective as they can heal them for longer before the hunter would die.
Essentialy this strategy is all about taking 3 units each one preforming phenominally against one type of unit, and poor against the other 2 and strategically manipulating the battle so that they play to their strengths. Done properly it is a devestating strategy, done incorrectly, and you will be lucky to kill even a few units with an entire army.
Invincible Tanks on Release (1v1)
NOTE: This strategy only works against complete n00bs and is pretty fun.
Play the match like normal until you get 3 spartan tanks out. Make a marine squad and garrison them in the Forerunner-looking platform that releases the flood in the top left and top right corner of the map. Keep releasing the flood and taking them out with your spartan tanks. Their veterancy will increase surprisingly fast, making them stronger. Keep repeating this while researching your tank and spartan upgrades. Pretty soon they should all have 13 stars. There’s pretty much nothing your opponent can do now. Those tanks can take out max population of hornets and pretty much anything. Keep toying with your opponent and doing hit-and-runs with your invincible tanks. I do this when I’m bored. 
Scouting is always a good part of any stratigy.
> Forge Standard Tank Build + Expo (2v2 and 3v3)
> Supply Pad x4 > Fortress > Reactor x2 > Vehicle Depot
>
> Once your first tank is out, go and clear out an expansion. On your expansion, build:
>
> Supply Pad > Reactor > Vehicle Depot
>
> Research Canister Shell and upgrade your expansion accordingly. Once you have about 6-7 tanks, start thinking about researching Power Turret. Do NOT research Grizzly Tank. Believe it or not, Power Turret tanks are stronger. If your teammates are fairly stupid, then you’ll need to scout the enemy and mix in some counter units (usually wolverines) with your tanks. NEVER make cobras. They are too immobile, fragile, and you can’t harass with them.
I always go Reactor 4th on one base.
<3 46 Trueskill in 2v2 Standard Party Teams
<3 42 Trueskill in 3v3 Standard Party Teams