Looking for Blitz 2v2 early game tips

Games Halo Wars Series
1

My friend and I have bought HW2 somewhat recently and have been focusing almost exclusively on Blitz. We have gotten acquainted with the links below to get a lot of general, but very useful tips for beginners:

https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/news/prima-games-prepare-for-blitz
https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/forums/38bd6e2ebbb14e5b9b359bb029588800/topics/tips-for-blitz/a95e13f0-06ec-41e8-923d-dac34efb1fb8/posts

…but the question we have right now requires deeper analysis. I play Shipmaster, playing mainly a support role - stealing energy, backcapping objectives, deploying artillery nests, providing cloak for our units and focusing on Air and Anti-Air, while my friend plays Jerome, playing through heavy use of Rally, Spartans, infantry and medium vehicles. We have dilemmas that need a solution:

I cannot figure out my twelvth card and starting army
My deck (Shipmaster):
Starting army: Scout??? (very efficient at intercepting energy crates that spawn too far away from an enemy, along with quickly capping points for a slight early game victory points boost)

  • Elite Rangers - Ghost - Reaver - Cloaking Field - Banshee - Engineer - Teleport - Unstable Banshee - Bristleback - Glassing Beam - Honor Guard - ??? (Used to have Grunts, Chopper, and is for now set on Assault Elites to provide extra detect)My friend cannot figure out his eleventh and twelvth card, as well as starting army.
    My friend’s deck (Jerome):
    Starting army: Special Operations??? (He’s using his spartan to create diversions to keep the enemy busy in early, while I run around backcapping stuff)

  • Extractor Marines - Spartan Morale - Reactive Cyclops - Nightingale - Trooper Nightingale - Kodiak - Trooper Warthog - Victory Turret - Omega Team - Commander Jerome - ??? (Used to be Jackrabbit, but after our consensus that my Ghosts are more efficient, he switched it to Mastodon) - ??? (Tried Enduring Salvo, currently is Vanguard Wolverine)Any advice on these cards we should choose?
    Any counters to our team you can tell from the get-go?
    Thanks in advance.

2

You want to run the Cloaking Starting army most of the time. Very useful early game when they have few detect units.
Shipmaster’s best card is his spirit assault. 4 counter units for 40 power less than all 4 would normally cost. OP.
Unstable banshee is useless, just use suicide grunts.
Jump brute are also amazing for their ability to stun. Combo with suicide grunts to hilarious effect.
Honor guard is very situational and usually too expensive to ever drop, so I often leave him out of my deck completely.
Locusts are very good at sniping enemy infantry while backpedaling, so take your pick of which you want to run.
If you are running against an enemy that doesn’t have a spartan hero, then Ironclad Wraith is an excellent addition to any banished blitz deck, problem is choosing between dropping that or Spirit Assault.
Glassing Beam is also situational. Against better players its a pretty easy to dodge power, and if they have their own ironclad wraith then the beam is useless.

Cloaking field is good. Have to pick between your other eAlso, rush units. You need these to snipe energy crates in a heated engagement.
The following is my deck and many high level blitz players will agree it is the most optimal for Shippy. Hope this helps!

Chopper
Jump Brute
Elite Rangers
Hunters
Assault Elites
Grunt Mob
Engineer
Locust/Bloodfuel Locust
Reaver/Suicide Grunts
Teleport
Ironclad Wraith/Glassing Beam/Honor Guard/Cloaking Field
Spirit Assault

You’ll have to ask someone else for Jerome advice, I do not use him but he is good, especially his cheap spartans and mastodons.

3

I typically use Shippy as a support character and collect as much energy as possible with two scout units. Enemy can’t fight back if they don’t have energy