So I’ve had the game for about 8 months and haven’t played it a ton(50 games on XBL or less) and I’m not very good. My friends get cranky in 3v3. Even though they’ve had the game for years… I don’t even play as the Covenant because I don’t know them at all. So I’m I’m just looking for general tips, hints, strategies, etc. Thanks.
Just try to remember this. Don’t just spam one type of unit for the entire game. Yes ODST, grizzlies and hawks are awesome, but if they are all you have all the enemy needs to do is get something to counter them. You can either rush the enemy, with UNSC you would want to do a warthog rush. Build a couple of supply pads and then a reactor all the while building warthogs and collecting supplies from around the map with them. Get gunner once your reactor is up and build another supply pad, upgrade your base and get another reactor and then get grenadier, but all the time do not stop building warthogs. Also note that in a warthog rush you have to constantly attack the enemies buildings with your warthogs or they will just tech up and get scorpions or wraiths and destroy you.
UNSC kind of struggle to find any other good rushing techniques. Some people marine rush on small maps such as exile if they are at the front, however flamethrowers are cheap and easy to get and pure flamethrowers beats marines+flamethrowers.
If you’re playing 3v3 it may be a better idea to leave the rushing to some covenant teammates (you should always have one covenant on the team just because vampires and hunters are so useful in 3v3). UNSC should just try to tech up as quick as possible. If you are anders or cutter you will probably want to expand to a empty base spot if you are on exile right at the start. If you are forge you will have to wait a bit because you will spend a lot of resources at the start since you build heavy supply pads straight away. On maps like fort deen and frozen valley usually you want to be trying to get some scorpions out as quick as possible. You will need a second base fairly quickly if you wish to do this though. The build order goes something like SP,SP,RE,HSP,HSP,SP,BR and then get some spartans to take a new base. Don’t worry about wasting 900 resources because spartans combined with cryo will be able to jack frozen enemy vehicles, plus later on in the game when you get your vehicle depot up and train some scopions you can put your spartans in the scorpions to make them much stronger.
One more thing to always remember when playing this is game is to scout! If your opponent is training hunters (good against vehicles but can’t hit air) then don’t go scorpions go hornets instead! Or if one has vampires and the other has hunters then go marines (because vampires own air).
Try to remember that in general in a scenario where the same amount of money and population has been spent on units this will happen: Infantry < Vehicles < Aircraft < Infantry. Yes, that is right, needler upgraded grunts do actually beat banshees at the same tech level at the same population level. Usually, but remember that you can constantly move your units around in order to dodge enemy attacks - this is known as microing. You want to be microing a lot.
If you’re spending most of your time playing 3v3, my advice would be to play as forge and build two supply pads then a reactor. Build warthogs constantly, once your first reactor is up get gunner, collect as many supply crates at the start as you can, learn where they are on each map, they make a big difference to your early game economy.
Once you have gunner, take a second base, with practice you’ll be doing this in under 3 minutes, 4 or 5 hogs is enough to take a base.
Then go harass the enemy with your hogs and get tanks as fast as you can. You want to get the canister shell upgrade as fast as possible, then engage the enemy. If you have canny and they don’t, use it to take out their tanks one by one, or take down covy supply pads almost instantly. If you see hunters or banshees, retreat to your teammates who will hopefully have units to protect you. Banshees will quickly destroy immobile tanks, but if you keep moving, most of their shots miss and they’ll lose a lot of health chasing you down.
You’ll find as Forge, by the 10 minute mark you’ll have money coming out your ears. Keep pumping tanks as fast as you can and offer your teammates money or heals for their leaders.
If maps have reactor hooks, use them! Get fast canny, or fast power turret, then go wreck havoc.
Also, no offense the to other poster, but DON’T go barracks 7th then build 3 Spartans to take down a base… You can do it FAR faster and cheaper with a few hogs, which you can then use to scout and harass, which is far more useful than having 3 Spartans.
To build off of the last post, Forge would be a good choice for someone who’s trying to learn the game of 3s.
Anders is my favorite UNSC leader in 3s, but she takes much more skill and experience to be able to play better than Forge. When you get better, you should try Anders out, but be warned that just thinking you’re good isn’t enough. You have to practice against teams that know what they’re doing.
In 3s, Cutter is kind of giving yourself a disadvantage because he has an economy equal to Anders, but doesn’t have the upgrades boost. Cutter is generally the worst UNSC in 3s because he doesn’t have the money to out-Tank Forge and he can’t even get Gauss as fast as Forge. The only map that Cutter has an apparent advantage on is Exile for the easy expo and not having to be clicked by his teammate in the beginning to take it. Even with this, Forge still out-Tanks him on Exile. You’re completely dependent on your Covi teammates to do their job when you play Cutter. You, as the backbone of your team (the UNSC player), should plan on having to carry every game.
Although Anders’s backpack is bigger than Cutter’s purse, Forge has a wheelbarrow.
Still, I would give Anders a try when you’ve got Forge down. BH Phenomenon, BH Im Tu Legit and I changed the 3s meta several months ago with Anders/Arby/Brute by replacing the Forge with Anders and forcing the Forge into a corner before he could get PT (ask some of the older players that are still around about when we played. We went undefeated for 3 months and the team that broke our streak was ZZZZniiight, sG Mythic, and Quick2Kill). But remember, it’ll probably take several hundred games to fully understand Forge from a starting position and you’re going to have to get used to trading out teammates for better ones if you want to improve quickly. Always talk to people better than you and look upwards to more players that know what they’re talking about.
this is kinda off topic, but following on from the last post.
> get used to trading out teammates for better ones if you want to improve quickly. Always talk to people better than you and look upwards to more players that know what they’re talking about.
The xbox has a preferred or avoid player system. one thing I’ve never understood is one of the avoid options, under player skill there is a avoid because “Player is too good” option. WTF? why would i avoid a good player? surely I would put said good player as a preferred player? or add to my friends list? so I get matched with said player more often. (Just something that’s never quite made sense to me :D)
Back to the topic at hand Like legskindal said A good way to gt used to the game is to play forge. Don’t be fooled it is by no means “Easy” or a sure win but forge has a much smaller micro and macro than other leaders. especially anders.
Build tanks/banshees and you’ll win 90% of games.