Besides the obvious Forge meta some leaders seem to immediately be a bigger threat and demand greater attention to deal with (mostly in 2v2’s and 3v3’s). The leaders that present a larger threat also tend to depend on your leader choice.
As a Colony main I tend to run into a stumbling block that leads to dragged out matches when faced against a Serina, Pavium or Johnson and I’ve noticed other Colony’s tend to be annoying to face. Against other leaders such as Cutter, Yapyap, Arbiter and Kinsano I tend to have an easier time. Most of the leaders outside of this tend to sway either way depending on the others players skill.
We know in the basic units (infantry, vehicle and air) a rock, paper, scissor system exists and I feel like that systems partly extends to leaders as well. Obviously anyone can play any leader against any other leader and win provided they’re good and understand how the leader they’re playing works but, in my entire year of Halo Wars 2 some leaders, regardless of skill level always give me a harder time.
For example, it takes me far longer to beat say a Johnson that’s playing poorly than a Arbiter playing well. We know team comp. in 2v2’s and 3v3’s are important as certain leaders excel better in some roles than others, which in effect makes a system, where some leaders will match up better against others and will work better as a team. Defensive leaders tend to struggle more against other defensive leaders in my experience, often leading to a ground war that needs to be broken by a teammate. The same would apply to offensive leaders.
What do you think of the “leader rock, paper, scissors system”? This is obviously not an official system in place, just an observation made by playing the game. What are your thoughts and have you kinda experienced this (some leaders being more difficult based on your leader choice) in the game yourself?
Well, I know that certain leaders are attack based where as others are defense based, look at Pavium and Voridus for example. One leader focuses on defense where as the other focuse on attack, so it would make sense that if 2 defense based leaders fought each other it might be a longer match because both leaders are good at defending
I would say that playing against certain opponents does alter my playstyle, but as a UNSC player, I wouldn’t say it makes a massive difference - just influences which units I build, and when.
For example, if I know I’ll be up against an infantry leader, then I will never be without snipers.
Equally, if it’s Jerome or Forgehog, I will always add a few hogs into my army to ram them and try to negate their mobility (and followe up with some AV or grenades, depending).
The Ice-Cream truck, however, I still struggle with regardless. It’s good against everything!
I am big fan of the leader concept though, which is why I like the early - mid part of the game the most. I feel like out microing an opponents army with my spartan and a few marines is Halo being Halo!