Two beginners starting here, a bit lost !

Games Halo Wars Series
1

Hello fellows !

I’m coming to you this afternoon because, as I said in the title, me and my brothers have started to play this game a few days ago. We did a few 2vIA games to get started, to learn the basic mechanics, a few Blitz, and then we moved on 2v2 unranked. We didnt try 3v3 yet.

We got annihilated, playing mostly against one or two Jerome leaders lv99, we are absolutely getting rekt before the 7:00 mark.

The skill gap being really huge, we though that going on 2v2 ranked, even if it was for being ranked in Bronze or something like this, would be better, because in the end, we could probably start winning and improving ourselves. We won 1 game out of 6 or 7, because the enemies were AFK. Every time we start a game, the enemies are lv70+, while we are barely lv10.

I am not a beginner in RTS in general (being high Diamond in Starcraft2 since HoTS), but I really dont understand the reason of our defeats. Even if we focus on economy, going for resources crates and stuff, they come with a full army at 6min, delete our base, and on the stats board we can clearly see that they have twice, maybe three times our economy score. How is it possible ?

I though it was a question of Build Order, but I can’t find any build order online that seems “updated”, most of them being out since the launch of the game. I didnt find any guide either. Or anything on the units values, theorycrafting, or even the commanders…

Like, can we do something with the base commanders, or do we have to spam Jerome and his freaking snipers to win something ? Its disturbing. A lot.

I dont want to be “free winning”, but I want to understand why we lose, and what we can improve. So far, my little brother is slowly being disgusted by the brutality of the game matchmaking, and I dont feel like playing this game in 1v1 mode anymore. I highly love Halo universe and stuff, but I feel this game being more “casual” than my prefered one in the genre, Starcraft2, in which I have already invested a lot of my time.

If any of you could give us some BASIC advices, like build order, commanders tips, factions tips, or even “when to use what power” in the game, it would be really great ! We only want to do “fair games”, even if we do not grind for Diamond or high ladder, we don’t care.

Thank you guys, have a good day !

EDIT : I forgot it, but i’m currently playing Banished (as Atriox) and my little brother prefers UNSC as Cutter. I don’t think these commanders are underpowered, they don’t seem to be OP either, but I still wanted to be accurate on this.

2

Atriox is actually a pretty solid leader. My suggestion for dealing with some Jerome is getting your Chosen out early, picking Countermeasures, and building Jump Pack Brutes in addition to some Suicide Grunts.

The Jerome hero will kite you for days, so use the Brutes and the mines they drop to slow him down and take him out with your Chosen, and your Suicide Grunts should mop up Marines he has.

Additionally Decimus and Shipmaster are two of the greatest leaders in the game ATM, so you have options for them as well.

Also there is a great Discord server here that you can join and get more tips and even practice matches.

3

> 2533274927740213;2:
> Atriox is actually a pretty solid leader. My suggestion for dealing with some Jerome is getting your Chosen out early, picking Countermeasures, and building Jump Pack Brutes in addition to some Suicide Grunts.
>
> The Jerome hero will kite you for days, so use the Brutes and the mines they drop to slow him down and take him out with your Chosen, and your Suicide Grunts should mop up Marines he has.
>
> Additionally Decimus and Shipmaster are two of the greatest leaders in the game ATM, so you have options for them as well.
>
> Also there is a great Discord server here that you can join and get more tips and even practice matches.

What he says is completely correct for Atriox and in the case for cutter your main emphasis is on your early game as UNSC have the better early units focus on capturing points and taking mini bases it’s always a good idea to rush with Cutter making use of his passive “raid party” I think to give your Infantry a speed boost then spam out those flame marines and those marines with a few snipers to counter those damn jump brutes.

4

  1. Do not ignore mini bases. Try to get them early in the game. In high level play, mini bases are often taken within the first minute of the match.

  2. Get a feel for every unit in the game. If you’ve used every unit, you know what they’re for when you fight them.

  3. The same goes for leaders and their powers. Get familiar with each leader power on the wheel and PLAN which powers you will unlock to get the edge.

  4. Build order: Usually supply pad/harvester first. Generator/Extractor would follow. From here, you make the decisions on what you want to prioritize (eco/early offensive).

  5. Scout the enemy. If you know the enemy’s plans, you can act accordingly.

  6. Atriox tip: Atriox Bulwark leader power has temporary invulnerability upon drop, so this power can be timed to negate massive damage if placed properly.

  7. Cutter tip: Close Air Support leader power is more effective when supporting an army in battle. If your army is all dead, don’t drop the C.A.S. to support a nonexistent army.

5

You can view your game history in your profile, including build order of your opponents. Try to compare your build to theirs, and see where you’re going wrong. Stick with it, the learning curve is steep but managable

6

Looking at your build order it seems like you play like i did at first.

You play slow and focus almost entirely on economy and not military.
A general rule is - you can grab minibases as early as you can, but you shouldnt build new bases until you have a decent infantry to defend that base.
I see a lot of noobs play like this and it leaves them very vulnerable. Same goes for base upgrade.
I see long pauses in your build order…where you just collect resources to get a new base or an upgrade.

Dont upgrade unless you have enough infantry to defend the base … or if you have scouted the enemy and know that he is not building units either.

A good starting strategy is:

  1. supply ( as soon as it finishes - upgrade it )
  2. supply ( as soon as it finishes - upgrade it )
  3. at the same time - build a scout vehicle ( use it to grab minibases or map resources )
  4. at the same time - go after power stocks on the map( you need it to upgrade supply pads )
  5. power extractor
  6. supply ( no upgrade )
  7. power ( no upgrade for now )
  8. If you see that your enemy has grabbed all the minibases - build raid camp instead.

Now, after you have finished building your first 2 supply pads - go grab a minibase.
Your first 5 slots are filled with power and supply buildings, so you need minibases to produce units.

If you can get 2 minibases - build raid camp in one, and war council in the other.
If you can only get 1 minibase - build war council - then build your hero - then upgrade hero and recycle your war council and replace it with raid camp.
In general, you can replace factories that you dont use with supply/generators.
Having a war council consume a build slot is a waste - unless you use it.

If you play against jerome…its going to be difficult ( i dont know how to play as jerome, but i know that playing against him is difficult )
the best strategy against jerome is to build suicide grunts…and allot of them. Jerome players tend to play with large infantry crowds which can be decimated with
suicide grunts.
If you play against a player who is using lots of snipers then stop building infantry and get some basic choppers out.
Ram the snipers - they are weak against scout vehicles.

A good equalizer in the early game is the marine’s “Grenade throw” upgrade. I use it rarely myself, but it has been used against me very effectively.

7

As a fellow noob myself who can’t do anything so hasn’t touched this game for months, this is a great thread. I do have a couple tips though that I haven’t seen mentioned here.

  1. Learn to split your units. I don’t know how to do this myself but I know it’s important so you can get away from most of the damage of leader powers (better players here can provide control schemes for setting up different groups and such)
  2. Some high level tournaments are going on right now. If you want, you can look up Team Respawn, Breaking the Clutch, or someone else I forgot on YouTube. I know at least Team Respawn posts tournament games on their channel. You can watch these to get an idea of opening strategies and such.
    Good luck! Hopefully you and your brother can succeed where I failed.
8

I did not know about the game history on my profile, I’ll be watching more closely these build orders and compare them.

Indeed, we are playing slowly, and we are starting to feel the urge to improve ourselves. I did not know about the mini bases importance either, it just does not feel natural when you are used to RTS in general. We are going to focus on those quickly.

Thank you everyone for your answers, you’re the best !

9

A lot of good suggestions for a newbie. Any way to bookmark this thread so I can refer to it later on?

10

Actually I can check follow topic.

11

I have a question. If you play on PC, since there is cross play in this game, is it better to play with keyboard/mouse or controller?

12

> 2533274938108339;11:
> I have a question. If you play on PC, since there is cross play in this game, is it better to play with keyboard/mouse or controller?

Keyboard and mouse of course.
Pretty much all RTS games are mouse games.
One of the major advantages is the ability to jump from one place on the map to another instantly.
I’ve seen how it takes 10-15 times for an xbox player to give orders to different units on different parts of the map.
E.g on to collect resources on the map - select a unit at base - scroll to the other side of the map - select the resource -
scroll back to base - select another unit - scroll to another location on the map - select resource … repeat.

Some use shortcut keys to get back to base - but later in game when you have more bases then you have to cycle through the bases to get to the right one.
It takes a PC player maybe 5 seconds or so to give 3 units orders to pick up supply crates from 3 different corners of the map.
Sometimes i actually skip the “map jump” and give the order directly on the minimap( it is usually precise enough that the units will start collecting once they reach their location ). This can save an extra second or two for each order you give. It really becomes important when you are late in game and need to watch out for enemy leader ability strikes and at the same time build stuff at base. PC players can instantly check out anything suspicious on the map( a blinking light indicating an attack, moving enemy colors etc )

Control groups are another thing that PC players can use much more effectively.
I often create control groups based on units special abilities that i would like to trigger quickly.
E.g If i see an opportunity to hit a unit group with a Vulture’s phoenix missile, then i put the cursor on the target and press 1 + R.
If i see a need to cloak units quickly - then i press 2 + R, If i see an opportunity to do extra damage using Marine’s grenades then 3 + R…And so on.

You can select all units with the same time in less than a second - just double click on the unit type you want to select.

Another advantage is using leader abilities. I often see xbox players try to place many leader abilities ( like Serina’s ice blocks, multiple turrets, etc ) and they
scroll over their intended target, then scroll back…then over again, then trigger the ability…then scroll to the next unit … and the process repeats.
PC players can precisely place multiple leader powers exactly where they want…in less than a second.

13

Play the the campaign. Then practice in the vs ai playlist. When you and your brothers dominate ai on legendary, begin multiplayer. I suggest scouting. If the enemy is massing units, build and upgrade turrets and train counter units. If they focus on economy, attack them or focus on your economy.

14

> 2535434833453854;12:
> > 2533274938108339;11:
> > I have a question. If you play on PC, since there is cross play in this game, is it better to play with keyboard/mouse or controller?
>
> Keyboard and mouse of course.
> Pretty much all RTS games are mouse games.
> One of the major advantages is the ability to jump from one place on the map to another instantly.
> I’ve seen how it takes 10-15 times for an xbox player to give orders to different units on different parts of the map.
> E.g on to collect resources on the map - select a unit at base - scroll to the other side of the map - select the resource -
> scroll back to base - select another unit - scroll to another location on the map - select resource … repeat.
>
> Some use shortcut keys to get back to base - but later in game when you have more bases then you have to cycle through the bases to get to the right one.
> It takes a PC player maybe 5 seconds or so to give 3 units orders to pick up supply crates from 3 different corners of the map.
> Sometimes i actually skip the “map jump” and give the order directly on the minimap( it is usually precise enough that the units will start collecting once they reach their location ). This can save an extra second or two for each order you give. It really becomes important when you are late in game and need to watch out for enemy leader ability strikes and at the same time build stuff at base. PC players can instantly check out anything suspicious on the map( a blinking light indicating an attack, moving enemy colors etc )
>
> Control groups are another thing that PC players can use much more effectively.
> I often create control groups based on units special abilities that i would like to trigger quickly.
> E.g If i see an opportunity to hit a unit group with a Vulture’s phoenix missile, then i put the cursor on the target and press 1 + R.
> If i see a need to cloak units quickly - then i press 2 + R, If i see an opportunity to do extra damage using Marine’s grenades then 3 + R…And so on.
>
> You can select all units with the same time in less than a second - just double click on the unit type you want to select.
>
> Another advantage is using leader abilities. I often see xbox players try to place many leader abilities ( like Serina’s ice blocks, multiple turrets, etc ) and they
> scroll over their intended target, then scroll back…then over again, then trigger the ability…then scroll to the next unit … and the process repeats.
> PC players can precisely place multiple leader powers exactly where they want…in less than a second.

Thanks for the reply. I already started Halo Wars on my Xbox 360 a long time ago, and wanted to finish the game on Xbox One. I plan to plan any future playthroughs on Halo Wars 1 and 2 on PC though.