There are a few key ways of getting stars on a few important units. If your playing Covenant you’ll be wanting to get stars on your leader, and if your playing UNSC you’ll be wanting to get stars on your valued units or Spartans. Here’s a quick guide to give the basics…

Your stars basically come from kills (buildings and units), so to get them you’ll need to concentrate on both getting those kills, and keeping your unit alive. If you lose it, you lose all the progress you made. The speed in which your units will gain stars depends on their population size. For example, a Warthog will gain 1 star from destroying a few infantry units. A squad of Jackals will gain a star from killing just a couple of Marine squads; these are examples of the lower population units (1). However a Scarab will have to kill close enough to a whole army before it gains a Veteran star, likewise with other high population units (Vultures etc).

Starter bases: The rebel and Forerunner bases at the start of each map provide the biggest opportunities to start your kills off. If you want to have your Spartan, Leader, or unit on their way to Star level, make sure you’re taking advantage of the kills on offer. The rebel watch towers and turrets each provide a point score and count as a kill, so destroy them individually, starting with the turrets, then the rebel units, then watchtowers, then the base its self. Just one base is normally enough to gain you a star on your unit(s); it’s that simple.

Hooks: Hooks like reactors, barriers, tele-porters and mega turrets are all guarded by rebel infantry, and provide more kills for you to concentrate your unit on. Taking these areas out means more contribution towards your veterancy, even if you’re not going to use the hook its self.

AH, ah, ah, ah staying alive: It’s not good working your way to Veterancy if your just going to die within the game, keep your units alive and this will give you and your Veteran stars the edge in battle. If your playing as Covenant always recall your leader in plenty of time when attacking. If your using Spartans and the vehicle they’re in is destroyed, don’t leave them wondering around the battlefield taking fire – get them in a new vehicle as soon as possible so you don’t lose them. If you have general units with a star, place them at the back of your army, so they are out of harms way, but still doing the damage.  Don’t forget to heal as you go, which will lengthen the life of your units and increase your overall game multiplier.

Remember, getting Veteran stars on units increases their attack and defense level, so having them can mean the equivalent on another 5-10 population in your force; it’s worth working towards.

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The Second thing is that Arbiter can regenerate his health on a first upgrade, and almost stay alive completely in a battle scenario while killing opponents. The Prophet has his shield, but he has to draw back to regenerate it, and the Brute has nothing. The only real fear for Arbiter is the Jackal, and Scorpions with Canister shell. Flamethrowers are a small threat, but has you rage they can’t get their hits on you to do damage.

There are some sensible ways, and some not so sensible ways to use ‘Rage’ in the game, and this is my little guide for it.

1. Don’t bleed your money: I personally never use Rage in the first 3-4 mins in the game, it’s just too expensive! It’s important to maintain your economy in the early stages. Using rage on Rebel bases drains your supplies away and you’ll soon find your self in a ‘credit crunch’. I always wait for the ‘Vicious Blades’ upgrade before going for a Rebel base, that way i can just use Arbiters melee attack and it does the job in no time, and it’s free! As soon as the third upgrade is done making ‘Rage’ cost less, i start to use it.
2. Recalling in a fight: If you do need to use ‘leader recall’ to bring Arbiter back, use rage to sprint away from the fight before you dis-engage it and recall. If he’s on red health and just standing there while been shot as you move back to your base and ‘recall’, he’s a sitting duck and you could lose him. Remember to hit D-pad < to get to a base fast for recalling.
3. Move around in ‘Rage’: When your in rage mode, Arbiter flies around the screen like a Wasp on crack, but that doesn’t mean that he won’t take hits from the enemy. Make sure your not raging on one unit at a time, it might kill them faster, but this means Arbiters in the same spot going up and down for a longer time, allowing enemy fire to reach their hit points. Rage around the army and ‘Rage down’ on your enemy in different directions, hitting different units each time. This means your doing gradual damage to all their units while avoiding their firepower. This is probably the key bit of using Arbiter’s ‘rage’, so practice it and get used to it.
4. Leader killing: This applies to any close proximity damage (something which attacks close to you, like the Brute’s hammer) unit in the game, but is most useful when taking out another leader using leader powers on you. When your using rage on a single unit like this, don’t go up and down on the same spot; when you land on the floor, run Arbiter in a different direction each time. This means he’ll never be vulnerable to the Cleansing Beam or Vortex, and he’s never in the same spot at the same time. Doing this, you’ll be taking out leaders in no time.
5. Eggs in one basket: Although people say it, Arbiter isn’t a one man army. A good player will not break a sweat killing him and you should be prepared for this. Don’t put all your trust in to ‘Rage’ as a D.bomb will end your fun very swiftly. Never focus your game on just Arbiter, he is insane, but not immortal.
6. Damage Return: You as you upgrade Arbiter’s blades, it increases returned damage. This can be useful for situations when Arbiter can’t use his Rage; for example on hooks (garrison-able reactors, barriers etc). Just stand him next to one and let them attack arbiter, gradually their health will go down and they’ll die. This is also useful for taking out the Forerunner bases, where Arbiter finds it near impossible to use ‘rage’ on the Sentinels which protect them. Take out the base first, then stand him near the Sentinels and they’ll quickly lose health and die as they shoot at Arbiter.

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You’ve no doubt gone through a game and started to see a star or 2 above the units which are doing well in your battles. This is a Veteran star, and each of them increases the defense and attack performance of the unit.

Defense & Attack increase per Veteran star (%)

1 star=15%*
2 stars=45%*
3 stars=95%*

So 1 3 star unit almost delivers the same damage and has the same ‘health’ or prevention of damage as 2 standard equivalent units.

Unit ‘combat ranking’:

You’ll also see with most units when they are selected, a small shield with a number in it. This displays their upgrade and veterancy ranking. It will start at ’1′, and as you upgrade the unit with research, that number will increase. The higher that number the better the unit, as it gets each Veteran star it will gain an additional combat rank.

Both veteran stars and the unit ranking contribute to the overall number you see in the shield (upgrade level + veterancy = unit rank)

Spartan stars:

You’ll notice immediately when you place a Spartan in a vehicle, or ‘jack’ an enemy’s, that there are stars next to the Spartan symbol on the unit. This is the Spartan’s own individual ranking combined with the unit’s. Spartans can get 1, 2 or 3 stars just like other units, and when jacked are added to the jacked vehicle’s veteran and upgrade ranking.

See below how each star adds up to the overall ranking of the unit.

For example:

• Unit: Spartan (1) + Chain gun (1) + Implant (1) + Spartan laser (1) +
• Veteran: Spartan 1st Veteran star (1) + Spartan 2nd Veteran star (1) + Spartan 3rd Veteran star (1)
• Unit: Cobra (1) + Deflection plating upgrade (1) + Piercing shot upgrade (1) +
• Veteran: Cobra’s 1st veteran star (1) + Cobra’s 2nd veteran star (1) + Cobra’s 3rd veteran star (1)

= 13 stars (maximum for a Cobra)

Each star a Spartan gains gives an additional 15% damage and attack.

If you have a ‘super unit’ such as a Hawk or Grizzly, you can get up to 14 stars, as each of these units has a 3rd upgrade (turning the Hornet in to a Hawk, and Scorpion in to Grizzly, thus adding an extra star).

This is why if the vehicle your Spartans in gets destroyed, and that Spartan gets in another vehicle; it won’t have as many stars; as that vehicle has to work towards its own Veteran stars which will in turn add stars. It is also why you can get a 15 star Wraith, as they have 1 additional (4) unit upgrade, rather than the 3 you get with the UNSC Hawk and Grizzly.

*information from Halo Wars rep. Note: Some of this information has neither been confirmed or denied by Robot or Ensemble to my knowledge, the theory though is justified.

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This is a continuation from my previous Part 1 post about getting together ‘gunner’ Warthogs. This post is a moves on from that stage on to getting up to Gauss as fast as possible.

Going for Gauss holds a few key elements – timing, spamming and tasking. The ‘Gauss rush’ itself can be defend-able, but its the spamming (continual production of them) which is difficult, bordering on impossible to beat. Your goals are to get another base, advance up to tech 3 to research Gauss, have a big enough supply intake to spam the units.

Continuing from my Part 1 post, you should already have 1 base with 4 supply pads and a reactor, and a freshly built 2nd base which your using to build hogs. This process moves forward from that stage:

1. Upgrade your first base, on which you can build your second and third reactors. Build supply pads on your new 2nd base as you’ll need the supply to afford the reactors while still building Warthogs.
2. When your 2nd Reactor is done, hit ‘Grenadier’ while your other base continues to build Hogs.
3. When you have a surplus 750 supply, build your 3rd reactor; you may have to wait a bit without queuing hogs to afford this. When that’s done, hit ‘Gauss Cannon’ upgrade and immediately recycle your third reactor.
4. With this now spare slot, build a field armoury. If you have a spare slot on your second base, use this for field armoury to speed things up. When Field Armoury is complete, hit the ‘reserves’ upgrade. This allows the hogs to build much faster. When you have this upgrade, you can either recycle for a Supply Pad or keep it for future upgrades.
5. By now, you should have 2 bases pumping out Gauss hogs like no tomorrow, and just enough supply to keep up with it.

The timing of your attack relies on how many Warthogs you want to send in vs. how early you want to do it. You can take 10 or so in as soon as Gauss is researched, hitting them early as you feed in fresh hogs, building up as you go. Or you can wait a bit and go all in with 20-30 hogs at once.

As repetitive as Gauss Hog rushing might seem, there are many variations and techniques you can use to do it in different ways; and you’ll probably find you’ll adapt what i’ve said in this post to suit your timing and to address each map and opponent your facing; adding a couple of Gremlins in to the mix for example, if your facing Scorpions or vehicle counters; but i hope you’ve found this a good starting point.

<< Read part 1 for starting your Hog rush

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The first thing to note in Halo Wars is that every single unit has a purpose, some stronger, more expensive and valuable than others; but generally they all do their bit…

Rock, Paper, Scissors: If you’ve played RTS games before you’ll no doubt be aware of this term. Every kind of unit has it’s counter unit, which is specifically designed and built to destroy it. There’s no ‘super unit’ which is indestructible in Halo Wars. So lets look at the basics…

Check out these Rock, Paper Scissors triangles, the arrows represent their direction of most damage. The damage each unit delivers can vary massively, and these triangles represent each unit countering another. The general theory is that Vehicles beat infantry, infantry beat Aircraft, and Aircraft beat vehicles, like we see in the diagram below…

However this only really applies to mainline (general) units, and there are numerous exceptions which turn this triangle around and mixes things up, and the complicated bit starts…

In Halo Wars each unit possess the ability to ‘hard’ and/or ‘soft’ counter another unit. Some units are only a soft counter to a number of units, some units are a hard counter to one type of unit, and a soft counter to just a few. On top of that, some units have a ‘Y’ ability which can create a hard counter even though they are naturally a soft counter to it. For example the ‘Vulture’ can release its ‘barrage’ ability which can be devastating to almost any unit, even though its toughest against vehicles; and the ‘Vampire’, which is purely designed to destroy air units, even though the RPS chart suggests it should be a vehicle counter. The Wolverine can be upgraded so it delivers a ‘barrage’ which can do increased damage against buildings.

Below are some more unit specific counter triangles to provide more examples of the system:

So how to learn these ‘complicated’ exceptions to the ‘Rock Paper Scissors’ triangle? Well the best way is experience, but the information bar on the menu HUD will help you out too. When you build units it will state their description on the right hand side; take your time to read this, as it’ll tell you what that units specifically designed to do. This applies to improving your units too, when you upgrade them the information will describe what that upgrade does, and what it’s designed for.

Lastly, these charts will help you through whats a hard counter and whats a soft counter, unit vs unit. Study it and try new things, you might find that you’ve been missing out on some great units.

UNSC unit counters (click to enlarge):

Covenant unit counters (click to enlarge):

Thanks to the Halo Wars developer blog for these image assets, and be sure to check out their post about the combat system of Halo Wars, which goes in to more statsticial detail about the game and damage settings.

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The Cobra is a great defensive unit, and a hard counter to all vehicles. Locking it down means you can’t move, and doing so takes a while. So it’s worth taking your time to do it right to ensure their survivability, it could save the day!

1. Direction: Always lock your cobras down facing the direction of threat, you can do this by moving a cobra to a point, then ordering it to lock down in the direction of threat, it’ll then face the right way. The reason for this is simple, the Cobra’s turret turning speed is slow; it’s a long range firing unit therefore you need to take advantage of that. If you have ground units approaching them, by the time a Cobra’s turret has turned towards them, they are well in range. Having your Cobras pointing the right way means they will get a shot off as soon as a unit’s in range, applying damage sooner.
2. Placement: Where you place your Cobras is the difference between survival and destruction. Try and use the bottle necks that are found in a lot of maps, valleys where ground units will travel down on attack. Remember Cobras are very much a defensive unit, so use them in this way. Trapping your enemy in a bottle neck means all your Cobras are firing on fewer units, delivering more damage to each. It also means when you upgrade to Piercing shot, having the enemy units bunched up means the shot will go thorough multiple units.
3. Spacing: Spread your Cobras out! Locking down 3 or 4 cobras in one place is just an invitation for a Leader power or Canister shell. Make your enemy work to kill them, don’t bunch them up. As long as they’re all in range, they will deliver the same firepower spread out.
4. Depth: You should place your Cobra’s in more than 1 line. Your first line should be at equal distance to where the enemy threat will be, so all their combined firepower will hit the front units together, applying the most damage. You should then have a second line behind them, which should consist of your Cobras with high veterancy. The enemy will most likely try to take out your front Cobras, leaving your best ones untouched at the back doing the most damage. Having more than 1 line also means if the opposition uses a leader power on the front line (Carpet bomb for example), you still have a better back line of them to fall back on. Think of it like a battle scene in 300 or Braveheart films!
5. Spobra (Spartan Cobras) Placement: You Spobras are you biggest asset, they’ll deliver the most power and can become virtually indestructable, try and keep them alive! Place them at the very back of your line, well out the way behind your main force. This does 2 things: Firstly it keeps them alive as the enemy will probably not notice them at the back, as their attention will be on the bulk of your cobras, and secondly by the time the enemy units are in range on your Spobra it would be almost destroyed or on red health, it’s a 1 shot 1 kill deal for it meaning your Spobra’s on its way to 13 stars very fast. If you have a ‘V’ shaped area your defending, where your at the bottom of the V, and threats can come from the 2 lines, place your Spobra at the point of the V so it can fire to both sides.

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Anyway as you should know, these guys are ‘anti anything that lives’. This means don’t bother trying to take out a scarab with them.

Recently, I’ve learnt to love them. If I’m playing on a map with hooks (extra pads, teleporters, reactors etc) I’ll use these guys over anything else. These hooks are always defended by rebel infantry, unless your playing forerunner maps of course. Flamers will get veteran stars really fast, so by taking out just 1 hook you’ll have a couple of them on 1 star already.

Why i like these guys more than hogs:

• To get hogs up to a stage where they can take hooks, you need at least 3 or 4 of them to do the job easily, plus you’ll need to research gunner. Overall this is 700 supply, it’s a lot of money for an early game. You can get out 5 flamers out for 500 supply and they’ll burn straight out of barracks.

• If you’re taking hooks, you’ll need a barracks anyway; so it’s not a wasted build slot. If you don’t want to build past flamers and Spartans you can recycle.

• They build faster than hogs, so are easily replaced.

• They can be used against an early leader rushes. (Flamers are the best counter for early leaders, grunts, brutes)

• On maps with the Flood (i.e. Crevice, Exile) you can use Flamers alone to take out the Flood bases, they are the best unit for the job and will kill one in seconds

Past the early stage of the game they unfortunately start to become a bit useless – When the tech 2-3 units start to come in to play like tanks, hornets etc. If your playing a Cutter though it might be worth keeping them around for when ODST start landing on your doorstep; you’ll be thankful you had them.

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