7
Jul
2009
A complete guide to the Halo Wars units
If you know about this site and it’s goals, you’ll know that we write for every level of player, no matter if they picked the game up yesterday, or got it when it was first released. I wanted to write this guide for the newer players to help them get their head around the range of units, what they are, what they’re useful for and how they can be used.
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.
Great info. The charts look good, though I can’t make them out as clicking them doesn’t enlarge them and control ‘+’ only makes them blurry. Would be ever so greatful if you could rectify the issue.
Good work.
Rogerthatjoe
Looks like lots of xbox fanatics here, I am a fan too and love to play games… my gf says I play way too much, but man it’s so enjoyable. I’ve been playing modern warfare and halo for half a year and can’t stop! What would you guys recommend? Anyways, looks like a good website, is this wordpress? I’ve created a few pages myself and it’s not easy. Cheers for taking time to post.
hey um im having a problem with enlarging it just like jesse so please fix.