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 Basic ‘tank rush’ with Forge…

The build order you go for depends entirely on how early you want your first tank out and how strong you want your economy. There’s a ‘catch 22′ with this, if you want to get tanks out as soon as possible, you’ll lose out on a fast ticking supply count but hit the enemy sooner. If you don’t mind getting tanks out later, your opponent may be a bit more prepared for you, but your more developed so you can survive further in the game on the front foot.

The timing of the start of production of your first Scorpion is determined by how many supply pads you build up to it. For example:

Early build:

Supply Pad > Supply Pad > Reactor > Reactor > Vehicle Depot = 1st Scorpion building at 2:30

Later build:

Supply Pad > Supply Pad > Supply Pad > Supply Pad > Reactor > Reactor > Vehicle Depot = 1st Scorpion building at 3:30

It’s your decision if you choose to sacrifice 1 minute of early gametime for a bigger economy. Ultimately though, this is the easiest way to get Scorpions out fast. Remember if your going for an early build, you need to be collecting supplies thoroughly to supplement what you lose from fewer supply pads. (read this guide ‘gather the goods’ for a guide to good crate gathering.)

The ‘Double Pump’:

This method involves having 2 Vehicle Depots and simultaneously building Scorpions. Although with just 1 base you won’t be able to build them back to back all the time, it works out that you can build around 1.5 Scorpions together, so generally you get 50% more tanks than you would at the same time as the other methods. This build plot is the same as the Forge Hornet rush, just with Vehicle Depots:

Supply Pad > Supply Pad > Supply Pad > Supply Pad > Reactor (Wait and Upgrade to tech 2) > Vehicle Depot > Vehicle Depot

As i said, don’t expect a constant stream of tanks, you simply won’t be able to afford it unless your team mate slingshots you some money. When you have enough tanks, you can recycle your 2nd Vehicle Depot for a Reactor to bring you to tech 3, and research ‘Canister Shell’

The Canister Scorpion build:

There’s 2 ways of doing this, one is pretty complicated, one isn’t.

1. The upgrade route: This is the simple way, you go for the same build schedule as the second option listed above, so you have your 4 supply pads up first. This will give you enough supplies to upgrade one of your reactors giving you tech 3. When you get this, start researching Cannister Shell. You only need tech 2 to build Scorpions so you can recycle the single reactor and replace it with whatever you want; Field Armoury, Barracks – you pick.
2. The ‘Hook’ route: If there’s a ‘hook’ on your map (Garrison-able Reactor) you can aim to use this to get to tech 3. You’ll need a build order along these lines:

Supply Pad > Supply Pad > Supply Pad > Barracks (que 3-4 flame throwers. You also have time to build Spartans) > Supply Pad > Reactor > Reactor > (Recycle Barracks) > Vehicle Depot

As soon as your flame throwers are out, send them to the Garrison-able Reactor and order one of them to get straight in there so they hold it. Some Garrison-able reactors such as the ones on Crevice are barely defended, so you can get away with just building 1 Marine to put in there. If you want Spartans in your tanks, keep the Barracks.

You can research Canister shell straight away if you like, then recycle one of the reactors and build a second Vehicle Depot, so you’ll have Canister Shell tanks rolling out in no time!

You can use the ‘hook route’ in various other ways too, and the theory can be applied to build standard tanks without Canister shell so you only need the 1 reactor on your base, giving you a spare slot to use as you wish

The ‘Hook route’ is a good tactic as rather than recycle one of your reactors, you can stay at tech 3 permanently, and easily go up to tech 4 for if your rush fails and you want to start working to Grizzlies.

So there we have it, the basic way is easy pie! It gets a bit more complicated and reliant on timing when hooks and Canister shell is involved; but start with the basics and develop your preferred method. Always remember about the ‘Catch 22′ i talked about, how your build order with supply pads will alternately effect either your early economy, and the build time of your first Scorpion.

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