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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If you know your units, you’ll be aware that some are ‘soft’ counters and some are ‘hard’ ones. This means certain units will deliver more damage to another type of unit, and are build for a specific task. For example, Wolverine is an anti air unit, and a hard counter to anything that flies, but a soft counter to anything else.

Units: With the Turtle strategy you want to be focusing your force around hard counters to what your opponents making. The first thing you want to do when Turtling (after you’ve established you won’t be rushed), you want to be scouting your opponent to see what units he is going to go for. If you haven’t been rushed, they are most likely going to be turtling themselves,  or ‘Booming’. Either way you will have time to get yourself together.

If your opponent is ‘Booming’ they’ll be going for their super units most likely, although scouting them will certify this. All super units have a hard counter, so make sure you get these fully upgraded and ready. If your playing UNSC upgrade your Spartans too.

Digging in: So your production and research is under way, now you have to decide what and where your going to defend. Most maps have obvious ‘choke’ points where your opponent is forced to go if they want to attack, if your facing vehicles or infantry, these are good places to place your forces. If they have aircraft, they’ll most likely attack the most important thing; your base.

Save for a rainy day: Turtling is a good strategy to get mega points, personally my top 5 games have been from Turtling. But there does come a time when the game has to come to a close, for time’s sake and because there is actually a points cap on this game; so there’s no point in going on forever.

Make sure while your defense is doing it’s job, your upgrading every unit available. Even if your Anders, upgrade your Marines. You will need a force to ‘finish’ the game, and this could consist on any unit. Hard counters are good for defending what your opponent is making, but if they change their unit production to counter you you’re in trouble.

Finish the fight: Finishing is one of the hardest things when Turtling, as it’s likely your at a stalemate with your opponent. Playing 1v1 is even harder, you have to either do a gradual push and take your time with attacking them, gradually taking one base at a time and weakening his economy and production capabilities; or you can ‘steamroll’ him by attacking non stop unit the games done.

If your playing in teams it’s slightly easier, as one of you can focus on continuing to defend while the other launches the attack, being gradually reinforced by the other player(s).

Turtling can be quite a slow pace of game, with matches lasting for 1, 2 or even 3 hours.

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