Halo Wars Guide

Tank rushing with Forge

Forge is a great leader to initiate a Scorpian rush. Although the strategy can be done with any of the leaders, this rush lends its hand to the Seargeat as if the game develops far enough, your going to want to continue up to Grizzly level. The advantage with using another leader over Forge is the element of suprise. People don’t expect early tanks to roll out of Cutter or Ander’s base; many players make an uneducated guess that each leader will go straight for their strength unit. Anders can be a handy leader to use instead of Forge, as it’s so fast to switch and research with her.

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.

Other related posts

• Hornet Rushing with Forge
• Anders and the fall of the Gauss rush
• Getting Veteran Stars on units
• Chieftain Brute Rush

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