I have played Starcraft, Starcraft Brood War, Warcraft II, and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne since the days of their release. I have dealt with every strategy, every race, every possible rushing tactic, and been defeated many, many times. Below, I have decided to share some of the knowledge I picked up during the first week of the release of Halo Wars. My main directive here is to dispel the myth that rushes ruin this game. They don't, if you know how to stop them. Above all, I am raising awareness of the "checks and balances" that were coded in to this game.
Is a perfectly micro'd rush impossible to win against? No, not if you know how to micro your own base. Will you get harassed and possibly suffer a disadvantage (i.e. a destroyed supply pad or dead leader)? Yes, probably so.
EDIT: Thank you to all who have contributed your anti-rushing advice to this thread. This is not a thread to insult those who rush, nor is it intended to convince the designers of Halo Wars to change the face of the game and make it "noob friendly." The majority of good, solid Halo Wars players in the top 5000 realize that rushing is a part of the game, and this is a collective effort on all our parts to educate the gaming community on how to deal with whatever your opponents throw at you. Remember, above all things, that this game was beta tested and balanced, for the most part, before it was released to the public. If you can't beat something that occurs within 1 minute of the game starting, it is YOU who are doing something wrong, and I would encourage you to read this thread, as well as the excellent replies within. I will be editing this at the end of every few nights of gaming as I progress my rank in to the top 1000 players. If you contribute a gem of advice, it will be added to the end of this thread. Thank you, and good luck!
Getting rushed by an arbiter with 5 suicide grunts before you have a barracks up is most certainly a death sentence. Teching to the age of doubt with only your leader, a temple, and mass warehouses without a shield generator is pretty much a guaranteed loss. Below, I am going to illustrate a few methods for playing this game the smart way, rather than the ignorant, noobish way that you hope will you get a win within ten minutes. Also, let me make something clear. The players who rush and win are good, and they have a viable strategy. The players who fail rushes and quit because it didn't work are pretty much pathetic in my eyes. On the flip side, the players who tech straight to a dual scarab build, expand, and don't attack your base for 30 minutes while they get 6000 resources are not very good either. Honestly, it's your own fault if you let a covenant player get even ONE scarab, much less two, and outside of that, two scarabs is easily countered with the right preparation. THERE IS NO UNBEATABLE STRATEGY IN THIS GAME, PERIOD.
1) How to Stop the Covenant Leader Rush
An arbiter or prophet of regret runs in to your base and starts attacking your warthog that may or may not be off scouting. You have no marines, or your barracks is just starting to build them. What do you do?
Don't panic. First of all, there are a few commands that can allow you to keep your marines from getting slaughtered by two rage attacks or a cleansing beam. Select your main base and choose "lock." This way, when you pump out units, instead of seeing them die instantly to honor guard or covenant leaders, they will remain within the confines of your heavily fortified main structure and build up in a cozy place. This will save you a lot of money, while your enemy gets cocky with his units in the war of attrition, thereby giving you an edge. Picture your base as a few groups of marines in the first five minutes with 5,000 health instead of 50. They do the same damage, but are almost impossible to kill. With an elephant nearby, or two raxes training new blood or flashbang while your other barracks pumps out infantry that remain within your base and suddenly storm out en masse toattack the enemy forces, it's very likely that you will repel his attack or even kill his leader. If his leader dies and his ability to teleport to your base isn't there anymore, his rush has failed. Below are the top three early game methods that I use to kill a covenant leader quickly:
1) A turret built in one of the "rear" corners of your base, which you hope he will not notice, and even if he does, gives you time to build more garrisoned units and destroy his leader with numbers. If he gets it to low health, cancel before it does. Get some of your money back instead of losing all of it. That extra 125 could be a set of marines or a warthog.
2) Flamethrowers. They are the counter for ground infantry, and covenant leaders are no exception. Although their shields are harder to get through, particularly the arbiter, keep in mind that if he's rushing, he hasn't researched the ability that heals him when he rages and slaughters one of your units. Every point of damage that he takes is permanent. Likewise, the prophet of regret can't move around while he cleanses, which means surrounding him with flamethrowers next to a turret with a warthog waiting to ram him when he tries to run is a viable strategy if you see that beam come down. Worst case scenario, if you manage to deal some damage to his leader and he hasn't activated Rage, Vortex, or Cleansing yet, time your disruption bomb when you think he's going to try and get aggressive. However, don't waste that much money if you have no forces to make use of the advantage of it. Building enough defense or units to repel his leader is more important than a disruption bomb that keeps him from cleansing your supply pads for only 30 seconds, at which point he will do it again and probably kill your building since you never built troops in the first place.
3) Predictability. Really, there are only five viable rushes that I have seen in this game so far. By rushes, I mean an attack within the first ten minutes. They are, in order of deadliness (in my opinion):
-The reactor, 3x supply pad fifteen warthog rush (this is harder to stop than any covenant rush in my opinion, because infantry have a hard time dealing with vehicles and marines can't throw grenades while garrisoned).
- The three warehouse, temple arbiter rush with suicide grunts and later on hunters and/or banshees. A suicide grunt that is properly micro'd means that your turret is dead almost instantly, so don't bother building them if you see those units. However, a lone arbiter or an arbiter with normal grunts, jackals, or hunters is less of a threat. Un-upgraded hunters are not that dangerous. Fully upgraded hunters will decimate you. If you see suicide grunts, try to kill them or kite them around before they reach your most vulnerable target (usually turrets and/or your leader, or if you're really doing bad, a supply pad or warehouse).
-The brute chieftain + 5 brute rush. This is similar to the arbiter, except there is one major exception. Vortex drains resources at a very fast rate, moreso than cleansing or rage. The longer it runs, the more damage it does when it finally explodes, meaning that you must have a larger resource pool before you even activate it to make it viable. A good vortex rush can be devastating if you don't know how the ability works, but I've just told you that. Therefore, the key to beating this rush is NOT to focus the chieftain, because his vortex is not a threat if you can micro your troops away from it. It really doesn't move faster than your troops, particularly warthogs. Ram works wonders against brutes, and since warthogs are so quick, you can usually fend off his expensive vortex spam with ram and the chain gun upgrade, accompanied by infantry garrisoned within your main base. If he keeps teleporting brutes to you and doesn't let up, he will lose the game, because brutes are very counterable the longer the games goes on.
-The prophet + honor guard rush. Easier to deal with, in my opinion. Cleansing, again, is so slow that warthogs can out-micro it. Second, the prophet isn't even half as tough as an arbiter or chieftain. In fact, he's very squishy, and he can't move if he uses his ability that makes him useful. Very few players bother upgrading his fuel rod cannons, instead focusing on what they think is an amazing ability. A fully upgraded cleansing beam is not that dangerous with proper disruption bomb timing + micro. If he uses it against your base, focus him down and make him pay the price. Flamethrowers own the prophet of regret very quickly. If you have an arbiter, laugh yourself silly as you watch three or four rage swings slaughter his prophet faster than anything else in the game. If you can micro him and use the right stick correctly, that is. The arbiter is THE counter to the prophet, but the UNSC can counter him very well with flamethrowers + marine grenades + a good disruption bomb or even a good heal.
To defend any of these rushes, the AoE heal utilized by the UNSC is a very, very powerful ability. It can keep a turret alive against eight to ten warthogs, any leader, and pretty much any rushing force in the game. The only way to counter a good heal is with a disruption bomb to prevent it firsthand, or on the covenant side, you can run suicide grunts in to your target and watch it die instantly. Massively damaged units can't heal, but gradual, non-micro'd damage is what you will face until you get in the top 5000 players on Xbox LIVE. Once you find players who micro, covenant leaders become much more powerful, while UNSC abilities can be somewhat worked around unless you play mindgames, which brings me to....
----UNSC Spirit of Fire "Mindgames"----
How often have you targeted a MAC Blast on top of a huge group of units, only to watch a player flee his entire army from the "dreaded targeting beam of doom?" The highly visible ray that comes down before you call in a MAC Blast is a dead giveaway of what you're about to do. Instead of letting this disadvantage you, use it to psych out your opponent. There are two ways to do this. First, if you are VERY quick, you can aim the MAC Blast almost instantly and fire it off while he's using his leader power or micro'ing his units. The result is a very brief beam that will shine, disappear a second later, only to be followed by a giant mac blast that can win the battle and/or game for you. Second, and more crafty in my opinion, is to press up, select the MAC Blast, and simply move the cursor around, trying to aim it. You're not actually aiming for a spot to fire it off just yet, but while you do this, your opponent will be thinking "Uh oh, he's about to spend 600 resources, I better make him waste it." As he scrambles away, you can go so far as to make him run completely, or he may be dumb and stand still after a few seconds like most players. At this point, DO NOT FIRE the mac blast. Untarget it, and continue micro'ing as usual. Then, about five seconds later, use the aforementioned "quick targeting" method to strike him viciously, and rapidly. Do not waste time. If you pull this off correctly, it is very possible that your one press of the A button just decided the outcome of a base, or even the game.
Another common tactic in 2v2 games is to utilize the power of a cryo bomb. If someone picked Anders, have them cryo bomb at an opportune moment when you both have money for a special ability. At this point, freeze an army (hopefully both enemy armies) in place, and then place a carpet bomb or mac blast. If you did it correctly, you will pretty much decimate their forces before you ever engage them. Follow this up by running in with your armies after the mac blast or carpet bomb and picking off the frozen, low-health units. I call this the "cleanup" phase. If timed correctly on a mic, you can really do some damage with this strategy. Follow it up with a disruption bomb when you attack so they can't copy you, or use a vortex or cleansing beam to even the odds. Note ---> Don't bother doing this if you didn't upgrade your spirit of fire ability if the game is past 15 minutes or so. Your money would be better spent on the units you spent the time upgrading instead. If you do have level 2 mac blast, then again, this is a devastating tactic.
----How to Use Your Leader Outside of a Rush----
Covenant leaders are not designed to spam their activated ability the entire time. If you're a player who relies on pooling resources and using a cleansing beam, vortex, or running around with a raged arbiter the entire time, hoping it will be enough for you to win while your units largely go un-managed, then you will lose. There is a time and place at which a leader ability should be activated, but until that point, you stand a MUCH BETTER chance of winning if you press LB, select all your units, and assign them to attack the unit that they do the most damage against. Example:
You have an arbiter, four hunters, three jackals, and all of them are upgraded to their first level. Your arbiter heals when he rages a unit to death, your jackals reflect most infantry attacks, and your hunters devastate pretty much everything. Well, if you see a squad of marines with new blood, some warthogs with chain guns, and three spartans, your chances of winning are pretty much even. If you immediately activate rage and just run around trying to 3-shot his marines, he will activate his heal and probably beat you. However, if you press LB, select your jackals and press X on the marines, press right trigger to switch to your hunters, get them to attack the warthogs, and THEN select your arbiter to pick off any units that are low health, you will almost certainly win, as rage negates healing if the unit is below 30% health at this point in the game. One rage attack against a warthog or marine at 1/3 health even in a healing field = death.
On the opposite side, what would you do in this situation? It could be a viable rush, more powerful than fifteen warthogs or a prophet with a bunch of honor guards in my opinion. Well, first, since your marines don't have a medic yet and your warthogs can't deal splash damage, you need to be very careful. The key to winning early battles with the UNSC relies on proper micro'ing of the grenade ability. DO NOT USE GRENADES AGAINST A LEADER. They do reduced damage and it's very likely you will lose if you waste even one volley on one. Grenades should be used against low health targets all at once to burst them down and give you a unit advantage. Use grenade volleys against jackals, grunt squads, and hunters, in that order. Hunters are powerful, but early they are not a huge threat to upgraded marines. Take advantage of this.
---The Most Important Thing I Could Possibly Tell You About This Game---
Most people send their warthog or ghost out to gather resources immediately next to their base. This is a mistake. First off, you should send your scout to the enemy base to see his starting build order. If you see four warehouses or supply pads and a temple or reactor with no barracks or hall, you can expect either a straight tech to age of doubt, or main hall units. Four warehouses and a temple is usually a good indicator of a leader rush.
After you scout his base, send your warthog or ghost to gather HIS resources that are closeby. Odds are, he's probably not smart enough to do the same, and if you take the money in close proximity to his base, you just gained a 200-300 resource advantage, and if he's rushing, that means you have an upgraded turret, a shield generator (stops rushes cold), or that critical chain gun upgrade on your warthogs.
I can not stress this enough. STOP complaining about rushes when you don't scout your enemy. It's very possible to know what's coming at you for the cost of NOTHING. You start with your warthog, and the majority of the start of the game is the same every single time as you wait for your supply buildings to finish construction. USE THIS TIME TO KNOW WHAT'S COMING. If your scout dies, buy another one for 150 resources. That 150 could save your life.
Below are some contributions from others in this thread about scouting. This is very good information, so read it.
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Scouting:
A handy trick for scouting later in the game is to build 2-3 scouting
vehicles (IF YOU CAN) to spread the fire/damage out across them all.
Spreading the fire will probably save the
vehicles and allow your scouting expedition to last longer, and
possibly cover more bases. Early in the game though, take your initial
scouting vehicle to do it immediately, but always stop to collect some
supplies. I find this is a good thing to do because not only can they
give you a huge early game advantage, but by the time you get to the
base, they'll have the majority of their buildings under construction.
There's no point in getting to a base straight away and noticing that
he hasn't done anything yet. When you get to your opponent's base, try
and collect the supplies close to his base, if he's not fast enough to
collect them himself. Also, when you go to their base initially, cover
one route and then on the way back to your base go a different
direction. This allows you to find more supplies and may let you locate
a rushing force, if there was no army outside the base.
Things you want to look for on a scouting expedition:
- How many bases have they got?
- What buildings are being built? Do they have the capability to create several unit types?
-
Have they created units already? Are they on the move? Check the
various paths to your and other bases your ally controls in case
they're trying to rush you.
- If they are the
Covenant, do they have only warehouses and a temple? NOTE: This is a
sure sign that they will be planning to rush you with their leader, or
else they're trying to rush towards producing a scarab! This is a good
time to rush in return as the base will have no defensive capabilities
to protect it, and it will force them to bring their leader back to the
base. This is also a good time to train anti infantry to kill the
leader leader when you drop your disruption bomb!! If the rush does not
come then be sure to scout again and see if he's after changing his
building set up to produce other units. If he has, adjust your
production accordingly, if not then the scarab is definitely coming!!
- What turret types have they built? Are they expecting you to come with men, vehicles or by air?
-
With the UNSC, how many reactors have they got? Where are they on the
bases? Are there any double reactors? These should be your first
targets if you do decide to move in early, as they'll hinder his
ability to create stronger units!
Some
scouting applications: If your opponents attention is directed to his
base while your scouting, then chances are that he'll see your scouting
vehicles pass by. The main give away for scouting expeitions is when
your warthog/ghost starts firing on enemy forces or a base, as this
immediately informs the other player that a there are enemy forces in
the proximity, dealing some damage. For a stealthy recon, refrain from
upgrading your warthogs to gunner/grenadier immediately, until you've
had a look at his base. If the Covvie controlling b**tard is looking
like he's going to be rushing you (all warehouses and a temple), then
have a quick scout around his base for the leader, if he's not present,
then park the scouts away from his base, make some more, upgrade them
and then send them at his base to force him to return his leader to
protect it.
Faster vehicles are better for
scouting. Mobility and the ability to evade is key for any scouting
vehicles. They also work wonders when being micro managed as they can
outpace/outrange leaders and do alot of damage if controlled correctly.
UNSC
have a distinct scouting advantage in being able to create scouting
vehicles straight from the word go, whereas the Covenant must build a
factory before they can build more.
Aircraft are also ideal as they can travel faster and across terrain (mountains, cliff breaks etc.) that other vehicles can not.
Example:
If I have a force that's preparing to strike a base, which contains
some aircraft (hornets/vampires/banshees only, as the others are too
slow), I'll scout with the aircraft to have one final look at what
possible units are contained in his army, if any, and quickly assess
what the biggest threats are to my strike force. This allows me to
select what units are ideal to counter these threats and send them in
as the first wave, I'll then send in the secondary wave (10-15 seconds
later) to counter any unit types ideal to destroying this first wave
and progress from there.
Saving your uber units
until last is also a tactic that I've found effective, as all special
attacks/powers will most likely be used in the initial clash and this
allows them to be most effective at mopping up the remains. It can get
extremely aggrivating producing 4 vultures only to see them fall victim
to a cryo bomb or 4 mac blasts, same goes for a scarab. The scarab is
an awesome unit, when used correctly as it draws all your opponents
attention towards it as they feel they must destroy it immediately. It
is therefore best to get an army, or a barrier, between it and the
opposing forces. By sending in your army first to remove the initial
threats, your opponents forces will have to battle through your
specially designed forces to try and remove this super threat. This
gives your anti-unit units more than ample time to be micro managed and
focus fired on the particular units that are most effective against the
scarab or against the remainder of your army. If the scarab DOES
actually fall in combat you can be sure that your opponent has paid
more than you have to defeat it. The scarab cost 3000 credits and 20
population, but if managed correctly it can end up costing your
opponent his entire army!
Credit goes to SkintaHolic for this information.
---
This is all I have for now, but I will add more as I play this game more in the upcoming week. I am currently ranked 2100 in 2v2 arranged team, and 1388 in 1v1 ranked matches. If you have any questions, comments, or even if you think I'm dumb and you think rushing ruins this game, feel free to disagree. Rushes have been around since the first RTS ever made, and if you can't handle it, play Call of Duty. Although you will simply get owned in the same spots over and over in Search and Destroy in that game if you fall for rushes in Halo Wars, because it's the same concept..... predictable early game tactics in the first minute or so of the game (i.e. throwing your grenades and putting your claymores at choke points to get kills). Think about it on a larger scale, and I hope to find some other players who agree that rushing is easily beaten, if you know what to do. Good luck!
UPDATES:
Most of the questions I have received involve the "lockdown" ability. The three most common questions are:
1) Can any unit get locked from within your base?
The answer is yes, but however, locking down is pretty much useless after the first fifteen minutes of the game. Teching all the way to tier 3 with a bunch of upgraded locked down marines is a terrible idea. You can't utilize their true power. The primary reason is that you will have upgraded your units by then, and almost EVERY unit has a very devastating "Y" ability that you will want to utilize. If you have marines with new blood and RPG researched, not using their RPG's is going to cripple your damage output. The only reason you want to lockdown early is to win the war of money against your rushing opponent. For every unit he loses, you have gained a monetary advantage.
LOCKED DOWN UNITS DO NOT ATTACK. THE PURPOSE OF LOCKDOWN IS TO HIDE THE AMOUNT OF UNITS YOU ARE BUILDING, AND RELEASE THEM INSTANTLY, THEREBY OVERWHELMING THE RUSHING FORCE AND PROBABLY WINNING YOU THE GAME.
You have 3 warthogs and four marines in your base. You get hero rushed with his special unit (suicides, honor guard, brutes). You let him attack
your turret and get beat up a bit, but before your turret dies, you throw down a heal, and immediately release all your locked units against his prophet. You select all your warthogs, and press Y. You then select all your marines and press Y. You laugh as his leader dies in about five seconds. USE LOCKDOWN.
A brute chieftain rushes you with a handful of brutes. You have a turret up, and his rush kills it, but you've garrisoned most of your training marines and flamethrowers in anticipation of his rush because you are a good player and you scouted, seeing that he had four warehouses and a temple. Bringing your warthog back, you gather his resources near his base since he sent his hero straight to your base, and you kill the majority if his brutes and lose a supply pad in the process. At this point, you never have to lock your base again, release the dozen or so marines you have trained, build a pelican, and drop your force in to his base for an easy win.
2) Will my units attack automatically in lockdown mode?
No. Your units do no attack while locked down. Have you ever seen a marine or warthog get 2-shotted by an arbiter or die to a cleansing beam in two seconds? Have you ever seen five warthogs storm out of the cargo bay door of a UNSC base with their gun blazing? The warthogs do much more damage, and the psychological effect of this will pretty much make the player who rushed you think "Oh god. I better leave."
3) I lost a building to a rush because you told me to lockdown and now I can't win OMG WTF VIOLENT I LOSE!!!
No. A supply pad costs 100. A fully upgraded supply pad costs 325. If you upgrade your supply pads from the rear forward, he will attack the closest one, and you're out 100 resources. Comparatively, your units in lockdown and your warthogs kill two grunts, two elite honor guard, and his prophet recalls before you can kill him. He just lost over 500 resources. At this point, if you built an elephant or a pelican, or even if you countered with machine-gun warthogs and marines with new blood, you would probably win.
More examples to follow. Thank you for all your responses. Stay strong against bad rushers, and good luck against the skilled ones. I am one of them.
My contact info:
AIM : Rhynzel
Yahoo: Violent_Harvest
E-Mail: drew.wilcox@gmail.com
Gamertag: ViolentxHarvest