This is the first of three parts in my 3v3 Map Specific Strategies guide. It is very general but I hope everyone takes something from it and learns something new.

Map Specific Strategies 3v3

Here is my long in the making Map-Specific Strategies for 3v3. I hope you guys learn something new and enjoy. J This guide is not about which unit counters what, it is how to use the map to get the most out of your units.

Exile

Exile has to be one of my favorite and least favorite maps at the same times. I have won 2v3, gotten several 7-minute Scarabs and won by just Prophet harassing all game. I have also lost by the same strategies. This map has a lot of different elevations and ramps so unit mobility for this map is key.

General Strategies


- Clearing out the back reactors not only provides an extra tech level, it also give you tons of early game resources, which can really help you in an early push.
- Reactor sharing on this map is essential to give your team the lead. Instead of spending cash to upgrade to an advanced reactor or research ages for Covenant simply swap back and forth the back 2 reactors. Simply garrison it with a unit, click on the preferred upgrade then un-garrison the unit so that your teammate can use it. The upgrade will continue researching as if you had the necessary tech. You can save up to 2400$ with UNSC and 2000$ with Covenant instead of upgrading to the final tech level. This extra cash should be more than enough to supply you with enough units to give you a decisive advantage over your opponent.
- The middle island is a very good place to mass your air units. Scouts can not see it so your army composition will remain somewhat mysterious especially if your opponent scouts your base and finds multiple unit type production facilities. (Ex: Air Pad and Vehicle Depot)
- Defending the ramps leading into your base is much better than engaging your enemy in the open. Forcing your enemy into a bottleneck will stall his attack and give you more time to make reinforcements and think over a good strategy to counter their attack.
- During mid game try to take out the enemies reactors. This will disrupt their ability to tech up their units and distract them from attacking your base and make them worry more about defending their reactors.
- With having a free base slot right beside your starting base it is really easy to have a second base in the first 10 seconds and if you are not rushed you can eventually just out-macro your opponent. Note* Forge is incapable of doing this because his HSP cost 225 which does not allow for a quick second base. It’s possible, but not plausible. Also, if the player in the front row is being rushed and knows his base will be destroyed he can build a base beside his teammates base in the back row without having to worry about destroying a Rebel Base.
- Rush players that grab an extra base so that they don’t steamroll you later on.


UNSC

Forge

Playing As - A one-base build from Forge is a very effective strategy if your team is rushing. Tank/Canister/Hornet rush can all be very effective because of the proximity of your enemies to yourself on the map. Though tanks make a good strategy for the early game, late game forge starts to lose much of his mobility on this map. Because of a somewhat sub-par pathing system Forge’s tanks seem to get in their own way more and more often as you start to get around 6-7. It can be really frustrating to have 6-7 Grizzlies struggling to get up a ramp into the opponents base while their army is somewhere else on the map just to have them get back in time because the tanks took so long to get up the ramp. As a solution to this I recommend splitting up your units so that they go up 2 different ramps into the enemy base instead of 1. You could also try individually microing your tanks so that they don’t get in each other’s way. Pelican Drops are also a viable strategy. Send some of your units up a ramp while you Pelican in the back part of your army into their base. That way you can have your army in their base in no time at all.

Playing Against – When playing against Forge rushing him is always a good idea. Because the typical build order for forge is Supply Pad X4, Fortress, Reactor X2, Vehicle Depot/Air Pad it is always a good idea to attack him before he can get tanks or hornets. Even if the Forge player goes for a tank rush with the build order of Supply Pad, Reactor, Supply Pad, Reactor, Vehicle Depot you still have enough time to do some economical damage because all he will have to defend himself is 1 Turret, maybe 2.

Cutter

Playing As - Cutter is by far one of my favorite leaders to use on this map. With having infantry as a favored unit it is natural for a Cutter player to grab the reactors. Cutter can easily have early ODST on this map, which can really help his teammates because it is such a great support unit. Because of his extra base upgrade Cutter is the best suited to grab an extra base right off the bat because he will have 12 building slots to work with while a non-Cutter player will only have 8 slots if they do the same strategy. Because of this map’s small amount of space to maneuver in ODST can be hot dropped in to cut off enemy escape routes. 5-6 ODST can block a ramp long enough for you or your teammate to catch up with an army and combat the enemies units. Although the strategy sounds Honourable Knights of The Realm mass ODST can actually work quite well on this strategy. The small amount of maneuverable space means that enemy units cannot simply run by the ODST to your base like they could on Fort Deen or Frozen Valley. Simply filter your ODST among your teammates units and your team will have a force to be reckoned with. Always make sure that when spamming ODST that you don’t max out. Always have 4-5 ODST Drop Pods ready in case a new threat arrives or your enemy decides to fall back so that you can block off his escape.

Playing Against - When facing a Cutter player you can always expect that by mid game you will have ODST raining down on your troops whenever you engage one of his teammates. Cutter is very good at not being the focus of the battle but instead hot dropping the ODST in wherever help is needed. The one downfall with Cutter is that ODST require tech 3 to be hot dropped. So against Cutter you should always try to do run-bys through his base to try to destroy his reactors. Cutter usually never techs up to tier 4 so you will usually find an advanced reactor and a regular reactor at his base. Unlike Forge or Anders where if you destroy a reactor it may not affect them because they can still make tanks and air at tech 2 if you can destroy his advanced reactor you will set him back 1450$ and he wont be able to hot drop for a very long time. You can get in and get out very quickly with air units without much fear of assault because of the terrain. With the different elevations, harassing is a very viable strategy.

Anders

Playing As - Oh, where to begin with Anders. Probably the most notorious leader in Halo Wars Anders can easily switch tech from air to tanks to infantry faster than you can scout. She is the goddess of arguably the deadliest rush in the game. The gauss rush. Easily microed, durable and packing a whopping punch against air and buildings the guass rush is a viable strategy on any level. Hogs are so quick that you can constantly harass the opponent’s reactors. Just run with 7-8 guass hogs and kill the 2 garrisoned units and get out. This can be done very quickly and usually before the enemy can even respond unless they have a force of air units. With the map being so small an Anders players should always be thinking guass unless they see that their opponent has made the proper counters. Anders other advantage on this map is her favored unit, hornets. Hornets/hawks can easily harass the enemy. Because the map has differing elevations hornets can attack the back of an enemy base until the enemy sends units to defend where the hornets/hawks can just fly up the cliff to safety. Rinse and repeat and you have yourself a winning formula. Just make sure you split your air units up into 2 groups (3 if your micro is very good) so that they don’t all get cryoed. Losing a group of 4-5 hornets is much better than losing them all.


Playing Against – Anders is one of the leaders I hate to play. It is very hard to rush her and during the late game she has so many units teched up that it’s hard to counter her because she can so easily counter you. When playing her you should try to end the game fairly early or at least try to keep her on the defensive. If you give her space she will be able to tech up enough counters to destroy anything you can throw at her. AA units and anti-vehicle units can be very helpful in defeating her. Most Anders players go guass then switch into either tanks or air. Like most UNSC players she is predictable. Expect hogs/tanks or hogs/air. It really comes down to how well you counter her units and how well you micro. Just make sure that you don’t ever let her get the 2 back reactors early on or she will have guass at your base long before you can defend. Also watch out for hit and run tactics like mentioned above about harassing with air units.

Covenant

Prophet

Playing As – Though his speed was nerfed the Prophet still remains a great harasser. Though now it takes much more skill then it used to when a TS 10 could Prophet rush a TS 30 and win. On large maps like Fort Deen and Frozen Valley it takes forever to get your Prophet over to your opponents base and harass but because the bases are so close on Exile it isn’t such a problem. When playing in the first 2 rows a Prophet player should always be thinking harass! Instead of having your Prophet sitting around doing nothing have him scout/harass the nearest enemy. If you can force you opponent to take the free base in the back row beside his opponent you have just gained huge map control. If your in the back row as the prophet it is a really good idea to take an extra base right off the bat and then send your Prophet to the reactors to clear them. Collecting the crates will give you a very good economic boost which can very well help you in fielding a quick army or help you in booming from your 2 bases. A seven-minute Scarab is also a very good strategy as long as you don’t get rushed. The build order is Temple, WHx4, Citadel, WHx2 or WH, SG depending on if you want to get the Scarab faster or not while sacrificing some defense. While that is building you need to clear out and garrison both reactors and don’t forget to upgrade the warehouses.

Playing Against – When playing a prophet on this level you can expect to be harassed. The good thing is that if he recalls, his base is close enough that you can attack him again before his shields come up. So if you are being harassed and you manage to make him recall with some pressure from early hogs keep attacking! His base is so close that you can take out his prophet and keep him out of the game for a very long time.

Chieftain

Playing As - I really like the BC on this level. His Jetpack brutes are very good at jumping cliffs to escape attacks and to engage the enemy. The only thing I don’t like is that he doesn’t get a Jet pack himself. Come on! The Prophet can fly and the Arbiter can turn invisible. Why can’t the BC get a jet Pack!? That’s about all I have for the BC on this level. See how to play against him to see good strategies as playing for him.

Playing Against – When facing a Brute I usually expect to see a grunt rush or a BC harass while he teleports in Wraiths. If you scout this you should try to get out tanks as quick as you can and Make sure to put up an anti-vehicle turret when you get tanks. You can try to get anti-infantry out but Wraiths will demolish the flamers you made to counters the grunts. Luckily this is a 3v3 and you have your teammates to help you out.

Arbiter

Playing As - The Arbiter is a force to be reckoned with on any map big or small. He is a great harasser and can be used as a one-man army against any Covenant player without sufficient micro. Like any other leader on this map the Arbiter can easily grab a second base at the start. His downfall is that to capture a reactor he needs to pay 160$ for a suicide grunt but this isn’t enough of a setback to severely hamper his gameplay.

Playing Against – When playing the Arbiter it is always fun to try to get him to fall out of bounds but sometimes this isn’t the reality and for the most part I never think of this stuff when I’m actually playing. Good news for you is that there are some strategies that are very good against the Arbiter. Though the map does not offer a lot of great ways to kill the Arbiter there is one way that you can efficiently kill the Arbiter. This works on just about any map, not just Exile. All you need is some shield wraiths and beam rifle jackals. Though you may not always have jackals and wraiths in your army, if you do this is a great way to kill them. You need to separate your units so that the wraiths are in the front and the jackals are in the back. Have it so that while the Arbiter is attacking the wraiths your jackals are far enough away that they can target and shoot the Arbiter while he is attacking the wraiths. The jackals should be far enough away that he couldn’t make a jump to them while he is in rage mode. It may seem hard to do but it doesn’t require a lot of micro and is actually very simple. When trying to D-Bomb the Arbiter while he is attacking your base place the D-Bomb a little behind the Arbiter instead of in the middle of your units. This way he will be in between your units and the D-Bomb. This will give you a little more time to take him out as he runs out of its range so that he can recall. I don’t know how many times I’ve had a leader escape with only a fraction of its health remaining because I didn’t properly place the D-Bomb.


This is my first guide so I am accepting any and all constructive criticism so that I can improve upon myself when I go to write other guides.

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' I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought,
but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. - Albert Einstein