Emily_June Posted April 23, 2009 Author Share Posted April 23, 2009 I myself am pretty bad with the UNSC, I play as the Covenant 99% of the time. I'll normally play the 2v2 or 3v3 matches and generally win. With that said there are several ways to "up" your game.Know your leaders strengths and weaknesses, but also know your enemies strengths and weaknesses too. When the game starts, get your first couple buildings going and send your starting unit to collect resources (THIS IS KEY TO EARLY GAME!!). With those things happening, you don't really have much to do for a few seconds. So hit the "back" button and take a look at what your opponents are playing as. Now you know what you're up against and you can plan your next moves accordingly. The mass population out there on Live will generally use the same strategies everytime. So you can guesstimate what they are going to do early game. For example, if they're playing as Anders they will generally do one of two things (sometimes both if the first one doesnt work. 1) warthog rush, Anders can get them out faster with upgrades or 2) spam hawks. So in the early game I would plan for anti vehicle, but mid to late game I would plan for hawks (if scouting indicates hawks are in fact being built). The beginning of the game, the first few minutes is when everyone is truly equal. No one has anymore resourses, units or bases than anyone else. So you have to figure out how can you get the edge. What is the quickest build order for my goal? How many resources can I gather? Can I stop them from gathering resources? Without knowing how you play and what your strategy is, I can't offer any help on build order. As far as resources go, when the game starts I send my unit to the opponents side of the map to collect THEIR resources. Once my leader, or in the UNSC's case, second unit is built I use that unit to collect my resources. I've noticed alot of people have said to use turrets. Now in no way do I mean to say that they do not know what they are talking about. But out of all the games I have played, I have never built turrets. I simply use a different tactic then the other posters. Turrets do have their pros and cons, but I believe the cons out weigh the pros. Turrets don't really require speciatly building for them to be built. You don't have to micro manage them or worry about positioning them in a certain place. But! Turrets are expensive, they cost 250 to be built and another 100 to be effective. So 350 gets you stationary unit. With those resources you can. With that same amount of money you can build 1-3 units. Even a spartan in your case, and they are far more valuable then a turret. Another tip is micromanaging and diversity. Even if your opponent out numbers you, it doesn't always mean defeat. Micromanage your units, have them target specific units. It's better to have all or atleast a majority of your units firing on one unit then a crowd. If you can quickly kill one unit then move on to the next, your opponent will find himself without an army. Also, have your units target what they are best at killing. For example; if your opponent is attacking you with scorpions, marines and spartarns and you have some wraiths, jackals and grunts. Make your jackals target the spartans first, then move onto the marines and once the infantry is gone have them hit the tanks. The reason I say the spartans first, is because they do more damage than a marine, but they can also steal your wraiths. You have to prioritize your targets. Scouting will really help you and your team out. Send a unit to the opponents, see what units they have, or what buildings they have. From there you can determine their general strategy. With your boyfriend playing the Covenant it gives your team more options than just the UNSC. His leader alone can generaly stop a rush. When I play as the Covenant, I use the Arbiter. When the game starts I build; Warehouse, Warehouse, Temple. Then send my ghost to collect resourses. The reason I build the two warehouses first is because once my arbiter comes out I usually have enough resources from my warehouses and gathering to purchase both of his tier 1 upgrades and start another warehouse. The Arbiter is a one man army early in the game, and if used effectively even in the end game. Once the arbiter is built and his upgrades purchased, I use him to destroy (but no capture yet) the nuetral bases. I destroy them for the resoucres and xp for the Arbiter. Generally I wont build a second base untill the Arbiter has both of his Tier 2 upgrades. And rarely do I build any units before he has his tier 3 upgrades. I know I went on a bit of rant, but I hope that my advice is helpful. And please don't get me wrong, I am no way and expert and even though my team wins most of the time, we are human and we still lose. Losing will happen, even to the best. The best thing you can do is practice, practice, practice. Try playing a 2v2 skirmish against the A.I. computer. They attack early, it could help you with preparing for a rush. Good luck! -Seraph XXVII- Wow. That's quite a bit of information, and very detailed. I feel like I should be sitting here taking notes. I don't suppose you work for Bungie, do you? ;) I'll certainly keep all of your advice in mind. I can't seem to get used to playing as the Covenant, so I prefer to stick with UNSC but I'll mention the Covenant stuff to Ryan. Maybe we have a win somewhere in our future, afterall. Thanks! I find that the best strategy that does not involve a rush is to be aware of your opponents leader and the leaders capabilities.All covenant leaders are easily capable of rushing you so the best strategy if you are facing one of them is to get either units quickly or put up a turret or two on your base then continue to build up your base. Both Cutter and Forge are leaders that are normally not rushing leaders however Anders is normally a sign of a rush because of the capability of getting warthogs quickly. When facing the any covenant leader I would also recommend a large amount of anti-infantry units because if you get your units hitting their leader it will die extremely fast. I have to admit, I tend to pay very little attention to which leader my enemies are using. I'll have to do some more thorough research on who has what abilities, and how to counterattack those abilities. I tend to play as Cutter, just for the sake of using the MAC blast. Cutter can rush using an elephant so constantly pound an unarmed base with marines and flamethrowers, its quite effective if your opponent doesnt bother scouting so they dont know to start building defences against your rush. Forge doesn't have any rush at all. I don't particularly like to rush--I don't like to be rushed--but I'll have to try it someday I suppose. Thanks guys ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olemus Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Im with you on rushing, I prefer to sit back and build a small army then constantly pressure my opponent throughout the game, capture the resource/reactor spots and generally cause him to constantly be low on resources so he struggles with building any defenses and then unleash a final attack on him/her. Scouting is the name of the game really, if you know what their doing you cant really lose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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