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[nillapuddin]

Yup. Stupid oversight at the very least.

unfathomable that it can be an "oversight" it has to be intentional.

Did you enjoy it?

It was hectic, crazy and fun, but AI seemingly had trump card during wave 36~, looked away for 2 seconds and lost over 15 units in a single blow.

Takes alot of the enjoyment out of it when Im ready to get my next pack and find new cards, only to have just played for 45 minutes and gotten nothing.

 

[Tecnniqe]

Well it's probably not an oversight as it's not match made and nothing non match made gives XP outside campaign.

 

[thepotatoman]

I just spammed air, with Wolverines at deal with the banshees. Two groups of Hornets at the NW and NE are enough to deal with everything they send at you, you just need to be ready to micro to engage the Locusts.

That mission actually brings up one of the major flaws I have with the campaign design, and that's arbitrary walls. What looks like part of the map is something you can't get to, and you can end up with situations like the above—where I can't actually engage a Locust because it's shooting at me off the map.

It's a clear downgrade over the contained and clear map designs of the first game.

I basically did what you said to beat it, with some added warthogs.

Start with 4 Supply + 1 generator at base, all upgraded asap.

Build garage at northern base to start pumping out warthogs, keep them camped on the ridges around the north the entire time to constantly potshot all the infantry.

Put turrets everywhere you can put them.

Eventually upgrade homebase and add armory and airbase and switch to pumping out hornets.

At some point make a few Wolverines to camp at homebase for locusts.

And spam and micro the hell out of your hornets, splitting them up when needed.

Spend any extra energy on whatever upgrades, particularly airship ones.

I was just going to write this.

My advice is to now make hornets. Just make cyclops and some anti air units. Then I was able to take down the scarab at the end of the mission.

You're thinking of mission 7, which cyclops are good for, but I don't think they are for mission 8.

 

[Ricky Ricardo]

Yeah, Hold The Line came down to a swarm of Hornets with support Nightengales in the mix. Had a Scorpion, Jerome in a Wraith, a support Nightengale, and 5 Wolverines at the base, with 2 Siege turrets and 2 Anti-air turrets.

All my turrets around the perimeters were either anti-infantry or anti-vehicle, so by the time most of the enemies got to us, they were practically swiss cheese already.

Pretty much just micro-ed the Hornet swarm from place to place mopping up resistance and trying to not get wrecked of the Black hole leader power.

I would make sure that Air vehicles are leveled to LVL3 for maximum impact, and that the Armory build time option is max-leveled out too.

 

[BlueScrote]

Is there a way to play blitz against the AI? Want to tune my deck a bit before heading into 1v1. The UI looks nice, but it's just not usable at times.

 

[Forerunner]

Alright finished my legendary playthrough. The ending was pretty abrupt.

The Halo mission was a fucking joke. All because of stupid AI.

Spoiler

The reaver at the beginning never attacked my base, it just sat there. So this allowed me to just build up until I had all the upgrades and 120/120. I won like 3000-500, lol.

 

[hwalker84]

Alright finished my legendary playthrough. The ending was pretty abrupt.

The Halo mission was a fucking joke. All because of stupid AI.

Spoiler

The reaver at the beginning never attacked my base, it just sat there. So this allowed me to just build up until I had all the upgrades and 120/120. I won like 3000-500, lol.

Had something similar happen in the hold the beach mission. If you just destroy some of the original wave and leave after they kill the guys already there they'll just sit there. I built up everything and the mission was a cake walk.

 

[Tecnniqe]

People really don't like rushing in this game.

 

[AYF 001]

People really don't like rushing in this game.

Probably because they can't just use prophet/arby until they get 20 banshees like they could in HW1. But I wouldn't be surprised if people find a way. AI Brute choppers and flamethrowers can throw me for a loop early on.

 

[FyreWulff]

People really don't like rushing in this game.

people probably still figuring out the rush strats, and a whole host of people are probably the usual first wave and don't know the key to winning in RTS is rushing

 

[Tecnniqe]

Pressure is key but all the calls for early game nerfs are a bit worrying come balance patch.

 

[Toa TAK]

Pretty sure the only rush I can work with so far are the Jackrabbits.

 

[B3N1]

Pretty sure the only rush I can work with so far are the Jackrabbits.

How would that work?

An enemy tried it on us in 3v3 but I was rushing Hornets. They quit after I cleaned up the 20-something Jackrabbits with 4 Hornets

I'm disturbed by the thought of rushing, as it's not maximizing my resource gains. I'm all for quick researching and jumping to Lv2, so my current build is: supply pad, adv gen, supply pad, adv gen, supply pad, heavy upgrade x3, Jackrabbit for exploration, Level 2.

 

[Tecnniqe]

How would that work?

An enemy tried it on us in 3v3 but I was rushing Hornets. They quit after I cleaned up the 20-something Jackrabbits with 4 Hornets

I'm disturbed by the thought of rushing, as it's not maximizing my resource gains. I'm all for quick researching and jumping to Lv2, so my current build is: supply pad, adv gen, supply pad, adv gen, supply pad, heavy upgrade x3, Jackrabbit for exploration, Level 2.

Rushing is great

May the best rush win!

 

[Tecnniqe]

How the hell does this make any remote sense!?

 

[B3N1]

How the hell does this make any remote sense!?

Some borderline case would be possible, where blue got the 2 drops at the start, and at the endgame all the 8 went to red in the last 2 minutes

Zone Captures don't seem to line up either. How could one team capture 3 times on 3 points, and the other 11 times? Max could be like 3:6 I think in that case. I'm not even gonna touch how there are 2 columns for it

 

[FyreWulff]

ran into a weird bug. It was like the fog of war was there but stopped 'blocking', so I could build bases on spots that were covered by fog of war, and even see the AI's units.

I started a Twitch stream to record it when I realized what was going on. As you can see it was properly not showing me his base's buildings.

It was the only reason I was able to come back.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/125182190

 

[Tecnniqe]

Some borderline case would be possible, where blue got the 2 drops at the start, and at the endgame all the 8 went to red in the last 2 minutes

Zone Captures don't seem to line up either. How could one team capture 3 times on 3 points, and the other 11 times? Max could be like 3:6 I think in that case. I'm not even gonna touch how there are 2 columns for it

Points I think is due to two teams on any point = neutral so you get a "cap" when you win or take it back.

Power is dumb tho...

 

[wrog]

Demo is available on Xbox One: http://news.xbox.com/2017/02/27/command-units-halo-wars-2-demo-today/ (first campaign mission and Blitz Firefight with Cutter and Atriox).

 

[Flibbertygiblet]

How the hell does this make any remote sense!?

When units are destroyed, a portion of their energy is returned to you. So if you collect more energy but have a massive army still alive at the end of the game, it is possible to have less energy gained overall.

 

[Werd]

50% back, was talking about that earlier with leader powers/super units being deceptively expensive since they don't get anything back.

So these patches sure do take a long time, I didn't miss MS certification time playing mostly on PC for a years. I just hope the next patch fixes all the PC crashes given they didn't exist in the launch version they were working on.. I tried to just do the "beat legendary AI after recycling your base within 5 minutes" and it outright crashed with a few minutes left on both attempts so I had to go back to console. Easy achievement on Strongholds by the way, and you can turn a skull on to get a few free units when a firebase is destroyed to help further.

 

[RoKKeR]

Had my first disconnect in Blitz mid-match, frustrating.

Really loving Blitz at the moment. Appreciate having an option to play quick games and I've enjoyed gathering energy in the early stages in order to build up a big army... have found success with that strategy.

 

[Omni]

Finished the campaign

What the hell was that. With Halo 5 and now this I'm really getting pissed off at these half arsed stories that are cut off far too soon, just so they can justify some kind of sequel.

Don't even get me started on the cutscenes. Did they just run out of time and forget to put them in the first half of the game or what? Also, who the hell was directing the cinematography.

Spoiler

The single 'cool' action cutscene of a Spartan going crazy was absolutely ruined by awful cut shots and angles

. Left me completely blue balled and frustrated. They're beautiful but that's literally all that they have going for them.

The entire campaign was me waiting for something cool to happen... and then it ends. If I sound upset it's because I am. We waited 8 years for this. Incredibly disappointed would be an understatement. It really doesn't help that the game glitched and unlocked the final two cutscenes before I even got to the final levels. You'd think a bug like that would be high on the priority list.

ugh.

 

[Werd]

"Alas, I don't think it's a great fit for a competitive multiplayer game because all too often you win or lose based on a combination of your own luck and the enemy's"

The Blitz packs make it not a great fit for competitive, but I don't think the mode itself feels particularly based on luck. You can cycle for whatever you need and put multiple of key abilities like detect in the deck. 1v1 at least is mostly just on out multi-tasking the opponent until you have a decisive army advantage. Very nicely designed mode IMO aside from I'd imagine MS requested micro-transactions.

Going through some of the after launch reviews/coverage- I liked TB's video, rightly critical of some parts but he didn't place this shame on being streamlined from hardcore RTS as if that is inherently wrong.

 

[Proelite]

Finished the campaign

What the hell was that. With Halo 5 and now this I'm really getting pissed off at these half arsed stories that are cut off far too soon, just so they can justify some kind of sequel.

Don't even get me started on the cutscenes. Did they just run out of time and forget to put them in the first half of the game or what? Also, who the hell was directing the cinematography.

Spoiler

The single 'cool' action cutscene of a Spartan going crazy was absolutely ruined by awful cut shots and angles

. Left me completely blue balled and frustrated. They're beautiful but that's literally all that they have going for them.

The entire campaign was me waiting for something cool to happen... and then it ends. If I sound upset it's because I am. We waited 8 years for this. Incredibly disappointed would be an understatement. It really doesn't help that the game glitched and unlocked the final two cutscenes before I even got to the final levels. You'd think a bug like that would be high on the priority list.

ugh.

Considering the state of the game after the delays, I'm happy that it was released and not canceled. Even a janky RTS with a rushed campaign is better than no RTS. Who can guess what kind of development trouble this title went through.

At least the game can be finished and polished via patches and DLCs. Would not be happening if it was Scalebounded.

I am willing to put up with the shoddy quality of the game because I am thirsty as fuck for decent AA / AAA RTSes.

 

[Tecnniqe]

Had my first disconnect in Blitz mid-match, frustrating.

Really loving Blitz at the moment. Appreciate having an option to play quick games and I've enjoyed gathering energy in the early stages in order to build up a big army... have found success with that strategy.

Yeah DCing is still an issue sadly.

 

[FyreWulff]

Also once I get Wars 2 down to muscle memory, I'd like to hold "Wars school" customs for those that want help getting used to the regular RTS mode. Did it for Wars 1 and people liked it.

 

[Tecnniqe]

Also once I get Wars 2 down to muscle memory, I'd like to hold "Wars school" customs for those that want help getting used to the regular RTS mode. Did it for Wars 1 and people liked it.

That sounds like a great idea 👍

 

[Fuchsdh]

Finished the campaign

What the hell was that. With Halo 5 and now this I'm really getting pissed off at these half arsed stories that are cut off far too soon, just so they can justify some kind of sequel.

Don't even get me started on the cutscenes. Did they just run out of time and forget to put them in the first half of the game or what? Also, who the hell was directing the cinematography.

Spoiler

The single 'cool' action cutscene of a Spartan going crazy was absolutely ruined by awful cut shots and angles

. Left me completely blue balled and frustrated. They're beautiful but that's literally all that they have going for them.

The entire campaign was me waiting for something cool to happen... and then it ends. If I sound upset it's because I am. We waited 8 years for this. Incredibly disappointed would be an understatement. It really doesn't help that the game glitched and unlocked the final two cutscenes before I even got to the final levels. You'd think a bug like that would be high on the priority list.

ugh.

There are almost exactly as many cutscenes by running time as there were in the first game.

 

[Toa TAK]

Also, who the hell was directing the cinematography.

Spoiler

The single 'cool' action cutscene of a Spartan going crazy was absolutely ruined by awful cut shots and angles

. Left me completely blue balled and frustrated. They're beautiful but that's literally all that they have going for them.

I'm glad I'm not the one not one who thinks that, especially for *that* cutscene where it's opening with horrendous flashes that don't do the action any favors, save for the moment where he fires his pistol. It comes off as them trying to save time and money on these cutscenes (which is understandable) but it sacrifices the way it's shot making it less coherent than necessary. It was awful, at least the rest of the cutscene kicked ass.

 

[FyreWulff]

There are almost exactly as many cutscenes by running time as there were in the first game.

yeah

Wars 1: 33 minutes of CGI
Wars 2 28 minutes of CGI

About the budget of doing one episode of a regular TV show worth of time

I think the notable difference is that Wars 1's CGI scenes were spread more evenly through the game. Wars 2 spent all the budget on only 3 different unique scenes (4 if you count credit, but that's like 15 seconds)

 

[Fuchsdh]

"Alas, I don’t think it’s a great fit for a competitive multiplayer game because all too often you win or lose based on a combination of your own luck and the enemy’s"


The Blitz packs make it not a great fit for competitive, but I don't think the mode itself feels particularly based on luck. You can cycle for whatever you need and put multiple of key abilities like detect in the deck. 1v1 at least is mostly just on out multi-tasking the opponent until you have a decisive army advantage. Very nicely designed mode IMO aside from I'd imagine MS requested micro-transactions.

Going through some of the after launch reviews/coverage- I liked TB's video, rightly critical of some parts but he didn't place this shame on being streamlined from hardcore RTS as if that is inherently wrong.

Yeah thus far I haven't run into any situation where I felt "oh well he obviously had better cards than me". If anything I need to tweak my opening because I generally seem to get hit with bigger cards before I can respond, but I do much better if I can last until I've got a decent army and parked some siege units.

 

[Werd]

So if a 1v1 game bugs out and doesn't load for either player they both get a loss. For some reason. Glad none of this is actually ranked yet.

 

[Tecnniqe]

Rumble is the worst

 

[Fuchsdh]

So are their Blitz cards that let you change your starting units, or no?

Also, it's a little detail but I like how the leader dialogue changes depending on how close (or not) your margin of victory was. Barely lost a game by three points and Isabel chalks it up to to luck. Lost it 200-zip and Isabel suggests she'll purge the memory from her databanks

 

[Toa TAK]

Rumble is the worst

Utter lies.

 

[Ricky Ricardo]

I too, have beaten the campaign and ... am excited, relieved, and disappointed, all at the same time.

Excited: This entire experience was a great break from the norm. The RTS genre is wilted and getting a game, issues and all, like this was fantastic. The cutscenes were wonderful, even the in-game ones, especially the banter between Red Team. The implications of the post-credits cutscene are actually pretty enormous and make some sense.

Assuming the HW2 ring is the one we saw in Halo 5's LE, then it means the paths of the two groups HAVE to cross now.

But that leads me to a cautious optimism. We'll have to see where the HW2 DLC takes us storywise, but supposing Halo 6 actually has cross-over with Halo Wars 2, 343 will have to manage:

Cortana and the Created
Blue Team
Red Team
Fireteam Osiris
UNSC Infinity and co.
Spirit of Fire and co.
The Banished (again, assuming we don't reach some sort of conclusion there in the DLC)
Arbiter and co.
Halsey

Considering how ... up-and-down they've been with story-telling and narrative efficiency/effectiveness, I'm hella doubtful this can all come together. Yet, at the same time, I'm pretty hyped to see just if they can pull it off.

Merely the idea of Red and Blue team converging, the last Spartan-IIs left in the galaxy ... HNNNNG

In short: the possible narrative/gameplay opporunities opened up my Halo 6 x Halo Wars 2 has me incredibly anxious to see where 343 takes things. I have a feeling Halo 6 will be an end, of sorts, for Master Chief.

Relieved: I want to say that it went by really quickly, but I've played for 20 hours to beat the game on Heroic, no MP touched yet. It was pretty frustrating at times, especially Mission 6 (Hold the Line) and Mission 11 (The Halo). Those two were especially difficult, for me at least. I have to get better at reading tactical situations, responding to encounters with better insight into individual unit strengths/weaknesses (Hornet Storm FTW), and I have to step up my micro-game.

Disappointed: I'm a little disappointed with THAT cutscene as well, I thought the opening flashes and cuts really distorted the action. I really just wanted to see him in full clarity, destroying everyone.

And although I spent so much time actually playing the game, it still felt like it just ... ended. The abrupt nature of it threw me off. I think I was hoping for a climatic finish, like the original against the Arbiter, but on the other hand, I'm glad they didn't go that route and make things predicable. It's a mixed bag, IMO.

Also, the game on PC is buggy. The latest patch introduced the black screen loading issue (which is not all bad because the menu song is so good). The game CTD every time I exit a mission instead of taking me to the menu.

Anyways, sorry of the rant. I really enjoyed my time with the game. I'll get around to grinding out Legendary eventually.

 

[thepotatoman]

Finally beat heroic campaign. Mission 11 took me a couple tries just because I didn't realize they intend you to actively fight for all 3 points from the very start. Was super easy on retry knowing that and the easy expansion.

Can finally try multiplayer, and it's pretty fun. Still don't really know what to do late game, but most games are decided at 10 minutes just to my initial force of infantry units, because most people apparently don't build any units until tier 2 even though rushing to tier 2 units takes absolutely forever.

Not even all in rushing either, just making sure I'm always building units like in most RTSs.

 

[Fuchsdh]

Finally beat heroic campaign. Mission 11 took me a couple tries just because I didn't realize they intend you to actively fight for all 3 points from the very start. Was super easy on retry knowing that and the easy expansion.

Can finally try multiplayer, and it's pretty fun. Still don't really know what to do late game, but most games are decided at 10 minutes just to my initial force of infantry units, because most people apparently don't build any units until tier 2 even though rushing to tier 2 units takes absolutely forever.

Not even all in rushing either, just making sure I'm always building units like in most RTSs.

It seems like most people in RTS games either focus on macro, turtling, or a cheesy rush. The concept of applying pressure without going all-in is pretty anathema to most.

 

[thepotatoman]

It seems like most people in RTS games either focus on macro, turtling, or a cheesy rush. The concept of applying pressure without going all-in is pretty anathema to most.

And this game really rewards leaving your base early too with all the resource rewards waiting on the map.

Anyway, does the unranked mode still keep an invisible MMR? Or do we have to wait for ranked mode to get proper matchmaking on skill?

 

[Tecnniqe]

And this game really rewards leaving your base early too with all the resource rewards waiting on the map.

Anyway, does the unranked mode still keep an invisible MMR? Or do we have to wait for ranked mode to get proper matchmaking on skill?

unranked do have a hidden MMR but does not seem to match by it.

 

[Belakor]

Is this better than Halo Wars 1?

 

[Tecnniqe]

Is this better than Halo Wars 1?

To me it is.

 

[BondFancy]

Is this better than Halo Wars 1?

TBH I like HW1 a little bit better. However, I think HW2 will be better with time.

For me, there's a couple of dumb things I liked about the 1st that they got rid of. Like controlling covenant leaders, having more upgrades for individual units, instead of bulk unit type upgrades, quick ODST drops, cryo bomb. However, HW2 is deeper and I think has more room for strategy.

 

[thepotatoman]

unranked do have a hidden MMR but does not seem to match by it.

If it's hidden, and doesn't affect matchmaking, what does it do?

 

[Tecnniqe]

If it's hidden, and doesn't affect matchmaking, what does it do?

Nothing it seems right now. At least the pools of players make no sense for any MMR match making.

 

[m23]

Also once I get Wars 2 down to muscle memory, I'd like to hold "Wars school" customs for those that want help getting used to the regular RTS mode. Did it for Wars 1 and people liked it.

Although I consider myself an intermediate at this point, I think there is always more to learn. I'd participate if this happened.

 

[MeisterLeder]

Is this better than Halo Wars 1?

Nope sadly not.

Especially the Campaign is way better in HW1.

Ive replayed 5 missions of HW1 recently and man it shits all over HW2s pathethic "campaign" missions. (*cough* mp modes *cough*)

 

[Fata1moose]

Is this better than Halo Wars 1?

I like it more for the most part. The menu UI is awful, servers suck. The campaign is a bit shorter than I'd like, plus some of the mission design is lame (tower defense/multiplayer modes). That being said, the units have more depth and it's a lot of fun from campaign down to Blitz.

 

[Gestault]

I love Blitz Firefight, but I can't imagine why it doesn't give xp. Campaign has been excellent through mission 6/12.

There are some little oversights that just jump out at me while playing:

CASE IN POINT (not disruptive, but funny/obvious)