58 replies to this topic

[SternuS]

Area of Effect.

Thanks, now that sentence makes sense.

 

P.S. the last time I fought them I had to sacrifice half my fleet (Charons/Paris and Thanatos) but I managed to spread the nukes and eventually I triumphed. But I see it difficult to win without losing any ship at all.

[Moustachio86]

Nukes, always nukes. Don't get more 'Age of Empires' than nukes.

[Sneer]

Call me crazy but I when I have to clear a Flood Planet I throw fleets of regular Halcyons at them; if you group them tightly and order them to simply charge straight through a large group of approaching Flood Ships they actually handle them fairly well. As far as I can tell, MACs outrange the infection ability, so with a large enough group it's possible to eliminate most of the flood ships in a head on full speed charge; you'll lose most if not all of your ships when it gets down to the nitty gritty close range knife fighting, but then again so will the flood. Cough cough fix bayonets cough cough.

[SternuS]

Call me crazy but I when I have to clear a Flood Planet I throw fleets of regular Halcyons at them; if you group them tightly and order them to simply charge straight through a large group of approaching Flood Ships they actually handle them fairly well. As far as I can tell, MACs outrange the infection ability, so with a large enough group it's possible to eliminate most of the flood ships in a head on full speed charge; you'll lose most if not all of your ships when it gets down to the nitty gritty close range knife fighting, but then again so will the flood. Cough cough fix bayonets cough cough.

But your ships would become infected. Then you'll have to destroy them.

[Sneer]

But your ships would become infected. Then you'll have to destroy them.

Some of them will, yes, but they typically wipe out such a huge portion of the Spore ships and other infected ships that the return of having to come back to sweep aside the remnants plus 5-10 heavily damaged ships of my own is worth it by far. Halcyons and Marathons work particularly well because besides having powerful MACs and shitstorms worth of Archer Missiles they also have fighters which just tear Spore Ships apart. If you have your fighters specifically target Spore Ships while your cruisers and the infected ships bludgeon each other to death you can typically walk away from a battle like this having wiped out either all or most of the Spore ships along with an extreme majority of the other infected ships. Sure, you lose a moderately sizable fleet, but the whole UNSC strategy in this game is to drown enemy fleets in your own blood so you shouldn't feel too bad about losing a fleet or five or ten here and there. 

[SternuS]

Some of them will, yes, but they typically wipe out such a huge portion of the Spore ships and other infected ships that the return of having to come back to sweep aside the remnants plus 5-10 heavily damaged ships of my own is worth it by far. Halcyons and Marathons work particularly well because besides having powerful MACs and shitstorms worth of Archer Missiles they also have fighters which just tear Spore Ships apart. If you have your fighters specifically target Spore Ships while your cruisers and the infected ships bludgeon each other to death you can typically walk away from a battle like this having wiped out either all or most of the Spore ships along with an extreme majority of the other infected ships. Sure, you lose a moderately sizable fleet, but the whole UNSC strategy in this game is to drown enemy fleets in your own blood so you shouldn't feel too bad about losing a fleet or five or ten here and there. 

Good to know, I'm going to test this tactic in the next game. I love Halcyons despite everyone on this site says they're crappy.

[Moustachio86]

The problem with any form of suicide charge against the flood is exactly that: the flood don't kill you, they convert you. A pyrrhic victory against the flood spores is literally the worst outcome (aside from defeat) because then you'll spend even more resources on taking out your own prize fleet.

[Rovert10]

Good to know, I'm going to test this tactic in the next game. I love Halcyons despite everyone on this site says they're crappy.

Well they arn't crap just outclassed by everything else later on being the old ship that it is.

[war5444]

I make a Mako-class horde (100ish) worked extremely well.

[SternuS]

Well they arn't crap just outclassed by everything else later on being the old ship that it is.

In other words, useless. Equal Crap.

 

If they are so outclassed, why did the UNSC built / repaired a bunch of them to escort the Infinity? Are you telling me that in 4 years they haven't managed to build a couple of Marathons?

[Rovert10]

In other words, useless. Equal Crap.

 

If they are so outclassed, why did the UNSC built / repaired a bunch of them to escort the Infinity? Are you telling me that in 4 years they haven't managed to build a couple of Marathons?

I have to assume those are Refitted Halcyons like the Pillar of Autumn left over from the Human-Covenant War.

It's probably cheaper to refit Halcyons rather than build up new Marathons from scratch considering they literally have to rebuild their entire economy in a sense.

 

The UNSC probably feels that it's probably not worth building Marathons especially with the technology advances they made from the UNSC Infinity. Why build the Marathons when you can go design much better ships now? So they refitted Halcyons as a placeholder of sorts.

 

 

I should probably reword that the Halcyon isn't necessarily crap. Yes it is outclassed by Marathons but you can only build so many of these things since now Marathons take a capital ship slot. Halcyons are a cheaper alternative that can take a beating. The Halcyon Refit is better than the current Marathon mind you. But even then the buffs and usage of the regular Halcyon still makes an essential part of the UNSC fleet. 

[Deathscythe1992]

I should probably reword that the Halcyon isn't necessarily crap. Yes it is outclassed by Marathons but you can only build so many of these things since now Marathons take a capital ship slot. Halcyons are a cheaper alternative that can take a beating. The Halcyon Refit is better than the current Marathon mind you. But even then the buffs and usage of the regular Halcyon still makes an essential part of the UNSC fleet. 

Marathons will take up a cap ship slot?!?!  I hope they tripled its power compared to the public beta, because otherwise it would be nearly garbage.  I'd rather build Valiants

[Rovert10]

Marathons will take up a cap ship slot?!?!  I hope they tripled its power compared to the public beta, because otherwise it would be nearly garbage.  I'd rather build Valiants

You'll see. The entire UNSC was pretty much reworked since the public beta. The UNSC in the public beta is nothing like it is now.

[SternuS]

I have to assume those are Refitted Halcyons like the Pillar of Autumn left over from the Human-Covenant War.

It's probably cheaper to refit Halcyons rather than build up new Marathons from scratch considering they literally have to rebuild their entire economy in a sense.

 

The UNSC probably feels that it's probably not worth building Marathons especially with the technology advances they made from the UNSC Infinity. Why build the Marathons when you can go design much better ships now? So they refitted Halcyons as a placeholder of sorts.

 

 

I should probably reword that the Halcyon isn't necessarily crap. Yes it is outclassed by Marathons but you can only build so many of these things since now Marathons take a capital ship slot. Halcyons are a cheaper alternative that can take a beating. The Halcyon Refit is better than the current Marathon mind you. But even then the buffs and usage of the regular Halcyon still makes an essential part of the UNSC fleet. 

I agree with you. By the way, I can't stand the fact that we clearly see 4 Halcyons in the opening cinematic of Halo 4 multiplayer but then we don't even see one of them in S-Ops. It would've been so great to see, after 12 years of games, a Halcyon in action.

[Rovert10]

Come to think of it where the hell was the entire escort fleet during Halo 4? The only things we saw were a bunch of deployable Charons.

The Halcyons weren't there for both battles of Requiem heck no surrounding ships. They just went up and gone somewhere?

[Deathscythe1992]

Come to think of it where the hell was the entire escort fleet during Halo 4? The only things we saw were a bunch of deployable Charons.

The Halcyons weren't there for both battles of Requiem heck no surrounding ships. They just went up and gone somewhere?

Well if you think about it they probably werent able to engage as quickly as the Infinity.  The Halcyons had the older inaccurate slipspace drives, so they were probably a few hundred thousand kilometers from the battle to begin with.  By the time they arrived the battle would have been over.

[SternuS]

Come to think of it where the hell was the entire escort fleet during Halo 4? The only things we saw were a bunch of deployable Charons.

The Halcyons weren't there for both battles of Requiem heck no surrounding ships. They just went up and gone somewhere?

 

Also, at the end of FUD, we see this massive fleet that suddenly disappears...

Well if you think about it they probably werent able to engage as quickly as the Infinity.  The Halcyons had the older inaccurate slipspace drives, so they were probably a few hundred thousand kilometers from the battle to begin with.  By the time they arrived the battle would have been over.

I don't know exactly how long did S-Ops lasted, but I suppose it lasted at least a week. I seriously doubt they couldn't reach the battlefield in a week.

[Sneer]

The problem with any form of suicide charge against the flood is exactly that: the flood don't kill you, they convert you. A pyrrhic victory against the flood spores is literally the worst outcome (aside from defeat) because then you'll spend even more resources on taking out your own prize fleet.

See the problem here is that you're assuming many of the Halycons will survive this engagement; as I think we can tell from all of the posts regarding the oldness and obsolescence of the Halycon, it doesn't really hold up well in pitched battle. Assaulting a Flood World is problematic for three reasons: 1. The damn Spore ships 2. Other infected ships 3. Flood-infected MACS. This basically produces an unholy clusterfuck of a bad time for any fleet that tries to take the planet. The use of massed Halycons is good in this sort of situation as they're tough as balls and their MACs outrange Spore ship's infection abilities.  If you maneuver so you don't face too critical of a mass of Spore ships at once the Halycons are able to kill most of them quite handily while soaking up damage from the other forces.

 

Halycons are nice because they take up a low amount of population for the bang they give you, and they can take an ass beating and still keep shooting. I'd argue that they're one of the more useful UNSC ships against other UNSC ships merely because they in a way break the stereotype of the UNSC producing "glass cannons", they can soak up damage that would wreck a more expensive Marathon and ask for seconds, yet they take up less population. If you can manage to take an enemy fleet head-on with them they'll batter the poor bastards to bits... that said they're really quite vulnerable to strike craft seeing as they have no Triple A and are slow as balls; their lack of any appreciable speed also makes them vulnerable to being outmaneuvered.

 

Basically the Halycon is the cheap meat shield of the UNSC, and it does that very very very well in the right circumstances

[Emberblaque]

See the problem here is that you're assuming many of the Halycons will survive this engagement; as I think we can tell from all of the posts regarding the oldness and obsolescence of the Halycon, it doesn't really hold up well in pitched battle. Assaulting a Flood World is problematic for three reasons: 1. The damn Spore ships 2. Other infected ships 3. Flood-infected MACS. This basically produces an unholy clusterfuck of a bad time for any fleet that tries to take the planet. The use of massed Halycons is good in this sort of situation as they're tough as balls and their MACs outrange Spore ship's infection abilities.  If you maneuver so you don't face too critical of a mass of Spore ships at once the Halycons are able to kill most of them quite handily while soaking up damage from the other forces.

 

Halycons are nice because they take up a low amount of population for the bang they give you, and they can take an ass beating and still keep shooting. I'd argue that they're one of the more useful UNSC ships against other UNSC ships merely because they in a way break the stereotype of the UNSC producing "glass cannons", they can soak up damage that would wreck a more expensive Marathon and ask for seconds, yet they take up less population. If you can manage to take an enemy fleet head-on with them they'll batter the poor bastards to bits... that said they're really quite vulnerable to strike craft seeing as they have no Triple A and are slow as balls; their lack of any appreciable speed also makes them vulnerable to being outmaneuvered.

 

Basically the Halycon is the cheap meat shield of the UNSC, and it does that very very very well in the right circumstances

I almost didn't notice that you're calling Halcyons Halycons. Points for consistent misspelling. Because let's remember that it's really inconsistent misspellers that everyone hates. Those inconsistent bastards.

[Sneer]

I almost didn't notice that you're calling Halcyons Halycons. Points for consistent misspelling. Because let's remember that it's really inconsistent misspellers that everyone hates. Those inconsistent bastards.

Merp.