UNSC Naval Tactics Explained | Halo Lore

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On today's Halo Lore video, we breakdown the UNSC's naval tactics through the Human-Covenant War and beyond!
From the Keyes Loop, to Mac Cannons, to the UNSC Infinity, we'll cover it all on today's #halo video!
***
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[@EckhartsLadder]

Support the channel and get a free Halo audiobook: www.audibletrial.com/eckhartsladder My Halo lore playlist: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aX64hXinhMtnnpY

[@beasticy4216]

EckhartsLadder You should create a video on Imperium of man Nava Tactics

[@clpfox470]

pardon me eck would you ever consider doing the naval tactics and ships of say the Legend of the galactic heroes or Gundam?

[@nicholascarhuff3495]

You should create a video on the "Keys loop" from the book The Fall of Reach, it's pretty cool and I think it would make for a good battle breakdown video

[@mitchellholliday1665]

EckhartsLadder great video I like halo way more than Star Wars always excited to halo videos

[@matthalo871]

Im so happy you didn't say Havok nuke instead of you said the right weapon the Shiva nuke

[@thestarwarsstop2936]

"When I joined the Corps, we didn't have any fancy-schmancy tanks. We had sticks! TWO sticks and a rock for a whole platoon... and we had to share the rock!"

[@rasputinjagger3078]

Classic lol

[@thestarwarsstop2936]

Tell that to the covenant....

[@redrickgale5154]

One very lucky marine

[@CaseyCollier]

"Men, we led those dumb bugs out to the middle of nowhere to keep 'em from gettin' their filthy claws on Earth. But, we stumbled onto somethin' they're so hot for, that they're scramblin' over each other to get it. Well, I don't care if it's God's own anti-son-of-a-bitch machine, or a giant hula hoop; we're not gonna let 'em have it! What we will let 'em have is a belly full of lead, and a pool of their own blood to drown in! Am I right, marines?" - Sergeant Avery Johnson (Halo: CE)

[@inkedseahear]

Johnson was a A-hole, he kept hogging over that rock

[@ThefinalWarrior-ri5lt]

That scene of the Infinity crashing through a Covenant ship never gets old.

[@RhodesianBushmaster]

It just goes to show just how powerful the shields humanity employs actually are. The amount of kinetic energy released in that moment? Ridiculous.

[@alaskamark4562]

The final Warrior13576. It looks cool, but I don't really like how these scenes treat the Covenant, they just don't seem as threatening as they used to be.

[@ThefinalWarrior-ri5lt]

alaskamark456 yeah I agree

[@ironsaber2]

alaskamark456 because they're not. From what they said in the newer books that the unsc are now top dogs because of them obtaining engineers from the foreruner era and due to the covenant civil war

[@alaskamark4562]

ironsaber2. That's all well and good for the UNSC but now humanity's struggle for survival isn't as gripping for the player as it used to be. Humans were once the underdogs slowly being exterminated, desperately fighting tooth and nail for the smallest victories, now they just send in the overpowered Infinity and hordes of practically unstoppable Spartan IV's whenever some alien guy who wants to kill all humans pops up. It just doesn't feel the same to me.

[@MrBigCookieCrumble]

"They say the lord works in mysterious ways, but not today! This right here is 66 tons of straight up, HE spitting DI-VINE intervention! If God is love, then you can call me cupid."

[@admiralshadowofasunderedst3068]

Mr BigCookie 66 tons

[@tomdevries4655]

Halo needs more space combat scenes... I loved the cinematic in 4's spartan ops

[@elichalfant941]

Tom de vries even RvB can do good ones

[@ComradeDragon1957]

agreed

[@autumngottlieb3071]

YES

[@thyreradim7885]

Every time you see blank space in Halo, that is the space combat..... (no really it's not like we could actually see any of the most famous space battles lol, the most famous ones took place far enough away that we couldn't see the ships.)

[@22steve5150]

That first combat scene shows just how far they've come, just a few years before they would have needed at least 30-40 ships to deal with the Covenant fleet seen in orbit of Requim and even then they would have expected to lose 10-20 ships in the fight, but Infinity just rolls through them with no fucks given, blasting everthing in sight and clearing the corridor for troop deployment in a matter of minutes. You think about that one pic of Infinity cruising with like a dozen new Auburn class heavy cruisers and a bunch of new frigates alongside and wonder how much damage that group of ships could have done to the Covenant fleet that invaded Reach had they ever met in combat.

[@autumngottlieb3071]

"Listen to me, Covenant. I am Vice Admiral Preston J. Cole commanding the human flagship, Everest. You claim to be the holy and glorious inheritors of the universe? I spit on your so-called holiness. You dare judge us unfit? After I have personally sent more than three hundred of your vainglorious ships to hell? After kicking your collective butts off Harvest - not once - but twice? From where I sit, we are the worthy inheritors. You think otherwise, you can come try to prove me wrong." -UNSC Vice Admiral Preston Cole, At the Battle of Psi Serpentis.

[@thelonehunter6025]

The Great Destroyer Badass

[@primarybufferpanel4468]

There's a possibility he survived the battle too which I find even more impressive

[@ComradeDragon1957]

"This is the prototype NOVA bomb, nine fusion warheads encased in lithium triteride armor. When detonated, it compresses its fissionable material to neutron-star density, boosting the thermonuclear yield a hundredfold. I am Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb, temporarily in command of the UNSC military base Reach. To the Covenant uglies that might be listening, you have a few seconds to pray to your damned heathen gods. You all have a nice day in hell..." - Vice Admiral Danforth Whitcomb's recording on the NOVA bomb, right before it is activated in the space adjacent to the planet Joyous Exultation. I have to say,UNSC vice admirals were some badass mother fuckers.

[@cpMetis]

That quote almost makes him sound religious himself, which is something I wish was explored more in sci-fi stories. Like, they all just seem to pretend everyone in sci-fi stories is automatically aehtiest unless the religious folk are the baddies.

[@primarybufferpanel4468]

cpMetis If you have a hulu account I highly suggest that you watch Firefly. It's more of a space-western than it is a hard syfy, but it has some interesting perspectives on Religion, life on the (final) frontier, and life for a man who fought for the losing side.

[@mryuma1547]

UNSC ground tactics would be a great follow up to this

[@tyleroertel6127]

Step 1: send in spartans Step 2: profit

[@sawyernorthrop4078]

UNSC Ground tactics are basically just modern combined arms tactics

[@inorite4553]

@@sawyernorthrop4078 Which were still, within the Halo universe, superior to Covenant ground combat tactics.

[@inorite4553]

The Marines on foot could almost always win the ground battle, it was just the Sailors up in space that would lose the entire engagement.

[@sawyernorthrop4078]

@@inorite4553 "human" wave tactics isn't really the right term but that's basically what the covenant used

[@ThatOneGuy46696]

"Extremely fast speeds" is an INCREDIBLE understatement. They're fired at relativistic speeds to produce the most powerful impact force Humanity could muster.

[@nmarbletoe8210]

so, "relatively fast" then

[@SideStrafed]

N Marbletoe he’s saying these objects that weight many many tons are traveling at speeds nearing the speed of light

[@Coconutszz]

@@TheMrCosmo All it is is kinetic energy so it isn't going to be very showy. You only ever see the impact planet side and those strikes are very weak as to not fuck the atmosphere. And no, a MAC wouldn't take out a whole fleet or a planet.

[@HellsRaven4444]

Unfortunately, only the Super Macs can actually have that "Extremely fast Speeds" title. Ship-base MACs were actually ridiculously slow. A mere 30 km/s to be exact back during and pre-covenant war. No idea about post-war as they haven't released any detail. Anyway, this means that when the Covenant use weapons like the Energy Projector (the particle beam weapon that they use to glass planets and all) which has a range over 100,000 km, if a UNSC ship tries to fire at the Covenant ship, it will take approximately 55 mins to travel that distance. More than enough time for the Covenant on that ship to take a lunch break and then move out of the way of the round.

[@BB-ce5ev]

@@Coconutszz you do realize asteroids are natures macs right? Ask the dinosaurs how weak a mac round is.

[@jonathanwalker4985]

Out of all the other people that talk about Halo, you do the best job explaining the lore by far! Great work and thanks for helping us nerds out lol!

[@jonathanwalker4985]

Oh, could you maybe do a video on the borg vs the Star Wars universe empire?

[@davidulanovsky8943]

Well certainly with the space stuff but don’t forget the likes of hidden Xperia halo canon and covenant canon.

[@matthalo871]

How to mixes up the two menu killer weapons use for the UNSC they only have three of them Havok nukes Shiva nukes and the Nova bomb and beyond that there's only Fusion Rockets that are used as a nuclear weapon type

[@SSDConker2]

I don't know, I think Halo Canon is the best Halo Lore channel. That dude gets really in depth with the lore.

[@JohnTheRecoilJunkie]

Eck and Hidden Xperia are my favorites.

[@darkbooger]

Chief: Sir, Permission to leave the station? Hood: For what purpose, Master Chief? Chief: To give the Covenant back their bomb. Hood: Permission granted. *Chief pulls the bomb into an elevator* Cortana: I know what you're thinking, and it's crazy. Chief: So stay here. Cortana: Unfortunately for us both, I like crazy. *Just as Master Chief is about to open the airlock* Cortana: Just one question, what if you miss? Chief: I won't. *Airlock opens and pulls the bomb and Master Chief out into the vacuum* *A whole space battle with more good music is in session* *Longswords punch a whole in the Capital Ship's hull to give Chief an entrance* *Chief continues through and arms the bomb, then proceeds by jumping up and out of the Carrier* *The ship explodes and Chief lands on UNSC In Amber Clad* Johnson: For a brick, he flew pretty good.

[@ausaskar]

You missed the Mad Men in the Marathon shielding the Chief *o7*

[@kryvex4996]

DarkBooger yet people still think doomguy is more badass.

[@darkbooger]

Just because Doomguy can tear demons limb from limb, does not mean he can destroy an entire Halo ring by himself. Also, I kind of doubt the Doomguy has had any sort of EVA training.

[@thomasmusic9370]

Miranda Keyes: Chief, get inside and gear up; we're taking this fight to the surface.

[@darkbooger]

*Three Pelicans leave the UNSC In Amber Clad and approach New Mombasa* Cortana: The message just repeats: Regret. Regret. Regret. Miranda Keyes: Catchy, any idea what it means? Avery Johnson: Dear Humanity, we regret being alien bastards, we regret coming to Earth. And we most definitely regret that the Corps just blew-up our raggedy-ass fleet! Pilots: Hoo-Rah! *Pelicans are now flying directly above the streets of New Mombasa* *Driver-less Warthogs are seen below* Cortana: Regret is a name sergeant. The name of one of the Covenant's religious leaders- a Prophet. He's on that carrier. And he's calling for help. Recon Team: Immediate: grid-kilo-two-three is hot. Recommend mission abort. Pilot: Roger Recon. It's your call, Sarge Avery Johnson: We're going in. Get tactical, marines! Lord Hood: Master Chief? Get aboard that carrier, secure the Prophet of Regret. This is the only place on Earth the Covenant decided to land. That Prophet is going to tell us why. Pilot: 30 seconds out. Stand-by to... Whoa! *Epic music begins* *Scarab charges its main cannon and fires* *Lead Pelican is hit and the Scarab's plasma turret causes the second Pelican's evasive maneuvers to fail and cause a crash landing*

[@darthvader4594]

*insert any johnson quote*

[@LAV-III]

*AND WE HAD TO SHARE THE ROCK*

[@PERFECTTATERTOT]

Don't let her go. Don't ever let he go. Send me out with a bang

[@spaky1954]

“OH I KNOW WHAT THE LADIES LIKE”

[@trigger5729]

YOU ARE ON VERY LUCKY MARINE

[@4realm8rusirius]

"Look you don't like me and I sure as hell I don't like you but if we don't stop Mr Mohawk from activating this ring we are all gonna die"

[@Nediac800]

Loving these Halo vids. The reason why the Covenant’s computer systems were so primitive compared to the UNSC was because they got another wrong idea from the Forerunner terminals. They thought that AI and other advanced computer systems were bad because of the forerunner’s thought on Mendicant Bias and other AI that went wrong

[@Myname-il9vd]

YAAAS I'VE BEEN VOTING AND VOTING AND IT CAME THANK YOU SO MUCH IN SO FREAKING HAPPY YOU GIVE ME LIVE ECK

[@Mightybunyip]

As soon as he said Spartans boarding ships through extra vehicular activities. I had image in my head of a spray driving warthog out of a hanger door of a UNSC ship to a covenant ship. Don’t ask why.

[@midgetydeath]

It’s a valid tactic!

[@22steve5150]

3 Ideas I had for how the UNSC could have substantially improved their fortunes against the Covenant in space battles prior to Reach. 1--Develop EMP burst rounds for their point defense guns. This should not be that hard since ground forces had EMP burst grenades, same effect but scaled up for 50mm autocannons. The purpose is for targeting incoming plasma cannon and plasma torpedo rounds. These plasma rounds were so potent because the Covenant used magnetic fields not only for guidance but to keep the plasma rounds compressed and super hot. With dozens of EMP rounds bursting in proximity to these incoming rounds, the electromagnetic fields would be weakened or destroyed, causing failures in guidance and/or causing the incoming plasma to rapidly expand and dissipate into space without the constraining magnetic field holding them together. 2--Develop significantly larger version of MATOS pulse laser to be used as a large deck gun. We know that the UNSC had these pulse lasers before the war or early into the war, and we know they had power comparable to Covenant pulse lasers. We also know from Halo:Reach that if even a lighter weapon like an Onager strikes the energy projector on a Covenant ship while it is charged and ready to fire, it will badly damage, cripple, or outright destroy a Covenant ship. The large laser turret would be automated and with it's own sensor package (like a big version of Phalanx CIWS) and when the sensors detect a Covenant ship in weapon range (and a large laser should have a similar effective range in space as an energy projector) that starts charging it's energy projector, the turret automatically targets and fires on the energy projector, thus making the use of energy projectors against UNSC ships a risky proposition, as a well timed and well placed laser shot will disable or destroy them. 3--Warships able to receive beamed power from ground based generators just as ODPs do. This shouldn't be that difficult. Fit all or some ships (maybe only ships assigned to vital system defense, maybe even older refitted ships that don't even have their slipspace drives or many other systems and operating on skeleton crews) with the same energy beam receivers as the ODPs, and dedicate a few ground based generators (that don't need to generate nearly as much power as the ones that power the ODP's and their super MACs) and orbital power relay platforms (basically these would receive power from the ground and then have multiple projectors to beam power to a dozen, or two dozen, or maybe three dozen ships near the planet) and boom, you've got a defensive fleet that can operate within several hundred thousand kilometers of the planet that can rapid fire their MACs on full charge as fast as the MACs can be reloaded, or as fast as possible without melting the magnetic coils or burning out the capaciters, making planetary defense so much more potent. Think of that, even a bunch of cheap little frigates which can pump out 3, 4, maybe even 5 or 6 MAC rounds at full charge every minute while in the planetary defense role......plus the ODPs and their SMACs backing them up.

[@spartangoku7610]

22steve5150 smart, nice. I like the way you think. The UNSC was mainly on defense, so rapid fire due to ground based generators MAC guns would’ve been a great idea!

[@DylanBegazo]

THERE NEEDS TO BE A HALO RTS game for Space Battles. Maybe the first one can be made specifically for the battle of Reach. Or something like that. Think about it. Think about Star Wars Empire at War and Star Wars Battlefront Space Battles. Seriously. Up to scale accurate unbalanced realistic Halo Space battles as a legendary difficulty too for the game. Somebody needs to start making a Halo Union cause I don’t feel like 343 listens enough. Heck! Even the Cyclops of Halo Wars 1. Those Cyclops gave me an idea for Halo Wars 1. They should make a fully fledged FPS RTS version of Halo Wars 1. Titan Fall 2 is basically what we’d have for the Halo Wars 2 Cyclops. Play Titan Fall 2 and you’ll see what I’m getting at. Halo Wars Should do this. So you can play it as normal aka RTS but in real time switch to FPS right during game play so your playing it like Titan Fall 2. Halo always has a FPS element anyways. So yea. No new lore is needed. We got tons of space battles in the books to make into fully fledged games. First strike has 2 wonderful space battles Halo fall of reach. Other books have more too. We have enough lore already to make 15+ RTS FPS games. There’s literally no excuse. Halo’s element is FPS and RTS. The fan base is thirsty. Stop making new lore for a bit and use what you already fucking got in the books! So many books! Use them!

[@DylanBegazo]

Your ideas are perfect. You’d make a legend of a UNSC naval commander.

[@mxn1948]

@midgetydeath nuclear weapons were in short supply by mid war

[@zonnodon163]

I prefer UNSC building bigger ships overall than #3. Ships that can absorb more damage while firing more silos at the superior enemy.

[@warden-3699]

Idea: do an episode where you describe your “perfect fleet”, with access to ships from Star Wars, Halo, Mass Effect, and/or other sci-fi universes. (37th try)

[@rtasvadumee5352]

Warden - great idea

[@justinthompson6364]

Integrating the radically different conditions and technologies of different sci-fi universes probably isn't really practical... In any case, one universe or another would probably end up making up the bulk if not all of the fleet due to different power scaling or other advantages. (Edit) I didn't even think of this earlier, but on top of that, whose economic standards do you consider? In one universe, a united galaxy might not be able to afford afford a fleet that would be considered cannon fodder in 40K.

[@xyro3633]

30 Punic's will be my fleet.

[@justinthompson6364]

Xyro What franchise?

[@admiralshadowofasunderedst3068]

Justin Thompson halo punics have two super macs

[@ComradeDragon1957]

Its funny how AI was an advantage for the UNSC and now...well...

[@matthalo871]

TheSyndicalistDragon if you recall not all smart AI betrayed the UNSC

[@Jockster109]

Matthew Blandin Roland is best girl now cortana's a bitch and Serena's dead.

[@JHS270694]

TheSyndicalistDragon Cortana is a very unique case. Takes a lot of circumstances to interject and coalesce into whatever the flip she is now.

[@ComradeDragon1957]

Icarus well it's not just her going off the deep end,other AI support her,others don't/(Roland at least)

[@JHS270694]

TheSyndicalistDragon True, but she's the pack leader. Without her, this'd never happen, at least not this soon and not on this scale. She's the enabler in all this, being influenced by an ancient thing that even the Forerunners barely understood. Not to mention that Humanity has come out of a genocidal war barely intact. With many AI presumably unaccounted for. Otherwise, you wouldn't even have AIs like Sloan running groups of settlements like Meridian without being noticed and marked for dispensation. Ever heard of The Assembly? Interesting bunch of Human AIs of mysterious origin. They seem to have the best interests at heart for Humanity, as self proclaimed 'Shepards'. Seemingly capable of pulling a lot of strings too to alter the course of many significant events, for the supposed benefit to Humanity. My point is, like in my original post, too many outside influences tugging the situation to fairly say that Human AIs are inherently detrimental to Humanity. They've infact shown to be fiercely loyal and advantageous when it counts throughout the entirety of their existence so far. Even Dumb AI like the Superintendent In Halo 3: ODST. It took an AI beyond her operational lifespan verging towards rampancy, who'd been held by the Gravemind, and have her rampant copy survive and influenced by something called the Domain or Organon of Precursor origin, barely understood by the Forerunners to FINALLY turn a Human AI apeshit and influence the course of events that follow, which includes 'encouraging' (threatening?) other AI to join her insane quest to uphold a heavily misinterpreted version of the Mantle of Responsibility that so happens to be similar to the Ur-Didacts (who was also mindfucked by the Gravemind). Doesn't take much to guess whose behind all this. If you found someone amongst our kind that achieved some sort of Godhood and lit a beacon that said, join and become like me, and overthrow our overlords (let's say for arguments sake, we live in some sort of servitude to another race), wouldn't you be tempted? Wouldn't take away from our previous redeemable qualities all of a sudden. It's just an extraordinary circumstance. Sorry for the wall of text btw, I never intended it to be this long. I'm just OCD about getting my point across correctly and clearly, not being a try hard trying to refute you as best I can lol. (''^_^)

[@punishedvenomsnake716]

Eck makes the best damn videos on sci fi as a whole

[@sgtpaloogoo2811]

The Last of the brave... Love that song. It reflects the UNSC's Struggle very well.

[@lord2529]

Too bad Halo will never be what it was. To me, Halo was always about humanity's struggle against all odds and sometimes comes out on top, albeit at a high cost.

[@sgtpaloogoo2811]

Thomas Yap Yeah, now in the Halo 4 era the UNSC are better than Covenant. When i saw that I was like: "What? That's not how halo works!"

[@lord2529]

Spartans used to be the elite of the elite. Sending out a spartan fireteam means the death sentence for the enemy. It used to be something special. Now we have hundreds of s4 jogging around. Don't get me wrong, the armament upgrade and bigger ships are freaking awesome. But they never really felt out of place. The suddent surge of s4's on the other hand was not explained well enough.

[@sgtpaloogoo2811]

Thomas Yap It makes even less sense when you think about where the UNSC got all the funds for the Infinity & The S4 program. Like weren't the UNSC just through a 30 year long war where they lost most of their assets?

[@IntelCorei-KProcessor-go2to]

The construction of Infinity started while the war was still raging on.

[@briangriffin9793]

always loved the idea that the reason humans surpassed the Covenant was due to the innovation of mankind. The Covenant largely used the technology they had inherited as it was... but man clawed his way up.

[@ZSTE]

Brian Griffin Always loved that. Since the Covenant reverse engineered everything, they didn’t have a complete understanding. Humanity made most everything so they were able to adapt a lot better.

[@zonnodon163]

Just barely, and only due to engine power and shielding

[@tylersoto7465]

if I was head of UNSC take their ships and take them out and use for runner ships from halo wars 1 for ourselves and UNSC would have the navy to support itself and put their mind as ease and could go back expanding to other worlds lol

[@Char77731]

Awesome I've been waiting for a halo tactics episode

[@the_bohemian4536]

Cyanides tactics is just ramming into ships or passing by a ship then blasting it with broadside missiles

[@charlstown2235]

Well the ZF stands for Zero Fucks. It's to be expected of him

[@a_literal_railgun2423]

Just imagine your a captain of a covenant ship then a unsc ship comes along and Rams you out of nowhere

[@ashtonthompson3253]

*UNSC tactics* big booms let the Spartans take care of the rest then play dope ass music on the ships speakers

[@sparkz3432]

We need more Halo on this Channel. The lore is just perfection.

[@Kyoptic]

That corgi outro always makes me smile X'D

[@WordsofHeresy]

I'm surprised that the UNSC never created boarding craft. I mean, there's examples of dropships being modified for boarding operations and ODST drop pods being used on enemy ships, but I have never heard about just regular boarding craft. You would think the UNSC would look into boarding covenant ships to either take over or nuke the ship

[@jackmulford2661]

WordsofHeresyOfficial well does unsc Savannah ring any bells? You'll more than likely lose your home ship as you cant destroy the enemy ship due to friendly assets on board

[@WordsofHeresy]

!* switchy !* true, but there would be occasions where it would be useful. A common example being the mission on Reach where you board a ship with an unstable slipspace drive, or if the UNSC ships disabled Covenant weapon systems and sent a boarding party to capture it. Boarding tactics would be useful, especially if it could lead to capturing more tech

[@jackmulford2661]

WordsofHeresyOfficial it's against cole protocol to take a covenant vessel to a unsc planet so you can do little and most of the the time the fleets are huge and vast and taking them out is the only option

[@ben6532]

WordsofHeresyOfficial Honestly I think odst pods are perfect for boarding. Larger crafts are easier to target with anti air and fighters. You also have the problem of initial boarding where you'd be funneling men through a small exit under fire. Odst pods are harder to hit, have less "eggs in one basket", and you can spread the men across the ship. You could use something more specialized but over specialisation can be a problem too. Specialized boarding vehicles would take up valuable storage space for something you will probably never use while odst pods are readily available.

[@King-gv4lg]

WordsofHeresyOfficial i thought pelicans can fill the role, except they need to reverse park to perform it lol

[@sookendestroy1]

Pro tip as far as we know the second battle of harvests covenant ship isnt a basic cruiser but what is referred to as a battleship or super destroyer depending on the book. Probably on tier with assault carriers but currently its in a sort of canon limbo. Everything else in this video is spot on though, great video Eck

[@dazigolding5814]

The mantles approach was destroyed by one mac round, one aging Spartan, a rampant AI, and a Shiva tactical nuke which could have gone off at any point during the assault. Id say that speaks wonders about what Spartans can do.

[@LordCommander-ui2fw]

A Havok Tactical nuke, but other than that, you were spot on.

[@dazedream2392]

"May the force be with you" Whats this? Heresy in my holy covenent?

[@seanmartin1762]

love the ending with the corgi

[@erikfrey582]

Please do a video on individual UNSC tactics. They are some of the more interesting of most science fiction universes and are responsible for turning the tide of a battle in more than one occasion in the 30 year war.

[@csxfan_]

Just wanted to say I love the use of the Halo: Reach ost in the background. I feel like it's one of the best and an underappreciated halo soundtrack.

[@Jockster109]

csxfan Glory to Artstotzka

[@brucejedilee5290]

The Yuuzhan Vong vs the Eldar. The Covenant vs the Dark Eldar. The Eternal Empire vs the Infinite Empire (inclouding all the droids and weapons they made that we see in SWTOR). Zann Consortium vs the Banished. The UNSC vs the Rebel Alliance. The Covenant vs the Infinite Empire (inclouding all the droids and weapons they made that we see in SWTOR). Jul 'Mdama's Covenant vs the Banished. Seraph vs T-65 X-Wing.

[@WhatIsLove170]

Bruce Jedi Lee When it comes to the alliance vs unsc I think the rebels would have an advantage in space but would be put at a disadvantage on the ground since in star wars troops armour (when they even worn any) was not geared towards ballistics and more towards dispersing heat form blaster bolts

[@yourdoom6554]

I think we already know the answer to Jul 'Mdama's Covenant vs the Banished based on what was said during the Halo Wars 2 campaign. "The Covenant had two objectives at the time: Humanity and Atriox. They nearly got us. But Atriox? *They never got close.*" So I'd say it's a pretty fair bet that a Covenant that isn't at the same power tier of the previous one (and I do note, here, that I could be wrong and the new Covenant is more powerful than the old one, so if I am, please tell me so) would lose horribly against a group that took on a full-powered Covenant that was fighting a war on two fronts without seemingly breaking a sweat.

[@JHS270694]

Your Doom Agreed. Don't think Locke could assassinate Atriox like he did with Mdama. I mean, If three SII's got their butts kicked against Atriox, I doubt 1 S IV like Lock would fare any better. This doesnt even assume that Atriox is noted as a tactical genius. He'd run rings around Mdama. Or better yet, convert Mdama's Storm faction to his own side of the Banished.

[@brucejedilee5290]

emanresuasisiht Actually they work well against kinetic weapons to. There are times when they face it and it doesn't seem to be a problem

[@ekulerudamuru]

Bruce Jedi Lee how can thr covenant wins against those SM bastards? I don't think they can even hit those fuckers..

[@Anlushac11]

Love seeing the Infinity coming out of jump and ramming that Covenant ship, that never gets old.

[@derpy-noodles4452]

ive been waiting for this so thanks

[@donaldmeadows1594]

A day in the core is like a day on the farm every meal is a banquet every paycheck a fortune every formation a parade I love the core!

[@cominguponinfra-red3038]

Replicators vs a Unified Star Wars universe (281st try now, *_I._** WILL NEEEEVER EEEVER GIVE UP!!!)*

[@KennCobain]

coming up on infra-red you will be hear one day

[@darkwolf4434]

coming up on infra-red Replicators win 9.5/10

[@royalraptor6245]

coming up on infra-red I believe in you

[@robertagu5533]

coming up on infra-red Star Wars verse. Thats just 1 race of glorified space android spiders and humanoids VS Jedi, maybe some Sith and all the various races.. of which theres hundreds. Some of whom whos whole purpose in life is controling and destroying machines. Like... thats a Jawa's wet dream your talking about here.

[@darkwolf4434]

Robert Agu But don't forget the adapting techbology of the Replicators that would make Turbolasers and blasters useless

[@RemnantShard]

The fact that the infinity is its own battlegroup is just great

[@verdan6098]

The Covenant ship was a super-destroyer according to Cole.

[@johnusas2870]

I have to say even though I am well versed in the lore of halo watching these videos is quite refreshing and a good watch. It's also a great way to get others into the lore and the Halo universe keep up the great work with the Halo and star wars vids.

[@refraynn]

“Spartans could take down any enemy in front of them” So it could take down an entire Halo (with a capital because it’s suuuuuuuuuuper important)

[@noellesato311]

For some reason I just love that tactic of using the energy shielding of a covenant ship to contain and condense a nuclear blast. “Nuke it from the inside, they said. The energy shield will do the rest.”

[@SmartAlecGaming775]

You should do more Halo videos. Like maybe videos talking about the classes of ships in both the UNSC and Covenant Navy.

[@georgeprchal3924]

And if we had Gundams we'd have been invincible.

[@alexiel4406]

The Covenant ship encountered at the second battle of harvest was a Super Destroyer not a cruiser .... but eh don’t sweat the small stuff

[@zonnodon163]

Aka battleship

[@ciandoyle1620]

So much work was put into this video

[@dainironfoot5198]

I didn't even know they had tactics. I just assumed that their entire role was to lose every battle they ever fought.

[@ZSTE]

Dáin Ironfoot That just comes naturally.

[@caesari3708]

Please do a tactics video on the Keyes Loop. That whole battle is awesome.

[@nicholassas4201]

Type-47A(H2) scarab vs type-47B(H3,reach,odst) scarab vs Banished scarab vs Volatile scarab

[@jackmulford2661]

TheXenomorphLord ! Halo 2 scarab is for mining and excavation halo 3 is for direct comabt

[@nicholassas4201]

!* switchy !* I'm fairly certain it's the other way around

[@jackmulford2661]

TheXenomorphLord ! No the prophet of regret went to earth to excavate forerunner relics and had no idea humanity was present.this is shown through the lack of ships and the type of ground vehicles available.the halo 2 scarab is not built for direct combat but if needed it can.the halo 3 scarab is for direct comabt and is usually used as a last line of defence in some cases.

[@nicholassas4201]

!* switchy !* In halo 3 they were excavating the portal for the arc, also the banished are blood thirsty warriors so makes sense if they're scarabs be more combat focused

[@nicholassas4201]

!* switchy !* It even says here that the halo 3 scarabs we're primarily made for excavation of forerunner artifacts, the reason why they were used in the war was because they are apparently really good a killing unsc forces and don't forget the whole civil war that happened before halo 3 so the prophet of truth was using everything he had left to protect himself www.halopedia.org/Type-47B_Scarab

[@swingdog]

Holy shit dude. I haven't been watching your content for a long while now. I remember being here around 10k subs, always loved the starships vs stuff. Great to see how much you've grown man! Keep up the good work.

[@SwiftGundam]

I believe it was a four-to-one ratio was needed for UNSC victory.

[@WhatIsLove170]

Mecha-san i thinks so, i also remember hearing that, even then it was still risky

[@elichalfant941]

Mecha-san Early on it was 5 to 1 but then went to 3 to 1 later

[@djprojectus]

They never use nuclear bombs at their potential! How hard can it be to make many Novas compared with a ship? A Nova is capable of destroying a covenant fleet,why not use it intensively? I bet they could make at least 1000 novas for a ship like Spirit of Fire,maybe even 10.000 novas! A ship like Spirit of Fire at 2.5 kilometers is a masive investment both in resources,time and people! They should make their MAC'S to shoot mini novas with small trusters for trajectory correction !Fire and forget! But if they do that the game will be over too soon!😆

[@SwiftGundam]

Very hard to make. NOVA Bombs are ridiculously expensive and, IIRC, did not exist till the 2550s.

[@djprojectus]

Mecha-san Economies of scale but,it is infinitely more complex and expensive to make ships than bombs,even Nova bombs! Anyway in the time of war expensive is meaningless,money is not the issue maybe materials or dificult technology would be a problem but not money! We have now thousands of atomic bombs but in a time of war in space 500 years from now they would make them like confetti! Even without novas there have fusion bombs similar to Tsar bomba but way more powerful! Tsar bomba had 50 megatons tnt and weights 27 tons! In Halo a standard mac slug has 600 tons with 30km/s velocity resulting 64 kilotons tnt! Now imagine a tsar bomba 20 times bigger at 540 tons fired as a slug with an explosive power of 1 gigaton tnt! An ODP Mac delivers a slug of 3000 tons at 12000 km/s resulting 5 gigatons tnt of explosive power and can destroy 2 covenant ships with shields up and severely damage a third! So we can safely assume at 1 gigaton one covenant ship will be destroyed even with the shields up!Keep in mind that only 3 macs can drop a covenant shield and that is almost 200 kilotons compared with 50 megatons is childs play! So no need for Nova,we have technology today to achieve the explosive power needed for destroying covenant vessels, we dont have the ships and the means to delivery (macs) but the explosive power needed is in our capabilities today!

[@NurbedUp]

This was one of the most excelent halo vids I have ever seen. Damn well done!

[@willimamam6922]

notification squad gang

[@willimamam6922]

discord squad where u at

[@IrishPhoenix7]

Absolutely love it Eck, all the Halo lore you’ve done has been awesome, keep up the great work!

[@calkestis4947]

Elim Garek (Star Trek: DS9) vs Jango Fett - Who's the better assassin?

[@spartandelta2756]

Troy Clark I think Garek is smarter, but Jango is tougher. Assassinations are more likely to be in Garek's jurisdiction, while bounty hunting is more Jango's department

[@punishedvenomsnake716]

Garak is more of a mole/spy. Jango will kill him

[@calkestis4947]

The Prodigal Knight: I think Garek's strategy and intelligence towers over Jango. Jango will die, and not even see Garek (IE In the Pale of Moonlight episode).

[@robertagu5533]

Troy Clark jango. Hes more suited to Bounty Hunter Assassin roles and his entire people is about being one big race of space commandos and bounty hunting. While Garak while from my personal favorite Trek series is better at espionage then outright assassin work. The few times he DID try to be an assassin he always got caught. An in strait up battles he was helping in he never was a particularly good fighter or shot not like Fett was.

[@madcourier6217]

Always the happiest to see halo lore videos. Thank you. :) (Also huge question, if the Nova bomb's were so powerful, and only took around six nuclear warheads to make, why didn't the UNSC create a whole lot more of them?)

[@sosogo4real]

MadCourier 6 why would they need them? The rad pressure was enough to shatter a moon despite being hundreds of thousands of kilometers away. They would kill so many of their own with a mass deployment it is not even funny. Plus they primarily fought around their own worlds so they didn't want to blow up their own cities and civies too.

[@madcourier6217]

sosogo Except with a weapon like that they wouldn't need to be on the defensive anymore. Have those ships you have hanging back to protect the colonies and instead use them to scout for enemy fleet movement. Especially since they have access to prowler type craft.

[@sosogo4real]

MadCourier 6 yes? IIRC they used one to destroy a Covvie world but you have to remember that the UNSC lacked any info about strategic locations for the Cov industry, civil centers, research locastion, ect. Sure they can send off ships in the hopes of taking out some major lynch pin to the Covvie war effort or you remember a station producing 500(?) ships (CCS-class I think?) being destroyed was of no note to the Covvie leadership and as such the UNSC would still be ground down. This group was regularly losing and rediscovering their own colonies for fucks sake. The only reason the UNSC survived was due to the civil war ripping the entire thing apart.

[@madcourier6217]

sosogo Didn't the UNSC send Odst's and Spartan 3's on raids against Covenant strategic positions though? I always got the impression the UNSC had intel on strategic Covenant locations, but didn't have the manpower in ships or personnel to lauch strikes against them.

[@sosogo4real]

MadCourier 6 iirc they found a few shipyards and bases but they thought that the Covvie capital was a planet during OP Red Flag so ehh... However the larger problem is that the Covanent is so decentralized that their strategic facilities might have multiple duplicates and taking one out is only a minor inconveniance. Again they lost and refound entire star systems regularly the full extent of what they had is unknown. Plus that a significant amount of their industrial assets were massive space stations that could move made any info prowlers gather useless if they decided to change scenery every once in a while. But yes S2, S3 and ODST sometimes assassinated Covvie leaders or performed sabotage.

[@brandonm1881]

No. You should have said, "don't make a girl a promise, if you know you can't keep it" for the end isntead of the force.

[@SlipspaceEntertainment]

This is awesome I love when you discuss halo

[@Infinite8blue]

Halo reach to 3 has the best ship names in all of fiction the long night of solace The pillar of Autumn Truth and Reconciliation Indulgence of Conviction Commitment and Patience In Amber Clad and the 343 just put UNSC and one word not so creative anymore

[@admiralshadowofasunderedst3068]

Alistair Kaname also foward unto dawn and shadow of intent

[@theorangeninja6486]

Don't forget my two favorites, _Song Of Retribution_ and _Breath of Annihilation_

[@killer13324]

If i had to pick a name for a Covenant ship it would have to be "Divine Retribution". A UNSC ship name, i can't the best i saw was "Say My Name".

[@FinALIEN93]

Alistair. Remember that according to naval traditions First of her class are always named after the class: Thus Infinity-class supercarrier is UNSC Infinity, just as Pillar of autumn is a Halcyon-class light cruiser (tho heavily modified) First Halcyon cruiser was named UNSC Halcyon etc etc

[@killer13324]

there's even an Autumn-class cruiser, a class named after the Pillar of Autumn.

[@scorchstorm588]

I love this video, this is how all series should have space combat, each side having unique strengths and weaknesses and using whatever they can to their advantage. This is how it should be done.

[@VaultusTechusRepius]

Where did the unsc find the power to fire Mac rounds,you would need a whole entire fusion reactor to fire one?

[@kanebekkattla3963]

and they had that on every ship.

[@EckhartsLadder]

It uses a series of coiled magnets. So an electromagnetic force, like with a railgun.

[@thelonehunter6025]

At that point in the Halo Universe Humanity was using Fusion reactors for just about everything. Fosil fuel was obsolete.

[@drearyplane8259]

The Lone Hunter Halo ground vehicles use hydrogen engines.

[@King-gv4lg]

The Lone Hunter it’s quite ironic on how advance unsc is in terms of terraforming and nuclear fusion shit which powers like everything yet they still use bullets. Peace can really do something to your military its like everything was all futuristic except for the guys incharge of protecting us.

[@dustinwoods7613]

3/4 of all UNSC forces were routed to Reach. Even then they were outnumbered 20 to 1. Remember Reach!

[@darkstar453]

Hello there

[@spartandelta2756]

meme dealer General Kenobi...

[@jackmulford2661]

Goodbye

[@xyro3633]

*General Kenobi*

[@p0wer5000]

Awesome video man I would love to see one focus on ground combat next! and this would be a great new niche to fill for other universes such as 40K and Star Wars

[@godzilla5006]

Could Halo survive and kill Scp 682? 5th try

[@bigtiko2329]

Doom Slayer that thing is a Mary Sue

[@godzilla5006]

KZbin Judge What's a Mary Sue?

[@bigtiko2329]

Doom Slayer a character that is just unreasonably overpowered in an aspect. But to answer your question, of course. The SCP universe has no problem surviving 682, so halo shouldn’t either

[@Matt-uk7zq]

KZbin Judge every scp in the foundation is basically a mary sue

[@thelonehunter6025]

KZbin Judge Actually a Marie sue is a female character that is basically great in everything they do just because. But I do agree that SCP 682 stomps the halo verse.

[@Game_Hedgehog]

Yesss! I’ve been waiting for this! Love the work Eck!

[@billo8316]

FIRST

[@aibpresto]

Congrats 😂

[@LAV-III]

Wat Tambor does this mean the techno union is at our disposal?

[@jameshackney7854]

"Dear Humanity... We regret being alien bastards. We regret coming to Earth. And we most definitely regret that the Corps just blew up our raggedy-ass fleet!"-Sergeant Major Avery Junior Johnson, the only human to have witnessed both the beginning of the war and the end of it.

[@michaelarchangel42]

The only time Johnson said something that didn't make me roll my eyes. That is a badass speech.

[@griffin5322]

Brilliant work Eckhart!

[@RicardoReyes-wn9im]

The dog "scene" was the best part of the video 😂

[@thatgamer1185]

Yay, space tactics. Please do more of these videos.

[@DEEZ_N4T]

In Halo Infinite multiplayer there is a map that shows a Muslanne class frigate firing a laser, this shows that humanity not only reversed engineered covenant tech but also utilized it in their smaller frigates. The Paris class frigates MACs were pretty much too weak to damaged a covenant ship and had to rely on being in large groups and even then they would need a larger ship to deal the killing blow. Now the Muslanne replaces the MAC gun with a brightlance reflex laser which is used to take down a ship’s shields making it several times more effective in space combat than that of the Paris-class frigate and other frigate types with the same frame now it takes either 1 Muslanne and 1 Autumn class cruiser to take on a covenant capital ship or 1 Muslanne frigate with a good strat and missile + nukes to go toe to toe with a covenant warship

[@alphawolfgang173]

i love that halo shows how badass humans are. some day, maybe, we will be the super powerful aliens invading.

[@addisonwelsh]

You might want look into Warhammer 40K. We conquered the whole damn galaxy, and it took literal gods to stop us.

[@stefanwalicord]

Part 2 please! I loved it!

[@angloempire6935]

I have been waiting for this

[@Gungho73]

The one I wish you would mention is the tactic of UNSC refit stations, such as that of the UNSC Cradle, to absorb incredible amounts of damage as a shield in between MAC salvos for their battle group.Such as that at the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV.

[@brockkent4846]

Umm, Eck. When you mention SHIVA nukes while they could take out what ever ship or station they were on - they're planet killers and I seem to recall there were only 10. HAVOK nukes are the frontline weapons for anti-ship fighting as well as glassing a target with Spartan teams.

[@22steve5150]

Another weapon the UNSC used on Covenant ships after the shields had been brought down by MAC barrage was deck guns / naval coilgun turrets (basically weapons similar to Onagers or Mini-MACs) which, despite being nowhere near as destructive as a MAC, could substantially damage an unshielded Covenant ship. Some UNSC ships (apparently only Prowlers) did carry their own pulse laser cannons which appear to be of comparable strength with Covenant pulse laser cannons, and though it's unclear whether it was a H-C war era weapon or a postwar development, at least one Prowler class also sported an EMP cannon, for all intents and purposes a much scaled up version of the weapon found on the Gremlin combat support vehicle in the Halo Wars games.

[@SpaceBirdLego]

May the force be with the dog at the end

[@josefsmith2053]

Should definitely go into those other tactics you mentioned at the end in another video

[@SpartanXVII]

Just a quick note about the Infinity. It's truest strength, mentioned in Glasslands, is that Infinity isn't a ship. It's a class of ship. UNSC use Engineer Huragok after the Human-Covenant war, and can now mass produce Infinity class ships, meaning that even if the Infinity was taken down, multiple equivalent capital ships would take it's place.

[@acoggaming2667]

Yes but the Infinity is unique in its Forerunner engine. They found it in Tavern (former giant Forerunner shield world Onyx) they got a bunch of Huragok and allowed Halsey to work on it and fit it together with a well designed UNSC ship. I doubt that they still found a way to mass produce Forerunner engines or a way to get more.

[@SpartanXVII]

ACOG GAMING Fair enough, I did not know that.

[@zachb1706]

The infinity was meant to have a sister ship, UNSC Eternity. They have reverse engineered the shielding technology, so it is possible to make, just very expensive.

[@whalehands]

I miss having Halo content

[@xyro3633]

Yes! My Halo-themed wish has been granted.

[@VoltresPlus]

Just subbed after watching for awhile awesome content my dude

[@lsporter88]

Really good presentation. Kudos.

[@johnnathan8688]

1:35 Mac's also called railgun's

[@derptomistic]

Essentially, the UNSC ran into the problem of needing to outnumer their enemies with manpower and ships they didn't have. Funnily enough, if the Flood hadn't shown up and wrecked High Charity (at the same time as the massive civil war) humanity would have been right fucked... thanks gravemind. No hard feelings, right?

[@CMTechnica]

You forgot the time a nuke was used to dampen the damage of a MAC when one was used against a planet. And the cycling of covenant shields when weapons fired was an IRIS cycle, seen in the Fall of Reach when the Spartans board the covenant cruiser. Just for anyone wondering what he was talking about. IMO Halo needs more space battle scenes. The ones in H2A and Halo 4 Spartan Ops are beautiful. Hopefully we get some in the new show

[@Nidhoggrr]

It may have reaped an insane cost but I believe that humanities encounter with the Covenant was the best thing that could have happened. Humanity has a terrible reliability to become stagnant when they gain higher tech levels, and the life or death fight was exactly what was needed to push humanity to the next level. In the couple years that humans fought the Covenant they went from technologically overwhelmed to the dominate space civilization, thanks to the human ability to reach new levels of ingenuity when faced with something greater than them. If this hadn't happened the human civilization would have continued on the path it had been going that we get a glimpse of in the "Halo Reach" game, which was a full blown civil war.

[@ausaskar]

Both ONI and the Assembly had an inkling they were sitting atop the ruins of an advanced precursor civilization before contact with the Covenant. Tens of billions of people didn't need to die for those technological advancements.

[@killer13324]

hahahahahahaha. "couple years". More like a couple decades. The initial war lasted 27 years and there have been fights with various covenant remnant groups since, the biggest being Jul M'dama's faction which used to be allied with the promethians before the rise of the Created. The UNSC is still fighting even though the covenant is squashed so we're talking nearly 30 years of fighting at this point because i don't recall the lore going into the 2560s yet.

[@reginaldtyroneshort]

I have a question. Why didn’t Reach have more ODPs? Earth had 300 while Reach had 20. Even if they couldn’t financially field more ODPs, Reach was capable of building maybe 80 ship based Macs and treating them like ODPS with 2 more ground based reactors to power them.The ODPS could’ve taken out the Destroyers and Cruisers while the smaller Macs would’ve taken out the frigates and carriers.

[@kolinmartz]

If I could redesign UNSC ships I would make the MAC run along the entire length of the ship. It’s magnetic so you don’t need a sealed “breach”. This way they can fire their main armament in both directions. Just look at the opening cutscene of Halo CE. How the Pillar of Autumn is being pursued by the fleet of particular justice. UNSC ships could put more slugs downrange during the Keyes loop both when being pursued and when they ultimately finish the gravitational slingshot.

[@pollall2793]

I was Always intrigued with the Human-Convenant War, It's like the Earth-Mimbari War in Babylon 5. Humanity Lost So much, they where almost wiped out, But they never gave up. They would've fought 'till the last man was down, they would fight 'till they where but a memory in Galactic History... Makes me wonder- If we would actually do the same in real life...

[@spartangoku7610]

Withertax hell yeah!

[@camstech1]

I like how RT- 636 Mother Of Invention got a showing

[@gadoush3022]

One thing that would be nice to see is ground tactics, like how reach was mainly

[@Duke_of_Petchington]

The UNSC MACs are listed by MKs, modifications and types. For Example the the MAC gun on most UNSC warships during the human/covenant war was the MK 2 (with some modded like the Pillar of Autumn’s)

[@villychen6011]

Note all Longswords would carry a Shiva. A capital ship would carry a small amount, usually less than 5, varies based on size or purpose. The Shiva would typically be carried by an unmanned Longsword which the AI controls. Dumb AIs are some how worse than most AIs today. As Halsey states, her AI was unable to wake her up on time and struggled to play music and pilot the pelican at the same time. Missed the keyes' loop and did not cover the last stand of Admiral Cole. Great video over all.

[@TheEk94]

Great, would love more tactics videos.

[@panzermkii7675]

Don't forget there is a table top game, 'Halo Fleet Battles'.

[@johncrews7240]

Would love to see a top 5 bombers video

[@kaii3170]

Great vid! I frickin Love halo