Why is Arcadia City so DIFFICULT in Halo Wars?!

[@Orieth1031]

“The evac ships have been destroyed” *visibly triggered at covenant mega turret*

[@rocketime555]

Seeing this so many years after playing this seems so weird but it also brought back the memories of how awful this mission felt. I'd also say that the one mission where you have to rescue the marine squads surrounded by Flood and EMP the Forerunner things to buy more time is also one of the hardest in the game as well.

[@yungmelloyellow6189]

Nah bro the scarab mission was basically impossible on legendary

[@rocketime555]

@@yungmelloyellow6189 Incorrect. The scarab mission was borderline impossible on normal.

[@UplandODST]

I came here to say that the flood mission was the hardest in my opinion, glad I wasn’t the only one lol.

[@SentientMeatloaf1]

If only we didn’t spend more lives to recover a group of nameless nobodies than we actually saved on that dumb flood mission

[@youraverageuser7039]

@@SentientMeatloaf1 idk man 6 star ODSTs seem pretty good.

[@xyro3633]

I remember restarting this level 20+ times just trying to save that first shuttle. Imagine my indignation when I found out they were doomed no matter what >:[

[@sneir6539]

SAME!

[@Blackandfan]

I always just mass odsts around all important spots, usually thats enough to get through the mission in legendary with gold. The map has a lot of garrisons.

[@Nedak2003]

I usally focus on building more hornets. One time I got a gold one time on Heroic even though I only had one evac ship left

[@BrowncoatGofAZ]

I also invested in ODSTs. I used them to take the other base that the covenant had taken, then used them to engage the locusts and megaturret.

[@cheato1163]

ODST's 100% rush 1st and THEN go into hornets. The ability to drop 10 units on any dangerous area is too good to pass up.

[@grrman]

I find that it's better to go for infantry and garrison all the various towers while micro-ing the starting hornets around to help where required. ODST are also great against all the banshees and vampires that come in the latter part of the mission. You might even be able to secure the second base doing that, if you feel really brave.

[@sumomanify]

Not only that, you can be in a position to launch a limited counter attack on the base towards the end, you effectively take the pressure off the transports and onto your odst army you just continually drop more odsts on

[@dossantoscarballo4635]

Incredible how you guys show so much love to this game after all these years. I was playing Arcadia City just today and got the Legendary Gold. Toughest mission to do so. Im not half as good as you guys, but I would love to play with you. You just make this game so much better. Countless were the times your Tutorials on Halo Wars 2 saved some of my shittiest weekends.

[@BaxterAndLunala]

Another effective piece of the strategy, put Marines in the sniper towers near the ships when they're empty (Jackals will occasionally enter them, same with Grunt squads, most spawn without anyone garrisoned, but some will have cops in them).

[@The-Autistic-Strategist]

I use to struggle with this mission when I was younger. Now whenever I go back and play this, my ultimate goal is to try and destroy the Covenant Base before the countdown ends.

[@dthendrick1]

Halo Wars 2 is amazing, but I always preferred the first game. The most interesting part of Halo lore to me is humanity's struggle to survive the Covenant onslaught. Halo Wars gave us a glimpse into the war before the action-packed year of 2552. We really need more Halo games set between 2525-2551. So much potential, so much lore, so many legendary characters. Would love to see Halo Wars 3 focus on the broader war, introducing space combat, a galactic Conquest mode. Imagine playing as the UNSC starting from Harvest fighting a strategic retreat against an unstoppable force, kinda like Total War Attila. Or playing as the Covenant, with massive military strength, but a fog of war constant making human planets and ships harder to locate and track, and the Covenant could have a civil/racial war mechanic where you have to keep the individual races of the Covenant happy or they would rebel. You could have Heritic and Insurrectionists factions spread across the galaxy to contend with. You could even have an Atriox campaign where you fight to build the Banished forces from a small rebel group to a force that rivaled the Covenant. You could have a Flood outbreak that comes mid to late game and adds even more trouble to contend with, and the outbreak could start randomly anywhere in the galaxy. Total War Halo Wars lol

[@ginraw]

The idea of galactic conquest, but in reverse is intriguing. I'd love to see how that would work conceptually. Your core worlds would be fortified and you'd reinforce from there.

[@dthendrick1]

@ginraw I agree, I believe the UNSC campaign should take that approach. Like a galactic Conquest map, but with Total War Attila mechanics, if you're familiar with the game. In Attila, you can play as the Eastern or Western Roman empire. Both factions control most of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. However, Attila the Hun shows up on your boarder with his hordes, and it's up to you to survive the onslaught until you can counterattack. In TW Attila, you have to sacrifice provinces of your territory in order to fortify critical infrastructure. It's a game of cat and mouse and attrition. Attila will burn down half your territory before you can have a chance at stopping him, and on top of that, there's famine, food shortages, and rebellions happening in your territory. Just change Attila and the Huns to the Prophets and the Covenant, and Change Europe to the galaxy. Not only would the art style and technology be drastically different when playing as the Covenant or UNSC, but the overall gameplay experience would be night and day. Mabye the Covenant is on a time constraint. The longer the war lasts, the higher the chance of races within the Covenant rebelling or of a random Spartan assassinating the Prophets, lol. Then the late game threat could have a 50/50 chance of the Flood showing up, and it's a random location everygame, so you always have the fear of the Flood sitting in some corner of the galaxy building its power.

[@harrizar1772206]

I remember that if you play this mission on legendary not only does the mega turret get activated a lot sooner into the mission but its is way more active even targeting your bases, and if my memory serves me right in legendary the covenant Ai will take over any bases slot you have left unbuilt so you wanna be quick getting those up because more covenant bases just means more hell for you to deal with as for some reason only in this level that the covenant spawn rate is put on overdrive.

[@Muse36]

I always let the covenant destroy a second ship and focus all my efforts on defending just one while ignoring the civilians 😅

[@chrisb5005]

Its thematically sound too. Humanity was getting wrecked by the Covenant for most of the way. I'm just doing my part to make the casualty count lore-friendly.

[@geth7112]

same

[@Alstar]

This mission alone took me 163 attempts with using various strategies and being obliterated by various AI and RNG related bullcrap. It is even worse when you attempt to Gold Medal it. Even in my recorded attempt i almost lost to Mega Tuuret almost destroying the Cargo Ship with ~ 500 civvies in it. I did however managed to hold both of the bases. About the "generous" ammout of Hornets and Red Team - you only get 4 of them on legendary. Red Team in my attempts usually ended up pushing too far into enemy and dying. This mission was a nightmare. The person who decided "Yeah, Banshee Suicide is a very fair upgrade" and added it to this mission deserves his microwave plate broken. As for the tips - Infantry feels almost mandatory, there are a lot of watchtowers where you can place your troops and they will passively aid you in defending against anything that Spirits bring, Try to grab all of crates as quickly as possible with Forgehog, be reactive to any fliers and make your prayers once you get Mega Turret announcemend from Serina.

[@scarecrow3612]

I havent seen a team respawn video in forever lol but I love the fact yall still make videos. Good shit.

[@TeamRespawn]

Thank you!

[@mythicq8246]

Awesome tips, I totally agree ! Also my brother and I usually build two bases, the early part is definitely a bit harder, but it prevents the Covenant from building too strong of an army and makes snowball way better in the end

[@randombrosaphine6840]

I never finished this game when I was younger because of this mission. I just bought it on PC 2 hours ago and got back to this mission. I am now looking up strategy to beat it because its still a fucking pain.

[@GoBuckeyes216]

Putting marines in the towers really helps kill alot of the covenant units. I usually try and get a second force to go and take that second base although I’ve never been able to destroy the covenant base either because of the timer running out or just being overwhelmed with the defenses that base has

[@average_white_boy_7250]

when i first played this game and mission I was probably about 10, took me about 30 tries just to finish it. The feeling I got after completing it was insane. Looking back on it now and replaying the game its pretty clear I was just not experienced enough in games in general to figure out what to do but I still love this mission for how it made me feel back then.

[@Ser_Matticus]

I feel what always get me are the banshees with their Kamikaze death charge on the cargo ships, so I usually had Wolverines and had my defenses a little further out from the cargo ships to keep the banshees from killing the cargos with said kamikaze charge.

[@JamesTDG]

I absolutely hated this mission, every single time I played it.

[@Ticrat15]

The last time i played this game was in 2009, I was 9. I failed the mission in the last 20 seconds. I cried and never played again lol.

[@xscoredformulax9770]

Nothing like a classic Halo wars video. This is art. 🤌

[@MazharulAlam]

This mission BULLYED me when i was younger.

[@Fire_N_Ice77904]

This mission really tests your mettle. How good you are at producing hornets turrets wolverines odst and smashing anything purple is the ultimate strat. Also mass produce supplies. Those economy pads are overpowered.

[@shiftsallday807]

Abandon two don’t split your forces and only focus on protecting one ship that’s it

[@killerjoshy863]

Bruh my friend and I were playing this level on coop last night and lost twice😂

[@beerus1904]

This mission, reminded me of the last mission in Ground Control II. Very difficult where the enemy just throws you wave after wave

[@Lucky-kt1ix]

It always goes so well after you get the base down until you forget to place someone somewhere then suddenly ship 2 is down and its game over.

[@FordFan01]

“The transport ships have been destroyed” GAAAHH!

[@harrizar1772206]

also team respawn you should of meantioned about how aggressive the covenant banshees (and on legendary they bring out vampires) are i would recommend atleast have 2 or 3 worlerines to protect the cargo ships airspace, if too many banshees turn up on the cargo ship is risked at being destoryed as even when you kill them they will try to dive bomb into your units and cargo ship and on many occasions have i lost due to just the banshees dive bombing into the cargo ships.

[@KeithBoehler]

I like to replay this mission and counter attack the covenant base. I don't think I've been able to destroy it before the timer ends.

[@rensenkai5974]

Ah Arcadia. I was once so determined to save all three ships. The first ship kept dying and I was so pissed. Max difficulty and I still did good work.

[@Genesivare]

This mission is not difficult. It's just random and luck-based. It discouraged me from playing the campaign. If one of the first missions is so broken, why go further? Not to mention try, time and time again, to beat this one and get angry every time you don't because you lucked out too soon? The last time I tried, the last ship was destroyed literally a fraction of second before the time was up. I was legitimately furious and basically said "screw this game". And no, the reason I lost every time I tried is NOT because I focused on trying to protect civilians. It's because Covenant airborne units attacking those transports can somehow shoot at them from beyond visible range already, so there is literally no way of destroying them before they lay in a few good shots. No matter where I place my Hornets (and I can't set them too far from the ship, because it may be directly attacked at any time), they never ever manage to shoot down incoming Covenant craft BEFORE they manage to deal damage to the transport. So the latter just keep getting busted until their health reaches zero. I can only hope that the timer will run out sooner. Like I said, the last time I played, the health bar got emptied (after ANOTHER flight of Covenant fightercraft which shot from where I can't even see them) faster by just a second or so. F*ck this. I just wasted over twenty minutes of my time (which, as an adult and busy man, I constantly have in very short supply), no way I'm gonna waste more.

[@shesaidshewaslvl18]

this mission honestly gave me ptsd on legendary

[@bungiecoocoo]

I love how you call it the Forge-hog.

[@chrrmin1979]

I always tried defeating that covenant base off to the side. I have yet to do it before i running out of time, but ive gotten damn close

[@Crimsomreaf5555]

havent played halo wars in forever, hell always wanted to play halowars 2 but never got around to it. wonder if we will ever get a halo wars 3

[@finalcuthugo]

I just noticed this last night. I'm not great at RTS games but boy did I have a hard time with it.

[@theviewingaccount6489]

Funny seeing this because I just replayed all of halo wars last week

[@edrickortiz1504]

I don't miss this mission at all!

[@JockeyStrappers]

i remember after my 3rd campaign playthrough the mission suddenly became impossible because it bugged out and kept killing all the shuttles even when they are not even being attacked.

[@darkjackl999]

"Helljumpers in the tube"

[@LordSetsu]

Definitely do not rely on red team during this mission they tend to hijack banshees and fly them over the water where they will be too far to agro onto enemies. If they didn't give the AI the ability to use hijack, they would be vastly more useful.

[@L0n3W]

playing this mission on legendary was the worse....but playing this on LASO and remembering that the boomstick skull exist was another layer of hell that I will never forget

[@GaudyMarko]

My tips are don't use boomstick skull, when you get the base setup put marines in as many towers as possible theyre great for map visibility, when a spartan dies send someone(forge) over to pick him up they do wonders at defending from vehicles and its easy to forget about them, only do hornets and marines no need for vehicles, don't bother attacking the base to the east its too far away and heavily defended, spam heals on the ships even if they're only a little bit damaged.

[@perfectenrager]

I tried to beat this mission but I just couldn't. It is so annoying when you fail because its another 20 minute run.

[@omegawolf2589]

I remember think I just Mass spammed hornets as they can fly around fast not bothered by the terrain

[@bungiecoocoo]

I always use infantry to garrison all the structures and then have a swarm of hornets sweeping up and down the paths. Sadly I’ve never been able to destroy the Covenant base.

[@duckman9467]

One thing you fail to mention is that the civilians being saved is a BONUS objective. The more you manage to get on the ships the better

[@Scruffy72]

My winning strategy was to use forge to gather all the supplies on the map. as quickly as possible. Then i would always purchase both bases to negate the covenant from having two. at this point i would get marines to control all the garrisons i could find while going for odsts. after this make hornets for the duration afterward. having turrets on the bases usually keeps them safe untill the locusts show up. usually a couples hornets can handle this.

[@Phenom98]

ODSTs in the towers worked for me

[@smartgunner0511]

I could barely pass this mission. Can never get 💯 because idk what I need to do

[@glacial3788]

Was about to come in and say it’s not difficult if you know the true goals… but you got around to that pretty fast lmao

[@luizwantsaguitar]

It’s a hard one, but with a good strategy it can be a piece of cake, damn the original Halo Wars is awesome

[@Lucky-kt1ix]

This is the get good fight of halo wars

[@cleanerben9636]

The tried and true strat for me was to make hornets asap and try and keep 1 and 2 alive if possible.

[@lethalbaconbacon2079]

My favorite mission

[@Zel_Kova]

My game always hard crashes several minutes in to this mission or any skirmish vs AI at the 5 minute mark every time. So ive never been able to get past this mission based on that alone.

[@DoneDragon1]

Goooooddddd the megaturret can suck it, did a laso challenge and its almost impossible if you dont get control of that covenant base

[@georgyrogers3281]

I still play the multiplayer on this game Great game

[@timothywatkins4989]

This is the level that destroyed my will to beat this game on legendary with all the tough skulls

[@sovietbear5084]

at least I wasn’t the only one who thought Arcadia was a very difficult location

[@CobraWargaming]

On my third attempt I lost cargo 1 in the final second to a banshee and quit my play-through of HW1 😂Maby I give it another shot with this wisdom

[@TheonlyUnitedempire]

Does this work for legendary difficulty 2 because I am having trouble on this mission I'm trying to beat the campaign on every difficulty and I'm stuck on this mission on legendary

[@TheonlyUnitedempire]

I mean this mission is just so hard like they easily destroy those evac flights on legendary

[@PartOfTheGame]

I remember that my first time playing HW1, Arcadia City was the only mission I ever had to retry, and it was never just once or twice. It was always an entire play-session long to do just this one mission and it always frustrated me on new playthroughs.

[@ij1372]

Even with these tips I bet gustard couldn't do this solo

[@forpdrop3793]

This level sucks so bad

[@assassinenzo1373]

When can we expect the legendary co-op version

[@TeamRespawn]

That was uploaded about a year ago

[@soupbro2786]

New Halo Infinite Season Got Me Missing Red Team in Halo Wars 1. So here i am 😅 replaying Halo Wars so i can Play an See Red Team More. So Bad Ass.

[@mj3541]

This mission made me quit halo wars and I never went back to it

[@christophertidwell2422]

Bro 2 of those ships die every time for me good luck getting the last

[@DeDorito]

I remember this mission so well, for me i love it because how challenging it is. it keeps me focus, and the advice is good as well. For me however, when I got enough troops protecting the cargos, I use 75 to 80 % of my army and attack the enemy base, it ain't much it does keep them at bay. Also, I do be dropping the odsts around the base a lot. The memories.

[@watermelongaming3698]

"wait, this mission was difficult?" *checks comments "Ohhhh, everyone's playing on heroic and legendary. That explains it."

[@grantgollan]

Nasa

[@alaskamark4562]

This is actually one of my favorite missions in Halo Wars, I like the idea of protecting civilians from the Covenant's onslaught. It perfectly fits the theme of Humanity's struggle throughout the Human-Covenant war; Mankind barely scrapes together the occasional victory at horrific costs, often fighting tooth and nail only just managing to save some of the civilians. It's freaking brutal, and I love it. Also, the city of Arcadia itself is very beautiful, the statues and infrastructure are quite lovely.

[@tommypicco4216]

I ve failed so many times god

[@kingsgambit7098]

I have been working on a video to hit a "perfect score" in Arcadia on Legendary in my spare time. I won't give all of my secret strategies just yet, but I can tell you that you need to support the civilians and protect the cargo ships. This is done with CTRL groups and a maxed-out population. The max out pop helps in defending both cargos and all three routes the civilians take, but it also keeps your combat efficiency at 10/10. Some things they don't tell you in Arcadia is that the buildings start taking 30 seconds to build where in the previous mission (Relic Approach) it takes 10 seconds. You also get a passive income before you actually have your first base up. It is the equivalent of a supply pad without the upgrade. One last tip, The Covenant mega turret (Artillery) in the end targets units/buildings under your control. It is completely based on RNG. The more bases/units you have (spread out) the better. Do not sit your units by the cargos during this stage!

[@quintonlim4275]

I usually spec into marines from the start incredibly cheap and durable with the presence of so many garrison sites. They can supplement your defence of the cargo ships while you build up your base. Afterwards I go either tanks and odst. Tanks are incredibly durable even with hunters on the field with enough tanks and enough canisters they can go down pretty quickly. The marines are used to stall for time while inside garrisons combined with veterancy and upgrades they'll usually win most engagements with the exception of facing against jackals. highly recommend taking 2 bases the Covenant steals the second base site when left alone for too long. And you will need a permanent army presence to defend and hold the line. If holding it is too hard then sending units to either deny the covies from taking it or at the very least stripping the base buildings is a good idea.

[@kalui96]

I replay this mission with a good friend once a year. Every time we lose the first or even second time and gives us the reclamation arc. The replayability is there and HW1 is beautifully balanced

[@marcusquigley2221]

I might be one of the few but this was my favourite mission but I really never struggled at all

[@gpheonix1]

i'd say go it's better to go for marines. tech speeding for rockets is pretty cheap and fast. there's plenty of towers all around the map. Getting the last medic upgrade will easily boon your defense. just make you a little extra defense on the cargos and keep hornets on call for those units dropped behind lines. I was able to do this and easily was even mounting offenses against the enemy base.

[@TarsonTalon]

It's basically a QRF mission. Speed is the name of the game, when deciding on types of units to build.

[@johnhalo-ug4go]

Surprisingly, i only suffered in this mission for like 1-2 times, cause the first ship is anyways scripted to be shot down, you can allot your resources to the routes for ship 2 and 3. need to mobilise those hornets for the first 5-7 minutes while building firebases and then pump out vehicles to spread along the path, the covenant isn't very grouped and keep moving so they don't damage your units alot before moving while taking damage from multiple units of yours.

[@spartin-02]

I remember as a kid this mission was easy when i 1st played it. It was mission 10, the evac b4 entering the shield world, i had problems. This mission on legendary is easy one of the best in the series

[@nicholasmoy6805]

i don't remember this mission as being difficult but i do remember the scarab mission being my kryptonite

[@adventuresfortwo9148]

Last time I played this mission I made the mistake of trying to take out the massive covenant base. (This was on heroic) While I was able to destroy the mega turret, and then had to retreat, boy did it make everything else I was trying to do difficult because I lost so many units. Although to be fair, I did get kind of close to taking their base out. 🤷‍♀

[@_rinala]

It took me one retry, and indeed it's the hardest mission of the game, but by no means I think it's hard. Just go full air, exploit that mobility and ignore everything else. At the end of the day you just have to focus on two evacs cause the third transport is going down no matter what. The AI even has Spartans just keep them healed. I played on pc but even so... The game it's pretty forgiving by design and the time to kill quite high. Like I play rts since forever but I'm just good this will be demolished by a pro

[@kylew1950]

This mission is difficult?

[@harrizar1772206]

it can be if you don't act quickly on the defense of the cargo ships (i know he said to train just warthogs and hornets but if you do this level on legendary i highly recommned wolvorines)

[@bencurran3204]

honestly bar the mega turret, the mission aint too bad even on hardest

[@charliecooper6586]

I actually love this mission, and never found it hard

[@SLAPNTZ_MCCOY]

Arcadia (City) Stands

[@jullienlopez3030]

I finished last week halo wars in legendary Now I'm doing halo reach I'm stuck at the space battle 😢

[@mattavery7581]

I never found this level hard.

[@TeamRespawn]

Oh

[@mattavery7581]

@@TeamRespawn Honestly no disrespect mate it's just I found that there were levels that were way harder! 🤣

[@Thurnmourer]

Was it? I don't recall any real problems.

[@carlosiyanaszca]

for me this was easy

[@Zeoinx69]

I dont get it, outside the first time I ever touched the game and got here, this mission was actually easy

[@GamesforCykits]

Really wasnt that hard, i beat this when i was a kid and even escorted that kid that dies in one hit

[@shuwuka]

no when i was 10 i gold this one you just need brain