Halo Wars: Stuff

It's been a while since I posted about this game and even longer since it came out. Being a large-scale strategy game, there was plenty of opportunity to see a lot more of the Halo universe, despite it being set 20 years prior to the first game. Let's start with...

Characters

Captain James Gregory Cutter
Species: Human
Allegiance: UNSC
Homeworld: Reach



Captain of the Spirit of Fire and leader of the missions in the game. A recognised leader he chose the modified colony ship as his command, using it to set up bases and deliver ground units to conflicts. He bravely led the crew into unknown territories, battling the Covenant and worse...

Sergeant John Forge
Species: Human
Allegiance: UNSC
Homeworld: Earth





A charismatic leader, Forge had as many demotions as promotions in his career, though he usually had his reasons for his behaviour. Nevertheless his men would follow him anywhere and he was the leading officer on the ground for the Spirit of Fire's forces. He bravely battled the Covenant, working alongside Spartans and earning their respect.

Professor Ellen Anders
Species: Human
Allegiance: UNSC
Homeworld: Arcadia




A leading expert in xenobiology, Anders was recruited by the UNSC to study the Covenant and deployed to the Spirit of Fire as they headed to recaptured Harvest. She discovered a Forerunner relic, and after activating it, realised the Covenant would be headed to Arcadia and instructed the Spirit of Fire to follow. While there she provided support to UNSC forces, directing them to take down an advanced Covenant shield, but after the battle she was captured, prompting the UNSC to follow deep into unknown space...

Serina
Species: AI
Allegiance: UNSC
Homeworld: Spirit of Fire




Serina is the 'smart' AI of the Spirit of Fire directing the ship through slipspace and managing the operations of the ground forces providing real-time updates. She has a sarcastic personality, frequently quipping jokes even in high tension situations.

Spartan Red Team
Jerome-092 / Douglas-042/ Alice-130




These Spartans, along with Omega team, were stationed on Arcadia and fought to buy time for the civillian evacuation there. After the UNSC offensive they joined the Spirit of Fire to the forerunner world and lead the fight against the Covenant Honour Guard forces.

Ripa 'Moramee
Species: Sangheili
Allegiance: Covenant
Homeworld: Sanghelios




Once disgraced for leading a failed rebellion, Moramee was made an Arbiter to redeem himself and served the Prophet of Mercy, investigating Forerunner relics and invading Human territory. He led the Covenant forces on Harvest and Arcadia then took Ellen Anders to a Forerunner world to capture the secret weapon hidden within. When the Spirit of Fire followed, he evacuated the Prophet and stayed to fight the Humans.

Hmmm...running out of space - as we're doing characters I'll finish off with infantry units then come back for vehicles etc.

UNSC

Hellbringers







A deadly close quarters unit, Hellbringers are equipped with back-mounted flamethrowers dealing immense damage to infantry. Particularly effective against Flood units they deployed in pairs to cause maximum damage. They could modify their weapons to include napalm for a longer burn, and also use flashbang grenades to further disorient foes.

The Covenant had a few units that were modified version of existing infantry, such as suicide grunts which charged in and detonated their methane packs for a large explosion. But on an unnamed Forerunner world, the UNSC also had to contend with...

The Flood

Thrasher form
Species: Flood
Allegiance: Flood
Homeworld: Unidentified Forerunner Construct



The Flood fought with large animal-like creatures like the thrasher. About the size of an elephant it would charge in an begin physically assaulting anything in range, doing immense damage even to armored vehicles by jumping on them and 'thrashing' them with large claws and tentacles.

Units also had to contend with clouds of flood spores emitting from various flood growths and fauna, if an infantry unit wandered into a cloud it would be quickly transformed into a flood monstrosity.

There are plenty of vehicles etc. to look at so I'll leave those for another post that I'll do soon(ish!)