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Subject: How long was the Battle of Reach?

Ignore my gamertag. It's actually Dragonzzilla.

I heard people say Reach fell in a day, but the Halo wiki says it lasted as long as Reach stated.

Which is the true statement?

  • 04.29.2011 1:13 PM PDT

Before the Reach game the book the Fall of Reach stated it took a very short time for Reach to fall. The game however retconned it to it's current length.

  • 04.29.2011 1:16 PM PDT

Wake me when the jews are gone.

the wikia is true but we here in B.net refuse to acept that plothole(Halo:reach)as a canon source superior to nylund

[Edited on 04.29.2011 1:18 PM PDT]

  • 04.29.2011 1:17 PM PDT

what does "as long as Reach stated" mean.

It could not have been only one day because the nobles have two missions where they are flying by night - Nightfall and New Alexandra.

  • 04.29.2011 1:18 PM PDT

Wake me when the jews are gone.


Posted by: jvc8996
what does "as long as Reach stated" mean.

It could not have been only one day because the nobles have two missions where they are flying by night - Nightfall and New Alexandra.
thre was a novel writen by Eric nylund about the fall of reach that stated this

  • 04.29.2011 1:19 PM PDT

Adepto In Meus Campester
Posted by: ParagonRenegade
You were totally and absolutely correct in every way, I don't know why we were arguing, you're so amazing I should never have doubted you.

It was in a day.

Halo: Reach is not canon because it was made by a group of drooling downies instead of actual writers. Fact.

The gameplay sucks too.

  • 04.29.2011 1:21 PM PDT


Posted by: fsabran

Posted by: jvc8996
what does "as long as Reach stated" mean.

It could not have been only one day because the nobles have two missions where they are flying by night - Nightfall and New Alexandra.
thre was a novel writen by Eric nylund about the fall of reach that stated this

Wait, so, are you saying that the book agrees with my quote or that it disagrees with my quote?

  • 04.29.2011 1:26 PM PDT

The book states that it was quick, it was the game that stretches out the timeline.

  • 04.29.2011 1:28 PM PDT

"I may not be perfect, but always been true."


Posted by: Lord Slade
It was in a day.

Halo: Reach is not canon because it was made by a group of drooling downies instead of actual writers. Fact.

The gameplay sucks too.


Too bad that Game Canon > Book Canon.

  • 04.29.2011 2:05 PM PDT

The total amount of time it took for Reach to fall was about a month. Though the battle didn't really start until about the 14th of August, so really the Battle of Reach really only took about two weeks, give or take.

And to all the people calling Reach non-canon, you guys need to wake up :P New canon takes authority over old and the games take authority over the books when things conflict, so like it or not the timeline presented by Halo: Reach is canon. That doesn't mean that the events of TFoR are now non-canon though, the two sources can and do co-exist.

  • 04.29.2011 2:13 PM PDT

Adepto In Meus Campester
Posted by: ParagonRenegade
You were totally and absolutely correct in every way, I don't know why we were arguing, you're so amazing I should never have doubted you.

Posted by: RKOSNAKE
Too bad that Game Canon > Book Canon.

Too bad that you're dickriding Bungie and are too stubborn to see just how poorly written and made Reach was.

Posted by: OrderedComa
And to all the people calling Reach non-canon, you guys need to wake up :P New canon takes authority over old and the games take authority over the books when things conflict, so like it or not the timeline presented by Halo: Reach is canon.

Good canon overrides bad canon. They're making this to please the audience, remember? That's how they make money, that's how they built a fanbase. Now you're saying that this fanbase just has to take the slap in the face that Reach was.

If we let any craptastic clutter canon be accepted as official, it'll end up worse than Star War's EU.

[Edited on 04.29.2011 2:20 PM PDT]

  • 04.29.2011 2:15 PM PDT
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Posted by: evilcam
Bobcast is paid in MILF blind dates.

I think it's a better fear factor that Reach fell in one day. Sadly, Bungie didn't use that for Reach.

  • 04.29.2011 2:20 PM PDT

Adepto In Meus Campester
Posted by: ParagonRenegade
You were totally and absolutely correct in every way, I don't know why we were arguing, you're so amazing I should never have doubted you.

Posted by: Thrasher Fan
I think it's a better fear factor that Reach fell in one day. Sadly, Bungie didn't use that for Reach.

Exactly. The battle of Reach was supposed to be symbolic, showing just how hopeless the struggle was when even humanity's greatest stronghold can be swept aside by the unstoppable alien juggernaut.

With Reach they just succeeded in making a terrible story with the presentation of a bad Bollywood flick. Everything in it was contrived.

Also, keep bringing arguments to me, I have an unending well of seething hatred towards whoever wrote and designed Halo: Reach. It's the gangrenous limb that needs to be amputated to save the rest of the body that is the Halo franchise.

  • 04.29.2011 2:23 PM PDT

"You are who you dare"

You owe it to yourself to get out and be someone. Get to work!

-Leader of The Citadel

4 hours in Books, and it was far more epic in the books....

  • 04.29.2011 2:36 PM PDT

"I may not be perfect, but always been true."


Posted by: Lord Slade
Posted by: RKOSNAKE
Too bad that Game Canon > Book Canon.

Too bad that you're dickriding Bungie and are too stubborn to see just how poorly written and made Reach was.


Dickriding? Not at all, I never said that Reach had an amazing storyline that couldn't be matched by anything else, the only thing that I said was that Game Canon absolutely trumps Book Canon, but I guess you're too ignorant to properly understand my post.

Reach was predestined to fail at copying the book because of the short duration of the actual battle, seriously a 4 hour battle made into a game? Of course they would change the duration.

  • 04.29.2011 2:43 PM PDT
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Deva Path


Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?


Posted by: OrderedComa
The total amount of time it took for Reach to fall was about a month. Though the battle didn't really start until about the 14th of August, so really the Battle of Reach really only took about two weeks, give or take.

And to all the people calling Reach non-canon, you guys need to wake up :P New canon takes authority over old and the games take authority over the books when things conflict, so like it or not the timeline presented by Halo: Reach is canon. That doesn't mean that the events of TFoR are now non-canon though, the two sources can and do co-exist.


that isn't how it goes.


Posted by: grey101

Posted by: Cmdr DaeFaron

Posted by: kevboard
why the hell do people dont get it??

GAMES = CANON
BOOKS AND OTHER STUFF = NOT! CANON


Because what you said is wrong.

Games = canon.
Books = canon.

Games are higher on the priority list, but they are not the only canon. If so, it'd be a very, very dull universe lore wise.


meh not necessarily.

Games>books when the games are close to "perfect" as can be with little or very minor canonical errors. Examples are Halowars,Halo CE, Halo 2, Halo 3 and Halo ODST.

While they all have errors none of the games have serouse errors that contradicts the established canon with the current retconned material.

Games do not > books when they direct several or major canonical situations in the established canon, examples include Halo:Reach.

Due to it having errors that contradict what we already know we then discuss which one should be followed/allowed in which the general conses has placed the novel over the book as halsey journal and the game itself fail to explain every change in detail.


Also the space battle lasted 2 hours and is what we refer to when we say reach fell in a day. skirmishes on the ground lasted up to a month.

[Edited on 04.29.2011 2:52 PM PDT]

  • 04.29.2011 2:43 PM PDT

Posted by: Lord Slade
Good canon overrides bad canon. They're making this to please the audience, remember? That's how they make money, that's how they built a fanbase. Now you're saying that this fanbase just has to take the slap in the face that Reach was.

If we let any craptastic clutter canon be accepted as official, it'll end up worse than Star War's EU.


In your book maybe, but ultimately canon is decided by the developers/owners of the story, in this case Bungie, or rather 343i now. And while you may think Reach is a horrible story, I personally found it quite enjoyable and exactly what I thought it would be.

And that canon policy I listed has been around for quite a while now, well before anyone had even heard of Halo: Reach, so this is not something new to explain away any supposed errors in Reach.

Plus, Reach falling over a period of two weeks makes infinitely more sense than two hours. I mean think about it, the UNSC had 20 SMACs, almost their whole fleet which had some pretty bigass ships like the Trafalgar, and many of their greatest military minds such as Captain Keyes. There is no way with all of that Reach would fall in just two hours, no matter how many ships the Covenant had (and no, don't bring up that there were 700+ ships because there weren't, that was a mistake as everywhere else in the book it goes back to the approximately 314 from the original print). Plus the odds were just about the same as at any other battle with the Covenant, especially figuring in the SMACs and all the other ODPs present at Reach.

People are taking this way too personally -.- I mean yes, there are a few errors in Halo: Reach, but if you actually think about it, it's a big deal, and most of it has already been fixed anyway in Halsey's Journal, or just can be easily figured out with a good dosage of common sense.

  • 04.29.2011 2:55 PM PDT
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What I hate is that even though the covenant are on Reach, they don't even start evacuating the planet, or setting up major installations around the covenant landing zone.

not to mention that Jorge decided to die, even though it was obvious the covenant would be back in greater numbers.

  • 04.29.2011 3:12 PM PDT
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Posted by: DecepticonCobra

We are all going to get banned aren't we?


Posted by: OrderedComa
Posted by: Lord Slade
Good canon overrides bad canon. They're making this to please the audience, remember? That's how they make money, that's how they built a fanbase. Now you're saying that this fanbase just has to take the slap in the face that Reach was.

If we let any craptastic clutter canon be accepted as official, it'll end up worse than Star War's EU.


In your book maybe, but ultimately canon is decided by the developers/owners of the story, in this case Bungie, or rather 343i now. And while you may think Reach is a horrible story, I personally found it quite enjoyable and exactly what I thought it would be.
True but once a series gets big and uncountable amounts of stories have been made; eventually it is up to the fans to piece the canon puzzle together much like starwars fans have been doing.

Plus, Reach falling over a period of two weeks makes infinitely more sense than two hours. I mean think about it, the UNSC had 20 SMACs, almost their whole fleet which had some pretty bigass ships like the Trafalgar, and many of their greatest military minds such as Captain Keyes. There is no way with all of that Reach would fall in just two hours, no matter how many ships the Covenant had (and no, don't bring up that there were 700+ ships because there weren't, that was a mistake as everywhere else in the book it goes back to the approximately 314 from the original print). To be honest have you even read the books and actually understood them or do you just fully know halo off the games? What you have stated is something i fully expect from somebody that only knows halo from the games and not the actual lore.

First off the covenant are far superior to the UNSC which is the main reason they lost nearly every space engagement. secondly ships like Trafalgar were huge and slow therefore a large sitting target for covenant ships; which is the reason it was one of the first ships to be destroyed during the battle before it could do anything and a supporting reason why the UNSC make small to medium sized ships.

Yes Reach had 20 SMACs, but they got swarmed by boarding craft and were also getting sniped by a new class of covenant ship designed to take out MACs.

The fleet of the Reach was only 100 ships (120 at the most with reinforcements) the actual covenant fighitng force of ships was 314 ships (though a good amount was destroyed by mines) even then they still outnumbered the number of ships the UNSC had; as they failed to meet the 3:1 ratio they needed to beat covenant ships.

After a few rounds and breaching a line in the MACs the covenant split the ships into two forces, one force of over 150 focus on UNSC ships while the rest worked on the MACs with the covenant Supercruiser sniped UNSC ships from a distance.

The UNSC tried to split their force of around 50 ships (if i remember right) but there were too many platforms to cover and too many dropships surrounding their ships and going to the surface to take down the MACs.


The reason Reach fell in 2 hours is because there weren't enough ships and not enough SMACs to cover the planet. Not to mention the UNSC only had a low number of 100 ships and didn't expect the covenant to attack.


People are taking this way too personally -.- I mean yes, there are a few errors in Halo: Reach, but if you actually think about it, it's a big deal, and most of it has already been fixed anyway in Halsey's Journal, or just can be easily figured out with a good dosage of common sense.

Halseys journal fix SOME errors but defiantly not most of the, and common sense does not flesh out the backstory of noble team that we were said to get, nor does it explain why the hell the PoA Landed, landed on a drydock instead of an orbital station, and how the hell it could take off like that.


[Edited on 04.29.2011 3:20 PM PDT]

  • 04.29.2011 3:17 PM PDT

It was between August 24th to August 30th, 6 Days of fighting for a Planet.

Anything before or after were simply skirmishes.

  • 04.29.2011 3:34 PM PDT

A month.
newer canon > older canon
game canon > book canon

  • 04.29.2011 3:38 PM PDT

according to bungie and 343 it is game>books then new>old but in the minds of a large majority of fans (and i mean the ones who have actually read all the books, i dont even know if you can be counted as a halo universe fan if you haven't) we accept old>new.

imagine you are making a movie. at the beginning it is clearly stated group A is far superior to group B. then at the end a well outnumbered group B holds there own for a good amount of time against group B.

this is basically what happened in Halo Reach.

why would you try to change something in the minds of people that has been known for 10 yrs? Honestly I dont think it would have been hard for them to keep Reach 100% accurate, where know as for as details go it might roughly be somewhere along the lines of 40-60.

  • 04.29.2011 3:43 PM PDT

Just so you all know, the fall of reach book was made before the halo bible, it had a lot of problems, the book said humanity had just saw the eletes for the first time! There were problems that complicated the story, so the changed it a little, oni wanted to keep moral up so the hid the fact they were being attacked, oni was thinking was they could not lose the military hub. Oni knew they were screwed when all the ships jumped in during LNoS. Here is basically what happened.
July:
Farmer:Help! a Space dog and a dinosaur killed my wife!
Oni: No. What are you talking about?
Farmer:But I saw i-
Oni:No
Farmer: But-
Oni:No

The next day...
Farmer: Hey guys, My wife was- *Bullet goes through window*

[Edited on 04.29.2011 4:21 PM PDT]

  • 04.29.2011 4:20 PM PDT

By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.

Posted by: Docterweegee
Just so you all know, the fall of reach book was made before the halo bible


Oh, so you know when the Halo Story Bible was created then, do you? The Fall of Reach was confirmed canon by Halo CE, the references to Reach at the beginning and the fact the instruction manual outlines the events leading up to CE made it canonical from the beginning.

Seeing how Halo CE began developement in 1999 (after the choice to revamp Pre-Xbox Halo) I'm pretty sure the Bible was sitting pretty inside Bungie studios before Nylund wrote TFOR.

  • 04.29.2011 4:32 PM PDT

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