Bungie Universe
This topic has moved here: Subject: Why did FLEETCOM learn nothing from 32 years of war?
  • Subject: Why did FLEETCOM learn nothing from 32 years of war?
Subject: Why did FLEETCOM learn nothing from 32 years of war?

About me: I am a vicious wolf of a man.

But really am sweet at heart. =)

I mean, I know that's the canon and nothing can be changed, but how is it from the Battle of Harvest all the way to Earth, the only men with any know how on naval tactics were a washed up Vice Admiral who effectively just threw ships at the enemy until they broke, and a Commander/Captain who figured out how to fly around a planet while placing a nuke?

During the entire war, the standard engagement procedures of the UNSC in space combat were to charge straight towards the Covenant, firing weapons they knew took at least 3 shots to do any sort of damage, with armor as effective as tissue paper.

Why did the UNSC not change engagement procedures? A MAC fires at a percentage of the speed of LIGHT! Just stay at range with an asteroid belt between the ship and the Covenant and gradually break down their shields.

On that note, it is essentially verified that it either takes multiple low energy impacts, or single VERY high energy impacts to overload Covenant shield systems. So instead of installing the same MAC weapon on all Covenant ships, just in different numbers why not put a lighter, faster firing MAC on frigates, and less, HEAVIER MACs on destroyers and cruisers?

It just kills me that the Navy built the same 3 ships for 3 decades of war, saw they didn't work, saw their strategy didn't work, and did nothing. While ship captains, people with supposed years of experience, would haphazardly charge into battles that could only end with them being vaporized.

  • 05.03.2012 10:38 AM PDT

@accordingto343

Your one stop shop for all of 343's fabulous errors and ridiculous notions in the Halo lore.

Distance wouldn't matter, the fleet at Reach was able to move out of the range of the Super MACs. The Covenant just had better ships and no strategy seemed to work besides overwhelming force or extreme trickery.

  • 05.03.2012 10:51 AM PDT

"Find where the liar hides, so that I may place my boot between his gums!" - Rtas 'Vadum

I think it's because the people who write these stories are not tactically and strategically orientated, and so probably don't know what good tactics are. You just have to assume that the UNSC did try other things off-screen. They wouldn't actually be that retarded.

Posted by: Gottalovec4
Why did the UNSC not change engagement procedures? A MAC fires at a percentage of the speed of LIGHT! Just stay at range with an asteroid belt between the ship and the Covenant and gradually break down their shields.

Hiding in an asteroid field, or using it as cover, would be about as practical as trying to take cover in short grass. The typical distance between asteroids is hundreds of kilometres, and most of them are under 1 km in size.

  • 05.03.2012 10:55 AM PDT

Posted by:ScubaToaster
Posted by: HipiO7
This man, this man right here put it so eloquently that I actually cancelled my own 2000+ word long post.
/slow clap for respect


:)
The person who said participating is important, not winning, obviously never won anything.

Covenant ships were just too advanced. The UNSC couldn't really invest on long scale upgrades. They were pretty washed down from the human cost and effort with the war against the Insurrection. The resources they had were spent on building ships as fast as they can to fight the Covenant. I'm sure other tactics had been used, but asteroid fields aren't always present around a planet you know. What is the Fleet going to do? Hide in the asteroid field away from the planet and let the Covenant drop troops or even glass the planet? The UNSC's war effort in space was more sacrificial than anything; a way to win time for the evacuation planet side to take place. They knew most of the time they couldn't take the Covenant appropriately. Plus, the amount of experienced officers was getting cut down or parked in reserved along side with the high caliber ships in order to defend the Inner Colonies. Young officers were taking the lead on the frontier, with the eventual experienced officer, and most of them were killed, as well the experienced servicemen.

The UNSC should consider itself lucky that that war had prepared them for their feud against the Covenant, or they would have been annihilated. But the lost of qualified personal with experience throughout the war was just too much.

  • 05.03.2012 11:18 AM PDT

Range doesn't matter in engagment with the covenenant as they could execute short range slipspace jumps to instantly close the range. Basically the covenant tech was much better than the UNSCs tech.

  • 05.03.2012 12:19 PM PDT