Archive 1

Archiving

Could you please link this to the your user talk archive. It's kinda the rules...1234fansofHalo 22:55, 11 July 2011 (EDT)

Do I bloody have to? --CookieMonstersayshello 16:19, 13 July 2011 (EDT)

Covenant and UNSC strategies

Since I have a feeling you aren't willing to let this go, I thought I needed to settle this.

"as it ALWAYS bias if its stated the covenant are better strategists than the humans but NOT the other way round is that it?"
— You

You'd be wrong. It's definitely bias both ways around. However, there is something to be said about the viewpoint presented in the novels, which often depict humans as superior tacticians while Covenant tactics are repeatedly shown to be driven by doctrine or religious reasons (to name one instance, John's observation on page 111 of The Fall of Reach). Most importantly, their strategies or tactics aren't a defining factor in most Covenant victories; even if some of their victories are due to better strategic thinking, the Covenant don't need to be good strategists in order to win because their weapons and technology are so vastly superior. On the other hand, humans have to rely on cleverness or in most cases, numerical superiority. It's like pitting modern fighter jets against WW2-era planes; even if they used superior tactics, it's not like the fighter jets need any strategy other than "lock on and pull the trigger".

Still, you can't generalize it by saying the Covenant are better strategists than humans or the other way around. It's always a matter of individual commanders. People like Jacob Keyes or Preston Cole or others who continuously prevailed against Covenant obviously used better tactics than the Covenant commanders they faced. In the Covenant, there are practical commanders like Voro Nar 'Mantakree who are undoubtedly good tacticians, but likely more of those who let doctrine, personal beliefs, their honor codes, or blind zealotry cloud their judgment, like Tano 'Inanraree, Luro 'Taralumee or Ripa 'Moramee. There's also the issue that because the two civilizations and the technologies they use are so vastly different, they are ineligible for direct comparison. UNSC strategies or tactics aren't necessarily better than Covenant ones, they're just different. That difference alone may be what tips many battles in one faction's favor.

Coming back to the point about the perspective of the novels, I don't think a single novel, game or reference work has objectively acknowledged the tactical or strategic superiority of the Covenant that you keep on proclaiming. Unless you have a source where an omniscient narrator or a reliable character states that Covenant strategies are superior, you can't claim the Covenant are always better than humans just because you like them better. --Jugus (Talk | Contribs) 08:09, 27 July 2011 (EDT)