Horrible skirrmish AI

[ModerNertum]

Is there any way to improve their combat effectivness?
It feels like pings sometimes are useless to them. Can ping 5 or 6 times in a base you want them to take but theyll still just hold the position instead of building a base there. Other times theyll immediately take the base when you ping them. Its very inconsistent.

PS: I am playing on Standard, Automatic difficulty and I get all sorts of crazy friendly AI behaviours when I play teams.

[Zetsua]

Set your AI difficulty to legendary or rather, winning against AI's with the Automatic difficulty enabled will raise the number on the difficulty and will eventually go higher than Legendary. Other than that, some AI will always act confused or stupid. The game was made in 2009 in a studio on the brink of bankruptcy, it's the best it's gonna get until our friendly Halo modders can officially mod AI behaviors but at the moment, there's nothing yet. Sorry friend.

[Master Sniper]

AI Design is the worst (and the only bad) part of this game, and it seems that these AI were designed to ruin your gameplay experience on propose sometimes. Don't be surprised if there are tons of enemy AI units suddenly showing up when you are building a new base (or just waiting for the countdown after taking out the rebels), because that's how the AI designers in Ensemble Studios made them work.

For 10+ years, I'm still feeling sorry for this game and everyone in Ensemble Studios except for the AI designers. Halo Wars 1 could have been a flawless masterpiece like HALO CE and HALO 3, but the AI in this game are not just confusing or stupid, but also shameful sometimes. Not to mention they have 33% hp and damage bonus against human players on legendary (or higher) difficulty.

[ModerNertum]

Sadly I researched about the history of development of Halo Wars (the original version that was later ported) and it was indeed hellish. I do enjoy the game but the AI is crazy, especially in teams your allies do all of crazy stuff (i.e: getting rushed and having no turrets up). Its pretty hard to get consistent wins in teams in Automatic if your teamates get immediately wiped out and you play against the entre enemy team alone (even if you can win it takes hours to do so) sadly.

PS: Killing AI enemy Scarabs is boring at this time, all you do is corner them and finish them off (uber units are big targets when cornered and cant go anywhere if they get hit with concentrated fire, even Scarabs). And for some reason the AI loves to build those. I see AI not betting on a faction stronger units or doing very little of them (even if they are playing as a particular leader). As Covenant they rarely make Banshees or Vamps and as UNSC they rarely make power turret tanks or gauss hogs. So you will see rubbish units like Voltures, Cyclops and whatever being made by the AI. Sometimes they cant even take a single rebel NPC base. Its sad really because otherwise Halo Wars is an amazing spin off Halo game, full of fan service (with good story and characters).

[Master Sniper]

Originally posted by ModerNertum:

Sadly I researched about the history of development of Halo Wars (the original version that was later ported) and it was indeed hellish. I do enjoy the game but the AI is crazy, especially in teams your allies do all of crazy stuff (i.e: getting rushed and having no turrets up). Its pretty hard to get consistent wins in teams in Automatic if your teamates get immediately wiped out and you play against the entre enemy team alone (even if you can win it takes hours to do so) sadly.

PS: Killing AI enemy Scarabs is boring at this time, all you do is corner them and finish them off (uber units are big targets when cornered and cant go anywhere if they get hit with concentrated fire, even Scarabs). And for some reason the AI loves to build those. I see AI not betting on a faction stronger units or doing very little of them (even if they are playing as a particular leader). As Covenant they rarely make Banshees or Vamps and as UNSC they rarely make power turret tanks or gauss hogs. So you will see rubbish units like Voltures, Cyclops and whatever being made by the AI. Sometimes they cant even take a single rebel NPC base. Its sad really because otherwise Halo Wars is an amazing spin off Halo game, full of fan service (with good story and characters).

Totally agree. The AI is the only and the biggest flaw of this game.