Thanks to Vite for the sponsorship, go check out their noodz: shop.viteramen.com/?p=Bk6bYEDmB or use code ECKHARTSLADDER at checkout! Also, new Tapcaf in just over an hour (7PM EST)
awesome video. I believe that the elites won by tactics and determination. During the second world war Japanese soldiers fighting China we're outnumbered 7 to 1 and beat the Chinese back. Numbers do play a role in war. But mostly it comes down to who has the better tactics. Also could the Terran Dominion survive a Flood infection.
Here are some vs ideas Borg Cube vs Unsc Inifity Ridley (metroid) vs General Grievous 3 Striders (half life) vs Type-47A (halo) AAT-1 vs Type-47B Scarab vs AT TE
and "All right. They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us ... They can't get away this time." -Lt. Gen. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller
@@The_JEB I've always enjoyed US Gen. Anthony McAuliffe's quote, "Men, we are surrounded by the enemy. That means we have the greatest opportunity ever presented to an army. We can attack in any direction we choose." -circa Dec. 1944 to Jan 1945, Battle of the Bulge, WW2
@Usze 'Taham you have to respect your enemy after they succeed against you. Otherwise you are shitting on your troops who were beaten by such opponent.
the ship master saying it is an even fight was honestly an understatement. the elites already are far superior to the brutes in tactical combat but then you add on the fact that the one leading the elites was a genius in tactics it just crushes the brutes chances.
@@bossshun9 in fact the elites had more real space combat experience compared to the brutes ( exceptuading atriox and few remaining cases) , in tactics they brutes probably applied a strategy of sacrificing the less important ships in order to protect the flagship.
yea this was not a fair fight for the Brutes. If Chief had Cortana at that point in the story it would have been an even more unfair fight for the brutes
"I will beat the prophets shield like a drum... by the time the barrier falls, he shall beg for mercy." My personal favorite line from the Ship Master.
@Erik Boon We all imagined the elite sounding like danny because most of us know the original line. There was no other way to perceive it and you mentioning it as if everyone here wasn't thinking the exact same thing was strange. Also I wasn't sharing the clip for you, I was sharing it to give context for others to the OC's joke
My favorite was from halo 2 “This is fleet admiral Harper, we are engaging the enemy” courageous that those guys would immediately attack with everything they got on enemies that JUST slipspaced into the system that quick.
If you're looking for real life examples of smaller fleets of ships taking on larger fleets and winning, I would suggest looking into Admiral Yi Sun-sin. He was a Korean Admiral in the 1500s that engaged much larger Japanese fleets without losing a single ship. That was until his last battle, but that was because of his ally making a mistake.
He is a lawyer for a profession as is his wife I believe. And makes plenty of money. He has no need for monetization but brings in much cash flow from this side hobby probably comparative to his lawyer salary now he is much more highly publicized versus 2 years ago.
There's also the fact that when the elites handed over ships to the brutes, many had their weapons and other systems sabotaged, many of which were more than likely still a problem during the battle
Elites: "Shipmaster, they outnumber us three to one!" *"Then it is an even fight."* Brutes: "Alpha, we outnumber them 3 to 1!" *"Why do I hear boss music?"*
Eck: “could a smaller army 1/3 the size of its opponent actually win?” Me: "Sit Down. Let me tell you a great story. There was this Forerunner A.I. named Offensive Bias. Outnumbered 436.6:1. 8 hours later. Offensive Bias is victorious."
Ekaf Eman better yet, he dodged, and wasted time for 7 hours 57 minutes, intentionality losing more than half his fleet. Then won in three minutes flat.
On a smaller battle scale but just as good: Crossbone Gundam and the Steel 7 incident where 7 mobile suits( F91, F90 intercept, Vigna Ghina 2, X-1 Full Cloth, Angel Diona and 2 salvaged Jupiter MS) fought Jupiter Empire's army 100 to 1 odds and to stop a large colony laser from blasting earth and scorching the planet.
@@chrissonofpear1384 Take into play the human elite alliance, along with the fact that, in the lore, the elites and humans had the lekgolo on their side, they're the ones who had lekgolo based scarabs, hunters, and grunts, for the ground fight, and they not only had more experience and adaptability, but if you take into account the fact that they have human allies, that if were considered as the same faction, would also cause them to outnumber the brutes, since the UNSC fights in large numbers, with hit and run tactics, that's bad for the brutes, it's obvious why the elites and humans won.
In halo 5, I believe he was said to be flying his same ship and some of the same crew, but they are not interested in war anymore. And they just fly the old warship around star trek style
There is another factor to consider: in First Strike, Cortana discovers that the Covenant's plasma torpedo launchers could be configured into very powerful plasma lasers, which she uses to destroy a squadron of Seraph fighters with one shot. She notes that, ironically, humans understand the physics of how Covenant weaponry works better than the Covenant themselves. While it may not be stated outright, it is possible that human AIs were ordered to share this knowledge on how to upgrade Covenant weaponry. At the very least, we know that it would give the Elites an advantage in fending off close range attacks by fighters.
During that last bit of desperation I would think that Miranda would have told them. That was basically the last fight everything was put on the line to win
I always loved how Humanity was not as advanced, but had a much better understanding of their tech, thus being more adaptable, while the Covenant just reverse engineered a bunch of Forerunner tech and don't entirely know how it works and being a lot more rigid.
I like to think that in a way, this quote is also a small nod to the Elites respect for the humans. UNSC could typically win with a 3-1 numerical advantage in space. Shipmaster Rtas sees this large mass of Brute-controlled covenant carriers and battleships and thinks "Yeah, that's about as threatening as a Human-Fleet".
@@古明地恋-s9cif they enter a battle they have to have a significant numerical advantage to "win" the battle, they will suffer heavy losses but they also don't have the ships to spare for continuous use of this tactic
@@Moltenrokk the UNSC did have numerical superiority early on in the war. Notable examples: Retaking of Harvest in 2526 where the UNSC outnumbered the covenant "fleet" 40 to 1. First battle of Arcadia in 2531 where the UNSC 'enjoyed a 2 to 1 advantage. Battle of Charybis IX in 2535 where UNSC had slight advantage in numbers (4 UNSC and 2 INS warships against 5 Covenant vessels) And ofcourse the initial phase of the battle of Earth 2552, where the Home fleet outnumbered Regret's fleet 3 to 1. Unconfirmed (but heavily suggested) battles where the UNSC enjoyed some form of numerical superiority in space. Battle of Jericho, 2532 Battle of Miridem, 2544 Battle of Paris IV, 2549 One massive misconception is that the covenant would've won the war automatically had it not been for the chief. In reality, the covenant became very close to implosion due to their war with humanity. To start with, the prophets were scared shitless once they realized the UNSC was no walkover and that a prolonged war would (rightfully) destroy the covenant as a whole (which it did). To begin with, the prophets declared war on humanity on false accusations, stating that humanity were actively hunting down and destroying holy relics. This lie obscured 2 truths. The truth about why covenant luminaries consistently detected forerunner relics on human worlds: In reality, the humans WERE the relics in the eyes of these luminaries. The truth about why humanity was the only species in the covenant not eventually sworn into it's order. Because they WERE forerunner (or successors) and the whole purpose of the covenant was a lie. The prophets feared that the other species would eventually figure out the truth about humanity and their purpose in the galaxy. In fact, the elites (who had been pushing for humanity to gain an equal seat within the covenant due to their resillience) were already suspicious about the prophet's for more than a decade prior to the fall of reach because of the prophet's unwillingness to make peace with humanity. They began their own, secret investigations, investigations that were discovered early on by truth (and the reason why he began to groom the brutes as the elite's successors). These elites, while sabotaged every step of the way by the prophets, were extremely close to figuring out the truth after Vadam provided the Elite high council crucial intel in regards to how easy humans were able to interact directly with forerunner systems on installation 4. An ability the covenant as a whole wasn't able to (only the prophet's seemed to posses enough skill to access forerunner systems, and this was mostly due to using human prisoners to do it for them). This knowledge was kept from the elites for decades and when they figured this out, preparations were made to leave the covenant. This plot was discovered by Truth, who quickly arranged the elites to be removed from their guard duty (as many of those guards had close ties to the elite council and was afraid they would turn on them), calling of regret's rescue party and using his death as legal cause to do so. The final nail in the coffin was driven in earlier by Sesa 'Refumee, the heretic leader who discovered 343 GS after the ring's destruction. He broadcasted the truth throughout the entire covenant network. All events combined pushed truth to initiate the great schism early. I say early, because the chief & co threw a massive wrench into truth's plans by destroying the Unyielding Hierophant, the massive station harboring almost 4 full fleets of trained brutes captains, tasked on taking out earth. Truth's original plan was to secretely take out the homeworld of Earth and crippling the UNSC for good using the brute-led fleets. Then, with Humanity no longer a viable threat. Truth would only then initiate the great purge by sending these brute fleets over elite systems, destroying their planets and basicly commit genocide on the elite race while they were caught off-guard. Instead, the chief blows up the station and Whitcomb destroyed what remained of the 500 strong fleet in an heroic self-sacrifice. Leaving truth with very little options and time to adjust. Humanity may have won through sheer luck and coincidence. But if you think about it, Humanity's contingency plan (to basically become nomads in space) would've always worked. As truth's schemes, lies and deception would have backfired as he could never cleanly destroy the elites. This was proven during the events of Halo 2 and 3. With the elites quickly gaining the upper hand after the initial shock. Fun facts * The reason why the arbiter was ousted from the covenant was because he unintentionally (and without him even realizing) discovered the truth about humanity. He had observed first hand how Humanity was able to interact with Halo with such ease. When he reported this to the prophets, they turned pale from shock. As this came from one of the second most respected fleet master in the covenant navy. The prophets feared if he realized the implications of his discovery, his high status within the covenant navy would've swayed already sceptical races to split from the covenant. The prophets hastily arrested him on grounds of the destruction of Halo and arranged for his death shortly after his branding, but Sesa's rebellious broadcast basically saved him from certain death as the prophets desperately needed a new arbiter/useful idiot. Which they found with Vadamee. *The prophets had a pattern in disposing keen-eyed elites who got (too close) to finding out the truth about humanity. The previous Arbiter (the one in HW1) actually discovered the truth about humanity and the lies the prophets spewed. The prophets instead threatened to wipe out the arbiter's entire family and clan had he revealed that information and framed him into the role of aribiter as killing him would've caused suspicion. The prophets also forced Wantinree, the single most influential and loved shipmaster in the covenant hierarchy at the time to defend a meaningless bit of space far away from the covenant.For reason that he became very sceptical of the prophets and wished to reform the covenant without them. * The cole protocol was EXTREMELY effective up until the fall of reach. To the point of frustrating not just the prophets, but the elites aswel. One of which was recorded saying this; "We do not know where their homeworld is. Their pattern of retreat is either hopelessly random, or brilliantly conceived." The only reason why human systems were discovered time and time again was due to covenant luminaries revealing forerunner artifacts (AKA humanity itself) in systems. Case and point was Regret's fleet towards Earth, as regret found out about the planet through a luminary who revealed a hotspot of artifacts on the planet but didn't know it was the mass concentration of humans. This also explains why covenant fleets mentioned in above battles were small enough to be outnumbered by the UNSC. Because these were in all likelyhood not invasion fleets but reliquary fleets, in search of artifacts. (It's why in halo wars, only 2 covenant ships invaded Arcadia and quickly bugged out after they found the intel they needed).
Genuine question. Is Escharum smart? I imagine he is wise in some sense because he was Atriox’s mentor but from the cutscenes in halo infinite he seems to be following Atriox’s will blindly and not really considering thinking about the orders he gives. I haven’t finished the campaign yet so idk all about him and idk if he’s in any of the books so maybe someone can fill me in more on Escharum but from what I’ve seen, he makes very rash decisions.
Atriox - guy who nearly died in a cutscene and has yet to do anything Escharum - saturday morning cartoon villain who met you and then died immediately after uh huh
An important factor that was briefly mentioned here was the fact the Elites are more adapted for space combat. Not just because they are more intelligent or because the Brutes nuked themselves back into the stone-age. Rather, the Brutes who DID have ships when the Elite's ran the military, were severely limited in what they were even allowed to use. There is a story. I think part of one of the Evolutions novels, where it describes a Brute-owned ship where they were not even permitted an elevator. So imagine for a moment, these Brutes have only in the past few weeks been given command of ships, they've not really had anybody to fight since most of the Brute ships around High Charity were destroyed by the Elites, so all the Brute captains above the Ark basically had no clue what their ships were even capable of. Even if they were able to focus on tactics and not see red, the Brutes commanding battle groups would not know what their ships are even capable of beyond "shooting and getting shot".
The Novel you're thinking of is Contact Harvest, it shows that Elites stripped brute ships down to as basic as possible and gave them Yanme'e instead of Huragok to repair their ships meaning that they would never be as good as Elite ships. This is the first thing I thought about when seeing the video title not that the Elites were better fighters but they were better equipped.
Agreed. But I highly doubt the ships they had at the ark were just "brute" ships. They no doubt had huragok as they did in Mombasa with the suicide huragoks.
@@thebandoffice53 I'm referring to those commanding the ships. The Kig-Yar had their own ships but were privately owned and mostly by pirates, I don't believe any other species within the Covenant except perhaps the Prophets themselves were actually allowed ships due to the whole caste-system going on there. The Huragok were nothing more than floating computers and engineers, there were times within both novels and games where they pretty much aided "the enemy" (Humanity) because they saw something broken that needed fixing. I doubt the Covenant would have granted them the rank necessary to command, especially given that, as you rightfully pointed out, were used as literal suicide-bombers.
Mikey The Brutes had them wear the suicide vests as a fail safe because as you said, the Huragok are a neutral race. Their lives are fixated on fixing what is broken. They were very good at manipulating any form of technology which is why you wouldn’t want your enemy to have them.
See while I agree, the context isn't there. It's like "laughing in polish cavalry as they charge tanks". While the tech is an equal playing field, they shouldn't have been able to weather the overwhelming fire-power from the larger fleet. More human trickery and shenanigans should have been at least hinted at.
A small force can absolutely destroy a force three times its size. It has happened over and over in real life. Sometimes the attacking force is up to five times the size. This battle is actually pretty believable from a tactical standpoint.
Operation Barbarossa comes to mind. The invasion went well at first, but due to poor planning, winter setting in a issues with equipment not being ready for it, it fell flat.
I believe in the mission the ark in a few of the downed phantoms, you can overhear some brute ships communicating. They issue warnings that the elite ships are blending in with theirs and brute shipmasters threatening their subordinates if they lose the battle, overall the brute fleet seem to be rife with incompetence/lacking experience and had no coordination despite thier superior numbers.
Disorganized and undisciplined. The Elites did love using stealth in battle so it's not surprising that would do the same in space warfare if granted the opportunity.
Great video The Elites are brilliant tacticians, often under appreciated because the deck is so often in their favour they don't need to show their genius. They're also level headed, calculating, and highly disciplined. Pit them against a disorganised rabble of thugs. Not any thugs mind you, but unreasonably aggressive, testosterone fueled, macho thugs that aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, and you see where I'm going. The Elites will know every trick in the CCS and CAS owners manuals to get everything out of those ships, they know the fighting style of the Brutes intimately, and they know how to push the Brutes buttons. Half-Jaw wiped the Brutes out.
Even if I didn't already agree with the rest of your comment, seeing ''Half-Jaw wiped the Brutes out." at the end had me mashing that Like button. I didn't think such a simple statement could bring so much satisfaction XD
I remember a sequence in one of the books where they were able to fool a brute ship into thinking that an elite ship was able to fire when it wasnt actually ready by messing with the plasma relays. This certainly lends credence to the idea that the elites new their ships much better.
The story really did a good job convincing me that this battle despite being outnumbered could be easily won by the Elites. The Elites were experienced and tactical while the Brutes were power drunk and fanatical. The Brutes were awarded their position for purely political reasons and that sole decision was really the nail in the coffin for the Covenant.
Eck: "Could a army 1/3 the size of its opponent actually win?" Toyotomi Hideyoshi: No *Admiral Yi has enter the chat* *Toyotomi Hideyoshi has left the chat*
Leon Valenzuela THANK YOU. Even if the analogy isn’t perfect, it reflects the sentiments of the battle brilliantly. A small force adept at Naval Warfare, facing a superior force not nearly as clever in that field.
You can win when you are severely outnumbered it has happened before. One of my favorite stories is how one samurai led his men through a secret passage and managed to make his enemies think he had way more numbers than he did. If your opponent has poor cohesion then it is possible to simply out play them.
You just reminded me of General Lee during the Civil War: most of his battles had his troops outnumbered by the union forces, but because of Lee's superior experience and tactical knowhow, he was able to all but decimate any opposition he faced. So yes, it's possible to win battles when you're severely outnumbered.
I think the other major tactic that Vadum would have utilized, would be defeat in detail, isolate individual or small groups, and then maneuver out of range of counter fire to draw out additional attacks. I could see Rtas Vadum bring about to put his Special Operations training to good use, executing asymmetrical warfare tactics.
I think the ship master and sgt Johnson would get along very well the best drinking buddies along with John and arbiter Forge and jerome Jun and Linda Keyes and the flood Emile and his knife Spartan 1337 and mama
A smaller fleet of ships defeating a larger fleet makes complete sense. Korean admiral Yi Sun-Shin was outnumbered in every encounter and he destroyed the Japanese. The funny thing is too is that he had no prior naval training.
I remember reading about that he won a navel fight where he was out numbered like 10:1 and came out victorious and only minor damage to his forces, im mean hell he had trained his men so well that when he was killed during a battle he ordered that some keep hitting his war drums and not announce his death until after the battle had been won only sad thing is he was only fighting at a 4:1 disadvantage when he was killed
This guy is undoubtedly unstoppable. No one can literally stop him. Hes like playing chess but knows opponent's all movement. His only weakness are idiots who cant take orders from him.
I know this comment is old, but fuck it, it made me laugh. Like, in response to a question posed by the video on if something is realistic or not in fiction, you lot responded with more fictional answers. lmao. Napoleon? Hannibal? No, Thrawn and Offensive Bias. I got a real kick out of that. lol
Admiral Yi Sun-Sin Admiral Themistocles Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson History has demonstrated it is very plausible for brilliant commanders to defeat opposing forces 10x (or even 100x) disproportionate strength
I know it's an old comment but I just want you to know I still appreciate it all the same. Unlike the others, you actually gave examples that are admirals. Good on ya!
And he and his clones were outnumbered 1,000 to 1, just to impress the Toydarian Emperor, who was then almost assassinated, but protected by Yoda still. I can also admit to having times in Halo 2-3 era, when LAN parties were still a thing, my brother would throw them, and me being the friendless-loner would constantly be thrown the weakest of his friends and we would still win. Why? Coordination with those friends to lead the other friends into my sights and lead them a merry chase. Skill wise, my teams tended to be worse by a long shot, but a good leader and coordinator will lead a party of fools to victory over a grunt who doesn't know how to lead and coordinate. Sometimes I'd even play solo against those same friends in a 7-1... I would win because picking and choosing my targets was required, and being able to take them out piecemeal was the way to victory... as the saying goes "I knew it, I'm surrounded by assholes!"
Something else to keep in mind is that while Brutes had achieved space flight, they were fairly recent additions to the Covenant. They wouldn't have had the experience that the Elites had in Covenant on Covenant ship combat from the various civil wars and policing actions over the years.
Indeed, yeah, isn't the implication also that the Brutes were seldom if ever given control over ships prior to the Elites falling out of the Prophets' graces? So it isn't just that Brutes had little experience with starship fighting in general, but also that they had even barely a few months of experience with these ships specifically.
@@Kylephibbsky You're absolutely correct. In fact, on Harvest where the war began, brutes had ships that were missing entire weapons systems because the Elites that gave them the ships removed the weapons because they assumed the brutes would get into trouble using them. That was the official reason anyway, unofficially, it was just another chapter in their rivalry inside the covenant.
In my experience the best ways to take on a much larger enemy breaks down into two categories, either playing hard to get, and whittling them down while waiting for an opportunity, or the second option: charge right in and try to rely on shock and awe to produce a disproportionate effect on the enemy. The former case is better against skilled opponents, and the latter case is for inferior opponents. IMHO the Elites made the right call... although obviously this is after the battle generalmanship.
A year late, I know, but the whole "Shock and Awe" tactic worked to great effect in WW2, with a Canadian soldier named Leo Major, who liberated a town all by himself, by quite literally making as much noise and causing much confusion as possible in the middle of the night. Go check his story out, it's fantastic.
Napoleon had a good strategy for taking on larger armies. Even though he had a smaller army, he would break it up and spread it out. This would cause the enemy to break up theirs and send them after napoleons smaller divisions individually. He would then beat the smaller segments one at a time, each one he defeated, he would take his remaining forces and use them to reneforce another division to defeat another section of the enemy army. It's kinda hard to explain but basically the idea was to break one big battle up into a series of smaller battles, and each time he defeated one enemy segment, it would raise his own numbers when fighting other segments. He may have been outnumbered in the battle as a whole, but was able to make it so he would outnumber his enemy in smaller, isolated schrimishes by luering enemy regiments away from their main army body.
CrazyCowboyPatton I think it’s more the Sangheili are painfully handicapped by their own culture, more than anything. I wouldn’t say it’s a lack or inability to be as intelligent or even more so than Humanity. They’ve basically scorned doctors, invested nothing into science and had the San ‘Shyuun do that for them, and kinda just became a full time Militaristic Race after the Covenant was formed. I’m sure if they had never joined, they’d be just as advanced if not more so than us, seeing as they had their own ships, tech, farmland, and I’d imagine they’d eventually start using/studying the forerunner tech on their homeworld. So really it’s more they’re just too blinded by honor and glory to actually get that smart lol
CrazyCowboyPatton nah elites are just as intelligent, they’re culture is just very different and were heavily influenced by the prophets through subjugation.
When Shipmaster said that line, it gave me goosebumps. The Halo 3 campaign is unforgettable to me, they don't make campaigns like that anymore. It's a true masterpiece of a game.
2:31 “the flagship managed to survive the battle with no obvious damage” I think a massive hole going through it from the flood ball is pretty obvious damage
Lt. John Chard and Lt. Gonville Bromhead (in the battle of Rorke's Drift), Admiral Yi's Navy(Battle of Myeongnyang and Noryang), King Henry V (in the battle of Agincourt):Don't forget about us!
The amount of times I've replayed that mission for the cutscene can't be accurately estimated. And despite that, the hair on the back of my neck still stand up when I watch it again.
I found Halo 3 to be one of the more boring Halo games but I was also use to playing the games' campaigns co-op and this was the only one I played solo.
During the sea battle of Myeongnyang the Korean admiral Yi won with a dozen ships against more than 300 Japanese vessels . Knowing the battlefield, knowing your own ships capabilities, knowing the enemy ships capabilities and having the more skilled crew can drastically turn a battle in your favour even when the numerical odds are stacked against you.
Indeed. Battle off Samar is a good historical example of a Fleet Engagement against a more powerful enemy. I could see Shadow of Intent’s Fleet using hit and run tactics, launching salvos to break up the Brute ranks. Flying extremely close to encourage enemy fratricide.
When shipmaster said it was an even fight, he really undersold it. Keyes disengages and parks the frigate halfway through the fight, and by the time MC blows up that scarab, he's already in atmosphere says that it's a wrap and to find truth. Dude packed up a 3 to 1 in less than half a day.
I think the brutes just havent had enough space command experience to be competent in the battle. They have literally just been thrust into the role of fleet commanders after the schism, itd be like promoting a deck hand to captain of a ship and expecting them to be just as good as the former captain who had been in charge for 20 years
This. While the aggressive mindset and instincts of the brutes is a downside, it is definitely one that could be tempered by experience. From what few bits of lore on Shanghelios I remember reading years ago, IIRC the place has quite a few big oceans, lakes, and river systems, to the point that a major part of the diet of everyone there is seafood. Elites grow up training in naval combat and tactics, such as basic boarding action drills, while helping out on the fishing boats; then they go through whatever basic training they have for warfare in space, and have been doing this since the founding of the Covenant, when it was just a dual-species agreement between them and the Prophets, leading to a rich military tradition and, more relevantly, a long history of recorded battles, strategic texts, and tactical musings from a variety of Shipmasters and Fleetmasters across the ages. The Brutes, on the other hand, are a relatively recent addition to the Covenant (IIRC the most recent species in fact), have a bitter hatred towards the Elites which could lead to the majority ignoring the lessons they could learn from past and present Elite strategic texts, nuked themselves back to the Stone Age before being assimilated into the Covenant and so have lost any trace of their own naval traditions, and were lower class than the Elites, leading to very few having a naval command in the Covenant Armada before the events in the Halo games. The vast majority of Brutes becoming shipmasters or captains or whatever would have been on their first command thanks to this, meaning that the Battle of Earth and the Battle of the Ark would have been the first engagement they were in command of the naval elements for in many cases. Most of them aren’t going to know anything beyond the basics of naval combat, if even that much; meanwhile the Elites are old hands at this and know all the little tricks and quirks of their ships and the subtle nuances that mean life and death in void warfare against a competent foe. You could probably make the Brute fleet outnumber the Elites five-to-one and get a similar result to the one in game, albeit the Brutes would be more likely to have inflicted some at least superficial damage to the flagships hull and/or killed a smaller ship. It’s also an area where the pack based social structure of the Brutes really hurts them - while they may not descend into infighting on the battlefield *coughOrkscough*, it’s going to quickly turn into everyone doing their own thing because of the chieftains who could corral and herd them being space dust and space ashes by then. If they had more time and experience in naval battles I’m sure there would eventually be a cultural evolution to handle situations like this more smoothly, but as it stands they don’t have any equivalent to an orderly chain of command as we would recognize it; while if Shipmaster Halfjaw here was to die suddenly you could at least be certain who would probably succeed him in commanding the fleet.
Cooked shield plus MAC round was probably a very devastating combination. Much like Plasma and Perceision weapons in the actual game. Knock out shields, even the small MACs are incredibly dangerous, especially to weak points on the ships.
The setting of “Gravemind” is difficult to beat. The covenant in civil war , the flood invaded high charity , the master chief who infiltrated the hierarch chambers and went along to single handedly spank both factions of the covenant AND save a small garrison of marines . The mission is just perfect , especially with IWHBYD and the immersion of elites yelling at the demon “arrgh ! Howls and curses, demon!” On the other hand , my favorite part of Halo 3 is seeing the storm at Voi , with the prophet of truth charging the portal . The desperation of the UNSC in those moments really captured my emotions . Think , the covenant were so obsessed with finding a “sacred ring” that they completely threw their chance at winning the war . They spent so much time unearthing the charging portal to the ark that it gave the humans and Sangheili time to prepare. But it’s so cool to see ... the Dreadnought in the distance as the master chief makes his way there by any means . Halo will always be in the top echelon of storytelling and gaming in general.
One little important fact you forgot to mention EckhartsLadder is that the Arbiter didn’t take part in the initial ground assault until the master chief destroyed the scarab, so considering Vadam the Arbiter was the greatest fleet commander and responsible for the fall of reach, is pretty likely The arbiter helped Rtas Vadum with the fleet coordination in order to defeat the brutes ships.
I love this breakdown, but an alternative to R'tas charging his fleet down the middle might have been to accelerate toward the very end of the brute line, forcing brute ships to shoot around eachother to attack, the brutes might have hurled their smaller more maneuverable ships at the elites right into the broadside of the elite formation. After that R'tas might have turned his wolfpacks to charge down the line like cavalry, coordinating fire at one ship after another while the brutes were still trying to shoot around eachother. I love being in space battle type games and it's always true that whoever wins the flank can control the battle
Most PE teachers are fat old man of whom played football in highschool, but in their later years got old and fat resulting in a lack of a ability to do anything physically. Making them easy to laugh at and not care to respect.
@@garrett9451 I would actually disagree I went to a school where all the PE teachers were still fairly fit and even ran with us or competed with us. One PE teacher was even a 7th degree Black belt. While generally yes they tend to be older it really depends in the school. Every one is a different demographic.
"Even the smallest knife in hands skilled with a blade can overcome a longsword in the hands of a novice" - me rn drinking coffee on my couch at 1am but seriously experience is everything in this kind of fight the elites had the advantage the brutes just didnt know it yet
Because the defenders are typically well entrenched, have camouflaged their defenses and that the attackers have to expose themselves just to attack and then hold the ground that they gained This is when it comes to land forces, i don't know much about the naval and air part
Could a navy 1/3 the size of its opponent actually win? As chief singlehandedly kills off many armies worth of covenant soldiers over the course of the games
I think part of it is there is actually a technology gap between the Elites and the Brutes. In Contact Harvest, it's stated somewhere that the Brutes were intentionally given less technology by the covenant to keep them in line, like how their ships were forced to use elevators rather than grav lifts. It's hard to say if that's really a factor because that was 20 years before the events of Halo 2 and 3, and the hierarchics might have been able to get the brutes some better firepower since they were planning on replacing the elites with the brutes, but it's likely there are at least some brute ships that are behind their elite counterparts.
With the line of how the brutes were too aggressive with their smaller ships... I suspect the battle may have gone the other way around in terms of target prioritization, actually. The smaller ships do not have the shield capacity to stand up to a sustained assault, so in covenant vs covenant battles the go-to tactic is likely to have the smaller vessels attack for a bit, picking off retreating enemies with their speed and taking the heat off allies, then duck behind a bigger ally to regenerate shielding before they are picked off in turn. Using one's small ships too aggressively would allow their shielding to run out, causing them to be lost prematurely. That leaves the brutes with just their bigger ships against the sangheili who still have a lot of their escort craft. Without those smaller craft the brutes' firepower and, more critically, ability to pursue retreating enemies is drastically reduced, allowing the sangheili to cycle their ships in and out of the fray whilst offering the remaining brute ships no breathing room of their own.
I'd imagine once you took away the shields down thru energy weapons the foward onto dawn could lob a mac round straight thru a carriers core disabling it making it a shooting gallery. Mac are very good at range.
Another thing to remember is that the Great Schism happened on November 3 and the Battle of the Ark takes place on December 11 2552. And given how the Elites until then had been in charge of the Covenant Military that means a lot of those Brute ship captains were likely only recently promoted and were therefore woefully inexperienced. And keep in mind there were a lot of purges as well in those Brute ships as they sought out any who might harbor secret loyalty to the Elites so your Jackal gunnery detachments or Grunt maintenance is likely suffering as a result. And this is on top of the horrendous losses the Covenant took in the last six months of the war. Where between Reach, the Unyielding Hierophant, the Battle for Earth, and the Great Schism the once unstoppable Covenant Juggernaut had been cut down to the bone and what Truth had brought with him was likely all that was left.
when you mentioned the novel first strike it reminded me how cortana was able to make the weapons on the capture covenant ship more efficient, perhaps that was something that was done to the elites ships as well, just a thought anyway great video and a good reminder of one of my favourite scenes and something that has inspired me a lot in the past
One of my favorite badass video game lines come from Warhammer 40k: Space Marine Warboss Grimskull: "I ain't finished with you, Space Marine!" Captain Titus: "But I am finished with you, Ork." *vaporizes the ork's head with a plasma bolt* Overall, the Sangheili in Halo carry themselves in much the same way as the more reserved Space Marine chapters in 40k do. Very combat capable, but efficient and honorable about it. I think that's why they're so likable.
Okay, #AskEck If humans weren't the reclaimers and were declared worthy to join the Covenant, what role do you think we would occupy? My bet is on pilots, fighter pilots the Elites are not particularly good at being.
Maybe but we could also serve alongside the elites in some aspect. Remember humanity was able to push the covenant back or hold the ground in almost every ground based conflict. Humanity could also serve on a science basis as well humanity might not have been able to match the covenant technologically but we did have better AI and managed to genetically enhance our soldiers
I belive the reason why the covenant didn't have any "smart" ai is because they knew about the flood to a certain extent, which included knowledge of the logic plague, and what it does to ais
@@Dr.Pootis that is partially true, but also because the Covenant fails to innovate and invent. All they do is copy and reverse engineer Forerunner technology. So along with what you've said, the Covenant AI just sucked haha
@Dr. Pootis the reason the covenant didn’t have smart AI is solely due to them knowing that the forerunners has been betrayed by one. They did not understand the circumstances, nor anything else.
My opinion is that that humanity would have started at the bottom rung of Covenant society as the new converts. However, as achievements start to add up, I think that humanity would have quickly earned the respect to be considered equals to the Elites. This is because of all the races, humans are most similar to the Elites. However, the question remains if this would have been tenable in the long term. Would the Elites have accepted humanity as their equals or would there have been a rivalry between the 2? I personally don't know. Both scenarios are equally plausible.
Considering reach, I'm more impressed that the brutes lasted so long. 8 sabers neutered a cruiser ran by elites, they stood no chance against their own tech and being just dumber on all fronts in space, they were legit cannon fodder.
From what I've heard/read brute packs had the tendency to value personal glory, so cooperation among such a large fleet likely would have had plenty of backstabbing and double crossing all trying to make themselves seem strong while not coordinating well. It was basically elites against. Bunch of small fleets instead of one large one
Meanwhile, on the Brute flagship: "We outnumber them 3 to 1!" "Then we'll slaughter them like Grunts." *Few hours later the Brute shipmaster is found dead, floating in space with an energy sword impaling him*
Thanks to Vite for the sponsorship, go check out their noodz: shop.viteramen.com/?p=Bk6bYEDmB or use code ECKHARTSLADDER at checkout!
Also, new Tapcaf in just over an hour (7PM EST)
#AskEck
*Attempt 617*
Do the Forerunners vs Imperium of Man Pre-Horus Heresy.
(Halo vs Warhammer).
awesome video.
I believe that the elites won by tactics and determination.
During the second world war Japanese soldiers fighting China we're outnumbered 7 to 1 and beat the Chinese back. Numbers do play a role in war. But mostly it comes down to who has the better tactics.
Also could the Terran Dominion survive a Flood infection.
Here are some vs ideas
Borg Cube vs Unsc Inifity
Ridley (metroid) vs General Grievous
3 Striders (half life) vs Type-47A (halo)
AAT-1 vs Type-47B Scarab vs AT TE
Bought your noodz. Interested in trying them out. Plus getting you some money is always cool
EckhartsLadder that's was the U.S fleet did at midway
Reminds me of this quote:
"They've got us surrounded again, the poor bastards." -Col. Creighton S. Abrams
and
"All right. They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us ... They can't get away this time." -Lt. Gen. Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller
@@The_JEB I've always enjoyed US Gen. Anthony McAuliffe's quote, "Men, we are surrounded by the enemy. That means we have the greatest opportunity ever presented to an army. We can attack in any direction we choose."
-circa Dec. 1944 to Jan 1945, Battle of the Bulge, WW2
"So they've got us surrounded, Good! Now we can fire in every direction!" - Chesty Puller
> Leaf
I like this chain 😁
"They outnumber us 3 to 1!"
"Quick, call reinforcements!"
"We don't have any, shipmaster."
"Not for us, for them you fool!"
THE MOST SAVAGE SHIT EVER🤣🤣🤣
@Max Smith Don't forget. Yularen probably has a lot of free time after Order 66.
When u read that in the shipmaster voice....
Lmao I actually laughed at this comment, take my upvote. 🤣
Call an ambulance. But not for me but in war terms
The Sangheili respected Captain Keys so much that the Keys Loop was the Fleet of Retribution’s signature maneuver which decimated the brutes.
@Usze 'Taham you have to respect your enemy after they succeed against you. Otherwise you are shitting on your troops who were beaten by such opponent.
It would be interesting to see military tacticians from the unsc and elite just sit down and talk maneuvers.
They also respected him so much that they spelled his name "Keyes", just like his family had for generations.
@@noahhastings6145 Nice.
@Usze 'Taham why are you so bitter
the ship master saying it is an even fight was honestly an understatement. the elites already are far superior to the brutes in tactical combat but then you add on the fact that the one leading the elites was a genius in tactics it just crushes the brutes chances.
Plus, they had more help and experience than the Brutes did.
@@bossshun9 in fact the elites had more real space combat experience compared to the brutes ( exceptuading atriox and few remaining cases) , in tactics they brutes probably applied a strategy of sacrificing the less important ships in order to protect the flagship.
@@Juan2Soto23 I'd say Shipmaster would be a better strategist in space battles than atriox.
yea this was not a fair fight for the Brutes. If Chief had Cortana at that point in the story it would have been an even more unfair fight for the brutes
Definitely!
"I will beat the prophets shield like a drum... by the time the barrier falls, he shall beg for mercy."
My personal favorite line from the Ship Master.
But mercy is dead!! 😮
“Shipmaster! They outnumber us three to one!”
“Then it is an even fight.”
Rest of the Elites: “So anyway I started blasting”
Brutes:holy fu**ing sh*t
@Erik Boon ...That's the idea
ruclips.net/video/AHzw4QvE2Do/видео.html
@Erik Boon That's part of the joke dude...
@Erik Boon We all imagined the elite sounding like danny because most of us know the original line. There was no other way to perceive it and you mentioning it as if everyone here wasn't thinking the exact same thing was strange. Also I wasn't sharing the clip for you, I was sharing it to give context for others to the OC's joke
"Shipmaster, they out number us 3-to-1!"
"Then it is an even fight."
That line is what made my balls drop.
Made the brutes balls drop too
And for the flood to shrivel up and die right on the spot
Lmao
My favorite was from halo 2 “This is fleet admiral Harper, we are engaging the enemy” courageous that those guys would immediately attack with everything they got on enemies that JUST slipspaced into the system that quick.
"All ships, fire at will!"
"Burn their mongrel hides!"
The ship master is one of the most badass elites ever
yeah he beat one of the best elite swordsman
Yes he is
Btw His name Is Ritas vadumm, "half jaw" the elite who FUCKING DUEL LIKE A JEDI an infected flood shipmaster with two energy sword
David Martinez Halfjaw is always awesome.
Only cuz ramen
Elites: "call an ambulence"
*-but not for me*
Comment blew up🙂
If you're looking for real life examples of smaller fleets of ships taking on larger fleets and winning, I would suggest looking into Admiral Yi Sun-sin. He was a Korean Admiral in the 1500s that engaged much larger Japanese fleets without losing a single ship. That was until his last battle, but that was because of his ally making a mistake.
Turtle ship?
@@m60pattoncovidiot29 Yep.
Wasn't he also the admiral that told his crew not to announce his death until later so not to break morale
@@kristiandahl1310 That is correct, he told his son to take command after he got hit by a stray bullet and act like him until the end of the battle.
@@TheBerchie I think it's an admiral thing, Horatio Nelson did the same
"Well done, Spartan. I saw that explosion from orbit."
“Truth’s fleet, lies in ruins. Find where the liar hides, that I may place my boot between his gums!”
"We'll know soon enough, Shipmaster."
When I heard that line playing on co op, me and my brother both laughed.
One of my favorite lines from Halo 3 - "Hurry Demon, we seek the same prize ". Lol
Oorah!
That ramen kinda comes outta nowhere lol
And it made me fuckin hungry... 😂😂😂😂
Need to make money even though he is a lawyer.
@@TheConqueror009 ?
He is a lawyer for a profession as is his wife I believe. And makes plenty of money. He has no need for monetization but brings in much cash flow from this side hobby probably comparative to his lawyer salary now he is much more highly publicized versus 2 years ago.
@@TheConqueror009 Oh I didn't know, thanks for the info.
If the Covenant won the war and took the Ark, would that make it the Ark of the Covenant?
Take my like
Thrawn Donde esta las gustasss?????
Lol
Only a genius such as you could see this great pun, Grand Admiral.
yeah thats the whole point of the naming
There's also the fact that when the elites handed over ships to the brutes, many had their weapons and other systems sabotaged, many of which were more than likely still a problem during the battle
Elites: "Shipmaster, they outnumber us three to one!"
*"Then it is an even fight."*
Brutes: "Alpha, we outnumber them 3 to 1!"
*"Why do I hear boss music?"*
Alpha-"Who's got their phone on listening to boss music?"
Random Brute-"Ah Alpha? We don't have our phones, you smashed them"
Alpha-"oh crap"
Lmao
I was hoping a Grunt would be asking what's a phone.
Underrated comment 😂
@@bluesnake1713 Grunt- “What is boss music?!”
Eck: “could a smaller army 1/3 the size of its opponent actually win?”
Me: "Sit Down. Let me tell you a great story. There was this Forerunner A.I. named Offensive Bias. Outnumbered 436.6:1. 8 hours later. Offensive Bias is victorious."
Ekaf Eman better yet, he dodged, and wasted time for 7 hours 57 minutes, intentionality losing more than half his fleet. Then won in three minutes flat.
On a smaller battle scale but just as good: Crossbone Gundam and the Steel 7 incident where 7 mobile suits( F91, F90 intercept, Vigna Ghina 2, X-1 Full Cloth, Angel Diona and 2 salvaged Jupiter MS) fought Jupiter Empire's army 100 to 1 odds and to stop a large colony laser from blasting earth and scorching the planet.
Ekaf Eman Ouch.
@@chrissonofpear1384 Take into play the human elite alliance, along with the fact that, in the lore, the elites and humans had the lekgolo on their side, they're the ones who had lekgolo based scarabs, hunters, and grunts, for the ground fight, and they not only had more experience and adaptability, but if you take into account the fact that they have human allies, that if were considered as the same faction, would also cause them to outnumber the brutes, since the UNSC fights in large numbers, with hit and run tactics, that's bad for the brutes, it's obvious why the elites and humans won.
Ekaf Eman now I have to reread that series for the finer details.
Shipmaster is one of halo’s most underrated characters
The comic about Rtas Vaduum slicing and dicing through the flood has got to be my favorite comic
In halo 5, I believe he was said to be flying his same ship and some of the same crew, but they are not interested in war anymore. And they just fly the old warship around star trek style
his name isnt shipmaster
@@masterchief8878 Rtas Vaduum
His name is missing mandible lmao
There is another factor to consider: in First Strike, Cortana discovers that the Covenant's plasma torpedo launchers could be configured into very powerful plasma lasers, which she uses to destroy a squadron of Seraph fighters with one shot. She notes that, ironically, humans understand the physics of how Covenant weaponry works better than the Covenant themselves.
While it may not be stated outright, it is possible that human AIs were ordered to share this knowledge on how to upgrade Covenant weaponry. At the very least, we know that it would give the Elites an advantage in fending off close range attacks by fighters.
During that last bit of desperation I would think that Miranda would have told them. That was basically the last fight everything was put on the line to win
Well I think that’s true. I suspect most tech development and technological understanding isn’t exactly promoted.
I always loved how Humanity was not as advanced, but had a much better understanding of their tech, thus being more adaptable, while the Covenant just reverse engineered a bunch of Forerunner tech and don't entirely know how it works and being a lot more rigid.
I've suspected that high energy particle beams would be better suited for fighting the Covenant than MAC guns. Either that or plasma railguns...
What is even better is that it's not because the covenant couldn't its because it would be heresy to corrupt the forerunner tech with innovation
I like to think that in a way, this quote is also a small nod to the Elites respect for the humans. UNSC could typically win with a 3-1 numerical advantage in space. Shipmaster Rtas sees this large mass of Brute-controlled covenant carriers and battleships and thinks "Yeah, that's about as threatening as a Human-Fleet".
Isn't the point of UNSC having more ships an attempt to make up for technological differences between them and covenant ships?
@古明地恋 the UNSC never had the numerical advantage. They had less ships and smaller ships. They were technically inferior to the covenant forces.
@@古明地恋-s9cif they enter a battle they have to have a significant numerical advantage to "win" the battle, they will suffer heavy losses but they also don't have the ships to spare for continuous use of this tactic
@@Moltenrokk the UNSC did have numerical superiority early on in the war. Notable examples:
Retaking of Harvest in 2526 where the UNSC outnumbered the covenant "fleet" 40 to 1.
First battle of Arcadia in 2531 where the UNSC 'enjoyed a 2 to 1 advantage.
Battle of Charybis IX in 2535 where UNSC had slight advantage in numbers (4 UNSC and 2 INS warships against 5 Covenant vessels)
And ofcourse the initial phase of the battle of Earth 2552, where the Home fleet outnumbered Regret's fleet 3 to 1.
Unconfirmed (but heavily suggested) battles where the UNSC enjoyed some form of numerical superiority in space.
Battle of Jericho, 2532
Battle of Miridem, 2544
Battle of Paris IV, 2549
One massive misconception is that the covenant would've won the war automatically had it not been for the chief. In reality, the covenant became very close to implosion due to their war with humanity.
To start with, the prophets were scared shitless once they realized the UNSC was no walkover and that a prolonged war would (rightfully) destroy the covenant as a whole (which it did).
To begin with, the prophets declared war on humanity on false accusations, stating that humanity were actively hunting down and destroying holy relics. This lie obscured 2 truths.
The truth about why covenant luminaries consistently detected forerunner relics on human worlds: In reality, the humans WERE the relics in the eyes of these luminaries.
The truth about why humanity was the only species in the covenant not eventually sworn into it's order. Because they WERE forerunner (or successors) and the whole purpose of the covenant was a lie.
The prophets feared that the other species would eventually figure out the truth about humanity and their purpose in the galaxy. In fact, the elites (who had been pushing for humanity to gain an equal seat within the covenant due to their resillience) were already suspicious about the prophet's for more than a decade prior to the fall of reach because of the prophet's unwillingness to make peace with humanity. They began their own, secret investigations, investigations that were discovered early on by truth (and the reason why he began to groom the brutes as the elite's successors). These elites, while sabotaged every step of the way by the prophets, were extremely close to figuring out the truth after Vadam provided the Elite high council crucial intel in regards to how easy humans were able to interact directly with forerunner systems on installation 4. An ability the covenant as a whole wasn't able to (only the prophet's seemed to posses enough skill to access forerunner systems, and this was mostly due to using human prisoners to do it for them). This knowledge was kept from the elites for decades and when they figured this out, preparations were made to leave the covenant. This plot was discovered by Truth, who quickly arranged the elites to be removed from their guard duty (as many of those guards had close ties to the elite council and was afraid they would turn on them), calling of regret's rescue party and using his death as legal cause to do so. The final nail in the coffin was driven in earlier by Sesa 'Refumee, the heretic leader who discovered 343 GS after the ring's destruction. He broadcasted the truth throughout the entire covenant network. All events combined pushed truth to initiate the great schism early.
I say early, because the chief & co threw a massive wrench into truth's plans by destroying the Unyielding Hierophant, the massive station harboring almost 4 full fleets of trained brutes captains, tasked on taking out earth. Truth's original plan was to secretely take out the homeworld of Earth and crippling the UNSC for good using the brute-led fleets. Then, with Humanity no longer a viable threat. Truth would only then initiate the great purge by sending these brute fleets over elite systems, destroying their planets and basicly commit genocide on the elite race while they were caught off-guard. Instead, the chief blows up the station and Whitcomb destroyed what remained of the 500 strong fleet in an heroic self-sacrifice. Leaving truth with very little options and time to adjust.
Humanity may have won through sheer luck and coincidence. But if you think about it, Humanity's contingency plan (to basically become nomads in space) would've always worked. As truth's schemes, lies and deception would have backfired as he could never cleanly destroy the elites. This was proven during the events of Halo 2 and 3. With the elites quickly gaining the upper hand after the initial shock.
Fun facts
* The reason why the arbiter was ousted from the covenant was because he unintentionally (and without him even realizing) discovered the truth about humanity. He had observed first hand how Humanity was able to interact with Halo with such ease. When he reported this to the prophets, they turned pale from shock. As this came from one of the second most respected fleet master in the covenant navy. The prophets feared if he realized the implications of his discovery, his high status within the covenant navy would've swayed already sceptical races to split from the covenant. The prophets hastily arrested him on grounds of the destruction of Halo and arranged for his death shortly after his branding, but Sesa's rebellious broadcast basically saved him from certain death as the prophets desperately needed a new arbiter/useful idiot. Which they found with Vadamee.
*The prophets had a pattern in disposing keen-eyed elites who got (too close) to finding out the truth about humanity. The previous Arbiter (the one in HW1) actually discovered the truth about humanity and the lies the prophets spewed. The prophets instead threatened to wipe out the arbiter's entire family and clan had he revealed that information and framed him into the role of aribiter as killing him would've caused suspicion. The prophets also forced Wantinree, the single most influential and loved shipmaster in the covenant hierarchy at the time to defend a meaningless bit of space far away from the covenant.For reason that he became very sceptical of the prophets and wished to reform the covenant without them.
* The cole protocol was EXTREMELY effective up until the fall of reach. To the point of frustrating not just the prophets, but the elites aswel. One of which was recorded saying this; "We do not know where their homeworld is. Their pattern of retreat is either hopelessly random, or brilliantly conceived."
The only reason why human systems were discovered time and time again was due to covenant luminaries revealing forerunner artifacts (AKA humanity itself) in systems. Case and point was Regret's fleet towards Earth, as regret found out about the planet through a luminary who revealed a hotspot of artifacts on the planet but didn't know it was the mass concentration of humans. This also explains why covenant fleets mentioned in above battles were small enough to be outnumbered by the UNSC. Because these were in all likelyhood not invasion fleets but reliquary fleets, in search of artifacts. (It's why in halo wars, only 2 covenant ships invaded Arcadia and quickly bugged out after they found the intel they needed).
@@rydekk-4644 holy fuck man my respect man, you are a true halo fan, I didn't know a lot of this despite constantly consuming halo lore
Here’s the other half though; when the brutes get smart they’re really terrifying.
Example: Atriox, Escharum
True
Those two are terrifying.
True, the Brutes did have some vicious leaders that are not fools, but I love the Elites for their honor, strategy, and ways of battle.
Genuine question. Is Escharum smart? I imagine he is wise in some sense because he was Atriox’s mentor but from the cutscenes in halo infinite he seems to be following Atriox’s will blindly and not really considering thinking about the orders he gives. I haven’t finished the campaign yet so idk all about him and idk if he’s in any of the books so maybe someone can fill me in more on Escharum but from what I’ve seen, he makes very rash decisions.
Atriox - guy who nearly died in a cutscene and has yet to do anything
Escharum - saturday morning cartoon villain who met you and then died immediately after
uh huh
An important factor that was briefly mentioned here was the fact the Elites are more adapted for space combat.
Not just because they are more intelligent or because the Brutes nuked themselves back into the stone-age.
Rather, the Brutes who DID have ships when the Elite's ran the military, were severely limited in what they were even allowed to use.
There is a story. I think part of one of the Evolutions novels, where it describes a Brute-owned ship where they were not even permitted an elevator.
So imagine for a moment, these Brutes have only in the past few weeks been given command of ships, they've not really had anybody to fight since most of the Brute ships around High Charity were destroyed by the Elites, so all the Brute captains above the Ark basically had no clue what their ships were even capable of. Even if they were able to focus on tactics and not see red, the Brutes commanding battle groups would not know what their ships are even capable of beyond "shooting and getting shot".
The Novel you're thinking of is Contact Harvest, it shows that Elites stripped brute ships down to as basic as possible and gave them Yanme'e instead of Huragok to repair their ships meaning that they would never be as good as Elite ships. This is the first thing I thought about when seeing the video title not that the Elites were better fighters but they were better equipped.
Agreed. But I highly doubt the ships they had at the ark were just "brute" ships. They no doubt had huragok as they did in Mombasa with the suicide huragoks.
@@thebandoffice53 I'm referring to those commanding the ships. The Kig-Yar had their own ships but were privately owned and mostly by pirates, I don't believe any other species within the Covenant except perhaps the Prophets themselves were actually allowed ships due to the whole caste-system going on there.
The Huragok were nothing more than floating computers and engineers, there were times within both novels and games where they pretty much aided "the enemy" (Humanity) because they saw something broken that needed fixing. I doubt the Covenant would have granted them the rank necessary to command, especially given that, as you rightfully pointed out, were used as literal suicide-bombers.
Jai Owen he’s actually right.
He’s talking about the story “Stomping on the Heels of a Fuss”
Mikey The Brutes had them wear the suicide vests as a fail safe because as you said, the Huragok are a neutral race. Their lives are fixated on fixing what is broken.
They were very good at manipulating any form of technology which is why you wouldn’t want your enemy to have them.
Eck: “could a smaller army 1/3 the size of its opponent actually win?”
Me: laughs in Winged Hussar.
*smirks in Taffy 3*
Then The Winged Hussars Arrived!
Charging down the mountainside
Edit: this is why I love sabaton
Me laughs in Cannae
See while I agree, the context isn't there. It's like "laughing in polish cavalry as they charge tanks". While the tech is an equal playing field, they shouldn't have been able to weather the overwhelming fire-power from the larger fleet. More human trickery and shenanigans should have been at least hinted at.
the brutes obviously suffered from a catastrophic shortage of WORT WORT WORT
Alright that's pretty funny
Pozole
AAAAAAAAAAAGHWUGHBUBAH *proceeds to destroy a carrier several times their ship's size*
They also didn't think the Arbiter was cute
nooooooooo ahhhhhhhh
A small force can absolutely destroy a force three times its size. It has happened over and over in real life. Sometimes the attacking force is up to five times the size. This battle is actually pretty believable from a tactical standpoint.
Indeed. Genius generals such as Hannibal managed to defeat/wipe out several enemy armies with his one army!
It was Napoleon's MO until it stopped working for him
As well as sweden in the great northern wars, i believe. So many battles won out numbered!! Even when they assulted a fortfied star fort!!!!
Operation Barbarossa comes to mind. The invasion went well at first, but due to poor planning, winter setting in a issues with equipment not being ready for it, it fell flat.
I believe in the mission the ark in a few of the downed phantoms, you can overhear some brute ships communicating. They issue warnings that the elite ships are blending in with theirs and brute shipmasters threatening their subordinates if they lose the battle, overall the brute fleet seem to be rife with incompetence/lacking experience and had no coordination despite thier superior numbers.
Disorganized and undisciplined. The Elites did love using stealth in battle so it's not surprising that would do the same in space warfare if granted the opportunity.
"halo 3 is... the greatest video game of all time"
i see eck is a *true* man of culture
waffles2401 hmmm yes
waffles2401mmmmmmmmmm yes I Approve of this
Uhhh. Titanfall 2?
@@oomguy9423 there is no greatest game of all time its all down to opinion though I say minecraft
Halo: reach
Halo 3
Portal
Etc
This game has aged like fine wine. I agree with Ecks statement.
Great video
The Elites are brilliant tacticians, often under appreciated because the deck is so often in their favour they don't need to show their genius. They're also level headed, calculating, and highly disciplined.
Pit them against a disorganised rabble of thugs. Not any thugs mind you, but unreasonably aggressive, testosterone fueled, macho thugs that aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, and you see where I'm going.
The Elites will know every trick in the CCS and CAS owners manuals to get everything out of those ships, they know the fighting style of the Brutes intimately, and they know how to push the Brutes buttons. Half-Jaw wiped the Brutes out.
Even if I didn't already agree with the rest of your comment, seeing ''Half-Jaw wiped the Brutes out." at the end had me mashing that Like button. I didn't think such a simple statement could bring so much satisfaction XD
I remember a sequence in one of the books where they were able to fool a brute ship into thinking that an elite ship was able to fire when it wasnt actually ready by messing with the plasma relays. This certainly lends credence to the idea that the elites new their ships much better.
Alex Franz Knew*.
@@DarknessXER and?
Alex Franz grammar to my family is as important as cleanliness. That is all
@@DarknessXER Seems not, You missed a period at the end there.
1918 - 3202 fawk.
The story really did a good job convincing me that this battle despite being outnumbered could be easily won by the Elites. The Elites were experienced and tactical while the Brutes were power drunk and fanatical. The Brutes were awarded their position for purely political reasons and that sole decision was really the nail in the coffin for the Covenant.
Elite: “Shipmaster! They outnumber us three to one!”
Rtas: “Oh-no!”
Also Rtas: “Anyways...”
Halo gear
“… I started my taxes early this year, this schism has made getting w-2 a train wreck though honestly”
“Oh no, the poor bastards, they don’t have enough”
Eck: "Could a army 1/3 the size of its opponent actually win?"
Toyotomi Hideyoshi: No
*Admiral Yi has enter the chat*
*Toyotomi Hideyoshi has left the chat*
Leon Valenzuela yi could have beaten the covenant- he wouldn’t even have used modern technology either.
Small point: navy, not army.
Still gave me a chuckle though. I love me some Admiral Yi
Leon Valenzuela THANK YOU.
Even if the analogy isn’t perfect, it reflects the sentiments of the battle brilliantly. A small force adept at Naval Warfare, facing a superior force not nearly as clever in that field.
Send those turtle ships around the covenant fleets
@@realmario979 GG no Re right there.
"Shipmaster, they outnumber us 3-to-1!"
"Then it is an even fight. All cruisers fire at will! Burn their mongrel hides!"
@The Four Horsemen they prolyl have hives
There's too many of these comments and they get too many likes
@@amazoncouch7116 I know. I forgot I made this comment and it now has 103 likes.
Still one of the best lines ever spoken for motivation.
You done me dirty with that ramen ad at this time of night.
You can win when you are severely outnumbered it has happened before. One of my favorite stories is how one samurai led his men through a secret passage and managed to make his enemies think he had way more numbers than he did. If your opponent has poor cohesion then it is possible to simply out play them.
You just reminded me of General Lee during the Civil War: most of his battles had his troops outnumbered by the union forces, but because of Lee's superior experience and tactical knowhow, he was able to all but decimate any opposition he faced.
So yes, it's possible to win battles when you're severely outnumbered.
I think the other major tactic that Vadum would have utilized, would be defeat in detail, isolate individual or small groups, and then maneuver out of range of counter fire to draw out additional attacks. I could see Rtas Vadum bring about to put his Special Operations training to good use, executing asymmetrical warfare tactics.
Staggered line after all.
I think the ship master and sgt Johnson would get along very well the best drinking buddies along with
John and arbiter
Forge and jerome
Jun and Linda
Keyes and the flood
Emile and his knife
Spartan 1337 and mama
Cameron Gooch Keys and the Flood Lmao your funny bro.
Keyes and the Flood, you killed me! 😂
Yall just mad we hold alcohol better.
@Teh Modest Mouse nothing a strong drink can't fix.
Never miss with M A M A
A smaller fleet of ships defeating a larger fleet makes complete sense. Korean admiral Yi Sun-Shin was outnumbered in every encounter and he destroyed the Japanese. The funny thing is too is that he had no prior naval training.
I still feel that dude was straight up too OP for the Imjin Wars.
the_ corvid probably
Wait what??
I remember reading about that he won a navel fight where he was out numbered like 10:1 and came out victorious and only minor damage to his forces, im mean hell he had trained his men so well that when he was killed during a battle he ordered that some keep hitting his war drums and not announce his death until after the battle had been won only sad thing is he was only fighting at a 4:1 disadvantage when he was killed
Yeah, it's the 300 Spartans scenario, but in a naval battle. Terrain makes all the difference with these things.
Shipmaster Rtas ‘Vadum was always my favorite. Such a badass. Would love to see him return.
He died in the most recent young adult novel, teaching some kids the meaning of friendship.
@@spacecowboy1438 Wait really? If you know what the novel is titled could you lmk?
I'm joking... I hope.
Honestly as a kid I would’ve glassed a planet to be friends with the Shipmaster I think, so that’s fine. lol
Where did he go
Defeating a force three times the size of your own? Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you Grand Admiral Thrawn.
This guy is undoubtedly unstoppable. No one can literally stop him. Hes like playing chess but knows opponent's all movement. His only weakness are idiots who cant take orders from him.
Offensive Bias: Amateurs
I know this comment is old, but fuck it, it made me laugh. Like, in response to a question posed by the video on if something is realistic or not in fiction, you lot responded with more fictional answers. lmao. Napoleon? Hannibal? No, Thrawn and Offensive Bias. I got a real kick out of that. lol
As a space smuggler once said, “never tell me the odds.”
Who
Han solo?
Admiral Yi Sun-Sin
Admiral Themistocles
Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson
History has demonstrated it is very plausible for brilliant commanders to defeat opposing forces 10x (or even 100x) disproportionate strength
Good comment.
I know it's an old comment but I just want you to know I still appreciate it all the same. Unlike the others, you actually gave examples that are admirals. Good on ya!
"See, see Size is not everything hmm out numbered are we but larger in mind" -yoda in the episode ambush
And he and his clones were outnumbered 1,000 to 1, just to impress the Toydarian Emperor, who was then almost assassinated, but protected by Yoda still.
I can also admit to having times in Halo 2-3 era, when LAN parties were still a thing, my brother would throw them, and me being the friendless-loner would constantly be thrown the weakest of his friends and we would still win. Why? Coordination with those friends to lead the other friends into my sights and lead them a merry chase. Skill wise, my teams tended to be worse by a long shot, but a good leader and coordinator will lead a party of fools to victory over a grunt who doesn't know how to lead and coordinate.
Sometimes I'd even play solo against those same friends in a 7-1... I would win because picking and choosing my targets was required, and being able to take them out piecemeal was the way to victory... as the saying goes "I knew it, I'm surrounded by assholes!"
@@lightbriareos actually, 250 to 1, but that’s still impressive.
“They outnumber us 3 to 1!”
“Then it is a even fight.”
Now that's a line to follow into battle
At that moment a meme was born.
"all crusiers fire at will, burn their mongrel hides!"
@@reachdefender130 love the smell of burning Brute in the morning
honestly my favorite moment in Halo 3
Something else to keep in mind is that while Brutes had achieved space flight, they were fairly recent additions to the Covenant. They wouldn't have had the experience that the Elites had in Covenant on Covenant ship combat from the various civil wars and policing actions over the years.
Indeed, yeah, isn't the implication also that the Brutes were seldom if ever given control over ships prior to the Elites falling out of the Prophets' graces?
So it isn't just that Brutes had little experience with starship fighting in general, but also that they had even barely a few months of experience with these ships specifically.
@@Kylephibbsky You're absolutely correct. In fact, on Harvest where the war began, brutes had ships that were missing entire weapons systems because the Elites that gave them the ships removed the weapons because they assumed the brutes would get into trouble using them. That was the official reason anyway, unofficially, it was just another chapter in their rivalry inside the covenant.
In my experience the best ways to take on a much larger enemy breaks down into two categories, either playing hard to get, and whittling them down while waiting for an opportunity, or the second option: charge right in and try to rely on shock and awe to produce a disproportionate effect on the enemy.
The former case is better against skilled opponents, and the latter case is for inferior opponents. IMHO the Elites made the right call... although obviously this is after the battle generalmanship.
A year late, I know, but the whole "Shock and Awe" tactic worked to great effect in WW2, with a Canadian soldier named Leo Major, who liberated a town all by himself, by quite literally making as much noise and causing much confusion as possible in the middle of the night. Go check his story out, it's fantastic.
Napoleon had a good strategy for taking on larger armies. Even though he had a smaller army, he would break it up and spread it out. This would cause the enemy to break up theirs and send them after napoleons smaller divisions individually. He would then beat the smaller segments one at a time, each one he defeated, he would take his remaining forces and use them to reneforce another division to defeat another section of the enemy army.
It's kinda hard to explain but basically the idea was to break one big battle up into a series of smaller battles, and each time he defeated one enemy segment, it would raise his own numbers when fighting other segments. He may have been outnumbered in the battle as a whole, but was able to make it so he would outnumber his enemy in smaller, isolated schrimishes by luering enemy regiments away from their main army body.
Long story short, Sangheili are generally more intelligent than Jiralhanae.
Vastly so
*Humans* : Allow us to introduce ourselves
CrazyCowboyPatton
I think it’s more the Sangheili are painfully handicapped by their own culture, more than anything. I wouldn’t say it’s a lack or inability to be as intelligent or even more so than Humanity. They’ve basically scorned doctors, invested nothing into science and had the San ‘Shyuun do that for them, and kinda just became a full time Militaristic Race after the Covenant was formed. I’m sure if they had never joined, they’d be just as advanced if not more so than us, seeing as they had their own ships, tech, farmland, and I’d imagine they’d eventually start using/studying the forerunner tech on their homeworld. So really it’s more they’re just too blinded by honor and glory to actually get that smart lol
CrazyCowboyPatton nah elites are just as intelligent, they’re culture is just very different and were heavily influenced by the prophets through subjugation.
cobalT the brutes did manage to create nukes.
When Shipmaster said that line, it gave me goosebumps. The Halo 3 campaign is unforgettable to me, they don't make campaigns like that anymore.
It's a true masterpiece of a game.
"They don't make campaigns like that anymore."
Let me introduce you to this GEM called titanfall 2.
Hello there
@@oomguy9423 Yep. Pure win.
Word, I got goosebumps watching that scene too
@@oomguy9423 Bloodborne
I loved the add lol.”I’m basically only doing this cause they send me noodles y’all. And money.” Fantastic lol
Lol savage , respect the honesty
2:31 “the flagship managed to survive the battle with no obvious damage” I think a massive hole going through it from the flood ball is pretty obvious damage
Yeah but the space battle with the brutes was over before that happened.
@@Diabolical29 plus the flood damaged the ship not the brutes
Only The Flood were capable of causing serious problems for our great Shipmaster R'tas
Eck: “could a smaller army 1/3 the size of its opponent actually win?”
Themistocles and the Greek Navy would like to talk to you
Greek power my friend.
And King leonidas
@@thejohnson2328 he died though, and lost
@@thejohnson2328 there were way more than 300 spartans at thermopylae lmao
Lt. John Chard and Lt. Gonville Bromhead (in the battle of Rorke's Drift), Admiral Yi's Navy(Battle of Myeongnyang and Noryang), King Henry V (in the battle of Agincourt):Don't forget about us!
Randy Orton's offensive RKO vs Obi-Wan's defensive Highground.
@Tyrell Suraiya So true.
The rko would come from even higher ground
@@ZeroTwo-- That's what I'm afraid of.
Unstoppable force against an unmovable object.
He'd just slither right up that high ground
The amount of times I've replayed that mission for the cutscene can't be accurately estimated. And despite that, the hair on the back of my neck still stand up when I watch it again.
"Halo 3 is the best game of all time"
*Hits Like*
I'm tearing up thinking about Halo days.
stashman117 Halo 2: am I a joke to you
*also hits like*
@@infernothelastelemental514 hits like on your comment!
I found Halo 3 to be one of the more boring Halo games but I was also use to playing the games' campaigns co-op and this was the only one I played solo.
The "then it is an even fight" line has such raw energy
During the sea battle of Myeongnyang the Korean admiral Yi won with a dozen ships against more than 300 Japanese vessels . Knowing the battlefield, knowing your own ships capabilities, knowing the enemy ships capabilities and having the more skilled crew can drastically turn a battle in your favour even when the numerical odds are stacked against you.
Eck: “could a smaller army 1/3 the size of its opponent actually win?”
Me: laughs in Taffy 3
Odds? What are those?
My thought exactly XD
Me: Laughs in Battle of Midway
Indeed. Battle off Samar is a good historical example of a Fleet Engagement against a more powerful enemy. I could see Shadow of Intent’s Fleet using hit and run tactics, launching salvos to break up the Brute ranks. Flying extremely close to encourage enemy fratricide.
The Brutes were just lucky the USS JOHNSTON wasn’t there
"full shields ramming speed!"
Thats all you need to know
" All cruisers, fire at will, BURN their mongrel hides!"
So anyway I started blasting
Playing Halo online
Friend: There is 6 of them
Me: Then it is an even fight
Enemies: Destroy me and my friend like a boss
Lmfao. I've totally had those moments
When shipmaster said it was an even fight, he really undersold it. Keyes disengages and parks the frigate halfway through the fight, and by the time MC blows up that scarab, he's already in atmosphere says that it's a wrap and to find truth. Dude packed up a 3 to 1 in less than half a day.
I think the brutes just havent had enough space command experience to be competent in the battle. They have literally just been thrust into the role of fleet commanders after the schism, itd be like promoting a deck hand to captain of a ship and expecting them to be just as good as the former captain who had been in charge for 20 years
This. While the aggressive mindset and instincts of the brutes is a downside, it is definitely one that could be tempered by experience. From what few bits of lore on Shanghelios I remember reading years ago, IIRC the place has quite a few big oceans, lakes, and river systems, to the point that a major part of the diet of everyone there is seafood. Elites grow up training in naval combat and tactics, such as basic boarding action drills, while helping out on the fishing boats; then they go through whatever basic training they have for warfare in space, and have been doing this since the founding of the Covenant, when it was just a dual-species agreement between them and the Prophets, leading to a rich military tradition and, more relevantly, a long history of recorded battles, strategic texts, and tactical musings from a variety of Shipmasters and Fleetmasters across the ages. The Brutes, on the other hand, are a relatively recent addition to the Covenant (IIRC the most recent species in fact), have a bitter hatred towards the Elites which could lead to the majority ignoring the lessons they could learn from past and present Elite strategic texts, nuked themselves back to the Stone Age before being assimilated into the Covenant and so have lost any trace of their own naval traditions, and were lower class than the Elites, leading to very few having a naval command in the Covenant Armada before the events in the Halo games. The vast majority of Brutes becoming shipmasters or captains or whatever would have been on their first command thanks to this, meaning that the Battle of Earth and the Battle of the Ark would have been the first engagement they were in command of the naval elements for in many cases. Most of them aren’t going to know anything beyond the basics of naval combat, if even that much; meanwhile the Elites are old hands at this and know all the little tricks and quirks of their ships and the subtle nuances that mean life and death in void warfare against a competent foe. You could probably make the Brute fleet outnumber the Elites five-to-one and get a similar result to the one in game, albeit the Brutes would be more likely to have inflicted some at least superficial damage to the flagships hull and/or killed a smaller ship. It’s also an area where the pack based social structure of the Brutes really hurts them - while they may not descend into infighting on the battlefield *coughOrkscough*, it’s going to quickly turn into everyone doing their own thing because of the chieftains who could corral and herd them being space dust and space ashes by then. If they had more time and experience in naval battles I’m sure there would eventually be a cultural evolution to handle situations like this more smoothly, but as it stands they don’t have any equivalent to an orderly chain of command as we would recognize it; while if Shipmaster Halfjaw here was to die suddenly you could at least be certain who would probably succeed him in commanding the fleet.
@@rjhogan07 this commnt deserved a like.
C: *"They Out Number Us 3 to 1"*
S: "Then It's An Even Fight"
Epic quote!
Because Rtas is a badass who couldn't care less about the odds
Cooked shield plus MAC round was probably a very devastating combination. Much like Plasma and Perceision weapons in the actual game. Knock out shields, even the small MACs are incredibly dangerous, especially to weak points on the ships.
The Battle of the Ark, the literal Definition of a “Knife Fight in a Phone-booth”
Wow, I can actually relate to Eck for once.
*Halo 3 baybehhhh!*
Eck is pretty a good RUclipsr for anything Sci-fi.
My Genius level intellect thought that this was about Elites rather than the Elites. But I think that they were Elite Elites.
Real reason: Me like elites not brutes, brutes stinky bad bad.
I want Halo 2 or 3 Elites in Halo 6 (Infinite)
Me stay here, make sure no brutes come behind mighty Arbiter.
@@deVeresd.Kfz.1515 Except when they were stabbing civilians with swords and glassing cities (burning men, women, and children (babies too) alive).
The elites and humans were a team up of legendary proportions
i have a hard time choosing between halo 2 and halo 3, they’re so good
Agreed. Each have arguably the best story.
Despite the Halo 4 approach at character depth.
The setting of “Gravemind” is difficult to beat. The covenant in civil war , the flood invaded high charity , the master chief who infiltrated the hierarch chambers and went along to single handedly spank both factions of the covenant AND save a small garrison of marines . The mission is just perfect , especially with IWHBYD and the immersion of elites yelling at the demon “arrgh ! Howls and curses, demon!”
On the other hand , my favorite part of Halo 3 is seeing the storm at Voi , with the prophet of truth charging the portal . The desperation of the UNSC in those moments really captured my emotions . Think , the covenant were so obsessed with finding a “sacred ring” that they completely threw their chance at winning the war . They spent so much time unearthing the charging portal to the ark that it gave the humans and Sangheili time to prepare. But it’s so cool to see ... the Dreadnought in the distance as the master chief makes his way there by any means . Halo will always be in the top echelon of storytelling and gaming in general.
Well, it is long, and hard, but DAMN is it atmospheric.
Still a bit haunted by the Co-op still dumping me back near the start repeatedly...
Halo 2 all the way baby. Halo 3 was great, but it felt like a downgrade to lose dual weild and a covenant-perspective to the campaign.
@@chrissonofpear1384 Halo 4 was just so bad with the way that they wrote the villain.
What an awesome battle, I wish the games had gone further into it. Even a single cutscene would have been nice.
One little important fact you forgot to mention EckhartsLadder is that the Arbiter didn’t take part in the initial ground assault until the master chief destroyed the scarab, so considering Vadam the Arbiter was the greatest fleet commander and responsible for the fall of reach, is pretty likely The arbiter helped Rtas Vadum with the fleet coordination in order to defeat the brutes ships.
I love this breakdown, but an alternative to R'tas charging his fleet down the middle might have been to accelerate toward the very end of the brute line, forcing brute ships to shoot around eachother to attack, the brutes might have hurled their smaller more maneuverable ships at the elites right into the broadside of the elite formation.
After that R'tas might have turned his wolfpacks to charge down the line like cavalry, coordinating fire at one ship after another while the brutes were still trying to shoot around eachother.
I love being in space battle type games and it's always true that whoever wins the flank can control the battle
When you and a bunch of nerds gets backup from the pe teacher
*Then it is an even fight*
Most PE teachers are fat old man of whom played football in highschool, but in their later years got old and fat resulting in a lack of a ability to do anything physically. Making them easy to laugh at and not care to respect.
Garrett Larcom It doesn’t matter! I was making a joke, but yeah, some Pe teachers are like that
Understood.
@@garrett9451 I would actually disagree I went to a school where all the PE teachers were still fairly fit and even ran with us or competed with us. One PE teacher was even a 7th degree Black belt. While generally yes they tend to be older it really depends in the school. Every one is a different demographic.
Lucky you, I generally saw the opposite.
"Even the smallest knife in hands skilled with a blade can overcome a longsword in the hands of a novice" - me rn drinking coffee on my couch at 1am but seriously experience is everything in this kind of fight the elites had the advantage the brutes just didnt know it yet
"Can, could, may...." Let's be real, 99% of the time the guy with the bigger sword wins
Wish you did more Halo content like this.
This has the most honest ad I've ever seen, so honest I'm about to buy the product. I respect truthful advertising.
I imagine the interior of the brute ships was just a lot of angry apes running about and occasionally hitting the laser buttons by accident.
Frantically asking the grunts and jackals what to do.
there is a military strategy that says, if the enemy is on the deffensive it takes at least the triple of its number to have a chance to win
Correct
For the enemy defense to win, or the attackers to win?
@@pills- for the attackers to win they need 3-1 number advantage.
Because the defenders are typically well entrenched, have camouflaged their defenses and that the attackers have to expose themselves just to attack and then hold the ground that they gained
This is when it comes to land forces, i don't know much about the naval and air part
@@Benthesniperof8 Ah, okay. Those brutes look even more ridiculous now :D
Could a navy 1/3 the size of its opponent actually win?
As chief singlehandedly kills off many armies worth of covenant soldiers over the course of the games
I never knew how much I needed to know how this fight actually went, but damn this is cool.
The best ad reads are these ones. Where you do actually enjoy the food and the company clearly cares (particularly about you which is nice)
I think part of it is there is actually a technology gap between the Elites and the Brutes. In Contact Harvest, it's stated somewhere that the Brutes were intentionally given less technology by the covenant to keep them in line, like how their ships were forced to use elevators rather than grav lifts. It's hard to say if that's really a factor because that was 20 years before the events of Halo 2 and 3, and the hierarchics might have been able to get the brutes some better firepower since they were planning on replacing the elites with the brutes, but it's likely there are at least some brute ships that are behind their elite counterparts.
That is the second most badass line in Halo. The first is:
"All right. Your great journey [pulls knives] ends here."
-Fred-104
The. Not your. The. But props for trying
With the line of how the brutes were too aggressive with their smaller ships... I suspect the battle may have gone the other way around in terms of target prioritization, actually. The smaller ships do not have the shield capacity to stand up to a sustained assault, so in covenant vs covenant battles the go-to tactic is likely to have the smaller vessels attack for a bit, picking off retreating enemies with their speed and taking the heat off allies, then duck behind a bigger ally to regenerate shielding before they are picked off in turn.
Using one's small ships too aggressively would allow their shielding to run out, causing them to be lost prematurely. That leaves the brutes with just their bigger ships against the sangheili who still have a lot of their escort craft. Without those smaller craft the brutes' firepower and, more critically, ability to pursue retreating enemies is drastically reduced, allowing the sangheili to cycle their ships in and out of the fray whilst offering the remaining brute ships no breathing room of their own.
I'd imagine once you took away the shields down thru energy weapons the foward onto dawn could lob a mac round straight thru a carriers core disabling it making it a shooting gallery.
Mac are very good at range.
Another thing to remember is that the Great Schism happened on November 3 and the Battle of the Ark takes place on December 11 2552. And given how the Elites until then had been in charge of the Covenant Military that means a lot of those Brute ship captains were likely only recently promoted and were therefore woefully inexperienced. And keep in mind there were a lot of purges as well in those Brute ships as they sought out any who might harbor secret loyalty to the Elites so your Jackal gunnery detachments or Grunt maintenance is likely suffering as a result. And this is on top of the horrendous losses the Covenant took in the last six months of the war. Where between Reach, the Unyielding Hierophant, the Battle for Earth, and the Great Schism the once unstoppable Covenant Juggernaut had been cut down to the bone and what Truth had brought with him was likely all that was left.
One of the best ads I've seen, honest and to the point, and not artificial at all
when you mentioned the novel first strike it reminded me how cortana was able to make the weapons on the capture covenant ship more efficient, perhaps that was something that was done to the elites ships as well, just a thought
anyway great video and a good reminder of one of my favourite scenes and something that has inspired me a lot in the past
The moment an enemy becomes overconfident because of insured or near insured victory is the moment they lose.
The Sangheili are my FAVORITE alien race in Sci-fi. No one comes close.
@Usze 'Taham sangeheili are elites
@Usze 'Taham ah my bad
This battle is the epitome of
“Call and ambulance, call an ambulance!
*but not for me”*
This was actually really fascinating to learn about, its an absolute delight to hear about.
One of my favorite badass video game lines come from Warhammer 40k: Space Marine
Warboss Grimskull: "I ain't finished with you, Space Marine!"
Captain Titus: "But I am finished with you, Ork."
*vaporizes the ork's head with a plasma bolt*
Overall, the Sangheili in Halo carry themselves in much the same way as the more reserved Space Marine chapters in 40k do. Very combat capable, but efficient and honorable about it. I think that's why they're so likable.
Okay, #AskEck
If humans weren't the reclaimers and were declared worthy to join the Covenant, what role do you think we would occupy?
My bet is on pilots, fighter pilots the Elites are not particularly good at being.
Maybe but we could also serve alongside the elites in some aspect. Remember humanity was able to push the covenant back or hold the ground in almost every ground based conflict. Humanity could also serve on a science basis as well humanity might not have been able to match the covenant technologically but we did have better AI and managed to genetically enhance our soldiers
I belive the reason why the covenant didn't have any "smart" ai is because they knew about the flood to a certain extent, which included knowledge of the logic plague, and what it does to ais
@@Dr.Pootis that is partially true, but also because the Covenant fails to innovate and invent. All they do is copy and reverse engineer Forerunner technology. So along with what you've said, the Covenant AI just sucked haha
@Dr. Pootis the reason the covenant didn’t have smart AI is solely due to them knowing that the forerunners has been betrayed by one. They did not understand the circumstances, nor anything else.
My opinion is that that humanity would have started at the bottom rung of Covenant society as the new converts. However, as achievements start to add up, I think that humanity would have quickly earned the respect to be considered equals to the Elites. This is because of all the races, humans are most similar to the Elites. However, the question remains if this would have been tenable in the long term. Would the Elites have accepted humanity as their equals or would there have been a rivalry between the 2? I personally don't know. Both scenarios are equally plausible.
Considering reach, I'm more impressed that the brutes lasted so long. 8 sabers neutered a cruiser ran by elites, they stood no chance against their own tech and being just dumber on all fronts in space, they were legit cannon fodder.
From what I've heard/read brute packs had the tendency to value personal glory, so cooperation among such a large fleet likely would have had plenty of backstabbing and double crossing all trying to make themselves seem strong while not coordinating well. It was basically elites against. Bunch of small fleets instead of one large one
Meanwhile, on the Brute flagship:
"We outnumber them 3 to 1!"
"Then we'll slaughter them like Grunts."
*Few hours later the Brute shipmaster is found dead, floating in space with an energy sword impaling him*
0:41 And that's why we didn't evolve two thumbs on each hand