Duckman's AI/Skirmish overhaul mod for Halo Wars: Definitive Edition

How to install manually: (txt copied from leader overhaul mod)

*If you are updating from a previous version, delete the previous version before installing.

Download and extract this .zip file.

If you are using the Steam version, you may place the "Duckman'sHaloWarsMod" folder anywhere. If you have the windows store version, then you must put it here:

C:\Users\*YourUsername*\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.BulldogThreshold_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalState

Open the "Duckman'sHaloWarsMod" folder and copy the address/path.

Then, go to:

C:\Users\*YourUsername*\AppData\Local\Halo Wars

Right click, create a .txt file and name it "ModManifest".

Open ModManifest and paste in the address that was copied.

Save ModManifest, and you're done.

To know if its working you should have 1,000 supply at the start of the game.

About the mod

Can be played solo or online with friends. Made only for normal game mode. Deathmatch and other game modes may be unbalanced or broken. The mod discourages cheese rushes as they are MUCH harder to pull off, but maybe still possible. The ai also get a massive power spike when controlling 2 bases over 1 so don't be too slow. Maps with bonuses like extra reactors or supply drops (hooks) are easier for humans so map selection can change difficulty.

Easy = base game heroic/legendary
normal = ai takes 75% damage / 50% more income
heroic = ai takes 50% damage / 75% more income
legendary = ai takes 40% damage / 75% more income
Automatic 100 = ai takes 40% damage / 75% more income
Automatic 200 = ai takes 40% damage / 75% more income / deals 50% more damage

Bots build more consistently, should have units on the map earlier and continue to build units/upgrade as the game goes on at a steady rate.
Bots always build 2 turrets at the very start and build more as the game goes on.
Bots always build 2 production buildings on their 1st base and 2 production on their 2nd base so that they do not go overboard on supply pads or tech early.
Bots use unsc/cov hero powers more often.
Bots research more often and more fully as the game goes on.
Bots build units that they can't use properly much less. "cyclops, ghosts, choppers"

Every unit in the game has been changed and rebalanced. All units have better targeting and will naturally focus what they are best at killing unless told otherwise (this makes ai smarter) Some small bugs may occur because of this but they are being removed all the time and there are none known as of 1.0.4
Here is a basic change list, Note that upgrade costs are now normalized across unit types for both races.
Also these changes are built for this mod specifically. These changes are based on their performance vs ai as well as in the hands of ai. Do not PvP with this mod it will be severely unbalanced. When a unit is considered Buffed or Nerfed without a description it is usually due to many very small changes being made.

Marines - buffed slightly
Odst - buffed slightly
Flamers - normal
Spartans - slight cost increase
Scorpions - nerfed
Grizzlies - buffed / no longer have any bugs to make them weaker than a scorpion
Cobras - range buff
Wolverine - normal
Hornet - cost increase
Hawk - same cost increase
Vulture - slightly more range
Warthog - cost reduced / build time reduced
Elephant - cost reduced
Cyclops - buffed in several ways
Gremlin - normal
UNSC main hero powers cooldown reduced
Mac blast - buffed / cost increased
Carpet bomb - buffed
Cryo bomb - nerfed slightly early / cost reduced / buffed late.
Heal and repair - cost increased / size increased / healing increased / heals both teams
Pelican - cost reduced / carry capacity reduced (5 infantry or 2 tanks)

Grunts - buffed
Jackels - normal
Hunters - Slightly buffed pre beam cannon
Ghosts - buffed / cost reduced
Chopper - buffed / cost reduced
Wraiths - buffed
Locust - slightly buffed vs non structures.
Banshee - cost increase
Vampire - normal
Suicided grunt - price reduced
Brute - normal
Elite - buffed / shield similar to Spartans / slightly faster move speed
Arbiter - rage slightly buffed /rage cost reduced / rage self damage no longer increase with rank / reflect damage buffed / move speed buffed / auto attack damage buff
Brute chief - Buffed slightly / Vortex damage and cost increased.
Prophet - cleansing beam cost reduced / beam speed and range increased. / less hp more shield (buff)
Scarab - takes extra 60 seconds to build, shade turret can shoot any target but deals 50% damage to non air units.

Turrets - cost decrease / buffed when upgraded to AI AV AA

Each hero is quite different, here are the major changes-
Cutter = +10 unit supply, starting bases start at full upgrades / units cost 20% more and take 20% longer to build but spawn with 1 star.
Forge = +2 spartan cap / 20% more resources from supply pads.
Anders = 1 extra tech level
Arbiter = +10 unit supply / units cost and time to build reduced by 10%
BruteChief = 20% faster /cheaper all building construction
Prophet = tech cost lowered / shield upgrade cost lowered / recall cost heavily reduced

Balance and new features may arrive in the future keep checking for updates and leave a comment on the Youtube video if you wanna say hi.

Discord link to contact me about the mod Discord.gg

If you want to see the mod played by me check out this video. Patch (1.0.0)
Youtube.com

Tips for beating AI and improving at the game

I want to preface this my saying that this mod is considerably harder than vanilla halo wars but is also very possible to have a 90%+ win rate on legendary on any map 1v1 2v2 or 3v3 with human or at teammates. Some of these tips will be strictly based off of this mod while others are standard with the base game. Not all advice will be correct for vanilla halo wars. First ill give the major advice for halo wars in general then get into advice for my mod.

General advice -

Supply pads - One of the most confusing aspects of halo wars. If you don't know how many you should build and when I'll give you the quick answer. The quick answer is 3-4 upgraded supply pads then units. get a 5th-7th on 2nd base and never more than 8. Upgrade supply pads when you can, usually as soon as they are up unless you need to start units. Long answer is that supply pads have diminishing returns. The 2nd supply pad gives around 7.5% less than the previous. This means that having 4 supply pads will give you 3 times the money of having one supply pad NOT 4 times. Having 8 supply pads will give you about 4.5 times as much as having one supply pad. That means that going from 4-8 supply pads you are doubling the amount of supply pads you are making but only making 1.5 times the money.

Bases - Well lets start by saying don't make more than 2 bases. If you do make 3 hopefully you have a good reason and aren't spending too much money on it as you will almost always be wasting those resources. So when do you expand? You can win with one base however it advised to get a 2nd base if you have not killed one of your opponents by 12-15 minutes. If you are not rushing or putting on early pressure your 3 main choices are to build a 2nd base when your first base is full and you don't need to spend all of your money on unit production (usually after 8 minutes). OR when you made 5 structures on your 1st base and don't want to upgrade your base to have 7 slots. The reason you may do this is because it cost $400 to get 2 additional slots on your base but only $500 to make a new base with 3 slots. OR make another base right away so that you can build supply pads at twice the speed. (this is only good if you expect to turtle and build turrets as you will be put behind early game. Not advised for beginners)

Upgrading units - When you upgrade units you do more than just give them the upgrade the game tells you. MOST of the time it also gives units 25% damage or hp ALONG with the buff the game tells you. This makes upgrading units extremely powerful. This is very generalized advice but if you wanna be told when to upgrade the simple answer is every multiple of 4 units should be given a higher upgrade. So if you have 4 scorpions you should get canister shell over a 5th scorpion. If you have 8 scorpions you should get power turret over a 9th scorpion. This is a simple guideline for all units. Now it is fine to upgrade units when you have 3 of them if you are expecting to make more or get a 2nd upgrade when you only have 6-7 or a 3rd tier upgrade and you still only have 6-7 but DO NOT BUILD MORE UNITS THAN YOUR UPGRADE LEVEL TIMES 3. So if you build 7 marines and have yet to upgrade 1 to new blood. Then you are wasting a lot of money.

Mod Advice -

What strategy should I use? - There are 3 major strategies in halo wars these are Map control, Turtling, and Rushing.

Turtling - The easiest of the 3 strategies. Best vs lots of covenant. This means you build turrets and upgrade them. You keep your units close and wait for the enemy to come to you and only really fight when counter attacking. You usually build a 2nd base somewhat early that is behind your base or away from danger. This strat is great for early game but has the potential to let the ai scale out of control and beat you mid/late game. It also much better when your bases or your teammate's bases are close to each other and this strat is weaker when your team's bases are separated. Be careful as if you turtle too long the covenant will build scarabs and the UNSC usually out scale this strat around mid game.

Map Control - This is the most consistent of the 3 strategies and works in the majority of games. Good vs UNSC and COV. This means that you are not trying to kill the enemy's main base. You are aiming to beat their army, but instead of pushing on to kill them all, you're using your strength to secure map objectives. Most importantly you are trying to deny the ai a 2nd base. While you deny their expansion you make your own. Don't go for the kill too early. If you have successfully denied the enemies expansions than you have time to build your army for a large attack mid/late game.

Rushing - Probably the most difficult of the 3. Best vs UNSC (very hard vs COV). Rushing does not mean that you are sending your units at the enemy within the first minute of the game (Dont do that). Rushing means that you have a small army consisting of at least 5 units. Rushes should be aimed to happen before the enemy has a unit production building. Your best bet to rush is when the enemy is around their 4th to 5th building and should only be done vs ai that dont have early units. If you see an early barracks, or if they have units with their covenant leader you should probably not rush. When rushing focus down turrets as fast as possible. then production buildings as they are being created.

Getting beat early? - Build turrets and upgrade them. Turrets are BY FAR the most cost effective unit in the game besides Spartans and covenant Leaders (in the hands of a skill player). Spending $150 on a turret will do more than $300 of almost any unit in the game and the extra $150 you spend upgrading that turret is worth another $300 at least. That means you are spending $250 for about $600 in stats. You should build turrets whenever you feel you army can't match the opponents army, which happens a lot. Let the enemy come to you and fight around your turrets letting them get hits on the enemy or tank shots for your units. Make sure to upgrade your turrets not only for what the enemy is building but also at what you are weak against. For example lets say you are playing against 2 covenant and you build flamethrowers to defend against their leaders early. It may be a good idea to scout their base to see if they have an air pad or vehicle depot and decide to upgrade your turrets to anti air because your flamethrowers cant hit that. Basically try not to upgrade turrets to counter the same type of units that your units counter. Also if you are building 4 turrets consider upgrading your turret level in the field armory or temple. It's worth it if your turrets get around 60 seconds of action throughout the entire game and almost always great when turtling.

Scout the enemy base - When to scout? When your 4th building is done being made. This is when the ai will have made 4 buildings as well. At this point they will begin making their unit production building if they don't have one already. After seeing it you should have a general idea of what their early army will consist of. Scout a 2nd time when you have 7 buildings as that's when they will have 7 as well. Try to scout at the edge of their base so the turrets don't kill your scout unit. Its more important to scout the UNSC than the COV as you know the COV will ALWAYS have some infantry, be it their leader unit or units made from their base.

Build counter units - You are at the mercy of your enemy. They are stronger than you, it is up to you to be smarter than them. I know this sounds obvious but you should focus your army on building units that counter the majority of the enemy's army. Now for some real advice. If you are facing COV then you should be a little more anti infantry focused and if you are vs UNSC you should be more anti vehicle and anti air focused. That's not always true but usually works out that way. If you are playing with multiple human players have each person focus on countering a certain enemy type and work together. If playing alone try to focus on countering the majority of enemy units and using your ai teammates to help. 1v1 there is only 1 ai so just counter their units.

Playing with ai teammates - If the ai is doing something dumb ping where you want them to go. SPAM PING the ground 5 times and tell them to go there and do that thing you want. If they are attacking too early or if they are sitting in base just chilling and you think they are doing the wrong thing. Ping the ground where you think they should go several times and they almost always listen.... almost. Also you can ping an ally ai's supply pad to ask them for resources. They will always give it to you if they have it but be careful. That's their money they need to make units and upgrade so if you steal it they won't be as useful. Remember ALL ai have buffs to them so their money may be more valuable than yours because their units have more hp. Finally if you do have ai teammates, use them as meat shields. Everyone's units deal the same amount of damage. So its better for them to take the hits than you because they die slower.

Use hero powers - Lets do some simple math. You spend $500 on a scorpion and it goes up against an enemy scorpion on heroic. That scorpion beats your scorpion with 50% hp remaining. You spent $500 the enemy spent $500 but they came out on top. Well a lvl 1 mac blast cost $800 and will kill 1-2 enemy scorpions. Thats good value. $600 for a carpet bomb that can also kill around 1.5 scorpions (if aimed right and lucky). Cryo bomb is a bit different but it can freeze enemies in front of turrets to let them take a beating. It gives Spartans time to hijack vehicles (Spartans can hijack vehicles while frozen so feel free to cryo your own Spartans mid hijcak it actually keeps them quite safe) or use a cryo vs air units to instant kill them. Its a good idea to get the ai units to a lower hp to ensure they die when cryo bombed (max level cryo will insta kill a vulture at 95% hp on legendary). COV leader powers are also very strong and usually are cost effective for killing enemy units. It is advised that you upgrade hero powers for both UNSC and COV throughout the game. It is almost always more cost effective than building more units when your tech level allows it.

Map bonuses - The map makes a huge difference in halo wars. If the map has bonus reactors, mini structures, supply garrison, use them. Some maps are harder than others. Maps like Exile are much easier than Fort Deen because of bonus reactors. Maps where the ai have trouble getting a 2nd base are also easier such as docks.

Hero units - COV leaders should almost always be upgrades as its is extremely cost effective. Use these heroes to their strengths. Brute chief is good vs large vehicles (especially scorpions) because he can stun them. Arbiter is good vs infantry because he can heal off off of them in rage mode easily. Prophet is good vs air because his beam can hit air and they have low hp compared to their cost and damage. Spartans are the best unit in the game especially on higher difficulties as they are able to "kill" enemy vehicles in 1 hit and then steal their vehicle. If you buy a spartan and steal a scorpion then you just made $1,000 because you killed their scorpion ($500) and you got a scorpion for yourself (another $500)

Field Armory - Its better than you think. Upgrading a level 1 hero ability to level 2 is a big power spike for low cost. Also upgrading turrets is very cost effective. Most importantly it has adrenalin. This is the best upgrade in the game. 25% movement speed to infantry (more importantly sparatans) will be the difference between life and death. It cost $250 for an upgrade that can be the difference of your $350 spartan living or dying.

Diverse army - Or maybe not diverse. I advise most armies to consist of 2 units. you can mix and match more but for the most part just pick 2 units and have that be your army. You can adapt as the game goes on and change unit types but try not to have 5 different unit types in your army. Its confusing, hard to manage, and hard to upgrade.

Discord - Discord.gg