Halo Wars

The best way to do this is solo with skulls on. The skulls make the game much less hostile and allow you to fare better. While co-op is good because it allows you to split your attention to different areas, such as base management and attack and defense, playing on solo gives you an invaluble component in the save game feature. If you are doing well in a mission you can save so that it all goes to hell, you can reload and try again instead of starting over.
As far as strategy goes I would just recommend to build fast, defend your base and don't attack until your force is strong enough to both attack and possibly defend if the situation presents itself.

I did this co-op, with skulls on. The advantage of co-op is one of you can be incharge of the base and the other guy concentrate on doing objectives, you can keep building units and transferring them to the other person, the Hunters can be a real pain so on missions where you can, use Hornets if not I'd use Flamethrower men to take out the Hunters, plus you can both use heal and Mac at the same time. If you need any advice/help on a mission, send me a message and I'll try and help :o)

A handy tip for Mission 5: Arcadia Outskirts.

Turn on the skull that gives a 5% chance for non-player units to explode. It can easily wipe out a grouping of infantry in the early part of the mission, which is a godsend considering the sheer numbers that get thrown at you. I had the Spartan Laser using guy garrisoned in the overturned Warthog to the side of the broken down highway by the crater. He would laser a group and the explosion would take out 2-3 separate squads.

Once Omega Team shows up, the mission is essentially done. Take out the remaining attackers, head on over to the Mega Turret, build the second base and get some Vultures to take out the Covenant base.

Of course, the problem is surviving to get to the point where Omega Team shows up. I can't believe that both this Mission and Mission 4 made it through QA.

.Mission 4: Arcadia City
For this mission, co-op is preferable simply because it is very hard to multi-task in this level, and this level requires alot of it. However, in solo, you get four hornets instead of two.
The first thing you should do is turn on the skulls that make the game easier. DO NOT turn on boomstick, because sometimes they will send engineers directly to your transports and if they just so happen to be the 5% that blow up, you lose that transport instantly.
Now when they ask you to clear the subway, take your hornets in and make them do all of the work. Send Forge around the map to gather supplies. You will need plenty because you will need to be able to build up your base as fast as possible when the time comes. Once you have cleared the subway, send the hornets directly to cargo one. Ignore cargo 3 because it dies no matter what you do.
Your main threats in this level will be Assault Beam Hunters, Locusts, and Sacrifice Banshees. Your hornets can normally make short work of Hunters and Locusts. Try to use the healing circles sparingly and only when the hornets really need it. Again, you want to reserve most of your resources for your base. Have forge wait by the grassy base spawn so you can build there as soon as Cargo 3 decides to kill itself. The other base is much too dangerous to protect since it is very close to the enemy base. Once your base finishes building, there should be just about 15:00 left until the EVAC. Build two supply pads, then a reactor to quickly get resources incoming. Expand your base to a station, and make another reactor. Upgrade to heavy supply pads as soon as possible, then make a vehicle depot. Then upgrade to a fortress and make another supply pad, and a field armory. Keep checking on cargo one because it frequently takes fire. At this point most of your hornets should have one star, which makes them much more valuable in battle. If you happen to lose forge in battle, and he comes back as a foot soldier, put him in the tower next to cargo one. He will not fight while he is in it, but he will draw alot of fire before he dies, which buys you valuable time to counter attack any incoming forces. Once you have enough resources, upgrade one reactor and pump out two wolverines. This will become the most valuable unit later in the game once they start to bring sacrifice banshees. Park them near the tail of the cargo ship and they will attack any banshees that threaten the cargo. Also use them to destroy vampires, since your hornets are highly succeptible to them. Make sure to fully upgrade the wolverines, since single launchers isn't enough to quickly take down a group of banshees. Many times, if you are lucky, the wolverines will take the hit of the banshee's sacrifice instead of the cargo ship. At the field armory, purchase Reserves, and recycle the building to make room for an Air Pad.
Now there should be about 5 or less minutes left in the game. Pump out more wolverines, preferably to have about four or five guarding cargo one, and get wingmen for the hornets. If you still have the hornets, they should have two stars by now. Many times assault hunters will ignore your defenses and head straight for the cargo ship. If this happens, use a carpet bomb and try to get your hornets to finish them off as quickly as possible. They can take down a cargo ship fairly easily if left unattended. Keep pumping out more wolverines and hornets to defend the cargo ship and when there is about one minute left, a large mega turret will come online and wreck everything. I tried to destroy it with any forces I had and I got destroyed every time. So the best thing to do is hope it doesn't hit your cargo ship for the remaining time, and you will win.

Mission 4 was the hardest for me,with all the missions i would advise turning on the 5 skulls that will decrease your score,these will help you in some way,for the rest of the missions you can play coop but when you get to 4,it is imperative that you use your save option,mid mission,which you dont get in coop so you must do it in single player and heres some tips on how i did it:
First off,like above,make sure you have all the decrease score skulls on,there are 5 all together and they do help.
Forget about carrier 1 and 3 cos 3 dies anyway and 1 is too close to the covenant base,and will be destroyed quite quickly so just look after 2 from the get go,as soon as you get ay base built,it happens at 17:30mins,you gotta save it,then ya gotta build in this order,Reactor,Reactor,Supplies-then upgrade ya base and build Airpad and supplies in extra slots and turrets on ya base,2 will do and save again,Upgrade turrets to flamers,just in case hunters come.they shouldnt,but it did happen to me a couple of times,i just reverted back to my last save and they never came that time,simply keep spawning hornets and send them to carrier 2,keep a big bunch of them on the side from which the banshees come from,over the water towards where carrier 1 was,as banshees were my main threat,You must remeber to keep saving everytime you get a slight chance,.
This may not work for you but after trying for most of the day i tryed this way once and finally did it,getting an airpad is key and for that ya need 2 reactors.
Hope this helps

This isn't so much a guide as a very helpful tip (at least in my experience).

While it may seem logical that having two people is better than one for this, it's NOT. The only reason for this is that you CAN'T SAVE whilst doing co-op campaign. And for that reason, single-player is by far better and easier.

While doing this on single-player, by and large, it will be a trial and error game (even with guides, you can't always successfully predict the enemy moves). This is because, while playing through on single-player, if you feel like you're doing well, you should SAVE the game. I can't say how many times you'll have to restart from your saves, but if you've even tried this, you know that you will fail A LOT, and it is far better to start half way through the mission then to go from the start.

Obviously you can do some of the levels in co-op (I did), but don't expect to do levels like Arcadia in co-op and win without having lost numerous times and lost countless hours of time in the process (unless you know an RTS god-player).

So, moral of the story:

Play single-player and SAVE if you're doing well.

I am here to tell you that mission 4 is so difficult on legendary because it is glitched when the emperor skull is on. I tried this multiple times and the mega turret blew up my ships before I could get a decent base going, which confused me because the game was still giving me tutorial tips. After failing so many times I gave it another go, but I forgot to turn on my skulls on this attempt. I realized this about 5 mins into the mission. I turned the skulls on and was destroyed by the mega turret within seconds. I reset the level and this time I avoided the 5% chance of destroying and enemy and emperor skull and I beat it my first time without any problems. I hope that helps anyone who is stuck on that level.

Legendary Solo Guide

Most levels can be completed with the following base setup. Some other levels will not let you use this setup and I will talk about them individually.

Optimal base setup is:

- Build a fortress (max base slots)
- 4 Heavy supply pads (can be 3 on some levels)
- 2 reactors, 1 of which must be advanced
- Vehicle depot
- Cannister shell ability (this ability absolutely destroys most units, really powerful when used simultaneously)
- Tanks, Tanks and more tanks. Be generous and create one cobra and a wolverine.

The order for the build is: Fortress, SP, SP, SP, REACTOR, SP, HSP, HSP, HSP, HSP, REACTOR, ADVANCED REACTOR, VEHICLE DEPOT, CANNISTER

Once you have this setup, most missions will be super easy. Make sure all negative scoring skulls are enabled. Also, remember to save after building the setup as it takes around 7 minutes to do.

The following levels will require alternate strategies:

Mission 4: Arcadia City

This mission is quite brutal at times if done incorrectly. The base strategy is the same as the optimal one, but instead replace the vehicle depot with airplane depot. As soon as the cargo ships are marked, head your troops over to cargo 1 and eliminate as much resistance as possible. Many people suggested heading straight to cargo 2, but this did not work for me as the covenant would push before my base was ready. When your base site is ready, build as much as possible at send your rally point at cargo 2. Then when things get hairy at cargo 1, move to cargo 2. I think one of the most important tips is to keep your ships behind the cargo, not infront. This will allow you to kill banshees must faster and reduce damage on the cargo. Remember to use the heal ability on the cargo as much as possible, but only if it is below 75% health.

Mission: 7 Scarab

You can start with the optimal base strategy, but this level is very difficult because the scarab's weapon is incredibly powerful and you will be under pressure to take it down otherwise the scarab will annihilate your base. The best thing to do is take out all power nodes. Recruit a scout hog and send them to each node, then use the mac ability on the nodes. Another problem with this level is that huge waves of enemies will come to attack your base, so you will either need to retreat your troops, or divide them between defend and attack. I personally thing retreating is better because you need to put as much damage on the scarab as possible.

Mission 12: Repairs

This one I found very difficult and is the one I failed most. The strategy which works best is to immediately build the middle 4 turrets, then build 3 or 4 hawks and put all your troops (except the cyclops) in the middle area. This is far better than having all enemies by the reactor, as it will allow you to hold the line for much longer. Once the hawks are built, you will want to start recruiting cyclops and use them to heal the core. You want at least 9 healing the core. Also remember to use the healing ability on the core.

Mission 13, 14 and 15

You can use the optimal base strategy on these levels but they will be very long. Each one took me 40 minutes. Reactor was probably the hardest because the enemy bases will constantly spawn a scarab regardless of if you already destroyed one. On these levels, take it very slow and save regularly.

Mission 12 Tip:
You can actually beat this mission by only creating cyclopes. As soon as the mission starts use the heal ability on the power core. Afterwards use all of the of remaining resources to build cyclops. Place the global rally point next to the power core so they head there after being made. Also make sure to have enough resources to heal the power core as soon as the ability recharges. If all of this is done, it's possible to beat it on Legendary without producing additional fighting units. Also make sure to distract any enemies who are attacking the core with the given fighting units. They can destroy the hull much faster than the cyclops can repair it.

I used "Tactical Warfare Gaming" videos which made this really easy.

Just watched and follow. Took me 3 days to get this and the "MR punctual" achievement.

Also put all skulls on that decrease score, except boomstick.



Hardest was Arcadia city or Scarab.