Forerunner Upgrade?

[FanofRPGs]

Forerunner infantry can reach 7-B because War Sphinxes could destroy cities according to their page

The thing is that the cities can be this big for Forerunners




'


So, could they be upgraded?

 

[Cropfist]

I agree with an upgrade.

 

[Soldier_Blue]

The Cryptum novel which talks about the War Sphinxes stated that the Forerunner navy needed large swarms of War Sphinxes to take down enemy capital ships (which at most likely had only small country to country level durability without energy shields) and for bombardment of entire continents. And by "firepower enough to level entire cities", I think the novel means ancient human cities (such as the ones on Heian) as well as the concept of cities that we are familiar with and not Forerunner ones. If it meant Forerunner ones, I think the author would have instead stated ecumenopolis explicitly or stated that a War Sphinx could level entire continents. Furthermore, the War Sphinxes are weaker mechs than the likes of the Guardians and even their best feats include levelling a large metropolis on waking up (which is tier 7-A at the very most).

One more thing

The only ships we know of with 6-A to High 6-A firepower (single attack) in Halo are the ancient human and Forerunner navy dreadnoughts. Of course these things range from several dozen to several hundreds of kilometres long compared to the War Sphinx's 20 metres.

 

[Antvasima]

Can War Sphinxes destroy cities in a single strike?

 

[Soldier_Blue]

Can War Sphinxes destroy cities in a single strike?

Yes. And swarms of them can lay waste to a continent or bring down dozens of kilometres long starships with ridiculous durability (SMACs, which are Island level+ and can carve out 10+ kilometre diameter terrestrial craters, can put only few dozen metre wide holes in that kind of hull armour).

"We crossed the inner lake in minutes, a leisurely pace for craft designed to drop from high orbit, sweep continents, and decimate cities. The only thing these old machines lacked, I thought, was a direct connection to slipspace. But I didn't know that for sure."

"The atmosphere below was a swirling soup of smoke and fire. Warrior craft and automated weapon systems were mostly too small to be visible, but I saw their effects—darting beams of needle light, glowing arcs cutting across continents, gigantic, stamplike divots punched into the crust and then lifted up, spun about, overturned. I had never seen anything like this—but the Didact had."

Anyway, I think the War Sphinx profile is inaccurate. That 6-A to High 6-A feat there (where they cut up and lifted a section of the planet's crust and then dropped it back down) was performed by a large swarm of such mechs aided by other automated weapons and would absolutely not translate to individual AP.

 

[Antvasima]

Okay. That seems reasonable.

 

[FanofRPGs]

Wait, are those ships doing that, or War Sphinxes destroying the continent?

 

[Soldier_Blue]

Wait, are those ships doing that, or War Sphinxes destroying the continent?

It says "Warrior craft" and "automated weapon systems" which implies swarms of piloted mechs in addition to some automated ones.

The piloted mechs are most likely War Sphinxes since these forces are Warrior Servants under the command of the Didact and they mostly used these things. They're unlikely to be Seekers (which were mostly used by Builder Security).