Thel 'Vadam and 10 Sangheili Field Marshals vs. Xenomorph Queen and 10 Praetorians

[A_Stoned_Orc]

Thel is in his Sword of Sanghelios armor, armed with Prophet's Bane, a standard Storm Rifle, and the Hailstorm needler (a needler with extra ammo, and a faster rate of fire).

The Field Marshals are armed with standard Type-1 Energy Swords and Brute Plasma Rifles, with full batteries. All eleven Elites are equipped with two plasma grenades.

Battle takes place within a derelict UNSC ship whose rampant AI Slipspace jumped into Sanghelios' orbit.

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

The Praetorians alone sprint through every last bit of gunfire and murderize the entire opposing team. You can thank the new Xenomorph upgrades for that.

10 Building level Subsonic+ Xenos and an 'At least Building level+, likely higher' Subsonic+ boss-tier VS 11 Small Building level Subsonic Elites with weapons likely on their own tier. Yeah, I think this one's pretty clear-cut.

 

[DarkDragonMedeus]

Well, the Xenomorphs are physically stronger and slightly faster, the Sangheili do have better technology and are also quite cunning. I do wonder if plasma weaponry could count as a weakness towards the Xenomorphs; plasma is even hotter than fire after all. Additionally, those plasma grenades especially could be devastating to them. I'm going to have to say the Sangheili take this with mid to low difficulty.

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

The Alien-verse has plasma weapons in the form of these, and they've yet to be shown doing serious damage to any Praetorian, let alone a Queen.

A Xenomorph Queen has an IQ of 175, and the Xenomorphs as a whole are heavily implied to possess/operate on a hive-mind. They also have plenty of experience with trained soldiers, including ones suited up with futuristic armor similar in type to what's in Halo.

Another point: Contrary to what a lot of people think, the higher Xeno classes very much aren't limited to close range. Unlike lower castes, Praetorians can actually spit their acid far enough to make it a lethal ranged weapon of theirs. The Queen, meanwhile, can just fling whatever she finds at the Marshals. (And she probably will...) Even if their ranged attacks don't actually kill the Marshals, they'll give the Xeno team more than enough opportunity to close that distance and tear Thel's team to shreds.

Also, the Queens shrug off explosions.

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

Real quick: If this gets added (it probably won't, since it has more than two profiles involved) and Team A somehow wins, do we add the results to Thel's page or the Field Marshals' page?

 

[DarkDragonMedeus]

Fair enough, I guess it's pretty weird how they are susceptible to fire, but I guess it just works differently than lasers or explosions. I also take back the tactics part since Elites typically like prefer to rush in and go for the kill, and their active camo might not work on Xenomorph heightened senses. Then again, their energy swords might be able to block certain projectiles like they do in the books. Additionally, plasma swords like Energy Swords might be able to negate durability to some extent.

Anyway, I suppose I'll switch my vote for the Xenomorphs, but I don't really think this is one sided.

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

You're right about the camo being a non-factor here, more than you might realize. Xenomorphs regularly fight Predators who have the exact same kind of cloaking technology, and they're actually capable of stamping Preds out of hiding just by using their heightened senses.

If the Elites try to rush in for the kill, they're going to die. They're physically outclassed in every single way, especially with speed unequalized.

And normally I don't call out matches as being stomps (or even moderately one-sided fights) right away, but I know these two groups fairly well, and I can tell you right now that the Xenos have almost every advantage they could ever ask for.

 

[A_Stoned_Orc]

When were the Xeno upgrades added..? Not entirely sure I saw them when I made this thread. I'd assumed this match-up would be much more even.

That being said--Brutes are much more prone to "rushing in for the kill", so to speak. Elites *are* capable of being enraged, but they're much more prone to keeping composure and following tactical battle strategies, especially in a scenario where they're either actively being hunted or actively hunting something themselves--especially with leadership like Thel's, who seems to be every bit the Sangheili counterpart to John-117.

@MrKingofNegativity specifically: would downgrading the Praetorians to Warriors tip the scales in Thel and his squad's favor, in your opinion? Or would I need to do something like open up the entire Swords of Sanghelios (non-vehicular) arsenal to the Elites, including Fuel Rod Cannons?

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

The upgrades are recent. You might have made this match right before they happened, actually.

They'll be a whole lot better off in general if they try to come up with a strategy, but they're going to need some really good tactics if they want to compete with hive-minded beasts connected to a 175 IQ Queen. And with both the monumental difference in stats and their ability to track down cloaked enemies, this is still going to be a miserable experience for the Marshals.

As for downgrading to Warriors, doing that would only tip the scales somewhat. Being Wall levellers, a single hit from the Sangheili's weapons would wreck any Warrior Xeno (they actually get one-shot by those USCM plasma firearms I mentioned earlier), so Thel's team would most likely just be stuck fighting the Queen. Sadly, when PIS isn't involved, the Queens are capable of soloing entire groups of Yautja, and since Yautja are a lot like stronger, more durable, better equipped versions of the Sangheili (minus the plasma swords), the Field Marshals are still more or less screwed once she rushes them down.

 

[FanofRPGs]

The upgrades are recent. You might have made this match right before they happened, actually.
They'll be a whole lot better off in general if they try to come up with a strategy, but they're going to need some really good tactics if they want to compete with hive-minded beasts connected to a 175 IQ Queen. And with both the monumental difference in stats and their ability to track down cloaked enemies, this is still going to be a miserable experience for the Marshals.

As for downgrading to Warriors, doing that would only tip the scales somewhat. Being Wall levellers, a single hit from the Sangheili's weapons would wreck any Warrior Xeno (they actually get one-shot by those USCM plasma firearms I mentioned earlier), so Thel's team would most likely just be stuck fighting the Queen. Sadly, when PIS isn't involved, the Queens are capable of soloing entire groups of Yautja, and since Yautja are a lot like stronger, more durable, better equipped versions of the Sangheili (minus the plasma swords), the Field Marshals are still more or less screwed once she rushes them down.

Field Marshals spam Fuel Rod Guns as a standard tactic at a rate of 2 rounds per second, while this is slow, 10 field marshals firing 20 blasts, each of which can vaporize spartans, is going to wear down a queen. Each blast is around ~1.5 gigajoules IIRC, and thats 20 shots per second in all, or 30 gigajoules (which is 8-B)

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

^Null and void because the OP didn't give the Field Marshals any Fuel Rod Guns whatsoever.

 

[A_Stoned_Orc]

No, I kind of gave Thel and his Sangheili the short end of the stick here, unintentionally. Is it considered bad form to edit the OP, that I might even the odds a little more? >_> It was just an idea I had in my head, given that Sangheili/Elites take heavy influence from Yautja/Predators.


For the record, Fan of RPGs is correct with his Fuel Rod stuff--but Field Marshalls typically spawn with the Pool of Radiance variant of the Fuel Rod Cannon, which explodes three seperate times at the point of impact, and each explosion is equal in power to a standard Fuel Rod shot.

So, two of those per second, means 6 individual explosions per Field Marshall--so, it'd be more like 180 gigajoules, if I did the math right.

 

[MrKingOfNegativity]

I know well enough about the Fuel Rod Guns to say that those would likely give them the win, depending on how they use their surroundings VS the Xenos and whether or not they can line up shots before the distance between the teams is diminished. They'd more or less become useless at close range, but they'd still give the Marshals a good chance at preventing the other team from getting that close into begin with.

I only say that if we stick with Praetorians, though. Against Warriors and a Queen, FR Guns would just turn the fight into a stomp in the other direction.

(Also, people tend to change the OP here all the time if they can make the match fair in doing so, so you're good)

 

[DarkDragonMedeus]

Isn't the thing about the Fuel Rods calc stacking? I mean, yes they're 1.5 Gigajoule individually, but adding the numbers together is not how AP or durability works. I mean, just because I can do 255 push ups IRL doesn't mean I can lift 255x my own body weight. Surviving multiple shots from the same attack should be treated more as stamina feat; surviving a single, powerful attack is an example of a durability feat. Because technically, a character with durability 20 times their opponents AP should be pretty much invulnerable. Though admittedly, the Fuel Rods would be pretty good help, but that doesn't mean they'd turn the tables.