Halo 3 Strategies

Halo 3 strategies. You need them. After a few games online, the normal (i.e. non-retarded) player realizes he can't just run around and chase people. This isn't Call of Duty. Halo requires intelligence. Intelligence means strategy.

A successful strategy decides where the majority of battles take place. It forces fights to occur where you want them to. It does not allow battles to regularly happen outside of comfort zones. It does not cover the entire map, either. Essentially, it downsizes the map to half or a quarter. By covering the whole map, your team will be stretched thin, and it becomes to tough to protect and help your teammates. That only leads to disaster.

Successful Halo 3 strategies do not rely on possessing all of the power weapons, because at that point, a strategy isn't really necessary. Your team could just run around with the power weapons and still win. A good strategy is easy to fall into. Finally, a successful strategy is flexible enough to allow for a few deaths without being rendered useless. It does not rely upon each player playing incredibly good.

Once you find a strategy that works, keep it. However, don't worry if your tactics are not impregnable. All the great strategies are, but the other team is very limited in its choices. Also, the strategy is not the dogma of a map. There will be times when, because you've fallen behind, posting up with the strategy will not work as the other team can just hang back. In these cases, disregard the strategy, and form a coordinated attack by rushing and flanking.

As the teams become better, the more complexities are added to the map, simultaneously altering a strategy, if only slightly. For example, if a team has a very skilled sniper, you and your teammates cannot stay in the open for long. You'll be forced to play more conservatively. Just feel comfortable in doing so. Another thing to consider is game variants. The map will obviously play different if the start weapon is BR's instead of assault rifles. And MLG rules totally change the map. Keep this is in mind before applying a strategy. Finally, you need to ask yourself: Is it adaptable? Does it require outrageous skill? Does it make the enemies play at my tempo? These are all important. To see a list of my own Halo 3 strategies, go here

Brendan McCaffery runs a premiere Halo website: Halo Go Pro. It hosts tournaments and contests, and provides expert Halo tips, strategies, and cheats.

AP - George Francis, the nation's oldest man, who lived through both world wars, man's first walk on the moon and the election of the first black president, has died. He was 112.