Halo Wars 2 players have had a lot of fun with Scout rushes, and developer 343 Industries and Creative Assembly have patched the game to make them not quite as effective.

The patch is currently just for Xbox One only. The PC version for Windows 10 is coming in the next few days.

The balance changes were mostly to "decrease the effectiveness of the Scout rush and prepare the battlefield for upcoming buffs to the infantry counter units (Suicide Grunts, Jump Pack Brutes, Elite Rangers and Hellbringers). Scout vehicles are supposed to be a useful alternative core unit for Tech level 1, but were turning out to be better for rushing than the Anti-building “Rush” units (Jump pack Brutes and the Hellbringers)."

The dev team explained that the best counter for the Scout units at tech 1 is the UNSC grenade upgrade and the Banished mine upgrade, so the patch gave each a slight "effectiveness boost."

Tech level 2 core vehicles such as the Warthogs and Marauders, were also boosted to "allow players who out-tech a Scout rush to deal more effectively with lower-tech core vehicles." Scout rushes are still possible, but will probably now need to be combined with Jump-pack Brutes and Hellbringers to b the most effective..

Here are the full patch notes for the update, which weighs in at 9.9GB:

CRASHES/ERRORS/PERFORMANCE

• Fixed an issue where players could get stuck on the loading screen
• Fixed an issue that caused some PC players to see a black screen on startup
• Several "desync" fixes, one of which covered most of the tracked occurrences
• Fixed a variety of PC crashes that were hardware-dependent
• Fixed a Network Error on opening Blitz Packs
• Fixed some AI issues in Skirmish that could cause performance hits
• Fixed some performance hitches in Cooperative Campaign
• Made performance improvements on various hardware
• Overall multiplayer performance improvements
• Fixed some crashes that could occur when loading a saved game
• Fixed an issue that would cause a Campaign mission to get stuck after loading a save
• Fixed a bug with joining a party and getting a network error
• Added a driver check on PC to alert users to the presence of old drivers
• Fixed an issue that caused players to disconnect from multiplayer games at the beginning of the match

GAMEPLAY

• Fixed issue with ‘Detect’ on some starting units not working properly
• Fixed an issue with getting the Palmer’s Pure Gold Achievement
• Fixed some bugs with Kodiaks in Campaign
• Fixed a bug with garrisoned Snipers not getting additional stats
• Fixed issue with squads getting stuck trying to garrison if another squad beats them to it
• Gold medal can now be more easily attained in ‘Hold the Line’
• Fixed a Cyclops and Reaver pathing bug where they would sometimes stop moving
• Fixed an issue with units getting stuck in bases after being made
• Fixed various skull functionality not working on some units or abilities
• Fixed some cross-skull interactions between Annihilation and Pestilence
• Fixed some Locust pathing issues in Blitz (even though they’re driven by Grunts)
• Fixed an issue with units becoming unresponsive in Blitz
• Fixed an issue in Blitz with units getting a x4 speed boost in a specific situation
• Fixed a conflict created by swapping d-pad functionality in Blitz
• Fixed an issue with the Blisterback not recovering from damage in Blitz
• Fixed behavior of Marines sometimes failing to get new targets after throwing a grenade
• Friendly cloaked units now appear on the minimap
• Made some adjustments to Scarab creation
• Tweaks to Grunt Mob, Bloodfuel Grunts, and Bloodfuel Locust
• Holo Decoy can no longer be used on Pelicans or Spirits
• Fixed card level of units affected by Holo Decoy not showing over clones
• Glassing beam always creates vision now in Blitz
• Adjusted AI to make better use of Healing and Cloaking fields
• Skirmish AI now uses Extraction and Teleport
• AIs have been practicing their Domination game

METAGAME

• Fixed a bug where parties were always assigned to Team 1
• Fixed a rare issue with users not actually getting to play the leader they selected in Blitz
• “Halt” cinematic should no longer be unlocked early in theater
• Fixed some daily/weekly challenge issues where they were not tracked in some playlists
• PC players can no longer tab target to whisper to themselves
• Phoenix Log page adjustments
• Pause menu adjustments
• Set default difficulty of AI to normal from easy

COSMETIC

• Cleaned up some language localizations
• Fixed a bug with UI textures failing to load
• Fixed some minimap graphical issues
• Fixed a PC issue with starting army text overlapping some UI
• Fixed some issues with individual card pack opening animations
• Fixed an issue with a terminal for a red barrier not having a display string
• Fixed a Domination icon issue, where it would rotate briefly when being recaptured
• Fixed an issue with Health bars getting stuck on the screen
• Fixed some issues with particles randomly shooting across the maps for various objects
• Adjusted transparency on locked skulls in the side panel
• Radial menu has been cleaned up a bit
• Added extra visual indicator to aid players when they are selecting cards
• Made some enhancements to the leader selection carousel

AUDIO

• Fixed an issue with the announcer constantly reporting Zone B is contested when it’s not
• Fixed an issue with the Condor being able to be heard through fog of war
• Fixed incorrect audio playing on some units when damaged
• Fixed some issues with units calling out the wrong attackers
• Fixed an issue with using right trigger or mouse wheel would cause audio spam
• Added audio to Plasma Mines deploy
• Added a variety of sound effects, and adjusted timing on some existing ones

LAST, BUT NOT LEAST

• Under-the-hood preparation for future ranked multiplayer

KNOWN ISSUES

In addition to these fixes, the teams are continuing to investigate and track various issues being reported by some players. A few known issues that are not fixed in this patch but are being worked on include:

• We are still working on a fix for a known issue where a game can sometimes freeze or result in a very low frame rate
• Investigating reports of the "Short Term Commitment" achievement not registering as intended
• Investigating some reports of performance issues with cinematics
• Investigating reports of the mini-map occasionally being unresponsive on PC
• Occasional infinite loading screen when loading into consecutive missions in co-op
• Game can sometimes hang indefinitely when restarting a mission
• Unit balance feedback and assessment is ongoing by the design team

This is not a full list of in-progress fixes, the team has a number of player-reported bugs at various stages of investigation/fixing. As always we appreciate your feedback here in the Waypoint forums and we'll provide more details and updates as we have them. Thank you!

DESIGN & BALANCE CHANGE DETAILS

The unit balance adjustments included in this patch pre-date the release of the game and as such are not in specific response to game data and player feedback since launch. For additional context, the design folks passed along these insights:

Changes:

• Scout Vehicles now take increased damage from Turrets, Leader Powers, Basic infantry weaponry, Marine grenades and Grunt squad Mines.
• Scout Vehicles deal reduced damage against Non-scout vehicles.
• Warthogs and Marauders increased damage versus Scout vehicles
• Ramming Vehicles now take increased reflect damage.
• Scout Vehicle cost changes: (100/50 = 100 Supply & 50 Power)
  • Banished Brute Chopper – 270/0 to 280/20
  • Banished Ghost – 250/0 to 265/20
  • UNSC Jackrabbit – 210/0 to 220/15
• Scout Vehicle build time changes:
  • Banished Brute Chopper - 23 to 25 seconds
  • Banished Ghost- 23 to 25 seconds
  • UNSC Jackrabbit – 21 to 24 seconds
• Grunt squad mines arming delay reduced from 5.0 to 3.0
• Grunt squad mines damage increased by 13%
• Marine grenade secondary area of effect damage increased from 30% to 50%
• Grunt Mob card cost increased from 50 to 60
• Bloodfuel Grunts card cost increased from 30 to 50
• Bloodfuel Locust card cost increased from 60 to 80
• Increased Watchtower’s line of sight from 50 to 90

Note:  The 343 and CA teams are investigating post-release player feedback around balance and design and we'll share more details as soon as we have them. The types of feedback and  balance changes the teams are currently looking into includes:

• Forge’s economy powers nerfs
• Anders' Sentinels nerfs
• Wraith and Scorpion buffs
• Further Scout unit nerfs
• Cyclops and Hunter nerfs
• Suicide Grunts, Jump Pack Brutes and Elite rangers buff
• Flamers buff
• Supply pad diminishing returns curve adjustment