Ladies and Gentlemen,
The second installment of "What would happen if they fought?" In this edition we have our favorite interstellar alien enemies duking it out. In this corner wearing a variety of colours from the games Halo:Combat Evolved and Halo2, and the upcoming game Halo3 we have the Covenant. And in this corner wearing a lot of grey from the games Halflife 2, Halflife2:Lost Coast, Halflife2: Episode One and the upcoming game Halflife2: Episode Two the Combine. If they were ever in the same universe as each other who would win?
First of all, it should be noted that this is not a question of who's FPS is better. You can discuss that anywhere. This is a question if the two were to run into each other who would win. They are both formidable enemies and have technology far superior to any other in their universe.
The CovenantNow, lets discuss the Covenant. The Covenant is an amalgamation of several different alien races. There are the Grunts, Jackals, Elites, Brutes, Hunters, Engineers, and Prophets. Did I miss any? Oh yeah Drones. Each of these different races are set in a caste system and have their own personality. As we understand there has become a civil war among the Covenant, suggesting that the covenant isn't very binding. Additionally certain races deal with the others differently. The Jackals tend to look down on the Grunts for instance and treat them cruelly, although they are in the same caste as them. The Hunters while they are not a single entity, but rather many held together by their armour, do not care for any other types as they will even kill allies that get in their way. The only contact to other Covenant they have is with the Elites who actually tamed them. Now we have weaponry. The Covenant use Forerunner technology in most everything they do. However, as they view the Forerunners as gods they do not fully understand it nor modify it to it's maximum potential as that would be heresy. Thus their weapons and technology, while superior to man's, are not nearly as powerful as they could be. Their plasma weaponry is deadlier than human, but barely. Their real power is in space where the forerunner technology is used to subdue the enemy. They tend to simply bombard a planet and superheat it so it turns to glass. They rarely attack on land. This is why the forces on Halo were capable of making such a stand. As in their hand weapons, the Covenant do not implement the forerunner technology as well as they could. So it is possible for their technology to be stolen and modified to become technologically superior to the Covenant ships. The Covenant are both well trained and very religious, which can make for a deadly combination. Some of the Covenant races use a type of armour that is able to regenerate. This gives them greater protection especially when deployed in smaller numbers. While grunts and jackals may run away, Elites, Brutes and Hunters never do. They stand their ground to the death, and are very obedient, even to the Brutes being ordered to commit genocide.
The CombineWhile the Covenant are very religious the Combine are much more of a socialist dictatorship. Like the Covenant they too are made up of various races and species including humans. I suppose the best thing way to break them up into 3 groups. Advisers, Humanoids, and Synths. The Advisers can be compared to the Prophets, except that they are not leaders of a theocracy. They are the original Combine. Second are the Humanoids, these are humans which have undergone changes and now fight for the Combine (with the exception of Civil Patrol). These include Overwatch, Overwatch Elites, and Stalkers. As part of their training, these are modified either removing or adding to the person. For example Stalkers are hardly human anymore and Overwatch soldiers are extensively brain washed. So they do not able to rebel. The Synths are less common on earth, but exceptionally deadly. These include Striders, Dropships, Hunters, and Mortar Synths. Each of there are deployed more like tanks rather than soldiers (akin to the Hunters of Halo). The Combine are far more innovative in the creation of technology than the Covenant. Unlike the covenant they have quite a few weapons that do not have to be manned. These include Manhacks, Turrets, and Sentry guns. The combine weapons are more projectile than the humans though they do use energy weapons as well. They have far more mobile weapons than the Covenant as well. Though the Covenant's usually seem more substantial.
It is very hard to decide who would win in such a battle. As both have very different tactics. The Covenant bomb from afar where the Combine land and conquer. It is also interesting that the Covenant destroys where the Combine exploits. The Covenant have slip-space technology which lets them move ships quickly and the Combine have a prototype teleporter which is fairly useless as it takes a week to travel even short distances. The Covenant have much better defences as the Combine have normal armour instead of active armour. The Combine seems to run like an effective business where as the organization of the Covenant seems far less strict.
If the fighting was planet side:
I believe the infantry of the Combine would beat out the infantry of the Covenant. Their weapons and tactics are superior to the Covenant. The smaller craft of the Covenant as well would be no match for things like hunters or striders which are more maneuverable and have greater fire power. The Covenant have no infantry based rocket launchers, so if a hunter chopper ever found a group of Covenant without a Banshee
or a Wraith it would be a slaughter. When it comes to larger weapons the Combine have nothing compared to the Covenant. However, many of these are slow and can be boarded or made moot by disabling its weapons. There is one more thing that gives this battle to the Combine. The Combine ware helmets. What does this have to do with anything? Simple head crabs. A Combine shelling of Covenant controlled regions would be devastating. Simply devastating. Where as even if the Covenant was able to harness the flood all the little spores could do would be to harmlessly explode on the Combine.
In space:
I'm not sure that the Combine have space capabilities. The only hint to that would be the escape pods for the Advisers. As far as I can tell the Combine move by portal storms. However, if this was so it would make attacking Earth difficult. Additionally it would be very difficult to drain earth's oceans by using portals. We discussed earlier how they had a prototype transporter. So we have to assume that the Combine have space capabilities. However I do think that their ships are not suitable for battle, but for transportation. Since the Covenant excel at space warfare I give this one to them.
Scenario:
The Covenant would begin to attack the planets and ships of the Combine. The Combine would probably land as much as possible on the Covenant planets and quickly take them over. The actions of the two would be very swift. If the Combine take over the Covenant planets it would force the Covenant to bombard their own planets. That's a poor tactic since it is very hard to live on glassy planets, but they just may not have any choice. The Combine is a machine, but if they do not have enough time to make up for their losses in space they may not be able to survive. Additionally, they may also adapt the Covenant they capture into Combine soldiers, even modifying the technology as they modified the human's.
Winner:
Combine 30%
Covenant 10%
Mutual Annihilation 60%
Yes, I think that the Combine would win in any ground battle. They would take over every inhabitable planet forcing the Covenant to render each planet useless. The Covenant would destroy the remaining Combine ships. However, there would be few suitable resources to be harvested and the Covenant would die of starvation or lack of air.
