Vasari all the way.

Come on, is it really any competition that the Vasari have from the Covenant? Covenant can glass planets, sure, but the Vasari have Kosturas (instant door to the enemies primary planets), Phase Missiles (shields? Those were shields? I didn't notice them), and they've got the Egg, the Kortul (it's pretty good, just try it), and best of all, Gravity Mines.

Covenant flagship bridge-

"Truth, we have been immobilized by some kind of gravitational anamoly field"

Vasari Sivuskras Ruiners on com-

"Emperor, we have immobilized the enemy's fleet"

"Excellent. Our forces will be phasing in momentarily"

Ten minutes later-

"The enemy was absurdly easy to defeat. Their ships and weapons seem weak, and they rely on shielding far too much"

Covenat would win. They simply burn their ships apart. If they have to they fire halo rings and kill everyone

No can do. Halo activation requires a Forerunner descendant (i.e. a human) to initiate.

Its kind of a toss up... if Covie plasma is anything like Advent plasma, it won't be totally effective against shields at all. Phase missile bypass would be a Covie Achilles' Heel. On the other hand, the largest Covenant ships have EBPs (energy beam projectors) which move at light speed and, in the novels, capable of bisecting several UNSC ships in one discharge at extreme range.

Also, Slipspace travel is still finite. Interstellar travel in Sins takes a handful of seconds. Covenant Slipspace engines operate at a velocity of 8 LY/day (LY = light years). The distance from Sol to Proxima Centurai (the closest star to Sol) is 4.2 LY, so a Covie ship takes just over half a day to get there. By then, any Vasari fleet has already had 12 hours to establish themselves in the system.

And of course, all the Vasari needs to do is bring lots of Subverters, use Distortion Field liberally, but carefully, and the Covies are totally screwed in combat, not to mention that they roll out frigates in a matter of seconds versus months for a Covie shipyard to build a cruiser.

[Quote] Also, Slipspace travel is still finite. Interstellar travel in Sins takes a handful of seconds. Covenant Slipspace engines operate at a velocity of 8 LY/day (LY = light years). The distance from Sol to Proxima Centurai (the closest star to Sol) is 4.2 LY, so a Covie ship takes just over half a day to get there. By then, any Vasari fleet has already had 12 hours to establish themselves in the system. [Unquote]

1. That speed would appear to have been retcon by GoO to 912LY an hour (made by a Covie Destroyer which was half the size of the one from FS). Also note that the ship that made the jump had taken damage and had a rouge Covenant AI in the systems so that should be taken into account.

2. I thought the fluff said travel took months between star systems and the seconds thing was just game mechanics?

[Quote] And of course, all the Vasari needs to do is bring lots of Subverters, use Distortion Field liberally, but carefully, and the Covies are totally screwed in combat, not to mention that they roll out frigates in a matter of seconds versus months for a Covie shipyard to build a cruiser. [Unquote]

Once again isn't that just the game mechanics for ship build time or do we have anything a more to go in the fluff? Besides, high end has the Covenant throwing around hundreds of thousands to low millions of ships.

  Covenant will lose without fail due to the frailty of their ships- 2-3 MAC Rounds (Equivalent to even the maxed out Kol's Gauss Gun in concept) ripped even the largest Covenant ships apart, shields and all.  Those same 3 rounds don't even hardly tickle a Devastator's Shield.  (I assume you include Capitols in this scenario.)

  Conclusion-  A Salvo of Phase Missiles, equivalent to a salvo of Archers from a UNSC Ship, even with the lowest Bypass Capability, would still win due to the meakness of the Covenant's shields and hull in general.  No Contest.

  Unless of course the Covenenat were to implement Cloaking Technology, in which case a hit and run tactic could win them a theoretical victory, though be it a tedious one.

I've never played Halo single player, but just from the looks of the cut scenes, I say the Vasari own them. In fact all of the Sins races look way more powerful than anything I've seen in Halo, minus the Halos themselves maybe.

  Okay, if we're talking ANYTHING in the HALO Universe, then perhaps the Forerunner Dreadnought at the core of High Charity, before its disarming after the Sangheli/San-Shyuum War, then maybe there would be a contest.  I only mention this because, while the Covenant did not build the ship, they have based their entire livelihood on it.

Anyone else notive the covenenat ships always seemed to die a little easier when there were a lot of them?  Granted, there were also a lot of UNSC ships too, but that's kinda strange... kind of like reverse synergy.

(Not counting Keyes one vs four battle.  That was just sheer unrivalled tactical genius...)

1 UNSC Destroyer vs 2 Covenant Frigates, 1 Destroyer, 1 Carrier, i think.

oh and that battle sounded epic

The battle takes place in "HALO:The Fall of Reach", i believe.

Have you read "The Cole Protocol?"  I thought it was pretty good, but not like the other 5

Good god not this Halo shit again. First off, Halo is crap, every new Book introduces some new Badass weapon..........that outclasses the last book. Its like two five year olds trying to out Infinity each other "Infinity X Infinity +++++" Stop IT ALREADY!  Every Halo supporter goes above and beyond to outdo the competition. IE Covenant Vs Vasari.......................that means ONLY Covenant Technology.....not UNSC or the GOD DAMN HALOS OR THE FLOOD (As the FLOOD isnt on either side). If your arguement is so weak you need to refer to technologies and strategies of other factions in your beloved Halo Universe YOU FAIL.

If your going to argue Convenant stick to Convenant. Everytime someone starts one of these threads and people against Halo crush the Pro Halo supporters. Their arguements degrade. Always starting out with the Covenant.......then UNSC.......then moves to the Flood..............and then somehow the damn Forerunners........because somehow using a dead species in its own Universe somehow is going to change the fact your arguement is lacking.

Halo supporters need to learn that their covetted Game and Books are really lame. And dont stand up to the more thought out Scifi franchise's like SoaSE. It just doesnt have the legs to stand on when the writers cant even keep the tech tree reasonable enough to be believeable from book to book. And its pretty sad when the UNSC can only fight off the Convenant with one single man. Making everyone else in the series obselete and total losers. If you want to support Halo go ahead but please spare us your nonsense. We all know Halo is one of the best first person shooters in a very long time. But it doesnt hold a candle to the franchises like Star Trek and SoaSE where real thought went into developing its Universe. Not two geeks bouncing CRAZY technology off of each other til they have the UBER Convenant and the buttraped UNSC.