[quote][b]Posted by:[/b] UL7IM4 G33K [quote][b]Posted by:[/b] Xd00999 In the original version the Covies outnumbered the UNSC roughly 2:1. High odds, but there is no way the entire battle could be over in that short amount of time. Yes, ground engagements continued for over a month, but those were resistance skirmishes. Before you could even finish most movies, the Covies destroyed over a hundred UNSC warships, destroyed and/or disabled every single MAC, eliminated most of HighCom, wiped out every major military base, and were beginning glassing. The battle was effectively lost. Reach was [i]the[/i] military stronghold. Excluding Earth, no other colony had greater defenses or military presence. Reach arguably had more soldiers. Reach falling in 2 hours is ridiculous.[/quote] In order for the UNSC to have a fair fight against the Covenant, they would need 3 ships to every one Covenant ship. The UNSC at Reach had roughly 250-ish ships (number may be wrong) vs. the Covenant's 700-ish ships. And they STILL lasted for several hours despite being at a massive disadvantage. Reach is a candy coated version of what actually happened, with numerous continuity errors. If you think its retarded for Reach to fall in 2 hours, how much more retarded would the UNSC have to be to let a random ship waltz into its space without contest (IE start of Halo: Reach).[/quote] The amount of times we've been shown that the whole 3:1 thing is pretty bull-blam!- are rather numerous...that is hardly a valid representation. And besides the point, it doesn't matter how large the Fleet of Particular Justice was upon arrival as a full [i][b][u]half[/u][/b][/i] of the fleet was wiped out by the SMACs, UNSC fleet, and a minefield before they even got to fire a shot off. Leaving the number of ships almost exactly even 15o vs 150...and considering the SMACs can take out a single Covenant ship with one shot (multiple if they're in line with each other) each SMAC counts for roughly three UNSC ships, as it takes about 3 normal MAC rounds to down a Covenant ship. So of course it's retarded that Reach fell in [i]under[/i] an hour taking the book on its own...especially with the Covenant instantly knowing where all of the UNSC's most important bases and locations were even though they had just arrived and despite the dropships descending on the planet from the two poles [u]miles[/u] from their intended targets...they almost instantly overrun what should be permanent military bases, not some random little backwoods outpost, with only hundred of dropships that are all splitting up to hit multiple different locations, and the fact that none of Reach's 11,050 strong airforce did anything to stop them or whatever anti-air units it would have in it's 58,430 land based units (and these are all the [i]permanent[/i] forces kept on Reach, the actual number is probably more considering how all of the ships in the fleet regularly stop off there and Reach would then have all of their assets at their disposal as well). I mean really think about it, the UNSC has been at war with the Covenant for roughly 25 years now, the army wouldn't be just standing around, but they'd all be ready to jump to full combat readiness almost the instant after warning of the Covenant finding Reach being known. On it's own the account given in TFoR is uttlerly ridiculous on multiple levels. Neither the game or the book are perfect on their own, they're meant to stand together compliment each other...all of those problems I mentioned above now actually make sense because of the game. Defenses were more quickly overrun because the planet was already under attack and that is how the Covenant knew where everything was when the Fleet of Particular Justice arrived. And ONI had lured the Long Night of Solace to Reach in order to use the ship for Operation RED FLAG...it wasn't just sitting there, it was one ship that they could easily control, and RED FLAG would have actually succeeded if they had shared their knowledge of it being there (which they could have easily done without revealing [i]they[/i] had been the ones who actually lured it there). The Pillar of Autumn was the back-up plan, or at least became that after the LNoS was destroyed, it was probably going to be the flagship leading the assault on the LNoS had Noble Team not blown it up.