Advanced Movement and Splitting - Halo Wars 2

Intro

This is a Halo Wars 2 tutorial I put together on advanced movement: chaining orders, hold position, control groups, splitting when a beam (or similar power) hits, and squeezing information out of fog of war. I run through both gamepad and mouse & keyboard where the inputs differ. Hold position and splitting are the two ideas I’d stress most for online play—they change how you harass bases, dodge leader powers, and keep units where you want them without fat-fingering “all units.”

Queuing movements

When I want a squad to hit multiple waypoints (e.g. main path plus a swing by a mini-base) without babysitting:

• Gamepad: Hold right trigger, then X for the first move. For the next leg, hold right trigger again and X again. Stacked orders show everywhere that squad will go until I issue a new order or it finishes the chain.
• Mouse & keyboard: Hold Shift and right-click each destination in sequence. Same idea—queued pathing is visible on the selected squad.

Hold position

Hold position is one of my favorite movement tools in Halo Wars 2 and I think it’s underused. Uses I call out:

• Scouting / line of sight: Park a unit where it barely sees a choke or center point (e.g. Sentry) so I get a glimpse without committing the whole army.
• Harass without dragging the group: If I’m selecting “all units” / “local units” a lot but want one squad to stay put (e.g. annoying someone’s mini), hold position locks them until they die or I explicitly move them. All units will not scoop those units—that’s intentional.

Inputs

• Gamepad (depends on “swap LB and LT”):
  • If LT is camera speed and LB is leader wheel (my preference, closer to Halo Wars 1, and I like throttling camera speed on trigger): hold right trigger, then double-tap LB for hold position.
  • Default (LB = camera, LT = leader wheel): hold right trigger, double-tap LT instead. Rule of thumb: use whichever shoulder button is bound to camera speed for the double-tap after holding right trigger.
• Mouse & keyboard: Select the unit(s) and press H. Select and move to cancel.

Veterancy caveat: Anything in hold position does not earn veterancy. I used to park siege inside a Banished shield on hold so I wouldn’t yank them with Y—works for safety, but they’ll never vet up. Worth remembering.

Unit groups

I don’t lean on groups as much as I could, but they’re handy because Halo Wars 2’s unit cap is relatively low compared to many RTS games—so small, named chunks of army matter.

Gamepad: Select the units I want → hold right trigger → D-pad direction assigns that combo to a group slot (e.g. up = group 1). Recall: right trigger + same D-pad direction. The game announces e.g. “group one assigned.”

Mouse & keyboard: Standard RTS binding—Ctrl+1 through Ctrl+10 to assign; 1–0 on the keyboard (or number row) to recall. I can mirror the same squads across pad and MKB in a hybrid setup (e.g. group 2 on Ctrl+2).

Groups still respond to all units and local units; they’re an extra selection layer, not a hard isolation.

Splitting out of beams and AoE

When a beam tags my ball, moving the whole blob one direction often means everything still dies. What I practice:

• Split by selection: Grab a subset, send one way; another subset, another vector; repeat. Even three spread locations can ride out the beam; then local units or all units to re-ball.

Other escapes depend on the situation—this is mostly reps and muscle memory, not a single trick.

Intel through fog of war

Starter / main bases are fixed locations, so this is strongest when I already know where their HQ is.

• Controller (PC or Xbox): Move cursor to their base and press A. The UI shows base structure info: the bottom number is tech level; the bar is base health. I can check “am I behind?” or “are they full HP T3?” without a traditional scout. I note Expo can look odd (e.g. five pads but still reading tech in edge cases); cloaking can hide things mid-tutorial too.
• Mouse & keyboard: Clicking through fog doesn’t give the same readout reliably.
• Audio: I can still hear construction and other cues through fog if I’m listening—turning volume up helps for audio intel.

I half-joke that this is one spot where controller feels a bit OP on PC for quick base taps.

Takeaways

• Most important habits from this video: split under beam/leader powers, and hold position for map control, LOS, and avoiding accidental moves when I’m spamming global selects.
• Queues (Shift+click / trigger+X) keep multi-stop paths clean.
• Groups help for small-army management; H vs trigger+double-tap is the big MKB vs pad split for hold.
• Remember no veterancy while holding.