Halo Wars All the Units Mod: A Tour of the UNSC Overhaul

It's been about four years since I last covered All the Units, a massive UNSC overhaul mod for Halo Wars: Definitive Edition made by Nomad Thunder. A lot has changed since then, so I went back in mostly blind to relearn the mod alongside you—cracking open every building menu, upgrade tree, and unit roster I could find. If you grew up on the original Halo Wars campaign, or you're just curious what the PC modding scene has done with it, this is a good jumping-in point.

What is the All the Units mod?

All the Units is a UNSC-only mod built for the Halo Wars: Definitive Edition campaign. It doesn't touch the Covenant side, but on the human side it adds roughly 35–40 new trainable units, a pile of custom tech upgrades, and an entirely reworked base-building system centered on what the mod calls the Super Fortress. The scope is closer to a total conversion than a simple unit pack—by the end of a normal skirmish you can be fielding units that never existed in vanilla Halo Wars at all.

Because it only touches UNSC, I'm hoping to come back with a follow-up video looking at what's changed on the Covenant side of things—there's clearly a lot more to dig into here.

The Super Fortress base and economy

The mod's signature feature is the Super Fortress: your main base keeps expanding outward as you clear rubble piles scattered around it, each one opening a new building slot. It snowballs fast—within the first half hour I'd gone from a normal Alpha Base to something that looked like a small fortified city, complete with destroyed UNSC structures you can repair (like an anti-aircraft battery) and a watchtower that instantly upgrades, boosts line of sight, and lets you garrison units in it.

• Heavy supply pads: Once your reactor is up, you can build heavy supply pads instead of regular ones—high-economy bases can end up running six or more.
• Reactor conversions: Reactors can be swapped into a repair pad (heals nearby units, but you lose the reactor), an FTL core, or an ONI reactor that generates extra power based on troops garrisoned inside and boosts base defense.
• Supply office: An upgraded economy building that generates almost twice the income of a standard supply pad.
• Communications tower: Lets you request the Spirit of Fire to summon Super Sentinels to defend the base, and unlocks a fifth leader power upgrade once previous powers are researched.
• Turret variety: Watchtower, flame mortar, rail gun, and missile launcher upgrades give you real options for base defense instead of one generic turret.

A few buildings also grant free units the moment they finish construction—finishing the Vehicle Depot handed me a Scorpion, for example. It's not something I'd expect in a balanced multiplayer game, but for a mod built around creativity and fun, it fits the spirit of the thing.

Ground vehicles: Warthogs, Elephants, and more

The vehicle depot alone is packed. There's a huge spread of Warthog variants—the scout Warthog, the trooper Warthog (which carries a Marine squad and has no visible driver, which was a little unsettling), the Gauss Warthog, and a flame Warthog running what looks like the Halo 1 flamethrower. The double-barrel rocket Warthog is comically oversized; it's a small miracle the thing doesn't tip over.

• Elephants: An entire section of Elephant variants—anti-infantry, main infantry, heavy infantry, light, combat one and two, and a Spartan Elephant.
• Rhino: Feels like the spiritual predecessor to the Cobra from Halo Wars 2.
• Silverback: Basically a Cobra chassis with a base-unit seat turret welded on top.
• Hedgehog: Plays like a Wolverine using the same gun, with the description suggesting the real difference is armor type.
• Grizzly, Scorpion, Cobra, and Wolverine: All present and buildable alongside the new additions, so the classic roster isn't going anywhere.

There's also a Build Hog—a construction unit you can only have one of at a time, which felt like a nice nod to base-building RTS design outside the Halo universe.

Air units: Pelicans, Hawks, and Falcons

The air pad might be my favorite part of the whole mod. Instead of one generic transport, you get a full Pelican family: an escort Pelican (unarmed but faster, better for rapid troop drops), a combat Pelican, a gunship Pelican, and a medical Pelican that heals nearby units and flies down just like a Vulture. Units can garrison inside a Pelican and drop off mid-flight, which is something I always wished the base campaign let you do more of.

• Falcons: Fully buildable and upgradable—it's strange that Halo Wars 2's Nightingale isn't just a reskinned Falcon given how good the Reach vehicle looks here.
• Hawks: Customizable into a rocket Hawk or a chain-gun Hawk; they look similar at a glance but clearly play differently.
• Hornets: Also customizable, including a no-wingman variant and a dual chain-gun setup.
• Vultures: Come with a mega barrage upgrade for serious area damage.

Spartans, Marines, and special units

The Spartan barracks alone could be its own video. You can train Spartans with different weapon loadouts (SMG, battle rifle, shotgun), a Spartan with a railgun, and even a Spartan with a jetpack ODST-style unit called the New Mombasa Jet Pack ODST. Brute Team and friends make an appearance too—Sergeant Rusk, Nitro, Auto, Ace, and Dusk are all buildable as an elite ODST squad.

• Marine variety: Regular Marines with a sprint ability (comparable to the Banshee's boost), light Marine squads, BR Marines, sniper Marines, rocket-launcher ODSTs, and Marine Commando squads.
• Sentinel Depot: Builds regular, super, and gold Sentinels—gold ones deal corrosive damage with an upgraded beam over the standard variant.
• Protectors: A callback to the Labyrinth multiplayer map's offensive, shield, and healing protector pickups, now attachable to almost any unit—including stacking two on one unit like the old scorpion-plus-Spartan combo trick from that map.
• Forerunner outpost: A late-game structure with its own build menu and turret slots, cranking the scale up even further.

Worth a look if you're into Halo Wars 1 or modding

Halo Wars 1's modding community doesn't get talked about nearly as much as it deserves, and All the Units is a great example of why it's worth supporting. It's not trying to be perfectly balanced—it's trying to let you build absurd, creative armies and see what sticks. If you've got history with the original campaign, want to relive the Ensemble Studios era of the series, or you're just into RTS modding in general, this is one of the more ambitious projects out there for the game.

One heads-up before you install it: expect a longer game launch and load time than vanilla Halo Wars: Definitive Edition—the sheer amount of added content takes a bit for the game to chew through.

Frequently asked questions

What is the All the Units mod for Halo Wars: Definitive Edition?

All the Units is a UNSC-only mod for Halo Wars: Definitive Edition made by Nomad Thunder. It adds roughly 35–40 new trainable units, a large set of custom tech upgrades, and a reworked base-building system centered on the mod's Super Fortress.

Does the mod change the Covenant side too?

No. All the Units only touches the UNSC—the Covenant is left as the base Halo Wars: Definitive Edition experience.

Is it built for campaign or multiplayer skirmish?

It's primarily a campaign mod. The mod's own notes say it's mostly working in campaign, and it even includes some "all the units" variants tied to specific campaign missions.

What is the Super Fortress?

The Super Fortress is the mod's reworked main base. Clearing rubble piles around your base opens new building slots, letting your base expand dramatically beyond the normal Halo Wars footprint as the game goes on.

Who made the All the Units mod?

Nomad Thunder (NomadThunder35 on Nexus Mods) created and maintains All the Units for Halo Wars: Definitive Edition.

Does the mod affect game load times?

Yes. Because of the amount of added content, both the game launch and level load times take noticeably longer than a vanilla install—expect to wait a bit longer than usual.

Want more Halo Wars 1? Check out our character guide to the Spirit of Fire crew, the full Legendary co-op campaign walkthrough, or our tips for two of the toughest missions: Arcadia City and the Scarab mission.

— Team Respawn (Halo Wars All the Units Mod on YouTube)