Getting vehicles to rally point alpha
Posted December 27th 2007
The rally point alpha battle is where some Marines are getting besieged by Brutes and Grunts in a low building. Loads of additional Brutes arrive later by Phantom, and a Wraith turns up. You can bring a Chopper or Warthog to this battle as follows.
Chopper
In the preceding battle there were two Choppers whizzing around and it's easy to shoot a Brute out of his seat to get one, for example with a beam rifle. Once through the tunnel, you two options for getting over the blocked gap in the highway. The easiest is to deploy a grav lift just before the gap (there was one in a building in the last area) then drive through it, getting launched up and over. Alternatively, get the Chopper around behind one of the concrete barriers that are away from the edge, and nudge the barrier over so it forms a short ramp. Drive straight at it and use boost as you get there, and you should sail over nicely.
Even if you fall to the ground below, it's actually still possible to get onto the next section of highway by driving part way up the cliffside and launching yourself onto it. That's how I did it before thinking of the ramp method and later the grav lift method, but you shouldn't need to do that as both methods are very reliable.
How you actually use the Chopper in the battle is another matter, but it could be a big help against the Wraith. There's also nothing to stop you just driving straight through and on towards the end of the level.
Warthog
Both methods of crossing the gap also work for a Warthog, except that the ramp method is very awkward and unreliable. The hog won't launch off the ramp smoothly and may well flip and fall short. The grav lift method is by far the best option.
As for using the hog in the battle, unfortunately Marines won't board once you're over, so its combat value would seem limited to static chain-gunning (unless you want to drive around like crazy to squash baddies).