Were the Earth forces too weak?

[Combine Hybrid]

The rebels were literally kicking ass against the combine overwatchers during the City-17 revolution. But if the rebels beating the combines, how did the Earth forces got wiped out by the combines? Probably because the combines sent more powerful machines from their planet during the 7 hours war? Probably rebels were winning because the combines only sent half of their troops in what they got? Because the combines doesn't care about ruling Earth anymore because of the constant rebellions of human?

 

[NJspeed]

It was my feeling that Gordon Freeman made all the difference.. they couldn't have gotten through that one building (that Barney says was an old library or government building or something) where all the action goes on in Follow Freeman, without Gordon.

They never would have made it to the citadel without Gordon, he's the difference. There's no gaurantee that rebels in other portions of the city or other cities, are having the same amount of success, they probably aren't. Or maybe Gordon slaughtered so many Combine throughout the course of the game, it allowed the rebels to gain a foothold and exploit it. You gotta remember, Nova Prospekt was the main source of the combine soldiers, it's now blown up by the time you make it back to City 17 for the battle.

Even if all the other rebels do is cause a distraction to the Combine forces, Gordon succeeds in striking the death blow, which results in victory for all anyway.

I'm also guessing something along the lines of what you said, that there were more Combine forces around at the time of the 7 hour war.. Now that Earth has been conquered and citizens are all rounded up, the main Combine forces can move on, and the human Overwatch can take over. So it's probably easier doing what the rebels are doing now, rather than during the actual 7 hour war, when every possible Combine is in town. All those combine forces are no longer needed on Earth. In the final levels, Gordon has to get to the citadel and kill Breen before the Combine have time to teleport in more forces. This is why the rebels are making a push for the citadel, for the death blow instead of just trying to take over the whole city. It's their only chance, now, while the Combine are weakened.

 

[don_johnson]

also gordon would have been a big morale boost to the rebels. if they knew he had already defeated aliens at black mesa then that would mean that the combine was not invincible. just my thoughts...

 

[Combine Hybrid]

You never get to fight those mortal synths you see in the Citadel. Probably if the combines have used those machines, it would've been a different story.

7 hours war all over again.

 

[ríomhaire]

Gordon was a HUGE morale boost

 

[Combine Hybrid]

Yeah, like G-man said in the beginning, "one man in the wrong place can make all the difference".

 

[The Monkey]

And during the 7 hour war Breen betrayed mankind, and told it to surrender, even though it still had the strengh to fight.

 

[grecco_diego]

Yeah, like G-man said in the beginning, "one man in the wrong place can make all the difference".

Nice. .

 

[the_lone_wolf]

Yeah, like G-man said in the beginning, "one man in the wrong place can make all the difference".

not being too anal here but he actually says

the right man in the wrong place can make all the difference... in the world

might mean something slightly different

 

[Prof. Einstein]

And there is also the treason of Breen... maybe he helped a little....

 

[The Mullinator]

Earth probably wasn't fighting a guerilla war during the initial invasion.

 

[NimChimpsky]

The Crab-Synths and the Mortar-Synths were likely the biggest factor. They can replicate and reapir themselves and are Dog sized machines. They are evidently the backbone of the combine army.

 

[jondy]

Fighting from the inside against small-arms ground troops is a lot different to a full-scale invasion.

It's like comparing Vietnam to the German invasion of France in WWII - both the German and American forces were superior, but the Americans ended up fighting a war they couldn't win. 'Fish through water' being the operative term.

 

[kirovman]

When you suprise people with wars like that, especially when you spring up on their governments, they tend to not have sufficient time or knowledge to counteract: the combine teleported the citadels directly onto the city centres, after having sent the monsters into earth to weaken everyone up.

The human forces were not organised (and let's face it the reality is we wouldn't be organised, we are still too busy fighting each other, so forget fighting with extra-terrestrial life, especially those with the capability of reaching us).
The humans didn't know any weakness of the combine or anything about them, so they may have fought valiently, but it was no good.

 

[DESSTROYER]

dont forget, that was only city-17, theres like city 14 and 13 and stuff

 

[Asknoone]

Well before the combine arrived, earth had spent so much resources on fightign off xen wildlife, and had huddled into cities, therefore the outside world was completley overrun.

Then the combine came, strikign the heart of the population centres and with the crab synths and the striders they laid waste to the human forces, which were caught by suprise.

They had no idea the combine were coming, they didnt have a clue, they came so fast through the portal storms they just didnt stand a chance.

And yes, breen surrendered our race after 7 hours, good job really, we would have been wiped out.

Yet in half life 2 the had gordon, like many had said, who was a real moral boost.

Also they were more prepared, they had time to plan and caculate and when Nova prospekt fell they just rose up and thought thats it, were fighting back.

They have also grown very hateful toward the combine, after years of oppression. But in the 7 hour war, they didnt know who they were, and thus didnt fight with the sort of determination the rebels do.

And plus the rebels were only fighting in one city, not the entire combine army, and they werent even fiighting too much of the combine army any way, only the overwatch soldiers...and the striders...but yeah thats it....the backbone of the combine army lies in the citadel....so they got off easy did the rebels

 

[Combine Hybrid]

Why didn't the combines release mortal synths and crab synths in order to sqaush the revolts?

Maybe Breen thought the overwatchers and the striders could take care of the rebels... probably that's why?

 

[kirovman]

Hey maybe the Combine just need to opress the masses for a limited time to prove the civilisation they conquer is worthy of some good reward in the end.

Like a super-fun theme park.

Unlikely though, I think Valve wants to show they have sinister motives.

 

[Combine*]

The resistance's success may only have been temporary, and you're the only person having any success against dropships and striders, there were no crab/mortar synths, as you ride through the Citadel you see MAJOR reinforcements coming, if the Citadels hadn't blown IMO it would have been a repeat of the 7-hour war.

BTW- The "suppresor", wasn't that a mortar synth?

 

[Combine Hybrid]

The crabs you seen in the citadel were mortal synths or crab synths?

 

[Mediocrity]

The crabs you seen in the citadel were mortal synths or crab synths?

Crab synths. The mortar ("mortal" was a typo on somebody's part) synths were the hovery ones, while the Crab synths stomped along. (Note: If you check the Model Viewer, you will find that the Crab synth has a minigun-like weapon on its underside. )

 

[zinquaff]

gordon was the only reason anyone actually tried to rebel from the combine. When he invaded nova, that was the trigger that began the movement.

 

[Scotsman]

actually, I have a feeling that earth only saw the full power of the combine during the 7-hour war. I'm guessing that's why Breen wanted the resistance leaders to bargain with against the combine, perhaps he feared the Combine invading again in full strength and perhaps earth wouldn't be so lucky.

 

[DevgruSeal]

This brings to mind this quote, and I think it was the G-Man who said, "It is one man who can make a whole difference in the world."

Was it?

 

[Scotsman]

Actually, it's "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world."

 

[Asknoone]

actually, I have a feeling that earth only saw the full power of the combine during the 7-hour war. I'm guessing that's why Breen wanted the resistance leaders to bargain with against the combine, perhaps he feared the Combine invading again in full strength and perhaps earth wouldn't be so lucky.

breen wants them to bargain with the combine, and join his cause because its simply going to halt the re purposing of the planet and breens immortality upgrades.

But in the end, he just decides to send them to the combine universe anyway

Plus the backbone of the combine army was in the citadel...the resistance was about to get owned.

 

[Scotsman]

Do you think Breen held back the full Combine force to try and get Eli and Gordan to stop the resistance and save human lives (In Breen's view.) I think Breen was doing what HE thought was best for the human race.

 

[m00b]

Once citadel was destroyed humans could take combine technology and use it against them. Remember that citadel was supposed to be the biggest since breen lived there so it means that combine hq on earth were destroyed.

 

[StAtiC]

Somehow, I highly doubt the resistance would have succeeded without the destruction of the Citadel (assuming they DID succeed). The Citadel probably houses more forces than the entire human population x3. The destruction of the Citadel means that 99.9% chance of rebel victory. The other cities might follow that plan (finding weak spots in the citadel to sneak in).

 

[Asknoone]

The combine now have no connection to earht whatsoever, they used the portal storms last time, and now they use the citadel portal. But with the dark fusion reactor gone, which powers thier tunneling entanglement system they cannot get through to earth.

Do you think Breen held back the full Combine force to try and get Eli and Gordan to stop the resistance and save human lives (In Breen's view.) I think Breen was doing what HE thought was best for the human race.

I personally doubt this, he is overally cocky in the sequence in his office, he doesnt really care about the human race if you ask me, its just him wanting access to thier immortality technology and to do this, he must deliver elis portal tech...

 

[Jenga]

I don't think City 17's Citadel is the only one with a portal, it wouldn't make much sense. In an RTS, do you build only one War Factory? Nope, coz if it's destroyed you have no more sources of troops (and more than one factory means faster troop production). The other Cities probably still have, but since City 17's is gone, they've gotten a break from the aliens' attacks.

The troops the Resistance fights in City 17 are just garrison troops, not the elites. Shock troops aren't generally used to occupy cities, it's the relatively mediocre ones. You don't want kick-ass troops guarding a cowed population, you want them on the front lines kicking ass. The mortar and crab synths are DEFINITELY part of the elite group. It just so happened that the Combine's mediocre troops in City 17 could've still put down the Resistance if Gordon Freeman wasn't there.

 

[MysticalMrBob]

I believe the Crab Synths and Mortar Synths were being deployed as you saw them. I don't think they were just being transported to and fro in the citadel, but on their way to battle. The combine probably realised it was time to call in the heavy guns.

I think the reason Earth was pwned was because they used all of their Synth weapons; the striders, gunships, crabs, and mortars. One their major army had been served, they left an occupying force. There's no need to leave crab synths and mortar synths out there when the forces had just been defeated and were way to weak. The only reason the resistance were winning was because they weren't fighting the full might of the Combine's invasion army, but their left over guard dogs.

Also, Crab Synths are hueg. Wide/or wider than striders, with much more mass, they'd be the second largest (in height) enemy in the game. They also seem to have a deployable minigun/gatling gun/vulcan gun thing. I bet it works just like the on on the A-10 warthog and tears up tanks.

Who wouldn't love to see the seven hour war when M1A2's are fighting gigantic crab synths?

 

[NimChimpsky]

A quick summary of Crab-synths and mortar-synths:
BOTH appear in the citadel when you ride on the pod for the last time and black out. Crab-Synths are close-range beasts and they have guns on their stomach area. Mortar-Synths use their weird catapault-like attatchment to "mortar" biomechanical armaments. It looks similar to a catapault attached to an animal. The most important thing about the synths is that they are SELF-REPLICATING and can repair themselves, so they are essentially invincible until humans come up with suitable weaponry, ie an emp type shock device--->cue half-life expansions packs or hl3. This comes from the Prima Strategy Guide. In the game they appear on convayer belts walts across and appear to exist in great numbers in these screenshot, so we could assume that the combine was about to set them loose on the rebellion and they might have succeeded while Gordon was in the "safety" of the citadel.
I also have model viewer screenshot if anyone wants me to post them,but I have no idea how to view them.

 

[Combine Hybrid]

the nukes can't even destroy them?

 

[AzzMan]

I think Breen negotiated Earth's surrender in his own interest....

 

[MysticalMrBob]

I wish people would remember that Synths don't just include Crabs and Mortars but also the Gunships and Striders. People seem to talk about them like they're seperate.

 

[AzzMan]

I wish people would remember that Synths don't just include Crabs and Mortars but also the Gunships and Striders. People seem to talk about them like they're seperate.

And who knows what else they could have tucked away in case they need em. If you ask me I think what we saw was just like the foot soldiers, if you will, of the combine, I'd like to see what their big guns consist of....

 

[Jenga]

the nukes can't even destroy them?

Nukes probably could, but the human generals probably didnt want humans harmed in the explosion. Or maybe they didnt have enough time...

 

[ignot]

Just think of it this way. The last Iraq 'war' was easily won, but it's going to take years to root out the individual terrorist cells (if it ever happens that is). The amount of weaponry you can bring to bear really becomes irrelevant when fighting Guerillas, especially when they are mixed in with the population you want to control.

 

[husk]

I think Breen was the cause behind the mesa incedent, and that he planned the whole combine thing all along.