It’s called 7 hour war because the Combine kicked our ass so hard and so quick we barely had time to react.
That name was chosen to really put emphasis on how much superior the Combine were in terms of weapons technology compared to us.
But before the Combine invaded the Earth, they didn’t have humanoid soldiers, did they? Since that only happened once they could transform and assimilate humans. So what they hell were they? I doubt the slug-like creatures alone with striders would have gone far enough, I mean the humanoid combine are the most important and powerful of the entire Combine, aren’t they?
Exactly. It wasn’t even an actual war; the Combine just appeared and subjugated us, and all hasty attempts at resistance had been quelled by the seventh hour.
If we’d known the attack was coming, then we might have mustered a defense, in which case the Combine Universal Union (because, recall, that’s its name) would have simply flooded the planet with shock troops and overwhelmed our defenses. We wouldn’t possibly have lasted much longer in that case.
EDIT:
Nope @ that last assertion. The reason you see humanoid soldiers on Earth is because the Combine were turning humans into soldiers. They’re cheaper and more readily available than whatever troops the Combine has to bring in from off-world. Do you remember the scene in the citadel where we saw mortar synths walking around? The combine’s synth army - into which they’ve started to assimilate humanity - is far broader than anything on Earth.
They most probably used the synths. I imagine a boatload of Hunters and Striders will take out most major cities in a matter of hours, along with the fast flying synth thingies and I also presume big aerial bombers or even an orbital strike from a mothership.
That’s one thing I’ve been wondering for a while…
Is the Citadel a type of ship that they implemented as a building? It would make sense. They would invade with the Citadel, and after the conflict is over, plant the ship wherever you damn well please.
I think it’s implied it’s simply dropped through the super portal.
Imagine it on the otherside. You have a giant citadel suspended in the air, and drop it down through a super portal, portal style. It makes the imagination run wild. Super structures beyond belief. Super structures suspending super structures with hundreds if not thousands of beings within them. They all survive intact and go on to annihilate everything in their path. Awesome ideas imo. It’d be film worthy if not for our lack of technology to do it justice.
I imagine there are entire different sub types of synth we don’t see, especially when it comes to flying. I think there would be every different type of size. We only see synths used to secure nearby areas, the helo synths. They’d still need synths to directly attack other flying units. Then they’d have their AC130s, Floating platforms with tons of strider cannons, or worse on them.
I assume they’d also have super weapons of some kind, beyond the nuclear. Dark matter bombs? Bombs that can level entire counties in one?
Thats why I love the Combine and the way they are introduced. We only see a glimps of them, the top of the iceberg. Leaving us to ponder as to what else they could have.
I think their super weapon was them changing Earth. They were removing water at an exponential rate, and I also believe they were going to change our atmosphere to better suit them. That could be the main reason why we surrendered.
The Combine, I believe, are more-or-less a tier 2 (maybe 3, I forget which) civilization. This means that they can seamlessly control control celestial bodies, be it planets, stars, etc. They would be far beyond mass destruction via nukes or dark matter bombs to get their way. At least, that’s what I believe.
I’ve always assumed that Agrunts were just Vortigaunts that have been souped up with that metallic Combine crap and growth hormones.
Imagine if Valve knew about they Combine when they made HL1.
If the Nihilanth and his pals were really slaves to the Combine, the Agrunts could have instead been vortigaunts bastardized with Synth goo.
Sic 'em on the entire human race
I would imagine they were whatever the Combine had at the time to throw at Earth. Possibly the remains of the civilization they destroyed before they took Earth, and as more and more converted humans went into service, they pulled more and more of their other forces out, which would explain why we don’t see any alien enemies that aren’t synths.
I had a theory about this in another thread (don’t remember which) where they basically could portal a city (or whatever) into space, but not reassemble it correctly, essentially moving and disintegrating it. It would be a great shock to go from a city to a hole in the ground in an instant, and they could immediately move in whatever the hell they wanted without having to deal with the after effects of some kind of bomb.
Sort of similar to the way Eli was supposed to explain the invasion: a chunk of a city would disappear, then a few seconds later, in it’s place, a Citadel.
Well here’s what I think
True Total Combine with no limits>Entire Human Race (Aware)>Combine we know>Entire Human Race (Unaware)> Damaged and unaware Humans
However the combine are not that powerful, they are more like mind controlling zombies or a borg like alien. If say the Galactic Empire or Covenant were to attack Earth everything would be dead, glassed or blown up regardless of what humans did. It’s torture vs murder.
I think the Combine were worried about actually launching a full-scale attack on City 17 with all the force they were capable of because they would have to deal with the Citadel, which housed many of the advisors vacationing on Earth and was a centralized information hub for Earth-Combine intelligence. They didn’t want to use their most advanced technology (like they would have in the 7 Hour War) as it would compromise those valuable assets. Therefore, they shelled the areas of the city in proximity to the Citadel and then placed legions of soldiers around the area. Rebel reinforcements began invading from outside the City and chipped away at the armadas protecting the Citadel until they were just about scraping their feet on Breen’s doormat (That’s where the Doctor and Alyx come in). When the Combine realized they were dealing with rebels pouring into the city and the ground troops wouldn’t be able to handle it, they decided to try and fence off the Citadel and possibly transport the entire building off-world (stranger things have happened in Half Life… Well, maybe not, but fuck it). Breen chickened out at the last second with Freeman on his tail and demanded to be transported to the Combine homeworld, and in doing so gave Gordon the ability to royally fuck up the Citadel at the end of HL2. The advisors realized the Citadel isn’t going anywhere and so they jettisoned themselves and open up Ep2.
Imagine it like this,
Portal storms happen----> There’s chaos everywhere, governments even detonate nukes in cities to help stop headcrab or antlion infestations. People who are in remote places disappear. Everybody flees to the nearby cities and all of them become major population centers with lots fo military firepower,this probably even led to dictatorships so people are supressed and depressed even before Our benefactors arrive---->
Combine discover the rift between Xen and Earth—Out of nowhere superportals appear (maybe charge itself a little bit) And Aliens start pouring out of them like mad. Earth military, who is dealing with shit ton of issues. Are caught by suprise. (If an EMP occured they are in much deeper shit.) Again out of nowhere giant boxes fall out of the sky and millions of aliens start pouring out of them, too
---->
Crushing Combine Victory
And then They start draining oceans pumping out wierd ass gas to the atmosphere. You see they might be setting Earth as a base on their way to conquer milky way or this part of the universe, and of course make all humans synths in the way, but you can also say that they are just assholes and fucking around with us.
There’s also another point,
Every Alien we see in Half-life 2 and episodes might not be from the original army that conquered the Earth years ago. The Union might just be testing all of their newbie synths in Earth and other places. So there’s possiblity that we haven’t seen any of the combine except structures and advisors. I mean At least a five years must have passed after the invasion. If they conquered Earth in 7 hours. I’m sure they conquered giant three legged spiders’ homeworld even faster. But I may be wrong and all of them may be just light infantry. so who knows.
Damn straight
Now, wow, how, how the, how the fuck did you see that? Remarkable observation points to you. Shit, you must be a doctor or a professor to point out such things. I mean, shit, the OP must be stupid or something. Get a grasp of the term sarcasm.
Boy you sure do have a stick up your ass, don’t you?
maybe…you get my age and you just get fed up with shit. That’s all.
EDIT: It just bugs me that ppl are tough and shitting on others on the internet, but see them on the street, they suddenly go chicken. I’m not a violent person but if someone would talk to me that way on the street, I would definately do something about it. I hope you get my point.
How did the Combine force Earth’s forces to surrender?
The answer is simple and surprisingly primitive:
https://insite2out.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/trojan-horse1.gif
Spell Check. It takes ten seconds longer for the rest of the world to perceive you as a ‘short-bus’ or ‘like-us’. Try not being a bad speller.
And I’m not an internet tough guy either, I’d be happy to shoot a real person six or seven times until they just stop; am actually waiting for that situation to present itself, but nothing like that ever happens around here.
How strange of you to say such off topic insults. I did spell check, probably miss looked somethings. And as far as the topic name that’s something I overlooked. Mostly because I had so many other ideas for names I just quickly wrote it.
Now lets not get off topic, unless my post is impossible to read or understand I see no reason you can answer the questions. I’m positive everyone makes spelling mistakes.
So go back on topic.
Could humans defend against the Combine if they were fully aware and not already being attacked by aliens and zombies.
Nope.
/thread