How to stop a double Arbiter/Forge rush 3v3

Question

I have been playing halo wars since the game came out(forever ago). Only recently, the last few months, has this strategy emerged. Me and my friends have lost around 50 games to this rush. We have found no way to stop it when the rush is preformed perfectly. When the rush is preformed perfectly it looks something like this:

1. Both Arbiters make their Temples first, after it is complete they lock their base
2. Both Arbiters start making Suicide Grunts immediately after Temple finishes
3. Arbiters make their way to the enemy base
4. By the time the Arbiters arrive they have around 4 suicide grunts each, which is enough to kill the base with extras left over
5. They blow up the first base and move on to the next
6. (see below) They regroup and attack the second base, followed soon after by the third base.

(6) if the person who got attacked first has turret(s) up, they can usually weaken or kill a couple of grunts before they hit the base, requiring more grunts to hit the base before it gets blown up. This usually causes the Arbiters to destroy the base and then retreat. By this time they have eliminated one of your teammates. By the time you and your teammate get back up and running, you are being overrun by the enemies tanks.

Things we have tried to stop/prevent the rush:

1. Build warthogs to try to ram and kill the grunts before they hit the base - fails every time because the Arbiter kills the warthogs instantly with the Rage ability.
2. Run over to the Arbiter's base before they let the grunts out and wait. Once the base opens Mac Blast the grunts(kills them instantly). - this fails because now the other Arbiter has a full army of grunts and blows up your base. Your teammates don't have enough time to get you another one and by the time your teammates recover, you are yet again overrun by tanks.
3. Rush the Forge player with full out Warthogs and Hunters - this fails because the 2 Arbiters have enough time to individually blow up all your bases while you are trying to fight forge, if the Arbiters fail destroying your bases and you defeat Forge, you win but his is extremely rare.
4. D-Bomb both of the Arbiter's pads when they show up at your base - this fails because the Arbiters retreat and just wait for the D-Bomb to go away which is super frustrating.

We thing we have come up with to win every time is to make it a Mirror Match (both sides have the exact same characters). To us this really isn't in the sport of the game, why play halo wars if your going to play boring rush games every time? Here is how we usually setup the teams:

---------------------
Covenant - Prophet(2)
UNSC - Cutter(1)
UNSC - Anders(3)
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Covenant - Chieftain(1)
UNSC - Forge(2)
UNSC - Anders(3)
---------------------
Covenant - Chieftain(3)
Covenant - Prophet(2)
UNSC - Cutter(1)
---------------------

The numbers are the order of our skills (1 is the best). We usually have the best player play as Cutter because he is essential in stopping a rush (a well placed Mac ruins an Arbiter's day).

Does anyone know of a counter-rush for this? Which characters do you need to be? Does it work on all of the 3v3 maps? All relevant answers are appreciated. Thanks for reading!

Answer 1

Assuming a 2 human one covenant. Part 1 Human 1- 6-8 flammer, go to covenant and wait til arby arrives. burn suicide grunts. If arbiter aggressively rages pop replacement units. Dont go crazy with the flammers because they become useless as soon as the first rush ends. UNLESS you can occupy walls or run to hooks ie reactors. U are responsible for 3 power either way. You must get this, when the first rush is winding down you must replace barracks with vechicle depot

Human 2- commit to warthogs til u get 6. clear an expansion, then go to forge (he will have 4 and will have cleared a base) find expansion. save 600 for debomb as soon as arby arrives. have it ready to go as if you are slow he will smoke 3 or 4 warthogs. you can also go ahead and drop it in anticipation of his arrival. the most important thing is.... STOP the expansion.

Covenant- this assumes a brute or arby- go weak rush no upgrades to distract one of the arbys. focus is on getting up vampires. without vamps banshees will overwhelm.

Part 2- Human 1- must make judgement call... did you beat back the 1st rush without a teammate getting beat too bad or not. either you should go tanks if covenant looks good for vamps or pop 3 wolves and then go tanks. Tempting to go expand but the most important thing is supporting your teammates expansion from the banshees/arbys.

Human 2- If you were able to stop or kill the expansion then it is all about your ability to get your expansion up faster than the forge. It is very dicey because they will also be looking for your expansion. The banshees will be the big threat. HOPEFully you still have some warthogs. Go tanks but rush to power turret.

Covenant- Count on losing units to the arbys but you must own the skys. be careful with your stasis dont stasis just one unit. If you need $ hit up human 1 for a bump.