Top 10 Video Game Armies 

I don't know about greatest, but NOD is definitely the coolest: 1. Stylish leader - check 2. Colour coordination (red and black) - check 3. Flame tanks - check 4. Laser defence turrets for your base - check 5. Cool scorpion emblem - check

I LOVE the Helghast, they're cooler than ISA. Oh and my favourite army is... THE PLANTS! They stand against a zombie invasion... scary... o.o

Reach wasn't the first assault on the human colonies. The first assault was on Harvest 27 years before the glassing of Reach. basic knowledge like that should be important for this sort of thing...

they should add brotherhood of steel

Most of the armies listed here are more of the antagonists of the games. There are some good protaganist armies as well.

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Where are my beloved Rangers/Spartans of Metro?

no new california republic or brotherhood of steel? well you cant get everyone..

Really? Some people are complaining The Reapers are number 1? For fucks sake people, like the narrator said; they could obliterate any of the other armies on this list. They wipe out ALL organic life every 50,000 years. Deliberately waiting until they were powerful and at the apex of their civilization and they still stand absolutely no chance. They are well deserving of that spot. However, to Watchmojo, you should have also mentioned they make soldiers out of the races they're fighting. You mentioned they indoctrinate but not that they literally transform the species of the galaxy into their own soldiers.

In case you were wondering how the Mojoholics voted in our poll, see the votes and entries here: watchmojo.com/suggest/The%20Top%2010%20VG%20Armies Note, of course, that viewer votes are just one of the hundreds of data points and variables that we consider and look at when we create our lists. Make sure to sign up and participate on future lists at www.WatchMojo.com/suggest

Reapers are not an army ... they are more like a civilization upon itself. independent, free from all weakness...

Love how they found an excuse to exclude warhammer. Space Marines OP.

The Reapers have hundreds of ships that are between 100m-3km in length, and their strongest weapons are those red lasers, small fighters, their "arms" and indoctrination, and they need the fixed Mass Relays to travel around the galaxy. The Covenant have uncountable fleets of ships, smallest between 2km-5km, medium between 6km-8km, and their largest juggernauts 25km-30km in length. They also have space stations, 360km in length. They are armed with plasma torpedoes, lasers, bombs that can destroy a planet in an instant, countless fighters, etc. They also have forcefields that shield them from any enemy fire. They also are not restricted by fixed Mass Relays, and can travel anywhere in the universe with their slipspace engines, which are so advanced that they can "jump" with pin-point accuracy, and with unimaginable speeds. It is true the entire galaxy is needed to bring down The Reapers, but in Halo The Covenant rules the entirety of the galaxy, save Earth. They have no adversaries at all who could undermine their might in naval or land power, except themselves. The Covenant is a lot stronger than The Reapers, WatchMojo.com *EDIT:* I will add all the large responses I've written in this ''thread'' underneath this main post, to centralise all my arguments into one message. *Addition I: response to* +shpekovsalam Alright, I hope you are ready for some reading. First off, the fact that the Covenant are a collection of organic races does not matter at all. The Reapers, in the end, were defeated by organics, and, for example, Sovereign was also defeated by organics. The Covenant already have one gigantic significant advantage over the Reapers to begin with; slip-space engines. This means that entire Covenant fleets are able to appear from any direction, out of nowhere, for disastrous ambushes. It also means that individual Covenant ships, or even entire fleets, can use short-term slip-space jumps to evade any projectiles or weapons fired at them, and appear again behind the enemy for a lethal attack in the rear or flanks. The Covenant ships can literally go anywhere in the galaxy at will, at unprecedented speeds. This alone, in warfare, is a winning factor; The Covenant have the almost godlike ability to determine where battle will take place. Next, weaponry; The Covenant Navy has 3 types of weapons present on starships. The most basic and numerous weapon is the ''pulse laser turret'', which acts as a ship-to-ship and point-defense turret against fighters. It fires either a deathly dose of plasma per time, or a single stream, varying per type. The PLT is known to melt through 45cm of UNSC titanium-A armour in one single shot, and can make grated cheese of UNSC ships within minutes. Next is the ''plasma torpedo'', which is a big ball of heated plasma that hits a target with pin-point accuracy. These torpedoes blast through basically any UNSC ship, obliterating ships 2km long from bow to stern with a single shot. The last and most powerful weapon is the ''energy projector''. It fires a thin beam of energized matter which has an effective range of 100.000km, and is extremely accurate and destructive, capable of destroying ships effortlessly and used for "glassing" planets; burning the surface until it's glass, systematically rendering them sterile and incapable of sustaining life. If your ship is hit by one of these, even if it's a Covenant ship itself, it will render your ship destroyed in an instant. You can imagine utilising all these weapons at once will be a deathly cocktail of destruction to any who oppose the Covenant. To come back to the glassing; When glassing a planet, the beam causes atmospheric and biospheric destruction by exciting the atoms in the air, thus scorching land and air life, and evaporating water with ease, suffocating aquatic life and destabilizing the planet's surface temperature. Therefore, merely firing it through the air would cause biospheric destruction on a planetary scale. In addition, the excitement of atoms could chemically alter the atmosphere or even blow it away. And finally, coming to protection. All Covenant vessels (starships) are protected by highly resistant energy shields. These shields can take vast amounts of punishment, and recharge very quickly. Covenant shields can absorb practically all missile fire, including hundreds of Archer Missiles and even a nuclear missile. The only UNSC weapon capable of penetrating a Covenant Starship's shield is a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon, but even then, ship based MAC cannons take multiple shots to crack the starship's shields. Only a "Super MAC" used by large stationary Orbital Defence Platforms has enough kinetic energy to penetrate a Covenant ship's shield in one single hit. But, then again, these ''Super Macs'' are only found around significant planets, such as Earth or Reach, and both got overrun by the Covenant with relative ease. Then there's the fact that Covenant ships can carry hundreds of fighters, numerous troops, lots of drop ships, weaponry, armoured vehicles and equipment. All large Covenant vessels also have a gravity lift, which means that Covenant ships don't even have to land on the surface itself, something the Reapers do have to do. The gravity lift, in combination with drop ships and use of countless ''drop pods'' - which launch one soldier per pod to the surface - will render even a small Covenant vessel of 2km-5km in length capable to conquer a large city. Notwithstanding the fact that the Covenant even have technology that is capable of cloaking a 30km long flagship, making it invisible. *Addition II: response to* +TheDuckClock The Council races don't have the technology of the Covenant, hence why they fought so long, with so much losses to bring down one Reaper. ;) ''The Reapers also have FTL capabilities to match the Covenant's Slip space technology, Hell they have the collective knowledge of every single advanced civilization that came before us, which means they have the technical and scientific knowledge on EVERYTHING.'' I was more looking on the direct advantages and disadvantages of the two, not necessarily integrating the entire universe into the universe of Mass Effect, that would be impossible and paradoxical. The Covenant also has normal FTL capabilities, but slip-space is not FTL; slip-space is, basically, a wormhole that cuts a hole in the fabric of space and time, and so creates a shortcut between two separate locations that would take a very long time to traverse using just FTL travel. The slip-space drive of the Covenant (and UNSC) is essentially a built-in Mass Relay, but instead of being constricted to set destinations, they can use it to travel anywhere. The Reapers are actually at a disadvantage when concerning travel. ''The Covenants weaponry doesn't account for much since the Reapers thanks to their unmatched scientific knowledge have advance Kinetic barriers that even by the estimates you put out would still put the Covenant ships at a disadvantage.Not to mention shields mean nothing to Reaper weapons as the blasts from their Lasers hits at such a relenting force that easily penetrates shields and can easily rip apart any ship in a single hit.'' I have to refute this. What I found from the Mass Effect Codex, is this; ''The shielding afforded by kinetic barriers does not protect against extremes of temperature, toxins, or radiation.'' Covenant plasma weapons, and especially the ''energy projector'' on Covenant vessels create such extreme temperature and radiative levels, they will burn through kinetic barriers with ease. As for defence, the Covenant shields can withstand thousands of missile impacts, several ''MAC'' rounds, and even a nuclear detonation. Especially the latter two create such an extensive temperature, lasers won't even scratch the surface of the Covenant's shields. ''And the reapers have mini fighter probes of their own as well, each one capable of carrying millions, they're extremely nimble and can easily our manoeuvre a Banshee,'' For one, The Covenant doesn't just use banshees for fighter-roles, their main fighters are ''seraphs'', which are quite agile and can move in both vertical and horizontal directions. This is, again, a disadvantage for the Reaper forces, considering the seraph fighters have the same shield technology as the Covenant starships, and also sporting the same plasma weaponry, which will obliterate the Oculi's kinetic barriers - ''Oculus'', plural; ''Oculi'', as the Reaper's fighters are known. I actually have to thank you, because I had to look a bit further into the details of the Reaper forces to react, but it now really seems that the Covenant seems to be at a far superior technological advantage. There would still be the factor that Reapers are, in essence, smart AI's capable of lightning fast decision making and organising, but would this outweigh against the technology of The Covenant? I am afraid it wouldn't make that much of a difference. *Addition III: response to* +Controversial Derp ''And then they are beat by far outclassed and technologically inferior humans and simply implying that the Covenant found an alternate source of stellar travel that was more efficient does not give them military superiority.'' I'd like to preface with the note that I've been trying to compare the two in terms of strength, technology, capability etc. and not let the story influence the verdict too much. After all, in the end both are defeated by plot elements. In military terms and strategy, having the upper hand in movement and the privilege to be able to decide when and where a battle will take place, and even be able to alter the battle during its duration, is already virtually half the battle won. The Covenant will have all the advantages above with their technologically more capable slip-space drive, than the Reapers with their FTL drive. The Covenant can ambush the Reapers, they can lure them into a trap, then can engage head on and then engage in a short slip-space jump to appear at their rear, etc. They will have the upper hand in movement, and weaponry and shielding aside, that is already a major advantage to The Covenant. ''I'd also like to point out that size means jack shit with interstellar war ships.'' I'd have to agree that with our current technology and strategic air power, large battleships such as the Yamato, Bismarck, Iowa-class, etc. are all practically obsolete, due to their size and impracticality. In the world of science-fiction, however, the cards lay differently on the table. Let's take the Covenant super carrier as example; seemingly the pinnacle of impracticality with its sheer size of nearly 30km in length, and it would by today's standards be viewed as a vessel that is ripe for being broken into two pieces like a twig. The Covenant super carrier is not just a star ship with the capability of destroying entire fleets of UNSC ships or to level an entire metropolis, such as New Mombasa, it's also ''flying city'' with its own society and culture. It serves as an aircraft carrier, in today's standards, which has the capability of defending itself with hundreds upon hundreds of fighters, and serves as transport for the Covenant Army's ground troops that have the task of capturing planets. The sheer size of the Covenant super carrier also means a gigantic surface on which weapons can be mounted, the main reason why battleships in the past have been so gigantic in size. But unlike the navies of our present, which are now limited in size due to advances in technology and air power, and the limiting factor that is the size of our planet, the Covenant super carrier would not be restricted by this. Because the CSC has to roam the endless voids of space, unlike the finite expanses of our oceans. Differences in armour and materials also plays a crucial factor, seeing how a CSC has the structural integrity to remain intact with the sheer size of nearly 30km, even in orbit. The Covenant vessels can also remain intact after a large nuclear device has detonated on the surface of its shields, unlike today's battleships, which will be crippled to a a mere pulp. In short, a CSC serves both as naval vessel to combat an enemy, but also as home to hundreds of thousands of Covenant soldiers, NCO's, non-combatants etc. in the vast reaches of space. ''The Reapers deserved their spot on the list as number 1 in not only their power compared to others on the list but also the position they maintained in their respective universe where they were by all means the Apocalypse, and had made themselves the ultimate power in the Galaxy.'' The Covenant were respectively exactly this in the Halo universe. In fact, even more individuals than in the Mass Effect universe were frightened, because the UNSC didn't censor the Covenant away as a hoax, as the Council did with The Reapers. If we are discussing ''fear factor'', The Covenant even wins in that aspect. *Addition IV: response to* +Artorias X ''The Covenant were just there, just a villain and their army had small scared aliens that run away once their captain died and that took a lot of fear away from them. They were powerful but they seemed beatable, nothing to fear.'' The Covenant isn't just a cliché and uninteresting villain; it is a complex theocratic ''federation'' with several races, each with its own distinct history, capabilities, political views and culture, that make up the Covenant. I am not going into the history of each reach, I would happily redirect you to the Halopedia to read more about it, because the story behind the Covenant is not just a collection of dumb aliens that kill. As for fear; The entire human race was frightened beyond measure of the Covenant technology (including ships, vehicles, equipment, weapons, etc.) and the Covenant forces, whom were aliens unknown to them. They spoke incomprehensible languages, used weapons beyond our wildest dreams, had appearances that would fright even the bravest of man, and - such as the Elites or Hunters - were so physically fit, tall in stature and menacing in looks, it would strike fear in the hearts of every single human being. It is true that the Grunts were used as cannon fodder, and would usually scatter and squeal when their leader was killed, but the rest of the races were not easily frightened, not even at the sight of ''Demon'', standing vast and courageous with the goal to depose of him and bring honour to the Covenant. 

Am I the only one who thought combines were humans?

The Reapers being number 1 doesn't surprise me. They scare the shit outta me. i still have nightmares about every now and again.

The Helghast are good guys, firstly theyve been abandoned and pushed around by the ISA etc.. and ISA occupied Vekta first when it was supposed for Helghan.. and they abandoned the helghan people when they needed medicine etc..

I have to disagree on the Reapers. The Covenant would easily defeat them, due to their use of plasma and laser weapons, and slipspace giving them tactical supremacy. And their were countless Covenant ships at the height of their power, in comparison to the Reapers 20,000 ships at their disposal. For anyone who disagrees, the Kinetic Barriers of the Reapers, while extremely strong in comparison to the Citadel Races, they would do nothing to the energy weapons of the covenant, of which they have plasma cannons and other variations, with their most powerful plasma weapon being plasma torpedoes, which can track and follow targets. They also have pulse lasers, which have much more range and power than the Mass Effect version. And then there's the energy projector, which fires a tight beam of high energy particles at the speed of light, and would probably destroy several Reapers in one shot. As far as the Reapers go, they might be able to win on the ground, but in space, being limited to the Relays for their fastest mode of transportation lacking a energy weapon of their own, the Covenant win. And yes, I know that they have a traditional for of FTL, but its slower and less reliable than slipspace over long distances, and they have to bleed off the static build up over continued uses. The reapers particle beams, which are actually streams of molten metal fired at the speed of light, might do a considerable amount of damage, it would mostly require multiple shots to disable a Shielded Covenant ship, where as the Covenant could just one shot the Reapers. The shields of the Covenant block all forms of damage, where as the Reapers Kinetic barrier only block ballistic weapons, and wouldn't even slow down the Covies energy weapons. I figure I've said enough, but try and disprove me if you feel like it.

I have to be honest Wolfenstein: The New Order got 1 thing wrong, if the Nazis got the Atomic Bomb first it wouldnt have been America that they would have nuked it would more likely have been Britain or Russia as the US didnt really fight against the Nazis as much as them

I think you overused insectoid aliens, really. I would have gone with the Protoss from Starcraft instead.

In the name of Kane

This is basically how this channel ranks on any video game list. "Is mass effect eligible anywhere on this list?" "Yes" "Okay, it's number one!" I get you like the game but that doesn't mean that it should be at the top of every video game list you make.

Just need to correct something. Harvest was the first colony attacked by the Covenant. This happened in 2525, the Fall of Reach happened in 2552 near the end of the war. Reach was one of the last planets to fall.

Totally agree with your list. Still I miss the Pig Masks from the Mother series.

Brotherhood of Steel?

Really wish they made a Mass effect strategy game. Would be sick

Gotta love how they use Warhammer 40k as an example of exclusion, then include the Horde and Zerg, both of which are almost direct ripoff's from the Orks and Tyranids.

Even if Reapers would slaughter each army on this list, it wouldn't defeat Empire from WH40k

There should be a redux of this video to include either Diamond Dogs, Outer Heaven or even Zanzibar Land.

They should've just made "Top 10 Video Game Alien, or, Non-Human Armies" Seeing how most, or half, of the choices aren't even human.

"Mass Effect is #1 again wah wah wah" Um Have you seen the Reapers? They'd destroy The Flood, The Covenant, and The Locust.

I hoped I would see the Imperium from Warhammer 40k on the list :(

I was going to flip my lid if anything other than the Reapers pushed out NOD for the top spot! Nice job on this list!

God damnit. No sith on here? The sith army was badass. Edit: I am referring to the Sith in Knights of the Old Republic. That is it's own thing. That army deserves a cookie,

Fact check: harvest was the first attacked. Reach was the last major line of defense before earth

Im disappointed that MGS Armies were not included.

there are lots of armies in warhammer universe, i wish you add some... heresy everywhere...

Watch Mojo games-related lists algorithm: 10-6: Relevant and fair picks 5: Always something that should be closer to 1. 4: Relevant pick that everyone expected 3: Pick from the last 3 years which pisses off all the classic gamers 2: Should've been number 1. 1: Mass Effect, exclusively.

If the UNSC isn't in this, in going to be mildly annoyed...

I love how they add the Nod in this one.

i was so happy to see the brotherhood of nod so high up there

They're called Tickers in Gears of War, not Clickers D:

Just needed to see the thumbnail to love this video.

Ghandi and his nukes from Civilization series can wipe any and every one of these armies.

I still get chills watching the killzone opening cinematic

There could be no other Number 1. Regardless of how one may perceive the ending of 3, the entire mythos and canon of the Mass Effect series is some of the best science fiction ever written.

Seeding the NOD logo as thumbnail made me smile ;) So good to see Tiberian Sun after so long.

The Best Channel Every i see of Video Games :) !!! my respects :) :D !!!

The Chimera are still my #1. Resistance series will always be my favorite

You guys love mass effect don't you

Just saying now, Precursors would decimate everything on the list. They created the Forerunners and the Flood.

Wow, Watchmojo includes mass effect so often in these videos I just wanna play it more O.O

5:19 TICKERS, not clickers

I thought this video was about videogame armies in general, not just bad guy armies

Caesar's Legion or the NCR from fallout should have been on here.

"Half-Life Series- 2004-2007"? You mean '98 to '07. Do your research. Also, the Zerg aren't actually a "military" so much as a race, so do they count? Not to mention that they're a ripoff of the Tyranids from Warhammer 40,000 (Fun fact: Blizzard wanted to do a game on Warhammer 40K... and got into the making it, before they were told "no". So they made it anyway and changed the names). Also, XCOM was more than just one game...

10:10-10:13 "Do you agree with our list?" "NO!"

how about the darkspawn horde in dragon age that is a huge army

should have done something like top 10 video game human armies and a top 10 video game alien armies, or something like a top 10 enemy armies since this was pretty much this whole episode

Clearly you've never heard of the Shivans from the Freespace series. They have fleets so powerful they can cause an entire Star System to go Supernova.

Halo: The Covenant's first assault against the humans was on Harvest, not Reach.

Tickers not Clickers.

No Brotherhood of Steel or New Californian Republic?

I personally feel that they missed one of the most dangerous armies: The Strogg

I'm glad the chimera were atleast mentioned

I swear why does Mass Effect have to be in pretty much all your list.......

Should have called this list: Top ten evil armies

The Burning Legion From Warcraft definetly surpasses the Horde as a Warcraft mention, and would also surpass various other armies on the list

You gotta make an up to date video of this and add the Wild Hunt.

This list could've also been called: Top 10 Enemy Factions in Video Games

Nice logo for the video

Where are the Monolith from Stalker??? Or Duty ???

The IMC from titanfall 2 the reapers are just so cool

They should make a movie off of Command and Conquer with NOD and GDI.

The New California Republic or the Enclave from Fallout?

If this list were to be updated, the Eternal Fleet from SWtOR would definitely get on the list. The fleet took down both the Empire, and the Republic within a few months.

What about Gorx from Spore?

Why is Mass-Effect always number one on your video game lists, WatchMojo? If it's not Mass-Effect, it's Portal or Half-Life.

The horde as 10th? You really want to get stomped by Taurens, do you?

honorable mention star war games : THE EMPIRE and the republic army in the old republic as well as the Madalorian army that fought at Malcore 5

hell yeah. number 8 was satisfying. love that game

the brotherhood of steel

I actually quite liked this list- mainly because you put the Brotherhood of Nod so high up :) Not sure i'd class the Reapers as an Army though... they're just an entire race whose purpose is to wipe out life. It's debatable I suppose :)

So Happy The Brotherhood of Nod got some lovin' in this video ^_^

my favorite games/XCOM,MASS EFFECT AND GEARS OF WARS,and also halo but not so much favorite) were mentioned, happy to see that

Why do you praise mass effect I don't get it

im so glad they picked the locust horde over the Cog, because sure the locust looked like the bad guys but at the end of the 2nd game when you saw they where fighting for their own defense due to our missteps and they all died for plot convenience at the end of the 3rd game didn't you feel a little,......sorry for them?

The Covenant turned the surface of Reach to glass.GLASS!

I F*****G NOW IT!!!! that there were combine in this list :D

How about the Core from Total annihilation ? They can manufacture huge armies in a couple of hours from a single commander. They also made a device that can destroy a whole galaxy.

The Covenant would annihilate the Reapers. The Reapers use kinetic barriers which do fuck all against plasma weapons which the Covenant almost exclusively use. The Reapers are also limited to either using Mass Relays or going at a puny 30 LY a day at FTL without them. The Covenant on the other hand can use slipspace to go up to 912 LY per day and completely bypass Mass Relay chokepoints. Plus the average Covenant Assault Carrier exceeds even Harbinger, the oldest and largest of the Reapers by around 2km. They could just as easily kill them by ramming them.

I always wanted a Command & Conquer movie or short film or something awesome w/ Kane & NOD

"The Reapers would've beat anyone on this list" I dunno, the Combine kinda conquered multiple dimensions and have a military unimaginably large, and forced Earth's surrender in seven hours with only a fraction of its forces...

I'm getting pretty tired of Mass Effect being #1 in almost every top 10 list involving video games

5:17 he called them clickers. *facepalm

I disagree with the placement of covenant and zerg, I think the zerg would wipe the covenant out considering they have such a hard time against the flood.

You guys should follow up with another Top 10 on this one, there is plenty of options, heck you guys have half a list in the honorable mention alone.

The Brotherhood of Nod are cool army that's my favorite

No Soviet Army from Red Alert. KIROV REPORTING!!

yea they eliminated wh40k because wh40k would beat anyone listed.....

the movement from psi ops