Know Your Enemy.

Halo Wars 2’s campaign challenged audiences to Know Your Enemy. Drawing on The Art of War, the idea spoke to the strategist within every player: understand your opponent, anticipate their next move, and stay one step ahead. Our creative manifesto framed victory as a combination of preparation and informed instinct—knowing the conventional well enough to do the unexpected.

The campaign pursued two complementary audiences: strategy gamers drawn to tactical depth, and a broader audience drawn to Halo’s characters and world. Game-led creative showcased the real-time strategy experience and introduced the threat of Atriox. Live-action advertising took a more unexpected approach, placing Halo’s characters in everyday, real-world situations where their rivalry played out through comedy and gamesmanship. These films made the pleasures of strategy—reading an opponent, anticipating a move, and outsmarting a rival—accessible beyond the battlefield, giving a wider audience a way into Halo Wars 2.