I just finished reading Halo:The Flood,gonna be reading Halo:First strike next.

While reading about all the Battles on Installation 04 between ODSTs and the Covenant forces,i couldn't help but feel that the Covenant were depicted as being grossly incompetent tactically in a ground war.They kept getting outmaneuvered and beaten by unenhanced human troops at every turn and never really combined air support,cavalry and infantry properly.They never even came close to completing any one of their objectives against the humans and every battle felt like a turkey shoot for the Marines and the ODSTs,just too easy.

Is this depiction flawed or should i believe that the Covenant only have success in space battles due to their numbers and advanced scavenged technology are poorly prepped for ground engagements because of inferior tactics.