When the official Halo Wars site announced vehicle incentives last week for pre-ordering the game or buying the Limited Collector’s Edition, we were worried that society’s better half would get a strategic upper hand on us poor, pedestrian gamers.

It turns out there’s a bit of working class spirit in Halo’s real time strategy offering. In an interview with The Game Reviews, Ensemble Studios’ Director of Technology Dave Pottinger said the "Fireball Warthog," accessed through pre-order, isn’t any stronger than the standard military green version. Same goes for the "Honor Guard Wraith," which you get by ordering the collector’s edition.

"So, it is a way to have some fun and I admit it, they do look cool … they are bad ass," Pottinger said, "but it is a strategy game and we can’t really do too much from [a gameplay] standpoint, otherwise people would be at the doors of our office with burning pitch forks saying, ’What the hell?’"

To clarify, Pottinger explained that the Honor Guards are the Prophet’s head security detail, not unlike the Red Stormtroopers who guard the Emperor in Star Wars. Naturally, their ride is just a little more pimped out in the visual department. As for the Fireball Warthog, Pottinger simply said that "you want the flames on that."

I suppose.

When you pre-order the game or snag the limited edition, you’ll get a code that you can use to unlock the souped-up vehicles, Pottinger said.

Stay tuned to TGR this week, as we post our full interview with Pottinger.