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The problem with Halo is: only two fully fleshed factions and Spartan-TT are not really suited for tournament play.

 Duncan_Idaho wrote:
The problem with Halo is: only two fully fleshed factions and Spartan-TT are not really suited for tournament play.

I don't see the issue with the latter, to be honest. As for the former, 2 factions hasn't stopped X-wing from taking off, and with Halo one could easily add the Flood as a thrid and different force, and Halo 5 will probably flesh out the Prometheans/Forerunners a bit more visually. There were also several insurgencies and colony wars before the Covenant War, so there's scope for that.

 Duncan_Idaho wrote:
The problem with Halo is: only two fully fleshed factions and Spartan-TT are not really suited for tournament play.

You could do 3 factions for ground combat, Covenant, UNSC and Flood. You really can't do the Flood in space but you could include them in a 15mm or a 28mm game.

 Duncan_Idaho wrote:
The problem with Halo is: only two fully fleshed factions and Spartan-TT are not really suited for tournament play.

Actually, from what we know about Halo 5, I can imagine quite a few factions.

1. UNSC
2. Covenant
3. Flood
4. Human-Sanghelli Alliance

And I could foresee a ruleset that allows mixing and matching of models in some armies. The Flood helped MC and the Arbiter kill the Prophet of Truth. From what we know about Halo 5, the Arbiter helps the UNSC hunt down MC.

EDIT:
Forgot about the Forerunners/Prometheans who have a complicated relationship to the Covies

Well, the reaction here definitely has me more interested - I did not realize what a draw this would be for people. So I'll be keeping an eye on it

As yak said, though, the space game market is suddenly looking quite crowded with this, Star Wars Armada, and Hawk Wargames upcoming space game based in the Dropzone Commander universe. I've already bought into Dropzone Commander so that would likely be my main choice, with Star Wars Armada easy to pick up and try since it comes prepainted.

Flood could work in space in terms of having commandeered ships.

Their tactic would be more likely to ram other ships or head for the closest planet though so i'm not sure how you'd represent that.

I'm unfamiliar with Armada rules but perhaps have a system where a commandeered ships weapons fire "randomly" at a much reduced rate of accuracy? Flood ships being more durable as a result of the infection growing within?



In the first Halo Keyes was being used as a form of flood that could integrate with the Covenant ship systems. They Covenant were attempting to preventing it from repairing and getting into orbit so I can definitely see the scope for a Flood fleet.

 Medium of Death wrote:
Looks good the Covenant capital ship cruiser needs to be a bit bigger but it's not that much of an issue. Think it would only need to be 75% bigger and they'd be in scale.

Would allow for some nice diversity in ship sizes if they are allowed to be a bit more creative with the license.

But the Covenant capital ship shown in the pictures there is the ORS-class heavy cruiser, while the ship that you're likely thinking of from the games is the CAS-class assault carrier. Two completely different designs. The ORS-class heavy cruiser, while being mentioned in the lore, has never been visually shown until now.

The UNSC Epoch-class heavy carrier that they showed is also an original design that was mentioned in the lore but never shown. There are plenty of other ships in the Haloverse that will surely follow suite, I'm curious to see how well Spartan games can stick to the pre-established Halo design philosophy.

I'm really excited for this.

Will there be a 28mm heroic-scale Tea-bagging model?

Maybe a diorama...

Within hours of availability someone will have converted it up.

 Eldarain wrote:
Within hours of availability someone will have converted it up.

Why wait that long? There's already kneeling Spartans thanks to the Wizkids models.

Cryptek of Awesome wrote:
Will there be a 28mm heroic-scale Tea-bagging model?

Maybe a diorama...

I wish I could exalt more than once for that.

 Platuan4th wrote:

 Eldarain wrote:
Within hours of availability someone will have converted it up.

Why wait that long? There's already kneeling Spartans thanks to the Wizkids models.

What an age to be alive...

I'd be more interested in playing out Red vs. Blue myself (both the BGC and the Freelancer project) than anything else with it.

Having played a fair bit of dystopian wars last year I hope we don't see another exploding 6's game.
I found that the game did often come down to who rolled the most 6's no matter what manoeuvers or tactics you employed.


Also the system is very biased towards big ships with high armour values.
A dreadnought can walk though a couple of squadrons of frigates worth the same amount of points, as they have a slim chance of hurting it while it can reliably kill a couple of frigates a turn. If it's picks 1 or 2 ships of each squadron early on they literally need to chain roll 6's to scratch the paintwork.

Take a different game system, such as BFG and frigates can kill battleships, by doing a point of damage or so each, each turn and slowly wearing it down, while the battleship can kill a couple of them each turn in the same way. A much more balanced contest between different ship types of equal cost.

So something new rules wish please Spartan. Or just rip of BFG or ACTA, that would do for me.

 Tamereth wrote:
Having played a fair bit of dystopian wars last year I hope we don't see another exploding 6's game.
I found that the game did often come down to who rolled the most 6's no matter what manoeuvers or tactics you employed.


Also the system is very biased towards big ships with high armour values.
A dreadnought can walk though a couple of squadrons of frigates worth the same amount of points, as they have a slim chance of hurting it while it can reliably kill a couple of frigates a turn. If it's picks 1 or 2 ships of each squadron early on they literally need to chain roll 6's to scratch the paintwork.

Take a different game system, such as BFG and frigates can kill battleships, by doing a point of damage or so each, each turn and slowly wearing it down, while the battleship can kill a couple of them each turn in the same way. A much more balanced contest between different ship types of equal cost.

So something new rules wish please Spartan. Or just rip of BFG or ACTA, that would do for me.

You need to play firestorm Armada then.

You will find your bigger ships fall prey to squadrons of smaller ships and fighters etc unless you use your brain.

Exploding 6's rarely does more then make your hit a critical or if you are defending rarely brings a critical down to a hit or a miss.

I love my corvettes, they combined with some long range support have crippled dreadnoughts. My cruisers have the highest kill count, next up is my Carrier. Big ships can take hits, but the more hits they take the less they can dish out. Big ships NEED support, a big target is what they are but at the same time with adequate protection they can pack a punch.

Its actually a pretty tactical game, One squadron of frigates wont get you far against a capital ship alone unless you are facing someone equally as new.

Also in Firestorm there is a lot to consider such as shielding, pd, fighter cover, escorts and sometimes terrain which all races have access to in varying amounts and they too create a system where 6's can sometimes provide a buff here and there, but most of the games outcomes are a result of maximizing offensive weaponry and overpowering their defense. Which is much harder to do than it sounds.

The rules are free, and the base sizes are all you need. I suggest people actually play a few games of it (it wont cost you a cent) and then decide how bad they are.

 Medium of Death wrote:
Flood could work in space in terms of having commandeered ships.

Their tactic would be more likely to ram other ships or head for the closest planet though so i'm not sure how you'd represent that.

I'm unfamiliar with Armada rules but perhaps have a system where a commandeered ships weapons fire "randomly" at a much reduced rate of accuracy? Flood ships being more durable as a result of the infection growing within?



In the first Halo Keyes was being used as a form of flood that could integrate with the Covenant ship systems. They Covenant were attempting to preventing it from repairing and getting into orbit so I can definitely see the scope for a Flood fleet.

While I don't play Firestorm Armada, there's a similar group. There's a "race" that is essentially a microorganism of some sort that infects enemy ships and takes them over. Unlike the Flood (which can only infect biologicals, and apparently can't infect Hunters), the race works more like the badguys in Homeworld: Cataclysm. i.e. it infects and modifies the ship itself, along with the unfortunate crew.

Eumerin wrote:

 Medium of Death wrote:
Flood could work in space in terms of having commandeered ships.

Their tactic would be more likely to ram other ships or head for the closest planet though so i'm not sure how you'd represent that.

I'm unfamiliar with Armada rules but perhaps have a system where a commandeered ships weapons fire "randomly" at a much reduced rate of accuracy? Flood ships being more durable as a result of the infection growing within?



In the first Halo Keyes was being used as a form of flood that could integrate with the Covenant ship systems. They Covenant were attempting to preventing it from repairing and getting into orbit so I can definitely see the scope for a Flood fleet.

While I don't play Firestorm Armada, there's a similar group. There's a "race" that is essentially a microorganism of some sort that infects enemy ships and takes them over. Unlike the Flood (which can only infect biologicals, and apparently can't infect Hunters), the race works more like the badguys in Homeworld: Cataclysm. i.e. it infects and modifies the ship itself, along with the unfortunate crew.

Hunters are biological. They're actually colonies of worms that form a single, larger system. No idea why they never had a flood form.

 BrookM wrote:
So, will my dice explode in this game as well?

Since that is kind of Spartan's 'thing' I'd say...odds are good!

 Squidmanlolz wrote:

Hunters are biological. They're actually colonies of worms that form a single, larger system. No idea why they never had a flood form.

There's no flood form Hunter because each individual lekgolo lacks the necessary biomass to support Flood infection.

I wonder if someone will get the license to make a Halo video game?

The spaceships kind of surprised me. I figured that they would have gone with 28mm first. Makes me think that there will be a space combat video game.

I wonder if they will include some Marathon stuff to make the real bungie nerds happy.

I like the sound of the general balance in the space game. They appear to be playing around with the tech level difference and with only a couple of factions balance should be easier to achieve with such a wide gulf.

The ground game will go a lot better since the Human/Covenant disparity was much less noticeable on the ground (and not just because of the various Spartan projects). The main thing was the Covvies had more manpower (so maybe they'll be the horde force on the ground?) and could afford atrocious losses. And if it ever proved to not even be slightly worth it? They glass the planet and move on. The reason so many of our planets got glassed is because we ended up being much better ground pounders than they had assumed (some background material from Halo 2 had elites questioning the war and wondering why such a competent warrior race wasn't being inducted in to the Covenant).

As for factions, I can't see it being a huge turn-off that there will only be a couple of sides. X-Wing is another big name property and it has done just peachy with two factions for quite a while. The ground game can easily expand out to include Flood and/or the forces of the Forerunner/Didact. And of course late war and post war you have various splinter factions of the Covenant. And humanity can easily have rebels and ONI as extra factions. But two factions to start is 100% fine for a big property like this.

 Ronin_eX wrote:

As for factions, I can't see it being a huge turn-off that there will only be a couple of sides. X-Wing is another big name property and it has done just peachy with two factions for quite a while. The ground game can easily expand out to include Flood and/or the forces of the Forerunner/Didact. And of course late war and post war you have various splinter factions of the Covenant. And humanity can easily have rebels and ONI as extra factions. But two factions to start is 100% fine for a big property like this.

X-Wing is definitely the exception to the rule, which doesn't make it any more (or less likely) that Halo would be able to pull off a 2 faction game, except that Spartan could try to copy some of the things that FFG did to make the 2 faction issue not an issue.

Honestly, I still am not sure how well FFG is going to be able to pull it off with Armada, because at the X-Wing scale what makes it okay to only have 2 factions is because you can field such a wide variety of different types of fleets, and then once you add in the unique pilots to the mix, it helps to ensure that very few forces feel the same. With Armada and Halo, the challenge is going to be getting out enough different (and recognizable) types of ships that are well-balanced enough in the rules so that players feel comfortable taking all sorts of different configurations of fleets.

Instead, if every player is taking roughly the same mixture of ships, either because there isn't enough variety available or because the rules are broken with certain ships dominating, then the lack of factions will become a major Achilles heel.

And while you're 100% right about the number of splinter factions that can be incorporated for Halo (on both sides), the question still will be: How different can/will those splinter factions feel? Star Wars has the huge advantage of having several movies plus decades of video games and expanded canon to draw from. Halo does have a deep canon, but I don't think most people are as aware of it. FFG can (and did) put out ships from the old X-Wing/Tie-Fighter video game series, and those ships were instantly recognizable to any fan who had played those games back in the day. On the Halo side, while I've read about ONI and human rebels, I have no idea what makes their ships any different from the UNSC (if there are any differences)...and there certainly isn't the same level of 'named characters' to use as Halo pilots like there is for X-Wing either.

So while I am definitely interested/optimistic, there is a lot of room for failure here because of the limitation of the number of factions.

No one in the universe wants to field a Flood army. They are boring enough just pllinking away at them in game. And really, who is possibly going to want to play anything but the Master Chief side? I see lots of Red vs Blue matches.

I want a mini of the stupid giant talking plant from the end of Halo 2.

ArtIsGreat wrote:
No one in the universe wants to field a Flood army. They are boring enough just pllinking away at them in game. And really, who is possibly going to want to play anything but the Master Chief side? I see lots of Red vs Blue matches.

I want a mini of the stupid giant talking plant from the end of Halo 2.

While I agree with you if you're talking about Flood in space (ramming speed!), but Flood on the ground in a 28mm game should be as fun to play as any faction in any miniature wargame. Every flood form would have its own characteristics and special rules based on the host it took over, so a Flood Brute would be different than a Flood Elite, etc. Flood also have the ability to man vehicles and shoot with some forms (humans mainly). Plus you'd be able to take over enemy troops and turn them into Flood on the tabletop, which is always cool.

I don't know how Microsoft handles the Halo license now that 343 is making their core games, but back when Bungie was making Halo and Microsoft had a different studio make Halo Wars (the RTS video game), they were allowed to create new units that had never existed before to fully flesh out the RTS experience. Perhaps Spartan will have a bit of that leeway as well (I kind of hope so)?

And as for everyone only wanting to play humans? No way. I played an Elite back in Halo 2's multiplayer, and the one thing that has always driven me nuts about Halo is that the competitive multiplayer has always been just boring Spartan vs. Spartan, instead of fully embracing their own universe and making some form of multiplayer where you have player-controlled Spartans vs. player-controlled Elites/Brutes and each side is backed up by AI Marines & lesser Covie units. That would be so amazing and it irks me every single Halo iteration that they don't do anything like that.

So yeah, I'd love to play the Covenant (Elite-focused, if there's splinter factions)...way more than the UNSC.

There's normal Covenant pre and post Halo 3. Then after Halo 3, there's Storm Covenant, and whatever groups that the former Covenant splintered in to. Also, the Forerunners, and Drone armies.

All in all, this is a great license to mine, and to be frank, I'm super surprised it took this long for it to be licensed this way.

I wonder about the license though, is this another case of a long chain of sub licenses, similar to how Prodos got AVP?

Wow, this year really is the big one for space combat games isnt it?

Between Star Wars Armada, Dropship Commander and this space combat fans are in for a treat in 2015.

 yakface wrote:
And as for everyone only wanting to play humans? No way. I played an Elite back in Halo 2's multiplayer, and the one thing that has always driven me nuts about Halo is that the competitive multiplayer has always been just boring Spartan vs. Spartan, instead of fully embracing their own universe and making some form of multiplayer where you have player-controlled Spartans vs. player-controlled Elites/Brutes and each side is backed up by AI Marines & lesser Covie units. That would be so amazing and it irks me every single Halo iteration that they don't do anything like that.

So yeah, I'd love to play the Covenant (Elite-focused, if there's splinter factions)...way more than the UNSC.

I too played an Elite in multi-player and was very pissed that Halo 4 removed that ability. Yak, you ever play Reach's Horde Mode? If you played an Elite in it, you actually played on the Computer's side alongside the AI rather than with the Spartans. I kinda wish they had included some Marines/ODST to back up the Spartans, but half of what you're talking about is better than it not existing at all, right?

I'm definitely going Covie on all fronts when these are released.

I loved Halo's depiction of space combat since the Fall of Reach novel. This release has me so excited , It's what I've always wanted

I'm definitely picking up some ships as soon as they are released, regardless of whether or not anyone near me will play it.

Cannot wait for this. Didn't see this one coming, but this universe is perfect for tabletop gaming.