Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Wow those look great,

especially the grunts (get it off, get it off, get it off.........Boom)

Did she say what scale those halo ground minis are in? The multiple minis per base make me think 15mm-ish.

She was with me and isn't a gamer, but I would guess about the same, looked to be bigger than DZC and Firestorm Planetfall's 10mm, way smaller than 28mm. The shelf below has some other Spartan minis (Dystopian wars, I think?) that could be useful for scale

Thanks. I'm curious if this pair of games will get more than the single customary year of support from Spartan before the new shiny takes all the attention. They at least have a chance given that they're a big (and likely expensive) licensed property.

I can't see 343 letting them drop this, and Spartan themselves would be mad to. Their other games may be good, but within a year I expect this will have outsold them. As far as video game IPs go, at least of those that you could make a minis game from, Halo is about as big as it gets.

 Paradigm wrote:
I can't see 343 letting them drop this, and Spartan themselves would be mad to. Their other games may be good, but within a year I expect this will have outsold them. As far as video game IPs go, at least of those that you could make a minis game from, Halo is about as big as it gets.

343 weren't able to put out a working version of OLD games already made for the xbone... and now are busy with guardians and it's future DLC. I suspect they'll have more important things to attend to. I agree that it's big but I don't really know how popular Firestorm or Dystopian are overall as I've only ever seen the same two brothers demo'ing it locally year after year and no one else playing it personally. If anything, they'll likely get a few thousand sales of copies just to halo fanboys with no minis experience who don't know how much work they're getting into or just want some cubicle desk decorations on top of the wargaming crowd.

 warboss wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
I can't see 343 letting them drop this, and Spartan themselves would be mad to. Their other games may be good, but within a year I expect this will have outsold them. As far as video game IPs go, at least of those that you could make a minis game from, Halo is about as big as it gets.

343 weren't able to put out a working version of OLD games already made for the xbone... and now are busy with guardians and it's future DLC. I suspect they'll have more important things to attend to. I agree that it's big but I don't really know how popular Firestorm or Dystopian are overall as I've only ever seen the same two brothers demo'ing it locally year after year and no one else playing it personally. If anything, they'll likely get a few thousand sales of copies just to halo fanboys with no minis experience who don't know how much work they're getting into or just want some cubicle desk decorations on top of the wargaming crowd.

I certainly see your point, I don't expect to see this in every club in the country. It's just that through a combination of the big name and the lower cost, this is by far the most attractive of their offerings. So often I take a look at Firestorm, love the aesthetic, then remember the prices and material and go to something else, whereas this has me ready and willing to drop the cash as soon as we have a solid release date. OK, I'm probably in that 'Halo fan' category, but what's the point in getting an IP licence if you aren't relying on fans of that IP jumping in?

The other thing is that, given the creative freedom Spartan have been given here, it's not like 343 are going to be looking over their shoulders the whole time. What they provide is funding and IP, while Spartan do all the actual design/rules work. That combination should hopefully prevent either party burning out (financially/creatively) or losing interest.

I have high hopes, perhaps too high for this game, but I believe it will do very well.

The problem is: Spartan not translating their games really hurts their sales on the continent.

Halo: Fleet Battles is a licensed product and - in most respects - is treated just like the Metal Earth models, boardgame reskins, T-shirts, and controllers. It's having more attention paid to it on the 343 Industries side due to the canon implications of realizing previously unseen (or only concepted) designs and interest by the studio in this particular project.

I hope the Halo Fleet license really oversells what also ends up being a fun game, because the name carries enough weight to carry over onto sales to non-wargamers, which in turn ends up supporting the game. I'm not a very big Halo fan (I think it's cool and all, but I don't worship Master Chief like some do) , but it's an evocative enough setting to add to the fleet-scale genre that I already have loved ever since BattleFleet Gotic debuted as the demo rules with cardboard cutouts in White Dwarf.

Hopefully they can make the rules a nice mix of casual and deep like X-Wing or Armada, because one of the main things that keeps my wife and gaming partners so-so on BFG and the like is the depth of rules required to really have a good grasp of the nuances of the game. For instance I know for absolute sure that I could much more easily get my wife to enjoy beating the hell out of my in Armada if i were to buy it, even though I've owned three Battlefleet Gothic fleets for more than a decade, just for the rules presentation.

I know between this game, Armada, and Dropfleet Commander, this Gencon could end up being dangerously tempting to the pocketbook, and I definitely sense that this year and into the next is going to be the "time of the fleet-scale".

I'll eventually pick up the fleet battles, but the ground combat game is where I'm getting really excited.

~iPaint

Did anyone catch how the ships were arranged on the flight stands? It looks like each ship is magnetized, but can anyone confirm that?

Also, did anyone find out what was in the release box? Will there be Orbital MACs or the Assault Carrier? The scale difference between the Assault Carrier and the UNSC frigates and cruisers is awesome

This really is the year for space combat games. I like the difference between Armada (detailed capital ships, with few capital ships) and Fleet Battles, which looks like it supports quite a few large ships.

Full contents were posted above, but to put it simply, each side gets one big ship (Epoch/SSV), 5 mid-sized, then a bunch of smaller ones (12 Corvettes for the Cov, 24 Frigates for the UNSC).

All the ships we saw in the first round of renders (see the OP)

MACs and Assault Carriers are not in the starter box.

Ok, thanks for the answers and sorry for asking that again.

I guess then that MACs, Assault Carriers, and Pillar of Autumn will be early expansions.

I'd guess so, and I think we may see Infinity sooner rather than later so the UNSC have something that can trade blows with the Assault Carrier... Although a couple of MAC cannon would hopefully put a dent in it!

This is looking pretty good, quite a large starter set too that seems a good value, but I will need to see the rules before I buy...

Do we have pictures of the ground combat stuff? I can't seem to find them anywhere...

I definitely hope they have lots of ships planned after the initial box set, as while the restrictions of two factions are a given with Halo, only having three variants of ship classes will soon get boring.

I wonder if the ships are modular on the bases? Because I think it'll be really cool if you can remove the escorts from the Capitol ships to make another frigate squadron/element, unless of course they come with those escort ships as standard. I only ask because it looks like from the pics there are identical classes of cruiser with/without the escort, like the Epoch.

Be pretty cool to see baseplates that you can swap out and plug in different formations of ships to build a battlegroup.

 General Seric wrote:
Do we have pictures of the ground combat stuff? I can't seem to find them anywhere...

Check out the previous page...

You've already seen some of the first wave expansion ships. Halcyon, SuperMAC, Assault Carrier.

Updating the main post, will go through all the comments shortly. HUGE thanks to all those that provided pics, I've tried to reference sources, if I missed anyone, please message me and I'll add it in

My hope is that they will have a way to mix squads for the covenant, as the canon puts the Elites, Grunts, and Jackals working in teams together with the Elites serving as "Sergeants" so to speak, rather than them being all squads of one species. This would look much better thematically anyways.

If you look at some of the earlier photos, you will notice that some of the bases of the ships have different kinds of ships on the same base. This shows Spartan Games is not adverse to the idea and, to me, says it is likely that we'll see this. Worst case, you can definitely do this for the Skirmish game!

There's a photo on the Spartan Game forums showing a magnetized base.

Did any one go to Salute and ask about other wave one ships?

Paradigm, I meant to post a big thank you for the link to the bust, so sorry I forgot. That was really cool of you to find,and I will be ordering it. Whoops, really annoyed I didn't get back to you on that one.

David Clarke wrote:https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/community/blog-posts/canon-fodder-taking-orders

Halowaypoint has put up a blog article with previously unseen pictures. Models look gorgeous on the table, and it looks like X-Wing has had some heavy influence on the bases and dice.

Huge thank you for all the pics, have posted in OP and credited you for lots. Cheers!

Medium of Death wrote:Now that looks really cool.

I hope the video explains a bit more.

New video in OP, no explanation, but perdy pictures. There is a shorter video I will also post there shortly but it didn't really explain anything either :(

DrRansom wrote:Looks awesome.

Anyone notice the base on the asteroid? Can someone get the box contents or a game play run through?

Box contents seem to be confirmed, think I've posted them in main post. If not I'll get there shortly! Looks like it's 1 big ship per side, 12 littles for Covenant an 24 littles for the UNSC with the rest of the 49 made up by mediums

RoninXiC wrote:WOW
I love them.

The 49 miniatures seem to include the 3on1 smaller ships but im fine with that.

I'm alarmingly okay with this also. I hope we get some teeny tiny broadswords down the track, haha.

Tyran wrote:I love how the Assault Carriers dwarf everything.

I expect that they will also make the Infinity so the UNSC has something of similar size.

I can't wait to see it, oh the glorious invasions of planets that shall be had

Paradigm wrote:All sounds good! I was hoping there would be ample representation of fighters and boarding assaults, and it looks like I won't be disappointed. (Not that it'll stop me actually fighting out boardings in 28mm once those minis hit! )

Any word on how much more you'd need to add to the starter to get a 'normal' game size?

Not sure, will pm you if I find out. I've ordered 2 sets, hopefully that's good enough! Those expansions look lovely though, hope they're out soon.

Tyran wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:

 Tyran wrote:

I really doubt we will see a Covenant Supercarrier, that thing is massive (using the 1:20000 scale, it would be 144.8 cm long (4.75 ft)).

And still it pales in comparison with the Mantle's Approach (Didact's ship in Halo 4). Which using the same scale would be 18.57 meters tall (60.93 ft).

Tell you what, though; a custom mat with either of those printed as a 'backdrop' would be pretty damn epic!
Pending what Halo 5 turns up, I'd love to see some Promethean or Forerunner ships.

@David: good to know! Sounds alright to me, I wasn't expecting more than one Capital Ship per side, really. This seems to give you plenty to get going, and assuming it all stays in plastic rather than resin or metal, expansion sets when the arrive shouldn't break the bank.

I wouldn't like proper Forerunner warships, they are massive and far above anything the UNSC and the Covenant can even hope to accomplish. Although I could see Forerunner Sentinel craft in the game.

Now I would like to see the Flood, how it propagates and infects enemy ships and even upgrades them with their arcane knowledge.

The Flood would add heaps! I think fleshing them out would be amazing. I agree Forerunner ships would be so harsh, but maybe they'll make them as ultra powerful ships. Given their size, I can see it being financially viable for a limited run, providing they're at a premium price. I will admit, however, that this is my inner fan hopes potentially biasing my perception.

ds9lord wrote:I love the idea of picking commanders with unique ability's and the boarding rules. Did anyone else notice the pillar of Autumn in the pictures.

I didn't until you pointed it out, I'm too busy trying to keep this thread up to date, was out of order yesterday and am coming back with a vengeance, so thanks!

ds9lord wrote:Does anyone know if there are pictures for the ground combat game.

Updated and linked into the OP

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:Wow those look great,

especially the grunts (get it off, get it off, get it off.........Boom)

"He's unstoppable! Ahhhhh, taaaahaaaa!"

warboss wrote:Did she say what scale those halo ground minis are in? The multiple minis per base make me think 15mm-ish.

I think you're right! And they're looking great (to me), except, ironically for the flagship models of the Spartans. I love everything else, but to me, I'm struggling to identify them at a glance as Spartans, everything else I can see. Damn those marines are gorgeous.

Duncan_Idaho wrote:The problem is: Spartan not translating their games really hurts their sales on the continent.

That would be infuriating. If a company released Halo in only Spanish, I would be so annoyed. Hopefully Spartan Games will realise Halo is popular in other parts of the world too, and translate it.

AegisGrimm wrote:I hope the Halo Fleet license really oversells what also ends up being a fun game, because the name carries enough weight to carry over onto sales to non-wargamers, which in turn ends up supporting the game. I'm not a very big Halo fan (I think it's cool and all, but I don't worship Master Chief like some do) , but it's an evocative enough setting to add to the fleet-scale genre that I already have loved ever since BattleFleet Gotic debuted as the demo rules with cardboard cutouts in White Dwarf.

Hopefully they can make the rules a nice mix of casual and deep like X-Wing or Armada, because one of the main things that keeps my wife and gaming partners so-so on BFG and the like is the depth of rules required to really have a good grasp of the nuances of the game. For instance I know for absolute sure that I could much more easily get my wife to enjoy beating the hell out of my in Armada if i were to buy it, even though I've owned three Battlefleet Gothic fleets for more than a decade, just for the rules presentation.

I know between this game, Armada, and Dropfleet Commander, this Gencon could end up being dangerously tempting to the pocketbook, and I definitely sense that this year and into the next is going to be the "time of the fleet-scale".

I'm really hoping for a lot of what you've described. I would love to have a Halo Fleet Battle with my significant other. She's sitting beside me and seeming none too interested in the pretty pictures. You are a lucky man!

-iPaint- wrote:I'll eventually pick up the fleet battles, but the ground combat game is where I'm getting really excited.

~iPaint

I know! *breathing intensifies*

DrRansom wrote:Did anyone catch how the ships were arranged on the flight stands? It looks like each ship is magnetized, but can anyone confirm that?

Also, did anyone find out what was in the release box? Will there be Orbital MACs or the Assault Carrier? The scale difference between the Assault Carrier and the UNSC frigates and cruisers is awesome

This really is the year for space combat games. I like the difference between Armada (detailed capital ships, with few capital ships) and Fleet Battles, which looks like it supports quite a few large ships.

I think someone said they are magnetised, though I'm not sure if that's by default in the core box set or a minor conversion for display and gaming purposes. Will let you know when I do!

AegisGrimm wrote:I definitely hope they have lots of ships planned after the initial box set, as while the restrictions of two factions are a given with Halo, only having three variants of ship classes will soon get boring.

I wonder if the ships are modular on the bases? Because I think it'll be really cool if you can remove the escorts from the Capitol ships to make another frigate squadron/element, unless of course they come with those escort ships as standard. I only ask because it looks like from the pics there are identical classes of cruiser with/without the escort, like the Epoch.

Be pretty cool to see baseplates that you can swap out and plug in different formations of ships to build a battlegroup.

Really exited about these possibilities. Different groups having different skills despite being the same ships.

The fleet battle pics just posted, are those prepainted or user painted? if prepainted, they definitely beat out X wing for quality.

Me likey.

 PlaguelordHobbyServices wrote:
The fleet battle pics just posted, are those prepainted or user painted? if prepainted, they definitely beat out X wing for quality.

Me likey.

Definitely user painted, Halo: Fleet Battles is unpainted HIPS, so just like GW's range. But I agree, they've got a fantastic artist to do them

HIPs, not resin? Are you sure? If so, that's really impressive, but I thought all Spartan's releases are resin. (These are awesome either way, though!!)

 RiTides wrote:
HIPs, not resin? Are you sure? If so, that's really impressive, but I thought all Spartan's releases are resin. (These are awesome either way, though!!)

Haha, you're right about Spartan's previous releases; up till now they have all been resin as far as I'm aware, but Halo is HIPs. I've copy pasted their official newsletter (and. of course,I've added some emphasis on the beautiful, glorious section about which you have enquired ):

The Halo: Fleet Battles, The Fall of Reach two player battle box is the ultimate way for fans of the Halo Universe to recreate pivotal space battles between the stalwart forces of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) and the relentless Covenant armada. Developed in close cooperation with 343 Industries, The Fall of Reach puts you at the centre of the most pivotal naval conflict of the long Human-Covenant War, commanding massive fleets of deadly warships as they clash above the fortified human colony of Reach. Take humanity's last stand to the gaming table!



The Fall of Reach box contents include:



A full colour 100-page rulebook packed full of images and examples
Fall of Reach campaign guide
49 highly-detailed plastic ship models
25 custom Halo Dice
Fleet Commander Data Sheets
Flight Stands and Overlay Cards
Punch-out Scenery and Token sheets
Quick Guide reference sheets

Halo: Fleet Battles delivers an easy to learn, lore-infused, tactically-rich gaming experience that appeals both to experienced wargamers and fans of the Halo Universe.



There are also some pictures at the bottom of the first post where you can see the plastic, they are really great models.

Polyurethane, Polysytrene, and Polyvinyl are all Plastic.

'Plastic' doesn't always mean HIPS.