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2015/08/05 04:05:32
Subject: Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
Tyran wrote: Minor nitpick, that Frigate base that was fethed by the 2 vulnerable markers shouldn't have been removed.
It was 7 successes and 1 save so 6 successes.
4 are for the first damage track, gets vulnerable marker and the next damage track is 3-1 so 2. 4-6 is 2 successes left so it loses another damage track and gets another vulnerable marker but no more successes left to finish it.
Although it doesn't really matter as with 2 vulnerable markers it would be killed by the following shooting,
You're quite right, what I did was failed to turn the critical success (2) I rolled into a 1 due to the firepower rating of 2. I verbally stated that I had counted it as a one when I was tallying up the initial damage, but when I was applying the damage in the moment I only used the numbers on the dice. Haha, suppose that's a good thing for people to take note of, when you're firing at firepower 2 (where rolls of 1 and 2 only count for 1) it helps if you physically change the 2s into 1s so you don't do what I did and fail to recall that at the damage application step. Thanks for pointing that out! I'll try and figure out how to add those little comments that pop up at certain times in videos to it.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ernster wrote: Love me some Halo, I also LOVE the Killzone series and fluff. I preferred it actually. Check that, they are n close contention. I hope the Flood have different ships as opposed to infected covenant or UNMC.
I can tell which you like more by the capitalisation for the latter As for the Flood ships, I think you might be out of luck at this stage. The Flood are exceptionally gifted at utilising the tech of the host organisms, but they are no builders. The Flood have always utilised others' tech for interstellar transport and combat, even dating back to the Forerunner/Flood conflict. They don't have any organisms of sufficient biomass to form into a ship that size. Theorised Spoiler for the future of Halo:
Spoiler:
I believe that if we did head down that route, it's more likely we'd see Precursor ships, which have been hinted at recently in several ONI files
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/08/05 04:09:58
The contents of this document are protected by the Official Secrets Act of 2550
Considering how well Precursor "ships" performed in the Forerunner-Flood war, they will have an auto-win rule .
Also while the Flood doesn't has it's own ships (aside of Precursor stuff and possible captured shipyards) they do upgrade them far beyond their original limits. And they cover them in Flood biomass (which seems to appear out of nowhere at that point) so that's a nice aesthetic difference.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh and loving the batrep, please post the 3rd part soon.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2015/08/05 04:22:18
2015/08/05 04:29:57
Subject: Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
Ernster wrote: I was looking at Space Mat's to use fir play that are 36x36 inches. Will that suffice or will 2x's work?
Isn't the playing area supposed to be 48" across, not 36"? Genuinely asking here, in case that's not clear . I picked up a Frontline Gaming 6'x4' space mat with that in mind, but was thinking 4'x4' could work for a smaller game?
2015/08/05 04:56:23
Subject: Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
Very much agree with you about the Precursor ships! Incredibly glad you (and others) are liking the videos, I will upload the last file tomorrow morning!
Ernster wrote: I was looking at Space Mat's to use fir play that are 36x36 inches. Will that suffice or will 2x's work?
Isn't the playing area supposed to be 48" across, not 36"? Genuinely asking here, in case that's not clear . I picked up a Frontline Gaming 6'x4' space mat with that in mind, but was thinking 4'x4' could work for a smaller game?
You're right, the average board is 4 by 4 for a small game, and at least 6 by 4 for a larger game
The contents of this document are protected by the Official Secrets Act of 2550
Im not too well versed in Haloverse fluff, what is the difference between a Precursor and a Forerunner? Those words are synonyms for eachother, which to me implies they are the same group/entity, yet it would seem that they aren't from the way they're spoken about (which, to me, means super-lazy writing on the part of the developers).
CoALabaer wrote: Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
2015/08/05 05:52:40
Subject: Re:Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
In 40k terms think of the Precursors as Old-Ones. The original species that seeded the galaxy. The Forerunner (for reasons I don't currently recall) fought a war with the Precursors and won. The remaining Precursors, if any survived, were nothing more than refugees that vanished from the galactic stage. Ancient humans pop up later and, along with the Prophets, wage a two fronted war with the Flood on one end (a blight that popped out of no-where) and Forerunner on the other.
There is a lot more to it than that, but that should help to give you a better idea of where the major players in the ancient history pop up.
2015/08/05 05:56:20
Subject: Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
chaos0xomega wrote: Im not too well versed in Haloverse fluff, what is the difference between a Precursor and a Forerunner? Those words are synonyms for eachother, which to me implies they are the same group/entity, yet it would seem that they aren't from the way they're spoken about (which, to me, means super-lazy writing on the part of the developers).
Haha, name wise I'd totally agree with you, here's the answer:
Spoiler:
The Precursors are believed the be the first life forms to develop civilisation and space travel (long, long ago, well before the Forerunners). After they had obtained unfathomable technological superiority, they became obsessed with life, living and experiencing. Precursors are pseudo-immortal creatures that live and die, but are reborn in different incarnations. They spread life across the universe, often existing as unicellular organisms, unaware that they were Precursors, they do it for the experiences. The Precursor knowledge was stored on a Neural network that escapes this universe, the knowledge of Precursors exists independent of time, and can be accessed by any Precursor in a suitably advanced form. Other times they might exist as cat like creatures (example chosen at random), or anything really; with a single Precursor sometimes even existing as thousands of life forms at once! It is the cycle of life and death and natural order is all important to them. When the Forerunners came about, the Precursors watched over them and nurtured them, sheltered them, but the Forerunners did not recognise them for what they were. They saw them as strange, and oppressive. After a while, the Forerunners declared war on the Precursors, who never once fought back. The Precursors were essentially obliterated. As one of the last Precursors died, their body disintegrated into a fine powder. The powder was shown to have calming effects on livestock, and was used on an agrarian Forerunner world to promote docility and compliance, as well as physically nurturing them. After many generations of this, the livestock started showing abnormal mutations that were for all intents and purposes, impossible. Eventually, they tried to kill of the stock, but by this point they had adapted into sentient creatures that would come to be called the Flood.
The Flood, when they gain sufficient biomass, have access to this Precursor knowledge, as evidenced by the protogravemind. The Flood were actually a test, designed to show that only through willing sacrifice could life be maintained, the Forerunners failed this test and continued to battle against the Flood. Eventually after world upon world had fallen, the Forerunners realised that the only way the they could stop the Flood would be to wipe out all life capable of sustaining the Flood. They did this through firing the Halo arrays, which also severed the connection between that single Precursor's creations (the Flood) and the Galaxy. The knowledge is still there, but the Flood must grow before they can access it. It is how all Flood are controlled after the Feral initial phases, its a subconscious drive that moves them as one purposed whole.
Some Precursors fled, it's theorised they could be in Halo 5, energy signatures matching their technology's description has been hinted at recently in several locations.
The Forerunners on the other hand, are a more traditional society that we can more intellectually relate to, they have great architectural features, are hominids with Voldemort style noses and are basically a massive tech society. When they killed the Precursors, they adopted a warped philosophy of theirs, placing upon themselves the "Mantle of Responsibility" which put in them the responsibility for caretaking for all life in the Galaxy, a role they did not believe the Precursors were doing well. The Forerunners also engaged in a war with Ancient Humans (who were allied with the Ancient Prophets), but ultimately the Forerunners won, killing off both races and enslaving them digitally to be used as warrior AIs against the Flood. The Librarian, a key Forerunner, disagreed with the approach and ensured that after the Halo Arrays were fired, humanity would be reseeded and genetically programmed to advance themselves to their former glory, with her eventual wish to see them holding the Mantle of Responsibility.
Here's a vid that explains some of it:
Sorry for the long post.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nightwolf829 wrote: In 40k terms think of the Precursors as Old-Ones. The original species that seeded the galaxy. The Forerunner (for reasons I don't currently recall) fought a war with the Precursors and won. The remaining Precursors, if any survived, were nothing more than refugees that vanished from the galactic stage. Ancient humans pop up later and, along with the Prophets, wage a two fronted war with the Flood on one end (a blight that popped out of no-where) and Forerunner on the other.
There is a lot more to it than that, but that should help to give you a better idea of where the major players in the ancient history pop up.
Have an exalt, good sir. This is the tl;dr of my post
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2015/08/05 06:11:55
The contents of this document are protected by the Official Secrets Act of 2550
So wait, humans (who were presumably far more advanced than they are at the time of the video games) and the Covenant had contact in the ancient past, and were allied together?
CoALabaer wrote: Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
2015/08/05 06:18:59
Subject: Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
chaos0xomega wrote:So wait, humans (who were presumably far more advanced than they are at the time of the video games) and the Covenant had contact in the ancient past, and were allied together?
Yeah, they were much, much more advanced, actually on par with the Forerunners themselves. And almost but not quite, we had an alliance with the San Shyuum race (that we refer to as the prophets colloquially). The Prophets now lead the Covenant, but the Covenant is a particular pact that began in this millennium. So we were never allied with the Covenant, but we were allied with the Race that now leads them, but that alliance ended about 100,000 years ago. Modern humanity, bar perhaps a few, are not aware that this alliance existed in the past, and I doubt few, if any prophets are aware of it. If any of the Prophets do know about it, they're certainly not letting that tid bit go far
ORicK wrote:Thanks for the history lesson!
Anytime! Love this background lore, love being able to share something I'm so passionate about with other people.
The contents of this document are protected by the Official Secrets Act of 2550
Hi guys, was asked by BobtheInquisitor to post some close up pictures of unpainted Halo Fleet Battles miniatures in order to show the detail on the models. I've included pictures of the sprues, but have already taken off all of the frigates unfortunately. I've also thrown in a Goblin in some of the shots to give you some sense of scale that's hopefully more intimate than a boring ruler.
I'm not actually sure how to attach files then spoiler them, so sorry if this is too many in one post, if a mod could just tell me I'll try and fix it up. Enjoy guys!
The contents of this document are protected by the Official Secrets Act of 2550
I picked up my Warstore pre-order at GenCon. They were nice enough to call it a wash, so I got the game and extra models for a shade under <$120; can't beat that. Although they gave extra tokens and stands, there were no extra ship overlays, so you can't field 2 supported carriers/battlecruisers. Oh well, the extra models are still awesome.
Finished assembling them yesterday and total assembly time was about 3 hours. A shade over an hour of the time was the just assembling the heavy cruisers. Don't have any HIPS glue and LocTite was having some trouble setting up, so there was a lot of hurry up and wait, with a side order of aching fingers. The detail on the models is phenomenal and probably some of the best sprue layout I've seen. Most connection points get hidden on the capital ships, so cleanup took only a few minutes after the fact.
Plan to sit down with the manual tonight and give it a read and then test it out tomorrow.
2015/08/05 14:22:02
Subject: Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
Thanks for the pictures. They look amazing! It really helps to see how they go together and how they look from other angles than above.
I'm definitely a fan of the Covenant designs. I love the big human ship and the small human escorts, but the brick ship I'm just not sure on. I suppose I can always add some guns and fins if Imdon't warm up to it.
How does FTL work in the Haloverse?
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/08/05 14:44:20
BobtheInquisitor wrote: Thanks for the pictures. They look amazing! It really helps to see how they go together and how they look from other angles than above.
I'm definitely a fan of the Covenant designs. I love the big human ship and the small human escorts, but the brick ship I'm just not sure on. I suppose I can always add some guns and fins if Imdon't warm up to it.
How does FTL work in the Haloverse?
They use the classic shortcut of an alternate dimension called Slipspace.
And question for ONI: What does the Beam rule do?
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2015/08/05 14:55:49
2015/08/05 15:02:09
Subject: Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
I think he said in one of the videos that the beam allows you to target multiple models in an arc in the same battlegroup instead of throwing all of the dice of the one weapon against one stand.
2015/08/05 15:29:02
Subject: Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
Triple9 wrote: I picked up my Warstore pre-order at GenCon. They were nice enough to call it a wash, so I got the game and extra models for a shade under <$120; can't beat that. Although they gave extra tokens and stands, there were no extra ship overlays, so you can't field 2 supported carriers/battlecruisers. Oh well, the extra models are still awesome.
Argh, that's frustrating. By overlay, does that mean the square that goes on the ship base - how could they not include that? Or is it something else? If it's that square I'm going to have to send them a message because that seems unacceptable, how could you use the ship without it?
Triple9 wrote: Finished assembling them yesterday and total assembly time was about 3 hours. A shade over an hour of the time was the just assembling the heavy cruisers. Don't have any HIPS glue and LocTite was having some trouble setting up, so there was a lot of hurry up and wait, with a side order of aching fingers. The detail on the models is phenomenal and probably some of the best sprue layout I've seen. Most connection points get hidden on the capital ships, so cleanup took only a few minutes after the fact.
That's awesome . Let us know how the first game test goes, too!
2015/08/05 16:26:44
Subject: Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
warboss wrote: I think he said in one of the videos that the beam allows you to target multiple models in an arc in the same battlegroup instead of throwing all of the dice of the one weapon against one stand.
Ok thanks.
2015/08/05 16:36:29
Subject: Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
Triple9 wrote: I picked up my Warstore pre-order at GenCon. They were nice enough to call it a wash, so I got the game and extra models for a shade under <$120; can't beat that. Although they gave extra tokens and stands, there were no extra ship overlays, so you can't field 2 supported carriers/battlecruisers. Oh well, the extra models are still awesome.
Argh, that's frustrating. By overlay, does that mean the square that goes on the ship base - how could they not include that? Or is it something else? If it's that square I'm going to have to send them a message because that seems unacceptable, how could you use the ship without it?
Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. The core box comes with two overlay's for the carrier/battlecruiser, one with escort and one without escort, so you can use the extra ships just with no flexibility regarding force selection.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/08/05 16:37:08
2015/08/05 16:46:05
Subject: Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
For $120, it would still be worth it. With the sneaky $10 price bump and then shipping/tax added on, it's a bit more disappointment although the online offer did say this:
Models include their Flight Stands, Tokens and Templates
If you picked up your preorder copy at the con and they just gave you the models scott free then I'd still put it firmly in the win category.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/08/05 16:47:51
2015/08/05 16:51:04
Subject: Re:Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
Warboss - Yeah, I asked my friend and he said it wasn't from tax, just a flat $140 at the Con for most folks (and when they ran out of stock the website preorders also went up to $140). I'll ping them about the overlay and see what they say! Maybe Spartan would be willing to provide it given that text (or provide it along with another order - I likely will get the large ship expansion for each faction).
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2015/08/05 16:55:59
2015/08/05 23:32:19
Subject: Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
Triple9 wrote: I picked up my Warstore pre-order at GenCon. They were nice enough to call it a wash, so I got the game and extra models for a shade under <$120; can't beat that. Although they gave extra tokens and stands, there were no extra ship overlays, so you can't field 2 supported carriers/battlecruisers. Oh well, the extra models are still awesome.
Argh, that's frustrating. By overlay, does that mean the square that goes on the ship base - how could they not include that? Or is it something else? If it's that square I'm going to have to send them a message because that seems unacceptable, how could you use the ship without it?
Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. The core box comes with two overlay's for the carrier/battlecruiser, one with escort and one without escort, so you can use the extra ships just with no flexibility regarding force selection.
Copy and print the ones in the boxed game! I certainly would.
"By this point I'm convinced 100% that every single race in the 40k universe have somehow tapped into the ork ability to just have their tech work because they think it should."
2015/08/06 00:11:11
Subject: Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
chaos0xomega wrote:So wait, humans (who were presumably far more advanced than they are at the time of the video games) and the Covenant had contact in the ancient past, and were allied together?
Yeah, they were much, much more advanced, actually on par with the Forerunners themselves. And almost but not quite, we had an alliance with the San Shyuum race (that we refer to as the prophets colloquially). The Prophets now lead the Covenant, but the Covenant is a particular pact that began in this millennium. So we were never allied with the Covenant, but we were allied with the Race that now leads them, but that alliance ended about 100,000 years ago. Modern humanity, bar perhaps a few, are not aware that this alliance existed in the past, and I doubt few, if any prophets are aware of it. If any of the Prophets do know about it, they're certainly not letting that tid bit go far
ORicK wrote:Thanks for the history lesson!
Anytime! Love this background lore, love being able to share something I'm so passionate about with other people.
Sorry if this is a little late for the lore lesson, but one thing I never understood was if Earth was Ancient Humanity's homeworld or did we get here after the activation of the Halo array?
2015/08/06 00:43:54
Subject: Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
chaos0xomega wrote:So wait, humans (who were presumably far more advanced than they are at the time of the video games) and the Covenant had contact in the ancient past, and were allied together?
Yeah, they were much, much more advanced, actually on par with the Forerunners themselves. And almost but not quite, we had an alliance with the San Shyuum race (that we refer to as the prophets colloquially). The Prophets now lead the Covenant, but the Covenant is a particular pact that began in this millennium. So we were never allied with the Covenant, but we were allied with the Race that now leads them, but that alliance ended about 100,000 years ago. Modern humanity, bar perhaps a few, are not aware that this alliance existed in the past, and I doubt few, if any prophets are aware of it. If any of the Prophets do know about it, they're certainly not letting that tid bit go far
ORicK wrote:Thanks for the history lesson!
Anytime! Love this background lore, love being able to share something I'm so passionate about with other people.
Sorry if this is a little late for the lore lesson, but one thing I never understood was if Earth was Ancient Humanity's homeworld or did we get here after the activation of the Halo array?
It always was humanity's homeworld, but it wasn't the capital of the Ancient Human Empire.
2015/08/06 01:33:09
Subject: Halo thread - Halo Wars 2 set for release shortly after Ground Combat's 2016 Q1/2 release
RiTides wrote:The goblin in the pics is very helpful - the ships are a lot bigger than I thought, which is sweet!
Glad they were of use!
BobtheInquisitor wrote:Thanks for the pictures. They look amazing! It really helps to see how they go together and how they look from other angles than above.
I'm definitely a fan of the Covenant designs. I love the big human ship and the small human escorts, but the brick ship I'm just not sure on. I suppose I can always add some guns and fins if Imdon't warm up to it.
How does FTL work in the Haloverse?
Not a problem my good man, and the Slipspace answer that was given by Tyran is spot on
Tyran wrote:
They use the classic shortcut of an alternate dimension called Slipspace.
And question for ONI: What does the Beam rule do?
As Warboss indicated, it allows you to target up to three elements from up to three Battlegroups (this weapon is an exception to the only fire at 1 battlegroup rule) as long as each element is within 6 inches of another target (so there can be 12 inches between A and C, so long as B is within 6 of them both). The beam basically arcs from one element to the next, starting at a default firepower rating of the highest value, which is 5 (plus, there's nothing saying the plasma rule doesn't kick in, so it has a buffering +1). It has a 12 inch range and cannot take part in a firing solution with any other weapons
warboss wrote:I think he said in one of the videos that the beam allows you to target multiple models in an arc in the same battlegroup instead of throwing all of the dice of the one weapon against one stand.
That's the one! Cheers warboss, still working on the ranking track, don't worry, haven't forgotten!
MacMuckles wrote:
Sorry if this is a little late for the lore lesson, but one thing I never understood was if Earth was Ancient Humanity's homeworld or did we get here after the activation of the Halo array?
Once again, Tyran knows his stuff, Earth was the original planet for humans, but it was called Erde Tyrene at that period. When we were reseeded we were put back onto our original planet but with genetic 'motivators' that would ensure we achieved FTL travel, Spartans with 'combat skins' and AIs
And now for the news! An article was posted by Ken Peters on Facebook and it's a great one, has an interview with Neil and some discussion about both the process behind fleet battles, and perhaps more excitingly, more Halo Ground Combat news! Will post the exert in a moment my friends!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Here's the relevant section, also, it answers several questions posed, mainly that they painted solo Spartan is indeed the Master Chief:
"But Fawcett isn't done yet. Right now, his team in Somerset, U.K. is creating the steel molds needed for Spartan Games' Halo-themed ground wars game. By the first half of 2016, he says, tabletop wargamers will be able to game the epic first-person battles that have made the Halo universe famous at the 1:100 scale.
The first prototypes, cast in dark gray resin, were on display in the spartan booth. Among them were UNSC tanks, Warthogs and the Master Chief himself, all painted up and ready for battle."
I am very excited about this release, I've been watching the small leaks here and there that have been shown to the public and I can say that Spartan games has done it again.
2 please!
2015/08/06 03:15:27
Subject: Re:Halo thread - New GenCon pics from Legoburner! First post and pg 14/15
japehlio wrote: Im a Spartan Vanguard, so I'll be going up to play/demo a few games of Firestorm Armada/Planetfall and Halo. Essentially building off the back of the interview Derek and Niel did with them the other week, they want to see it played and show it off.
As for rules, man but it is good. The way they have capped the exploding 6s is great, and feels natural too. Honestly I think I might implement that system into Firestorm, it's that good.
Damage is done well, movement is simple (no turning templates), shooting is just so smooth (for anyone familiar with FSA, the is no linking fire anymore, everything is just combined together)
One thing I really like is that boarding actions aren't a 'one and done' affair, they can continue over multiple turns, and have a real sense of attrition to them.
As for the Flood ships, I think you might be out of luck at this stage. The Flood are exceptionally gifted at utilising the tech of the host organisms, but they are no builders. The Flood have always utilised others' tech for interstellar transport and combat, even dating back to the Forerunner/Flood conflict. They don't have any organisms of sufficient biomass to form into a ship that size. Theorised Spoiler for the future of Halo:
. I picked up a Frontline Gaming 6'x4' space mat with that in mind, but was thinking 4'x4' could work for a smaller game?
If it's that square I'm going to have to send them a message because that seems unacceptable, how could you use the ship without it?
. Let us know how the first game test goes, too!
