Halo Flashpoint brings what used to be (and still might be, but there hasn’t been a Halo game for three years now, although I think one is imminent) the biggest title/series for the Xbox series of consoles. Only rivalled by the likes of Call of Duty or FIFA.

Over two decades old we now have a tactical miniatures game based on the Halo franchise called Halo Flashpoint by Mantic Games.

Previously the only real attempt to capture that chaotic multiplayer deathmatch style of gameplay from the fps video game genre was the rather fun Adrenaline. I’ve not played Adrenaline for a while but it did a pretty good job and was great fun.

There are initial two editions for Halo Flashpoint. A Recon edition and a Spartan edition.

After watching some YouTube unboxing videos I went with the more expensive Spartan edition.

I also ordered an extra set of player dice.

The Spartan edition gave me more minis, a better quality map board, some 3D printed bits. I also thought it gave me Master Chief.

But alas it did not. What the YouTube box openings didn’t say was the Master Chief mini was a pre-order bonus. They gave the impression that it was standard. I felt lied to. Mantic Games should have been on to them to get them to correct the record. It’s false advertising.

Anyway as the photos above show I got to play the learning game and a full blown game with Dave at the weekend.

Halo Flashpoint is based on the Deadzone miniatures game also by Mantic Games. Which to me means very little because I have never played Deadzone.

For me Mantic has done the “perfect” starter set(s). You have everything inside either box to learn and play together game. Not only that like Battletech these are starter sets a new player can purchase at their FLGS, open up the box there and within 20 minutes be playing the game. This sort of approach makes the hobby so much more approachable for noobs to miniatures gaming.

I also like that there is the starter scenario and one side of the thick paper map is for this with everything a new player needs printed on it. A very nice touch.

I like that players take turns activating a unit. Reminds me of Imperial Assault, but also Battletech.

Movement, range etc is super easy to understand. The game works around cubes (it’s a 3D game!) No need to measure stuff. I like the line of sight for determining if you can hit a target. The headshot or exploding die is fun. Roll an 8 (or 7 in certain circumstances) and you get to roll an additional die. Last game I played with this mechanic was The Others. It’s a fun experience rolling extra dice.

Combat is fairly straightforward with any modifiers increasing or decreasing the number of dice you roll. For example being crouched will give you extra dice to roll when firing a long range weapon. However if there is a friendly unit in the target cube you are firing into you lose a die.

In our second game using more of the rules like weapon drops, and team building we did have to look up keywords that got introduced by the new figures or weapons.

This is a fun skirmish game. Dave and I had a blast playing it.