Category Archives: Halo Flashpoint

My last gaming of 2024?

Fenland Gamers, Game day, game night, Halo Flashpoint

I think that possibly this weekend saw my last gaming of 2024.

This time of year just so happens to be the busiest time of the year for those working in retail.

Which is why after Tuesday I am working 7 days straight without a break. Not only that but for 5 of those days I’m starting an hour earlier (5am) but also finishing an hour earlier (midday).

But on the plus side once I step outside of work Christmas Eve I’m off until the 8th January. Yeah a nice break.

With that earlier start I won’t be making the lcg/ccg/tcg evening Tuesday. Not the “get it to the table” night next Friday. I need to be getting to sleep a bit earlier than I usually do. Which makes evening gaming not an option. Or I could but I’d be shattered the next day.

This past Friday was the regular club game night. Although the discord event only showed 4 interested we ended up with 9 attending. So one of the better attended club nights of recent weeks.

We split into 3 tables of 3.

On my table we started off with a game of Ra.

I do like this auction, push your luck, set collection game. That’s why I backed the last kickstarter to get the Ra Traders expansion. Which I’m looking forward to adding to the game once it comes out.

Luckily I won this game of Ra.

Next we followed up with a couple of games of Cubed: Next Level Dominoes.

This was Colin’s game.

Yes it’s dominoes like but with colours and height involved when placing your tile. But in reality when playing I did not think dominoes.

It was fun, and the player with the lowest score at the end wins. How do you score? Each tile you are left with at the end is worth points depending on number of colours on it.

I didn’t win either of the two games we played.

Our final game of the evening was Splendor Pokémon.

Once again the losing streak continues. I was one more turn away from grasping victory when Colin triggered the end of the game with 18 points. My next turn if I’d had a chance to take it would have netted me 7 points and a total of 20 points. But alas I never got to pull off my power play.

Master Chief broken?

Saturday saw Dave and me playing Halo Flashpoint.

Our first game was a capture the flag game. I had the newly arrived Master Chief on my squad.

This game had a maximum of 8 rounds. With the highest score winning if neither player got to 3 points first. Which I won by a single point. And that was because I actually captured the flag and got it back to a scoring zone in the last round.

Our second game was using the oddball scenario. This is a 6 round game with the winner at the end with the highest score winning, or the first to 11 points.

Dave had Master Chief on his squad for this game.

Once Dave claimed the oddball with Master Chief it was nigh on impossible to get the oddball back.

Master Chief is sooo hard to take down.

I think he’s too powerful. That or I was rolling badly against him.

Definitely for organised play (coming early next year) he needs banning. Without the figure being easily obtainable he is just too much of an advantage to those that got him as the pre-order reward or in the limited supply paint kit.

With the points racking up fast with the oddball in Master Chiefs hands it was an easy victory for Dave.

So that was possibly my last bit of gaming for 2024.

Halo Flashpoint: FPS Multiplayer on the tabletop

Halo Flashpoint

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.