Yesterday Colin and I managed to get Halo Flashpoint to the table.

I had decided before that I would use the Rise of the Banished for my team. Friday had seen me open up the box for Rise of the Banished for the first time. I punched cardboard, assembled terrain, and started getting everything ready to take with me the next day. That’s when I discovered my War Games rules booklet was missing.

After a good look for it, it never showed up. I went to bed with that nagging in my head. The one where if I didn’t find it would see me ordering another copy of the expansion just to get it.

This was the second time this week to hit me. The previous occasion was for the Battletech Campaign rulebook. I just couldn’t find it. Plans were in place to buy another copy once funds next week allowed.

However I had a bit of good fortune on that front. While looking for the missing rules booklet I found the Battletech book plus Formaggio that I’d got from Charlene (that was inside the lid of a Halo box on the top of a shelf!).

The missing booklet really ate away at me and affected my sleep that night. More than once in the night I woke up thinking about where the booklet could be.

Yesterday morning I bought the pdf of the booklet. However that didn’t stop that mind itch that was slowly driving me made. I was most definitely going to be buying the expansion again.

The scenario we played was VIP from the Rise of the Banished included rulebook. Basically one of your team is the VIP you have to protect from the other team. Over eight rounds you only score points by eliminating the VIP, other deaths count for nothing. First to four points, or highest score at the end of the eighth round wins.

The map board and terrain were from the Rise of the Banished.

My team was basically three models I thought looked cool (the rule of cool that I used in our previous game). I treated the Atriox figure like the Master Chief one, counting for two figures. Which according to its card is the right thing to do when drafting.

Colin used a team of Spartans from his Recon/Spartan edition of the core game.

First blood was drawn by Colin when he took out my sniper in the first round. Leaving me with two brawlers. Luckily one had a single use grenade that I did use. Was that too early?

Round two saw me get some hits on his VIP, which paid off in round three with me scoring the first point of the game.

By the time we got to round seven Colin’s VIP had taken a lot of damage. It was an all or nothing moment. If I took out his VIP I’d win, a second point would mean Colin couldn’t draw or win. There wouldn’t be enough time with one round left.

In the end the pressure of sustained attacks on his VIP was too much and I was able to get in a killing blow to get the winning point.

Next time Colin and I are going to each build a 200 point team.

Some thoughts on Halo Flashpoint

So I have some thoughts on Halo Flashpoint on where it is and where I think it should be going.

Big box expansions: what isn’t clear from both of the two big box expansions is that you need a copy of either the Recon or Spartan edition of the game to use them. There needs to be clear labelling on the box. Otherwise I can see some disappointed kids getting the box and basically not being able to play the game. Mind you ideally I think these should also be standalone and contain everything to play the game. Especially the ODST expansion.

Team building: In the Recon/Spartan editions the only team building was restricted to drafting. Which was understandable. With the introduction of the War Games expansion points based team building was introduced. Making Halo Flashpoint more inline with other similar systems/games team building. I would like to see a unified, single points list as a pdf that isn’t the Mantic app. The nearest we have to this is the balancing update. But that doesn’t have the newest ODST on it. We’ll have to wait for the next update for their inclusion.

New ways to play: Rise of the Banished introduced a new way to play the game with Big Teams. A great addition to the game that I’m eager to try. I’ll write more on this once I’ve played a game.

Plastic terrain: I liked the UNSC scenery set. However the Banished scenery set was a bit underwhelming, lacking any of the bigger items present in the UNSC set. It felt over priced.

At the moment the only plastic terrain you can get is the Deluxe Buildable 3D Terrain set, and the Outpost 3D Terrain. Which mostly replaces the cardboard in the Recon/Spartan editions. I really would like to see this side catchup with the big boxes. It needs to.

Scenarios: I think Halo Flashpoint is crying out for a dedicated scenario booklet/book along the lines of those printed for Zombicide or Memoir ‘44 to name a couple that come to mind. I’d love to see the scenarios from all the expansions collected into one place also (not the Mantic app) in physical form. Sell me a pdf I can get printed. The convenience of not having to flick through different rule booklets to pick one to play would be worth it.

While I’m on this physical moan. I love that the OP scenarios are available in the Mantic app. But let me have them as a pdf please? I want a physical copy to use while setting up. It’s so much easier and convenient than having a phone out. Having that sheet on the table to refer to while playing for additional rules is not only handy but priceless.

I’d also like to see a campaign for Halo Flashpoint. If Battletech can do it with Battletech Alphastrike Aces, then why not Halo Flashpoint?

OP Kits: well done to Mantic on making these available to the public. I think this has helped grow the community. More companies should be doing this.

I think Mantic have done a great job with Halo Flashpoint in the first year. They have got a reasonable amount of content out to enable players to build a variety of teams, play on a varied board setup. And generally supported the game really well.

However 2026 has Mantic focused elsewhere with currently no new stuff announced for Halo Flashpoint. For the game to continue growing and players interested there needs to be regular new content. Even if it’s just one big expansion and two or three smaller ones spread out through the year. But a road map would be handy to. I’d also like to see the OP kits as part of the roadmap with new prize support.

Anyway I’m off to build my team.

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.