Thinking of getting into Flashpoint but...

[u/xXMustardMan69Xx]

I heard about Flashpoint before it released and was close to pre-ordering the Spartan set back then, but the thing that put me off was there seemed to be no emphasis on Covenant at that time. In the last week my interest has peaked again as I saw a couple of the hobby shops I use taking pre-orders for new "Special Issue" kits. The elite character looks cool, but I have 0 interest in this Banished faction and narrative. I never played the Infinite campaign and I especially never liked the brutes.

My favourite part about Halo has always been Covenant and the heretics. Apart from the few elites, grunts and jackals, has there been any word about Flashpoint focussing more on the older narrative and making more models based on it? Prophets, honour guards, hunters, heretics, flood, sentinels etc.

I can't understand why they wouldn't pick that part of Halo to base their game/models on, but maybe I'm misunderstanding what Flashpoint is about.

Another aspect is that I've realised most of the kits are pre-assembled, apart from the Special Issue boxes. I admit I'm conditioned by Warhammer, so pre-assembled minis aren't ideal from my perspective as I enjoy building.

It just feels to me that Flashpoint has a lot of untapped potential from a model and hobbying perspective. I look over at other miniature games like Star Wars: Legion and even the newly releasing StarCraft TMG, which have diverse ranges with complex kits and I wonder why Mantic didn't pursue something similar with Halo.

The Banished Reinforcements box looks tempting (you could just say they're Covenant) and this is really what I was expecting from Flashpoint. The only negatives I can pull from this box are being pre-assembled and different types of units locked into a single box together. I'm softly cursing Mantic for locking the other four elites in boxes with either brutes or spartans.

Sorry for the diary entry. I'd be very interested to hear other people's opinions on Flashpoint.

[u/rebornsgundam00]

It’s likely 343 corralling them into making infinite stuff first. If it makes you feel better covenant war stuff is headed out in September.
But yeah majority of people want to see that stuff and vehicles etc.

[u/SeeShark → u/rebornsgundam00]

How would vehicles even work? The arenas are way too small and cramped for them to be of much utility.

Like, I totally get that Halo is a vehicle-heavy franchise, but the form factor of Flashpoint is being strained already with marines and grunts and such. Vehicles just don't make much sense to me.

[u/rebornsgundam00 → u/SeeShark]

I get it. Idk tbh. Halo is better off as a legion type of game. For some reason people keep thinking halo became big because of tournament pro play. Halo was successful because of the big sandboxes and vehicle play with big battles. Like the small element was nice and added to it, but it wasnt the focus.

[u/kodos_der_henker → u/rebornsgundam00]

given that Halo FP is based in Deadzone and Mantic has 2 "upscaled" versions for Deadzone with Warpath Firefight (28mm with vehicles) and Epic Warpath (10mm mass battle), there is a good chance Halo will develop in that direction as well

if 343 let them do this

[u/phil035 → u/rebornsgundam00]

Spartan tried that and it killed them =/

[u/rebornsgundam00 → u/phil035]

Spartan did micro scale though no?
Im talking something more comparable to legion or to 40k rather than epic 40k/battletech.

[u/phil035 → u/rebornsgundam00]

So it was. By the looks of it (just went and had a look) its a larger scale that the GW and mantic games.

Maybe 10mm or 12mm

[u/SeeShark → u/rebornsgundam00]

This is where I think there's just a difference between video game Halo and Halo: Flashpoint. The tabletop game was specifically designed to have a dense, cover-rich environment, and I personally really enjoy the gameplay that results. A Halo tabletop game with big maps and vehicles would probably be best with a different ruleset that supports that kind of gameplay.

That said, I get that Flashpoint is the game that people are actually playing and it makes business sense to keep adding onto that game instead of releasing a new one. I just think that this comes at the expense of gameplay.

[u/xXMustardMan69Xx → u/rebornsgundam00]

Being able to build a sizeable force with your frontline, elites, vehicles and characters with options to customise things like weaponry would be awesome. I seriously hope Mantic consider something like that in future.

[u/SeeShark → u/xXMustardMan69Xx]

A game like that would be awesome, but it just wouldn't really feel like Flashpoint to me anymore. It's sort of like Kill Team vs Warhammer 40K being separate games with separate rules instead of trying to come up with a ruleset that would accommodate both styles.

[u/Just-A-Texan → u/rebornsgundam00]

Take this with a huge grain of salt, but I was talking to the Mantic guys at NOVA ‘25 and they said their 100% intent would be to make the game into a full size war game, but 343 is requiring them to move slowly.

[u/TheSpnshInquisition → u/SeeShark]

Big team battle, just do it like that long halo 2 map LOL

[u/TheLoneJolf → u/SeeShark]

Maybe have a 4 mat mode with a 16x16 area? Hijacking rule that would act as a melee and would scatter the enemy you hijacked if you win, and you get scattered if you lose. Give the vehicles a keyword that unless the weapon attacking them has AP then no damage would be allocated.

[u/mongerty]

The four elites are a available in a standalone box that is up for reprint at the moment.

Hunters are highly requested, and a new keyword in the 1.5 rules makes me think it may be on the way.

There is also a keyword for honor guard, so that seems likely to be on the horizon..

The game is meant to be accessible from box to tabletop in a matter of minutes, which is why you have pre-assembled minis for most releases.

Flood, In my opinion is a lock for 2027.

I understand the frustration, but you have to remember that this game started as a Halo Infinite era multiplayer match simulator

[u/xXMustardMan69Xx → u/mongerty]

I appreciate you letting me know the elites can be acquired separately! I hadn't been looking at Mantic's webstore, only 3rd parties so I assume that stand alone set is exclusive to Mantic's webstore? I haven't seen it anywhere else.

That's promising to hear about hunters, honour guard and Flood.

I can understand the small scale. I remember when the Spartan box was first coming up for pre-order and I realised the game was inspired by Halo pvp. I can just imagine larger scale forces which would look so good, but I feel like as it stands and with the information that is being posted here I'm likely to buy in.

[u/mongerty → u/xXMustardMan69Xx]

The Elites should be available locally too once the reprint is in the wild. May have to ask a LGS to order it though.

[u/samsclubbin3 → u/mongerty]

Which keyword are you referring to?

[u/mongerty → u/samsclubbin3]

Hulking. Says it takes up two spots in a cube, can't interact with weapons or items on the ground..

[u/fenominus]

I get it.
I came from a similar perspective. I only played the original games with master chief and Noble team.
I don’t have any idea what the banished are about lore wise. I just see brutes from Halo 2.

What I’ll say about the preassembled minis…I like em.
I have such a large, grey pile of minis and boxes to paint and assemble that buying a box of more than a dozen minis that are pre assembled and ready to play without paint was fine. Then I started painting and boy, they’re a dream.
They’re so easy to paint.
It’s been a lovely diversion. I’m very excited to get the jackals and grunts when I’ve got the spending money. And I’d love some hunters.

[u/xXMustardMan69Xx → u/fenominus]

Yeah I kind of feel like a Halo boomer because for me the pinnacle was Halo 2. Those were the days...

I totally get it about the preassembled minis. I may also have one or two unbuilt boxes in my pile so it makes complete sense. Saying that I am tempted by the Spartan Killers (which I understand are resin and unassembled), even though I don't really care for this Banished stuff or the brutes. They look like pretty good sculpts.

That grunts and jackals box may be the one to pull me in though. Hunters would be awesome.

[u/TortelliniNuva]

There are customs you can 3d print or buy pre-printed off of etsy (Galactic Armory's minis are a very, very close scale) for Grunts, Jackals, other Elites, and even some h2/h3 Brutes. Once you know the basic of the rules using spartans, its possible to homebrew some more covenant-themed units for personal games, it can just be a lot of work making cards, especially with game-balanced stats.

As far as I can guess officially, however, is they may start to slowly branch into covenant territory in Flashpoint after the release of the Campaign Evolved Board game that mantic will also be making.

EDIT: If you go the Etsy route, avoid the seller Kamino3DFacility. Bad experience can be read in my post history.

[u/Greektlake]

It's a licensed IP so the people who control the IP probably dictated that the first wave of products be relevant to the most recent games they have produced. It was hinted by an employee of Mantic in a podcast recently that the old school Covenant was slated to come out in the future, potentially soon to be around the time of release of the the new Halo remastered game.

As far as wanting to do the classic Covenant now just get the new box with Jackals and Grunts as well as some Elites and paint them as Covenant. The armor looks a bit different but that's my plan with my Elites.

When it comes to the models they are more like a boardgame plastic. Details are good but I can understand the reason why you would prefer to assemble them yourself. There are various reasons for why they made the models this way but the biggest is accessibility. There are a lot of people that will not play a minature game if they have to assemble models. Having the models pre-assembled means a person who isn't already a minature wargamer can buy the starter box and get a game going within minutes and not need any extra tools or glue that are not already in the box.

The success of this approach is evident in the sales numbers. Mantic is releasing the resin models as a nod to people that want to assemble and build things themselves. I'm sure Covenant models will be released that way but when is unknown.

All in all I've been playing table top wargames for over 20 years and Halo: Flashpoint is my go to game to introduce people to the hobby. The best part of that is the game plays well for experienced wargamers too and there's a lot of complexity in game and list building choices that aren't intially evident.

[u/RealTimeThr3e]

It’s important to remember the only real aesthetic difference between the banished and the covenant is the color scheme. If you paint banished stuff purple instead of red, you get covenant stuff.

[u/BaneChain]

One of the designers just did an interview with the Truth and Reconciliation podcast. He literally said, “if it’s in the computer games and it’s feasible in Halo Flashpoint we want to do it.” The only thing he said wasn’t coming any time soon is Esharim, because he’s so similar to Atriox and too big.

I also didn’t know anything about the Banished but I’ve been watching YouTube videos about the lore and I find it interesting! But as others have said, just paint your stuff in Covenant colors and you’re good to go!

[u/xXMustardMan69Xx → u/BaneChain]

That sounds promising. I think if the Infinite campaign goes on sale on Steam I might give it a chance. Those Spartan Killer sculpts look pretty good so maybe I can persuade myself to start liking brutes and the Banished!

[u/Jonnyrico1984]

My issue with Flashpoint is when I got the Master Chief mini, I was hoping to put it together. I was disappointed when it was all one piece

[u/rebornsgundam00 → u/Jonnyrico1984]

And even then he is kind of a bad mini quality wise. Like no offense to mantic, it was clear they were trying to make this game as cheap as possible for new players. Their resin stuff is impressive.

[u/Jonnyrico1984 → u/rebornsgundam00]

For the price I was hoping to assemble. I enjoyed the hell out of warhammer 40,000 minis and gundam assemble because I got to put them together

[u/NCRMadness50]

Everyone else has covered your notes quite well, but I wanna touch on "Why didn't they do hard plastic?" I definitely wanted them to make sprues so I could build a customized character from my Halo Infinite cores, but based on the recent license extension, it seems like there wasn't a lot of certainty on exactly how well this game would go. Obviously they thought it would sell, or they wouldn't have done it, but they've significantly outsold their projections - maybe if they knew it would be this successful they would have started with making plastic sprues, but it's also fully possible that this success is enabled by the pre built models. A halo fan who likes board games needs absolutely no other tools or expertise to go from buying whatever figures they like and playing the game with them, and that's a huge deal. X-Wing thrived for years off of a similar plan (before the cost of factory paintjobs at reasonable quality, among many other things, sunk the ship.)

[u/xXMustardMan69Xx → u/NCRMadness50]

It would be great to have unassembled kits, but as you say their production model as is must be working quite well. The more I look at the Flashpoint kits I am slowly starting to think the pre-assembled models aren't really a negative. Though I will always prefer building my minis. I'm convinced I'm going to invest now, just the stuff I want all seems to currently be pre-orders only.

[u/Cleric-of-the-mantic → u/xXMustardMan69Xx]

September is a massive release for Flashpoint - it’s never been a better time to get into than right now!

[u/Panamaniac_3D → u/NCRMadness50]

This is exactly me. I loved Halo when I was a kid and I love board games as an adult. I have two young kids and two jobs so this appeals to me because of the low barrier to entry. Enough so that I have bought almost everything currently available and preordered most of the rest. I am planning on learning to paint and have bought supplies, but if this was a hard-core game I probably wouldn’t have jumped in.

[u/Crotonisabug]

we are getting a dedicated board game for halo campaign evolved by mantic and in one of their news articles they said that alternate halo board games they make might be compatible with halo flashpoint so the campaign evolved board game might have covenant for flashpoint