Do you love Halo but ran out of content to play on your Xbox (or PC)? Do you enjoy wargaming? So you enjoy painting high quality miniatures? If you answered yes to any of those questions then you need to play Halo: Flashpoint.
In Halo: Flashpoint Spartan Edition, you take control of a team of Spartans or Elites (though there are also different teams available with expansions). Your team will consist of 3-4 models and you will move, hit, sprint, crouch, take cover and shoot your way to victory. Gameplay is very simple, but it takes a few turns to get into the flow. The first thing about this game that differs from Warhammer (arguably the biggest and most well known war game), is that you don’t need a tape measurer. Movement is akin to board game movement, with a gridded play mat that defines where you go and defines distance. Moving is measured in these “cubes” and your models can move a certain number of “cubes” defined by their character cards and stats. Cubes are the way in which your character can move orthogonally, diagonally, and up and down. The maps you play on are modular and can be changed in any way you and your opponent agree to before the game starts. You can climb on terrain and you do not need to have special rules on how movement works when climbing. It’s as simple as asking yourself, are there any obstacles completely blocking the path from A to B?
These obstacles can also help protect your team from fire. While you are in a cube, you can place your model in such a way that they have protection and they can still shoot at enemy models. This makes the game extremely straightforward to calculate shooting and movement distances. As long as your model stays mostly within the cube it still counts as being in that space in terms of calculating distance. It’s as simple as shooting range of 2 means you can shoot a distance of 2 spaces away in any direction. No more tape measurers or rulers. We found it infinitely faster to take your turns and the terrain stayed in place without having to worry about moving things out of the way.
Models each have their own stat cards and starting weapons. They may have better stats for movement but start with a short range weapon, or they may have stronger overshields but less armor. A standard game plays with 4 vs 4 models but there is nothing that says you can’t do 2 vs 2 or 3 vs 3. The game also has a drafting system where players each take turns choosing a model until a full team is assembled. For more well-defined and balanced games, you can visit the Mantic Games’ website where each model has defined points to place every team on more equal footing. We felt as though the game plays well with either system, though we played the game more casually and would imagine that for tournament settings, you should use the point system.
The game emulates the video game logic with the use of overshields as well. Should you get injured, the first thing to take a hit will be your shields (defined by your model) and they are represented by tokens that are flipped to show they are depleted. These shields are replenished at the end of the round, after all the models are activated. Should your shields already be depleted, you still have armor (you are in a giant cybernetic armored suit after all), and it will serve as a buffer between your actual health points. There are weapons that ignore this stat by having the description of “armor piercing.” Armor piercing weapons go immediately for the health points after shields are depleted and are essentially extra lethal. Weapons have a lot of fun extra abilities such as knock back, energy shield depletion and lethal effects.
Flashpoint does an amazing job of keeping the “feel” of the video game by allowing respawns. After a model gets killed, they are allowed to respawn at certain locations just like in the video game. New weapons are also added to the map between rounds, ensuring that the game doesn’t get stale with the same weapons. To top it all off, the game can also be played in a variety of ways from the simple Slayer to Oddball. These are the same games you can play in the video game version and it translates surprisingly well to the tabletop. Running away while you are holding the skull is just as fun in Flashpoint as it is online.
Was this game sent for review or self-purchased?: Self purchased
In two sentences, what do you do in the game: Take control of a team of Spartans (or Elites) and fight your opponents to win the scenario. It is a very fast-paced strategy game where model placement matters but is easy to define.
Have we played any other titles by this publisher?: No, but they have a great collection of miniature games as well as board games.
What was surprising about this title: The game does a very good job of emulating the video game and it almost feels like you are playing the video game. It also boasts a lot of ways to play, like oddball or capture the flag, and really pushes that point hard.
Game length: 45-90 minutes. You can set the win conditions for any of the scenarios, such as the number of kills for Slayer, making the game as long or short as you want.
Language Barrier Playability: Surprisingly, moderate. As long as you don’t mind translating a bit of the weapons for your opponent, the game is mostly remembering the base rules. You may have to translate abilities as well but as long as you have the rulebook nearby a quick translation is easy to do.
Artwork: Excellent. The artwork on the cards and map is well done and the models look beautiful. This is definitely a game that is a love letter to the source material.
Quality: Amazing. Everything from the miniatures to the booklet is very well made and durable. There was some fraying with the edges on the terrain but with cardboard components, that risk is always there.
How likely is this to return to the game table?: Extremely likely. This is definitely a game that has a lot of replay value, especially if you are a fan of the video game franchise.
Strategy: Moderate. It’s a fun game to really think about but it’s just as fun to quickly follow your instincts and see what happens.
Instruction Manual: Well made. For being a pretty dense game, the rules are easy to follow. There is also a series of YouTube videos from Mantic Games that teaches you the rules fairly quickly if you don’t want to read the book.
Organization: Great. The models, cards, and dice all have designated slots in the box. The terrain is not very well organized and is basically dumped into a large slot and the tokens have absolutely no organization and are very similar in size.
Final thoughts: This is a game you should pick up if you enjoy Halo. Period. It brings the full Halo experience to the table with exciting lore and action. If you are a fan of war gaming, then this is also a great option as it offers premade minis and it gives you a fast paced skirmish style game. The models are fun to paint as well so if that’s your goal, this is a great option (especially at this price point). The Spartan Edition also offers a FULL gaming experience (as does the Recon Edition). I think we all know that there are other popular war games that have introductory sets that aren’t a “full” gaming option and that require more purchases for the complete experience. It is a game that we will definitely be playing repeatedly for a while.
Sushiball Games 