Setting:Halo

This is a /v/ related article, which we tolerate because it's relevant and/or popular on /tg/... or we just can't be bothered to delete it.

Halo AKA Marathon's more popular brother is a vidyagame series exclusively released for the ECKSBAWKS, ECKSBAWKS 360, ECKSBAWKS JUAN, SECKSBAWKS and PC. The series was developed by Bungie, though Microsoft has bought the rights to the game. The Halo universe is pretty massive, with all sorts of media ranging from video games and graphic novels to action figures and a series of short movies released to DVD. It became famous for being the game that saved ECKSBAWKS from doing an Atari Jaguar by identifying an untapped new market of loud, stupid fratboys, and was the only reason anyone would even want to buy an ECKSBAWKS console.

Welcome to the beginning of where it all began. Say floating lightbulb, do you have time to listen to the one and true savior, the Precursors?

Because of its innovative controls and game mechanics (button for melee and grenades, rechargeable health, refined online console multiplayer, popularizing console FPS controls as the gold standard, having drivable vehicles in a FPS that didn't suck ass, kickass music, an intriguing plot, a limited weapon carrying capacity, etc), Halo has often been seen as part of the Holy Trinity of First Person Shooters, tied with Golden Eye and Half-Life as being one of the most important video games in history; with Doom, Quake, Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem 3D and Marathon being seen as the 'Original Old Guards of First Person Shooters'.

Occasionally it breaks away from the generic sci-fi pattern and explores a more fatalistic and human side to the story without having to suck Master Chief's dick or obsess over ancient alien technology every three seconds, and is generally regarded as being about ten times better and more mature for it. Unfortunately, within the games, this lasted a grand total of one game before 343 Industries acquired the license. Within the books, there are many wonderful examples otherwise, and the plot of Halo 4 can only be completely understood by reading the books from the series that begins with Glasslands. Halo Silentium by Greg Bear is also a necessary read to really understand how many times the Forerunners screw up, be it their own society or another species, or the entire galaxy, and the true nature and intent of the Flood. The character development of the Librarian and the Didact also makes this quite a fun read. If you're into books, that is. It should also be noted that Halo is to be commended for abstracting Larry Niven's Ring World, but since no one reads older books that don't have pew pews on the cover, how would a mangled regurgitation of IP be recognized when you pull from obscure sauces.

/tg/ isn't big on Halo and topics pertaining to Halo will normally be saged, trolled, told to go to /v/, or some combination therein. On /v/ however, Halo is... still widely hated. Then again, /v/ hates video games in general. The hatred of /tg/ comes less from the actual game/gameplay, and more from it being off-topic and a few fanboys being asshats. Though this also may be due to the fact Halo fans have Cortana to fap to while fa/tg/uys are stuck with fapping to the Emprah HERESY!WORT WORT WORT! *GLASSED*

Like Warhammer 40k the state of Halo's fluff has been in limbo, while Halo may have fucking spectacular authors on the line of Greg Bear (May he rest in peace) and Eric Nylund (and more recently Troy Denning) it also has its fair share of colossal fuck ups in the line of Brian Reed (who some believe to be the series equivalent of The Beast Himself) and Karen Traviss. Don't even get us started with the advent of 343i and their mixed bag success on the Reclaimer saga as well as Halo's more...questionable marketing campaigns. Ironically, while the more recent games has been bait for flamewars that will send any respectable forum thread into lock down, even off 4chan, Halo's transition to tabletop gaming after some failed attempts like Halo Actionclix (Which is a shame cause while the game rules sucked, the models was in such high quality that it even outshines some high priced models from Forgeworld) has been more positively received, what with the fact that hardcore Haloites now need to use their brains and that the new mini models are quite nicely detailed.

It is worth noting that Halo ever since its inception of its sequel, Halo 2, has been a proud sponsor of every Neckbeards elixir of life that is....Mountain Dew, as well as the other sacred food item of Doritos. So don't be surprise when you see Mountain Dew and Doritos advertisement being shoved down your face whenever you want to buy any merchandise from Halo. Trying to say anything bad on these food products made from diabetes, sugar, acid and Ork piss is Halo's equivalent of Heresy, you have been warned.

Halo as previously mentioned has a bloody massive universe (multiverse?) encompassing not only games, but also short films (Both live action and animated), music (One of the first vidya games whose soundtrack was good enough to earn multiple awards by itself), tabletop games, merchandises, mega block toys, figurines, nerf guns and even animu. Much like 40K there are 3 major fan wikis: Halopedia, Halo Nation (combined into Halopedia with the rest transforming into Halo Alpha) and Gruntipedia; and much like 40K they fall into the respective archetypes of 'obsessively detailed fan wiki', 'ad-ridden Wikia knockoff' and '1d4chan with even worse humour and fan rage'. Although Gruntipedia can be excused for being a product of the early 2000s Internet shitposting era, so a time capsule if you will.

Setting

The Forerunner symbol for Reclaimer. This symbol is a special Easter egg to an even older Bungie game. Yes it looks like the Tau symbol but predates it by almost a decade. Games Workshop proving once again that they are a bunch of sleazy and ballsy motherfuckers.

The Halo universe takes place in the 26th century. Mankind, led by the United Nations Space Command (UNSC), has developed its own crude faster-than-light drive (the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine) and finally colonized other worlds. At its height, human civilization occupies nearly 800 planets, forming a ring of outer colonies and rings of inner colonies with Earth as its capital. This is not what they're talking about when they say Halo, mind you.

Sometime in the year 2525, an agricultural world in the outer colonies, creatively named Harvest, is attacked by an unknown force. In the succeeding months, all attempts to make contact, or even defend against the alien forces are met with swift destruction. It is not long before more colonies are wiped out.

The unknown menace finally identifies itself as the Covenant, a coalition of several alien races bent on destroying humanity. At first they seem to be doing this because that's just what aliens do, but later on it is discovered that the story is somewhat deeper. Apparently, thanks to the revelations of the Reclaimer Saga, humans were once an ancient, super advanced, totalitarian, bigoted, expansionist, racist, supremacist, violent, militaristic, war-mongering, nightmare of an empire, like a way less competent junior version of the Great Crusade. All were fine and dandy when the Flood came out of fucking nowhere (Long story short, they came about when the humans kept forcing their pets to sniff some powder from an ancient, mysterious ship, what could go wrong?) which forced the humans to take a page out of Kryptman's playbook and invade into Forerunner territory as they were trying to save the galaxy from the Flood. The Forerunners not taking into the whole "I destroy your planets and exterminate your civilians out of benign and superficial reasons" promptly kicked the humans in the galactic nuts, stripped of their technology and de-evolved them back into caveman. So in short, Mankind in Halo basically were what Eldar are in 40k (Without "blasted into a stoneage part). Later, the Forerunners ended up getting nommed by the Flood in the most ridiculous OCP way possible and found out how they fucked up so bad when one of them found out that the ancient humans once had the solution against the Flood (Later claimed to be just an elaborate hoax to fool the Forerunners by the Flood, though the one making this claim was also the Flood's Big Bad Evil Guy, who at the time was speaking to a wavering, demoralized Forerunner leader, so about as trustworthy as the Chaos Gods promising to give an unbiased view of the Emperor) that they had to super-irradiate the known galaxy just to kill most of the Flood. Oh, and they also named the humans their Reclaimers as their way of saying sorry for turning them into cavemen and telling them to finish their job, fucking Forerunners.

This made the Covenant, or more specifically the Prophets kinda jealous, because it was them who first discovered the Forerunner technology, adapted it to their own, and finally started worshiping the Forerunners. Apparently, knowing that your gods had a favorite, finding out that it isn't you, and finding out that it's instead the species that invented truck nuts upset them just a little. So, back to glassing. It's not long before the UNSC military, and humanity itself, finds out that it is being pwned. Clearly the only solution to this would be a ridiculously tiny unit of infantry with clever armor named in allcaps. This leads to the SPARTAN-II program, (SPARTAN:s were created to fight against human insurrectionists but happened to be extremely effective against the Covenant as well, and active just in time for them to come around too) humanity's last hope (thirty three men and women to defend eight hundred planets, lolwat?), thirty-three super soldiers, divided into teams 3 or 4, and sent as force multipliers to assist the UNSC's beleaguered marines and mechanized divisions. Though not as a defensive planetary force (the UNSC having lost a large chunk of those 800 worlds early in the war), but as an offensive special ops unit, infiltrating behind enemy lines, assassinating commanders, and disrupting the Covenant's supply chain; doing the suicide jobs that others could not, slowing down or in some cases halting Covenant military build-up before it can launch further devastating attacks on the humanity. At exceedingly great resource cost and high lost of life, the UNSC together with the Spartans gradually turn the tide of the war (more along the lines of slowly and painfully pushing the Covenant's genocidal murder-boner from balls deep within humanity's asshole to a mere 3/4ths.)

To end the war once and for all, humanity enacts a desperate plan: They would send a specially refitted ship (the Pillar of Autumn) along with Spartan contingent deep behind enemy lines and attempt to capture one of the Prophets (the select group of religious leaders that form the highest caste of the Covenant). But as usual, it all goes horribly wrong before it can even begin. The UNSC's fortress-world of Reach, and unofficially the Spartans' homeworld, is discovered by the Covenant. Next to Earth, Reach is the most heavily defended world in Human space. It falls in a matter of days, as the Covenant brings nearly a third of its entire fleet to lay siege over the planet. As Reach's defenses wither away, the Covenant simply brings in more reinforcements. Few escape the doomed Battle of Reach, but one of the ships that manages make it out of the system in time is the Pillar of Autumn. Aboard is a single battle-ready Spartan II (plus another comatose one, but she doesn't count), suspended in cryostasis. Yet, that is where the story truly begins, for the Autumn blindly jumps right into a heavily-guarded star system containing a Halo; a colossal ring-world, hundreds of kilometers in diameter, built millions of years ago by the Forerunners, worshiped by the Covenant as an ancient artifact of unimaginable power, and which would totally never ever turn out to be a super-weapon for super-killing the flood. The Pillar of Autumn's fate and that of the Halo, becomes the setting of the original HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED game.

And it only gets more nuts from there.

• 

  Never knew Eternity from Marvel payed a visit to Halo...

• 

  One of the most iconic sci-fi architecture in video game history. One part bonsai garden. One part galactic WMD.

• 

  We are ONI. We have the power to make you 'disappear'. We have the power to turn the public against you. We have the power to erase you from existence. We will be watching. Always.

• 

  BRODST

On /tg/

While as mentioned that Halo has been proven skubtastic over the years on /tg/, the recent surge in popularity among tabletop has garnered a niche within /tg/ community. That and the fact of a billion fandex for either the Covenant, UNSC or Forerunners as well as fanfiction that ranges from okay to literal bait for fan wars.

It no longer has the ire it once had due to most of the annoying asshats migrating to COD and Battlefield as well as the fact that some of the squeakers that used to inhabit the Halo community has since matured into adults by now. Halo nowadays has been seen as...okay.

One thing of note is a massive backlash even for the casual TG fan about the changing Halo artstyle. While this might get dismissed by many since style changes are extremely common in franchises and often hated regardless of context, Halo 5 (and ESPECIALLY Halo Infinite) have pretty much dedicated themselves to turn unique and interesting designs (especially for human stuff) into the most generic run of the mill boring pieces of hardware not out of place in a COD game. Basically style change is like redecorating your house, and 343 is just slathering everything in beige. Bringing up the style change is seen as MASSIVE skub between those who loath it and those who, from the previous assumptions, assume it's just fanboys complaining.

The TV Show

Eight years after being announced, Paramount+ has released their own spin on the Halo series in TV form, likely in part out of envy for Disney having their own streaming show set in a beloved space setting. Unlike the various books and comics that preceded it, which are supposed to exist in the same universe as the video games everyone knows, the show is in its own canon, officially called the "Silver Timeline" in reference to Master Chief leading a SPARTAN team called "Silver Team". Was drawing concern and derision even before release (as that's how these things tend to go nowadays), and has only continued its status as grade-A skub from there. Among the things folks have taken issue with are:

• The writers admitting that they didn't look at any of the games, leading to the sense that they didn't respect/know the source material enough. One such example is that they turned Oban, a UNSC research facility, into a garbage planet with child slaves in order to drive home their “UNSC is eeeeeeevil” plot line. To be fair, the UNSC got up to some dirty stuff in the main timeline, but this harsher portrayal even extends to the fan-favorite Jacob Keyes, who is much more of an authoritarian jerk than he is in canon. Basically, there's the sense that the show is overdoing it as far as highlighting the UNSC's flaws.
• The very same showrunners quit after Season 1 wrapped, long before the show even aired. That's never a good sign.
• CGI and special effects of questionable quality; clearly unfinished props/effects have made it into the final cut without any editors noticing.
• That it's not a straight adaptation of the video games or novels; fans would’ve made allowances for changes here and there, and the Halo universe is big enough that one can tell original stories while still being true to the lore. Some have taken to it as its own thing, but others feel its a generic sci-fi story with the Halo brand slapped on top (worth noting that this view isn't just held by salty neckbeards either; some critics have also found the show's tone and writing to be somewhat derivative, taking more cues from The Expanse than from Halo. Even Halo Co-Creator Marcus Lehto complained the show was nothing like what he made.). For starters, they've already spoiled the big twist about the Halo rings being weapons (which the Covenant shouldn't know, much less the UNSC) long before Reach has even fallen. Seems that the directors have chosen to discard the drama of the world and the war, in favor of manufactured interpersonal drama and political intrigue. Because that's what people got into Halo for.
• Master Chief shows his face in the very first episode, which for most Halo neckbeards is pure Heresy; then they somehow manage to top it by showing us his naked ass. Hence, he has since earned the nickname Master Cheeks, which is particularly apt when the showrunners decided to give him a sex scene with Covenant Lady because reasons.
• Humans working for the Covenant, which completely undermines the Covenant’s motivations in starting the war with humanity; regardless of whatever justifications the show gives, the whole reason for the Covenant's genocide of humanity is to cover up the fact that forerunner tech marks humans as Forerunners, so having a human in their capital would make said cover up damn near impossible. The show's given justification is that only a few humans (of which the Covenant's Blessed One is one), can access and interact with Forerunner tech, so her status is more valuable. Needless to say, many Halo fans were still not impressed
• Giving Master Chief a young teenage girl sidekick with zero connection to the original lore; some feared that she is set up to replace Master Chief in his own show. A somewhat less cynical interpretation is that she's meant to be the Baby Yoda/Grogu to Master Chief's Mando. Instead, she's been given her own storyline involving the insurrection, which was just a footnote in Halo lore by the time of the covenant war. Fans aren't on board with her character as she lacks charisma and the insurrection plot is basically just a retread of The Expanse more than anything that feels like authentic Halo, and of the various plot threads its the one that has the least reason to be in the show and could have probably been removed without changing much.
• Related to the above, you may be wondering why Cortana isn’t initially with Master Chief. They decided to completely change her into a fully-grown clone of Halsey that Halsey kills to make Cortana rather than just a brain scanned AI, give her some tacked on existential angst, and rewrite AIs so that they control SPARTANs outright instead of being assistants. Chief and Cortana's relationship is also far from what it was in the games, with Chief being annoyed at Cortana rather than the two sharing a close bond; Chief even outright cuckholds her in front of her eyes with the covenant spy. I guess Master Cheeks prefers 3D to 2D. Season 1 ends with Chief apparently dead, with Cortana basically taking over his body. So it wasn't Kwan who ended up replacing John - the big twist is it was Cortana.
• Forerunner Keystones have an awful tendency of being incredibly convenient to whatever the plot demands at the time, whether its allowing a character to escape, revealing character backstories, or becoming the big macguffin revealing where to find the Halo rings. What's next, turning Cortana into a real girl?
• While the fight scenes so far have been alright...there haven't been that many of them. You can count the number of fights Master Chief has been in on one hand. The fights themselves also have a problem with consistency in terms of power balance; we first see the Elites as nigh-invulnerable to small arms fire and a minigun, but in the same scene when Master Chief shows up, that same minigun takes down Elites quite easily, no problem.
• Sgt. Johnson is a complete No-Show. Which is really strange, given that the show has already chosen to race-swap a number of characters while ignoring the most popular and well-loved black character in the whole series.

Not all of the fan buzz has been negative (it definitely hasn't done any worse for itself than the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy did in terms of backlash), and some things have gone over well enough:

• Pablo Schreiber's performance as Master Chief has been (mostly) well received. It helps that he is apparently playing his way through the franchise to learn his role.
• Spotty special effects aside, action scenes convey that the SPARTANs are one-man army badasses and also don't hold back on the blood and gore
• Jen Taylor is voicing Cortana again
• The new SPARTANs. It helps that two of them (Soren and Vannak) feel in some ways more like the game/book Master Chief than the Silver Timeline one does.

The series has basically become The Rise of Skywalker of video game adaptations, which is one hell of a feat. Dumpster fire does not cut it out, it is more akin to the Firebombing of Tokyo in terms of how much the adaptation shat on the franchise. This is like, CS Goto's levels of horrid fan-fic; the Shyamalana-ding-dong of cringy adaptations if you will. The most hardened of Halo fans would understandably get a brain aneurysm if they hear this within ear shot, but more casual or oldschool fans just found the adaptation to range from "So bad its good" to "So boring its meh". Either way, it no doubt helps Paramount+ that this show is its own canon, making it easier to ignore if you're not a fan, and giving them more freedom to muck up the lore do their own thing with the franchise.

Codex: The Covenant

Surprisingly, Halo Actionclix figures make good Tabletop conversions for the Covenant, here seen a Scarab that looks like it could fit comfortably in the Apocalypse Game-type.

A bunch of people decided that the Covenant's tech and machines are pretty nice in a WH40K setting So "Codex - The Covenant" was made to implement them into the tabletop game.

Furthermore on the context on Halo; The Convenant is a militarized theocracy made up of different alien species, with each belonging to its own caste, and all of them are all sorts of killy in a variety of ways. Their MO is to track down the remnants of the Forerunner's legacy in their quest to ascend to Godhood, and destroy anyone who stands in their way. While we can't vouch for how they'd fair against other alien factions, they're certainly lethal against the average human soldier. From the top down;

• Prophets: The theocrats who call all the shots. While generally too frail for combat, they're the master manipulators and horde all the forerunner technology. They're also indirectly responsible for virtually all deaths in the war against the UNSC, since they started the war as basically a giant cover-up and means to stay in power. They also like to play the different races against each other for their own ends. If you see one on the battlefield, expect to see lots of heavily-armed bodyguards and some really strong personal defense systems to boot.
• Elites: Space Lizardmen with Lightsabers that shout WORT WORT WORT. Come from a proud warrior race and were the first race to be subjugated by the Prophets. They still form the top of the military hierarchy and are quite dangerous, wielding personal shields and many of the best weapons that the Covenant has to offer, as well as having many brilliant tacticians at their disposal.
• Hunters: Colonies of Killer Death Worms inside of suits of armor and armed with nuclear radiation cannons. Its not an exaggeration to call these guys living tanks. These same worms are also used to power Scarabs and other super-heavy walkers.
• Brutes: Killer Wookies with Metal Shanks that go OMNOMNOM. Also a proud warrior race but far more zealous and unthinking than the Elites, they fight in packs and go berserk when you kill one of their pack-mates. Unlike the Elites who care about giving their opponents an honorable death, Brutes simply kill for the pleasure of it. They like to use their own weapons that have Choppy bayonets while being more Dakka and Boomy than your average plasma rifle. In the Covenant's final years, the prophets decided to replace the Elites with the Brutes because the Elites were too independent and started asking too many questions after the Halo rings were discovered.
• Jackals: Space Pirate Turkeys that also go OMNOMNOM. Just barely above cannon fodder, they're typically deployed as light infantry or sniper support. They're the least zealous race and act more as mercenaries in different capacities.
• Grunts: Hairless Ewoks strapped to methane-filled tanks. The smallest and weakest race, and usually the most cowardly, as they tend to panic once their squad leader is killed. It's not unheard of though for some to go kamikaze and run at you with primed grenades. They tend to be the butt of a lot of jokes, until you realize just how badly the Covenant oppresses them and how they really don't want to be there.
• Drones: Flying bug-people that attack in large numbers. Not very intelligent, but they comply with the Covenant as they've been raised to think of the prophets as their hive queen.
• Engineers: Biomechanical floating tentacle monsters. Created by the forerunners to maintain their tech before they were enslaved by the Covenant. Engineers are fairly docile, but they're forced to wear suicide vests to prevent their capture.

Codex: The Banished

Hey! You know how the Covenant has proven to be popular among WH40K/Halo conversions? Now we have a new Codex to represent the Covenant's worst foe. Akin to the Heretics that plague the IoM. Codex - The Banished offers a different take on how the Brutes can be played with its own unique heroes, vehicles and units.

To give a short and nice summary on what the Banished are, they are a large group of separatist forces lead by a Brute Warlord called Atriox; whereas most Brutes channeled their extreme violence in service to their dogmatic faith, while undermining their Elite rivals on the sly, Atriox was far less subtle about his hatred for the Covenant and its caste system. Unlike other separatist and heretical forces that plagued the Covenant Empire, the Banished stood their ground and weathered Covenant attacks until they amassed enough troops and equipment to rival and even stop the Covenant military in their tracks. In Halo Canon, they successfully outlasted both the Covenant and its various remnant factions, gathering troops and wargear with careful deliberation, much unlike the various demagogues and megalomaniacs who seized power in the political vacuum like Jul 'Mdama. And while they use most of the Covenants existing arsenal, much of it is heavily modified to suit the Brute's needs (and aesthetics), including a complete refit of Covenant Scarabs into offensive powerhouses. They are the only few polities capable of standing up to the Covenant and the only one capable of driving off an entire Covenant armada. Atriox's tactical and cunning brilliance has sowed intimidation and respect to not only the Covenant but to the Covenant's loyalist Brutes. Atriox's leadership despite the size of his army is not to be underestimated.

Halo Actionclix

A while back during its heyday, Actionclix made a deal with Microsoft and Bungie at the time to create an Actionclix game based on the Haloverse. While the models were extremely well detailed and well crafted, its high pricing for the models and its overall clusterfuck of its rules has made Halo Actionclix a somewhat lackluster experience.

This led to a initial surge in popularity with the idea of future tabletop games based around the universe (Read below on Halo Fleet Battles and Ground Command), however like Halo Risk. The initial popularity died down quickly once the rules was read since you know, during that era (Halo 3), the main target audience was kids and teenagers who have zero to little clue on how to play an Actionclix game.

This has in turn, force Halo Actionclix to have a relatively short lifespan and the models have thus turned into a collectors item for display and collecting dust.

Halo Fleet Battles and Ground Command

Halo Fleet Battles starter package. Yes we know, that is a whole lot of ships.

With the introduction of Halo Fleet Battles which is essentially Halo's take on Battlefleet Gothic, that is centered around the Fall of Reach which is like the biggest naval combat within the Covenant-UNSC fluff, some fa/tg/uys has apparently lost their collective shit due to the fact that this is the first time that Halo is getting a tabletop treatment (The Risk and Actionclix games although the models are nice, does not really count). Similar to most tabletop miniatures, the models coming with Halo Fleet Battles and its contemporary ground units comes unpainted which means you have to paint all the neely-willy details yourself, that and the fact that it comes with its own rulebook and stats has garnered /tg/'s approval. In fact, some has already decided to convert the models and place it within Battlefleet Gothic itself (Although how you will be able to adjust the rules to make it fair is going to be a nightmare). All models are Finecast, make that of what you will.

Both Fleet Battles and Ground Command are made by Spartan Games. Overall, Spartan Games are much more reasonably priced than the models made from Games Workshop. Seriously for the Covenant set you are getting 6 Highly-detailed Plastic Ship Models, 1 Formation Base Sprue (4 Bases in all), 1 Ship Overlay Sheet (6 Ship Overlays), 2 Token Sheets, 1 Statistics Sheet and 1 Assembly Guide for (US)$35.94 whereas the UNSC gets 2 Epoch Heavy Carriers, 6 Paris Class Frigates, 2 heavy sprue, 1 flight stand base, 1 overlay sheet and 1 assembly guide for $32.5, that is like cheaper than GeeDub's $66.55 pricing for only 5 Terminator models. Tl;dr you can literally buy two entire Covenant or UNSC fleets for the price of a single Termie Squad. Whether these tabletop games may boost Spartan Games to become GeeDubs rival is unknown. But what is known is the fact that Halo is owned by Microsoft which is a company that dwarfs GeeDubs in both money and influence. So in a rare hypothesis that GeeDubs think their high and mighty and goes on their copyright abuse that forced other smaller model companies to close down and have set their cross hairs on Spartan Games and more specifically the Halo license...as the old saying goes...there is always a bigger fish. Seriously, it could be seen from Spartan Games perspective as a blessing of sorts as unlike poor ChapterHouse Studios who was sued by GW, the backing of Microsoft puts some immunity for Spartan Games. That and Microsoft in all honesty, has the power and influence to bully the bully if Games Workshop decides to get uppity when Spartan Games release the models for the Covenant Prophets which look similar to the Tau Ethereal; that or Microsoft can just tell them to fuck off and bite the pillow.

Unfortunately, as of August 2017, Spartan Games have officially announced its closure and shutdown. Because of this, the state of Fleet Battles and Ground Command is in limbo and that any further purchases of their models is only available either from eBay or second hand manufacturers. However, 343i did say they will look towards the care of this, so all hope is not lost!

Fleet Battles

A CAS Assault Carrier plays hide and seek with a vastly out-gunned UNSC battlegroup.

Main Article: Halo Fleet Battles

The Fleet Battles set comes with some kickass artwork depicting both factions leaders (Shame they didn't have Halo's answer to Creed that is Preston "I turned a Gas Giant into a fucking star just so I can stroke my massive ego" Cole) sitting on their respective armchairs. Although how they are going to balance the UNSC/Covenant (Since Covenant ships can no-sell their UNSC equivalents) is up to debate. UNSC ships are balanced by being the long-range, combined fire monsters they are in fluff (if you can get enough of them together); but they crumple once their Titanium armor has been burned off. Also the UNSC gets the advantage of SMAC Platforms which makes them great at holding the line and acting as giant, immobile, floating Basilisks. This means that the UNSC specializes in lots and lots of missile spam and swarm tactics to compensate general shitty defensive capabilities and shorter range whereas the Covenant act as giant line breakers with their fuck huge ships and massive firepower.

Fight the Fall of Reach in the starter set, or start adding extra ships in to fight battles from the Human-Covenant War. Since the closure of Spartan Games, no one wanted to pick up the license... probably because it was Microsoft-priced. Instead, the community is keeping it alive with fan-expansions and accessories. Because of the extraordinarily low chances that a miniatures company picks the license up again, 343 Studios has done the surprisingly gracious move of helping out the fans by giving a blessing to the whole process. It doesn't make things easier or provide any resources, but at least keeps Microsoft from swooping in as long as the community protects the IP.

Maybe with the updated rules for Dystopian Wars from their new owners, we'll get to see a fan-update to the ruleset and balance.

Ground Command

A typical skirmish in Ground Command.

For the battles centered around the ground, Ground Command seems to be more feasibly plausible in fluff terms. What we know is that both factions are going to be incredibly dropship focused, meaning that the implementation and usage of dropships like the Pelican and Phantom are going to be crucial for tactical victory. Models for both factions are small enough to be converted into other tabletop games, although the UNSC personnel (who are meant to be regular humans) are a tad bit taller than a Space Marine.

In terms of detailed gameplay, movement phase is similar to Fleet Battles. However Ground Command also has two key gaming spaces: Pre-Game and In-Game. The former refers to the Strategic/RTS part of the game and latter to the Action/FPS part of the game. Essentially, Pre-Game allows players to flex their RTS muscles, building their Forces strategically to complete their chosen missions. In general play, all scenarios are encouraged to be rolled PRIOR to Forces being chosen, so players can go away and plot their enemy’s eventual demise. This gives the game a planned-outcome-feel since players have had time to reflect on the mission to hand and have brought the right tools for the job.

Choosing a Force is a simple process that uses the Build Rating (BR) and Maximum Force Value (MFV) methods that was introduced in Halo: Fleet Battles. Like H:FB, Ground Command also use the ideas of Standard and Specialist Battle Groups. The former will be used multiple times by players, whereas the latter will be limited in their use, commonly limited to only one per force. Battle Groups have Units that are call Requisites which in turn gain access to Optional Units. Requisites MUST be taken for a Battle Group to be considered game legal. These vary from Battle Group to Battle Group. For example, an ODST Battle Group MUST take ODST Units as Requisites, whereas a UNSC Army Mechanized Battle Group MUST take Riflemen Units. Requisites are, however, deliberately kept to the bare minimum needed to represent the nature of their Battle Group to uphold flexibility allowing players to find new and innovative combinations to field.

Once Requisites have been taken, players have a number of Optional Build Rating points to spend in each of the following categories: Infantry Units, Armored Units and Air Units. The points available will vary depending on the Battle Group chosen, giving certain Battle Groups greater access to some types of Unit, or may even skip using a Unit type altogether. For example, a Covenant Spectral Host Battle Group (Elite Ghost Units optional Air Support) allows a Covenant player to not have any Infantry and instead field lots of fast attack Ghosts with Elite drivers. This is a Specialist Battle Group and is limited to one per force. It is static in its requisites but can have access to a Flyer if a player wants to spend the BR and Points to add it their Force.

A UNSC Standard Armored Battle Group only has Armored Units as Requisites. A player can still add some Infantry if they want, or even add Flyer Units, or they could just spend all of their points on Armour and as this is a Standard Battle Group a player can take several in their Force if they so choose. All of this leads to an incredibly flexible force building mechanic that gives the game great longevity. There will be literally thousands of combinations available, giving players the chance to execute their plans in a prepared way. The Build Rating of a model (Element as it is called in the game) and a Unit (a collection of Elements) is what translates to Victory Points. It is a simple method and allows games to be won by destroying Units of Infantry, destroying Armored models, shooting down Flyers, capturing Objectives, killing Characters and etc.

In terms of building a terrain and setting, Ground Command's terrain is placed using mutual consent to encourage the construction of fair and reasonable battlefields. The rules of Terrain are binary to make it simple to use and fast to play with – for example, you can or you can’t move through it; you can or you can’t shoot through it, or a combination of both. This makes Terrain nice and simple to play with, but still gives players a strategic view of the battlefield and allows for a planned route of advancement. Terrain ranges from simple Supply Drops to large structures like the Covenant Stealth Pylon.

Similar to Fleet Battles, Ground Command has commanders for the players to choose from and is played similarly to its space counterpart. So in summary:

• Forces are made up of Battle Groups, which can be of varying types: UNSC Mechanized Battle Groups, Hunting Host Battle Groups, Armored Battle Groups, and so on.
• Inside each Battle Group are Requisite Units that must be taken, then Build Rating limits are set to allow players to add in Optional Units later.
• Forces can and should be made up of multiple Battle Groups.
• In narrative play, all Forces should be chosen after the Scenario is determined, allowing players to tailor their lists to fight out the mission.
• Terrain is placed by mutual consent and is designed for simple use and quick gameplay. There is a table generator included if mutual consent proves difficult.
• In Halo: Ground Command players have access to Generic Force Commanders that cost considerably less than narrative named Commanders. These Generic Force Commanders have Standard Orders and a Factional Order. They are the only Commander available in competitive play.

These is just the Pre-Game. Now it is the In-Game phase. As with Halo: Fleet Battles, the Halo Dice is used in conjunction with the Firepower Rating Table to control modifiers and drive the statistics in the game. Both games start with players using a default of Firepower Rating 4 with the Rating modifying up and down accordingly. This means that when rolling Halo Dice, a result of 2 (or Spartan Exploding 6 for example) counts as two hits, a result of 1 result counts as one hit, a Miss result can be re-rolled if you have rolled any 2s, and the Skull result is a definite miss. Some weapons will provide a positive bonus to the Firepower Rating whereas Terrain conditions and Scenario effects generally cause the Firepower Rating to suffer a negative penalty. The faces of the Dice in Ground Command are Fail, Miss, Success and Exploding. Than there are the Tokens. In Ground Command there are three available tokens, these are: Activated (placed when a Unit Activates or attempts a Reaction), Damage (for when an attack equals or exceeds a value on a Damage Track) and Cooldown (which is used to represent a situation where a weapon or even an entire Unit cannot fire). There is also the Statistic Profiles which are used as a simple visual presentation mechanic to show players the various statistics used by Units on their statistic cards. These cards will be large enough to fit in your hand and will have all pertinent rules (as well as paraphrased notations about Loadouts) on them, making Unit reference in Halo: Ground Command quick and very simple. Also like Fleet Battles, Ground Command issues Command Dice for commanders on the battlefield to drive the Command & Control side of the game. The Command/Attack/Defense symbols allow players to execute orders from their Force Commander’s Data Sheet that can often be the difference between success and failure in battle.

Then there is the Reaction Fire which is how Ground Command tries to translate the FPS element into tabletop. In order for it to work, Ground Command have created a Reaction Statistic for every Element in order to allow the game to represent a persistent form of overwatch where every Unit on the table is assumed to be engaged in the battle at all times. The Reaction Statistic has two numbers shown as X / Y on a Unit’s Profile. The X number is used if a Unit has not yet been Activated, and the Y number is used if a Unit has already been Activated. If a player wants to react to an enemy Unit’s activation, the player makes a 2D6 dice roll, adds or subtracts any modifiers and hopes they match or exceed the relevant number, if they do, they get to fire in their opponent’s activation, either at the start of a Unit’s movement or at the end.

Attempting a Reaction is not without risk, however, as you are only permitted to attempt a single reaction to an enemy Unit’s activation and whether you succeed or fail the reacting Unit gains an Activation Marker as a result. This means a player has to choose wisely which Unit will be used to React to the enemy. Sometimes it is better to React with a Unit that has already gone, especially if the Unit has a good Y-React number. For example, UNSC Warthogs excel at this, creating mobile mini-fire-bases upon which the UNSC can base their advance/defense tactics. It may also be the case that a player is unwilling to React, as it will affect their ability to surge forwards (since making a Reaction attempt gives a Unit an Activation Marker that effectively halts any chance of performing a Movement Action). In a massed battle game, where you could literally have hundreds of miniatures on the tabletop and large numbers of Armor and Flyers, you suddenly have the intensity of an FPS, where no Unit is ever truly safe. This means that even if your opponent has already activated a Unit, the Unit isn’t actually out of the game.

As you might expect, not everything has the same React X/Y. A Spartan who are the elites for the UNSC, might be capable of multiple feats of arms in a turn, firing in all directions as he/she attempts to defend a wounded soldier. A ponderous pair of Hunters are, however, far more measured and lumbering, taking time to line up shots and gear themselves for combat. This is represented by the Spartan having a React Score of 5/6, whereas a Hunter Unit is limited to 10/13.

In terms of weapons. Ground Command issue Small Arms. They are not, however, always the same in the game. For example Small Arms, when in the hands of Grunts, have one set of Small Arms Stats, and a different set of stats when used by Elites. This makes the game flow smoothly and gives each faction diversity without the minutiae of looking directly into the hands of each and every model. That is not to say that all weapons are in this category. Certain Units can upgrade one or more of their bases to be specific Fire Teams, like Grunts wielding Fuel Rod Cannons, UNSC Troopers manning HMGs, etc.

This brings us on to Weapon Loadouts. The majority of weapons in the game, including Small Arms, normally have at least one Loadout. A Loadout is a custom rule that enhances a weapon. It could be as simple as Suppression (+1) in the case of UNSC Small Arms or Point Blank in the case of Covenant Small Arms, to more complex Loadouts such as Devastating, Pinpoint, Indirect Fire, and so on. Each of these Loadouts is summarized on a Unit’s Statistic Card and detailed in the core rulebook for ease of reference. The variation of the Weapon Loadouts thus leads us to The Weapon Spread. Here each and every weapon, if you are willing to shoot it long enough can technically destroy anything in-game when it comes to Halo. This means that the game has to come up with a new system for weapons that allows for this incredible flexibility. So the Weapon Spread System is designed to do exactly that. The Weapon Spread divides the Attack Dice available to a Weapon into three distinct categories, each citing the weapon’s effectiveness against a specific target.

• Anti-Personnel (AP) refers to a weapon’s ability to damage Infantry targets.
• Anti-Tank (AT) refers to a weapons ability to damage Armoured targets.
• Anti-Air (AA) refers to a weapons ability to damage Flying targets.

When firing, Ground Command uses a combination mechanic (the same as in Halo: Fleet Battles) so a Unit of 4 Bases of Grunts shooting at a Unit of UNSC Riflemen in the open (always a bad thing for the UNSC) would roll 2+2+2+2 = 8x Halo Dice using Firepower Rating 5 (the best they can get!). From this roll the Grunts would expect to get about 6 Hits, which should, on average, kill 2 Bases of UNSC Riflemen. In terms of Melee, each element rolls a number of Halo Dice equal to their Melee Statistic, but unlike Ranged Attacks, all players are looking to do is roll Skulls – all other results are ignored. Roll a Skull and you automatically do a point of Damage (or in the case of Melee vs Vehicles, 2x Skulls for a point of Damage). Heroic Saves can be attempted after that, but essentially that’s as complicated as Melee gets. If each side rolls the same number of Skulls in a round of Melee, the survivors keep fighting until someone wins – or until both sides are wiped out. Once one side is declared the winner, the loser is pushed back, leaving both sides free to React as normal. Lastly, like Fleet Battles, there is the End phase in which it is used to tally up scored Victory Points for the Game Turn. Victory Points (VPs) are generated by destroying enemy Units, where their Build Rating directly translates to VPs. VPs can also be scored according to the conditions stated in any particular scenario you might be playing. For example, the Assassination Mission from the core rulebook gives bonus VPs points for taking out anything with the Commanding Presence Loadout, whilst the Take and Hold Scenario gives additional VPs for holding Placed Objectives (usually Buildings of importance on the battlefield). The Scenarios all last a certain number of Game Turns, after which the person who has scored the most Victory Points wins.

Last but not least, we cannot forget Flyers which are crucial for tactical victory in Ground Command. In Ground Command all flying vehicles are separated into two categories: Hover Flyers and Air Support Mission Flyers.

Hover Flyers are treated in the same way as any other battlefield Unit, moving shooting, reacting in the same way as any other model. They are targeted using a weapon’s Anti-Air (AA) Statistic and tend to be fast moving and pretty aggressive in their use. Examples of these include Banshees or Falcons, which may be seen operating in Units with more than one model, or be individuals, depending on their Build Rating and the Battle Group they are part of.

Air Support Mission Flyers tend to be far larger than their standard Hover counterparts, dominating the sky with their bulk and durability. These Flyers are simply too large to remain on the table turn to turn, and instead resolve their movement, the execution of their chosen mission and extraction in a simple strafing method. Examples of these flyers include the UNSC Pelican and Covenant Phantom.

When using an Air Support Mission Flyers, players activate the model in the same way as any other Unit, declaring a Mission type for the Flyer. This Mission will have an attached Victory Points cost, which is given to the enemy directly after the Mission is announced. This give-and-take aspect to Air Support Mission Flyers makes the taking of these large models very balanced – you get a huge reward, but your opponent gets a strategic bonus if you saturate the battlefield with too many. This means that protracted use of aerial assets will cause a drain on the player’s chances of winning an outright victory, but execution of these Missions will often be vital for continued success in the combat operation. So balancing if, when and how you bring in your Air Support Mission Flyers is a skill that will take time for players to develop. There are a variety of Missions available to Flyers of this type. Combat Drop Missions allow players to bring in reserves. Supply Drop Missions allow the placement of a Supply Drop Marker that increases the Reaction Statistics of all friendly ground models within range. Ground Attack Missions allow you to target ground Units with increased effect. Reinforcement Missions allow you to bring a damaged Unit of Infantry (and in some cases Armor) back up to full strength, and Air Patrols allow you to place your Flyer ‘on-station’, ready to intercept enemy flyers when they activate.

Gallery

• 

  Yes that is an actual model of a Covenant CSO-class Super Carrier. No it will not be a good pain.

• 

  There will be more ship designs coming soon.

• 

  Covenant minis for Ground Command.

• 

  UNSC minis for Ground Command.

• 

  That's right, Halo's dropships are as big as a Thunderhawk while being more sensibly designed and having more firepower to boot.

Mythic: the fan made Halo tabletop RPG also exists... for whatever that is worth

Spartan stats

For those who wanted to put a Spartan in tabletop for some reason, here are the rules. Note: The Rules assigned here are based off of 6th and 7th Edition Warhammer 40k, this has not been updated for 9th Edition, nor for lore accuracy with the universe itself.

WS 4 / BS 4 / S 4 / T 3 / W 1 / I 4 / A 1 / Ld 8 / Sv 3+/6++

Composition

3 Spartans
1 Spartan - Squad Leader (Ld 9)

Unit Type

Infantry

Wargear

• MJOLNIR Armor
• MA5D Assault Rifle
• Combat Knife
• Frag Grenades (Offensive)

Special Rules

• At All Costs - As per their tactical doctrines, Spartans are combat veterans of independent action and deep infiltration missions. Spartans gain the Stubborn rule from the Warhammer 40k Core Rulebook.
• Shoot First, Ask Later - Spartans specialize in ranged tactics, and prefer not to engage powerful enemies head-on. Spartans will more often than not disengage from melee combat to use their ranged weapons instead. Spartans gain the Hit & Run rule from the Warhammer 40k Core Rulebook.

Options

• May Include up to 4 additional Spartan- for 13 points per Model
• Any model in the squad may take an Onboard AI for 3 points per Model
• For every 4 models in a squad, one model may replace their MA5C Rifle with one of the following:
  • M45 Tactical Shotgun (Shotgun)...............................6 points per Model
  • SRS99-S5 AM (Sniper Rifle)..................10 points per Model
  • M41 SSR MAV/AW (Missile Launcher)........15 points per Model
  • M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle (Spartan Laser)....35 points per model
• Each Spartan squad must choose to be one of the following:
  • Spartan Is - Squad gain the Eternal Warrior and Feel No Pain USRs for 10pts per model. Role a d6 for each model, on results of 5+ the model also gains the Crazed special rule.
  • Spartan IIs - Squad gain +1 Ballistic Skill and the Split Fire USR for 4 points per model. The squad may choose to become an Elite Choice.
  • Spartan IIIs - Squad gain the Stealth and Infiltrate USRs for 3 points per model.
  • Spartan IVs - Squad gain the Hatred and Fleet USRs for 3 points per model.

SPARTAN ARMORY

• MJOLNIR Armor - Created parallel to the Spartan-II Program, the MJOLNIR Armor is a sealed system, capable of extravehicular activity or operations in toxic atmosphere. Weighing over half a metric ton, the armor's shell is constructed in overlapping layers of Titanium-A plating and highly durable ballistic alloys of remarkable strength. It has even been augmented with a refractive coating capable of dispersing a limited amount of energy weapon strikes. The Spartan gains a 3+ Armor Save.
  • MJOLNIR armor is equipped with a full-body recharging energy shield that was reverse-engineered from captured alien technology. The shield itself is utterly transparent and does not hinder sight in any way but briefly flashes a greenish-gold color when hit. The Spartans gain a 6+ Invulnerable Save.

• Onboard AI - All MJOLNIR Mk V models or better feature a complex crystalline matrix within their neural interface, which Cortana likened in structure to the computer systems of the Pillar of Autumn. An AI construct increases tactical awareness, provides an indispensable guide, serving almost as a co-pilot and navigator, and multiplies the Spartan's already phenomenal reflexes. A Spartan equipped with an Onboard AI increases their Initiative value by 1.

• MA5D Assault Rifle - The MA5C has an attached electronics suite that provides information on rounds remaining in the magazine, compass heading, and capable of wireless up-link with MJOLNIR systems for improved accuracy. Made of Titanium Alloy and Polymers, the rifle performs well in a variety of environments. Having a rate of fire of 650 rounds a minute, and chambering the old-school M118 7.62x51mm NATO Armor Piercing, Full Metal Jacket Rounds with a 36-round detachable box magazine. Though lacking strength and stopping power, these rounds are designed to pierce most conventional ballistic body armor.
  • It has the following stats: Range 18" / Strength 3 / AP 6 / Type Assault 3

• M45 Tactical Shotgun - is a pump-action, magazine-fed, dual tubular non-detachable type weapon. It uses the Soellkraft 8-Gauge Magnum Shotgun Shell, a large round capable of phenomenal stopping power and made possible to fire with little recoil due to the gun's magnetorheological recoil dampening system, allowing it to be fired by anyone.
  • It has the following stats: Range 12" / Strength 4 / AP - / Type Assault 2 Rending

• Sniper Rifle SRS99-S5 AM - aka the "SR System 99-S5 Anti-Matériel", an upgrade from the S2s, it is a semi-automatic UNSC sniper rifle that fires 14.5 x 114mm APFSDS (Armor-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot, with a tungsten or depleted uranium core) from a 4-round magazine. It is fitted with a variable-magnification Oracle scope that allows for 5x and 10x magnification. When looking through it, the scope shows a target's distance and elevation. Designed originally as an anti-materiel rifle, it has proven effective against the highly durable armor of the Covenant and hardlight construction of the Prometheans.
  • It has the following stats: Range 48" / Strength X/ AP 4 (When firing at vehicles, the rifle adds D6 to its Armor penetration value) / Type Heavy 1, Sniper, Anti Material.

Anti Material: Shots fired from this weapon rend on a 4+.

• M41 Rocket Launcher - aka the "M41 SSR" fires the M19 102mm HEAP (High Explosive Armor Piercing) shaped charge rockets. The launcher sports a 2x scope and can fire rockets over long distances with devastating accuracy, and its two launch tubes allow the wielder to fire two rockets before needing to reload. The rocket launcher spreads a huge amount of damage over a large area. It is capable of taking out entire groups of infantry at any range and is effective against most vehicles.
  • It has the following stats: Range 48" / Strength 7 / AP 3 / Type Heavy 2, Blast

• M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle - The Anti-Vehicle Model 6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle (abbreviated AV M6 G/GNR) also known as the Spartan Laser, is the UNSC's first man-portable, shoulder-fired direct energy weapon. Firing a chemical laser after a short charge period, a well placed shot can destroy even heavy vehicles with ease. Infantry-level targets are simply obliterated.
  • It has the following stats: Range 36" / Strength 9 / AP 2 / Type Heavy 1, Ignores Cover

-Targeting beam: The Spartan Laser projects an obvious laser target, any enemy units that can, may choose to fire Overwatch at the firers unit as if it was the assault phase.

Spartans may take the M831 Troop Transport (M831 TT) or M12 Light Reconnaissance Vehicle (M12 LRV) as their dedicated transport.

Dedicated Transports

• M12 Light Reconnaissance Vehicle - 40 points
• M831 Troop Transport - 30 points

Armour (Front) 10 / Armour (Side) 10 / Armour (Rear) 10 / HP 2

Unit Type

Vehicle (Fast, Open-Topped, Transport)

Wargear

• M46 Light Anti-Aircraft Gun (M12 LRV)
• None (M831 TT)

Transport Capacity

• Four (M12 LRV)
• Eight (M831 TT)

The ubiquitous M12 and its troop transport variant the M831, are the UNSC's primary multi-role ground vehicles. They are used anywhere from scouting and reconnaissance to fast vehicle transport, forming an integral part of the UNSC's armored vehicle fleet for fifty years. It is a highly mobile, all-wheel-drive, all-wheel-steering, all-weather vehicle, capable of traversing all but the most dangerous of terrain. The M831 features a rear bed with an expanded seating compartment, while the M12 features a rear mounted anti-aircraft gun (the M46 LAAG) that can also be used against infantry.

M46 LAAG - The M46 Light Anti-Aircraft Gun (LAAG) is a tripled-barreled, electric-powered, linkless, belt-fed weapon. The LAAG fires the 12.7x99mm (.50 cal) armor penetrating rounds and can fire at a rate of 1200 rounds per minute.

• It has the following stats: Range 48" / Strength 5 / AP 5 / Type Heavy 4, Skyfire

- The M12 may choose to replace its M46 LAAG with a M68 Gauss Cannon for 35 points

M68 Gauss Cannon - Officially known as the M68 Asynchronous Linear-Induction Motor, this heavy weapon fires 25mm hypersonic speed projectiles via asynchronous magnetic acceleration. The kinetic energy of which is enough to pierce even the heaviest of armor plating or completely obliterate unprotected matter.

• It has the following stats: Range 60" / Strength 8 / AP 1 / Type Heavy 1

Independent Character

HQ: Sergeant Major Avery Johnson - 130 points.

WS 3 / BS 4 / S 3 / T 3 / W 3 / I 4 / A 3 / Ld 10 / Sv 4+

Unit Type

Infantry (Independent Character)

Wargear

• ODST Battle Armor
• M45 Tactical Shotgun
• Combat Knife
• Frag Grenades (Offensive)

Warlord Trait

Inspiring Presence (See 7th Edition Corerule Book)

Special Rules

• Spartan I - Sergeant Major Avery Johnson has the Eternal Warrior and Feel No Pain USRs.
• At All Costs - As per their tactical doctrines, Spartans are combat veterans of independent action and deep infiltration missions. Sergeant Major Johnson gains the Stubborn USR.
• Shoot First, Ask Later - Spartans specialize in ranged tactics, and prefer not to engage powerful enemies head-on. Spartans will more often than not disengage from melee combat to use their ranged weapons instead. Sergeant Major Johnson gains the Hit & Run USR.
• Move Like You Got A Purpose - Sergeant Major Avery Johnson and all models in his unit have the Crusader USR.
• H.E.-Spewing Divine Intervention - Once per turn, Sergeant Major Avery Johnson can call down an strategic artillery strike from off the field. It is treated as a shooting attack with the following profile:
  • Range Infinite / Strength 8 / AP 4 / Type Ordnance 1, Barrage, Blast

May replace his primary weapon (M45 Shotgun) with of one special weapons from the following list:

• MA5D (Assault Rifle)........................................Free
• BR85HB (Battle Rifle)...............................6 points
• SRS99D-S2 AM (Sniper Rifle).......................10 points
• M41 SSR MAV/AW (Missile Launcher)...................15 points
• M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle (Spartan Laser)....35 points

---

HQ: Master Chief Petty Officer John-117 - 175 points.

WS 5 / BS 6 / S 4 / T 3 / W 4 / I 5 / A 4 / Ld 10 / Sv 3+/6++

Unit Type

Infantry (Independent Character)

Wargear

• MJOLNIR Armor
• BR85HB Battle Rifle
• Combat Knife
• Frag Grenades (Offensive)
• Cortana (Counts as On Board AI)

Warlord Trait

Target Priority (See 7th Edition Corerule Book)

Special Rules

• Spartan II - The Master Chief has the Split Fire USR.
• At All Costs - As per their tactical doctrines, Spartans are combat veterans of independent action and deep infiltration missions. The Master Chief gains the Stubborn USR.
• Shoot First, Ask Later - Spartans specialize in ranged tactics, and prefer not to engage powerful enemies head-on. Spartans will more often than not disengage from melee combat to use their ranged weapons instead. The Master Chief gains the Hit & Run USR.
• Heroes Never Die - The Master Chief gains the It Will Not Die and Eternal Warrior USRs, in addition he may fire heavy weapons at full ballistic skill even if the unit moves but unlike the Relentless universal special rule he may only ever fire one weapon per turn.
• He May Not Be The Strongest - The Master Chief and all models in his unit gain the Fearless USR, and the Master Chief may re-roll failed saving throws of any kind.

May replace his primary weapon (BR85HB Battle Rifle) with of one special weapons from the following list:

• MA5D (Assault Rifle)........................................Free
• M45 Tactical Shotgun(Shotgun)...............................6 points
• SRS99D-S2 AM (Sniper Rifle).......................10 points
• M41 SSR MAV/AW (Missile Launcher)...................15 points
• M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle (Spartan Laser)....35 points

- BR85HB - a.k.a. the BR85HB Service Rifle is a gas-operated, magazine-fed battle rifle. It is a select-fire weapon optimized for long-range firing of three-round bursts, though it is capable of semi-automatic and fully automatic fire. It chambers the large 9.5x40mm M634 Experimental High-Powered Semi-Armor-Piercing round, abbreviated as M634 X-HP-SAP.

• • It has the following stats: Range 24" / Strength 3 / AP 6 / Type Assault 2, Shred

Due to being at the forefront of many battles against various alien species, Master Chief Petty Officer John 117 may take exotic and advanced weaponry not usually issued to UNSC military forces, he may select a secondary special weapon from an extended list:

• Z-130 Directed Energy Automatic Weapon (Suppressor)............40 Points
• Z-250 Directed Energy Engagement Weapon (Light Rifle)...........40 Points
• Z-750 Special Application Sniper Rifle (Binary Rifle)..............45 Points
• Z-390 High-Explosive Munitions Rifle (Incinerator Cannon).......55 Points

- Z-130 Directed Energy Automatic Weapon - a.k.a. the Suppressor, it is a fully automatic weapon employing a conventional coil set architecture that fires bolts of hard light in rapid succession. It is well-known for its high rate of fire and effectiveness against all organic matter.

• • It has the following stats: Range 18" / Strength 4 / AP 4 / Type Assault 6

- Z-250 Directed Energy Engagement Weapon - a.k.a. the Light Rifle, it is a scoped, mid-range to long-range weapon using the diffused combination of particle acceleration and hardened photonic matter that fires a three-shot burst of luminescent orange hardlight rounds, perfect for taking down shielded or heavily armored targets.

• • It has the following stats: Range 30" / Strength 4 / AP 4 / Type Assault 2, Rending

- Z-750 Special Application Sniper Rifle (Binary Rifle) a.k.a. the Binary Rifle, it is equipped with twin, core-mounted particle accelerators which fire ionized particle beams containing jacketed antimatter particles. The incredible power and accuracy of this weapon make it highly lethal, allowing it to neutralize most targets with a single shot, disintegrating the body of the target.

• • It has the following stats: Range 48" / Strength 7 / AP 2 / Type Heavy 1, Fleshbane

- Z-390 High-Explosive Munitions Rifle (Incineration Cannon) a.k.a the Incineration Cannon, this ultra-heavy shoulder-mounted cannon fires antimatter-infused streams of concentrated explosive particles that cause incredible damage on impact, obliterating infantry and even light vehicles with even a glancing blow.

• • It has the following stats: Range 36" / Strength 9 / AP 1 / Type Heavy 1, Blast, Ionizing.

Ionizing: If a model suffers a wound from a weapon with the Ionizing special rule and before Feel No Pain rolls are made, the bearer rolls a d6, on a result of 4+ the model suffers Instant Death with no saves of any kind allowed including Feel No Pain, In addition Necron reanimation protocols may not be used on models which were removed from play by this special rule.

Master Chief Petty Officer John 117 may choose to switch between firing his primary weapon or secondary weapon in every shooting phase; only one of the weapons can be fired per turn.

---

HQ: Agent Jameson Locke - 165 points.

WS 5 / BS 5 / S 4 / T 3 / W 4 / I 6 / A 4 / Ld 10 / Sv 3+/6++

Unit Type

Infantry (Independent Character)

Wargear

• MJOLNIR Armor
• MA5D
• Combat Knife
• Frag Grenades (Offensive)
• On Board AI

Warlord Trait

Divide to Conquer (See 7th Edition Corerule Book)

Special Rules

• Spartan IV - Agent Jameson Locke has the Hatred and Fleet USRs.
• At All Costs - As per their tactical doctrines, Spartans are combat veterans of independent action and deep infiltration missions. Agent Jameson Locke gains the Stubborn USR.
• Shoot First, Ask Later - Spartans specialize in ranged tactics, and prefer not to engage powerful enemies head-on. Spartans will more often than not disengage from melee combat to use their ranged weapons instead. Agent Jameson Locke gains the Hit & Run USR.
• Execute Battle Plan - Agent Jameson Locke and all models in his unit have Outflank.
• Target Identified - Agent Jameson Locke and all models in his unit have the Precision Shot USR.

May replace his primary weapon (MA5D assault rifle) with of one special weapons from the following list:

• BR85HB (Battle Rifle)........................................Free
• SRS99D-S2 AM (Sniper Rifle).......................6 points
• M45 Tactical Shotgun(Shotgun)...............................10 points
• M41 SSR MAV/AW (Missile Launcher)...................15 points
• M6 Grindell/Galilean Nonlinear Rifle (Spartan Laser)....35 points
• Asymmetric Recoilless Carbine-920 (Rail Gun).............35 points

- Asymmetric Recoilless Carbine-920 - A.k.a the ARC-920, it is a compact-channel linear accelerator that fires the powerful M645 FTP-HE (16x65mm ferric-tungsten high-explosive round) at incredible velocity. The charge time is approximately two seconds and can be fired with only a partial charge at the cost of lesser damage.

It has the following stats: Range 48" / Strength 6 / AP 1 / Type Assault 1, Shred