Halo is taking another shot at a Warhammer-like miniatures game
From the studio behind Kings of War and The Walking Dead: All Out War.
Video game shooter Halo is taking another crack at turning the universe of Master Chief, the Covenant and the Flood into a tabletop miniatures game later this year.
The latest tabletop adaptation of Halo is in development at Mantic Games, the UK publisher behind fantasy wargame Kings of War and The Walking Dead spin-off All Out War - based on the zombie comic books - which was recently announced to be returning after a two-year hiatus.
Mantic and Halo maker 343 Industries - which took over responsibility for the long-running sci-fi franchise from creator Bungie in 2007, developing games up to latest instalment Halo: Infinite - announced few details about what to expect from the miniatures game, with even an official name yet to be unveiled.
What we do know is that the wargame will include 40mm figures of Spartans, the armoured human super-soldiers who include Halo hero Master Chief. That 40mm scale will make the models larger than those seen in the likes of Warhammer 40,000, which measure in at the popular 28mm scale - albeit with their exaggerated "heroic" proportions often making them closer to 32mm in size. While the announcement made no explicit mention of figures for the alien Covenant, I’d be willing to bet there’s a good chance we’ll see Elites, Grunts and more find their way into plastic in the future.
The upcoming Halo miniatures game will unsurprisingly support multiplayer matches between players, with Mantic describing it as a “team combat game experience” aimed at both existing wargamers and newcomers.
“Having a firefight play out on the table while moving Spartans in and out of cover connects players to the action in a new and special way,” said Mantic CEO Ronnie Renton.
The Halo miniatures game will skip any kind of crowdfunding campaign and release directly into retail stores this September. Pricing and details of its launch offering - such as starter sets, core boxes and individual figures - are yet to be confirmed. Mantic has teased a fuller preview for the beginning of March.
The game won’t be the first time someone has attempted to turn Halo into a Warhammer-style miniatures game. In 2016, publisher Spartan Games released Halo: Ground Command, which featured smaller-scale squads of Spartans and UNSC marines on bases alongside vehicles such as the Warthog jeep and Scorpion tank. That was itself a ground combat-based spin-off from the studio’s earlier Halo: Fleet Battles, which recreated battles between UNSC and Covenant ships in space. Both games were fairly short-lived, ending alongside the closure of Spartan Games in 2017, though have maintained a cult following through community-led projects.