''The Halo: Fleet Battles, The Fall of Reach two player battle box is the ultimate way for fans of the Halo Universe to recreate pivotal space battles between the stalwart forces of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) and the relentless Covenant armada. Developed in close cooperation with 343 Industries, The Fall of Reach puts you at the centre of the most pivotal naval conflict of the long Human-Covenant War, commanding massive fleets of deadly warships as they clash above the fortified human colony of Reach. Take humanity's last stand to the gaming table!''
So last week this turned up. I'll start off by saying I am a BIG Halo fan! I have been wanting a Halo war-game since I started war-gaming in 2003 so when this was announced naturally I had to have it. Thankfully, while another space based game like x-wing, Halo Fleet Battles is more about the big capital ships rather than fighter based combat. The thought of commanding some of the most iconic ships from the Halo universe makes me giddy with excitement.
The outer box is a thing of beauty. Slick full colour artwork and a detailed overview of what is inside. The back shows painted examples of all the ships included.
All the dice needed to play are included in the box. You get Faction specific order dice (the grey and purple ones) aswell as some funky white dice which I think are using for attacking and then 2 standard D6.
Cardboard punch out tokens to represent boarding parties, fighter wings and any conditions being suffered by ships. These look very professional and durable.
Two fleet commander cards, one for each faction. When constructing a fleet, you must have a fleet commander. At present there are only the two shown above but there are plans to introduce lots more as the game grows.
Card inserts for the ships bases. These detail various firing arcs, formations and stats of the ships on them. Like the tokens above, these look amazing and seem like they will withstand a fair amount of game time.
4 page instruction manual showing how to build each class of ship. As you will see in the sprue pictures later on, most ships only consist of 2 or 3 pieces.
Laminated stats/ rules for everything contained in the box. There are different formations for each class of ship, some are designed more for attack whereas some are more defence orientated.
Campaign guide and Core Rulebook. Both are full colour and seem well written (I haven't had chance to read it properly yet). There are plenty of pictures and diagrams to assist with learning the rules.
Clear plastic ship bases and stands. There are loads of these with varying heights of stand.
Included are two of each sprue shown above which builds all the Covenant ships. They are incredibly detailed models and look relatively simple to build. As you can see, they are on purple plastic which means you can leave them unpainted if you wish. In the future I will probably attempt painting mine.
The UNSC sprues. These are a grey plastic and like the Covenant ships, incredibly detailed. Even the tiny Paris class ships have decent detail. One Paris class ship will definatley become Forward Unto Dawn and one Marathon class ship will become Pillar of Autumn.
A Vice Admiral Stanforth resin bust. This was a little extra thrown in by Spartan games as a thank you for ordering during the Salute 2015 period. I'm not sure how you can get them now but I am looking forward to painting him up for the cabinet.
First Impressions: Wow what a game! And I haven't even figured out how to play yet. Everything looks stunning and I can't wait to dive into head-first and blow the covenant to smithereens.
In Part 2 I will showcase the models built and possibly go into some detail on how the game works.
Hope to see you all soon!
MSWG Sam
