Halo videogame developer 343 Industries and UK miniature maker Mantic Games have announced a “brand-new Halo miniatures combat game”. A joint statement on Friday promises that “amazing new 40mm Spartan miniatures” will “bring Halo multiplayer battles to life” this September.
The statement adds that the game will be suitable for “tabletop newcomers and veterans alike”, and will go “directly to retail”, without a crowdfunding campaign. The first preview of the new game will be in March 2024. Mantic Games’ CEO Ronnie Renton promises a “thrilling and competitive game”.
Mantic Games’ fantasy battle game Kings of War holds a spot on our list of the best miniature wargames. It has also produced many licensed games, including a Hellboy dungeon crawler board game, a Walking Dead miniatures game based on the original comics, and even a forthcoming Worms board game. John Friend, Microsoft’s Head of Halo and Xbox Consumer Products, praises Mantic Games’ “passion for the Halo franchise”.
There have been two previous Halo miniature games: 2015’s Halo: Fleet Battles and 2016’s Halo: Ground Command (shown in the battle report by BitzBox above). While these were well received, publisher Spartan Games shut down in August 2017, and no other firm acquired the molds or licenses to continue producing the games.
The choice of 40mm models is interesting, as it’s not commonly used for miniature wargaming. Last year’s Star Wars Shatterpoint uses the scale – to excellent effect, as you can read in our Star Wars Shatterpoint review – so the new Spartan models will be scaled to fit perfectly with that game’s (brilliant) terrain.
That’s assuming the Halo minis game uses physical terrain, of course – it might be a miniature-heavy board game. 2023 was rife with crowdfunding campaigns for board game adaptations of videogames, from the financial difficulties of Six: Siege, to the promising Call of Duty board game.
If you’re a Halo fan who likes the sound of making your own team of tiny Spartans, but is a little intimidated by the prospect of actually making them look good, can we suggest you check our guide on painting miniatures – or even our guide on how to paint Space Marines? Space marine armor and Spartan armor paint up much the same.