Halo Update 20th October – The Balance Update

This one's a big one - possibly one of the biggest projects in terms of personal reward that I have been involved with at Mantic so far (and there have been a few of those!)

Firstly, I'd like to thank Ian, Dylan, Ash, Haydn and our brilliant test group for helping us tackle this update to take what is an amazingly good game, and bring it up a notch.  It's been incredible seeing Halo: Flashpoint reach around the world as it's done, and every day I see more and more registrations on our Index as the game grows.

This update was a chance to strip back and rebalance the game statistics after months of play and the introduction of points.  At the same time that we were finalising the rules for ODST, we had started the same process with Banished and the wider UNSC list.  We started looking at every detail, all the interactions and crazy builds we'd come up with, and tied it to both tournament data and casual data. The Index is a powerful tool for us in that regard, as we actually know the lists people are building and the lists that are getting left behind with good old data to back it up, and we found areas we felt as a team we wanted to 'course correct' slightly with this update.

Unit Cards

One of the fundamental rules we have as a Rules Committee is to only change a card if it is 100% necessary. We do not want to invalidate purchases of printed cards, nor do we want to force you to buy a new pack of cards.  This update achieved that well, as changes are confined to Rules/Keywords/Points.

Unit Costs

This is a relatively easy area to look at - almost everything has had a little nudge up or down, some a little more where needed (Looking at you, MKVII MA40...) - however these changes are all linked to other key changes we've introduced.  It isn't quite as simple as this model is taken 65% of the time by every list, lets increase the cost! How that model interacts with Frag, Rapid Fire, Pinning, Movement and Special Orders all matter.

Rules

To answer the question I get asked the most - yes, Frag is changing (among other rules).  The full rule change can be found in the Index, but in essence you will now only be Pinned and Scattered if you lose the survive roll vs Frag.  This change alone has shifted the dynamic of every test game we played - reducing the impact of Frag on some of the best units in the game, and suitably squishing some of the weaker units in the game.  This had an impact on the costings of certain Frag items and Weapons - it's still an incredibly useful tool, but not quite as offensive as it was!

Scout has also had a slight increase in its power too, which will make all those Zvesda players (well, mostly Ian I am sure!) very happy - be very careful about killing a Zvesda now as on respawn they are particularly dangerous!

Item Changes

We also had the time to really dig into these, look at what was healthy and what was slightly distorting the vision when the game was just about drafting - and so a few of those items have changed.

• Active Camouflage - now the item provides the Keyword, and that keyword has changed.  This item will activate as you pick it up!
• Threat Sensor - This now acts more like its video game counterpart - its become a great tool for area denial or targeting foes but is limited to a smaller area.
• Health Pack / Medic - We've increased the use of this item, so now there is a method to heal yourself without waiting for more damage to trigger it.
• Quantum Translocator - the contender for second most scenario-busting item in the game has had a little bit of a refresh - it's still great, but won't allow one turn scoring anymore (Well.... 99% of the time)!
• New Item: Intel - With the release of the ODST box First Feet Into Hell, there is a new double sided token that you can put into the pool of items for the game.  If picked up, this item immediately rewards +1 VP to the team that finds it.

When will this be live?

The Halo Index has now updated as of today.  All changes should be live as you read this blog in fact! In the coming week, we will also have an Online free-to-download PDF with those changes (all formatted nicely and in the same visuals we have for every other Halo product!) but the App itself also has any rules changes in Red, and the Errata has been updated to sign post this too.

Join me tomorrow for more Halo content, including more information on the Season 1 'Husky Raid' Pack