The Covenant & UNSC are going to be clashing on the tabletop soon this summer as Spartan Games look ahead to the release of Halo: Ground Command. With their pre-orders available for a range of new bits and pieces they also took a look inside the box...

Halo: Ground Command - Battle For Reach

Inside the set you're going to get two sides which allow you to battle it out. First off we're looking at the UNSC Battle Group which comes with Warthogs, Spartans and a range of Marine infantry units to supplement them.

In full you get yourself...

• Command Base (1x Officer, 1x Medic and 1x Radio)
• 2x Trooper Units each comprising: 3x Trooper Bases (3x Troopers on each), 1x HMG Base (HMG, Gunner, Spotter)
• Fire Support Unit comprising: 2x Trooper Bases (3x Troopers on each), 2x Rocket Team Bases (2x Troopers with Rockets on each)
• 3x Spartan Bases (1x Spartan Assault Rifle, 1x Spartan Laser, 1x Spartan Rocket Launcher)
• 2x Warthogs (armed with Chainguns and Trooper Driver and Gunner

I would certainly start out by naming those Spartans - and interestingly I think that this could be the first game which actually gets me interested in painting smaller scale figures.

The Covenant are not to be outdone.

For anyone who has played the game this will have a familiar make-up to the kind of enemies you'd face as you headed for that next base. For the Covenant you get...

• Command Base (1x Zealot, 1x Elite Minor)
• 3 Grunt Units each comprising: 2x Grunt Bases (3x Grunts), 1x Fuel Rod Team Base (2x Grunts with Fuel Rods) and 1x Elite Minor Base (1x Elite Minor, 2x Grunts)
• Hunter Unit comprising: 2x Hunters
• 3x Ghosts (with Grunt Drivers)

It will be fun to see how the Covenant work and I can imagine that of the two forces this is the one which requires a bit more finesse.

Big Guns & Heavy Armour

Taking a closer look at what's inside the set we also got to see these close-ups for the Hunters who are looking brutal and dangerous just like in the game. I always loved these creatures the best from within the Covenant and it was great seeing them take on hordes of Flood.

The other big 'wow factor' unit within the set is of course the set of three Spartans.

Here they are armed with a Rocket Launcher, Battle Rifle/DMR and a Spartan Laser. They all seem to have a similar armour pattern to them but maybe in the future we'll see them branch out to give us different designs.

Dropships For All

As we saw over the last few days we've also got the big Dropships to look forward to in the form of the Phantom and the UNSC Pelican.

The Phantoms were much more deadly than their Spirit equivalent which was available in Halo: Combat Evolved. these can be mean on Legendary.

The Pelican however is a proper classic and I can see these looking superb when they're out on the tabletop. Of course as you remember Spartan were smashing one up for the battle report which is also very cool.

What do you think of the goodies on the way for Halo: Ground Command?