Halo: Flashpoint Special Orders

Today we’re taking a look at an absolutely game-changing element of Halo: Flashpoint: Special Orders. We’ve all been in that situation where a well-planned move by an opponent throws our entire strategy into disarray. This is exactly where Special Orders come into play. They allow you to turn the tide by spending the “Special Order” symbol on your Command Dice to trigger powerful, faction-specific effects.

Since the rules are scattered across various sets and expansions (such as War Games, Defiance, and Noble Team), I’ve put together the ultimate, comprehensive guide for you.

An Overview of the Political Parties

Special commands are strictly tied to specific factions or even specific models. When building your roster, pay close attention to who is allowed to use which commands!

1. Spartans (The UNSC Elite)

The Spartans rely on tactical flexibility, lightning-fast counterattacks, and the sheer dominance of individual super soldiers.

• Snap Shot (Any Spartan | Core Rule Book): Every melee fighter’s nightmare. If an opponent charges into your Spartan’s dice using Advance or Sprint to initiate a melee (Assault), you can use this command. Effect: Your Spartan fires immediately (Short Action)! You use one of your ranged weapons with all keywords, but ignore modifiers such as Clear Shot, High Ground, or Friendly Fire. If this causes damage that knocks the opponent back (Knockback) or pins them (Pinned), the opponent’s melee attack is completely nullified!
  • Restriction: Cannot be used if another opponent is already in the Cube or if your Spartan is pinned.
• Return to Sender (Any Spartan | War Games): Pure Master Chief vibes! If an enemy grenade (must be named “… Grenade”; no grenade launchers!) lands in a Spartan’s cube, you can try to intercept it. Effect: You roll a Survive test with 3 dice. If you roll 2+ successes, you catch the grenade and may immediately throw it at a new target as a Shoot action. From now on, it’s your grenade, complete with all its keywords (Blast, Sticky, EMP). If you fail the test, it explodes normally inside your cube.
• One Man Army (Master Chief Only | Core Rule Book): The Chief is a legend for a reason. Effect: At the start of his activation, you may use this command to spend any number of Commando dice rolls for Advance, Assault, or Shoot during this turn. Additionally, the Chief may use the Snap Shot command by default.
  • Roster-Building Bonus: The Master Chief replaces 2 regular Spartans during the draft.
• Lone Wolf (Spartan B312 / Noble Six | Noble Team BTB only): Noble Six works best alone. Effect: If Noble Six is at least 5 cubes away from all other allied Spartans, you can use this command to grant him an additional short or long action during this activation. This also allows him to repeat an action.

2. The UNSC (Army & ODST)

The UNSC’s regular forces excel in logistical superiority, airborne operations, and tactical flexibility during the preparatory phase.

• Hot Drop (Any ODST | Expansion): It truly lives up to the name ” Orbital Drop Shock Trooper “! This command has two options:
  1. Upon respawn: Instead of entering the game through a spawn zone as usual, you can use ” Advance” to land anywhere on the playing field (always on the top level of a cube stack). Perform a3-dice ranged test (2). If you pass it, you’re safe. If you fail, the ODST is pinned and retreats to a neighboring cube via a Scatter dice.
  2. In Round 1: Immediately after rolling the Command Dice, you can remove ODSTs from the board and deploy them later in the round as described above (you may deploy multiple ODSTs).
  • Restriction: You may not intentionally land in the opponent’s deployment zone.
• Your Orders Have Changed (Requires Veronica Dare | Expansion): Real-time tactical adjustment. Effect: Once per round, immediately after rolling and re-rolling the Command Dice, you may flip 2 of your remaining dice to any result you choose. Dare doesn’t even have to be alive on the battlefield to do this!
• Supply Drop (General UNSC | Expansion): Supplies have arrived! Effect: At the start of the round (after the Command Dice), you may take face-down item tokens from the supply and place them in empty cubes (without miniatures). For buildings, place them at the very top. You can spend as many dice as you want on this, but you must choose a different dice for each item.
• Holograms (Noble Team Only | Noble Team BTB): Deceive the opponent. Effect: Only at the start of Round 1, you may spend any number of Special Order dice to place one Noble Team Spartan per die completely anew in your deployment zone. Perfect for reacting to your opponent’s deployment.

3. The Banished

The Alliance of the Exiled relies on brute force, underhanded tricks, and the ruthless nature of the Brutes (Jiralhanae) and Elites (Sangheili).

• Alliance (Any Exile | War Games): Teamwork pays off. Effect: If, at the start of a model’s activation, an allied Exile is in the same cube or an adjacent cube, the active model may perform the same Short Action twice this turn (e.g., shoot twice or move twice). This doesn’t give you any additional actions, but it breaks the basic rule that you must use two different Short Actions!
• Reinforcements Incoming (Sangheili Mercenaries Only | Expansion): The Elites don’t die so easily. Effect: After any player activates a model, you may spend a dice to remove the activation marker from a Sangheili Elite that has been taken out of action (but has not yet respawned). This means you must—and may—reactivate that model before the end of the current round!
• Defiance (Any Exile, requires Atriox | Defiance): No one bows to the enemy while Atriox is watching. Effect: If an allied Exile begins its activation Pinned, you may use this command to perform a free Stand Up action. Afterward, the model still has its normal 2 short or 1 long actions available.
• Rampage (Jiralhanae / Brutes only | Defiance): A wounded animal is the most dangerous. Effect: If a Brute already has 2 or more wounds, it can use this command to gain +1 to its Speed for a Sprint action.
  • Condition: This movement MUST end in a cube containing an enemy model. As a reward, you may reroll 1 dice in the subsequent close combat (fight test).

A Tactical Tip for Your Games

Special Orders cost you valuable Command Dice, which you’ll then lack for regular actions. So use them primarily for pivotal moments: a Snap Shot that takes out an enemy melee fighter before he can strike, or a Hot Drop that captures mission objectives at the last second—these are the moves that win games.

Sören Spieckermann

Ich bin Sören Spieckermann, der Kopf hinter mechstrategen. Seit Jahren faszinieren mich taktische Tabletop-Schlachten und die strategische Tiefe von Mechs. Ob schnelle Gefechte in Halo: Flashpoint oder epische Schlachten bei BattleTech Alpha Strike – hier teile ich meine Erfahrungen und Taktiken mit dir. Mein Ziel? Sowohl Einsteigern den Start zu erleichtern als auch alten Hasen neue Impulse für das nächste Match zu geben.