Despite the events of Halo: Reach famously killing off almost every member of Noble Team before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, this fan-favorite fireteam will soon be fighting the Banished from Halo Wars 2 and Halo: Infinite. This surely will not cause any problems for Halo lore fans, nor my wallet.
Mantic Games’ Halo: Flashpoint is the epicenter of all this, a tabletop miniatures game (kinda like Warhammer 40k except it’s not at all like Warhammer 40k) heavily inspired by the multiplayer of Halo: Infinite. A setting that could, in theory, solve all these lore problems — depending on how much leeway you’re going to allow.
This information comes to us through a developer AMA, thanks to Wargamer. There, the Flashpoint’s designers left some not-so-subtle hints that Noble Team would enter the game with a release sometime in 2026.
When asked who their favorite non-Chief Spartan was, Halo Flashpoint’s rules head replied, “One that we’re going to make.” When pressed for clarity, Mantic Games’ CEO said “well, Noble Team are pretty cool, aren’t they?”
This was followed up by them showing off a silhouette of a mystery Spartan, with details Wargamer described as a “dead giveaway” for Noble Team’s Emile.
Halo: Flashpoint already has playable models for Spartans, Elites, ODSTs, and Banished Brutes, with other Covenent forces like Jackals and Grunts likely on the way. Most of these are perfectly fine options for Noble team to interact with, but those funny monkeys pose a problem.
Could Noble Team Have Ever Fought The Banished?
Based on Halopedia and some Spirited Forum Debate on the Banished’s origins, a fight between Noble Team and this brute-led Covenent splinter group seems… unlikely, to say the least.
In short: Noble Team’s various deaths all happened in 2552, just three years after the Banished was founded. But back then, humanity had much bigger threats to deal with. Dedicating Spartans to fighting a Covenent splinter group that was, itself, also warring against the same threat trying to exterminate humanity seems… farfetched as a premise, at the very least.
The exact year when the Banished became a threat at all to humanity is debatable, but few entertain the idea that this inflection point happened before the Covenent collapsed in the wake of Halo 3.
But, that’s where the setting of Halo: Flashpoint comes in. Flashpoint takes far more cues from Halo’s multiplayer, where playing fast and loose with canon is a bit more permissible. The in-universe explanation for why multiplayer does what it does is that it’s all combat training & simulations.
Now, would the UNSC have any qualms with sticking AI recreations of fallen war heroes into training simulations? It’s not completely out of the question, though it does create several questions more. None of which are in the scope of this article.
What is in scope, though, is the idea that this is all really damn cool. Noble Team is a beloved cast of characters, and getting to play with them on the tabletop just sounds like a whole lot of fun. Wallets may cry, but sometimes wallets just do that. We all have to make sacrifices for Rule of Cool sometimes.
