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Actually makes me wonder what Jean Bey is up to these days.

I never heard of the game until reading this. I looked up the miniatures and some do look pretty cool, I'm surprised I never ran into any of them.

RA: DUST Warfare and its abandonment by Battlefront really bothered a lot of DUST players who preferred Warfare to Tactics. Do you have plans to pick Warfare back up?
PP: Dust Studio has not enough energy to take care of warfare as well, we all know that. Personally l believe that Dust Tactics Battlefield does the same job and even better, Olivier Zamfirescu and l always wanted Warfare to be exactly like Tactics but without the grid. We will license later this year Warfare to one of his most devoted players, he will continue that legacy.

I hadn't heard this before. Is there confirmation that Battlefront has officially abandoned DUST? That would make it more clear why DUST studios is trying self-distribution.

I'm still unclear as to why the problems started, but maybe that's for the best.

 Eilif wrote:

RA: DUST Warfare and its abandonment by Battlefront really bothered a lot of DUST players who preferred Warfare to Tactics. Do you have plans to pick Warfare back up?
PP: Dust Studio has not enough energy to take care of warfare as well, we all know that. Personally l believe that Dust Tactics Battlefield does the same job and even better, Olivier Zamfirescu and l always wanted Warfare to be exactly like Tactics but without the grid. We will license later this year Warfare to one of his most devoted players, he will continue that legacy.

I hadn't heard this before. Is there confirmation that Battlefront has officially abandoned DUST? That would make it more clear why DUST studios is trying self-distribution.

I'm still unclear as to why the problems started, but maybe that's for the best.

I think that's BolS being very deferential to Paolo in their interview. BF did try to keep the Warfare rules current with the Tactics releases. They were probably hampered in what they could do since FFG owned the base rules. I don't think they where in a good situation to maintain them, and Paolo didn't help since he wanted nothing to do with the warfare rules in the first place. My theory is that the Warfare rules where a big factor behind Paolo droping FFG as distributor in the first place.

Yet the Warfare rules were the only part that local folks were at all interested in.

I don't know how it has been for the rest of the world, but I think that the local folks were looking for a 40K replacement, not a boardgame.

The Auld Grump

 BrookM wrote:
It was a decent game when FFG did the rules for it, but apparently Paolo hates those rules something fierce..

Yea, he made that clear. When I was running Dust-War.com, he basically ignored us. We asked him for help with content, articles, and whatnot to help promote his IP, but because we were a Warfare website, he snubbed us generally. Bad move, because a lot of the growth of his game was Warfare, which probably only made it worse, since Tactics was his baby and much less popular.

 Guildsman wrote:
My local store sold off their stock, too. Interest just dropped off.

I don't think DUST is dead yet. Recent events have definitely hurt them, though.You can only burn so many bridges before your company suffers.

Same here. After the BF switch which amounted to months of limbo with zero communication on the future of the game, it was hard to keep interest up. I hear the Kickstarter fiasco has helped put the final nail in the coffin.

 CaulynDarr wrote:

RA: DUST Warfare and its abandonment by Battlefront really bothered a lot of DUST players who preferred Warfare to Tactics. Do you have plans to pick Warfare back up?
PP: Dust Studio has not enough energy to take care of warfare as well, we all know that. Personally l believe that Dust Tactics Battlefield does the same job and even better, Olivier Zamfirescu and l always wanted Warfare to be exactly like Tactics but without the grid. We will license later this year Warfare to one of his most devoted players, he will continue that legacy.

Paolo can blame BF and others as much as he wants, but that article explains best why Dust is failing. He lets his personal feelings overrule good business practices. He might not have liked Warfare, but there where paying customers who did. And switching from FG mid-stride when Warfare was at it's peak potential hurt the game more than any bungling BF may have done later.

Man, if only he had just stayed with FFG. They had a solid team of people building one of the best wargames I had played. Warfare was just so good and I can't imagine how good a Version 2 of it would have looked from FFG. But it wasn't a possibility, because as said, his baby wasn't in the spotlight.

This whole thing just bums me out, because I sank so much time and money into Dust Warfare only to see the feared end happen. I hear they are giving Warfare over to a fan to continue, but it is essentially going to be an unsupported game from here on out. I think the verdict would be that Warfare is dead, Tactics will putter along, and Battlefield might too (though if Dust Studio parts with BF, who knows what will happen).

In other words, as I have been saying in general, I would avoid Dust in any incarnation and just go for a stronger, better game with support. X-Wing comes to mind.

Same here. The crowd that started to play Dust only AFTER the 50-70% sales started exclusively plays the wargame version and NOT any of the boardgame derived ones.

 CaulynDarr wrote:

 Eilif wrote:

RA: DUST Warfare and its abandonment by Battlefront really bothered a lot of DUST players who preferred Warfare to Tactics. Do you have plans to pick Warfare back up?
PP: Dust Studio has not enough energy to take care of warfare as well, we all know that. Personally l believe that Dust Tactics Battlefield does the same job and even better, Olivier Zamfirescu and l always wanted Warfare to be exactly like Tactics but without the grid. We will license later this year Warfare to one of his most devoted players, he will continue that legacy.

I hadn't heard this before. Is there confirmation that Battlefront has officially abandoned DUST? That would make it more clear why DUST studios is trying self-distribution.

I'm still unclear as to why the problems started, but maybe that's for the best.

I think that's BolS being very deferential to Paolo in their interview. BF did try to keep the Warfare rules current with the Tactics releases. They were probably hampered in what they could do since FFG owned the base rules. I don't think they where in a good situation to maintain them, and Paolo didn't help since he wanted nothing to do with the warfare rules in the first place. My theory is that the Warfare rules where a big factor behind Paolo droping FFG as distributor in the first place.

I agree about the deference. It really read like a Paolo blog post rather than a journalistic interview.

I'm just curious as to to know if there is any indication whether Battlefront is still involved with Dust or if they are getting out.

Secrets of the Third Reich is where I'd put my WW2 scify itch.

Stable and accessible designers, great community, and a game system that is less drama, more game.
Been with them for years off and on, and if anything the team is consistent and dedicated.


Dust died because of Ego, at the end of the day. It was just like watching the AT43 debacle all over again.

I liked the concept, and hated bowing out, but after watching the aforementioned mentioned drama, am really glad I didn't jump in like I wanted.
Train wreck in describing how it goes for Dust is being generous.

 TheAuldGrump wrote:
Yet the Warfare rules were the only part that local folks were at all interested in.

I don't know how it has been for the rest of the world, but I think that the local folks were looking for a 40K replacement, not a boardgame.

The Auld Grump

Agreed. The people I know that were curious never bought into it because it was more board game than war game.
If I had known about the actual war game version, I might have bought some.

The whole Tactics vs. Warfare thing confused the heck out of me. It
didn't help that I didn't know anyone locally playing it.

I looked at models, and they where cool, but I was confused from the getgo about it. Like how many versions.

Yeah, I love the idea of sinosoviets.

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
I looked at models, and they where cool, but I was confused from the getgo about it. Like how many versions.

Yeah, that's what happened to me. I saw the models and went "Cool" and started looking, and saw there were 2 different games, saw one wasn't really supported anymore, and that there wasn't a centralized company/game website. All of the conflicting information and whatnot put me off from buying. And now that it is going to the board game only version because someone didn't like the skirmish game, there's no way I'm buying any of those models except for use in other games.

Some news over in the other thread on the KS...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/510/633537.page#7820485

Battlefront and Dust are officially divorced and (for now) kickstarter backers are screwed. I don't know if Dust Studios will try to allow KS backers to purchase at cost from their new distrobution hub but frankly they don't have access to the KS emails which means they have no way of knowing exactly who ordered what. Factor into that the fact that existing dust stuff is still effectively available at retailer cost (50% off) via continuing sales.

Jebus. Thanks for the update

Ouch.

Welp.

Looks like i'll be waiting to see what DUST:whatevs turns out to play like in 201X.

I amay be looking out for Warfare to be re-released by whatever 'player' has been granted a licence. (Looking suspiciously at yous lot).

There is so much drama that has been around and supplies or other people backing away or just not wanting to work with Paolo. It is becoming a common theme and starts making you wonder how much of it is just him? IN his normal every day reactions working with these people what does he do to push them? To have these type of reactions.

The game is going to burn out if not already has. After Battlefront no big supplier will touch it or him.

I for one had Dust warfare and for how he reacted and seeing Paolo, I won't touch another game of his at all.

Aside from Dust, where are people not wanting to work with Paolo? Didn't CMoN recently have him do a couple figs for Zombicide? And isn't he doing some other stuff for other projects?

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
Aside from Dust, where are people not wanting to work with Paolo? Didn't CMoN recently have him do a couple figs for Zombicide? And isn't he doing some other stuff for other projects?

Figures and individual contributions to projects aside.


Paolo makes games for Paolo. Unlike the majority of designers who are willing to see their works changed and can see that their own vision may hamper their projects, Paolo appears happy to cut of his nose to spite his face.

Warfare is probably the most popular 'game mode' for DUST - Paolo doesn't like it - hates it even - as it isnt' HIS vision for the game. I suspect he dragged his heels and was apathetic towards any pushing and enhancement of the Warfare rules. Can you imagine giving cash to Paolo? knowing that what gamers want isn't even a priority in his mind?

A popular Warfare would enable Tactics as another project etc.

Hate to say it but you could substitute Paolos name for GW in any conversation about missed opportunities and not responding to customer needs.

After the updates posted in the other thread, I think it's official: DUST is dead. Even if they start distributing themselves, how many stores will actually stock it now?

I'm probably still going to pick up some Sino Soviets while I can.

If my store still has it in stock at 50% off, I'd still like the not-IS-3 they came out with. Pike nose ftw!

Yeah. Though I still try to buy stuff at retail rather than sit around
waiting for a fire sale like a vulture.

 malfred wrote:
Yeah. Though I still try to buy stuff at retail rather than sit around
waiting for a fire sale like a vulture.

Whereas I like being the vulture. Retail is for suckas!

I'm looking forward to a future FFG blowout so I can stock up on Warzone Tenements.
Again….
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2015/01/fully-painted-dust-tactics-warzone.html

I've got some crazy ideas for mixing them with Mantic Battlezone pieces.

Eh, I like to keep the shops open and stuff. My budget is my
budget, and higher prices just mean I buy less than I intend to.

I wonder how much of the financial problem between the two companies is symptomatic of a difference of opinion in the direction of the game?

It sounds like Paulo wants to pretty much ignore the wargame aspect, and concentrate on the board game aspect.

While BF is/was more interested in the wargame aspect - which i suspect would have been the more financially reward aspect.

In which case it was differing opinions that led to a lack of communication which led, in turn, to disagreements that would otherwise have been worked out between the two.

It also would be likely to make Paulo express his opinions publicly, rather than trying to find an equitable means of keeping the project rolling.

I know that the boardgame does not hold any interest for me, while the larger scale wargame did.

Trying to take a disagreement to the public stage is seldom an indication of a strong position, but is often an indicator of strong feelings.

It also makes resolution less likely.

The Auld Grump - I admit that I am biased by my lack of interest in the direction that Paulo wants to take the game.

Paolo hated Warfare. Battlefront didn't really invest in Warfare, because FFG still had stock of it, so they made Battlefield.

In the end, Warfare died years ago. Battlefield dies with Dust Studio and Battlefront parting ways and Dust Tactics goes on to be even more of a niche product than it was, since Paolo burned ~1500 backers (along with Battlefront) on the Babylon Kickstarter.

Plus all the childish finger-pointing after a bungled Kickstarter, preceded by a horribly mismanaged brand preceded by months of silence after the transition from FFG. Who can have faith in these people anymore?

Dust is dead to all but the diehards who will keep remnant groups alive here and there, but without proper support it becomes a fan-driven side-game at best.

I called this years ago though, when Paolo pulled Dust from FFG and after BF clearly was unable to do anything worthwhile with Warfare (Achilles Beta, for starters). That was the beginning of the end, for sure.

Makes me wonder how well the DUST RPG is doing right about now.