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Thought it would be good to have a general Dropzone Commander thread for discussions, queries and pics relevant to this great Sci-Fi game. This first post is a summary of everything a newbie would need to know. Hopefully we can persuade some more people to jump in

History

Dropzone Commander is the primary product of Hawk Wargames. It was developed by David Lewis who basically did everything from writing the rules through to designing the minis. It was launched in 2012 and has since developed a not insignificant following of gamers looking to try something new. It now features quite strongly in several tournament scenes and Lewis is continuing to develop new background, rules and minis for the game. A spaceship combat game (named Dropfleet Commader) set in the same universe is expected to launch in Q4 in 2015 (with Andy Chambers involved in writing the rules).

http://www.hawkwargames.com/

The Game

The key aspect to Dropzone Commander games are the Dropships. Other elements - tanks, infantry, AA, artillery etc - are all present and correct, but they are effectively useless without Dropships to move them around the battlefield to key locations. The game is therefore about keeping your Dropships intact and trying to disable those of your opponents. If you lose all your Dropships, you will be playing at a severe handicap as your ground transports only move 6-9" and your infantry only moves 2". To prevent games turning into a shooting fest, a lot of urban scenery is recommended and most weapons have their range automatically reduced by countermeasures deployed by targets. Close combat only takes place in buildings where the majority of objectives are located. The rules are relatively straightforward and use similar mechanics to 40K (although I'd stress that DZC is not a 40K carbon copy).

The Background

It is 2670 - With Earth resources nearly exhausted, Humans have now colonised many new planets with the aid of the enigmatic Shaltari (it transpires that the Shaltari were seeking to use the humans as cannon fodder in their civil wars and naturally this led to a deterioration in diplomatic relations!) The humans later received a warning from another alien source known as the White Sphere that their worlds were under threat from imminent invasion. This warning was largely ignored, but a group of separatists chose to heed the warning and evacuated their worlds. Soon after, Humanity was assailed by the Scourge, a parasitic alien race, who quickly overwhelmed the grossly ill prepared colonists. A fraction of humanity managed to escape and retreated to a series of barren worlds to plan a counter attack.

The Factions

The United Colonists of Mankind (UCM) - After a century of preparation, the humans now believe they have the military might necessary to reclaim their lost colonies from the Scourge. They have access to powerful long ranged weapons and their vehicles have good armour. They aren't as mobile as other factions and lack strong close combat units. If they were a 40K race, they would be - Tau



The Scourge - The alien race have become complacent and the human hosts of the parasites are starting to deteriorate, yet the Scourge remain a powerful threat. The look of the Scourge is characterised by the bio-mechanical insectoid appearance of their vehicles. While they have only short ranged plasma weapons, their vehicles are well armoured and very mobile. The Scourge also have powerful close combat units. If they were a 40K race, they would be - Chaos



The Post Human Republic (PHR) - Shortly before the UCM commenced their invasion, they were contacted by a seemingly human faction. On closer inspection, they were revealed to be a part human, part cybernetic species and the UCM soon realise that this is what became of the hated separatists (the humans who fled before the Scourge invasion). The objectives of the PHR are unclear, but the UCM have rejected any suggestion of an alliance. The PHR are effectively the all rounders and are pretty good at everything (except perhaps mobility). If they were a 40K race, they would be - Space Marines.



The Shaltari - After the humans realised the true intent of the Shaltari (actually one of several tribes), the aliens returned to their own internal conflicts. However, they have just as great a claim on the worlds now occupied by the Scourge and will make their own incursions to reclaim lost territories. The main selling point of the Shaltari is that they use Gates rather than Dropships to move around the battlefield. This makes them the most mobile faction in the game and they have a range of powerful weapons and other tricks they can deploy. Their Gates however are very fragile and need to be deployed carefully. If they were a 40K race, they would be - Eldar



The Resistance - The newest faction are the humans left behind to fend for themselves against the Scourge occupation. There are actually two Resistance sub factions, those who welcome the liberation by the UCM (Allies) and those who have developed their own autocratic regimes and see the UCM as a threat (Ferals). The former can make use of some UCM units (representing early UCM deployment and support) while the latter have access to more rough and ready troops. The Resistance vehicles are a mixture of reclaimed tanks and repurposed civilian vehicles, while some of their "Dropships" are actually large hovercraft. If they were a 40K race, they would be - Imperial Guard (Allies) or Orks (Ferals).



Getting Started

The start up cost of the game is incredibly low. The fantastic starter set gives you everything you need to play including two 500 point armies (UCM and Scourge), the complete rulebook, dice, counters, cardboard scenery and even a poster which folds out to become a playing surface. The cost of starter is £60 which is great value, but you can also pick it up from a range of internet stockists for a reduced cost.



If you don't want to invest in the starter (but you really should!), the rulebook can be picked up for £15, while you can get a starter plastic army for any of the four main factions for £35. Once again these are all available cheaper from the usual alternative sources.

Expansions

There's only one major expansion at the moment - Reconquest - which features additional background, rules for new units and also the complete army list for the Resistance. There have also been subsequent releases not covered in either the Main Rulebook or Reconquest Expansion, but rules for these can be downloaded from the website.

That's everything you need to know!

Does anyone know what the points value of PHR core starter army is? I'm try to figure out a way to make the UCM army in the starter set equal(ish) to the PHR starter.

Assuming my sums are correct, the PHR starter gives you 537 points.

Standard Army
Skirmish: 514/600 points
Standard Army

[*]PHR Standard Roster [514/600 pts]
[*]Battle Pantheon [166 pts]
[*]Battle Squad: 2x Phobos, Neptune [166 pts]

[*]Battle Pantheon [124 pts]

[*]Battle Squad: 2x Ares, Neptune [124 pts]

[*]Immortals [224 pts]

[*]Immortals: 2x Immortals, Neptune, 2x Juno A1 [152 pts]
[*]^ Sharing ^ Immortals: 2x Immortals [72 pts]

Standard Army
Skirmish: 527/600 points
Standard Army

[*]Standard Roster [527/600 pts]
[*]Armored Formation [142 pts]
[*]Sabre Squad: 3x Sabre, Condor [142 pts]

[*]Legionnaire Corps [219 pts]

[*]Legionnaires: 3x Legionnaires, Condor, 2x Bear [141 pts]
[*]^ Sharing ^ Legionnaires: 3x Legionnaires [78 pts]

[*]Special Ordnance [166 pts]

[*]Rapier Squad: 3x Rapier, Condor [166 pts]

These are from FFoR; the free to download army building software.

That said, this is a great game! Some pictures of my Resistance below. Put them under a spoiler because they come out pretty big.

These are images: http://imgur.com/a/tXmPX



THEY'RE LIKE ADORABLE PUPPIES.

I like the aggressiveness of my Scourge, currently painting up a PHR force.

Cool pics! I been thinking of making a surprise of a painted PHR army for a friend and a UCM for myself. How difficult is the game to learn? Also, are 500 point games good or are 1000 notable better?

The basic mechanics are extremely intuitive and easy to learn, but the tactics and strategies involving movement and activation manipulation can be difficult to master. Army selection can also seem a bit daunting at first, but after you figure it out it is both relatively straightforward and quite flexible. It also helps a ton to use the FFoR army builder.

I would suggest 1000 point games over 500 point games for playing long-term. The added redundancy and wider unit selection makes the game a lot more dynamic. Especially once you introduce commanders and fast movers. That said, I personally think the best experience is at 1500 (tournament level), but to be honest I've enjoyed every level that I have played at so far.

DzC rocks. Great company support (fixed units that are either under/over powered. Miniatures are great, rules are easy to learn but hard to master (what 30pages in the core book).
Cheap entry point, 1500pt army is ~150-200USD.
Fan built army builder x 2.

There are plenty of battle reports on Youtube to view to get a feel for the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PliaPYG0ci4&feature=youtu.be

 Nightwolf829 wrote:

That said, this is a great game! Some pictures of my Resistance below. Put them under a spoiler because they come out pretty big.

Spoiler:

Impressive Resistance army The Resistance has a great look and I was very tempted to start with them, but decided to focus on the Scourge for time being.

Is the scale close enough to 1/144 to pass off some modified scale models as gaming minis? I've got a lot of gunpla bits that work in that scale, but they look a bit big next to DZC minis. I'm also planning to use some 1/100 tanks with sci fi bits as super heavies. Reaper's CAV is supposed to be 10mm, too, right?

I'm not sure if using DZC scale and importing, say, Zentraedi vehicles would work better than using RTT's 6mm minis and importing scourge prowlers and ravagers as "Outvid" minis.

I'm not too concerned about using them as counts as or with rules or anything. I just want them to look good together.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Is the scale close enough to 1/144 to pass off some modified scale models as gaming minis? I've got a lot of gunpla bits that work in that scale, but they look a bit big next to DZC minis. I'm also planning to use some 1/100 tanks with sci fi bits as super heavies. Reaper's CAV is supposed to be 10mm, too, right?

I'm not sure if using DZC scale and importing, say, Zentraedi vehicles would work better than using RTT's 6mm minis and importing scourge prowlers and ravagers as "Outvid" minis.

I'm not too concerned about using them as counts as or with rules or anything. I just want them to look good together.

DzC is 10mm ~ Scale ratio‎: ‎1:160. 1/144 will work, 1/100 depends on the model.

Ah finally found a DZC thread on the forums

My gaming club has gotten into this and most of us now have 1500 point armies.

Here's a link to some of our batreps. Please note, we had some rules wrong in the early ones.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd4hZWIDTpYeTrP8CzsjJUUynM8lEKhQb

I don't find it fun. You always fail on a 1. More dice are better.

The minis are relatively expensive considering their scale.

 Soteks Prophet wrote:
I don't find it fun. You always fail on a 1. More dice are better.

The minis are relatively expensive considering their scale.

More dice tend to be better in all dice based wargames? I'm confused.

 Soteks Prophet wrote:
I don't find it fun. You always fail on a 1. More dice are better.

The minis are relatively expensive considering their scale.

The plastic starter sets make it relatively cheap to dive straight in with a race of your choosing IMHO. The resins for the individual minis aren't cheap, but strike me as fairly comparable to other stuff these days. A standard 1500 point army won't set you back as much as a GW one.

New stuff! Loving the Scourge flying beasties

UCM Flakk Teams


Tyranid Harpies.... aheam, I mean Scourge Vampires


Sisters of Battle... ahem, I mean PHR Valkyries


Shaltari Samurai


Resistance Attack ATVs

Those UCM flak teams... my oh my. I love infantry with heavy weapons.

 crazyK wrote:
Ah finally found a DZC thread on the forums

My gaming club has gotten into this and most of us now have 1500 point armies.

Here's a link to some of our batreps. Please note, we had some rules wrong in the early ones.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd4hZWIDTpYeTrP8CzsjJUUynM8lEKhQb

Here is mine: https://www.youtube.com/user/newtoncain/videos

Placed my order for a PHR starter on Friday.

http://natfka.blogspot.com/2015/07/scourge-dropfleet-ships-and-lots-of-new.html

Pictures there of the new units painted and on display! Including some previously un-previewed units like Commander Wade's Tank and a variant of the new Resistance ATVs. There are also a bunch of great images of the DFC space-ships.

The recent Scourge releases are what really pushed me over the edge into collecting them.
And seeing those spaceships... I think I have a new favourite minis company.

 Nightwolf829 wrote:
http://natfka.blogspot.com/2015/07/scourge-dropfleet-ships-and-lots-of-new.html

Pictures there of the new units painted and on display! Including some previously un-previewed units like Commander Wade's Tank and a variant of the new Resistance ATVs. There are also a bunch of great images of the DFC space-ships.

Good find

The Scourge DFC ships looking almost as good as the UCM ones. Can't wait for this game!

It arrived! It finally arrived!

Mmm those Sappers gave me everything I could ever want now in this army. I hope they make a Gunarr and Myrmidons to go with that Lifthawk.

Their infantry designs have gotten a lot better and hopefully will go back and re-do some of the old infantry as well down the road.

Lookin' at that PHR box is so tempting..

 Thokt wrote:
Lookin' at that PHR box is so tempting..

No time like the present. Just ordered some scourge yesterday. Although I'm not going to use that terrible purple scheme from the website. Blech.

I had to buy a second army so I can teach people to play.

Same, although the first time around it was the UCM and Scourge from the starter.

This time around it's Shaltari and PHR on ground, and whatever two look best to me in Dropfleet.

I'm also going to take the time to create a pack of new missions and objectives more to my liking. Stuff with a soft limit on turns rather than an old style hard 6 turn limit.

I hate the focal point missions with a passion since the giant dogpile around the point looks stupid, but the general idea behind focal points is understandable since armies do have to hold ground at some point. It may be simple as saying anything left shoots during a turn 7 where all shooting is simultaneous.

I also really, really like the revisions and errata they did just before Reconquest, adding stuff like air controllers to help air attack ground units.

But I do want to see them explore other terrain types.

Anyone have any links to "how tos" for making the paper terrain from the terrain sets they sell look overgrown and abandoned? Or Anyone have experience doing that? I have 3 sets of the buildings and roads and a jar of flock.

What the best way to build the buildings so they are sturdy and dont shift on the tiles. Also whats the best way to keep the tiles from slipping all around?

Rules got updated.
Shaltari got nerfed, apollos got better.