The resin Anomaly exclusive didn’t have the same issues as the plastic Scourge cruisers, at least mine didn’t. I doubt they’ll make a plastic kit for this new faction no matter how much the customers want it. Hopefully the angular, mechanic nature of these ships will help hide mold lines better than the organic curves of the Scourge ships.
Early models in resin/plastic are often not so bad because the moulds are fresh; but as they get used they wear a bit and you get mould lines. I just wish they'd learn entirely and put more flat details on the edges or use other creative ways to part and hide the mould lines on the models.
The Anomoly remind me so much of the Loa faction from Sword of the Stars II. I'll be fairly surprised if they aren't some kind of artificial intelligence robots.
Ships look cool. the artillery thing (unless it's a small station?) not so much. But the zone models always look worse in renders than in photos.
TTCombat wrote:For the 10th day of Christmas, we're happy to cover a few more details regarding our upcoming PHR game.
Currently Project Hunter (As you may have guessed, we don’t have a name yet.) Has gone through the first round of play-testing and is now at the stage where we start writing the rules up properly while aiming to keep them as concise as possible. So, what is the game itself even like? Well, the very basic original brief was simply some PHR Walkers beating up some big monsters. Of course, we needed to flesh that out a lot further first, so Dave, Scott, Robin and Chris came up with the idea of the PHR completing some secretive operations on a planet, home to some vicious, territorial monsters. That is the fluff for the game we can share right now, the actual operations are far too secretive for us to reveal just yet.
We had some very cool artwork and sculpts done for the PHR walkers and the monsters, which all look absolutely amazing. The PHR are vastly outnumbered against swarms of vicious, territorial monsters. Therefore the PHR player has to be clever about moving to their objectives, not making too much noise as the creatures really, REALLY don’t like noise. In fact, they actually get angrier the noisier it is, and the angrier they are, the more powerful they are. Though the monsters are controlled by a player, we’ve added some rules to keep them feeling like a feral force of nature.
That model is rough lookin'. Looks like a direct 3d print, but they made the supports way too big and they came off ugly, and then instead of trying to clean it up, they used an old can of primer that frosted it.
I like the body shape, though I'd want to swap some small hands where the rotary guns are and put something heavier where the shield and hammer thing are that look more scifi and less Warmachine.
I can't tell if it's meant to be the same figure scale as Dropzone or not.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Whilst we hope your celebrating with family we're partying with the Post Human Republic.
Don't tell the Hostile Fauna but it looks like the PHR are planning to offer their pilots weapon options... Honestly we can't wait for Project PHR-Rim (Working title) to release in the future.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Whilst we hope your celebrating with family we're partying with the Post Human Republic.
Don't tell the Hostile Fauna but it looks like the PHR are planning to offer their pilots weapon options... Honestly we can't wait for Project PHR-Rim (Working title) to release in the future.
I hope they pose it a bit more dynamically than that. It reminds me of a more curvy CAV model from the late 90s. Of course, i don't mean having it jump off of a ruined building with one foot twisting like an acrobat in mid air no-scope one shotting some other mech.
We're happy to say it's time for new releases! This week we are unleashing the first miniature of 2024 but be assured we have HUGE plans for this year with numerous products coming for Carnevale, Dropzone, Dropfleet, RUMBLESLAM, and more!
- UCM Dominion Bomber
Already a favourite among beleaguered UCM ground troops, the Dominion is affectionately known as The Delete Key, God’s Nailgun, and Splatter, amongst other things. Certainly, the gargantuan Ferrum Aerospace factory can’t build these fast enough.
Developed in response to the rising numbers of enemy Behemoths, this dread angle bristles with weaponry. Its primary means of offense is its bomb bays holding two titanfall gravity munitions. These are dropped at low altitude, then just before impact the bomb’s tail explodes, driving its tungsten-tipped warhead deep inside a big target’s guts before a larger charge detonates, ripping the victim apart from within.
Double the points of an Athena. More than the cost of a UCM Phoenix. That promo picture causes me more questions than it answers, but it looks like another victim of scale creep. Too big for 10mm SF gaming.
I wonder if what they're photoshopping out is that it requires a huge flight stand, or two of them. I've got a phoenix, which this thing looks awful close to in spread, and that thing is NOT stable on just one stand. I put in two extra posts and used the medium stands and it got a lot sturdier. It kept falling over and breaking other units.
And holy gak the alt-bus is bad.
There's nothing at all about that weapon that reads 'sonic', and the chopped school but puts the turret BEHIND THE REAR AXLE. This model was designed by someone totally ignorant of basic physics, let alone how vehicles work.
Ok so I know we all agreed it was daft - but it seems it's not daft.
I haven't watched that video (because I'm in a meeting lol), but I watched one a few months ago, doesn't the Swedish one deploy legs to fix it in place?
Overread wrote: Ok so I know we all agreed it was daft - but it seems it's not daft.
I've had a few people point to those vehicles, but aside from 'gun on long truck' they mostly illustrate all the problems with the topple bus.
The motorized artillery all have the weight centered between multiple heavy axles, not over the butt of the vehicle. The ones that fire from behind the axle are in a deployed state, basically dropping the gun on the ground with hydraulics and putting out stabilizers.
It's still daft.
Now, if the model had a sloped tracked back and a winch at the front of the bed for deploying the gun, or the gun was moved over the axles, or it had stabilizers on the bed it could deploy, or just any number of other elements on the model to acknowledge how precarious it looks and make it look less like a lazy 'kitbash', it would perfectly fine. Needs More Effort, 65/100
Put Fortunate Son on the radio boys and crank up the volume! It's time to go Scourge hunting... what are you listening to in the back of a new Carryhawk?
Deploying soon:
"If you don't build it, no one will come" It has no market presence because the publisher doesn't do anything whatsoever to promote it, let alone to the degree that Hawk Dave did (not to be confused with the gelded substitute 'ttcombat dave'). There's a tournament at Adepticon this weekend, 6 players (out of 16 possible) participating and two of them are the organizers. TTC won't be there, but even when they show up to a con they don't do demos, they don't organize any kind of games nor provide prize support let alone swag, they don't even setup dioramas.
Also no battle reports. Ever. The most damning sign of a bad publisher.
Dropfleet is doing much better than Dropzon, despite the same kind of disinterested negligence.
Carryhawk Dropship
Essentially a wide-bodied, rarer evolution of the stalwart Strikehawk tiltrotor, the Carryhawk adds additional girth and lift capacity by including a pair of huge, tail-mounted ducted fans. The Carryhawks pair of heavy calibre rotary cannons can spit a relentless hail of depleted uranium-tipped bullets to chew through even armoured vehicles. These can be hot-swapped pre-mission for two deployable Sentinel turrets, much like its cousin the Strikehawk.
Badger Buggy
One of the UCMA’s most common and cheapest armoured vehicles is the Badger. Much like the ancient and famous Humvee, this can carry around five soldiers or specialists in comparative safety while offering supplementary anti-infantry firepower in the form of a twin gatling gun. A rarer variant, the Ferret, replaces this with a target designator unit, essentially turning this small vehicle into a forward observer as well as a light transport.
Find our latest miniature releases on our website:
The 'Carryhawk' is painful to look at. You can't just slap fixed mount lift fans on the rear of a tilt rotor, it can't fly like that. It's like a tank with treads perpendicular to the sides on the front and back.
If I get one, and I do mean if, I will replace the tilt rotors with the ducted fans from a PHR dropship, or better yet with fans from the Maelstrom’s Edge hover drones.
The UCM buggy looks like one of those plastic frog toys that flip when you push down on the tail end. Not something I would buy, unless they were a bonus in an armor box.
rybackstun wrote: Hilariously I think the Carryhawk looks awesome but the rest of the Resistance's ground forces are dog water.
Even the Kalium stuff?
I enjoy the variety in Resistance. They have Mad Max style vehicles, tanks, GW-style redonko tanks, hover tanks, Batman The Animated Series APC’s, Gobots walkers, the sexiest goddarn fighter jet in tabletop gaming, the sexiest dropship in the game, the ugliest dropship in the game, and Cobra helicopters. There’s something for everyone to hate.
It's been a while since they made any new Dropzone models I wanted to buy, let alone a batch that doesn't incite vicious mockery. I hope they get to the new faction soon, because the existing ones are feeling really played out for good designs.
lord_blackfang wrote: That looks cool af, why doesn't this game have any market presence?
They where sooooo close to being the "second game" spot. Being just behind 40k. with the likes of old warmachine
But the creater had eyes bigger than his stomach and released a second game a year into his first one. With a kickstarter that can charitably be called "a frickin disaster"
with that they where sold to a company that makes MDF terrain. Dont come at me with "carnivale" or "Rubmleslam" those dont exist.
The current owners have no interest in making the game bigger or expanding.
I will always lament the fall of this game, I still peruse the store page, longing for a different timeline where this doesn't fail.
It failed at the worst time as well. A few years later, and the creator could have pivoted to subscription STL sales and TTCombat would have never gotten their filthy claws into it.
The steady flow of new models and fuckery/fixes to unit stats also seems to kill the momentum of any attempt at a community edition of the rules.
If he wanted to "pivot to STL sales" he could have done so at the time he sold to TTC. There's no money in it for anyone with their own creative vision that they are trying to execute in the way Dave is. He couldn't sculpt fast enough to keep up with the throughput needed to be profitable. The big patreons and the like are making money by hiring freelancers to do concept art and then other freelancers to do sculpts based in that art, all for comparatively little pay, in order to keep up with the expected monthly cadence that justifies their value proposition to supporters. Its 3d printable shoveleware as opposed to a concentrated, intentional, and methodical approach to cohesive worldbuilding and narrative development. It's a different business model and approach from what Dave is/was trying to accomplish.
rybackstun wrote: Hilariously I think the Carryhawk looks awesome but the rest of the Resistance's ground forces are dog water.
Even the Kalium stuff?
I enjoy the variety in Resistance. They have Mad Max style vehicles, tanks, GW-style redonko tanks, hover tanks, Batman The Animated Series APC’s, Gobots walkers, the sexiest goddarn fighter jet in tabletop gaming, the sexiest dropship in the game, the ugliest dropship in the game, and Cobra helicopters. There’s something for everyone to hate.
The Kalium Resistance ground forces look pretty good actually. I don't know that I've ever seen them in stock photos for Resistance Ground forces, so I didn't know they existed.
slyphic wrote: It's been a while since they made any new Dropzone models I wanted to buy, let alone a batch that doesn't incite vicious mockery. I hope they get to the new faction soon, because the existing ones are feeling really played out for good designs.
They showed off a tank design for the new anomoly faction, but the reaction was mixed. I wonder if they’re spending more time on them to get them right before dropping the line.
lord_blackfang wrote: That looks cool af, why doesn't this game have any market presence?
They where sooooo close to being the "second game" spot. Being just behind 40k. with the likes of old warmachine
But the creater had eyes bigger than his stomach and released a second game a year into his first one. With a kickstarter that can charitably be called "a frickin disaster"
with that they where sold to a company that makes MDF terrain. Dont come at me with "carnivale" or "Rubmleslam" those dont exist.
The current owners have no interest in making the game bigger or expanding.
I will always lament the fall of this game, I still peruse the store page, longing for a different timeline where this doesn't fail.
How was the kickstarter a disaster? From what I remember there were delays, but everyone got everything they pledged for, didn’t they?
chaos0xomega wrote: intentional, and methodical approach to cohesive worldbuilding and narrative development.
It's hard for me to see that in the game after the third time they released a unit with a name that either was already in use or contradicted the most recent setting book. I see post-Hawk Dropzone as slapdash and lackadaisical in its setting.
The Carryhawk’s main combat role though is the deployment of a forward command bunker. This small, armoured structure is deployed with an onboard detail of resistance veterans and comms staff. Once landed, this bunker can relay rear-echelon commands to the frontlines while the Carryhawk rains fire from above.
That's not something that should be on the battlefield, even at DZC scale... (at least the Phoenix can run away by itself!)
chaos0xomega wrote: intentional, and methodical approach to cohesive worldbuilding and narrative development.
It's hard for me to see that in the game after the third time they released a unit with a name that either was already in use or contradicted the most recent setting book. I see post-Hawk Dropzone as slapdash and lackadaisical in its setting.
Before the buyout. After the buyout, TTCombat runs the game, and they want stompy robots and hover-hoverers and gak. Bigger cannons! Cannons everywhere! There’s not enough feet on that tank!!
chaos0xomega wrote: intentional, and methodical approach to cohesive worldbuilding and narrative development.
It's hard for me to see that in the game after the third time they released a unit with a name that either was already in use or contradicted the most recent setting book. I see post-Hawk Dropzone as slapdash and lackadaisical in its setting.
Before the buyout. After the buyout, TTCombat runs the game, and they want stompy robots and hover-hoverers and gak. Bigger cannons! Cannons everywhere! There’s not enough feet on that tank!!
lord_blackfang wrote: That looks cool af, why doesn't this game have any market presence?
They where sooooo close to being the "second game" spot. Being just behind 40k. with the likes of old warmachine
But the creater had eyes bigger than his stomach and released a second game a year into his first one. With a kickstarter that can charitably be called "a frickin disaster"
with that they where sold to a company that makes MDF terrain. Dont come at me with "carnivale" or "Rubmleslam" those dont exist.
The current owners have no interest in making the game bigger or expanding.
I will always lament the fall of this game, I still peruse the store page, longing for a different timeline where this doesn't fail.
I'm sorry but that's not really what happened at all. Dropfleet was released several years into DZC, around three years, with DZC an established game by this point. The kickstarter went fine, only hiccup was the problem with the mats where the producer basically hiked up the price after the campaign was done and it wasn't actually feasible for them to be delivered so people got vouchers instead (although this took quite a bit of time). I got a shedload of stuff from my kickstarter and I'd back it again even now in a heartbeat. There was production problems (which I am privy to but won't go into detail with) with led Hawk to try and find a new producer in the form of TTCombat. TTCombat instead offered to buy Hawk to run largely autonomously (as my understanding) and allow Dave to focus on the game (he wasn't an amazing businessman) and then promptly made everyone redundant apart from Dave and killed all the community engagement. I loved DZC and DFC but I haven't played them in years, as there was some additional stuff in that story which left a bad taste in my mouth.
Every ex-hawk employee I've ever met and talked with practically sneers and spits when you mention TTCombat. The two brothers that own it are the worst kind of people, and the reason TTC haven't acquired any other games since Dropzone; no one will talk to them because word got around that they'll lie to your face and stab you in the back.
I'm guessing having a game that really made big waves when it landed and hasn't grown under their ownership (and if anything has shrunk/floundered) for years is also a big sign that even if they had the finances, they don't have the will/skill to push it further.
Which is such a huge shame. I recall when DFC first appeared and the ships blew people away with their styles.
I guess that's reason #1,358,387,501 to get the informal "promises" in writing alongside the other terms of sale in the contract if true. A youtuber I used to watch made a poignant comment years ago about the entertainment industry remarking that you don;t get what you deserve but rather only get what you negotiate (and even that is a best case scenario). In his words, it's called show business and NOT show friends for a reason.
warboss wrote: I guess that's reason #1,358,387,501 to get the informal "promises" in writing alongside the other terms of sale in the contract if true. A youtuber I used to watch made a poignant comment years ago about the entertainment industry remarking that you don;t get what you deserve but rather only get what you negotiate (and even that is a best case scenario). In his words, it's called show business and NOT show friends for a reason.
chaos0xomega wrote: If he wanted to "pivot to STL sales" he could have done so at the time he sold to TTC. There's no money in it for anyone with their own creative vision that they are trying to execute in the way Dave is. He couldn't sculpt fast enough to keep up with the throughput needed to be profitable. The big patreons and the like are making money by hiring freelancers to do concept art and then other freelancers to do sculpts based in that art, all for comparatively little pay, in order to keep up with the expected monthly cadence that justifies their value proposition to supporters. Its 3d printable shoveleware as opposed to a concentrated, intentional, and methodical approach to cohesive worldbuilding and narrative development. It's a different business model and approach from what Dave is/was trying to accomplish.
Mostly accurate, but there is a modest living to be made now actually creating something through digital files, there absolutely wasn't in 2018, the market didn't exist yet.
Patreon though is a fickle market - you've a vastly smaller market to start with buying digital files and they can "burn out" on buying stuff because the price and volume exceeds what most will print. It also doesn't help that if you're unique game has 200 customers over a global market that's tiny - really tiny. So tiny most probably don't know each other to game with.
So that's an added barrier.
It can also burn out artists because of the demand to make more and more each month constantly with almost no pause.
So it can be a very swingy and fiddly market. I'd also say its growth was artificially fast during the pandemic and now its levelled off drastically in the last half a year to year. Everyone going back to "life" and the cost of living crisis eating into everyone's budgets means growth has levelled out. I figure at some point it will start going on active growth again.
But still physical model production is a LOT more profitable and you can reach a much larger market through supplying stores.
However if your company decides to cut all its marketing and community ties well that will kill growth fast. Heck it was one of (not the only one) the major factors in Warmachine going from 2nd to GW to a firm that right now is only just surviving and starting to grow again and in doing that they basically had to abandon all normal physical production and go for 3D print manufacture (though I've seen a few others doing that so I think we might well see a future where 3D print mass production on a modest scale is used over metal casting because of the rise in metal material costs)
I think a very apt comparison would be with Lazy Forger, rather than a few hundred patron patreon. The LF guy is doing quite well for himself off that project, and it's 100% digital.
Lazy forger has made $100k over ~2 years from their campaigns, at most I would guess maybe another $100k from non-campaign sales.
Wouldn't really say that's anything to write home about. The dropfleet commander kickstarter campaign alone raised ~$800k American in the span of 30 days.
There is a clear difference in the scale of operations between the two.
800k, of which I would be aghast to discover more than 20% was profit, and KS is just aggregating a year(s) of sales into one FOMO window. So yeah, I'd say that's pretty comparable still.
100k a year for someone doing CAD on their personal computer sounds pretty successful to me, DFC didn't have 200k left for Hawk's wage after tooling 4 hard plastic factions and shipping them to backers. Also don't discount the personal engagement factor with these projects, where customers can have a direct hotline to the designer through Discord and such.
Overread wrote: Patreon though is a fickle market - you've a vastly smaller market to start with buying digital files and they can "burn out" on buying stuff because the price and volume exceeds what most will print.
This is a very very true statement, there's only so much time and resin, only so much one can print. What is often the case with subscriptions for files is you indeed save money but end up with so many damn files you can barely organize them. There's also terrible incentives, instead of getting fewer new kits/designs but better forethought and organization and designs, you often just get MORE MORE NORE as opposed to less but better or more consistent design. Often it just turns into basically paying for early access to stl sets that will be sold ala cart in a few months anyway.
I also think it's not healthy for one designer to put stuff out every month, like what used to make buying an album from a band nice was that it represented months and years of writing and recording work. If a band or recording artist setup their work like patreon subscriptions like, I don't think it'd lead to better music, just more of it.
Overread wrote: Patreon though is a fickle market - you've a vastly smaller market to start with buying digital files and they can "burn out" on buying stuff because the price and volume exceeds what most will print.
This is a very very true statement, there's only so much time and resin, only so much one can print. What is often the case with subscriptions for files is you indeed save money but end up with so many damn files you can barely organize them. There's also terrible incentives, instead of getting fewer new kits/designs but better forethought and organization and designs, you often just get MORE MORE NORE as opposed to less but better or more consistent design. Often it just turns into basically paying for early access to stl sets that will be sold ala cart in a few months anyway.
I also think it's not healthy for one designer to put stuff out every month, like what used to make buying an album from a band nice was that it represented months and years of writing and recording work. If a band or recording artist setup their work like patreon subscriptions like, I don't think it'd lead to better music, just more of it.
Agreed, however many patreons can't shift out of that system easily. Going to KS or other campaign systems can work but its a much greater risk and its so very very easy to just hit at a bad spot or not nail the marketing and suddenly you go from 100K to 10K. It can even happen because the economy tanks or another KS is running at the same time that has better marketing etc...
You get a rare few and honestly Lazy Forger is in a very curious spot because he's serving a super niche market and yet has made it work, though honestly I'm a little surprised - esp as a good many of his models are not actually made for good 3D printing. There's a lot of support scarring/support complexities because he doesn't break models into enough parts etc... going on. Yet he's made it work and work really well within a niche and with non-GW designs as well which is very rare. I've seen many more campaigns of outstanding models fail or flounder.
I do also agree, and some of hte larger creators have started to cut back on the monthly volume of models delivered slowly. ITs hard because more models does attract more customers ,but it can also lower standards and makes it harder to test and create awesome kits. STL is a very new and very strange market.
Overread wrote: a good many of his models are not actually made for good 3D printing. There's a lot of support scarring/support complexities because he doesn't break models into enough parts etc... going on.
There's a noticeable improvement in the quality of his pre-supported models between the earliest and the most recent. A while ago he went back and redid a few old sets, but they're not as good as his most recent releases still.
Aa a 3d designer on the side - lol I wish owning a chair and a pc was all there was to it. There's software licenses, taxes, web hosting fees (unless you exclusively use green site, and purple site), payment processing fees, etc.
Plus there's the cost of my time. I make over $50/hr at my day job - I make less than minimum wage on my 3d designs.
TTCombat wrote:We endure. We experience. WE ARE COMING FOR YOU.
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With Salute 2024 taking place this Saturday, we hope to see as many Commander Universe fans as possible at the event for some exciting updates.
The guns look too much like their ships. I keep seeing buff aliens that want to show me their newest model they made.
I guess they're some kind of intrusive nanomachine controlled aliens, what with the Borg headpieces. Kind of disappointingly rubber-suit alien compared to the Shaltari and Scourge.
Edit: In thumbnails the antennae head piece thing looks like two tails of a bandana, so I keep imagining them speaking like West coast 90s thugs
TTC wrote:"We now have our measure of you. You are indeed sufficient. Your
response though, thus far, has been disappointing. We see you are
distracted by squabbles with fellow, less interesting flesh sentients,
so this communique should redress matters.
We are your extinction, at our leisure. During this epoch, we
will enjoy your suffering, your endings, and, most especially, the fight
we think you will give us.
We endure. We experience. And we are coming for you."
I was thinking of the spaceship where 7 of 9 fought The Rock, but the Jetsons car is even better. It also has strong 80’s Sci Fi puzzle illustration energy, and I love it.
Yeah, news from Salute is there's a proper V2 for DFC coming this year - "Much more streamlined, possibly out by September", plus "lovely new plastic destroyers, cutters, monitors and more".
On FB, someone shared the background for the new faction as Dave explained it to him:
From what dave said no. Those flesh jobs they have are basically 3d printed organic drones. Their internal structure consists of a heart, lungs and not a lot else. They're built with a one operation lifespan, get sludged and made into more troops of whatever shape and size is operationally required. They're basically piloted by machine intelligence on a remote basis (take off the headgear and they'll stand there doing nothing). They don't feel pain, fear or anything else
Those guns are also nasty, they dissolve a hole in the target with no trauma or wider energy discharge and turn what's been removed into a sort of smoke which they can then reabsorb.
Overread wrote: Got to say having seen the Behemoth models in person - those things are freaking massive. WAY bigger than I thought from photos.
How do they compare to DFC Dreadnaughts? Would you say they are worth their price tags for someone who liked the design?
Considerably bigger and I would say yes, once I saw their size in person I did feel that the price does justify the volume of model that you get. The Scourge one in particular was very impressive to see in person.
Striketeam Commander is launching on Kickstarter soon! You can now register to be notified on launch for this exciting addition to the Commander universe:
https://kck.st/3ymRS6v
I'd prefer they focus on the two existing games and make them worth playing. I see no point in a 28mm game, that is well covered by lots of other companies.
I'm only interested in the minis to maybe use them in Five Parsecs...
I think focusing on the two existing games is why they are bloated and the rules displease serious gamers. They keep making so many vehicles and ships it’s hard to keep up, even though they ran out of ideas and design space years ago. The new faction and new edition might help, but I’m glad to see Striketeam as a release valve for new content instead of another wave of ridiculous vehicles and overly specialized ships.
There were options instead of bloating the design space, variant patterns of the same units for instance. They could have done campaign books. They could release a new faction. They could have made the things people actually asked for like faction launch assets for Dropfleet.
But TTCombat is not a competently run company, so of course they're going to launch yet another game into the most saturated market on the planet.
It isn't just an unneeded game, it's poorly named. Don't understand why they didn't stick with the DropThing naming since that is pretty clearly part of the brand.
Particularly if you are going to try and jump into the 28mm market as well, then going with a name as generic as "Striketeam" seems an underwhelming approach...
I think the thing is "Drop" isn't just a brand name but a game mechanic/focus in terms of how models appear on the board in Zone and a big part of what you're doing in Fleet in terms of the ground part of the game.
Perhaps Striketeam won't feature that kind of mechanic so they didn't use the term?
Or perhaps they feel the "Drop" Brand hasn't grown well enough on its own so they are branching out with a new bit of separate branding for a half-fresh start with a new scale and all.
I do also agree they might have to learn some more marketing. One thing that has been raised several times is that its surprising how little growth they seem to have had with the game, esp Dropfleet, when you consider it has pretty much zero competition in the market right now. With alternatives being the 3D print supported (for the most part) BFG fan groups and a few smaller games like Billion Stars that are basically in that same bracket of smaller scale supporters.
Dropfleet and Zone should be huge games right now, but they never really grew.
Striketeam is going to be under even more pressure because the 28-32mm market is very saturated with small and big name creators.
Their demographic has been the FB group and nowhere else for long enough they should maybe try listening. But TTC is incapable of admitting fault because of the personalities in control of it.
Unfortunately TTCombat have managed to completely run Hawk into the ground and I think this will be the final nail in the coffin. Launching a kickstarter for what is, in effect, a dead brand where your audience is the people in a Facebook group from nearly a decade prior?
Honestly sad Dropzone and Dropfleet used to be my hands down favourite game systems and TTcombat have completely squandered it.
I really hope they've improved their resin gates for them - the edge details look more sane than some others they've done so they might be easy to clean; but I just really hope their casting is up to it.
whilst I think their guns for the 32mm models are silly (because they are just small spaceships...) I really do like the alien look of their ships
Overread wrote: I really hope they've improved their resin gates for them - the edge details look more sane than some others they've done so they might be easy to clean; but I just really hope their casting is up to it.
whilst I think their guns for the 32mm models are silly (because they are just small spaceships...) I really do like the alien look of their ships
Looks like most of the new faction’s ships will be in plastic. Or rather, we have seen a plastic sprue that makes either their cruisers or frigates or destroyers/monitors/corvettes.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
ingtaer wrote: How has the casting for ships been since TTC have taken over? I really dislike them as a company but have seen some great deals pop up here and there.
Their plastic sets—the Resistance cruisers and frigates—so far have been just about as good of quality as the Kickstarter produced plastics, a bit chunkier in detail but ingenious in customization and modularity.
Their resin castings are usually really good, with the caveat that I have had to ask them to send replacements for mold slip items sometimes. I’d say roughly 4 out of every 5 ships are excellently cast (excluding the gate placement issue for some of the Scourge ships), with the fifth being either good enough but not perfect or full on needing replacement.
Also, some of them are heat warped by the time they arrive and need to be fixed by hot water.
I will warn you that the Resistance Dreadnought is a pain in the ass to assemble, requiring tons of cutting and hot water-warping to get everything to fit. But it is also the most modular miniature in their entire range and a kitbasher’s dream.
I've got to admit I'm jealous that the Resistance get that ship and no other faction has a kit that comes close to it in terms of being a big modular kit (though you can argue that the human faction does have the space station kit to work with which is also highly modular and whilst the scourge can put a few extra parts on to "steal" them)
They have always replaced the components I have asked them to replace with no more hassle than getting replacement parts from GW circa 2010ish.
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Overread wrote: I've got to admit I'm jealous that the Resistance get that ship and no other faction has a kit that comes close to it in terms of being a big modular kit (though you can argue that the human faction does have the space station kit to work with which is also highly modular and whilst the scourge can put a few extra parts on to "steal" them)
I’d love for more modular ships for the other factions, although I can’t see how they could get a Scourge ship to look right while also being modular.
The space station kit is also amazing for kitbashers.
ingtaer wrote: How has the casting for ships been since TTC have taken over? I really dislike them as a company but have seen some great deals pop up here and there.
Their plastic sets—the Resistance cruisers and frigates—so far have been just about as good of quality as the Kickstarter produced plastics, a bit chunkier in detail but ingenious in customization and modularity.
Their resin castings are usually really good, with the caveat that I have had to ask them to send replacements for mold slip items sometimes. I’d say roughly 4 out of every 5 ships are excellently cast (excluding the gate placement issue for some of the Scourge ships), with the fifth being either good enough but not perfect or full on needing replacement.
Also, some of them are heat warped by the time they arrive and need to be fixed by hot water.
I will warn you that the Resistance Dreadnought is a pain in the ass to assemble, requiring tons of cutting and hot water-warping to get everything to fit. But it is also the most modular miniature in their entire range and a kitbasher’s dream.
Thanks for that Bob, I might have to take a punt and pick up a few then, looking at firing up my ACTA project again.
I do think it looks silly/lacking imagination on the infantry but the ships look cool!
ALSO Freaking heck look - CLEAN no details on the edges where the mould will join so you can actually clean a ship of mould lines without it taking half a day!
Overread wrote: I do think it looks silly/lacking imagination on the infantry but the ships look cool!
ALSO Freaking heck look - CLEAN no details on the edges where the mould will join so you can actually clean a ship of mould lines without it taking half a day!
slyphic wrote: Conversely, there's some visible vent scars on the top edges that are really distracting. Especially the 2nd pic
When I was at Salute earlier this year I did swing by their stall and one thing that stopped me buying anything was seeing the huge resin gates they had on one of their convention exclusive ships. Just utterly huge compared to the model and made me question why the heck they have such thick gates on resin parts.
And you are right I can't un-see them now, but at least they should be the kind of thing that can be easily cleaned away. Honestly surprised they missed them on the model.
TTC resin is a gamble between pretty good and unsalvageable. This looks like someone just used a dull set of nippers on a standard plastic sprue piece, so the vent squeezed puckered and tore instead of cut clean. Should be trivial to get right.
FFS TTC, do the basic hobby work correctly for a display piece.
TTCombat wrote:Some people have messaged us wondering about the size of Striketeam miniatures compared to our other 28-32mm tabletop games. We hope this UCM Legionnaire gives you a better idea.
This is a terrible scale image. Makes it look like everything is just under 4cm, as that is the only unit marked and we have to eyeball while scrolling since there aren’t horizontal lines behind the minis.
For some time, the PHR knew of listening stations buried and dimensionally cloaked within worlds where worthy adversaries might evolve. Through the wars of the Reconquest, a primary PHR objective has been silencing these beacons. They chose the Tlalocan Moons as a forward base because it may have been within the Bioficer’s origin region and had much to investigate and disable. They slowed the Bioficer’s interests, but insufficiently. The wars were too loud.
There's certainly more overlap there than with the other factions, but it's not just Scourge. Shaltari venerate warfare as pastime, as do the Bioficers. PHR are already a faction of AIs commanding meat puppets (just the meat puppets are in denial).
I kinda don't buy the argument presented so far that they have any reason to make humanoid drones. But I'm withholding judgement til I get to read what Dave has actually written. TTC does an abysmal job of summarizing and selling his work.
I also can't get over the narrator pronouncing their faction "bio fie-sirs" in that last video. Real FrOderick Fronk-in-shteen feel to it.
it's annoying I agree especially if you kind of want some stuff but really want to spend the money elsewhere (or don't really have it)
but then again if they said X is going it would instantly jump to sold out, with at least some going to re-sellers so this way it's more likely that those that really want something specific will end up with it
Eh I think their marketing is low enough that resellers probably don't care about them all that much.
This isn't like GW.
That said honestly I'm out - I'll wait for the new faction to be added as they might be ok to build; but Scourge and Shaltari are the ones that catch my eye the most but the way they've done so many ridges/dots/stufff right on the mould line just drives me crazy trying to clean any of the models.
Overread wrote: I hate when firms go "some things will go some will return" with no clear message which is which....
We’ve seen plastic sprues for the UCM destroyers, monitors and corvettes, so those types of ships will likely all be back. Other than that, I’d expect the resins that aren’t getting transferred and aren’t selling will likely go. Maybe some of the battlecruiser and battleship variants?
Overread wrote: Perhaps - my worry would be stuff like the really big dreadnought ships, though I'd hope they'd stick around.
I can’t help but wonder how they sell. While the Scourge Dreadnaught is awesome and the Resistance Dreadnaught is a work of brilliance, the rest are kind of fugly for their prices. The UCM dreadnaught, for example, only looks passable when it has been cut into two hulls. The less said about the PHR dreadnaught, the better.
I think they don't sell as well as they should - same for the behemoths for DZC - heck it shocks me that some are 2 years old now and yet they hardly appear anywhere online when you search for them as models.
I think they are more a symptom of the games not growing as they should and remaining with a really niche market whilst the parent firm hasn't pushed them out enough in the right way.
Some - like the Shaltari behemoth - are clearly pretty darn awesome models in their own right and the Scourge one I saw at Salute really did justify the high price tag when you saw the size of it. But I don't think the firm behind them are really helping themsleves in that regard.
But that's something we've said before about the management of the games and the abnormal lack of growth they've had when (until GW stepped back into the market recently and with Armoured Core around the corner with Warcradle); for small scale sci-fi ground and space almost entirely to themselves. DFC in particular should be soaring considering its only viable competition right now are garage firms doing mostly metal models and trading mostly at shows/conventions and so forth.
Yeah with Dropfleet there's also been this lack of marketing or direction on just having straight fleet fights in space. I know the whole dropship thing is a big mechanic; but leaving the whole "open space" battlefield market empty and ignored when you're the only serious large-scale spaceship game in the market - it just screams of them missing money and opportunities.
That's one thing I hope comes with the 2nd edition; by all means keep the dropship elements and mission packs; terrain and all that fun stuff. It's iconic to the game and setting; but build in some big exposure on just straight up fleet fights. It's what many people want to see and serving that interest just creates more options to get people into the game and then playing the drop-aspect missions and game too.
They've already relented on the whole "no more factions" angle and I think that's a sensible move a they were starting to get rather full fleets per faction.
It's strange because they clearly have enough sales to invest into a lot of models, but the game just doesn't seem to expand far. I also hope more plastics and more investment might well resolve some of the casting issues - not just in quality of cast but in selection of gates; quality of the mould design and such.
I always picture a mainstream space battle enthusiast buying the box with a big smile on his face, then reading the rules and realizing he’ll have to build 1/4 to 1/3 of his fleet as joyless token droppers and gradually losing that smile.
Yes, as someone who actually likes dropfleet that aspect of the game has always felt unsatisfying and like I've been bait and switched. There's an interesting underlying concept there but the execution leaves much to be desired.
I think its a fantastic idea too; but where are the buildings, cities, defensive turrets and so forth to represent all those ground elements? There's a few, but you look at faction specific stuff - its all spaceships and a few space stations.
There should be a terrain and troop pack for each faction so they can model represent their ground assets and so forth.
Overread wrote: I think its a fantastic idea too; but where are the buildings, cities, defensive turrets and so forth to represent all those ground elements? There's a few, but you look at faction specific stuff - its all spaceships and a few space stations.
There should be a terrain and troop pack for each faction so they can model represent their ground assets and so forth.
I never thought about it this way. If TTCombat had gone all-in on drop, with minis instead of tokens to represent the clusters, defenses, dropped assets and dropships, I feel like my reaction would have been far more favorable. Instead we got a half-measure that doesn’t work for most miniature gamers.
Yes, but for every faction and ideally easier or cheaper to acquire. Also, do they make flightstands of dropships and bulk landers, or stands of APCs and tanks for troops and armor? I know they make UCM fighters, bombers and torpedoes, but nothing else so far.
I guess I’m back in the “cut the drop stuff for being tedious and boring” camp.
Yep, eg the scourge buildings are only an "Event Exclusive" item sold at random times and not generally.
Part of it is the limit that they wanted all the fights on just Earth and around Earth, so in theory just human and scourge buildings would work. However they still have no real model tokens for infantry, troops, fighters, torpedoes and such for each faction.
They started with the Human faction options but never really grew them outside of that.
TTCombat wrote:With our team continuing development of Striketeam Commander we'll be periodically updating our Kickstarter page with new art, renders, and information about this exciting project!
Follow the campaign here ahead of launch:
https://kck.st/3ymRS6v
A podcaster on Facebook posted some clarifying information…with a bit of speculation mixed in.
As a summery
DfC 2.0 is out around September/October.
There are currently 20 new plastic sprues with more possible, not sure if these are all kits or some might have more than 1 sprue in a kit.
We are getting plastic monitors and light frigets so I assume 10 of the 20 sprues will be dedicated to this for total of 4 plastic kits for each faction, old and new that is.
I would assume the new bio boys are getting 4 new similar plastic kits, leaving 6 plastic kits unaccounted for.
Again I assume that that means each of the 6 factions in 2.0 will get a 5th plastic kit from the remaining 6 plastic sprues, could be faction based space stations, another medium class ship, faction inspired fighters or more generic terrain. But this is guess work on my part
I could see plastic battlecruisers - battleships and dreadnoughts I feel are big and sold in smaller quantities that they'd likely still be better in resin.
Thing is the "traditional core" for most naval games are frigates, cruisers, and battleships. 2/3rds of that trifecta is plastic, would make sense to make the battleship plastic too so players can do all-plastic basic fleets
True, but at the same time unless you have highly modular designs; most games iwll only have very few battleship classes to choose from and most armies might only have 1 or 2 at a time.
Meanwhile cruisers and frigates (esp cruisers) often have many different specific variations and can be taken in greater numbers. So the number of "per player sales" for battleships is likely to be much lower than that for Cruisers and Frigates.
Yeah that's true. Counterpoint, they may have taken to heart my comments from a few months ago about how naval wargaming gets the nature of battleships wrong and treats them as singular entities backstopping a fleet of smaller vessels wrong, and that battleships were in actuality typically formed into squadrons of 3-6 ships that formed the core of a proper fleet - which is to say DfC 2.0 will have more battleships
As a fan of more ships on the table I'm all for that!
Honestly I'd love to see them use movement trays for cruisers and frigates as well so that you could squeeze even more ships for a real fleet feeling without the number of entities you have to move around becoming too great to manage.
winnertakesall wrote: Sadly TTCombat have mismanaged the game from start to finish on this, I hope second edition is able give it a bit of a boost
I'm hard-pressed to think of an existing company and game system(s) more neglected and poorly managed. Here's hoping they get that new energy and direction they want.
winnertakesall wrote: Sadly TTCombat have mismanaged the game from start to finish on this, I hope second edition is able give it a bit of a boost
I'm hard-pressed to think of an existing company and game system(s) more neglected and poorly managed. Here's hoping they get that new energy and direction they want.
The strange thing is that they have money to push into the game (mostly because they've got Troll Trader behind the firm as backup); and they clearly put a lot into it. Those titanic behmoth models for dropzone are really huge; the resistance battleship is one of the most modular battleships on the market in terms of variety of build.
Somewhere there's a lot going into this and all the new plastic sprue is a big investment along with a new faction and new edition. Hopefully 2.0 turns a big corner. I'd love to see this genre of game get more attention and see Dropfleet get back on its feet.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: I always picture a mainstream space battle enthusiast buying the box with a big smile on his face, then reading the rules and realizing he’ll have to build 1/4 to 1/3 of his fleet as joyless token droppers and gradually losing that smile.
You're not wrong unfortunately. The worst part is that they're actually cool models and I loved that (at least initially when the game was first released under Dave) the ground models actually fit under the dropships.
Warcradle and TTCombat are both fairly similar companies when you look at how they are organized, what they do, and what kind of financial backing they have.
TTCombat had several years headstart with DzC and DfC over Warcradle with Dystopian Wars and the other Spartan properties. If you compare what Warcradle has accomplished to what TTC has accomplished, it's clear the two companies are operating at completely different levels of competency and capability. Dystopian Wars is a much bigger game after 3 years than DfC is after 6 - with more factions, and wider range of models and kits and products, way more plastics, better rules, more rules support, more regular rules updates, etc. And I say that as someone who isn't a Warcradle/Dystopian fan - I'm morbidly intrigued by the game but also kind of resent it's existence.
Armored Clash will probably be bigger in a couple years than DzC is after a decade or so on the market. It's pretty clear that TTC has mismanaged the game when you compare it to other options.
Warcradle know what they're doing, for sure. Some Friday nights in the private Discord you can also see some quality rants about what other companies are doing wrong.
Warcradle also spent about 5 years just building up to bringing Dystopian Wars back onto the market. Which was honestly a good move but also surprising considering they'd spent a lot to get hold of something that they basically had to start over from scratch and leaving a big time gap like that meant a lot of earlier customers will have drifted away. So very much blank-start.
TTCombat instead bought a firm that was running and just in dire need of finances to help get over a Kickstarter supply. They didn't have to pause production for half a decade to rebuild from a messy shutdown. In theory that gave them even more advantages over WC.
The other thing I notice is that WC are really pushing quality in what they do. The plastic sprue get revised and updated; they tinker with what they are doing.
Honestly you just feel like Warcradle as a firm really loves what they are doing and working with; whilst TTC feels like they are keeping the lights on and there's a talented designer but not as much passion in the firm. And yet they've kept the game going for ages and invest heavily into it so clearly there's a desire to see it do well.
Perhaps all they really need is one or two staff who just know how to run things better.
Overread wrote: Honestly you just feel like Warcradle as a firm really loves what they are doing and working with; whilst TTC feels like they are keeping the lights on and there's a talented designer but not as much passion in the firm.
...
Perhaps all they really need is one or two staff who just know how to run things better.
I think that's the crux of it. I had the misfortune of a couple conversations and interactions with the TT owners, a pair of brothers, and they were absolute dicks that seemed to look down on wargamers as pathetic nerds and man children (and talked to some people in the industry off the record that had similar stories about them). I've never seen a company thrive when the head is that rotten. Hence why my real hope is that the truckloads of money Warcradle is making compared to TTC one day allows them to buy them out and consume them.
I really love the models and concept for Dropzone Commander, btw. The ground units mixed with air are more my thing, and it would be super cool to see this re-surge. I remember a decade ago when it was on the shelves at game shops in my region.
I still play Dropzone and Dropfleet about once a quarter maybe, just a one-off one-on-one game not a pickup thing at all. Probably an even mix of the current rules and houserules or the old DZC beta edition. I've still not found a 10mm SF game I like better than the beta, it's just a much harder sell than the current rules to new players, and even the old players know the beta rules with me have mostly moved on to games that require less work.
I'd love to grow both games locally, but I need TTC to give me something better to work with, which is a total non-starter as they've to date refused to acknowledge any problems with it.
I really want new editions to be good, but they've squandered all my good will and forbearance.
With the new Bioficer threat looming, the UCMF have been pushing their shipyards to the limit! Dropfleet Commander 2.0 will introduce the new Bruges Cruiser with its Cobra Heavy Laser and Taipan Laser Turrets.
So it’s a laser ship with frickin’ laser beams on its back?
While I enjoy the lore implications of the UCM fitting that battlecruiser laser on a cruiser, with additional laser turrets, I’m not sure where that fits in the game space. Didn’t they just tweak the St Pete into a grande laser cruiser?
While I enjoy the lore implications of the UCM fitting that battlecruiser laser on a cruiser, with additional laser turrets, I’m not sure where that fits in the game space.
The 'Cobra' laser is the class the St. Pete/Berlin/New Cairo was packing. The BC sized one was the 'Viper' class laser. So I think this is literally just a Berlin with the mass driver turrets swapped for laser turrets. And I can't say I'm a fan of the laser design, it's got a retro rocket thing going on that clashes with the rest of the UCM aesthetic. It literally looks almost exactly like some of the guns from Warcradle's Dystopian Wars, which is goofy victorian scifi.
Huh. You’re right. I was thrown off by the size of the laser. It looks about 50% longer than the current Cobra laser, so it’s more of a step back.
To me the laser nozzle looks like it’s been designed to be cast in plastic as one piece (with the hull?), on its side. The emitter reminds me of a bottle, but it should be simple enough for me to snip the nip and drill a concavity similar to the current UCM lasers.
I wonder if the primary and secondary hulls are being redesigned to cast as single pieces that scissor together to make the cruiser, with only some antennae and turrets as separate pieces? The new New Orleans class looks like it was designed to cast as a single piece in plastic, which is why I fear they’re going for minimal piece sprues.
If you side-by-side it, they changed the model a few other ways actually.
Looks like the top front piece is wider and maybe a tad longer. And the laser used to be 2 pieces, the body and a very tiny end cap, just the silver bit in the Berlin pic above. The new model has a much larger end piece with an underslung sight looking thing and stacked rings on the end? I don't really get why they changed it at all, probably an ease of casting thing? Otherwise it really is just a Berlin with laser dildo turrets.
The new design looks really nice, and keeps the overall UCM language far better than the "Titania" design one piece ships they offered as an alternative sculpt to the basic Hawk cruisers.
With 2.0, the previews are showing new options in the sprues, so if this indicates they've redone the plastic Hawk Cruiser Sprue it will probably come with options for the shoulder laser turrets in addition to the currently existing shoulder railgun turrets.
It does sound like they've gone to completely new molds for all the plastics. Redid the cruiser and frigate sprues, then cut new sprues for the light ships which we've seen, and it sounds like probably a sprue for the heavies as well.
Makes me think they either wore out the old ones, of whoever they were using to inject them presumably in China pulled the usuall hostage negotiations for the parts and TTC opted to walk out. So it makes sense to redesign them with new parts and pieces. Mold design has come a fair way since Hawk cut theirs in ~2014
LOL, as prolific as they're becoming, at this point the rumor would if they were using anyone other than WGA. But also if you look at the sprue design, the shape and placement of gates channels and vents, it looks precisely like WGA's current releases.
BobtheInquisitor wrote: These days, when you see new plastic sprues, they’re either Wargames Atlantic or Archon. What is Renedra even doing these days?
Continuing with their earlier clients I imagine; Perry, Victrix, Warlord (assuming Warlord doesn't do their own), and some of the smaller ones.
The dropfleet plastic sprues were made in the UK (at least during the Hawk Wargaming era, i guess TTC might have changed that),
and if i remember correctly it was by a firm that wasn't in the normal wargaming sphere of business (maybe rapid prototyping, mainly for the car industry?)
All this Hawk Games chatter got me looking at their stuff again and I MIGHT have made a mistake.
See I got myself one of the "event exclusive" ships for the new faction that's on the horizon.
but I also decided to get one of the first ground units that caught my eye - a Shaltari Ocelot. Which is now standing rather proud on my table.
I'm giving serious thought to getting it some friend! no one else is making tripod walker war engines and whilst I love the return of GW's Epic scale game I'm kind of on the fence till mechanicus appear (and even then that's a kind of compromise since they aren't doing Tyranids*).
*Or if they are its going to be in at least 10-15-20 years off or something bonkers like that
That UCM cruiser has signs of 3d printing, so it's hard to tell if it will be resin or plastic once released. Otherwise, so excited for new plastic ships. I gave up on ttc's resin casts long ago. Too picky for their awful mold slips of simple parts. I do my own casting better for God sake.
axotl wrote: That UCM cruiser has signs of 3d printing
Where are you seeing that? I don't see any visible stepping, and most of the ship is identical to the old plastic sprue which was a good cut with no 3dp master artifacts.
The only weird thing I see is they apparently keep their models on an open shelf and never touch them because that is a grungy amount of dust and hair all over something they're trying to showcase. At least blow on it. TTC plumbing new depths of laziness.
Eh, could be anything. I've got some models from the tail end of Hawk that are direct 3d prints. I can show you the very visible steps on the top and the support scars on the bottom of my DZC resistance Strikehawk. They've show off 3d masters and prototypes before.
But at the same time, that part of the model is micrometer identical to the plastic sprue piece I know for a fact is injection molded and has no visible steps.
Mostly though, I know signs of 3d printing of this model are meaningless because it's going to be an injection molded plastic sprue kit because it's just a slight redesign of an existing one, they've told us so, and they've shown off the other sprues.
I can see both of those. Unfortunately the weapon load out is identical to the Beijing battleship, and as cool as this design is it just doesn’t convey “battleship” vibes. Perhaps it could if the front gap could be closed enough to make a single thick hull rather than a spindly tuning fork hull.
Haven't heard a peep about Dropzone Commander. The Kickstarter for 35mm Drop-Universe skirmish game called Striketeam Commander is supposed to happen imminently, and with attention on DFC and STC(?) I don't imagine their least favorite game is going to get any undue love.
Yeah I figure Dropzone will be in holding until the new Dropfleet is out. I'm actually a touch surprised they are leaving such a gap between the end of Dropfleet and the launch of Dropfleet 2.0
DZC is getting the new faction as well, but there hasn't been any pre-views other than a single CAD render. DZC models have already been getting reworked for the plastic sprues and better sprue design in general.
Durandal wrote: DZC is getting the new faction as well, but there hasn't been any pre-views other than a single CAD render. DZC models have already been getting reworked for the plastic sprues and better sprue design in general.
No need for preview, it's a box of black triangles
It feels given that DZC will get the new faction at some point, but all we saw was one render like a year ago and literally nothing since, no pics, no teasers, no statements, not even a sly mention or offhand quip.
If they're planning to launch Bioficers in DZC, they're apparently going for a Surprise! release which feels real dumb but then again we're talking about TTCombat so that's probably exactly what's going to happen.
Ever since they shut down the blog their news is a bit more sparring/scattershot/has to be looked for to find.
chances are they are just focusing on one game at a time marketing wise and production wise. Get DFC 2.0 out the door as it seems like they are doing a big fleet update plus a new faction. Hopefully all released pretty swiftly. Nothing would help kill a game than pulling it all off-sale then trying to tease it back on sale very very slowly*.
*unless you're GW with Old World behind you of course.
slyphic wrote: It feels given that DZC will get the new faction at some point, but all we saw was one render like a year ago and literally nothing since, no pics, no teasers, no statements, not even a sly mention or offhand quip.
If they're planning to launch Bioficers in DZC, they're apparently going for a Surprise! release which feels real dumb but then again we're talking about TTCombat so that's probably exactly what's going to happen.
Isn’t all the Drop stuff being handled by Dave? He’s probably working as hard as he can considering his bosses gave him the Striketeam kickstarter and Dropfleet 2nd edition in the same year.
No one knows for sure. I've heard conflicting answers from former TTC staff about Dave, from "all he does is CAD from his home" to "everything except someone else rewrites the rules and lore before publication" (but they're not called an editor for some bizarre reason). I've tried asking TTC and have been watching for any inkling, but there's nothing.
DZC ship model design has really taken a nose dive since the early days when Dave would post previews. At least the trek Borg cubes had gribblies all over them...
Honestly after seeing the infantry weapons its my one worry with the new faction that the ships, land and infantry are going to look so similar to each other that they'd almost look like just borrowed parts. Which will mean loads of conversion fodder at the same time.
Overread wrote: Honestly after seeing the infantry weapons its my one worry with the new faction that the ships, land and infantry are going to look so similar to each other that they'd almost look like just borrowed parts. Which will mean loads of conversion fodder at the same time.
The loads of conversion fodder is why I’m okay with it. However, I do hope the 28mm minis show off the Bio artiFicers’ craft a bit more than ‘big guy and little guy’.
The current rulebook on the TTCombat website is 58 pages (lore and ship stats are in separate pdfs). The contents page suggests that the ground combat is no longer a separate phase; perhaps it is folded into the rest of the launch asset phase or has been more significantly reworked. I never had that much of an issue with it personally but know that was a common complaint people had.
Credits has the usual TTC cast. Louis Simpson is the owner of Troll Trader and TTCombat. Jason Beckerleg gets that same credit in all their games, looks like he's in charge of the graphic design and overall 'style' of the books. Scott Burns is their MDF expert, but he gets a lot of other credits so hard to say what all he really did, but he's principally an operations dude for sure.
David J. Lewis, natch.
Never seen the name Robin Gillie before.
I don't think there's anything to be gleaned from the credits we didn't already know. Sad to see Andy's name gone though.
I guess they realized paying to have Andy Chambers name on it wouldn't make up for their lack of proper support or marketing for the game to push sales.
We're thrilled to confirm the key dates for Dropfleet 2.0 as we prepare for this huge release. All new and returning products will be available to order from our website including the updated core starter and physical rulebook. We'll reveal the starter contents and key rule changes before Friday and have an interview with Dave Lewis next month.
Honestly based on their rough stock estimations for Dropzone on their website I'm guessing they aren't geared up for big order volumes right now.
They also decided to launch on the last day of the month which makes the window feel longer than it is than if they'd waited till the 02-09 on Monday.
I do agree my first thought was it is a long window; but if it lets them deliver reliable on the date and also have time to bulk up on marketing and such without it impacting other lines they produce then it might well be the best course of action. At least we have fixed dates to work with and come end of this week we'll start seeing fresh stuff and details to get hyped on
TTCombat wrote:What's in the Box?
It is 2679, and war rages on a galactic scale. After almost a decade of the offensive against the vile alien Scourge, the United Colonies of Mankind are battle-scarred but unbroken. Now a previously unknown threat has emerged. The Bioficers - ancient, corrupted artificial intelligence's are hunting humanity.
*Box Contents*
9 Plastic UCM Ships
15 Plastic Bioficer Ships
1 Rulebook
24 Bases
10 Dice
1 Space Station Sheet
2 Debris Sheets
2 Token Sheets
3 Quick Play Cards
These ships are finely detailed, multi-part, plastic miniatures and can be assembled in a wide range of variants. The fast-play sheets will quickly get you playing with recommended builds and ship stats. Dropfleet Commander 2.0 will be available to pre-order this Friday from the TTCombat website.
Agree with the above. The AI ships have a very likely purposeful hint of Necron style asthetics IMO but I'm not a fan of them overall. UCM (especially) and PHR are still my favorite design styles in the family of games personally.
Those UCM ships are fine, generic sci-fi... and I have no idea what the other fleet is supposed to be. Terrible designs on their own already, but putting this junk into the starter set?
Plastic ships for space combat games are always great to have around, and I wish this game all the success it can get, but I feel they shot it in the head right away with this starter offering.
UCM look great, an improvement from the previous good sculpts. Not sure what they were going for with the bioficers, but maybe there's a way to build something useable when we see the sprues.
Just slightly too blurry to read the quickplay cards and get a gander at the only thing I really care about, the changes to the mechanics.
And in one of those minor acts of TT laziness, am I wrong or is that the exact same cluster and debris field sheet from the original game? I was actually looking forward to maybe getting a different set of shapes and they just chucked in the exact same old one. FFS TTC
Hmmm those Bioficer ships have some very interesting parts but I hate the triangle wings and when you pull them off, the midsection is really weirdly two dimensional. They look like those 2.5d models that come in the form of a punch-out credit card.
The small, vertical standing ones are really nice, so a shame.
Just realized what I thought was a cruiser is actually another frigate, so make that 0 cruisers.
Automatically Appended Next Post: As for the rules, I don't see any indications of any major changes mechanically. Main takeaway is that the other new UCM cruiser (the one that's not the Bruges, or the already existing San Francisco) is an Edmonton.
I like the UCM ships a lot, although they look a little too sleek compared to the originals to overtake them in my opinion.
The Biocifer ships all seem really samey here. We’ve seen teaser pictures of some cool Biocifer designs, but these ones just look like someone tried to make resistance cruisers out of Sci Fi circuit boards. I suspect they’ll be like the Scourge in that the ships will look better and a lot more varied when half of them have the wings glued on “sideways” and other details kitbashed or removed.
The very tiny Bioficer ships are the small craft that attach to the larger ship hulls, as seen on the Anomoly, so they might also add some variety to the break up the sameness.
Sadly, they’re not as immediately captivating as the Scourge and Shaltari designs, so a poorer choice for the starter set.
I was planning to order the starter, but now I might wait to see if factional fleet boxes are available and cost effective. The DZC army starters with twice the plastics for the same cost were a great idea I’d love to see brought to DFC.
lord_blackfang wrote: Could it be they dropped the "starships humping city tokens" focus of the game?
Given the token sheets. No. But as has always been true since day 1, you can just not use the 10% of ships that are 'dropships' and play a bog standard deep space battleline game. It's even a scenario in the core book.
*waves the lone flag of liking the Bioficer ships*
They are very clearly going to be a "all guns forward" faction and honestly I like them. They are quirky alien and strange looking, but have a sense of some degree of alien functionality about them.
The only way they feel lesser is the lack of clear smaller weapons or side weaponary compared to the other factions. So right now they very much feel like they'll be a sniper/eldar style faction in combat.
Also I hope they improve their bases.
I got the event exclusive Bioficer ship and:
1) The resin ship itself looks great and goes together easily though one or two panels need a little hot water to flatten.
2) The wings are fun as you can adjust their position very freely on the model. The downside to them is that they put a LOT of detail on the inside of the wing so in general you kind of want to paint them separately before attaching
3) The stem and top of the base are their normal ones - so good.
4) the bottom of the base is a really thick chunk of badly cut out round plastic with some badly scored markers on it. It's not even fully circular.
Also those larger Bioficer ships look really different if the central segments are glued in as opposed to free standing. Interestingly they chose to put them free standing in the image. The resin one isn't built for magnets so it will be interesting to see how the rules and models turn out in plastic.
I hate A-C, I just can't stand the 'bottom of the lego' huge sections of open connector points.
D and E are fine but don't do much for me.
F-I are pretty neat looking but again the ones with fewer giant connectors look better.
F-O all the cores I just kind of don't care about? J and N are the exact same, right? Are J and O the same thing just flipped around? So are there only 4 kinds of core?
I actually like the connector look. It emphasizes the modularity of the design, which makes sense for AIs who seem to love tinkering with their weapons.
For the cruisers, I’d probably reposition the panels on some of them, and I’d love to see how they look with the cores attached.
The frigates are all over the place for me. D and F I really like. H and I are fine, but not great. The rest, I’d assemble them differently even if it means cutting. This is a better like/hate ratio than I have for the Scourge frigates and about the same for the Shaltari frigates. Dropfleet aliens just build ugly frigates.
I think one issue is that on the frigates some of the alien weapons don't really appear like conventional weapons or aura generators and such.
So it can be sometimes tricky to see the "functionality" on them compared to a human ship that's much more basic "here's a big railgun; here's some big broadside guns"
I'll be interested to see what other kits they are planning on launching with and how much of the fleet we'll see at launch for the Bioficers.
Yep, though just because its done doesn't mean it comes with the release wave, but I hope it does.
I'm hoping we'll see a frigate/cruiser boxed set and perhaps see individual frigate/cruiser boxes go away to cut down on the boxstock across all the factions.
Then a monitor/escort kit.
Then a battlecruiser/battleship kit in resin/plasticresin hybrid.
That's what I'd hope we'll see as that will give a good core to work from. I wouldn't expect a dreadnought nor leviathan class at launch, but hopefully at least one or both within 6months or so. Fast, but it brings them up to count with the other major factions
I think they've made a mistake releasing new UCM ships. The game doesn't have the player base dedicated enough to replace their current range and I think this will put people off getting back into the game as their ships won't match the new ones. I have no idea why they've decided to replace their perfectly fine older plastic sprues with these newer ones.
I think its part of them refreshing their range so that a lot more of their ships are in plastic plus hopefully improvements from years of making plastics and refinements. They don't need existing customers to replace them, they likely need new customers to pick them up
Preorders for this still going live today? I've never played DFC but have played DZC and really like it. Looking for something current to scratch the fleet battles itch
Preorders should be going live at some point today.
Hopefully its for more than just the starter box - at the very least we should see the boxes for the other factions as well go live since they are all down now.
If you mean the "2 Destroyers or 1 Heavy Destroyer"
Part of the contents I think that just means that you get enough parts to build either 2 destroyers or 1 heavy destroyer
Could be they shifted around squad sizes. I also noticed there's a bunch of "direct only" products on show too
The single cruiser and frigate options though appear a little random - then again I guess they do get requests from people that just want one to fill in a gap
Yeah I can see why that might be logical - helps save having to produce loads for stocking 3rd party stores and means that if they shift those resin models to plastic in the future they can just do it internally rather than having mixed products on the highstreet.
Bit of a shame as that means no more discounts on them (although I do note that they run an ebay store and I have had discount offers from it in the past when viewing things so you might get a discount through that)
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also bioficer Battlecruisers look ace
This one is basically one massive forward firing cannon!
This kind of weapon I'm guessing is a frontal and side arcing weapon. Since their ships don't have any side guns at all this one is likely good for strafing runs
They're also listed as resin - I thought new stuff was plastic?
I think they've done a big pass on making core ships plastic. So monitors, escorts, frigates, cruisers and so forth. But all the limited quantity specialist and larger ships are still resin.
Check out the new scourge core ships box. That looks like the old KS exclusive crest/mast for their battlecruisers. I don't know the PHR and Shaltari well enough to tell if they got the same new/old bits.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Didn't they say they were going to post about the rules this week? They've got, what, like 2 business hours left. Real hard not to read the old political/reporting Friday Afternoon News Dump policy into it.
beast_gts wrote: I meant I don't think there's min-sized squadrons in them (but I've not checked!).
They either will change the min squad sizes or they expect everyone to buy two small ships boxes, which is a savings over buying everything in resin but massively less convenient than say, just buying destroyers because you just want destroyers.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
slyphic wrote: Check out the new scourge core ships box. That looks like the old KS exclusive crest/mast for their battlecruisers. I don't know the PHR and Shaltari well enough to tell if they got the same new/old bits.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Didn't they say they were going to post about the rules this week? They've got, what, like 2 business hours left. Real hard not to read the old political/reporting Friday Afternoon News Dump policy into it.
Those Scourge ships look identical to the old KS ships to me. The only crest I see is the plastic Heavy Cruiser half-cloak crest included on the plastic sprues.
As for rules, word on Facebook is they’re releasing something tomorrow to discuss 5 big rule changes. (Number 4 might surprise you!)
Considering they won't be shipping till the 18th of October there's a pretty long window for them to tease out details on the new rules, new sprues and so forth.
Heck I'm keen but I'll likely hold off actually ordering until October
You'd have to be a rube to buy a game rules-unseen given TTC's history, doubly so with no bonus, discount, or early shipping (store says nothing goes out until release date), triply so given the rules will probably be fully up by that date and you can just read them and then decide and get your stuff if you still want it on the same day.
Well they'll be doing rules previews and all over the next month. So plenty of time to get a feel for the new game. Personally I'm in for the ships so unless things appear to be insanely bonkers dire I'd be down for some of those ships in October.
But like I said I likely won't order until October as there's no boon to ordering early
That's kind of not saying much at all. I can see the first point falling either side of a good change. The second I like in theory, but a poor implementation could still be far worse than the cards.
The change to activations I immediately hate. They deliberately moved from planning to reacting which is literally dumbing down the game. The exact kind of bad change I was dreading. Also, this feels like it's going to slow the game down a smidge as well.
Random scenarios like the abilities above is going to depend on what exactly is on the cards. The original game's scenario design wasn't exactly stellar, so there's more room to improve.
Ground game is a given change, and the most interesting one they've still said nothing about. This is the make or break I think for the whole edition.
And post some battle reports you cowards! Never buy a game the designer doesn't enjoy playing enough to write up.
Well, I think I’m going to save some of the PDFs off their site now just in case. The new vocabulary makes it sound like I might have to relearn the basics for my two-three games a year, which is more work than I was expecting for this new edition.
From a quick glance, at least it looks like they're keeping the original sculpts for UCM available, which is nice whenever I pick the game up more readily.
Bioficer ships though are still definitely high on the weird axis for visual design and I'm still not sure what to think of their core frigates/cruisers
Bioficers are growing on me. Something about them reminds me of very classic scofi, like Dr who sonic screwdriver type weirdness with the weapons and tech
chaos0xomega wrote: Bioficers are growing on me. Something about them reminds me of very classic scofi, like Dr who sonic screwdriver type weirdness with the weapons and tech
For me its the mix of that, plus the fact that you can pick out the key functional elements of the ships (often weapons). A few benefit from the artwork (eg the lightning weapons) to help sell the idea of them; but in general you can see the functionality buried within the totally alien elements. It means you can engage with the totally alien elements; whilst also having a grip on what does what.
DFC is pretty good about being consistent with weapon appearances through a fleet. After a game or two you can eyeball a ship and know exactly what it is capable of.
Very few ships have unique or special rules that separate them from the norm.
The ships with special rules tend to be the really big or really small ships that TTCombat has been adding the last two years instead of introducing a new faction.
It used to be true you could tell what a ship did at a glance, but that has become increasingly untrue. The vast majority of TTC designed ships have been unique rule encumbered.
The more I look at the Bioficers, the more I think the big weapons are misscaled. They look like 35mm guns kitbashed onto ships.
Bioficers are, I think, slowly growing on me too. To be fair, I give them credit for coming up with a genuinely different alien-looking set of alien ships, though they're definitely going to be a bit marmite.
Going by the preorders bit disappointing that the battle cruisers look to be the only resins that aren't direct only? Surprised that at least battleships aren't going to be available for retail too.
Light ship box are all weird amounts of each time, though looks like the resins will still be available. There are a dew design changes sprinkled in it seems, I don't like the new PHR corvette- appears the plastic one is rotated 90° for some reason.
Who knows perhaps they'll shift some direct only back into regular stock if the sales pick up well. It might just be them trying to cut down on having to produce LOTS of things all at once to restock 3rd parties in one big go; esp as resins will restock and manufacture much slower than plastics.
Could someone kindly explain for me what is the lore on the Bioficers and how do they fit into the current war? I know there is a video on YouTube but it doesn't really say all that much beyond they seem to be AIs that craft creatures of flesh to fight and they seem to have no higher goal other than war. Are there any further nuggets of information beyond that? It sounds like Skynet that uses flesh robots instead.
Iracundus wrote: Could someone kindly explain for me what is the lore on the Bioficers and how do they fit into the current war? I know there is a video on YouTube but it doesn't really say all that much beyond they seem to be AIs that craft creatures of flesh to fight and they seem to have no higher goal other than war. Are there any further nuggets of information beyond that? It sounds like Skynet that uses flesh robots instead.
So far, there hasn’t been a lot of direct information about the Bioficers. However, there has been a lot of buildup.
Ever since first edition, the PHR (faction led by the White Sphere AI) have been landing in weird places on secret missions, their first priorities lying elsewhere than against the Scourge. They also made some kind of ominous warning to the UCM against launching the war. There were a couple short stories on the TTCombat community site around the time the Anomaly dropped that tied these actions to the Bioficers. Apparently they were trying to keep thr Bioficers from discovering or entering the war.
Available in the Bioficers Battlecruisers box, the Sanctum is a powerhouse! Primarily a carrier, this ship has cavernous launch bays for fighters & bombers. Lightly armed with only a Decon Blast as its main offensive armament. This weapon deconstructs any matter unfortunate enough to be facing it.
The holes on the side of the ship are standard for all their ships. They are kind of modular points on them - the wings (at least on the resin ship) can plug into any of those slots letting you vary the appearance of the ship.
The Launch Bays on this ship as I see it are the silver squares with the round holes that run along the whole length of the front and mid-body of the ship. Caverns that unleash a swarm of ships rising up from them.
We haven’t got much of the new fluff yet. From one snippet, it does sound like the Scourge have been reeling and falling back since the Battle for Earth, but we won’t know for sure until the new lore comes out.
I also think the launch bays are the silver “silos” on top of the battlecruiser.
Bioficer ships of light tonnage are uniquely advanced, efficient killers. Often in the vanguard of Bioficer incursions, these terrors were among the first encountered by the UCM, which was not reassuring. A single sprue contains enough parts to make 6 Bioficer ships.
Right middle just below looks like a second front for the larger ship in the set - I'm guessing that could be a strike carrier with more of those vents on top or another "I'm a gun with engines"
The connectors look the same size as the ones in the space station sprue. If so, the possibilities are pretty wild. If they aren't, TTC done fethed up for no good reason.
slyphic wrote: The connectors look the same size as the ones in the space station sprue. If so, the possibilities are pretty wild. If they aren't, TTC done fethed up for no good reason.
You mean the tiny nubbin connectors for the small turrets and little antennae? I’ll try to check the fit with an Anomoly ship when I get home, although the eventual plastics and the resin may not perfectly match up in size.
Automatically Appended Next Post: It would be amusing to see one of the evil AIs going out of their way killing humans with their own weapons.
Yep, those. I was specifically thinking of the connector tubes that would let you offset or change the plane of various triangle formations of the Bioficer ships.
I don't believe the resistance sprue was compatible with them, so I don't think it's a given that even though they look like the same push-fit style they actually fit.
Double the price if ordered separately. It's direct order only so they don't have the excuse of packaging cost, they can just throw them in a plastic bag. What donkey-cave cash grab dick move.
