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There's one huge flaw in your reasoning... we don't have a dreadnought. You gotta make do with what you have, and what I have is a battleship.

If I had my way I would have gunships, a dreadnought, maybe a sub and frigates and escorts, but I can't do that, I have 1 BB, 3 CA, 9X FF, 2 bombers and 10 tiny flyers and can buy 1 CV and 2 scout rotors.

So I'd like to know how to make do with what I have not what will be better.

So proxy a Dreadnought. You've got all the stats.

Spartan Games already fethed up by giving you a piece of garbage for a capital flagship. Why should you be required to perpetuate their mistake by continuing to play it?

Most of our games are "fleet box only" I have already experimented with gunships, they rock.

When we use point values I always pay the extra 20 pts for gunships. However the DN is coming out soon, so I might just wait on that one.

@SourClams - You have made your point, but I'm not justifying out of desperation here, just suggesting possible ways for the KoB BB to be effective. I'm more of a 'figure out how to make it effective' rather than an 'it's useless so ignore it' type person (incidentially, this is how I discovered a very good synergy of using a warphead with burnas/tankbustas in 40K). And you really seem to like your KoB dreadnought

EmilCrane wrote:However the DN is coming out soon, so I might just wait on that one.

Personally I'm more excited about the mechanical Ika, Mainly because I want to build a list that revolves around four of them in squadrons of two, supported by gunships, frigates and destroyers.

Or alternatively, an 'above and below' list based around a tenkei, 4 squiddies and a bunch of bombers/gyros to make it legal.

Are the 'fun models' like the big robot walker competitive?

Leigen_Zero wrote:

Personally I'm more excited about the mechanical Ika, Mainly because I want to build a list that revolves around four of them in squadrons of two, supported by gunships, frigates and destroyers.

Or alternatively, an 'above and below' list based around a tenkei, 4 squiddies and a bunch of bombers/gyros to make it legal.

I don't get a squid, I get a submarine and British grit.

We get tentacles. And Japanese crazy-ass attitude.

Painted Dreads are now on the front page of the Spartan Games site. Hopefully they're coming soon.

Greetings friends! I'm a bit late to the Dystopian Wars party and couldn't bring myself to start another thread about the game. I have some questions that I'm wondering if any of you can help me answer. Forgive me if anything I ask has been covered in the thread already, 8 pages is a bit much to sift through.

Lame intro aside, here are my questions:

-Are all the armies balanced against each other? As in, is it a completely level playing field at deployment? Or are some factions superior enough to blow the others away, thus removing a level skill from the battle?

-How much min/maxing goes on in the game? I suppose this is more of a continuation of the first question. I just worry that people will be waffling from one faction to the next depending on releases.

-The inevitable "how does this compare to 40K" question? I'm branching out from my 40K roots for one reason or another, and am curious how this game would stack up in comparison to say, Malifaux and WM/H (the two other games I play)

-How is the fun factor? I envision myself building a table to encompass land, air, and sea battles all happening at once. Is one area stronger than the other?

-Are dice rolls more important than strategy?

Thanks for any help guys. I'm reading through my rulebook and trying to decide on a faction as I type this. Blazing Sun has my eye... And sorry for a stupid long post!

@Schnitzel the game is fairly well balanced. If there were any unbalanced armies id say that the brits struggle a little, but i play Prussian and have been beaten by brit's a few times.

The rules are quite different from 40k, but not too hard to grasp and once you know them your set. There arent many finer points to them.

Fun factor is awesome. Easily the funnest wargame that i play.

The dice can play a big part but that can just add to the fun when a frigate messes up a battleship. But overall they arent too bad.

Hope i helped a little.

Schnitzel wrote:

-Are all the armies balanced against each other? As in, is it a completely level playing field at deployment? Or are some factions superior enough to blow the others away, thus removing a level skill from the battle?

The factions as a whole are okay balance-wise, but all the models haven't been released yet. It's less about faction imbalance, and more about army type imbalance. Air/Submersible lists have a strong advantage. Dreadnoughts have strong advantage over non-Dreadnoughts. In terms of points-efficient/good units versus 'bad' units, there's a lot of stuff in all the factions that is simply unlikely to be taken.

-How much min/maxing goes on in the game? I suppose this is more of a continuation of the first question. I just worry that people will be waffling from one faction to the next depending on releases.

There's a lot of opportunity for min/maxing. Since some units are simply 'better' than other units, expect to see lists feature those units heavily. The way that stats degrade as you take damage, units with very few turrets ultimately have greater longevity than units featuring many turrets. This generally 'nerfs' Kingdom of Brittannia, while favoring the FSA most heavily.

-The inevitable "how does this compare to 40K" question? I'm branching out from my 40K roots for one reason or another, and am curious how this game would stack up in comparison to say, Malifaux and WM/H (the two other games I play)

It's almost nothing like any of those games. Have you played Axis and Allies Naval Warfare? It's easily most similar to that. In terms of difficulty I'd rate it slightly more than 40k, and a good bit easier than WM/H. I haven't played Malifaux.

-How is the fun factor? I envision myself building a table to encompass land, air, and sea battles all happening at once. Is one area stronger than the other?

Generally, Air/submersible>Sea>Land. There's units that can span the gap, but in general, I'd say that's the trend.

-Are dice rolls more important than strategy?

Heh. Our gaming group has a running gag that originated with the Spartan Games forums; in short, if you can consistently roll a bunch of 6's, then you are an amazing tactician. If you can't, then you need to improve your 'tactics'.

@taylor048 - Thanks man, that's very helpful. Much appreciated.

@sourclams- Thanks for that massive break-down. Out of curiosity, is the reason for air/submersibles being so good evident of the general meta/how the rules are? Or is it based off of how tables are set up? As in, the water/land balance? I enjoy the concept of the "exploding dice" mechanic, I think that it shows off how a crit hit can represent the potential damage done in real life.

All that aside, I'm baffled as to why gaming companies produce models that are "worthless" on the battlefield. In the case of this game, is it because the rules for the models are just junk? Or is it because there are other units that do what the "crap" models do, only better?

Again, thanks for tolerating my questions. Hopefully I can contribute more to the thread in the future.

Air is generally quite hard to kill, and is faster/more manoeuvrable than their land/sea counterparts. They might lack some big guns, but they're generally very potent.

I haven't played land, but I read someone said that it's a bit like with sea, but land vehicles die much faster than ships.

I don't think the models are 'worthless' on purpose, but by accident (a model's advantage might be situational or not very good).

The Brittanian BB marine rating is so bad it almost seems like a misprint though. Conversely, the Dreadnought doesn't have the design flaws the BB has, while still fitting with the general design of the faction.

Schnitzel wrote:@taylor048 - Thanks man, that's very helpful. Much appreciated.

@sourclams- Thanks for that massive break-down. Out of curiosity, is the reason for air/submersibles being so good evident of the general meta/how the rules are? Or is it based off of how tables are set up? As in, the water/land balance? I enjoy the concept of the "exploding dice" mechanic, I think that it shows off how a crit hit can represent the potential damage done in real life.

The biggest advantage air and submersible units have is that they can climb to high altitude or dive, which means that they can only be hit on a roll of a 6. Ack Ack and Concussion Chargers still hit on a 4, 5, or 6, but these weapons are close ranged, and at that point most diving and flying models would be only too happy to board you!

All that aside, I'm baffled as to why gaming companies produce models that are "worthless" on the battlefield. In the case of this game, is it because the rules for the models are just junk? Or is it because there are other units that do what the "crap" models do, only better?

Again, thanks for tolerating my questions. Hopefully I can contribute more to the thread in the future.

Well, and this is just my impression, I think that Spartan did not anticipate the way the game would be taken apart and put back together by the gaming community. Given how rapidly the game was announced and then released, I suspect there wasn't much play testing outside of Spartan itself. That being said, there are no units that are truly worthless; the problem is that some units simply don't stack up favorably next to their counterparts in other factions. Sourclams pointed out the example with the Brittanian battleship vs. the FSA one, but you could make a similar comparison with many other units in the game. Compare the FSA bomber to the Prussian one; the Prussian has additional (and, arguably) better weapons and more speed. So, this leaves open the possibility of players fielding fleets of nothing but the strongest ship types available to that faction, rather than a more balanced force (kind of like a 40k SM army with 3 Land Raiders!).

Ruckdog wrote:

Schnitzel wrote:@taylor048 - Thanks man, that's very helpful. Much appreciated.

@sourclams- Thanks for that massive break-down. Out of curiosity, is the reason for air/submersibles being so good evident of the general meta/how the rules are? Or is it based off of how tables are set up? As in, the water/land balance? I enjoy the concept of the "exploding dice" mechanic, I think that it shows off how a crit hit can represent the potential damage done in real life.

The biggest advantage air and submersible units have is that they can climb to high altitude or dive, which means that they can only be hit on a roll of a 6. Ack Ack and Concussion Chargers still hit on a 4, 5, or 6, but these weapons are close ranged, and at that point most diving and flying models would be only too happy to board you!

All that aside, I'm baffled as to why gaming companies produce models that are "worthless" on the battlefield. In the case of this game, is it because the rules for the models are just junk? Or is it because there are other units that do what the "crap" models do, only better?

Again, thanks for tolerating my questions. Hopefully I can contribute more to the thread in the future.

Well, and this is just my impression, I think that Spartan did not anticipate the way the game would be taken apart and put back together by the gaming community. Given how rapidly the game was announced and then released, I suspect there wasn't much play testing outside of Spartan itself. That being said, there are no units that are truly worthless; the problem is that some units simply don't stack up favorably next to their counterparts in other factions. Sourclams pointed out the example with the Brittanian battleship vs. the FSA one, but you could make a similar comparison with many other units in the game. Compare the FSA bomber to the Prussian one; the Prussian has additional (and, arguably) better weapons and more speed. So, this leaves open the possibility of players fielding fleets of nothing but the strongest ship types available to that faction, rather than a more balanced force (kind of like a 40k SM army with 3 Land Raiders!).

I think I'm starting to understand that better. Thanks for breaking it down more. I assume then, where one faction lacks in say... battleships, it compensates by having better air support? Maybe I should stop trying to think it out, man up, buy the Blazing Sun naval pack, and hit the ground running. I've just made too many mistakes "jumping" into a wargame and making unecessary purchases (Looking at you Cyclops Shaman and Titan Cannoneer) that don't work with my preferred method of play but appeal to me aesthetically. Not necessarily a bad thing, as I have something neat to paint, but I'd surely love to have some sort of payoff in-game.

Either way, I'm stoked to at least get my box of minis painted (once I order it!). I love the style of the models. If nothing else happens with me and this game, I'll at least support it a bit by purchasing some models to make a neat little diorama display piece.

I am looking for people who are blogging about Dystopian Wars. I have a blog roll setup ready for more people to be added.

Alternatively I do have a webpage dedicated to all of my Dystopian Wars posts, and I am intending on adding links to other peoples websites... all I am looking for are people who post information on Dystopian Wars.

It doesnt need to be much, from just simple pictures to full blown tactical analysis. The more websites the merrier. I get a lot of traffic to my blog, The Varcan Cluster about Dystopian Wars, and I think the more content I can link people too the better.

If you are interested in having a look, check out the page on my website, and feel free to drop me a comment.

So any help, suggestions ideas or weblinks will be greatly appreciated... cause I reckon that with a little bit of work we can further help increase the amount of information out there for Dystopian Wars newbies and players alike!

Schnitzel wrote:

I think I'm starting to understand that better. Thanks for breaking it down more. I assume then, where one faction lacks in say... battleships, it compensates by having better air support? Maybe I should stop trying to think it out, man up, buy the Blazing Sun naval pack, and hit the ground running. I've just made too many mistakes "jumping" into a wargame and making unecessary purchases (Looking at you Cyclops Shaman and Titan Cannoneer) that don't work with my preferred method of play but appeal to me aesthetically. Not necessarily a bad thing, as I have something neat to paint, but I'd surely love to have some sort of payoff in-game.

Either way, I'm stoked to at least get my box of minis painted (once I order it!). I love the style of the models. If nothing else happens with me and this game, I'll at least support it a bit by purchasing some models to make a neat little diorama display piece.

There are indeed units out there that cover the weaknesses of the different factions as the come in the starter boxes. The problem is (and this brings us full circle to the comments earlier in the thread about the dreads), many of those "equalizer" units are not out yet, since the game is so new. This means either you grit and bear your fleet's weaknesses until the models hit, or else proxy the units you want to use.

I would say go ahead and get the Fleet box! The investment is pretty low, so even if you don't like the play style you aren't out a ton of cash.

I agree with Ruckdog here as well.

The difference in the factions is minimal when looking at the starter boxes.

If someone gets an undamaged squadron or Battleship within Range Band 1 (where things are most effective) then its going to sting... and sting a lot.

The outlay for Dystopian wars is one of the more attractive parts of the game for sure as you can spend relatively very little (compared to GW for example) and have all you need to play for months and months.

I'll be picking up the Blazing Sun starter naval starting box in a week or two. I'm more than a little excited. Thanks for the support guys

Awesome, the Blazing Sun has some nice models, and I tell ya, their ships are some of the faster ones out there.

Drop us some pictures if you can when you get them.

I love seeing how other people's fleets are painted.

For Blazing Sun I hear the Medium Gyro is pretty nice.

Blazing Sun has some real powerful air lists. I'd go with the Sky Fortresses and War Gyros over the ships.

The Airforce of the blazing sun is impressive.

I have found their ships have a fair chunk of assault points too.

The Air Carrier is frightening in RB1 & 2 for its turrets especially when it gets certain cards played on it as well!

Blazing Sun are tougher to get criticals on as well, that's their thing. Which means it's a lot more difficult to get those dreaded double or even triple criticals.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Incidentally, concept art for some of the Antartica units are up, some may be concerned that they're straying slightly from the accepted 'steampunk' look.
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/galleries/dystopian-wars-gallery

I think the previews look great, personally. This whole "deviating from the steampunk look" issue has been raised before (with the Prussians, for example), but it doesn't bother me a whole lot!

Quick question for those players out there. What size of game is common place now? 1200, 1500. 2000?

I am liking 1500 but wanted to see others opinions.

Hey guys. Small update on my end. I picked up a Blazing Sun tank company pack today. I built the models, but found that one of my tank tokens was not consistent with the rest of the tokens. I think it's a British tank. What do I do?

I'm buying my naval pack on Saturday. Then I'll be painting everything up and working on a table to play on.

To those who have played both land and sea engagements - would you recommend the Naval or Armoured starter for a beginner?

Thanks,
Shawn

@Schnitzel:

They have a damn fine customer service record for things like this (on par with GW).

A couple of people have posted this sort of thing on the official forums, response is always the same (and this info can be found on the website):

Mail Order/Packaging issues: Doreen Marsh – doreen@spartangames.co.uk


I haven't had to use it myself, but the forum responses are always singing praises of the customer service from Neil & Co.


Specials (squid, sub, metzger) are supposed to be coming out in July, I can't wait!

@citizen I would check to see what is being played by your store, friends, gaming group to decide. I would start with naval since that is the most likely where everyone else is at.