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Man, Bfront's comments are so full of bs. They talk about how they want to support retailers so they're not giving away lots of stuff and yet this KS is nothing more than a blatant attempt to grab a larger slice of the pre-order pie for themselves than they would through retailers. Especially since they want to 'talk' to online discounters about their discounts.

So is this a bad time to get into this game?

I have the revised starter set, and just ordered the warfare book and the SSU starter set from miniature market. Should I just back out and return the stuff? Is it all going to be compatible with whatever is coming out? Miniature market has some other dust kits and expansions on sale too, what is the deal with those?

Nice they want to support local game shops, but my not all that local game shop refuses to order any product from battle front ever again.

My only option is to purchase from online shops. Steep discounts is a big reason why I purchased dust in the first place.

 Phobos wrote:
So is this a bad time to get into this game?

I have the revised starter set, and just ordered the warfare book and the SSU starter set from miniature market. Should I just back out and return the stuff? Is it all going to be compatible with whatever is coming out? Miniature market has some other dust kits and expansions on sale too, what is the deal with those?

Contrary to what people on this thread have to say, it's actually a good time to get into the game. The only real issue is the crappy Kickstarter campaign, which won't affect you if you don't pledge for it. TBH, this thread is getting a little over-the-top in the negativity department...

Anyways, if you have a buddy to play the game with and/or just like the models, hold on to them. Nothing's going to be made incompatible.

~Tim?

Isn't that the beauty of most tabletop games?

Even when companies run games into the ground, you'll still have all the models and rules available, and opponents willing, the game you invested in really isn't going anywhere.

I'm in the same boat though. I know one store about 40 minutes away or so that still supports Dust, so I could probably scrounge up players.

More than likely I'll just sucker friends and family into playing. Hopefully Tactics plays as easy as I've heard, and I can get everyone into the game quickly.

That's only 'the beauty' if you've got friends/gaming group invested in and committed to playing a 'dead game'.

That isn't always the case, it isn't always easy to find, and if so, it means that Dead Game is well and truly Dead.

Not saying that's what's happening here though!

 Alpharius wrote:
That's only 'the beauty' if you've got friends/gaming group invested in and committed to playing a 'dead game'.

That isn't always the case, it isn't always easy to find, and if so, it means that Dead Game is well and truly Dead.

Not saying that's what's happening here though!

I wholeheartedly agree. If you can't play the game, it is effectively a wasted purchase regardless of whether the company is continuing to screw up or long ago folded because of their screw ups.

 Alpharius wrote:
That's only 'the beauty' if you've got friends/gaming group invested in and committed to playing a 'dead game'.

That isn't always the case, it isn't always easy to find, and if so, it means that Dead Game is well and truly Dead.

Not saying that's what's happening here though!

I've found the older I get the more interested my peers are in playing dead games. They would rather buy in once, amass a decent sized collection, learn the rules and play till they die as opposed to deal with new releases, new rules and change for the sake of change.

Granted, I really haven't seen anything that makes me think Dust is a dead or dying game at all. It is stuck in the middle of some transitional issues which no doubt has upset a number of players. Battlefront no doubt wanted change for the sake of change so they can make a bit of money on the deal. There is also no shortage of Weird War II games out there - so the vast majority of the figures can live on for a long time should Dust implode on itself.

Beasts of War was talking about this KS on their weekender

http://www.beastsofwar.com/the-weekender/weekender-40k-7th-edition-big-dust-news/

Generally enthusiastic (not too surprising), but one interesting bit came up

There is supposed to be some sort of shipping thing going on with FLGS (presumably those plugged in to the BF distribution network) where pledges will be shipped to the store for free

(and the store will get a 'cut' of the pledge from BF)

worth keeping an eye out for when they announce it officially if you're backing and have a nearby game store that ends up being able to take part

I enjoy BoW, but also treat it as a well intentioned commercial. They love everything, gloriously spread corporate kool-aid, etc...

If it had gone on much longer, I think they would've started felating Battlefront. :-p

That said... someone asked if now was a good time to get into Dust, and I say absolutely yes.

The game is incredible, and the older models can be had extremely cheaply on sites like Miniature's Market. You can bypass nearly all of Battlefront's non-sense, and be playing a terrific game, at a big scope, and good price, right away.

Likewise, it really does look like the Tactics 2.0 rulebook and cards are a decent purchase. The battlefield rules look like a good middle-ground between board and full table-top game (but it still plays quickly), and with the stat cards you can just proxy or buy up the excellent, and cheaper FFG Dust models, and stick up your nose at Battlefront in general.

Plus, sooooo many of the "new" Kickstar models are slight reworks of old models, with power-creep new super stats, so it seems we might be able to ignore them. The new walkers almost across the board are identical molds/sculpts with one slight weapon tweak, and a raised price... but in exchange they seem more loaded with super-guns than ever... :-p Even the new Infantry 1, generic infantry units seems to roll walls of dice compared to old infantry.... so i'll just be opting out of mixing those in for a while.

Sining wrote:
Man, Bfront's comments are so full of bs. They talk about how they want to support retailers so they're not giving away lots of stuff and yet this KS is nothing more than a blatant attempt to grab a larger slice of the pre-order pie for themselves than they would through retailers. Especially since they want to 'talk' to online discounters about their discounts.

Then why did they make all the KS deals available through your local retailer? That's how I'm getting my stuff for the KS. I don't even have to pay shipping. The other benefit whether it was Dust Studio's or Battlefront's idea to run the KS (I doubt it was Battlefront, this is a business decision and they (Battlefront) are just the distributor for Dust) is this does make a splash, successful kickstarters always generate noise and interest and that's a purely positive thing for getting more people to try out a fun game.

As to the latter... why in the nine hells wouldn't they talk to people violating Battlefront's long standing discount policy that only serves to devalue an already cheap game? That's just poor business sense.

NewTruthNeomaxim wrote:


Likewise, it really does look like the Tactics 2.0 rulebook and cards are a decent purchase. The battlefield rules look like a good middle-ground between board and full table-top game (but it still plays quickly), and with the stat cards you can just proxy or buy up the excellent, and cheaper FFG Dust models, and stick up your nose at Battlefront in general.

You mean the same models Dust Studios has been manufacturing all along right? Not like FFG was making any product, just mismanaging the one they had. You should probably just stick with V1 rules though, why give BF and DS any of your money until they perform they way you want them to and never change anything ever? Oh no I got my Konigsluther for $45 and supported a game I enjoy and a studio I want to see continue to do great things. Damn. However shall I survive? Especially when an equivalent sized kit from workshop likely would have been at least $75.

I am starting to think about shelving my Dust army though, much as I like the game. If this thread's any representation of the Dust Community it might not be a group I want to be associated with in the first place. Some of you are worse than the whiniest dregs of the Workshop fanboy community. Especially when a bunch of you spent the last six months to a year whining about a lack of support and releases. So when something finally does break and things do start happening to show you that hey! The game still lives and should continue to for the foreseeable future, but best to complain because goddess forbid things change.

Man... I thought I was a fanboy....

Don't worry, you are. The worst kind too apparently since you and several others in this thread wouldn't even pay to support the studio and the game at retail.

With customers and fans like you, who needs enemies?

I made this thread out of genuine enthusiasm.

I've purchased 1-3 of every single release to date and will continue to do so even in the age of Battlefront.

I, more than most, have earned the opportunity to be critical, and disapprove of a belligerant, virtually hostile company harming a game I love.

I don't think i've said a single thing about the game being bad, or not wanting to support it.

Both Kalashnikov AND NewTruth have fair points. Yes, BF hasn't come across well both during this KS and the transition phase. And yes, some of the posters on this thread are being ridiculously hypercritical/making it sound like their problem is with the game and not the company, which does nothing to help the game and just drags everyone down.

~Tim?

So there's aliens in the mix somewhere?

Has there ever been any official art of them?

Let's everyone play nice here, you can disagree with a position and argue the point, but you can't attack the person. If you are riled up and are in a long-running argument 1 to 1, then I suggest all parties who can't keep it cool lay off this thread for a few days.

It's just toy soldiers guys, supposed to be fun...

OK, so like I said, I've got the revised starter set. Should I learn to play with these rules or what? Will the SSU starter set I bought work wits this rule book?

Also what is the deal with the cards? I see 2 different sets of cards for sale. What are they?

Yes, you should learn with the current rule set because you are more likely in finding people to play against.

Better yet you can get get the OLD starter sets, with lots of great models and then just update the cards that go along with them. All the old models work 100% fine.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
As for the question about the cards, the figures can be used in two different versions of DUST.

Tactics/Battlefield more of fast paced simplified game that's lots of fun. I haven't tried Battlefield yet, but it's similar to Tactics except it doesn't use a square based map.

Warfare is a tactical game more like 40K. It's ruleset is a little more involved than Tactics and doesn't use a square based map.

How do I know which is an Old starter set?

The new ones (in the KS) are not yet available,

so if you can buy it now )for delivery now) it's old,

So i want to start collecting dust tactics/battlefield and try to introduce it in my local gaming club.

So for demo games i would need two armies.

My question is, can i just buy the current starter sets and the current rulebook? Or am i wrong?

The current $50 factional starter sets are V2 rules and will work just fine. They come with rules and then you'll be able to pick up the new full rule book which includes Battlefield which is not as simplified as people are saying from my understanding, when it releases in the next month or so as I recall.

Over night the Kickstarter saw a few new pledge-tiers added, the higher of which are finally adding unquestionable "value" in terms of legitimate, outright freebies.

Pledges at the $300 unpainted tier get two armies, with all stretch-goals, as well as the hardcover rule-book and campaign expansion (Operation Babylon)

Pledges at $450 unpainted, and up get the above plus acrylic token sets and Dust Tactics card decks for all previous faction units as well.

In both cases, Battlefront is letting people trade out Tactics stuff for credit towards more minis, etc... afterwards if you don't need a given item.

Not a HUGE paradigm shift, but the needle is moving in the direction of "value" again, and the pledges are all set to receive another free stretch-goal sometime today.

I'm still not jumping for joy... but they're obviously at least mulling over ways to right the course.

Also, comments over-night very coyly alluded to, but did in fact mention the Japanese faction being something in the cooker for the Dust universe, going forward... so that is still happening, it seems.

So despite my initial hesitation I've jumped on board with it.

For Dust Warfare I looked into it in depth. Basically, they can't publish any of the current Dust Warfare books stuff until FFG completely sells off their stock. Fair enough. In the meantime though, they did just come out with the every unit in card form (something I've been dying for), and have said they'll be publishing all new units warfare stats on their web page. So a bit of support, but not major support. But Warfare never really had major support.

I still think Warfare is a great rule system and will continue to play it. As for getting into it now? Why not, minis are cheap, there's still support for it.

Seriously, what's the investment for a full army for dust right now? $100?

Totally worth it if you even have one friend who plays it. The tanks alone are worth it just to own.

If the total keeps climbing at the rate it does, then I can see even the single army pledges becoming a bit more of a deal, especially as more heroes, mats, and terrain pieces end up added to the pile.

The true value will be there for me if any more units (or walkers, which I doubt) get added to the pledges rather than as just another add on.

At the very least I'll probably end up with a walker or two.

Now if they *DO* go through with the Japanese.... then I'm done for. Hell, my kids said they'd give the game a try if the Japanese get added, and they tend to despise "soldier" games as they call it. Fantasy and space if fine, but anything that reeks of reality and it's all of a sudden a big fat "NO." Odd.

Ha, I wouldn't say Dust "reeks' of reality...

I don't expect us to see a walker, I think with the current pace of the kickstarter we might see it hitting all it's current stretch goals.

I could see them throwing in a five man squad after maybe? Or another hero?

Reality for my kids means anything human these days.

They live in a house full of dinosaurs, Ultraman and Godzilla kaiju, old horror and scifi comics, and piles of monster miniatures all over the place.

Non- heroic scale humans in traditional uniforms with guns that aren't as big as their bodies are a bit of an anomaly unfortunately.

They were all for pile- driving, flame throwing apes and walking tanks however.

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
So there's aliens in the mix somewhere?

Has there ever been any official art of them?

One frame of one comic back in the early days. I doubt that it's even considered official at this point.

 Dullspork wrote:

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
So there's aliens in the mix somewhere?

Has there ever been any official art of them?

One frame of one comic back in the early days. I doubt that it's even considered official at this point.

Errr.. what? The Aliens are the entire backstory of the Dust universe. That's how all the human factions have the technology they do, recovered alien tech. Anyway, they stated they will add the Vril at some point, so it is completely official. That's like saying The Emperor in 40k is unofficial because it doesn't have a model.


As for the kickstarter, I wasn't too happy with the idea at first, but if it gets the entire Babylon wave out now, I'm all for it. I'm personally not super excited about the setting, but most of the models are very cool. I'm just ready for the Pacific campaign and the Japanese to launch. The current factions are all great, but the one drawback of Dust is the lack of variety in factions.