Switch Theme:

Dropfleet / Dropzone Commander news and rumors. Dominion heavy bomber. p.31.  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
»
Author Message
Advert


Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
  • No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
  • Times and dates in your local timezone.
  • Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
  • Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
  • Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.




Made in us
Member of the Ethereal Council






For some reason I thought the resistance behemoth was on train tracks and a giant gun

5000pts 6000pts 3000pts
 
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
For some reason I thought the resistance behemoth was on train tracks and a giant gun


I've not kept brilliantly up with their news/facebook so that could have been teased as concept art or in lore at some stage. Or when fans heard about "big gun" and then went down the path of looking at real world comparisons like the Schwerer Gustav (the huge Nazi artillery gun pulled by several locomotives)

A Blog in Miniature

3D Printing, hobbying and model fun! 
   
Made in ca
Rebel_Princess




Austin, TX

 Overread wrote:
 hotsauceman1 wrote:
For some reason I thought the resistance behemoth was on train tracks and a giant gun
comparisons like the Schwerer Gustav


Dave was quoted at one of the pre-pandemic convetions that the big gun on the Resistance Behemoth is intentionally 1 scale cm larger calibre than the Gustav. So yeah, it's an apt comparison.

I find myself utterly bored by yet more Behemoth teasing. Talk to me about rules, about fixing the core of the damned game.

And post a god damned batrep TTC! I refuse to believe anyone there actually plays full games of DZC anymore, barring physical evidence.
   
Made in gb
Leader of the Sept







The PHR station is hitting the Homeworld pretty hard. This is not a bad thing

Lovely smooth lines.

Please excuse any spelling errors. I use a tablet frequently and software keyboards are a pain!

Terranwing - w3;d1;l1
51st Dunedinw2;d0;l0
Cadre Coronal Afterglow w1;d0;l0 
   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

I wonder how much those station designs were influenced by the circa-2019 PHR meme about ships being
V
E
R
T
I
C
A
L
?

   
Made in gb
Moustache-twirling Princeps




United Kingdom

Dropzone Commander Battlegroup Boxes are getting released this week (New Year, New Teaser)
   
Made in gb
Moustache-twirling Princeps




United Kingdom

WIP Wed Whoooooosh!

Spoiler:
WIP Wed Whoooooosh!


It’s the first WIP Wednesday of the year, catch it before it flies past!


This very first WIP Wed we’ve got the fastest little ships ever. You may have seen them previously in the advent calendar, and now they’ve made their way to Fin’s painting desk…

It’s the Cutters!

PHR



We only have a couple to show today… first of all we have the PHR. These sleek craft are possibly the smoothest ever! So thin!



Fin is still in the middle of painting them, you can see that one has metals already done, and the other is awaiting the metallic coat. Neither have their additional weapon options yet, they’re being painted separately.



Shaltari



For our second one, we have a Shaltari Cutter, and it’s basically finished!

This weird looking one caused a lot of questions in the render, so hopefully these pictures will shed a little light on the elegant build.



With three prongs and a gun on the front, there’s no confusing how fast this ship is going to be!


We’ll have more information on the Cutters in the future, so keep an eye out right here on TTCommunity for all the latest information. In the meantime you can head over to the TTCombat webstore to have a look at all the Dropfleet Commander ships available. And don’t forget to email any pictures of your painted fleets to info@ttcombat.com for us to feature right here in a future Monday Motivation!
   
Made in us
Been Around the Block




Beautiful. But where are the terrible mold slips on almost every model in my 5 fleets.
   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

The PHR ships look pretty cool. The Shaltari one…I don’t know. Maybe it would look more sleek flying “backwards”.

   
Made in gb
Moustache-twirling Princeps




United Kingdom

New Standard Units?! It’s a Dropzone Post-Christmas Miracle!

Spoiler:
New Standard Units?! It’s a Dropzone Post-Christmas Miracle!


We have some exciting new releases for Dropzone players this week, and with new releases come new rules!


The first Battlegroup boxes are on their way to pre-order this Friday, and it’s an exciting time for Dropzone players both new and old.

New players will find the new Armour Battlegroups the perfect expansion to their burgeoning army. If you already have a Starter Army, these new sets give you a whole new Battlegroup. All of them offer some different and unusual units for your battles.

For existing players, these Battlegroups contain brand new Standard choices! Other than the ocassional one here and there, this is the first big Standard release since Reconquest! Standard choices are the most populous in a Dropzone army, so you can use these new units to make up the centre of your fighting force. Oh and don’t worry – they’ll be available online separately too.

Of course, you’re here to see what they do, and we’re definitely going to tell you!



UCM
First of all, the angels in green, the UCM have not one but two new options this week. The Polecat Buggy is a new Standard choice, and can be carried in the new Vulture Dropship.



As you can see by its stats, the Polecat is very fast! This chonky boi is as quick as a Wolverine, and better armoured to boot. It’s a little more expensive in points, but that extra point of armour makes it a fair bit more survivable.

You get a choice of weapons on the Polecat: a Twin Nemesis Minigun or an Aggressor Cannon.



The Minigun might lack stopping power, but with 6 shots it sure puts out a lot of attacks! Energy 4 isn’t super strong, but ignoring Body and Soft cover means that this thing will shred any infantry bold enough to go to the edge of a Garrison. The Miniguns also have Focus-1 as well, which means with enough shots you can bring down anything if you really need to.

The Aggressor Cannon trades the cover bonuses for a higher starting Energy, which means it can easily deal with light vehicles or scenery. The big bonus here is 3 Shots with Focus-2, which put it right up to dealing with medium vehicles. Get particularly lucky (or use some Command Cards at the right time) and you can take on heavy tanks if necessary.

Both options are very versatile, which is a nice contrast to the traditional Sabre with its 1 Shot high Energy weapon.



The Vulture is pretty much what you’d expect from a dropship! It’s twice the size of a Raven, so can carry twice as much stuff. In a feat of UCM engineering brilliance, the Polecats actually take up the same space as Wolverines, so a Vulture can carry 4.

You can also build the Vulture as a Troopship, which gives you the option of flying 4 units of Infantry in at speed without the need for a Bear or Panda.



And for a little more versatility you can arm your Vulture with an AA Battery! This is the same type found on a Phoenix, and the only way to get AA weapons on your transports. Nice!



Scourge
The Scourge have one new Standard unit to add to their ranks. It’s a little smaller than they’re used to.



The Spectre Skimtank is closer to a bike than a full tank. In fact it’s a very similar size to a Wolverine! It’s small and has pretty low armour, but wow is it fast! With a Move of 12″ and Evasion +3, this nippy little thing can get around the board mostly on its own. You might not even need to put it in a Harbinger Troopship!

Like the Polecat, the Spectre also gets a choice of weapons.



A Plasma Lance will be familiar to Scourge players using Reavers. It’s literally the same thing, just one of them! Spectres are too small for turrets meaning they’re a bit more limited in their aiming, but are usually fast enough to target what they want. Plasma Lances are longer ranged than the Cannons on Hunters, but a little weaker. Still, Energy 10 will do most jobs!

Alternatively you could go for the much weirder option with the Photon Blaster. This short ranged weapon has double the shots, but only Energy 6. Luckily enough it has the Penetrative rule on overdrive, always damaging on a 5 or 6. The biggest draw for the Photo Blaster though is that it’s Indirect! This weird weapon shoots straight through walls, allowing your Spectres to target opponents with no chance of them returning fire. Although less accurate when you can’t see, you can always pair some Spectres with Minders or Emeritus Drones to provide up to date targeting information. A deadly combo that keeps your Spectres out of harm’s way.



PHR
The Abandonists aren’t going without new units either, adding a new Standard choice to their already bumper selection. You can also build this new one as a Support choice if you like!



The Diana Jetskimmer is a little quicker than an Angelos, and as a hybrid jet/anti-grav skimmer it’s even better at evading fire. However these tanks simply don’t have the bulk of the Angelos, coming in with only 1 Damage point.



But tanks are all about the guns, right? And the Diana has a crazy one. While little can match the simple stopping power of an Ares’ Railgun, the Diana takes a stranger approach. due to their Molecular Absorbers, Dianas can shoot into each other to overcharge their weapons. Energy 8 may not look like much, but Focus-3 quickly increases that number when they can combine shots together. In fact, they come in squads of up to 4, which means you can potentially get a single Energy 17 shot! That’s rather crazy, and probably overkill. With Devastator-3 against all Vehicles, the Diana is a big target hunter the likes of which we may not have seen before!



You could instead make your tank as the Aurora Jetskimmer. A Support choice, the Aurora trades firepower for shield assistance while keeping the same hull. The Shield Beamer increases or decreases Passive Countermeasures saves. It can even give units without a Passive save of their own! Target a friendly unit and watch them last the whole battle. Combine with some Odins or Zeus and you’ve got some incredibly survivable walkers. Alternatively you could target your opponents to strip them of their Passive saves. Take that Shaltari, the PHR are the new tricksy faction! Not many people know that PHR stands for Pranks Horseplay and Ruses.



Shaltari
Shaltari aren’t happy with all that silly PHR nonsense, so they’re here with two new units to put them back in their place.



The Atlatl and Arrowhead Gravtanks share the same hull. It’ll look familiar but different to Shaltari players. Slower than a Tomahawk, they instead focus on defence, upping their Passive saves to a massive 4+. That’s sure to be annoying!

And the Atlatl doesn’t stop there for annoyance! When it comes to weapons, this Gravtank doesn’t actually do any damage. But what it does is frustrate your opponent so much. Worth it.



The Atlatl is armed with a Teleport Beamer, which does exactly what it sounds like! In what has been called a “cruder, brute-force” appliance of their teleport technology, this weird weapon can teleport any unit, whether they’re ready for it or not! You can teleport friendly units a bit distance, or enemy units a shorter distance (while the traditional teleport web and Gate aren’t necessary, they do help). Great for getting a good sightline on your opponent or escaping from the retaliatory fire.



The Arrowhead is also a Standard choice, but goes in for AA fire instead. AA weapons on Standard choices are rather rare, and this one is kind of weird. The Energy Storm weapon uses the same interference as active Gates, but weaponises it! While this weapon can only Reaction Fire with a limited range, it has a couple of shots each, ignores Reaction Fire Accuracy penalties, and adds +1 Energy for every friendly unit in the squad, creating a – wait for it – storm of energy that will knock out any aircraft foolish enough to get close. Park a big squad of these in the middle of the board and watch your opponent sweat. Shaltnanigans are still strong!



Resistance
Last of all, the Resistance get a new Standard choice as well. It’s chunky and awesome.



The Patton AFV is the heaviest Standard choice available to Resistance commanders. If you’re looking to play a Kalium army or just want to trade up from scrappy Technicals, look no further! With Armour 13 and 2 Damage, this thing can survive longer than most battle tanks. It’s also rather fast on its wheels, nice! Put it in a Kraken or a Lifthawk – the choice is yours (which is a really rare thing for Resistance – for all the different transport types, the ability to go in more than one thing is quite rare).

As with most other Standard choices though, the Patton is all about the guns. It has a Grenade Launcher as standard, which fits the Resistance’s versatility. Then you have a choice of two guns.



The standard load-out is the Autocannon. It has 2 barrels, a decent range, and Energy 8. It also ignores all cover, which means you’re rarely getting many modifiers. At Energy 8 it can’t deal with the heaviest tanks in the game, but anything lower than that it can take on. Light vehicles are its main enemy, and scenery pieces don’t stand much luck either.

You can choose to upgrade the Autocannon to a Liberator Railgun, which will definitely help with your heavy vehicle troubles! This heavy prototype of the UCM railgun is expensive to manufacture but packs such a punch! Energy 10 is a welcome addition to Resistance Standard choices, and it does srits on 1 more than the damage roll, rather than 2. That means you can do crits to Armour 15! :O

Rules Updates
With these new Standard units, we’ve also taken the opportunity to update a couple other units that needed tweaks. These will all go live on Friday. Just a quick list:

Scourge walkers have been changed a bit! Less tough, but more resilient. Scourge armour isn’t all that strong, but it’s not like you can kill the crew!
The Eradicator’s Bio-Mortar has a new weapon mode!
The Harbinger Troopship can carry an extra Screamer (and plenty of Spectres).
PHR Jetskimmers have been made a little less agile.
Shaltari Gates now ignore the Reaction Fire penalties.
Firstborns have turned their Energy Swords down a bit.
Pungari have had some changes to reflect just how useless they are on their own, but fantastic as a horde!
Ronin now have a really good reason to upgrade their weapons.
Resistance Jacksons are cheaper, but a little easier to hurt.
UCM escaped the nerf-hammer this time! If you have feedback on any units, you can always let us know by filling out the feedback form on the Dropzone army builder!



Phew! That’s a big post with lots to go through. Have a look and let us know if you’re excited about new Standard choices! The Battlegroup Boxes (and individual units) are up for pre-order on Friday, so check back then for all the juicy details. In the meantime, there are already loads of Dropzone Commander kits on the TTCombat webstore, so head over there to check them out. And if you’ve painted some, make sure to email info@ttcombat.com – we’d love to see them and share them right here.
   
Made in gb
Moustache-twirling Princeps




United Kingdom

Dropzone Commander – Armour Battlegroup Releases

The PHR Advanced Armoured Battle group will be available for £35. Additionally the pack of 2 Diana Jetskimmers could be yours for £10.

The Resistance Platoon Armour Battlegroup will be available for £35. Furthermore the 2 Patton AFV’s will be selling in a separate £12 blister.

(Scourge Rapid Armour Battlegroup) will be available for £35. Alternatively you can pick up the 4 Spectre Skimtanks in a blister for £12.

This Shaltari Battlegroup will available for £35 as a complete set or alternatively buy just the three Atlatl Gravtanks in blister for £12.

The UCM Combined Armour Battlegroup will reconquer Earth for £35. The four Polecat Buggies can be purchased in blister for £15. Alternatively the two Vultures Dropships will also be available for £15.
   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

Seems just a touch pricey, but not an absolute dealbreaker for me.

   
Made in ca
Rebel_Princess




Austin, TX

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Seems just a touch pricey, but not an absolute dealbreaker for me.


Good value though. Scourge for instance, £35 boxset, £52 if bought as separate blisters.

For a new player with nothing in the box, say someone looking to expand a starter, they make a lot of sense.


I like the Vulture, but neither the sculpts nor stats for the polecat. The prospect of being able to carry more Wolverines or Longbows for cheaper is appealing, and it just has a nice profile, reminds me of the Alien dropship.

Scourge skimtanks, I've got a group order with a friend for the battle box, it seems a good balance of stats for the Plasma Lance. I'm annoyed by the Photon blaster just slapping some scifi name on some rules, it doesn't feel coherent to me. And the profile of it is too minimal for me.

I'm not a fan of how little differentiation there is between the new PHR models, but I like both concepts. The way the Aurora's rules are written is horrible. I get what it's supposed to do, but I'm not sure I could have worded it more poorly if I was deliberately trying to be obtuse. Also, the rest of the PHR skimmers losing a point of evasion because this one needs to be dodgier feels unnecessary.

I really like the Arrowhead's rules and concept, but I like the shape of the Atlatl better. And I despise yet more Shaltari teleporting weapons, it doesn't feel clever, just annoying to play against. There's no good defense against it, no clever counter play. It's a 'Gotcha!' game mechanic, and those can feth right off into the land of beer'n'pretzels.

Not a fan of the Patton at all. It's a better weapon with better transport options than the Hannibal in a better slot for a little less armor. But also, it's an AFV that doesn't transport troops which feels wrong. I don't like how it fits into the Resistance army composition at all.
   
Made in de
Perfect Shot Dark Angels Predator Pilot




Stuttgart

I really like most of the bundles, I'm really tempted by the UCM and Scourge bundle even though I have a huge collection. I really like the lower armor units, I had hoped they would be especially interesting for smaller points size games.

slyphic wrote:

I like the Vulture, but neither the sculpts nor stats for the polecat. The prospect of being able to carry more Wolverines or Longbows for cheaper is appealing, and it just has a nice profile, reminds me of the Alien dropship.


The Vulture is a really cool looking model, and opens up some very interesting options for UCM. Trading Speed for higher capacity creates competition with the Raven B, but the change to minimum squad sizes for Longbow/Crossbows and the option to only take two Polecats still keeps both valid. The Troopship option is interesting, too.
I'm not to sure on the Polecat yet, I like the model and the weapons does not invade the design space of any other UCM Standard Tank. The power is a bit more swingy, capping out at either Energy 11 or 14, but the average is Energy 9 / 10 at a far shorter Range. And the gun is far from optimal when shooting against any kind of skimmer. But it allows to fill a Standard slot for cheap and investing the points in some of the heavy UCM options.

slyphic wrote:

Scourge skimtanks, I've got a group order with a friend for the battle box, it seems a good balance of stats for the Plasma Lance. I'm annoyed by the Photon blaster just slapping some scifi name on some rules, it doesn't feel coherent to me. And the profile of it is too minimal for me.

I agree on the name of the photon blaster, the rules appear totally different from what I would imagine a photon blaster. But the tanks themselves really feel like scourge tanks should feel. I'm not 100% sold on their transport option, but I can understand that adding to many different transport options to the game doesn't help, either. I would have preferred if there was an option to take a Screamer and a Spectre in the same battlegroup, but oh well.

slyphic wrote:

I really like the Arrowhead's rules and concept, but I like the shape of the Atlatl better. And I despise yet more Shaltari teleporting weapons, it doesn't feel clever, just annoying to play against. There's no good defense against it, no clever counter play. It's a 'Gotcha!' game mechanic, and those can feth right off into the land of beer'n'pretzels.

I don't really see how this weapon is a 'Gotcha!' weapon, it hits very unreliable, and if they pop out of a gate they only hit on a 6. But with an armor of 12, there is a lot of stuff that can damage them, so they don't really survive in the open. Getting moved by 3 or 6 inches on average is annoying, but I think it is more likely that a Shaltari player will use its effect on his own vehicles, rather then any enemy vehicles.
The Arrowhead on the other hand ... It basically creates a "no transports" fly zone, and the additionally bonus to it's Energy for every other unit in the squad makes it really interesting as a tool of area denial. But any kind of Gunship with evasion can dare to ignore it. It adds more interesting mechanics to the table. I'm just not really convinced by their shape, they feel different then the other Shaltari skimmers.

slyphic wrote:

Not a fan of the Patton at all. It's a better weapon with better transport options than the Hannibal in a better slot for a little less armor. But also, it's an AFV that doesn't transport troops which feels wrong. I don't like how it fits into the Resistance army composition at all.

I don't mind that the Patton has no transport capacity, it makes no sense in its slot in army composition and an AFV is just an armored vehicle with a gun, not necessarily an APC. But the experimental rail gun is really stupid. Why would I ever take a Hannibal. I can just take two of them in a Hovercraft, unload and drive to max range of 18 inch (10 + 2+ 6) and then hit anything on a 2+, with a better critical hit chance even against armor 15. And then the gun has 24 inch range. It is way to good in my opinion. Well and besides, the vehicle looks strange. The railgun option needs a complete overhaul, it makes any other tank in the army obsolete in my opinion. A possible fix would be to split the profiles into two units. The Patton AFV with the autocannon is a valid choice, but the railgun option should be moved to the heavy slot and receive some kind of rules change to no invalidate the Hannibal.

I can't really comment on the PHR skimmers, as I don't play PHR and don't really feel how they fit with the rest of the army. My regular opponent plays PHR, I'm interested in his opinion. I might have to see them in action before being able to really place their worth. Being able to interfere with passive saves does seem very interesting at the least.
   
Made in us
Hoary Long Fang with Lascannon





Kalamazoo


I don't mind that the Patton has no transport capacity, it makes no sense in its slot in army composition and an AFV is just an armored vehicle with a gun, not necessarily an APC. But the experimental rail gun is really stupid. Why would I ever take a Hannibal. I can just take two of them in a Hovercraft, unload and drive to max range of 18 inch (10 + 2+ 6) and then hit anything on a 2+, with a better critical hit chance even against armor 15. And then the gun has 24 inch range. It is way to good in my opinion. Well and besides, the vehicle looks strange. The railgun option needs a complete overhaul, it makes any other tank in the army obsolete in my opinion. A possible fix would be to split the profiles into two units. The Patton AFV with the autocannon is a valid choice, but the railgun option should be moved to the heavy slot and receive some kind of rules change to no invalidate the Hannibal.


The Hannibal has always seemed to be in this weird spot where its comparable to other armies MBTs, but it is in a heavy slot instead of standard. They should have made it standard, and transportable via hovercraft. That also would make combined arms units with Constantines more doable. Now the Hannibal competes against the Patton, Circe, and Napoleon and is arguably inferior to all three.
   
Made in ca
Rebel_Princess




Austin, TX

Durandal wrote:
They should have made it standard, and transportable via hovercraft. That also would make combined arms units with Constantines more doable.


I fully agree with making it Standard, but making it hovercraft transportable pretty much shelves Lifthawks for good. Also, there's no good way to fit two in a light hovercraft except sideways, and they'd be impossible to drive off, have to be lifted with a crane. I could see allowing one tank and maybe 2 technicals or 1 bus/truck, but that's getting even further into the force org changes than the topic at hand.

Durandal wrote:
Now the Hannibal competes against the Patton, Circe, and Napoleon and is arguably inferior to all three.


It ain't even in that competition. The Circe and Patton are both just plain better. Except for the Circe's lack of devastator against Skimmers for some god forsaken stupid reason. Dumbest rule in the whole fething game.
   
Made in us
Hoary Long Fang with Lascannon





Kalamazoo

slyphic wrote:
Durandal wrote:
They should have made it standard, and transportable via hovercraft. That also would make combined arms units with Constantines more doable.


I fully agree with making it Standard, but making it hovercraft transportable pretty much shelves Lifthawks for good. Also, there's no good way to fit two in a light hovercraft except sideways, and they'd be impossible to drive off, have to be lifted with a crane. I could see allowing one tank and maybe 2 technicals or 1 bus/truck, but that's getting even further into the force org changes than the topic at hand.

Durandal wrote:
Now the Hannibal competes against the Patton, Circe, and Napoleon and is arguably inferior to all three.


It ain't even in that competition. The Circe and Patton are both just plain better. Except for the Circe's lack of devastator against Skimmers for some god forsaken stupid reason. Dumbest rule in the whole fething game.


It does have Devastator 2 (tank, skimmer).
   
Made in ca
Rebel_Princess




Austin, TX

Durandal wrote:
It does have Devastator 2 (tank, skimmer).


Doh, I meant Walker. It can't Dev walkers. For no good reason at all.
   
Made in gb
Moustache-twirling Princeps




United Kingdom

Teaser Tuesday – DFC Cutters & Freighter Graveyard!

Spoiler:
Teaser Tuesday – DFC Cutters & Freighter Graveyard!


On this weeks Teaser Tuesday we are going to be covering some Dropfleet Commander and Sci-Fi Gothic products coming soon!

Welcome to space where the Scourge can hear you scream! But try not to as you don’t want to be a new host for those neuro-parasistic parasites. Yes we’ve got some new releases coming out this Friday for our Dropfleet Commanders who feel its time to be a cut above the others. Cutters are coming!

Scourge



The Scourge fleet has expanded even further with the latest innovation in fast, mobile ships. The Parasite and Wraith Cutters have been spotted reinforcing battlefleets across the system and the UCM can’t be sure were they came from. Certainly wasn’t there birth world right? We won’t go into to much detail but if you spot a Parasite in space then maybe keep your ships away from it.

UCM



The UCM are no slouches in combat, and in this situation that means strapping some massive engines onto their ships! The UCM Reykjavik Cutter is soaring into pre-order this Friday. Armed with a pair of massive mass drivers, it’s sure to make some enemies. Alternatively the kit can be built as the Nuuk, which trades destructive firepower for being really, really annoying. Isn’t that a Shaltari thing? Not anymore!

PHR



The PHR’s fleets are smaller than the Scourge however the quality of crew and equipment can’t be surpassed. Not wanting to be out gunned in galactic warfare, they have launched the Pegasus cutter! Deadly by itself, this vessel preys upon merchantmen before disappearing as if never there. How very piratical! This kit also builds the Ourania Swiftlink, which is used as spotter for PHR fleets.

Resistance



The Resistance are never ones to be left behind (except maybe on repainting their ships, the scruffy admirals!). The Sagittarii Cutters pack a massive punch: half of the ship is engines, and the other half is guns! The Baleares variant swaps the guns for launch bays, providing a fast pocket carrier. They come in two pieces, with enough keels for you to mount the engines and prows vertically, horizontally, or a mixture of both!

Shaltari



Shaltari admirals are also in for some reinforcements with the Caesium and Gallium Cutters. The Caesium has a modified Disruptor which makes it excellent at hunting light enemy ships. The Gallium is a whole lot weirder though, using its Bio-Atomiser to kill ships from the inside out, killing all the crew, and letting the ship drift without them.

All these new Cutters are arriving speedily for pre-order on Friday, and we’ll be having a more in-depth look at their rules before then!



Cutting into Rules – Cutter Edition

Spoiler:
Cutting into Rules – Cutter Edition


Cutters are speeding their way into Fridays release so let’s take a look at what they do!

Getting the obvious out of the way first, Cutters are fast! I mean FAST. These not so small ships are among the fastest ships in the game. With a Thrust between 14″ and 20″ there’s very few places to effectively hide from them.


UCM
Spoiler:




First up, UCM get the Reykjavik and the Nuuk. The Reykjavik is a nimble, lightly armoured, heavily armed mass driver platform. With 14″ Thrust, Outlier, and Vectored, this ship can get exactly where its Twin Mass Drivers can deal most damage. Speaking of which, these are the same Mass Drivers as on the Kiev, albeit nowhere near as good at shooting into atmosphere. Still, if you can get a weapons free on a full group of 3, they can put out a lot of damage.



The Nuuk, on the other hand is both lightly armoured and lightly armed. It’s Haywire Blaster wins no awards for damage (not even a wooden spoon) but if it hits, it can shut down a whole round of planning. Forcing a larger ship onto standard orders can be crippling for its damage output, or forcing a station keeping ship off of an objective could win you that game.




Scourge
Spoiler:



The Scourge get the Wraith and the Parasite. At 16″ Thrust and Vectored, the Wraith is quick and nimble. They aren’t particularly armoured, but are the only Cutter with two weapon systems. They’ll need that manoeuvrability to get to close range, where most of their damage will be coming from. Close Action (Beam) Plasma Brands, perfect for getting damage through pesky point defence.



The Parasite is a ship that bucks the trend of Scourge ships wanting to stay hidden. The Parasite loves Spikes, and gains a damage boost if any of the ships in its group use their Energy Siphon to drain them from other ships. This is a bit of a double edged sword though, as the Parasite that siphoned off that spike also gains it. Minor Spikes give less damage than Major Spikes, so you’ll need to decide how much you want the siphoning ship to be seen and how much damage you want to do with the group.




PHR
Spoiler:



The Pegasus and the Ourania are the very swift looking cutters for the PHR. First of the two, the Pegasus is part engines, part nano-hive. Chock full to the brim with Nano Drones, this ship is capable of keeping itself repaired on dangerous missions far from the front lines. This results in a sizeable Regenerate of 6, that even works while Crippled! The Nano Drones are no slouch when it comes to dealing damage either, with plenty of attacks (maybe) and Close Action (Swarmer) gives its targets a difficult time defending.



The Ourania, however is a completely different ship to anything we’ve seen in Dropfleet so far. This ship acts a bit like a Scout unit does for Indirect weapons on ground, but for weapons in space. There are a few limitations on this ability, first the ship firing its weapons must be in line of sight to the target, no shooting around moons. Second is that the Ourania must be in Scan + Signature of both the firing ship and the target. A powerful ability, though thankfully (or unfortunately for PHR players) the unit is Rare and less armoured with less point defence than normal for PHR.



Shaltari
Spoiler:



Shaltari Admirals get access to the Caesium and the Gallium Cutters. Both of these ships have a ridiculously fast Thrust of 20″ with a reasonable shield and high point defence. The Caesium is a dedicated light ship hunter though will need to be positioned well to make use of a F(N) Focused Disruptor. Fortunately the disruptor has a decent amount of attack and Calibre(L), giving it a very good chance of landing a crit on those pesky L tonnage ships.



While the Caesium is a scalpel for excising your opponents fleet of its L tonnage ships, the Gallium is more a serrated knife. Slower than the Caesium, the Gallium makes up for it with by not caring what it attacks, though will probably want to tackle larger ships. The Bio Atomiser Array may not deal damage up front, but it can stack up Corruptor tokens quick. Point defence won’t save you from this close action weapon, with 6 attacks, some of those Corruptor tokens will stick. A Gallium won’t hold up much under sustained fire, though with low sig and high thrust it should be able to put plenty of Corruptor tokens on the things that matter before they have a chance to react.




Resistance
Spoiler:



The Resistance kit isn’t quite the same as the other Cutters. This kit can be put together in a couple of different ways , just in case you wanted all your cutters to look slightly different. The only part that matters to determine which variant is which is the prow, though. The first of these prows is the Sagittarii. Fairly tough for a Cutter, the Sagittarii has a set of N-12 Artillery Cannons. These are the same type of gun you can find on the broadsides of a Grand Battleship (though in greatly reduced number). Thanks to being mostly engine, both of these ships have 16″ worth of thrust, and a reasonable amount of hull and armour to keep them alive.



The Baleares has absolutely no weapons to speak of, unless you count Bombers as weapons. What it does have, is almost the same statline as the Sagittarii. Thanks to keeping some fighters in reserve, the Baleares has a slightly higher point defence than the Sagitarii, but you’re not taking it for that. This little Pocket Carrier is fast, and the ability to get fighters and bombers where you need them shouldn’t be overlooked.



Spoiler:
There you go Admirals, be sure to check the TTCombat Store tomorrow (at around 3pm GMT) when pre-orders go live!

As a bonus, we’re also doing a minor balance pass at the same time as the Cutters release! This will include changes to over performing ships like the Agrippa, as well as underperforming ships, like the Triumvir. We’ve also got a couple of new Experimental Rules that should help Resistance Gunboat Cruiser builds and Dreadnoughts.
   
Made in gb
Moustache-twirling Princeps




United Kingdom

Dropfleet Commander Balance Pass February 2022

Spoiler:
Dropfleet Commander Balance Pass February 2022
With the world opening up for tournaments once again, it’s time for a balance pass for Dropfleet Commander!


Later this afternoon (about the same time Cutters go up for pre-order) we’ll be making some changes to ships and and adding in a couple of experimental rules. We’ll go through them in this article and both cards and builder will update later today.

Experimental Rules
The first thing we’re adding is a couple of new Experimental Rules in the FAQ document! You don’t need to use these if you’d rather play with only the rules in the rulebook, but we’d recommend giving them a go to see if they help with any issues you may have with certain ships.

Dreadnought
Add: “Standard Orders and Special Orders that allow a Dreadnought to fire one weapon system allow it to fire up to two weapon systems instead.”

Letting a London fire both of its UF-6400’s or a Resistance Coloniser fire an indeterminate amount of weapons on standard orders gives them a bit more value before they need to go Weapons Free.



Overcharge
Change to: “A weapon with this rule may be Overcharged. An Overcharged weapon (and any weapons with Overcharge it is Linked with) doubles its Damage value for that attack.

If the ship is on Weapons Free Orders it may only fire Close Action or Low Power weapons but not any other weapon types. However if the ship is on any other Orders, it may not use Launch Assets or fire any other weapons, including Close Action and Low Power weapons.”

Now you don’t need to go onto Weapons Free to to get to overcharge a weapon. However the tradeoff is that you can’t fire any other non-linked weapons of any sort, or use launch assets. When you do go weapons free you get to use Close Action and/or Low Power weapons as well. Weapons free Resistance Gunboat Cruisers should have a bit more damage output with a mix of Vent and Low Power weapons.

Ship Changes
UCM
London
Reduce points to 450.
Washington
Reduce points to 440
St. Petersburg
Reduce points to 140
Scourge
Shenlong
Reduce points to 160.
Raiju
Reduce points to 150.
Shadow
Reduce points to 195.
PHR
Agrippa
Increase points to 175.
Change Holo-Debris Field effect to “Once per activation (during any part of the activation, including during movement) you may place a Dense Debris Field within 3” of this ship. These debris fields are removed at the end of the Roundup phase and are circular with a 4” diameter (a D6 or custom template are perfect tokens to represent these). Friendly ships and Launch Assets ignore these Debris Fields”
Hector
Reduce points to 155.
Ajax
Reduce points to 95.
Shaltari
Jade
Particle Lance – Remove Fusilade (1).
Particle Lance – Increase Damage to 2.
Obsidian
Reduce points to 145.
Hematite
Increase points to 230.
Resistance
Frigate Weapon Systems
N-31 Hybrid Gun Turret – Reduce points to 0.
Light Vent Cannon Turret – Remove Scald.
Heavy Frigate
Increase points to 35.
Senator
Reduce points to 160.
Increase Scan to 12”.
Triumvir
Add Rare special rule
Change Box Of Scraps to read – “At the end of this ship’s activation, pick one friendly ship within 6” in line of sight (including this one). Place a Box Of Scraps token next to that ship. The next time that ship would be destroyed, it isn’t. Instead remove the Box of Scraps token and that ship remains in play with D3 Hull Points remaining. Box Of Scraps tokens persist through rounds but a ship may only have 1 Box Of Scraps token”
As always we’ll be keeping an eye on feedback and will make additional adjustments to ships in the next balance pass. Though with fewer games played this past year due to *cough* certain dangers, we thought we’d keep this pass light and only make changes to the things that have been brought up the most.

All of these ship changes will be reflected on the builder, available on the Dropfleet Commander website.

You can find the FAQ document with the Experimental Rules here.
   
Made in ca
Rebel_Princess




Austin, TX

The Models

Shaltari have good silhouettes and that Remnant ship is aping the classic CR90 which still looks great. I wasn't a fan of the Havana due to the asymmetry versus the rest of the fleet, and I haven't changed my mind yet. PHR looks exactly like the corvette to me, except for the one with the thing sticking out of the bottom; the corvettes are pretty.

Hate the scourge models. They look like something I made out of sprue leftovers.

The Rules
I have no idea how you reconcile Parasite and induced spikes from Active Scanning enemy ships. It breaks a fundamental conceit of the game.

If a UCM Lima Detector frigates uses Active Scan to place a minor spike on a Scourge ship, the Lima isn't imparting any energy to the scourge vessel, the Lima is simply listening loudly. The parasite can consume that spike as a power source. It's beyond meta gamey, it makes the mechanics of the game make less sense. It's like they forgot what Detector represents while writing Parasite because they were just so excited about the idea. Should never have made it past the brainstorming phase, let alone all the way to a release.

I'm not a fan of haywire for the same reason I'm not a fan of the Harpocrates, too swingy, and I don't mean that as I think they are ineffective, I don't like that kind of arbitrary swinginess in my games.

Generally I worry what these ultra fast hard hitting ships will do for the overall game balance. I don't want to see the game move towards alpha strikes over manuever, nor the dakka phase of the game happen so early the later turns lack impact.

The Typos

They fixed one of the list I sent in 4 months ago, made another worse, and ignored the rest. We're talking tens of minutes of work to fix what's left.

  • Admiral values are incorrect for Heavy ships. See: https://www.reddit.com/r/DropfleetCommander/comments/q8rtzo/for_anyone_else_baffled_by_admiral_points_recently/

  • Theseus, Platinum, and Reykjavik all have misspelled 'Fusilade' with 1 L instead of 2

  • Heracles' Dark Matter Cannon has special rules Crippling, Boom (instead of Bloom)

  • Lysander doesn't have its 'Stealth Observation' rule in the builder at all.

  • Shaltari Bombers are 15" Thrust and Fighters are +4 PD in the current digital rulebook, but the builder has them respectively at 12" Thrust and +5PD. I honestly can't tell which are supposed to be correct.

  • Istanbul is supposed to be Thrust 4" instead of 6"

  • Amber has a Hull of 9" instead of 9. It has an extraneous double quote.


  • Then again, this was like the 4th release in a row where they blew up the builder and their community site for half a day trying to add new units.
       
    Made in gb
    Moustache-twirling Princeps




    United Kingdom

    FYI - TT are putting up their prices, but not for DFC / DZC.

    This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/03/21 13:40:54


     
       
    Made in ca
    Rebel_Princess




    Austin, TX

    Shaltari and PHR station previews

    Shaltari station looks a bit too much like a plant stand. Maybe it'll look better painted up. The PHR one needs that classic inner ring Bentusi glow effect.

    I hope they've been designed to be compatible with the generic station sprue, because if they're just mono-pose resin kits I'm going to be deeply unimpressed.
       
    Made in gb
    Decrepit Dakkanaut




    UK

    I've long felt that Shaltari need a metric tonne of artwork depicting them in battle. Of all the races they've the least "gun like" guns and the most strange designs. They sorely need lots of art and stories and lore to describe and visually show how their stuff works.


    PHR rocks up with a battery of broadside guns; Humans have turreted main guns; Scourge have laser-eyes

    A Blog in Miniature

    3D Printing, hobbying and model fun! 
       
    Made in ca
    Rebel_Princess




    Austin, TX

     Overread wrote:
    They sorely need lots of art and stories and lore to describe and visually show how their stuff works.


    Between the published descriptions in the big book and pdfs, and a lifetime of reading mil-SF, I've got a pretty good idea of what they all look and behave like except for the ion cannon/lance and pulse-ioniser battery. Those just don't have enough published words to more than guess at.

    The rest, micro/hyperwaves, harpoons, beamers, thermal lances, ion generators, disruptors/disintegrators, the distortion cannon, gravity coils, particle lances; Dave and I are simpatico. We probably read the same books, spent the same long hours reading Project Rho.
       
    Made in gb
    Moustache-twirling Princeps




    United Kingdom

    Event Exclusives are in the store
       
    Made in us
    Legendary Master of the Chapter





    SoCal

    Traffic James! I may have to get another one for Stargrave purposes…someday.

    The new Scourge gunship looks pretty awesome. I wish the 2-up Remnant Grand Cruiser wasn’t so expensive.

    Sadly, I have to pass until the next event anyway. I still haven’t assembled the last batch of Event Exclusives I bought.

    This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2022/03/25 16:09:03


       
    Made in ca
    Rebel_Princess




    Austin, TX

    If any of y'all know anyone at Adepticon, TTC has a firesale on old Hawk stock Dropzone models, $5 a pack. It's unlikely there will ever be a better sale than now. I've been trying to find a friend-of-a-local-friend that's attending.



       
    Made in us
    Legendary Master of the Chapter





    SoCal

    Let me know if you find anyone.

       
    Made in us
    Shadowy Grot Kommittee Memba




    The Great State of New Jersey

    If they have any old style Falcons and Ravens (not Titania pattern), I need them

    CoALabaer wrote:
    Wargamers hate two things: the state of the game and change.
     
       
     
    Forum Index » News & Rumors
    Go to: