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This will be my first none GW game Ive bought. I will be looking to order a naval battle group really soon yet im still undecided about which to go with. Its not so much about tactics or look as it is abit of both. I need swaying to one faction as my choices are pretty much equal which is why its hard to pick. I could also use some advice to a few basic questions about the game itself:

1: Where is best to buy dystopian wars stuff apart from their website, im in the UK also. Basically does anyone know where to get the best deals or atleast the sets a few quid cheaper?
2: Air units like blimps and such, can they be used over both sea and land? or are they like sea/air units only because I only ever see airships in sea battles.

Now I suppose I should list me pick of factions, I just really need a sales pitch to help me pick one faction lol or maybe different factions for land and sea.

My favorites so far are the Russians in general after all im still a big fan of the red alert games, give me some russian airships to paint as kirov's
The empire of the blazing sun, because growing up ive loved the style of trains and they have sea trains, also they remind me a little of fire nation from avatar and thats always cool i mean, sea trains!
American faction is the final faction I love, they took a little while to grow on me but as it did it began to rival the others, somthing about their boats that are appealing, maybe its the way they are arranged. I also like their land units equally with the russians land.

Help me decide

Always nice to have a new player on board! In answer to the first parts, I tend to order my stuff through thetrolltrader, take a look some time. As for air, air can be used in any theater (with the consensus that the next expansion may even be about pure air battles). The reason for the pictures is that the land game is still picking up, they only just recently released stuff other than the starter boxes.

As for the fleets, I will say what I do to anyone!

Russian Coalition is slow and steady, the Ablative Armour MAR helps protect them from damage on the approach to use their very short range, but very powerful turret guns. They have fairly poor AA, but their airships are pretty top notch even if their bombers suck gak other than as point fillers. Rarely for DW both their cruisers and gunships are actually pretty good. Boarding is...iffy. Lots of dice, but they only hit on a 5+ instead of a 4. Bloody conscripts. Their land are as nice as their naval and bigger air units, though instead of aircraft carriers on land they get a second dreadnought! (really not an air friendly faction if thats what your after).

Empire of the Blazing Sun is has tough learning curve, rewarding when played well though. They're tough due to lacking any kind of main "shtick", they dont have a focus like other nations, and are jack of all trades instead. No particularly bad units either. Fast and maneuverable ships, some scary frigates and mediums, lots of incendiary rocket spam too to help them go nuts with boarding. Bit of most things weaponwise too, just get used to lots of careful positioning and fixed channels. (also seem to have a pathological fear of fancy generators). Also have (i would say) joint best boarding in the game, or maybe a close second. Some of the best, if not the best air units in the game too, as well as the best Tiny Torpedo flyer. The land units are good too, horrible bombard but the rest of the land list is pretty damn good. New multipurpose small walker too making up for the bombards faults.

The FSA are simple in terms of learning curve, next to no fancy rules to make exceptions for or keep in mind. Instead their slightly harder to kill, use powerful long range turrets (some of which can indirect fire) and tend to have a mix of shields and rockets. Their air force is...iffy. The freedom the jury is out on i believe, and their larges are...questionable (though the sky fortress is infinitely better than the naval carrier). Their aerial focus though is on the mediums, x4 Lees make a fearsome flying boarding platform (though the Japanese have recently caught up in that respect, even if it IS a lot pricier for them). As for the John Henry robots, well...Not many units get called OP in this game, next to none in fact. The closest being the john henry which toes the line of being a little too strong for its points. Definitely competitive if thats what your after though as one of the/ THE best medium flyer in the game. Their Land is a bit of a crapshoot, the worst medium tanks in the game in the trenton (and now with a nearly double costed IIRC, if scary, replacement with the Reno). The small tanks are meh-ish compared to others, and the larges are a mixed bag. The Washington suffers from the same problem as the other large land units, too many weapons pointing in random/the wrong direction. The Tennessee im still undecided on currently, cuts the weapons down to a single turret and maybe rockets (solving the "lets point guns behind me for some reason" problem), but can ditch the rockets and become a very unusual beast indeed. A land based generator platform.

Anyway hope this helps, and welcome to the war! If you have any other questions please dont hesitate!

Dark Sphere in London and Firestorm Games in Cardiff both carry the Dystopian Wars line, but there are quite a few other traders I've seen with them at events in the UK.

Thanks for the advice I seriously couldn't choose between the states and the blazing sun so I decided to get both naval sets, with the rulebook.

I do try, tempted to make a general post on fleet advice and see about getting it stickied with how often this question comes up

Thats a good idea, especially for new players looking for some quick starting advice.

The only thing I worry about is getting the wooden decking right, think its better to paint it dark and just drybrush lighter colour on top or to paint it lighter and wash it,, then apply a drybrush?

I painted each plank individually but thats because im the kind of loon that higlights BFG ships and blends Epic models.

Id say dark colour then dry/wetbrush over the top will look fine. At that scale i really dont think it will matter

Sounds like it would work ok, the deck details fairly fine, so i wouldnt go overboard with the coats or you lose the detail (mines all light anyway, japan so i painted the decks more like bamboo)

Ive got my sets through today but im confused. As my rulebook has yet to arrive I have no clue what any of the choice equipment is. Both the Empire and federal states ships have a choice of different fittings but i have no clue what each of them is. Like the FS has a dome like thing or some rocket type thing and the smaller ships have the same. The empire has this big thing and these smaller radar like objects.

Could you help me out so I know whats best to give them?

 AtomicEngineer wrote:
Ive got my sets through today but im confused. As my rulebook has yet to arrive I have no clue what any of the choice equipment is. Both the Empire and federal states ships have a choice of different fittings but i have no clue what each of them is. Like the FS has a dome like thing or some rocket type thing and the smaller ships have the same. The empire has this big thing and these smaller radar like objects.

Could you help me out so I know whats best to give them?

With the EotBS the bog ball object is the distrupter generator, the other things are shields.

As for the FSA, the rockets are the Rocket weapon option that you can trade off for a generator, either a Kinetic or Shield (no idea which is which though)