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I just got my starter set during the week and been chomping through the rules but no games yet it seems really good tho and I'm itching to get a few games. Even more looking forward to painting but I'm unable to settle on a paint scheme yet. The minis are superb although my ucm sprues were damaged in the moulding process but hawk will sort that I'm sure.
From watching battle reports etc my opinion is it plays like space marine/ epic but more in depth and smaller scale.

I'll update you with my opinion when I get some games played.

I've played it a bunch lately. Its become my game of choice.

Advice? If you haven't started yet, buy the 2 Player Starter set. Its got ~500 points of models for both UCM and Scourge (2 of the four current factions), a good selection of buildings, 2 fold-out sheets for streets, the full rulebook, some dice and some templates. Its completely enough to get you playing. (For reference, the average game is usually 1000-1500 points, so the starter set gets you a fair way there with a good selection of models, and at a really good price.) Play a starter game or two to get the feel for the rules.

After that, if you still like the game (and of course you will!) you can look at expanding either or both of the factions, or checking out the other 2 factions. The faction breakdown is something like this:

PHR - Slow, but powerful. Great at building demo.
UCM - Slowish, not quite as powerful as PHR, but highly versatile.
Shaltari - Faster and tricksy, definite the finesse army.
Scourge - Fastest and powerful at close range. Rush and crush.

There is an interesting rock-paper-scissors element to army construction. Spamming units will almost never work. (There is some debate on a specific UCM unit, but other than that there are no uber-models.) Games revolve around acquiring victory points, based on the mission selection, and usually those are gained from obtaining objectives - not from accumulating kill points. Objectives are usually acquired with infantry units, the weakest units in terms of armor/damage. Infantry (and other units, including tanks) are usually ferried by dropships (for speed), so you want Anti-Air units to down your opponents troop carriers. AA units are usually protected by Anti-Tank units, to shoot down your opponents AT units that are trying to take out your AA. And then there are some speciality units (like building demolitions) thrown in as well. You also have command units which provide initiative bonuses and command cards, and Sphere of Influence (that affect how far away some cards can be played). There are also Scout units, that extend both a commander's SoI as well as provide visuals for Indirect fire units to remove any penalty.

All in all, its a pretty nicely balanced game, and I find it to be loads of fun.

I wrote a bit of a blog about my introductory experiences to Dropzone Commander that you might want a look at.

To summarise though, it's a great game and I really want the chance to play more of it.

Today I played my first few games with starter armies (Shaltari and Scourge) and I can safely say that I am getting even more excited by me blindly ordering 2500+ points of Scourge Actually I had more fun than in my whole year under GW oppression! We even joked that we will found the Church of Dave (the game and model designer,much more). It played very fast and yet there were lots of decisions and we were on the edge of our seats for the whole experience. I have played many tactical games over the years (both analog and digital) and DZC is starting to share the second place in my favorite such games with the original XCOM. This is saying something. My grasp of the game is not very good yet, but every unit seems worth taking, because everything seems good. The game feels quite balanced. The models are fantastic, but you already know that.

I hate playing with starters, but after those games I feel incredibly hooked. It feels like DZC is the game I have been looking for quite some time.
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DzC rocks.

It's an amazing game, very quick with lots of decision making that counts and a lot of fun as well.
The starter set is also of amazing value, and you can't go wrong with picking it up.

Pick up the 2 player starter set it really does give you a good feel for how the game plays and is also the best starting point for ucm and scourge armys

I only have the starter box at the moment but the rules seem well designed and built from the ground up with combined arms in mind, you really can't spam a particular unit and have a hope of winning. Apparently the designer is a fan of Epic and it really shows in the rules design.

I particularly like the counter measure rules, they basically function as a way to reduce Sci Fi weapons to wargaming ranges in a sensible and intuitive way. Many weapons have an infinite range unless they are firing at a target with active counter measures (point defense weapons, limited energy shields, chaff etc etc) which reduces their range significantly (generally 24" or less). It doesn't have that much in game effect (weapon ranges could just as easily have been given a numerical value) but its a nice touch
Its just a shame that only infantry don't have counter measures, I would have liked to see some unprotected vehicles to mix things up as well.

The models are good quality, although the infantry lack detail, even for 10mm models. I even like the fluff and thats quite rare for wargames.

From what I've seen of countermeasures though, it's not used in enough of an interesting way.

And I also find it weird that infantry, the ones who need it the most, would go without countermeasures. You'd think a drone carrying a defense system would be easy enough to cobble together, or their APC could provide some squad level protection.

Well, the APC has countermeasures... And most of the time the infantry will be in the APC.

Or, alternatively, in a building. In which case, they'll be in the middle of a building and so, can't be shot at. Or they'll be in the windows, in which case, it's so damn hard to hit them (you're usually talking about 5+ then 5+ for anti infantry weapons) that you don't really need countermeasures.

So, the only case where infantry are going to be pounded on, is if they're caught out in the open, in the middle of a street with their transport destroyed. In which case, well, they're just stuffed.

 Palindrome wrote:
I only have the starter box at the moment but the rules seem well designed and built from the ground up with combined arms in mind, you really can't spam a particular unit and have a hope of winning. Apparently the designer is a fan of Epic and it really shows in the rules design.

I particularly like the counter measure rules, they basically function as a way to reduce Sci Fi weapons to wargaming ranges in a sensible and intuitive way. Many weapons have an infinite range unless they are firing at a target with active counter measures (point defense weapons, limited energy shields, chaff etc etc) which reduces their range significantly (generally 24" or less). It doesn't have that much in game effect (weapon ranges could just as easily have been given a numerical value) but its a nice touch
Its just a shame that only infantry don't have counter measures, I would have liked to see some unprotected vehicles to mix things up as well.

The models are good quality, although the infantry lack detail, even for 10mm models. I even like the fluff and thats quite rare for wargames.

The resistance are going to have a large number of vehicles that dont have any counter measures and the first wave is released 30th August with more released every week or 2. You asked hawk provide

The only thing keeping me from buying it is that GW has a much much larger player base where I live.

At this point, you can probably start convincing people to try out new games.

As usual, the best way to get people into a game is to present it as a positive new thing to try, along with having two armies that are painted.

Getting the 2 player starter set nabs you 2 starter armies and a good bunch of terrain to use. Paint them up, setup a table and invite people to try it.

 Random Dude wrote:
The only thing keeping me from buying it is that GW has a much much larger player base where I live.

Get one other person to split 2 starters with you. Add 1 UCM and 1 Scourge HQ unit and you have 1000-1200 pts to play with. You both get buildings, rules, etc.

Here in the USA that is maybe $150 each. $150 of GW stuff is like 3 Mek guns

Plus Hawk wargames has tons of free down loads including a really nice "ARMY BUILDER" program.

One suggestion I have is that once you start reading the rulebook, head over to their forums and start reading their rules question one, there are some important nuances in regards to movement that are missing in the rulebook.

Welsh_Furey wrote:

The resistance are going to have a large number of vehicles that dont have any counter measures and the first wave is released 30th August with more released every week or 2. You asked hawk provide

I don't like the idea of the Resistance having a playable army on this scale, it just doesn't fit.

Just how vital are transports, specifically air transports? I am trying to build a UCM army and I keep ending up with minor variations of the same list and a lot of Condors. Do things like Ferrum Drone Bases and Scout buggies need transports? How well would Legionaries in Bear do?

Bears just tend to be far too slow to do anything useful without a transport for them.

I think the general wisdom is that a Ferrum Drone Base, Scimitar tank squad and the Kodiak Command Vehicle are all good to have without a carrier. - In other words, units that stay at the back of a board.

I think the Scout Buggies are still worthwhile having them, as they get into action and scouting quicker, but I guess it might be a case of, your mileage may vary.

In saying that, I've still only played 2 half games of 1500pts +

You need your tanks and infantry in some kind of transports. They're super slow to get to the action otherwise. I don't particularly like Bears, usually I like Falcons. But Bears are a definitely tougher, so when playing UCM, I tend to have use both - one BG with infantry in Condors/Bears, one BG with infantry in Falcons.

Apart from your tanks, I don't think Ferrums or the Kodiak need transports. Wolverines could go either way. However, I wouldn't take Wolverines in a list with a Ferrum, though - the Drones can be Scouts, which removes the primary value of Wolverines.

@OP

I just bought the starter for $76 on Amazon. I had been looking at it for well over a year, but just had too many minis to paint for me to justify the purchase.

Well, I am pleased to say that the DZC minis are nearly finished (they went pretty quick). I've played one game, and got some rules wrong but the game play is sooooooooo much faster than 40k and much more reasonable.

4/5 stars


Automatically Appended Next Post:
it would be 5/5 but I need more players!!!!

Standard Army
Clash: 1499/1500 points
Standard Army
Standard Roster [1499/1500 pts]

Field Command [258 pts]
Kodiak: Kodiak(Lieutenant) [168 pts]
Longbow Squad: 2x Longbow, 2x Raven B(+Missile Pods) [90 pts]

Armored Formation [308 pts]
Sabre Squad: 3x Sabre, Condor [142 pts]
Rapier Squad: 3x Rapier, Condor [166 pts]

Armored Formation [308 pts]
Rapier Squad: 3x Rapier, Condor [166 pts]
Sabre Squad: 3x Sabre, Condor [142 pts]

Legionnaire Corps [379 pts]
Legionnaires: 3x Legionnaires, Condor, 2x Bear [141 pts]
^ Sharing ^ Legionnaires: 3x Legionnaires [78 pts]
Ferrum: Ferrum [160 pts]

Legionnaire Corps [176 pts]
Legionnaires: 2x Legionnaires, Raven A(+Missile Pods) [88 pts]
Legionnaires: 2x Legionnaires, Raven A(+Missile Pods) [88 pts]

Expeditionary Group [70 pts]
Wolverine Squad: Wolverine B, 3x Wolverine A [70 pts]

How would that do for an starter set expansion?

Looks like it would be fun to play. Lots of widgets.

I really resent being forced to take Kodiak. Its slow, expensive and requires a lot of support to survive/function yet any vehicle can be upgraded to a commander. At this size of game I would far rather take a Lieutenant in a Sabre which would not only be cheaper it would also be more representative (probably). There really needs to be a lighter and cheaper command option.

The one good thing about the forced inclusion of the Kodiac is that it makes the Ferrum an easier choice as I will already have to have some backfield support.

The good news is that based on the Resistance leaks, they are planning second Command options for the other factions. In UCM's case the rumor is it'll be something that's more frontline.