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.

With Fantasy Flight's recent "firesale" of Dust Tactics minis (~75% off), I went a bit overboard. In addition, they screwed up my order, and sent me far more figures than I ordered... I paid $148, and got MSRP $995 worth of crap! Christmas came early and extremely this year!

So now I'm committed.

I played AT43 once a long time ago, and remembered that it was fun, but that's all I remembered. I'm gonna give Dust Warfare a try, since the rulebook was part of my purchasing orgy. The models are very similar looking (the AT43 red block are spittin' image of the SSU troops, and in fact will be standing in for a lot of them! It's clear that Dust inherited some or all of the molds from AT 43) which makes me think maybe the games are similar. It's been too long, and I just don't know, so I'm curious to hear what others might think of both.

Anyone played both, and willing to give a breakdown of their similarities and differences? Or are they much more different than the models might suggest?

DUST and AT-43 models are totally different. Same designer, but 100% different. The AT-43 molds, as of a few years ago, were rusting in a Chinese warehouse, and were actually up for sale (no one bought them, however, as it was hundreds of thousands of Euro).

I love AT-43, but have only read the Dust Warfare rules. However, Warfare is at least supported somewhat, so you'll actually be able to get new content and players. They are completely different rulesets and share almost no similarities.

Thanks. My dust warfare rules are sitting at home, still freshly arrived and unopened. Since the models were so similar (or of a similar style... Even if some pieces of infantry look suspiciously close to AT43 infantry bits!) I wondered if the games were similar. I liked AT43, though only played it once or twice, and didn't like Dust Tactics.

I'm hoping Warfare will sit somewhere closer to AT43 on my "how much do I like it" scale.

pancakeonions wrote:
Thanks. My dust warfare rules are sitting at home, still freshly arrived and unopened. Since the models were so similar (or of a similar style... Even if some pieces of infantry look suspiciously close to AT43 infantry bits!) I wondered if the games were similar. I liked AT43, though only played it once or twice, and didn't like Dust Tactics.

I'm hoping Warfare will sit somewhere closer to AT43 on my "how much do I like it" scale.

Tactics and Warfare are pretty different, with Tactics being basically a board game and Warfare being an actual minis wargame.
Oh, the styles are pretty close and they can certainly be proxied! I actually used the Dust Laser Grenadiers as ONI Korps for a Oni army.

Attached are the official (never released) Oni Korps and then the repaints I did of the Dust Laser Grenadiers. Very, very close, but not quite the same

pancakeonions wrote:
Anyone played both, and willing to give a breakdown of their similarities and differences? Or are they much more different than the models might suggest?

They are way different. Dust Warfare is a FFG rules set written to bring Dust miniatures to the tabletop and completely breaks the AT43 mold. It's a lot more like 40K than AT43 or Dust Tactics. In Dust Warfare all of a given side's models activate one after the other until all are done which signals the end of that player's turn, then the other player gets to go. There's some Reactions thrown in so models can try to do something if an enemy gets close enough, and there's an Orders phase in the beginning of each turn so there's a bit more back and forth than 40K, but at it's heart Warfare is a "UGO-IGO" game.

With the latest Dust Tactics rules set you also have a tabletop version called Dust Tactics: Battlefield, which is an updated Tactics for the open tabletop. It's alternating activation and much more brutal and deadly than Warfare or 40K. Models die quick and games are over faster. Almost like sci-fi Chess.

Dust Tactics: Battlefield is wonderful. Shame no one plays, but I have thousands invested in the Dust universe of products, and Battlefield is definitely the most enjoyable way to use 'em.

Shame the best version of the game emerged to no fanfare after the world had already written off the whole line.

Am I under the wrong impression that Dust 1.0 used the same exact rules as AT-43? I thought that when FFG picked it up and did 2.0 (Where I came in, I just missed the original set by a few months) they modified the rules (using their funky dice instead of regular D6's).

I just got the Warfare rules this Christmas in that "fire sale" and I'm now wishing I'd picked up more models. Haven't had a chance to play the Warfare rules yet, but it seemed like the AT-43 rules and Dust Tactics rules were similar (other than AT-43 used dice with pips and Tactics used FFG's custom dice). But I only played a couple intro games.

Totally different. AT-43 was a miniatures wargame.
You can get all the rules for free here
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B69GuFrMt5N_OTdhMmZjNzQtYTFiZi00ZTlhLWE3NTQtNjY2NDgzNTRjYmQ1&usp=drive_web&ddrp=1#