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






I remember the changeover, never ever hearing about TTC before, looking them up, seeing they had games, but ones me and some friends and their friends have never heard of.
It didn't bode well to me tgat a terrain company took the game

5000pts 6000pts 3000pts
 
   
Made in gb
Moustache-twirling Princeps




United Kingdom

Spoiler:


TTCombat wrote:Type-6 Grand Walkers or more commonly known as the PHR Light Behemoths have been spotted on the Battlefield! More precisely, a limited number have been deployed in Birmingham, England, and will be available at UKGE for early access.

General release/deployment to follow at a later date on the TTCombat website
   
Made in gb
Moustache-twirling Princeps




United Kingdom

Spoiler:



Excited for UKGE? Available early for Admirals attending the event in person, we have two need Dropfleet Commander Battleships! The UCM have brought forward the new Hanoi whilst the Scourge has fabricated the Beelzebub.
These ships are available at our stand now but will get a website release eventually
   
Made in de
Perfect Shot Dark Angels Predator Pilot




Stuttgart

Those guns always get bigger ...
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

I like big guns on ships! Though the scourge ones seem a bit over-large for ball join wing placement on a battleship.

A Blog in Miniature

3D Printing, hobbying and model fun! 
   
Made in gb
Moustache-twirling Princeps




United Kingdom

Spoiler:


Mark McKenzie wrote:A sneak peak for UCM players sitting on the painting desk at UK Games Expo…
   
Made in ca
Rebel_Princess




Austin, TX

PHR Behemoth Jr. - Now that's an appropriate size for the game. It's got some out-of-character sharp edges going on, or is that just the paint job? There's some really sloppy wash going on the closer I look at that model, around the crevices and holes of the ivory/cream portions of the armor, so maybe it is the paint. Also, what putz put plastic Immortals in a display photo? Mixed feelings, I'd probably be happy to see one on a table, unless they make the rules bad (if they're still working through Clarke's rules, that'll probably be the case).

UCM BB - Looks fine, the BB equivalent of the Perth, a narrow arc big gun. I can't quite tell what pieces it's in, and whether or not it's magnetized prow compatible with the existing BB. I could see picking up this pack, depending on what the other option looks like.

Edit: Pics from UKGE showing up around the net. The alt-build is a super sized bulk lander
Spoiler:


And the hull/prow connection is totally different than the other BB kit
Spoiler:


Scourge BB - No. Just no. It's a BC front slapped on a dragon with big gangly guns and weird blocky middle guns and rear launch fins(? the back half is hard to see clearly from this angle). Dangle guns looked bad on the PHR DD, they look just as dumb here.

UCM Behemoth Jr. - Uh, is that a typo in the description? Because aesthetically that's a Resistance model. Nothing on it says UCM. Not feeling the overall boxyness of it. And just like the bigger Resistance behemoth , it's too well preserved and clean looking. Would be way cooler scrapped.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2023/06/02 18:52:02


 
   
Made in gb
Moustache-twirling Princeps




United Kingdom

Updates from TT Combat...

The v2.5 FAQ and errata doc has just been published, along with updated stats sheets for UCM and Scourge.

The online Fleet builder will be updated during the course of the week.

All files can be found in the usual place on the Resources section of the TT website, but direct links below for your convenience:

FAQ & Errata v2.5
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0965/1274/files/Dropfleet_Commander_FAQ_v2.5.pdf

UCM Ship Stats (including Hanoi & Dehli)
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0965/1274/files/Combined_UCM_230609.pdf

Scourge Ship Stats (including Beelzebub, Devil and Lucifer)
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0965/1274/files/Combined_Scourge_230609.pdf



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Updates from TT Combat...

The new v2.4.0 FAQ & Errata is now live, along with updated stats for ALL races that include any errata changes.

Note that the sheets for the PHR now include the light Behemoth stats, and those for the Shaltari include the new Bobcat (that was on limited released at Expo).
The army builder will be updated during the course of the week.

All files can be found in the usual place on the Resources section of the TT website, but direct links below for your convenience.


FAQ & Errata v2.4.0
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0965/1274/files/Dropzone_BFE_FAQ_v2.4.pdf

PHR Stat Sheets
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0965/1274/files/Dropzone_PHR_Stat_Cards_20230609.pdf

Shaltari Stat Sheets
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0965/1274/files/Dropzone_Shaltari_Stat_Cards_20230609.pdf

UCM Stat Sheets:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0965/1274/files/Dropzone_UCM_Stat_Cards_20230609.pdf

Scourge Stat Sheets:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0965/1274/files/Dropzone_Scourge_Stat_Cards_20230609.pdf

Resistance Stat Sheets:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0965/1274/files/Dropzone_Resistance_Stat_Cards_20230609.pdf

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/06/05 16:47:34


 
   
Made in ca
Rebel_Princess




Austin, TX

Lots of small sensible changes to Zone. I like they're dialing back the Fortitude scores, those inflated over the editions to the point they all felt the same; 2+ elites and 3+ regulars. Some small acknowledgement in the PHR that dedicated demo weapons can't compare spamming medium energy shots, but that's not a unit specific problem, it's throughout the game. Not sure this really makes any difference, unless they're just testing it in one faction first.

Hoo-boy, that's a lot of stuff for Fleet. I get removing ramming (it was always a little silly in a hard-sf game) and nuking (which was functionally impossible to pull off because of all the restrictions on it), but I'll miss their inclusion in the rules. Bombard collateral is an outright improvement. Hooray for eliminating rolling for number of attacks, it didn't contribute anything worthwhile to the game.

I only feel like I know UCM, Scourge, and PHR well enough to comment on the unit changes.

UCM BBs - Two point bump to Hull feels good, BBs in general are a little too quick to die. And the laser is now finally really worth firing instead outside of for-the-hell-of-it on WF.

UCM Perth - I still don't understand the admittedly many people saying the Perth underperformed. I always had good results fielding it. I think we'll be seeing a points increase next pass if it keeps BT-10.

UCM St. Pete - Again, a little bit more hull is nice, and the handling of the dual lasers is better than the Siphon rule.

UCM Nuuk - Much cleaner rule, good change.

Scourge Furnace Weapons - Furnace Cannons have kinda sucked for a while, so I'm excited to see them change. But I'm not sure this is the right choice. Corruptor causes ongoing damage tokens on crits, which on a BT weapon can lead to a whole bunch of extra damage. But I also don't really understand WHY it leaves corruptor tokens. I hate it when game devs apply rules that mean things in the narrative as generic mechhanical stuff. What the hell is it doing that the UCM lasers aren't?

Scourge Umbra & Parasite - I've still never used these, too space magicy. But glad to see them getting some kind of attention at least, a prelude to subsequent better fixes.

PHR Broadsides - Mixed feelings. I welcome reducing the absurd dice pools that you got with Fusillade sometimes, but I also really miss the ships getting a bonus for going WF. My friend that plays PHR is extremely upset by this change, I'm only ever on the receiving end.

We've been trying to organize a DFC game for a couple weeks now, hopefully get to test a few of these changes soon.
   
Made in gb
Mighty Vampire Count






UK

Does Dropfleet really count a as "hard Sf game?"

Did they ever sort out having fighters not ebing able to CAP against enemy bombers etc?

I AM A MARINE PLAYER

"Unimaginably ancient xenos artefact somewhere on the planet, hive fleet poised above our heads, hidden 'stealer broods making an early start....and now a bloody Chaos cult crawling out of the woodwork just in case we were bored. Welcome to my world, Ciaphas."
Inquisitor Amberley Vail, Ordo Xenos

"I will admit that some Primachs like Russ or Horus could have a chance against an unarmed 12 year old novice but, a full Battle Sister??!! One to one? In close combat? Perhaps three Primarchs fighting together... but just one Primarch?" da001

www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/528517.page

A Bloody Road - my Warhammer Fantasy Fiction 
   
Made in ca
Rebel_Princess




Austin, TX

 Mr Morden wrote:
Does Dropfleet really count a as "hard Sf game?"

Did they ever sort out having fighters not ebing able to CAP against enemy bombers etc?

I used to count. It's drifted, and quite a lot recently. In the first edition from Hawk, no small arms could CAP against strike craft, because the rules didn't allow it. They could only coordinate and attack low altitude loitering aircraft, not the high flying fast stuff.

Edit: Doh, read zone, you said fleet. I'd say it was still advertised and largely plays like a hard SF game. I thought you meant Close Air Protection, when small arms being used to harass aircraft, but you meant Combat Air Patrol. And fighters have always been able to 'CAP' against bombers. Lots of people get the steps wrong, and its confusingly presented, but Bomber wings have to declare targets first, then Fighters can respond and move to counter their attacks, which is represented with the point defense increase. Narratively the fighters are intercepting the bombers on their way to the target, it's just that for table state and not smeaing tokens all over the place, they get placed on the target.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/06/05 18:42:04


 
   
Made in us
Been Around the Block




slyphic wrote:


Scourge Furnace Weapons - Furnace Cannons have kinda sucked for a while, so I'm excited to see them change. But I'm not sure this is the right choice. Corruptor causes ongoing damage tokens on crits, which on a BT weapon can lead to a whole bunch of extra damage. But I also don't really understand WHY it leaves corruptor tokens. I hate it when game devs apply rules that mean things in the narrative as generic mechhanical stuff. What the hell is it doing that the UCM lasers aren't?


Corrupted weapons mechanically inflict a fire token which does not seem to be a particularly strange effect for a weapon called a Furnace Weapon. Perhaps the Scourge burnthrough technology is less about slicing through heavy armour for a clean kill like the UCM and more about dealing widespread destruction and terror to leave the enemy vulnerable for close attacks or boarding?

Edit: oh whoah they really turned up the dial on the Scourge burnthroughs now that I take a closer look. Lock 3+, 4 attacks, corrupter and they top out at 8 damage? They outclass the UCM variants in every regard at the moment - even the buffed St Petersburg pales in comparison to the basic Scourge laser. I like a lot of the other tweaks but this one seems pretty scary.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/06/06 05:12:55


 
   
Made in gb
Moustache-twirling Princeps




United Kingdom

*NEW RELEASES*

PHR Sarpedon Battleship
The Sarpedon class has been observed on multiple occasions at the head of so-called 'Javelin' strikes - lightning assaults on certain, enigmatic surface positions before rapid and unexplained retreats. Some suggest that limited ammunition payload may explain this, but senior operatives of the Office of Naval Intelligence suspect that's just wishful thinking.

Shaltari Gold Battleship
Unlike the familiar Platinum class, the Gold is a far more aggressive vessel. As one of the Shaltari's premier assets the Gold is a worthy chariot for the mightiest of attack-oriented Starchiefs.

Find these new Battleships here:
https://ttcombat.com/collections/dropfleet-commander


Spoiler:

   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

The Shaltari battleship looks decent, although it doesn’t stand out from their other battleships at first glance.

The new PHR battleships just look off somehow. The prow doesn’t jive with the rest of the bill or something. And TTC really need to rein it in a bit on the funk-huge cannon.

   
Made in ca
Rebel_Princess




Austin, TX

Dave's getting into his 40s. The donguses may be some stuff percolating up.

I can't say any of these new designs make me want to buy them, and the shoddy state of the rules is a mental drag on getting this game to the table.

Gettin' real fed up with TT. To the point I'd rather just use the models I have in an entirely different game than play theirs or put the effort into fixing it.
   
Made in gb
Moustache-twirling Princeps




United Kingdom

A Light Behemoth is on the way! The new UCM Behemoth is stomping its way onto that battlefield this Friday.





Automatically Appended Next Post:
(Is that a gaming table or someone's garden?)

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2023/07/17 15:32:47


 
   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

That is my favorite behemoth design so far, and the one that most fits the feel of the setting (as it started). I’d be tempted to add some fat treads under the main body to reduce the “lol mecha legs are dumb” factor, but I’d have to see it in person first.

   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut





The Battle Barge Buffet Line

beast_gts wrote:
A Light Behemoth is on the way! The new UCM Behemoth is stomping its way onto that battlefield this Friday.





Strangely, my eyes were drawn to the smaller models as I really loved some of those initial designs when the game came out as well as their ability to be airlifted literally as models into combat. Those smaller UCM designs still hold up pretty well IMO.
   
Made in ca
Rebel_Princess




Austin, TX

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I’d be tempted to add some fat treads under the main body to reduce the “lol mecha legs are dumb” factor, but I’d have to see it in person first.

Mech legs in UCM was a mistake. It's a faction built around utilitarian efficiency, and no amount of hanging a hat on it in one universally panned book excuses the decision. That model would look more coherent with the rest of the force with treads, but even that feels a mistake. Sometimes, the faction identity is that you don't have model class parity, you don't do the crazy thing the aliens are doing. I could almost see one of the heavy tracked sections like on Broadsword/Ferrum on each corner, so it looks like the NASA shuttle crawler. But it should just be stationary. Dropfleet has stations already.

 warboss wrote:
Strangely, my eyes were drawn to the smaller models as I really loved some of those initial designs when the game came out as well as their ability to be airlifted literally as models into combat. Those smaller UCM designs still hold up pretty well IMO.

Those new small units were baffling to me for the longest time with their weird high fire rate low calibre weapons, like what the hell is this thing designed to shoot at on the battlefield, there's no infantry in the open, it's not a threat to bread'n'butter MBT equivalents, it just seems totally purposeless. And then, I listened to a podcast from some of the old playtesters, and they straight up said that's because the weapons were originally designed when Barrage was still a rule and that's how they operated. Rapid saturation fire in an area. It's just that post-Hawk designers were so terrible at designing this game they literally never figured out how to make that system work and just pulled the first stupid idea out of their asses and went off for a pint.

I mourn for the state this game could have been in had it been bought by literally anyone else other than TTCombat.
   
Made in us
Decrepit Dakkanaut





The Battle Barge Buffet Line

I suppose you could still play the first edition (or whenever the point was when he sold it off). You'll obviously lose out on newer units and the big macguffins they've come out with since unless you convert them yourself.

We Munch for Macragge! FOR THE EMPRUH! Cheesesticks and Humus!
 
   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

Which book was universally panned? Battle for Earth? Hardly universally. I, and the gamers I interact with, all enjoyed the flavor and background. The Resistance fleet is fun. The Dropzone rules didn’t seem to land with the Dropzone crowd, but they’re mostly gone now.

   
Made in ca
Rebel_Princess




Austin, TX

BFE, from a Dropzone perspective. It added very little that wasn't already in the original or either Reconquest books, and what it did add had as many contradictory problems as interesting ideas. There's a bunch of nifty art.

I can totally see for a primarily Dropfleet player BFE being a much better book though.

The Dropzone crowd is indeed 'mostly gone now', and we can lay that garland squarely on the corners of BFE. The BFE/v2 rules have been improved since then, but they're still substantially worse than the beta from 2018. And of the few people still playing Dropzone, most of them aren't playing the v2 rules, but rather older editions or homebrew rules.
   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

Okay, yeah, universally panned by Dropzone players I’ll agree with. The whole Dropzone rules crammed into a Dropfleet book thing was odd. I hope they let Dave write a third edition that works for Dropzone players soon, even if they have to leave the behemoths and other weird units in some kind of appendix for casual play.



I’ve been using my Dropzone minis with the Horizon Wars rules. It’s definitely not a game to test one’s skill or strategy, but it does see tanks and vehicles on the tabletop.

   
Made in ca
Rebel_Princess




Austin, TX

Horizon Wars I want to like more than I actually do. I've been following Precinct Omega's blog about the upcoming 2nd edition (named Midnight Dark) later this year. The posts keep talking about the specific complaints I had with the game, so I'm really looking forward to seeing how he addresses them all.

My criticism: Aircraft rules feel tacked on and incongruous - his blog: "In fact, the Horizon Wars aircraft rules were literally taken from a separate game (that I also wrote) called AirFrame. But in practice, this mostly led to even the most enthusiastic players just ignoring aircraft entirely as an option for their Battle Groups and a lot of people complained that the rules were too complex."

My criticism: Force Org feels awkward and arbitrary and there's not enough command friction - his blog: "One minor gripe I occasionally heard about the original Horizon Wars was the absence of a real role for leaders after the process of mustering was complete. ... it was mostly just a bit of a pain for players wanting to assemble forces that fit their own ideas of what "thematic" meant."

   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

I don’t remember the Force Org part of the rules. We just grabbed a bunch of tanks and walkers and house ruled anything that slowed the game down. I think we just treated aircraft like hover tanks with a few rules changes, but it’s been a while since we used them. Reading your posts, I feel that we approach these games from entirely different directions.


   
Made in ca
Rebel_Princess




Austin, TX

The couple games I played we ignored the Force Org as well, but I distinctly recall it as being awkward to use in practice. For reference:


I suspect we indeed approach games from different directions. I liberally use houserules, but I consider that a failure for a rules system; if I have to modify it, it wasn't a good enough design. Good rules work out of the box, are easily understood, are consistent, are fast to resolve, and none of them are ignored or modified.

And in the whole GNS ternary plot of players, I'm Sim > Narrative > Game pretty consistently.
   
Made in us
Legendary Master of the Chapter





SoCal

We mostly want rules that are easy to learn and fast to play. We house rule a lot to reduce clunkiness, or just because we had a fun idea that either isn’t clearly covered in the rules or because the rules are too onerous. A good example for onerous rules are the Dropfleet ground based game. I’ve seen a number of good houserules for that phase on Facebook, which might be a better method than simply dropping the core gimmick of the game.

   
Made in ca
Rebel_Princess




Austin, TX

Dropfleet ground combat is absolutely the weakest part of the game mechanics. We houseruled that gak almost immediately, and drastically. I even made a blog post about it for easy reference during games.

https://yadzcb.friestman.net/dfc-houserules.html

From the way you talk about playing games, you sound like a Narrative > Game > Sim kind of player.

Give me easy to learn rules as well, but not because they're simplistic, but because they're intuitive and well taught and easily referenced. I've come to dislike 'fast to play' or at least games that sell themselves as that. I want to put a good chunk of time into a game. If it finishes in under 2 hours, I feel dissatisfied. I want a good meaty 3-4 hour game with lots of hard decisions.
   
Made in us
Member of the Ethereal Council






I really do not get what he was thinking seling his massive game to TTC. I think this game could jave taken the coveted second to warhakmer spot
So many at the time could have done better. But it went to, what is arguably a terrain company?
That's like selling a gaming franchise to people who make controllers

5000pts 6000pts 3000pts
 
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
I really do not get what he was thinking seling his massive game to TTC. I think this game could jave taken the coveted second to warhakmer spot
So many at the time could have done better. But it went to, what is arguably a terrain company?
That's like selling a gaming franchise to people who make controllers


If I recall right he was thinking that he wanted the firm to survive and thrive. He needed additional staff and investment and TTC offered him that. Also pairing with a wargame store provides an income base for the company that isn't linked to model sales from one range alone. This can give a firm resources to ride out tricky times - for example a Kickstarter - which can burn through operating money and hinder production and cause all kinds of cash and product flow issues.


The downside is that TTC have not proven have been the best partner in the long-term. They've really not managed to capitalise on the market that got handed to them on a plate. GW pulled out; Spartan Games imploded and Warcradle took 5 years to get back on market with just 1 of their games. As noted before Dropzone/fleet wound up sitting in a market slot all themselves with the only competition being Starwars, which as a prepainted game system is related too but slightly adjacent in market terms.

So yeah they should have had no reason to not grow. They should have managed to grow and grow and right now should be in a really strong positoin even with GW bringing back Epic and Warcradle gaining steam with Dystopian and Firestorm "on the horizon"

A Blog in Miniature

3D Printing, hobbying and model fun! 
   
 
Forum Index » News & Rumors
Go to: