Dropfleet Commander News - Kickstarter orders being dispatched - Ongoing!

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**Nostromodamus**

Nicorex wrote:
Hulksmash wrote:
If it hits 500k I'm in.

I am with Hulk on this one.

If you go in now you can help it hit £500k

You can always pull out before the end if you need to.

**RiTides**

Splitting a pledge 4 ways will have a lot of appeal if we get that far - so many freebies for each faction! We've got a 4th local player in on ours now

(and for those not splitting, just trading the extras with others for the factions you want should be easy!)

There's been a nice jump in the total as people move up from the 110 to the 150 pledge with the 3 extra KS exclusive cruisers

and the option to have other factions instead of the second starter set.

**Alpharius**

Any pics of the new KS exclusives?

**Nostromodamus**

Alpharius wrote:
Any pics of the new KS exclusives?

They will be revealed on the 25th, going by the project page.

**RiTides**

They're going to wait to reveal those until near the end of the campaign (it's a time based unlock, on November 25th). At least we're getting renders / pics of other things, though! I'm guessing the Ordnance is one of the things they wouldn't have originally been able to do in plastic, but are now since the Kickstarter is doing so well

(he mentioned there are a few of these items in the podcast after discussing the Resistance).

**BobtheInquisitor**

The ordnance is plastic? Where did they say that?

**Ghaz**

BobtheInquisitor wrote:
The ordnance is plastic? Where did they say that?

Right there in the pic.

**BobtheInquisitor**

Ghaz wrote:
BobtheInquisitor wrote:
The ordnance is plastic? Where did they say that?

Right there in the pic.

Welllll, time to get a new prescription again.

**warboss**

BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Ghaz wrote:
BobtheInquisitor wrote:
The ordnance is plastic? Where did they say that?

Right there in the pic.

Welllll, time to get a new prescription again.

Yeah, hallucinations can be a real bother.

I do like the way they're doing fighters/bombers. I was actually planning on doing the same thing for halo with some left over B5 fleet action scale fighter minis.

**zedmeister**

New update:

Update #8 - An eary Update and Launch Assets Pack Described

As a few of the team are in the midst of travelling to various locations - Belgium for Crisis, Germany for a Dropzone Commander Bootcamp and Wales for a Retailer Gaming day... So we thought it best to post an early update, especially considering the increase since yesterday evening (UK time).

As this stretch goal has been well and truly unlocked, we thought we’d talk about how Fighters, Bombers and Torpedoes (known as ‘Launch Assets’) work. Each have strengths and weaknesses, but when used tactically they can cripple enemy ships and do damage that is disproportionate to their size. We are still testing the rules out, so they are subject to change, but currently Launch Assets have their own phase at the end of the turn. If the target is close enough to the launching ship, the Assets attack straight away, with only ship defences taking action. If not, they stay on the table until the next launch phase giving the opponent the opportunity to evade or get fighter cover.

Each type of Launch Asset has a distinct role in the game. Fighters and Bombers are typically launched from Fleet Carriers, with the player choosing which to launch. Bombers attack enemy ships directly and can inflict crippling damage, especially against targets with low point defence (such as most frigates). Fighters can be deployed to boost a ship's point defence, greatly reducing the bomber threat and protecting against enemy close action attacks.

Torpedoes are much rarer, fired only by select ships in limited numbers. They are designed to be capital ship killers and are massive, building sized ordnance. They are built to shrug off enemy point defence, with heavy armour surrounding an explosive core. Torpedoes punch into the centre of a ship before detonating, severely damaging battleships and dreadnoughts and destroying smaller escorts outright.

All three assets are truly tiny miniatures; as such the models offered are standard designs rather than race specific. They are somewhat larger than truescale (about 2-3x) when compared to the ships though, as we wanted them to be easily discernible! Due to the great success of the campaign so far we have the opportunity to produce them in full 3D injection moulded plastic complete with integrated flight stands! At their size it's simple to tie them to the rest of your fleet through painting choices, made easier and faster by the choice of black plastic, matching the bases of all the full sized ships.

Also unlocked, is the Dropfleet Commander Bases Pack!

(These include a clear rod for each base, along with sticker set.)

Thanks for your support, and we will be sharing information on the next few unlocks over the next few days!

The Hawk Wargames Team

**Mymearan**

I hope they tell us how many of that add-on we should buy!

**NTRabbit**

Oh wait, nevermind, carry on

**10penceman**

Will stick with the cardboard tokens hate painting that small a thing

Any one knoiw when we get to see more phr stuff?

**FeindusMaximus**

Alex C wrote:
Nicorex wrote:
Hulksmash wrote:
If it hits 500k I'm in.

I am with Hulk on this one.

If you go in now you can help it hit £500k

You can always pull out before the end if you need to.

+1

**RiTides**

Wow, 608 people jumped to Commodore already - it was only created yesterday! Compared to 840 at Captain. I think this points out a few things:

1) People are all about getting the pledge level with the most exclusives on Kickstarter

(Commodore has all 3 exclusive Battlecruisers instead of one)
2) People really like the PHR and want to be able to run either those or Shaltari with their extra starters
3) People pledge a Lot on Kickstarter, that extra 40 pounds didn't phase folks at all! It could also be that they were assuming they'd add on for the exclusive cruisers when they unlocked anyway, and this just does it nicely in one go (and likely at a discount)

We're still sticking with our Captain pledge, which works well for us since we have a dedicated UCM and Scourge player, but it is great to see how popular that new pledge has been

. Campaign is almost over £300K! (Just under £299K as I write this)

Ordnance pack does look good, and as someone else mentioned I hope they give a suggested amount to include... maybe 2 packs? If you paint them neutrally, you might even be able to share them between players, and just face them the appropriate direction like in BFG.

**Hulksmash**

I always worry I'll forget to pull out. It's happened before

As it is the commodore package will probably be way I go for. It's basically pay retail and get these battlecruisers free. So if it hits the 500k again you get enough extra to offset it and you get what you want (i.e. no extra scourge in my case and 2 phr fleet starters).

This is shaping up well. Hopefully it maintains.

**Nostromodamus**

RiTides wrote:

Ordnance pack does look good, and as someone else mentioned I hope they give a suggested amount to include... maybe 2 packs? If you paint them neutrally, you might even be able to share them between players, and just face them the appropriate direction like in BFG.

I just asked and they said 1 pack for a balanced fleet, 2-3 if you go carrier heavy.

**Baragash**

Hulksmash wrote:
I always worry I'll forget to pull out. It's happened before

But 9 months and ~10 years later you have another wargaming opponent.....wait, what were we talking about again?

**Nostromodamus**

Baragash wrote:
Hulksmash wrote:
I always worry I'll forget to pull out. It's happened before

But 9 months and ~10 years later you have another wargaming opponent.....wait, what were we talking about again?

**RiTides**

Ooookay, that's enough on that track, amusing as it was

Alex C wrote:
I just asked and they said 1 pack for a balanced fleet, 2-3 if you go carrier heavy.

Brilliant, thanks!

**zedmeister**

Just passed £300k. Free ships for everyone!

**CthuluIsSpy**

Is it me, or are the scourge ships really fragile?
I saw the BoW videos, and they kept getting destroyed with no UCM casualties.

I know they are fragile in DzC, but at least there they have the skimmer defensive bonus and can hide.

**nedTCM**

I think part of it was just some good vs bad rolling. The scourge rolled pretty bad saves and damage. His big ship took 3 auto hits and failed 4 out of 5 4+ saves. That is very bad luck.

The other thing to consider is that everyone went weapons free right away. Apparently in an actually game that is a big deal as it lights you up and lets long range hitters from all around the board chip away and your hitters. I think they were saying in an actual game you have ships all over the board grabbing objectives and stuff. So if scourge ships are as nimble as they are in DZ, they might be able to leverage more fire power vs individual ships by putting them at the peak of that major spike range.

**Compel**

For what it's worth, they're not points'ed up yet. The video was more about the concepts of the rules than showing off a typical game, if that makes sense?

**CthuluIsSpy**

Yeah, that makes sense.
It did seem that the UCM ships are better at straight up fire fights, much like the UCM in DZC, the Hawk Wargames guy did have some outstanding bad luck.

It was just suprising to see the scourge get absolutely demolished like that.

**warboss**

Aren't the scourge in DZC glass cannons? I don't play but I've watched a bunch of reviews and game play videos and that was mentioned a couple of times.

**Nostromodamus**

Simon (or possibly Dave) also mentioned that at this stage in the rules development, all Scourge ships can fly at the atmospheric level. That should help their survivability while they close.

**CthuluIsSpy**

warboss wrote:
Aren't the scourge in DZC glass cannons? I don't play but I've watched a bunch of reviews and game play videos and that was mentioned a couple of times.

They are, but even then they didn't seem to do anything to the UCM ships.
Then again, their guns do deal 2 damage points, and there was some pretty terrible rolling.

Technically the Shaltari are also glass cannons as their vehicles are pretty fragile compared to the other factions (en par with scourge), but they have passive counter measures to make up for it.
Also, their Walkers are pretty god like.
Ocelot particle cannon (iirc) OP

**Mantle**

I was worried how the PHR would look but I am loving the look so far, looks like PHR won't have as many guns/shots as other factions but I'm guessing they will be a 2+ to hit with their limited shots meaning 4+ crits, just my thoughts anyway. Can't wait to get hold of this game.

**JOHIRA**

CthuluIsSpy wrote:
Yeah, that makes sense.
It did seem that the UCM ships are better at straight up fire fights, much like the UCM in DZC, the Hawk Wargames guy did have some outstanding bad luck.

It was just suprising to see the scourge get absolutely demolished like that.

Let's also remember they were playing a game essentially with no strategic elements - it was a tiny board with objectives close together near the center. At those short distances the energy signatures aren't really a factor so there was no disincentive for lighting up with "Weapons Free!" at the first opportunity. I almost wonder if Simon wasn't intentionally making tactically unwise choices to facilitate showing the rules and getting the BoW guy excited. If he had made a slower, more spread-out approach, he could have baited BoW-guy into going weapons free at one target while the rest of his fleet was out of range, and then counterattacked the UCM ship from outside their range. It would have been a fun game, but it would have made a terrible Kickstarter video.