Dropfleet Commander News - Kickstarter orders being dispatched - Ongoing!

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**BobtheInquisitor**

Realistically, I think waiting for discounted retail is the best option for PHR or Shaltari players. If DZC is anything to go by, prices will come down to a more comfortable level pretty quickly.

Does anyone know if the add on battleship or cruiser prices will be typical of retail cruisers or if they are special KS prices? Will the space stations become available through retail?

**Vertrucio**

I'm just glad that this kickstarter will likely mean there's more choices in the game from the starter.

DZC suffered a bit due to its more rigid battlegroup building system and only just enough units to fill it at launch.

You can bet on space stations being a retail release, considering that they've already got a line of sometimes impractical DZC terrain in stores, space stations will hit stores at some point.

I had allocated for a PHR starter, but I also realized I could special order it from my local store on release for close to the KS total cost. So I figured I'd grab some KS battlecruisers instead as a stopgap while waiting for battleships and dreadnoughts to release for use as flagships.

**OrlandotheTechnicoloured**

Pledge manager invites are apparently starting to go out,

there is an option to request being a late backer too here

http://dfcpm.com/product/late-backer-pledge-1-2/

**Silent Puffin?**

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:
Pledge manager invites are apparently starting to go out

I got mine last week.

**BobtheInquisitor**

I got the pledge manager weeks ago. Filled it out already. I'd post a link, but it's run by Geiger...

It's a shame we couldn't upgrade our campaign pledges to higher tiers. On the other hand, DZC's discounts tend to be pretty good at certain retail establishments, so waiting for retail is just about as good.

**Compel**

Adding a Lieutenant pledge to your main pledge seems to be a *Very* good deal if you want another starter fleet.

**Mymearan**

I don't think you can, it's not supposed to be there.

**BobtheInquisitor**

Compel wrote:
Adding a Lieutenant pledge to your main pledge seems to be a *Very* good deal if you want another starter fleet.

I'd have only gone for upping to High Rank for all the bonuses, but not paying to add an entire High Rank pledge on top of the Commander level I already had. I just bought a few of the exclusive ships instead. The rest can wait.

**rabidaskal**

Gotta say, this is my first time to experience a stealth pledge manager invite haha. Most times there's a big announcement to get people to pledge more (or a big brouhaha if its delayed). I only knew about it from randomly deciding to read the latest KS comments last week.

**Iron_Captain**

I managed to grab one of every shiny exclusive models they are making. I am happy now. I just need to decide which one I like more: the Avalon or the Atlantis?

**JOHIRA**

So I wondered why I hadn't gotten any pledge manager updates, and then I see I have multiple messages in my spam folder that claim to be from Dropfleet Commander but which come from geiger.io. These are legit?

**Mymearan**

Yep... I suspect Hawk will have a less than 50% fulfillment rate unless they send out an update telling people to look in their spam folder.

**Zond**

Thank God for this thread. I never check my spam. Just working out what to add on to my pledge.

**judgedoug**

lol same here. went right to spam.

**Thokt**

Went to spam for me as well, thanks thread!!!

**RiTides**

I'll echo the chorus of "went to spam"! They might want to resend it another way, although I've got access to mine now thanks to this thread

**Mymearan**

They sent out an update, they'll be re-sending invites from a different email adress that hopefully won't go to spam.

**RoninXiC**

I really look forward to painting the minis bye the way

**Silent Puffin?**

Perhaps the thread title could be changed back to DZC/DFC news?

Some new DZC renders have surfaced:

Spoiler:

Nice to see that DZC is still getting a lot of attention.

**Compel**

Did they ever decide whether that whole adding an extra Lieutenant pledge to your kickstarter was going to be a thing?

**Mymearan**

Pretty sure that was never a thing, they always said you needed multiple users to make multiple pledges. They put the lieutenant pledge in the pledge manager by mistake but you can't actually select it.

**str00dles1**

Wow. A dedicated Gunship for PHR. This is wonderful!. As large as the Poseidon so I hope the missiles are fairly good. Also I have high hopes for Thor Bombard. The Taranis is so horrible, its never taken by anyone

**Duncan_Idaho**

Only in your meta... some other gamers make good use of it...

**Silent Puffin?**

Courtesy of Ravenar from this thread on the Hawk forums.

Scourge

Corruptor - Razor worm firing gunship/transport the "Projectiles" can cause damage to buildings the worms are fired at like a small boarding torpedo.
Monitor - This is a light anti tank minder. It's weapons are mainly aimed at anti scout but there may have been a mention about it being effective against medusa so it's likely got just a few shots.
Overseer - Desolator variant, Buffs the range of nearby plasma weapons and has a token attack (So not very offensive on its own) the range increase is currently suggested to be 6".

Resistance

Memhed - This is a demolition tank, it's a heavy unit with blowing up buildings in mind.
Thunder Wagon - Big Explosive missile. Suggested to use the Large blast but also only firing one missile within the squad a turn, naturally one use per vehicle.
Typhoon - Cyclone with something like the Phoenix Chain guns so more direct, powerful AT.

UCM

Crossbow - Scimitar grade laser on a static platform. Dropped in by raven like the longbow. This will be a very cheap unit because it can't move but it also will lose the Marksmans touch rule
Falcon B - Missile falcon which "May or may not be AA".
Seraphim Retaliator - All the missiles forever. It's a more anti tank focused variant.

Shaltari

Firebird - Very short range powerful weapon with a focus towards building Demo.
Leopard - Dreamsnare weapons with the shield buffer swapped out for another Anti tank weapon. Very short range think an AT knife fighter. (The Jaguar taken to the extreme in AT)
Panthar - Unlimited range AA, 3 shots, energy 8 (maybe 7) ACC 3+ and -3 to hit when reaction firing. Personal thoughts are this will be a risk/reward unit. The more you expose it the better you get from it but the more vulnerable it becomes.

PHR

Thor - Barrage variant of the Taranis. Closer to standard Artillery.
Menchit A2 - swaps the 2 mini guns for 2 skyhammer missiles which can be fired without a mercury.
Njord - Sorry JD, don't know too much about this one beyond it transport 4 vehicles and gets a good number of missile shots off. No AA. I think the fine details here are being mulled over.
Aether (Helios A2) - Skimmer with the Triton - X black nano machine swarm (So IF, no blast)
Angelos A2 - Yep, it's an angelos with a flamer, roast a building, drop troops out, get stuck in.

Where appropriate, these new units mark the start of the Hawk consolidation of stock codes as new components will be added to existing kits. E.g. the Panthar will be a combined Ocelot/Panthar kit.

Additonal news - Book 2 of the reconquest is coming along nicely and will feature a host of rules for weather and terrain effects. Think night fighting, heavy rain, low gravity, high gravity, extreme temperatures etc.
Book 3 is planned to feature upgrades for units to eat up those last few points left in a list. Hunter killer missiles, support weapons, swapping a base in one infantry unit for another and so forth.

Naturally all this is subject to change so please bear that in mind and there's probably going to be a few more bits found out today by various people but again, looks like we've got a lot to look forward to.

Dave is wanting to have these units out before Dropfleets release with the first of which aimed for Salute.

Lots of pics as well

Spoiler:

**Vertrucio**

Good to see them address the issue of small point changes in the next book.

Likewise, getting some better defined (and better written) terrain rules besides urban stuff should help with table variety.

**str00dles1**

Duncan_Idaho wrote:
Only in your meta... some other gamers make good use of it...

Well this was also coming from the forums. As a general consensus it is a pretty terrible unit and most people who've used it don't like it at all for what it does, everything does it better.

On another note, when do Dropfleet pledge managers need to be in by?

**Silent Puffin?**

str00dles1 wrote:

On another note, when do Dropfleet pledge managers need to be in by?

'February', the exact date hasn't been released yet.

**Alpharius**

I hope it is 'late February' - February 29th would be great!

**rabidaskal**

Are there any Dropfleet pics from that event? Haven't been able to find any.

**bocatt**

So I registered to get a late backer pledge as I really do like Dropzone Commander (despite only owning the 2 player starter) and space combat games in general. And obviously I need another project to work on.

I was totally ready to go in on a Commodore pledge to get the Atlantis class, Princess class Civilian, and three sweet KS exclusive battle cruisers and a starter for every faction and all the free goodies. But now since I wasn't able to pledge back in October (

layoffs) I can only get the base 60 quid pledge? Is it even worth it? Like others have pointed out, I can just get the starters and space stations after it goes retail for a not-insignificant discount. So for late-backer pledge your freebies are four frigates and one cruiser sprue for each faction, and a credit chip?

What about the KS exclusive ships? Are they worth 14 quid a pop? Or 10 for the civvy ship? Or 30/40 for the two packs of PHR/UCM exclusives?

The Civilian cruise liner is the one that seems most different in concept but I'm really struggling to visualize it's purpose in the game. I think it would be fine as a "pretty" objective marker but then what the hell is a Cruise ship doing in an active warzone? It's not rugged like the Rebel Transports or Blockade Runners from Star Wars so it has no business evacuating refugees from Eden Prime. This isn't a universe where there's a lot of grey area and criminal activity to support a piracy situation. Even if it was being used as a diplomat's shuttle, none of the factions would have a reason to intercept the craft and prevent an alliance, except maybe the Scourge, but that doesn't really seem their speed.

The only scenario that would make sense would be for a Princess class to be press-ganged as a troop ship for the UCM. But the UCM is not desperate for ships. They already seem to have plenty and are socking it to the Scourge pretty hard (not to say they're winning). They don't need to repurpose old civilian ships with no weapons and poor carrier capabilities for their fleets. I mean they're the only faction with an honest-to-God battleship in the kickstarter

How long am I looking at waiting between KS release and retail release? Is there anything KS exclusive that's a must-have? Help me decide if I should give Hawk my hard earned money