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.

 Gallahad wrote:

carboncopy wrote:
One thing that's not really being talked about is Dust Studios work outside of Dust 1947.

Dust Studios was primarily a manufacturing shop. They also had worked with a lot of high profile miniature Kickstarters and other board games to tool their miniature molds in-house and coordinated with Ludo Fact to manufacture/package them. That, I'm sure was more core to their business than the Dust 1947 game.

Their closure points to a pretty large shift in the board/miniature game industry which has relied on manufacturing in China now facing crippling cost increases in shipping, labor and materials. The board/miniature game industry had seen a large boom until recently due to those rising costs. It'll be interesting to see what comes next.

Say what you will about Dust Studios' collaborations with FFG and Battlefront for Dust game rules, but Dust Studios had done a lot of great work in the background on the manufacturing side of the industry, collaborating with many other companies, to bring many great looking yet affordable miniatures to many miniature-based games.

These are some really interesting details. Thank you for posting. I had no idea.

Right, I had no idea for quite some time either. For example, they did work for CMON (i.e. Blood Rage minis), Monolith (Conan minis), and even did manufacturing work on X-wing for it's first few years - an FFG property...

The original DUST Tactics Game is still rate as the best tabletop game I've played, I had so much fun with this.

I think that's the entire point. when you take out the drama of what people think of the KS issue or of the creator himself the GAME itself is simply fantastic.

With only 5 core factions and special weapons limited to 1 type per faction the game lacks much of the bloat that has become a problem in 40K while allowing for an AA system with reaction mechanics that makes the game very involved for both players. including hard counters for just about anything you may run into. There are also over 40 scenario missions available on the DUSTUSA website giving all types of deployments and objectives to play

A parting gift-some of the designs in the works that will never be(bottom of the page) many of which i was waiting on.



http://www.dust1947depot.com/photos.html

 aphyon wrote:

The original DUST Tactics Game is still rate as the best tabletop game I've played, I had so much fun with this.

I think that's the entire point. when you take out the drama of what people think of the KS issue or of the creator himself the GAME itself is simply fantastic.

You keep saying "the KS issue", as though this game didn't exist before then and go through a number of controversial shakeups prior to that, with the most notable being how it was a Fantasy Flight game until the great splittening and Paolo took back publication of the game from them, overhauled the rules, etc. etc. etc.

chaos0xomega wrote:

 aphyon wrote:

The original DUST Tactics Game is still rate as the best tabletop game I've played, I had so much fun with this.

I think that's the entire point. when you take out the drama of what people think of the KS issue or of the creator himself the GAME itself is simply fantastic.

You keep saying "the KS issue", as though this game didn't exist before then and go through a number of controversial shakeups prior to that, with the most notable being how it was a Fantasy Flight game until the great splittening and Paolo took back publication of the game from them, overhauled the rules, etc. etc. etc.

What are the other "controversial shakeups" outside FFG?

Kickstarter fiasco is what pushed me out, it really damaged my community. Noticed a few years later it was still around and investigated to see if it was something I wanted to get into again (still have a number of models) and saw that they were incorporating pin-ups into the game as units. I don't have a problem with pin-up models, but I don't want them dancing around amidst my tanks and armoured troopers ya know?

Dang, I bought an wlite membership last year. They never restocked the elite exclusives. Then they never sent me my shirt and mug... now I'm out the funds.

Sigh... great game and theme but the kickstarter and now this. Sad.

What was the Kickstarter fiasco?

 H.B.M.C. wrote:
What was the Kickstarter fiasco?

From my understanding Paolo refused to deliver the last half to Battlefront due to Battlefront not paying Dust for manufacturing it and that Battlefront was demanding money from Dust for work Dust never asked them to do. Battlefront denied and said it was DUST not sending them a bill so they couldn't pay it. Turned into a bit of a stalemate with Dust asking backers to ask for chargebacks on their credit cards.

Since Dust does lots of work for other companies I figure they know how to send out a proper itemized bill which is why this all seamed so odd.

Uh, the KS fiasco started with Paolo promising hundreds of dollars worth of stretch goals that the people actually paying the bills didn't know about and never approved.

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Uh, the KS fiasco started with Paolo promising hundreds of dollars worth of stretch goals that the people actually paying the bills didn't know about and never approved.

Then when Battlefront balked at Paulo's promises, and the stalemate happened, Paulo took it the court of public opion, airing one sided dirty laundry. LOUDLY. Which made everything worse and drew it out. Drama drama drama.

Yup, it is the KS drama that ended the game, and honestly as pointed out aslong as the word "Dust" is used for this game, the kickstarter problems will allways be there in the background.

Before the launch of the KS, dust tactis as it was then named, was doing in terms of beeing a game, quite well.
It was the easy rules and pre assembled and primed minis that captured the players to the game.

Wasn't there also a dust up (no pun intended) with FFG?

My memory is that Dust abruptly left FFG for Battlefront but FFG was still able to sell their existing stock at a discount so no one was buying from Battlefront. I still have some unopened boxes from those sales.

That is correct, it was indeed very abrupt and rendered the game OOP for a while, that was essentially the first time the game died - the KS was the second. Evidently DUST was doing pretty well for itself since nobody seems to remember anything from before the failed KS campaign.

Even before that, however, Dust was an AEG game - they sold the rights to FFG at basically the very last minute before release which delayed things a bit as FFG had to make some revisions and get stuff printed with the FFG logo on it. Given the ~12 years of history since then, its not unreasonable to assume that AEG recognized the headaches that came with working with Paolo and wanted out before it became more of a problem for them.

Theres also the failed DUST video game kicstarter, though thats less of a fiasco and more of an embarassment as it couldn't convince enough people to throw money at it (didn't even make 10% of its goal) IIRC that was in between things falling apart with FFG and before the GF9/Battlefront situation.

Is the DUST Adventures RPG still kicking around?

 lord_blackfang wrote:
Uh, the KS fiasco started with Paolo promising hundreds of dollars worth of stretch goals that the people actually paying the bills didn't know about and never approved.

The other reading of the situation is that Battlefront was broke, owed Dust Studios $220k prior to the Kickstarter, used the Kickstarter money to pay off that debt to the Factoring Bank (aka debt collector).

After paying for Wave 1 and setting aside money for shipping, they had no money left to pay to have the Wave 2 items manufactured. Battlefront was then dragging its feet, possibly to stall to get money, or just intended to not pay for Wave 2 at all, and so Dust Studios got lawyers involved.

The "Dust Studios not paying for freebies" debate came after months of Battlefront not giving Dust Studios payment or even a tally on what to manufacture for Wave 2. Even if Dust Studios had payed for every single freebie in the whole Kickstarter, the result would have been the same as the amount that Battlefront had made from the KS wouldn't have covered the costs of Wave 2 item manufacturing.

What actually happened with the Freebies thing? It's not known. BF said there was a definite verbal agreement, DS says there was no verbal agreement at all. I heard that BF at least consulted with Paolo on what kind of items to include for certain pledge levels, whether or not freebies were involved in those conversations. BF was definitely throwing out freebies right and left in desperation and unlocking things early to get the KS campaign moving. My guess is that something in the middle happened, where both sides were at fault, and BF never got it written down. They then leveraged that murkiness for legal and their own court of public opinion.

I'd buy into the game again if they made a run at it again. DUST warfare was a very solid game.

Dust Warfare was the Fantasy Flight game released like 10 years ago. For the last 5-10 years or so the game has been Dust 1947 published by Dust Studios. Why didn't you buy into that game?

chaos0xomega wrote:
Dust Warfare was the Fantasy Flight game released like 10 years ago. For the last 5-10 years or so the game has been Dust 1947 published by Dust Studios. Why didn't you buy into that game?

Price and a confusing product line (3? Different model prep options for every unit, walkers without all options, no starter box that I know of, etc.)

 Gallahad wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:
Dust Warfare was the Fantasy Flight game released like 10 years ago. For the last 5-10 years or so the game has been Dust 1947 published by Dust Studios. Why didn't you buy into that game?

Price and a confusing product line (3? Different model prep options for every unit, walkers without all options, no starter box that I know of, etc.)

So...you don'y know anything about the game then. a quick look through the webstore had army boxes, starter boxes, special unit boxes and special sets for things like command HQ squads with special characters etc...

The 3 levels of model availability was one of the actual selling points. it was really very simple

.model kits-$
.primed edition(assembled)-$$
.premium completely finished/painted minis-$$$ (AKA GW prices)

 aphyon wrote:

 Gallahad wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:
Dust Warfare was the Fantasy Flight game released like 10 years ago. For the last 5-10 years or so the game has been Dust 1947 published by Dust Studios. Why didn't you buy into that game?

Price and a confusing product line (3? Different model prep options for every unit, walkers without all options, no starter box that I know of, etc.)

So...you don'y know anything about the game then. a quick look through the webstore had army boxes, starter boxes, special unit boxes and special sets for things like command HQ squads with special characters etc...

The 3 levels of model availability was one of the actual selling points. it was really very simple

.model kits-$
.primed edition(assembled)-$$
.premium completely finished/painted minis-$$$ (AKA GW prices)

Please let me add another reason: the fans

 Gallahad wrote:

 aphyon wrote:

 Gallahad wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:
Dust Warfare was the Fantasy Flight game released like 10 years ago. For the last 5-10 years or so the game has been Dust 1947 published by Dust Studios. Why didn't you buy into that game?

Price and a confusing product line (3? Different model prep options for every unit, walkers without all options, no starter box that I know of, etc.)

So...you don'y know anything about the game then. a quick look through the webstore had army boxes, starter boxes, special unit boxes and special sets for things like command HQ squads with special characters etc...

The 3 levels of model availability was one of the actual selling points. it was really very simple

.model kits-$
.primed edition(assembled)-$$
.premium completely finished/painted minis-$$$ (AKA GW prices)

Please let me add another reason: the fans

Perhaps i should have put that in the form of a question since you are getting your feathers all ruffled. Like anything else you made an un-true statement based on lack of information.

That isn't the fault of the game or the fans of the game. like any other game not GW, community promotion is about the only thing they really have.

How many people do you know who play "the other side", "beyond the gates of antares", "song of ice and fire", "warpath" etc... compared to the more well known games?

 aphyon wrote:

 Gallahad wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:
Dust Warfare was the Fantasy Flight game released like 10 years ago. For the last 5-10 years or so the game has been Dust 1947 published by Dust Studios. Why didn't you buy into that game?

Price and a confusing product line (3? Different model prep options for every unit, walkers without all options, no starter box that I know of, etc.)

So...you don'y know anything about the game then. a quick look through the webstore had army boxes, starter boxes, special unit boxes and special sets for things like command HQ squads with special characters etc...

The 3 levels of model availability was one of the actual selling points. it was really very simple

.model kits-$
.primed edition(assembled)-$$
.premium completely finished/painted minis-$$$ (AKA GW prices)

While it looks simple in a three item list, having three skus and boxes for literally the same product is a huge waste of resources and money.
There’s a reason no other company in the history of miniatures games hasn’t ever done it before or since.

Ghool wrote:

 aphyon wrote:

 Gallahad wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:
Dust Warfare was the Fantasy Flight game released like 10 years ago. For the last 5-10 years or so the game has been Dust 1947 published by Dust Studios. Why didn't you buy into that game?

Price and a confusing product line (3? Different model prep options for every unit, walkers without all options, no starter box that I know of, etc.)

So...you don'y know anything about the game then. a quick look through the webstore had army boxes, starter boxes, special unit boxes and special sets for things like command HQ squads with special characters etc...

The 3 levels of model availability was one of the actual selling points. it was really very simple

.model kits-$
.primed edition(assembled)-$$
.premium completely finished/painted minis-$$$ (AKA GW prices)

While it looks simple in a three item list, having three skus and boxes for literally the same product is a huge waste of resources and money.
There’s a reason no other company in the history of miniatures games hasn’t ever done it before or since.

I didn't even know there was three and I've bought stuff over the past few years. Only thought there was 2. Pre-build/primed, pre-painted. That's what most stores have (regular and premium) which I don't think was too confusing. I was surprised to find that the kits were a thing but I've never seen one for sale, don't even think they were on Dust's website the last few times I was there (which I rarely looked at).

 Ghool wrote:

 aphyon wrote:

 Gallahad wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:
Dust Warfare was the Fantasy Flight game released like 10 years ago. For the last 5-10 years or so the game has been Dust 1947 published by Dust Studios. Why didn't you buy into that game?

Price and a confusing product line (3? Different model prep options for every unit, walkers without all options, no starter box that I know of, etc.)

So...you don'y know anything about the game then. a quick look through the webstore had army boxes, starter boxes, special unit boxes and special sets for things like command HQ squads with special characters etc...

The 3 levels of model availability was one of the actual selling points. it was really very simple

.model kits-$
.primed edition(assembled)-$$
.premium completely finished/painted minis-$$$ (AKA GW prices)

While it looks simple in a three item list, having three skus and boxes for literally the same product is a huge waste of resources and money.
There’s a reason no other company in the history of miniatures games hasn’t ever done it before or since.

And with good reason. Just look at the title of the thread.

 aphyon wrote:

 Gallahad wrote:

 aphyon wrote:

 Gallahad wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:
Dust Warfare was the Fantasy Flight game released like 10 years ago. For the last 5-10 years or so the game has been Dust 1947 published by Dust Studios. Why didn't you buy into that game?

Price and a confusing product line (3? Different model prep options for every unit, walkers without all options, no starter box that I know of, etc.)

So...you don'y know anything about the game then. a quick look through the webstore had army boxes, starter boxes, special unit boxes and special sets for things like command HQ squads with special characters etc...

The 3 levels of model availability was one of the actual selling points. it was really very simple

.model kits-$
.primed edition(assembled)-$$
.premium completely finished/painted minis-$$$ (AKA GW prices)

Please let me add another reason: the fans

Perhaps i should have put that in the form of a question since you are getting your feathers all ruffled. Like anything else you made an un-true statement based on lack of information.

That isn't the fault of the game or the fans of the game. like any other game not GW, community promotion is about the only thing they really have.

How many people do you know who play "the other side", "beyond the gates of antares", "song of ice and fire", "warpath" etc... compared to the more well known games?

No, I dropped into a thread of an IP I had a fun time with some years ago to say I'd give it another go and got immediately fanclub card checked or whatever by multiple people for whether I was a "real fan".

After your message I found the Dust USA web store and clicked on the IJN starter set. Here are the first two images that accompany the product listing:

Obviously very different box contents. I assume the actual content is the "lots of money for not very many miniatures option. I have no idea which model level I'd be getting if I ordered that box and I'm still not certain which if any walker options I'd get.

Let's say I bought two starter sets.. Would I be able to play with a friend? I have no idea, because they can't be bothered to use words, and I don't care to know either at this point.

The game is dead again, but as I said originally, I would be happy to jump back in if it had some decent leadership.

Browsing the website reminded me what terrific photography they have. Nobody does miniature photography better than whoever builds their scenes and photographs them.

Edited to add spoiler.

 aphyon wrote:

 Gallahad wrote:

 aphyon wrote:

 Gallahad wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:
Dust Warfare was the Fantasy Flight game released like 10 years ago. For the last 5-10 years or so the game has been Dust 1947 published by Dust Studios. Why didn't you buy into that game?

Price and a confusing product line (3? Different model prep options for every unit, walkers without all options, no starter box that I know of, etc.)

So...you don'y know anything about the game then. a quick look through the webstore had army boxes, starter boxes, special unit boxes and special sets for things like command HQ squads with special characters etc...

The 3 levels of model availability was one of the actual selling points. it was really very simple

.model kits-$
.primed edition(assembled)-$$
.premium completely finished/painted minis-$$$ (AKA GW prices)

Please let me add another reason: the fans

Perhaps i should have put that in the form of a question since you are getting your feathers all ruffled. Like anything else you made an un-true statement based on lack of information.

Way to double-down.

Front of the box is what you would get in the box, 2nd image is for show.

Of the 3 official dealer web shops, the usa one was the weakest in terms of info, while the italian was the one with moust technical website problems. The polish one had both solid game information and was in good working technical condition.


As for 3 level sof the same product, yes that was a huge info messup.

Studio premium was only avalible at dust studio web shop, while the 3 official web shops got them as a rare treat to sell now and then.
Model kit was sold mainly at the 3 official web shops(us shop having the smallest selection of it) but the dust studio shop had some selection too.

Primed edition was sold from the official web shops and every other shop who wanted to sell the game.

Im with Gallahad - the three tier system was obtuse and inefficient and so was the weird three regional distributors plus a direct sales website setup they have. None of them are a particularly good information resource, all of them have incomplete product listings (some products are on the polish site but not any of the other three, some are on the italian site but not the others, some are on the main website but not the distributors... the US site just seems to not have been updated after like 2019 because it really seems like they are missing the last couple years worth of products.

Honestly the whole operation was mismanaged

chaos0xomega wrote:

Honestly the whole operation was mismanaged

*Company

No, operation, because there are 4 companies involved here - Dust Studio, Dust USA, and then whatever the hell the Italian and Polish companies are called. Theres a clear lack of communication and coordination amongst the 4 companies involved, and that structure and distribution model is kinda just dumb to begin with and has its own inherent problems. I.E.. the whole operation was mismanaged.

First, to quote what I put on the Dust thread.

You Dust players have my condolences.

I'm just an admirer from afar and a had been a dabbler in the minis and terrain. I was skeptical of the post-FFG Dust but it really looked to me like Paulo had made good and had a built a successful new life for the property. I'm sure you folks all felt the same.

I hope you all keep enjoying the Dust rules. If you want to try others, I can say that my club enjoyed the K47 rules a couple years back and even had one player use Dust minis. It's workable, even Dust vs K47 minis add long as you don't mix them in the same army.

I was never a DUST player but I bought quite a bit of product in the FFG blow-out (still got quite a bit of it unused) with the intent of incorporating it into my 28mm Mech Attack armies. The "Warzone Tenement" building kits and quonset hut kits were the foundation for my sci-fi/cyberpunk city and had some fun repainting and repurposing the SSU copters. All games end, but until the pandemic (though I don't know if that's the real factor in it's demise) it really did seem that this itteration of DUST had legs for at least a few more years. Oh well.