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.

So getting into Drop Zone Commander (DZC) with a couple of starting armies I got in a trade recently and was wondering if I could get help building the missing starting armies for my friends. Both my UCM and Scourge from my noobie eye look pretty similar with some extras thrown in for flavor so looking at what I would need to pick up for the PHR, Shaltari and Resistance for a similar army to start with and to build upon later.

I currently have the following:

UCM
Contents of 2 player starter
2 Archangel Interceptors
Kodiak Armoured Commander
2Raven Type-B Light Dropship
4 Wolverine Scout Buggy
UCM Command Cards


Scourge
Contents of 2 player plastic starter box
2 Corsair Fighters
Desolator Command HQ
2 Intuder Beta Light Dropships
Prowler Pack (8)
The Scourge Command Cards

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

So you're the one who bought it from me. It should go out shipping tonight.

I didn't get too much time to play, since my group jumped into 6mm modern historicals instead of this, which is the only reason why I sold them, I can still give a few tips.

For the Shaltari and PHR, wait for the plastic starter sets to come out, they'll retail for less than half the price of the resin starters, a great deal. Buy two of a starter to get all the core units you would ever need for a long time. In fact, you could probably just buy a second 2 player starter set to fill out both the scourge and UCM.

Once you have the core, the flavor units for both really depend on what you want. This early in the game's lifespan, everything has use. Heck, you can actually go to the Hawk Wargames site and download the pre-release rules for all units to allow you to try before you buy. The designer behind the game releases rules early so that they can be tested and fine tuned before they're printed into a book.

Definitely get the fighters and bombers. They add a nice ability to hit anywhere on the board, and become even stronger now that they added rules for air coordinators in infantry units, allowing airstrikes to be a little more reliable if you invest the time to get the coordinator near and in LoS of the target you want hit. In the current meta, the light dropships are a bit strong since it's only 6 turn games where you have to grab objectives, air power helps you shoot down those dropships as they try to leave with objectives, or if you get lucky you can get one in early to hit them as they come in on the table.

The PHR player will likely want the centerpiece model of the giant scorpion looking walker, but that's probably best for larger games, so wait until everyone has a full core army. That said, the PHR jetskimmers, or one of the other new fast units will help open up PHR styles of play, since their starter box units tend to be slow. Definitely get a command walker.

Shaltari, well you want to get more gates, especially the fire drake. A gate that also works as a gunship. Again, get something to use as a better command vehicle.

For UCM, take the wolverines with the AA gun, not the rocket pods. You'll want those buggies zipping about spotting for the Kodiak's orbital bombardment more than you want them shooting at the enemies. Having the AA gun on it allows you to part and spot, then take reaction shots with the AA guns against the light dropships.

Consider getting longbows later, and most definitely get the ferrum.

For scourge, pickup the heavy tanks if you can find them, along with razorworms to fill their passenger tubes. Don't bother with the flamethrower version for now, the razorworms will handle that for you. I hear the annihilator is quite fun to use as a giant mobile artillery piece. It's a good way to deter the UCM and PHR from sitting back in a blob and spending an entire turn blowing up your swarm units en mass.

You will definitely want some more of the specialist infantry for all 4 armies, along with dropships to carry them.