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Always wanted to get into this, but after a local convinced me and some of his friends to get into Dropzone Commander and then promptly sold all his stuff (and convinced his pals to do the same) to get into his next mayfly project I was kind of leery. But there has been some renewed local interest with some people who will actually play the game recently, and since most of the other capital ship games are either being maltreated by the publisher (SW Armada), in limbo (Firestorm Armada) or a bit too old and clunky (a lot of others I have models for, like Call to Arms, Full Thrust and...many others) DFC looked like a decent alternative, especially as the planetary assault model looks a bit more interesting than the random space junk in deep space objectives most other systems use and the Spike system also looks promising. So we painted up a few ships and here is my UCM starter. Are people old enough to spot where the color scheme comes from? My coplayers were in many cases not born when it came out.

They look good. I like the stripes.

The idea was to hit the Red Dwarf spaceship red and then have some fun with masking

Cool looking ships!

 Kaptajn Congoboy wrote:
The idea was to hit the Red Dwarf spaceship red and then have some fun with masking

The masking really makes them pop. Anyone who can pull off stripes well is way above me in the realm of painting.


Red Dwarf is a show I haven’t seen in a long time. Nice.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Kaptajn Congoboy wrote:
The idea was to hit the Red Dwarf spaceship red and then have some fun with masking

The masking really makes them pop. Anyone who can pull off stripes well is way above me in the realm of painting.


Red Dwarf is a show I haven’t seen in a long time. Nice.

Thanks! It is pretty easy when you are dealing with white as one of the colors. I did a basic white zenithal, varnished, then masked with tamiya masking tape (i had like 6 different widths) and airbrushed a pigment heavy wash on - in this case flesh tearers red contrast. The rest was simply highlights and the metal/glow and detailing.

Nice looking ships. And is that a FSA terran frigate I spy being used as space debris?

 slyphic wrote:
Nice looking ships. And is that a FSA terran frigate I spy being used as space debris?

That it is My old FSA fleet is also in white and red, but painted withour airbrush with white as the primary color. It looks more like a fleet of X Wings

We played the game a bit -it has some nice ideas -the signature element but when we played it had a some major balance issues.

Personally I really disliked the way it handled fighters/bombers compared to say BFG or ACTA.

We also found the drop /ground element too complicated but we were more interested in space ships fighting.

 Mr Morden wrote:
it had a some major balance issues.

Still does, but they're different balance issues. The stat churn is my most major turnoff about the game, but a 'feature' (TTC said it's intentional to keep the game '"fresh and engaging") that the publisher is married to.

 Mr Morden wrote:
We also found the drop /ground element too complicated but we were more interested in space ships fighting.

DFC stupidly doesn't address how easy it is to just not use the whole drop element. You cut out about 10% of the ships and just don't use sectors. That's it. And it's never once explicitly acknowledged as a perfectly valid way to play the game anywhere in the rules. We play a lot of scenarios, and many of them don't feature dropships.

I feel like DFC was written to be a little too “inside baseball” for casual gamers. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen the drop objectives touted as the selling point, directly in contrast to space battles, which are too boring and simple for real gamers. The condescension towards players who prefer straight up fighting is off putting. And this has been the pitch since the Kickstarter, so I can only assume Dave has only gamed with tournament players his whole life.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
The condescension towards players who prefer straight up fighting is off putting.

Don't lump me in with the tournie munchkins. It was also a direct appeal to us narrative scenario and campaign nerds.

My apologies then.

Many strong feelings about Dropfleet Commander! As expected for Dakka

We will want to try it out properly. I like some aspects of the rules as less clunky than BFG, whose revival attempt last year foundered on just that. I'm going to make some 3d terrain for it that also can see use in other space games. Watch this space

 Kaptajn Congoboy wrote:
Many strong feelings about Dropfleet Commander! As expected for Dakka

We will want to try it out properly. I like some aspects of the rules as less clunky than BFG, whose revival attempt last year foundered on just that. I'm going to make some 3d terrain for it that also can see use in other space games. Watch this space

If you really want to revive BFG in particular, have a gander at Void Admiral?

Reviving BFG isn't a goal in itself, playing space games is. Void Admiral is on the radar

I made some more debris cloud 2.5d terrain, to put on top of the 2d terrain templates.

They look great.

Do you have those little flickering tea lights under any of them?

Yes. The big ones have tea lights painted blue or red and with the stuffing "sculpted" in an attempt to make it look like a piece of wreckage inside have a dying reactor or something like that. Not 100% successful first run, but since 8(!) people at the club are going to order fleets I guess I will get another shot at it.

The small.ones are 30mm bases from my enormous collection of spare PP bases since I've always been a big DIY base guy these last 18 years. They're intended to be light debris clouds anyway, older wreckage drifting more apart.

Seems we got into this game at a good time!

At Salute TTCombat showed new polystyrene kits for light ships of the existing factions as well as a new faction, based on the Anomaly ship you could buy as a limited release with a scenario. They also announced a new edition coming this year, possibly as early as September!

Finally got to try the game.



This is the starter box. As the fleets approach each other from the table edge a couple of Scourge Gargoyles head for the middle and left flank clusters respectively. A Scourge Shenlong heavy cruiser approaches the middle of the table backed by two Harpies. Further out a Wyvern Close Action cruiser sits between the middle and right flank cluster and a Ifrit Furnace Cannon cruiser holds the right flank.

Opposing this is a New Orleans Class Strike Carrier and a Moscow heavy cruiser on the right flank. The middle is held up by a couple of Toulon Frigates, a Seattle Class Fleet Carrier and a Berlin Cobra laser cruiser (not in the picture) and on the extreme right flank the other Strike Carrier approaches the right flank cluster.



A very imporant development early in the battle was that the Toulon frigates broke through the center of the map and with some help from the Moscow destroyed a Gargoyle before it could start dropping troops to the center cluster. With the New Orleans Strike Carriers on both flanks dropping into atmosphere to land troops on both clusters, the Scourge were on a ticking clock: destroy the UCM strike carriers or risk the UCM gaining control over a cluster unopposed.



In the centre, the Shenlong was getting annoyed at the Seattle Fleet Carrier. An ineffective run by the Berlin Cobra laser cruiser and Toulons at the Shenlong convinced the Scourge player that getting rid of the bomber threat from the Seattle was more important than focusing on the Strike Carrier that was dropping infantry into the right flank cluster. In a single volley after some softening up by the Harpies the Seattle went up in fireball. The Wyvern and Ifrit focused on the Strike Carrier but were unable to locate it properly as it had descended into the athmosfphere, and only managed to cripple it and set it on fire. In later turns the Seattle would put out the fire and survive as the Ifrit and Wyvern soon got other things to worry about...



As the Moscow, having previously lined itself up agains the Shenlong, used its final round 3 activation to unload its entire ordnance package at the Scourge heavy cruiser, reducing it to 1 hull point and causing orbital decay.



The Wyvern was getting worried. On the left cluser the two drop carrying ships from opposing sides were taking potshots at each other, but the UCM had the upper hand due to early support from the Moscow. With the Moscow threatening to rake the flanks of the Scourge force, it turned toward the Moscow and started dropping shots into the Berlin and Toulons, destroying a Toulon and damaging the Berlin.



This was, however, not enough to save the Shenlong, which failed to arrest its orbital decay and burned up in the athmosphere.



With the UCM contesting the left flank cluster and the captured ground defence batteries on the now lost right flank cluster opening up on the Scourge ships, the Wyvern moved further up, unloaded on the final Toulon and destroying it, but putting only minor damage on the Moscow in front of it.



Things were not looking great from the Scourge. While the Wyvern and Ifrit managed to down the Berlin, the Moscow retalitated and destroyed the Ifrit while also moving beyond the range of the Wyvern's close assault missiles. The final Hydra also went down to fire from the Seattle class strike carrier, that ascended from atmosphere and headed toward the center cluster. The Wyvern managed to scare away the other Seattle and bombard the tanks holding a sector on the left flank cluster, but even as the Scourge gained the upper hand we reached turn 6 and the UCM had a overwheling strategic advantage. They were at double the VPs of the Scourge and the two New Orleans Strike Carriers were heading for the middle cluster as the only lightly damaged Moscow was turning to start unloading on the Wyvern and Gargoyle.

Victory to the UCM!

It was a great first game. I can see the issues the engine has (and as always d6 mechanics feel very random to an old Warmachine soul like me), but there is also a great deal of good stuff in this game. With only two dropship carriers per side, the early loss of the Gargoyle was a major problem for the Scourge, that they failed to come back from and not having deployed their forces in a way they could deal with.

Definitely going to play this again. A few other locals have started to paint their fleets too!

This was fun to read. Love your fire markers.

Only having two 'scoring' units is the worst part of the 2p starter. Usual lists are 4-6 scoring units because the game doesn't hinge on a single kill. The other missing element is atmospheric attackers, usually corvettes. They're a literal game changer, and the point at which it felt like the game had all the pieces necessary to play as intended.

 slyphic wrote:
Only having two 'scoring' units is the worst part of the 2p starter. Usual lists are 4-6 scoring units because the game doesn't hinge on a single kill. The other missing element is atmospheric attackers, usually corvettes. They're a literal game changer, and the point at which it felt like the game had all the pieces necessary to play as intended.

That was our conclusion as well.

It is almost as if one of the cruisers should ne built as troop carriers for the starter.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
This was fun to read. Love your fire markers.

Colored yarn, baby

A good target is to spend 25-33% of your points on scoring assets, and perhaps a further 10-15% on bombardment and corvettes.
Unfortunately most new players just want to blow up spaceships, which although entirely understandable, does make the starter set scoring a bit wonky.
Apparently one of the major areas of improvement in the new edition will be around scoring and the ground game, so I'm personally very keen to see it.

Yeah. The lists are ready (but the models are not).

I guess a blowing up ships scenario is feasible, but you can see the strength of the scenario game relying on the drop system when compared to other speeshsheep games, I think.

But the whole system of dropping troops need some serious streamlining as it is now.

 Kaptajn Congoboy wrote:
the whole system of dropping troops need some serious streamlining as it is now.

The old forums got nuked, and the internet archive of it isn't great. I saved the old Hawk Talon (tournament organizers) solution for the ground game and slapped it up on my blog.

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

Alternate removal makes sense. I think some of the other suggestions were implemented in the 1.7 rules.