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Kraggi
12-08-2010, 07:54 AM
Hi there people.

I am really loving the new game by Spartan Games - The Dystopian Wars. I wrote a review of it on my blog and in the hope of increasing its profile, I figured I would post it here for you all to read.

If you want to see more pictures of the models or just more info on it then feel free to visit my blog The Varcan Cluster (http://varcancluster.blogspot.com).

The Dystopian Wars are set in the 1870's, although it is not the 1870 we know. The Industrial revolution has already happened, and the technology has far surpassed what was available in our timeline.

It is all powered by a new Element, and the War is happening as the different nations and coaltions make moves to expand their land.

The backstory to the game is excellent, well written and well thought out. A lot of the information can be found on Spartan Games own website, it is useful in helping you choose a faction.

I was one of those fortunate people that fell in love with all of the models, so I didn't need any help as I aim to own them all!

Where to begin? Well the best way is probably their Exploding D6 mechanic. For those of you that don’t know this Mechanic is actually really easy. When performing attacks you need to get a number of hits on your enemy. Ships, Tanks and Fliers general have a Damage Rating. Once you have a number of hits equal to this you do 1 point of damage to the target, they also have a Crit Rating, when you equal this you get to roll on the Crit Table.

How do you get hits? Well you roll a number of dice equal to the weapon you are shooting with. Then in most cases you count up all the 4’s, 5’s & 6’s. Each 4 & 5 counts as 1 hit, each 6 counts as 2 hits and allows you to roll another D6, where another 6 allows you to roll again and counts as 2 hits.

This mechanic means no matter how damaged your fleet is, no matter how small your Frigate may seem next to that Battleship, there is always a chance of getting enough 6’s to do some damage to it. You can’t ignore things in this game… if you do you have to be willing to take the hits they may dish out to you.

With the basics of the Exploding D6 out of the way the rest of the rules are pretty easy to pick up.

So the Turn Sequence well, this is pretty simple. At the beginning of the game (and each turn thereafter) you roll for initative deciding which player goes first (no choosing) if you win the roll you go first.

Once the player that has won the roll is decided they get to activate 1 Squadron from there force. That Squadron has to Move, Shoot, Board & Repair all at once. Once the player has moved completed all their actions with a Squadron, the turn moves to the opposing player who gets to do the same, activating 1 squadron. This continues until all the squadrons have been activated, and it does mean if your force has more squadrons you will get to activate them one after another until they have all had a turn.

This mechanic has been seen in many games, and I think works very well. It means you don’t have to sit still and do nothing for 10-20 minutes while your opponent obliterates your force before your eyes. It also means that if you made a mistake setting something up in a bad position, you get a chance to change it before too many of the enemy squadrons have exploited it.

In each Squadron's activation you get to move your models. Movement is pretty easy, with ships having turn templates, and fliers and Land vehicles having a set distance they have to move between each 45 degree (or part thereof) turn. Obviously it gets a little tricky with large squadrons of Frigates, but as no Squadron can be larger than 5 models it doesn’t take much to get the movement done.

After the movement phase your squadron gets to go into Combat this may be in the form of launching a gunnery attack or firing your torpedoes, or even both! Even the smallest ships in Dystopian Wars can have massive amounts of firepower, and if you can get into the middle of an enemy fleet you can be shooting, to your Port, Starboard, Fore and Aft with relative ease. Squadrons can also link fire among their weapons, increase the chance for them to get Critical hits. Ranges are easy to determine in Dystopian Wars, with each Vehicle getting 4 range bands, and each range band is 8” long.

Boarding follows combat and works in the same manner as their Previous games. You get to launch your Marines to try and take out the enemy Vehicle. They have to Brave the Ack Ack fire that is launcher at them as they attack, and then defeat the enemy boarders. Whoever gets the most hits wins, and if the Attackers win they get to roll on the Critical Hit Table. If they wipe out the enemy Marines they take control of the Vehicle!

When you do Damage to the enemy by reducing their Hull Points, you also reduce the effectiveness of many of their Weapons, so being the first person to shoot is always a bonus, Battleships might be able to absorb a lot of damage before being destroyed but you can massively reduce their effectiveness.

Some of the Cruisers and Battleships can replace their turret weaponry with Generators. These utilise the new element that has powered the industrial revolution in this universe. These Generators can function as Shield generators which allow you to negate hits against you, reducing them below your Crit or Damage Rating. They can also provide Camouflage & other extra defences.

Given that the models turrets come as metal components its quite easy to think that paint up the ship and leave a couple of the turrets unglued so you can swap in generators are your choice.

The Fighters, or Tiny Tokens as they are called in the rules all have a fuel allowance, and certain things like moving at full speed, or attacking reduce the amount of fuel they have, if they ever reach 0 then the Token will die. There fuel can also be reduced by enemy Ack Ack, which can also just outright destroy the fighters & Bombers. Bombers themselves are viscous and pity the Captain whose ship is attacked by a whole squadron of 5, as this means they are rolling 15 dice against them in their attack rolls.

The rules covering the Tiny Tokens can be a bit daunting at first, but if needs be you can have lots of fun playing with the Starter fleets and no Tiny Tokens until you get your head round how the mechanics work.

Another neat new rule are for Break checks. Squadrons losing models have to take Break checks, and if you fail the squadron cannot do anything while its commanders try to restore order.

The Break checks are easy to understand and do not slow the game down at all, if anything they make you consider larger squadrons as a better option. A nifty set of Break tokens is given to you

You also have to nominate where your Fleet Commodore is, which ship he is using. This is both a good and bad thing as he grants that ships re-rolls in certain situations, and he makes it easier to pass break checks when in range of the Ship. On the downside if you lose his ship either to a boarding action, or to it being destroyed your entire fleet needs to take a Break check... and without your Fleet Commodore it is harder to pass!

There are also a whole host of Model Associate Rules or MARs for short. This section of the book covers all of the special rules that the vehicles and tokens can have. These might be something as simple as Experience Engineers which allows you to repair critical damage easier, or Fuel Reserves that mean ANY critical hit can cause a Raging fire (they are bad by the way).

You can also introduce the Fog of War by buying the deck of 52 cards. You get to draw 1 card for each squadron you control upto a maximum of 5 and these provide bonuses from the ability to put out D3 raging fires that are affecting your fleet, to getting +1 to hit on all attack rolls. There are four types of cards which effect different aspects of the game all of which are clearly labelled on the card itself.

All of the rules for building your Battlegroup are included in this book, and it has extensive stats on all four of their Launch nations models, including information on Land and Ariel units that are not yet released. The only bit about this that can be a pain are the percentages, your fleet is not allowed to have more than X% of its points spent on different classes of models. This can be a bit daunting to begin with, but given that all the Starter fleets are balanced forces its not even something you need to worry about to begin with. If both players have a Starter Fleet and Carrier then you are going to be so close in points that you are good to go for a balance and fun game.

I have to say that reading this book really makes me think that Spartan games have hit the nail bang on the head this time. The book is chunkier than Firestorm Armada or Uncharted Seas, and certainly doesn’t have the really obvious errors the previous two did. There is an official Errata thread on their forums which allows you to see quickly which rules have been clarified and which were wrong in the initial print.

The Rulebook is also top quality, with decent background and pictures. The rules are well explained with lots of diagrams to help your understand. It also includes a quick cheat sheet with lots of useful information on which is clearly labelled. This saves you having to flick through the rulebook for some of the rules.

The Deck of Cards are very nice, good quality sturdy cards that should stand the wear and tear of being played. They only cost £6 too and are not a requirement, but rather a nice bonus to the game.

For information about what you get in a battlgroup click on the link to take you to my photo's of the contents of the Prussian Battlegroup (http://varcancluster.blogspot.com/2010/12/prussian-battlegroup-pictures.html), and the Kingdom of Britannia Battlegroup (http://varcancluster.blogspot.com/2010/12/britannia-battlegroup-pictures.html).

In Summary:
This is certainly the best set of rules to come out of Spartan Games so far with (in my opinion) the best models. The rules flow well, and the simple mechanics mean it’s a quick game to understand without having to check charts to figure out hit and wound scores. This means you can focus more on building your fleet and learning how to play it than remembering what you need on any given D6.

Pro's: Excellent Models and Background, easily understood D6 mechanic.
Con's: The Rules for Tiny Tokens can seem a bit daunting to begin with, as can the rules governing building your battlegroup.

My Score: 9.5/10!

I hope this review is useful to you in deciding if you want to pick this game up, it obviously gets a big thumbs up from me, and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes commanding large armies or fleets. Naval combat in this is very good and the models and gameplay really sets my mind afire the way I think a good wargame should.

scadugenga
12-09-2010, 07:06 AM
Nice mini-review--I've been looking at DW for awhile now--just need to convince a couple friends to try it so we can get a proper game going.

Kraggi
12-09-2010, 07:49 AM
I had/have the same worries, but I have ended up picking two of the fleets to try and improve my chances of getting games, admittedly I could pick any of the 4 fleets up as they all look awesome.

colkillgore
12-12-2010, 08:37 AM
Thanks for the clear review. The more I see this game the more I want it. I will also probably pick up two different factions and try to get my buddies to buy in for the others.

Kraggi
12-12-2010, 10:21 AM
Glad to be of help.

The game is really good, and I have been posting as much info on it as I can find on my blog, so feel free to pop over and check out the posts.

I am pretty much gonna try n buy all of it, they still havent rendered a model I dont like... which is bad cause my wallet is suffering lol.

scadugenga
12-13-2010, 11:29 PM
Ordered the rulebook & card deck and will hopefully be here sometime before the ice age recedes. :)

Actual minis have been forwarded to the wife for xmas wish-listing. (Keeps her happy when I don't spontaneously spend tons of money on a new game...)

I think I can get my friends to try the gave using proxies at first, to at least generate a little interest.

The random web-chatter makes me think this game has good potential.

eldargal
12-14-2010, 02:56 AM
I love the idea, and the rules sound great, but I don't like the miniatures at all.:(

scadugenga
12-14-2010, 06:33 PM
I love the idea, and the rules sound great, but I don't like the miniatures at all.:(

I agree with you in part-there's not one faction that made me go consistantly "wow!"

EoBS has a cool Helicarrier, but I hate the naval ships. Prussia's carrier is also very cool, but the ships are "meh" looking. Brittania--wasn't overly fond of any of the naval stuff, but loved the land forces in the previews. FSA--liked the naval paddle-boat idea--but the carrier wasn't quite was I was hoping for.

Won't stop me from trying the game though. I'd rather a fun game with less than overwhelming miniatures than a crappy game with great sculpts.

eldargal
12-14-2010, 11:51 PM
I have high hopes for the land forces, I've not seen pictures yet. I dress steampunk sometimes myself (or dieselpunk pinup:rolleyes:), so I was very excited about DW and I'm not going to give up on it in a hurry.

scadugenga
12-15-2010, 06:44 AM
I have high hopes for the land forces, I've not seen pictures yet. I dress steampunk sometimes myself (or dieselpunk pinup:rolleyes:), so I was very excited about DW and I'm not going to give up on it in a hurry.

Don't you love all the little mini-genres they've coined off of steampunk now? (dieselpunk, clockpunk, etc.) Personally, it should all be just steampunk. :)

eldargal
12-15-2010, 08:53 AM
Especially since Steampunk was a joke name to begin with. I kind of get the dieselpunk bit, being deisel powered engined and whatnot, but even then I'm not sure its strictly necessary.
Personally, I'm a Chapette (http://www.thechap.net/) that dabbles.:cool:


Back on topic, I really love the Brittannia land ships:
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/images/dystopianwars/britannia_landships_north_africa.jpg

scadugenga
12-15-2010, 11:41 AM
The land ships are what made a buddy of mine decide to play Brittania...

Though I suspect he has an overwhelming urge to look at me after a hard fought game and say:

"Rule Brittania, my dear scadugenga....Rule Britannia."

gwensdad
12-15-2010, 02:07 PM
I didn't realize there were land forces in this game. Thought it was all naval/naval air.

Could I get away with using epic 6mm for ground troops?

Porty1119
12-15-2010, 03:55 PM
I have high hopes for the land forces, I've not seen pictures yet. I dress steampunk sometimes myself (or dieselpunk pinup:rolleyes:), so I was very excited about DW and I'm not going to give up on it in a hurry.

I've seen a few, and let me tell you: the Brits get Land Raiders.

scadugenga
12-15-2010, 10:17 PM
I've seen a few, and let me tell you: the Brits get Land Raiders.

There are plans to have walkers as well, from what I've read.

The rulebook shipped today, so I'll know more when it finally arrives.

My FSA Carrier was dropped off today. Holy hell, it's huge. I'm definitely impressed.

And yes, the smaller tanks are distinctly land-raiderish looking. Or, more appropriately, WW1 era looking. ;)

eldargal
12-16-2010, 05:01 AM
That reminds me, what exactly is the scale of these things? Precisely how long are the big ships, I keep thinking of everything in an Epic scale with the ships at around an inch-inch and a half long or something similar. If they are larger than that I probably like them more.:rolleyes:

My brothers and I are thinking about having some Dysoptian Wars nights in Steampunk outfits at our games club, should be fun so long as we like the rules. We will check them out first...

scadugenga
12-16-2010, 06:47 AM
That reminds me, what exactly is the scale of these things? Precisely how long are the big ships, I keep thinking of everything in an Epic scale with the ships at around an inch-inch and a half long or something similar. If they are larger than that I probably like them more.:rolleyes:

My brothers and I are thinking about having some Dysoptian Wars nights in Steampunk outfits at our games club, should be fun so long as we like the rules. We will check them out first...

The FSA carrier is 5.75" long, 2.5" wide and 1.5" tall. And the FSA fleet, much like the Prussians, seem to sit pretty low to the waterline, unlike the Blazing Sun & Brittanian ships--so they might actually be taller. The carriers do seem to be the largest of the ships currently available for sale.

Nice idea on the steampunk outfits for a DW game night.

eldargal
12-16-2010, 07:06 AM
Nearly six inches long, oh my goodness, I'm off to buy the rulebook and a Britannia boxed set:rolleyes:.

eldargal
12-17-2010, 08:34 AM
Have a rulebook and a few British ships on the way, decided to be sensible and wait to read the rules before buying too much.:rolleyes:

This is really pretty:
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/images/dystopianwars/image_preview_french_battleship.jpg

Bigred
12-17-2010, 04:38 PM
I agree, that the scale of the minis blew me away. The big carriers are about 6" long, and in general everything is larger than you expect it to be, and are leagues above Uncharted Seas and Battlefleet Armada designwise.

I have a feeling when the really top notch painters get their hands on these models, we are going to see some real epic work at this scale.

scadugenga
12-17-2010, 09:03 PM
@Bigred: There's some already brilliant looking stuff on the Spartan Games website.

@eldargal: Yeah, the French are looking to get some class A pretty stuff. Something tells me they'll end up being in the 2nd wave--probably early 2011.

scadugenga
12-18-2010, 05:10 PM
FSA Ground Forces preview photos are up!

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/images/dystopianwars/fsa_ground_vehicles.jpg


And the Blazing Sun Heavy Walkers:

http://www.spartangames.co.uk/images/dystopianwars/blazing_sun_small_tanks.jpg

Prussian mini-tanks are up too.

eldargal
12-19-2010, 05:06 AM
The pagoda capped walker is nifty, though I still preview the British bits and pieces so far, and the French if that preview is anything to go by.

Something I'm not clear on, do all the little tokens and whatnot come with the rulebook or the model themselves? Explosions and turn tokens etc.

EnglishInquisition
12-19-2010, 10:40 AM
A few of my friends and I have just bought fleets for DW. Had my first game a couple of nights ago, and ended up packing up at 4am! It is pretty much Uncharted Seas with bells on, but so much more the better for it. Ships get counter measures and options to swap out big guns for generators that give more tactical options in the game.

The way it works over here in the UK is-
Rule book comes with a fastplay sheet, there is a card deck seperate (not needed for the game but adds flavour), and then there are the fleet boxes.
In the fleet box you get a battleship, 3 Cruisers, 9 Frigates, 2 Bombers,10 Flying bases, and card templates and tokens for damage etc.The Bombers are pewter models, whilst fighter/recon/torpedo bombers are the 10 Flying Bases - small resin bases with 3 tiny planes on them (very cool and tiny!). These bases are referred to in the rules as "tiny flyers", but DO NOT ignore them!

It does play pretty quickly despite our 4am foray into DW, but my opponent had never played either US/FA, and we were trying out the flyer rules too! It is a very absorbing game and we did lose all sense of the time passing.

The models are very detailed, and quite large. Haven't bought any of the Carriers yet, but they are on order!! We've been told that the land forces won't be available until around March time, which on one hand is great as it will allow us to get the main rules down pretty well (and pace my spending), but on the other hand- I WANT TOYS!!! The "word" at the moment is that Spartan Games" may go down the same route with the land forces as they did with ships, ie a box set will get you large, medium and "tiny tanks". Obviously all will be available seperate to boost your forces to the desired squadron size too.

The models really tore me. There were parts of every fleet that drew me in ; Prussian Sky Fortress, Blazing Sun Gyro Carrier, the FSA Paddleboats! All cool, but as a range overall I preferred the Britannia. The WW1-esque tanks are excellent, but the landships simply awesome!
We wait in eager anticipation!

fracas
12-19-2010, 03:15 PM
The French BB comes with a waterline model as well! and she is a beauty.

I went with the EotBS for a few reasons.
1. trains as ship is rather anime whimisical
2. their air gyros, especially the scout, is great
(http://www.spartangames.co.uk/dystopian_wars_previews_medium_flyers.html)
3. they get a mechanical squid robot that is also a submersible!


the models in general are quite detailed

eldargal
12-20-2010, 01:07 AM
Having looked at some of the more detailed pictures over at Kraggi's blog I have to say the ship models have really grown on me.

fracas
12-21-2010, 04:50 PM
Here is our 2011 Release Schedule for the first few months of the year that covers Uncharted Seas, Firestorm Armada and Dystopian Wars.

What you see in this list is a breakdown of the products that are bolted down for release in 2011 and the month we are releasing them in. We have other products that we are hoping to release along with these, but as yet we have not finalised manufacturing schedules for them. So please use this list to identify what products are coming out and as more products are locked down we will add them to this list.

That just leaves me to say Merry Christmas to you all and a big thank you for supporting us in 2010. It was a fantastic year and we're excited to share 2011 with you all.

Cheers,
Spartan Neil


DYSTOPIAN WARS

January
Bomber Blisters x4
Fighter Token Blisters x4

February
Medium Flyers x4

March
Ground Vehicle Boxed Sets x4
Escorts x4

Q2 - April
Specials: 2 x Robots, 1 x Submarine and 1 x Squid
Destroyers

Q2 - May
Dreadnoughts

http://forum.spartangames.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4479.0

scadugenga
12-21-2010, 09:10 PM
Looks like I"m going to have a lot of stuff to look forward to very shortly!

Now if only the damn book would arrive. The fleet, ordered several days after the book, has already arrived. Blargh.

eldargal
12-22-2010, 06:48 AM
I ordered my book on the 17th and the order is still pending, I do hope they ship it before their Christmas break. I think the 23rd is their last day until the 4th of January.:(

Looking forward to the medium flyers and ground vehicles.

eldargal
12-23-2010, 08:41 AM
Well, found out why my order hasn't shipped:

Hi All,

Just a short note to say that our offices have remained closed since last Friday (17th). We're hoping to re-open before Christmas, but we will have to await an improvement in the weather.

All the best,
Spartan Neil





From here (http://forum.spartangames.co.uk/smf/index.php?topic=4464.0).
Stupid weather.:(

scadugenga
12-23-2010, 09:36 AM
Wow..what kind of weather did you get over there? New York got dumped on with snow, and my order from Neil @ the warstore took a meager 3 days to get shipped out to Chicago.

eldargal
12-23-2010, 09:47 AM
Lots of snow basically.:( Its a bit annoying, the weather, I mean, not SG not shipping the order, because it was going to be my Christmas present to myself.:rolleyes:

Bigred
12-23-2010, 10:34 AM
Painted minis folks?

I'm desperate for some Dystopian hobby goodness.

scadugenga
12-23-2010, 05:39 PM
Painted minis folks?

I'm desperate for some Dystopian hobby goodness.

Working on it. Right now I only have the FSA carrier (the rest of the fleet is an xmas gift.) Unfortunately, my longbow is still clogging up the workstation.

I thought painting minis was laborious. Sheesh, making sure you get the stain right and even with the grain along 72" of longbow is a right pain! And then trying not to sand so much that you screw up the tillering and/or adjust the poundage of the bow.

I'll post something as soon as I can, though.

therealjohnny5
12-24-2010, 06:36 PM
great review. really stoked about this game...How does it compare to Uncharted Seas?

fracas
12-24-2010, 09:08 PM
i think US has a better rule set
probably because it is simpler in scope

therealjohnny5
12-26-2010, 12:37 PM
Cool. Good to know. So if I were jumping in US might be better than DW or FA as starting point?

scadugenga
12-26-2010, 02:33 PM
I think that depends on how experienced you are as a wargamer--if you've a fair amount of experience in more than one wargame, you would probably find DW or FS:A fine.

fracas
12-26-2010, 03:48 PM
Start with US if you are interested in fantasy naval combat.
Spartan took the US "engine" and added air/fighter/bomber/anti air rules. A level of complexity of rules leading to some murkiness.
But if dystopian wars grab your attention start with it. The murkiness will be resolved soon enough in a FAQ

therealjohnny5
12-26-2010, 08:37 PM
Yeah DW really piqued my interest. And I've been playing various war-games for years.

eldargal
12-29-2010, 08:27 AM
Pretty:
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/images/coming_soon/strongpoint_bunker.jpg

fracas
12-29-2010, 03:04 PM
I hope they do faction specific pieces cause that would be a hoot

scadugenga
01-07-2011, 07:57 PM
Finally got to try a test game of DW out last night--was a lot of fun, even if it was the "lite" version. (IE, we tried 1 Battleship, 1 Cruiser & 3 Frigates per person.)

The game is simple to learn the basics, but definitely seems to get more complex as you go.

Battleships are nasty. You do not, I repeat not, want to get stuck on the short end of a RB1 broadside from a Battleship. It will flat out mess you up.

The Armies tried out were the FSA (Federated States of America)--me, and EoBS (Empire of the Blazing Sun (Japan))--Malevengion. Mal's twin decided to just watch this time and basically made us drool over his Prussian glory. Damn, that Prussian carrier is HUGE!

Turn 1: (EoBS wins Init)
The FSA lost first blood when the EoBS cruiser sank a frigate.
FSA responded with linked frigate fire against the EoBS cruiser to no effect.
EoBS frigates try pot-shotting the FSA battleship--nada.
FSA Cruiser fails to do anything to the seemingly invulnerable EoBS cruiser.
EoBS battleship makes a move that only lets the rear turret fire--to no effect.
FSA Battleship sinks 2 EoBS frigates displaying the awesome power that are FSA Turret Primary guns.

Turn2: (EoBS wins Init again)
EoBS moves remaining frigate, takes a potshot @ the FSA battleship w/no effect.
FSA Frigates exact revenge on the EoBS cruiser--linked fire causes a critical, sending the entire cruiser into the DW equivalent of the warp. (Much shaking of heads in bemused wonderment at this.)
EoBS Battleship moves up, sinking another FSA frigate
FSA Battleship (non-linking fire) causes minor damage to the EoBS Battleship
FSA Cruiser sinks the remaining EoBS frigate while maneuvering to get onto the tail of the EoBS Battleship.

Turn 3: (FSA wins Init)
Short summary, EOBS manages to sink final FSA frigate, and takes a huge pounding from FSA ships.

Turn 4: (FSA wins Init)
Game finale--EoBS battleship sunk w/all hands.

This game--when the dice gods are with you--they are REALLY with you. The final two turns (and the amazing disappearance of the EoBS Cruiser--now dubbed the Flying Nipponman) shows how quickly tables can turn in this game.

Just a small taste of DW has us excited for more play--including getting the flyers involved.

These are cell phone pics--so any lack of clarity is all my fault. :)

What you get in the FSA Fleet box + Carrier:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5088/5334756306_9d40e7e52f.jpg

Mal's Stunning EoBS Battleship:
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5201/5334755136_06347cc69d.jpg

Mal's twin's Prussian Battleship (in Bismarck paint scheme):
http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5250/5334138959_af344d6d2d.jpg

eldargal
02-04-2011, 06:13 AM
My order finally arrived, so impressed! The models are beautiful and surprisingly substantial, and the rulebook seems quite adequately presented and laid out. The background is one of the more interesting Steampunk settings I've encountered, too. Though I already knew that.

scadugenga
02-05-2011, 06:44 PM
My order finally arrived, so impressed! The models are beautiful and surprisingly substantial, and the rulebook seems quite adequately presented and laid out. The background is one of the more interesting Steampunk settings I've encountered, too. Though I already knew that.

I found the the rulebook needed a bit better organization of topics, but overall is easy to pick up.

Glad your order finally arrived!

eldargal
02-18-2011, 06:30 AM
Some friends and I had one of our little 'Steampunk Dressups and Dystopian Wars' nights (which, due to the abundance of stockings and corsets someone tastefully nicknamed 'Dystopian Wh-ores'.). Unfortunately we spent all the time oohing and aahing over each others painted fleets (and stockings) we ran out of time to actually have some games.:rolleyes:

SG have some new previews up:
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/dystopian_preview_page_metzger.html
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/dystopian_preview_page_john_henry.html
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/dystopian_preview_page_vanguard.html
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/dystopian_preview_page_scenery_page_1.html
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/dystopian_preview_page_ika.html

scadugenga
02-18-2011, 06:51 AM
Some friends and I had one of our little 'Steampunk Dressups and Dystopian Wars' nights (which, due to the abundance of stockings and corsets someone tastefully nicknamed 'Dystopian Wh-ores'.). Unfortunately we spent all the time oohing and aahing over each others painted fleets (and stockings) we ran out of time to actually have some games.:rolleyes:

SG have some new previews up:
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/dystopian_preview_page_metzger.html
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/dystopian_preview_page_john_henry.html
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/dystopian_preview_page_vanguard.html
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/dystopian_preview_page_scenery_page_1.html
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/dystopian_preview_page_ika.html

Yeah, I caught those over the weekend--I'm pleasantly surprised at the quality of the sculpts. :)

And....nice..lol. Too distracted to get a game in--classic!

eldargal
04-16-2011, 04:27 AM
Some of the Dreadnoughts:
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/images/dystopianwars/previews/image_preview_kob_dreadnought.jpg
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/images/dystopianwars/previews/image_preview_enterprise_dreadnought.jpg
http://www.spartangames.co.uk/images/dystopianwars/previews/image_preview_blazing_sun_dreadnought.jpg

Skragger
04-16-2011, 09:49 AM
Nice mini-review--I've been looking at DW for awhile now--just need to convince a couple friends to try it so we can get a proper game going.

Aye, its always tough to get people into new table top games because of the price. No one wants to sink money into a new game that might not work out in your group.

scadugenga
04-16-2011, 10:26 AM
I really like the FSA and KoB dreadnaughts, but again, the EoBS still seems to lack something for me.

Which is a pity, as their aero stuff is awesome.


@ Scragger: Aye, that. Fortunately, my buddies dived right in. KoB is the only faction not currently represented.

fracas
04-17-2011, 02:14 PM
I like the aesthetic of the EotBS ships but don't care for the dread

Kraggi
06-21-2011, 07:22 AM
So second time round for this, the last time I posted about it was late last year.

I can honestly say that I havent had loads of blogs added to my blog roll, but the end of last year was not a good one.

So I am now going to try and push out the boat, and see if we have new people blogging about Dystopian Wars.

The blogroll is still there and anyone who would like to get added to it drop me a reply here, forum message, or a comment on my blog.

Alternatively I do have a webpage dedicated to all of my Dystopian Wars (http://varcancluster.blogspot.com/p/dystopian-wars-gallery.html) posts, and I am intending on adding links to other peoples websites... all I am looking for are people who post information on Dystopian Wars.

It doesnt need to be much, from just simple pictures to full blown tactical analysis. The more websites the merrier. I get a lot of traffic to my blog, The Varcan Cluster (http://varcancluster.blogspot.com) about Dystopian Wars, and I think the more content I can link people too the better.

If you are interested in having a look, check out the page on my website, and feel free to drop me a comment.

So any help, suggestions ideas or weblinks will be greatly appreciated... cause I reckon that with a little bit of work we can further help increase the amount of information out there for Dystopian Wars newbies and players alike!

Kraggi
06-22-2011, 08:00 AM
A while since I posted on this I admit.

I hope any of you who read the review liked it, I am planning on a few Video Demos of some of the concepts from the game so will try and drop them in here as well as my blog.

I am now going to try and push out the boat, and see if we have new people blogging about Dystopian Wars.

I have a blogroll on my website and anyone who would like to get added to it drop me a reply here, forum message, or a comment on my
blog (varcancluster.blogspot.com).

Alternatively I do have a webpage dedicated to all of my Dystopian Wars (http://varcancluster.blogspot.com/p/dystopian-wars-gallery.html) posts, and I am intending on adding links to other peoples websites... all I am looking for are people who post information on Dystopian Wars.

It doesnt need to be much, from just simple pictures to full blown tactical analysis. The more websites the merrier. I get a lot of traffic to my blog, The Varcan Cluster about Dystopian Wars, and I think the more content I can link people too the better.

If you are interested in having a look, check out the page on my website, and feel free to drop me a comment.

So any help, suggestions ideas or weblinks will be greatly appreciated... cause I reckon that with a little bit of work we can further help increase the amount of information out there for Dystopian Wars newbies and players alike!

Asymmetrical Xeno
06-27-2011, 05:40 PM
I love the idea, and the rules sound great, but I don't like the miniatures at all.:(

I dig the minis myself - but im curious, do you have any personal ideas on what you'd want to see yourself?

I've emailed them a few times and they seem pretty friendly and at least consider suggestions - so if you have any ideas of the kind of fleets you'd like to see - perhaps you could email them ? I plan to do the same thing myself as I want to see "20,000 leagues" style "diving suit" type mech infantry (which I think would rock!).

eldargal
06-27-2011, 11:38 PM
Actually I changed my mind about the miniatures when I saw how large they were, I thought they were Epic/Warmaster sized but they are much bigger. I've quite a decent ssized Britannian fleet now myself.

Though I just had a thought, I would kill for a Dystopian Wars Warhammer Quest style dungeon rp in 28mm scale. :rolleyes:

Asymmetrical Xeno
06-28-2011, 01:18 AM
Actually I changed my mind about the miniatures when I saw how large they were, I thought they were Epic/Warmaster sized but they are much bigger. I've quite a decent ssized Britannian fleet now myself.

Though I just had a thought, I would kill for a Dystopian Wars Warhammer Quest style dungeon rp in 28mm scale. :rolleyes:

Sounds like me and my friend - at first we thought it was original/innovative but didnt really appeal to us - but in time it really grew on us to the point it's become something we really love now. And now my friend Charlotte has just got herself an American fleet - so we are all excited to start making a gaming-table and have games at her place. I just hope her cat won't break the terrain pieces :rolleyes:

An RPG could be quite cool, it's certainly a diverse enough setting - and I always like "sub-Games". Perhaps suggest that to them? They are doing a Firestorm ground-combat game called Firestorm Invasion (which will apparently be in 6mm, 15mm AND 28mm), so they seem open to the idea of other games in the same setting.