Dystopian Wars | Geekscape

How And Why: Miniatures Wargames

by NecroscourgeMay 27, 2016

The number one thing I get asked about besides how to play Dungeons and Dragons is my miniatures hobby; usually assuming that I play Warhammer (down that road lay madness). It’s somewhat understandable since the popularity of cell phones has let everybody comprehend computers a bit more. I still like plenty of tabletop and miniatures wargames, and play them often.

Miniatures wargames are a time honored hobby, inspired by the movement of pieces by generals and used now to simulate pretty much everything. Gary Gygax’s original RPG, Chainmail and the first few DnD editions were more or less wargames, a lot of focus was on the combat abilities of the character improving over time and fighting on a grid or table. Steve Jacksons OGRE can be bought in a travel version that is some maps, the booklet, and a bunch of cutout tokens to move around the map; that style persists today in many space-ship combat sim games.

MiniArt2 — There’s a miniatures line for everybody

There are two popular styles of Miniatures Wargame. A war simulation, and a role playing wargame with the difference being how much focus is put on character development. Necromunda and Gorka-Morka are two Games Workshop specialist games where you have your own party of characters you outfit, customize, upgrade, and level up. Their most popular game line Warhammer has no such aspect, forces are made from a point buy system with customization but no persistent aspects. It’s worth noting that both types of game benefit from organized campaign play that adds enough persistence to keep people interested.

To some extent both styles require you to put together a force of models that represents your army, and the other players do the same according to an accepted point value (almost all games use one, and it just tends to work.) and then take turns adding terrain to the table until you have a battleground. Initiative is rolled, game begins.

MiniArt1 — Gorka-Morka, which can be summed up as Mad Max with Orks

Warhammer 40K uses both a point buy and a squad choice system. You have to have minimal types of squads before your army is table legal. The game I play, Dystopian Wars, is the same way: A table legal force contains at least one large/massive, one medium, and one small sized squad, with a commander placed on one of your large/massive squads. Because you can only bring so many of your models to the table, you have to be clever about how you build and play your force.

The Empire of Man in Warhammer Fantasy has huge groups of regimental infantry they can creep forward with, supported by cannon and arquebus fire. The Orks on the other hand outnumber everybody and fling wave after wave at the enemy until they win, being absolute rubbish at range. The Ogres string together charge attack after charge attack, smashing into lines of smaller units. Every army plays a bit differently for every game; which can be damning if you find out you don’t like the style of the army you bought.

MiniArt3 — Alternatively there are paper miniatures for cheapskates!

Individual models have ratings and qualities that set it apart from others. Empire infantry aren’t tough like Orks, but are more disciplined. Federated States tanks are loaded with sharpshooters while the Republique uses many status effect inducing weapons. It can be maddening at first with some games trying to understand what does what, i’m still struggling to be better!

What game you pick also tells you what to expect out of combat. Warhammer Fantasy does not let you shoot into melee fights, Dystopian Wars has three different size classes of units for any environment, and Infinity channels the complexity of cyberpunk firefights. Those three games have different rhythms because they simulate different kinds of engagements. Infinity is all about cover, terrain is a core part of the experience; while in the game I play I have not even bothered trying to dabble with terrain yet. Let’s win a game first before I try that.

MiniArt4 — Part of a Warhammer Fantasy army

What still makes wargamers a rare breed is how much time, money, and effort that the hobby demands. I chose DW specifically because it was cheap and I still have put down a lot for it; an amount that would of hardly bought me a full Warhammer army. Then comes painting and assembly, depending on what game you chose that can take days. A decent Ork army numbers 150+ models! With 3D printers coming out swinging, these models now have even more detail than they used to, that adds time too. And then play is 3 hours minimum for a wargame, less if both people know what they are doing. You don’t do this unless you want to.

I just finished priming a massive Republique of France army, a 2000 point list using all of my favorite tricks: Floating naval cruisers, screens of fighter aircraft, heat lance tanks, and more. The next step for them is painting. The great thing about the game I chose is they are more or less all vaguely round or square shaped tanks with a low profile; perfect for beginners. The major marketing strategy behind the new Age of Sigmar line on the other hand was larger, more detailed models intended for enthusiasts. Painting Galleries aren’t complete if there isn’t a well painted Space Marine army on there somewhere.

A game typically ends when one side is hopelessly outfought. Some games like Dystopian Wars gives you a random win condition, meaning you have to fight the enemy a specific way if you want to win. You usually have to blow up all of a certain size class in addition to a percentage of the enemies points. Other times you have to capture specifics positions, it varies by game. Campaign based games usually have you retreating if you are losing, not by force but the alternative is losing all your good units; a rule in Necromunda is if a character dies you lose its gear (Some street kid runs out and grabs his stuff before the fight ends) and in Gorka-Morka don’t expect to drive a car the next match if it’s been blown up.

What I like about Miniatures Wargames is that they are a social experience mixed with arts and hobbies. There is a certain calm that comes from painting up an army, and a certain freedom you feel when priming your first army. It’s something I suggest for those that want to try it out.

Tabletop Tales: ‘Dystopian Wars’: ALL The Tanks!

by NecroscourgeNovember 8, 2015

As any long time wargamer will tell you, it all started with minimal forces and a struggling concept of the game’s rules. My British friends have been congratulating me on my newfound addiction, while also advising me that crack is cheaper. It’s generally a sign of acceptance when you are buying as much paint and models as I am!

The quarterly order I put in just before Halloween is going to finish up my demand of Grench models for the time being, as well as equip me with enough paint to begin that process. I’ll be starting with a base grey primer coat and build from that, limiting how much detailing I have to do on weapons and armor. Neighbors models will have a green coat to tell them apart on the table. Don’t expect anything master class out of me, but I have read enough on the topic to do a decent enough job.

Esc3 — My neighbor exclusively plays FSA, and will be painting his own fleet.

I’m at the point where I’m planning for a table, which I’m going to paint specially to make it clear where the No-Man’s Land is; the neutral zone between the two territories. It’ll be 5’x4’; reluctantly accepting the reality of having to store it. It won’t be a dull board either, I’m going to mark it up a little for “basic” scenery such as trenches and roads. The theory being that by having them there I’d be able to field extra infantry and put them in a safe spot. Infantry aren’t really a big focus point anyway, the idea is that by making them extremely hard to hit I’m forcing the attention on other units while they move forward.

It has become clear that it takes a handful of times playing, re-reading the rules, and then playing again before you start playing what can be considered a fair, proper game. Having tasted the old land movement rules and embraced the new ones I can say they greatly streamline the ability to use land units; at the same time making land based large units a nightmare in some circumstances. I still have a difficult time lining up the forward guns of the Mauselle up, while he has easier and easier times maneuvering his landship into firing position. In general the FSA has strong broadsides, being able to maneuver their broadside tanks is an immediate buff for them. Now If I could just find a way to order the dang things.

This week’s reading of the manual has helped a great deal in fixing a lot of my mistakes and the forum communities been helping me with whatever questions I have. It does not help that the rules are written in long delicate sentences that complicate the point trying to be made, while unofficial cards with the stats and rules can easily sum up any of those rules in a blurb. Don’t try to learn this game if you flunked English 2. There are a lot of rules mentioned somewhere separately inthan where it applies; All FSA Capital’s (‘Cept robots) have snipers on them that get a special non-attack-attack against models to pick off some troops. No reminders exist on relevant units entries hence why we always forget to use it.

Esc2 — Covenant of Antarctica flying battlegroup, fear the skyships!

My opponent is still hiding behind his damn bunker complex. In general the American land units have strange firing arcs that are ambiguous at best; contrasted by fairly clear firing arcs on most other factions. The way he makes up for this is having disastrously good artillery and powerful boarding squads. He has not played them this way yet, but he is capable of mounting his own tank offensive to uproot me. Well sort of, the issue with the Americans is that their models are old designs that operate in old whacky ways. Both of their frontline tanks lack a forward turret but have things like broadside guns, or for the Trenton four diagonal facing fixed guns. Then glance over to my table, you’ll have a hard time finding a French model without some kind of front aiming gun (Unless you immediately point at the Arbalete, but that’s cheating)

I, of course have a plan for dealing with his puny army. I’m ordering my skimmers, floating naval ships capable of turning with minimal effort. They will be able to zoom deep into the enemy’s front lines like cavalry to harass him long enough to set up shots with my angrier tanks. I considered the HQ skimmer but it’s expensive to field and I’d rather use the points fielding chasseur squads (Floaty Cruiser + Floaty Frigate x2). There is a lot of joy to be had in units that can move half speed, fire, then move the rest of their speed; all while being capable of making turns naval ships typically can’t make. Despite being mounted on flying bases, they are not really fliers but instead are more or less surface units incapable of being anti-aired.

Something I am hoping to do is get more people interested in wargaming; It’s just too hard to find anything other than Warhammer players locally. Miniature Market has about 200 Dystopian Wars items on clearance still. All you really need for two players is one armies 2.0 starter box (it comes with materials the old ones don’t) and from there get a landship or two, four squads worth of mediums, and a box of smalls of another nation (I’d also argue get a pack of fighter tokens for each nation too!). Combined that with tape measure, some dice, and a table, and you have a game. That’s more or less what I did and I have been doing fine. I think it’s a good game for teenagers too, as itforces them to do a lot of quick mental math.

As to those wondering “What happened to DnD? Did he stop playing?” and the answer is hell no. In fact, I preordered the new Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide and plan on doing a write up of that combined with the Rage of Demons storyline book “Out of the Abyss” in a week or two when they arrive. I also have a ton of recorded audio of my weekly game I plan on doing a few mega-cut’s for. I promise to get that out before the next rapture happens.

Tabletop Tales: Dystopian Wars Beginnings

by NecroscourgeSeptember 27, 2015

For a long time it’s been difficult to get into hobby war-games such as Battletech or Warhammer, usually because of the price; since Games Workshop and other major developers are European it can get very pricey for what is essentially molded material with game rules. Games Workshop is the notorious one here, currency conversion rates increase kit prices; not something to look forward to when you’re mandated to own most of your armies models to even consider playing the game. This has cemented the price of miniatures in general at an average rate of $20-30 for a squad and $100+ per army. My goal was to have two legitimate forces for under $60 each while also having something “nice to present” even unpainted and playable with minimal assembly.

DW2 — Dystopian Wars armies look great when painted and gathered

No matter how long I did my research I kept finding myself looking at Dystopian Wars for its scale and simplicity. The basic plot is that Antarctica discovered an special element (Sturginium) allowing for the construction of gigantically proportioned weapons and vehicles; leading to a WW1 style scenario where everybody declared war against somebody else dividing into Imperial Bond or Grand Coalition forces with Antarctica hating both. The element allows for crazy things like colossal warships, battleships, tanks, and more.

The majority of the online community for DW plays with naval armies, I couldn’t find many Armored or any Air forces being played on Youtube. For the sake of gigantic tank battalions I optioned for Armored forces to start with; since the rules allow for mixing a little bit of air or even floating naval units to my force list should I wish to. Naval and Air models can have large turn widths while most Armored units use the 45 degree template.

DyWar1 — The “Operation: Shadow Hunter” box contains enough models and scenarios for two players to learn the game

Half of my order consisted of “older” print models while the rest were newer ones. Besides various different shades of resin, there’s no noticeable difference between the old and new castings. One thing I did notice though is that the 1.0 army boxes lacked the “MK1” drop-on choice for the Taka-Ashi landship inside while the 2.0 boxes had all the options for the units contained with one exception: The Russian box landship drop-on does not match the one in the picture, thankfully not having any specific game rules like other drop-on’s have.

As others have mentioned in unboxing these miniatures the majority of the models have imperfections on the bottom of the figures where people won’t see them, and the turrets had ugly flashing on them (like all pewter parts made ever) that sometimes didn’t clean up as well as they should. Each model has many fine details, some of which represent the models weapons. In cases like tiny fighter tokens coloring them differently sets them apart by type and in some cases denote Ace wings

DSCF0766 — Army lists are composed out of models organized into Squadrons, bigger models are put in smaller Squadrons.

As for craftsmanship the models are top shelf yet come with no documentation for assembly or play (the old blisters had outdated rules-cards, boxes had nothing). Since the majority of vehicles are single pieces or have one or two dropped on parts this isn’t that bad, until you get something like a mobile airfield with parts that are not immediately obvious in their purpose. In cases like the “Taka-Ashi” walker and “Mauselle” mobile airfield several parts must be permanently glued before the model can be used while the other 99% of my models can be freely packed and unpacked with little risk of damage and minimal assembly, often sharing parts of the same factional design (turrets for example are often shared by several models from the same army list)

DSCF0765 — Heat Lance Tanks are great for blasting high value targets!

I went for the French for the design of the above plane flinging Arbelete support tank, which contributes to the number and strength of my support aircraft; every force gets ten free wings of support planes but carriers and models like the Arbelete grant additional air support. My French strategy is to cover my advance with dive bombers and fighter screens. My second army is built of a Russian core and Tank-Hunter box along with extra Orlov heavy tanks. I found myself meeting the goal of having enough units to play a reasonably sized game between my French and Russians, having already ordered a Russian landship to supplement the fleet.

Each box may of lacked any type of rules but did come with sets of game aides (tokens, templates, etc) that must be cut apart before use rather than being punch-outs. The 2.0 core boxes each came with a set of command cards used for the game and a set of super teeny tiny dice for the infantry and plane trays, while both came with enough infantry tokens I found myself wishing I had more of the plane trays you can seemingly only buy from Spartan Games. What I didn’t know it came with was a single random objective marker (from objective markers box set) and with my French I got the best one…

While I may be complaining about the lack of any game related materials being in any of the boxes besides tokens and templates it’s not like all of the faction unit lists and the game’s rule-book aren’t a free download on the Spartan Games website. I was able to learn the game far before I had the miniatures to move around on the table, meaning I didn’t have to sit around thinking “What if I hate the rules but love the miniatures?” and was able to make a fairly informed decision before pulling the trigger. Many miniatures games do release their rules free now, but this only started recently.

As for the rules of Dystopian Wars, it’s an “I go, you go” style war-game where one player moves a squad of units, shoots with all weapons he can, then the next player does the same. Unlike other miniature games however there is an extreme focus on individual unit play-styles, every different size class of unit and type of weapon can behave specially within a fairly easy to learn rule-set. Every type of attack uses the same “build a dice pool from six sided die” mechanic with sixes usually “exploding”; meaning that you get to count that six AND reroll a die to potentially roll another six.

DSCF0773 — The mobile airfield may look impressive but requires glue before it can be used without falling loose

Bigger vehicles just naturally have better dice pools where smaller models need to gather into 2-5 model squads to roll the same kind of big dice pools. This gives lot of credibility to a balanced force list as well as an experimental one where some games favor specific play-styles more than others. In addition to models the player uses a set of command cards to directly influence the battlefield at the expense of giving the other side victory points for doing so. Destroyed models yield half points, while captured capital models yield double their points. Victory is obtained through gathering enough points to fulfil the objective rolled at the start of the game (or drew through the objective cards provided in the core boxes) normally mandating you destroy enough of a certain size class of enemy vehicles.

So the conclusion is like any other hobby war-game, you need some money to spend to gradually increase the size and amount of forces to play with. Though if you play Call of Duty this should be nothing new to you. Dystopian Wars is a game you can buy into very cheaply because of how long it’s been around and it still gets support from its developer (new models have been appearing bi-monthly). It’s a game you and your friends can transition into, strategize, and replay for quite some time.