Monday 21 November 2016

Dropfleet Commander Gameplay overview

A few weeks ago now I wrote about my experiences of testing out different colour schemes for my UCM, well, of those 8 I created, I settled for a ninth one... Duly placing an order at Firestorm Games for a starter set, which arrived in rapid time I set to assembling my UCM fleet for our first few games, and here are my initial thoughts on the game and rules.

Rulebook
For those who have played Battlefleet Gothic, the format will be instantly familiar, being a landscape soft cover format, however a protective sleeve is also provided to aid storing the book on a bookshelf and aid presentation in stores.

The book starts off with some history of the Dropzone universe, and for those who are already up to speed with this lore, the story is advanced a little from Reconquest Phase 2. It's worth mentioning the art through the book at this stage too, as the presentation is really quite beautiful.
Next on we get to the rules. These are actually very, very simple, however are explained with a lot of box outs and examples. I'll discuss the actual game play a little later, however I did enjoy how the rules were set out and explained.  

 After the rules we come to the scenarios, of which 8 are included covering various different deployment types and scenario options. I'll speak about these broadly when I cover the rules as they are critical to the way the game itself is played.

At the end of the scenario section is a guide to integrating Dropfleet into your games of Dropzone, and vice versa, as well as rules for campaign play. This was a touch that particularly pleased me, as the concept of both games links so well and seemed so suited for this type of gaming. 

 Following on from these we come to fleet building and army lists. These cover the human UCM forces, the post human PHR, as well as the alien Scourge and Shaltari. Each list is presented with a history of each race, their technology, and any specific special rules that may apply, before detailing each ship they can use with a nice picture, some more lore about each class, and of course their rules too. 
The book is finished off with a story, and some templates and counters to print and use in your games.

Presentation and quality are excellent. There's no index sadly, however the book is quite easy to navigate as each section is colour coded so finding stuff is surprisingly quick.

How it works
Space ships rumble around blowing each other up whilst dropping men and tanks onto a planet. 
In more specific terms... 

Activation
As previously mentioned, forces are organised into battlegroups, these are then rated according to the tonnage of the battle group. the more ships, the higher the tonnage. The contents of a battle group and its tonnage rating are written onto an activation card, with each battlegroup having its own card. In the planning stage of the turn, you organise these into the order you want each group to activate, and then place them face down. each player then reveals their top card, and the lowest rated one gets to activate first or second.

 Once both players have activated their battlegroups, then the next card is revealed, and so on until all cards have been turned face up. Once they are, the turn is over and they can be resorted. In practice, this tends to lead to smaller lighter groups being more tactically flexible, but heavier groups being more resilient and slower to respond, which feels right. Note that the ratings aren't adjusted as ships are destroyed. 

When activated, you declare an order for the battlegroup, and this can either be a special order, or a standard order, with ships being able to individually use that battlegroups special order or standard orders. Special orders allow vessels to do something slightly different to the norm, such as move faster, fire more weapons, make an extra turn, etc. 

Force selection
Before speaking specifically about force selection, It's worth mentioning that all the scenarios require you to land troops on an objective, so every fleet will require a balance of forces that can deploy ground troops to the objective, as well as ships capable of defending that objective and driving off the opposition, aaaand then holding a location too. There's a lot to think about, and you will struggle to have all the tools you need to do this in a force. 

Forces are divided into battlegroups, with the maximum amount of battle groups decided by points size of the game. Up to 999 points is skirmish level, 1000-1999 is clash and battle is 2000-3000. Skirmish level allows you up to 4 battle groups, clash is 6, and battle is 7. Battle groups themselves are divided again into pathfinder type, which focuses on lighter classes such as frigates, corvettes and a small number of cruisers. Line, which sees Cruisers and a few escorting frigates, Vanguard which contains your battle cruisers and their support, and finally Flag, which is your super heavy battleship types. 

Into this mix of battlegroups you will need to get some strike carriers which fall into the Frigate category, and probably a bulk lander or two, which fall into the cruiser band. There is also a number of compulsory battlegroup types depending on size of the battle, and a limit on how many launch assets (fighters, bombers torpedoes), that can be contained in a fleet as well 

This all serves to make the list building side of the game quite critical, as you will have to start formulating plans and schemes of what you want your formations to do even before the game is set up. This may not be to everyone's taste, but personally I love it, and if you're familiar with Dropzone this will be fairly recognisable. 

 Movement
 
Ships have thrust value, this is how far they can move, and most orders mean that they have to move at least half this distance. Turns are restricted as well, with only one 45 degree turn at the start of the move permitted under most circumstances. Ships can also change orbital layer, making them harder to hit from other layers, and necessary for deploying troops to the objectives.

Shooting

Range is unlimited for weapons, and the ability to shoot at a target is determined by combining your ships scan rating, the signature of the target, and any sensor spikes they may have accumulated , which can add either 6" or 12" depending on whether they are minor or major spikes. To actually hit the target, just grab the number of dice listed under the attack rating for the weapon, and roll over the weapons lock value. The target then gets to save these by rolling over their ships armour value, with any dice not exceeding the armour value resulting in damage. When the ship is at half it's number of hull points you roll on the critical damage table, and usually something awful happens (In my experience). Once all the hull points have gone, a ship is destroyed. 
When rolling to hit, if you score 2 more than your lock value, then no armour save is permitted. Ships tend to die fairly quickly, and the game is quite punishing if you make a mistake, (and your opponent capitalises on it.)

Fighters, Bombers and Dropships, oh my! 

Launch assets are very simpley handled, and essentially work like a shooting attack, with fighters adding to a ships defensive fire dice pool, and bombers working like any other weapon. Drop ships go to the planet and deploy your ground assets,  which can fight your opponents in the following turn, and that's about it. Torpedoes are very nasty, and thankfully very limited too. Launch assets can be launched in every turn too, they are not restricted for the most part.  

Game play impressions
I've managed to squeek a few games in all at around the thousand point level, playing a few different scenarios, and my initial feelings are very positive. 

Suggested game play is a 4x4 area, however we have used a 6x4 as we like to have more room for movement and it forces you to commit to a course of action.  Victory conditions in most scenarios earn victory points in the 4th and 6th turns, so you have to constantly keep fighting, without resting on initial success. 

The first turn or two generally tends to be slower, with fleets entering the board and jostling for position, before turns 3 and 4 seeing the major clashes around objective points and ships starting to explode. turn 5 sees the battered survivors of the early clash reorganising and attempting to get into that final point of dominance at the end of the game. 

All the games we have played have pretty much come down to the final turn, final dice throw of the game with the battles utterly undecided until that point. 

We've done a few multi player games, and even with 4 players we've come to a resolution in 3 hours or so. 
I'm very impressed with Hawks latest effort, and can't wait to get my Kickstarter and Battleships now...

For more info check out Hawk Wargames, and as ever you can see more of my work at Volley Fire Painting Service













Sunday 9 October 2016

Dropfleet Commander first look

After a some what frustrating week I was fortunate enough to call in at the Dropfleet Commander launch event at Wayland Games. I was handed some sprues and asked to come up with some simple but effective colour schemes. 









 With access to limited paints and supplies, I built 8 UCM Frigares, and 8 Scourge Frigates, and primed half of each with Army Painter Uniform Grey spray, and the other half with Army Painter Plate Mail Spray.






Paints I had access too were the following:-
Vallejo
990 Light Grey
Game Colour Sun Yellow
Game Colour Glorious Gold
Game Colour Bloody Red
Game Colour WhitePrimer
Game Colour Black Ink 
Game Colour Chain Mail

Games Workshop
Waystone Green
Averland Sunset
Druchii Violet
Nuln Oil

Brushes used were an Army Painter Regiment Brush, and a Citadel Shade Brush, with other tools being Citadel Superglue, Army Painter clippers and an xacto blade.

For ease of handling I have superglued the ships to a length of sprue, the models can then simply be cut off with a sharp blade and the paint work neatened up ready for use.

Uniform Grey primed ships

UCM
Step 1 Drybrush Vallejo Pale Grey
Step 2 Pick out spot colours with Averland Sunset or Bloody Red










 
Step 3 Shade with Nuln Oil (Ship A was washed with Druchii Violet)
Step 4 Dry brush white
Step 5  Pick out details with Black Ink








Step 6 Dry Brush engines with Glorious Gold
Step 7 Give engines another coat of Black Ink










Step 8 Pick out spot colours again to make them brighter and bolder using another coat of either Bloody Red or Sun Yellow
Step 9 (Optional) Paint exhaust of engines white, then give them a coat of Druchii Violet) Pick out centre with white again to give impression of glow.









Scourge
Ship A
Step 1 Paint with Druchii Violet
Step 2 Paint stripes of Black Ink
Step 3 Drybrush Glorious Gold
Step 4 Paint Eyes and engines white
Step 5 Paint Eyes and engines  Druchii Violet, then give them another spot of white






Ship B


Step 1 Drybrush Bloody Red
Step 2 Shade with Nuln Oil
Step 3 Dry brush Bloody Red
Step 4 Dry Brush Glorious Gold along the top ridges
Step 5 Paint Eyes and engines white
Step 6 Paint Eyes and engines  Druchii Violet, then give them another spot of white





Ship C
Step 1 Dry Brush White Primer
Step 2 Dry Brush Averland Sunset along ridges and top edges
Step 3 Shade with Nuln Oil
Step 4 Dry brush white areas white
Step 5 Dry brush yellow areas with Sun Yellow 
Step 6 Paint Eyes and engines white
Step 7 Paint Eyes and engines  Druchii Violet, then give them another spot of white

Ship D
Step 1Paint stripes of Waystone Green
Step 2 Shade with Nuln Oil
Step 3 Drybrush Glorious Gold along ridges
Step 4 Paint Eyes and engines white
Step 5 Paint Eyes and engines  DruchiiViolet, then give them another spot of white




Plate Mail Spray
UCM
Ship A
Step 1 Shade with Nuln Oil
Step 2 Drybrush white
Step 3 Pick out Bloody Red details
Step 4 Paint engines and weapons Black Ink
Step 5 Paint lights Averland Yellow
Step 6 Pick out lights and engine exhaust with White
Step 7 Shade engines with Druchii Violet
Step 8 Pick out Engine Centre with White

Ship B
Step 1 Paint with Waystone Green. (May require several coats to get a bold green)
Step 2 Drybrush Chain Mail
Step 3 Paint Waystone Green again
Step 4 Paint turrets and details Light Grey
Step 5 Paint Weapons and details White Primer, leaving some grey showing at edges
Step 6 Paint engines and weapons Black Ink
Step 7 Paint lights Averland Yellow
Step 8 Pick out lights and engine exhaust with White
Step 9 Shade engines with Druchii Violet
Step 10 Pick out Engine Centre with White

Ship C
Step 1 Paint with Black Ink
Step 2 Drybrush white
Step 3 Pick out Averland Sunset details
Step 4 (Optional) Paint Averland Sunset details Sun Yellow
Step 5 Paint engines and weapons Black Ink
Step 6 Paint lights Averland Yellow
Step 7 Pick out lights and engine exhaust with White
Step 8 Shade engines with Druchii Violet
Step 9 Pick out Engine Centre with White

Ship D
Step 1 Shade with Nuln Oil only in the deepest details
Step 2 Drybrush Chainmail
Step 3 Pick out Bloody Red details
Step 4 Paint engines and weapons Black Ink
Step 5 Paint lights and details Averland Yellow
Step 6 Pick out lights and engine exhaust with White
Step 7 Shade engines with Druchii Violet
Step 8 Pick out Engine Centre with White


Scourge
Ship A
Step 1 Shade with Druchii Violet
Step 2 Drtbrush Glorious Gold
Step 3 Shade with Druchii Violet
Step 4 Drybrush Chainmail
Step 5 Pick out lights and engine exhaust with White
Step 6 Shade engines with Druchii Violet
Step 7 Pick out Engine Centre with White





Ship B
Step 1Paint stripes of Druchii Violet. This may take a few coats to get a strong colour. Allow each layer to dry before doing the next.
Step 2 Paint stripes of Waystone Green. This may take a few coats to get a strong colour. Allow each layer to dry before doing the next.
Step 3 Drybrush Chainmail
Step 4 Pick out lights and engine exhaust with White
Step 5 Shade engines with Druchii Violet
Step 6 Pick out Engine Centre with White

Ship C
Step 1Paint stripes of Druchii Violet. This may take a few coats to get a strong colour. Allow each layer to dry before doing the next.
Step 2 Paint stripes of Black Ink. This may take a few coats to get a strong colour. Allow each layer to dry before doing the next.
Step 3 Dry brush Chainmail
Step 4 Dry brush  spines with Glorious Gold
Step 5 Pick out lights and engine exhaust with White
Step 6 Shade engines with Druchii Violet
Step 76 Pick out Engine Centre with White

Ship D
Step 1Paint stripes of Averland Sunset. This may take a few coats to get a strong colour. Allow each layer to dry before doing the next.
Step 2 Paint stripes of Black Ink. This may take a few coats to get a strong colour. Allow each layer to dry before doing the next.
Step 3 Dry brush Chainmail
Step 4 Pick out some details with Glorious Gold
Step 5 Pick out lights and engine exhaust with White
Step 6 Shade engines with Druchii Violet
Step 7 Pick out Engine Centre with White


These techniques are designed to be quick and easy, and I managed to get all 16 vessels from sprue to painted starting at about 12:30, and finished around 21:00, including a drive home at peak traffic, lunch, dinner and time to look at toys. 






Real time I think I probably spent no more than 5-6 hours in total.  These are fantastic little models and deceptively big too, the cruisers and battle cruisers are really quite significant models, and I can't wait for the battleships to be available. 






I haven't had a chance to try the game yet so can't comment on the game play, but seeing games in action there appeared to be a lot of movement and focus on objectives, but hopefully I'll get a game in soon!








I'm going to try some airbrush techniques in the next week or two on some cruisers and more frigates to try out some colour schemes in readiness for my Kickstarter arriving. For those unfamiliar with the Dropzone/Dropfleet universe you can find out more in my over view of Dropzone here, and visit the Hawk Wargames Website for more info. 
As ever, you can see more of my work or contact me regarding commissions at Volley Fire Painting Service





























 






Sunday 2 October 2016

Perry Miniatures Battle in a Box

Earlier this year Perry Miniatures released their 'Battlefield in a box American Civil War' set. This is the Perry's first attempt at a starter type set, and it's certainly impressive. 
Amongst the first, possibly the very first, 28mm plastic multipart figures to come out were the Perry's American Civil war infantry set some years ago now, and since then they have massively expanded the range, with packs of Zouaves, Artillery, and Confederate infantry now added to the range, as well as a range of buildings and terrain.

This set brings some of all of that together, in a package that contains 170 figures, as well as buildings, flags and rules for £95. I'll break down the contents before talking a little about the rules.


Contents

12 cavalry.

 These can be assembled as either Federal or Confederate models, and are spread across 3 sprue. Each sprue comes with a mix of arms equipped with swords and pistols, as well as parts to make a guidon bearer, bugler and officer. There is also a choice of head gear for the models too.










65 Confederates and 8 Confederate Command.

 These figures are split across 13 sprues of 5 figures who can be assembled as line infantry, at either the charge or right shoulder shift position, again with a mix of either caps or hats, with enough to equip all the models with one type or the other.





 There are also 4 command sprue, and these allow you to build standard bearers, officers and drummers, again with a choice of head gear. at a pinch these could be used as Federals, although the jackets are the wrong shape and are inaccurate for this purpose. In their intended role the figures work very well though, and are especially representative of Confederates from the mid to later part of the Civil War. 

48 of the original American Civil War infantry.

 These sets contain 12 figures per sprue, which can be assembled in a variety of poses, though a few are single piece. These can be built as either Confederate or Federals, and each sprue also contains command models.

Some of these figures are a little dated by todays standards and in comparrioson to the other figures in the set, though they still do look quite nice. 

24 Zouaves and 4 Zouave Command. 

These figures break down as 6 models per frame, with a choice or Turbans or Fez for head gear. Each model may be armed posed at right shoulder shift or the charge. 
 
The command figures again allow you to add standard bearers, officers and drummers.











2 mounted officers. 



 These two are unique to this set, and feature one figure with a choice of heads, one bearded and one moustachioed. Pose allows for a few options, including with binoculars, pistols and swords.


 




The horse only comes with the one pose option, however this could be mixed or swapped with one of the cavalry mounts if you wanted a little more variety. 










18 gunners and 4 cannon. 


 These are from one of the most recent Civil War sets from the Perry's, unfortunately unlike the boxed set these do not contain the limbers that the full set does, however apart from that the rest of the set is great.  the 18 gun crew can be assembled with a mix of Kepi's, Caps, and hats, and the figures are dressed in shell jackets with a range of poses on offer, with separate arms for each crew man. 
 


The 4 guns also contain several options, this taken directly from the Perry website 'there are 4 gun barrels for each gun; Napoleon 12pdr, 3 inch Ordnance Rifle, 10 pdr Parrott and 12 pdr Howitzer.'





The set includes a pile of bases for everything too, with multibases provided for the bulk of the models.











Terrain wise, 4 feet of fencing is provided across 4 sprue, and the Perry's plastic American House is also included. This looks to be a very nice little model, and the fencing will be handy too. 










Rounding out the contents are a Flag/colour reference sheet. This sheet contains a good number of flags for your regiments, whilst on the reverse are some great colour plates and uniform guides. Personally, I'd be inclined to replace the included flags, as I'm not a fan of the thick printing paper used for these. Colour and detail levels are impressive however. 







Rule/scenario book

 This booklet is a small A5 soft back document with 12 pages, half of which contains the rules, whilst the other half contains scenarios. No army lists are provided. 

The Firepower! Rules are quite simple, regiments consist of 18 figures in 2 ranks of 9, with cavalry in a single rank of 6 figures, and guns as individual models. Turn sequence has each player use all all their models, before their opponent gets to do the same, with most scenarios running around 6 turns long.

 Movement is very simple, a unit moves 2D6", stopping when it comes into contact with cover.

Shooting is resolved by rolling 9 dice for an infantry unit, 6 dice for cavalry, or a single dice for artillery, then having to role over a certain score depending on range. Cover provides a 4+ saving throw to counter hits, and once a unit of infantry has taken 9 hits it is removed, with cavalry being able to take 6. Melee is resolved in the same way, with bonuses applied for charging and flanking an opponent. 

Morale is handled simply, once a casualty is inflicted a check is taken, having to roll over the amount of hits taken by a unit on 2D6, if this is failed the unit retreats until it can be rallied, and that's about all there is too it.

These rules won't impress the purist, but could be a great in to the period for someone just starting out in the black powder era who wants to use massed formations rather than skirmish level games, before moving on to something like Longstreet or Black Powder.






To sum up then, this is a superb value set, and a great cornerstone to a Civil War collection on a budget, especially if you were to split the set with a friend. You can check out the Perry's ACW range at their website, along with the supporting range of metals they produce here, and you can catch up with more of my work on Volley Fire Painting Service and listen to the Brit the Yank and the Hobby Podcast for some historical gaming discussion.