Dust Battlefield?

[Thel]

So has anyone purchased the new Dust Tactics Book?

 

I am interested in at least trying out the Battle Field version of the game.

 

I have not purchased it yet, but I have perused the store copy a couple of times.

 

Some similarities to Warfare are...

 

A similar but different reaction and suppression system.

 

Platoon Structures.

 

Plays on a open field.

 

Some things that are different.....

 

Uses Dust Tactics prices and stats. (You will need the new dice and the Tactics Card Packs...)

 

Different Platoon special 'orders' than what was in Warfare.

 

Really streamlined special rules, weapons and all that. Uses blast templates. This is really a big draw for me.

 

Cleaned up LOS.

 

Cleaned up unit cohesion and cover etc.

 

No more activate my whole army...It is now alternating unit activations.

 

Negatives..

 

A lot of units and core abilities have been renamed....Order phase has really changed.

 

Battle Builder and all its glory...Totally gone.

 

 

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Honestly, I feel like I need to at least give it a try before I dump my army. I still love the Warfare rules and I totally dig the models. It seems like to me, if Dust Tactics originally released with something like Battle Field to begin with, Warfare would never have been created...

 

 

Anyway, let me know if interested we can get something going.

 

[Adam]

Mike and I gave it a shot when they released the rules and cards a while back.  Time has muddled my recollection some but a couple things remain.

There are tons of dice.  They toned down the BBQ/Fakyeli madness of shooting four different weapons at once, but you still end up with more dice.  Existing dust dice or good ol' d6s still work fine with a bit of thought.

Stuff dies quickly and in great numbers.  It's not hard to wipe a squad or walker in one activation, even with a tool not suited for the job.  More dice plus no armor equals big casualties.  Anti-armor weapons will outright kill a trooper, so anti-tank walkers are more effective against infantry.  The Wotan is even more deadly.

Command squads are very effective.  They have a new action that allows a unit to activate twice, assuming the action succeeds.  They can also call in reinforcements, so if your Fireball gets blown up you can bring another one on.  They aren't required by the rules anymore, but they're powerful enough that you'll still want one.  Or two.

Losing the order phase and the changes to reactions make it feel very different than warfare.  I still haven't tried tactics, but I assume it's true to the design intention of tactics without the grid.

Things move and shoot a little further.  This doesn't have a huge impact be caused how reactions (don't) work, but the extra movement flexibility is nice.

Picking an army is a mix of 40k and Warmahordes.  There are no real limits or requirements, except for heroes still being unique, so you could field nothing but zombies if you wanted to.  There are "theme lists" that work more or less like tier lists in Warmahordes.  I think Mike ran one but it didn't have much effect.   Some look very potent, others are just fluffy.  Overall I like the new process.  The funky warfare org charts are gone, which is nice, but I worry about spamming the more effective units.

Some of the more obnoxious stuff (read: jump and phasers) got toned down.  Lasers are a little more effective.  The Wotan in particular is something like 8/1 instead of 2/4.  Adding exploding 6s for lasers and no armor makes it very mean and much more reliable.  Heavy flaks got better too, not that they needed it, but are also more expensive.

Overall it feels more like 40k with alternating activations than warfare.  I think Mike was unimpressed but things went poorly for him.  I thought it was ok but couldn't stop noting the differences with warfare.  Feels more beer and pretzels now.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's a big change from the tactical depth of warfare.  Losing the order phase is unfortunate but not a deal breaker.  Effectively losing reactions is a much bigger change that makes me glad I still have my warfare books.

Sent from my iPad

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[Thel]

Adam,

 

Thanks for the thoughtful comments on the game. I could only base what I saw of the game on the little bit of spot looks from the book at the stores...Does not sounds promising to me. 

 

I would still give the game a try, but I am likely to not purchase the book at this point.

 

 

[Jay Powell]

Man I wish I had the option to play some dust down here.  Dust, Bolt Action, any historical miniatures game except FoW really, not one to play against.

So how is everyone doing?

-jay

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[Thel]

Jay,

 

When I lived down in Norfolk and VA Beach, I remember there being lots of game stores down there.

 

[Jay Powell]

Tons.  I work at Tower now.  No body plays Dust or Bolt Action. 

-jay

On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 1:40 PM, Thel <tsch...@comcast.net> wrote:

Jay,

 

When I lived down in Norfolk and VA Beach, I remember there being lots of game stores down there.

 

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[Thel]

Tower as in Tower Records?

 

That is the only Tower I am aware of, but that is like 1980s stuff!

 

 

 

Thel

 

 

On Tuesday, September 16, 2014 7:58:08 AM UTC-4, HuronBH wrote:

Tons.  I work at Tower now.  No body plays Dust or Bolt Action. 

-jay

On Mon, Sep 15, 2014 at 1:40 PM, Thel <tsch...@comcast.net> wrote:

Jay,

 

When I lived down in Norfolk and VA Beach, I remember there being lots of game stores down there.

 

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[Jay Powell]

Tower of Games.

we went to a few tournaments there together back in the day.

-jay

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