300pt Dust Warfare Recap

Yes it did.

I played a 300pt game of Dust Warfare on Tuesday and it was quite enjoyable.  As most of my BRs are more self-reflection and bullet point analysis these days, this will be short and to the point.  I'll talk about some of the stuff I found interesting and tactical mistakes and good plays that happened during the game.

First, the army lists--

My 300pt Axis force had..
PU: Implacable = 15

C: Heavy Kommandotrupp + Lara = 64
1: Axis Gorillas + Markus = 48
2: Heavy Recon Grenadiers = 30
3: Battle Grenadiers (+Pzshrek) = 20
4: Battle Grenadiers (+Pzshrek) = 20
S1: Sniper Team = 12
S2: Medium Pz Walker-B "Ludwig" = 40
S3: Medium Pz Walker-B "Ludwig" = 40

My opponent (Chris) had:

Combat Platoon
C: Ranger Command Squad
1: Ranger Combat Squad
2: Ranger Recon Squad
3: Ranger Weapon Squad
S: “Pounder” Medium Walker
S: “Steel Rain” Medium Walker
S: Observer Team

Elite Platoon
C: Ozz 177
1: Heavy Ranger Assault Squad
2: Heavy Ranger Attack Squad
3: Heavy Ranger Tank Hunter Squad
S: Sniper Team

Ozz 177 attached to the Heavy Ranger Assault Squad.

Placed an order for Dust Warfare

Shit just got real.

I was so impressed with my last game of Dust Warfare that I placed an order for an army today.  I decided to go with the Axis because I have a long standing fascination with the Wehrmacht.  As for the actual design of the army itself, it's only fair that I take you guys through my thought process and why I chose the units I did.  Before I do that though, I'll show you guys what I ordered exact:

Core Set Revised - Gets me Lara, Sturmpionieres, Heavy Laser Grenadiers, Heavy Flak Grenadiers, "Hans" Light Walker.

Axis Gorillas box + Operation Seelowe for Markus

Axis Observer Squad + Sniper Squad box

Axis Heavy Kommandotrupp box

Axis Heavy Recon Grenadiers box

2x Axis Battle Grenadiers box

2x Axis Medium Panzer Walker box

All this costs ~182 with free shipping from Miniatures Market.  I'm planning to split the Core Revised box with someone so -25 for me there and I'll probably sell the Allied Hero from Seelowe for another 12.  This equates to the entire Axis army worth just shy of 400 or so points for a price of 145 dollars.  Considering how the competitive level to play Dust Warfare is 300 points, I just bought myself a full army for less than 2 GW Land Raiders.  I think that's enough said right there.

Played some Dust Warfare today

I finally got to test out Dust Warfare today and I'm quite pleased with the result.  The game was very brief for 150 points on both sides and it gave me a pretty good idea of how the game functions.

Here are my thoughts:

• The game runs very smooth.  The dice rolling is very straight forward, the model rules are very straight forward and the weapon rules are... very straight forward.  There's special rules to remember, but the easy rolling keeps everything moving at a good pace.
• With that said, we were able to play a 150 point game in a short amount of time.  There were 4 units on each side with 1 Light walker for each player.  We were both pretty familiar with the rules from reading them over, but we were still new at playing.  I think more experienced players can play a 300-point tournament game in ~2 hours without a problem.
• To go with the above, the ~2 hours of playing will be highly interactive, engaging and will not be boring for either player.  The reason this is so is because of the reactions (and therefore, decisions) the opposing player gets to make when you do something.  E.g. There was one time a unit of allied close combat troops (flamers and shotguns) got too close and I reacted by moving away.  Even though that's one less action for me, it prevents them from tearing me up damage wise.
• Another time that keeps the game moving is lethality and damage.  Damage in this game is no joke.  If your infantry is marching out in the open and you get lit up by a unit with multiple machine guns, you're done.  Lethality is similar to that of Infinity (and therefore realistic damage) where you best be jumping from cover to cover if you're planning to live.  Using LoS blockers such as buildings and wide flanking attacks will serve you much better if you don't want your units being shot up.  You should only lose infantry if you're charging in heroically and giving your other units a chance.  Things really get busy once you hit the 16" range.  Weapons start opening up, units start dying and the battle really starts moving forward.
• Suppression is also super important and love the idea of it.  By shooting your opponent's units, you are limiting his options in the next few phases.  You are putting a strain on his troops and forcing him to make decisions to keep his units combat effective.  Since this game is reactionary, each and every action you make as a player is important, even the ones that inflict no "real" damage.
• Now that I've seen 150 points, I want to see 300 points immediately.  I want to start buying models, I really do.  I'm almost begging FFG to take my money, but the fucking dipshits don't know how to properly release a full-fledged miniatures game.  I want to buy Markus, plain and simple.  The same reason I want Heavy Laser Grens and just Totenmeister by herself.  Why don't I have the option to do this?  I'm practically begging FFG to take my money but they're not giving me the option to do so.  I find that to be utterly, and I mean utterly ridiculous.

I'll add some more thoughts tomorrow if I come up with any, but overall I want to play again.  Now.

Some thoughts on Dust Warfare

Let's do this.

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

I was reading through my Dust Warfare rulebook today and I just wanted to share some thoughts on the book.  I will talk about the gameplay design, the units, initial thoughts on unit design/balance, some theorycrafting and some random shit that'll probably pop up in my head as I write this review.  Keep in mind this is not a gameplay review.  I have not played the game yet but I'm hoping that I'll be able to this coming Tuesday because my friend's got an assload of minis.  This review will primarily capture what I think of the rules.  Alright, let's begin.

I read the background fluff on this once and I was decently impressed.  Historically, it's got all the right pieces in place with some major alterations done to fit the theme of this alternate reality WWII world.  I'm not a huge fluff fan, but I'm a huge historical buff.  In terms of connecting major historical events with the storyline, kudos to FFG for not fucking it up too badly.