Monday 10 June 2013

Dystopian Wars - What I use

This post is a little bit of a filler really, in that most of the people who read my blog are far more likely to be interested in and entertained by, my views on the horrific aberration that is the new Codex Eldar.  Ugh, seriously, that thing is horrific.

None-the-less, some of you will be interested to know what exactly it is that I commonly use when playing Dystopian Wars, and the reason behind such choices.  So, here is some semblance of that.

Usually, when playing, DW, we play somewhere between the 1250 and 1500 point marks.  Usually I try and push towards the higher end of the spectrum, but time constraints play a part, as does whether or not Joe decides to play his Prussians, or more often lately one of their minor power allies - the Danish or the Italians.

The first portion of my fleet is largely immutable.  It consists of a pair of Enterprises, the flagship always Double Shielded, the other usually single shielded, but granted the second where points allow.  There is apparently a great deal of condemnation for FSA players who apply similar logic to myself here, but this is my earnest opinion - the Enterprise is the only genuinely good American ship.  Not using it at least in duplicate would be a travesty.  So wise up.

Following on from this is a number of Princeton class medium vessels.  I favour the Princeton over the Lexington largely because of the stronger turret and the generator, that I admittedly rarely use, that doesn't replace the Rockets to be there.  I take either four or six of these.

We come to the small component of the fleet.  I choose the Augusta class Frigate, because it is a lot more flexible than the other one, the name of which I forget.  Having two turrets instead of rockets isn't actually a theoretical advantage, but the fact is the fire arc for said Rockets is so poor, that it leads to a static and fairly weak gunline, or an inordinately easy to counter flanking maneouvre.  In the end, my small vessels are better to run interference and prevent enemy bombers troubling my capital and medium vessels - anything they inflict permanent damage on is a bonus, and should be regarded as such, rather than a requirement of their continued on-table presence.  Usually either 12 or 14 of these find their way into my force.

Finally, I usually double Escort my Flagship, and quite often plump for two on the other Dreadnought also. If points allow, I will go up to three apiece, but frankly the FSA escort compares very poorly to the Prussian one, and this makes me very loathe to use them in such large numbers... If only they had a rocket battery...

For Tiny Flyers, obviously I always go for the excellent FSA Torpedo Bomber.  Extra Machine Guns are great for interceptions, and Torpedoes on them aren't exactly weak with a 3+ to hit.

Feedback/thoughts/expressions of disinterest?

4 comments:

SinSynn said...

Interesting.
I'm just now reading the rules for DW, TKE, and I gotta say I like it a lot.
I'm probably gonna break down soon and buy a couple of starter sets.
I'm gonna hafta rummage through yer blog for DW posts now...

TheKing Elessar said...

I havent really ever approached the game in the same fashion as I do 40k. Whether this is because of my relatively recent involvement, because when the game first entered my radar I was still able to get a competitive fix from 40k, or because a lack of opponents means I dont see it as truly tournament sustainable here I cant say... Possibly a mixture of all three.

For that reason, I won't claim to be an expert in the way I, as humbly as possible, simply am/was on 5e 40k. So the fact that I havent found any glaringly broken aspects yet isnt really the praise it ought to be - and yet I heartily recommend the game. I do find, as with 40k, that small points games tend to cause mismatches and balance hiccups though. Fewer than 1000 points I would say is unwise, except when learning game mechanics.

SinSynn said...

I've actually had the rules for a lil' bit, and I've been spending a bit of time going through them...maybe looking for things I don't like, cuz that's just the type of knucklehead I am.
Too much 'random,' too many special rules that counter, and counter-counter one another, too many restrictions when constructing a list...
I want to make darn sure the next game I invest money, time and effort into is one I genuinely want to play.
I ended up becoming interested in Dystopian Wars because
1)It's the only game I found that plays at that scale (dunno what to call it- large scale conflict, but with tiny minis...) that's popular enough that I might actually find other players...somewhere...
and
2) It actually does look well put together, all the way around.

Sigh...I'll be picking up some starter sets and giving it a whirl.

I'm curious to see just how 'big' this game can play, though- massive naval fleets, huge squadrons of airplanes, and giant columns or armor all on the table in an epic (yes, pun sorta intended) clash.
It looks like it might have the potential to fill this need I have to wage that kinda war on the tabletop.
Like an RTS on the PC, but with models.
;)

TheKing Elessar said...

Yeah, it scratches that itch a bit for me, too... Although the land elements of dw dont interest me really. If I want land battles at that scale, I have some Epic Eldar lying around, and will eventually browbeat an opponent out of somewhere...

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