New Dystopian Wars Releases

Spartan Games have announced their new releases for the Russian Coalition. They will be available from the 29th of August. The most interesting release for me is the Vorkuta Class Land Driller which burrows underground before emerging and spewing tanks.

Russian Coalition Vorkuta Class Land Driller and Tikhvin Class Small Tanks

They've also announced the Russian Coalitions emplacement the Tower as well as the Belgorod Class Land Ship and the Myshkin Class Bomber. I like the look of the bombers, they have a sort of Buck Rodgers thing going on.

Belgorod Class Land Ship, Vorkuta Class Land Driller,
Tower, Myshkin Class Bomber

The Dreadnought is interesting as all it's guns are forward facing. It looks ok but I'm not really sold on it.

Russian Coalition Moskva Class Dreadnought

Lastly we have a group shot. I get that they are keeping to the circular shape as the theme for the Russian forces but I'm not really sold on it. I'll have to check out the stat cards and see how the models compare to my EotBS fleet before I think about getting any.

Russian Coalition Suvorov Class Cruiser, Moskva Class Dreadnought,
Borodino Class Battleship, Tiny Flyer Tokens

Dystopian Wars: New Russian Models

Although there hasn't been an official newsletter from Spartan Games about the planned release of the new Russian models there have been plenty of pictures floating round the 'net. I must say the models do look interesting but I'm going to reserve judgement until I see the stats for the various models.

Anyway on with the pictures.

The Myshkin Bombers look interesting, nothing at all like any of the other nations and the recovery vehicles are new. At least I've not noticed them for any of the other countries but then I've not paid much attention to the land forces. Overall I like the look of the models. They seem like a bit of a cross between Kingdom of Britannia and the Covenant of Antarctica but all having a central sphere/circle. Likely release date seems to be some time in July.

Dystopian Wars: New releases and Campaign Book

Spartan Games have announced its first campaign book for Dystopian Wars, Hurricane Season, along with brand new models to use when playing out some of the scenarios from the fully-illustrated campaign book.

The campaign book chronicles the bitter struggle between the Federated States of America and the Empire of the Blazing Sun. With the involvement of the Kingdom of Britannia, Prussian Empire and Covenant of Antarctica, Spartan say this is a truly epic military struggle. Hurricane Season comes in hardback and provides a series of scenarios to play, detailing major actions in the campaign. The Covenant of Antarctica rules and stats are included along with new rules for National Fleet Commodores, Amphibious Landings, Deployment Orders and more.

Amphibious warfare now becomes possible in Dystopian Wars. To help link naval and armoured fleets, Spartan Games have announced the Large Landing Barge, capable of transporting any unit from an Armoured Battle Group across the sea. Landing Platforms add further amphibious capability to armoured units, and Small Landing Barges are perfect for assaulting secondary targets with small vehicles or infantry.

Dystopian Wars: EotBS vs Prussians

Had my second game of DW last night.  It was a 1200pt game and I used my EotBS while Phil used his Prussians. My force was my BS, 8 Frigates, 3 Gunships, 2 Ika, 3 Inari, a War Gyro and 10 Tiny Flyers while I think Phil had a BS with 3 Escorts, 2 Gunships, 6 Frigates, a Sky Fortess, 3 Scoutships, a Fleet Carrier, 3 Bombers and 20 Tiny Flyers. The photo below shows our starting positions.

I planned to use my Ika to attack and board either his BS or Fleet Carrier supported by my BS and Gunships with the Frigates running interference. On my right flank I massed my aerial force to threaten and distract from my main attack. However these plans were pointless as we only managed two turns! I quickly realised that we were never going to get the game finished with 1200pts each on the table. I suppose if you're really familiar with the rules and know what your doing things would go quicker. But DW doesn't strike me as a game where you can expect a quick resolution with forces much above 750 pts, especially not on a club night. That's not to say I didn't enjoy playing, I did, it was good fun and I learnt a lot. I especially enjoyed the look on Phil's face when I rolled double '1' for crits twice in the game and watched his ships explode.


The position at the start of turn two

After two turns Phil & I had both lost most of our frigates I'd also lost my BS while Phil had also lost a scout blimp, a gunship and a bomber with various other models taking damage as well. As time had run out we called it a night with Phil having the advantage.

I'm looking forward to the next game but that one will definitely be much smaller

Demo Games of Malifaux and Dystopian Wars

Took a run up to Ben's yesterday. The idea was for me to demo Malifaux for him and for him to demo Dystopian Wars for me.

I got there about lunchtime and proceeded to unload three trays of Malifaux figures on to the table to let Ben see what they looked like in the flesh (or should that be metal) and also to activate his Ohh! Shiny gene so he got hooked on Malifaux as well. After a quick peruse Ben decided to give Von Schill a try so I choose the Ortegas to keep things fairly simple. We both used just the starter boxes so it was a 25SS game..

After a quick shoot-out between Von Schill & Perdita to show Ben how the various mechanisms worked we got down to our first game. I was so busy explaining things to Ben that I forgot all about taking pictures for the first game. So this will have to be a quick text only batrep.

We flipped for strategies I got Treasure Hunt and Ben got Slaughter. For schemes I went with Bodyguard (Perdita) and Holdout as they were a good combination with Treasure Hunt and Ben went with Bodyguard (Von Schill) and Holdout.

Turn one saw us both advancing and trying to get into good positions. But I did get lucky when Nino flipped the Red Joker for damage on a Freikorpsman doing a total of nine damage which killed him. Turn two saw a more cautious Ben and Perdita used her speed to grab the treasure and move back to safety. Turn three saw Ben hit back doing lots of damage to Santiago, Francisco and Papa Loco. While I was concentrating on keeping Perdita safe. For turn four I decided to try and thin out Ben's forces to make it harder for him to get Slaughter and also because I wanted to do some damage with my wounded models before they died. I had some nice flips and managed to kill the other Freikorpsman and the Librarian but I lost Nino and Francisco. Turn five saw Ben's Trapper killed while the Specialist continued to chase Papa Loco through the woods (his blasts being ineffective against the Freikorps due to their armor). Turn six saw Von Schill unable to do enough damage on Perdita to kill her and a rather bloody game came to an end. I got 6 VPs while Ben managed 4 VPs.

We had time for another game so for a change of pace I went with Collodi's box set plus Zoraida and the Voodoo Doll while Ben stuck with Von Schill. This time I remembered to take photos and they can be seen below.

We flipped for strategies and I got Plant Evidence while Ben got Distract. Ben went with Bodyguard (Von Schill) and Holdout for his schemes while I took Bodyguard (Perdita) and Breakthrough.

I'm not going to give a detailed breakdown of game two mostly because I'm not sure I can remember it all! I used Collodi's speed with his doll shenanigans to plant three of the four pieces of evidence I needed in turn one, with a model ready to place the last one at the start of turn two. While I was racing about Ben was using his firepower to kill three of my dolls in the first turn. Turn two saw me plant the last evidence giving me four VP's. I spent the rest of the game running from Ben and trying to slow him down with my remaining models. It ended up in turn seven with me failing to successfully cast Repulsive which would have allowed me to get into Ben's deployment zone for the win. So we ended up with a 6-6 draw an excellent performance from Ben in only his second game.


Starting positions



Collodi races forwards with his marionettes



The trail of counters marks the passage of Collodi
and the deaths of his marionettes

Collodi runs and hides while the Wicked Dolls form a rearguard

Zoraida heads for Ben's deployment zone

We then cleared the table to set up for our Dystopian Wars game. Ben went with FSA while I had my EotBS. Ben suggested keeping things small and simple and we went with a battleship, three cruisers, and six frigates each. I was so busy trying to learn the game that I again forgot to take photos.

There was so much going on that I'm not going to even try to report what happened. Suffice it to say that early on we both rolled masses of sixes and lots of ships sank. As things evened out on the dice front I managed to eek out a lead in number of ships sunk and when we called the game Ben only had his BS and one cruiser left to my BS, 2 cruisers and four frigates.

So how did the day go? Well I think Ben got a feel for what Malifaux is like to play and how good some of the scuplts are and i think he enjoyed himself. As for me I enjoyed DW but started to see how much of a pain the fixed channel weapons are on my ships. I'm looking forward to my next game of DW on Monday, but that will be a more serious affair at 1200pts against an experienced player down at the Wyverns.

Dystopian Wars EotBS Starter Fleet Finished

Having decided on a paint scheme inspired by the LNER railway livery and been happy with the test model I painted up I've now finished my EotBS starter box. They should get their first run out against Ben this afternoon.

I still have two Ikas, four Inaris, three Gunships and a War Gyro to paint up for a 1200pt game I'm having on Monday so I'm going to have a busy weekend. I've left the aerial wing till last because I'm thinking of having a different paint scheme for them. There's two reasons for this, firstly two of the Inaris are already painted a maroon colour and I was a bit concerned that giving them a coat of primer then painting them again might lose some detail. Secondly I like the idea of using the maroon colour as the basis of an LMS inspired paint scheme for my aerial wing. I've still not made my mind up either way but I'll post up some more photos once they're finished.

Anyway here are some shots of my finished fleet.

Dystopian Wars EotBS Paint Scheme

Having decided on the colours for my EotBS fleet all I had to do was try it out on a test model. I decided to go with one of the frigates as they're quick to paint. The photo below shows how it turned out.

The source for the paint scheme

The base colour is Coat D'Arms Scorpion Green, the black and red are both Vallejo, the copper boilers are done with the cheap Go Create paint I blogged about previously, the silver is also from Coat D'Arms and the windows are Reeves Purple. I gave the whole model a coat of Army Painter Dark Tone dip. I'm fairly happy with how it came out except that I think I need to use a thinner coat of dip as it's given the ship a 'dirty' look. But I like the way the colour scheme worked out and all I have to do now is paint up the rest. As I'm playing a starter box game with Ben on Friday and a 1200pt game with Phil next Monday I need to crack on and get them painted up. I'll post some photos of the finished fleet later in the week.

New Troop Transport for Dystopian Wars

Spartan Games have announced the release of the first transport ship for Dystopian Wars. The Olympic Class Troop Transport will be hitting stores May 16th 2012. You will be able to place advance orders in the Spartan Games Online Store from next week. Below is the fluff relating to the model and a picture.

The Olympic Liner is one of the largest passenger ships ever created. Built at the massive Proctor & Mercer Shipyards in Middlesbrough, in the North East of Britannia, these impressive vessels have carried people over the seas in style since 1861. Proctor & Mercer built and sold over 30 of these majestic vessels around the world; every nation clambering to own and operate their own fleet of luxury cruise liners. One of the main selling points is the advanced technological design, and claimed robustness of the ship's hull.

However, the outbreak of world war saw many of the Olympic Liners refitted to fulfil a new role, that of a troop carrier. With its sleek lines and pioneering keel design, the Olympic Class Troop Transport cuts through the water at high speed, allowing it to efficiently deliver thousands of troops to war zones around the globe. It is not uncommon to see these giants of the sea being escorted by both a naval vanguard and fleet of aerial support craft en route to war.

I particularly like the line about the 'claimed robustness of the ship's hull'. You may notice some similarity to another ship which has been in the news recently. If you didn't make the connection here's a picture hint for you.


Leo & Kate's favourite ship.



Dystopian Dilemma, Solved?

A few days ago I wrote about my difficulties in chosing a painting scheme for my Dystopian Wars Empire of the Blazing Sun fleet. I mentioned in the post that the models looked more like trains than ships which gave me an idea.

If they look like trains why not paint them like trains. I knew that before privatisation British railway companies all had their own liveries. So I had a look round the 'net and found the LNER livery of apple green with black & red accent colours. I had previously considered using green and I thought this would work out well.

How the livery looked on a train.

I'm not sure how well the scheme will work on the flying models though. But I'll deal with them later. After all there's no rule to say the flying and naval models should use the same painting scheme.

I'll prime the models this weekend and try the scheme out on one of the frigates to see how it looks. I'll probably post the results some time next week.

Dystopian Wars: New releases for the Republique of France

Spartan Games have just announced some new releases for the Republique of France faction in Dystopian Wars. They do look nice but I'm still saving my pennies for the Russian Coalition models when they're released later this year.

Ecuyer Class Support Cruiser and Charlemagne Class Dreadnought



Frelon Class Small Flyer and Masaulle Class Mobile Airfield

The full list of the releases are shown below with links to the Spartan Games online shop:

Republique of France Lyon Class Frigate (6 models per blister)
Republique of France Voltaire Class Heavy Interceptor (3 models per blister)
Republique of France Furieux Class Scoutship (2 models per blister)
Republique of France Ecuyer Class Support Cruiser (3 models per blister)
Republique of France Chevalier Class Destroyer (3 models per blister)
Republique of France Charlemagne Class Dreadnought (1 model per blister)
Republique of France Frelon Class Small Flyer (3 models per blister)
Republique of France Hotch 'FT-12' Class Small Tank (20 models per blister)
Republique of France Masaulle Class Mobile Airfield (1 model per blister)

Dystopian Dilemma

I picked up most of my Dystopian Wars fleet on Monday night and this has led to my dilemma. That being what colours should I paint it?

Normally I'd just paint ships the usual battleship grey, but the amount of detail on the models is just crying out for a decent paint job. Also, looking at pictures of other fleets online, most of them have colourful paint jobs highlighting portholes and all manner of intricate detail and I just can't bring myself to not try and do the models justice.

This is where my total lack of artistic ability creates problems. I know the wooden decks will be some shade of brown and the boilers, if they are visible, will be bronze. But as for the rest I'm a bit lost. I'm finding the amount of detail on the models is a bit intimidating. My models are from the Empire of the Blazing Sun faction and look more like railway engines than ships which doesn't help. They also have all sorts of weird 'things' whose use eludes me.

Give me a unit of Napoleonic French Line infantry or Persian Immortals and I have no problem. I just go to my reference books and presto no need to think it's all set out like painting by numbers. I even have problems painting figures with well documented dress but no fixed uniform like Vikings. I know the colours they had available but I always seem to mix and match the colours badly and end up making the figures look like Viking pimps!

All this hummimg and harring over colour schemes adds ages to my painting time as well. I tend to sit with the models on my desk and run through all sorts of paint schemes in my head for days on end until I make my mind up and go for it. I've tried using colour wheels but they don't seem to help. I guess I'll just have to resign myself to starting at the models hoping inspiration strikes.

The Russians Are Coming.

Spartan Games has released some teaser shots of their forthcoming releases for the Russian Coalition.

These are my favourite models so far and I can see me adding a second faction before I've even got my first one sorted. Luckily for my wallet it looks like it will be a while before we see these models coming out.


Borodino Class Battleship


Now this is what I call a battleship. Guns and turrets all over the place, very menacing.

Suvorov Class Frigate

Apparently this model is based on an actual Russian ship design, a Novgorod Class wooden Monitor.


Kursk Class Land Dreadnought


The land game side of DW doesn't really appeal to me but this is a meaty looking beast.

I pick up my DW fleet tonight so look for some posts on my painting efforts and battle reports soon.

Dystopian Wars Resources

As a follow-up to yesterday's quick look at the rules I've decided to provide a series of links to resources you may find useful if you are new to the game.

First off the Official Spartan Games Dytopian Wars forum.
The forum is a great place to go and ask questions either on rules or tactics and I've found the people there to be friendly and helpful. It also has forums looking at painting and modelling if you need any ideas in those areas.

Next up is a series of three introductory videos by the guys from Triple Helix Wargames. They take you through the activations of an entire turn looking at how things like the rules for movement and firing and so on work in practice.

Video One
Video Two
Video Three

I've followed this up with a detailed battle report that can be found on the forums. This takes you through an entire game and although detailled it is also easy to follow.

The last batep I recommend is this one by SouthernCygnar. It has a great commentary and explanation of what's going on.

Moving on to articles you may find useful. Bell of Lost Souls has a number of good introductory articles.

Dystopian Wars 101: Game Introduction
Dystopian Wars: An Overview
Dystopian Wars: Some Basics
Dystopian Wars Tactics: Activations
Dystopian Wars: Combat Part One

There is also a good review of the rules in issue 14 of 'The Ansible' pdf magazine. That issue also has an article on painting KoB models.

If you want to run a campaign Kruger's Kreations blog has a set of campaign rules for you to download. You can also find reports on their campaign on the blog.

Hopefully that will be enough to get your started playing Dystopian Wars.

Quick Review: Dystopian Wars Rulebook 1.1

I've just bought the revised Dystopian Wars rulebook so I though I'd do a quick review.

The book itself is 124 pages long and produced in full colour with lots of photos of the game's models. It also contains numerous drawings used to help explain the rules and also to provide examples of what should happen in various situations such as some of the more complex combats.

It starts with a general history of events leading to the current situation which sets the scene nicely. This is followed by a more detailed briefing on the political and military situation for each of the major players (CoA, KoB, FSA, EotBS, PE). These briefings flesh out the world well making it seem a living breathing entity rather than a sterile environment where random battles take place.

The rules themselves run to 66 pages and are fairly easy to read. While not as well written as the V3 FoW rulebook they seem fairly clear and proceed through the things you need to know in a logical fashion. Towards the end of the rules you start to encounter more 'walls of text' for such things as Generators and MAR's. However you will only need to read the parts of these sections which apply to your models which makes things easier.

The rules are supplemented with the stat cards for the main nation's forces, both land & sea. Although the stat cards for CoA & RoF are not included. You also get counters & turning templates which, I presume, are for copying rather than cutting out.

So what do I think of the rulebook? Well, I had no problem reading through the rules and explanations. Everything seemed clear, but I won't know for sure how well written they are until I actually try them out. There was nothing intimidating about the rules, in fact, having the 'fluff' at the start draws you into the rules nicely, making you want to read more and actually play a game. The rules look playable with different sizes of game or even multiple players which is a bonus if you are going to use these as a basis for a campaign, which I highly recommend.

Overall I give these rules 9/10 which I may increase to 10/10 once I've got a few games under my belt.

The last thing I want to comment on is the price of the rules. They can easily be found for £12-£13 which is a bargain, particularly when compared to the prices of other rulesets. For example the popular Saga rules are about half the size of the DW rules and cost about £10 more. When you combine this with the superb casting and sculpting of the models and the support you get from Spatan Games Dystopian Wars has to be one of the best game systems out there at the moment.

Great Dystopian Wars Batrep on the New Spartan Games Forums

Just a quick heads-up about a great Dystopian Wars batrep I found on the new Spartan Games forum. I'm getting my DW stuff in about 10 days, so I've been having a look at various sites for a few tips, and this batrep is a great walkthru of a scenario. It has lots of informative diagrams of each activation and was easy to follow. Hopefully they'll do more like this one.

'The Ansible' Issue 14 is out.

Just come across 'The Ansible' pdf magazine and I'm impressed by what I have read to date. The magazine is available as a free download  with an optional Donate button (do the right thing and send them some cash if you enjoy it). The magazine specialises in Science Fiction and fantasy wargaming. As well as it's regular columns the latest issue has articles on

• Dystopian Wars
• Gears of War
• Carnevale
• Dystopian Wars, Painting the Kingdom of Britannia
• Firestorm Armada Battle Report

I was particularly interested in it as I'm thinking of moving into Dystopian Wars in a small way. I found the article on starting Dystopian Wars helpful, informative and unbiased. The regular painting column covers painting various Dystopian Wars models in some depth (10 pages) something you won't see in traditional paper magazines.
I also enjoyed their product review section, particularly their review of Hirst Arts moulds. I've thought about buying some moulds & casting my own terrain in the past. So this review and their look at how to cast terrain using them was most useful.