|
Wind Tempest posted:I am curious how Scourge and PHR play out. Both seem to be close range sluggers. You could try something like making several sections that work as their own stations, but put some magnets in so they can connect up into one larger complex. I won't have this problem... as I'm crazy and got 2 of the space station kit AND the scourge upgrade spru before seeing any actual images of what we are getting. Needless to say I am not disappointed with my crazy decision.
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2016 16:04
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 05:09 |
|
|
Pash posted:You could try something like making several sections that work as their own stations, but put some magnets in so they can connect up into one larger complex. I won't have this problem... as I'm crazy and got 2 of the space station kit AND the scourge upgrade spru before seeing any actual images of what we are getting. Needless to say I am not disappointed with my crazy decision. I wish I could justify spending that cash to replicate your crazy decision but my wife will probably work out that I spent significantly more than I told her and I will have buyers remorse when she goes out and spends even more in the name of fairness. But hey, I'm really looking forwards to my set of little cities.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2016 17:04
|
|
|
69 nerds tomorrow, all day in the Croydon assembly halls, should be interesting. Lord Aba, are you there as well?
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2016 17:41
|
|
|
wdarkk posted:Now I'm wondering where I can find a O'Neill cylinder to scale. I can't recall what scale Dropfleet is but I remember trying to plan how to build one for Firestorm Armada, which is claimed to be 1:10,000, and it turned out that a properly sized colony would be about 8 feet long at that scale. I like the idea though and to be honest the docking bay of a colony, or the mirrors, would make great static scenery as a board centrepiece as well as letting me recreate all my favourite Japanese animes with dice and miniatures.
|
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2016 18:59
|
|
|
According to this article Dropfleet's scale is: 1:15,000. At that scale some quick math suggests a 20 mile long O'Neill cylinder would be about 7 feet long. Pash fucked around with this message at 19:39 on Mar 4, 2016 |
|
#
?
Mar 4, 2016 19:36
|
|
|
krushgroove posted:69 nerds tomorrow, all day in the Croydon assembly halls, should be interesting. Lord Aba, are you there as well? I'm in the USA one next weekend. Not sure how many people, but I'll probably be the only one who forgot to pack a tape measure.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 02:03
|
|
|
Ah, cool, forgot what side of the Atlantic you're on. If I'm able to I'll be taking proper photos and stuff but hopefully either way they'll let us take pictures on our phones - I'll be uploading mine to my Facebook page for the sake of convenience, https://www.facebook.com/tinyplasticspacemen if anyone in the UK is going look for a dark-haired guy with glasses and a black Nuka-Cola shirt wearing a grey zip-up hoodie, that should be me.
krushgroove fucked around with this message at 13:06 on Mar 5, 2016 |
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 06:58
|
|
|
Just uploaded a ton of pics of the show models, tables and whatnot coming soon, sitting down and trying to figure out what ship is what!
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 10:32
|
|
|
Just FYI, there's a typo in your link. The URL has a comma on the end of it.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 11:24
|
|
|
Fixed it thanks! First game is finished, UCM v UCM. Won by a bloodbath, some bad rolls for armor checks helped a lot. Burnthrough is majorly brutal, battle is pretty quick but even with flipping through the rules we finished our game in under a couple of hours. Didn't have time to try orbital bombardment or ground combat but by turn 3 it becomes very apparent maneuvering is a very important thing. You can still do 90 degree turns and fire one weapon though. Might try scourge next, there's only the two factions to try and they're keeping track of the win ratio for balance purposes.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 13:10
|
|
|
krushgroove posted:Fixed it thanks! It looks like there were 7 ships per side for the initial games? Is that about the average size they are going for?
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 13:37
|
|
|
Yeah these are the starter fleet sizes, the scourge have no carrier in the starter but otherwise each ship has a rough equivalent on the opposing side, with both sides having burnthrough guns. The scenario is a beginner one with 3 objectives, so signature ranges etc don't matter really, but the normal scenarios have the objectives spread out much more so it really matters in the regular games.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 14:18
|
|
|
LordAba posted:It looks like there were 7 ships per side for the initial games? Is that about the average size they are going for? From previous info a typical fleet will be in the 15 ship ballpark depending on your penchant for frigates or battleships. Are those tables using the mats that the 2 player game will ship with? Ooh the liner is painted now. Pretty! Ugleb fucked around with this message at 15:26 on Mar 5, 2016 |
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 15:24
|
|
|
The maps are about 23 x 33 inches, 2 per map, I think they're printed on A1 size paper, I'm pretty sure they're not the actual map samples from the KS campaign. I'll ask!
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 16:37
|
|
|
When you say the scourge ships they gave you don't have a carrier, do you mean a strike or fleet carrier? Have you gotten a chance to play with strike craft?
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 17:16
|
|
|
I meant the Scourge starter fleet we used didn't have a carrier or anything that could launch fighters for defense or bombers for you offense. Some of the big ships have special rules that limit your signature to a small spike and many of the Scourge weapons do 2 damage instead of the 1 damage of the UCM weapons. Also I'm pretty sure the maps are just for the beta test days, as they're single sided. They let us take home the maps that were used and the beta rules, which we've been asked not to share because they'll change quite a lot before the game is published. So we can test the other factions at home, like the PHR my Admiral buddy will be playing. Statlines for all the ships to come are in the rulebook but are subject to change of course. I prefer the UCM to the Scourge (luckily cuz I'm getting all the UCM stuff), I had some nasty chain explosions take out a few ships when I played Scourge. We didn't get a chance to do ground combat or torpedoes but did just about everything else they've mentioned in the videos. The integration with DZC isn't in the beta rules bit it's coming. There may be another beta day and night May as well. No showcase or shop (finally got the hardback DZC book) but hopefully the expanded rules and other tweaks. Game play-wise, I have no problems with how the game or mechanics work but I'm not a super gamer or anything. My issues with Scourge come more from tactical placement and knowledge of the ships probably. That's all I can brain-dump at the moment but ask anything and I'll answer the best I can, I'm in the car with my Admiral buddy for the next couple of hours and we're just going to talk about it the whole time anyway.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 18:33
|
|
|
Did you get to use the UCM fighters/bombers? What role do they play?
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 18:58
|
|
|
Yeah, UCM is the only starter fleet with the Load characteristic, which denotes fighters/bombers, torpedoes, bulk landers or dropships. Everyone gets dropships in the starter fleet because that's how the games of DZC start, but so far UCM is the only one that gets fighters & bombers. So fighters add to any ship's point defense value, you get extra dice to defend against missiles and bombers. They're really interceptor aircraft, if you're familiar with modern naval warfare. Point defense is like the phalanx defense systems on a modern aircraft carrier, the Gatling guns the track and shoot down missiles heading for the ship. This is represented by between 4 and 6 dice that you roll, any 5+ roll blocks a hit, and for every 2 5+ rolls you can block a critical hit. After that you still have your armor rolls you can do, so PD is really helpful and adding extra dice thanks to your fighters is very helpful. Your fighters have to return after a turn though, but you can just launch waves of fighters every turn...as long as your carrier is still chugging along. Now bombers are basically attack/strike fighters, but for game purposes they're called bombers. They can't actually bomb ground targets. You launch them after the firing phase is all done and they can go 20" to attack an enemy ship, which can only defend itself by using PD, which is why fighters are helpful.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 19:58
|
|
|
Bloody hell, how long does it take for the Hawk guys to confirm accounts on their forum? Mines been waiting for approval for like a month and I wanted to post some club related stuff on it. E: Also how much do people use Wolverines? I think they're baller as hell model wise. Flipswitch fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Mar 5, 2016 |
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 20:09
|
|
|
I know they take a while to approve the forum members, but they did just have to prep for their biggest event ever, including casting and building 35 resin starter fleets, that's no task that can get knocked out really quickly. Maybe send an email to the general support address? I think I had to do that to get approved.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 20:51
|
|
|
Flipswitch posted:Bloody hell, how long does it take for the Hawk guys to confirm accounts on their forum? Mines been waiting for approval for like a month and I wanted to post some club related stuff on it. I had to email them too to get my account activated. I use a group of four As in most games, they're pretty speedy and make a nice deterrent in my experience since people don't want to risk light dropships taking fire and against ground units they carry the threat of a kodiak strike. But then both me and the people i play against don't have all that much experience yet so don't take it as gospel. Also crosspost from the painting thread: Bistromatic posted:Got back to working on dropzone stuff after that armada sidetrack.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 21:29
|
|
|
What were your impressions of the movement rules? Didn't really see much of then in the videos so far.
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 23:07
|
|
|
I also had to email Hawk to get a forum account activated, whatever their 'system' is for this it clearly doesn't work as intended. Or maybe at all. So Dropfleet fighters/bombers, is there a need to fly them back to their home ship or do you just remove them and launch more when fuel runs dry?
|
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 23:13
|
|
|
Lobster God posted:What were your impressions of the movement rules? Didn't really see much of then in the videos so far. They're good, and are an important part of the game and tactics. They integrate really well with the Signature and Spike rules. You can do an all-out move and move up to double your Thrust rating, but that gives you a Major Spike (making it possible to hit you from far away), or do Silent Running to reduce your signature to zero by only moving up to half your Thrust and not fire, which makes it really hard to hit you unless the enemy can get really close. In between these options include things like firing everything, but you can't turn and must move between half and full Thrust, or you can do up to a 90 degree turn and fire one weapon only, so there's a lot of options that affect what you shoot and what can hit you after you activate a ship. Andy Chambers had a lot to do with the Signature and Scan rules, the other designers that did DZC did a lot of the other bits (if I'm remembering it right). Ugleb posted:So Dropfleet fighters/bombers, is there a need to fly them back to their home ship or do you just remove them and launch more when fuel runs dry? e: editing photos of the models, which everyone has seen already, but maybe you haven't...pictures of the fighters, ground target markers, station 3D prints, the 5-up model of one of the UCM ships and more are here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1074314122620318.1073741845.796633433721723&type=3 I'll be doing the various faction ships tomorrow, it's late now krushgroove fucked around with this message at 00:21 on Mar 6, 2016 |
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2016 23:18
|
|
|
I took this army to a Dropzone game tonight. I ended up getting matched against Resistance.code:Was a fun game, but I think my opponent felt on the back foot. I think I was weak against AA, but he never did much with the AA he had on the field.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 06:22
|
|
|
I think you might have had a couple too many points, especially if one of your commander vehicles had a rank that's not listed there.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 06:45
|
|
|
wdarkk posted:I think you might have had a couple too many points, especially if one of your commander vehicles had a rank that's not listed there. 5 points over. I didn't take any commander ranks. This meant I gave up initiative every turn. In my group 5 points over is fine.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 07:47
|
|
|
DeadGame posted:5 points over. I didn't take any commander ranks. This meant I gave up initiative every turn. In my group 5 points over is fine. Alright. Although the technical bit makes me wonder if the AOE attack, by a strict reading of the rules, still gets penalized by evasion countermeasures. I think it does.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 07:53
|
|
|
wdarkk posted:Alright. Although the technical bit makes me wonder if the AOE attack, by a strict reading of the rules, still gets penalized by evasion countermeasures. I think it does. Ah! I bet it would. My opponent didn't mention they had an evasion save.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 08:18
|
|
|
Bit of a weird one that. If the Desolator used a template then it would negate evasion. I think it is the only AOE weapon in the game not to use one. This is probably a quirk of the Desolator's rules being written before the evasion rule was added.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 09:25
|
|
|
I'm editing the last of the pictures I took yesterday but in the meantime I've got the beta rules next to me and will read through them in anticipation of doing some more games with other factions, so if anyone has questions about how certain things work or played let me know. We were asked not to give out scans or specifics but I'll answer what I can.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 12:20
|
|
|
I'd love to know more about UCM frigates. Is there anything that stands out for how squadrons work? Are there any details you could share about the roles? The one with the guns seems obvious. For the mussile one how do close action attacks currently work and can they combine fire? The one with the domes was supposed to add spikes to enemies last i heard, is that still true? And is there anything noteworthy about the PD one aside from presumably adding to nearby ships PD?
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 12:34
|
|
|
Is there anything that stands out for how squadrons work? Pretty much like DZC iirc, the ships have to stay within 3" of each other and ships of the same type in a battlegroup are automatically in a squadron. You have to give the same order to a battlegroup, like 'weapons free' or 'descend to low orbit' or whatever but different squadrons in the same battlegroup can ignore an order and do their own thing. If they split off too far apart their strategy rating goes up, so when you flip over the activation cards you may go second when before you were tied on points. Are there any details you could share about the roles? The one with the guns seems obvious. I assume you mean the roles of each type of ship. Yeah, there are gunboats and ones that are just massive flying guns, but if you're familiar with modern naval combat there's many similarities, and the UCM I think have the most familiar-looking fleet style to modern navies, but the other factions have pretty cool 'alien' styles that are cool and unique in the same way that Shaltari have mostly forward-pointing weapons and the PHR have mostly broadside weapons. Some examples of different ship roles: there are ships that are designed as escorts that add to the defense of nearby ships some ships have Air-To-Air weapons so they are meant to fire within atmosphere at dropships (firing energy weapons in atmosphere gives you a penalty to hit) some bigger ships have weapons that can fire normally at ground targets (rather than the standard rule of a 6 to hit ground targets) some ships have a rule that let them use Active Scan for free (see below) without getting a spike token dropships are able to ignore coherency rules and split off to drop their payload some of the big gunships have guns that are designed to affect a particular size of ship, so instead of a 4+ to hit you would have a 3+ against that size of ship - so they're basically like tank hunters I assume we used the starter fleets but even those are a bit varied and like DZC once you pick up the other ships you see a lot more variety and specific functions. For the mussile one how do close action attacks currently work and can they combine fire? Close Action weapons can only be done against ships that are within a ship's Scan range, so that's usually 6" or so. Because they're a separate weapon system you can declare them against any ship, so it's easiest to just do their attack rolls apart from other attack rolls. The one with the domes was supposed to add spikes to enemies last i heard, is that still true? Every faction seems to have something with domes, spheres or shields, so I think those are the Aegis and Detectory type ships, but you can an Active Scan which is basically like using active sonar in a submarine - this adds a Major Spike to your ship but illuminates a single enemy ship with a Minor Spike. This basically adds range to your friendly ships' range, so you are able to shoot at that ship. Important for taking out something like the Berline which is basically a floating gun! And is there anything noteworthy about the PD one aside from presumably adding to nearby ships PD? Every ship has a PD rating, but each die only has 5+ to block an attack from missiles or bombers. If the missiles or bombers rolled a critical (2 higher than their target roll) you can only block the critical result with TWO successful 5+ rolls, and then your ship takes the critical hit effects immediately, then you roll normal armor saves for the hits that the PD didn't block. I think the coolest part of the rules is that every rule is self-contained and written to be pretty self-explanatory, but if you've played DZC you know what to expect. The same 2 guys (Simon and James) wrote the majority of the rules with Hawk Dave providing the overview and planning. e: if anyone doesn't do Facebook, I put all the phone pictures I uploaded yesterday and the edited pictures I did today on Imgur: https://imgur.com/gallery/0VmUb/new krushgroove fucked around with this message at 14:47 on Mar 6, 2016 |
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 13:22
|
|
|
Thanks for the answers! All the questions were meant in the scope of UCM frigates but i guess that didnt come across clearly and i do appreciate the general reaponse too. Edit: Also many thanks for the fuckton of photos. Bistromatic fucked around with this message at 15:22 on Mar 6, 2016 |
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 14:49
|
|
|
The UCM seem to have offensive EW (a frigate that hands out spikes), the PHR have defensive (a frigate that raises to-hit numbers), and the Scourge have cloaks. Do the Shaltari have any electronic warfare trickery of their own? What can Shaltari frigates do?
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 15:56
|
|
|
Our first tournament here in Cardiff is a success with 15 players, 6-7 locals, 3 Hawk dudes and the rest have traveled down. I'm quite glad as I had some nice prep and liaison with Hawk to organise it and I'm off this week really ill with a chest infection and the flu so I can't even make a tournament I helped organise. 
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 16:46
|
|
|
Thanks! One thing I've noticed going over the videos again is that the hawk guys talk about Dreadnoughts as a separate thing from Battleships. Is that indicated in the beta rules? If so, is there a difference other than "Dreadnoughts are bigger"?
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 20:03
|
|
|
I think in one of the BoW videos they said dreads would be the same length but bulkier than battleships.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 20:09
|
|
|
Loxbourne posted:The UCM seem to have offensive EW (a frigate that hands out spikes), the PHR have defensive (a frigate that raises to-hit numbers), and the Scourge have cloaks. Do the Shaltari have any electronic warfare trickery of their own? What can Shaltari frigates do? Shaltari...have a whole other kettle of monkeys. The *beta test* rules have 2 pages devoted to their shields, shield booster, ground asset deployment, gates and other stuff. In the final book it'll probably end up being longer than that. They also have active countermeasures which can vary their armor value, really low signature ratings and really high scan ratings - double what some other ships have. The signature and shields are intertwined because the shields can be raised at the start of the battlegroup activation, but this vastly increases the signature rating, by more than what a Major Spike does in some cases. Some Shaltari ships have a shield booster that can allow a nearby friendly ship to re-roll any failed armor saves. There's more to it but I've only just started looking at the Shaltari stuff, they're my second army basically so there's a ton to get used to. wdarkk posted:Thanks! One thing I've noticed going over the videos again is that the hawk guys talk about Dreadnoughts as a separate thing from Battleships. Is that indicated in the beta rules? If so, is there a difference other than "Dreadnoughts are bigger"? Bistromatic posted:I think in one of the BoW videos they said dreads would be the same length but bulkier than battleships. Every faction has superheavy ships, some of them have launch capacity, others have really powerful guns. I haven't spotted anything outside of the statlines that say anything special about the superheavies (apart from their points cost and amount of guns, etc.) but if I see anything when I do a cover-to-cover readthrough I'll shout up.
|
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 22:05
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 11, 2024 05:09 |
|
|
Right now the Dropfleet models are KS only right? e. As in, is it still possible to order some? Mango Polo fucked around with this message at 23:16 on Mar 6, 2016 |
|
#
?
Mar 6, 2016 23:12
|
|