Dropzone Commander: v1.1+ - Because a white metal ball told me to do it

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Dropzone Commander: v1.1+ - Because a white metal ball told me to do it

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Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Yep, chalk up another upgrade to Commodore. That is pretty much exactly what I want.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 21:03

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 16:15

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

The Kickstarter just had another update. Apparently the reward for �310,000 was a bolt-on of an exclusive 2-up of the UCM Beijing. It's 284mm long and going for �40. If that's you're thing.

Whatever this is is set at �325,000

I've got to say though, �500,000 is looking more and more likely by the end of the campaign. I was hedging my bets and expecting �350,000, but now I'm thinking it'll go way past that. Especially with the expected surge of backers in the last two days.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2015 17:40

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Prefect Six posted:

How do you guys measure distance from infantry units in a building to vehicles/other buildings? I didn't remember reading any guidance. We put our infantry units on top of the building to signify they were in but then kinda just fudged the measurements.

You would kind of assume your dudes were spread along one side of a building instead of deep in the middle. But if you needed to fire out an adjacent side, do you just assume the 1" MF covers it? And not be able to fire the UCM rocket launcher, which has a MF of 0"?

The garrison rules are pretty clear on this stuff. You can assign bases to specific walls or have them hide inside the building to avoid taking fire. Range and line of sight are worked out from any point along the assigned wall(s). MF values are pretty much ignored since your bases aren't actually moving. They can't do anything else if they're assigned to a wall and have to stay there until their next turn which allows enemies to fire back and all that.

# ¿ Nov 9, 2015 19:39

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

They're over �325,000 now and the latest unlock is a plastic space station scenery pack. The kit itself hasn't been finalized yet so all they're showing is some concept art. The kit is going to make 3 large and 4 small space stations and is going to cost backers �30. At least the concept art is pretty sweet:

Also, the latest update says there should be more PHR renders put out tomorrow.

# ¿ Nov 10, 2015 17:57

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

They also gave a few details on how the PHR are going to play. They'll focus more on cruisers than the other factions and will have fewer frigate options as a result. Their cruisers specialize in broadsides as we already knew. You can see some of the variants in the designs already posted, but there'll be light, medium, and heavy weapons (they've said these are placeholder names :v:

). Light weapon broadsides will have a bunch of lower strength shots meant to annihilate smaller ships while heavy broadsides will have much fewer shots that are very likely to penetrate armor and do a bunch of damage. Medium will be between the two, as usual, I guess. The play style sounds like it'll be different enough from the UCM and I'm a big fan of the PHR ships' aesthetic though I'd kind of like to see an alternate prow at some point. Still waiting on frigate designs and who knows what their battleship will end up looking like.

# ¿ Nov 11, 2015 23:10

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

A new update is up with some renders of more cruiser variants, including some heavies and even a light. Here's a couple:

It's interesting that the light cruiser has no prow weapons at all. That Achilles though. :stare:

# ¿ Nov 13, 2015 22:47

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Loxbourne posted:

Secondly, remember this guy?

I thought those vertical pipes were going to be some sort of cloud weapon...nope! This class of Scourge frigate has its weapon batteries deliberately fixed upwards, allowing it to ambush ships from below. Schrage musik has come to Dropfleet!

Hrm, I was wondering what that guy would be for. I remember from those demo videos that ships in a different atmospheric/orbital layer get cover bonuses so this guy probably goes down a level and shoots up at the ships above. It's already been said by Hawk that PHR will focus more on cruisers so I'm guessing Scourge are going to be big on frigates. That sort of thing would suit them pretty well.

# ¿ Nov 14, 2015 19:14

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Alright, I have a Dropzone-related question. So, a while back I was dumb and got six Apollo walkers because I figured I'd run a silly flying robot list at some point. I'm about to build these and I'm wondering which gun I should go with. The light railgun or the anti-infantry cannon? The cannon has been FAQ'd to have a flame shot, but that only hits on a 6+. I also have two Erebos walkers so the same question stands for them. After dry fitting the parts it doesn't seem like they'll stay in place during gaming though paint may help with that. Or I could get ridiculously tiny magnets. :v:

I guess if I ever want to do a full-on Caine list with her retinue the Apollos will have to have the railguns anyways. Hopefully that Hera gets released as a generic unit at some point. I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that it probably would.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2015 08:07

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

BULBASAUR posted:

I magnetized mine using tiny magnets. It was a bit of a pain, but its possible. Otherwise I'd probably stick with the railgun.

Ugleb posted:

I run my erebos with the manslayer as they cost less points that way. I see them as mostly being about the ECM ability and weapons are entirely secondary. A bit of anti infantry doesn't hurt though. Also the railguns were missing from my pack, so there was that.

The Apollo I would probably go with railguns most of the time. I see them being about hunting down your opponents backboard units so railguns are far more useful. I will be looking at magnetising mine but if I can't figure it out then it's railguns. Maybe do 4 with rails and 2 with manslayer?

Thanks, y'all. I'm probably just going to glue the railguns in for my Apollos. It just seems like that weapon fits its role better. I also have to admit that I love the idea of them hopping over a building and laying waste to some poor tanks or artillery. My two Erebos walkers will probably get the manslayer cannon.

Another question about the Apollos while I'm at it: It's worth giving them a dropship, right? They can't use their jumpjets on the first turn though afterward they can go a pretty respectable 12". A dropship would give them a pretty solid position to work from, especially with their special rule which allows their transport to go its full distance and drop them off. I'm just wondering if people think this is worth the points.

# ¿ Nov 17, 2015 18:47

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

So, uh, yeah. There's the first painted PHR ship. :getin:

Tomorrow should be interesting too, they're going to be posting a bunch of info on the Kickstarter battlecruisers.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2015 20:12

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Ugleb posted:

What did you all think of the activation cards? Gotta be honest, the pitch left me cold and I think I will probably be coming up with something else.

The cards are just a dumb, little add-on and aren't necessary in the slightest. I see the uses for their versions, but even scraps of paper with letters on them will work. You just have to be aware of what's in your groups and their resulting command value. Anyone should be able to handle that after putting together a list. Whatever.

For my PHR ships, I'm going to continue the two-tone scheme I have for my Dropzone units. Majority dark red with some panels picked out in yellow. It'll be easy to carry over and if I get bored I can go full-on Foss and add some stripes. That hex pattern linked above is interesting though.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2015 00:36

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

The Leonidas is fat as hell.

# ¿ Nov 25, 2015 18:32

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

I was pretty skeptical a couple of weeks ago, but I think this thing is going to hit 500k before the end. The last few days have been pretty consistently over or around �10,000. I did a Commodore pledge as soon as that became an option and I know I have some add-ons to get before I'm done. I plan on using my pledge to get a starter fleet for each of the 4 factions since I'll have all the free frigates and cruisers along with the battlecruisers. I think that'll be more than enough to start off with and I have no idea if I'll ever need more frigates beyond the 12 I'd have for each fleet. I think I'll pass on extra starters even if I know I'll need the cruisers to expand the UCM and PHR sides of things.

As of right now, I definitely plan on adding the space station pack, one or two launch asset packs, the resin deluxe clusters, and the acrylic tokens. I'll also be getting the Avalon for completeness since I'm locked into the Atlantis already. I might also be dumb enough to get the 2-up Beijing. I am not going to bother with any maps because they're paper and I know they'll be folded for shipping instead of rolled so they'll probably be garbage. The neat radar one is a freebie so I'll wait and see how that turns out. I can always get some maps later if I want to. In summary,
:shepspends:

# ¿ Nov 30, 2015 00:36

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

So, uh, I just watched the video about Shaltari ships and :stare:

Their cruisers have a standard signature of 3" compared to the UCM's and Scourge's cruisers at 6". They also have a save of 5+ which is kind of light. However, they have a special order to raise shields that they can use in addition to whatever else they're doing. This raises their signature to 16", but gives them a save of 4+ that can even be used against critical hits. Those typically bypass armor entirely. One of the ships shown off was this thing:

Those aren't burn-through lasers, they're some sort of crazy super ion cannon. A standard hit will bypass armor entirely and inflict two damage. If the ship forgoes raising its shields, each shot deals three damage. This thing is capable of nine possible damage in a single round and cruisers hover around that total. The only real downside is that it has to fire in its narrow front arc. Maneuvering and all that will be pretty crucial. It should also be noted that ships can only fire one weapon under standard orders and have to use Weapons Free to use all of their shots.

Oh, and the resin clusters are unlocked so go throw more money at Hawk, I guess.

# ¿ Dec 1, 2015 23:59

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

The Impaler posted:

Have we any idea how the fleets will play so far? Considering that they all look great to me, thereby excluding the problem of picking one fleet on visual style, how they handle on the board will make the difference to me.

We don't know too much at the moment, but the basics seem to be as follows:
UCM - Tough, a lot of turrets, they've talked about support ships adding to another's point defense or scan range
Scourge - Fast, a lot of close-ranged weapons, more fragile ships, their burn-through lasers are slightly weaker, but get two shots, who knows what else
PHR - Tough, stealthy(?), focused on broadside weapons with a range of options, torpedoes(?)
Shaltari - Stealthy, very powerful weapons, fragile ships, but they have shields as an option

# ¿ Dec 2, 2015 01:38

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Hawk just put up another update showing off a couple of more PHR frigates:

Those little babby broadsides. :3:

I also watched that PHR video in the last update. It's like 10 minutes long, but shows off how we can expect their cruisers to work. They purposefully set it up so that the PHR cruiser would move in between the two UCM ships and fire broadsides at each of them. It looked like it'll be kind of hard to pull off in an actual game, but really rewarding. What was kind of interesting was that it was mentioned that the PHR's burn-through laser is weaker than the UCM's. As a counter-point, they can slap it on a frigate.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2015 21:10

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

I can see where you're getting that from, but I really can't tell from these angles.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2015 00:37

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

I think the resin PHR Junos are the same way. The APCs are a clear case where plastic is better.

# ¿ Jan 2, 2016 20:27

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

I was just looking at the pledge manager junk and I noticed something a little odd. So they have a bunch of Dropzone stuff available as add-ons, right? The resistance starter army is discounted to �35 instead of its normal �55. I'm guessing that was a mistake.

# ¿ Jan 19, 2016 21:57

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Here's a summary of the new Dropzone units that I found on Hawk's little forum:

Some nerd posted:

Scourge
Corruptor - Razor worm firing gunship/transport the "Projectiles" can cause damage to buildings the worms are fired at like a small boarding torpedo.
Monitor - This is a light anti tank minder. It's weapons are mainly aimed at anti scout but there may have been a mention about it being effective against medusa so it's likely got just a few shots.
Overseer - Desolator variant, Buffs the range of nearby plasma weapons and has a token attack (So not very offensive on its own) the range increase is currently suggested to be 6".

Resistance
Memhed - This is a demolition tank, it's a heavy unit with blowing up buildings in mind.
Thunder Wagon - Big Explosive missile. Suggested to use the Large blast but also only firing one missile within the squad a turn, naturally one use per vehicle.
Typhoon - Cyclone with something like the Phoenix Chain guns so more direct, powerful AT.

UCM
Crossbow - Scimitar grade laser on a static platform. Dropped in by raven like the longbow. This will be a very cheap unit because it can't move but it also will lose the Marksmans touch rule
Falcon B - Missile falcon which "May or may not be AA".
Seraphim Retaliator - All the missiles forever. It's a more anti tank focused variant.

Shaltari
Firebird - Very short range powerful weapon with a focus towards building Demo.
Leopard - Dreamsnare weapons with the shield buffer swapped out for another Anti tank weapon. Very short range think an AT knife fighter. (The Jaguar taken to the extreme in AT)
Panther - Unlimited range AA, 3 shots, energy 8 (maybe 7) ACC 3+ and -3 to hit when reaction firing. Personal thoughts are this will be a risk/reward unit. The more you expose it the better you get from it but the more vulnerable it becomes.

PHR
Thor - Barrage variant of the Taranis. Closer to standard Artillery.
Menchit A2 - swaps the 2 mini guns for 2 skyhammer missiles which can be fired without a mercury.
Njord - Sorry JD, don't know too much about this one beyond it transport 4 vehicles and gets a good number of missile shots off. No AA. I think the fine details here are being mulled over.
Aether (Helios A2) - Skimmer with the Triton - X black nano machine swarm (So IF, no blast)
Angelos A2 - Yep, it's an angelos with a flamer, roast a building, drop troops out, get stuck in.

Where appropriate, these new units mark the start of the Hawk consolidation of stock codes as new components will be added to existing kits. E.g. the Panther will be a combined Ocelot/Panther kit.

Additional news - Book 2 of the reconquest is coming along nicely and will feature a host of rules for weather and terrain effects. Think night fighting, heavy rain, low gravity, high gravity, extreme temperatures etc.
Book 3 is planned to feature upgrades for units to eat up those last few points left in a list. Hunter killer missiles, support weapons, swapping a base in one infantry unit for another and so forth.

Naturally all this is subject to change so please bear that in mind and there's probably going to be a few more bits found out today by various people but again, looks like we've got a lot to look forward to.

Dave is wanting to have these units out before Dropfleet's release with the first of which aimed for Salute.

Pretty much all of that sounds pretty good. It's nice to see that Dropzone will continue to get solid support even as they work on Dropfleet. Hopefully they won't overextend themselves.

# ¿ Feb 1, 2016 05:51

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

To be fair, most of the new turrets are stuck on things that already had turrets so they mesh a bit better. I'm not that big a fan of the Njord either. I like the idea of a heavily armed dropship, but not the execution. I think they could have done something a bit cooler than sticking a couple of turrets on sockets. Plus, what happens when it tries to land? Maybe it's the angle, but it doesn't look like that would go too well. Hawk's always seemed like the type of people to worry about the (relative) practicality of their designs.

I'm definitely curious about the other PHR units though. The bombard looks a bit like a rack of mortars or something rather than a missile pod and the Menchit variant might actually see use. Unlike the original.

# ¿ Feb 2, 2016 23:09

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Hawk posted painted pictures of the exclusive battlecruisers on their facebook for some reason rather than sending them out in a backer update.

And some shots of the fancy cluster tokens:

# ¿ Feb 17, 2016 00:30

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

I introduced a friend to Dropzone Commander last night with a couple of intro games and his comments on the game were... interesting. I played the PHR starter army for both games while he played Scourge and then UCM. I got my rear end handed to me in both games because that's what always happens when I am teaching someone. In any system. He got really hung up on the infantry rules for some reason and wanted more detail, even down to identifying which floor a specific squad is on. This came up after I drew line of sight from an upper window or whatever to see a damaged APC hiding behind another. It was still obscured and the shots didn't do anything regardless, but this was apparently a big deal. He also didn't like the facing mechanics for garrisons because in larger buildings infantry were technically able to move further than they would normally. This dude apparently has no concept of the term "abstraction" and would rather waste 30 minutes each turn detailing exactly where each infantry squad is than play the game.
:psyduck:

I will give him credit for being the first person I have taught to actually shoot occupied buildings. Falling masonry is mean.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2016 00:03

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

PHR Frigate variants:
*Standard frigate with two little broadside batteries.
*Escort carrier - the only frigate level ship that can launch fighters and bombers.
*The only frigate in the game with a burn-through laser. It is less powerful though.
*ECM frigate with no guns that makes it harder for a friendly ship to be hit.
*Strike carrier with a small orbital bombardment cannon. It's the only one with that capability.

Other stuff:
*Burn-through lasers now have damage caps depending on the variant to prevent things like hilariously instant-killing huge ships with good rolls.
*Some renders of the modular space station kit were shown. A ton of bits in that thing. They even showed a render using all of the parts to make one gigantic space station.

# ¿ Mar 3, 2016 20:36

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

nesbit37 posted:

Can anyone here do a quick explanation of countermeasures? I did a demo day of DZC this past Sunday at one my LFGS and it went great but I know I did something wrong with the countermeasures. The PHR forces were getting their asses kicked way to easily and I don't think I was handling them right at all. Played starter armies for PHR/Scourge/Resistance with the basic lightning raid scenario just to get people started.

With the armies you were playing, you were only encountering active countermeasures. These act to reduce the range of most weapons and nothing else. Most units have them and they are noted in the CM space with an A. All weapons have R(F) and R(C) values. The R(F) value is their full range while firing at targets without active countermeasures, such as buildings or infantry. R(C) is their range when firing at targets with active countermeasures. For example, a railgun has a R(F) of infinity and can hit a building anywhere on the board as long as it's in line of sight. The same railgun has a R(C) of 24" so can only target an enemy vehicle at a maximum of that range. Any shots beyond that distance are supposedly intercepted or countered in some way. There are also passive countermeasures (signified by a P and a number) which are treated like armor/invulnerable save rolls. Unless you were playing with the Shaltari, they wouldn't have shown up in the starter armies though the PHR have some in a limited capacity. This is probably a bunch of words to explain a relatively simple system, but whatever.

My experience with the starter armies mirrors your own. I typically use PHR against someone trying out Scourge or UCM and I think I've won one demo game. The PHR are super slow and the starter army gives them nothing to mitigate that. Their strengths just don't come out at that small a scale or maybe it's just the unit composition. For example, you'd probably never take the Juno IFVs for your infantry, instead taking light dropships. All of the other factions outnumber them and while the PHR's walkers are durable, they can also be one-shot by the Scourge's plasma weapons or even the UCM's E10 railguns. Their lack of speed is definitely the biggest issue at that scale though.

# ¿ Mar 23, 2016 17:03

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Seriously, send an e-mail to Hawk about those things. If nothing else, they'd probably like to see the work you've put into them.

Those tokens rule.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2016 20:25

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

I looked it up:

It's like a giant Triton.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2016 23:47

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

One thing to remember with the UCM drop ships is that the flight stand passes through where one of the tanks would be carried. It involves a ton of work, but, yes, someone has done it in this thread. I just don't think it's worth the effort for most people.

# ¿ May 1, 2016 09:25

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Oh, hey, maybe we can stop talking about goddamned Nazis in the Dropzone/Dropfleet thread now:

# ¿ May 21, 2016 14:30

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Reconquest II sounds pretty awesome. Yeah, most of the new units have been beta tested for a while at this point so we know what's coming, but it sounds like there's some cool new things we haven't seen yet. The new characters sound solid too even if they won't see much use. Their unique vehicles tend to become regular variants eventually anyways. I've got six Apollos so I'm excited about a generic Hera if nothing else. That model's fantastic. All of the environmental stuff sounded interesting too even if it's just for goofy poo poo. The fauna/monsters are even going to get models.

I am also interested in the railgun Poseidon because if that thing becomes a generic variant :getin:

Yeah, it's basically a heavier PHR version of the UCM's Eagle, but I love that thing. Gimme gunships.

# ¿ Jul 7, 2016 20:07

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Flipswitch posted:

katana's are amazing you love them deep down, you really do.

Also, lookie what I found.

Dang, that thing hates airplanes.

# ¿ Jul 22, 2016 18:47

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Bistromatic posted:

Brückenkopf has some new Dropfleet pics from gencon, including painted stations and a bunch of new battleships.

That PHR battleship :stare:

# ¿ Aug 4, 2016 09:09

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

I know it doesn't really matter given that this is a special character, but check out this loving guy:

He's got all of the normal Phoenix weapons plus a third chaingun and that missile storm thing. :stare:

I want to see that model.

Thanks for taking those pictures and uploading them.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2016 18:38

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

One of the Resistance special characters is in a crazy claw mech originally designed for hunting and killing mega-fauna. I hope that becomes a real unit.

Heras can take a second Hera as a bodyguard at a discount AND a retinue of Apollos. Neat.

# ¿ Aug 9, 2016 21:28

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Incy posted:

I was going to name my ships after famous hedgehogs, but gave up after the only two I could come up with were sonic and Mrs Tiggywinkle.

Spiny Norman.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2016 08:47

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

wdarkk posted:

Maybe it's just the guy that uses them, but I haven't been impressed with Hazards at all. They tend to enter combat with my Destroyers and just get, well, destroyed.

Yeah, that's the issue. The last thing hazard suits want to do is get into CQB. :v:

# ¿ Sep 29, 2016 19:09

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

wdarkk posted:

Big big backer update about the additions to the rulebook.

Ramming is in, orbital debris is in, approach type (how your fleet arrives on the field), etc.

On ramming:

quote:

This has been discussed at considerable length, and has now been added due to popular demand and (admittedly) for sheer fun factor. However, since ramming in the Greek Trireme sense is extremely hard to pull off in high velocity space combat, the actual thing your desperate captain is doing when you ram is closing to suicidal point blank weapons range and/or detonating the drives for massive devastation. Since this always results in the destruction of your ship, you can only do this when the ship is almost destroyed as a last and desperate attempt to drag the enemy down with you! If you can pull off a successful ram though, the results can be devastating... Rolling a number of Lock 3+ dice equal to your starting hull points can be RUINOUS, especially if it's a 22 HP battleship doing the ramming...

I know they were against it initially given the scale and distances involved, but I'm glad they added it. I also really like that it's meant as a last-ditch effort for a crippled ship.

# ¿ Sep 30, 2016 03:05

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Pash posted:

Kickstarter page meanwhile is full of people bitching about not getting the retail box of the two player starter set.

As in they didn't get all of the contents or literally did not get the actual box?

# ¿ Oct 7, 2016 19:23

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

Hahaha, goddamnit. I'm not surprised at all, but maybe I thought these complaints might be legitimate given how complex shipping all of this stuff actually is.

# ¿ Oct 7, 2016 21:54

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 16:15

Safety Factor: Oct 31, 2009; Grimey Drawer

# ¿ Dec 18, 2016 21:36

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Dropzone Commander: v1.1+ - Because a white metal ball told me to do it

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