We've had a great time with this review and were excited to not only bring you guys our first ever legitimate product review but also to bring you our first ever real live battle report.
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| dethtron, Lauby discuss terrain and other matters |
dethtron- With that in mind, I'd have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this game. It's a rules set that provides fast (we'd guesstimate that a reasonably sized game shouldn't take over 2 hours to play - if that), streamlined gameplay in a well thought out universe. While we had some initial gripes about the way the rulebook is laid out, we can't really find fault with the rules themselves. They towed the line between quick and dirty and detailed enough to foster real strategic play nicely.
Lauby: Additionally, Dropzone Commander included what so many games forget, completely ignore or just wont create- scenarios. Well thought out, obviously play tested scenarios. Without the drudgery having to wait 4 years for a campaign book implies. For me, that's a pretty big draw. I've played a lot of table top games over the years and when I write up my imaginary chart tracking the various elements of these games, there are far too many hash marks in the 'no scenario' and 'shit scenarios' columns.
As an added bonus, it was quite clear to me that the scenarios were are part of the game design from the get go. So none of that 'expansions will give you new units to fix the fact that your current army isn't capable of winning the new scenarios" bullshit.
dethtron- I'm glad that you brought up scenarios again, as I think there's some clarification needed on a previous statement of mine- 'there is no "fair fight" scenario.' This is true, but was possibly ambiguously worded on my part.
For the record the numerous scenarios in the rulebook appear to be balanced without favoring one side over the other. "Fair Fight" in this instance refers to the same old boring '2 sides line up and kill each other scenario' found in every game ever. Instead the scenarios involve a combination of complex and not so complex tasks like holding objectives, gathering intelligence, and doing recon.
This isn't to say that you can't make your own '2 sides line up...' scenario if you really are soulless enough to need that type of thing. It's not really that hard to figure out. Get 2 or more guys with roughly the same points worth of models, roll for initiative, deploy, and commence blasting the shit out of each other. Whoopdee shit, sounds like a fucking blast.
Speaking of the number of players, we also failed to mention that most of the scenarios in the rules allow for multiple players in the event that you have more than 1 friend.
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| getting organized with the Scourge drop ship |
dethtron- Moving along, we've got the aesthetics side of things. Everything is in order for me. Not only is the rulebook gorgeous, but I've got to say that the miniatures are some of the highest quality, best detailed examples I've seen of the kind. Though I haven't seen them or handled them outside of the package, I can tell that they'll paint up gorgeously. The majority of sculpts are resin cast and simply blow everyone else's resin out of the water. The handful of packages I inspected appeared to have no bubbles, flash, cracks, or other defects.
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| prepare to smacked in the gob by all that tiny detail |
dethtron- Which brings us to the elephant in the room- terrain! As Lauby said, this game benefits from having a lot of it and certainly looks fucking rad if a lot of that terrain is buildings.
So the issue that many people have had with Dropzone revolves around the cost of their resin terrain. Because it's super expensive! What most people glance over is that it's also super not required to play the game.
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| lookout fucktards, demolition of you wrong ass opinion forthcoming |
But in real life, where I live, this is what happened: Hawk Wargames owns a not insignificant amount of resin casting equipment. Using this technology they already had, they created building tiles to make some amazing scenery with which to make the Dropzone Commander rulebook look gob-smakingly amazing. Then they thought they might sell these models - again, which they already had the molds for - as a web only, on-demand extra. Because why not?
dethtron- Well look at you Mr. I bothered to ask the manufacturer what's going on.
Lauby: I know, right? The best part for me is that I was actually just confirming a theory when I asked them what was up.
dethtron- My own argument is a little more simple- don't like the cost of the buildings? Then don't fucking buy them. There's a plethora of other options out there for you. Build your own, get model train buildings, find a cheaper lasercut alternative, proxy a god damned battlemasters tower in there if you have to, just don't bitch at me about the cost of something that is COMPLETELY FUCKING OPTIONAL.
You see, making all those buildings is phenomenally expensive on the small scale that I'm assuming Hawk is casting them at. And by small scale I refer to the number produced- not the 10mm scale. So to continue to make money and do simple things like continue to exist as a business, Hawk can't exactly give their buildings away.
Well, except out of some bizarre reaction to the Internet fucktards, they do kind of give them away. Not that the fucktards have noticed. Hawk has gone out of their friggin' way to provide you with more options than most companies. You want to talk about customer service- they've made printable versions of all of their buildings available for FREE on their website. Get some decently thick paper, print 'em, glue 'em, and bam- scenery. Not sure I know about too many other companies that would just give you a no cost alternative using models that they created at a huge expense.
Lauby: At the risk of being wildly insulting, I imagine that the people who were up in arms about the cost of these buildings while willfully ignoring the existence of the free ones probably don't have cars. Since the Honda Civic just isn't as good as a Ferrari F12berlinetta, there's no sense in getting the compact. But, obviously, they can't afford the supercar. Or, to be less flippant: anyone complaining that loudly about the resin buildings was looking for things to complain about and wasn't likely to buy into DZC anyways.
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| Listen, if we here at the HoP didn't eat every meal like this it really wouldn't be worth eating, would it? |
This is where I drop my microphone.
Lauby: Uhhhh... I guess that's me getting the final word. Man, we got a little crazy back there. Right. So...
Obviously, this game isn't going to be for everyone since no game ever is. But that's a cop out. Here are some things that are not:
- First and foremost, while rulebook is not without it's organizational faults, the rules themselves are well written and present a well defined, deliberately designed and coherent game environment. Further, the four playable factions are created in such a way that while each of the four races has, roughly, the same basic building blocks to craft an army, at the same time each of them has unique advantages and play styles.
- However, the movement values of the units in DZC and what that represents in terms of tactical challenge and pacing will take some time for many players to wrap their heads around. Especially given the movement ranges in comparable scale games. This is more an issue of expectation management, but still bears mentioning as there will be people who just won't like that aspect of the game
- The upfront start up cost is not entirely cheap. While not nearly as expensive as the standardized unit of measurement that is Games Workshop, Dropzone Commander does cost noticeably more (like $200+ for a single good size army - $80+ for a starter) to start up than the type of 28mm skirmish games that have been gaining popularity of late. However, this will tend to level off considerably once a model collection reaches a certain size.
- On the other hand, startup cost is greatly mitigated by the upcoming release of the cardboard buildings set. The fact that $45 gets you an entire 6x4 table is pretty amazing. It also means the game is actually capable of being played on a dining room table and will not take a million years to get a good looking terrain pool built.
- Speaking of time investment - anyone who has painted up a Flames of War army, will know that the time it takes to get a model fully painted and ready to rock for the table is pretty low. We expect this to be the same with DZC given the comparable scale of the models.
- Aesthetically, the models for the game are pretty damn cool and actually start to wander over into 'stunning' territory once you take scale into account. This is actually what we consider to be one of the biggest draws for the game. Models can make or break a new game and Hawk Wargames has gone well out of their way to firmly plant their stuff on the 'make' side of that.
- Importantly, Dropzone Commander is still a very new game and made in Europe. The first ever DZC tournament was just held in January of this year. Unless you've got some buds, a local group that is really into starting up the game or a wad of cash for two armies, it may be hard to find opponents. Further, getting your hand on models (for the Americans) is likely to involve online shopping unless you're lucky enough to have a an LGS that carries the products. If and when DZC picks up popularity, these issues will be less of a hurdle as we are now starting to see with Infinity.
- Hawk Wargames has a pretty brisk release schedule and despite the young age of the game, there are no units in the first book that do not have models.
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