Dropzone Commander!
Long have I obsessed over dropzone commander and now the time has come to take the plunge and buy in. I have always admired the awesome model designs and the lore/story seems interesting.
But first, a little history....
Dropzone commander was created by Dave Lewis of Hawk Wargames who made everything.. the lore, rules, cad designs, models.. the lot! The game got off to a great start and was fairly popular, however over the years it declined rapidly. I am not sure why but I think there had been operational/supply issues and a disastrous kickstarter for a spinoff game (dropfleet commander), which seemed to have killed off a lot of goodwill towards the company.
The company was in difficulty and was eventually bought by TTCombat.
The game continued and was re-released with an updated ruleset (Battle for earth). This new version seemed to have some problems that existing players didn't like and it also didn't appeal to new players such as myself.. the new rulebook was massive (and expensive) and the whole game system just seemed a bit overwhelming. That combined with just how few players there seemed to be made buying into dropzone commander a no-go for me.
HOWEVER!!!
The game has now been re-released (again) as version 2.1, but this time it has been done properly with new starter kits and a super slim-line rulebook!
Now was the time and I bought into the game with an initial purchase of the scenery pack, 2 player box set and a few add-ons to spice things up.
Although the starter kit (unlike the first one) doesn't come with a playmat or buildings (which are vital) TTcombat were offering a £10 discount when you bought it with the starter set, which isn't too bad. The original starter kit only had a few buildings and I think players would want to get more so I think it was a good decision for the buildings and models to be separated like this.
Also keep in mind that the 2-player starter kit doesn't come with commander cards. At the time of writing only the generic set has been released but there are plans I hear that each faction will have their own specific command cards.
I am amazed with the sheer VALUE you get from this new 2-player starter pack! The basic 2-player starter pack is £45 but you can get it cheaper if you shop around.
Inside the starter Box: Rulebook Sprues, ruler, blast marker, quick-start guides, dice. For the models you get 6 dropships, 12 tanks, 6 apc, 12 infantry units, 2 commanders, 2 commander transports
With the rulebook you can buy this separately for £10 or download the pdf for free from: http://dropzonecommander.com/resources
Quickplay sheets
The plastic tanks are awesome. Nice and cost effective along with some good detail. The detail is more shallow than you get with the resin versions but has no flaws/bubbles.
Speaking of resin, in this new starter kit you get two awesome resin mini-commanders. The detail is amazing.. but only when there are no flaws, of which there are quite a few. I have to say I am a bit disappointed as the flaws in some areas such as engine grills, which are next to impossible to repair with greenstuff. Hopefully if I just slop on the paint thick enough, nobody will notice.. eh eh
The models are designed so that they fit inside their respective dropships. Looks awesome but isn't particularly practical within the game as they do slip out and it can be a bit fiddly.
This may be old news to some but I can really see some inspiration here from classic scifi. For example UCM Bear APC looks to have taken some inspiration from the Aliens films.
You get a good variety of flatpack buildings, which take up a lot of space when built! I am not so sure on keeping these flatpack and building them on games night as I think they won't last too long before tearing.
Building the models was a sinch, with everything easily connecting together and I was delighted that there is a lot of articulation in the models so you can pose them as you like.
I was tempted for a split second to build my UCM dropship as the "twinkletoes" variant..
It wasn't long until I had built all the vehicles and done some experimental paint jobs. I decided to go with a fairly stock paintjob as I am always a sucker for those..
For the scourge I used "Toxic Purple", which is a colorshift paint from greenstuff world. The colour is mostly purple but shifts to green in the right light.. awesome stuff. It is a strange paint and is entirely reliant on you having a gloss black base colour. I applied the paint with an airbrush.
Here you can see the colorshift doing its magic
So it has taken me some time, but time is what I have during the Covid Pandemic but I have now mostly finished painting up all the tanks to a tabletop ready state (ie crap but useable). I had left the worst to last, which are the troops. Luckily they were actually really easy to paint. Just a blob for the helmet, a blob for the face etc..
I even bought my first foam case to store the minis.
With the models ready I embarked on a solo game. Sure, my opponent was amazing and knew my every move but it was a really good way to understand the rules better. I had a TON of questions but luckily the community on facebook was great and helped me out. I think the rulebook could do with an online FAQ to clarify a few things but otherwise I think the rulebook is really good. It is very light on fluff but I think is perfect for being a simple rulebook that you can take with you on games. I hope that there will be some fluff posted online so new players like me can learn some more into what story is without having to buy all the old out of date rulebooks.
The rulebook and all of the resources, including an army builder are available for free online, Bravo TTCombat!
Next up will be some remote demo games with my club members. I have no idea if this will work but I am going to give it a go. The future looks bright for dropzone commander with the increased customer engagement, low cost to entry and simplified rules, which makes this an easy game to get into. Hats off to TTCombat for revitalising the game. I can't wait to get this going at my club.
Next post. Painting a scourge force
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Nice review. I enjoyed reading it and look forward to more Dropzone content.
ReplyDeleteThanks for covering this interesting game. Nice write up.
ReplyDelete