[Dystopian Wars]
the hot new game that I dove into over the past week is Dystopian Wars. Dystopian Wars or DW as most people are calling it, is a steampunk-themed vehicle combat game set in an alternate history of 1870. The Industrial Revolution of the 1900's took place earlier and humans have discovered a new element in the Antarctica region called Sturginium which allows for the construction of super-massive vehicles, airships, tanks, etc. Players take command of these vehicles and try to capture or destroy their opponents models. The game is made by a company called Spartan Games out of the UK. Using a similar ruleset they also make a space-naval game, and a fantasy-naval game.
[DW-Good]
So here's some of the great stuff about DW. I'll try to avoid making it sound like a sales pitch and more like a 'if you're interested' kind of review. First thing I latched into with DW that many other frugal gamers might eyeball was - price points. Most tabletop gamers know, the hobby we play is not a cheap one (usually) and although many games exist that use few models, some of the best and most well known games also have a high price tag. The bonus of the higher price tag and reputation of bigger games, like Warhammer and Warmachine, is that you can always find someone to play thus justifying the roughly 75-90$ 'buy-in' to get an army started. Then like most games, once you purchase the basics you're going to need specialists to help counter an opponent' specialists. Point is, DW is great because you can buy an entire naval fleet for: 50$ that's right, 50$
What do you get for 50$? 1 battleship, 1 squadron of cruisers (3 models), 3 squadrons of frigates (9 models) 2 bomber airplanes (2 models) and 10 fighter plan tokens (10 'models'). Not counting the fighter plane tokens, that's 15 models for 50$! that was the argument that got me to accept the 'buy-in' and my friend purchased another country's fleet. The rulebook was 30$ which is on par with a 40k codex, whereas the 40k rulebook is roughly 50$ itself sometimes higher. so in terms of price point, DW is a bargain.
The next question then you could ask is; what kind of models do I get for this 50$ here we go. I'll show you my fully painted Federated States of America (USA) battle group.
That's 1 battleship, 3 cruisers and 9 frigates. I have not painted the air models yet. To give you a sense of scale the frigates are 1.5" and the battleship is 4.5"! in terms of scale their very big and incredibly detailed. The models are molded from resin, minimal flash, and as you can see with these FSA models the detail is incredible with each little turret clearly and cleanly molded.
Now the second part of the equation is, how does the game play? If you've ever played something like Warmachine or Heavy Gear then DW will feel familiar. Players roll for initiative with 2D6 apiece and add the results, the highest goes first. Then both sides take turns activating squadrons of vehicles and performing moving/shooting/assaulting in standard faire. Due to these vehicles being very large in the game world, all ships use turning templates to turn with. There's one template for each model size. Units move in inches, and each segment of the turn template is 1" as well.
Shooting is also very familiar. Weapons are measured in a series of 'Range Bands.' Each Range Band is 8", meaning Range Band 2 is 16" while Range Band 4 is 32". All units are supplied with a unit card that gives the unit's stats and weapons. Weapon damage is done in terms of dice rolled, so a weapon that is rated as '12' means one rolls 12 dice to attack with. Once rolled, the attacker needs a 4,5, or 6 to hit. DW also uses the 'exploding dice' mechanic on 6. If someone rolls a 6, then the hit counts as two hits, and the player rolls the dice again. This results in some crazy rolls which only adds to the fun.
The final piece of action is assualts, most games have some form of CQB or 'Close Quarters Battle.' In DW it's boarding, all ships have a complement of rocket-powered marines ready to leap onto an enemy ship and attempt to board it. Once there, the defender must fight off the boarders or risk losing control of the ship to the enemy!
This was a brief, but that is the game in short, another good fact is that the game system itself was designed so that players can use Land, Air, and Naval units at the same time in battle using roughly the same rules.
[DW-Bad]
Now for some downsides. I'll start with probably the worst - the rulebook. Although it's priced at 30$, the rulebook is very disorganized. Yes it is broken into sections concerning each segment of gameplay, it's the layout of those sections which are a nightmare to read. The overall design of each segment is: provide some paragraphs of the rules, a bulleted list or two, and then endless examples. That's the problem when in the middle of gameplay, one does not have time to skim through examples to find out if their adhering to a rule or not! Some rules aren't fully explained either! to me the straw that broke the camel's back was that the index was not laid out alphabetically by item but alphabetically by SECTION. Ergo, skimming the index was almost impossible because it's organized by overarching sections, not the actual individual item you need!
Another issue is that at times the gameplay can be really basic. The shooting mechanics are straightforward and thus it takes away from some of the flavor when you realize that most guns always hit on a 50/50 dice roll. In an effort to make nicer gameplay, DW removes some of the nuance of vehicle play like to-hit modifiers like movement, and in the case of the ocean: choppy or calm seas.
In conclusion, if you're looking for a tabletop-lite game, DW is it. It's fairly fun, the models look nice, and the price is low. Just take this with a grain of salt; learning the full rules will take a little longer than most due to poor layout and word choice. I personally found it entertaining as a warhammer 40k/ warmachine player and will continue to play it in the future.
[References]
Spartan Games http://www.spartangames.co.uk/
Dystopian Wars at BoardGameGeek http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/85652/dystopian-wars
