DUST Warfare Battle Report

Reposted from the Endgame forums. Sorry, no pics!

Played my first game of DUST Warfare last night against Rob Elling, a gracious and cool guy I might add. I had a lot of fun with the game and I am now very eager to play more. It was a small 150pt game, and since it was the first go for both of us, there was a learning curve as we tried to figure out the rules. As we went along though, the turns got faster (even as the number of units on the board increased) and I found that the concepts in the game were fairly easy to grasp.

One thing I did notice is that the rules are very well-written and even cross referenced, and we were able to find clear answers to most of our in-game questions. There were a few things that were a little confusing, but on careful reading we puzzled them out and the solutions made sense.

Here’s a short batrep.

My force:

Allied Combat Platoon

Upgrade: Improved Command (5)

Command Section: “The Boss” Ranger Command Squad (25)

1st Section: “The Gunners” Combat Ranger Squad (17)

2nd Section: “The Hammers” Heavy Ranger Assault Squad (28)

3rd Section: “Death Dealers” Ranger Weapon Squad (20)

Support: MCW M2-C “Pounder” (40)

Support: “Crack Shots” Sniper Team (12)

 

Rob’s force (from memory, the list below only comes out to 138 pts so Rob, let me know what I missed): Axis Sturmgrenadiere Platoon

Command Section: Kommandotrupp (25)

1st Section: Battle Grenadiers (17)

2nd Section: Laser Grenadiers (21)

3rd Section: Heavy Laser Grenadiers (35)

Support: MPW II-D “Lothar” (40)

We played the March Battle where no forces begin on the board and you get squads each turn. Terrain was arranged in a ring with the center area of the board open.

Turn 1 – I brought my Boss squad and my gunners squad on. The Boss squad moved into some woods and basically stayed there for the rest of the game, trying to call in Long Tom strikes. This is offboard artillery, which promises to be very devastating, but you need to get it on target first by rolling a hit on a single die. This I failed to do every turn (the law of averages deserted me). Had I landed a barrage on target, it could have been nasty, since I could hit two units with it if they were within 6″ of each other. Rob’s Grenadiers moved on and we got our intitial positions set.

Turn 2 – My Hammers jumped in. Wow, these dudes with the rocket packs are awesome! Soldier 3, so they’re tough. If you do a March Move (double move) you can go 24″ and clear terrain features up to 9″ high. And, enemy units can’t react to a jump move! Very handy for getting them in close, which is where they need to be, since they only have Rocket Punch attacks (6 of them in a full squad). My Gunners moved forward and we started exchanging fire between our point units. First use of the Reaction system, which I really liked.

Turn 3 – Support units arrived. Snipers took up position on my left and fired, but missed (as they would for all the following turns). Moved my Pounder into firing position. Rob’s Lothar came in. The Lothar is an awesome anti-infantry vehicle, and really laid the hurt down on some of my units. My Hammers assaulted Rob’s Laser Grenadiers. I did some damage but didn’t take them out. Return fire from his Heavy Laser guys wiped out my Hammers, but it was a cool exchange.

Turn 4 – My Pounder hit the Lothar and set it on fire, as well as adding DC to it. But the big walker continued blasting my troops to bits and thinned out my Weapons squad despite them being in a building in cover. My advance had stalled since my Hammers and Gunners were all gone.

Turn 5 – Took another shot at the Lothar but I either missed or Rob armor saved all the damage, can’t remember. Rob’s Kommandotruppe mechanic put the fire out on the Lothar and fixed 1 DC. Some more desultory fire but the game ended here.  Though I had damaged several of his units, I hadn’t actually wiped any out, whereas Rob had taken out three of mine, so the win went to Rob.

As I said I really like this game. The Reaction system is great. Seeing the actual performance and capabilities of the units and weapons in-game was good too.

Lessons Learned

1. Do not move into reaction range of an unsuppressed enemy unit (unless you can jump in)! You’ll get fired up before you can shoot back on your next action. Instead, shoot first, get a Supression marker on them so they can’t react, then move in.

2. Jump troops are awesome, but need supporting fire unless you can pick off isolated enemy units.

3. When being fired on from well beyond Reaction range, use the special “Hit the Dirt!” Reaction. You take a Suppression marker, but you can probably get rid of it at the end of the round, and it improves your cover by 1.

4. The “Improved Communications” upgrade is probably more useful with larger platoons.

5. Allied squads kick out lots of anti-infantry firepower with their UGLs.

6. The Lothar with its Nebelwerfers is really bad news for enemy infantry.

7. One Pounder is good against armor. Two would probably be great.

8. I really want to exploit the Jump capability of certain Allied walkers.

9. Command squads with radios are good for extending your command range. They keep your force up and moving.

10. Long Tom strikes promise lots of death and destruction on the enemy, but don’t rely on them too much.

So again, thanks to Rob for a fun game. It was a good one and I learned a lot about the game that makes me want to play it more!:)

Getting into DUST, thinking about 6e, and Brothers in spirit!

Got myself a copy of the DUST Warfare book, and working on painting up an Axis force using the EndGame store miniatures set. Many of the battles in DUST apparently take place in Antartica, but I decided to go for a more temperate European theme and did a Peadot pattern for these German grenadiers.

I need to take a new pic of this guy, since I have since changed the color scheme a bit. His trousers are now the same base color as the jacket (but not camouflaged, and his body armor is now the same shade of grey as the trousers are in the pics above. The lighter body armor helps the camo pattern of the shirt stand out more. I’m torn on doing the camo on the trousers now, since it will take more time and I simply want to get these guys done and ready for play.

Digging the DUST Warfare game itself. Liking everything I’m seeing in the rulebook so far and hoping to play soon. If I can, I’m going to champion it at the store, try to generate some interest and build a community there.

As the imminent release of 6th edition 40K looms, I am steering clear of the rumor sites. Really, why bother? What good does knowing anything about it now do you when you’re not actually playing the game yet and all these rumors are presented without the context of the entire 6e ruleset as a whole? I mean, really, when the book comes out, it comes out, you get it if you want it and you play the game and then decide what you like and don’t like. People…

Finally, I am pleased to have found a kindred spirit across the internet and across the Pond. Targol (I think that’s his name) in France, has also done his own samurai-themed Space Marine Chapter. Unlike mine, he has gone the extra mile to do conversions that make the models look like they’re wearing samurai armor (and he’s done it quite well too). Now, with Kromlech’s selection of samurai bits, I suppose I don’t have any more excuses to not do this as well. I am actually thinking about trying some of the Kromlech parts and making another Captain, this one carrying a power katana and with a samurai helmet – I found some etched brass helmet crests I might use made by Oshiro. The Kromlech heads are cool but until I get some in my hands to see them up close, I can’t decide.

Anyway, check out Targol’s work! It’s really great!

My wandering eye – DUST Warfare, Dropzone Commander

I feel I may be reaching a “saturation point” with my 40K stuff. While I still want to paint things for my Rising Sun Space Marines, new games are beckoning to me. DUST Warfare is looking more and more attractive. And I have to say I’m highly intrigued by Drop Zone Commander. I’ve got enough Space Marines for a 2,000-point army now, though I do have some holes in the roster I’d like to fill. Still I can play 40K easily enough with what I have and that means I may very well head into DUST territory and see what that looks like.

DUST Warfare

I have to say, the new DUST Warfare game from Fantasy Flight just looks more and more attractive. The minis are super cool (and the range is expanding in very interesting ways) and the rules sound really good. My hobby budget has been slashed as of late and looking at DUST Warfare is making my next purchase a tough choice (more GW or DUST?) That said, I may just buy a box of the pre-primed minis just to see how they paint up.

Has anyone out there had a go at it?