Dropfleet Commander - First game: Scourge vs. UCM vs. PHR

[Daeothar]

Last year, I received a Dropfleet Commander starter set for my birthday. And being the typical miniature gamer I am, I checked out the contents, made big plans for painting and expanding the fleets and then dutifully stored the box, untouched, deep within the lead and plastic pile.

But a scant couple of weeks ago, one of my gaming buddies lamented his lack of time and intent to sell off his Dropfleet kickstarter pledge (also untouched).

Much talking, convincing and promising later though, we managed to make him keep his pledge, and actually start building and painting the contents. And being the good friend I am, even though I was working on two other projects already (sorry Battlemechs and WW2 Dutch infantry; I have not forgotten you), I dug up my own box, and got stuck in.

I decided to take on the Scourge fleet first, as I already have a Dropzone Commander Scourge army, and I would be able to match the fleet to the ground troops.

So I glued the ships together, basically in those patterns I liked, not heeding any tactical or strategical consideration. So the actual fleet is not the same as is suggested in the quickstart rules, but hey; mine are already looking cooler, even before painting ;P

The painting I wanted to be fast and dirty; get them done before I burnt out on them. Besides; the beautifully shaped Scourge ships just beg for just such a paintjob: washes and drybrushes, with only small details picked out with traditional painting.

The under- and basecoat was an oil-based silver spraypaint, which ended up extremely bright and glossy. Much more so than I had expected, but not an unwelcome effect at all.

Then I washed the entire ships with a black wash, giving the ship more definition, followed by a drybrush of Mithril Silver (yes; the old one) to highlight the silver.

After that, I diluted a green paint (a mix approximating the old Citadel Camo Green, which I had previously used for my DZ troops) with loads of water, and used it as a very thin wash on all the front and bottom areas. This wash was used in many layers, working towards the extremities of the shapes, wetblending them in.

The same was then done with a dark blue/purple (VMC Oxford Blue) towards the rear and top.

Then, because the areas are so much larger than on the 10mm vehicles I previously painted, I used a light turquoise to further accentuate the very tips of the green areas, again using the same thin wash/wetblending technique, and a pinkish purple for the purple areas.

What followed then was another drybrush to accentuate the many spines, ridges and edges, using VGC Chainmail Silver.

After that, it was a matter of detailing; Army Painter Strong Wash for the engine areas and select details, blacklining/reshading of certain areas, plus blacking out all the gems on the ships.

The gems were then given the standard gem treatment, but much abbreviated, as most were so frickin' small: basecoat a dark red, a white dot in the upper hemisphere and a splotch of orange/red on the bottom half.

Finally, the engine nozzles were painted white, and received a light blue edge to them. I didn't bother with engine glow, as for most of the ships, the effect would be obscured by the many tentacles and it only works when properly lighted. The covered locations of the engines make the areas way too shadowy, ruining the whole OSL effect.

At this point, I called them done, but I still plan on giving them a gloss coat of varnish, and picking out the markings on the bases in the basic hull colours.

Still; I've been able to finish this fleet in a couple of evenings work, spread over a two week period, so not bad at all.

Now for the UCM fleet; this promisses to become a more involved paintjob though; no blended washes and drybrushes here, but traditional layering methinks. Also, I'm already working on making some waterslide transfers for that fleet; numbers and logos, for that hard scifi look...

[Daeothar]

Oh; and I also put together an orbital space station as well, to be used as terrain, an objective or whatever else is in the rules.

I found a very cheap model kit of a Crusher Joe Gadfly. Crusher Joe is an eighties anime, mostly known to me for the mecha in it that was re-used in Battletech by Fasa: the Ostall, aka the Locust, and several Aerospace Fighters.

But this model is also from the series; a 1:16 kit of a gun-drone of sorts.

It was perfectly sized and shaped to be used at a completely different scale: 1:15000. So after greebling it up, using a plethora of different parts from just as many model kits, including 1/700 ships, 1/35 vehicles, several scales of model plane landing gears, BFG parts and even 40K lasguns, I had a perfectly workable space station.

Now I only need to paint it...

[Hobby Services]

It saddens me that you need to explain what Crusher Joe is.  Makes me feel old.

Nice kitbash there, though.  You do any of the DfC modular space stations yet?  They're probably my favorite thing in the whole range.

[Vanvlak]

Nice work - I really need to unpack mine!
Love the station, reminds me of one shown in the Terran Trade Authority books together with a spaceship named the Warhawk, I think (and there's another cultural reference dropped!).

[smirnoff]

Those ships are really nice sculpts and the paint job looks really good.
We play 6mm Future War Commander and the lads are unlikely to move up a scale....but those destroyers may well work as large alien gunships in 6mm. Could you tell me how long they are please?
If anyone has a couple to sell I'd be interested as I really won't need 8 of them...

[Daeothar]

Thanks guys, much appreciated

...You do any of the DfC modular space stations yet?...

No, I haven't; I thought about getting one of those boxes, but eventually decided not to, as they are pretty nice, but the box is also rather expensive when compared to scratchbuilding and kitbashing. And since I have loads of nice bits to build my own creations, and also because I just love doing that stuff, I've gone that route.

Which is not to say that I won't ever get such a set, if the price is right of course

...those destroyers may well work as large alien gunships in 6mm. Could you tell me how long they are please?

I take it you mean the small ones? They're about 6 cm long, nose to tail tip, but as they're positioned upright, the overall length (following the curve) might be slightly greater...

[smirnoff]

Yes, the small ones, thanks
6cm is quite chunky for 1/300th but they are such beautiful sculpts.....

[Hobby Services]

No, I haven't; I thought about getting one of those boxes, but eventually decided not to, as they are pretty nice, but the box is also rather expensive when compared to scratchbuilding and kitbashing. And since I have loads of nice bits to build my own creations, and also because I just love doing that stuff, I've gone that route.

Which is not to say that I won't ever get such a set, if the price is right of course

The kit's also an absolute godsend for your bits box and kitbashing projects.  I've done about eight boxes (maybe ten?) worth of them at this point and never paid anything like retail, so if you shop around you may find a bargain.  Harder now than back in the KS-just-delivered days and Hawk going under didn't help, but still well under $60.  If you want some further temptation, check out my blog:

http://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2017/07/dropfleet-commander-space-sation-builds.html

Geez, I really need to do some more of those, that page hasn't had anything new in ages.  Also, shots of the kit sprue here:

http://brokenstarsburningships.blogspot.com/2017/07/dropfleet-commander-space-sation-sprues.html

[Daeothar]

Wow; that's a LOT of stations! 

I'm just planning on building a few, for use in games of DFC; I reckon one does not need that many to begin with...

They are really pretty though, so maybe I still might get me a box eventually.


On another note; I've finished the first Scourge batch by spraying them with a coat of gloss varnish, to bring back the metallic glint I wanted the ships to have, and it worked out pretty well. But I might still add some matt finish to the black recesses on the frigates.

The bases were interesting too. I added the same blended metallic colour effect to the front arc bit of the bases, and painted the quadrant dividers silver. I then painted black inbetween those raised features, and gave them the same glossy varnish spray as the ships, but as a final touch, I then sprayed them with a matt varnish, and brushed gloss varnish on the front metallic areas, to bring back the shine.

And now they're done.

Which means I could either wait for the next batch of Scourge ships to arrive by mail (they're on their way), or make a serious start on my UCM fleet. Obviously I went the UCM route, as I've done up all the frigates I have at the moment.

Yes; that's a metal frigate in there as well; I got it out of the Sprue Exchange Box (right before it got lost in the mail that is  ), and now it will serve with its plastic brethren (or sisters; aren't ships supposed to be female?).

Oh; and one heavy cruiser to the right, obviously. Five more cruisers to go, and it's painting time again!

[Daeothar]

OK, so the UCM fleet is on hold for now, as several Scourge reinforcements arrived. And they're newer, so obviously more shiny (actually; they will be, once base-coated, but you get the point ).

I have now in my possession a pack of Scourge Command Cards, another two cruiser sprues, 6 Nikhar Raiders and a Daemon/Dragon Battleship. The last two packs are the excellent Hawk War-games resin, the cruisers are the same plastic sprues as the ones in the starter box.

The raiders are one-piece affairs, so it was just a matter of cleaning them (just a few casting channels, no flash or mould lines at all), and they're ready for undercoating.

The Battleship was a bit more involved though. It came with two weapon options, which make the difference between the Daemon or Dragon variants, and having not yet played the game, I want to have the flexibility to change the load-out. I haven't bothered with flexibility with my other ships, as I reckon there will be more to follow them, and after a few games, I'll have a decent enough grasp of the mechanics and capabilities of certain systems to know which ones I will need more of. But the Battleship represents enough of an investment to warrant magnetizing the options.

Which is what I did.

The ship comes in 5 main hull parts, which can be posed, so I went for (what I hope is) an undulating pose, as if the ship is swimming through the void. The many claws and tentacles are similarly posable (on a ball joint even), so I tried to have them match the motion implied by the hull sections.

The end result is rather impressive and it makes the previous cruisers look decidedly underwhelming. But I suppose that's just as it should be; it's a Battleship after all, and this makes me very curious about the even larger class of Dreadnoughts to be honest...

They will receive their base/undercoat this weekend, and then the painting fun can begin again!

Oh, and I received my Deep Cut Studios gaming mat this week as well. I just loved the nighttime city scape when I first saw it, and I knew this had to be the mat I got. I ordered the mouse-mat material (obviously); I've got several other mats of this material and it's the perfect (spaceship-)game surface.

Now for its inaugurational game...

[Daeothar]

This weekend I did not get that much done (the weather was too nice again), but I did manage the following:

I base/undercoated all the Frigates, the Raiders and the battleship silver. Then I added the widgets under the ships and gave them all a black wash.

The smaller ships are all done, but the battleship still needs its underside done, as the surface was too great to do in one go, and obviously, some domestic quality time was also required last night. So hopefully I'll be able to finish that this evening.

As an aside: even though the resin used by Hawk is excellent, I did experience something unexpected. The wash did not flow as well on the resin models as it did on the plastic ones. I rinsed them in soapy water as usual, and they have the same spray paint basecoat as the plastics, but for some reason, some pooling did happen and some small areas simply repulsed the wash, leaving blank spots.

Not many, and I'll clean them up, but it's still weird. As if the soap I used was not enough for some areas and some mould release agent remained. The spray paint stuck just as well in those spots as elsewhere though...

Two other thing that I also did:

I was not impressed by the virtually flat look of the Raiders. They're one-piece ships, best described as alien-space-manta-rays (or something like that), and the flatness of the sculpt made them look a bit meh.

So I heated them up in hot water, and bent the wings down a bit, and the wingtips up. This is the same look they originally have, but more exaggerated, making for a more interesting shape.

The other other one is using greenstuff to place the widget of the battleship correctly. with the pose I glued the ship in, should I use the cast hole for the widget as is, the ship would be angled way up, as if trying to pull a looping. So I added some greenstuff to the bottom, sculpted it into the hull, and placed the widget in/on it.

This way, the ship is positioned in the way I had envisioned; snaking ahead in a straight line instead of pulling space-acrobatics

[Daeothar]

Last Friday night, it finally came to be; our first game of Dropfleet Commander.

There were three of us, playing on my Deepcut Studios nighttime city mat; I played my Scourge, and the others UCM and PHR respectively.

To begin with, we used the fleets as laid out in the starter box, with the map and deployment zones adjusted to accomodate three fleets instead of two. And because I had built my ships in different configurations than listed on the starter sheet (I initially just went with what looked cool), even though they were all built and painted, they all went into their first game as proxies...

Still; it was clear to everyone what was what. Actually unclear; we still had to get to grips with the capabilites of the ships, and the first couple of turns diffentiating between units was limited to 'big- and small' ships. Only when some weapons were unleashed, did we start to get wary of certain more potent units.

It was like a very persistent fog of war that could only be lifted by copious amounts of looking things up

But the game is fun, and even from this limited first taste, it is clear that it has quite the tactical depth. I can't wait to start putting the more esoteric types of ship on the table and have fun with those.

Also, it is absolutely brutal!

Once a ship gets below 50% structural integrity (and with the weapons involved, that can be very fast indeed), rolls on tables need to be made, and the effects are usually quite severe. On several occasions, there were ships brought just one point under 50%, had to roll on the Crippled table and blew up because of those effects immediately.

And the Critical table that has to be rolled on when a ship is destroyed is just as brutal, but with results affecting a certain range around the ship, often triggering a cascade of additional damage effects in nearby ships. There was one instance, where this effect caused another ship to roll on the Crippled table, causing another death and thus yet another roll on the Critical table.

Hilarious, but it can also play havoc with any well laid battle plan.

As this was our first game, many mistakes were made, and several rules were omitted (though not by design), and we didn't quite play to our strengths (yet), as we all just tried to get to grips with the other fleets (the PHR player tried to remain out of the fray so he could mop up  what was left of the other two fleets however, but eventually had to face about two thirds of both other fleets turning on him ).

I found out later that I should have played the submarine game more, instead of slugging it out toe to toe with the UCM fleet, as Scourge excell at running silent and then striking. Also, I would have faced off certain ships with different units, had I known the capabilities and weaknesses beforehand. And I would have dropped different units onto the planetside zones and would have defended them differently. But these are all lessons learned for all games to follow.

All in all, the game was very enjoyable, even though we did not play it out to its conclusion; we started at 2100h, and called it quits around 0200h. It looked as if the UCM player would have won eventually, as he had been dropping units on the objectives very smartly; he took the zones nearest to him, then headed towards mine. I had done the same, and headed towards the one claimed by the PHR player, but he did not go for the UCM ones, and since my assault on the PHR zone did not go as well as I had hoped, I ended up with two contested zones, the PHR player with one contested one and the UCM player with one uncontested and one contested.

But all of this fueled my desire to get more ships painted, and I've already cracked on with the other WIP ships I already had on my table. Results to be expected soon(ish)

[Engel]

Ohh nice.

I have totally missed this thread.
Keep the good work up. 

[Dr. The Viking]

Very cool! I haven't actually seen drop zone in action.  The initial rush seems to have faded.

[Hobby Services]

Very cool! I haven't actually seen drop zone in action.  The initial rush seems to have faded.

Yeah, I noticed the same thing.  Big flurry of initial interest but it dropped off fast, at least locally.  Hawk effectively going belly up and selling out to TTC didn't help one bit there, although at least they're getting the stuff back into availability now.  I do wonder if they haven't permanently hurt their US distribution though, and without that the games are going to really struggle to grow.