Rescue the Ambassador

[Pictors Studio]

I ran a Dropzone Commander game at NJCon this past weekend.  It was Scourge vs. Resistance.  This is probably my fifth game with my Resistance forces and I'm always surprised at how tough they can be. Especially against scourge.  Although they have a lot of AA stuff that would be tough to deal with with any army.  In some ways the Scourge are less vulnerable against this because they are less reliant on their drop ships.  Still they can't as easily take advantage of the dropships huge movement.

The objective was to get to a building being defended by the remnants of a UCM force and either destroy the Shaltari ambassador they were protecting (Scourge) or rescue him (Resistance.)  Either way the UCM troops would oppose whoever came into the building first. 



You can see the rest of the images, as well as a brief write up here:

http://imgur.com/a/yoARC

[Engel]

Looks great

[Dentatus]

Very keen.

I take it you really enjoy DZC? Is it easy to teach? Have a steep learning curve or tons of special rules?

[Daeothar]

Very keen.

I take it you really enjoy DZC? Is it easy to teach? Have a steep learning curve or tons of special rules?

It's a great game. Certainly more tactical than 40K, mostly due to movement being such a deciding factor. Especially transport is important and this makes for games that are usually close, tense and fun.

As far as rules go, I'd say that its learning curve is very shallow when you already have some 40K experience. But even without (especially using the starter box, which has some great gaming aids), it's not a very difficult game. Then again; it's not very simple either...

Special rules? Well, there certainly are those, but I've found them to mesh really well with the standard rules and most of the special rules really define the character of the more specialized units. they certainly don't feel tacked on or forced in any way.

The command cards are a nice touch and will influence the game, with better commanders allowing for more cards to be held and played, but are not necessary.

Overall, I really like the game; Hawk seem to have delivered a very solid system with a very well thought out background and balanced factions. the rules are certainly not groundbreaking, but do what they do perfectly well.

I can certainly recommend the game wholeheartedly!  

(oh; and the minis are of a superb quality, be that either the plastics, resins or metals. The helo's even have lasercut steel rotor blades for glue's sake!   )

[Pictors Studio]

I do like DzC.  As Daeothar said the rules don't require much in the way of learning.  When I first read them I was a little disappointed because they seemed pretty much like anything else I've ever read.  This is one of those games where you need to play it to see how it comes out on the tabletop, or at least I did.

The way the rules work with the army lists makes all the difference.  Transportation is one of the most important things and the whole system has a neat rock-paper-scissors quality like sci-fi Napoleonics.  You need your transports to move your stuff, you need your AA to take down their transports, you need your armour to take out their AA (and their armour) and you need your infantry to take objectives and of course many armies have anti-infantry armour. 

You really need to think about what you are going to do next because if you activate unit A and kill unit a of the enemy, unit b will kill unit C when he activates, but if you try to save unit C then unit a will probably do something you don't want to happen.  You need to prioritize.