Dystopian Wars Chinese & Turks

[fastolfrus]

Just noticed some new DW factions - Ottomans & Chinese.

Can't comment on the Turks, but the Chinese look interesting, including a sort of flying imperial city that looks almost like a Stargate ship, and some very chunky looking boats.

[Westfalia Chris]

Just noticed some new DW factions - Ottomans & Chinese.

Can't comment on the Turks, but the Chinese look interesting, including a sort of flying imperial city that looks almost like a Stargate ship, and some very chunky looking boats.

They are quite pretty, aren't they? I'm more taken with the Ottomans myself, as the ships are a nice blend of Arabian Night clichés and ironclad design (plus the focus on mine warfare), but the Chinese look interesting regarding gameplay. A matchup against the Russians would be interesting - both with increased resilience and predominantly short-range weaponry, but reluctant crew when it comes to aggressive boarding.

[King Tiger]

Love to paint a few of these newer factions, but its just the cost of buying them just to display them for myself, would never play with them, dead system.

[OSHIROmodels]

Both factions do have a certain appeal if ever so slightly over the top 

Love to paint a few of these newer factions, but its just the cost of buying them just to display them for myself, would never play with them, dead system.

Good for you 

cheers

James

[Mr.Marx]

Whilst I do like the Chinese and the Turks, I still prefer the Australians they brought out a while ago.

dead system.

Must ask, hows the system dead?

MM.

[King Tiger]

Whilst I do like the Chinese and the Turks, I still prefer the Australians they brought out a while ago.

Must ask, hows the system dead?

MM.

No no I'm not getting into that, too dangerous to express an opinion round here, gets me in trouble

[jamesmanto]

If one has the rules that one likes the system isn't 'dead' as long as you want to play it. I know fellows who still play rules long out of print and still enjoy them.

Why does a game need an online forum and a website with stuff?

Personally I find rules that are constantly bringing out new versions and supplements (40K and FoW for two) rather annoying. Breaks the bank trying to keep up.

James

[XCIV]

If one has the rules that one likes the system isn't 'dead' as long as you want to play it. I know fellows who still play rules long out of print and still enjoy them.

Why does a game need an online forum and a website with stuff?

Personally I find rules that are constantly bringing out new versions and supplements (40K and FoW for two) rather annoying. Breaks the bank trying to keep up.

James

Hear hear!

[Westfalia Chris]

If one has the rules that one likes the system isn't 'dead' as long as you want to play it. I know fellows who still play rules long out of print and still enjoy them.

Why does a game need an online forum and a website with stuff?

To be honest, the Spartan community is actually rather useful; unfortunately, this is rather necessary as even the re-worked rulebooks had some serious layout and proofreading issues. They are quick to provide rulings on unclear issues though, but they will have to do a really well-done new rulebook eventually, or new players in particular will be hard to convince to stay aboard.

I'm a big fan of the DW game (universe/fluff is a bit so-so) and the models, and I would hate to see it die. Come to think of it, I've still got a bunch of Russian ships to be painted...

[Gibby]

Seems to me that if a game was dying/dead they wouldn't be doing well enough to bring out new factions. I wish they hadn't described it as Steampunk/VSF, though, as the aesthetic is much more early 20th Century in my opinion.

[fastolfrus]

Why does a game need an online forum and a website with stuff?

Quite a few sets of rules on my bookcase don't even have colour photos (other than on the book dustjacket).
Admittedly, some have prices in shillings.....

[Westfalia Chris]

Quite a few sets of rules on my bookcase don't even have colour photos (other than on the book dustjacket).
Admittedly, some have prices in shillings.....

Wonderful one with the shillings.

Regarding "modern marketing practices", I guess that if you really plan to run a games company as a viable commercial venture (as Spartan apparently do), then you'll have to combine channels these days and online support is just one of these. It does require a lot of resources, and people who publish games more from a "labour of love" PoV will most likely not be able to support their games like that.

My personal worry would be that Spartan Games are doing too much too quickly. My brother dropped a couple of their new "scenics" boxes which I'll be painting over the next few days, and while they are beautiful, I am really concerned all these new models are siphoning off resources that should (IMHO) go into properly reworking the core rules to produce a truly great game.

At the moment, they have outstanding models and an excellent concept behind the rules, but the editing and layout is often confused and occasionally just sloppy, which makes it hard to bring in new people.

[Keeper Nilbog]

The 'too much, too quickly' has always been Spartans downfall. Considering the company is only really about 3-4 years old, they have a massive amount of stuff out there.

Loving the new stuff, but play Armoured Clash over straight Dystopian Wars (have a thing about 'Large Armies', so looking forward to the introduction of these into that system - always found the core Spartan mechanics worked well in a 2 dimensional setting (the naval games were good), but became 'cluttered' with rules when a third was added, be it height or depth.

Also liking the current trend for Rules as free PDF, then pay for the figures, doesn't hurt to try out, as proxy/card bases would initially do.

[KevinH]

I've always liked the look of this range but know that i'd never get to use them so it's a waste to buy them.

OT these new ones are as good as ever.