/dcg/ Dropzone/Dropfleet Commander General

>@Conclave of Har
>Hawk refused to refund me, I had to recoup my money elsewhere, so no, I'm not going anywhere.
>@Bashkar, welcome to the land of the real.
>/Morpheus

>we will have to suffer through khellposting forever and ever

Honestly, the UCM models looked odd to me at first. They've since grown on me immensely, but their layout doesn't conform to the sci-fi norm of a cylinder with bits added here and subtracted elsewhere, and that does take some getting used to.

Honestly, I personally just can't like the Shaltari frigates. They just don't fir with the rest of their fleet.

Just got my PHR and UCM battleships. Magnetizing them is trivial. Love it.

also, the PHR battleship is just bloody huge.

Unilaterally hated? I never got that impression when i bring it up. I know its not very popular when compared with the giants, but hated?

Hey guys looking to get into this as my side wargame or possibly my main one. Then again it's a tossup between this and team yankee.

Can you give me a couple pro's and cons for the system? Loving the look of resistance and UCM models. The resistance has really grown on me though.

Dropzone Commander is a very tactical, mission-oriented game. Your positioning is much more important than your firepower. You need a strong balance of infantry, armor, anti-air, and response-capable units to win missions.

The missions are generally structured, which is a plus for some (as it makes it very clean as far as a ruleset goes), but that makes it less 'ok, this is a setpeice battle' sorta deal.

Games are usually urban, though rural/forested boards do actually work well.

Every faction is well balanced, though a few units in each faction are not frequently taken.

Pros
>rules are pretty simple at their core
>models started out looking alright and have gotten really good (just look at the hades)
>designers are quick to change rules. Unfair models haven't lasted more than 1 major tourney before fixes.
>nothing nerfed has been knocked entirely out of the meta. You never have to worry a strong unit will get nerfed so hard you'll never get to play with it

Cons:
>buffs have been pretty gradual. A decent amount of units have difficulties because they become outclassed or cheaper options become available. This has been rectified minorly (scourge plasma tanks just got skyrocketed in playability with the new scourge command unit, thanks to its buff aura to plasma weapons.) but its slow going.
>dovetailing with that, models don't come out very quickly. We're talking 4 or 5 new models for the faction each release, a year or two apart. That just happens with a smaller company
>to really accurately play, a lot of terrain is necessary. Not just buildings but derelict cars, run down highways and crashed dropships. This helps out a lot of units since they have rules relating to that, but can make it challenging to provide proper support for a game board.
>small communities. You really want to have a person to jump in with.

i was being a bit facetious but it does seem to attract a lot of trolls/haters on this site, at least it did for the first like 30 threads about it people tried to bring up, and now we got the kickstarter hate squad led by khell, a man so angry about dropfleet he has devoted his meager resources to trying to force hawk wargames out of buisness.

Also ive seen alot of hate for the models dunno why I think most of them are insanely detailed and rather different from what you see in other wargames.

>universally revealed
>imagine Scourge, Geiger-esque girlmonster performing striptease

T-thanks, user.

If it's DZC vs TY, it all comes down to one thing- if you want a "normal" game or not. In DZC units tend to be (for most factions) barely mobile "lumps" that have to be carted everywhere by dropships for tactical mobility. If you don't like the sound of that, it'll be miserable for you. TY is just FOW with modern guns, so it's played at a "compressed" scale, allowing for tanks and infantry to move quickly across the battlefield. Downside of it is the usual FOW crowded parking lot feel.

So, I have came up with a new way of helping you determine your fleet colour schemes- if you've got the homeworld games, just open up the profile and mess around with the colour selector in there to get your designs.

I don't like the UCM railguns sticking off everywhere, they just look a bit dopey to me and I'd much rather the turrets were recessed under cowling or something like their frigate has. Everything else is lovely, I'm not even that against the UCM in terms of appearance so that's more of a nitpick. A couple of the Scourge ships with hats are a little goofy too but they'rre still OK

>scourge ships with hats

It's cute. CUTE.

But I agree with the turrets being a little silly. The PHR by far have the most aesthetic ships

I quite like the turrets, although you could always shrink the barrels down if you don't like them as much.

And there is literally wrong with Xenos Neuroparasitism WITH HATS ON.

This fleet is probably ass but here's what I've put together for a 1200 pt list

Ships Available - 1198pts
UCM - 3 launch assets

SR20 Vanguard battlegroup (350pts)
1 x Avalon - 195pts - H
+ UCM Admiral (100pts, 5AV)
1 x St Petersburg - 155pts - H

SR10 Line battlegroup (277pts)
1 x Rio - 105pts - M
4 x Toulon - 140pts - L
1 x Jakarta - 32pts - L

SR5 Line battlegroup (105pts)
1 x Berlin - 105pts - M

SR5 Pathfinder battlegroup (160pts)
2 x New Orleans - 64pts - L
2 x New Orleans - 64pts - L
1 x Jakarta - 32pts - L

Hmm, at that level, I'd probably make a couple of changes- I'd drop the st pete, maybe one of the jakartas, and then try and fit in 2x lima and a troopship.

This is every ship I have right now. I'll likely just drop it down to a 1000 pts to actually play some games and eventually pick up some more Frigates and another cruiser at some point. My PHR fleet is much more filled out I just haven't put them together yet since it's the fleet I really want to play and I don't want to make a shitty list.

Ships Available - 1309pts
UCM - 3 launch assets

SR20 Vanguard battlegroup (350pts)
1 x Avalon - 195pts - H
+ UCM Admiral (100pts, 5AV)
1 x St Petersburg - 155pts - H

SR10 Line battlegroup (277pts)
1 x Rio - 105pts - M
4 x Toulon - 140pts - L
1 x Jakarta - 32pts - L

SR5 Line battlegroup (105pts)
1 x Berlin - 105pts - M

SR6 Pathfinder battlegroup (148pts)
1 x San Francisco - 111pts - M
1 x Lima - 37pts - L

SR5 Pathfinder battlegroup (160pts)
2 x New Orleans - 64pts - L
2 x New Orleans - 64pts - L
1 x Jakarta - 32pts - L

SR6 Pathfinder battlegroup (169pts)
1 x Lima - 37pts - L
1 x Seattle - 132pts - M
------------- dflist.com -------------

First attempt at a scourge list, I think it's pretty bad but I have no idea what I'm doing.
--------------------------------------
1486pts
Scourge - 10 launch assets

SR15 Flag battlegroup (260pts)
1 x Daemon - 260pts - S
+ Fleet Champion (40pts, 3AV)

SR11 Vanguard battlegroup (202pts)
1 x Gargoyle - 32pts - L
1 x Shenlong - 170pts - H

SR7 Line battlegroup (169pts)
1 x Chimera - 105pts - M
2 x Gargoyle - 64pts - L

SR12 Line battlegroup (344pts)
1 x Hydra - 140pts - M
1 x Hydra - 140pts - M
2 x Gargoyle - 64pts - L

SR7 Line battlegroup (194pts)
1 x Ifrit - 110pts - M
2 x Harpy - 84pts - L

SR9 Pathfinder battlegroup (277pts)
1 x Wyvern - 105pts - M
4 x Djinn - 172pts - L
------------- dflist.com -------------

I'm aware that people say the battlecruisers are better than the battleships but since I diddn't fund the kickstarter I don't have one yet.

I think scourge can forgo the anti-battleship thing just because the Daemon looks so good

What is the workhorse for the PHR? I really like the the stats of the Perseus and the Ganymede looks really effective too. I'm thinking that for my 2000 pt list I'm going to run at least two Perseii

They're different in function, no spikes ever until half health is strong but 3+ armour and 18 hull is pretty strong too and more focused on holding ground.

Percy is pretty bad, she can only live up to her full potential in very niche cases and her full potential is mediocre anyway. Orions are much more versatile, they seem to be the real workhorse. Ganymede is good though, reliable bombardment and troop dropping is a potent combination.

Alright. What's a good battlecruiser?

Which faction? All of them except maybe the overly gimmicky hedgeheg one seem good

PHR preferably. I figure that at least one big ship is a good idea when fighting a Clash.

they're both fairly solid- the Leo is just a brick. Drive it and a few gun frigates into the middle of the enemy fleet and weapons free until nothing is left.

Scipio's also good- it's a tougher belle but guns instead of the lasers- I think I prefer the leo just because the belle is a really good standard carrier

Thanks. This is what I've spun up. I think I have way too many frigates but they look really good so it's hard to shy away from them. Might just fill in with some more cruisers instead of having 18 frigates and 5 large ships.

PHR Fleet - 1500pts
PHR - 9 launch assets

SR14 Vanguard battlegroup (380pts)
1 x Bellerophon - 180pts - H
+ Director (80pts, 4AV)
4 x Pandora - 200pts - L

SR9 Line battlegroup (291pts)
1 x Ganymede - 135pts - M
2 x Medea - 78pts - L
2 x Medea - 78pts - L

SR18 Line battlegroup (455pts)
2 x Orion - 214pts - M
1 x Ikarus - 115pts - M
3 x Andromeda - 126pts - L

SR7 Pathfinder battlegroup (294pts)
2 x Calypso - 74pts - L
3 x Europa - 120pts - L
2 x Pandora - 100pts - L

You've also got heavy cruisers for those heavy slots, they're worth considering.

>Achilles
Made for beating the absolute shit out of big things and nothing else. Specialised, but extremely capable in her element.

>Hector
A decent brawler that suffers a bit from awkward arcs and stiff competition. Nothing to write home about, but a serviceable all-rounder.

>Bellepheron
Fantastic backline carrier, best kept away from the action since the laser is narrow arc and anything that can spit 4 PHR bombers a turn will be a priority target.

>Leo
A big angry piece to base a broadside battlegroup around. Throw her into the middle of table with a few Europas and shoot people.

>Scipio
Sort of like a battlecruiser Ikarus. Can provide instant fighter screens for herself and anyone nearby or send out bombers to ruin somebody's day, at the cost of having fewer guns.

Calypos would be better off with something important like the Bell, nobody is going to bother sniping a Europa.

Europas and Pandoras don't mix. One wants to get stuck in and shoot sideways while the other wants to hang back and shoot forwards. Europas belong in broadside battlegroups with Orions and the like.

A small 2 ship BG of strike carriers is always a good plan from what I've played. Last into first activations are a great way to keep strike carriers alive and send them where they need to go.

Having no light guns might hurt your ability to murder small things like frigates. An Ajax is almost always a good investment.

Alright. I'm concerned about the high SR for my battlegroups but the alternative is leaving an entire battlegroup unactivated every turn which makes me a little uneasy

The ajax is also reasonable as a discount bombardment or anti atmo ship- its guns are linked so you can fire both sides on standard orders, and with 12 shots you might as well aim at atmo / surface targets if it's got nothing else to shoot at.

For me a pair of theseus are great workhorse ships, ppl tend to ignore them as they are very nonthreatening, but in reality they are a budget leonidus that can split its light calibres and kill 2 frigates instead of firing 12 shots at 1, having 2 fly either side of a bigger ship can do very good damage without going weapons free.

They also pair well with burn throughs on your bells and with a herkules where they just mop up the weakened ships. last game they took out 2 heavy scourge cruisers (with help from 2 pandoras) and sniped off a weakened troopship and a manticore

Also another neat thing is that if your base is over a sector you can fire bothe arcs at the target below you, meaning 24 shots of ghetto bombardment goodness.

Muffled BRRRRT from above

That's some IoM shit right there. "With this many rounds going down surely we'll kill something"

Honestly, the PHR are more like the Orks of D*C

>They take great pleasure in fightan and winnan in awesome ways
>social status is determined by the number of gubbinz and shiny bits you have
>impractical warmachines made possible via nanomachines/space magic
>only their most senior of officials are even halfway serious
>spaceships roll literal handfuls of dice

Then again, they're also the sneaksy, plotting half of the Eldar as well. The Shaltari get the arrogant, super advanced alien half.

I do really enjoy the lore side of the PHR. They are such smug cunts

Also their ground forces are all big stompy robots.

Well yeah, chicks dig giant robots. Why would they not use giant robots?

That's where the "impractical warmachines made possible via nanomachines/space magic" comes in.

Big stompy robots and sexy, skinsuit-wearing battle nymphs.

Wouldn't mind some critique on this list, it's mostly designed around making sure enough battlegroups can score and that I've got the tools to muscle out enemy battlegroups where possible. The pathfinders are there to chase down strike carriers, the 380 point vanguards are to headhunt enemy deathstars. It's all theory but it's half unglued so I want to double check now that actual experience exists.

SR22 Vanguard battlegroup (468pts)
1 x Leonidas - 195pts - H
+ Fleet Vizier (20pts, 2AV)
1 x Leonidas - 195pts - H
2 x Medea - 78pts - L

SR14 Vanguard battlegroup (380pts)
4 x Pandora - 200pts - L
1 x Bellerophon - 180pts - H

SR14 Line battlegroup (397pts)
1 x Orpheus - 130pts - M
1 x Orion - 107pts - M
4 x Europa - 160pts - L

SR14 Line battlegroup (397pts)
1 x Orpheus - 130pts - M
1 x Orion - 107pts - M
4 x Europa - 160pts - L

SR11 Pathfinder battlegroup (327pts)
1 x Theseus - 89pts - M
4 x Europa - 160pts - L
2 x Medea - 78pts - L

Gee Marcus, how come the sphere lets you have two battlecruisers

>AV 2

For what purpose

Bombardment is actually terrible.
The few instances you're not occupying the enemy forces directly to establish dominance, you need to pass 3 seperate rolls to actually hurt the enemy. First it's a 50% hit chance; then the enemy gets a 3+/4+ save followed by another 3+ save.
Do you know the average damage a Ganymede + 2 Medeas do to infantry with their bombardment?
>It's fuckall nothing.
But A-user! You can bombard armor!
>Unless your opponent to the usual spiel of going with infantry first, then dropping armor as reinforcement directly into the melee after the fight have started and bombardment is unavailable.

TL:DR
>The Orpheus is better 80% of the time.

yyyeah it's a bit heavy up front, it's just there are two from my kickstarter and they seem like they'd make a fairly effective anvil to force other elements up against but I'm thinking of scratching that battlegroup nd chucking in something a bit more midrangey, any ideas?

Would think about building the second Leo as a scipio but otherwise

>nice, thick, solid, tight. Keep us updated with progress pics and vids.

The Medea is amazing but the bombardment ability is just the cherry on top. Compare what a Norleans will be doing with its gun when it's in atmosphere, the bombardment isn't amazing but it's better than literally nothing.

Orpheus pussy game ridiculous tho

Is it worth to take the Turquoise as an alternative combat ship compared to the Amber?

I've found its incredibly useful to just rob opponents of clusters I have no intention of contesting by obliterating everything present, and the Ganymede worked well to that purpose.

Where are you getting the 50% hit chance, by the way? Ganymede has 3+ for bombardment, and crits can negate one of the two saves enemy ground forces get.

current WIP on my battleship

Where are those decals from?

guys in china just resell gundam ones one ebay , I use them on my infinity stuff aswell

The shine is a bit grainy, it could probably do with another coat of varnish, but otherwise looks awesome!

ye tonight's goal is to smooth out the hull then its just finish picking out details

Im a bit disappointed you didnt do port and starboard colors on the fire arcs missed opportunity there sir, other than that pretty awesome job, the decals are a nice touch

Bridges on the cruisers tie with the arches on the frigates. Though, if you're going to call out shaltari, both UCM and Scourge Frigates look nothing like the cruisers.

PHR is the most A E S T H E T I C fleet, but we all know this.

Actually, for the Shaltari frigates, it's more the tubular bottom hull they have going on. If their core was a more solid piece extending straight backward and joining with the arcs, kind of like a smaller light cruiser core, they would have looked much better.

It's not a matter of the frigates not looking like sized down cruisers, it's a matter of the design choices not meshing with the rest of the fleet. The UCM frigates fit in very well, and so do the Scourge frigates.

>Oh god those decals
MFW I've never painted or really played a minis game before and I have all these colour schemes in my head, but know I will butcher them.

Still, I've got an airbrush, might as well learn with the tool you want to get good at. Didn't do too badly with assembly, m-maybe I'm talented?

Should have used this gif.

Eh, those look pretty simple to apply, basically rectangular decals on a smooth surface.

You clearly never had to put up with applying decals to a Space Marine's pauldron, Christ that's an awkward shape to get a decal to sit flat on.

So in the process of cleaning up my Heracles/Minos for assembly, I've found that the flash across the starboard recess is solidly fused and has thus deleted four parallel lines from the detailing on that side.

Is this to be expected with such a large piece, or should I e-mail Hawk about it expecting a replacement?

I'd first take some hobby knives and try to cut it away to the best of your ability, maybe use some GS to repair detail.

If it's beyond your abilities/ you're too lazy, then yeah, contact Hawk.

Can we get a pic?

>mfw my usual sites for models are sold out of battleships

For US folks, aside from War Store and Miniature Market, anywhere else I could go for decently priced stuff?

I bought all my stuff from this site: gadzooksgaming.com/collections/dropfleet-commander

Seems to be a smaller operation out of New Jersey, but I had no real issues with it other than Hawk-related delays. Same price on battleships from them as from War Store, and only UCM listed as sold out.

Oh cool, thank you. Still gonna have to find a source for a UCM battleship, but this is greatly appreciated.

Went and bought two of my friends in my hometown a two-player starter set. Send me good vibes, /dcg/.

Good on you senpai, make sure to play some games with them.

I mis-remembered.
It was the medea that hit on a 4+.
But you have a 33% and a 16.5% chance respectivly to deny the 3+/4+ save they get.
The problem with the Ganymede is that the bombardment isn't the cherry on top but a choice you have to activly make when you have somewhat proper guns to choose from.

If the Bombardment cannons were linked, I'd have no complaints, but it's not.
The Ganymede often doesn't have the liberty to shoot at ground targets when there are still enemy ships contesting your clusters.

Conversely, everyone who doesn't play 40k seem to be obliged to bend over backwards by coming up with reasons how "their models/rules/company/etc" are "objectively" better in some way as well.

In fact, shitting on 40k is maybe the only thing as or more popular than shitting on Warmahordes or D&D[#]E.

What "sci-fi norm of a cylinder with bits added her and subtracted elsewhere"? Cylinders were popular in that classic era of 50s-80s SF but used relatively rarely nowadays (except in places with notably NASA-inspired aesthetic such as Fractured Space).

If you're saying they're tubular in the sense of an object with the longest dimension parallel to direction of thrust, then sure. But then so is the UCM BB and frigates.

>2016
>not solely taking CAW frigates as your main combat frigate
The little bastards are amazing!

I personally can't wait to assemble half of my Shaltari frigates as Amethysts and attempt to melt faces. It helps that the microwave arrays made a really good addition to their visual profile.

But even 40k players generally agree that the rules are shit. Which is the main point of criticism (aside from prices). Aesthetics wise it's a 50/60 whether one like them or not, while there are indeed some who go out of their way to shit on heroic scale and other stylistic choices made in GW products.

One aspect of the games I have no experience with are the command cards. How essential addition are they to the game(s)?

In Dropzone they are pretty fucking cool.
Can't wait to see them in action in Dropfleet.

>Your package is scheduled for UPS pickup on 06/12/2016
>tracker shows successful delivery three days ago
Oh shit that was Euro dating. MY PACKAGE IS ALREADY HERE
This is what I get for not changing my address away from my parent's in the three months since I moved. Time for a field trip across the valley after work tomorrow!

COMMODORE PLEDGE JUST ARRIVED

All the way down here in New Zealand.

There sure is a lot of plastic here. I even got an extra Shaltari cruiser sprue

Pity I hate the hedgehogs.

Care to give some details?

You draw a hand of cards equal to your commander's CV, and use their command range as a bubble in which you can apply those card's effects. Those effects are things like "target unit is only hit on 6+ this turn", "target unit gains 5+ Passive Countermeasures this turn", or "target unit gets +2" to its Mv and MF values this turn".

Lots of little tricks that can punish your opponent for assuming they have their game state laid out perfectly.

You can give your Hoovercars double movespeed and make them be treated as flyers for movement, one card gives your tanks a flamethrower for a turn.
Another card disables enemy's countermeasures and another makes a single weapon hit one of their own units.

Fellow PHR-player detected.

But Scourge has by far the most horrifying ones.
You have "The enemy Within" which makes enemy infantry hit themselves in CQB.
Then you have the razorworm trap which simply launches 1d3 E10 hits to garrisoned infantry I think it was.
Do you like your Sirens? The enemy Razorwoms likes your Sirens.

Meanwhile, I'm STILL waiting for my Commanders tier pledge to even get sent.

It might be the parts for the hedgeheg battleship?

On the subject of order components, my group's commodore order arrived here a week or two and we've only just started properly dissecting it.

It appears to contain no rulebook.

I wasn't the listed contact address for our pledge so I have no idea if there was some update we missed, but this is a pretty serious shot in the foot as far as actually playing the thing.

We have no physical rulebooks. Are they shipping separately? Is it a mistake?

Sounds like a mistake to me. Drop Hawk an email - might take them a bit to get back to you, but they're very helpful when they do.

I propose we call Shaltaris Hedgehecks from now on.

Coldsteel the Sheltari

Likes: Particle Lances, hats, PHR ladys with big boobys, jinco jeans, black metal

Hates: Scurge, Pungari (fuck you Pungari you made my disintegrator miss), my dad, rap

> Psshh, nothing personnel, primitive.

>*voidgates behind u*