/dcg/ Dropzone/Dropfleet Commander General

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I just now realized that they're essentially Halo's SPARTAN IVs.

I'd personally love to see a cycle of 'stage 2' base tanks, something like a new Saber design made during the siege of Aurum that sacrifices some ideas for expediency in production, a hunter from the oldest scourge forces with a plasma cannon that takes up most of the turret at the center, Ares built as a siege variant with an extra leg and a center mounted rail cannon, and a tomahawk from a different tribe with an entirely different cannon style that is still stylistically a gauss cannon.

Hey guys interested in the game.

What with the whole TT Combat thing should I wait till 2.0 to drop before I hop in?

You'll be waiting until April. I recommend tracking down a nearby Talon (DzC/DfC demo person) to at least get a crack at the game. It's enjoyable and you'll get use out of the rulebook before it's updated.

That's the problem. I've looked into the Talons and even local playing. There's no talons and either people don't play in my area or aren't on the Facebook group or on the local forum. I know it had a presence at one point because my shop has an army in the showcase but enquiring with owner he doesn't wanna do demo games.

Essentially what I'm left with is much like other games I want to play but who have no local presence I have to start it up.

That's dick. Try going to a con or something to get a preview?

Since people were asking about pictures in the last thread, I collected all the ones I have and uploaded them. Most are copied out of the scanned rule books so they aren't the best quality or anything.

mediafire.com/folder/0y6n93j829i78/Drop_Commander_Images

Thanks user, now I can trawl through them to make amusing reaction images of.

Ya I can see. Out here in Oregon and specifically the wilmette valley is that maybe people play up in Portland but that's a three hour drive for me.

Honestly user, I like dave, the models are cool, and haven't heard anything but good about the rules I might just buy in for the hell of it to be honest.

Two-player starters are the best way in. Comes with models for UCM and Scourge, core book, terrain and tokens. Convince a buddy to go in on it and it's getting more for the same price as a starter faction

Alright I think I'll get it for me as a Christmas present.

Fuck phoneposting at work. Also just another question what are we looking at for 2.0? Just a streamline of rules?

It's an update. Some adjustments to make it so that EVERYTHING across all the books is viable and more utilized.
Also worth noting, just the core book is being updated. There will be FAQ/Errata updates to the other books to bring them into V2

Marauder and Raider could do with a retry, or at least very least an alt model. All the alternate sculpts so far have been for units that don't need them at all.

Sabre and Rapier are beautiful and perfect though, if you're going to nitpick about impractical turrets then that list should be a good bit larger. The only UCM unit that truly needs a new model is the Ferrum, because while I've gotten used to it that thing is still butt ugly.

And Janus could just get infiltrate and 2+ accuracy on the missiles, not actually that hard a fix.

>Sabre and Rapier are beautiful and perfect though, if you're going to nitpick about impractical turrets then that list should be a good bit larger.
eh, the only other unit in the game that could be counted among that would be the Gladius, but it actually works because its guns are mounted on a proper housing/frame that's connected to the armature, and thus can actually have ammo stored up there.
The Sabre and Rapier, however, only have the gun itself connected to the armature, and the in-lore explanation of "it's a complicated belt feeding ammo" just doesn't really hold up, considering it's only connected to the armature via a single hinge.

Though desu I never really liked how Dave did the actuated weapons for the UCM; their tanks being extremely low profile and with guns that can raise up to shoot over cover is a good idea, but the exact implementation definitely leaves something to be desired.
For example, the railgun being significantly offset from the axis of rotation on the Sabre; the torque would be absolutely unacceptable for any group that's supposed to be about cheap and reliable tech. The Gladius is guilty of this as well, but since it presumably shoots both railguns simultaneously and they're pretty close to the axis of rotation, it's tolerable. Even more damming is the fact that they're armed with railguns, which unlike traditional cannons, can't be made recoilless (afaik)
Similarly for the Rapier, which I imaging would have similar problems.

Which is a shame, since I actually really, REALLY like the look and hull of the UCM's tanks, it's just that specific construction of the turret that gets me. It doesn't even have to be practical, since that can be handwaved away with futuretech, it just needs to make sense.

>Ferrum
Agreed desu; A wider base ala the NASA crawler (which it can do with, since its treads are beneath the Albatross's gantries anyway), as well as a wider middle (since the Albatross that would carry it has no middle gantries, and it'd be within its wingspan anyways) would do a lot to make it look more sturdy, as well as give it a reason that it can carry all those drones and such.

>Interested in the game
>Notice that the blurb for the PHR bulk lander talks about "Near mythical" Type 6 and 7 grand walkers

The fuck are those? What role do they fill? Planet defense? PHR Bolos?

>The fuck are those?
No idea yet; presumably shit that takes up a good chunk of a 4'x4' board, considering that's about how long bulk landers on average are in 10 mm scale.

>Planet defense?
That roll is filled by their defense batteries, which are almost surely not the type 6 or type 7.
>PHR Bolos?
Probably something along those lines; if a Hades can take up a good portion of a city block, a type 6 or 7 must be packing some serious heat.
They might also be the PHR's version of forward command, acting as mobile and heavily armed support command vehicles. Like a super-nemesis, but where the commanders aren't also controlling their walker at the same time.

A redesign that consists of making the gun/armature connection a little wider to facilitate proper ammo movement for the railgun would be nice but not worthwhile desu, not when there's other stuff to do. And the asymmetrical guns are UCM's distinctive style, there's other stuff in the faction that's plenty impractical. Hell, even within the realm of turret designs you've got Katana (perfect example of how not to design twin guns ever) and Broadsword (huge railgun with huge offset). At least the medium tanks have a unique and imo aesthetically appealing design.

Even keeping the basic design there's still improvements that could be made. Replacing that big ugly slit on the front of the hull would definitely help, I think.

Bolos I assume, but we don't have any more info on them. Their mobile defence batteries already fill the role of planetary defence.

>And the asymmetrical guns are UCM's distinctive style, there's other stuff in the faction that's plenty impractical. Hell, even within the realm of turret designs you've got Katana (perfect example of how not to design twin guns ever) and Broadsword (huge railgun with huge offset). At least the medium tanks have a unique and imo aesthetically appealing design.
True, and very good points, but the Broadsword at least have the benefit that its gun isn't offset by all that much.
If the broadsword is holding your arm straight out, bending your forearm forward to 90 degrees, and shooting a gun, then the Sabre is keeping your arm extended all the way out and trying to shoot forward while bending only your wrist. That's my main contention.

And I do agree; I absolutely love the Sabre/Rapier's design, and I do like the assymetric guns, it's just that their turret's particular implementation has a lot to be desires, and they're just way too offset.
Consider something like a smaller version of the Gladius' armature, a joint and hinge that extends straight backwards or forwards (relative to the gun), with the gun mounted directly on the side of the hardpoint and ammo storage on top, rather than having the arm extend perpendicular to the force of firing.

And yeah, the Katana is pretty garbo

>Even keeping the basic design there's still improvements that could be made. Replacing that big ugly slit on the front of the hull would definitely help, I think.
That too, but I always felt it was too narrow and top heavy. Giving it some proper treads and more bulk on its sides (where it won't intersect with the Albatross) to give it some more internal space for it to actually hold all those folder up drones would be a good start.

And of course, that's not to say I think the Sabre/Rapier are bad. On the table on the shelf, they look great and wonderful, it's just what happens when you start to think about it a little too much.

Of course, there's also the fact that not only do the Sapier/Rapier have assymetrical guns like the rest of the UCM, but they also have offset turrets! Every other unit in their roster, from the Gladius to the Broadsword, has the actual turret housing centered on the midline.

I wonder what the schematic layout of, say, a Shaltari frigate or mothership looked like.
Same for the Scourge and PHR ships.

I wonder if we'll get more supplemental fluff like that, with Dave and Co being freed from business work?

Well Shaltari are simple. Basically just independent and self-sufficient components held together by scaffolding and walkways.

New player here. Why are shaltari so AESTHETIC?

after you hit the pinnacle of warfare you start dicking around with how things look just to keep things interesting.

>The CHAD Cybrog

All type 1 walkers please

The lopsided assymetry does not work well and clashes with the rest of the faction

They should look like smaller Type 2’s, not literally the right half of a type 2

With you on the asymmetry. Not sure they should be smaller type 2's though, I think they should have a distinct style to distinguish them. Maybe a shorter fuselage?

>tfw the Shaltari frigates are starting to grow on me
If it weren't for the weird core at the very beginning, they would have been beyond great.

So for Idris Elba's Skyranger here... leave the rotors on, or make it a 'jet vtol' by leaving them off?

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RESISTANCE IN SPACE WHEN?!

Never

how to play resistance in dropfleet: place a single neutral infantry token on one sector

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Any ideas on the new units for dzc when 2.0?

No idea, but what we do know is that they (probably) aren't the following:

Osprey
Chromia
Executioner
Type 5
Type 6
Type 7

What are some niches left open you think the factions need?

Heavy artillery for the UCM is one that I can think of.

Don't they have split-trail artillery and orbital fire missions?

They have the Longbow, Kodiak, and ostensibly the Seraphim Retalitator, but they don't really have anything that can saturate an area consistently with firepower like, say, a Thor.

UCM is going to need something to blow up buildings with the 2.0 changes to demo. Their only real options will be Longbows and vanilla Seraphim, which isn't a great selection. Shaltari will also be rather lacking in that department, with only short ranged Gharial and the two particle cannon platforms.

Extra aircraft for Scourge and Shaltari would be nice, maybe a lighter ground attack craft for hogs and something with an interesting gimmick for jellies.

More Shaltari auxiliaries.

A heavy junker vehicle for Resistance made from construction equipment. Get that killdozer.

More AA options for PHR. Their current ones are good but don't offer much variety.

>Executioner
The grav tank mentioned in the DFC book is actually called the Executor. Though Executioner would be a better name desu.

Well I did it boys. I bought in with a two player starter.

Gonna try my best to kick start a local scene. Wish me fucking luck lads.

>The grav tank mentioned in the DFC book is actually called the Executor. Though Executioner would be a better name desu.
Ah, damn, you're right. Ah well, tomato tomahtoe

Beyond that there's not much outstanding I can think of as far as new units go. There's plenty of cool stuff all the factions could get though, like an attack hovercraft for Resistance, a new troop option for Scourge, VOTOMS for PHR, another command option for UCM/Shaltari/Resistance and an alternate PHR standard choice.

>PHR votoms

I never knew how much I wanted this until now.

So let me get this straight that osprey Isnt going to be a new unit for the resistance? Just a battle bus for ol' idris?

I mean are they going to mecha immortan first? Also how large is his kaiju fighting mech?

It'll probably become a full unit later, just like the Broadsword tank or Hera walker did

Güüd lück. Build or acquire some cool terrain if you really want to get attention, since 10mm setups are rare.

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I wonder how many more races you could suggest the scourge have without it getting ridiculous. They’ve already got something like 4 races we’ve seen, could they really have 5 more?

They have 5 species so far, 6 if you count humans. They've been doing this for a while so they could have a dozen and it wouldn't surprise me, considering that sapience doesn't seem to be a requirement.

I'm waiting for Scourge buzzers or something. Insect like things that hover around and have little plasma rifles.

But user, I though Shaltari was the “borrow things from Halo that Halo borrowed from other sci-fi” faction

Nah, nah, the Scourge are obviously Evil Tau (just more overt in their commie mind control), so they should get Vespids.

If you don't like the UCM and Scourge, and you can make it to a major convention, the guys at the booth will usually make you a deal where they'll sell you any two starters and the core rules for the starter price (citation: I did this at GenCon for the Shaltari and PHR).

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Rescue

Ok I just bought the two player starter.

What are some good tips for getting more people into the game? So far all I got is good terrain and painted armies. Any really good tips outside of that?

Afraid after aesthetics it's mostly social skills. Good elevator pitch and be ready with an outline of the aspects of the game you're prepared to highlight during a demo game. Things like objective based, combined arms, dropship mechanics, the range system.

or buy their armies for them

>Shaltari have Firebird, Thunderbird, Firedrake, and Warspear
Thunderdrake when?
Shaltari bomber / heavy FM when?

>Shaltari Bird of Prey
QAPLA’!

Warspear is pretty much a heavy already with that toughness and 4 shot AA. A lighter FM with neutron launchers or some kind of decent AT weapon could be cool to flip the usual small fighter/large bomber dynamic on its head.

>Shaltari Lance rapid siege bomber
>equipped with two dual arrays of Neutron Harpoons; similar to the Gharial Neutron Launchers, but coupled with a guided mid-trajectory engine after being launch
>can split fire between multiple smaller structures or fewer larger structures; can potentially collapse all but the largest of structures in a single pass. Due to its specialized mission profile, speed, and sheer mass of its weapon payload, it lacks any other weaponry. In fact, so heavy is its payload, the Lance actually has armor on par with a Shaltari gate rather than other combat aircraft.
>Lance rapid siege bomber:
>A4; MV FM; CM A, P5+; DP 1; PTS 125; Type Aircraft; Category Air; S+C 1-2 Wide; LZ S
>Neutron Harpoon Array: E10; SH2; AC 3+; R(F) 12"; R(C) 12"; MF N/A; Arc F; L-1, Demolisher-3, Strafe
>Neutron Harpoon Array: E10; SH2; AC 3+; R(F) 12"; R(C) 12"; MF N/A; Arc F; L-1, Demolisher-3, Strafe

>125 points for a 2 shot demo aircraft with shit defensive stats
Cool ur beans m8. I get not wanting to make a game breaking unit but it's also important to not go too far in the other direction.
Compare to the vanilla Seraphim for 112 points. Sera can't blow her load all at once like Lance can, but has better damage per shot thanks to demo-3+d3 and can drop a solid anti infantry template or anti tank shot if she runs out of bombs or needs to attack a non-building target. And that's without getting into the monstrous A7 with 2 DP.

I'd at the very least drop the price and add a secondary weapon, maybe a pair of gauss carbines or something, so it doesn't become completely useless after firing once.

Ah, fair point, I was considering giving the Lance 3 shots per array (and potentially collapsing it down into a single L-2 profile), but I didn't quite like the idea of a single unit being able to take down a huge building all on its lonesome (even if it's over two firings), with the Sera only being able to do it alone over the course of four runs. I just picked 125 because it's a nice round number, and I may have been overestimating the utility of the Lance being able to split its fire between multiple buildings.

>Sera has D3+3
Does it? Core says D6, but that may just be one of those erratas I keep forgetting. In either case, that still makes the Sera better on an overall basis (either 3.5 or 5 demolisher on average, which is better than the Lance in either case).

Mathwise, the Sera ends up being two slightly-worse bunker-busters that can be fired simultaneously and split, so a reduction to something like 105 or 110 would definitely be in order.

As for the secondary weapon, it's important to keep in mind the coming 2.0 changes to FM; since you only pay per-run, rather than bringing the FM along wholesale, there's no longer an opportunity cost to FM's being "spent". At the same time, I'm not sure how that new rule will interact with L-weapons, since the rule could either be "they're the same craft, and thus can only have limited ammo", or "they're new craft every time, and don't have limited ammo".

I'm assuming that it's the former, that they're the same craft every time, otherwise there'd be less of an incentive to try and shoot them down on earlier passes.

Yup, sledgehammers got a less swingy D3+3 demo rating and E11. Made them slightly less bad.

And that's true about 2.0, but it seems like the changes to fast movers are going to be so massive that I've just been ignoring them and will continue to do so until they come out at which point I will go through and adjust every homebrew FM I've made.

Fair enough, and yeah, really not much point in homebrewing new stuff until April. I do really like the idea of a strafing "MIRV" style bomber, that can either fuck up entire Hoovervilles, or bring down giant sky scrapers.

You know, with 2.0 being pushed back to April, I wonder if Hawk actually will include everything from Core up to phase 2 in 2.0?

Only problem with that is that They'd probably have to include all the Lore up until the end of phase 2 as well, and that might get pretty damn big.

Could do separate fluff and crunch books

I still doubt it, though it would be nice.

So, is there somewhere in the rulebook saying that Calibre weapons get a minus to hit if they're shooting at something not in their size group? Cause the heavy broadsides are looking pretty good off that, but other things will probably change that...

Nope, they only get a bonus against the appropriate target, and the +1 crit thing on heavies applies regardless of the target size.

Your heavy BS only hit on 3+ (but crit on 4s) unless you're targeting heavies and superheavies, in which case, you'll hit on 2+ (crits on 3s).
They are super dope regardless of what you're targeting, because they hit hard, despite being limited in shots.

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>Backed Dropfleet, hyped up for my 2up model and terrain maps
>Printer contract fell through, all the terrain maps are free now, essentially told to fuck off and print them myself
>Only FLGS in town closes, next closest is in the next town over and they don't carry, or have heard of Dropfleet, only Warmachine and Magic
>Still hear nothing of my pledge, send an email, they say it's coming soon and is gonna be great
>Hear nothing since
>Get email update from kickstarter
>Some shallow hype returns to my withered husk of a form as I click to see what the news is
>They are selling the company
>Still don't have my backer products
>No longer want my products

I feel only bitter sorrow, and at this point I just want a refund. If my backer package showed up tomorrow I'd probably just chuck it all out of spite at this point. I don't even have a place to play it anymore. I'm not even angry, I've passed that and entered a state of utter defeat that has killed any interest I once felt in wargaming.

>I feel only bitter sorrow, and at this point I just want a refund.

Succesful KS.

From what we've heard, TTCombat isn't collating all the KS information and are going to be fulfilling all outstanding KS stuff. It sucks that you don't have you KS stuff yet user, and it's impressive that Hawk managed to drop the ball for this long, but things should be looking up.
And, at the very least, we're getting credit for the maps.
They're not -really- selling Hawk either; it says acquisition, but Dave and everybody will still be on as a subsidiary. They just won't be dealing with the business and logistics side of things anymore.
Which is good, because it's beyond obvious that Hawk is just terrible at it at their current state (or rather, previous state).

I'm still waiting on a recast Atlantis piece, so here's to hoping they've still got some in stock, or that TT will pour some

Yeah that FAQ buff they got really helped.

Do we know that all the staff are staying on? They only mentioned Dave in the post, and the rest of them haven't been very vocal on Facebook

No idea, but I would presume so, or at the very least a significant majority.
From what the TT guys have been saying, Hawk will still exist as a subsidiary group within TT, so I presume that all the guys that work with game dev and and such will be kept on. Not sure on the business and community management front, but I doub't they've been fucked over.

Man, I just have to say, this entire acquisition thing has been a bit of a downer. Can you imagine how things might have gone if Hawk was able to predict the success of the KS before they even did it, and scale up their business and logistics side accordingly? To have enough people on board to properly deal with all the non-game stuff?
It would have been amazing if Hawk could have truly came into its own as an independent studio with multiple lines; like Spartan, but without the ADD.

I've only heard of one of the guys being let off so far, but that's because he was redundant after the acquisition...

I want to fuck a Toulon

do not

But why not

Because the PHR do it better.

The only thing those cowardly conniving ballsuckers are good for is target practice.

if(tonnage)

The game is called DFC, user. You're not fooling anyone.