Dystopian Wars.

[Azhrarn]

just bought Uncharted Seas and Firestorm Armada.

Tell me, has the grammar of the books improved at all in Dystopian Wars? Because the grammar in the former books is attrocious. Tense changing, redundant wording.

That said, miniatures are BEAUTIFUL. I love space ships and ever since the B5 space ships stopped being produced I was sad I'd never find any more.

Their space ship designs are just great. Top work.

Hellebore

The grammar is the dystopian wars book isn't perfect, but I'd hardly call it attrocious.
The main problem I have with the book is that it's organisation isn't always the most logical. Certain rules aren't mentioned where you expect them to be, and such. But other than that it's pretty awesome.

[IJW]

Tell me, has the grammar of the books improved at all in Dystopian Wars?

Having only read the DW book, I sincerely hope not as that would make the earlier books almost unreadable if they're worse than this one!

[Hellebore]

The grammar is the dystopian wars book isn't perfect, but I'd hardly call it attrocious.
The main problem I have with the book is that it's organisation isn't always the most logical. Certain rules aren't mentioned where you expect them to be, and such. But other than that it's pretty awesome.

Well the other two I call attrocious because they are a printed and sold product. If it was free I'd care less.

I'm also REALLY not a fan of all the 'you CANNOT' and 'you MUST' written in the text. I don't like being shouted at.

The rules seem pretty good, after I was able to decipher them. They use a turn system I've used myself which I like.

Hellebore

[Ronin_eX]

Haven't read the second printing of Uncharted Seas but the first printing was pretty bad and needed a lot of errata and FAQ work before it was up to snuff. But editing has really been a bugbear for Spartan Games since they started up. It isn't so bad once you get the rules down but they seem to have troubles making that a simple prospect.

I would honestly say the book needs another pass before it is truly finished. They could really, really benefit from a beta-tester program or even releasing a pdf a month or two prior to print like DP9 has done previously (didn't do it with Arena and I think the end product suffered a bit in editing for it).

Either way, the editing is pretty bad for most of their books but I think DW improved on it a lot in places though it still falters in places. Part of the problem is they tried to do a lot of new stuff in DW and so instead of being able to use experience gained from Uncharted Seas or Firestorm Armada they needed to head into, well, uncharted waters. So a lot of the problems crop up in new systems like how Ack Ack, fliers and boarding all interact.

But the minis and (once you get them down) the rules are pretty damn good and worth a bit of the headache.

[fracas]

you could always consider both firestorm and dystopian as beta releases right now

uncharted seas in its second edition i think is pretty well done

[Ronin_eX]

you could always consider both firestorm and dystopian as beta releases right now

uncharted seas in its second edition i think is pretty well done

The only problem there is they sold the beta. A lot of companies that do that kind of thing start it as a free release on their website (Kings of War, Mercs, etc.) or release and early pay PDF (Heavy Gear Blitz stuff mostly) and have the community give feedback before going to print.

While I don't begrudge them too heavily for selling the books in the state they do I think a lot of other companies have shown a better method than releasing the beta in print for money and fixing it with constant errata afterwards. Doing the errata and editing beforehand supplemented by fan input for typos, poorly worded rules and grammar errors and then doing final layout and going to print would likely result in a much better end product.

And when you consider that rulebooks for just about every war game are loss leaders (i.e. a buy-it-once product you tend to lose a bit on in the hopes of promoting sales for the rest of the line) while minis are the real cash-cows in the long run it just seems more logical to do what Privateer Press, Mantic and Mercs have done and do an open beta before committing your work onto glossy, full-colour pages.

As I've already said, I don't begrudge them for the way they do it and I enjoy their games but I don't think trying to say the released book is a beta is anything close to a selling point. In the future I think they need to take a look at a different method of bringing their products to print and involve the customers more to avoid messily written rules and forgotten rules (like what dice you need to roll on the critical chart).

[Cpt. Drill]

I have just stumbled accross Dystopia Wars and have been entranced by the figures. Probably like everyone else looking at this game I enjoy the steam punk setting.

I am attending a miniatures show this weekend and there is going to be a stockist that is selling DW models. I plan to pick up the book and a starter set (and try to coerce some friends into doing the same) my only problem is I cannot decide on a force. At the moment I am purely basing it on models and have ruled out the American army, the remaining three all look great to me.

Is there any chance that someone would be so kind to give a brief run down of the play styles and difficulty curves attached to each army?




Thankyou

[Masters of Ulthwe]

I have just stumbled accross Dystopia Wars and have been entranced by the figures.

Is there any chance that someone would be so kind to give a brief run down of the play styles and difficulty curves attached to each army?




Thankyou

The best source is Spartan Games own forum. You'll find stacks of information on play style and tactics.
There're also battle reports and players own painted fleets, which may help you in your decision.

[Damocles8]

I wonder when they're gonna release the Prussian Fleet Carrier.....

[Ironmonger]

I've got the rules and a Prussian fleet and carrier on order with Wayland, hopefully they will ship soon.

I recently finished reading Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld, and would recommend it to everyone interested in this setting. tbh, I'd almost advise the SG guys to dump their setting and licence Westerfeld's, but there's room in steampunk-land for both.

Here's a trailer for Leviathan. The map at the beginning is taken from the book, and is a favorite of mine.

Heh. Yes, the setting for Leviathan/Behemoth is fantastic, the writing is not. There's no description, no sweat, blood or tears. everything's so... basic. Anywho...

I'm still waiting on my order placed a month ago. It was supposed to have shipped out on the 12 (though it was placed two weeks prior to that), and it's still not here. Also... what Prussian Fleet Carrier? The Zeppelin?

[lorelorn]

Yeah the zeppelin. My order also waited two weeks before shipping, due to the Prussians being out of stock, despite it not saying that on the website.

With Wayland I find an email works best, since my order shipped within 48 hours of me asking what was going on.

[Damocles8]

The Prussian fleet carrier is not the Zepplin, that's the Imperium (Empire) on the Spartan Games site.

The Prussians and Empire of the Blazing Sun both have sky fortress models released, not fleet carriers.

Side note: registered for the site a few days ago and still haven't recieved an admin response....anyone else having problems

[Nat B]

Are people still having trouble getting DW from the big online sellers? My local gaming store has had pretty consistant stock (all 4 fleet boxes were on the shelves yesterday when I was there). They do web orders too triplehelixwargames.co.uk

[donuter]

I went to dark sphere to get mine. Got it early infact. Only reason they havn't stocked up is lack of interest

[lorelorn]

Are people still having trouble getting DW from the big online sellers? My local gaming store has had pretty consistant stock (all 4 fleet boxes were on the shelves yesterday when I was there). They do web orders too triplehelixwargames.co.uk

Some troubles. My wayland order arrived today, with rules and fleet box, but minus carrier, which was listed as in stock on Jan 10 when I ordered, and is listed as in stock now. Evidently 'in stock' means something other than what I think it means. Sigh...

[Crovax20]

I just got into Uncharted Seas and the second edition rulebook is doing its job just right. I recieved the game yesterday and was playing that within an hour with almost no looking up rules. Very much unlike my GW games experience... Always ffing looking up the rules with them. Especially with 8th edition having you roll for what kind of forest this piece is.

The uncharted seas 2nd edition book is not without faults however, noticed some spelling errors. Also I don't think all the "Note:" parts should be necessary, some of them could easily be transformed into being within the main body of the rule. So my verdict is that the book is good and gets the rules across just fine, but there is room for improvement in layout of the rules to just make the book look and feel prettier + of course fix some more spelling errors.

On Dystopian wars I don't have any experience, but just looking at the models and some battlereports have already convinced me I will pick that up as well. After all people are having fun with it, and a rulebook is just there to let you play so you can have fun.

[eldargal]

My DW order from SG arrived today (I had the greast misfortune to order it right before the worst of the weather hit Britain) and I must say I'm very impressed with it. The book is lovely and I've not had any problems with the reading of the rules, might have some as we start playing games and double checking things perhaps.
The models (between my brothers and I we have all that are currently available) are uniformly gorgeous.

[Damocles8]

Anyone else as crazy as me for ordering the mega bundle?

[Archibald_TK]

The Fighters and Bombers appeared as preorders on Maelstrom site. I hope that means that when they'll receive them they'll also receive rulebooks and naval battle groups. They've been unavailable since December.

Now I'm wondering. A KoB Battlegroup is Battleship x1, Cruisers x3, Frigates x9 & Bombers x2 for 29.25£. If I buy them individually it turns into Battleship x1, Cruisers x3, Frigates x6 & Bombers x3 for 33.3£
The price difference is low and the Naval Battlegroup ends up with 3 more Frigates but one less Bomber compared to buying them independently. Are the Battlergroups really a good investment? Is there anything else in them that buying models independently won't get you?

[donuter]

You get 10 fighter tokens, and the movement tokens too. and a whole bunch of other tokens and stat cards. Basically, a sound purchase