DUST warfare : what do you need ?

[steevn]

hi all,

our group is looking into this game as a alternative for 40k

we all have the same questions :
1. what do you need to play : book + models => how much does it cost to get an army
2. is the game with the different factions balanced, eg no overpowered army/faction ?
3. can you give us examples of armylists
4. we're in doubt wether the mini's are primed,painted or just bare plastic (most of us enjoy painting minis ourselves)
5. does FFG give good support and continue the game, i thought i allready saw out of stock labels on their website for certain boxes
6. is there enough variety in the game : say we have 10 people playing ,won't we be seeing the same lists all the time?

[13th guest]

Here is my prespective. I've just started on tactics/warfare.
For warfare you need the rule book. either physical (but out of stock at most places) or buy the digital for half the price. The out of stock you see everywhere, as far as I can tell, is that it has rapidly taken off (much faster than they expected).
Model wise each unit comes in a box and you buy the unit of 3-5 models. Walkers are individual models and heros in packs of 3.
However they are all packaged for dust tactics. so they each get a card for that game (which you won't need if you're going to just play tactics). There are a few sites that have warfare cards that you can print (which seems to be OK with FFG as they have given permission for them to be posted on their own forum and boardgame geek.)
There are a few heros that can only be got in the tactics expansion pack and some people are unhappy about that and are hoping this will change. If you are not playing tactics only the models will be of interest to you. (but you may be able to adapt the missions to play on the table top).
The starter box comes with a hero, 3 units and 1 light walker for the axis and the allies. (also dice and maps for tactics) These 2 side have different strengths and weaknesses more than 2 marine chapters would have, but not as much as eldar vs marines. Over all I think they have better balance than GW games, but not the range.
A third faction is being released the Russians and Chinese who have joined to make a communist block. Down the line the aliens whose tech is keeping the war going may turn up too.
Looking back on releases it seems when 1 army gets a new unit type a matching unit is given ot the other side (they are not the same but have simmilar battlefield roles. (both sides have command squads, special ops unit, anti tank units etc.))

The minis are "primed" and assembled so you can put them on the board or paint them straight away (though I will most likely re-prime them after removing a couple of the mold lines that were missed).
As for seeing the same armies all the time it is possible as you will see the models from the starter set in most armies. However just adding all the current units from the axis army that has been released it comes to over 600 points. As the suggest tournie level is 300 they should be a lot of room for some varity. There are restrictions on which units can be in different companies (simmilar to constructing a guard army, but a little more restricted).

[Scaryscarymushroom]

1. what do you need to play : book + models => how much does it cost to get an army
2. is the game with the different factions balanced, eg no overpowered army/faction ?
3. can you give us examples of armylists
4. we're in doubt wether the mini's are primed,painted or just bare plastic (most of us enjoy painting minis ourselves)
5. does FFG give good support and continue the game, i thought i allready saw out of stock labels on their website for certain boxes
6. is there enough variety in the game : say we have 10 people playing ,won't we be seeing the same lists all the time?

1) Armies can be cheap or expensive. It depends on what you want to field. I could easily see myself spending hundreds of dollars on minis for both German and American armies, but I'd have two huge forces. The Dust Tactics core box set will provide you with enough minis to play two small (yet complete) tactics/warfare armies. Expanding your army is what gets a little more expensive.

2) I can't really say. I haven't played enough to be able to tell you whether any single unit is more powerful per point than another- but it appears that tactics begin waaay before the game really starts. Building army lists looks like it could either be an "all-comers" venture, or a "rock-paper-scissors" sort of thing; depending on how you decide to approach the game. Even setting up the table and determining deployment zones is a process that involves strategic thinking by both players, so the end result I guess is that a lot of the strategy that will result in a win or loss isn't related specifically to the cost of any one build.

3) Point values for the game range from about 150-400 or 500 points per army. Any more than that, and you'll have a looong game. But rather than having a Force organization chart or Percentages, Army selections are split up into platoons. If you have an army over 150 points, you may select a second platoon. If you have an army over 300 points, you may select a third platoon and so on. Each platoon can have platoon-specific upgrades that apply to that section of your army. But each platoon is created like so:

Mandatory Command unit: 1 of 4 choices
1st core unit (Mandatory): 1 of 4 completely different choices
2nd core unit (optional): 1 of 4 different choices (There may be some overlap with the 1st core unit)
3rd core unit (optional): 1 of 4 different choices (There may be some overlap with the other core units)
4th core unit (optional): 1 of 4 " " " "
5th core unit (optional): 1 of 4 " " " "
Support units: 1 support unit may be chosen for every 2 command units or core units in the platoon. So if you just fulfill the mandatory requirements, you may select 1 support unit, and then if you select a 2nd and 3rd core unit, you may have another support unit and so on.

Unit selections are generally restricted based on the type of platoon you want to build. So, if you want to build a lightly armored platoon with lots of people, it's likely that you won't be able to select Heavy Laser Grenadiers for any of your core units or heavy walkers for any of your support units. Likewise, if you want to make an elite platoon, your core units will be restricted to choices that include heavily armored troopers (so no zombies) and your support units probably won't include Light walkers.

4) The minis are manufactured with a tinted plastic. So the Americans are green and the Germans are grey. It takes paint very well. I really enjoyed painting mine. But there appear to be some decals applied to the bare plastic as well (caution signs and the like), which is strange. The decals are only on the larger minis. That is, walkers.

5) Being in the USA, I'm able to find basically any minis that I want. And the game appears to be growing...

6) Because of the huge variety in the platoon organization, it's unlikely that you'll see the same army from different players. Some people will like going with heavy walkers, others will like going with sniper teams or entire platoons of zombies. The range looks small compared to GW's model selection, but the variation is actually pretty good and the hero miniatures (there are a lot of different heroes) can shake things up a bit, too.

***) Oh, and Dust Tactics/Warfare are played with Dust dice. 2 sides of the d6 have a 'hit' symbol, while four sides are blank. 6 Dust dice come in the revised core set. You could play with regular d6s, treating 5+ as a 'hit' and 1-4 as blank, but of course, the game designers suggest playing with Dust dice because it is much easier to count hits and misses that way.

There are a few heros that can only be got in the tactics expansion pack and some people are unhappy about that and are hoping this will change. If you are not playing tactics only the models will be of interest to you. (but you may be able to adapt the missions to play on the table top).

Operation Cerberus comes with two characters, some ammo crates and a building (unprimed plastic). To me, the kit is worth FFG's asking price without the dust tactics rules. It's true that the other kits which contain exclusive heroes are a little less value-for-money if you only play warfare. Once again though, I'm in America. I'm not sure what the prices will be for you.

[steevn]

Thanks! I've finally gotten hold of a revised core set, should i add a 2nd one to expand or should i buy separate boxes , i'm taking the allies and will keep the axis if i ever want to expand those also

[Thrall_Love]

Thanks! I've finally gotten hold of a revised core set, should i add a 2nd one to expand or should i buy separate boxes , i'm taking the allies and will keep the axis if i ever want to expand those also

You can start purchasing the individual boxes now. You can purchase another revised core set if you really want to double up on those units. You can also get Joe and Sigrid, the characters from the original box, through dust-models.com.