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Joe_Richter
Oct 8, 2005

Laser Lenin approves of hobo murder simulators.

Bistromatic posted:


Also is that a PHR lady surfing on a wave of tiny drones in the second infantry pic?

Apparently, and I'm not sure how to feel about that.

The Shaltari and Scourge stuff looks awesome, but I can't help feel the UCM power armour looks a bit lovely.

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Super Waffle
Sep 25, 2007

I'm a hermaphrodite and my parents (40K nerds) named me Slaanesh, THANKS MOM

Safety Factor posted:

New newsletter out with a bunch of cool pictures of spaceships. Holy poo poo does everything look nice.

http://hawkwargames.cmail20.com/t/ViewEmail/j/D1E76D160754D4D5/F3AC56C86DECE729F990754F028F0E8F

There's renders of the first wave of infantry too.

:gizz:

These look amazing

Devlan Mud
Apr 10, 2006




I'll hear your stories when we come back, alright?
I am so in for Dropfleet Commander it's not even funny. Especially not funny is how it's going to screw my credit card. Oops.

Thirsty Dog
May 31, 2007

I DON'T HAVE ROOM FOR ANOTHER SPACESHIP GAME drat YOU

<clutches copy of Star Wars Armada>

MisterShine
Feb 21, 2006

I can not wait for Dropfleet. I have been wanting an Orbital/Army mixable game forever

FrostyPox
Feb 8, 2012

Time to start selling plasma and extraneous organs so I can buy tons of Dropfleet.


Hopefully my FLGS has room for me to set up a dialysis machine.

Grey Hunter
Oct 17, 2007

Hero of the soviet union.
Accidental destroyer of planets

Thirsty Dog posted:

I DON'T HAVE ROOM FOR ANOTHER SPACESHIP GAME drat YOU

<clutches copy of Star Wars Armada>

This is a low atmo support fleet though, thats a different niche......

I keep telling myself....

Super Waffle
Sep 25, 2007

I'm a hermaphrodite and my parents (40K nerds) named me Slaanesh, THANKS MOM
I need to find a 4x4 map of Florida...

Ugleb
Nov 19, 2014

ASK ME ABOUT HOW SCOTLAND'S PROPOSED TRANS LEGISLATION IS DIVISIVE AS HELL BECAUSE IT IS SO SWEEPING THAT IT COULD BE POTENTIALLY ABUSED AT A TIME WHERE THE LACK OF SAFETY FOR WOMEN HAS BEEN SO GLARING

Bistromatic posted:

I'm /so/ sold on these.

Also is that a PHR lady surfing on a wave of tiny drones in the second infantry pic?

Looks like it, back at Invasion Hawk Dave was talking about some sort of infantry option that feature less mans and more mini drone things. It reminds me of Big Hero Six...in a good way I think.

Tequila Ranger
Sep 11, 2004

host after host after host ...
I want to buy all these spaceships right now.

dexefiend
Apr 25, 2003

THE GOGGLES DO NOTHING!
Yeah, I'm with you guys.

I have already started reading about naval modelling. I just hope that PHR has the baddest looking ships around.

Super Waffle
Sep 25, 2007

I'm a hermaphrodite and my parents (40K nerds) named me Slaanesh, THANKS MOM
Any idea as to what sort of size the ships are going to be? I can't really judge the scale from the pictures

Bistromatic
Oct 3, 2004

And turn the inner eye
To see its path...
If you check the newsletter the pictures of the single ships all have the length on them.

Safety Factor
Oct 31, 2009




Grimey Drawer

Super Waffle posted:

Any idea as to what sort of size the ships are going to be? I can't really judge the scale from the pictures

The length of those ships are included in the pictures from the newsletter.
Carriers are 62mm (~2.44")
Cruisers are 104mm (~4.1")
Battleship is 142mm (~5.6")

BULBASAUR
Apr 6, 2009




Soiled Meat
I'm fuckin pumped for dropfleet. OwnZone Commander already rocks and unless they really deviate from the curvy PHR look, I'm going to gobble up more micro machines.

I wonder about the price point compared to DZC?

Devlan Mud
Apr 10, 2006




I'll hear your stories when we come back, alright?
Oh god my OwnZone Commander starter is coming in on Monday, I've been waiting for it for over a month. Then I gotta magnetize and paint it in the three weeks that my pal is out of state. Then, ownage. So pumped.

Sulecrist
Apr 5, 2007

Better tear off this bar association logo.

Devlan Mud posted:

Oh god my OwnZone Commander starter is coming in on Monday, I've been waiting for it for over a month. Then I gotta magnetize and paint it in the three weeks that my pal is out of state. Then, ownage. So pumped.

Mine just arrived at my apartment. Might sneak out of work early if the day slows down.

Tequila Ranger
Sep 11, 2004

host after host after host ...
I've issued ultimatums to my gaming friends that if they do not start DFC Fleets with me when it comes out, then we cant be friends anymore.

I feel that this is both mature and appropriate.

signalnoise
Mar 7, 2008

i was told my old av was distracting
What's the appropriate magnet size for magnetizing for dropships

dexefiend
Apr 25, 2003

THE GOGGLES DO NOTHING!
I have 1/8 x 1/8 on my dropships, and 1/16 x 1/16 on my vehicles.

Edit vvvvvvvv: I use kj magnetics. I also pay extra for N52 where I can.

dexefiend fucked around with this message at 19:45 on May 1, 2015

signalnoise
Mar 7, 2008

i was told my old av was distracting
Where's the best place to get them that isn't ebay?

The Sisko
Jan 9, 2009

"Whenever there's injustice, wrongs to be righted, innocents to be defended, The Sisko will be there, delivering ass-whooppings."

signalnoise posted:

Where's the best place to get them that isn't ebay?

amazingmagnets.com

Ugleb
Nov 19, 2014

ASK ME ABOUT HOW SCOTLAND'S PROPOSED TRANS LEGISLATION IS DIVISIVE AS HELL BECAUSE IT IS SO SWEEPING THAT IT COULD BE POTENTIALLY ABUSED AT A TIME WHERE THE LACK OF SAFETY FOR WOMEN HAS BEEN SO GLARING

signalnoise posted:

What's the appropriate magnet size for magnetizing for dropships

I used 2mm (1mm thick) magnets on my plastic type 1 walkers and it was fine, but I found my heavier type 2 walkers, which are resin with metal legs, just weren't secure enough so I switched to 4mm magnets (also 1mm thickness) which are nice and solid.

The 2mm are great for magnetising arms or the IFV turrets though.

I bought all mine off eBay, you can pick up 50 for next to nothing.

Loxbourne
Apr 6, 2011

Tomorrow, doom!
But now, tea.
Every time I look at those gorgeous ships, my brain starts playing the Quake 2 intro theme.

This is in no way a bad thing.

FrostyPox
Feb 8, 2012

This is like the tenth time I've looked at these ships and they somehow get even better each time I see them.


Goddammit, Hawk, take my money, take all my money, give me amazing spaceships.

signalnoise
Mar 7, 2008

i was told my old av was distracting
OK, I read through the book and I like the rules. I want more of this game, if even just to paint. Beyond the starters for PHR and Resistance, what should I buy to expand my options, rather than just buying more of the same? What are the units to avoid that are just poo poo?

The Sisko
Jan 9, 2009

"Whenever there's injustice, wrongs to be righted, innocents to be defended, The Sisko will be there, delivering ass-whooppings."

signalnoise posted:

OK, I read through the book and I like the rules. I want more of this game, if even just to paint. Beyond the starters for PHR and Resistance, what should I buy to expand my options, rather than just buying more of the same? What are the units to avoid that are just poo poo?

Hey there Resistance buddy. I'm still new so take this with a grain of salt but from what I've heard the battle bus and the Free-riders are both good purchases for The Resistance.

Recoome
Nov 9, 2013

Matter of fact, I'm salty now.
Also remember that Freeriders' satchel charge E is now weaker.

I actually have a pair of Cyclone's now for some AT power, Resistance can't really stand up and fight toe to toe with a ton of tanks so I think that the attack choppers are really neat.

Ugleb
Nov 19, 2014

ASK ME ABOUT HOW SCOTLAND'S PROPOSED TRANS LEGISLATION IS DIVISIVE AS HELL BECAUSE IT IS SO SWEEPING THAT IT COULD BE POTENTIALLY ABUSED AT A TIME WHERE THE LACK OF SAFETY FOR WOMEN HAS BEEN SO GLARING

signalnoise posted:

OK, I read through the book and I like the rules. I want more of this game, if even just to paint. Beyond the starters for PHR and Resistance, what should I buy to expand my options, rather than just buying more of the same? What are the units to avoid that are just poo poo?

The good news is that the recent errata did a big balance pass and made the worst stuff better. You want to be looking at exotic (elite) infantry and light dropships as an early addition. Play a few games to get a feel for things and figure out what sort of tactics you want to pursue first.

Not a viking
Aug 2, 2008

Feels like I just got laid
Regarding possible Dropfleet Commander gaming mats. Could it work to get a satellite picture printed on a 4x4' mouse pad by some chinese company?

E: can you make a UCM force without sabre tanks? I really don't like the turret arm. Maybe if I proxied it...

Not a viking fucked around with this message at 18:44 on May 2, 2015

Wales Grey
Jun 20, 2012

Not a viking posted:

Regarding possible Dropfleet Commander gaming mats. Could it work to get a satellite picture printed on a 4x4' mouse pad by some chinese company?

A British one, actually.

Safety Factor
Oct 31, 2009




Grimey Drawer

Not a viking posted:

E: can you make a UCM force without sabre tanks? I really don't like the turret arm. Maybe if I proxied it...

You can, you'd just need to take Katana light tanks instead. Though the weird turret does actually serve a purpose other looking funky. It has in-game rules that allow it to peek over terrain or other vehicles so proxying might be a little difficult.

If anyone has questions about list building, check out the free army builder thing. It lays everything out in a pretty clear way though some things aren't explicitly said. For example, a single battlegroup can't be over 1/3 of your total points. This is flagged if it happens, but the software won't tell you why it's flagged. That's all covered within the actual rulebook.
http://www.dzc-ffor.com/

Joe_Richter
Oct 8, 2005

Laser Lenin approves of hobo murder simulators.
katana light tanks are actually a really good swapout for sabres as well; they drop a point of armour but are faster, have greater ranged firepower and are cheaper to boot.

Wales Grey
Jun 20, 2012

Safety Factor posted:

If anyone has questions about list building, check out the free army builder thing. It lays everything out in a pretty clear way though some things aren't explicitly said. For example, a single battlegroup can't be over 1/3 of your total points. This is flagged if it happens, but the software won't tell you why it's flagged. That's all covered within the actual rulebook.
http://www.dzc-ffor.com/

FFOR actually does tell you why things are flagged, just mouse over the alert icon and wait for the tooltip to pop up.

signalnoise
Mar 7, 2008

i was told my old av was distracting
Welp

The resistance starter turns out to have been sold out at the place I ordered it from.

Horseshit

Safety Factor
Oct 31, 2009




Grimey Drawer

Wales Grey posted:

FFOR actually does tell you why things are flagged, just mouse over the alert icon and wait for the tooltip to pop up.

Welp. Chalk me up as a well-intentioned idiot then. :downs:

I figured out why they weren't showing up for me though. I always tried clicking the icons and that stops the text from appearing for some reason.

Ugleb
Nov 19, 2014

ASK ME ABOUT HOW SCOTLAND'S PROPOSED TRANS LEGISLATION IS DIVISIVE AS HELL BECAUSE IT IS SO SWEEPING THAT IT COULD BE POTENTIALLY ABUSED AT A TIME WHERE THE LACK OF SAFETY FOR WOMEN HAS BEEN SO GLARING
Grey Hunter and I tried stepping things up and played a larger game today. We hadn't gone past the standard 1500 points Clash before so today tried dropping everything we could onto the field and came up with a 2500 point UCM vs PHR Battle! This also meant that we played on a 6x4 table rather than the usual 4x4. It felt huge at first but really you do need the space as we had units using the full width of the field.

The scenario was encroachment where you score points for ending the game with your own units in the opponent's table half with a bonus for infantry occupying buildings in the opposing table half. Finally you also score for kill points, so it really all comes down to keeping infantry alive while blapping anything on the ground in your own table half. We picked our lists then the scenario so we had to approach the game flexibly.

Here is my PHR list.

2500pts PHR Battle
Battle: 2498/2500 points
Standard Army
PHR Standard Roster [2498/2500 pts]
Hand of the Sphere [668 pts]
Mercury Drones: 4x Mercury, 2x Triton A2(+Stealth Missiles, +RN-5 Skyhammer) [116 pts]
Command Squad: Zeus(Supreme Vizier), Zeus, 2x Odin, 2x Neptune [552 pts]
Battle Pantheon [260 pts]
Battle Squad: Menchit, Phobos, Neptune [140 pts]
Erebos Squad: 2x Erebos-A, Neptune [120 pts]
Battle Pantheon [364 pts]
Battle Squad: 4x Ares, 2x Phobos, Poseidon [364 pts]
Immortals [300 pts]
Immortals: 2x Immortals, Triton A1(+Stealth Missiles, +Miniguns) [114 pts]
Angelos Squad: 2x Angelos(+Immortals), Neptune [186 pts]
Immortals [228 pts]
Immortals: 2x Immortals, Triton A1(+Stealth Missiles, +Miniguns) [114 pts]
Immortals: 2x Immortals, Triton A1(+Stealth Missiles, +Miniguns) [114 pts]
Heavy Pantheon [408 pts]
Helios Squad: 2x Helios, Neptune [160 pts]
Heavy Squad: 2x Enyo [130 pts]
Heavy Squad: 2x Hyperion [118 pts]
Air Wing [270 pts]
Athena Squad: Athena [135 pts]
Athena Squad: Athena [135 pts]

This used very close to every model I have, putting it together made me think that I maybe need to buy more Neptunes! When you start playing with more points the need to find transportation gets tricky. I still haven't picked up any Sirens or type 4 walkers which is why both are absent from this list. I would have loved to put in some Hades/Nemesis as they just seem well suited to bigger battles and would have had room to slot them in. Maybe next time!

Grey fielded an air-heavy UCM list including his new Archangels & Seraphim along with the flying doom engine he got in the post yesterday - his Phoenix. He fielded a Sabre-Rapier tank brick in an Albatross, some more armour and gunships topped off with Praetorians in Ravens & Legionaires in Bears/Codor.

The first thing that struck me about scaling up is the feeling that setup took longer (more stuff to unbox/put on flight stands) and that it feels like there is a lot to think about. With a wider range of stuff on table, and more of it, things felt less snappy for the first half of the game. The game didn't drag, but putting more stuff on the table certainly made things take longer. This probably wasn't helped that both Grey and I rolled god awful with our shooting for the first two or three turns so not much died!

I started off by placing my Command squad in centre field, my Poseidon carrying Type-1 group on my right flank with the smaller Erebos/Menchit group between them while my Heavy group (with Mercurys projecting sphere of influence) stomped on to hold my left flank. Grey had managed to roll sixes for most of his fast movers on turn one while my own Athena's were still stuck in reserve. This meant I had an Archangel threatening my dropships on turn 1 that I couldn't really do anything about. This pushed me into playing it a bit safe and landing (but not deploying from) a lot of my dropships (especially the squishy troop carrying Triton's) to prevent them from getting picked off before my AA cover was in place.

I quickly realised (and so had Grey) that I had committed the cardinal sin of the PHR and miss-deployed with AA. I had placed my Helios on the left flank but bunched up both the main Poseidon walker squad and the Menchit/Phobos squad too far over to my right. That just left my Athena's to belatedly try and plug the gap as with PHR being the slowest moving force it is difficult to switch gears once you set things in motion. Grey set to work widening that gap by ramming most of his air units into my left flank and making sure that the Helios covering it died first. Grey then pushed the bulk of his infantry down the left flank to begin occupying buildings (for extra points) while I was forced to get my own infantry into some place with a longer life expectancy. That didn't work out as one squad survived their Triton being shot down only to find themselves stuck in a building in my own table half. My Angelos squad tried to push across the table and fiend a decent building to hole up in but got stuck around the mid table brawl before getting torn up by Eagle Gunships.



That mid-table brawl consisted of my double Zeus/Odin command squad steadily marching between buildings throwing supporting fire towards my type-1 brick on the right flank. Grey and I are developing a habit of picking forces that include chunky tank/walker bricks in heavy dropships and just ramming them into each other. In this instance we played out a reverse tug of war where our respective armoured cores advanced down a main road and tried to shove past each other over the centre line. While turn 1 was spent rumbling heavy dropships forward, turns 2 through 5 saw deployment and inconclusive fire fights. I had shifted my Erebos squad over to join the Type-1's and provide their ECM cover to raise survivability, but naturally they died first so didn't. I then played some command cards to both grant temporary 5+ passive saves and to activate the squad out of sequence but rolled dismally and failed to achieve anything. Fortunately Grey fluffed his shooting too so that fight dragged on for awhile as I slowly pushed my walkers forwards 3 inches at a time. Eventually I did gain the upper hand, whittled down his tank block and pushed my survivors over the centre line.

My left flank also fared surprisingly well as my two heavy walker pairs did not bear the full brunt of the Phoenix and gunships. Grey's attention instead was drawn more towards my hardy command squad in the centre which proved a marvellous bullet sponge for some time. The problem was that my Type-2's were kept busy by Wolverines and the Infantry squads taking up residence around them which slowed my advance. I used my Enyo's to soften up the surrounding buildings but they and my Hyperions were never going to reach the centre line so I settled for truing to kill the Infantry instead by dropping masonry and buildings. Between building demo and some brutal CQB with my now stranded Immortals taking on Praetorians I was able to kill two of the three squads infesting buildings on my flank.

Meanwhile on my far right another vicious round of CQB saw another Immortals/Praetorian match up result in a mutual wipe out as whomever was the last man standing sank to his knees and bled out. My Menchit (thanks to its recent buff) earned its keep by single-handedly torching a legionnaire squad out of a captured building, which is good as I had put it down in that area to do this. On the other hand it was that descion which lead to me bunching up my AA cover so it was something of a double-edged sword. My fourth and final squad completed a flanking maneuver and took up residence in a building on the far side of the field. Grey naturally put an end to that threat by sending his Seraphim to drop a couple of over-sized bombs on them and levelling the whole structure.

By this point the tide had turned on my command squad as the damage seeped through and my commander's Zeus and one Odin went down. I was able to push the survivors over the line but the loss of a CV6 commander is painful indeed! A Phoenix does indeed lay down a punishing amount of firepower and my AA hole left me unable to deal with it.

Throughout the game my Athenas, once they turned up (one each on turns 2 and 3), managed to arse about failing to shoot down Archangels or performing attack runs against the Phoenix and failing to hit anything. I eventually lost one to an Archangel intercept at the end of the game, which frankly served it right! The appalling shooting of my air wing ultimately rendered them next to useless in this battle, which definitely hurt me.

The final count put me on 1500-and-something points while Grey racked up 1700-and something meaning he beat me by 120 points. It was close, with most of that difference down to the bonus points he received for having a Legionnaire squad holding a building in my table half. If the Seraphim had fluffed its bombing run then I would have likely won. This was a fun and tense game, but something of a marathon. I think DzC does scale well for larger battles, but we found the extra 1000 points really makes a difference to the length of the game. This game took us nearly 4 hours, which was longer than we expected but that may in part have been due to our terrible shooting not removing units more quickly. It was fun to try something a bit different and ramping things up does let you use more of the toys, although you do sacrifice a bit of pace.

I think the take home here is that while DzC can certainly do the 'mass battle' thing, it probably isn't the go-to game size. The next time we do a Battle sized game I'm thinking we might go with 2000 points. That is 500 more than the tournament standard but still low enough that you can't just take everything and it should keep the game from slowing down.

I hope that was of interest to someone, otherwise I apologise for the wall of text! :D

Ugleb fucked around with this message at 23:20 on May 3, 2015

The Impaler
Dec 28, 2011

10 Brogies
20 GOTO 10

Safety Factor posted:

New newsletter out with a bunch of cool pictures of spaceships. Holy poo poo does everything look nice.

http://hawkwargames.cmail20.com/t/ViewEmail/j/D1E76D160754D4D5/F3AC56C86DECE729F990754F028F0E8F

There's renders of the first wave of infantry too.

God drat are those pretty. If the rules are solid, Firestorm Armada/ HALO, and SW: Armada are gonna have their work cut out for them.

signalnoise
Mar 7, 2008

i was told my old av was distracting
OK I am going for a Skynet vibe with my PHR guys. Is this too simple a scheme to use on an entire army?

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Pierzak
Oct 30, 2010
I'd get some OSL on those red elements, otherwise looks great :roboluv:

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