OK, I have some money burning a hole in my pocket. I'm considering buying Dust or Age or Empires III. Currently i'm leaning towards AoE3 due to feedback on Board Geek, (rated pretty high), and I'm familiar with the the franchise. But the description of Dust is very intriguing. (Of course its FFG Marketing's job to make it sound interesting.) So I ask the community;

If you could only buy one, which game would you buy? And niether is an option. If you know a better strategy game of similar vien which outshines these two don't hesitate to mention it.

All I ask is that responders should be someone who has played the games in question, not just fans who are all about one or the other. Games today are pricey enough without getting stuck with a $50+ game you never play.

My answer is a huge resounding "What do you feel like playing?" These games are both excellent, but are hugely different from each other. Dust is a strategy warfare game that looks like Risk but outshines it in every way possible. If you want a game of world domination that has lots of awesome plastic bits and involves futuristic warfare then you can do a lot worse than this one. I love it. AoE 3 is a worker placement/area control game that focuses on civ building more than warfare. If you've played Caylus, Stone Age, or Pillars of the Earth then you'll have the general idea already. It is a fantastic game, but is much more a nation building game than a warfare game. I hope that helps, but if you have more detailed questions then don't hesitate to ask, I have both and love them dearly.

I will probably eventually purchase both. I'm more familiar with AoE3 as I've seen it demo'd at my FLGS before. Dust is unknown to me at all, but sounded cool as hell. I suppose what I'm looking for is, of the two games which one hits the table more often? (Adjusting for the fact that AoE3 has been out longer.) I'm hoping to get two or more plays in before Christmas break so when I visit family and friends I can teach them the new game I bought.

For that matter I suppose ease of learning would be a factor as well. AoE3 seems like it might be a bit lengthy to teach someone. How's Dust in that respect?

Dust isn't too bad to teach actually. The driving mechanic is the cards, of which each player chooses one per turn. These cards determine what options are available to you during the turn, and they are very well laid out and easy to understand. Other than that, it's mostly understanding the movement and the combat. I'd suggest that you play a game or two by yourself to get the hang of it, and then it shouldn't be too hard to teach at all.

As for which one hits the table more it's hard to say. The groups that I play with tend to lean more in one direction or another, either civ building or wargame. So I guess it depends on what your group likes. Dust will feel more familiar to most as it does bear a resemblance to Risk, and anyone who likes Risk should have no problem loving it. It's probably one of those situations that you can't go wrong with really.

I don't know if this means anything to you or not, but Tom Vasel (game review guru) lists them both in his top 100 games of all time, so it's definitely a situation where you aren't going to lose either direction. I know that's pretty ambiguous, but it's as objective as I can be.

Thanks for the feedback. I watched a demo of Dust the other day and I'm leaning in that direction.

Demo, there's a demo?

Please tell me where to find it, as I'd be interested in checking that out.

thanks.

no demo?

sagitar said:

The only thing that I could find with the powers of Google-Fu was references to in person demos of Dust. So take a trip down to your FLGS, or a con that FFG is attending and ask for a demo!

I bet he ment a demonstraion of the game at some kind of Games Day.

Go, go! Get Dust