Seems to me there are a lot of space fleet games coming out as of late. Star Wars: Armada, Halo, and now Dropfleet Commander.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hawkwargames/dropfleet-commander

Kickstarter's doing crazy well, and the ships look pretty sweet. The game has an interesting twist in that it's in orbit over a planet rather than out in the middle of space.

Hmmm.

Fire Storm Armada came out with a ground game, and now Dropzone Commander is coming out with a space game.

The ships are pretty, but for me, they're also very samey .

ESPECIALLY ont he Alien side.

There's no way I'm going to be able to tell them apart on a Tabletop without a whose-who reference with pictures, and even then.....

I like the mechanic of deploying markers of where ships will appear in system without disclosing which ships they are. Once all deployments are made on both sides then you flip the markers and place the actual ships.

Hawk's products are always good quality and the game systems have been very balanced so far but I have spent to much on Warpath, Antares, Infinity and Wild West Exodus this quarter to start another system.

Already backed it at at captain level, but will probably bump that up to commodore eventually.

Yes, the ships are very samey. A regrettable side effect of trying to get maximum use out of a single plastic sprue. I think he went too far in that respect, 2-3 ship classes off a single chassis is probably ok, 9 is really too much. The scourge frigates all look alike, and the UCM cruisers not much better.

I am not fond of the HUGE honkin' gun turrets on the UCM cruisers. They look way out of scale. Having guns that big makes the ships look much smaller than they are supposed to be.

Mechanically they are doing several interesting things. The deployment vectors is one, weapon range limited only be sensors being able to detect the target. Factoring in altitude above the planet. Having the game take place in orbit and the principle objectives being to land troops at strategic points on the surface should make this unlike any other fleet game out there. In fact, I would not be surprised if that does so much for game play that it eventually becomes the new standard.

Not sure I'll back it, but it does look good and has some interesting ideas.

Am I strange for liking that the ship classes are rather similar? Makes identification an aspect, which I feel fit the overall theme.

I'm really intrigued by what I see in this Kickstarter, but I think if I'm going to throw a couple hundred bucks at something like this I may as well go with Armada. Not sure though. Only have the money to do it once and do it right.

It is very tempting, and has a lot of very interesting ideas. Most Spaceship games tend to be heavily influenced by Navel warfare, this seems to be more of a Submarine type game. The bases seem very well thought out as well, I'm a big fan of bases that are used for more than just making sure models don't fall over.

The only issue I have is that I have too many games on the go as it is, but those Scourge ships could win me over.

I like it, though I will not start it. Andy Chambers is very capable, and him being kicked out of GW was imho the beginning of the downwards spiral for that company. However I have a 1 tabletop wargame limit If I didn't commit to Armada I'd probably start this however. In any case, I'm looking forward to using some of their stuff after release for Armada. Both the orbital playmats and the modular space station look very interesting for use in Armada.

Already backed it at at captain level, but will probably bump that up to commodore eventually.

Yes, the ships are very samey. A regrettable side effect of trying to get maximum use out of a single plastic sprue. I think he went too far in that respect, 2-3 ship classes off a single chassis is probably ok, 9 is really too much. The scourge frigates all look alike, and the UCM cruisers not much better.

I am not fond of the HUGE honkin' gun turrets on the UCM cruisers. They look way out of scale. Having guns that big makes the ships look much smaller than they are supposed to be.

Mechanically they are doing several interesting things. The deployment vectors is one, weapon range limited only be sensors being able to detect the target. Factoring in altitude above the planet. Having the game take place in orbit and the principle objectives being to land troops at strategic points on the surface should make this unlike any other fleet game out there. In fact, I would not be surprised if that does so much for game play that it eventually becomes the new standard.

I was thinking of getting the Commodore level. . . There is an 11" model!!! Something bigger than the ISD!

This also lets me have pretty much all the starting fleets since you get the 2 player starter kit. . .

The 11" model is a special 2-up display piece. I'm pretty sure it isn't an actual game useable model, but an extra detailed, extra large model to paint md put on your shelf. The actual game model for that class ship will be half that size (hence, 2-up).

The 11" model is a special 2-up display piece. I'm pretty sure it isn't an actual game useable model, but an extra detailed, extra large model to paint md put on your shelf. The actual game model for that class ship will be half that size (hence, 2-up).

A Cruiser in this game is a little smaller than a VSD

Oh. . . And the PHR fleet is beautiful!

Battlecruiser's are up, they just did a question and answer segment and a BEAUTIFUL civilian liner!

The first 10 minutes or so of this video is about Dropfleet Commander