Blamzero said:

Sorry I haven't replied to this sooner.

Currently, I prefer the new version of Warmachine and Hordes. While the game system does have problems, I think that the want Privateer Press handled the beta testing, the roll-outs of the new army books, and the overall feel for the game rules makes me a fan.

Comparing 40K to Warmachine: 40K has a good universe (although at times very stereotypical or inconsistent). They have, for the most part, good visuals and miniatures and they do have authors like Dan Abnett to bring the universe to life in the novels. Privateer Press has a huge advantage in the quality of the rules though since 40K has enough loopholes to make it (to me) unplayable in a tournament format. Also, the Privateer Press magazine No Quarter contains actual content instead of page after page of rehashed articles and advertisements for new products.

I've recently started to play Malifaux and its ok. The first iteration of the rules were confusing and messy. Good miniatures and some good ideas, but it seemed like the rulebook was put together and not reviewed nearly enough. Not enough playtesting either.

And as for Monsterpocalypse, I was a huge fan when it came out. I don't like the collectible aspect of it, but the game ran smooth once you learned all your special rules and it has a lot of tactical aspects to it. You had to be aggressive with your monster but not hang him out to dry or else you would get smoked. I think the game would have been helped more with individual reference cards (which we made ourselves) instead of the fold-out cheat sheet they gave us.

But anyway... how does this all relate back to my experiences with Dust Tactics?

To me, the game is too simple right now. The two forces aren't exciting to play. There's really no army composition aspect to the game right now because it's just the starter... but it's $100. Given the expense involved in the other minis game I mentioned, I don't expect a ton of options at this point. But there's the problem when compared to the other systems: they roll out more variety when they launch (like Malifaux) or have that variety built-in because of years and years of play. Maybe once those other box sets and rule systems are released, Dust Tactics will compete with the big boys.

Right now it doesn't. That's a contributing factor to my enjoyment and I don't like not having the option to buy more stuff... make my game more enjoyable by adding new units and new tactics... add the army building aspect to the game.

I'm not telling people not to buy the game. They may enjoy it. They may be playing it in a different style than my play group does. To me and my friends, it's just too simplistic. I personally do not enjoy it right now. I wish I had spent my $100 on other games.

In response to your question, it's not my type of game. It currently lacks variety. Movement and actions are too simple. Move+Shoot, Shoot+Move, or Sustained Fire... that's about it. The hand-to-hand combat system feels forced and extremely simplistic (I hate using that word so often - maybe I need a thesaurus). The ranged combat system has potential with the range vs. quality of armor balance, but none of that seems to matter now since everyone is the same in the basic set. The robots are great looking, but die so easily to sustained fire from another robot.

Just because I don't enjoy it, doesn't mean you will not. There is potential here and it may be fun in the future.

After playing through the scenarios included in the book this weekend, here is my review.

In my experience, compared to games like 40K, Dust Tactics is missing the individual unit customization and sheer lack of numbers. Part of that comes from the fact that you are stuck with what you have in the starter box, unless you buy another starter box or they offer units for sale apart from the starter. Consider these thoughts about customization: suppose you have a unit of space marine scoutsto a certain extent you can customize their officers, their gear, and their numbers. You might be able to deploy them to battle differently depending on things like pods or scenario specific rules. Dust: Tactics simplifies this by giving you something I find incredibly helpful, especially after playing Warma-hordes, Chainmail, DDM, and Star Warsa handy dandy reference card. All those games sacrifice some customizeability for speedGranted, Warma-hordes infantry units may have different numbers of units depending on min-max cost for units, unit attachements (40k, think command squads, warhammer, think champion, banner bearer, musician, etc.)and weapon attachments, and what not, but you still get to speed things up because you don't have to customize leaders or units. WYSIWYG. I like that. I can plunk down five infantry men and a hero, know that it will cost a predetermined number of points, and know what they can do, and what my oponents units can do with the data card. Because the cards are dry erase compatible, we had no arguments about what special abilities and one-use weapons were used. We didn't need to clutter up the battle field with counters because we were able to mark damage or healing on the card. Now, the reason why 40k players should want this box is so that you have a small Imperial Guard force to demo 40k for your friends without having to pay 90$ for a unassembled Blackreach starter, or pay for an IG battle force or reinforcement box in which the figs aren't even assembled.

I was converted to enjoying tiles based games after one too many fights about distance and range and placement. Tiles set up the battlefield quickly cut off arguments about movement and range, and help you understand where your guys go. You don't have to argue about if some of the guys in the unit are in cover, or if only some of them have line of sight.

Lastly, we were able to play a game in a half an hour once we had the rules straight. Each game, we understood that there is more nuance to move-move, move-shoot, shoot-shoot (sustained fire) than we realized. We also appreciated the depth of choice that comes from understanding when to use sick spells like "berserk" with the laser grenadiers or the risk in throwing the equally sick napalm walker right up on top of the laser grenadiers because you don't want your opponents anti-infantry squad at full strength. We also appreciated that the relative small scale of the battle field means that each unit could be meaningfully involved in combat from the get go, and not have to worry about half an hour of maneuvering. We liked having to decide whether or not to charge in with knives and handgrenades at close combat to try and finish off the last hit on the hero and wipe out the flamethrower, or decide to hang back. We liked making sure that we could tie up ranks and files with long range guns and constraining our opponents strategic choices. In that sense, this is definitely like chess with balls, as someone said earlier.

I thought the game was a hoot. My 13 yo nephew fell in love with it as this was the first miniatures war game (or can I count Pirates?) he'd ever played. If anyone wants to off load the game on ebay, why not post in this thread, as I'd love to get another copy and begin being able to customize my armies now.

fwiw,

guac.

One should see Paolo's interview on you tube and you will understand why the game is designed it that way.

Guac - Thanks for the review. I truly am excited about getting this as it will allow me to play a minatures game with my kids (9 and 8) that we can set up and enjoy rather than spending about an hour setting up and only dad enjoying and they get bored. Thus, Tannhauser and a few others sit looking for an adult group to play against! ;-)

But, I also liked hearing that there are nuances in this game that will keep folks coming back for more and more.

Looking forward to my copy coming in October!

Just purchased the Regular Edition from a gent. on eBay. Yes, the wait was killing me BUT what sent me over the edge was 3 things that I knew would make this worth picking it up now then later...

1) It comes autographed. I know, I know, big deal, but it always neat to have something signed by the person who made it happen.

2) It comes with the sticker sheet you could only get at Gencon. Now will you be able to purchase these down the line, who knows but it really makes your tanks stand out from the rest. That and if you purchase more than one copy of this game you can tell your tanks apart.

3) This really had me stroked, it includes the two promo units, one green and one grey. From the picture the grren figure is aiming his sniper rifle (the grey one I can not tell what she/he is doing).

The cherry on top is that it only cost me $99 plus shipping (which comes out to being even cheaper then me picking it up from my local gaming store...when it comes out). The seller is in the same state as I am so that means that this should be here no later then the middle of next week. I am very happy and look forward to playing with my friends and my girlfriends family as this seems to be a game that we can play over and over again hearing that games go by fast and very little set up time.

My question for those who know, do the promo figures come with stat cards so you can use them with this set? Or do they show you their stats in the instruction book or the mission book? Hmmm, very intresting....

Just got my copy at "le monde du jeu" Paris, France. awesome is the word!

We've played the game a few times now and had a lot of fun. Both armies develop diffenrent strategies. the US are good at rushing forward and at close range combat. the germans are better at long range i felt. i recommend this game! cant wait to get more units.

My 15 year old son and I played the first 2 scenarios tonight and we loved it. We've played 40K, AT-43, Warmachine, Mordheim, and Lord of the Rings. In DUST, movement and timing are crucial. My son keeps destroying my Allied armour which is frustrating, but that's due to bad tactics on my part. What we enjoy is the ease of combat resolution and the powerful nature of the units. It's pointless to compare this game to others to decide which is best, just as it is pointless to compare U2 to REM to decide the better band. Try a demo or a friend's copy and decide for yourself.

I ilke Dust Tactics and recommend it. My 14 year old son REALLY llikes this game! Dust Tactics is a fast-paced, fun, and exciting miniatures game.

As a gamer, there are times when I want to play with toy soldiers, but I don't have a massive amount of time to invest. Or perhaps I want to take a miniatures game with me, that does not involve travelling with tubs of terrain and mountain of miniatures.

I have tried both AT-43 and Confrontation (last version) to see if they fit the bill, but I just didn't care for them. I tried to like them, but the play was just never as much fun as I hoped. I can't really place my finger on it, other than to say the game systems just weren't clean enough. Too much unecessary complication/ unclear translation.

Dust Tactics was supposed to provide the answer to these problems. So I have been following the development of Dust Tactics, and waiting to check it out for quite a while. It is a project thst has been a long time coming and is finally starting to arrive.

The miniatures are good. The rules are clean. The action is quick and decisive. And the artwork and background are cool. I like the game right now, and I am looking forward to the expansions. I am very happy with the game, and I think it perfectly answers my previous concerns.

When more of the game expansions are out, I understand we can look forward to a version of the game for full fledged table-top battles. That will be cool too. But in my opinion, Dust Tactics is a fun game right now.

TW

I love the rules, the game as a whole is very good.

My main beef is as someone else has said, the robot minis are almost too detailed to use for play. Many people have had issues putting them together and parts breaking. I also feel because they are so delicate they will be hard to transport.

This is not an advanced miniature game like warmachine/hordes or 40k. I would say if warmachine is like chess then this game is like checkers. Sometimes you would rather play checkers then chess or vise versa so I think it works just fine as long as you know what you are buying.

Have played the recon scenario a number of times on both sides and 1 big game as the axis and find the game a complete joy to play. It doesn't have near the complexity of rules as say 40K but had more than enough tactical opportunities for my liking. The recon games were quick and bloody at first but as we learned how to use the combined arms of the units the games got very thrilling. Everyone playing and watching seem to feel the axis units have a real advantage over the allied units. Ludwig is just a beast and seems a bit under cost for its firepower. May be we missed it but Mech's don't get a cover save when being targeted around corners so we house ruled that they do in the big game we played. We also house ruled that any unit with grenades/launchers can use them to lay smoke instead of shooting, providing light cover and that the axis walkers have smoke launchers modeled so they can do it to. Just these two thing really improved the enjoyability of the big game we played.

As far as I can tell no cover for mechs. Book says cover is just for squads. We played 5 games tonight in 3 1/2 hours(warmachine was played at the table next to us and they compleleted 1 50 point game in that time). The first 5 in the battle book. Games were close but I ended up winning 4-1 with the Allies. Lasers are nice but I will take flamers any day of the week . We had a lot of fun and I look forward to planes and other units in the future.