I was playing heroscape with my nephews last week, and looking at their warhammer 40K (shudder) minis, and I was suddenly seized with a desire for a non-fantasy/medieval miniatures combat game of my own. I started eliminating possibilities:
Heroscape: Nope. Cancelled, tough-to-find, too much setup, too much of a hodge-podge of themes
Warhammer 40K: Nope. Too expensive, and I find the warhammer aesthetic to be too over-the-top, grim, and roided out.
Warmachine: Nope. I like the aesthetics for some of the factions, but too expensive (for Khador: $50 for 3 miniatures? And that's your entry-cost starter?).
Then I remembered Dust Tactics. I had played it at Gencon 2010 (actually, Paolo had showed us how to play, and by following his instructions, he had led us to a spectacular loss). It hadn't really bit, but I remembered the minis being really, really cool.
So, I checked out the website, started reading up on it. For me, the grid-based movement is a plus, because I'm not really a war-gamer. When there's a choice between a simple abstraction or a complex simulation, I'll probably go with the abstraction (which is why I like the simplicity of the cover and line-of-sight rules). And above all, the original core set seemed to be a great value (and based on the news about the new core set, the old one might not be available for too much longer). So, I set my foot on that slippery, slippery slope.
The first thing I needed to get was the core set. Done.
Oooooh, look at all these unit expansions! Snipers? Oh, I've got to get me some snipers. Done.
Wait, the snipers come with these... observers. What do they do? (looks up artillery rules) Oh, sweet. But I don't have any artillery pieces. I guess I'll get a medium walker for both sides, to get the different load outs. Done.
Command Squads? Those sound cool, but let's keep it simple for now. Most of the other units seem to be reprints of what's already in the core set, but why are the Gunners more expensive? Wait, they come with an additional mini that allow you to run them as one of two units, one of which specializes in killing the walkers I just bought? Done.
So, with even realizing what I was doing, I had bought a metric ton of Dust Tactics, and I was already eyeing my next purchase (Revised Core Set + Command Squads + Light Walkers).
So, having just said all that, I have some questions:
1. Am I missing anything absolutely crucial? I wanted to get a pool of units and walkers that allowed for a lot of flexibility and options, and not necessarily the most killer-optimal builds. I know I'm missing Command Squads, and I'll remedy that after Gencon, but is there some unit or piece that you absolutely need multiples of?
2. Does anyone have any idea what units are going to be in the revised core set? I've been scrutinizing the pictures on the FFG news posts, but I can't tell.
Cheers,
Nate