We took our Dust Tactics game to the Sidcup show and again it was well recieved. We had players for all the games as well as others interested but unable to play, somebody, somewhere should get a sale from it - unfortunately none of the traders at this event carry Dust tactics Here's a few pics of the action:

An overview of the game in the opening move. The Allies come on with the objective of getting a model into eaach of the three bunkers.

Allied Walkers move through the buildings

Micky pounces on some confused zombies.

the map and ur buildin looks awesome i would love to see this as a dust warfare battle though

loken14 said:

The jury is out on that until I have the rules. Our goal in running these participation games this year is to show Mr. Wargamer that Dust Tactics is more than just a board game, and that has been very successful. The only difference between our game and most of the other wargames at the show is that we have thrown away the tape measure, which is actually a huge benefit in a participation game. With DT we were able to play the game in an hour with people who have never played before and can learn the main rules by the end of turn 2. Each game had 4 players each with 2 mechs, 2 squads and a hero lasting 6-8 turns, will Dust Warfare be able to do that? We'll have to wait and see.

Looks great Major and I like what you have done with the board, I was planning on slapping a few chalk lines onto my existing gaming table for the next game, think that's a defo now, the extra '3D' element is the only thing tactics is missing in the eye candy area IMHO <thumbs up>

I have an old set of the Realms of Battle modular game table that GW put out, I only ever used it for C.A.V. and for Mechwarrior/Battletech. I think I will dig it out and paint a grid pattern on it!

If the table is painted medium green ( GW Catachan green ), then should I paint the lines lighter, or darker? wich would stand out enough but still look good?

And for those playing longer than I have, has anyone made house rules for modeled hills and stuff? The GW table has 2 inch rough sided hills molded in and Im not sure how Tactics, with its simplified move rules, would cope? Or di I ignore the molded terrain and only count the square based model terrain?

Have fun blow'n stuff up!

@ Major Mishap

Who/What/Where does one get those outstanding "concrete barrier walls" you have shown in the far back left of the board?

Those look very much like the 3-D terrain in the dust rules themselves.

anvil i didnt even notice them but i like em too and would like to no where to purchase/how to make them

You can download them free from boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36367/dust-tactics

As for the hills, I'd just say that units lower down do not block line of sight and I'd just use a pencil and ruler to mark the grid.

Are you saying the hills would only affect blocking unit line of sight and not have an impact on movement? Im cool with that. One could assume that the 1 square per action takes uneven and broken ground into acount, being an "average" move value. that works!

The pencil ideas ok, but i want something more permanent. I was thinking of spraying the table in Gloss coat, then then using pin-stripe tape about 1/8th of an inch to mask off the grid and then spray the table in Dull coat. Then the grid lines would be the same color, but glossy and easy to notice in the light! What do you think? im going for subtle but practical.

If you are going to use tape how about painting the board, add the tape and then apply glue and grass scatter, remove tape before fully dry. Our board only has pencil marks and it doesn't rub off.

@Major Headcase - I would go with darker lines. Maybe even black, but a darker green would be fine too, like Dark Angels green.

Well, I decided to do the flocked squares idea. At first I was a little sceptical, but now that its done, it looks awesome! I taped off 4 inch squares using 1/8th inch pin-striping tape and then sprayed the board peices with a hobby terrain cement from a line caled Land Scapes, then covered it in mixed green fine textured rail road flock. Then befor the cement dried i pulled up all the tape, then hit the entire board with dull coat. It looks fantastic, if I do say so myself!

Now with Dust Warfare coming out soon, am I going to regret putting a grid on my table?!?!

Major Headcase said:

I shouldn't thinks so, a grid won't stop you from ingnoring them and playing on it. You might even still be able to use them for movement and ranges and do away with the tape measure.

Major Mishap said:

One of the important components of a tabletop wargame is that you don't know if something is in range and you have to declare the shot before you measure to see if the target is within range.
Having grids on the board takes this away and it means you can plan your movement so that you know 100% certain your opponent can't hit you or that you will be able to hit the intended target.

FlorisH said:

In some rules that is true, but not all of them, pre-measuring is allowed in some table-top wargames. If its not allowed in DW (anybody know?) then having a grid could be a problem.

Major Mishap said:

There is only two tabletop wargames: A good one and a bad one. In a good tabletop wargame you do not measure until you have declared an action.

FlorisH said:

What happens for those wargames where they acknowledge rangefinders that have any degree of accuracy? Since DUST has laser weapons, they could easily have laser rangefinders, because it would mean laser technology in advance of our own. Optical rangefinders were very good by our WW2.

I enjoy having to estimate ranges, but it is far from a solid criteria for deciding if a game is good or bad.

I frequently prefer not having to estimate ranges, because the military position I held required me to be able to do so quickly and accurately, and I find that training frequently gives me an edge I don't want when playing against people that aren't as good at estimating ranges.

I want to out play my opponent , not guess a distance marginally better.

FlorisH said:

Thats just a matter of opinion though.