Also, I am hoping that since the 3 variations of the KV-47 were not in the DM card pack that maybe those will be realesed soon Officially

I'd thought about the possibility of a small Vrill incursion, but that adds a different issue. If the Vrill brought a small enough force to not be seen as a threat by the full world (which would be a stretch in itself), they would not be in a position to be facing all of the factions, and again have issues for playability.

A small Vrill force could try and get by on raiding for VK in all faction territories, but they would have to wipe out any defensive force they found to keep things a secret, or they would become an obvious threat to everyone just as a larger invasion would.

If intelligent world leaders heard of a small alien force landing and taking control of any part of the Earth, they would see it as a major threat, because a starfaring race that could transport military force is an alien force that could keep bringing force to become more of a threat.

Rommel pushed very hard to get the German High Command to defeat the Normandy invasion before the Allies got established as the most probable route to victory, so I can't see him feeling any different about a Vrill invasion. Against the Vrill, he wouldn't have the stupidity of Hitler causing problems.

Any invasion given time to establish a beachhead is a much more dangerous force, but a force at its most vulnerable while trying to establish that beachhead. Hit them hard, and hit them fast, before they can establish secure landing and control areas.

I just wonder whether FFG will actually care about the flow and sense of the overall "story", instead of simply focusing on what is the best market strategy. I'll put my money on the latter, though I'm not sure what makes better business sense. For me personally the new factions seem like a risky gamble. Players could feel overwhelmed with having to start a whole new army from scratch and feel left out. Or it could be great to bring in new players who want a faction of their own.... I just don't think the inter-dynamics of the different factions and the evolution of the war is really the key element here.

@loophole....

If the game does not expand into new forces though the game may not last. You need to have more variety to appeal to more people. if you only have good and bad guys fighting it will just stay as a board game between faction a &b and will only grow so far. If it does not grow with more factions within a year the game will "jump the shark". IMO

I wouldn't say that would make the game "jump the shark", it could become stagnant or obsolete. If it fails, introducing aliens into this WW2 game would be more like jumping the shark.

But as I said, I don't know what makes more market sense, I'm just saying that marketing decisions most likely trump storytelling decisions.

I can see the Vrill sending a small force to get their ship back. If the allies then realize that the Germans have been hiding a crashed ship (or realize where it is) there could be a four way melee for said ship. Everybody thinks there country is the best so they should get the ship and they will fight off the Vrill. I think there are several ways to bring in the aliens without it being a true planet wide invation. That said, they should wait a few game years and fully establish earth factions and sub factions.

-Jeff

There have been a lot of people acknowledging they or others are waiting for new factions of one type or another, and the reality of marketing to a wider audience does push for more factions to help the game grow.

While some will decry time spent on new factions as time that should be spent on their personal favorites, the game has a lot of room to grow, and its appeal will grow with more options.

New unit types for existing factions will work, but new factions will allow greater diversity with less effort. Core infantry really shouldn't vary that much, as core infantry really didn't vary that much during WW2. Similar rifles make standard infantry very similar, so it becomes only a point of adding whatever support weapons they feel are appropriate, and even those can be similar. We have twin flamethrower units, and twin rocket launcher units, so why not twin machine gun units, or Soviet Walker Dasant squads, or anti-walker dogs, or SMG units?

Walkers will have more variety, but we have a lot of additional walkers already waiting in the wings to make the jump from models to game pieces.

While there are players who want to collect everything from the games they love, there is no reason for everyone to do so. Those who only want Soviets can buy Soviets without needing anything from the other factions, as can those interested in the other factions. That should not slow down sales to those who want other factions, and can bring in more people who were waiting for more diversity. Those that want at least one of everything will have more options to get excited about, as well. We already have players paying premium prices to get DUST models without game rules simply to play them with house rules, so they will obviously work for the game with official rules and lower prices.

Adding the Vrill would bring in more players, but I feel the Soviets and other Earth factions would bring at least as many, and make more sense.

The Vrill sending a small force to recover their ship would work for a short campaign, but it would do little to establish the Vrill as a functional faction. A small recovery force could easily be aomething that would only work against the Germans, as they would probably try to do a fast smash and grab mission before the other factions could react to send forces to the area. It would also send a clarion call to the whole Earth that there were dangerous aliens out there, which could be a significant impetus to go to the negotiating table to end hostilities and prepare for a larger incursion that might come.

With more functional leadership in Germany without Hitler and the Nazis in power, they could accept the idea of not wasting resources when they knew the Vrill could well be back in force at any time. Conquest to unite the Earth might have appeared a good idea while there was time to do it and prepare for the Vrill, but conquest also wastes valuable resources when a larger conflict is looming close and large, and they know they will need everything they can get to prevail against the Vrill. Two fronts of fighting caused significant issues for the Germans even in DUST's history, so adding a third front against the Vrill would be something they would know was not going to be a good idea for them.

I think that when FFG will introduce new factions it will abandon the core set and 2 hero addons sales type. I think that more and better money can be made by releasing only one army sets, witch additional units in small boxes. We already have hero packs for factions coming this way. Also notice that in scenario books there is usally a defender attacker ETC. So i think we are looking at, less 2 player boardgame but, armies+units+scenarios for wchihever army you and your opponent pick. All sold separetly for some serious cash

The single army cores will be for Warfare, as it is more suited for that kind of game. Dust Tactics is more boardgame than wargame in terms of rules and such, so the two army core is more of a must to play the game right out of the box.

Yes, but going trough the history of the DT series i got a feeling that FFG is doing partly someone's else plan. The game in my opinion is getting more and more away from what we were interduced to in the original core set. I know that the game was taken over by FFG just beafore release and to me we are at the moment sailing further and further away from a board game. Hell! In RCS there is no board at all:D

With the rules released as free pdf's, there is less need for starter boxes with multiple sides for new players, but it remains a good convenience purchase to help players get into the game with discounted units.

The Soviets could be released with an army pack, or just as unit packs, and be viable. A core Soviet army pack, or an alternate core set with a different mix of squads than the Revised Core Set, would both be workable concepts. The first would appeal to established players that wanted to expand to a Soviet force, while the latter would appeal to players just getting into the game with more interest in a Soviet/Axis based struggle than the Axis/Allies of the Revised Core Set. Because of the game's appeal as alternate history WW2, I don't think an Allies/Soviet starter set would do as well. Some players would like that, but many would prefer to start with traditional match-ups before going to the Allies/Soviet front.

DUST gives good reasons for an Allies/Soviet front, but that comes after people get into the fluff of the game. Before that, people are more likely to identify with the Eastern, Western, or Pacific theaters of war from the historical WW2. For those looking to the comics for fluff, they show the Allies and Soviets not working together well , but also fighting in a combined operation against the Axis.

Although, swapping over to army packs (approx 3 squads, 2 walkers, 1 hero) at one or two per faction would allow people to start off with one faction. Then have a game pack with maps/tiles, scenarios, tank traps, ammo crates, etc. Have a discounted bundle on two army packs + game pack.

Not sure of the economics on that though. Might be easier to sell the individual model boxes at a discount price for buying so many.

IMO, we really have to wait and see how FFG commits to DW. If they botch that, then they might blunder badly with negatives for both DT & DW. I'm not interested in 40K Lite and if the need to force DW to pay for itself starts warping DT releases... I've generated a smidgen of interest here, but when I mention converting ranges and movements to play on tabletop, the uniform response, like mine is "Why bother? This is fun, but we can play 40K if we do that."

Fast, quick, easy with a more chess-like feel to it. And cool minis and fluff.

I am completely in on the idea of single Army Starters. I would pay to get a pack with a Medium Walker, a light walker and a couple [2-3] squads plus a hero as an intro pack for each force. I think it is a good way to do it. I think AT-43 may have survived if they had done this first, instead of releasing individual packs first and then making Starters that had most of the models you already owned in them.

I know some people who want to play and build armies but different armies than what everyone else is playing with.

Hopefully they will come out soon with the Sino-Soviets and Vril. Will be nice to add a different kind of opponent to a game and will add more options for campaigns.

I have searched high and low looking for any info on release dates. Other than the estimated release for the Vril last August I have heard no rumors about the other factions.

Jiltedtoo said:

They're on holiday like many of the rest of us. IMO, I'd expect that soon after the new year we will have some solid info.

I would like to see the Sino-Soviets packaged like the core set was. maybe 2 KV-47, 3 AC 2 squads and 1 Koshka figure all for about $60.00.

What color would the soviets be primered? maybe Brown?

Gotta prime them in red.

reptilebro1 said:

That would be the easiest for keeping variation. The Soviets used a lot of brown uniforms, so it would fit, and make them easy to pick out from the Axis and Allies even without extra paint.

Yeah, some sort of brownish red.

I've seen color images with brownish red, brownish green, and a simple intermediate brown.

The brownish red would be the best play for jokes on the red army, but I'd prefer the other two options.

Since I'll be painting them anyway, it won't matter so long as it serves as a good base coat.

All I know is that if one of the Soviet units is armoured bears (or similar) I will be a very happy camper - FFG make it happen!

The unprimed Dust Models are green, and I believe the main Russian colour was dark green.

attila said:

One thing the Sino-Soviets would not be lacking is man power, unlike the Axis.

I agree would be funny to see big bears in armor.

Jiltedtoo said:

if they have gorillas and zombies, i think they can manage a Bear Cavalry

for those unawares of the joke (NSFW): www.google.com/imgres

sorry for double post; no edit apparently.

Jiltedtoo, you nearly owed me a keyboard for that, by the way.

/kind of afraid to google '1/48 bear models'

//crap, there's the edit button. carry on.