Hi all, I guess I'm a little late on this scene. Like so many that I have read so far, I am a 40k player looking at getting into a light war-game that I can play with my son. He is forever pestering me to play 40k, it's just so expensive to get him started and I think he's a bit too young. A friend told me about Dust tactics so I had a look and must admit was completely blown away. I scanned through the rules, thought "my boy will love this" and in a fit of excitement decided to take the plunge. I liked the look of the axis more than the allies, but as soon as there were zombies and gorillas on the scene there was only ever going to be one faction my son wanted! So, (and I am so sorry for rambling) I let him choose a bunch of axis boosters and I picked a few of the allies box sets that I liked the look of without giving any thought to how they would play or any points values. I did go a bit mad! ha, but I've got a bit of cash to spare and wonder if anyone could point me in which direction to go next to either balance it out a bit or plug some desperately big holes in the forces/game. This is what I bought:

Revised core set

Terrain tile pack

Allies: (picked because I liked the look)

• BBQ boys
• The Boss
• Red Devils
• Light walker
• 2 medium walkers

Axis (chosen by my son!)

• Gorillas (of course)
• Zombies (Naturally!)
• Kommandotrupp (actually, I made him choose them ones)
• Spec Ops grenadiers (snipers and aerials - no brainer)
• Medium Walker (ooh rockets)
• Heavy Walker (he likes the one with 4 guns, bless.)

Yes so just really looking forward to playing this and painting the minis, but any advice I could get on which configurations to use on the walkers and if there are any units/expansions that I simply MUST have would be greatly appreciated. The whole lot is getting shipped to my new address overseas so I won't get to touch it for about 3 weeks, and the anticipation is killing me - but it's a nice treat for me and the boy when we get to our new home. Can't wait! Thanks in advance, and sorry for rambling, I tend to do it a lot!

I would really try and find an Original Core Set. For the Price it is a really good buy and if you look through some prior threads you can find them out there for between $90 and $150.

Welcome aboard, the both of you!

Oh and yours look to me as quite an interesting rant, actually.

As for tips on the game, well, that´s one of the things we love about it, there ain´t so many secret recipes about it.

Command groups for both factions are a good way to expand gameplay, and once you get used to the extra actions abilities et all, I´d suggest to get armor 3 NCO and seelowe + Cerberus expansions (cool add-ons and heroes, markus and ozz are must have!)

You might have shown up late, but yoy seem to have started big time. Cheers to that!

Welcome to the world of Dust!

Looks like a great start that should get you a bunch of variety in your scenarios.

Suggestions on how to build on that would be getting Operation Cerberus for the buildings as well as the two heroes; The Chef would go great with your BBQ Squad and Angela would go great with his snipers. Operation Cyclone has some fun missions, more tiles and Rosie which I enjoy using thanks to her 1/4 Bazooka, Manfred hasn't really shined in any games.... yet. For some Armor 3 Allied goodness have a look at the Tank Busters they're VERY good as well as the NCO Command Squad which gives you quite a few fun options. For Axis looks like you'll want Markus for the apes and the upcoming hero pack for the two Zombie heroes, Stefan is also alot of fun. Heavy Kommandotrupp for the Axis is a must, if you ordered that one grab the Armor 2 version - Any command squads are worth the point cost as far as I'm concerned, YMMV.

Jiltedtoo said:

Agreed, I was desperate to get hold of a copy, but it's not as easy to come by in the UK, and by the time you add on the shipping costs and the import taxes, it's not as great a deal which is a shame. I pretty much get all my stuff from Maelstrom games here in the UK that seem to have the best prices by some margin., but rest assured I'm on the lookout!

@ Aldarion

Thanks for the advice, the expansions seem to be a common theme, and I'll probably plump for one of those.

@ Maximum

Thanks for the thorough reply! It's always a good sign when so many people are so enthusiastic about a game, especially when welcoming newcomers! I was really tempted by the tank busters but was a bit wary of getting too much heavy infantry (or are they like chocolate: you can never have too much!) so opted for the BBQ squad instead. I am about 50 pts behind the boy though courtesy of his HW so I will definitely have a look at them.

Well, thanks for the warm welcome to your community guys (so far anyway lol), it seems like an expansion is in order. Next question would be is there a need/benefit to play them through in chronological order or should I just go straight out and get Cerberus for the buildings?

I wouldn't think there is much gain in playing theme in chrono order unless you are very much into the fluff & lore etc. That said, I wouldn't recommend you and your son (or any player that isn't a hardcore one) to start out with huge custom battles beyond 160 or so points while learning.

While learning it would also be best to try to not include every extra-complicated unit in the army lineup, even if it is very tempting.

Playing through the campaigns is a great way to start knowing the game, more so for your son probably. It builds up a lot of the stuff you need to master eventually and there is pretty good replayability in the scenarios given attacker/defender roles and possibility to tweak armies.

My advice on walker configuration. Dont.

The axis heavy, medium & light walkers are easy to use modular (just dont glue the 'arms' in) and the main difference with the allied mediums is what barrel is on the turret (as long as you dont mind the pounder/mickey having a fuel tank on the turret) which depending on your kit could require no work at all to 'modularise' or some rare earth magnets if you're feeling posh.

Not got an allied walker so I cant say for sure on that one sorry.

@ Ulrike

Thanks, I'll definitely bear that in mind. I thought the expansions would grow in complexity in order if you get what I mean, as in the earlier expansions would be simpler building up to the latest expansion that is more complex? I guess that was wrong. So your advice would be to go straight for cerberus for the buildings?

@ King Jareth

Thanks, I actually never thought of that. I will probably use magnets though, as I tend to do a lot of damage with my sausage fingers so would eventually break them lol.

It's all looking a bit academical at the moment, as I've spoke about already in this thread javascript:void(0);/*1329243345874*/ my stuff is in Maelstrom's "processing" limbo and has been for over a week. I suppose if it comes a piece at a time, that will gently break me into the painting!

Mine is in Maelstrom procxessing limbo too... Wonder when they will get those expansions...

If your son likes the Axis Gorillas (who doesnt? They single handedly pulled me into the game!), then if you are looking to get any expansion id suggest getting Operation Seelowe. Not only does it have a great campain booklet, but you get Markus, the gorilla leader and he is simply brilliant fun to play with. Your son will love it!

Hammerhand said:

I would say yes there is a benefit to playing through the different expansions in order. The addition of new rules is a little easier to learn and might be benefitial as each expansion adds a new option for play style.

I agree, playing the expansions and aquiring the units in the order they were released creates a nice flow of increasing complexity to the game. Plus, you don't break certain scenarios that weren't built with some future units in mind.

Each campaign book describes certain units in its last pages. I'd suggest expanding your collection in batches that include one campaign and all the units described in it.

Blue Thunder - Core Set units

Cyclone - Medium Walkers, Command Squads, SpecOps.

SeeLowe - Light Walkers, Grim Reapers, Tank Busters, Apes, Zombies.

Victory Bridge - Revised Set units

Cerberus - Heavy Walkers, NCO Squads, Red Devils, Heavy Recons, Hero Packs

I've ordered the tile set, I think I get blue thunder in there, and have also now ordered cyclone and seelowe. Thanks for the advice guys, I will let you know how I got on :0)

Jiltedtoo said:

Try miniaturemarket.com. they may have some left.

mgentile7 said:

They have been out of them for awhile. Have to find those little game stores that still have some copies left. Most will still sell for $90 to $100.

I bought mine from MM for around $70 originally. May buy another and just hold on to it.

Jiltedtoo said:

Try thewarstore.com , cggarmory.com or frpgames.com they may have some left.

Oh and dont feel too bad about the big collection. I went out and got 2 original sets, 2 revised sets, all the additional game supliments and over 400 minis , 20 walkers and 6 heavy walkers plus another 20 or more 1/48 scale wwii model kits. Its a very addicting game but if you shop online you can save a lot compared to some local game stores. Good luck and enjoy!!!

Loophole Master said:

Thanks for this breakdown. Veery helpful. I am waiting for my credit to come through at a game site. Can't wait to order hopefully later this week. The kids are all excited and I haven't hardly told them anything yet. But when they saw me go through all our model train scenery last night, they knew something good was up!

When I go into the garage it model time.

mgentile7 said:

****! What size table you play on? I thought I was bad having 3 Axis heavy walkers.