Hey everyone Denied here with my first impressions review of the new Fantasy Flight miniatures game DUST Warfare. I got a chance to stop in to the Fantasy Flights event center on Thursday night for their big pre release unveiling of DUST and I was able to play a game and pick up a copy of the book on my way out. I even got Mack Martin one of the game designers to sign it for me. Sadly Andy Chambers was not present to do the same, but I was told I had just missed Alessio Cavatore (/sad panda) one day Alessio you and I shall cross paths and on that day I will so hug you :-D

My first impressions of DUST were very positive overall it was a very easy game to pick up and start playing. The rule book is extremely lean, almost bordering on anorexic. The entire book front to back is only 143 pages, this includes the army entries for every (current) Allied and Axis force as well as a few sheets of cut out markers for use in the game (I’m leaving mine in the book though). Skimming through the book its looks like the design team took a page out of Alessio’s mantra of simplify, everything comes off very clean with no big clunky rules that contradict each other. The system is very similar to other table top miniatures games you have some dudes they have some weapons and they want to kill the other dudes on the opposite end of the table as them. An interesting and unique point is this game uses special dice, they are your standard D6 only that there are 4 blank faces and 2 that have some sort of target or symbol on them. Basically the system works on the concept of you get X number of dice, role them if you get a mark you hit/succeed/ happy-party-dance-time. It defiantly makes this an easy game for beginners to pick up and run with as there is very little math needed to figure out if you hit then wound the enemy its just is there a symbol on the dice I rolled then I succeeded .

The Game utilizes its own simple to use (even though I didn’t do it in my first game) mission building format. When talking with Mack Martin he mentioned that the intention for this mission generator is to make it easier on Tournament Organizers (Since DUST is specifically designed to be used in a tournament setting). The missions can be generated uniquely by the players for each round of the tournament so the TO doesn’t have to get yelled at for designing unfair scenarios for people, additionally from my cursory glance it seems that the mission generator allows for people to counter the often infuriating SPAM lists people bring to tournaments.

The game utilizes an interesting turn system as well that results in unique initiative each turn, this may sound broken at first but trust me its far from it actually. If anything it helps to keep the game balanced as the game goes on so if Player A took a particular nasty beating in the first turn he has a higher chance of going first in subsequent turns. This means that there are no moments in the game when there is one player obviously winning over his opponent which to me made the game more fun in the long run as even when I was loosing I had the chance to turn it around and get back on top.

Last thing I want to talk about real quick are the miniatures (As this is a miniatures game after all). Now I never played DUST Tactics which from my understanding is where the miniature line actually originates from, but I was impressed with the miniatures they had available to play with at the event. My understanding is the miniatures are purchased pre assembled and primed and for a little extra cash you can shell out for the pre painted armies as well. The models they had for demonstrations at the event were the pre painted ones and I must say overall I thought they were better then anything I could have done on my own. Additionally I am not sure what kind of super alloy they mad these things from, but they were **** near indestructible. At one point Mack demonstrated this by chucking with force a model gorilla soldier (yet another reason to play this FREAKING MONKEY SOLDIERS!!!) across the event center and when I went and picked the guy up excepting it to be in several pieces I found the defiant little bastard staring at me as is to say “What up now son!”. The overall esthetic of the miniatures I found very appealing even though I am not a huge WWII fan they had enough whimsy and cleverness to their design that I enjoyed them very much. My friend who was at the event with me who plays Imperial Guard was very impressed with the miniatures and kept thinking of how he wanted to take this bit and that bit and a few extras to beef up his IG armies look.

Overall I would say the simplicity and easy at which a novice player can get into DUST Warfare is very appealing. This is defiantly a great game for beginning miniatures enthusiast as it just helps transition people into the hobby. I first got started with Warhammer 40K and starting that hobby was like your parents teaching you to swim by dropping you in the deep end with a lead weight attached to your ankle, DUST in comparison is like having Michael Phelps as your personal swim instructor. I highly suggest people get out to their local stores in the next couple of weeks and pick up a copy when it hits the shelf. At just over $40 for the Core Rule book which includes all the current army entries this game is very easy on the wallet to get into. I can see building a competitive level army at around $100-$200 and that to me is also very appealing. Overall I say this game is a 9/10 and I put my stamp of approval on it.

Thanks Denied! Very much looking forward to getting my hands on a copy being a Tactics player from the beginning.

I say it's worth it even for some one not familiar with Tactics at all.

Thanks for sharing Your impressions! I'm eagerly waiting to get this sucker in my hands.

Two questions, if I may:

I asume there are no conventional vehicles in the army lists?

Is it possible to build "all walker" lists?

Thanks again.

Cheers!

I haven't had any experience in building my own list at the moment, as the demonstration armies were all already pointed out for easily explaining the game and mechanics to people. I will be able to comment on this latter but I see no reason you can not have a heavy walker list, although from experience in using the walkers they are not ridiculously powerful in comparison to your standard infantry.

I haven't had any experience in building my own list at the moment, as the demonstration armies were all already pointed out for easily explaining the game and mechanics to people. I will be able to comment on this latter but I see no reason you can not have a heavy walker list, although from experience in using the walkers they are not ridiculously powerful in comparison to your standard infantry.

Also yes it really is just walkers and infantry at the moment. They do have the giant crab like tank that is also a transport, but I think that was the only one I have seen so far.

Since Andy Chambers is nowhere to be seen in any promo, I wonder how much he actually contributed?

I've been wondering the same thing. His Developer Diaries stopped, Mack Martin seems to have replaced him as the designer face of the game. Andy was occasionally posting in the forums too but seems to have disappeared. I haven't heard him mentioned as having any association with the campaign book coming out in a couple months.

It makes me wonder if there was some sort of falling out between him and FFG.

Same thing happened with Starship Troopers, he laid the groundwork down for the system and then faded off into the sunset. Probably got the ball rolling and then consulted with Mack on how to keep it rolling.

IjonTichy said:

I know a French fan had spotted a vehicle schematic in the background of one of the recent preview pages (not sure if it was DT or DW). Didn't appear to be historical and was probably SSU going by the wheel design.

Hekal Xul said:

Yeah I saw that one too. Looks like a heavy SSU-Tank. It can be seen in the background of the Flyer-Rules preview for DUST:Tactics.

Cheers!

IjonTichy said:

The only vehicles are the mentioned "crab walkers" and the regular mech-style walkers. In the first expansion (the one that introduces the SSU) it includes some helicopter-y vehicles. You cannot build an all walker list. In a 400 point game (tournaments are between 200 and 400 points) you can have a total of 3 walkers (one per platoon that you take, and at 400 points, you can have a maximum of 3 platoons.

In the platoon building example it said for each two sections you choose in a platoon, you get one support section. So if you take 4 sections that's two support sections for your platoon, the support sections are the light, med, heavy walker, snipers and observers in the example they gave. So by that info can't you get 6 walkers? I am just trying to clarify, I don't own the book and I know there example is off cause the combat platoon in the example only has 3 sections but 2 light walkers added. Thanks for all the info guys.

SGTManuel said:

But if you take 3 platoons that are each maxed out you can have 6, but someone said you can only have three, I get the concept, just trying to figure out if there's another rule that limits it to three vehicles.

SGTManuel said:

There's no additional rule that I can find, so you're correct. The only time that changes is with the Axis platoon upgrade that allows an extra walker.

Thanks, for the clarification and that extra info on the Axis being able to field extra walkers with a platoon upgrade.

SGTManuel said:

Holy crap, I completely forgot about that. You're right that you can have an additional support unit (which is what the walkers are) if you take enough sections. So a full platoon (with 4 sections) could take two walkers.

You could theoretically take 6 walkers but you'd be hard pressed to fit that many in a 400 point or less army list (if at all possible).

Don't sweat it man, you guys are helping us out by giving all the info, did the vehicle go down in points in compare to Dust Tactics? 20 to 28 for the lights, 35 to 40 for the medium and I have seen the heavies, they stayed the same except 1 of the German one got improve for a slight point increase.

Burnhamalive said:

Actually, no. Support units do not count as sections. You can take a max of four sections plus command, so the maximum number of walkers you could take is two per platoon. Also, Observer and Sniper teams are support units, so if you want them, it cuts into your walker choices. (Well, im Combat and Heavy platoons. You can take an observer or sniper team as fourth section choice in Assault platoons.)

Er, nevermind. I was thinking you meant three walkers per platoon, with two platoons. My mistake.

IjonTichy said:

It looks like the designers were smart enough not to allow anything close to that. I assume that was your wish as well, since we all know how interesting it is to run a balanced list against a "tank only" list, where the majority of your units are just fodder that can't harm the tanks.

All infantry handles all walker lists pretty well in Tactics. They aren't completely unbalanced like they are in other games

blkdymnd said:

I have had problems with 1 side running out of unit that can engage tanks but it has tappered off now that i have a full set of units to work with. on a side note all infantry lists are becoming common in my games especially in urban type maps. im interested to see how this will play out in warfare.