I've been looking around the site and haven't really got a good description of this game.

Can you guys enlighten me as to why I should play this mini game over others?

The minis look cool, but I like good mechanics over models, so sell me on playing DTW.

AGASHAMIRV said:

Weird War II is always fun.

Intelligent Apes and Zombies as infantry units. (Go Axis!)

Mechs, Tanks, and Power armored infantry with jump packs.

It's mechanically simple but with a deep and variable game play. Depending on the person, the mechanics will be fully understood within 2-3 games.

The battle builder, at it's best, allows for an inferior force to have a good chance at having the battle field conditions work in their favor. At the least, it allows for you to make your opponent uncomfortable and force then to rethink their strategy on the fly.

Your army is a cohesive force that when played well, even "poor" units can be game changers.

You don't go to the bathroom for half an hour during your opponents turn, you sit and watch intently as your opponent plays into your hands or shatters your plans.

The Reaction mechanic keeps me nervous, excited, and anxious every time I move a unit or wait for my opponent to move a unit.

Variable initiative makes for interesting turns and allows for big shifts in momentum.

The momentum of a game can actually shift. Taking out a big chunk of your opponents force does not guarantee victory.

A 300 point army can be anywhere from 4 squads and a Heavy walker to 8 squads, 4 light walkers and a sniper team.

Dust Warfare is, in war gaming terms, dirt cheap to get into. The options of the studio painted premium sets are great for those with more cash and less time and the basic figures are cheap, come assembled and primed, saving lots of time and allowing for game play immediately out of the box.

Thanks for that very informative response.

That brings up some new questions:

What is the battle builder?

FFG doesn't seem to have minis on their site. Where can I find these painted ones?

Yes, I do have more money than time.

The battle builder is wher you as the player, decide the conditions for the battle. Its not like other games where you play scenario x, y, or z. Or roll for scenario type and end uip playing agame neither of you wants to play, for example.

Both players hand each other their lists so that you each see the units that the enemy will bring to the table which should give you a glimpse of the kinds of tactics they could possibly use against you… and they will know which units you chose to bring. Then you use the battle builder to try and tailer the game type to benefit you, and your opponent is trying to do the same. You both have 2 "scenario points" whcih you use to place into 3 different categories: deployment, conditions, and objectives (I think thats the names as I don't have the book in front of me at the moment). You then take turns putting your scenario points into one of those categories to push the category into the type that you think will benefit your army/playstyle. For example, if no points are put into deployment by either player, you will setup in a very basic pitched battle type deployment… as points get added into the deployment category, it gets bumped up into a different deployment type every time a point is put into the category, so depending on the final number of points put into deployment when both players spend both their scenario points, you could end up with a deployment zone which is far advanced in to the table, or in the table corners, etc, and if you put points into other araes you could have a deployment that is close together from each other with the mission objective of getting out the other end of the oipponent's deployment zone, for example…. a very big advantage to you if you know that your list has alot more speed than his does…. Its hard to explain…. but you get the idea… you are playing a mini strategy game before the game actually starts which determines what kind of game you will be playing…

… I have often told people that the game can be won or lost in the battle builder. Whenever I have played less experienced players and they wonder why they lost, I usually end up telling them "to be honest, you lost in the battle builder. You should never have let me get that scenario combination with the list I had." It plays a big part in the game… its a startegy game before the game starts… its almost like the HQ phase of the game.. who had the better commanders and intel sort of idea is how I like to visualize it.

The premium models can be found on the FFG site… sometimes you will find them in your LGS but I don't see them in many of them, but the FFG site definitely carried the pre-painted "premium" line. Dust-models.com has some "premium" models as well, some may be a tad pricey, but they are pre-painted and time is money so I know a lot of people that think its worth it. I will edit this post with a link to the FFG page.

Heres the link to the FFG premium painted page

www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp

OK, the battle builder sounds awesome. Thanks for the info.

Here is a link to the Tournament Rules PDF that FFG put up on this website.

Go to page 7 and you can see the Tournament Battle builder and read the surrounding pages and you can get an idea of what everything does. It has a huge impact on the game.

On FFG's site all the Dust Miniatures are under the Dust Tactics page, in the board game section.

I get that tactics is a board game.

You'd think they'd post them in minis too.

Oh well.

I'm going to pick up a copy of the rules.

Is it a good deal to pick up the tactics core set just for the minis for warfare?

AGASHAMIRV said:

The Revised Core set is a great deal. It is an Allied and Axis force that is almost balanced, the Axis have a slight advantage point wise, but are very playable against each other. It also has a set of dice, tank traps and ammo crate terrain pieces.

AGASHAMIRV said:

The Revised Core Set is the best way to get into the games, both Tactics and Warfare. sure for Warfare you'll want more units so you can field bigger and more specialised Platoons but with only the Core Set you have enough to start playing Warfare games and get the hang of the rules. After that, up to you to upgrade your armies with more units! I was lucky enough to grab an original core set earlier this year but the Revised Core Set offer a little less units but has more variety (Original: Only Armor2 infantries but 2 Medium Walkers for each armies | Revised: Armor2 and Armor3 Infantries but "only" 1 Light Walker for each factions).

The Dust Warfare rulebook is not that expensive and you have all you need to play Axis vs Allies, along with the Revised Core Set. With that you'll have enough to try the game and see if you like it for not too much money.

BTW, Tactics is a really good game too and what's cool is that both Tactics and Warfare plays completely differently!

Sorry, got locked out of the account and took FF forever to get me reset. I can't even get the same avatar.

Anywho, I picked up the game and 3 others have already joined in. We're all enjoying it quite a bit. Thanks for everyone's input.

Dust warfare is a game unlike the others. What you would normaly expect from a miniatures game, you will find to be totaly different in Dust Warfare. Each and every turn is completely different then the last. Excitement and suprise hit you every miniute, you want to play this game.

Obiwon Kinobi says: You want to play this game. (JEDI MIND TRICK)

I would suggest starting off with tactics, then move up to warfare. Warfare is much more detailed, so it helps to start at step 1.

Some of the local players tried tactics and hated it, as it was too simplistic.

I am sorry to say that was my experience with it, too. Of course, I was expecting a table-top, not essentially a board game with figures… My big problem with it was that with the very limited scenarios available, infantry had no chance against the walkers, particularly the Pounder, which could simply wipe out a unit or two every turn from a range that the infantry weapons couldn't reach. The low point spread of the original Tactics helped this inequity - a walker was double the price of an infantry squad? Then why bother taking infantry, right?

Warfare isn't that tough to teach to anyone who's had any gaming experience: You've played Risk, you can handle Warfare.