This looks a bit like Axis & Allies. Does it have similarities? Where does it differ? Or is it something completely different?

I call it Axis and Allies Light to be honest, I own both but Dust hits the table ALOT more. Why? Its shorter, easier on the set up and scales great with any number of players. Highly recommended for those times when you dont have the time or you just dont want to set up ALL those figures for Axis and Allies and dont have 5+ hours to sink.

too bad they didn't include more theme from the comic though....

Dust doesn't have a static set up like Axis and Allies does, and its also a lot more streamlined. The rules are really easy to pick up and the game is a breeze to teach, even to people who don't typically play war games. Also in Dust expect to have crazy things happen at any moment, like 20 mechs dropping from the sky onto a factory of yours. Or having your largest squad being forced to retreat from a single chubby tank because of a well played card. The game is a bit on the crazy side which I simply love.

Axis and Allies, is a fun game, but it feels almost too scripted. There are just certain moves that I see happen over and over again. I have yet to really see that with Dust. So the game always feels fresh to me. Oh and its a heck of a lot more newbie friendly than AA. Someone who doesn't know what they are doing in Axis and Allies usually gets trounced from a more experienced player, but in Dust the playing field is a lot more leveled.

compared to twilight any chance id like this game. risk is one of my all time favorite games though. ive played twilight imperium and didnt care much for that game. i didnt like how it had too much strategy and too much going on. im ok with a million different types of army units. but twilight had like too many different things on top of that, alot of non-combat stuff. i did like the random board aspect of it though. this game seems to have less things going on outside of the board, which has me interest in a ultra-risk kinda game. twilight just wasnt what i was looking for.

this game kinda caught my interest, but i have had trouble finding it in store. what is a good price for this game on gameboardgeek.com.

Dust is like a streamlined version of A&A - without having the A&A drawback of being the worst WW2 game ever.

dust is like risk and there is no better comparation

I've heard this is a great game to bring a younger kid into war board-gaming with.

Mike said:

Ok, Axis and Allies is my favorite game of all time. Dust is in second place.

First, the biggest difference in the game which I feel is the best feature is the complete randomness of the players turns each turn. At the start of each turn, each player plays a card. The card will determine the order that everyone plays. In A&A, it goes Russia, Germany, UK, Japan, USA...every single turn. Imagine if the first turn of A&A was all of a sudden USA, UK, Germ, Japan, Russia, and the second turn was Russia, USA, UK, Japan, Germ. So you have some control based on the limited cards in your hand of where you'd like to try to go in the order. There is huge strategy in trying to figure out where you go each round.

Second, there are no allies. It is a free-for-all. Other than some special one-turn allies (based on the card played), it is a race to a certain number of points. It is similar to the Industrial Points form A&A, but in Dust it is a cumulative effect. In our game last night, it was a race to 40 points. Based on what territories you hold, you can see 2 to 9 points per turn (maybe more, maybe less). Our game ended at the end of the 6th turn.

Third, set-up is random. There are six fixed capital locations, but based on the random order of play, you get to which of thos six will be your captial. For the balance of the territories, you one, next player selects one, next player, etc. until all of the territories are taken. So the start of each game is completely random. In A&A, with the set start loations and units everywhere, there are some fairly repetitive first round moves.

Fourth, combat is simplified. Rather than saying ok, I am attacking with 10 infantry and 3 tanks, therefore, here are my 10 dice and for a "1" I hit, here are my 3 dice and for each "3" I hit. In Dust, you get dice based on the units/structures in the battle. The dice are six sided and have 4 misses sides, and two hit sides. For examples, each tank gets one die, each die has a 2 in 6 chance of hitting. Also, there are 4 land units (for the most part, the 2 air units are restricted to land tiles), 1 sea unit. Less to remember.

Fifth, combat is different. A&A is attacker rolls, defender removes casulties, defender rolls (including casualties), attacker removes losses, defender removes losses. Start over. In Dust, first you must decide who has initiative or who rolls first. So the defender could roll first if they have the initiative. Once something takes a hit it is removed from the battle(it doesn't get to shoot back). For example, you bring 8 units to a fight, but the defender has initiative. The defender rolls four hit. You now roll 4 to attack.

Sixth, fewer units on the board. Because of the second item where it is a race to the point value, the game is always moving forward. Couple that with the fact you don't have a whole lot of units to place in the beginning, you don't have a lot of time to dig in. In A&A, the most accepted policy for the Russians is to defend, defend, defend until the allies can start bringing some heat on the Germans. You can't wait in Dust. Getting the points before your opponents get them is vital.

Seventh, money is different. In A&A you received you purchasing power based on what you hold at the end of your turn. In Dust you get it based on what you control at the beginning of your turn. Think back to the random turns described earlier, you could go from controlling a lot of territory at the end of your last turn to being in trouble at the start of your next turn. This plays a major role in how/where you go in the turn order. To be last one round, but first the next round has some very powerful benefits if you plan correctly. If you are on the verge of winning, going last in the round might be a good idea to ****** up a couple of points that you lost earlier that round, but on the same note, going first in that round means you have the oppurtunity to plan your purchases, and do some defensive posturing to protect what you have.

Lastly, the cards make each game different. There are 45? cards in the game. There are 11 special abilities. There are different "values" on the cards. I don't think there are two identical cards in the deck. At any given time (other than the start) you cannot have more than five cards. Since each game could net you a completely different set of cards, each game can play out differently.