Yay another review/preview! Just picked up a bunch of new product for this, so figured it would be good to give it a go and it got mentioned as a good starter game into the hobby.
DUST TACTICS
What is it?
- Dust Tactics is a 28mm wargame that attempts to bridge the gap between boardgames and miniature games. Some people claim its one or the other, but really it works either way as a hybrid system. The hobby aspect is still possible here and many of it's fans enjoy painting up and tweaking figs to their liking. Big selling point of the game being, it's a complete system in a box, ready to go with no work to put into it. The concept of Dust universe is that WWII took a turn when the Nazi's found a crashed alien craft frozen in the ice of the Artic, and aquired tons of new technology and a revolutionary new power source. The Axis began developing new weapon tech including bipedal walking tanks. The Allies of course followed suit be reverse engineering much of the tech and developing many of their own advances. Dust universe has been around for several years now created by famous ex-Rachkham artist/designer, Paolo Parente. Hes been making model kits, toys, and some comic book mini series set in his creation for a while now and finally got around to finally realizing it as a game.
The rules
- Dust Tactics is an interesting take on miniature games that as mentioned is trying to bridge the gap between the hobby and board gaming in an attempt to gain larger appeal. In order to reach the board game audience, they took an approach on making a simpler style of game. So what you have is many traditional miniature war game concepts, but greatly streamlined for quick play that would be easy to learn. And easy to play/learn it is.... one can teach another how to play in about 5 minutes without problem. Now is the simplicity a negative thing? Well to some perhaps, yet I feel the game keeps alot of tactical elements in the gameplay especially when you mix in combined arms and players expand their options.
Dust Tactics unlike lot of miniature games is played on square grid boards/maps. The tiles basically make movement, measuring, and line of sight rules all extremely simple and fast to deal with. Weapons and movement on units basically are given out in numbers of squares. Placement of your actual models is also not really vital in relation to any type of terrain elements as you are just basically using model to mark locations. For example to get a cover bonus, a unit of infantry merely has to be within the square with a terrain object like crates. Dice rolling is also simplified in that all unit cards contain pretty much all the info needed to determine dice to be rolled and results required. These unit cards are pretty big too as pictured in the box contents above. Every model has an armor class and type, which you then compare to the weapon you are using and it tells you how much dice you get to roll. The game also comes with special dice that has 2 target symbols on it that count as hits. A shotgun for example can shoot one square away and gets to roll 4 dice against most infantry units, and each hit result on the die that comes up counts as a killed enemy model. Units all have point costs and you build up your army in typical fashion of spending a set amount of points. The game also has a simple system where each unit when activated has 2 actions, so they can move and shoot, shoot and move, move twice, or shoot twice. Once you are done with a unit, your opponent goes and activates one of his or her units, and play proceeds in this manner.
Game streamlines stuff like close combat into ranged combat also as if it was the same thing just with an extra step of having a return attack from the opponent. The starter box set keeps things simple with the included rules, and they have been adding new rules and units to the game that greatly expand the game such as command squads, artillery abilities, snipers, scouting, etc, etc. Even as they add new rules, it's all very easy to use variants of the game basics. Hero characters are also important to the game and unlike many other games where hero rules usually take several pages, here it's once again streamlined as a unit add on that adds extra hit points to the unit it is attached to, and grants said unit a special ability it normally doesn't have. They also not to long ago also added in rules for overwatch to the game which added a whole new tactical element.
Further Notes:
- Dust comes from the folks who designed AT-43. Lot of the design concepts are similar and the actual history of AT-43 was that it was supposed to be a Dust miniature game but Rackham decided to go with an original sci fi setting instead of using Paolo's own universe. Years later, Rackham has sank and AT-43 is no more, but Paolo has rescued many original Rackham staff to create Dust Studios which created this game along with several other board games that have been published by AEG and FFG. Story line is a important part of their design, so scenarios are a popular thing with the Dust crew. The two starters for the game include a campaign book with a series of missions you play through that also tell a story.
Dust Tactics is interesting straight out of the box experience that even the hardcore can enjoy as all the figures come base coated for easy painting. No assembly is required on most figures also as only some of the mecha figs have alternate parts that can be swapped around, yet it's all snap together components. For a game like this, the quality is pretty outstanding though obviously because of the simple nature of many of the infantry figs, they have somewhat static poses. Is Dust Tactics worth it? Well for the price, the basic sets are a bargain as you get tons of stuff and two complete forces to play with. The system is simple an intuitive, and really keeps lot of tactical decision making a central part of the game. Expansions include campaigns which add a series of scenarios with attached storylines and new rules. Units are sold in individual unit boxes also like other miniature games, and they are well priced. Individual mechs which are about size of a GW dreadnaught are only $25 retail and include parts to swap out to create variants. A new cheaper starter set was released also recently that has less components, but follows same design philosophy and a whole new set of campaign scenarios. Faction variety is a weakness of the game being that it really is only two factions. Fans expect more as during the initial release it was announced that the Aliens known as the Vrill were planned to be added to the game, and from the fluff in other Dust products, people expect the Russians to be made their own faction as well.
Players though were happy to hear recently about the planned upcoming book 'Dust Warfare', which is a rulebook for use with Dust Tactics models to play a more traditional style of miniature game. The rules have also been written by industry favorite Andy Chambers! This new rulebook basically creates two complete games out of the components you get with Dust Tactics.
Pros:
+ Complete game in a box, that can be expanded on as you see fit.
+ Extremely simple game system that isn't too dumbed down.
+ Extra models and indivdual components are well priced
+ Lots of scenarios with fluff filled campaigns available.
+ Dust Warfare option coming soon
Cons:
- The game by some wargamers is seen as too simple.
- Only two factions currently (Axis Vs. Allies)
- Lack of assembly, creates some simplistic looking infantry
If you got any questions on Dust Tactics or about my review, let me know! Also check out the official site at
http://fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite.asp?eidm=123&enmi=Dust Tactics
