Dystopian Wars arrives at Friendly Local Gaming Stores around the world from next Saturday. There have been some great questions posed to the Studio so we thought we’d talk a little about how this exciting game will unfold into a massive range of lovely new miniatures and the rules and background to go with them!

“Is the Hunt for Prometheus the only way to get the rules?”

As we said before, as exciting and amazing as the Hunt for the Prometheus set is, it was always just the opening chapter in this amazing new era for Dystopian Wars. We expect most people will pick up a copy or two, but for those that want to wait a little longer, there’s the digital rulebook coming at the end of February and the Rules and Gubbins set coming at the end of March.

The digital book is a great reference guide, but to get the full experience you’ll want to pick up the Hunt for the Prometheus or the Rules and Gubbins box so you can get hold of the dice, templates and Victory and Valour cards. All of these are not just pretty gaming products, they really are useful in making the game as fun and easy as possible to play.

“Where are my Faction rules?”

To accompany the launch of the Hunt for the Prometheus, we will be releasing the first of our Orders of Battle (ORBATs) for Dystopian Wars. The Commonwealth ORBAT and the Enlightened ORBAT. These documents are essential for players to build their Forces and contain Faction rules, Battlefleets, technologies and Unit profiles for every miniature we currently have for the Faction (and a few that will be coming soon!)

The Enlightened ORBAT, for example, details everything a player for the Covenant of the Enlightened needs to get their new Force into battle. It also contains ‘Counts As’ rules so that you can use Classic Miniatures to represent the Units in the ORBAT. Of course, we haven’t released everything for the Enlightened or Commonwealth yet so there will be lots more Units to be added in future updates. But you can be assured that every Unit currently available at launch (and a few more that are coming in the next few months) are present and ready for their Commodores!

“That makes sense for the Enlighted and Commonwealth but I have a large collection of Classic Miniatures for a different Faction. Does that mean I can’t use them?”

Yes, you can! But not all of them straight away. Through February and March, in the lead up to the release of the Rules and Gubbins set, we will be releasing more ORBATs for the other six Great Powers. These will include the first units for each of those Factions to give existing players something to ‘Counts As’ along with giving future players an idea of what to expect! Just like with the Enlightened and Commonwealth, these ORBATs will not have all the Units that are planned for the Faction, but easily enough to allow you to get some models on the table and start playing some games!

“When do other Factions start to get Models?”

In March the first release for the Imperium arrives, the Elector Battlefleet, along with the Imperium ORBAT chock full of new units and technologies. Just like for the Commonwealth and the Enlightened there are a few glimpses of further releases too such as the Prussian Templehoff Fleet carrier, launching waves of Blitzen bombers at the enemies of the Imperium! After the Prussians for the Imperium, you can expect to see the Chinese for the Empire and Battlefleets for the other Factions thereafter.

“What about the other nations that are in the Factions?”

Of course in the coming months, players will see that not only will the core nation for each Faction receive lots of attention, but the other member nations for the Factions will also begin to make an appearance. You can see that after the Prussians, the next nation to arrive for the Imperium are Scandinavia. Epitomised by the Ragnarok Battlefleet, the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden are powerful members of the Imperium and bring centuries of seafaring wisdom to the Dystopian Age. These Wolves of the Sea have distinctive dagger-like vessels with inbuilt Fury generators and prow mounted arc weapons. Look for them early next year. Likewise, the Japanese for the Empire, Canadians for the Crown and Italians for the Alliance are all on their way soon.

“That’s lots of ships… but what else? “

With eight factions and a whole range of battleships, cruisers, carriers, frigates and more, these naval battlefleets are going to be the majority of what we see released in this coming year. But that doesn’t mean that the more extraordinary marvels of the Dystopian Age have been relegated to the distant future. Keep your eyes out for a certain multi-part plastic kit for the Prussians that’s currently in the design phase at the studio…

Mechanical squid, robotic dragons and mighty fighting machines - there’s lots more to Dystopian Wars than just battleships and zeppelins… Until next time

Stuart