As a continuation of the recent Changes in Action entries in the Dystopian Wars Development Diary blog series, we’ve invited two more members of our outstanding Game Development Team to explain their favourite change in the upcoming new edition. Introducing… Chris Demaude and Pete Sizer!
Chris
I’ve had an interesting experience, having only jumped on board just a month or two ago. This has allowed me to see what my new team have come up with over the course of development, and attach myself (like some horrid barnacle) to what excites me most with a fresh perspective.
MAGMA!
In my very first game of the new edition, I ended up (on a whim) using the Matsumoto as my flagship, giving it a Magma Cast Generator purely because it sounded cool and I knew it was a unique upgrade for the Empire. Without hyperbole, this was the best possible choice I could have made.
The Matsumoto can be found in the Hachiman Battlefleet Set
These nifty little things are a special type of generator that is exclusive to the Empire and, for me, absolutely defines the faction. They allow you to - you guessed it - generate magma! On the roll of an Action Die, you will either make a big flaming-rock-island, a little flaming-rock-island, or do nothing and curse the gods of luck for denying you glory. Upon creation, this island will also explode lava all around it, causing damage and disarray to all nearby. This is, as you can imagine, super cool.
Not only does it act as a great source of area damage, it also allows you to completely reshape the face of the battlefield during the game! You can force your opponent’s ships into a dilemma where they must either ram straight into a freshly spawned volcanic island, or reverse and take Disorder (maybe even damage too!).
When well-placed, you can funnel your opponent’s vessels into killzones and bombard them with firepower. Combine all of that with the simple raw joy of shaping the world of your game in a way that few others can, and you have a mechanic that I find really special.
If you’ll allow me to wax poetic for a moment (as if you could stop me!), these beautiful little magma rocks also act as a microcosm of the entire Empire faction. The Empire is absolutely chock-full of area weapons (flamethrowers oh my!) that lay Disorder and other negative conditions on your foes. When placed in just the right spot, a single Empire vessel can completely alter the shape of the battle around them. Just like a magma island! Isn’t that neat?
In short, PSA: Play Empire and take Magma Cast Generators; they’re awesome.
Pete
To me, gaming is an inherently social activity, and getting together with friends to play a game in the immersive world of the Dystopian Age is a great way to spend some quality time. What I tend to remember from such times is not the intricacies of the rules, but the stories they tell. I can easily call to mind thrilling moments from games played 20 years ago, without being able to tell you the result of a single dice roll.
The mechanism that tells the most memorable tale in Dystopian Wars, at least for me, is the Boarding action rules. Owing to the short 4" range of this type of Action, it is something that tends to occur in the last Rounds of a game (with a few notable exceptions - looking at you Union and Sultanate). Picture the scene: your cruisers and battleships have been pounding your opponent’s flagship for the previous three turns. It is badly mauled, but still a mighty presence in the heart of your opponent's battleline. One of your specialist cruisers sails close, a Thor Assault Raider perhaps, and you decide to risk it all on a close assault. Your specialist troops surge across for a lightning sortie into the innards of your opponent's ship.
The Action Pool that comes from your unit's Boarding Parties property is pitted against a Resistance Pool based on the target model’s Defences rating. The number you are looking to beat is the target's Crew rating, the very rating that you will have been wearing away at with the Disorder accrued over several Rounds of battering from your guns. Each point of Disorder reduces a unit's Crew rating by one. A successful Boarding action allows you to pick (not roll) a Critical Damage Effect to apply to that model.
Your elite boarding parties have fought their way into the bowels of the ship to deliver a surgical strike to its heart! If you want the ship crippled as quickly as possible, you might opt for a Breach, to drip-feed Damage to the affected vessel. If you still have some shooting to do, then Structural Failure or Shredded Defences (reducing your victim's Armour or Defences rating by 1 each, respectively) might be your best choice. If there is a Terrain Feature in the ship’s path, applying Navigation Lock could suit your purposes. In certain circumstances, System Failure can be perfect for disabling a ship's most powerful abilities and generators. Finally, there is Hazard, which works similarly to Breach, but by applying Disorder instead of Damage.
It is moments like these that you remember long after the guns have fallen silent. While a successful Boarding action can be challenging to achieve, if timed right, it can swing the game for you with a surgically applied effect and a cinematic moment that will last you a lifetime.
Chris Demaude and Pete Sizer
We hope you’ve enjoyed taking another look behind the curtain at some of our Games Development team's favourite changes to the new edition of Dystopian Wars.