Merry Christmas And Looking At 2016

We only work in black, grey and white, no matter the holiday

Although my work won't let me believe it until Thursday, Christmas is here folks! I am going to take the liberty of speaking for all six of us, when I say I hope your holidays are filled with toys and festivities (but mostly toys)! We are now taking a small holiday break, and will be back in the new year.

We have had a great year, attending more tournaments than I have fingers, helping Hawk at Salute and of course attending the UK Games Expo for the first time. On top of all this we've grown stronger as a blog and published in excess of 80 posts and 16 podcasts (not including the interviews and videos)! We wouldn't have bothered if you lovely people hadn't continued to come back, so thank you for this and all your lovely, lovely comments.

What does 2016 hold though? Well, towards the start of the year we will be focussing on helping the rookie. Christmas is bound to bring toys that people will need help with, but more than that we feel it is important that the hobby grow and we are in a great position to place an arm around the shoulders of these men and women, be them getting into the wargaming hobby for the first time, or a wargames reugee (like myself once upon a time). Dropzone can, admittedly, be an awkward game to get the hang off, so between Mike and myself we will be bringing a couple of series focussing on the new player; don't worry you old salty dogs of the zone, there will be some stuff in there for you too I'm sure!

I would also like to publish a few painting videos, and I know Tech Boy now has the taste for scrap booking, so you can be sure to see more of these! If there is anything you would like to see on the page please let us know, by commenting on this post, tweeting us @OBDZC or popping me an email at obteamdzc@gmail.com.

Until next year, stay cool Zoneheads.

OB Podcast 11.5: Dibdib Dobdob

People of thine internet, hear ye hear ye! Team OB haveth delivered to their promise from ye olde episode 11, and unveil today their 11.5ieth episode!

What can your mind expect to be invaded with this time around? Scouts, scouts and more scouts! We will discuss the best way to assemble a pop-up tent, how to make a fire with only a box of matches and 17 fire lighters, and the difficulties of gathering edible food from an Aldi.

Hah, no, of course not; we don't know anything camping. Nope, you will instead be listening to us discuss the finer points of the Scout choices within Dropzone, ranging from 'which are the better units?' all the way too 'why should I take a squad?'!

Resistance Sappers and Scout ATV's - The Lowdown

Well, we can all breathe now, stick a fork in me, I'm done!

The Dropfleet Kickstarter was an outrageous success. I would doubt very much if there was anyone out there who will be disappointed with their deals. I, for one, am over the moon. I'm also siding more and more with the Shaltari ships. The Scourge are still the best looking, but the Shaltari are really brutal looking. I like it.
Oh, and don't forget - there will be teleporting nonsense too.

Down at Hawk HQ it seems that there is still someone beavering away to give some new Dropzone goodies just in time for Christmas........ and they don't disappoint.

The Elephants That Cross The Urban Jungle

Interesting things are happening in my dropzone related life at the moment. I've managed to successfully flush my Scourge host from my body (a diet of Tabasco sauce and ghost chillies will rid any parasite within you) and turncoat completely, by joining the good fight against the alien scum! Playing the Resistance has opened my eyes slightly to the issues other armies face (for instance, manoeuvrability is a luxury within junk-town forces), and also reinforced a few issues I had with the aliens (focal points are no issue at all for the Resistance, which is the opposite for the Scourge).

More interestingly than that though is you get to learn about all the units, y'know, get all up inside the infantry and tanks to see what they're really about. We do a lot of theorising and postulating here at OB, partly because it fills blog space, and mostly because we're vain enough to think we know what we're talking about. As it turns out, we sometimes talk out of our arse's - I know, shocking stuff!

Take the Hannibal for instance. After all of our initial bad mouthing, the tank is pretty useful despite its flaws, and has a little hidden utility if played in a perhaps unconventional way!

I'm Not Sure I Can Wait Until June?

Wow, now the madness has all settled down, we can take a step back and reflect on the last 12 hours of the Dropfleet Commander Kickstarter. The end figure soared up to a phenomenal £629,222, smashing every stretch goal along the way! Considering the most Hawk thought they would achieve was £150k, they can be incredibly pleased with a very successful campaign.

Team OB would like to say a whopping congratulations to the whole Hawk team! I hope that this success shifts the spotlight firmly onto them, and that both DfC and DzC reap the benefits from this excellent campaign.

All that's left to say is; June? Really? How do you expect me to wait that long?!?

BONANZA!

Well Dan is a happy man, you can all give yourselves a huge pat on the back as we all get Frigates galore! (Just don't open your wallets for a good while yet)

From logging on to Kickstarter this morning wondering if we would get to 500k, to seeing that target smashed at time of writing is amazing.

There is still 24 hours to go, and I want to see the Scourge space station add-on unlocked.......

Getting Boots On The Ground

Unlike Mike's (not-so-secret) secret Resistance project, I have been very open about my junk town project. Also unlike Mike, while he has been grafting away behind the curtain (and I will say, they are looking very nice) I have been, well, stagnant in my effort.

This weekend though I found a bit of time and had a go at my Occupation Veterans, and I am very happy with the result!

The aim of the infantry in this army is to replicate the look of being inside a building, or in the case of my vets in and around it. I was lucky enough to win a three tier MDF Blotz building at a tournament in Brighton, and decided to use the top tier of the centre piece to help make these...