I Don't Think You're Ready For My Jelly

Well, that was exactly what the doctor prescribed. This post is written on the back of returning from Coastal Assault, a one day, three game, 1500 point event (held before the recent releases), and it has really got my Zone juices flowing again. I was back to playing my electric Scourge, and letting my parasite back in was like waking up from a Resistance nightmare! Welcome home, old friend. It looks a bit like Venom or Carnage. I call it Narcissist, and it's bright pink.

I can say in confidence that most lists were tweaked from their normal format, as the missions were (I think probably accidentally) very Infantry biased. We played Bunker Assault, Military Complex and Ground Control in that order. A note to Michael, the Talon who arranged the event; You're an evil man for having Ground Control as the last mission! With that in mind, my original secret list was to bring two units of Destroyers, two Eviscerators and one Warrior squad. After the realisation that I didn't have enough Intruder Alphas and would have to buy and paint some as well paint more Eviscerators, that plan went down the crapper and instead I submitted something very old school.

The Horde

Hawk Wargames; not producing a document without a typo since 2012 

I don't know if any of you gals and guys out there had noticed, but we had some new units and rules updates from Hawk last week! Who am I kidding, of course you noticed, our page hits and amount of comments went crazy! It goes to show that people get excited if content is released - who knew!

We've all had time to dissect and gather together our opinions on the changes (mine are more or less all positive for once!), but in the OB camp there is a single rule which sticks out like a sore thumb for being the 'winner' of the latest errata; the Horde (Hoard) rule. Incredibly it features on everybodies favourite and formally mostly-useless Halo Grunt rip-offs, the Pungari Auxiliaries.

So why is this rule so good? Not only is it rich in theme, it oozes mechanical *bliss* too. The image of twenty Pungari tearing apart a building and tripping over each others feet like a bunch of Minions, (y'know, from that movie, Minions) whilst a Firstborn shakes her head in frustration makes me chuckle. On the other hand, the simplicity of the rule works so solidly with the objectives and intel mechanics.

We have a theory though, which seems to be shared by a few others. We think this subtle inclusion of the rule on the Pungari could be a playtest for a wholesale change to infantry squads of three bases or larger. What could that mean for Dropzone? Let's weigh up the pros and cons.

Major unit update, plus Reconquest 1.1

Looks like the Hawk team have been beavering away to bring us some updates to the experimental rules that are currently available, all in advance of the upcoming Reconquest Phase 2 book that is rumoured to be June time. I have taken it upon myself to read all the updates, and provide to you, my loyal readership, all the changes that have been made.

As an added bonus I have also gone through the Reconquest Phase 1, 1.1 rulebook that I picked up at Salute and highlighted the changes, all collaborated below.

I'll chuck in some thoughts too - you can ignore them if you choose, but do so knowing that, much like walking on the cracks in paving slabs, a bear will eat your mum!!

OB Podcast Episode 14: The Arms Race

Continuing on course with our happy outlook on Dropzone's meta, I present to you the latest installment of our podcast series! I may be taking a few liberties with the word 'happy' though. Dour, disappointed and frustrated are probably more appropriate words to describe our feelings on the current 'Arms Race' being competed over within DzC at the moment.

So strap in for one of our Discussionzone episodes, where we run through our thoughts and opinions on the alarming curve of energy within the system, and the affect it is having on the game.

It's not all sour, I promise. I even sing a little for you, and that's sure to brighten anyone's day!

Escalation Campaign - OB style

For a while now I've wanted to build the player base at our club. You might think that we have loads already (we do have quite a few regular players), but we have a lot of veterans of the game. This can sometimes be very daunting for new players, and could even put them off - especially with the calibre of veteran we have.

Over Christmas and the early part of the year I thought about and decided to apply to become an official Hawk Talon. We at OB have been rather privileged with a tremendous amount of access to Hawk. Living close by, and being regular, high level players of the Dropzone Commander helps too. But the games still needs to grow. Too often do I see on the Facebook community, players selling models because there is no interest in their area. 
What little I can do to grow the community, I will do. 

Orbital Bombardment At Salute 2016

It's that time of the year again, friends! That wondrous time of the year when the English weather isn't quite sure if it's ready for spring yet, everybody's rent goes up, and geeks of all shapes, sizes and smells from around the UK gather in London for a Festival of Games! And of course by Festival of Games, I do mean Great Hall of Commerce, because as we all know Salute is really just a giant market square dressed as a convention.

As always Hawk Wargames will be in attendance, and for the third year running they have asked us to come down and help!

Mike and Ed will be running demo games in the afternoon, so those of you new to the game and eager to learn can get some practise and tips from two of the best in the business. Also in the afternoon, Alex and I will be playing a 2000 point exhibition game, with my Scourge up against his Resistance in a variant of Secure the Flanks. It's sure to be a blast!

We had great fun meeting some of you guys last year, so if you see us about be sue to pop over and say hi!

I hear there are new units?

We have new units - not only that but we have rules now too, aren't we lucky gamers?

Good gamers, you have been good boys and girls, come here and get a belly rub

A new unit for each faction as wave 1 hits us like the proverbial tsunami. Below I will talk about each one and give my (not asked for in any way) opinion on them within the current game.

Also you lucky lucky readers will have the privilege or reading Dan's comments too. Maybe lucky is the wrong word........

So onwards to the quick and dirty review

Check Out My Bag, And All Its Contents

That backwards explosion in the B bothers me too.

We've gone down the rabbit hole guys. I'm talking way, deep down, even further down than Alice went. Compared to us she's a part-timer, with the OB gang all being veteran spelunkers. This is a level of geek I never thought I would get to, but here I am, figuring out how best to min-max my Agricola farm with the rest of the crew, in this dark, warm hole...

We got custom dice. 

That's not so bad, right? Lots of people get custom dice, for lots of different things! It's geeky, but it's not that geeky...

We also got custom dice bags.

OB Podcast Episode 13: Escalating Matters

Those of you who frequent the site, or are simply observant, will have noticed that it has been a little quiet on the OB front lately. Why? Well, put simply we are lacking muse to write with at the moment, partly due to a lack of movement from the company which produces the splendid war game that we hold so dear to our hearts. (This may read slightly passive aggressively; it was meant too. We just want something to get excited about!)

Never fear though, stopping our mouths from chatting off is like trying to stop a conservative from selling a public asset; it can't be done! Join us for the worst news section ever recorded by a human, for an update on our general hobby, and to hear more about the much whispered about escalation campaign!