Goodbye DzC Version 1: The Long Kiss Goodnight

Check out my mad MS paint skillz!

The end of an era, the passing of an old friend......

September 24th 2017 will be forever marked as the last day of the last Invasion for Dropzone Commander version 1. I will certainly miss it, but out of the ashes will rise a new version. A better version? Who knows at this time.

I digress, I want to talk about Invasion, and why the hell not. I won. Again.

For those that have listened to the Orbital Bombardment podcast, I have been planning a ‘secret project’ for a couple of years now. This happened to be an L.A.P.D. themed Allied Resistance army.

As this was the last chance to play the original Dropzone Commander I wanted to finish them and take them, alas I did not finish painting the army.

Autumn Invasion 2017: The Lists

This was taken many Autumns ago, in the fire of our youth

'All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey, I'm out for a walk on an Autumn's day, I'd be freezing off my nuts in Aberdeen, Croydon dreaming on such a winter's day.' - Croydon Dreaming, The Zone's and Fleet's

It's that time of year again. It's raining, it's windy, it's getting cold, and every single person is complaining about the weather. I mean rainier, windier, colder, and moanier of course, after all, our Summer's are English. Its's Autumn everyone, and with it we greet Hawk's annual September tournament; Autumn Invasion! If Hawk are able to release V2 this year it will also be the last V1 Invasion tournament, which heralds the end of an era!

Three of the six of us are going this time, Alex, Joe, and Mike, and is customary I have all their lists to cast my miniature, laser-sporting, electric, beady eye over and critique in this version for the very last time. Let's get on with it before I well up and romance about the good times...

First Impressions: Phase 2 Resistance

I've been patient, but was it worth the wait?

Yep that's right, it's my turn to give you my first thoughts on the newest units we can now get our grubby mitts on.

Weekend At Alex's

Sunday 19th June was a good day. A very good day indeed. To say it was very, very, incredibly, amazingly geeky would perhaps be an understatement of fairly epic proportions. After a bumper breakfast cooked by yours truly (BYOB; bring your own bib, £10 feed fee, chance of salmonella included in the cost), Alex escorted me back to his war vault (although I'm beginning to think of it more as a Keep of Geek) for a day of gargantuan gaming. Alex is a half-silent OB member, being a regular pundit on our podcast. You can peruse his blog here!

Starting with a couple of Euro 2016 inspired Guild Ball matches (Alex being the Turkey to my Spain, as well as just being a jive-turkey in general), we entered the often abstract realm of cardboard. Quentin Quilt the Pedantic Pawn was our guide through Patchwork, a two player game about making a quilt tetris-styles, before entering a very-familiar-but-not-unwelcome dystopian world of Specter Ops, a hidden movement game about stealing genetically modified ice cream (or rather activating 'objectives'. I wish they'd been more specific in the theme, but oh well). Our hard paper escapade finished in the sepia stained land of Stratego, bringing back memories to Alex from before the war. Which war? Why, all of them of course.

We ended our day back in the future, in the more tangible plain of Dropzone Commander. Secure the Flanks was the mission. I was using a 1500 point Shaltari army for the the first time in about 70 years, and Alex his 22 infantry base Resistance army. The same army that finished above Mike at Summer Invasion. I'll never get tired of hearing that.

Fun jump break fact: I blog on my phone so much that the word Shaltari is in my auto-correct!

Joe vs Hawk or David vs Goliath??

My cyclones hoping to get some sneaky shots on Sean's type 1'

So now life has calmed down a bit, I've managed to get to some words into a bat report for you all.

Who ever said planning to get married, going to Cardiff and the UK Games Expo, then on my stag do in 4 weekends in a row couldn't be done?!!!!!

First off, Firestorm Games in Cardiff. Easily the best hobby store I have visited.
Beer on tap... he he, and a small kitchen that could cater for any gamer's needs. chilli, chips and cheese, need I say more.

It has all the toys in the shop from board games to airbrush stencils. The actual gaming space is huge and could probably hold 200+ people with ease. They have all the scenery and even hand out trays to carry your army around on for tourneys. I'm telling you its gaming heaven!!!!

London Busses

Wait ages for some rules, then 6 come along at once.......just like London busses!

So we wait for what seemed like an eternity to finally get the rules for the Corrupter, Menchit A2 and Firebird, then low and behold, Hawk surprise us by getting the May release rules out on time. 
Has the hell frozen over, is the moon blue, have England won the World Cup? 

All the recent releases are here if you want to download the rules/buy the new stuff

If this is the new face of Hawk, colour me impressed. Long may it continue. 
That's enough of my ramblings, on to more of my ramblings! 

This months releases seem centered around artillery pieces. 

Are the Resistance going to run out of vehicles ?

The way I keep losing Gun Wagons probably!!!...

Jokes aside.

I think this is more me, asking you zoners if you are having the same thoughts I'm having. The latest pictures and new experimental units/rules are all variants of other units. I know Hawk has done this across the board with every faction. I feel they are now limited to how much they can expand the Resistance race.

They are probably laughing at me, saying I have no idea and are going to impress the shit out of me.
That's if they read these, they best do. About a year and a half ago David did want to make infantry a bigger part of the game. I believe that would come naturally for the resistance, and it fits in well with the fluff behind them. I'd say that mission is accomplished. I have this feeling the designers are going to have to dig deep into their imagination to bring us something new that fits in.

Woah Man, That's Heavy

Let's go back. Way back. Way, way back. Back to the time when Coyotes strode the land, proud and alert, and Sabre's slunk behind each other in conga lines of death, articulated rail guns raising up and down like a Giraffe's neck. This was a time when the Heavy choice was a dangerous one, and if an adversaries army fielded one of these units it had to the potential to radically adjust your game plan. You see, the Gladius used to be a hefty elephant of war, and if an Odin dropped near, well, pretty much anything, it was brown trousers time.

These two units are a great example of how the game has developed over the last year and a half, for either better or worse. Both embody the characteristics of what you would believe make up a heavy unit; they both pack dangerous weaponry, can take a bit of a kicking, but are as slow as a paraplegic turtle. You would use them as a hammer blow on a back to back activation, drop last and activate first next turn, and the results could be devastating!

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!!

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

Establishing A Force: Resistance

It has been a while, but it is finally time to scrape the rust of my lazy fingers and bring all you budding survivalists the next entry in my 'Establishing A Force' series; Let's talk Resistance!

When I mention rust, it wasn't by accident, oh nono, that was a clever segue my friends, as in the Resistance you will be seeing a whole load of rust! It will be coming at you in the form of old dishevelled and re-purposed cars and wagons, fossilised helicopters and positively antique tanks! Let's take a moment to imagine driving a Hannibal into the Antiques Roadshow and crushing Fiona Bruce into human jam; now there's an episode I'd tune in for (this is a terribly English reference, all you foreigners will have to Google it)! They even have a battlegroup name after the effect; Rusted Fist!

Mr Resistance - Day 2

I'm back again for my battle report of day 2. Ill go over my last 2 games then reflect on the list I took and how I could better it. Sorry it's taken a while, I thought you would prefer the podcasts first.

Before setting up I always take a look at my opponents army list. I check for anything out of the ordinary, is there building demo dedicated unit, does he have very few on the ground scouring units.

Mr Resistance - Invasion day 1

Mr Resistance!

Hi all, firstly thanks to all my lovely opponents and everyone that turned up to make invasion 2016 an awesome weekend. I managed to play 4 people I have never played before, so that was cool, and I managed to avoid the second OB team, win win.

This is my first battle report, so have a read through tell me what you think. Feel free to leave me any constructive criticism in the comments, that will make these reports more enjoyable for me and for you. Happy reading. 

I AM LADERLAPPEN

For an explanation, you will have to wait for the post-vasion podcast....

Invasion is over and boy was it a good event. I think the epitome of it's epicness was obviously me fighting off 49 other gamers to claim the top prize (after a bit of an awkward prize ceremony).

There was literally a ton of new stuff, not just in render form but actual physical models. this made me so very happy as I feel we have been a bit starved of DzC recently. Below is a bit of a picture dump of new stuff, followed by some info that Ravaner (aka Mr Russell the south coast Talon has put into word form on the forum).

A Sudden Invasion

"Admiral Stone sir, we're under attack."
"What?! I've only just finished my G'dam turkey left overs, and you're telling me there's another G'dam invasion already?"
"That's right sir, no rest for the wicked and all that."
"Who you calling G'dam wicked!? I may be a bad G'damn ass, but I'm not G'dam wicked. Tomlinson, fire up the laser!"
"Yes sir..."

Woah, where has the time gone? Is this how pensioners feel? I mean, one minute I'm polishing of the pigs in blankets during Christmas lunch (this isn't 100% true, I have some frozen for emergency consumption) and thinking about playing some alternative systems for a bit (the shame!), and then a second later Croydon is about to be invaded again!

That's right folks, it's tournament time, but of course not just any tournament, the first instalment of 2016's big-daddy Invasion! After battling hard in September we have another weekend of mirth and mire at the end of January, just four months since the last. Too soon? We think so, but Hawk have a busy calendar, so what's a fan-boy to do... Play five awesome games over the 30th and 31st, that's what!

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!

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...

Trying something different......

Hello internet people!!!!

With the tournament scene now coming to an end, and leading up to the end of year festivities. I thought I would tell you a bit about my journey with my beloved Resistance. As Resistance is currently my primary force this is what I have been concentrating on. (PHR may come back now that the Medusa and Valkyries have been released). Depends if they nerf the Medusa or not.

Normally between Hawk's Invasion tournaments and over the summer, or just whenever I get a bit bored of my normal army really. I tend to venture out and try new units and even whole new army list designs all together.

List Review For Warfare

The Winter and Autumn Invasion tournaments highlight the twin peaks of the competitive Dropzone calander, with many tourney gamers gearing and preparing themselves for these events for months! Although we have to wait until sometime next January or February for the next one, luckily the season is never truly out, and most of the OB team have one more event to look forward to for before Christmas; Warfare 2015!

Warfare is a 2 day, 1500pt clash tournament held in reading, and run by Hawk themselves. As well as Dropzone, there will be a whole host of other game systems being played over the two days, ranging from a lot of historic games through to fantasy and sci-fi. Warfare also hosts a range of stalls and stands to peruse (at the risk of your bank account). If this all tickles your interest gland you can buy day tickets for a pre-determined fee which I can't find, possibly on their awful website (if it looks like you've clicked into Reading council's website, you're in the right place. How boring is it?!).