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?!).

Dropzone Commander 2.0

I'm sorry, I don't have news of a new version of Dropzone Commander. It's just a title to draw you all in - more a hypothetical question really.

Now I have you here, and have your full and undivided attention I want to discuss what I would like to see in DzC 2.0

First of all I want to state for the record, that DzC is a damn fine game - probably the best table-top wargame I have ever played. It balances tactical and strategic thought with a sci-fi world for a truly cinematic gaming experience. Being at 10mm scale make it seem more real compared to the larger scale wargames. It is also NOT a "line up your army, shoot, then opponent removes all his models". It keeps you engaged all game and throughout the turns. Even when you are losing horribly, you can snatch a draw or a win at the death.
I love it

Some opinions can move fastly

Latest pledge rank on Dropfleet Commander.

I will very quickly note something that is oh so off topic for this post, but incredibly on point for the current game being funded, that Dropfleet Commander has now (at the time of publishing) hit £299k! Last night Hawk gave us another update to sink our teeth into, with renders of the fighters, bombers and the mighty torpedo as discussed in First Wave's interview with Dave Lewis. Not only this, but there is a brand new Lionel Richie inspired pledge level named 'Commodore' which more or less just gives the public what they want. Should it have been around from the start? Probably, but we have it now, so stop moaning. 

Melting the renders of the PHR Ajax class cruiser on to all of this, like the proverbial cheese on the Kickstarter toast, is leaving me incredibly hungry for cheese on toast. I mean, Dropfleet Commander. Hm, no, I mean both now.

But but but, let's bring ourselves back down to Earth for a few minutes, and move our attention from the ever bloating pledge fund of Dropfleet Commander. Let us focus our consideration instead to ships that move well inside of the atmosphere, rather than outside of it. Zoning in even further, let's concentrate on single or duel piloted aircraft, rather than that of some with cities worth of crew.

That's right, I'm talking about Fast Movers! A post on these elite units from myself has been a long time coming, so right off the bat let's get one thing straight:

I don't hate them any more.

Dropfleet Commander: Scourge

Apparently there is a Dropfleet Kickstarter campaign? Anyone heard about this?....You'd think I'd know about it or something...

Strange....

Nope, I cannot continue this ruse for any longer. I am balls deep into pledge-land (wow, where did that come from, sounds like something Zombie would have said). Dropfleet funded within 4 minutes (according to Hawk James). I am so glad they removed the limited amount of UCMF Battlecruisers, otherwise I think there may have been a few disgruntled pledgers out there. 
Shaltari and PHR unlocked over the weekend too. Probably a lot quicker than Hawk expected. Can't wait to see the first images of the PHR fleet. 
It will have to be something extra special though, to tear me away from what I want to discuss.

I want to take a closer look at the Scourge, easily the best looking ships of ANY ship based game....EVER (I'm including sea and space/atmospheric here).

In low orbit, everyone can hear you scream....

.....and they are all screaming "take my money, TAKE MY MONEY"

Look at this!! That is a big ship!!

Pre-Kickstarter update incoming.

Dropfleet Commander Kickstarter is getting very close

An absolutely stunning piece of artwork. Bravo Patrice, bravo

Well hello there fellow fleeters. It seems that Hawk Wargames has completely disregarded the constant stream calling for this game to be called Orbital Bombardment: The Miniatures Game (I say constant stream, I mean Zombie and I dropping it in where we can). Hawk have settled on Dropfleet Commander. I like it, it ties in with the Dropzone universe nicely.

We have been getting a really good flow of information via newsletters, detailing Shaltari, PHR and other ship renders. But what I want to talk about is the Kickstarter itself.

Short Story: The Ritual

We're not all about tactics, reviews and tutorials here at OB. Oh nononono, every now and then we go a little bit deeper. Taking our old tugger to the middle of the Sea of Creativity, we take a deep breath and dive in; plunging down into the salty depths, past the painting updates and guides that make up the flotsam and jetsam, through the shoals of poemfish as they disperse around us in a panic, and even carefully navigating around the incredibly blue podcast reef. Every now and then our feet touch the bottom of the Sea of Creativity and we dig up something a bit more special... A story!

I penned the short story below for Hawk's first story competition on the forums. I really enjoyed the challenge of penning a unique perception into the dark belly of the Resistance, and decided to unearth it and share it with you all! It also has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that we have zip prepared for today...

For those of you who aren't typically story readers, it's only 500 words long, so shorter than an average post. A tasty, salty, bite sized tale.

Hope you enoy!