Welcome to the second installment of Dystopian Wars 2.o coverage here on the MBS blog! This time, I’m going to be digging in to the rules proper, so this will be a bit more technical than the first impressions post I made last time. I’m going to be focusing on the differences between the two editions. As I mentioned in that first post, the new rules are broken up into sections. Sections A, B, and C have the actual rules needed to play the game, and are all that is included in the “Admiral” version of the rulebook. This post will be focusing on that first section.

Section A

So, what is covered in Section A? As one might expect from the first section of the rules, Section A mostly covers the basic concepts used in the game, as well as the list construction and table set-up rules.  These topics are covered in 4 sub-sections, including Game Basics, Squadrons, Game Set-Up and Tactical Action Cards.

Game Basics

Most of this section can just be skimmed if you are an experienced miniatures gamer. A lot of it is “this game is played with models, distances are measured in inches” kind of basic information. There are a few tidbits that are new and are worth noting, however. First, there is now the concept of “heavy” dice in the game, which is signified by a blue color in a stat line. In this case, a “6” is equal to two hits, but does not explode like a red die would. In essence, this is a version of the red/blue/black dice system seen in Planetfall and Dystopian Legions, except that it doesn’t require the dice to be a specific color. Range bands have been tweaked slightly, as they are now 0-8″, 8.1-16″, etc. This is one of the first examples you see in the book of how much more carefully the rules of DW 2.0 have been written; now, there can be no disagreement or confusion on whether a model that is at exactly 8″ of range is in RB 1 or RB 2! Another tweak has been made to the height levels; there are now three aerial levels, and two diving height levels. This section also explains a model’s stat line, and there are some small changes here as well. First of all, a Crew Type has been added, which will influence boarding actions. The other major change is that the old “Ram Rating” has given way to a slightly different stat called “Impact Rating,” or IR.

Squadrons

The Squadrons section is only a couple of pages, and there is not a lot of changes here. This section does combine the rules for mixed squadrons, escort rules (now called attachments) and combat air patrols into one spot.

Game Set-Up

There are some significant changes here! This section starts with the force composition rules, which have some  elements brought over from the first edition and the campaign books. List building now has 7 requirements to meet, including familiar limits on the total points that can be spent on forces outside of the core type (land, air, or sea), and the breakdown on how many points can be spent on each model size. The new wrinkle is that players now have the ability to divide their forces into  Main and Strategic forces. The strategic forces are divided into three portions, labeled Advance, Flank, and Reserve. As  one might guess, this allows the strategic forces to deploy a bit differently onto the table.

Before we get to deployment, though, there is terrain placement to consider. DW 2.0 features a randomized terrain placement system, where each player has the chance to place a piece of terrain in a 2’x2′ sector of the board. So, for a 4’x6′ table, there could be 0-12 pieces of terrain. With terrain sorted, deployment is up next. There are now more deployment zones to contend with. The main deployment zone is still an 8″ band along the table edge. Now, though, there is an additional 8″ zone bordering that one, called the Advance Deployment Zone (where, you guessed it, you can deploy your Advance forces up to 16″ from the table edge). So, in a 4′ wide table, that now leaves us with a 16″ no man’s land in the middle of the table. The short table edges of No Man’s Land now become the deployment zone for the Flanking Forces, which enter play on turns 1, 2, or 3 (determined by a D3 roll).

Deployment proper starts with a dice-off between the two players. The winner gets to pick who deploys first. The players then alternate deploying squadrons out of their Main forces, then move on to the Advance forces. One thing that is neat about the way Spartan handled this part is that the player who lost the roll for deployment still gets some benefits; if they have any advance forces, they can re-roll the D3 to try and change what turn they come in on. A major change to deployment rules is that, within each force (Main or Strategic), models must be placed in descending size order. So, you have to place your large/massive models first, then your mediums, and so on. This is a bit more restrictive than the first edition was, but it should help streamline deployment.

Tactical Action Cards

This is one of the newest (and I think most exciting) things to come out of Section A. The much-maligned STAR cards have been ditched entirely, and have been replaced by the Tactical Action Cards, or TAC. These differ from the old STAR system in significant ways. Instead of a shuffled common deck, players build a deck of 16 cards, from which a hand is selected after deployment. This hand is not selected at random; players can freely pick from their entire deck. The hand size is determined by the point size of the game, ranging from 5 cards at 800 pts, up to a max of 10 cards in a 2000 point game. It’s important to note, however, that these cards can now only be used once, and there can be only one card of each kind in the deck. Furthermore, using a card requires you to give victory points to your opponent. The more powerful the card, the more points it will give them. So, while cards like the much maligned “Pass the Tools!” card are still in the game (that one allows you to repair damage to a squadron, potentially restoring a nearly-dead ship to full fighting trim), their effects are mitigated in that you only have one of each, they can only be used once per game, and they have a significant VP cost associated with them. In the case of Pass the Tools, that cost is 60 VP, which is more than two frigates cost!

TACs also open the door to some unique force customization; the rule book promises us that there will be faction-specific, campaign specific, and even commander-specific TACs released in the future that will enable players to make a unique deck that will give them some interesting tactical options to theoretically enhance their fleet build. This sounds great to me! This could be a great way to add flavor and expandability to the game without necessarily adding a bunch of extra rules.

And there you have it! That is Section A in a nutshell. Overall, the way that force composition, deployment, and TACs work seem to promise a much more tactical feel to the game. There is a little less “wiggle room” as far as deployment and comp are concerned, but I think that is more than outweighed by the ability to split forces into separate groups and deploy some units further forward. I’m already concocting all kinds of nasty ways to forward-deploy my Prussian frigates!

Until next time…