As I discussed in my previous post, Warcradle made a big announcement last Friday about their plans for the future of the Dystopian Wars setting, which is now being heralded under the banner of the Dystopian Age. Unfortunately, I got so carried away with my discussion of the main points presented by Warcradle that I didn’t get around to sharing my thoughts on all of the neat model previews and artwork that was also shown! So, that will be the focus of this post. The images you see below come courtesy of Alex Mann, who graciously gave me permission to use the screen caps he took from the Warcradle video for his blog. You can find them in his original post if you haven’t been there to read his thoughts already!

Dystopian Wars Model Previews

Cyborg Whales, Ahoy!

First up is concept art for what I presume to be a new Covenant ship. This thing is designed to launch “whale constructs,” which appear to be steampunk enhanced cyber-whales!

Covenant Whale Carrier

As you can see, the ship itself is studded with the energy weapon projectors that are already present on many of the older Covenant designs, and has a similar hull shape to them. However, there are some new design elements as well, such as the larger grills on either side of the hull, and the more saucer-like bridge. Per the label on the drawing, the three large cylindrical shapes on either side of the ship angled forward are storage containers for the whale constructs. Let’s take a look at those! Concept art for three different variations were shown:

These guys look pretty fierce! To me, it looks like the “cyclops” ege at the front of the armored portion of each whale is another Covenant energy weapon of some kind. So, we may very well be looking at Whales With Freakin’ Laser Beams on their heads! It is way to early to tell how these guys might be represented on the table, and how their rules might work. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that they will show up as tokens, in the same way that the Australian submarine tenders generate tokens in the current rules. I also suspect that when we do see these guys on the table, they will be in “waterline” form, so this concept art might be the only time we see them in all their steampunk enhanced cetacean glory!

Constitution Class Battleship

Next up is a 3D model of a new American battleship, the Constitution Class. This thing looks pretty solid! We can see that we are dealing with new primary weapons mounts, which appear to be dual breech-loading guns with gun shields, and not technically true turrets. We can also see some broadside casemate cannons forward of the paddle wheels, several emplacements that look suspiciously like volley guns, and a “cow catcher” style prow with prominent external reinforcement. This design was teased earlier in a more simplified form around the time of Salute in the UK, when Warcradle was doing some live design work on it at their booth. It’s great to see the extra detail that has been added to the ship since then! Having both side paddle wheels and a stern paddle wheel is a new wrinkle for American designs compared to the earlier DW sculpts, and I wonder if we will see it carry over to other new Union sculpts in the Dystopian Age. Overall, this ship looks perfectly serviceable to me, and it seems that WC is going to keep the Union’s weapon mix more or less the same as what the FSA had. One thing I do not see, though, is a hardpoint for a generator and/or a rocket battery. It’s impossible to draw conclusions from just this one model, of course, but it does make one wonder if the Union will have the same access to rockets, shields, and kinetic generators that the old FSA had. Based on the preview that was shown, it looks like this ship will be about the size of the current Heavy Battleships:

Crown Britannia Class Battleship

Next up is a 3D model of the new battleship design for the Crown, which will be the successor faction for the Kingdom of Britannia. This model has clear design linneage to the earlier KoB models from DW; the shape of the torpedo tube studded armored prow, the numerous turrets, and the large “pontoons” down either side all give the ship a familiar feel. To me, this ship has a more in common visually with its predecessors than the Constitution does. Neat touches on this design include the lion’s head on the prow, as well as the impressive array of secondary guns running down the flanks. As with the Union battleship above, based on this design it appears that the Crown will be keeping roughly the same weapons mix as the old KoB had.

Celestial Ningjing Class Battleship

The third major 3D model Warcradle showed off for DW is the Ningjing Class Battleship for the Celestials faction. The Celestials appear to be a large Asian power block that will include both the Chinese and Blazing Sun factions from the previous version of DW. As such, this design appears to incorporate design elements from both of those factions. The overall hull shape and pagoda superstructure is very reminiscent of Chinese Federation ships, while the generator mount and the weapons are all very Blazing Sun. In fact, it looks like the forward turret came straight off the Blazing Sun Kaiju heavy BB, as did the generator amidships. The aft weapon appears to be a rocket launcher of very similar design to the one carried by EotBS cruisers. Other neat touches include the dragon motifs on what may be paddle wheels down the flanks of the ship, the Blazing Sun logo on the bow, and, in what may be a first for any ship in DW, an anchor! Also, as I look at it, the way the upper decks of the model are curved invokes the Korean “turrtle ships” from the 15th century. If this model is any indication, it appears that the earlier EotBS “train” design motif might be out.

Armored Clash Models

Also shown during Warcradle’s presentation were several 3D models of desings for the new 10mm Armored Clash ground game. The first of these is the Crown Cromwell tank:

As you can see, this model is similar in size and shape to the earlier KoB medium tanks that were released for DW. This feeds into the idea Warcradle discussed during their video of being able to use many of the old DW land models with the new AC rules when they are put out. The overall design is clearly still inspired by British WWI tank designs, with large rhomboid hulls and full tracks on each side. The level of detail that has been added to the model, though, is impressive! I especially like the lion’s head on the gun mantlet.

The next model that was shown is a Union tank, the Thunderer:

This design is a bit of a departure from previous FSA medium tank sculpts, which always featured a large central track unit on the vehicle. I’m okay with this re-imagining, though, as I always thought the single large track in the middle idea was a little too silly, even for DW! In a way, this tank now looks more similar to the small tanks used by the FSA. It appears that what we have on this guy is a large main gun, a smaller volley gun below it, and what might just be a rocket launcher above it. Very FSA! It also appears that there is some sort of smaller gun poking out the back of the tank, though it could be an exhaust pipe. The front of the tank looks like it is carrying forward the “cow catcher” design that was also seen on the Constitution, so this might be a new motif that we will see in other Union tanks and ships.

The last model that was shown is this guy:

This appears to be a 10mm version of the “Ironhide” vehicle from WWX. Very neat! From the discussion in the Video, it seems that this is more to show how vehicles from the WWX setting might get carried over into AC, and not the other way around. The Ironhide is a utility  vehicle used by the Covenant, so it makes sense that it would appear in both settings.

Conclusion

Lots of neat designs being shown off! I am encouraged by the amount of care and attention to detail that Warcradle appears to be putting into these designs. Of course, there isn’t nearly enough to go on yet to say whether what we are looking at is going to reflect the entirety of the ranges for the factions shown above. However, based on these designs it seems like the newer DW ships will have some strong thematic similarities with older models, though they will not be a perfect match. I think that the designs shown so far will pretty easily blend in with the older Spartan designs on the table, though, so I’m not too worried about my model collection not being compatible once the new designs are finally released.

Until next time!