I’ve been interested in Dropzone Commander for a while now, but just hadn’t pulled the trigger. I felt that I had gotten into something that *wasn’t* 40k with Warmachine / Hordes, and that I couldn’t really justify a new miniatures game (either with time to focus on it or financially). I recently went to LVO and one of my main goals was to check out other games as I definitely had interest, but needed to balance it with ability. I was specifically interested in 30k and/or Dropzone Commander. I was excited with what I saw with DzC, and walked away being keen on getting started on my DzC journey. Check out some pics from LVO on my experience with DzC and some first pics of some of the models I’ve built since.
LVO 2015 was a great experience and I plan on going again, and maybe making it a regular thing. It’s great to see so many like-minded, good natured, and really good people getting together to share something they’re passionate about. This is the first time I’d been at something like this and I had the goals of 1) participating in a tournament (Warmachine tournament – CHECK!), 2) experiencing the con/tournament scene (CHECK!), and 3) checking out some alternative games that I’ve had interest in, specifically 30k and Dropzone Commander. I honestly was more interested in DzC as I’ve been a little hesitant to really deeply invest in 30k, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Right away in the main gaming hall was a line of vendors, and Hawk Wargames was there with a demo table. My traveling companion John and I gravitated towards the table and struck up a long conversation with David and Simon from Hawk, and what a great pair of guys. They were happy to talk to us about the game, tell us about core tennents of the system, and alay any concerns I may have had bout barriers to entry (cost and needing to know a bazillion rules combos to have any hope of suceeding in having fun with a game). I was so impressed with the demo table, the miniatures, description of the system, and the mechanics I picked up a starter pack for a Shaltari army straight away.
Chatting with David from Hawk Wargames.
In the smaller gaming hall, a DzC area was laid out. There were several players and their armies were on display. I loved the details on these models. Here’s some PHR from one of the players there.
The gaming boards were super inspiring. I liked the scale and the cardboard game boards you get with the basic set are well done and are interesting to look at.
A close-up of the PHR in a city fight scene.
The Shaltari are on the move!
The boards look great with lots of detail. I believe this is a FLG Fat Mat, which makes the game look even better.
Another Shaltari player’s army, stalking their prey…
I guess I took a lot of Shaltari pictures!
Moving silently into the city…
This is a picture of the board of the demo game I ended up playing on Sunday morning with a new friend from Edmonton, Canada. We played ~6-700 points of a battle, he played UCM and I played Shaltari. After getting a brief run-down from the TO on site (thank you Solomon!), we set about play. Mechanics were easy to pick up and remember. By turn 4 we were pretty much getting it by ourselves and checked in for specific rules when a new situation came up. It was a great battle. We ended up tying at 2-2. There were a few cool moments like when a protracted melee with my Braves vs. his infantry was a slow grind back and forth, and with more and more UCM infantry entering the battle, resulting in his forces killing all my Braves (after significant losses of UCM infantry), and taking the objective in the building. He used his commander to do an orbital bombardment on my Coyote (the HQ choice for Shaltari in this game) I think or 3 times, never actually getting it off (either missing or my shields held). That would have been devastating had it gotten through!
In summary I was super impressed with the system, the play, and the people, and set about getting my army started to be assembled when I got home. Here’s some pics of a few things I’ve built since getting back home, below:
Shaltari Ocelot – love that it can now move 2″ and fire!
Spirit Light Gates – looking forward to seeing these guys in action.
Coyote (HQ) – gotta have one!
Looking forward to getting more Shaltari built as well as getting a game in as soon as I can. Thanks for looking! If you want to see more DzC pictures from my time at LVO, you can go here (scroll down to find the DzC section – warning – pic heavy!) and check out my LVO post.
Thanks for checking it out!
