"Dirtside vs Future War Commander?" Topic

Need a bit of info from anyone
who has played these rules.
Which set can handle more figs/units
Can they both handle multi-player games?
Do they both have a build system?
Thanks

future war for sure. less accounting. just picked up the book. i like what i see. easier to play but keeps it interesting. prefab armies in the back for different periods. it allows for speed of play.

Dirtside is a better but slower game. Easy to build your own forces. Has complete rules for everything from aboriginal natives to orbital bombardment.

FWC has a better order system but more generic flavor of forces.

Both games are great but for different reasons.

I have run multi-player convention games of Dirtside. You just have to break your army into player sized pieces. I like that vehicles die in one shot in Dirtside with no need to record hit-points.

I've played both, but can only recommend Future War Commander. It plays quickly, even with many units and many players. Dirt side is much slower and less streamlined. Also, IMHO, DS is much more difficult to teach and play large actions.

I played FWC but never really cared for it. The core system is very good but some of the rules are a mess and complicate the game for little reason. I also found a glaring loophole where if you field nothing but small units armed with missiles you'll most likely win.

Dirtside is a better game but as Calico Bill stated it is not really designed for large actions and there are a lot of dice rolls involved. The basic mechanics use a variety of dice (D4, D6, D8, D10 and D12) and damage is determined by a drawing chits out of a pot which is a horribly clunky and archaic system.

My personal favorite is Quantum Legion from MJ12 Games. I like to think of it as the '6mm ground Starmada'. The rules are simple and streamlined, but many options and situations are covered. As with Dirtside and FWC you may build your units. The core rules feature a command system where you must issue a command to a unit in order to activate it, but you cannot issue commands to all of your units at once. You must choose how you use your command points. There are also plenty of additional systems and rules for the game which you may find online.

You may also want to look into Net Epic, which is a revamped version of GW's old Epic game. The game can be adapted with some work to represent the armies you are using, and the rules are free. Very simple but elegant system, that will allow you to field huge armies.

and damage is determined by a drawing chits out of a pot which is a horribly clunky and archaic system.

Clunky certainly, but archaic? I believe Wings of War/Glory uses a card based damage system? Drawing chits from a pot would have been better implemented as drawing cards from a pack (with the same staistical results).

I've played both, didn't really like FWC (although the chaps at the club love it). DS feels more like it was written by people who know about warfare whereas to me FWC felt more like a "game". I guess the kicker was playing in a massive game against a team that included a couple of professional British Army school of infantry trainers – I got stuck in a pretty meat-grinding street fight with one of them, and afterwards he said it was the best representation of FIBUA (or FISH) he'd come across on the gaming table.

I got stuck in a pretty meat-grinding street fight with one of them, and afterwards he said it was the best representation of FIBUA (or FISH) he'd come across on the gaming table.

That was using DS?

Personally, I prefer Dirtside, as I like the harder sci-fi feel.