"Dropzone Commander Reconquest: Phase 1 review" Topic

I just bought this on Saturday night and have been reading it since.

I'll break this review into the physical book and then the rules.

The book itself continues with the high production value of the main rulebook. The glossy pages are full of eye candy which is not only inspiring but useful as it gives players some ideas on how to paint their new models. There are plenty of pictures of the models but also tons of artwork inside that can give players an idea of the scenery in the DzC universe.

The first part of the book is dedicated to "fluff" but this isn't all just back ground and some of it will be very useful if one is setting games in this setting. Of the 152 pages the first 45 cover the back ground material but also give campaign ideas and scenario ideas for games set in various different worlds involved in the reconquest.

After that come a dozen pages of scenarios, including a double page spread of the DzC terrain packs.

The scenarios are variations on the scenarios in the main rule book but also incorporate the new scenery packs that have come out including two that very actively use the monorail in the game.

Then there are three pages of new rules for the new units in the game.

The rest of the book is army lists, including the new army the Resistance.

Except for one important bit in the back. An Index. A lovely, lovely index. Now you can find stuff quick.

Before delving into the rules too much I'll note that there is only one vehicle in this book I've used in a game and that is the Scourge Reaver Heavy Gunship. It hs not changed with the publication from the last version of the rules I saw on the website. I can say that at least this unit is pretty balanced in the game.

I have played DzC a lot and played a game on Saturday night. While it isn't always possible to know how rules will play out I think I have an idea of how many of the new units will work in the game although not all of them.

I'll give it my best shot though.

For each army I'm going to give an overview of the new stuff and then high light one thing with the exception of the resistance, I'll give them a more thorough review.

I'll do the individual armies as separate posts so you can easily skip to the one you want to read.

UCM

There are 6 new options for the UCM player in this book. One infantry option, a new gunship, two light tanks, an artillery piece and the really different thing the Ferrum class drone base.

The drone base looks like it will be a magnet for enemy fire as if you shoot it down you can disable the drones that it shoots out. I'm not sure how this will play out. It would certainly be good bait for a trap. The one thing that I can see being really useful in these new units is the Fireblade light flame tank. It fills a hole in the UCM list which is that they don't have any really significant anti-infantry capability. This is not quite the killer that the Scourge tormentor or the PHR Menchit are but for the points it will dig infantry out of buildings pretty well.

The Scourge

The Scourge also have six new listings, again one infantry but one weird flying artillery piece, a new dropship, two walkers and a gunship.

The new drop ship will be pretty useful. It isn't quite as fast as some of the other Scourge drop ships but it has more armour and an extra damage point which will help it deliver its cargo to the target point. Seeing as its target seems to be these slow walker things that will be very handy. Most other Scourge stuff can drop the units off a decent distance from the enemy knowing that the speed of the hover tanks will get them in there. Add to this that the Harbinger is easily the best looking Scourge dropship so far and I think you have a real winner on your hands here. Good looking, makes up for a hole in the original list and can drop bombs out of its butt hole. Also you can upgrade it to have some AA capability. I'll definitely be getting one of these for my Scourge forces.

I'm not a big fan of the rules for the Destroyer packs. They are okay for the most part but the Tough rule makes them somewhat ridiculous to my mind. If they were tough up to a certain E value that would be fine but I can't imagine non-Superman level beings shrugging off hits from a bomb that can level a building or a plasma discharge that can melt a tank. Or at least not with equal chance of shrugging off fire from an assault rifle.

The rule seems to need some modification. I won't be using these troops in my game in all likelihood.

Then there is the annihilator. This thing is a transformer. It can be a space ship or an artillery piece with high heels.

Probably easily the ugliest model they have come up with yet. Which actually isn't saying much since most of what they have come up with looks fantastic. I'm not sure I completely understand the utility of it but the aesthetics are enough for it to not be on my "to buy" list.

PHR
The PHR offerings will have the biggest effect on the way any of the armies in this game plays I think. With the addition of a new class of walker, both of which are pretty mobile but one of which can fly, really changes the game for the PHR player. These things, along with the jet skimmers, will add some seriously needed mobility to the PHR forces which, up until now, have relied on their significant resilience to get the job done. Now they will be able to lure the enemy in with a fire base and attack the flanks as they surge forward. Outside of aircraft, and even including some of them, the Apollo is the most mobile element in the game.
I'm not a huge fan of the Hades walker as it is simply more of the same thing I already have in my PHR army which is slow resilient stuff with lots of firepower. The one neat thing about it is that it can fix other PHR units when they are damaged.
I'd probably get one if I didn't already have about 2500 pts of PHR stuff.

Shaltari

I haven't really played many games against the Shaltari. I haven't played against them at all in about two years now. Given that they are the most different force in the game it is difficult for me to make an assessment about how the new stuff will play.
There are 6 new unit types here as well: three new walkers, a new tank, a new flyer and small bunker thing. The new Dreamsnare adds some much needed anti-infantry capability. The new stuff looks to be about as fragile and deadly as the older stuff. One neat new addition is a gravity cannon on the Tarantula battlestrider. That could cause problems, it can also climb buildings which is novel. The other little walker can do that too.

The Resistance
This is a whole new army and one I've been waiting for since their existence was mentioned in the main rulebook. I've used infantry for them in different scenarios in the past, just using the regular UCM infantry for the stats. So I'm pretty stoked.

The models look fantastic. I bought the basic boxed set as well as the rulebook on Saturday night and am dead chuffed with how everything goes together and the detailing on them. The aesthetic is fantastic as well. Armoured school buses! How can you go wrong?
I think they need an armoured double decker bus in the mix too, but what they have is great so far.
The idea behind this army, as you may have guessed, is that the humans that survived the initial Scourge invasion didn't just lie down and die. All Falling Skies like they put together an army and went on the counter-offensive.
A lot of the stuff you can field from them is pretty fast, lightly armoured and undergunned. However there are a few surprises.
One is the aircraft. They have some pretty tough dropships and since, as gamers, we don't really need to worry about their fuel expenditure, they are going to be good on the table top. Also with the option to upgrade them to have AA capability I think these will be some of the most useful dropships in the game.
Not that what they are dropping off is necessarily all that great.
The basic tanks aren't bad but count as heavy. The standard stuff is the gun trucks. There are AA gun trucks, arty gun trucks and anti-infantry gun trucks. Get your anti-tank stuff from another part of the list I suppose.
The armoured school buses are transports mostly but can be upgraded with rockets or HMGs. It doubles the points but I will probably do it every time. It just looks cool having a bus with a contingent of armed buys on the top. The guys do look slightly out of scale with the bus but it might just be that the picture is from the top. It won't stop me from getting them either way.
There are four different infantry options plus bikes. I'm not particularly enamoured of the berzerkers, something I was trying to get away from in this game. If I wanted HtH troops I'd play 40K or epic.
I should mention that there are two different ways to play this list, as feral, meaning they can't ally with UCM and as allied which means they can. I'll probably be doing mine as allied although that does cut out the barrel bomber which is a pretty good ground attack craft.
Two transport options make this force viable against much more heavily armoured and armed opponents. One is the hovercraft which they use to transport their trucks. The big advantage here is that they can move pretty quickly and can also SHOOT as they deploy unlike any other army in the game. So while they are somewhat vulnerable travelling at least they can start fighting right away once they get there.
Another thing is the breaching drill. This allows for units to hide underground and then pop out and start attacking the enemy. The drill itself is unarmed and might not come up exactly where you want it, but overall it is a pretty good option for getting a lot of your lightly armoured troops to where you want them to be.

summary:

Overall I'd give this supplement an A+. I like the game so call me a little biased. My reasoning is that the models have maintained or improved upon the high quality that I'm used to. The new army isn't just some contrived thing but fits seamlessly into the universe that already existed.

All of the new options for existing armies seem to be pretty balanced and for the most part make sense in terms of the game. There are a couple that I'm not thrilled with but I just won't be using those.

A lot of the models are scaleless so you can use them for anything from 6mm up to 28mm in some cases. I'd imagine that the breaching drill will work for 6mm although might be pushing it for 15mm. All of the new Scourge stuff would work for 6mm to 28mm except the Destroyers, but they would probably work for anything up to 15mm.

The Shaltari stuff is similarly scaleless although it might be only able to be little robots or drones in 28mm. Same with the new PHR stuff.

The Hades walker will even be a big monster robot in 28mm. You could use that as some sort of sidekick robot in the old GW Inquisitor game even.

Thanks for the detailed review. DzC is a game I'm interested in, and with the move to plastic starters it is more affordable. What is stopping me is I have several mini games that I have not played for at least 2 years. Buying DzC would just add to that. However, I am strongly tempted.