Star Wars Armada news

Command Your Fleet to Victory A Preview of STAR WARS (TM): Armada

Star Wars: Armada | Published 26 September 2014

“Deploy the fleet so that nothing gets off that system. You are in command now, Admiral Piett.”
    –Darth Vader
Welcome to our first preview of Star Wars™: Armada!
Armada is an epic, two-player miniatures game of large-scale fleet battles set in the Star Wars universe. The time is the height of the Galactic Civil War. As the Imperial Navy’s Star Destroyers move systematically across the galaxy to impose order and crush those who would oppose the evil Galactic Empire, the Rebel Alliance launches its rag-tag fleet of ships and starfighters on daring raids and surgical strikes. Its aim? Weaken the Empire, blow by blow.
In Armada, you enter this ongoing conflict as a fleet admiral with either the Imperial Navy or Rebel Alliance. Your ships have come upon the enemy. Conflict is imminent. Thousands of crew race to their battle stations, preparing for massive exchanges of turbolaser fire. Thousands will die, but it is your job to command the fleet to victory. You must overcome your foes. You must achieve your objective. There is no room for failure.
Even though Armada is a game of capital ships and starfighter squadrons – with battles on a scale large enough to alter the fate of the galaxy – their outcomes still hinge upon you and your decisions. If you wish to emerge victorious, the first thing you’ll need to do is learn how your ships function in battle. Capital ships aren’t nimble like starfighters. In fact, the larger and more powerful your ships, the more time they take to respond to your commands. You can’t react instantly to threats as they arise. You have to plan for the future.

The Command Stack
You begin each round of Armada by entering the Command Phase and secretly assigning commands to each of your capital ships. To do this, you select one of the game’s four possible commands and lock it into your ship’s command dial. You then place the dial facedown at the bottom of your ship’s command stack.
At the end of the Command Phase, a ship’s command stack must always contain a number of facedown command dials equal to its command value. This means that in the game’s first Command Phase, you build full command stacks for all of your ships, assigning them all a number of commands equal to their command values.

The Nebulon-B escort frigate has a command value of “2,” so the Rebel player assigns two commands to the ship in the first Command Phase.

In the Ship Phase that follows, you and your opponent take turns activating your ships. When you activate a ship, you reveal the top of its command stack, turn the dial faceup and resolve its command or spend the command to gain a matching token. Each command provides a different type of benefit, which we will address in more detail below. For now, it’s just important to note that after you assign commands to your ships in the Command Phase, you reveal one command per ship in the Ship Phase.
As the game progresses, you continue to order new commands in each Command Phase, replacing the command dials that were revealed the previous round. These new commands go facedown on the bottom of the command stack, so when you’re assigning commands, you’re always planning for the future.
The Four Commands
There are four basic commands in Armada. Each command can be resolved for full effect when you reveal your command dial, or it can be spent to assign a command token to your ship.
You can assign a number of command tokens to your ship equal to its command value, though you can’t assign more than a single token for a given type of command. While command tokens can then be spent at any appropriate time, the benefits they grant are less than those you gain from resolving the command directly from the dial.

Navigate

A ship can resolve a navigate command during the Ship Phase, after it attacks and as it begins to determine its course.

Dial: You can increase or decrease your ship’s speed by one, to a maximum of the ship’s top speed or to a minimum of zero. Additionally, you can temporarily increase your ship’s yaw by one click at one maneuver joint (on the maneuver tool).

Token: You can increase or decrease your ship’s speed by one, as above.

The game’s unique maneuver tool. (Product image not final. Pending Licensor approval.)

Squadron

A ship can resolve a squadron command during the Ship Phase, immediately after revealing its command.

Dial: You can immediately activate a number of squadrons at short or medium range equal to your ship’s squadron value. Each squadron activated in this way can both move and perform an attack.

Token: You can activate a single squadron as above.

Repair

A ship can resolve a repair command during the Ship Phase, immediately after revealing its command.

Dial: Gain a number of engineering points equal to your ship’s engineering value. You may then spend these points to repair your ship: 1 point – Move one shield from one of your ship’s hull zones to another hull zone. 2 points – Recover one shield in any one hull zone. 3 points – Discard any one damage card

Token: Gain a number of engineering points equal to half your ship’s engineering value, rounded up. These may be spent as above.

Concentrate Fire

A ship can resolve a concentrate fire command during the Ship Phase, after rolling dice during an attack and before all attack effects have been resolved.

Dial: Immediately add an extra attack die to your attack. The die must match a die type already in the attack pool.

Token: You can reroll any one die in your attack pool.

Notably, you can spend a command token for its benefits at the same time that you resolve the same type of command from your dial. For example, you could reveal the concentrate fire command to enhance your attack, adding an extra attack die to your attack pool. You could then also spend a concentrate fire command token to reroll a blank die during the same attack.

In the Ship Phase, the Rebel player reveals the concentrate fire command for his CR90 corvette. It attacks from its forward arc for two red dice and one blue die. After rolling these dice, the player decides to spend the ship’s concentrate fire command to add a third red die. He rolls a blank, but because the ship happens to have a concentrate fire token, he can spend it to reroll the die. He does, and it generates another two hits!

Alternatively, you could spend a repair token at the same time you reveal a repair command to gain engineering points equal to 150 percent of your engineering value, rounding up any fractions. You can then use these for any combination of repair effects. Since you can’t save any unspent engineering points after resolving a repair command, spending your repair token at the same time you reveal a repair command can open up options not normally available to you. A Victory I-Class Star Destroyer, for instance, could use these repair points to discard two faceup damage cards in a single turn.
Of course, you don’t have to spend your command tokens at the same time you reveal a similar command from the dial. You can spend a command token at any time you could resolve the command from your dial, and if your ship has a high enough command value, you could spend several tokens in a single round, potentially activating a squadron, repairing your shields, and rerolling an attack die – all in the same round that you reveal a navigate command on your dial to adjust your speed and course. In this way, the larger ships can make up for their sluggish responses to your commands with massively impactful rounds. And imagine what such a round can do to the morale of an opponent who has spent the better part of the game battering at your Star Destroyer, only to see it recover the majority of its damage and punch a hole through his CR90 corvette with a single direct hit.
Devising Your Battle Plan
Again, the larger your ship is, and the more that it can do, the more you have to plan ahead. This is also a truth that multiplies as you consider the impact of your commands across the whole of the battlefield: You’re not piloting a single ship, after all; you’re directing the coordinated efforts of an entire fleet.
Your initial commands establish the tone for your early rounds; they might even establish the tone of the entire match. If you find your Star Destroyers are drifting out of position in the early rounds, you can issue a navigate command, but you’ll still know that you’re going to have to spend several rounds doing your best to survive and maintain the semblance of an aggressive stance until you can adjust your speed and course.
Moreover, when you start building larger fleets, your ships may feature an array of command values, and your command stacks may vary a great deal, even among ships with the same command values. If your fleet contains both a Victory II-class Star Destroyer and a Victory I-class Star Destroyer, you might want to position them both to fire upon the same enemy ship within a single round in an effort to blow it out of the skies. However, this plan might require two different command stacks.
Since the Victory II features an armament with both the long and medium range red and blue dice, respectively, you might want it to concentrate fire two rounds in a row. In this case, you can spend the first concentrate fire command to get a token. Then, you resolve the second concentrate fire command directly from the dial. By combining the concentrate fire commands from both the dial and token, you get both the most possible dice and the best possible results.

Aiming for a third-round barrage of fire, the Imperial player assigns the concentrate fire command to his Victory II-class Star Destroyer for two sequential rounds.

The Victory I replaces the mid-range blue dice with short-range black dice, meaning you’ll need it to draw close to its target in order to unleash its barrage at maximum firepower. Accordingly, you might want to issue it a navigate command the round before it concentrates fire so that it can speed up to be on target.

To unleash its most devastating volley on the third round, the Victory I has to get closer to its target than the Victory II does, so the Imperial player assigns it a navigate command on the second round, hoping it will be able to get into position before revealing a concentrate fire command on the third round.

By planning ahead – and responding appropriately to your opponent’s actions – you may be able to build toward a single round in which you unleash a single, devastating hail of fire from both ships.

Engaging the Enemy
No battle plan ever fully survives contact with the enemy, and learning how to adapt to the challenges of combat is another massive part of achieving success in Armada. Accordingly, our next preview will offer a closer look at combat. Brace yourself!

Star Wars: Armada is an epic two-player game of tactical fleet battles in the Star Wars universe. Massive Star Destroyers fly to battle against Rebel corvettes and frigates. Banks of turbolasers unleash torrential volleys of fire against squadrons of X-wing and TIEs. As Rebel and Imperial fleets collide, it is your job to issue the commands that will decide the course of battle and, ultimately, the fate of the galaxy.

© & TM Lucasfilm Ltd.

More News on X-COM the boardgame

News for September 2014

Alien Intelligence A Closer Look at XCOM: The Board Game's Unique Companion App

XCOM: The Board Game | Published 19 September 2014

The signal was already breaking up. UFOs over Europe, Africa, and… The early warning system went offline. Despite the limited intel, there was no time to lose. The Commander deployed the Interceptors, praying they were headed where they were needed most. There was another alert. The systems revealed an invasion force headed for the base, and then… nothing. The signal was dead. The satellite network was down. XCOM would have to fight blind…
The alien invasion has already begun!
The initial response to our announcement of XCOM: The Board Game has been positively overwhelming. Our demo tables were packed at Gen Con Indy, then again at PAX, and fan sites have since set the net abuzz with news and reviews about both the game and its use of a free digital companion app.
Why does XCOM make use of a digital companion, and what does it add to the game? These are the questions we’ll address today, as we launch headlong into the first of our series of previews.

Researching New Technology
In XCOM: The Board Game, one to four players work together as department heads of the elite military organization XCOM. It is up to you and your friends to thwart a full-scale alien invasion. This invasion is controlled by the app.
Our goal was that XCOM’s digital companion app would allow us to create a gameplay experience that would go well beyond what would be feasible without it. Accordingly, it is an integral part of the game and drives your play experience. It controls the alien invasion, coordinates hidden information, adds to the game’s tension, distinguishes player roles, and promotes a fully cooperative experience. Moreover, the app, which is available for free as both a downloadable app and an online tool, teaches you the game, guides you through each turn, and serves as your rules reference, one that is always immediately at hand.

XCOM’s digital app compresses a wealth of information into an easily digestible format. Furthermore, it keeps the game’s rules immediately at hand. You can learn about the active action simply by clicking on it, and the menu button allows you to access the full rules in just two quick clicks.

Coordinating the Alien Invasion
Each round is divided into two phases, the timed phase and the resolution phase. Throughout the timed phase, the app creates alerts that pop up onscreen and indicate which actions the players need to take. You may need to place UFOs on the board, assign scientists to research new technologies, or choose which global crisis your team will address.
Whenever an alert pops up, it is accompanied by a limited window of time within which your team can act.

The app alerts your team to an impending crisis.

After the app triggers the last of these real-time alerts in the timed phase, you enter the untimed resolution phase. In the resolution phase, you are no longer pressed by time limitations, but you face new tensions as you roll dice and push your luck to resolve your research, missions, and global defense. Even in the resolution phase, the app guides you through your turn sequence. Then, at the end of the phase, you input the results of your efforts, the app calculates the aliens’ next tactics, and the next timed phase begins.
By handling all the calculations for the alien invasion plan, the app greatly streamlines the game, and by serving as your timer, the app also helps to amplify the game’s tension. However, the app does far more than reduce your setup time and track the progress of each round’s timed phase. Those elements are useful, but they don’t truly indicate how the app characterizes your experience.
Promoting a Fully Cooperative Game Experience
XCOM: The Board Game is a fully cooperative (or solo) gameplay experience, and this is one important element of the gameplay experience that the app enables. XCOM’s app handles all of the hidden information for the aliens, directing the deployment of each round’s UFOs and enemies, as well as the number of crises that you and your team are forced to resolve. These decisions are made semi-randomly, based upon the game’s invasion plan, its difficulty level, and your ability to deal with the invasion from round to round. In fact, the app’s ability to respond to your actions means that XCOM permits an experience that’s more intelligent than a deck of cards, without requiring a player to assume the role of the aliens.
It’s thematically important that the players in XCOM are all working together to save humanity from the onslaught of a strange and unknown alien menace, but it’s also important for the game’s mechanics. The app introduces two innovative game elements that are critical to your XCOM experience: forecasts and scrambled communications.
Forecasts appear during the timed phase, flashing across your screen as yellow transmissions, and they give you advanced warning of the alien invasion plan for the round before UFOs appear in orbit or enemy strike teams arrive at your base. The information that these forecasts provide is almost always accurate, but the fullness of its intelligence depends upon how well you can maintain your satellite network. In fact, if too many aliens remain in orbit, your satellite network will deteriorate to the point where you might lose your forecasts altogether.

An example of how the app can forecast the arrival of UFOs. The forecast on the left indicates the future arrival of four UFOs (marked in yellow): two in orbit, one in Europe, and one in Australia. The alert on the right shows the arrival of three of these UFOs. Because forecasts rarely lie, we can generally expect that the UFO forecasted to arrive in Europe will arrive later in the round.

This brings us to the idea of scrambled transmissions, which contribute to one of the most remarkable aspects of the XCOM experience. In XCOM: The Board Game, the app doesn’t just play the role of your rival, it’s also your “game manager.” It teaches you the rules in its tutorial mode and then continues to serve as your one-touch rules reference. However, it also prompts you to act. In fact, there is no turn sequence listed in a rulebook because the app manages your turns, and while you’ll recognize the basic patterns of your turns – receiving forecasts, deploying resources, tracking alien movements, and responding to global crises – there is no one, single turn sequence.
Instead, the app tracks the order in which events occur and weighs your team’s actions each turn, and if the aliens are outpacing your satellite network, the app will start scrambling your transmissions, forcing you to deploy your Interceptors before you know where the UFOs are appearing in orbit. You may even have to deploy soldiers to your mission and base before you have any idea what the aliens have planned for the turn.

Here, we see an example of how scrambled transmissions can impact your ability to successfully resist the alien invaders. The screenshot on the left depicts the sort of information you should receive while your satellite network is doing its job; we see that our alert history twice detected UFOs before we had to deploy our Interceptors. The screenshot on the right, however, introduces a nightmarish situation; we are forced to deploy our Interceptors near the very beginning of the round, well before we have any idea where the aliens intend to land their UFOs. We are fighting blind.

The Central Officer

The Central Officer is responsible for four different aspects of the game. Two of these relate directly to the quality of information that your team receives from the app.

The threat of scrambled transmissions, once again, is another element that adds to the game’s uniquely satisfying cooperative play. XCOM: The Board Game features four asymmetric roles, which players divide between themselves at the beginning of each game. One of these roles is the Central Officer, the XCOM department head responsible to manage both the app and XCOM’s satellite network.
Managing the App
The first of the Central Officer’s listed duties reads:
“Communication – relay information from the app”
At first glance, this duty may appear deceptively straight-forward, but the app isn’t just a digital hourglass. It’s a resource that the Central Officer can manage, and the fact that scrambled transmissions can quickly devastate your efforts means that his role is absolutely vital.
The app has a pause function, and your group has a limited amount of pause time that it can spend each round. This pause time varies according to the game’s difficulty, but it’s also a resource that you can manage carefully in order to ensure that it’s available when you need it most. You can use it to check forecasts or discuss strategies, but if you overuse your pause time, it will run out. Then, you’ll be forced to make your future decisions in shorter windows of time. However, if you complete your earlier, simpler tasks more quickly, the Central Officer can start to bank your pause time for when the invasion hits in full force later in the game.
The fact that the Central Officer controls this pause function means, then, that he’s largely responsible for how much time your group can spend deliberating the merits of different strategic choices. Since each alert opens a limited action window, players can’t spend a long period of time to reach a group consensus about the optimal response, and this means that the multi-player format for XCOM truly encourages each member of the group to carry his or her full weight and focus on a limited set of tasks, rather than trying to manage the whole organization. In turn, the fact that you’re asked to focus so closely on your own tasks and tactics means that you better appreciate your role’s specific challenges, and you gain a greater replay value when you switch roles and tackle another whole set of challenges.
Of course, you’re still a team, and the app’s pause function will let you work together in those moments when you really need to craft your strategies as a group, but the timer and the Central Officer help to ensure that those moments merely punctuate your game experience. They don’t define it.

Your pause time is a variable resource that you will want to manage carefully in order to buy the time you need for your group to reach a consensus during the game’s most critical decisions.

Managing XCOM’s Satellite Network
In addition to managing the app, your Central Officer must also manage XCOM’s network of satellites. He can focus on attacking UFOs in orbit in order to keep your signals strong and your forecasts clear. Or he can jam the invaders’ signals to confuse UFOs hovering over the earth’s continents. When these efforts succeed, the UFOs leave the continents but return to orbit. Of course, once they’re in orbit, those UFOs then threaten to scramble your transmissions. Thus, the Central Officer must constantly weigh the importance of maintaining clear transmissions against the importance of luring alien UFOs away from the Earth.

The more UFOs in orbit, the greater the chance they will scramble your transmissions.

All told, the Central Officer serves your XCOM team as the head of military intelligence, and he’s the member of your group who is most responsible for ensuring that your team can collect the information that you need to formulate a winning plan.
Confronting the Alien Menace
As you can see, the digital companion app for XCOM: The Board Game is an integral part of the game. It streamlines your game experience, coordinates hidden information, serves as your timer, helps to distinguish player roles, and allows you and your friends to enjoy a truly cooperative experience. Additionally, it keeps the game’s rules close at hand, manages your turn sequence, permits variable difficulty levels, and challenges you to maintain a strong satellite network and clear transmissions. Moreover, the app also includes a tutorial that teaches you the game, meaning that you can dive immediately into the action. All in all, this free digital app is far more than a convenient addition to XCOM: The Board Game, it’s the slimy, green, pulsating heart of the alien invasion.
How will you respond to this alien threat? In our upcoming previews, we’ll look at the different roles you can assume as an XCOM department head and the choices with which you’ll have to wrestle as you try to plan your final mission and force the invaders back off our world.

News on Rebel Aces for X Wing

News for September 2014

Jump to Subspace A Preview of the Rebel Aces Expansion Pack for X-Wing (TM)

X-Wing | Published 15 September 2014

Hunched over inside an escape pod, a Rebel operative holds a high-ranking Moff at gunpoint. “I know it’s cramped in here; quit complaining. I don’t have much faith in this thing’s life support, so stop using up all the oxygen.” The Rebel operative tries the comms again. “Come in Dagger Squadron, do you read me? Dagger Squadron?”
    –from the “Jump to Subspace” mission
The Rebel Aces Expansion Pack for X-Wing™ is scheduled to arrive at retailers late next week!
In our previous previews, we have focused on what its new A-wing and B-wing pilots and upgrades bring to X-Wing.
We’ve seen how the expansion has increased the A-wing’s versatility, granting Rebel commanders the choice to use their A-wings as lightning-quick missile platforms or treat them with Chardaan Refits in order to make them more efficient, ship-to-ship dogfighters.

A 360-degree view of the Rebel Aces A-wing.

We’ve also see how the expansion’s ace B-wing pilots may encourage commanders to fly their B-wings out of formation and explore all-new uses of this powerful starfighter.

A 360-degree view of the Rebel Aces B-wing.

Today, we’ll turn our attention away from the different options that the Rebel Aces Expansion Pack makes possible and look at the challenges that confront its ace pilots in the expansion’s new mission, Jump to Subspace.
Mission Briefing
Jump to Subspace offers you a golden opportunity to test all the new options available to your A-wings and B-wings.
In this new mission, the Rebel Alliance must move quickly to rescue an operative that has captured a high-ranking Imperial Moff. However, it won’t be an easy task. They’re both cramped inside a damaged escape pod that has gone adrift inside an asteroid belt, and its thrusters are failing.
As you head into the mission’s setup, the Rebellion’s situation gets even worse. Its starships arrive on the scene, deployed at opposite edges of the asteroid belt, and find that Imperial forces have also arrived and are ready for battle. Accordingly, your Rebel pilots must coordinate their efforts carefully to withstand the Imperial assault even as they work to jump-start the escape pod’s thrusters and guide it safely away from the asteroid field.

If the Rebels can successfully shepherd the escape pod off the Rebel edge of the map, they win. It won’t be easy, though, because even while the Rebels begin the scenario with more available squad points than the Imperials, the Imperial player can call reinforcements to continue pressing the attack. As a result, the Rebellion’s aces find themselves battling against the clock and a limitless swarm of Imperial TIEs, and the mission gains a sense of tremendous urgency.
Finally, the mission demands that you learn how to fly your A-wing and B-wing. Its unique rules require the Rebel player to field both an A-wing and a B-wing, at least one of which must be unique, so you’ll be guaranteed plenty of chances to make great use of the A-wing’s tremendous speed and to have your B-wing launch brutal volleys of laser fire at Imperial forces.
Fly with the Rebellion’s Finest!
Only ace pilots were granted the right to fly prototypes for the Rebel fleet, but their efforts benefitted everyone dedicated to the cause of galactic freedom.
Soon, you’ll be among those benefitting from their efforts when you fly the A-wing and B-wing from Rebel Aces. You can learn how best to pilot them and put them through their paces in the new mission, Jump to Subspace. Then you can outfit them for Standard Play with the expansion’s new upgrades and continue to fight for the fate of the galaxy.
You’ll soon have your chance to fly with the best, so it’s time to start mastering these challenging starfighters… The Rebel Aces Expansion Pack arrives at retailers late next week!

X-Wing is a tactical ship-to-ship combat game in which players take control of powerful rebel X-wings and nimble Imperial TIE Fighters, facing them against each other in fast-paced space combat. Featuring stunningly detailed and painted miniatures, X-Wing recreates Star Wars’ exciting space battles. Select your crew, plan your maneuvers, and complete your mission!

© & TM Lucasfilm Ltd.

 

Dropzone Commander UCM Painted

Nick took some pics of his most recent foray into painting up some recently purchased Dropzone Commander United Colonies of Mankind (UCM) units. Nick used a tiger stripe pattern that uses some greens and browns.

 

So we have two Galdius Heavy tanks and both versions of the Wolverine scout vehicle on display. Nick is also working on some Scourge units as well and he just got his two player starter set so expect some more UCM and Scourge pics soon.

Dropzone Commander Reviews and Updates

Well a while back we talked about following this game and how great their starter set was. Hawk Wargames has recently unveiled a ton of releases for their new faction The Resistance and they have released their new expansion book: Dropzone Commander Reconquest Phase 1. These releases should have been enough to overwhelm the average gamer but on top of all of it they also dropped another big surprise and announced the pre-order of plastic starter kits for the four core factions. These kits have been reduced in price and are a great new chapter for everyone that was sitting on the fence about which faction to pick. So lets take a look at some of the new products and what is going on with Dropzone Commander.....

First up is The Resistance:

This faction is the newest addition to the Dropzone Commander line and it does not disappoint. Think about John Connor from the Terminator movies leading his human troops and you kind of get a feel for the army. You get hovercraft, pick up trucks, motorcycle infantry, helicopter gunships, drilling vehicles and tons of other unique units. The Resistance splits itself into two army types, Allies or Feral and depending on which approach you choose it allows access to different units and commanders. I do not intend to do a full faction review but I will talk about some of the new units so lets start with the infantry since they lead the way.

The Resistance infantry are similar to UCM infantry and even share some of the same models. The highlight unit for this group is the motorcycle infantry called "Freeriders". This guys are cool and as you would assume fast. I like the idea and the feel of these units. They also have more infantry options than any other faction right now.

In terms of land vehicles, they have a lot of options as well. Everything from pick up trucks with guns and rockets to heavy tanks and school buses. The cool unit here is definitely the Breach Drill which can allow for some sneaky  infiltration options.

I have always loved the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II also known as the Warthog , this has become an iconic close air support aircraft and it has personally saved me in combat. The Resistance get access to its futuristic cousin the J-19 Hellhog which just looks great. It has the look of something that will chew up armor and infantry units and it looks like a close air support option. The addition of helicopters is a different approach and I welcome it.

The Resistance would not be complete without the dropship options that make this game work. They have somewhat a traditional option in the form of the Lifthawk but there are rules that govern its use. There are also some new options via hovercraft. Yup, all of you Marines that used to be on LCACs can get excited and pick up some Resistance hovercraft to sprint your troops to their objectives.

Overall the Resistance is full of new units that offer some very unique play styles to the game. The faction is a welcomed addition and I think Hawk always does a good job of balancing out their new stuff with the old. Hopefully more factions will come out with the same thought and care that was put into this faction. To get a hold of the rules for the Resistance you need to pick up a copy of their next product we will take a look at.

Reconquest Phase 1

At 152 pages this book is a great buy and the artwork is wonderful to look at. This book is full of the background shaping the UCM and its goal to take back the cradle worlds and eventually Earth. The book has the rules for the Resistance faction and it also has the rules for all the units that are not in the core rulebook that have been added to the game since its release. In addition to all of this it has new commander options for every race that can add some new flavor to your games and increase the options for your army. The price is the same as the core book so once again a great buy.

Last but not least the four original factions will all get a plastic starter set that has dropped in price and is extremely reasonable to purchase. I found some sets as low as $25-$45 online for pre order or you can simply get it direct from Hawk. These sets really allow new players to jump in and grab a faction that they were not sure about. One of the great things about DZC is that their starters are fully playable within the force organization and the skirmish style of play allows you to get going right away. So if you were on the fence before now is a great time to jump into Dropzone Commander and get started on your army.