Dystopian Wars: Second Edition Even Closer Still

Three weeks from the release of Operation: Shadow Hunter and Spartan have put up the Pre-Orders for the new Starter Boxes - seven Naval Battle Groups and seven Armoured Battle Groups for the Core Nations. Each one weighing in at £45.00, these look like the perfect way to start a new fleet, and come with a whole host of great stuff beyond just the excellent new models.

For the Naval boxes, my main interest at this point, each set features a Heavy Battleship (though not all are Heavy), Carrier (Assault or Battle), Battle Cruiser, five Corvettes and four Frigates.

Note the Hussar-class Gunship turret on the Cruisers - obviously less powerful than the three-barrelled Battleship turrets. I especially love their smoke stacks, mounted in a line rather than side by side

In addition, each one comes with (at least) 16 SAS Tokens (the new name for TFTs), 7mm dice to represent the different configurations of SAS Tokens, new Token and Template Sheets, and a full TAC Deck. Several of the sets also feature extras, such as the tiny Submarines for the Republique of France, or the Nodes for the Empire of the Blazing Sun.

The Saint Malo Heavy Battleship is currently my favourite of all the new releases, and will prompt me to paint my French fleet in the coming months

Interesting that all the Corvette squadrons are five-strong, even those that previously had a maximum size of four like the FSA and Republique of France.

A solid looking force, the Russian Battle Group also features one of the few new Small ships

For those players who wish to expand their existing fleets, these boxes could be considered a bit of a burden as they do feature some already released miniatures - heaven knows I have enough Arminius-class Frigates for my Prussian force, as heretical as that may sound. Hopefully, Spartan will release the new ships in the near future.

Though I am painting a Covenant force between writing blog posts, the new Covenant stuff looks interesting. I especially like the new cruisers

For those who wish to start a new fleet or get into the game, however, these are great. As mentioned above, I was thinking about starting a Russian fleet at some point in the future and these offer a great opportunity - and without some of the redundancies like two squadrons of Frigates or an under-strength Bomber squadron.

The tweaking and small redesigns across the Britannia range make them a more appealing prospect for the future

I will be buying the Prussian and the Republique of France initially, and the Russian box will follow once I have painted a *few* more ships. Having purchased Operation: Shadow Hunter, I will wait for the new Japanese Battle Cruiser and the FSA Carrier and Battle Cruiser become available seperately, rather than buy a load more of the same models.

The new designs for the Empire of the Blazing Sun appeal to me a great deal more than their older, simpler design

So there we are for the June releases! It seems so far away now... but at least this gives me time to complete some small projects for the big release appears!

Thanks for reading,

George