Mines! All Mines!



TAKING A LOOK AT THE NEW SCULPTED MINE TOKENS FOR DYSTOPIAN WARS



With the new Edition of Dystopian Wars, Spartan Games have decided to supplement the gaming experience with these excellent sculpted Mine Tokens. Pre-measured to the activation range of the Mine and featuring space for dice to sit and mark their strength, they are a great evolution from the paper token of old. Supplied as a pack of ten, I could not resist picking some up!

The new Mine Tokens are sculpted with wave-like patterns that can also be painted as broken ground for Land-based games

Featuring space for small dice, the Mines can show their strength without needing to check the book or keep detailed paperwork

The Uhlan-class Cruisers carry a complement of Mines

The Kingdom of Denmark are the true masters of Mine-laying, with almost every ship able to drop Mines, all featuring the High Payload MAR that makes them deadly

The Magnetic Pulse of the Danish Commodore can move the Mine Tokens across the board, enabling a variety of tactics

A closer view of the Token. I have considered sculpting over the square hole with some form of putty or Green Stuff to make them purely ocean, but reasoned the dice mechanic was actually quite useful

The Mine Tokens come with many different coloured dice, to represent Mines of both sides, or perhaps to represent those with High Payload versus normal ones. They can also represent those tokens were multiple Mines have been laid on top of one another, which can lead to a massive explosion!

Korsor-class Mine Layers deliver their cargo

One of my favourite tactics is to run the speedy Mine Layers through, around and past an enemy vessel, leaving a wall of Mines in their path. When they Activate, they are forced to move into the newly laid Minefield. If they can avoid them somehow, a helpful push from the Magnetic Pulse makes sure they hit their target

Uhlan-class Cruisers force the Australian Monitors into the path of their Mines, rather than risk a collision

Mines are as much as a tool to deny the enemy certain areas or routes as they are for causing damage

Leaving a long thin Minefield can be useful for blocking through the ocean, but remember that any Mine explosion that touches another will cause a chain reaction

The Georgetown may be forced to change course, or risk using its CC value to try and detonate the Mines early

Without the Minesweeper MAR and forced forward by its Minimum Move, the Georgetown has entered the Minefield

Damaged by Mines, the Georgetown is easy prey for the Prussian Cruisers

I fully admit I am not the expert on Mine tactics in Dystopian Wars, as I have not had a great deal of practise with my Danish fleet or any other than can utilise these powerful tools. The tactics discussed above are pretty basic, but effective nonetheless.

These new Tokens are a great replacement for the paper tokens and give the board a great look, as well as helping measure if they have been set off or not. In the future, with more research and more practise, I may be able to revisit this topic and give some real advice!

Thanks for reading,

George