Dystopian Future

THE SPARTAN TEAM OUTLINE THEIR PLANS FOR DYSTOPIAN WARS IN THE COMING YEAR. FINALLY SOME ACTION! 


After what feels like a loooong time without proper communication, Spartan Games have broken the silence and released a blog post talking about their plans for Dystopian Wars in 2016. The blog post is here, and covers a few questions and gripes that have been appearing on the official forum, as well as plans for the future, campaign systems, new fast-play rules in the manner of Firestorm: Taskforce. 

Regardless of the content, first up I must say kudos to Spartan Games for publishing this. The official forums were starting to get a little nasty without communication from Spartan, and divided opinions on the new Dreadnought-Robots and the tardiness of the Alliance Nation updates were making things somewhat disheartening for a long-time Dystopian Wars player like myself. This reassurance is just what we needed!

Orders of Battle
The fleet lists for Dystopian Wars (commonly referred to as the Orders of Battle or ORBATS) are still being worked on, with the next three Alliance Nations up for release "soon." The Ottoman Empire. Chinese Federation and Black Wolf mercenaries are next up, and I am very interested in these as two of the fleets play a big role on this blog, and the third is one I wish to start running soon. The Kingdom of Denmark, League of Italian States and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth will follow after, and though I don't expect them soon, I will follow these closely as well.

These updates are being referred to as their "highest priority" for Dystopian Wars, which is great to hear! An updated FAQ is also in the works, which will be nice.

Tournament Guide
Coming soon will be an official pack for running Dystopian Wars tournaments, with "winners’ plaques, dice bags, posters, artwork and other prizes, some for winning and some just for participating." Fantastic stuff! I'll be very tempted to pick one of these up and try my hand at a tournament, even if it is only a small event.

Campaigns
Three big campaigns are on the way, concentrating on different areas of the World War and available as free downloads. Nice! Currently the projects are:

Operation Ice Maiden - The Russian siege of Konigsberg faces the arrival of the Teutonic Order and their "super-carrier" the Ice Maiden. This sounds rather intriguing! But will it be a land-based campaign?

Battle of the Coral Sea - The Kingdom of Britannia and their colonial allies face the encroaching aggression of the Empire of the Blazing Sun. Could be cool - though not fleets I currently run, I do have plenty of models that could receive some love if this inspires me.

Destination Baffin Bay - The Covenant of Antarctica construct a huge base on Greenland. The Federated States of America, Kingdom of Britannia and Dominion of Canada get involved, while the Prussian Empire approach from the east. This is very interesting to me, especially after running my own Greenland-based campaign some months ago. I wonder if it will change my own narrative?

First up, they have uploaded a map of the North Atlantic for use in campaigns, a great little resource I think I will be taking advantage of soon!

Big Robots and New Models
Here, Neil acknowledges that a lot of people are not big fans of the giant Robots, but reassures us there will be other new models on the way! Some of these will be for the campaigns mentioned above, and I am pleased to hear mention of a Prussian ship based on the idea of creating lightning storms to disrupt enemy flyers! Great idea.

There is mention of older sculpts receiving a refresher, which is a fine idea for some of the first generation models. Aesthetic and sculpting quality changes over the years, and it will be nice to get a second chance at some of the oldest models in the range, which now look clunky against the most recent releases. As with previous releases, old models will not be rendered obsolete, which is a nice touch from Spartan.

There was also some talk of changing packaging a making the game easier to get into with smaller purchases, which is a welcome sign of adapting to the demands of the market.

So there we are! Some good reassurances, some acknowledgments and a few hints of the future. It seems the Ottoman Empire will be getting the most attention, and I am glad to hear it. I look forward to dusting off my old collection and actually getting some paint on them! I'm not sure when, (perhaps after the current project of yet more Russians...), but I think it is time to get the Ottomans out into open water!

Thanks for reading,

George