So I have had the Dropzone Commander book for a while now and have managed to read through it for a cursory idea of whats happening. What follows is a short review of the book itself and my thoughts on the rules and fluff contained within…
The Book…
The book itself is full colour from front to back and this is a nice touch. Though by no means necessary, it does mean that you really feel that you got your monies worth just for the quality of it. All the non-diagram artwork has used actual models placed in to battle scenes with a little image editing here and there which I really like as it helps you to place your models into the battlefield situations you place them on the tabletop in to a more dramatic image of the carnage in your head. The font is a good size and easy to read, which is not always the case with these books, there is nothing cluttering up the page like some rulebooks (I’m looking at you Mordheim!) so your focus is not automatically drawn away from the words you are reading and trying to understand so you can “spot the fish”…
There it is! No wait... Over there!
The Rules…
The rules themselves are very clear to understand and there is no immediate area for concern regarding ambiguity so far as I can see. The only thing I have struggled with is the stats. This will most likely be because I am used to GW and Warmachine/Hordes type stat lines. It will take a little getting used to as the vast majority of the Dropzone Commander stats are completely new. In fact it can look a little busy on the stat lines and this is where most of my confusion lies at present. No doubt I will adjust but it would have been good to try and keep to what people know already with some extras, just to make it easier to get into the game. This is a very minor niggle at most so I won’t go on about it.
The Fluff…
The fluff is detailed enough that you can relate to the various factions motivations (except those of The Scourge perhaps) but leaves enough information out that you want to read more as soon as you can. The fluff is mostly based in the UCM point of view. To give a brief overview of it for each faction…
United Colonies of Mankind (UCM), formerly just humans, have been kicked out of Earth and the initial main colonies, that were well established, by The Scourge. It was sudden and brutal and, apparently, simultaneous across all the main Human worlds. The fringe worlds now form up the UCM. They have been isolated as much as possible from a kind of Warp transit system that requires a known co-ordinated exit point, this has prevented The Scourge from finding them as they build up to retaliate.
The Scourge seek to assimilate worlds to use the occupants as hosts. That seems to be it so far as motivation goes. A lot of the infrastructure of the occupied worlds remains intact and they seem to be using it. All their dropships appear to be one way insertion vessels meaning there was never any intention to leave the planets again, once they were cleared of non-useful humans. Something yet to be acheived as there are small pockets of resistance even after hundreds of years.
The Shaltari Tribes motivations vary from tribe to tribe. They are a warlike people split into many tribes. Initial contact with the UCM turned out to be one tribes efforts to secure large numbers of troops to use against another tribe. It didn’t work, unsurprisingly and has lead to tensions with the “friendly” tribes. The unfriendly ones are close to all out war with humanity already anyway. This tribal system seems to be one that has come about through mutual agreement as a way to prevent the species from stagnating, which is a fascinating concept and really causes me to like the Shaltari, not sure why that is though.
The Post-Human Republic is a human faction (Duh!) that broke away from the origional colonies after a mysterious sphere came from outer space and warned of impending doom. People, who became known as Abandonists, gathered at the place the sphere advised at the appointed time with ships to await the next instructions. They were confronted by the military of the time, Some of the Abandonist ships fired first and drew the away the military whilst the remaining abandonist ships received co-ordinates and dissappeared off. These break away people were then guided by the sphere (mysteriously liberated from a research facility) and created the Post-Human Republic. Their motives are largely unknown and reconciliation has been made impossible by the UCM, who view them as cowards for fleeing like they did. So the cybernetically enhanced Abandonists are their own advanced human faction.
The main fluff of the story relates to the beginning of the UCMs attempt to liberate Earth and the other occupied worlds from The Scourge. Quite how well this will go is yet to be seen. Personally I have found the fluff engaging both on a faction by faction basis as well as the main storyline itself. It has great promise going forward. The plan is for the fluff to progress ala Warmachine/Hordes, with new books advancing the story for all factions.
The Rest…
All that remains is the pictures! As stated earlier most of the art features the actual models with some pictorial manipulation to get some good action shots. Each faction area is finished with alternate paint jobs for various models. I have yet to find a colour scheme that is not awesome. The only models in the whole range I dislike (and thats a strong word in this case) are the Scourge Dropships and the UCM Heavy Dropship. Everything else in the range is fantastic.
In summary then, The book is excellent value for money, being full colour and well presented. The rules are clear and concise additionally my book came with an errata slipped in for tiny editorial type mistakes and there are more on the Dropzone Commander website as well, which makes me feel that they are keeping on top of things from the word go. There are no “Rule” erratas just little glitches that slipped through the cracks. As far as playing goes, I have to save up to buy a couple of starter forces and then I will be able to play some games and review the game itself properly. I will also review the models at this time. In the mean time the book is a good place to start and well worth the purchase even if you do not buy fully into the game, my congratulations go to Dave and the whole Hawk Wargames team.
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Chairman Asheth