Today I will be talking briefly about Dystopian Wars. This is one of the games I have branched into after the discontinuation of GW's Specialist Games section.
At first I only bought the airborne range of miniatures from the Covenant of Antarctica [COA] faction. This was due to the fact that two of my friends and I are fans of Last Exile, and we wanted to play a steam punk game in a similar vein to that anime. See my three Daedalus flyers' entries for more info.
Lately though, Dystopian Wars has caught up big time at my local gaming club, so I decided to buy the naval starter set for COA and join the fun. I chose COA on the same principle that I choose all my armies and factions - ie whether or not I like the minis.
It doesn't matter if the army or faction is good or bad in game terms, or if they suit my style of gaming. If I like the miniatures - I collect the army. And so it was with COA.
Unfortunately, after reading the rules a bit better and going through the army lists to get a feel for the other armies, I have to say that COA are not really my cup of tea where gaming is concerned. I am a very aggressive player normally and I always go for factions that like to get up close quickly. COA do not fit this profile. This means I will have to adapt and be creative - it will be a challenge.
What I don't understand about COA is how much the army list does not fit in with the fluff. According to the background, COA possess advanced tech that is unavailable to the rest of the world. One would think that their ships would be overall better but more expensive that the other factions - but this is not so. From what I can gleam they are not particularly faster or durable than other nation's ships, nor do they possess better fire power or survivability.
To be honest they do have gizmos that give them some advantages like teleportation and generators but not much more. They do have energy weapons but from what I could tell they are rather useless after the first turn when the enemy pass range band four.
We will just have to wait and see. I will be in a better position to judge after I have played several games, but I have a feeling I will be loosing many more games than I will be winning!
Well, that is all for today, I will be posting my first painted minis in two or three days.
Until then farewell and good health.
NR