Playtesting Dust Tactics V2

Lack of action on Wargaming Ninja Turtles was partly due to me having moved in a new place and my lack of internet.

Back to the main topic...

DUST TACTICS V2

I'm sure everyone who reads this blog has seen this Dust Tactics Babylon Kickstarter by now.

I must say couple of things:
-I've been impressed by Battlefront = ...
It took them a LONG time before starting to do anything for Dust (maybe a little too long?) but when they finally got to it, I would say it was definitely worth the wait: articles, conversions, custom rules, a good handling of spoilers (contrary to the biggest company in the hobby), etc...

-I was quite sad and worried when they announced 'Dust Battlefields' because to me it meant the slow death of Dust Warfare. Now that we've had more insight on 'Dust Battlefields' (check here), I must say I'm happy.

To quote a friend:

''Allied infantry one that throw too many dice for their points...Gone!
Infantry 4 too though because nothing can attack them...Gone!
Jump Troops too good because nothing can react to their 12'' move that ignores terrain...Gone!
Vehicles too tedious to move and rotate...Gone!
Cover that makes no sense...Gone!
Fireball Airdrop...Gone!''

Battlefields seems like it will be a more balanced version of Warfare.

Now to the playtest:

Battlefront, knowing how to handle previews and spoilers, has released slowly but surely Basic Rules, Special Rules and the unit cards on Dust-Tactics.com articles every week, twice a week.

Trying to get together all the previewed cards for Axis and SSU, printing them and printing the rules, I decided it would make for a good afternoon of gaming if I tried Dust V2 with my brother.

Here's the army he made:

Axis 100pts

 

 

 

Although he probably didn't realize it, all his army is of the ''Wehrmacht'' subgroup, while this has so far no impact on the game, I always am happy when its ''fluff''. ;)

Here's the list I made:
SSU 100pts

    

This SSU army had 2x the Hailstorm because I love mortars and really wanted to have artillery.
I would have tried some Steel Guards but their base currently being worked on made them sit on the bench.

The Scenario we chose to play was: ''All-Out Attack'' in which we need to kill 7 units and/or to capture our opponent's objectives in order to score points.
Failure to do so means the game ends on turn 8. Every destroyed unit can be placed in reserves and played back on the field.

The Game:

Despite an early lead on my part in kills, my brother managed to come back and then crush me with successive nasty surprises (Natasha being blow-up by Panzerfausts...oups! Totally forgot these could be relevant.)(Lara+the Panzers walking out of cover, firing at a squad and then moving into another cover closer to another squad) managed to win the game on my mistake: I went with the usual mentality that troops should cause as much damage before they should die...except that in this scenario, if stuff is close to death, you might want to put it safe somewhere instead of giving your opponent some precious victory points.
It played relatively fast for our fist game (I would say 1h-1h30)

Thoughts about how both lists played:

Axis:
-Panzerfausts are GOOD!!! They used to be less than relevant in Dust Warfare...Well I've lost my Natasha twice to Panzerfaust fire from the Axis The Ghosts. They truly are a weapon to fear. My little brother also did not forget to use the 'reload' skill on them in order to have them ready.
-Axis Infantry 3 is quite survivable. They can sustain a wall of fire and still walk out alive. You really need dedicated anti-infantry units firing at them in a sustained attack in order to be sure you can remove them.
-Lara is as insane as she looked, moving+firing+moving or sustained attack+moving, etc... is extremely good! Not only did it looked a blast to play with (I feel we'll see a lot of Laras on the Axis side) it was also ruthlessly efficient.
-Hans is a ''all or nothing'' type of walker: if you hit you'll kill it, if you don't you're toasted! I think the Hans is still quite good for its point cost.
-Hermann is playable (Contrary to Warfare) and a very decent option.

SSU:
-Mortars pack a punch at range 3 when they can fire their PPSH, they don't when they fire their mortar. Very disappointed with them...maybe I don't know how to play them yet. UPDATE: Wow!! Did you know Mortars (and all artillery weapons) can fire smoke shells? I found out recently and tried it: it is worth getting a mortar, even two of them, just for this amazing ability to block line of sight and/or give cover to your troops.
-Karl Marx: absolutely amazing, they managed to make Tesla good!!! And the weapon is fluffy too as its easy to imagine stunned infantry and crewmen from the big electric shock they just suffered. An amazing tank...and not invincible (contrary to Warfare).
-Matrioshka is good...and has decent anti-infantry firepower with its two MGs.
-Natasha was 'okay' it needs to sustain fire to do anything relevant...although having 'grenade' on its weapons + a range of 6 does sweeten the deal.
-Nina is almost the same a the Axis 'Hans', I did like it.
-Red Thunders+Comissar were very good!! Infantry needs to be in cover, especially if your opponent has Lara+The Panzers walking around and shooting everything...but the Red Thunders did manage to do a lot of damage.
-Command Squad is a command squad = essential in my opinion.


We decided to play a second one and change some stuff in our lists:

Axis 100pts:

 

 

 

A More Blutkreuz-heavy list with 4 heroes, my brother sacrificed his anti-air for more anti-infantry/anti-tank power.
To note: he also chose to eschew a command squad and see how having multiple heroes with 'Officer' would work instead.

SSU:

 

 

Even more Mechanized, this list main goal was to try some air power in the form of two Striker helicopters. I was still fond of the Karl Marx and wanted to keep my Command Squad. I would have probably replaced both light walker with more infantry had my bases been ready (and the Ohotniki's card previewed yet! ;))

Game #2:

This one was even closer than Game #1, I had a regular beginning with my light walkers entering on the field and surviving my brother's Axis.
It all went wrong when on turn 2, after my Karl Marx attacked Lara and co who had just downed the first Striker attack helicopter, then the zombies with a Totenmeisterin attached came out from the woods and charged the Karl Marx....Thankfully my little brother didn't roll too stellar and the Marx Survived with half its life gone. I tried to reactivate the Marx to do as much damage as I could before it would explode but sadly I failed all my 'Get moving you bunch of monkeys!' rolls.

Which meant that the real monkeys, my brother's axis war gorillas Kampfaffen then got to charge the Marx and reduce it to a wreck. Ouch!!
I avenged the Marx with the help of my Red Thunder red guards anti-tank squad by going in and throwing an obscene amount of dice at the zombies. (the PPSH are a vicious weapon!!)

As I dealt with the zombies and apes by bringing my second Striker attack helicopter in support of my red guards, Lara and co made more than their points' worth back again by shooting it down. Two helicopters down...Thankfully the zombie threat and apes had been fairly neutralized by then.
Thats' when IT came from the woods, a lone zombie armed with a circular blade...It slashed into the red guards, killing 5 of them.

The turn after, this monstrosity went to the Red bears, my command squad, and killed two more before they put and end to him.

On the flanks, my Nina managed to destroy the Wotan...and then got destroyed by whatever, probably a Hermann...
The Wotan was brought back from reserves, I followed with a brand new IS-48 Karl Marx...But sadly couldn't save it from the Wotan (despite it being on an amazing spot, able to get cover AND capture the enemy point). I brought a fresh Nina but still wasnt able to wreck the Wotan...resulting on two dead vehicles, the total loss of the flank...

Facing a Herman, a Wotan+Panzerprinz (he climber in the new one), Lara and the Panzers with only one remaining Red guard anti-tank squad and a damaged Natasha, I conceded to my brother.

Thoughts about both lists:

Axis:
-Panzerprinz+Wotan, an obvious combo...that packs a punch!! This extra action to give the Wotan some mobility while being able to sustain were well worth the 34pts of vehicle death!
-Zombies and Apes, now with Charge and other abilities, they are quite dangerous...and also one of the best option against tanks. (3x 2/3 is nothing to laugh at...even if you are a Karl Marx)
-Grenadier X was good fun, especially when my brother rolled 4 hits in a row on that ''cutting'' ability.
-Lara+The Panzers, well, they were more than able to deal with Helicopters too.

SSU:
-I liked the Helicopters, being able to do some damage against the Wotan helped too.

Yup that is it for my Tactics playtest.
I apologize if the battle-reports are not the clearest, I've had almost a week between this post.