Planetside with Dropzone Commander

Greetings and happy hump day!  As I stated in my blog's introduction, when it comes to wargamming I have a vast and varied interest in may different scales and game systems; though Flame of War is my most current "first love" or "first obsession" as is probably apparent.  As such, to expand on the content you find here I thought I would throw out a brief entry in regards to my more recent forays into the world of Dropzone Commander or DZC.  

To be honest, I purchased DZC starter set almost a year ago and and like so many other miniatures in my horde it remained in stasis until a latter time.  I bought the game with the hopes of creating and PHR or Post Human Republic army; and in conjunction with the starter set picked up a few blisters.  

developing a

Through the starter set, I was able to introduce one of my gaming friends to the system.  As he liked the PHR, I quickly gave up my primary ambition and settled on the fleshing out of the UCM components of the starter set.  

This past Saturday, Peter stopped over and we were able to enjoy almost 5 hours of gaming in which we played both a game of FOW (Fate of a Nation--which I hope to post the AAR soon) and a game of DZC.  It was only Peter's second game, but we were able to expand and explore several of the various rules that we didn't in our first game.  We played through the scenario given in the starter set and had a great time!  

Nate's Scourge Warriors have secured an objective!

The rules are far simpler than those of FOW, especially when it comes to CQB. However, they are still detailed enough to offer a lot of tactical flexibility. The greatest mechanical difference between this game and may others is the use of dropships to deploy and then redeploy your forces.  

If your deployment stinks in many other games systems, you will find yourself having a much harder time recovering.  In DZC, however, if you feel your armored battlegroup would be better off over there; simply hop in your dropship, buzz on over and bring their guns to bear where you need them!  This is especially critical in getting objectives off the board as the quickest way is to fly them off.    Furthermore, this opens up a ton of tactical options--your enemy cannot redeploy those tanks if you shoot down his dropship!

In the game, you are playing a relativity small action in the context of larger planetary assaults. DZC, therefore, focuses heavily on the finding, securing, and removal of various objectives, pieces of intel etc. In the game with Peter, for instance, though he was able to secure an objective (thus giving him 1 Victory Point) I was able to secure one and get it off my table edge (giving me 2 Victory Points).  If the game had tied, no doubt Peter would have won as he basically annihilated my army (what DZC refers to as "kill points").  Because we had to do a lot of rule-book flipping, I failed to capture any images of my contest with Peter.  However, Nate and I were able to play a quick game Sunday night after Bible Study.  In the game Nate and I played, Nate managed to do to me essentially what I did to Peter.  Though I killed most of his stuff, Nate was able to secure an objective while I failed to do anything as Nate consistently bested my troops in combat.  Through the crucible of hand to hand combat alone, Nate emerged the victor in the game by a score of 1-0; something he was incredibly proud of!

The casualties; Nate was playing the Scourge
 while I was commanding the UCM.

As a final note about the starter set and one you can tell from the pictures; the amazing feature about the DZC starter set is that in addition to getting a ton of miniatures and a full size rule-book you also receive DZC posters/mats to play on and 10 buildings!!  You literally have all you need to play the game right out of the box; no need to spend more time and money getting a great games table and terrain--it is already in there!

I have already purchased my additional battlegroups for my UCM army so hopefully in the next few weeks Peter will have his PHR up and ready to play allowing me to bring more glimpses of the Dropzone Commander universe!  As always, thanks for reading!

-Travis