Dust Warfare

Its been a while since I started Dust and I have yet to come up with a good way to review it. So I guess what Im gonna end up doing is just kind of stumbling through it, slop on some pictures, and then shove it on the blog.

Starting the Pics off early

Dust Warfare uses the same models as Dust Tactics the Fantasy Flight Board Game. Also the Same Dice. From what I hear they are similar, but Warfare is more free formed and not played on a Grid like Tactics.

So Dust is a dystopian world based around WWII, which I like. The general back story is that the Gemans were about to lose the war when they found what might be, but totally is, Alien technology. They used to to Kill Hitler and have the regular military take over the country. Then they started to push back the Allies. The Gemans then asked for Peace, saying Hitler is dead and something worse is coming. The allies said hell to the no and then stole some Alien Tech and built their own awesomeness. So did the Russians. So now the world is divided into what I think is 3 major powers. Allies, Axis, and Russia, who got mad at the other allies for something. Also there is a rumor that Aliens who may not exist, but totally do, will be coming to town and become the 4th Faction.

See totally Alien Technology

The game is pretty simple but has a lot of tables to keep track of. Each soldier has a gun. The gun has a range, basically from 6"-16" (Some are longer, but most cap at 16") Then there is a table that says when shotting said gun at a Soldier of X type roll Y Dice. So a Standard Army Ranger shooting his rifle at a standard German Grenadier would roll 1 die. The Dice are set up with 4 Blank Sides and 2 "Hit" Symbols so any single die has a 1/3 chance of scoring a hit.

There are 2 rules to the game that are really crucial. Cover is the first. Your soldiers can benefit from Hard or Soft Cover. Soft cover cancels a single hit against them from enemy fire. Hard Cover cancels two. So a Squad of Rifles (5 man on average) shooting into cover has a very poor chance of actually killing anyone. This leads to weapons that ignore cover. Grenade Launchers and Flame Throwers and the like. If a single weapon in your squad ignores cover, then all of them do. So special characters who can ignore cover with their shots are great choices to add into units so you can make normal weapons ignore cover. Most weapons that ignore cover have a smaller range so you have to up close to use them.

That Grenade Launcher in his hands is handy for kicking guys out of cover, the chick is kinda hot

The Second Rule is Supression. When a unit is hit by an enemy attack they suffer supression, whether you lose soldier sor not. At the start of a units activation they roll a die for each supression token. On a hit its removed. So building up a couple on a unit is a good way to keep them supressed. If a unit stays suppressed then they lose either their move or action for the turn. The game also uses a reaction system, where if a unit hasn't acted yet during the turn they can do something when an enemy is within 12" of them. Supression removes their ability to react.

Check it, a Rule Book


So those are the most important rules to Dust. I guess now I will tell you why I like it. First off the world is really cool to me. I love the feel, the slightly advanced tech from WW2, plus the chance to field and force that is basically 100% Army Rangers is awesome to me. I like most of the rules. Some feel a touch tacked on, like the reaction system. But overall I think it still makes for a good game.

I dislike the Aliens. Thye don't exist yet, but I keep hearing that they are coming to be faction #4, and I do think these days Mini games need 4 factions to function right. But I dont really care for the idea of Aliens. Also I dislike how late it feels like the Russians army rules are. I don't play them, but several people at my LGS bought into them and have yet to get rules on how to play them.

She wants to play too


Overal I would rate this game fairly well. Lets say a B+. Its my second favorite game at the moment behind Malifaux. But ahead of Hordes and any form of GW army game.