The Rise and Fall and Resurrection

As many of you know who read my blog post I am very keen on Space Genre Gaming with almost all of my post focused on this subject.  Upon my return to scene I was trying to catch-up on the news of the my gaming interests.  While going through the latest news, forum posts, and looking at what gaming conventions this year an interesting thought came across my mind.

2017 saw the rise and fall of two great gaming lines and now 2018 will hopefully see their resurrection. The first victim being Firestorm Armada by Spartan Games and the second being Dropfleet Commander by Hawk Wargames.

Each of their demises was sudden and tragic because new gamers are being drawn into each system. I myself have a large investment in Firestorm Armada and I backed the Dropfleet Commander Kickstarter at the highest pledge I could at the time. Each universe has a great back story and even more potential.

However all is not lost, first we heard that Spartan Games struck a deal with Warcradle for several of their games including Firestorm Armada and recently TTCombat entered into an agreement with Hawk Wargames for the Dropfleet/Dropzone Commander games.

While we have not seen anything new from Warcradle regarding Firestorm Armada miniatures. However their online presences has been changing constantly.  Warcradle has updated the Spartan Games websites and moved over the existing form or started a new one on their website, https://community.warcradle.com/forum/28-firestorm-armada/. I have not determine this for sure as of late. I may have missed a forum posting while quickly browsing all of the content.

I just saw, albeit late, that TTCombat is already working to bring the new ships of Dropfleet Commander to market.  For example they are now offering the Remnant Centurion Cruiser as limited time offer, 4 February 2018, on their website and then it will only be available at shows that TTCombat Attends. This is an amazing way for TTCombat to show their support for the game and its gamer following.

Remnant Centurion Cruiser

I have begun to turn my frown of disappointment upside down with all of these exciting changes going on with two of my favorite games.  I just now have to get Dropfleet Commander miniatures battle ready.

Hawk Wargames: DropFleet Commander

My kickstarter pledge for DropFleet Commander finally arrived in the mail. It was a very anticipated delivery. I was watching email for the shipment conformation everyday. I chose to pledge at the Commodore level. For this pledge, I receive one Dropfleet Commander 2 Player Starter Set, which contains Scourge and UCM starter Fleets, terrain and accessories needed to play a starter set game. 2 Faction Starter Fleets, PHR. The Kickstarter exclusive UCMF Atlantis model, plus 3 Kickstarter Exclusive Battlecruisers.

When the box arrived I was like a kid in a candy store. This box was larger and heavier than expected.

I was happy to see that when I opened the box it was filled full of goodies. My attention was drawn to this awesome T-Shirt that Hawk WarGames produced.

After unpacking the entire box there was a ton of ships, stands, dice, cards, and markers.  I am happy to report this was one of the best Kickstarters I have pledge to date. Ships, Ships, and more Ships.

After looking throw all of the packages I found this cool Hawk Wargames pin.

The two player starter sets include the decks of cards for battle groups and these awesome custom dice were included.

With my pledge I ordered the modular space station and there are a lot of pieces and parts. This thing is a work of art.

Here is a close up view of the detailed injection molded plastic ships, specifically a UCMF ship. These ships are very detailed. Some of the best I have seen, I am surprised at how far we have come in space gaming.

The DropFleet Commander core rule book is a work of art in itself, 224 pages of glory and awe.  This is one heavy duty book. I am glad they took their time to make sure it was at this quality.

Well I hope to get these ships on the painting table soon. I am getting my second wind of gaming after some personal hardships. Only time will tell.

Hawk Wargames: Dropfleet

Recently Hawk Wargames just announced they are working on a new space combat game called DropFleet.  Their latest newsletter gave us a sneak peek at the UCM Fleet.  Check it out!

The newsletter revealed...

Dropfleet will be an Orbital Combat game in which the vast majority of your games will take place in orbit above a planet’s surface. The game has been designed for this from the ground up by Andy Chambers and is an entirely new and unique ruleset. A typical gaming table is 4′x4′ and will show the surface of a planet rather than the more typical ‘starfield’ style space combat table. The area covered will be around the size of a large European country/US State. Delivering your troops to targets on the surface will be crucial for victory and most missions will be tactical and objective focused. Space stations, static defences, ground troops, cities and other scenery play an integral part in the game.
Three altitude layers (High Orbit, Low Orbit and Atmosphere) are present in games and have various effects. Only certain ships (such as Strike Carriers) can go atmospheric and each layer has advantages and disadvantages in different tactical situations. Weapons range is neither absolute nor fixed. It can change based on the power of your ship’s scanners, the enemy ship’s signature and the enemy’s actions (firing several weapons greatly increases a ships signature for example). Stealth is frequently crucial! A framework for linking games of Dropfleet and Dropzone will be present in the rulebook, opening up many exciting possibilities for campaigns and narrative settings.