The US Admiral Beta Day has come and gone, and while I am still busy here with a lot of things going on,... Heading to see the Spruce Goose today with Hawk. I wanted to touch bases with a brief report on the Dropfleet.
I will get more into the details of the game very soon.
The rules for the game were very easy to navigate and learn. In the spirit of Dropzone Commander, the game play has several common themes that will make the game feel familiar to fans. It is however it's own game, and is not Dropzone in Space.
The first game there was a lot we did wrong, after all I had read the rules less than 24 hours before the event started (that is when I got them). However, after a quick game or two, I feel that we got a very good feel for what is soon to become one of the best games on the market. It really is that good. Andy Chambers and Hawk Team have really hit a home run with this.
Gameplay is fast and furious. It is very strategic, and planning your actions before the turn, even with just playing starter sets against each other, is very critical. Several games in, we were creating massive damage onto each other, with ships burning on fire and subject to orbital decay. While crews were helping the damage, ships can go critical when destroyed, so being in very close with Heavy Cruisers pounding each other back and forth can be very dangerous.
A critical ship in game two of mine exploded resulting a lot of damage to my Berlin Class Cruiser (with burn through lasers) and crippling it in the process. On other tables ships were destroyed quite quickly from some explosions.
I only have a little time this morning, but highlights of my own games, included Scourge Stealth Cruisers running silent as they approached the UCM Fleets, then appearing up close with Weapons Free orders and unleashing tremendous damage. Of course part of the reason this worked so well was because the UCM player was Actively Scanning my ships and was visible due to large signature spikes.
Next as a UCM player, my Seattle Class Cruiser was devastating the enemy through bomber waves crippling several cruisers and taking out a frigate or two.
Overall a great game day, and I will get more into an overview of the game mechanics and even the models we played with later. For now I am going to show off some pics of the event.
If you were there, and everyone that was there was a ton of fun. As you will see in the pics, the event was catered with great food, and afterwards many people hung out and went out to dinner.
Here are the pics. One thing I want to stress on the pics. There are a lot of tokens on the board. That is because the bases are being made now, so tokens were used as markers that would normally not be needed how were were using them.
Oh Yea... One last thing until I get caught up..... The Kickstarter is currently right on schedule for late June early July shipping. Figured that would make a lot of readers happy (it did us as well). Remember that this is Hawk Wargames, and they are on it, and were very happy getting direct feedback.
