Greetings! In my last post on the Dystopian Wars (DW) version 3.0 beta, I put together a brief overview of the major differences between older versions of the game and the first version of the 3.0  rules that Warcradle has shown us. As I mentioned at the time, many of those rules are subject to change as the open beta progresses, and that’s exactly what’s happened; earlier this week, a fairly lengthy list of changes was put out via the official DW Facebook page. Some of these changes are fairly minor, but some others are rather significant. So, with that in mind, here are my thoughts on what I think are the most impactful changes. I’m not going to go through every single change in this post; the full list here, but you can find it copied to the MBS forums if you are interested. Let’s dig in!

Landlubber’s FSA Heavy Battleship

Clarified Fire Arcs and Line of Sight

The wording in this section has been updated to discuss how targeted models with a “partially blocked” line of sight now get credit for being Obscured. While that is all well and good, the LOS section still seems unclear to me when I read it. In addition to needing some language clean-up, I’m also not sure what counts as “partially blocked” LOS, since the Remember note seems to suggest that LOS is intended to be a binary condition; you either have LOS or you do not.

There also seems to be some discrepancy between where LOS is measured; on page 3 it suggests that LOS is measured from any point of the model within the given arc, while on page 6 it suggests that it should be from the center of the model. Personally, I hope that “center of the model” is the intended measuring point, and I think a little editing and a diagram or two would help out a lot here. Firing arcs remain limited to 90 degree sectors, which as I mentioned last time I’m a big fan of.

Clarified SRS token use and that they literally stack as well as figuratively. New illustrations to reinforce that point.

This is probably a more minor note, but it is interesting in that it shows what can only be a new resin or plastic game component for SRS, one that appears to have a shallow saucer or bowl shape that will allow them to stack somewhat like a poker chip. Previously, it seemed to me as if the tokens/markers were to be spread around the edge of a target model.

This is a definitive move away from the older SAW/SAS tokens,  beyond just changing the basic footprint from a square to a circle. It shouldn’t be too hard to house-rule this however; the sizes don’t seem drastically different, and the old tokens stack on top of each other just fine.

Increased range of SRS tokens.

Specifically, the range went up 25%, from 15″ to 20.” There’s a few things to consider here. First, the longer range obviously ups the potency of carriers, but it is still not possible for them to launch strikes from beyond shooting range. This means that they still will not have the same “free wheeling” feel of previous editions. Whether or not that is a bad thing or not is a matter of taste; I need to actually get this on the table myself before I decide. Another thing to consider is that while the range only goes up by 25%, the amount of area that can be covered by a carrier’s planes has almost doubled, from 706 square inches to 1,256 square inches. That means that it will be a lot easier to keep one’s own fleet underneath the umbrella of a friendly carrier for defensive purposes, and allows for a much greater degree of board control (a 4’x6′ game table has a total of 3,456 square inches).

Changed Generator Power Up to happen on a ‘Counter’ result. Generators made more easy to Power Up through Victory and Valour cards.

This basically cuts the chances of successfully powering up a generator off a base roll in half; instead of 1 in 3, its now 1 in 6. from 50% to 33%. There are indeed Victory & Valor (V&V) cards that allow players to automatically power up a generator, and seem relatively common (12 cards out of 60), at least in the card deck that’s available so far. This is an obvious attempt to make V&V cards play a more central role in 3.0, but it seems like a reasonable one to me on the face of it. This is another thing that I’m not going to pass judgement on until I’ve played it on the table, but I do worry that this change makes generators too unreliable.

Update to the Victory and Valour deck to increase the variety and add new in-game effects. Particular note are two new Valour abilities that make repairing and generator activation easier as well as introducing the ability to piggy-back an additional activation.

As discussed above, there is a 1 in 5 chance of drawing a Power Up Generator for Free card out of the deck, which isn’t too bad; for most games, that probably means you’ll have at least one of these cards in your hand. There are 3 of the “piggy-back” cards in the deck, which are essentially the same as the old “Tally Ho!” STAR/TAC cards.

What me, OP?

Even though their draw is only 1 in 20, that’s still enough to make it likely they’ll show up at least once or twice per game, especially given the ability for players to “mine” their deck. In 2.5 and earlier, Tally Ho! was a very powerful ability, and was capable of turning the tide of a whole game in some situations. Seeing it appear to be as common as it is in the V&V deck gives me pause, especially since there is no counter-play (ie, canceling cards) in 3.0, at least, not yet. This is especially a concern when you consider that there doesn’t appear to be anything that prevents a player from chaining these cards together to activate 3 or even 4 units at once, if they happen to have 2 or 3 of these cards in their hand (which, again, isn’t an impossibility given the deck mining mechanics). That might be….a tad OP.

Revised how Initiative is earned and added an additional benefit for those that want to ‘Hold Their Nerve’.

Specifcally that extra benefit is drawing another V&V card. This does allow for a player another way to go fishing for cards, but with the potential of a 3 or 4 unit combo activation, it might not be worth the risk to let your opponent go first just to get an additional card!

Units can now stop and move backwards!

In the previous version of the beta, models always drifted forwards, and then could move forwards up to full speed or backwards up to half speed from there. With this change, models declared to be reversing do not drift, gain a Disordered Condition, and then can move up to half speed in reverse. I kind of like this change; it is still much easier to work with than the older version of Slow Speed Maneuvers from 2.5, but still imposes a small penalty from backing down.

Expanded Squadron rules and explained multiple model units.

There has been a paragraph added that states small models can be fielded in squadrons up to 6, while mediums can be fielded in squadrons up to 3. I suspect these are just working numbers for the purposes of the beta; I wouldn’t at all be surprised to see these values listed on the stat cards for types of models instead. Of note, it is still legal as of this version of the beta to run mixed squadrons of models, such as mixing corvettes and frigates in a single squadron. Again, this is something I suspect will be tidied up in the final version of the rules. Other additions in this section include the “Sole Survivor” and Squadron Killer Bonus rules. Sole Survivor states that when a squadron is reduced to a single model, it becomes Disordered, which I think is a nice nod to the disorder mechanics of previous editions. The Squadron Killer Bonus is just what it sounds like,  an additional +1 VP for killing all models in a squadron.

Expanded more detail on Fleet building rules.

Specifically, a couple of more steps were added to the Building a Fleet procedure; Choose a Unit, and Select a Flagship. In the previous version of the beta, there was only the option to take whole battlegroups (whatever those turn out to be). Now, players can take up to three individual units on top of whatever battlegroups the take. Selecting a flagship is essentially a VP mechanic, and seems to have no other in-game impact; there is as yet no sign of a system similar to the Commodores and their abilities that was seen in previous editions. The way flagships work is summed up in this table:Overall, I think these changes make sense, and I don’t see anything objectionable about them. The biggest problem remains that, at this stage of the beta, we do not have examples of either the battlegroups or patrons. This means that it is hard to prognosticate on exactly what kinds of impacts they are going to have on the game.

Made Boarding more deadly and broadened results.

Indeed they did! This is best illustrated by just putting the two versions of the results table next to each other:

I think these are some good changes. This table doesn’t quite reach the level of deadliness of older versions of boarding, where any successful boarding assault (defined here as having AP left on the model and your opponent having none) meant the loss of the assaulted model. At the same time, it does make it so that an overwhelming assault on a target model will likely lead to its destruction, which I think makes logical sense. We also have to keep in mind that there is no loss of AP in this version, nor is there any limitations on what models you can assault (ie, you can assault a model even if you shot at it) or the number of assaults you can attempt per game. Given that, I think it’s only fair that a successful assault isn’t necessarily an insta-kill.

Made criticals more effective against both Activated and yet to Activate units.

Quite a few changes to the critical effects! One that jumps out for me is that the Magazine Explosion crit now causes splash damage; all models within 5″ of the one that suffered the critical take a point of damage. The other changes mostly involve models now gaining a condition of some sort in addition to the critical effect; for example, the Reactor Leak critical result now also results in a Hazard Condition. Overall, these changes made the critical results a bit nastier than they were before. I’m curious to see how this will play out on the table!

Conclusion

Overall, I think the majority of the changes and tweaks that came out with this update are pretty solid improvements over the previous beta version. I do think that there are quite a few areas that could use some tightening up (especially in the LOS section). I would also appreciate having a few more examples and diagrams in the rules, which I trust will be included in the final version. Until next time…

EDIT 9/15: I corrected an error in the Generators discussion where I incorrectly stated that the chances to power up a generator are 16.7%. The correct value is 33%.