Post by Gilvan Blight on Apr 4, 2010 11:30:01 GMT -5
Quickly: Axis and Allies improved with some Eurogame flavour.
Summary:
Dust is a strategy wargame for 2-6 players. It is part of a big Dust Launch from back in 2007 and is a translation of an Italian game put out by Fantasy Flight. Dust is whole setting that has a variety of products out for it or coming out. This includes Toys, comics, this and other games. It's a u-chronic history game that's a mix of pulp sci-fi and steampunk. The background is pretty interesting but really is just flavour for the game.
As you can expect from Fantasy flight you get a beautiful board (which fits together like a jigsaw rather then folding up) and lots and lots of miniatures. The board is a map of the Dust world, which is a devastated version of our world. There are 6 capital locations on the map, grouped into three pairs. These are the starting points for the players (with less then 6 players there will be neutral capitals). Scattered around the map are Power Plant locations. These are integral to play as they provide building points for producing units and victory points. The rest of the map is broken up into land and sea territories.
The game comes with two full rulebooks, so you are somewhat getting two games in one. There are the Premium and Epic rules. The premium game is a shorter one where players start more established and movement is quicker. The Epic game runs way longer due to players starting off with less, the presence of neutral armies and restrictive movement rules. Victory points are also scored differently in each set with more of a focus on Capitals in the Epic rules.
Players are given a hand of 6 cards. Each card has quite a bit of info on it. First is the cards combat value. This determines the play order as well as how many attacks you can make in a turn. The next item is a movement value. This breaks turn order ties due to combat and determines how many groups of units you can move. Next is Production Value, this tells you how many extra production units you get to spend that turn. Next is a set of stars, these help break further ties for turn order. Last is the graphic on the card. Each card has a picture on it that represents a certain special ability. These special abilities include but are no limited to; a nurse that lets you possible recover destroyed units, a secret weapon that forces an opponent to retreat, a drop pod for airborn mech attacks and a ballistic missile which allows for a three die attack anywhere on the board.
At the start of the game players pick one card to determine turn order. Once this is determined players each pick one capital. From here they claim territories on the board. Once territories are chosen the players each get to place production facilities. Once production facilities are placed players get points (based on the card picked) to build some units.
The game has quite a few different military units and one non-military unit.
Tank - cost 2 - rolls 1 die and protects mechs.
Mech - cost 5 - rolls 2 dice and has 1 supremacy (more about supremacy later)
Jet - cost 3 - rolls 1 die and has 1 supremacy, also protects Bombers
Bomber - cost - 6 - rolls 2 dice and has 1 supremacy
Subs - cost - 4 - rolls 1 die and provides for movement and attacks of land units over sea
Production Facilities - cost 6 - used to produce units.
All units are in a players colour except for the Production Facilities. These cannot be destroyed and are in a neutral colour as players can capture them from other players.
Once players have built their starting units the game begins. Each game round consists of three phases.
1) Strategy - players pick one card out of their hand to determine their strategy for the turn.
2) Player turns - each player takes 3 actions each of their turns. First they produce units. Then they move units and finally they complete any attacks. The amount they can do is determined by their strategy card.
3) Victory Points - calculate victory points. Victory points awards depend on which version of the rules are used, but are awarded for Capitals, power plants controlled and for majorities. The majority points are awarded to the players with the most production facilities, the most sea territories owned and the most land territories owned.
The game ends at a set number of victory points (again determined by which set of rules you are following).
Production is completed first each player turn. The player first figures out how many production points they have. This works out to 6 for each capital + 3 for each Production Building, but only if you have enough power plants to power them + the value on the strategy card. Units are produced at Production Buildings with a max of 5 units made per building.
Movement is broken into four types. Land movement has units move from one land location to another. Sea movement is done by subs. Amphibious movement allows a unit in a port territory to move to another port territory if there is a chain of that players subs in between. Lastly bombers have the ability to move to any open land spot on the board.
Combat occurs between adjacent territories (normally, the drop pod and ballistic missile break this rule). Combat is resolved using special dice included with the game. These are d6s with 2 hits and 4 blanks on them. At the start of combat tactical supremacy is determined. This is given to the player with the most supremacy points in his army or the owner of a capital when a capital is attacked). The player with supremacy gets to attack first and causes any casualties before the player without it gets to roll a die. The number of dice rolled is determined by the units involved as noted above. Casualties are decided by the person rolling but Tanks must be taken over Mechs and Fighters over Bombers. After the first round of combat players get the option to retreat half of their forces. In addition there are rules for a stand-still.
There are some special rules as well. Bombers can bomb submarines when in an adjacent coastal region and Submarines can launch attacks on coastal units. Both of these attacks are powerful because the target does not get to retaliate. Rules for amphibious attacks allow an attacker to attack across a chain of subs but does not allow for a retreat.
The Good:
Pretty top notch production values with tons of awesome little bits. You get a ridiculous amount of units in this game which is just cool to see all laid out in front of you. The interlocking board is great as it means no creases. The map is well laid out with everything very evenly spaced. I find this a great advantage over historically based games like Risk or Axis and Allies as there is a lot better balance. I love the eurogame style bits added to this one like the strategy card, the way resource points are generated and the victory point system. Most of the game boils down to trying to control power plant spots and degenerates into capital attacking in the final phases.
The Bad:
It's still a military strategy game. This is good news for some players, but bad news for me. I personally never liked Risk or Axis and Allies and that's basically what this game is, a better version of those games. Now I will fully admit it's a better version, a way better version. I still really enjoyed it, but I'm just not much a fan of this style of game. There's a ton of thinking and there's a ton of downtime waiting for other players to think. There is also no way to play nice, so if you play with overly competitive gamers you may want to play something less vengeance provoking. Now if you like military strategy games you will probably love this and consider all of this good news.
The dice add a real random factor to this one that some players may not like. We had one attack where a player rolled 9 dice and got no hits! While dramatic I can see hardcore grognards not liking this level of randomness. The strategy cards also add another level of randomness to the game.
The Ugly
Missing components. Well not actually missing but missing in my opinion. They game only includes 3 summary cards. These list the cost and strength of the various units in the game. In a 2-6 player game why wouldn't you include 6 summary cards? Also a summary card or sheet should have been included for each cards special ability. As it stands you need to look into the last chapter of the book to figure out what these cards do. These could have easily been put on the back of the existing status cards.
Time! You need a lot of it. When I picked this as a game to play yesterday I grabbed a game that said it would take 1.5-2 hours. I fully expected to either get a couple games of Dust in or play something else when Dust was done. I was ready to expect an hour or so more due to the fact it was new to everyone playing but I didn't expect a 5 hour game! We even played the Premium version. The Epic version says it lasts 3-4 hours, I wonder how long it would actually take! Now this wouldn't be so bad if you know you are in for an entire afternoon, it was the fact that it was advertised as shorter.
Overall:
Dust is a military strategy wargame which is not a type of game I often play. I'm not usually a fan of this genre but decided to give this one a shot because of it's eurogame elements. I have to say I'm impressed. It's miles ahead of Risk or Axis and Allies. It does suffer from one of the biggest drawbacks of those two games though, it takes a long time to play. You can more then double the estimated gametime on this one. I definitely had fun playing this and would give it another go, it's just not my favourite type of game. Anyone who actually likes Military Strategy games will probably love this.
Summary:
Dust is a strategy wargame for 2-6 players. It is part of a big Dust Launch from back in 2007 and is a translation of an Italian game put out by Fantasy Flight. Dust is whole setting that has a variety of products out for it or coming out. This includes Toys, comics, this and other games. It's a u-chronic history game that's a mix of pulp sci-fi and steampunk. The background is pretty interesting but really is just flavour for the game.
As you can expect from Fantasy flight you get a beautiful board (which fits together like a jigsaw rather then folding up) and lots and lots of miniatures. The board is a map of the Dust world, which is a devastated version of our world. There are 6 capital locations on the map, grouped into three pairs. These are the starting points for the players (with less then 6 players there will be neutral capitals). Scattered around the map are Power Plant locations. These are integral to play as they provide building points for producing units and victory points. The rest of the map is broken up into land and sea territories.
The game comes with two full rulebooks, so you are somewhat getting two games in one. There are the Premium and Epic rules. The premium game is a shorter one where players start more established and movement is quicker. The Epic game runs way longer due to players starting off with less, the presence of neutral armies and restrictive movement rules. Victory points are also scored differently in each set with more of a focus on Capitals in the Epic rules.
Players are given a hand of 6 cards. Each card has quite a bit of info on it. First is the cards combat value. This determines the play order as well as how many attacks you can make in a turn. The next item is a movement value. This breaks turn order ties due to combat and determines how many groups of units you can move. Next is Production Value, this tells you how many extra production units you get to spend that turn. Next is a set of stars, these help break further ties for turn order. Last is the graphic on the card. Each card has a picture on it that represents a certain special ability. These special abilities include but are no limited to; a nurse that lets you possible recover destroyed units, a secret weapon that forces an opponent to retreat, a drop pod for airborn mech attacks and a ballistic missile which allows for a three die attack anywhere on the board.
At the start of the game players pick one card to determine turn order. Once this is determined players each pick one capital. From here they claim territories on the board. Once territories are chosen the players each get to place production facilities. Once production facilities are placed players get points (based on the card picked) to build some units.
The game has quite a few different military units and one non-military unit.
Tank - cost 2 - rolls 1 die and protects mechs.
Mech - cost 5 - rolls 2 dice and has 1 supremacy (more about supremacy later)
Jet - cost 3 - rolls 1 die and has 1 supremacy, also protects Bombers
Bomber - cost - 6 - rolls 2 dice and has 1 supremacy
Subs - cost - 4 - rolls 1 die and provides for movement and attacks of land units over sea
Production Facilities - cost 6 - used to produce units.
All units are in a players colour except for the Production Facilities. These cannot be destroyed and are in a neutral colour as players can capture them from other players.
Once players have built their starting units the game begins. Each game round consists of three phases.
1) Strategy - players pick one card out of their hand to determine their strategy for the turn.
2) Player turns - each player takes 3 actions each of their turns. First they produce units. Then they move units and finally they complete any attacks. The amount they can do is determined by their strategy card.
3) Victory Points - calculate victory points. Victory points awards depend on which version of the rules are used, but are awarded for Capitals, power plants controlled and for majorities. The majority points are awarded to the players with the most production facilities, the most sea territories owned and the most land territories owned.
The game ends at a set number of victory points (again determined by which set of rules you are following).
Production is completed first each player turn. The player first figures out how many production points they have. This works out to 6 for each capital + 3 for each Production Building, but only if you have enough power plants to power them + the value on the strategy card. Units are produced at Production Buildings with a max of 5 units made per building.
Movement is broken into four types. Land movement has units move from one land location to another. Sea movement is done by subs. Amphibious movement allows a unit in a port territory to move to another port territory if there is a chain of that players subs in between. Lastly bombers have the ability to move to any open land spot on the board.
Combat occurs between adjacent territories (normally, the drop pod and ballistic missile break this rule). Combat is resolved using special dice included with the game. These are d6s with 2 hits and 4 blanks on them. At the start of combat tactical supremacy is determined. This is given to the player with the most supremacy points in his army or the owner of a capital when a capital is attacked). The player with supremacy gets to attack first and causes any casualties before the player without it gets to roll a die. The number of dice rolled is determined by the units involved as noted above. Casualties are decided by the person rolling but Tanks must be taken over Mechs and Fighters over Bombers. After the first round of combat players get the option to retreat half of their forces. In addition there are rules for a stand-still.
There are some special rules as well. Bombers can bomb submarines when in an adjacent coastal region and Submarines can launch attacks on coastal units. Both of these attacks are powerful because the target does not get to retaliate. Rules for amphibious attacks allow an attacker to attack across a chain of subs but does not allow for a retreat.
The Good:
Pretty top notch production values with tons of awesome little bits. You get a ridiculous amount of units in this game which is just cool to see all laid out in front of you. The interlocking board is great as it means no creases. The map is well laid out with everything very evenly spaced. I find this a great advantage over historically based games like Risk or Axis and Allies as there is a lot better balance. I love the eurogame style bits added to this one like the strategy card, the way resource points are generated and the victory point system. Most of the game boils down to trying to control power plant spots and degenerates into capital attacking in the final phases.
The Bad:
It's still a military strategy game. This is good news for some players, but bad news for me. I personally never liked Risk or Axis and Allies and that's basically what this game is, a better version of those games. Now I will fully admit it's a better version, a way better version. I still really enjoyed it, but I'm just not much a fan of this style of game. There's a ton of thinking and there's a ton of downtime waiting for other players to think. There is also no way to play nice, so if you play with overly competitive gamers you may want to play something less vengeance provoking. Now if you like military strategy games you will probably love this and consider all of this good news.
The dice add a real random factor to this one that some players may not like. We had one attack where a player rolled 9 dice and got no hits! While dramatic I can see hardcore grognards not liking this level of randomness. The strategy cards also add another level of randomness to the game.
The Ugly
Missing components. Well not actually missing but missing in my opinion. They game only includes 3 summary cards. These list the cost and strength of the various units in the game. In a 2-6 player game why wouldn't you include 6 summary cards? Also a summary card or sheet should have been included for each cards special ability. As it stands you need to look into the last chapter of the book to figure out what these cards do. These could have easily been put on the back of the existing status cards.
Time! You need a lot of it. When I picked this as a game to play yesterday I grabbed a game that said it would take 1.5-2 hours. I fully expected to either get a couple games of Dust in or play something else when Dust was done. I was ready to expect an hour or so more due to the fact it was new to everyone playing but I didn't expect a 5 hour game! We even played the Premium version. The Epic version says it lasts 3-4 hours, I wonder how long it would actually take! Now this wouldn't be so bad if you know you are in for an entire afternoon, it was the fact that it was advertised as shorter.
Overall:
Dust is a military strategy wargame which is not a type of game I often play. I'm not usually a fan of this genre but decided to give this one a shot because of it's eurogame elements. I have to say I'm impressed. It's miles ahead of Risk or Axis and Allies. It does suffer from one of the biggest drawbacks of those two games though, it takes a long time to play. You can more then double the estimated gametime on this one. I definitely had fun playing this and would give it another go, it's just not my favourite type of game. Anyone who actually likes Military Strategy games will probably love this.