This article is all about Drop Fleet Commander, a space ship battle game that is not 100 miles away from GWs Battle Fleet Gothic.
Written by Andy Chambers and David J Lewis (It is not the same game as Gothic but it has a certain feel of Gothic) This game is fun and involving shot on the space battle genre, with so many different layers of game play it sometimes becomes a true delicate balancing act of tactics and cunning that you never feel 100% sure of victory.
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| The Fleet. |
Overview:
The battle in most scenarios take place above a planet, you are normally attempting take control of the planet via atmospheric invasion. Using your drop ships you land armoured and infnatry formations in the worlds cities.
There are four layers to the combat;
Orbit - this is the space part and is often the domain of your capital ships, I will explain why later.
Low Orbit - this will inevitably be where most of your ship to ship happens as you attempt to escort your vulnerable landing ships into the atmosphere
Atmosphere - in this layer only certain ships can enter, Only specialised frigates (drop ships) can survive the re-entry process. If larger ships are forced into atmosphere (by damaged engines for example) they are destroyed in re-entry! Yep that's right, huge bristling with plasma weapons battle ships destroyed by going too low! It happens more than you want!
Ground - once you have landed your forces they will battle it out on the ground vs you opponents landing forces
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| Head on attack, the Scourge need speed and surprise to overcome the foe |
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| Cruisers and Frigates supported by Fighter and Bombers |
All of these layers combine too, you can shoot up or down (with penalties naturally). Shooting has no range but us measured by yous ships scanner range and the targets energy signature. So an enemy ship burning engines or shooting its weapons will really light up on your scanners and thus attract more fire. It is a supremely clever system to use. Sneaky or shooty, up to you but the louder you are the more you attract the attention of enemy targeting systems
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| Capital ships, so much fire power but what a fire magnet! |
This level of tactical complexity would be a nightmare if not for the smooth and innovative game system. All of the units on the table are grouped together and are sorted via tonnage (Battle ships to Frigates) the Lighter the tonnage the faster they are. Each action has a phase and is done in order. The game runs smooth, it takes a little effort to get used to but after you do you fly through it.
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| Bulk lander's deploy thousands of troops to the planets surface |
My Chosen fleet is the Scourge, a mix of TV and Film's Goa'uld and GWs Dark Eldar. A parasite race of conquering raiders with fast ships and a taste for Plasma death and nighmare razor worms!
To paint them was so very simple:
1 Upoll Black undercoat
2 Vallejo Model Air Chain-mail Silver (airbrushed on only the top surfaces)
3 Vallejo Model Air Hexed Lichen (airbrushed in thin stripes over the silver)
4 Vallejo Model Air Green Zinc Chrome (airbrushed in tin stripes over the silver, making sure to leave some silver showing through)
5 Vallejo Black and Oiled Earth washes 50/50 all over. (applied through the air brush with 25% air thinner added to the mix)
Lights, Lasers and Engines. Citadel Scorpion Green.
AND that's it! Very fast but effective.
That all for now. I hope you enjoyed it.
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