This week’s focus for our Development Diary for Dystopian Wars is one of varying magnitude… That is, the scale of engagement in Dystopian Wars. James M Hewitt from the studio, sneaks out more details:

James: “Today, I’d like to talk about scale. I don’t mean the size of Dystopian Wars miniatures relative to their real-world counterparts (roughly 1:1200, if you’re curious). No, I’m talking about how the game scales to different levels of engagement, from small skirmishes between a handful of models, to grand battles between mighty armadas.

If you’re an existing Dystopian Wars player or just someone who’s played other wargames, the concept of point values will be familiar to you. Each model in your Force is worth a certain number of points; when you play a game, you and your opponent agree to bring a selection of models whose combined point values do not exceed a pre-agreed limit.

Of course, there are a few restrictions about which models you can take within your fleet, and how many (more on that in a later blog post!), but generally, a points system means you get a lot of flexibility in the kind of game you’re going to play. However, when a game has this much freedom, it can be hard to write appropriate rules across the board. How can we guarantee that it’s just as much fun to play a small game as a large one, and how do we help new players decide what’s best for them?”

Engagement Scale

“To help with this issue, the new edition introduces the concept of Engagement Scale. This isn’t an entirely new idea. It can be seen in the current edition of the game as the number of Victory & Valour cards in your hand is determined by the points limit you’ve set for the game, so that players can have more cards available in larger battles. Engagement Scale builds on this and folds in a few tried-and-tested concepts from Armoured Clash.

When you decide to play a game of Dystopian Wars, you and your opponent will now agree on an Engagement Scale before sitting down to play:

  • A Small Engagement is intended for games with a limit of up to 1000 points, and a Play Area that measures 36” x 48” (3’ x 4’).

  • A Medium Engagement is intended for games with a limit of 1000 to 2000 points, and a Play Area that measures 48” x 48” (4’ x 4’).

  • A Large Engagement is intended for games with a limit of 2000 points and over, and a Play Area that measures 72” x 48” (6’ x 4’).

As you can see, there’s some wiggle room. If you want to play a 2000 point game, you can choose whether it’s Medium or Large. But also, nothing here is prescriptive, so players are free to mix it up if they want. Fancy a 750 point game on a full 6’ x 4’ board? Go for it!

But Engagement Scale is more than just the usual pre-battle admin.

First up, as in the current edition of the game, it determines the number of cards in your hand - 5 for a Small Engagement, 6 for a Medium Engagement and 7 for a Large Engagement. However, unlike the current edition, this doesn’t continue scaling up as your games get bigger. This is intentional. Having more cards in your hand increases the amount of information you have to juggle, and we want to avoid overloading players with information.

Where Engagement Scale gets really interesting, though, is Encounters. These are the scenarios that you choose from whenever you play a game, similar to Clashes in Armoured Clash. More specifically, Engagement Scale has a profound effect on the Objectives you’ll find in those Encounters.”

Scoring Victory Points

“As with the current edition, both players can score Victory Points in a number of different ways, and whoever has accrued the most by the end of the game is the winner. There are three main ways to score Victory Points.

First, a small number of Victory Points can be scored by claiming the Minor Victories on your Victory & Valour cards. These are unlikely to be game-winners in their own right, but they can definitely get you over the line, making the decision to use Valour Effects all the more interesting.

Second, you score Victory Points whenever you Cripple an enemy model. Armoured Clash players will recognise the Victory Points Rating on the new Dystopian Wars unit profile; this shows how many Victory Points the opponent scores when a model from that unit is Crippled. This will generally score more Victory Points over the course of a game than Minor Victories, but not as many as Objectives. (After all, you already have an incentive to Cripple enemy models - it means they’re less likely to shoot back at you!)

Finally, each Encounter has a set of Objectives. In the End Phase of each Round, you score Victory Points for each Objective you’ve achieved. Some are one-and-done (do this thing, score points - sorted!) while others are continuous (each round you do this thing, you score points). You will probably score the majority of your Victory Points from Objectives.”

Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Objectives

“During development, we realised that as games get bigger, and the number of models in play increases, the opportunities to earn Victory Points from crippling models also increases. At the same time, there are more cards in players’ hands, so Minor Victories are scored more regularly, too. To ensure that the scoring balance stays where we intended it, on securing Objectives, each Encounter has three levels of Objectives - one Primary, one Secondary, and one Tertiary.

When you play a Small Engagement, you only use Primary Objectives, and ignore the others. Primary Objectives score the most points, and tend to be the most straightforward to achieve. This means that new players (who will mostly be playing Small Engagements) can concentrate on getting comfortable with the rules of the game, without having to split their focus too much.

Medium Engagements introduce Secondary Objectives. These don’t score as many points as Primary Objectives and tend to favour a different style of play. If an Encounter’s Primary Objective is based around movement, the Secondary might be about attacking, and so on.

Finally, Large Engagements also use Tertiary Objectives. These score fewer points than the other two, but still enough that you’d be wise to pay attention to them! Because Tertiary Objectives are something that players will generally only encounter once they’re comfortable with the rules of the game, we’ve taken the opportunity to have some fun with them.

You might score points for taking prisoners, by destroying enemy models while your own models are nearby. You might be charged with gathering field data, meaning you score points for inflicting (or repairing) specific Critical Damage effects. My personal favourite sees one player trying to capture an Intelligence Agent, who starts the game hidden aboard one of the opponent’s vessels! Tertiary Objectives add a real sense of narrative to a game, and I think we’re going to be having a lot of fun with them in the future.

Overall, the Engagement Scale has been an incredibly useful tool for helping new players get to grips with the game while ensuring that experienced Admirals have plenty to sink their teeth into.”

James