When we were first thinking about this edition of Dystopian Wars, we knew we wanted to give Victory & Valour cards an overhaul - but in truth, the process began over a year prior while working on the final development stages of Armoured Clash. James M Hewitt from the studio explains more:
James: “When we started developing that game, we knew the Command & Conquest cards would be taking many of their cues from the way Victory & Valour worked in Dystopian Wars. However, we also wanted to see this element more closely tied into the core gameplay, with each player’s cards feeling like a vital (and limited!) resource.
Having spent a lot of time honing these ideas for Armoured Clash, we were primed and ready when we moved onto Dystopian Wars.”
So, how do Victory & Valour cards work now?
In Dystopian Wars, Each player has their own 54-card deck. Each card in the deck has a unique combination of elements: a Valour Effect, a Minor Victory and a Value. For each Round, you’ll draw a hand of cards from your deck, which you can then use in various ways. James reveals all:
James: “Most players seem to find Valour Effects the most compelling part of the card, which is why we’ve put them at the top. You can play a card to use its Valour Effect, providing one of your units with a temporary boost of some kind. These can take the form of anything from repairing your ships mid-battle, increasing the movement of your models, or even improving the efficacy of their attacks. Alternatively, you can play a card to claim its Minor Victory, scoring a small number of Victory Points if you meet the conditions listed, such as destroying a particular type of unit or inflicting a certain amount of damage in a single Round.
The last part of the card is, in my opinion, the most interesting.
Card Values run from 1 to 12 (a change from the last edition, where they ran from 1 to 60), and are used in a few different ways. First, you’ll now be playing a card from your hand at the start of each Round. This happens in the Ready Phase, and whoever plays the card with the higher Value has the option of either taking the Initiative (meaning they get to go first at various points during the Round), or ceding it to their opponent and drawing another card. Existing players will spot that this is nothing new; after all, it’s recently been hailed as one of the best Initiative systems in wargames (thanks Carl!), so if it ain’t broke, why fix it? Well, we don’t like to rest on our laurels, so that’s not the only way the Values are used!
In the new edition of Dystopian Wars, the unit profiles for each model in the game contain an entirely new stat: a Crew rating. When you want to perform certain actions with a unit - for example, if you want any Crippled models to participate in an Attack action - you will first need to take a Crew Check by discarding the top card of your deck. If the Value of the card is higher than the unit’s Crew rating, the test fails, and those models can’t take part. (Oh - and did I mention that each level of Disorder a model has imposes a -1 modifier to its Crew rating?)
Again, this presents players with some interesting choices. Crippled models can still lend their firepower to your unit’s attacks, but trying to coordinate fire with a blazing wreck isn’t easy, so you need to weigh up your options… because cards are precious, and squandering them on Crew Checks can hurt in the long run.
Believe me - flipping a card for a Crew Check, and watching a powerful Valour Effect or valuable Minor Victory fizzle into your discard pile is painful.
What makes this even worse is that if your deck runs out, your Force suffers from Broken Spirit. You reshuffle your discard pile to form a new deck, so you can continue to make Crew Checks, but crucially… you can no longer draw cards into your hand. This makes these cards even more precious than before. Because once they run out, you lose access to Valour Effects and Minor Victories, along with the ability to control the Initiative.”
There you have it, confirmation that Victory & Valour cards are a huge part of gameplay in the new edition of Dystopian Wars. Let’s have some final words from James:
James: “We’ve spent a lot of time balancing the effects between the cards, because we didn’t want players to be able to draw a dud hand, or lose their “best” cards to a Crew Check. Of course, each player will have their personal favourites, and those that serve their Faction’s playstyle best. But if a card has a high Value, it will probably have a fairly weak Valour Effect, and/or a low-scoring Minor Victory (or one that’s hard to claim). This means that every card is going to be useful.
Just make sure to remember that if you steer into a niche with your fleet selection, you might find yourself struggling to make use of some cards, but we’re fine with that. It’s all part of the decisions you make when you choose your fleet!”