With a new edition of Dystopian Wars on the horizon, existing players may be wondering how a basic Round of play will look compared to previous iterations of the game. Whilst the processes involved will reflect many of the core principles of the current Dystopian Wars rules, there are some significant changes that might catch veteran players off guard.
Chiefly, the Initiative and Operation Phases are no more! Matthew Carter from the studio explains all:
Matt: “Taking its cue from Armoured Clash, this new edition of Dystopian Wars begins each Round with the Ready Phase, in which Admirals Determine Initiative, draw their Victory & Valour cards and deploy their Reserves.
But while some of the names might have changed, existing players will find familiar gameplay beats that mirror the current rules. For example, Initiative is still determined through the cards in your hand, your Hand Limit is still defined by the size of the game being played, and your Reserves are still governed by a dice-based system.
Naturally, some of you might be wondering, “what does this mean for SRS tokens?”
Well, Short Range Squadrons are now placed at the start of each Round, during the newly-introduced Launch Phase, just after the Ready Phase. Additionally, Admirals can now choose to resolve a stack of SRS tokens at the start of their turn before Activating one of their units. This new dynamic creates an intuitive call and response between your SRS tokens and the models in your Fleet. Not only can SRS Stacks soften up potential targets before units follow up with a devastating coup de grâce, but each SRS Stack placed during the Launch Phase serves as a powerful statement of intent. This creates an opportunity to goad your opponent into action, either by telegraphing your plans… or luring them into a false sense of security.”
So that’s the tiny flier tokens explained a little more, but what about some of the other changes to what your Models can do each Round?
Matt: “On the subject of your models, the Activation Phase has also seen some significant changes, with specific Withdrawal, Movement, Action and Consolidation Steps, all designed to streamline play, whilst encouraging meaningful strategic choices.
Amongst these changes, the Withdrawal Step provides an opportunity to remove Crippled models from play at the start of their unit’s Activation, minimising the unit-wide negative effects that their presence causes, albeit at the expense of sacrificing that model’s firepower (More on this in the future…).”
Matt: “Another change to how the Activation Phase works is the introduction of Actions. All models in Dystopian Wars can now make a specific number of Actions during their Activation. These include Attack actions, where a unit opens fire on a chosen target; Maintenance actions, which give you an opportunity to remove Critical Damage Effects; and Boarding actions, where certain vessels can launch daring assaults on enemy models. While these Actions give players a number of options when contemplating how their units will behave each round, beware! As your models start to suffer from Critical Damage Effects and Disorder, you will see how quickly the efficacy of these Actions can dwindle…”
Matt: “Finally, the Consolidation Step at the end of each unit’s activation allows models in a unit to Rally, enabling them to recover from the effects of Disorder. The efficacy of a unit’s Rally can be improved if the Admiral spares a valuable Maintenance, Attack or Boarding action in order to do so.
A skilled Admiral will need to balance these Actions carefully, knowing when to press ahead with a full-blown bombardment, when to make as many Maintenance actions as possible, or when to hold them back to maximise the effects of a Rally.
Which brings us naturally to the End Phase of the Round. Save for the shifting of SRS Mission resolution to earlier in the Round, this has stayed much the same, with a focus on completing Objectives, recording Victory Points and getting ready for the next Round. “
So that’s it for our brief tour of the Round in the new edition of Dystopian Wars. If you are hungry for more details on how this latest version of the game works, stay on the lookout for new entries in this blog series.
We can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on!
Matt