Dropzone Commander : Unboxing The 2 Player Starter Set

Greetings all,

 

Today I'm gonna share with you what's inside the Dropzone Commander Starter Set that I won in the lucky draw that day (Sunday, Nov 24th). Now let us find out if it is worth the RM350 price tag.

 

GAMING KIT

Complete gaming kit

The box comes with a complete gaming kit for anyone, even those new to table top gaming to start playing this game in such a short time. As you can see, it has a rulebook, model kit for 2 armies, dices, templates, objective markers, a measuring tape (small, metal cased) and dices. Everything is nicely wrapped in plastics and bubble wrapped to ensure safety of all the stuffs inside.

 

The plastic model kits provided is enough to make two armies. One of the United Colonies of Mankind (UCM) and the evil Scourge. By the time I wrote this, I've already assembled all the UCM (see picture below) and about 80% of the Scourge.

 



United Colonies of Mankind (UCM)



Each army consist of 30 infantries, 3 armoured personnel carriers, 3 battle tanks, 3 anti-air tanks and 3 drop ships. In game, they will form 3 Battlegroups as can be seen from the leaflet in picture above.

 

BATTLEGROUND

 

Tabletop wargaming isn't fun without proper battlefield, terrain and sceneries. So it is good that the box also included 2 city mat (1x2 feet each to make a 2x2 feet battlefield) and several foldable paper buildings of different sizes and heights. Which means that once I've assembles all the models, I can straightaway play the game as how it should be, right in the middle of a city. Very nice indeed!

Battleground - city mat and foldable paper buildings

THE RULEBOOK

Reading the fluff gave me the impression of War of The Worlds kind of invasion -- doom, death, and despair to the mankind, though the Scourge has the look of that alien army from the movie Avengers (Skitarii?). By the 26th century, the Earth and other human worlds will be attacked by the Scourge. Humans were forced to flee the Earth or suffer much worst fate in the hands of the invaders. After 150+ years, they come back to reclaim the lost worlds.

Besides the UCM and Scourge, there's 2 other forces player can choose from. An alien race and post-human. But I won't touch on them yet. The rulebook has complete set of rules for all units from the 4 factions. From here, all that players need to do to expand their armies is buy new models.

What disappoints me the most about the rulebook is the fact that there is zero (0) artwork in the rulebook. The only artwork is the front cover. I really would love to see how the other races looks like, their cities and all. Too bad.

CONCLUSION

I really like this Starter Set. It is a complete kit for beginners like me. It gives enough necessary things that I need to get in the game real quick. I think it is worth the RM350 one has to pay for it. For comparison, it would take much more cash for beginners to play 40k or WFB.

I haven't played the game so I can't comment much on the rules. But I'm liking what I read so far. After a game or two, I might be able to share with you all how I feel about the gameplay.

 



Okay.. I guess that's all I can say about it.

Thanks and have a nice day!

The Ascension (1.5k Tournament)

Hello guys,

On November 24th, I attended The Ascension, Warhammer 40,000 Tournament held by The Spartan Games Arena in Wangsa Maju. This tournament was set at 1,500 points and I entered with this list:

Picture credit to Marvin Michael Kho, our favourite hobby fotographer

Primary : Daemons

Bloodthirster

2 x 10 Bloodletters

2 x Flying Khorne Prince

 

Ally : Chaos Space Marines

Flying Khorne Prince

5 Chaos Space Marines

Heldrake

NEW MODELS I painted specially for the list:

i) Khorne Prince with the Axe of Blind Fury



This guy is bigger that both the old school Daemon Prince I have. It is about the size of a Bloodthirster. If GW didn't come out with new Bloodthirster model, I might get another box of this model and convert it into one.

ii) 5 Chaos Space Marines

 

 



I have painted several CSM already, but they don't really fit the look of my army. I want something that people can relate to the Bloodletters and lucky I have these in my possession ---> The OOP 13th. Co. Wulfen! It was rare to see one back here when they were in production, and even more so today. Even the Wolf Lord Syamael don't have them (so his reaction when I show them to him.. PRICELESS! :lol:) I received quite a few question about them from other people during the event.

THE ASCENSION
 
1st Game : Big Guns Never Tire (4 Objectives), Dawn of War
Opponent : Space Wolves - Thunderwolves and Drop Pods

This is funny. Before the tournament, I was the one who my opponent consult with for listbuilding so he can deal with armies like mine and he turned out to be my very first opponent.



The game was tough. Of course I could've played save and fly around but he is a good old friend and I wanted this to be fun, so I sent my Daemon Prince to combat as soon as possible. 2 Daemon Prince easily took out a Rune Priest and 9 Grey Hunters that came in with Drop Pod.



But then his big unit of Thunderwolves, lead by 2 Wolf Lords with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shields closed in and assaulted, killing both Princes instantly. I didn't really mind because one of the Prince had Warp Tether. The other one fought the Warlord with Saga of The Bear in challenge and caused one wound before it died to six S10 hammer attacks.

The Prince with Warp Tether returned to battle but died to a lucky shot from Drop Pod. The last Daemon Prince were grounded by another Drop Pod Storm Bolter. It got assaulted and killed by the enemy Warlord. My opponent consolidated 5 inches but made a wrong move in terms of model placement, both his Wolf Lords are now at the frontmost part of that pack.

My Bloodthirster closed in and assaulted from behind the pack, where both Wolf Lords were out of range to issue or receive challenges nor striked back. With smash attacks, it killed 3 Thunderwolves in the 1st round of combat, then killed the Warlord and the other Wolf Lord in challenges.

 As the Bloodthirster was about to strike the last TWC (with Power Fist), my opponent conceded.

2nd Game : Crusade, Vanguard Strike
Opponent : Farsight Conclave

This was the first game I had against pure Tau army since their release. What I knew about them from what I read over the net and the one time playing against an Eldar-Tau alliance. My head felt dizzy just from reading my opponent's list so I just let do whatever he wants and pray he didn't cheat.

He seized the Initiative (on 5+!) but only the Riptide and Pathfinders has any range to shoot. They both aim at my Bloodthirster, causing 2 wounds. Came my turn I summoned a Portalglyph and sent all FMCs towards the enemy. Shooting killed my Warlord, but he did well soaking almost 85% of the shots fired at him, and so all my Princes were saved. 

 I sent the CSM Prince to kill a Crisis Suit troops, and he performed the task successfully. Another Prince I sent to fight his big HQ unit but that unit (to my surprise), is superbly strong in combat. It has Commander Farsight, Warlord with Onager Gauntlet, 2 Bodyguards or ICs (not sure) with S8 Close Combat weapons, a Riptide (which happened to be IC) + several drones forming a HQ unit. That unit then attached to a unit of 2 Broadsides with HYML. The Daemon Prince had no chance at all (It had Warp Tether but I was so shocked with what I learned and forgotten about it hahaha!)

So I changed my plan and deepstriked all Bloodletters close to the enemy line. The new plan is to make them busy, capture the objectives and kill the enemy troops with Helldrake. It worked. I lost all of the Daemons that I sent for the attack but successfully controlled 3 objectives (with 4 units spawned by Portalglyph) to win the game.

3rd Game : Purge The Aliens, Dawn of War
Oppoinent : Daemons of DOOOOOOMM!

The 3rd and last game was against the famed Daemons of DOOOOMMM! We both play FMC list, but he has the advantage since his FMCs are Daemons Spellmasters. For me, the only way to take out his Daemons from the sky are through Vector Strike.

He began the game by killing my Prince (Grimoire Bearer). I retaliated by Vector Striking his Grimoire Bearer to death. Then he destroyed both of my Bloodletter squads by spells and close combat. Fateweaver took 2 wounds off my Warlord with spells. I went ahead and destroy his SoulGrinder.

I sent the Bloodthirster and CSM Prince to destroy a squad of Daemonettes. They killed 7 but my Warlord took two rending wounds. Daemonettes took instability check and rolled Double 1!! What a luck! The Daemonettes were back to full strength. 2nd combat round, the Daemonettes were again downed to 3 girls but they successfully killed my Warlord with 2 rending wounds. They lost and had to make Instability Check.. Double 1!?! Again!!

3rd round of combat I sent the last Prince to join since it didn't have any valid target to choose from. Together with the CSM Prince, they killed the Daemonettes down to 4, but took no wound at all. The 3rd Instability Check, this time the dice came 1 and 5. Unit destroyed! Not yet.. My opponent use the Fateweaver, reroll the 5 and it came out 1. Double 1??! Three times in a row!!

They finally destroyed the Daemonettes on the 4th round of combat, but by then it was too late already. They were now surrounded by 2 Tzeentch Spellcasters and 10 Flesh Hounds. The game ended on turn 5 and all I have left on table was the Heldrake hunting a bunch of Plaguebearers.

Daemons of DOOOOMMM! is strong indeed.

RESULT

I won 2 games and lost 1. Not enough to be at the top spot, but I'm happy enough with the result. The winners are:

1. Alvin Alpharius Khaw (Dark Eldar + Eldar)
2. Joe Soon (Daemons of DOOOMM!)
3. Faizal Paxter (Tau)

I didn't win, but I didn't leave the place empty handed. My name was picked for the grand lucky draw to win a Dropzone Commander Starter Box! Awesome!!

It was one fine event, even more so because of the lucky draw hahaha. Congratulations and thanks very much to Spartan Games Arena and Vinder a.k.a The God of Deepstriking. Now I have a new game to learn :)

That's all for today.  Have a nice day guys.