Let’s Play: Dropfleet Commander
November 28, 2016 by dignity
Welcome Marines! today we're dispatching our best Captains out to the frontlines of Space in today's Dropfleet Commander Let's Play from the awesome Hawk Wargames.
Justin is playing the mighty Scourge and John is facing off with his UCM fleet.
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Those amazing Mats that are being played on were sent in by Deep Cut Studio
Who will win in this daring Space battle?
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Why did i not bring earphones to work. This seems as made for a lunchbreak
*ouch* that must have hurt … *kaboom*
good fun game there:-)
I think I have to sent you guys a second tapemasure 🙂
Good game, the only rule I think you might have missed the minor spike for launching fighter & bombers.
I think I will be watching this another time or two before the boot camp. But insightful, a lot less manoeuvring in the game than I thought there would be.
Eh, turn 3 Justin think your battlegroup can only have one special order. So either all go weapons free or the ones not going weapons free have to go on standard orders. Don’t think one unit in a battlegroup can go weapons free and another unit can go station keeping.
@chrisgear84 is quite right. May I draw your attention to page 41, Activating a group -> Special orders for Battlegroups
x
Ah I missed that 🙂 will make sure and get it right in the next one 🙂
And point defence can be used against close action attacks?
@Cracken, point defence can be used against close action weapons and “certain launch assets” – but basically just bombers
a nice interesting looking game guys.
I’ll have to re-watch this nearer to the Bootcamp.. I too thought there would be more manoeuvring in space..
It looks fun anyhow although I’m not sure I’m clever enough for this. Doh!
Thank god i can always go for ramming 😉
Not sure on the rules, but one would think that when John’s Taipei blew up, doing 2 damage to everything within 2″, surely that would have destroyed all of the Scourge bombers???
Also, Justin forgot to roll for one of his ships on fire at the end of Turn 4 (I think).
Good fun game, can’t wait to get mine.
@khiasharisse:
>>Not sure on the rules, but one would think that when John’s Taipei blew up, doing 2 damage to everything within 2″, surely that would have destroyed all of the Scourge bombers
You don’t track individual strike craft/squadrons in Dropfleet. Each turn carriers can deploy a number of squadrons equal to their launch rating, all of which are removed from the table before the next launch phase regardless of what happens during the turn.
Wow, all the way thru. Have to say the mat looks awesome and really like the colour scheme for johns fleet. I don’t want to come across as nit picking but, well you said it justin “consult the rulebook!” Movement is a single 45 degree turn at the start of the move unless you go on course change order which would allow you to turn up to 90 degrees and you can complete the turn at any stage thru the move. Further, I got the impression that a move between orbital layers counts as a turn. Now bring on the… Read more »
One of the restrictions is you must be able to turn to change orbital layers, you might have missed the atmosphere restriction that you can only move 2 inches once you enter, no matter what your movement is. Love this game! Keep up the good work!
the deepcut mat and fleets look amazing. yes to 45 degree turn at the start of movement, Justin’s strike carriers moved and then turned.it would have taken you even longer to reach that last cluster. John mate if Justin is going to go heavy on the burn through, which is fine as the combined arms approach of hawk will leave a list like this vulnerable else where. then you can take 3 toulons to his yokai. multiple targets angles of attack. that thing is narrow and he would be in trouble. its going to be interesting to see how your… Read more »
Nice mat and paint jobs…
… however not the clearest setting for this video; a times I’m struggling to make out the ships.
WIll finish watching this later on a bigger screen!
Wish I could play, but I guess I’m just an early Commodore lvl backer and it’s not as important to fulfill that obligation as it was to get this to retail.
I’m in the same boat. Still waiting for even an email that it’s shipped… yet friends who didn’t back bought it at retail a few weeks back, and already bored of the game.
I’m pretty sure the two fleets the lads played with are from their KS pledge, money is not in massive supply so the fellas just clubbed together to get a fleet each, i don’t believe they were at a very high pledge level either.
Anyway keep the faith, Hawk are working through it and hopefully you will be opening yous very very soon 🙂
It would be nice if they hadn’t shut out the Late Backers by making their updates Backer Only.
It would be nice if they actually shipped something to the backers. not that im impatient or upset or anything 😉
@warzan I dont doubt that Hawk is doing everything they can to get the last plegdes out the door, but it doesnt change that they send the game to retail 6 weeks ago. And it gets harder to defend with every day that passes.
To throw in some clarification on our fleets. We went halfs on a Captain Level pledge, adding on two battlecruisers.
I have a Commander plus add-ons pledge that I have yet to receive even the tracking number so I understand, its frustrating. It looks good so hopefully it will be worth it.
That alpha strike was awful! Poor John.
Lesson learned throughout this game: Don’t put your ships in parade formation. Spread them out as much as possible.
Those Deepcut mats look perfect! Good game! Looking forward to putting my Commadore pledge together now!
Man, I really feel for @johnlyons at the early part of this game with all those explosions and chain reactions. Why am I reminded of Admiral Beatty at the Battle of Jutland (after watching four of his battlecruisers blow up killing practically all of the men on board)?
“Hmm … there seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today.”
😐
Nice video, i’m hoovering up anything Dropfleet related at the mo. Just gutted I missed out on the boot camp! I hate to say it but you played the activation cards incorrectly for deciding who took the first move. When comparing the Strategy Ratings, the player with the lower SR can choose to go first or second. Poor old John lost a New Cairo and Toulon early doors as a result of this faux pas. On a similar note, i believe the strategy ratings on the cards remain as they are, you do not adjust the value as you lose… Read more »
Great game, love seeing a space ship battle game on a non space map (yes I know).
My only issues, I just wish hawk varied the aesthetics of the scourge ship a bit more. I find it nearly impossible to tell them apart.
I’m also colour blind 🙁 Hopefully I don’t have to much trouble with the little bands of colour for the orbital layers. Please game designers, think about us colour blind guys when designing games.
Other then that I’m looking forward to watching the Bootcamp.
Nice work Justin and John.
I’m also color blind but do not find the orbital layers or any of the colors really to be a problem. They’re all printed in solid primary shades much to my relief.
Good video chaps! It’s giving me some ideas for setting up my force now.
I had a demo game of this at Wayland. I played UCM and my mate played Scourge. He marmalised me with some pretty jammy rolling but I won on objectives. The war must be costing the UCM a ton!
Thank you for the demo! I agree that the size of the ships and the naming convention isn’t ideal for battle reports… that said, since I’ve been following the KS (not a backer… although still was able to snag a starter set at retail launch) the names are all starting to make sense. I think everyone mentioned the issues with initiative, changing facing, and point defense.. I also think there was a time when Scald came into play and wasn’t remembered… and I think there was another time when Justin just rolled armor without rolling point defense first… oh, and… Read more »
2 things i’ve noticed:
1) you both listed too few carriers ( to deploy troops)
2) justin stop giving away victories for the sake of friendship/sportmanship i would have been feeling insulted if my opponent doesn’t aim for victory
Oh.. and I don’t know if anyone answered Justin’s question about depleting your Initiative/Tonnage Value as you lose ships – I believe the answer is no.. you still use your original tonnage to reduce bookkeeping and also to represent a BIG BATTLEGROUP that gets shot up is going to still have trouble with initiative because their relays and comms and stuff are working overtime to make up for the missing ships… somebody correct me… and remember, the lowest tonnage card gets to CHOOSE if it goes first or second… which is important early in the game to let enemies fly… Read more »