Review: Dystopian Wars by Spartan Games
Editorial Correction – I made a snaffu and mistakenly ordered the release dates for Spartan’s game line. The correct order is as follows: Uncharted Seas was first, launching June 2008. Firestorm Armada launched November 2009, and Dystopian Wars November 2010. Thanks to Gary for catching that!
If you’ve been living under a rock for the last year or so then you may have no idea what Dystopian Wars is. Assuming you’re not a belly crawling slug of some sort with exceptional intellectual facilities, then you may have heard of Spartan Games, dare I say revolutionary, newest offering. A brief history of Spartan goes like this: They make navel miniature war games. Firestorm Armada (space navel game, looks a bit like Battlefleet Gothica by GW) came first, so I’ve heard from BG fans was generally a better play experience and had a much healthier support than whatever it is GW considers to be continuing game support.
Next came Uncharted Seas, a fantasy navel battle game. Okay no one’s had really done this and I’d like to add GW is now copying Spartan with their Dread Fleet game that’s just releasing. But Spartan did it three years earlier, and US is now getting its first full overhaul. US was what really brought Spartan on the scene, but they were still not a major player.
And then last year happened. The R&D guys at Spartan said, “Hey this steampunk thing seems to be taking off and is a cool idea for a game.” Bam. Dystopian Wars was born and now Spartan is a household name…well if you’re a gamer at least…or that slug with extremely high cerebral function. Dystopian Wars is different than the others in that it’s a combined forces game, meaning it covers land, sea, and air forces. Anything you know does that? Didn’t think so.
Now as a review, I could walk you through a game, but I’m not. That’s what battle reps are for. I could spend hours detailing the inner workings of the game, but I’m not. That’s what a doctoral thesis is for. I will however give an overview of what DW isn’t and what it is. Like that emphasis? I thought you might. Classy, I know.
Anyhoo, I need to first put it out there that I have never been really excited about navel battles, just mildly curious. Now you probably know by now that I do write in the steampunk genre so of course I was extra interested, but the last thing I needed was another game to take up space in my closet. Ever seen my gaming closet? No. Well here ya go…my wife is kind…
So what Dystopian Wars isn’t:
- It isn’t nearly as expensive as your average miniature war game.
A basic battle group (land or naval) will run you around $45 USD and that’s totally enough to get you gaming immediately, all you need is the core rulebook around $30 USD and you’re good to go. Total initial investment about $75.
Now take something like Warhammer 40K. Army Codex: $33, Battleforce: $100+, Core Rulebook: $57, Templates $8, total initial investment: $198 and you don’t have enough to play yet…that’s right, the GW Battleforces don’t actually give you enough to play the freaking game according to force organization charts.
- It isn’t nearly as complicated as your average miniature war game
This is due mostly to Spartan’s genius method of almost everything depends on “hits” or successes of the same D6 mechanism. Very easy to remember 1-3 misses, 4-6 hits with the 6 counting as two hits and you get an extra roll for 6’s. There are three charts on the fast play rules and only one of them is necessary as the other two are just taking various bits of information and compiling into an easy and useful, but unnecessary chart. So there’s only the critical chart you have to reference. 40K? I can’t even begin to think of how many charts there are…
Rules for the combined forces are all basically the same, so there is a seamless transition from land, air, and sea forces. In 40K you have vehicle damage charts, rules for movement, terrain, etc.
- It isn’t hard on your back
I can quickly bring to mind at least a dozen people I’ve heard just recently complain about having to haul huge bags that cost tons of cash to fit with custom foam to a place where they can play their games. Or complain about leaning over a table for a couple hours moving loads of rank and file units around.
Dystopian Wars is much lighter on the back as it’s smaller scale and requires far fewer models to play. An average naval game may include a battle ship, a few bombers, around ten frigates, a few cruisers, and a dozen tiny flyer tokens, maybe an airship. All these models could easily fit in a couple small foam trays and be placed in a messenger bag along with your cards and dice. And this also translates to fewer models to push around the table.
Okay so what is this game then?
- Dystopian Wars is a ton of fun
Like I said while I was hopeful, I was very skeptical of a game like this hooking me, well it did. First off it can be loads of fun at any level of play, small skirmish or big combined force battles. The rules seem very tight and well thought out and especially easy in terms of war games. It’s easy on the budget, hobby requirement, and challenging to boot.
- It is challenging and balanced
With my first few plays, I have to say I’m impressed by the balance that seems to exist in the game. Sure I’m like “Crap that FSA battleship gets how many dice?” but that’s balanced out well by the linked fire rules and I never once felt like something was broken. I’m interested in really digging deep to find each country’s strengths. And the alternating activation sequence really puts more priority on tactical choices.
- It requires less hobby commitment
The model detail is exquisite. I swear the resin is stronger than stuff I’ve seen before and the quality control appears to be very high. I can only hope Spartan keeps their standards up in the long run. Due to the quality and scale of the models they lend themselves to drybrushing, a quick detailing, and some washing. Bam. Army done. This is excellent because if you’ve ever spent hours and days working on a 2000 pt 40K list, you know how frustrating it can be to get it painted only to swap out a unit and have to get that done too. Low model count is your friend. Again model scale helps a lot here. 28mm and 10 man units require much more work than 3 ship squadrons at 1:1200th scale to get them table ready, and lets face it no one wants to be the guy with grey models on the table.
- The scale translates better to tabletop
Last point here is the joy of the scale. I always found it hard to believe a flamer in 40K went almost as far as a bolt pistol. Never seemed very realistic. At the scale level of Dystopian Wars you get a much better feel of the breadth of the tabletop.
Okay so I’ve droned on about this game, but if you consider yourself a mini gamer, or have been considering getting into one. I can’t recommend Dystopian Wars enough. This game is ridiculous amounts of fun. Sure 40K has a place for me, especially in my anal-retentive hobbyist nature, but for a great time playing games; Dystopian War is providing a much needed breath of fresh air in my gaming life.
