Interested in Dropzone Commander? Click here for a battle report.

[shmitty]

Trog16 and I have been getting in some regular games of Dropzone Comander lately. We both are really enjoying the game and thought we'd post up a report of our latest game to see if we can get some more folks interested in playing with us.

 

Dropzone Commander is a 10mm scifi game where the earth has been conquered by parasitic aliens and the human colonies are trying to win it back. It uses an alternating activation system and is heavily focused on objective play. Each unit you take has a role to play in your army to help achieve those objectives and the games are often full of challenging tactical decisions.

 

We played a 1500 point match of his UCM (United Colonial Marines - humans) vs my PHR (Post Human Republic - Cyborgs). We were playing a mission called Targets of Opportunity. There were five objectives placed on the board in buildings. Our goal was to send infantry into the buildings to search them. A found objective is worth 1VP. If we can then extract the objective off of our table edge, it becomes worth 2VPs. So, the infantry do the objective work and the rest of our armies are there to support them or hinder the opposing infantry. Here's what the setup looked like:

 

 

The picture is from my side of the table. The buildings with the red markers on the roofs contain the objectives.

 

Typically, nothing starts the game in the table in DZC. Units either drive on or are carried by dropships. Most units are rather slow, so dropships are really necessary to improve your mobility. The first turn was fairly uneventful. We both moved our infantry towards the buildings in the center and on my left flank. I was able to put some of my Immortals into a closer building which would let them start searching next turn. My commander had brought along a couple of Enyo walkers in with squad that specialize in building demolition. They were able to rail on the objective building closest to him and took out 2/3 of its DP. This caused the UCM to avoid that building altogether as any infantry entering the building would risk being wiped out if the building collapsed. I also positioned some Menchit walkers with flamethrowers near the building on the right (flamethrowers are pure death to small infantry squads). This funneled the infantry towards the center and left buildings. End of the first turn:

 

 

Turn 2 saw a couple of interesting things happen. We both had our fast movers come out of reserves. Fat movers are high speed aircraft that can make strafing runs on the table or shoot down other aircraft. They are useful for projecting firepower anywhere on the table, but can be unreliable. i was able to use some trickery in the form of command cards to extend the range of one of my AA units and take out his Facon gunships. Falcons are terrific tank hunters and having been on the wrong end of them in previous games, they were a priority target. This unfortunately hung my Janus scout walkers out to dry and he quickly annihilated them. Scouts work a bit like an Arc-Nide in Warmachine and help project your commanders influence, as well as spotting for indirect fire. He used that ability with his scouts and commander to call in an orbital strike on my AA units. So, while I killed his gunships, it cost me my scouts, an AA unit and some an anti tank walker caught in the blast! Hopefully it would be worth it. I moved some snipers into a back building, and my elite Siren infantry into the center building which were joined by some of his regular and elite infantry units. My Immortals failed to find the objective, but managed to kill a scout by shooting out of the windows of the building they were in. He called in his fast movers and took out my Immortals transport which stranded them in the building they were in. My fast movers made what I thought would be a suicide run. I was able to shoot down one of his Raven transports with a full unit of infantry still inside, killing them all. It meant my Athena would have to then fly through all of his AA defenses. I figured it was worth the trade, but his dice failed him and I flew through 22 reaction fire shots completely unscathed. End of turrn 2:

 

 

Turn 3 saw the skirmish on the ground heating up. We were both able to start destroying some significant portions of our opposing ground forces. The buildings on the right were still being ignored (one reduced to rubble) and he had infantry on the left most building that I couldn't directly counter. So, I fired my demolition units at the building. This does two things, first I took off about half of the buildings damage points. Then, every time you damage a building, you check to see if the infantry inside may be killed by Falling Masonry. With this, I was able to work over his Legionares. My Immortals found the objective in their building, but were stranded there without a transport. I'd called Ina backup, but it to was shot down by his fast movers. Still, holding that objective gave me a 1-0 lead. In the center building, my Sirens had gotten there first, so we're able to search, but found nothing. Then we kicked off a Close Quarters Battle CQB. This saw my 6 sirens facing off against 10 of his regular infantry and 10 of his elite Praetorians. This would seem bad, but Sirens are crazy, cyborg, ninja, chicks with giant pistols. When the dust settled, I had just 1 siren left to face off against his 2 units, but those had been dropped down to having 2 and 4 members each. His Legionares failed their fortitude check and fled the building making it a 1 on 4 fight the next turn. CQB fights in Dropzone are often really decisive and have a big impact on the outcome of the game as they generally impact who gets the objectives. At the end of turn 3:

 

 

In turn 4 I had 3 goals: secure the objective I had found and find a way to get it off the table, try to reinforce my lone Siren in the center building, and prevent his infantry from finding the objective in the left hand building. Through the use of a command card my Immortals found an Underground Monorail linking their building to the center building. Before I sent them there, I had them drop their objective with an AA tank waiting outside to be driven off the board. That took care of the first two and some more demolition shots dropped enough of the building on his infantry to wipe them out. From there we both maneuvered to take out more supporting units and they were beginning to dwindle. I tried to sneak some u its into his backfield to take out his commander. Although I got there, most of my shots bounced off his armour. He was able to reposition his tanks to take out these interlopers. The fight in the center building saw the lone Siren survive and take out 3 of his Praetorians, leaving just 1 remaining. With my Immortals able to join the CQB and objective search next turn I was feeling pretty good about the center. He moved another, slightly damaged, infantry unit into the left building for a last search for the objective there. End of turn 4:

 

 

I started the fifth turn by trying to drive the objective I had off of the table. He managed to interrupt me with a command card and called down an orbital strike to take out my tank that was carrying it! Fortunately I had other units nearby that were able to secure it. He made an attempt at searching the left building, but didn't find the objective. My demolition units then collapsed that building taking the infantry and objective out of the game. In the center my 2 infantry squads combined to wipe him out while also finding the objective. A couple more shots were fired, but we called it there with me securing a 3-0 win.

 

 

The game was close for the first few turns, but once the center CQB went my way, there wasn't much the UCM could do to get back in the game. It was a fun, challenging game as I think Dropzone usually works out to be.

 

If you made it this far, I'm impressed. You just really be interested in the game. If so, hit up either myself of Trog16, we both have spare armies and would be happy to teach you the game.

[Trog16]

Great write up Shmitty,  I have been working on my own, but this nailed it.  Thanks for the great game, and I can't wait for the next.

 

Anyone out there wants a game let me know, Dropzone is currently my go to game and I am loving playing it.  

 

The games can be small and fast, or relatively large and a bit slower, the game above took just at 2 hours, but that is only because I have to stop and think about every move and talk it over with Shmitty.  

 

The game is really all about the maneuver, the mission, and some subtlety complex decision points to really maximize your forces strengths.  All that is a fairly simple rules package, it is just a wonderfully designed game.

 

Like Shmitty said I have two armies that can be played, a pretty well developed UCM force, and two starter boxes worth of Scourge.  Another great thing about this game is the balance, yet race diversity.  So even though I don't have any of the new fancy Scourge units, the base units are super solid, and would comprise the bulk of any force I would normally set up anyways. 

 

Anyways, let me know if anyone is interested in a game, I live in Milwaukie, but am very close to McLoughin, and don't mind driving wherever for a game.

 

Trog