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Dropfleet Weekend Part 3: Orbital Assaults
November 1, 2015 by warzan
In our final video for the weekend we're looking at how to get your troops onto the ground for an orbital strike. As well as this we discuss with Simon from Hawk Wargames the differences in elevation and orbital levels that effect how and what you can shoot.
Check Out The Dropfleet Commander Kickstarter
Keep an eye out for more videos this weekend:
- Fri: Dropfleet Weekend Part 1 - Fleet Manoeuvres
- Sat: Dropfleet Weekend Part 2 - Weapons Free!
- Sun: Dropfleet Weekend Part 3 - Orbital Assault
Have you backed the game yet?
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Finally the last part! Thank you guys!
Gave me a very clear impression of the game.
Yep, this is definitely the best-looking game this year. I cannot wait!
Thanks for the videos. Give a good perspective of the game.
Really enjoying the videos. Jumped into the Kickstarter at the Captain level.
Oooo – this looks like a really interesting game. I loved BFG back in the day, but never got enough friends into it to play. Maybe this could swing them round…
Hope they go nuts with this.
This looks like a lot of fun!
Loved these video’s. Game looks really good and a excellent fit the universe.
Great video, not sure playing warren is good idea with rolling like that. So looking forward to the game. is there any way to modify the crippling table rolls as that looks a bit random? Maybe a heavy weapon gets a +1 on which table and close action weapons get a -1.
I think they said that big ships have a +1. But they only used it once in part 2.
This gives space for other modi.
thanks, i think it might be interesting if they showed a fuller battle with some of the big ships if they have them. I would give you a more of a flavour of what to expect although i do like the ability to destroy objectives they mentioned, keeps it interesting even if you have lost all your troop carriers.
Great video, but the Scourge seem rather weak.
Glasscannons and they might also be cheaper in points
Dropfleet weekend, can we make it a Dropfleet month?
Subscribe to the kickstarter and/or Hawk newsletter and you have your Dropfleet month. 🙂
backed at captain level. I’m so ready for this game. Thank you hawk for ticking ALL my hobby boxes!
This looks like one of the most exciting games I’ve seen in a long time!
Had this one earmarked in the Calendar 🙂
Going by this demo it does look like the special conditions ships can get when being crippled are a bit superfluous. More often than not the ships appear to be adding on damage very quickly. Perhaps that changes when you have more ships on the board and are more willing to ignore a target once it’s crippled. But from the general wargames ‘go for the kill!’ strategy special conditions might not linger as long as intended.
Good observation. In “real life” I imagine a ship would attempt to disengage when it’s taken so much damage and get repair crews working while it tries to hide. Like in Star Trek II.
Now that I think about it, in wargames everything tends to keep advancing (generally straight forward too, like a classical battle) until it dies.
SO EXCITED.
Love the UCM cruisers. Love the concept of the game and the integration of the setting into the gameplay.
Would also love to win something!
Looks good. Really like some of the game mechanics.
I have been hammering refresh on the KS all weekend. The fourth race should fund in a few hours. The PHR are coming. 🙂
Like the vid! A fourth that goes into more depth would be awesome.
I plan on getting sets for all the main factions and their kickstarter exclusive battlecruisers. With all the free cruisers and frigates it’s an awesome deal! Thanks for the videos.
backed on kickstarter can’t wait to get my hands on these
Have they mentioned how to reduce the energy spike at all?
Its a spike, so will drop if you don’t go weapons free, you can also order silent running to reduce signature.
Love it. Can’t say anymore than that. Will be increasing my pledge for PHR.
Another fantastic video of what feels like Game of the Year already.
I think we have a motto for Admiral Warzan’s DFC approach: ‘UCM, you shoot ’em’
Thanks for the videos games looks smashing
I will gave it a chance. For the models, but i’m not totally convinced by the mechanics. But lets see.
Thank you for a good series of demonstration videos. Got a clear impression of the game now.
This is going to be awesome
Those dials are a cool idea, but I can’t help but notice Warren had to keep picking them up after measuring his movement in order to adjust the dials. Is this a problem with Warrens hands/fingers, or an issue with the dials and are they trying to fix it (The dials not Warrens hands)?
I agree, I’d like to see dials so that you don’t need to pick the ship up to change the dials.
After this one, I would love to now how turning is handled, Also it seems to be little point in remaining in high orbit (other than one possible result (engines) on the crippled table.
It becomes harder to hit a target not in the same orbit layer as your ship. If you are in high and they are two layers below then you wont hit much.
“Weapon Free !” is that your new battle cry? brilliant warren.
Drop of the troops and bug out, get those ships home and fill up with more troops, rinse and repeat
Good videos, makes me want to see what a fuller, regular battle might look like where the ships are not all clustered around 1 area. Would like to see what the troop battles would look like too. Quite an interesting game!
Definitely on my list when it gets to my local game shop, really interesting game play.
I’m sold, I need this game in my life, just need to see the mighty PHR ships now! TO BATTLE STATIONS!!!!
Very nice indeed – definitely a must watch kickstarer…. very tempting
Nice to see it all rounded out. Looking forward to seeing what else comes in the next few weeks.
Woohoo PHR unlocked.
Definitely gonna keep an eye on this one. 😉
Will be backing this, it looks awesome! Love the designs of the ships too. Going to be a difficult choice which race to choose. Do we know the play styles of each race within the DropFLEET environment yet?
Only negative I can draw on this is the initiative phase. But as it was mentioned it will change when your fleets have command values. So am looking forward to seeing that in action. 🙂
Really great series. Can’t wait to play this game. @stonemonkgamer
Love the dropzone universe. This just makes it even better!
Yeah I am going to have to get this one. Looks like the best space game since B5W by AOG.
So, what do you do if ships bases overlap?
Commenting for the possibility of a limited ship! 😀
Great video series giving me a feeling of what I have to expect. And I really like what I saw.
Now I have to buy into the Kickstarter… Thx BoW-Team!
Looks like may be something like a space borne version of Guadal Canbal, ships on one side may lose but the fight goes on.
After watching this vid, ya I’m going weapons free. Have no fear UCM the PHR are here, so look out Scourge.
With each of these I’ve watched Im more and more gutted that i missed out on the top pledge level, but so glad I’ve backed this game. Im unbelievably excited to get playing it!
This will probably be the longest KS ever as far as I’m concerned, does anyone have a Dylorian I can borrow ?
You have to do a bootcamp for that game… It seems awesome…
ok those 3 videos left me drooling and eyebowling the kickstarter
It looks like Hawk is going to really capture the epic feel of what many war-games seek to achieve when we finally get to combine large-scale orbital battles of Dropfleet with large-scale ground battles of Dropzone. I imagine this becoming a fantastic way of enjoying a full day of gaming with friends using a well-balanced set of games that also have terrific fluff.
Cheers!
I am so looking forward ti this the rule system is elegant and easy to grasp just like DZC but a bitch to master and you have to think. It is the game I have been waiting for I love the the DZC universe and as you may have noticed I like my Naval games this combines them both. so looking forward to it. I have managed to get an Admiral level pledge on the kickstarter so I am so excited:-)
Great video – As this is very much a scaled WISWIG game i would much rather see base sizes reflect ship sizes and physical contact cause damage. You would expect two ships who are about to collide to have to make the difficult decision of evasive action and reduce it’s ability to fire or up to ramming speed and take ’em down with us. Ships that choose to go weapons free cannot turn and so if they don’t succeed in blasting the enemy into atoms should suffer serious damage when they collide. Also, saying that the actual size of a ship is about a pin-head to the base size is abstracting it too much for this type of game. Hope you are going to follow up on this series with a few more videos on different ship types and a look at the other factions before the KS ends.
Nice
Another nice video, thanks for giving a good overview on the game!
the move/turn mechanic reminds me of Wings of Glory, one of my all time favorite games. That is a huge sell point for me.
And Captain Warzan Kirk activated the Kobayashi maru maneuver of fixing the dice?
Great looking game guys, love the models.
I play scourge, but had to add UCM, these ships are too purdy not too.
Really want to back this, might hold off for a while and see how things go, expensive month for me.
The interaction/objective set up sounds pretty awesome for forcing games to flow instead of the “death-star” pile-ups that end up being so very very boring… Looking forward to this thing~
Dropzone Commander was a game I’ve often looked at but never brought. I’ve pledged on this however as I really like the objective based nature of the game, it’s something different for a ‘space’ game.
I wish you could adjust the height of the base to show when ships are in high orbit, atmosphere, etc, much like wings of glory
Just OK pledged now phr is funded. can’t wait.
Joined the “KS” at Commander level, I just love the look of the UCM ships. Can’t wait till the summer for it to come through the pist……….
Have enjoyed the videos, i like the step by step explanations on how things work. Gonna have to watch them again, just on the of chance I missed something……..
It just keeps getting better and better 🙂
This game looks great – they won me over with the ships when they were on The Weekender a while back and the rules sounds good. I have a feeling when this one comes out, Halo will be getting left on the shelf
Mission cards’ll be useful!
Seen the videos, still can´t resist not to buy the 2 starter Box Pledge. It got harder to resist.
Nice video, cool minis, elegant rule set; what more could you ask for?
After watching this video I am just super way excited to play. Having the infinity troops and trying to maintain objective points is space with no cover is going to be one hell of a challenge. Once there’s whole fleets on the table we’ll really be able to see the tactics, where the warp points should be, how we want to distract from key points be sacrificing big ships to draw enemies away from sectors. Using silent running in low orbit to sneak up on sectors to drop off infantry while you rush a wolf pack of strike cruisers to assassinate a key enemy ship. The dynamics of this game are crazy awesome. So much fun, can’t wait to play!
Really well done gents.
I wonder if Hawk will release a beta version of the rules, maybe as a reward for backers.
The rules sound really promising though. Lots of influences from DzC and BFG along with fresh ideas.
So many great mechanics being revealed for the game. Can’t wait to show this to my gaming group!
i’ve been following the drop-series for a while now, deffo tempted to dive in. Only problem is I’d totally have to play out the land battles in dropzone in between drop fleet turns.
i thin the orbital layer idea could be extended to allow you to fight over mining facilities with to hide around asteroids and gas clouds to skulk in. really liking this game it really does look like a stream lined BFG
Remember that the final game will be played in near orbit so there will not be many asteroids around
Hmmmmm, he may have had bad luck, but the Scourge seem terrible! Like the look of the mechanics. Arranging the order of your battlegroup activations is very like AT-43.
I made my pledge and looking forward to the game.
great looking game
I am in for the Kickstarter
I’m excited by the way this is shaping up even if the ground combat is just remove one infantry per one deployed 2 per elite. Although I would like to see different styles of units like heavy armour etc.
Backed it on day one. Any chance of cross over scenerios where the story starts with Dropfleet Commander and ends with Dropzone Commander?
Have gone into the kickstarter wooooo hooooo
The more I’m finding out about the rules the more I’m liking this game!
This is going to be great! i haven’t been this excited about a game since gorka morka! My second army in dropzone is scourge and theyll be my first in dropfleet so call me cap’n cause ive got some cities to enslave!!!
Great set of videos, guys!
I will be jumping in on this Kickstarter for sure!
I’m really looking forward to painting the models on Dropfleet Commander.
Have pledged lots of money and as warran said at salute I want it Nowwwwwwwwww lol.
Looks good… can’t wait to see the actual maps that are going to be used in the game.
The mission design is what is going to make this a great game.
Now the game makes sense…
Bring on more content!
When can we vote for 2015 (sci-fi) game of the year?
The innovation shown in this means it’s going to win before it’s even released!
not sure i like how much dice you have to keep track of. one ship fires on another with 3 different weapons – kind of need 3 different color sets of dice just so you don’t confuse them. and that’s just one ship.
This game looks awesome!
Another great video. Can’t wait to see the PHR!
Like all 3 videos. Interesting to see if there will be ground to air defence systems to prevent ground assault or attack cruisers etc
Have they stated what a typical number of ships will be in a standard battle?
Going to love this game. Now to settle back and wait for it to get to me
Great idea to have a themed weekend.
This looks so incredibly fun…
Much better than BFG… Really excited by this.
This game is going to be amazing!
Looks a good good game. Can’t wait to pick it up.
This demo game has been a blast (literally xD) I cannot wait to play in a bigger battle, where scan radius and spikes became more critical.
Loving the teasers of info about how the game plays, June 2016 feels even more away than before xD
Yup. I’ll be having some of this. Bye-bye money 🙂
Why not have every cluster be a battlefield which two other guys are playing a game of DZC on. Then every landet troop token gives them some kind of reserves. We did something similar with 40k and Gothic a few years back and it was awesome.
fantastic looking game
take my money already HW
The DZC plastics were very good, so can’t wait to see DFC ones!
human ships are amazing – I could have them painted on my display and stare at them every day.
Great demo game!
Just gimme the stuff now! What do you mean I have to wait until June next year?
Why is it that every time I vow not to back another kick starter another one comes along that grabs my interest?… Already a Shaltari player for DZC and the Shaltari fleet for this look beautiful. Cannot wait to see the painted minis.
I do hope Hawk don’t overstretch themselves for the kickstarter after the amount of interest already generated, it would be good if this is something that can continue to be expanded once it comes to market proper in the way Hawk have continued to expand DZC. Perhaps with new races, legendary commanders etc. It would be interesting to see ancient ships in a kind of resistance way too.
Went Captain level with a few bolt-ons, but still hoping the orbital assault side of it gets fleshed out some. It’s early though, so not concerned yet.
Burn through are evil, and I like it. Every time I hear about them I want to hear “Wildstar, Fire the wave motion gun!” Sounds like this game is going to be so much fun. and the miniatures are gorgeous.
It’s looking good. I don’t know if I can spare any cash for it at the moment though 🙁
I can’t wait to see the final Shaltari ships, in a range of awesome minis they were my favourite from DZC.
Great vid. Reassured my pledge. (Not that there was any doubts on a Hawk product) Can’t wait to see some PHR and some painted Shaltari now
Fantastic look on the perspective of how to handle a game with no terrain. Awesome job from Hawk Wargames.
Also has anyone told Warren his dice are loaded?
If Battlefleet Gothic and Firestorm Armada had a child, it would be Dropfleet commander! Backing now, and I can’t wait to get stuck in!
I would like to see a much larger scale demo game soon. The close action is cool, but as you describe it this will really shine on a 4×6 table.
I don’t think I can contain myself! I have never used Kickstarter before…but this…this I jumped in straight away!!!
Models look amazing, also after watching all 3 videos the basic rule set appears to be very simple (in a good way) to encourage/force players to use the available tactics
Ok. Another KS. My wife is so going to jump my back.
Great weekend coverage. Gives a good glimpse of the game.
This looks to be awesome! Really looking forward to it!
I’m with Warren on video 2’s ‘I wish this was out now!’
Watching these vids and the game being played reminds me so much of BFG with B5 added for spice. And I mean this as a complement. From the firing, critical hits, etc. But, there’s a difference here, BFG for the modern age I suppose. This is how you Forge a narrative. Not with woolly rules, but with a balanced game and mechanics that help you picture the scene – burn through lasers and weapons free! Wonder what the orders for launching attack craft and planetary bombardment are called? Can’t wait to get my hands on this!
Finally got round to watching these videos. Like the look of the mechanics a lot, and the connection to DzC is cool. Not massively into the minis but I think I just don’t have a particular fondness of ships generally.
UCM ships look very sleek.
Nice to see how this plays out 🙂
I’m checking daily for new stuff, I can’t wait to see more
Can’t wait to see more of the fleets. They’re all so beautiful!
I haven’t visited the site, before. I came across it while casually browsing the Web, tonight.
The ships in this game look really good. I love the playing area/map. Very nice!
The game, itself, looks interesting. Lots of dice rolling, and I didn’t see the first two videos that this video talked about. I’m interested in learning about the ground combat.
I haven’t seen you two guys in a video, before. You present a very relaxed presentation, which I think is a plus. It wasn’t dry nor aloof. My personal preference would be for some kind of hex or grid system for movement, but I did like the explanation about measuring from the stems of the bases, in one part.
The PHR have arrived. Dropfleet like Dropzone will be awesome.
Great looking game, please add as many ‘Bolt On’ ships as possible, I really like the look of them 🙂
Spartan have already released a version of their planetary invasion system which links Firestorm Armada to Planetfall, called Firestorm:System Wars……this is like a rehashing of this
Spartan also have another layer coming, prospectively called Firestorm:Spec Ops
Maybe you lads can have the crew at Spartan in and do a comparison or something
Just a thought……
If i get any more excited for this, I may just explode. I’m also glad the PHR have been unlocked in the Kickstarter. It brought a tear to my highly augmented eye.
I can’t wait to see how this plays with full fleets rather than just little patrol forces!
I enjoyed these videos!
Impressive game
Can’t wait to see what they do with ground combat!
Looks exciting!
I love your short series. Hope to see more Dropfleet in future. Last weeks interview with Andy Chambers was awesome so id it possible to do same thing w David Lewis? Possibly w more Dropfleet insides ?
I’d like to be assaulted from orbit!
Finally 🙂
I love the rule mechanics of this
Backed and looking forward to learning how the ground combat works. This is going to be awesome!
Great stuff… need a game of this
I’d like to try this game!
I’d like to blast some cities from orbit 🙂
Crash and Burn Table… nice lol
The models look fantastic, but I don’t think my painting would do them justice.
Nice videoseries as always!
Finally, a fleet battle game that feels like a fleet battle.
Man, this looks just so Awesome! Can’t wait – can’t miss!
I sure like to try Dropfleet Commander!
The kickstarter has an awesome commodore level now. can’t wait for more vids. metal is better than plastic. they take more of a beating when they get hit by that burn thru laser.
just watched all 3 great vids, now to pledge on kickstarter, bye bye money.
If I had Dropfleet, I would like to assault someone from orbit 🙂
I only watched the series last weekend, but Warren said its not to late to comment for the win, so here I am.
Dropfleet assaults are cool!
I loved the Dropfleet Weekend!