THLZ Christmas Special: HO HO HO MERRY SCOURGEMAS!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Whatever you celebrate I hope you enjoy them, or have already enjoyed them! Today we have the Christmas special.

Battle Report: Combat between THLZ co-hosts!

Whoohoo! Battle Report time!

Levi and Jason got a game on last week and were able to write up a battle report for our reading pleasure. 

THLZ Episode 3: Rise of the Special Rules

YOSH! New Episode is out!

First off, let me apologize. I had notes on the times of everything but I am unable to find them. I will add them later.

So for this episode, we go over the special rules! Now this is almost twice as long as most of our others but don't fret, it rolls pretty smoothly. Like this rum and coke does down my throat. . . ahhhh rum.

The third episode of our series is a .5 episode. . . 

I guess we are doing it right! Here it is, The round-up of last week!


We finish up this the episode with some jumping around. We cover Jason Bruce's Hobby, some war reports, Jason's opinions on the Emergency News from last week, and a wacky rules question that I get overruled on. . . Pesky Democracies :P

Group Building: Planning a tournament

Who plays tournaments these days?! 

Tournaments are a great community growth project. Starting off with small 4-person tournaments and showing people that there is a community to join and show prospective players what the game is about, how big the community is, and to see that there is fun competition to be had.

Today I will go over the different types of players and what each may be looking for. I will also go over how to set up a Dropfleet Tournament, what you will need, and what can be changed by you as the Tournament Organizer (TO) to adjust the fun level of the tournament.

THLZ Episode 2.0: Beginner Friendly Zone

We have a second episode? It is almost like we are serious about this!

In this episode we go the the rules from the basic stats and what they do to how launch assets work. We stop just before the Special rules. Check back in next week for the second part of the cast.

Diversification in List Building

SPAMMMMMMM!

No we are not talking about the meat in a can today. Today we are talking about what to look for in your lists to give you a more all around build.

Enjoy. . . oh and if someone can find me a great picture. . .I would be happy. Nothing quite fits the bill here.

THLZ Episode 1: Humble Beginnings

Wait. . .  We do blog posts now?! Seems so. . . seems so.

Yes we have the first podcast episode done! Usually I have something witty but. . . well the gif will have to do.

Dropfleet Files: The different types of units

We have incoming! Damn the Torpedoes! Full Thrust Ahead! NO! NOT REVERSE YOU FOOL!!~!

Well, seems the captain of that ship needs either a new helmsman or a fresh set of brown pants. . .

No matter what units you bring you will have a variety. Now while it can be a bit overwhelming to see all these units and not know where they stand, I am here to bring a little light to your world by going over the various types of ships in the game.

Rules Guide: Bringing the Dakka!

The Confusion is real. . . it is almost like the Shaltnanigans are real!

Pew pew pew! Ahhh the sounds that we make as we command ships across a table while they shoot. . . well for some they make zooming noises but I like the Pew! 

Its all about that Pew, all about that Pew~!

Ok, silly time is over and if you are still here we can move on to the real topic. How attacking works.

Advanced List building: Bump those Groups!

I AM SO CONFUZZLED! Why are there two types of groups!

Yes. I made a word up and it is a combination of Confused and Fuzzy. Yes they are near enough the same thing. 

Ok, for those of you still here. This post is all about how Groups work in Dropfleet Commander. I will be going over the Stat Group and the Group Rule. There is a difference, I promise so bear with my special kind of crazy for a little longer.

Tactics Guide: All about those Activations

Thunderboy struck my inspiration node today!

Thunderboy came in like a bolt of liiiightning!~

Sorry. . . I could not help myself! I would let myself out but this is my blog and you all came to read it!

So today I will be discussing activation orders and things to consider when you plan your turn out!

Advanced List Building: Drop Tactics

All hands brace for landing! We have flak so hold on!

One thing I have seen from a few prominent people out there are questions regarding the my rule of thumb on Troopships and Strike Carriers. Well I will go into that for you here. . . Be warned, we may get into the weeds on this. I will have a few images from the book as well so Spoiler alert. . . wait. . .that is why most of you come here. . disregard ^_~

Expanding your Fleet: Shaltari

Where to go, what to conquer, what to build?

These questions are perfectly reasonable in the light that the Shaltari are not an easy faction to wrap ones head around. In today's article we will go over some things that the shaltari might need more of than other Factions. I am no expert and have less play time with the Shaltari than any other faction so this may not be a long post.

Ship Overview Shaltari Part 3: The big bad Weapons Free Experts. . .

With the power of a Shaltari Battleship do you really need more?

*sniff* it is finally the end of the series and we will end it with a bang. . .well a Beam. 

In today's article we will cover the Shaltari, Heavy Cruisers, Battlecruisers, and Battleships. There are more shenanigans but I will just likely end up table flipping something by the end of this. . .

Lets get into it!

Shaltari Cruiser Overview Part 2: Rise of the Shenanigans!

Shenanigans is the word of the day. . . 

The Shaltari as a race capitalize on the use of their shenanigans. As a race of high tech hedgehogs, they have all the silly abilities. From Gate tech to Gravity coils we will check it all out in today's article. Hmmmmmm lets count how many times I use shenanigans. . . starting now.

See! The shenanigan wielding hedgehog is real!

Dropfleet Commander: Building your lists

How the heck do I do this!!!

List building can be confusing at the start of any new game, so in this article I will go over how to build lists and some things to consider when you do. This can be a daunting prospect when you look at it for the first time and can be a little confusing but I will break it all down today.

Ship Overview Shaltari Part 1: Frigates

The swift vessels swoop in from an unexpected vector, its beam slicing into the ship. . . 

Here we are, nearing the end of this series! We have come upon the devious Shaltari and their sparkling vessel. We get to see their wide variety of unique weapons, special rules, and devious styles of play.

Lets jump feet first because as everyone knows, the enemy's base is always down.

Ship Combat tactics: PHR

Employment of your Space Assets 

Tactics are a way of life, a thought process that one does not always have the ability to dig too deep. In this series, I will be going into those weeds for you. I will have pictures, concepts, and things to consider when you use your PHR fleet to cleanse the Cradle Worlds of the uninitiated. 

Expanding your Fleet: PHR

Choosing what to build next . . . 

What should I be building next is the question on everyone's lips. Well the PHR push the boundaries a bit with their style of needing to focus down targets before moving on. Let us go over what to look at building shall we? 

PHR Ship Overview Part 3: The True Heroes of the Battlefield.

Ok, who wants odds on if the Armor fails first or he runs out of tea?

Hey, I have themes I have to keep up. Sue me! :P

So here we are, part 0b11 of the PHR and now I will show you the true heroes of the PHR's line up.

The PHR overall have the best hull and have broadsides but so far we have seen semi scary Cruisers and some worrisome Frigates so lets see what the Heavy ships and above bring us shall we?

PHR Ship Overview 2: Unleash the Broadsides!

Are you still drinking Tea? Dang that armor is THICK!

Here we are, Part 0b10 of the PHR and we now get to his some of the special ships of the PHR. The PHR have a few nice things, the most cruiser class models, 2 different Troopships, and the only Fleet Carrier that can be in a group bigger than one per slot in a Battlegroup. 

However while the PHR get these cool benefits, they do pay for them and you will see that today's overview.

PHR Frigate Overview: How tough could they be?

Flashes of lasers, the impact of objects shot at super extreme velocities hitting the hull and you sit there drinking tea!

Sorry about that, seems I get on these trips of imagination. . . So we are on the PHR finally! This means we are halfway there. Cue the clapping! 

Some joking aside, the PHR are the toughest of all the factions. Not only do they have more Hull than all the other factions per ship, all but a single ship has a 3+ armor save. Some ex-40k player que the blue berry joke. They are also the Broadside faction of the game and while I love them dearly and I love some of their ships, I will come out now and say that I feel that they are charged a HIGH toll for these "benefits". 

Well lets get to it!

Frigates:

First off, let me apologize. The PHR were the first set of ships I got pictures for so the quality is not the best. However, I will go over everything that is relevant and even point out somethings of interest. I have to thank those who helped me out with pictures, they made me very happy!

Medea-class Strike Carrier:

The Medea is interesting. As we will see with the PHR and Shaltari, they seem to crack the mold that the Scourge and UCM followed. The Medea does not have antiship weapons other than its Close Action Weapon. We do see that the PHR have a Scan radius of 8" which means you can shoot at Scourge vessels at 16" normally which is nothing to sneeze at! 

The Medea has a Bombardment gun and as I said with the Charybdis, the Medea is special in that it can stay in Atmosphere and hit clusters on its regular Lock Value!

Something fun, read the fluff on the Medea here and see if you can spot the teaser ^_~

Europa-class Frigate:

Every faction has a "Gun Frigate" and the PHR have what I consider one of the best ones in the game. 

The Europa has Linked Broadsides. This means that if you fire one side you get the other side for free. You do not need to go Weapons Free to get the full effect of this frigate and that on its own makes it great. It is not that expensive either, at 40 points it is cheaper than a Scourge Harpy but has a higher Lock Value. for 80 points you will generally get 3 hits and 1 will average out to a crit. 

Pandora-class Frigate:

Yes you can see that right. The smallest ship with a Burnthrough Laser in the game! The Pandora is the most expensive frigate so far and it has a Burnthrough Laser. It caps out at 3 damage and has a Lock of 3+ but only shoots a single die. Having done many test rolls on this ship, I HIGHLY recommend 3 of these if you will take them. Two can work and you may see them in groups of two often but I feel that 3-4 is the sweet spot for these Frigates. 

They can be very swingy. Sometimes you might rolls the gift of the gods roll and start with 3 crits and end with 9 damage and sometimes the dice gods will glower on you and you will start with 3 misses. 

If you want consistency out of your frigates go with the Europa, if you like a bit of gamble, you cant really go wrong with the Pandora.

Andromeda-class Escort Carrier:

The PHR enjoy the ability to tailor their lists to a fine point. Where as the UCM is very utilitarian in in use and can cover a wide range of jobs, the PHR can tailor their style of play to the types of ships they take more so than any other faction except the Shaltari.

The Andromeda is a great look at that because this is the smallest Carrier Ship in the game! At 42 points each, this ship has no offensive weapon but it's Close Action Weapon and A fighter/bomber.

While this may seem like a useless ship, the Andromeda is a surprise on its own. Being able to flank around the table in a small group and nip at opponents up to 24" away can really set anyone off on the wrong foot and turn the tide. It does help that PHR Bombers hit on a 2+ and are the only ones who do so. Each bomber gets 2 dice so you can really put the hurt even on frigates with just a small amount of them.

Calypso-class Frigate (The Vexer):

The Calypso is an interesting ship like all PHR frigates (hmmmmm someone fix my record spike. . .I think I am stuck on repeat :P ). The Calypso is a rare ship with no other weapon than its close Action weapon and an Advanced ECM Suite.

The trick is in that Advanced ECM Suite. Are your ships being attacked by a host of bombers? Well lets jam them and increase their Lock value by 1! Does not seem like much you say? Well lets look at the odds. Lets say you are getting attacked by a UCM Cobra Laser and he is going to roll 2 dice on a 3+, well if the Calypso is within 4" and on the same layer of the defending ship, that attack now needs a 4+ to hit and a 6 to crit! That is a big deal.

Now, I feel that the AES ability is strong it is not like the Jakarta or the Shaltari Opal. The limit to just a single weapon system is fine but not great when you get attacked by a group of New Cairo's. It also only works once a turn which is fine but I feel it should increase a Groups's weapon, so if you got attacked by 3 Strix, it would affect each of the Strix's weapon with the same name. That would be strong but not game breaking since it is just once a turn per Calypso. Either that or take away Rare. . .

Thoughts:

The PHR have some fantastic frigates that are well pointed for what you get even if they are not all as spectacular as some from other factions, they each bring their own twist to the game that can change how the game is played. This is just the start though. We shall see what the rest of the PHR has to bring to the table!

All images from the Dropfleet Core Rulebook are owned by Hawk Wargames (C) 2016

Expanding your Fleet: UCM and Scourge

What to build next. . . oh the choices

One of the biggest question I have seen recently is "What do I build next?". In this article and more to come I will go over different build considerations and ships for the UCM and Scourge that can help expand your fleet. I will include Battlecruisers lightly in this and go over Battleships when they are released, but for now we will focus on just getting to 1500 points with different types of ships. 

Scourge Capital Ships: Let the Mythical Creatures Rise!

Let your wails rise to the heavens above and let the gnashing of teeth fill the air. . . 

Sorry about that, I was feeling a bit over the top I guess you could say. . .

Well here we are, at last. The Big evil creatures of the Scourge! There are some very interesting ships in this section that can change a battle. So lets talk about your Vanguard and Flag ships shall we? Maybe even turn the masses into some Jelly loving fans while we are at it!

Scourge Ship Overview: Wrath of the Cruisers

The Vicious Jelly Cruisers!

On to the Cruisers! Scourge Cruisers are just plain made of Anger and hate. . . ok. . . maybe my anger and hate. Scourge Cruisers are without a doubt the most aggresive cruisers in the game. While they have poor armor they have some of the best speed as hands down the BEST! Close Action Weapons in the game while having much more powerful or more weapons of their Frigate Cousins. Lets go over them all!

Scourge Ship Overview Frigates

Scourge Overview:

Before we start, I feel the Scourge are one of the most dangerous factions. They have the most consistent damage with most all of their weapons are 3+ and Scald is one of the most dangerous Weapon Special Rules to me personally. . . 

UCM Ship Overview Part 3 . . . The Big Boys!

Time for the bigguns!

Here we are. . . finally. .. The big ships. There are 5 of them so this will be shorter but . . . oh baby! We have Battleships and Battlecruiser. . . oh my.

Well lets get right to it shall we?

UCM Heavy Cruiser and Cruiser Overview

Part 2 of the UCM! 

Here we are, ready for the UCM Heavy Cruisers and Cruisers! Well lets get right down to it!

UCM Light Ship Overviews

Overviews of the Light ships of the UCM:

Let us review the different Light ships of the United Colonies of Mankind. I will be going over each ships and my personal thoughts on the ships. 

Now I am not Great Captain or the like so if you have any ideas on different uses or thoughts let me know!

I am treating this like a video review so all you will get is the stat page as I have them. I want to thank my sources for these pictures, they have assisted many many people in their endeavors!

This week in Dropfleet!

What has been going 

With Dropfleet hitting retail I think it is time to unveil all the information I have gathered for ship stats. This has helped several creators to make Army Builder files, an Excel builder, and assisted in a few others.

Over the next few days onto next week, I will have the stat pictures I have accumulated up. I will be using Dread2005's Ship Charts with the stat pages to show you a comprehensive overview of each ship. Now before anyone decries me, when you have many people take some pictures you end up with a complete picture of what is going on.

Just a teaser that will be come clear in time!

Battle Report from over the seas! Dropfleet PHR vs Shaltari

Battle for Supremacy!

Light Fleet Engagement over New Eden!

Over the heads of the Scourge Invaders, a battle involving elements of the Post Human Republic combated the alien menace known as the Shaltari! Not much is known of why these two forces were engaged in hostilities with each other though through analysis and study of their objectives we hope to glean a better understanding. 

We Have Launch!

It is here! Finally here! 

We have pledges being launched into Atmosphere via Interlink (I think that is their name) and are landing on peoples doorsteps.

In fact some people have been posting pictures of what they have been building!

4 starter fleets!

Dropfleet Commander News Part 3: That sweetness known as the modular station and the extra bits

Let's get down to one of the most amazing things to come from this review. . .  The modular station.

Now when I saw the station during the kickstarter I knew I wanted it but I did not understand the scale that the station would provide.

Dropfleet Commander News Part 2 The Shaltari and PHR

Well here we are again ladies and gentlemen. This time we are going to go over how Shaltari Gates work and what information HawkDave gave us in the interview with Beasts of War.

Dropfleet Commander Update! Information on the Beasts of War Video! Part 1

Alright Ladies and gentlemen, for those that have not seen this yet please here it is! The video that is making all the buzz.