Greetings Commanders, with a new edition of Dropzone Commander and updates to Dropfleet Commander we thought we’d have a look into how to get started with these great games!
Contained within Battle for Earth are the core rules for the second edition of Dropzone Commander. This edition is the culmination of years of playtesting and months of design work. We’ve tweaked a whole bunch of stuff and made much needed changes to streamline certain parts of the game.
What’s Changed?
We’ve changed the way you build your forces, gone are the myriad of only slightly different force organisation charts in favour of a more standardised set of force building rules. This doesn’t mean that we’ve made all armies perform exactly the same, in fact, each faction has a differing selection of unit types they can take in each battlegroup. PHR gain access to all 4 variants of Type-1 walker in their armour battlegroup’s standard selection, while UCM only get Sabres and Rapiers.
We’ve also made a change to close combat. Now infantry get to attack as part of their activation. Don’t worry though, you still gain an advantage for occupying a building first: any enemy unit attacking in CQ the turn they enter an occupied building must re-roll all successful attacks.
Fast Movers are now quite different, acting as regular Aircraft that have a minimum move, and go back into readiness if they fly off of the board.
Transports have also seen changes, taken as Auxiliary choices in the Battlegroup structure. They are able to be activated with any battlegroup when empty and are now able to have any appropriate unit embark into them. Now your Legionnaires can get out of dodge in a Raven that used to belong to a long gone unit, while it’s APC lies smouldering from plasma fire. They also only have to start the battle half full, meaning you have loads of army building options open to you!
What you Need
Starting to play Dropzone Commander couldn’t be easier, all you need is a copy of Battle for Earth, a Starter Box, and internet access. Battle for Earth contains the rules for the new edition of Dropzone Commander, with all of the unit stats in our list builder web app (available here).
Once you add a Command Unit to your list, you’ll want to pick up a pack of Command Cards. These give you access to effects that can alter the tide of battle in your favour, things like seeing the command cards your opponent has, or giving an aircraft Evasion +3 when it’s shot at after moving.
Your Command Card deck can be customised in this new edition of the game. You have a deck of 30 cards, and no two can be the same (sorry Espionage). In the future we will be releasing faction specific decks that will give loads of options to build your deck with, but the standard deck of Command Cards contains loads of awesome plays.
What About My Old Stuff?
The old 1.1 Rulebook and both Reconquest books are superseded by Battle for Earth. Though they both contain a whole bunch of lore that isn’t in Battle for Earth (particularly the ins and outs of the Reconquest battles) and are worth it if that’s your jam.
The old Dropzone Command Cards are also replaced by the new ones. With new rules and tweaks to the old ones, it simply wasn’t possible to make them all compatible.
Famous Commander cards are also now out of date. Famous Commander models have all had new generic versions made available on the army builder app, so the miniatures are still very much usable, and will be from here on! New Famous Commanders will come again in this edition, but we can’t say anything more on that for a little while yet.
What’s Changed
Not much! We’ve added a few rules, but those of you that have been using the community driven Adepticon errata will find them familiar. This errata isn’t an official update though – the only changes to the core game are the additions to this book.
Battle for Earth introduces final rules for Dreadnoughts and Destroyers. As an added bonus though, we thought we’d throw in rules for Monitors as well. These are non-ftl capable defence orientated ships that are more weapons with engines attached than proper spaceships. We’ll be releasing these at a later date (don’t ask, we’re not allowed to say any more than this under pain of becoming a Scourge host).
The biggest Dropfleet part of the new book is the introduction of the Resistance Fleet. This fleet offers new ways to construct your miniature spaceships and each of the Cruiser and Frigate sprues make an absurd number of unique combinations of ships.
What you Need
A 2-Player starter and Battle for Earth! The current rulebook for Dropfleet is still as valid as it always was and still contains all the same space goodness it always has. Battle for Earth only adds to that goodness. With a couple of rules tweaks, the bulk of the changes this book brings are final rules for Dreads and Destroyers.
If you’re planning on playing Resistance in space, you’ll need Battle for Earth. It’s got all the rules needed to put together a rag-tag group of grizzled space veterans, or a renegade faction separate from the UCM or PHR. You may also want to pick up a pack of command cards to add another tactical layer to your games!
What About My Old Stuff?
It’s still good! Don’t get rid of any of it! Battle for Earth is simply an expansion for Dropfleet Commander, to give you new ships to use in your games.
So there you have how to make the jump into Battle for Earth, whether you’re a Dropfleet or Dropzone player, this book has something for you.
Pick up a copy of Battle for Earth here.
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