Evaluating Dystopian Wars

I wrote about evaluating my projects a few days ago, doing a SWOT-analysis, and would like to start with Dystopian Wars.

First off, what are the four characteristics that i am going to check with Dystopian Wars? They are emotion, probability, space and players. But before that, let's get everybody up to level about Dystopian Wars. It is a Victorian/pre-World War One Steampunk/Sci-Fi setting, set in an - you guessed right - dystopian world. In this case it is a mass combat ruleset, set around 1:1200 scale, which offers you gaming on the water, on the land and in the air.

And now about the first aspect, Emotion. I like the setting and design. Especially the alternate world war one charme the game spreads speaks to me. Along with the very clear and distinctive pattern of the Prussians, it really speaks to me.  As with the scale, you can actually combine and field a lot more than just epic-style huge tank battles, have sea battles and all that with nifty stuff like tesla coils. So from that part, i really like this game miniature and style-wise.

Probability is up next. Well, Spartan Games isn't really known for good planning. They do a lot - at the same time - and realize that it is to much and start over again, with even more on their shoulders. After ditching Uncharted Seas, spreading out in several different scales, from Dystopian Legions ca. 35mm Scale, to their different scaled sci-fi systems, and now even a licensed Halo space system that cannibalizes their Firestorm Range (that is already struggling with Dropzone and others). On top of that, they did a 2.0 of DW. So it left quite a lot people irritated. That drowns the probability.

And then there is the aspect space with Dystopian Wars, and that is actually a problem of the game - or most of the Spartan Games, so it is shared with Uncharted Seas and Firestorm Armada. It is less a storing problem, as you get quite a bit of points on a single shelf. There it is more the problem of things like the flyers and large constructs, as they are bulky and difficult to store, with their flying stands etc. But the real problem, is the problem of space while gaming. The game has a bit of scale creep and tends to get bigger and bigger with the releases, and the regular miniatures, especially ships are already to large for proper gaming. You see, with a naval game you got heavy and vast movements, and if you have huge ships, you need a large table. Dystopian Wars limits its own size by that, you could field more miniatures, have bigger armies -> ergo buy more miniatures, if they would be at least 20% smaller. So playing it on 4 by 4 feet, is tricky with more than the starter boxes content and you need more space. That makes it unlikely for a quick game in the evening. Sadly.

Players. I already talked about a few things in probability and space, that limits the attractivity for many. I only have two other players that have DW armies in my local club, and one of them stopped playing tabletops in general, this is an actual problem. Especially with the aspect, you don't just have two armies of DW at hand, like you could do with smaller games.

Conclusion? It is hard, as i really like the idea of a nice dystopian wars army, with sculpted bases and everything. But i guess, i must let it go. But i am not in a hurry, so when i get the right offer, i am willing to sell the lot. I might even trade it, for a similar game with smaller models.

Thanks a lot for reading, come by again soon and leave a comment or give me a like on Facebook if you like this blog!