The View from the Turret

Dystopian Wars — Review

Posted on 28Dec10 Updated on 18Nov11

Imagine a world similar to our own, but subtly different. Now imagine the year is 1870 and the Industrial Revolution occurred decades earlier than in our own world. Technology is far advanced, and in many cases, unrecognizable, which has led to the development of fantastic naval vessels, hulking land ships and terror from the skies in the form of airships and war balloons.

The Dystopian Wars game is set in a Victorian Steampunk world and we have designed the rules to ensure a fun game with a large selection of high quality models in a couple of hours. The rules support Naval, Aerial and Land models from the outset, so that you can set up battles and scenarios in any combat setting.

Well the D6 Generation boys have outdid themselves once again. They have done a mammoth review of Dystopian Wars, the new miniatures game from Spartan Games. Craig outdoes himself with a wonderful dramatic Dystopian Wars introduction. The review is in fact so big they had to split it into two segments (1st at 1:12 and 2nd at 2:32). This is by far their best review yet. They go into exacting detail on the game’s background, the rules, the miniatures as well as the actual game play. It is also one of their best reviews in terms of overall listening entertainment and general flow.

You can download very well done ship/vehicle stat cards from the Spartan Forums.

Also don’t miss the D6G’s excellent interview with Spartan Games’ owner Neil Fawcett.

We have bought a number of games that we never would have based on input from the D6 Generation and Dystopian Wars will probably be yet another. While the miniatures are of the same high quality and detail as Spartan’s Firestorm Armada miniatures, they do not particularly appeal to us, but the rules sound so good we will probably pick some minis up anyway or may proxy in FA ships or even WW2 ship minis.

Also see the Spartan Games Interview. Also see Dystopian Wars — Getting Started Week.

On a related note, I picked up Boneshaker after hearing Craig praise it a few times. I have never read any Steampunk titles before and only a few zombie titles. Boneshaker is rather light on both but is a very well written and interesting adventure story with an evocative world and some strong female characters. If you want a good read give it a shot.

[Updated: 18NOV11]