With Gen Con over and my Recaps done, I finally had time to put everything away and get life back to normal. While putting everything back is never the most exciting thing to do, it does give me time to see what all I came home with.
Tag: dropzone commander Page 4 of 13
Like every year, I think I’ll have time during the show to update things but that never happens. The convention is just too busy and entertaining to stop and post so as I settle back into to post-Con life, I get the energy to recapture the magic before too much of the memories fade. Because my photos are in order, it’s easiest to just go through things each day.
I got to take another crack at Dropzone Commander’s 2nd Edition with a local game. Not realizing what it would be like, I wanted to see what a “standard” army would look like at the new 1750 points. It turned out to be a pretty futile attempt as we had only three players and three-way games are, as I’ve found in this system, a really slow affair. Compound this with still trying to get the rules in our minds and we simply bit off more than we could chew.
I picked up the new Dropzone Commander rule book, Battle for Earth, and have had a little bit of time to start reading through. Of course the first thing I did was flip to the back of the book to go through the new 2nd edition rules. This has been a long time coming and with the force builder out, these rules helped fill in some gaps the unit stats were showing.
Dropzone Commander has been a great ride and even with all the ups and downs of the last few years as the original company was sold and a new edition announced, it still holds a lot of weight with my friends. The UKGE convention happened over the weekend and the first salvos of the real 2nd edition have landed.
I complained last week that releasing the book without unit stats will be dangerous unless the online builder is released as well and it seems they did just that. There is still a bit of dust for TTCombat to clean up with the new army builder in Beta and having some obvious errors but the company seems fully committed and that is really all we can hope for.
While 2nd edition gets cleaned up for its official opening later this month, we decided to do one last game in 1st edition to give the original a final and proper send off.
It’s been a long road, but a Second Edition is finally coming to Dropzone Commander. The new ruleset, titled “Battle for Earth,” is an odd compilation of fluff (more on that in a minute), Dropfleet Commander updates and new units, and complete Dropzone Commander 2.0 rules.
Ever since I made my burned out building for Dropzone Commander, I’d wanted to do a specific shot with some infantry inside the building. The image in my head was always this scene of a huddled squad, taking shelter in a destroyed building while the battle rages on around them. I’d been thinking about it for months and tried several test shots but could never get it right.
I tried it again this week but was getting nowhere. On a whim, I decided to flip the perspective where I’d shoot from within the building instead of trying to see the troops from the outside and the image just clicked.
That change in perspective made all the difference and instead of fighting the scene, I was able to compose it all to match more of what was in my head. The shot lighting was no more than some tea lights and cotton (easy fire/smoke markers) and a flashlight handheld at a high angle.
The big wargaming convention, Salute, happened in the UK this weekend (well Saturday really) and TTCombat was to have some big Dropzone Commander announcements. Unfortunately, there was almost no new news on Dropzone Commander (that they hadn’t already shown at GAMA and Adepticon). They did have something new for Dropfleet Commander, however.
February brings to end a few contests that I’ve entered and with it, the results of my labors. Boardgamegeek held it’s annual Picture of the Year contest and the folks in the Dropzone Commander Facebook group were busy with a contest showing off your own custom creations. Before we get to deep into the results, this Friday’s photo took advantage of some of the natural scenery found in my backyard.
Back at the end of November, I started the planning phase for my custom Leviathan hovercraft for Dropzone Commander. With my last pieces arriving over the weekend, I was able to complete the project and get some photos. This might be a bit a long as I’ll also go over how I created this monster so strap in (or scroll to the bottom to see the final work).
