Hey all, Adam and Danny here to talk about our first experience playing Hawk’s Dropfleet Commander.
So, for those who don’t know (or care), Hawk Wargames just released their newest game, Dropfleet Commander, written by Hawk’s Dave Lewis and the infamous Andy Chambers. Both of us backed the Kickstarter, and Danny, loving spaceships, backed full bore, so now that we have models and rules in hand, we had to schedule a quick introduction game.
Danny built the PHR and the UCM starter fleets, so we rolled dice, Adam had rules read to him (I don’t read rules), and we stumbled through all of this together. Here are our thoughts as we were too concerned with trying to play the game correctly to take diligent notes and photos for a battle report.
What we learned:
4×4 may not be enough of a board. We did the intro on a smaller size, and that was really a mistake. We’ll have to try even an intro game on the full 4×4. The thing is that once you gain a major spike (increases how visible you are and therefore able to be shot), you will get lit up badly. Danny went gung-ho on turn 1 and did Weapons Free (fire all weapons) on one of Adam’s little ships, failed to kill it, and then every other model, anywhere on the table (almost) in Adam’s fleet could pump shots into it. It did not live too long after that. More terrain is likely an answer as it reduces Scan range and increases to hit rolls, so that may make it much more tactical. We tend to think that a full 1500 point game may require a 6×4, but anything over 2000 definitely would.
Standard Orders seems the most efficient action to take (move, shoot one weapon). Once the game gets into turn 2, most ships are close enough to each other to where you can effectively target at least one thing, so there is no real need to get any spikes as the moment more of the board can see you, you are pretty much dead. This is likely by design, but it does often make the other Special Orders feel a bit lackluster as part of the appeal of the game is lighting ships up with all the guns, but that seems like a bad thing more times than not. Danny tried Maximum Thrust to get a Strike Carrier to a more friendly side of the board, and with the Spike, it was shot dead immediately. Of course, other Fleets like Scourge or Shaltari may make better use of things like Silent Running or Hold Station, but we’ll see.
Launch Assets (fighters and bombers) are the truth. Danny’s Seattle Carrier was the MVP by far, doing the most consistent damage to Adam’s PHR and even downing one of his Cruisers. They have such a wide range and against a target with weak Point Defense, they can spike damage pretty insanely.
Burnthrough lasers are also the truth. Adam’s Cruiser did 6 in one shot, 5 in another, 6 in another. This is massive when even larger ships have 12-15 hull only. Even Danny’s lone Burnthrough did 6 in one shot. These weapons are mean, mean, mean. If you can take them, take several. Danny suspects that the New Cairo, a UCM Light Cruiser, could be popular as it packs a Burnthrough for a very small points investment. The PHR also have a frigate with one but it caps out at 4 (still good though).
The damage charts must be in Andy Chambers’ DNA. While they often have some interesting effects, the randomness of roll a dice to get placed in a chart, roll again for effect of that chart is very much GW game design from 20 years ago. It is what it is: You either like it or you don’t, but it is there, so understand that.
Frigates die. If they take even 2 damage, most are crippled and will likely die on the resulting roll on the tables, so if they are to be effective, they either need to be taken in larger packs or kept in low-orbit/Atmo to keep them safe. Danny killed one of his own by trying to go through a debris field. “Pilot error.”
The game is actually pretty easy to pick up once you get the hang of it. While Adam (having not read the rules or even watched a few Youtube videos) went in stone cold, by the end of the first turn, he mostly had it all in down and just needed to check the reference sheets to remember which ship did what. The general mechanics are pretty simple, and once you can essentially read a stat-line, the game makes sense and flows. Scoring objectives and what not is a bit different than other games with the distinction between clusters, sectors, and critical locations being a bit much, but that may just take practice. Danny does like that scoring takes place on turn 4 and 6, so it gives players two chances as opposed to the old 40K “Jetbike turboboost for the win” tactic on turn 5 or 6.
The idea for spinning bases to mark information is a good one, and typically, it works out well. You really need to hold the base down though to make sure you aren’t bumping the model all around. The idea that doesn’t work at all is the damage tracking pegs. They are too small, too fiddly, and many of the models don’t allow enough room underneath if you have larger hands. Using a d4, a d12, or a d20 is probably the best way to keep track.
Telling the models apart is a bit harder. It will likely just take practice and painting to really be able to identify which ship is which, but because they are all built off the same chassis, it can make telling them apart a bit tough. Ship markings, group markings, etc are going to be necessary for really efficient turns where you aren’t wasting time looking up which ship is which.
The Quick-Start stat page with condensed rules on the back really helped, and really, It’d be nice if Hawk made some stat-cards for the ships ala Warmachine. If you buy a starter, keep it as the condensed rules breakdown on the back is super helpful.
Overall, we both enjoyed the game (Adam loves games when he wins), and we found ourselves wishing that Danny had brought over the Scourge and Shaltari, just to give the game another go with totally different fleets. If you are in SoCal and want to try it, give us a shout.
Of course, that Patreon could help us do more cool things like video battle reports or trying other random games.
