Spartan Games released a first “official” battle report for their coming 28mm steam punk miniatures skirmish game Dystopian Legions. The report – titled “Give ‘Em Hell For Florida Boys” – has been out for two, three days. As the report offers a first game-play impression of Spartan’s entry into the 28mm field, it’s been carefully inspected by blogs of all colours. Unfortunately, the report doesn’t offer as many insights as I would’ve hoped.
Give ‘Em Hell For Florida Boys
First off, the report details a scrap between the ‘Fightin’ 15th from the Federal States of America going up against the XII Oldenburg Regiment from the Prussian Empire.
It’s a beautiful pdf, styled like a 1871 Newspaper and written from the perspective of a British Field Correspondent.
I love the emphasis on narrative and background. It is also where this report shines as weird weaponry is brought to the field and all kind of strange characters add the fray.
If you haven’t had a chance to read it, here’s the report.
Good Characters, Confusing Rules
I could quickly and easily relate to the dramatis personae. Dr ‘Scattergun’ Sam Orlington or units such as the Buffalo Hunter felt a bit more substantive than the (for me) rather more lifeless, generic characters such as Action Jackson in games like Dust Warfare. Makes me look forward to reading Dystopian Legions background, which is a good thing.
In contrast, the short (too short?) rules excerpts left me confused, not enlightened. The game is clearly build around alternate unit-by-unit activation, rather than activating your entire army. Lots of unique abilities, game cards and generic maneuvers are used on both sides. Unfortunately, as there was nothing resembling an overview of the table, the initial deployment or the position of the different units in play, I couldn’t really figure out what all those different actions truly meant in the game.
Oberst Hahl and his Teutonic Knights make an appearance
Likewise, there were random references to good dice-rolling or bad dice-rolling, yet little insight into how the mechanics actually worked. To name one example, things like “effective range” or “long range” mean very little if you don’t know what these ranges are and how much of a difference it makes to a unit if it’s shooting at one or the other.
Thus, while I appreciate the great effort Spartan Games put into making this battle report an engaging story, it felt a bit tiresome to actually follow the “game” as a battle report.
Hopefully Spartan Games will publish a battle report that gives a slightly better sense of the game-dynamics in the future.
What’s your opinion on the report? I’d love to read your opinion in the comments below!
Z.
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