About the Game

Info about the development of the game

Dust Tactics was released by Fantasy Flight Games in November 2010 with the initial box set. The game was developed by Dust Games and game designer Paolo Parente. Parente is said to have been developing this game and the background history for it for over 10 years.

Plot

The year is 1947. The war that started eight years ago when Germany invaded Poland isn’t over. Rather, the conflict has spread worldwide, and but a handful of countries cling to relative neutrality. Throughout the world, three major superpowers fight to claim exclusive control over a revolutionary source of power: Vk. This rare ore, mined from deep within the earth, has revealed extraordinary properties and ushered in the design of gigantic combat robots capable of challenging the world’s most advanced tanks. The initial discovery of Vk, which seems only to be found in the most inhospitable places on the planet, is shrouded in rumor and propaganda. One thing is certain: each major superpower wants not only to control Vk, but to deny it to their enemies. Elite troops and massive combat robots wage violent battles to claim these energy reservoirs... and this is the story of such a battle.

Extras about the History

The Nazis found an alien spacecraft in Antarctica and used the technology to start building their walkers. The Allies and Russia stole the tech and made their own versions of the walkers but still not as advance as Germany.

The 3 super powers mentions above are: Axis (Germany (leaders),Most of Europe, Japan, and Micro-Asia), Allies (United States (leaders), North America, Brazil, Most of Africa and Australia), and Sino-Russia (Russia (leaders), Most of China and the Asian continent, parts of Africa, Half of South America, and Small part of Alaska).

The Manhattan Project was canceled and atomic energy and the atomic bomb were never created.

The mechs all look different based on Super Power: Allies look like tanks fitted to legs instead of tracks,
Axis looks like a typical mech with leg a cockpit and the weapons as arms, and Russia looks like giant exo-suits.

The Game

Dust Tactics is a tactical miniatures board game for 2-4 players.  The scale is skirmish like Privateer Press’s Warmachine rather than full wargame like other games such as Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000.

The game is played on a 9 tile board with grids.

It has been announced that the game will later become a wargame. 5 expansions have been announced to be released in the future.

In the initial box set you get everything you need to play the game: 36 fully detailed models for both Axis and Allies (these models are not painted but are primed)(each side gets 1 Hero, 3 Infantry Units and 2 Walkers), the card stats for each unit, 9 tiles to make a game board, 18 terrain tiles, 2 tank-traps, 4 cargo crates, 12 dice (each dice is 6 sided with 2 sides with hit and 4 blank), rules and scenario books, and a free comic.

Since the initial box release there have been small expansion boxes of units that are in the big box and plans for more to come to expand the game. Each one comes with a card with all the stats needed for each unit.

Also Dust Games have released walkers for the game. While these walkers are not “official” models they do have stats for the 3 current ones (Loth, Jagdluther, and Fury of Ivan).  They are in development of making terrain for the board. Dust Games is like the Forgeworld of Warhammer 40,000 to Dust Tactics. http://www.dust-models.com/

You also are encouraged to make your own rules and models such as adding tanks and units. This game is 1/48th scale models for the walkers and 35mm scale for the figures. So if you want to you can also go to your local hobby store and purchase extra models to expand your gaming.

This game is short and fun to play. It takes about 10 minutes to set up and should only be about 30-40 minutes to play.

This game is a brutal game so expect to lose a lot of models.

Dust Tactics also has a Strategic Board Game. The Dust Strategy Board Game is a combination of Axis and Allies and Risk. It was released before the Tactics game. It is perfect for making campaigns for Dust Tactics.

The rulebook does not have to be purchased but can be downloaded at Dust Tactics Rulebook