The folks at
Hawk Wargames were nice enough to send out a sample set of their exciting Dropzone Commander for review.
The rulebook is absolutely beautiful. The book consists of 154 pages chalk full of goodness, including game background, rules, scenarios, army lists (UCM, Scourge, PHR, SHALTARI), guest painter pictures and tokens & templates.
The images in the book are...well lets just say...mind blowing in detail. The artists have blurred the line between reality and science fiction perfectly. The landscapes and cityscapes used are what every gamer would dream of having on their tabletop. Incredibly detailed buildings, city streets and outstanding paint jobs make each picture come alive.
The rules consists of 34 pages that are really easy to read, with plenty of examples and tables to follow. Each Army is broken down into a background section, weapon details, unit specific stats, army lists and examples of armies and color schemes. Guest painters strut their stuff showcasing some amazing painting skills that will be hard to follow.
The game has been designed around the concept of rapid deployment and redeployment of your forces by airborne dropships, thus the name of the game DropZone Commander.
The game is scaled in 10mm, a happy medium between 6mm and 15mm. The figures I received came in an army box. All the vehicles were resin and the infantry were metal. The 3 dropships came with their own flying base.
Below are some of the parts that come in the box set. The dropships are made up of 5 parts. The walkers are composed of 5 parts. The tanks are a 3 part set. The starter army had 3 dropships, 2 tanks, 4 walkers and 4 stands of infantry.
Based on what I have seen, you will need a few tools including a good x-acto blade, a file and some cutters. One thing I didn't like was the two piece mold for the Post-Human Republic tanks. These have to be glued together with the seam line running down the middle of the tank. A one piece version would have been much better, with the injection taking place in the underside. This is something that is already done with countless resin vehicles and should be done here as well. I also think, although it would increase cost, is to have metal bits for things like weapons. Resin weapons always have a habit of breaking or warping, at least mine do, and metal bits just seem to last longer.
The metal troops are very nice and have plenty of detail. Over all really like the look of the armies.
