Dropzone Commander: 4 player Battle report

Dropzone Commander is one of those stealth games in my collection. I don't play it as often as other games but everytime I do I ask myself why aren't I playing this more often?!


For the uninitiated Dropzone Commander is a 10mm scale science fiction miniatures game  is from the good people at Hawk Wargames.

Over the weekend we got in a 1000 point 4 player game. We played the Focal Point mission that requires you to get scoring units within range of "focal Points" scattered across the board. The person that controls the most Focal Points with the most scoring units wins.

I played with my Resistance while the other players had Scourge, Shaltari and PHR.

PHR and Shaltari jockey for position.

We all started in the corners of a 4x6 table, in hindsight we should have allowed players that shared a long edge of the table to deploy closer to one another as the battle essentially turned into a Resistance versus Scourge and Shaltari versus PHR with the occasional pot shot across the table.

My Resistance forces moved towards my closest focal point, I wanted to make sure it was secured. I kept my Marine Force Recon onboard their transport to react to any incursions or keep it for a last minute focal point grab.

First few turns are uneventful. Key moments include my Archangel Interceptor shooting down a Scourge Light Dropship, forcing the infantry into a building in the middle of the board. The PHR Hades takes a long range shot (using a command card) and scores 3 damage on my hovercraft transport, almost destroying it!

Note to Self: Stay away from this guy!

The Scourge come after my Focal Point in a big way, sending 6 Hunter Tanks and 3 Reaper AA tanks at me. They knock out my hovercraft and all of my Gun Trucks but the pay a high price, losing almost everything to combined Resistance fire.

Over 2 turns the Scourge vehicles knock out more Resistance units, including one Cyclone Helicopter, but all of their tanks are destroyed in return.

Even the Hellhog makes an attack run, killing a tank as well.

That's gotta hurt!

With the game coming to an end the Scourge Commander, riding in his Desolator, makes an attack run on my Focal Point...

The Desolator weathers the reaction fire but takes damage, leaving him with 2 damage points. But he settles over my Command unit and fires.

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Luckily for the Resistance I only lose one Zukov AA tank, in my activation my Archangel returns and guns the Desolator out of the sky!

With most of the Scourge dead the Marine Force Recon took control of the Focal Point in Scourge Territory.


On the other side of the board the Shaltari and PHR are fighting each other, devolving into a long range shooting match.

Long range duel! Shaltari versus PHR

The Shaltari - PHR battle was mostly at long range, with the Shaltari picking off most of the PHR's walkers and ignoring the mighty Hades. The Hades took it's vengeance but was often thwarted by the Shaltari's passive saves.

Overall the battle was a lot of fun, the Resistance and PHR ended up tied with 6 points each, with the Shaltari getting 4 and the Scourge 2.

When players tie in victory points then you look at Kill points. the Resistance had killed a lot more in points and thus won!

It was a bloody battle, the Scourge lost almost their entire force, the PHR took a lot of losses among their walkers. My Resistance losses included...

1 x Cyclone Attack helicopter
3 x Gun Trucks
1 x Zukov AA Tank
1 x Kraken Hovercraft Transport

Sadly one of my favorite units, the Alexander Heavy Battle Tank continues its streak of bad luck.
The Alexander fired its might 220mm Equalizer Cannon twice and managed to miss both times. that's two games in a row where it hasn't hit anything with it's main gun. Luckily the Cyclones and Hellhog picked up the slack.

If you haven't checked it out already then I'd recommend giving Dropzone Commander a look-see.