Covenant of Antarctica

With tonight's post we come to Dystopian Wars, the last of the three new games which I'm now learning to play, the other two being Infinity and Malifaux as previously discussed. Dystopian Wars has looked interesting to me since I first heard about the game, particularly due to its integration of land, air, and sea units into a single game system. Plus I find the Jules Verne styled, Victorian steampunk setting for Dystopian Wars strongly appealing. Of course I'm also a big fan of the all the miniatures Spartan Games has produced for each of the original nations so far. This actually presented something of a problem for me initially as I could not decide which nationality I wanted to collect. They all looked great, but none of them grabbed me more than any other.

I therefore thought it would be best to wait and see how the game continued to develop as more models became available. Eventually I picked up a copy of the rules and really enjoyed reading it during the time that I wasn't able to paint or work on any miniatures. I was no closer to picking a faction however until I saw the early artwork and pre-release images for the upcoming Covenant of Antarctica. I was hooked. The weird pulp style of their vessels, planes, and walkers was right on for my liking. Also it's just a hunch but I suspect these guys might turn out to be the true villains of the Dystopian Wars universe, which would be a cool bonus. I'm rather certain that it's not possible to build giant, mechanical, clawed walkers without also being an evil genius. It just seems to go with the territory.

So I was really excited earlier this week when I received in the mail the initial batch of CoA miniatures to be released. I'm thus starting out with a Naval Battle Group, an Armoured Battle Group, and a Fleet Carrier. As the first expansion nationality to be added to the game, there's currently no information about the Covenant units in the Dystopian Wars rulebook. Instead they've included a 40 page booklet with each of the Battle Group boxes. This handy booklet has new rules introduced for the Covenant of Antarctica plus stats for all of the CoA units. Additionally the first fifteen or so pages of the booklet is all new background fluff about this youngest of nations, providing it with a greater sense of depth and history. It's so well done in fact that I think it's too bad similar booklets were not made for the other nationalities as well.

For those curious about these starter boxes, the Naval Battle Group contains models worth up to 740 points fully loaded, while the Armoured Battle Group comes in at 745 points.

I haven't decided yet how I want to paint these miniatures, though a few possible color schemes that I like have come to mind. If time allows I hope to paint a test figure or two this week. I'd originally planned on starting with the CoA fleet, but seeing both in person I'm now tempted to begin with the ground forces. I wonder if it would be easier considering the terrain and space I have available to initially work on learning the land-based aspects of this game. I think by first focusing on the Armoured Battle Group, I could begin trying out Dystopian Wars as quickly as possible which would be nice.

All in due time I suppose. If anybody has a preference concerning this, I'm certainly open to suggestions. Otherwise I'll make up my mind in the next couple of days whether my introduction to the game will be by land or by sea. Okay, that's it for now. Happy painting and gaming, everybody!