Dystopian Wars: Faction playstyle guide

A guide to help players looking for a particular playstyle in Dystopian Wars besides only the faction aesthetics.
This guide goes over the strengths and weaknesses of each faction and what you can expect from them when playing against them on the tabletop.

[@callsignenterprise6895]

The faction I play is the Latin Alliance. I was going to play the Sultanate, since that was the newest faction at time I started playing and none of my friends had them. However, after I saw that what is essentially the Confederacy was in the Latin Alliance, I decided to go all in on them. I assembled my French and played them first and really love their cruisers firepower. Not much of a fan of Oriflame flagship, as it doesn't seem to have the punch I want from a flagship. I also picked up the Levant battlefleet and tried them out last week after getting them assembled. I built them all as carriers, not realizing that CV"s have less hull battle ready than when crippled, so I found myself playing the entire game crippled. Perhaps they will do better supporting my French frontline fleet. This week I finally assembled my South American forces. I am really looking forward to trying them out. I am going with the CSS Virginia, Gettysburg cruisers and of course Springfield corvettes. My usual opponent has been playing the Enlightened, and has been super defensive with his generator ship. He bought the Hunt the Promethus set, so he also has the Russians and will be trying them out this week. I really do love this game, as it reminds me of Firestorm Armada, which like Dystopian Wars, originally was produced by Spartan Games, before they went under.

[@speeddemonpainting7050]

Yeah, the SUSA forces are very much a rockhard attrition force compared to the rather fragile French fleet. That carrier thing you mentioned is not just for the French, that goes for all carriers in game. I think you made a good choice though with them, as the SUSA themselves do not have any carriers out yet, and a little bit of airsupport is always welcome (especially with the latest missions with Fog of War, as I discussed in my latest tactica videos). And yeah, Warcradle owns the IP and rights for both FSA and DW, but they are focussing almost solely on DW now, as that really seems like a financial success story for them!

[@Sigil_Firebrand]

I really appreciate this overview, I'd been thinking of getting into Dystopian Wars for a little while and now I think I know what faction(s, Alliance and Commonwealth) I want, thanks to you :D

[@speeddemonpainting7050]

Brilliant! Welcome on board and I'm glad this helped!

[@radomircita9420]

I would add that Covenant of the Enlightened have the best possibillities for card shenennigans. With Chaos Orb and Claudiae.

[@rtddaycom]

Nice video, love compersion videos. I would love to see one in-depth on weapons types and use cases :)

[@speeddemonpainting7050]

That's a good idea as well for a video!

[@PraetorDragoon]

This is a great overview. Thanks for making it.

[@MasterJediDude]

I really enjoyed this video and you defined these factions with amazing detail. Thank you for putting this together. 👍

[@TheMorbose]

used to play the Prussians back in the day, happy to see Distopian Wars still alive. Though I didn't see a carrier zepplin, this new generation has no respect for the old ways.

[@speeddemonpainting7050]

Oh, there is a carrier Zeppelin for sure. I even have a showcase video of it on my channel!

[@morgunevans3676]

Thanks your videos have been really helpful as a new player!

[@clarkcommando1983]

Very helpful I recently bought the two player with imperium so hoping to get froends in

[@user-fl4tb9pw8l]

Thank you for your interesting contents. As a korean, I really want to see the modellized Korean air force in game.

[@speeddemonpainting7050]

Oh yes! I have an Empire fleet too and I'm very much looking forwards to the new Korean Airships. The good news is that the lead designer already said on Discord that the Chinese will get their skyfortress box somewhere in summer 2023 and would then be done... The Japanese will also see a few more kits, but the Koreans would be planned for a 2024 release. It's still a while, but at least the company communicates a bit about these sorts of things.

[@doshutokeshi3877]

Thank you for this video. It was very helpful!

[@vonKobra]

I think classing the Sultanate as aggressive isn't really right. They do not have the shocking damage of the Imperium, Enlightened, or even the Union. They are more all around, but their defense is based purely in their movement. They are more capable than any faction of being where they want, when they want, and not allowing effective return fire. The Sultanate wins if they control positioning on the table, and lose if they can't control it.

[@speeddemonpainting7050]

Fair point. It's a difficult faction to class. I personally would qualify something that has the "glass cannon" as a more aggressive playstyle, but there definitely are nuances to the story. I just put them in aggressive because our local player seems to favour the "strike first, ask questions later" approach to them!

[@vonKobra]

@@speeddemonpainting7050 do you combine fire against them? If so, stop. Orichalcite construction means that you can't get catastrophic explosions, so your support values are a waste. More shots, less combined, and how truly squishy the Sultanate is will come out.

[@radomircita9420]

There are many good heavy hitting options in the Sublime Porte's arsenal. Temirs are truly terrifying with aetheric lances, amount of guns on ikili ships is very scary too, and with portals, it is quite horrifying with their orichalcite flechettes, nasty surprise temir ambushes and other. They are indeed very aggresive capable.

[@speeddemonpainting7050]

@@vonKobra yeah, big volleys against Sultanate is not a smart idea. You can make them eat a ton of critical hits if you are smart about your dice distribution. I would also also put a shield generator on any ikili hulls (if you can choose it) to counter that tactic from an opponent.

[@vonKobra]

@@speeddemonpainting7050 unless rules changed when I blinked you don't have a choice about shields. All Ikili must take a shield and one more

[@Sleppel]

Thank you kind Sir :)

[@michalfojtik6464]

Why is Commonwealth left out? :)

[@speeddemonpainting7050]

They have not been. I'm not 100% sure how these chapters were made (either by KZbin or channel members?) But the Commonwealth are the second half of the Imperium chapter.

[@x.davidwilliams83]

Huzzah