Dystopian Wars - The Chinese Fleet and more Russians!

Today, we have the Chinese Empire faction of Dystopian Wars to preview, as well as the next wave of Russian releases!
Dystopian Wars is a Jules Verne-style Steampunk/Sci-fi naval (and air) tabletop wargame originally produced by Spartan Games, the IP was purchased by Warcradle Studios several years ago when Spartan collapsed.
Any tips/tricks improvements for this kind of video are welcome, I have plenty more models and game systems to look over (including every model made for Victory at Sea) if you like this occasional format.

[@Drachinifel]

Pinned post for Q&A :)

[@jetdriver]

Pearl Harbor and the Indian Ocean raid show pretty clearly the power that comes from a massed group of carriers launching combined strikes. Yet the USN seems to have been very slow to learn this lesson. Why?

[@kingquackie7284]

Is it possible to convert the Battleship board game into an accurate war gaming simulation system?

[@neves5083]

Oh yes, fun Fridays

[@jakemillar649]

Dystopian Russian Fleet vs Dystopian Chinese Fleet - Who should win? Also how big are the Dystopian Wars ships?

[@gmradio2436]

What are the differences between the Yamato's and Mussahi's AA layouts in terms of effectiveness?

[@tbretten]

"Fun Fridays" or "The quest for suitable backgrounds in Dystopian Wars models photography"

[@toddwebb7521]

Who else watches these even though you don't play

[@keithskelhorne3993]

me :( lol

[@kavemanthewoodbutcher]

Also guilty. Never have time to play at the same time I have people to play with, that goes for all tabletop games...

[@The_Modeling_Underdog]

Aye, sir.

[@Hardbass2021]

Me. I just like the ship designs of the factions, both old and new, as well as the lore of Dystopian Wars.

[@Fitzwalrus06]

Me as well. Enjoy the review of the minis and painting tips - I actually have a box of the old ships and a copy of the rules buried somewhere, but have never played. This new incarnation may finally rope me in, though. 😁👍

[@sawyerawr5783]

when I saw the Russian fleet I immediately screamed, "EKRANOPLAN!" with joy. lol!

[@ABrit-bt6ce]

There's a 1:700 KM (Caspian Sea Monster) top left on my monitor so I was all where the heck do I get those. :)

[@joshthomas-moore2656]

Can't wait for the Royal Navy and US Navy Paint schemes :)

[@philvanderlaan5942]

Sing along with me ' The US Congress took one look at the navy's wish list and promptly NOPEd right out of there ' Even in an alternate history it is the US Navy in the late 1800s

[@Hchris101]

This channel is voted #1 to listen to while playing CIV

[@volodymyrboitchouk]

Literally what I was just doing

[@ladrianyu2637]

@@volodymyrboitchouk same lol

[@bensimmons2850]

These look to me like From the Depths creations, just with less madness.

[@lucasschigart2721]

I actualy taking some inspiration out of these models for my own fleet^^°

[@aurictech4378]

To be fair, a bit of madness from the depths can be R'lyeh fun.

[@SephirothRyu]

Ah, a fellow From The Depths appreciator!

[@VD913]

I was terrified for this game's aesthetic direction after seeing the Wild West Exodus cowcatcher fetish slapped on the Federated States/Union ships, but these give me hope for the future.

[@richmcgee434]

The "cowcatchers" are clear evidence that the Dystopian Exodus world has seen a surprise resurgence of the Hydrodimalis gigas population, which are sadly extinct in the real world. Probably also useful for preventing collisions with dugongs and manatees. :)

[@sandy1653]

I admire your paintwork skills. Was I to venture to try and paint such things it'd look like some sort of Jackson Pollock meets Ray Charles disaster.

[@sawyerawr5783]

you and me both

[@Ugly_German_Truths]

You can always call that "special dazzle camouflage pattern" if push comes to shove :D

[@CarlosSempereChen]

Mostly just wanted to say that "jian" should be pronounced with a regular ol' J, and it rhymes with yen. It means straight sword, while "dao" covers everything with a curved blade. The French-like sound you're making is closer to the "zh-" in Mandarin using the currently-prevalent Romanization system, if anything. I really like these Chinese ships. They remind me of how Three Kingdoms-era ships are typically portrayed, giant galleys with fortifications on top. I normally shy away from Chinese factions due to, uh... real-life regional politics... but if the reboot sticks with the Qing Dynasty theme it'll probably be far enough removed from reality that I won't mind. I think your revised scheme works well because it only has one saturated color. It's a keeper!

[@malusignatius]

I've got to say, the Ekranoplan is a very nice addition to the range.

[@SlavicCelery]

I don't even play this game, but darn it... I've watched all the videos and loved them! Keep it up Drach, you're doing the good lords (insert whomever you seem fit, even if it's a flying spaghetti monster) work.

[@jorgea5426]

Will you consider doing a battle report for this game?

[@Straswa]

Please do!

[@stephenfritz7493]

Is this the trailer for Mortal Engines 2: The Kamchatka Rides Again?

[@FirstDagger]

9:54 Get yourself some nail files and sanding sponges. A hobby knife can also be used to clean up the sprue remains. 12:05 Remember that at a distance colors become muted so your color scheme replicates the distance effect well.

[@LorrusGrymn]

"Beam weapon" is the Cryo Generator to make some icebergs.

[@mekat2687]

Please... that reminds me of the times spent trying explaining to people in the old days that "Beam weapons" mentioned in the original spartan rulebook refers to a weapon 'location', not a weapon 'type' (with them trying to argue back) was truly painful...

[@sreckocuvalo8110]

The penalty for visiting The Forbidden city is death. So what if Forbidden city visits you?

[@BeardyHobbs]

It brings the death with It

[@kingquackie7284]

The Forbidden City is punished by death

[@scootergsp]

Cool stuff, Drach! When able, you should make a video of an actual game with all those cool toys. If you were to do in a style of the Jutland videos, that would make it extra cool.😎

[@rolfs2165]

That question came up in the last live Drydock, and Mrs. Drach said yes to a game or two on video.

[@rlosable]

As fun as these are, can we maybe get a demo game for Dystopian wars? Having never heard of it before, I am kinda curious...

[@5peciesunkn0wn]

the new bows of the Warcradle Dystopian wars fleet looks better than the old ones. As I'm looking at the old cruiser, I feel it'll go faster when moving backward. XD On the carrier and cruisers, those are flak cannons. If you look at the Imperial aircraft carrier battlefleet you'll see the same thing. Quad-barrel flak cannons on the carrier, and then its special cruisers get a flak cannon on the bridge. And the carrier isn't launching tiny ekranoplanes, it's launching small squadrons of jet fighters. I *really* dislike how Warcradle has put waves on the SRS tokens. Just make them flat or if they want texture on the tokens, then add contrails and exhaust cloud lines. As for the new cruiser superstructure, it's in the Orbat. It's a smaller version of the battleship's cryo generator.

[@candleman2123]

The fact that SRS are suggested to be stackable but the new models are not very stackable is disappointing.

[@vladimir8891]

Hey Drach, someone probably pointed this out already but the cruisers are equipped with an internal cryo generator and the big star on the superstructure is likely the projector for that. Thanks for the videos, I'm building a Russian fleet myself and they've been very helpful!

[@mpersad]

Just loved this. Not a game I'd normally follow but this was really engaging as an intro. Terrific!

[@gokbay3057]

Using a carrier to ram an enemy would be a fun thing to try. Crazy, but fun.

[@richmcgee434]

Clearly you want to just pile the flight deck with armed munitions first so it all goes sliding over to fall on the enemy deck and superstructure on impact. Gives a whole new meaning to the words plunging fire. :)

[@juicysushi]

The music choice for the intro takes these videos to another level.

[@Dogbertious]

These videos have got me interesting in the game, but my question must be "How does it play?" I've got enough miniatures from games which didn't take off, or died a death due to the inability of the manufacturer to get stock out (here's looking at you, Starfleet: A Call to Arms).

[@Drachinifel]

Mrs Drach has agreed to a test game soon :)

[@richmcgee434]

Never buy miniatures games from Mongoose. I'd extend that to "buy anything" but apparently their current Traveller RPG stuff is less full of typos and lousy bindings than the older stuff I'm familiar with. Not that ADB's done much better with ACTA:SFU since taking control, but still better than Mongoose.

[@ScreamingSturmovik]

steel grey is perfect for a Russian artic fleet but personally the "chinese" fleet would look nicer with darker colours like dark grey or navy blue on the roof trimmed with gold or bronze, a deeper green (that looks like oxidized bronze or evergreen) would be great and make it look less like a child's toy

[@bjorntorlarsson]

If this had been the first video I had stumbled upon, I would never have returned. There's a risk in mixing two completely different types of contents in the same channel. Especially entire Friday shows.

[@user-gt8ql9vp1b]

@Drachinifel that /zh/ in 'Mozhayski' sounds like /s/ in 'fusion'

[@Dirt1061]

Just recently got into the game and loving it! I hope you are able to cover the game or models agin!

[@firestorm165]

The Russians paint their carrier decks brown so they don't have to repaint it every time a pilot lands on it

[@gallendugall8913]

Waiting for the "Utopian Wars" sequel

[@Meanier100]

I love these, I've got most of the new sets. (I need to pre order the new russian set) It's great to following along as you build them.

[@sanguiniusonvacation1803]

Hey does anyone know where I can find the info on how to build a fleet? Like how do ypu build 2 fleets that are balanced against each other?

[@agesflow6815]

Thank you, Drachinifel.

[@PeklyCZ]

Black seas! Victory at sea! Cruel seas! Pretty please!

[@richmcgee434]

Regarding the assembly instructions being online only, the Malifaux stuff from Wyrd Miniatures has been doing that for years now and it seems to work okay - and many of their kits are far more confusing 3D puzzles than anything in the Dystopian Wars range. It would be nice if companies would do photos of finished physical minis as well but that concept seems to elude them.

[@Ostentatiousnessness]

Imagine how many tiles on the Yangtze-class shatter whenever those guns fire.

[@blogsblogs2348]

A ray of sunshine in an otherwise grey and boring day.. thanks for keeping us going

[@Ostentatiousnessness]

I like the design of the Chinese battleship, it looks very much like the old junks that you saw in late age of sail east Asian navies.

[@candleman2123]

I really like the general aesthetics to be honest. I think the flight deck at the fore is better on the older Russian carrier. Otherwise I agree, they've done a great job of capturing the feel of the old game while making improvements. Wait till you playa against that Chinese generator though, it's pretty nonsense. I really like the forbidden city look of the Chinese.

[@marcinfrostymroz]

For me PDF instructions from Edurad are perfect - after i open the PE set, instruciton goes missing within a day, but since i have my screen right in front of me when im building models its super-conveinient to launch it on the PC instead... Especially that this way its just a bigger picture. Mind you, for plastic model i prefer the traditional, peper one for some reason

[@seanrea550]

Even with pdf options available there should be printed instructions with the set even if they are just printed on the inside of the box. You cannot always count on the instructions being up or the server being online.

[@joshthomas-moore2656]

Aren't they a mix of China and Japan as some of their ships are named after Japanese classes like one of their battleships are called the "Kongo Heavy Battleships"?

[@5peciesunkn0wn]

It's the Celestial Empire; 7 Asian countries. China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Burma, Dai Viet (Vietnam if I'm guessing right), and whatever Madja-as would be.

[@joshthomas-moore2656]

@@5peciesunkn0wn Thank you kindly :)

[@5peciesunkn0wn]

@@joshthomas-moore2656 you're welcome! :D

[@crazylocha2515]

Madja-as= think Brunei, Philippines, and into Malaysia.

[@5peciesunkn0wn]

@@crazylocha2515 aah. ok! Thank you

[@123JWhyte]

I'm still waiting for the Italian and French fleets as they are my fleets

[@candleman2123]

Models not released but you can now grab sparse Alliance ORBATs now from the website.

[@thatfeeble-mindedboy]

Those moments where you look up, look around , and you’re like, - ‘ - What is that? What are those? Where is this? Is this where I am, or is just what I’m seeing at the moment? Who are you? Excuse me, I’ve lost track of what universe I’m in, and I can’t remember the catalog number …

[@engelbert42]

11:00 A whole house for admiral staff... It's a command vessels now.

[@rbleisem]

That cruiser (25:04), it looks like you could update other cruiser classes with that deck plate or the drill-nose. You still have a few old cruisers, that you still need to construct, by change? It certainly adds some options.

[@Straswa]

Awesome vid, what strange designs for warships. Very ornate. Curious, what scale are these?

[@GaldirEonai]

The russian ships all remind me a lot of the Dvar from AoW:Planetfall. Of course, the Dvar ARE russian dieselpunk dwarves, so it fits...

[@1977Yakko]

Looks fun. The earliest naval strategy game I can remember was Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO) on Sega Genesis.

[@Maddog3060]

I had that, but on SNES. PTO II as well. I still hum the US turn music on occasion.

[@bushidiru]

I like the overall paint scheme, but would you consider adding some red rust to the Russian fleet?

[@18robsmith]

E-k-r-a-n-o-p-l-a-n Ooooooo that's nice

[@barrybend7189]

What about Battlefleet Gothic?

[@Drachinifel]

Sadly GW don't support it any more, I've got a ton of ships for it though :D

[@richmcgee434]

@@Drachinifel Have you looked at the starship figs from Vanguard Miniatures? Not to be missed for BFG fans.

[@chuckbuck5002]

Ever just tired of trying to think of something funny and just wanna say hi?

[@seanrea550]

I have to say that if something needs assembled, the instructions should be in the box. You should not need to download an app or hunt down a pdf of the instructions and hope the servers are active or the qr codes are still good if you pick them up late.

[@viridisxiv766]

giant rocket launching sea planes. oh yes.

[@gilanbarona9814]

This is really interesting. It should be commanded by Zheng He's descendant.

[@potterendergaming5335]

We love fun fridays Drach!

[@gerfand]

"Until the fire nation attacked"

[@davidbrennan660]

Just don’t say anything bad about fleet of a non regionally determined region or they will close down their Internet and sink your fleet.

[@M1017242]

In case no one had answered, that star thing on the Russian ships is a cyro generator that shoots icebergs out of the sea

[@rictusmetallicus]

Put those things on flightstands and you can use 'em for Battlefleet Gothic or other space battle game. As "ships" like on water, i don't really like these models

[@richmcgee434]

You're not the first person (or probably not even the hundredth) to think that. I had a guy who wanted to commission me to glue all his (Spartan era) Antarctican ships together in pairs, base to base, and convert them to starships for Full Thrust. The job ended up falling through when he wrecked his car, but it sounded viable in theory. Many of the other fleets' ships would wind up looking rather BFG-ish if you did the same trick with them.

[@peterbrazier7107]

I'm waiting for the Empire box

[@Dirt1061]

I cant wait for the British Fleet to come in. The wait is so painful...

[@bradymenting5120]

dammit the last thing I need is more TTGs to eat up my income.

[@jimpollard9392]

In the galley: General Tso's chicken. Or is it Admiral. WHAT?!?!

[@sovietdominion]

isn't it a combined chinese japanese fleet?

[@gerfand]

the aesthetics looks extremely chinese. The Chinese and Japanese architeture are similar, specially when it comes to roofs of major buildings, but theres some distinct points there to show its one or another.

[@gerfand]

Looking now, the old ones are less Chinese, the newer ones are full blow "Ming"

[@gokbay3057]

I think the lore is that it is a confederation of a bunch of Asian monarchies including China and Japan and the monarchs are functionally immortal. The monarchs/countries have specialisations (I think Korea or Vietnam was originally hunting but then took over the air forces) and Navy is Japan's specialisation.

[@lv83bloodknight]

Japanese ships have rules, but no new models yet, so you'd use the old Spartan mini as proxies. But yes, they function as one faction together.

[@jefferynelson]

Drach do you own a boat ? Are you a sailor yourself ?

[@LukeBunyip]

Ekranoplan zerg rush, FTW!

[@gokbay3057]

Not sure how viable it is in Dystopian Wars rules but I imagine Ekranoplan missile spam could be effective if the range and damage are good enough (longer than capital ship main battery and enough to do decent damage to capital ships).

[@Krwekrw]

Drach the thing of top is cryo generator!

[@tuckcuttertuck6802]

AHHHHH! US Distribution plz.

[@richmcgee434]

Distribution here in the US has absolutely gone to hell over the last couple of years, and it can't all be blamed on COVID. Too many of the bigger distribs simply won't invest in carrying a decent variety of product any more, particularly miniatures and roleplaying games - they're too busy chasing the resurgent Pokemon demand. I'd prefer to support my local store by buying through them whenever I can, but being told they can't get Warcradle (or TTC, or Pelgrane Press, or Warlord Games, or Frostgrave) through the wholesale network is just unacceptable.

[@tuckcuttertuck6802]

@@richmcgee434 Agree there is indeed a market here in the US. Well looks like ill have to do the overseas thing. Sigh

[@madox76]

Made it look like a childs toy.... HAAAAAAA. But yeah liked the second paint scheme better

[@rodneygaul2227]

Looks like Battle fleet Gothic

[@kevinmccarthy8746]

Coffee, diuretic , headache! More water less coffee? Less work??

[@GARDENER42]

I note the image of the Russian Mozhayski carrier is very true to life with regard to the amount of smoke it's generating...😆

[@Ugly_German_Truths]

Of all the dystopian wars ships i've seen i like these the least and I wasn't very excited about the Antarcticans either... Anybody who can make their warvessels so ornate and overladen with decors must lack sense and experience in warfare! A lot like the Pre WW I french abominations or the Russian "UFO" shaped ones...

[@Ugly_German_Truths]

The only thing on the russian ships you should think about is the color of the stars on the upper decks especially on the Carriers... it looks almost wasted with the very low contrast scheme you applied, a good touch more red or more silver in that spot would make a lot of difference and with the star coming out more cleanly it would IMO look way better. Or at least give it a strong border in whatever contrast color you used on those models...

[@ericgrace9995]

1...WTF is dystopian wars... But I wanted to be 1

[@wrongtracksuit]

The cretins from Warcradle have ruined a perfectly good game. Warcradle lack the talent to design good games, and have wasted a perfectly good IP. The original game by Spartan is all you need.

[@rosameltrozo5889]

Am i the only one that finds this whole game ugly as all hell?

[@richmcgee434]

The aesthetic isn't for everyone, certainly. Reminds me of War Machine/Hordes in that regard, or Age of Sigmar. Some people seem to love those kind of stylized over-the-top design in their minis, while others can't stand it. Very divisive IME.

[@HJBounell]

would olde man smyth approve of this nonsense?

[@ThatZenoGuy]

Lmao China numba wan. ;D

[@williamoconnor432]

The oceanic kitten morphologically wobble because quit clearly doubt athwart a berserk shape. oafish, zesty grandmother

[@Isteak80]

Omg its an ekranoplan in a tabletop RPG

[@richmcgee434]

This isn't a roleplaying game.

[@Alterscapes]

Man, those faux-Chinese designs. The Russians get an Ekranoplan (awesome) and a carrier (that isn't even on fire and half submerged, so one up on the real Russian navy these days!) and it's all vaguely steampunk and looks at least a little inspired by actual planes and ships seen through a fantasy fun-house mirror. The Chinese get.. a weird stereotype about Chinese architecture that to the best of my knowledge has never actually been used as a design for a ship, never mind a warship. I feel like there's other styling cues the designers could've used that would've been a wee bit less.. cringe?

[@merlinwizard1000]

66th

[@kingquackie7284]

20min ago lez gooo

[@timothysoar1321]

My problem is I can listen to Battleship videos whilst not being too stressed about the amount of deaths/injuries, but to make war a game is not for me.