So, in the last two weeks I have managed to find a few people that I may be able to convince to play Epic, a small group looking for some space games of some kind, and someone with Dropzone Commander who is looking for an opponent! Things are looking up!

Right now, I am looking at Dropzone Commander. I am pretty sure that I will be buying into this game in some way. The main guy here has the two player starter set, and the initial plastic sets of the UCM, Scourge and Shaltari, so there are plenty of minis to go around. That said, I would like to order a couple of packs of resin stuff and try some assembly and a bit of painting of my own, with a view to using the plastics that are available and slowly substituting more and more of my own resin painted stuff into the army.

This is all just a long of saying, 'I need help'.

I am currently looking at either the PHR or Shaltari (and, yeah, I will end up with both!). PHR were my first choice as the minis are cool, but I am going a little cold to all the walkers that look the same and the force in general seems a bit 'sit back and shoot, one dimensional'. Shaltari have some great walkers but the tanks are less my aesthetic, but they seem the play style that most interests me.

So, I am still not sure which of these I will go for. I do think that I will stick to resin stuff only though, whatever I do.

So, I am looking for advice. I want to get 2-3 packs, ideally one dropship and some armour that can be transported in that dropship to keep the first wave a single unit. I also want to make sure that whatever I buy, will be core units and something that will be good whatever direction the army ends up going in.

Can anyone recommend a dropship and 1-2 armour packs that I can pick up for the PHR and Shaltari to get me started?

Thanks.

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https://www.cybershadow.ninja - A brief look into my twisted world, including wargames and beyond.
https://www.net-armageddon.org - The official NetEA (Epic Armageddon) site and resource.

If you're going with PHR, either a pair of Phobos or Ares in a Neptune would be a good choice, or a pair of the heavier Odins or Enyos in the same Neptune. The Phobos will be pretty good in any PHR list because of its great AA and anti skimmer capabilities, whilst the Ares are decent against most targets and doesn't care much if the enemy is a skimmer or hull down. The Odin is a little more limited use, depending on list composition, but because of their ability to group up with a Zeus command group grants them a little more leeway and the Enyo is just good at wrecking structures.
Shaltari though, you could get some Tomahawks and Kukris and an Eden Medium Gate to transport them, or if you're more walker inclined, a pair of Tarantulas and maybe some Bird Eaters. I'm not much more knowledgeable about Shaltari beyond that, the silly little hedgehogs they are.

Hi. I have briefly dived into the Dropzone Commander world. A brief outline of my progress....

Firstly, I found that there is a growing group of players over here, which is great to hear. One guy has the two player starter boxed set, plus three resin starter armies, and another just bought the starter set. Personally, was initially drawn to PHR as a force, with maybe UCM as a secondary.

But, looking at the play styles, UCM seems the default all round force, and PHR are a very static force. Plus, while the PHR minis are fantastic, they are all very samey. I like the walker design, but that one design with minor variations will make up the entire ground armour force. On top of all of that, Shaltari seemed like a lot of fun to play.

As I looked into it more, I warmed a lot to the Shaltari designs - the tripod walkers, skimmer tanks and floaty aircraft seem very cool in concept. So, the final decision was to put together a Shaltari force (reinforced by the fact that no-one else here seems interested in them), and get some PHR just because I like the minis, as a secondary force.

After this, I picked up the resin starter box from the guy that bought it. He picked it up from Wayland Games in a sale and sold it to me, still shrink wrapped, at cost, so it came to about 43GBP.... In that, I got (all resin):
- 3x Eden Medium Gates
- 3x Tomahawk grav tanks
- 3x Kuri.... something.... AA tanks
- 2x 'bear trap' Haven Gates (probably my least favourite minis in the force\
- 4x stands of infantry

The glaring ommission there are walkers. I can place an order through my local store and in a couple of weeks I will grab a Jaguar, a pack of 2 Tarantulas and maybe an Ocelot because it looks very cool. That will give me a nice rounded initial formation with a few core units and a bit of everything.

I even picked up some paints in readiness to get painting, and decided on a general paint scheme.

EDIT - At some point I will get a few PHR units just to paint. Definately a Neptune, which looks awesome. Then its a choice between a pair of Ares walkers as the 'core choice' of a pair of Enyo walkers as my favourite pattern.

_________________
https://www.cybershadow.ninja - A brief look into my twisted world, including wargames and beyond.
https://www.net-armageddon.org - The official NetEA (Epic Armageddon) site and resource.

You should also pick up a Coyote for your commander and the Command Cards for higher point level games. I'm not familiar with the Shaltari Command cards, but I know the PHR ones are pretty good and the UCM ones are a little situational. Spirit Light Gates would also be a good choice, as they're fast enough to get your infantry into buildings to look for objectives and allows you to drop Yaris in weird places to scout/pick off light dropships.

If you're also looking for an army builder, there's Fighting Forces of the Reconquest which is pretty good and updated with the final points costs of units that changed from their experimental iterations to Reconquest: Phase 1.

The Command Deck also comes in the starter box that I picked up, so thats another item crossed off the list. Its always nice when they include these things in the starter, as it feels like a 'need to do' purchase instead of a 'I want that' purchase if separate. I did think about a Coyotte, but I figured that a couple of the more core walkers would be a better purchase for the initial games. The Spirit Gates are a good suggestion though, and I will add them to the list.

I have also downloaded and installed the army builder software, although without the rule book it took a bit of playing to work out the army structure, but I think that I have got it sorted out now.

Thanks.

_________________
https://www.cybershadow.ninja - A brief look into my twisted world, including wargames and beyond.
https://www.net-armageddon.org - The official NetEA (Epic Armageddon) site and resource.