Captain Alfonso advanced with his sword held aloft, just behind him his body guard of Veteran Commandos walked in step. Behind them, at the quick step, came a full Section of hardened Battle Commandos, their grizzled NCO scanning the line of trees beyond. The Elites and Support were filing from the landing craft, so far the beach-head was secure, and they could deploy in good order…

The Orders of Battle (ORBATs) for the Kingdom of Britannia, the Prussian Empire, the Federated States of America and the Empire of the Blazing Sun are now available to download. You will also find updated stat blocks for Covenant of Antarctica and Republique of France forces from the 2-player Iron Scorpion Boxed set.

So now that rule books are hitting tables and night stands, and people are able to ogle the stats for any of the forces currently available, we thought it might be a nice idea to look at how you go about building a force for Dystopian Legions, and how you can go about taking allies.

Building your army in Dystopian Legions revolves around the construction of Platoons. The first part of building a force is deciding the Maximum Force Value (MFV), which the number of points to be spent on a player’s force, and will also impact things like the size of the table. The next thing to decide will be the Platoon Strength, this is the maximum number of Platoons an army may be made up of. As players get familiar with the game it is a good idea to start with a Platoon Strength of 1, allowing both players to construct one platoon; as you will see, there is a significant amount of flexibility in the platoon structure. If you are taking allies, the allies will need to be taken as a separate platoon from your main force.

The foundation of each Platoon are the HQ and Line Sections. Line Sections form the backbone of a platoon, and a player wanting to expand their army to take multiple elite, cavalry, and ironclad sections, will need to do so by expanding their number of Line Sections. HQs, on the other hand, are fundamental as they provide a force with the Commander required to give the leadership and orders that will (hopefully) see a force through to victory.

Each Platoon, at a minimum, must contain 1 HQ Section, and 1 Line Section. The HQ section is the Commander of the Platoon, and may be purchased at varying levels of experience; the higher the rank, the better the Command Range and number of Command Points the Officer will generate. Players will also often want to ensure their Commander is protected by purchasing soldiers to fill out the HQ Section.

In addition, every Section has access to a range upgrades, for the Covenant Officers Section in the example below, they may upgrade one of the Commandos to be an NCO, and/or one of the Commandos to be a Specialist armed with a Proxima Energy Blaster. They may also choose to upgrade the weapon the Officer is carrying. Each Section will have access to a range of upgrades that is specific to them.

Let’s create a HQ Section: using the above table, we might choose a Covenant Captain for 150 points, and may then supplement this with 0-5 Battle Commandos – who must be purchased as Veterans (given the Captain is a Veteran).

We have our Captain (at 150 points), in addition we might choose to purchase 3 Veteran Commandos (at 50 points each), and upgrade one to be a Specialist for an additional 5 points. We have our HQ Section: A Covenant Captain, with 3 Battle Commandos, one of which is a specialist armed with a Proxima Energy Blaster, total cost: 305 points.

With the HQ Section purchased, a player then needs to purchase the one other requirement for a Platoon – a Section of Line. Line Sections are vital for seizing and holding objectives, and as we’ve mentioned already, form the backbone of any Platoon.

Certain types of troops are permitted to form the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd Line Sections in a Platoon (as you will see in the ORBATs). Additionally, each troop type will dictate how many individuals may be included in a section, and what upgrades they may take.

Following the decision on how many individual models the Section will include, a player has choices to make about how they will upgrade the section. Each Section will have access to a range of different upgrades, what is applicable to Covenant Commandos, is different to what may be available for French Legionnaires.

Let’s create our 1st Line Section: Having already created the HQ Section, we now need to create our 1st Line Section. Given the Covenant have a reputation for experience, and the fact our Line is going to be important in taking objectives, we’ll make it a larger Section of 6 Commandos, and we’ll make them Veterans. Additionally, we’ll upgrade one to be a Master Sergeant, and a second to be a Specialist with a Proxima Energy Blaster. This is an expensive Section of Commandos, but will form the main Battle Section of our Platoon… So – our 1st Line Section is 6 Battle Commandos, one of which is a Master Sergeant and one of which is a Specialist, and will cost 325 points. Together with our HQ Section, we have the basic requirements for a platoon, and have spent 630 points of our MFV.

The First Section of Line allows the Platoon to further purchase a Section of Elite or Mercenary Troops, and/or a Section of Support Troops.

A player may also expand their force by taking a second Section of Line troops, which will further allow access to two more Sections of either Elite or Support troops, or even an Ironclad, as well as a character. A Third Section of Line Troops will allow more again.

Players will want to balance their forces so they have a mix of Officers, Line, Elite, Support, Ironclads and Characters that will enable them to secure victory on the table.

The Platoon diagram is essentially the flow chart that provides the structure within which a Platoon is built, and while restrictive, also allows for a great deal of flexibility. Remember that a Dystopian Legions force may be made up of multiple Platoons, and this is especially true if a force is taking allies!

Allies

Allies are a vital component in the war that wracks the world, multinational forces and operations are becoming more common, and the same is equally applicable to small force actions as it is to the conflicts involving the behemoth war machines of the Dystopian world.

Allies rules have been added to the Dystopian Legions download section of the Downloads page. In that PDF you will find all the rules required to start creating multinational forces. Allies must be taken as their own platoon, they will generate their own Command Pool and only in the rarest of circumstance can it fall to an Allied Officer to be the Commander of the whole force (even if they are the highest rank!).

It can be beneficial for an army to take advantage of the strengths of their Allies to compensate for the weaknesses in their own force, but everything comes with a cost!

Check out the Allies rules now!

Allies & Mercenaries [PDF, 0.2MB]