Dystopian Wars: Battle For Iceland Box Set Review

I’m the kind of guy who likes to get into the pool slowly. Spartan Games’ latest Dystopian Wars “starter set” is a completely new sort of toe-dip introductory product for them that will let you test the waters before cannonballing into it. Battle for Iceland effectively divides Dystopian Wars into two different games. All of the models, rules, and tokens can be used to play the game with the rest of your Dystopian Wars fleets as usual, but the included rulebook isn’t Dystopian Wars as fans have known it. This box introduces players to the new Fleet Action rule set, which is a shorter, simpler, and arguably, nastier version of the game. It dispenses with a lot of the minute details of the standard game system and focuses on fast combat and tactics, allowing new players to get their feet wet and get an idea of the core mechanics before diving headlong into the full rule set.

This box comes with two full battle groups, one from the Prussian Empire, and one from the Covenant of Antarctica, which in the game’s mythology, are the guys who started the war against the guys who discovered the alien technology allowing all of the ships in the game to exist. In addition to the rulebook, there’s also a narrative guide, 18 ships, fighter and bomber tokens, and some terrain in the form of a military installation, oil platform, and some sheets of punch out 2D islands to spice up your table. There’s also the medium turn template, which is the only template which is used in the Fleet Action rules, and the set of four punch-out tokens, which is the other major change from the core rules, because the entire Fleet Action rules require only four tokens to play: Activated, Damaged, Disordered, and Obscured. This makes the game far less granular, or in board-gamer speak, “fiddly”, and it streamlines the rules in such a way that it’s a much more dynamic and exciting battle system.

As to the quality of the ships I really like the look of these and, while I’m certainly biased because I adore Spartan Games’ aesthetic choices, I think these are actually better than their usual fare, especially with regard to the oil rig and the submarine models. The set I got does have their trademark excessive, thin flashing on the edge that makes contact with the table, but it didn’t take much to knock it off, so they seem to be getting better at their resin casting. There are some metal parts in the box as well, and those are very clean, but for some reason they always seem to leave a little too much flashing on their resin ships as well. Anyone who has been a fan of Spartan Games knows precisely what I mean.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not as experienced with Dystopian Wars as Spartan Games’ other naval battle system, Firestorm Armada, but they share a tremendous number of mechanics, with Firestorm being considered by many the spacefaring, kissing cousin of Dystopian Wars. That said, I’ve played it enough to know that this is a big departure from the core rules, and one that I actually like a whole lot. The rules are really simple and mostly intuitive, and because they’ve moved to one turn template, dropped two three attack ranges, and streamlined both fighter attacks and linked attacks, this game is much easier to play. I’m actually hoping, in my heart of hearts, that they do the same thing with Firestorm Armada, because as much as I love to play with my 330 ships over five fleets, it can be overwhelming and hard to get my group to play it because it takes so much to get a game going. The Fleet Action rules took us about forty five minutes to digest, and the skirmishes we played took a little over an hour each.

If you’re looking for a more-than-light wargame that will bump you up in complexity from X-Wing or Star Wars: Armada to a near-hardcore tabletop miniatures game, this is one hell of a way to do it. The price point is really great, the models are fantastic to look at on the table, and the rules are such that you can learn the game in about an hour and master it in only a few sessions. I really like this little set, and if you’re into either a Steampunk or Weird War One setting, that alone would be a good reason to jump into it. The Dystopian Wars universe is really fun to read about in the rules and narrative guide, and everything about the production does a good job of illustrating the Dystopian Wars fiction. If there’s any drawback to the game, it’s mostly that it’s still a bit on the granular side, and it might be a little deeper than some people want to wade into. That said, if you’re looking to get into tabletop gaming, this is a very good point to dive in.