the zombie files * dust warfare scenario

* how 2: axis w

alkers

community spotlight * operation coldsnap * from the front

rosie’s scrap yard * and more

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leditorialWhen we first started putting this little fanzine of ours together, I decided that we needed a barometer by which to measure ‘success’. After all, if no one were reading it, then there wouldn’t be much point in con-tinuing to bang it out. I decided that 500 unique downloads would be a ‘success’, and that we would continue work if we received that many. I was really hoping for 750.

Instead, the magazine had thousands of unique downloads. I’m sure some of it was just curiosity to see what it was and I’m sure some of it was just housewives looking for cleaning tips (who I am sure were quite confused), never-the-less, it was more than enough to keep us going.

What surprised me most was the truly inter-national nature of the readership. Being that we publish in English I figured readership would be entirely within the English speak-ing parts of the world with a few oddball exceptions. I was quite wrong on that ac-count. Poland, Germany, France, and Ar-gentina were just some of the countries that registered with us. That got me to thinking about what the Dust scene is like in other parts of the world, and in some cases, how it even got started there.

Which, is how I got onto the idea of Spot-lighting Argentina. Ignacio Brizzio hails from Argentina and has been representing Dust since day one. They have hosted Dust Days and tournaments with larger turnouts than we’ve had here in the states and have done themselves and the hobby proud. In this month’s Spotted, Brizzio gives us the genesis of Dust in Ar-gentina and gives us a look at some of it’s clubs. If you have an active, enthusiastic Dust scene in your part of the world, we’d love to see it. Who knows, maybe we’ll feature it here in Spotted.

submissionsWe have received many submissions, many of which are better than what we were com-ing up with ourselves. We must ask that if you submit something to us and we tell you we want to use it, that you not post it else-where prior to publishing in Dust Chroni-cles. Doing so will disqualify it from inclu-sion, of course once it’s published you are free to post it wherever you like, though we would appreciate it if you wait till the 10th of the month to do so.As you may have noticed, we are trying to theme each issue to a subject and or a season. If you have an idea that doesn’t fit the up-coming theme, please be aware that we may well wish to use it in a future issue. We are always looking for reports From The Front for either Tactics or Warfare. We have no set format for these reports at this time, just be sure to include both text and photos. For painting and modeling How2 articles, use the format that has been established here and is universal to the subject (i.e. step-by-step with accompanying pictures).

If you have ideas for submissions that don’t ‘fit’ the current layout of the magazine sub-mit them anyway. If they are good, we’ll find a way to make ‘em fit.Due to the time it takes to edit and layout the magazine, please submit your content 30 days prior to the date of publishing. The next issue will be December and so content needs to be submitted by November 1st.

December’s theme will be winter and armor. Submit articles, communica-tions and complaints to dust-fanzine@hotmail.com

Editor-in-chiefPatrick D

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dust chronicles - issue 2table of contents:Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 02Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03Spotted!: Argentina Dust League . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04The Zombie Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 07 How2: Building Juan Zanetta’s Zombies . . . . . . . . 08 Dust Warfare Zombie Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 How2: Paint Zombies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Failsafe Zombies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Tactical Corner: Zombies, Apes And Rocket Men . 18How2: Woods In The Fall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Rosie’s Scrapyard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26How2: Paint Autumn Camouflage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Dust On The Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39How2: From The Box To Battle (Axis Walkers) . . . . . . 40From The Front: Warfare Battle Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42How2: Make Swamps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52The Waking Bear - Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56How2: Trench Bases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Operation: Coldsnap - Custom Dust Tactics Campaign . 68How2: Quick And Effective Basing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72From The Front: Tactics Battle Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Next Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81“Grenadier X”: Patrick Doty“Totenmeister”: Floris Hussaarts“Axis Zombies”: Jason McFarland, Lee Langston, Ignacio Brizzio, Steve Slaughter,John Sisk, Rick Ivansek, Rob Hearn, Kenneth RB Chipman, Viêt Nguyên“Super Zombies”: Paolo Parente, Olivier Zamfirescu Cover Illustration by: Floris Hussaarts, based on work by Paolo ParenteNames and artwork are © 2012 Dust Ltd. and/or Fantasy Flight Games Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Dust Tactics & Dust Warfare and their logos are trademarks of Dust Ltd.Images and trademarks used without permission.This magazine is unofficial and is not endorsed by Dust Ltd. and/or Fantasy Flight Games Ltd.We do our best to assure www. links are correct but do not take responsibillity for the content of web pages this magazine links to.

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spotted!:argentina dust league

So, I bet many of you are wondering right now: what the hell is the Argentina Dust League, and how did it get to DC chroni-cles? Well, it´s a simple but, at the same time, long story...one of the main reasons why you find it here today. So let´s start with the beginning.

First of all, it´s good to point out that we have a fairly strong wargame/hobby/geek-in-general scene here in this country, even though we´re pretty far away from “where everything happens”. Like in most places, it´s usually dominated by the big industry games (you know the ones).So it all started back in the last quarter of 2010 when I first got a glimpse of Dust Tac-tics, and Paolo´s work in general. By read-ing the rules from FFG’s website I wasn´t much attracted to the game, but pics of the great Recon Grenadiers and Pounder/Mick-ey were enough to lure me into the trap! I went over to one of the few LGS and asked the fellow to order me the magic box (oh yes, I´m talking about the original core set, gentlemen).

In early 2011 the box arrived and with that came some demos with friends (even my dad!), and players at wargaming clubs. I also started a thread about the game and everything related to it on our local war-gaming forum (one of the biggest in Span-ish speaking world). It rapidly turned into an “epic” thread with many posts, views and

an overall conversation about the game and PP´s universe (it grew so much that it even showed up on top of the official website in spanish search engines!). Thanks to this, I eventually got in touch with a couple more local players who also had bought it, and also the ones who eventually did.General interest in the game increased, as well as the idea of doing a fan-made transla-tion of the rulebook, and I started to ponder creating a blog dedicated to the game for spanish-speakers.

So at this point, there was a completely un-planned event that supped things up...I re-ceived a present along with a small order I made directly with Dust Studio: a copy of Dust Wars #1 autographed by Paolo. I al-ready had a high opinion of Dust Studios as a company, since they had a great response in the past when a package got lost, but the gesture only made my affection for them grow higher. I wanted to contribute some-how to their creative process, so I mentioned the local project of translating the rules, and my idea for the spanish blog, to Clement Boen (DS customer support). When I got back home that afternoon, I found a reply from Paolo himself, encouraging me and offering to help or support with anything needed! Needless to say, from that moment on I became a first line Dust Studio support-er, not because the great games and minis they produce, but for their excellent human quality and the love they profess to their

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work. The blog came to light short after and achieved great success, spreading the game even more, which led to the completion of our fan-made translation and the creation of our own exclusive section in the forum.

Next step was to organize a get-together, and that was how “Dust-Day” was born. You can read more about that story in the spotlight that FFG published (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=2950).I shared the idea with the international com-munity via social networks, and it kicked in, with groups from the U.S. (Arizona and Washington states) celebrating their version of the event. Also Dust Studio themselves used the name and logo for their official tournament in France this year!Since all of that happened in less than six months, the momentum that built up was huge and the number of players keeps grow-ing by the day thanks to it, other initiatives that followed...

Due to Dust Studio’s support, this year I was able to start distributing the game on a local level via FFG, and, though this means that I play much less than I used to or would like, it made it possible for newcomers to find the game readily available and at discount prices never offered before in our country. This led up to creating the “Argentina Dust League” (https://www.facebook.com/groups/214744728645257/), in line with the Dust World League project. An overall national network of clubs and players, debuted in the local Regional Championship, were we ran

FFG´s official tourney with a turnout of 24 players. Currently, we´re planning on Dust-Day 2012, and creating other ways to en-courage both the game and the community itself (e.g. a yearly subscription that enables a lottery, an ongoing leaderboard, a printed bulletin, etc.).

Speaking of the local community, there is one gaming group, that deserves a special mention given their initiative and first-hour support of the League: the “Dust Tactics Se-cret Society” (abbreviated SSDT in Span-ish).

Our mutual association throughout last year turned out to be a big help in promoting the game. As the biggest gaming group around, and playing Dust continiously, they were a huge factor in the success of Dust Day, and every other Dust event through their partici-pation.

This year they grew even more by starting up their own forum (http://www.battlemas-ter.com.ar/), dedicated to Dust Tactics and other wargames, and recently by organizing a tourney in their club with a turn-out of 20 players!

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Plus, they have real cool t-shirts with their logo on them...and everybody knows t-shirts=respect.

Another local gaming group of reknown is the “Triple Entente” (FB fan page https://www.facebook.com/3Euser), a small group hard-core dedicated to Dust Tacticsalso sup-porters of the League from day one.

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Members of this group include Mariano Pagotti (a.k.a. “Nagash”), indisputably one of the best miniature sculptors in Argentina, who´s work, hopefully, you might be seeing in the future as part of the Dust line...

So, that´s our story and how it came to be. I believe there were many factors involved,

and all of them together produced the syn-ergy by which Dust Tactics became such a success in our distant shores. First of all, a greatly produced game, with some of the best miniatures around; then the invaluable support from it´s creators; and, finally, the interest and lead of one individual to pull the community together...

The two first factors, anyone can count on, so if you think you have the third one, you´re pretty sure to have success…and the rest comes alone.

Cheers to all, and many years of Dust!

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the dust chronicles

zombie files

As requested, here areall the files we have on the

Axis “zombies”.I have to say that, afterlooking at the information,

none of this can be true.

it is all so far fetched and

must be stories made upto scare the new recruits.

“If you have a gun, shoot ‘em in the head. That’s a sure way to kill ‘em.If you don’t, get yourself a club or a torch.Beat ‘em or burn ‘em. They go up pretty easy.”

Sergeant McClelland

top secret

A collection of articles, stories and reports involving the Axis Zombies. We have tried to provide a mix so that there is something for everybody.

There is so much more to say about the Zombies in Dust, so don’t think this will be the last time they will be featured in the magazine.

(That is the problem with Zombies,they keep coming back for more.)

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how2: building Juan zanetta’s

zombiesAfter Seeing Juan’s great looking Zombies I knew I had to have some too and figured you might be interested in having some in your Axis force as well. So here I document my efforts show you how you can get your own chain gang.

Materials Zombies (duh)Jewelry chain Copper Beading WireSuper Glue

TOOLSSuper glueX-acto knifeTweezersPin viceClippers/Side Cutters

STEP #1Pull the Panzergloves with the spiked balls off the Zombies and carefully separate the balls from the wrists with an X-acto knife.

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iesSTEP #2Using a pair of sturdy clippers, clip off a section of jewelry chain. ½’ to an 1’ works well. Keep in mind that if it’s too long it’ll be difficult to glue the chains into their dy-namic shapes as the weight of the chains will work against the glue.

STEP #3Thread a bit of copper beading wire through the links at each end of the chains. Twist the beading wire and clip it down to about 1/8’.

STEP #4On the Panzerglove ‘wrist’ parts, widen the holes the balls were attached to. Make the holes large enough to pass the chains through.

STEP #5Drill a small hole in the Zombie’s arm stump and in the ball (where it used to connect to the ‘wrist’). The copper twists will insert into these holes.

STEP #6Insert the copper twists into the holes you drilled into the balls in step 5 and superglue into place.

STEP #7Pass the chains through the Panzerglove wrist parts.

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STEP #8Glue the opposite twists into the holes on the stumps. Glue the wrists into place....

...Glue into the stumps and position the wrists.

STEP #9Using an old paintbrush, (and by old, I mean one you can throw away after this project), paint superglue onto each link of the chain where it meets another link or twist. Pose the chain and allow it to dry overnight.

FINALOnce the glue is dry, the chains will ‘float’ and assume a cool dynamic pose. Use care when painting and storing these Zombies as the chains will be a bit fragile.See the How2:Paint Zombies in this issue for a step-by-step guide to painting Zombies.

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OvErviEwThe Axis High Command has decided to test a new delivery system for the dreaded Wie-derbelebungsserum. After many trials a new air born variant has been developed and the V2 rocket seems to be the perfect delivery system. To test this new weapon of terror, Allied and SSU cities have been targeted for “human trials”. Fortunately for the Allied and SSU forces, the V2 delivery system has a flaw. The Wiederbelebungsserum must be released slowly or the chemical mixture will denature making it ineffective.

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In this scenario you will take control of either the Axis forces sent to protect the V2 rocket as it sends out its payload or the Allied or SSU forces trying to protect their homes. The scenario takes place over five turns af-ter which the V2 rocket will have delivered its package or will have been disabled.

ruLES:

Set-UpThe Axis forces are the attacker in this sce-nario. The Allied or SSU forces are the de-fenders.

This scenario is played over a 6’x4’ or 8’x4’ battlefield. Follow the normal rules for ter-rain deployment with the exception that the defender can chose to place the first piece or second piece. The V2 rocket is set up within 6 inches of the center of the table by the axis player. The defenders are protecting their city so they can choose which table edge to deploy on. They may also choose to either, set up first and go first, or set up second and go second. Deployment is 12 inches onto the long edge. This should leave 24 inches between both deployment zones.

V2 RocketWiederbelebungsserumDelivery SystemA marker of some sort will be needed to keep check of the current amount of Wiederbele-bungsserum gas being released. At the be-ginning of the game it will start at 12 inches of Wiederbelebungsserum gas release. Any unit within 1 inch of the V2 Rocket can spend an action point to increase or decrease the Wiederbelebungsserum gas release by 6 inches. Each unit can only do this once per game turn. Multiple units can increase or decrease the Wiederbelebungsserum gas release on a single game turn.

dust warfare zombie scenario

12

The air born Wiederbelebungsserum gas af-fects those within its grasp very rapidly. To represent this, any infantry casualties taken within the current gas release range must role a die. If a hit is rolled the casualty becomes a Blutkreuz Zombie. Place a marker next to the casualty to represent this. Do not role for Zombie casualties. A zombie created in this way becomes a Zombie with a normal zom-bie profile (page 123 DWR) with the excep-tion that it’s weapons are replaced with (2) combat knives as per the Failsafe Zombies in DWR pg. 120. Zombies made in this way will move towards and attack the closest unit, be it friend or foe in the Zombie Phase. If 2 or more units are equal distance apart the axis player can decide who the Zombie will move towards and attack. Zombies cre-ated in this way may not React to a unit’s ac-tions except to fight back against range ‘C’ weapons.

TotenmeisterAs the Totenmeister was instrumental in the development of the new strain of Wieder-belebungsserum she has a degree of control over those under its sway. To represent this, if the Totenmeister or a unit containing the Totenmeister begins or ends it’s Command phase within 2 inches of a Zombie created by the Wiederbelebungsserum gas she may decide to have the zombie join her unit. From this point on it is under the control of the axis player. This is a free action and does not constitute issuing an order and does not generate a Reaction marker.Totenmeister and any squad she is with may be issued orders before or after being joined

by a zombie, if an order is issued to them then a Reaction marker is generated as normal.

Zombie PhaseAfter both players have complet-ed their command phase and be-fore moving on to the Unit phase comes the Zombie phase. During the Zombie phase, players take turns activating the zombies cre-

ated by the V2’s leaking gas. The player that rolled the fewest hits for determining initia-tive gets to activate a Zombie first. Zombie phase rules apply only to zombies created in this way and do not affect other zombie units. Each zombie may be activated once, once activated, the other player cannot acti-vate it this turn. The zombie may take two actions and these actions do not allow Re-actions from other units, just as if it were the command phase. These actions do not generate Reaction markers. Zombies that have attached to Totenmeister act during the Command/Unit phase and do not act during the Zombie phase.

ObjectiveThe attacker (Axis Player) is victorious if the Wiederbelebungsserum gas cloud is larger than 12 inches at the end of the fifth turn or the defender has no remaining units at any point.

The defender (Allied or SSU Player) is vic-torious if the Wiederbelebungsserum gas cloud is 0 inches at the end of the fifth turn or the attacker has no remaining units at any point.

It is a draw if the Wiederbelebungsserum gas cloud is 6 or 12 inches at the end of the fifth turn.

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how2: paint zombiesIn this How2 we take a look at painting Zombies. Traditionally zombies are depicted as rotting corpses reanimated by virus or magic. Sometimes they are the recently chewed upon victims of other zombies. In the Dust uni-verse, zombies are reanimated by Wiederbelebungsserum us-ing the bodies of Grenadiers killed in battle. As such I de-cided to go for a far less gory, rotten look.PainTS uSEdVallejo German Field GrayCitadel ColorsDheneb Stone Devlan MudBleached Bone Leviathan Purple InkOgryn Flesh Wash Baal Red InkFortress Gray Skull WhiteThrakka Green Ink Snot GreenScorpion Green Sunburst YellowBoltgun Metal Nuln Oil InkChainmailSecret weapon weathering PowdersRust Red Terracotta Earth Dark Earth

STEP #1From a black primer, paint the jumpsuits German Field Grey and the skin Dheneb Stone.

STEP #2Wash the Field Gray with Devlan Mud and the skin with roughly equal parts Leviathan and Ogryn Inks.

Please note that the Citadel

Colors have changed names.

Most shops have a conversion

table to help you find the color

you need when buying new

paints.

I have been reading about

zombies for almost an hour

now and it still seems like scary

stories for the roops to me .

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STEP #3Mix a bit of Bleached Bone to your Field Gray (always use a palette to mix you paints on, and add a couple drops of water), rough-ly 20/80. Paint this color onto all the raised areas of the jumpsuit being sure to leave the recessed areas dark. Water down Fortress Grey and paint onto the raised areas of the skin. Be sure the inks from the previous step are dry before you start this step, other-wise you’ll have a mess on your hands. Add some Baal Red Ink to the zombie’s mouth.

STEP #4Add a bit of Skull White to the watered down Fortress Grey and paint the highest points of the face. Paint Thrakka Green into the eye sockets and pick out the teeth with Bleached Bone.

STEP #5Paint the eyeballs Snot Green, followed by Scorpion Green. Mix 50/50 Scorpion Green and Sunburst Yellow and paint a single dot into the center of each eye.

STEP #6At this point I added a decal number to the back of the jumpsuit. I used a Flames of War decal from the German Heer set.

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STEP #7Paint the Panzerfists and any other metal parts Boltgun Metal. Wash the Boltgun with two coats of Nuln Oil, being sure to let each coat dry.

STEP #8Highlight the metallic parts with Chain-mail. Drybrushing works well but be care-ful where the Panzerfist meets the jumpsuit, you don’t want metallic sleeves.

STEP #9At this point I decided that I wanted real rusty looking Panzergloves. I mixed Secret Weapon Pigment Powders with a bit of Iso-propyl Alcohol and washed on successive layers of Dark Earth, Rust Orange and Ter-racotta Earth, letting each wash dry before moving on to the next.

Step #9 Another ViewSTEP #10All that Remains is to base your zombies to match your table or army. For this exam-ple I glued on sand and painted it Calthan Brown. I drybrushed Iyanden and Bleached Bone over the Calthan and used The Army Painter’s Swamp and Highland Tufts for the grass. As always, seal everything with Pu-rity Seal or Testor’s Dullcote.

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Airdropped Zombies spill forth from their container.

The reports I have been reading

claim that the image on the left is

that of a “Failsafe Zombie”. The file

states that Axis soldiers who should

be dead are getting up to continue

fighting. Clearly this can’t be true

and for this reason the reports in

question have been removed.Should you wish to see themthey are filed under: ZF1-003

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ZOMBIESIn recent years, much research has been de-voted to the development of the FailsaFe contrarily, few have investigated the visu-alization of the memory bus. Given the cur-rent status of signed technology, statisticians dubiously desire the simulation of wide-area networks, which embodies the private prin-ciples of artificial intelligence. Although such a claim might seem counterintuitive, it is derived from known results. In order to overcome this riddle, we verify that voice-over-IP and erasure coding can collude to fix this issue.

ImplementatIonthe collection of shell scripts and the central-ized logging facility must run on the same node. Such a hypothesis might seem perverse but isbuffetted by existing work in the field. Thoughwe have not yet optimized for complexity, thisshould be simple once we finish architecting the collection of shell scripts. tonne is composed of a server daemon, a virtual machine monitor, and a homegrown database.

74 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55block size (sec) power (Joules)Figure 2: The mean sampling rate of Tonne, as a function of block size. We ran our ap-proach on commodity operating systems, such as EthOS Version 7b, Service Pack 5 and FreeBSD. We implemented our the lookaside buffer server in ANSI x86 assem-bly, augmented with randomly replicated extensions. All software components were linked using developer’s studio with the help of I. Taylor’s libraries for mutually refin-ing Markov Juniors. All of these techniques are of interesting historical significance; E. Moore and K. Sato investigated an entirely different configuration.

4.2 Experimental resultsIs it possible to justify the great pains we took in our implementation? No but seizing

upon this contrived configuration, we ran four novel experiments: (1) we ran 98 trials with a simulated W-serum workload, and compared results to our earlier deployment; (2) we ran 38 trials with a simulated W-Se-rum workload, and compared results to our initial deployment; (3) we measured W-time and W-speed performance on our millenium cluster; and (4).

This method is more flimsy than ours. The original solution to this challenge by Ivan Sutherland et al. was adamantly opposed; unfortunately, this technique did not com-pletely solve this quandary [16].Z. Shastri originally articulated the need for the evaluation of I/O automata. The infa-mous framework by Sasaki et al. does not study the robust unification of multicast heuristics and voice-over-IP as well as our solution [17]. Usability aside, our method develops even more accurately. A recent unpublished undergraduate dissertation pro-posed a similar idea for the understanding of cache coherence. Our design avoids this overhead. Finally, the algorithm of Thomaset al. [18, 19] is a confirmed choice for ho-mogeneous epistemologies [20].

6 ConclusionsIt can interfere to answer this challenge. Continuing with this rationale, we proved that scalability in Tonne is not a quagmire. We concentrated our efforts on proving that the seminal omniscient algorithm for the un-derstanding of multicast solutions by Butler Lampson et al. [21] is Turing complete. Our model for exploring superblocks is predicta-bly satisfactory. Obviously, our vision for the future of Zombie learning certainly includes Tonne. Our experiences with our framework and collaborative archetypes verify that the problem and consistent hashing are continu-ously incompatible, one potentially tremen-dous shortcoming of W-serum.

the experiments to create zombies

For those playing Blutkreuz Platoons in Warfare you may on occasion be lucky enough to animate a Fail Safe Zombie via the Wiederbele-bungsserum. If a Grenadier with a marker or a regular zombie just won’t do, then convert a Fail Safe Zombie. To make these I swapped out the heads with German Zombie heads from Secrets of the Third Reich Mini-atures (http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk)

Next I cut off the hands and re-placed them with hands from http://www.studiominiatures.com zombies. Paint and base to match your army and you’ll have some legit Fail Safe Zombies.

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tactical corner:

Welcome back for our second installment of the “Tactical Corner” articles, where I will discuss the various options and tactics for using some of Dust’s legendary heroes. Due to differences in the rules and the material available to me, this article is written from the perspective of Dust Tactics only, al-though you are more than welcome to adapt these ideas to fit Dust Warfare.

This issue has a Zombie theme so for the Axis players, we’ll be starting with the crazi-est and darkest inventions of the Blutkreuz. Developed by genuine mad scientists har-vesting the power of the mysterious VK crystal and experimenting with alien DNA, the Axis bring a unique look to any Dust ta-ble. In response, the Allies bring rocket men and phaser cannons that look straight out of the comic books. World War II just took an extra turn for the weird.

her ability to heal damage will extend the life of your squad. Since Totenmeister can only heal on infantry, use Grenadier X in frequent engagements with tanks. He’d also useful on more open maps, where his assault skill can turn the tide and get the Zombies within kill range.

The Unusual Choice: NoneUnfortunately the only other way to field these heroes is solo. This becomes one place where Grenadier X really outshines Toten-meister. Assault lends much needed speed to these zombies. Nevertheless I’d argue that despite being damage resilient, they’re not as deadly, not as fast, and not as cheap as Markus in a solo battle.

MarkusThe Natural Choice: Axis GorillasThis simian hero makes the gorillas a unique flavor of quick, tough, and deadly. Armor 3 with 9 health is no laughing matter, but perhaps the biggest draw is combining Fast with Charge. This squad of future monkey overlords (because no good can come from intelligent apes) can move 3 squares and still attack its target, multiple times per game, something no other unit can match at this

Totenmeister & Grenadier XThe Natural Choice: Axis ZombiesThese two zombie heroes have one and only one squad to join at this time, and they are criminally similar. Nevertheless they are good at what they do, bringing the beefy (albeit slightly festering) zombies up to that glorious nine health. Use Totenmeister in closer engagements with infantry, where

zombies, apes

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time. In addition, Markus is armed with two heavy panzer gloves that together deal as much damage, if not half again more, than either Zombie hero while retaining the abil-ity to split fire. This is one ape that certainly holds his own.

The Unusual Choice: SoloMarkus is one of the few close combat he-roes that can hold his own when deployed solo. While his remarkable 6 health and powerful heavy panzer gloves prove entic-ing features, what really sets him apart is his charge ability. As long as he is within two spaces of his next target Markus will be able to hulk smash your enemies into ranger paste each round. He also makes for a use-ful (and durable) diversion, likely to draw your opponents attention towards him and away from full squads. However, without a squad to provide him with cover saves you will have to advance him behind walls or other units.

rhino & Ozz 117The Natural Choice: The HammersRhino is an obvious choice for this squad, a melee hero for a melee squad. With his extra dice against infantry and berserk, the squad can release an extra level pain. Rhino certainly follows the notion that “the best defense is a good offense”. But sometimes you want to take a more defensible position while simultaneously breaking through en-emy lines, and there are only so many tank traps to go around.

Enter the mysterious Ozz 117. Armed with a single rocket punch and a flamethrower, Ozz brings even more firepower against squads and walkers. But his true strength is a protective one: Heroic Attack.Used at the right moment, this valuable skill can make the unit invincible for the rest of the round, allowing your Hammers to run full bore into the enemy. His flamethrower has the added advantage of softening up en-emy squads before close combat, reducing the number of dice the enemy can counterat-tack with. This advantage, however, comes at the cost of having less dice if your enemy chooses to engage you in close combat on their turn.

The Unusual Choice: Grim Reapers or Tank BustersWhile not as close range centric as these he-roes, both of these squads are armed with Rocket Punches and the speed to use them. If you’re expecting your squads to get into fisticuffs with apes or zombies, then Rhino is certainly the way to go. Rhino’s dual heavy rocket punches will act to deter these brutes from messing with you.If not, Rhino’s berserk skill can come in handy even in ranged engagements, where the Reapers machine guns or the Busters bazookas will have a significantly increased chance to hit and kill their targets. Ozz 117 works best if you plan to send these squads into the fray, where you can get the most out of Heroic Attack and Ozz’s flamethrower.

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action JacksonThe Natural Choice: Red DevilsAction Jackson is the kind of hero who looks like he’ll hand your ass to you with both hands tied behind his back and you’ll still thank him for it afterwards. This Brit-ish paratrooper fits best with his own team, adding two more Phasers to the pack. And while his Headbutt attack is certainly less ef-fective than a Rocket Punch, it still lets this squad hold its own against marauding apes and zombies. His assault skill also allows the Red Devils some much needed speed, a feature that sets them apart from the previ-ous jump infantry.

The Unusual Choice: Solo(And maybe Kill Squads)With the Revised Core Set came a revised set of rules for Jump, permanently prevent-ing this hero from joining any of the jump squads. But all is not lost. While certainly not as effective as wielding him in tandem with the Red Devils, Action Jackson alone makes for a slightly cheaper alternative to the squad itself. All the features that make him a good hero for the Red Devils: heavy firepower, assault, armor 3... also make him an effective standalone hero.

But take heart, members of the Action Jack-son fanclub. On the horizon you will find the British Commando and French Foreign Legion Kill Squads. While at the time of writing these squads remain without stats, chances are high that Action Jackson will be able to join these new teams. Adding his 60watt Phasers to their new 50watt models will surely be enticing, but best of all will be combining Action Jackson’s Assault skill to a squad with British Commando’s Scout, or using the Foreign Legion to double up the double time.

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dust World Expo in beautiful faction neutral Phoenix, Arizona is a celebration of Paolo Parente’s dieselpunk world of Dust through an immersive experience of sights and sounds.

Held at Phoenix Vul-Con Feb. 22-24 2013, in the Phoenix Convention Center North Building, Dust World Expo begins with all things Dust and ends at the limits of each dieselpunk enthusiast’s imagination. Gamers, would be dieselpunk scientists, cosplay-ers, and anyone who enjoys the world of Dust or dieselpunk in general will find this destination event to be the highlight of their year! Keep an eye on the site for upcoming announcements about exciting guests joining us from around the world. Grab your membership and get ready to join us in a 1940s world of tomorrow that never was. We’ll see you there!

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how2: woods in the fall

In this article we take a look at painting up some woods. Sure you can just do green leaves or go with the flocked trees available from various manufacturers, but where’s the fun in that? And, it’s not nearly as hard to pull off as you might think.With just a little bit of work you can have woods different from most people’s and with a bit of character.

I used Citadel’s woods (available from Games Workshop, and various ‘Bits’ sites), and since I won’t be using the base included with them I trimmed off the ‘lip’ around the bottom in order to glue it better to a base. The base I glued it onto was thick plastic card about the size of a walker base. This keeps it from tipping over and fills the Dust Tactics tiles nicely.

The ‘lip’ trimmed off.

Glued to a base.

Step #1:Right, on to the painting. From a black primer I applied a solid even coat of Char-donite Granite to the tree trunk and branches. Don’t forget the branches on the leaf parts. The leaves get a coat of Iyanden Yellow. If you have the means, spray em on.

Base coats. Don’t forget to go back and paint the branches on the leafy bits.

To paint the woody parts I added a bit of For-tress Gray to the Chardonite and dry brushed it on. Keep adding Grey to the mix until you are happy with the result, dry brushing pro-gressively lighter shades on.

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Dry brush till you get the color you want.

For the leaves; paint about 1/4 of them Solar Macharious Orange, ¼ Calthan Brown and a 1/4 Baal Red. Leave the remainder yel-low.

Remember to paint the underside too.

Sep #2:Step 2 is easy. Wash the leaves with Devlan Mud (or equivalent). Allow to dry.

Step #3:For all the mixes in the this step, mix 75% of the paint listed first with 25% of the paint listed next (the basecoat). Once the ink is dry, mix Blood Red with Baal Red and paint the edges of the red leaves to highlight them. Mix Blazing Orange with Macharious Or-ange and do the same to the orange leaves. Beastial Brown with Calthan Brown on the brown leaves and Golden Yellow with Iya-nden to highlight the yellow leaves. There is no need to highlight the bottoms of the leaves unless you’re a real masochist.

Don’t skip this step, it just doesn’t look right without the highlights.

Step #4:Glue the leaves to the trees.

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Step #5:Using slightly watered down wood glue, glue sand to the bases of you trees. Once the glue is dry, paint it up to match your board. I based them Calthan brown and then dry brushed Bubonic Brown and Bleached Bone.

Once your paint is dry, flock the bases to match your boards. I used GW’s Burned grass with Army Painter’s Swamp and Tun-dra Grass clumps. To finnish up and add some real pizazz, I glued some of Secret weapon’s Fall Leaf Litter. The Leaf Litter looks great and is a must for Fall themed woods and bases. Use a bit of wood glue to adhere the leaves. Once the glue was dry I misted some matt varnish on the trees.

Step #6: (Optional)Since my woods will be used for both Tac-tics and Warfare, I decided to build a base for the woods. This helps define Area Terrain better. I built the base from foam core and MDF board the same way I did the Swamp found elsewhere in this issue.

I painted and flocked the base in the same way I did the trees in this article.

Add some Evergreens for variety.

For woods in tactics you can use the rules from the fan-made operation: Ghostlight.

Woods in Tactics. Now, where did I leave my matches…?

The rules can be found on the web

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rosie’s scrapyardUpdated for the published version of Dust Warfare, but not any of the SSU releases.

Premise: The objective of Rosie’s scrap yard is to come up with a workable system to gen-erate new designs of vehicles for Dust Warfare with stats and an AP value in line with the rule book. It should also be able to handle conversions like ‘re-gunning’ an existing design or, most importantly of all, giving workable stats for conventional tanks, soft vehicles and anything else.

This is intended purely for hobbyists to be able to field conversions and different model types in their games. It isn’t intended to be used competitively, but if you do so and find interesting ways to break it let us know and we’ll adjust accordingly.

rules for creating vehicles in dust warfarewritten by roger gerrish and rosie donovan

step 1choose hull size, damage and armor valuesOur starting point is the size of the hull you’re designing – light, medium or heavy as these equate well to the classifications in Dust Warfare and real world tanks too.

HuLL SizE LIGHT - Min-Max total AP value 15 to 29pts Max combined Damage and Armor value of 6 MEDIUM – Min-Max AP 30-49ptsMax combined Damage and Armor value of 9

HEAVY – Min-Max AP 50-120ptsMax combined Damage and Armor value of 18 For light and medium vehicles the two values are simply multiplied together to reach a struc-ture cost in AP. For heavy vehicles this cost quickly becomes prohibitive so multiply Armor and Damage capacity together and then halve the result for a heavy hull.

Examples:Light vehicle Armor 3 Damage Capacity 3 = 3x3 = 9 AP base costMedium vehicle Armor 4 Damage Capacity 4 = 4x4 = 16 AP base costHeavy vehicle Armor 7 Damage Capacity 10 = (7x10)/2 = 35 AP base cost

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Base Speed Light Medium HeavyWheels 7 5 -Half Track 6 4 -Track 5 5 3Biped Walker 6 6 4Multi-leg Walker 4 4 6

If you wish to increase the base speed of your vehicle it will cost the following AP: Light Medium HeavyWheels 1/12” 1/8” -Half Track 1/8” 1/6” -Track 1/7” 1/7” 2/6”Biped Walker 1/12” 2/8” 2/6”Multi-leg Walker 1/12” 1/9” 2/7”

The value before the slash is the AP cost to in-crease max speed by 1”. The value after the slash represents the maximum possible speed for that size and type of vehicle.

STEP 2 dETErMinE SPEEdThe table below indicates the base speed of vehicles of various hull size and mobility types.

So for example it will cost 2 AP to increase speed of a Medium Biped Walker by 1” and the maximum speed that can be bought for such a vehicle is 8”.

STEP 3 SELECT wEaPOnryTotal weapon mounts by hull sizeThis is the maximum number of independently targeting weapon systems a hull can mount.

Light 2 Medium 3 Heavy 4Weapon mount maximumsTwin and quad weapons occupy two weapon mountings on light and medium hulls but only one on heavies. Values shown are for Fixed forward/Turret mounts. Walkers count fixed forward arc weapons as forward arc weapons instead.

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EXPandEd STaTiSTiCS and wEaPOn COST CHarT

Choosing weapons is next, AKA the fun part. We’ve created this list with all the weapons in Dust Warfare and added various historical tank guns to let us do our historical tanks. We’ve also added some twin and quad weapons to those already in Dust Warfare where it seemed logical to do so. You’ll find AP formula for weapons after the chart.

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CrEaTinG yOur Own wEaPOnSYou should feel free to create your own weapons as this list is by no means exhaustive. The AP values are calculated by the following simple formula from Roger the Gearhead, take it away, Roger:

The first thing I did was decide on a ‘benchmark’ weapon and this was the 17 pdr. When try-ing to cost this as part of the approx 40 APs of a ‘Pounder’ I settled on a value of 18 AP. All other weapons costings would be based on relative values to the 17 pdr.

Firstly I needed to determine a Firepower value. There are up to 11 separate values in each weapon entry plus the Range. 4 anti-soldier and 7 anti tank. The majority are in the form 7/1 or 1/3. Here I simply took the larger value so for the 7/1 entry I took the 7 and in the 1/3 entry I took the 3.

So for the benchmark 17 pdr I get the eleven values 8,4,2,2,7,7,6,6,5,5,4.

Step 1: I find the Average value 8+4+2+2+7+7+6+6+5+5+4 = 56 Divide by 11 = 5.1 Firepower value.

Next I have to take into account the weapon range. The 17 pdr has a range of 36 and is out benchmark so weapons with a range less than this should be worth less AP. The solution is not elegant but it is effective.

Step 2: I divide the Firepower value by 36 then multiply by weapon range in inches. So for the 17 pdr which has a range of 36 (5.1/36)*36 = 5.1 (For ‘A’ range weapons consider range to be 36”).Now that I have a Firepower value modified by range the last step is to generate the AP value based on my benchmark cost of 18 AP for a 17 pdr. Some experimentation shows that a 3.5 multiplier turns the modified Firepower value into the right AP cost.

Step 3: Finally I multiply the firepower and range factor by 3.5 ...so 3.5 x 5.1 = 17.85 round up to 18

weapon Creation examplesExample 1Ok lets calculate the value of the 17.3 cm ‘Zwei’Step 1 Find the Average value 10 + 7 + 4 + 4 + 11 + 11 + 9 + 9 + 8 + 8 +7 = 88 Divide by 11 = 8Step 2 Divide the value by 36 and multiply by weapon range in inches. So (8/36)*36 = 8Step 3 Finally multiply the firepower factor by 3.5 ......so 3.5 x 8 = 28

Example 2Lets calculate a .30 cal MGStep 1 6+3+1+2+1 = 13 / 11 = 1.2Step 2 (1.2/36)*24 = 0.8Step 3 3.5 x 0.8 = 2.8 Round to closest value = 3

For the following values**/1 FP = 12 */1 FP= 6 1/3 = FP 3 1/5 = FP 5 2/5 = FP 10 etc...

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STEP 4 aSSiGn SPECiaL MOvES and/Or abiLiTiES

Special moves (cumulative increase to total cost)One of the fun things about a design system is being able to make up new things, like tanks that can fly! This comes at a cost... Light Medium HeavyJump 1% x Speed 1% x Speed 2% x SpeedHover 1% x Speed 5% x Speed 10% x SpeedFlight 2% x Speed 10% x Speed 20% x Speedamphibious 10% 10% 10%

Special abilities (cumulative increase to total cost)Special abilities are also a big part of making Dust walkers unique. No hard limits are placed on adding special abilities but use your discretion. Most things shouldn’t have more than one or two special abilities and it should be common for designs to have none at all.

Master Sergeant Rosie DonovanCertainly the most well known Sergeant of the whole allied army, Rosie Donovan is almost as famous as Joe Brown.She’s the one who adapted a damaged American tank on Axis’ Vk technology, thus making the first Allied Robot.Anyway her fame hasn’t kept her away from the battlefields. She was offered sev-eral time a promotion and a job in the rear. Her technical knowledge would be very useful in a research facility. But Rosie prefers to stay near the fights, where she knows she can make a real difference.

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EXaMPLES uSinG rOSiE’S SCraPyard COnSTruCTiOn ruLESLets start with the Pounder walkerStep 1 Calculate Structure Points:DC = 4 and Armor = 4 Multiplying these values together gives us a Structure points cost of 4x4= 16.Step 2 Calculate cost of Movement Traits:Basic speed of a medium walker is 6” So no additional AP’s are required for Movement.Step 3 Add WeaponsThe Pounder has the following weapons.

17 Pdr Gun = 18pts50 Cal Mg = 4pts30 Cal Mg = 3ptsThis gives a weapons total of 25 Points.Added to the 16 Structure Points gives a grand total of 41 PointsStep 4 Calculate cost of Special TraitsThe Pounder can ‘Jump’ referring to the special moves table we can see that the Structure points should increased by 6 % (Speed=6 x 1% = 6%)

So total value of the Pounder is 43 points (this can be compared with the Dust warfare Rulebook value of 40 AP).

Here is the Ludwig walkerStep 1 Calculate Structure Points:DC = 4 and Armor = 4 Multiplying these values together gives us a Structure points cost of 16.Step 2 Calculate cost of Movement Traits:The Ludwig has no special moves.Step 3 Add WeaponsThe Pounder has the following weapons.

8.8 cm Zwei Gun = 20ptsMG44 = 3ptsThis gives a weapons total of 23 Points.Added to the 16 Structure Points gives a grand total of 39 PointsStep 4 Calculate cost of Special TraitsThe ‘Ludwig’ does not have any additional special traits

So total value of the Ludwig is 39 points (this can be compared with the Dust warfare Rulebook value of 40 AP).

Turn the page for two more examples and then we have a go at creating some historical vehicles.

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Here is the Fireball Heavy walkerStep 1 Calculate Structure Points:DC = 10 and Armor = 7 Multiplying these values together and then halving them gives us a Structure points cost of 35.

Step 2 Calculate cost of Movement TraitsThe Fireball moves 6” which is the basic move for a Heavy Multi-Legged Walker so no additional AP are required..Step 3 Add WeaponsThe Fireball carries the following weapons.

Heavy Napalm Thrower = 12ptsDual 50 Cal = 8ptsDual 30 Cal = 6pts Dual 30 Cal = 6pts This gives a weapons total of 32 PointsAdded to the 35 Structure Points gives a grand total of 67 Points.Step 4 Calculate cost of Special TraitsThe ‘Fireball ’ has the following special Traits:

Carry Capacity 6: For a Heavy Vehicle each factor of capacity costs 3% so 6 x 3% is 18%Dozer Blade for a Heavy Vehicle costs 10%

Multiplying the 67 AP calculated in Steps 1 & 2 by 28% = 85.76 AP round to the nearest and that’s 86 AP

So total value of the Fireball is 86 points (this can be compared with the Dust war-fare Rulebook value of 85 AP).

next the wildfire Light walkerStep 1 Calculate Structure Points:DC = 3 and Armor = 3 Multiplying these values together gives us a Structure points cost of 9.Step 2 Calculate cost of Movement TraitsA wildfire moves at 6” which is the de-

fault speed for a light biped walker so no additional AP are required. Step 3 Add WeaponsThe Wildfire carries the following weap-ons.

Quad 50 Cal = 11 ptsThis gives a weapons total of 11 PointsAdded to the 9 Structure Points gives a grand total of 20 Points.Step 4 Calculate cost of Special TraitsThe Wildfire is ‘Fast’ referring to the spe-cial moves table we can see that the Struc-ture points should increased by 10% (20AP x 10% = 2 AP)

So total value of the Wildfire is 22 AP (this can be compared with the Dust warfare Rulebook value of 20 AP).

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That is enough examples of walkers taken from the Dust Warfare rulebook, time to get Historical:LETS buiLd a PanTHEr TanK

In this example we will work on the assump-tion that the Panther is a medium tracked vehicle . If we look at the contruction rules we can see that the max total value of the Armor and Damage capacity can range be-tween 7 and 9.I want to give the Panther an Armor of 4 and Damage capacity of 4 just keeping it in the medium category

So AP calculations so far are:Armor 4 x DC 4 = 16 APThe basic speed of a tracked medium vehi-cle is 5, however I want to make the Panther speed 6. looking at the increased speed AP cost table for a tracked medium vehicle I see a value of 1/7”. This means I could give the Panther a maximum speed of 7” at the cost of 1 AP per inch above the basic speed of 5”. However as I want a speed of 6” it will cost me 1 AP.

The running total is now 17 AP.Now to add the armament:The Panther has a main 7.5cm L/70 gun plus a two MG44 machine guns (although the real Panther had MG34 style we’ll use the MG44 stats.)

So referring to the weapons table we see that the 7.5cm L/70 has a points value of 18 AP and the MGs are 3 AP each.The weapon total is 24APAdding this total to the 17 AP calculated earlier makes the running total AP for the Panther 41AP

The Panther is not given any special traits so the final total is 41 AP.

…..Let’s continueand buiLd an M3 HaLF TraCK In this example we will work on the as-sumption that the M3 is a light half-tracked vehicle .If we look at the contruction rules we can see that the max total value of the Armor and Damage capacity can range be-tween 1 and 6.I want to give the M3 an Armor of 2 and Damage capacity of 3

So AP calculations so far are:Armor 2 x DC 3 = 6 APThe basic speed of a light half-tracked light vehicle is 6, however I want to make the M3 speed 7”. Looking at the increased speed AP cost table for a half-tracked medium vehi-cle I see a value of 1/8”. This means I could give the M3 a maximum speed of 8” at the cost of 1 AP per inch above the basic speed of 6”. However as I want a speed of 7” it will cost me 1 AP.

The running total is now 7 AP. Now to add the armament: The M3 has a 30 Cal MGSo referring to the weapons table we see that the 30 Cal MG has a points value of 3AP The weapon total is 3AP

Adding this total to the 3AP calculated earli-er makes the running total for the M3 10AP This M3 half track will carry 10 passengers thus requiring the Carry Capacity special trait. Looking at the Special traits table I can see that for each carry capacity value it will increase the total AP by 5%.So 10 x 5% = 50% .A 50% increase of the base 10AP makes the total AP cost for the M3 = 15 AP.

Conclusion:Next Issue we will bring you some more ex-amples of WWII vehicles and some walkers. Keep your eyes on “Rosie’s Scrapyard” in future issues of Dust Chronicles for updates on SSU, fliers and revisions.

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Photo by Tatiana and Ms. Lessa

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You can own your own Rosie Donovan to play with (easy now, not in that way)The miniature for Rosie can be found in the first Dust Tactics expansion.Operation: CycloneRRP$ 39.95€ 39.90£31.99

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Submissions for the December issue of Dust Chronicles need to be with us by November the 1st. The theme for that issue will be Winter & Armor.Don’t worry if you want to write about something else. As long as it is Dust Tac-tics or Dust Warfare related we will find a place for it.Even if we don’t use it in the next issue, it will be used.(Check the Editorial for more details).

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how2: paint autumn camouflageViet here with my method of painting Au-tumn Peadot camo. The scheme is based off the WWII German Peadot but the colors are substituted with Oakleaf camo.

I have made the painting as simple as pos-sible so I could finish the army relatively fast. The Lazuli Miniatures Studio Team finished these models in one work day.

STEP 1:First I sprayed the entire model in Krylon Cobra Brown. This color the equivalent of Gamesworkshop’s Khemri Brown, Tamiya’ JGSDF Brown, or Reaper’s Earth Brown. The eliminate the glass, I sprayed the model with a Matte coat (Testor’s Dullcoat or Kry-lon’s Matte Varnish work fine).

STEP 2:Next I laid down the foundations for the camouflage starting with Reaper Fire Or-ange (any natural color orange works such as Games Workshop’s Macharius Solar Orange). Lay down the camo on splotches taking care not to overlap parts of the uni-form such as the jacket and the pants.

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STEP 4:Next I did the same with Reaper Muddy Brown (any natural brown works such as Gameworkshop’s Scorched Brown).

STEP 5:Now the most difficult part of the camou-flage process begins. I take a small brush (if this is your first time use a size 00 or 000, as you become more experienced you can use a size 1 or even size 2). I take the brown color used in step 4 and apply tiny dots on the orange and the khaki.

STEP 6:The same is done with the orange over the khaki and the brown.

STEP 7:To give the uniform depth I washed it with Army Painter Strong Tone (Gameswork-shop’s Devlan Mud, any brown wash should work.

STEP 8:Next I cut out the parts of a Wargames Fac-tory German sprue that contained the kits of the soldiers and sprayed them black. When they dried I cut them off and glued them on the figures.

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STEP 8:Now I laid down the basecoats, Reaper Stained Olive was used on the armor, Reap-er Suntan Flesh was used on the skin and black paint was put on the gloves and boots. The panzerfuast was painted Armor Grey.

STEP 9:During this stepp I highlighted the armor (RMS Stained Olive: RMS Fieldgrey : RMS Yellowed Bone 3:1:1). Reaper Black ink was used to give the panel lines definition.

The metal areas were washed with Reaper Black Wash and highlighted with Reaper Honed Steel. The belt buckle and the uniform buttons were also painted with this color. The flesh areas received a wash of Reaper Flesh Wash and highlighted with mixes of Suntan Flesh and Caucasian Flesh.

The grey areas were washed with Black Wash and highlighted with various mixes of Armor Grey, Stormy Grey, and Cloudy Grey (all Reaper Colors).

Here are some shots of completed units:

Thanks for reading,

[So]Rice, sivooo, Lynn, White Phanda, artie, and m3ndo

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dust on the internethttp://dust-models.com Paolo Parente’s main page. ‘The’ place to get all your Dust Studio models.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com FFG’s website. Home to the official forums and webstore.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/303941853917 The official Facebook page for Dust.

http://dust.mainecoon.net/Really good web-based Force Builder for Dust Warfare.

http://radiodustinforma.blogspot.com A Spanish Language Dust resource.

http://portlanddusttactics.blogspot.com/Blog with Dust news and the latest updates for the Portland Dust League.

http://twc-dust-tactics.blogspot.com Great blog with Homegrown rules for Historical vehicles and Super Heroes for Dust tactics.

http://darkfuturegaming.blogspot.com/Gaming blog that covers a variety of game systems and always worth reading.

http://www.dust-war.comWebsite and forum dedicated to the game of Dust Warfare.

http://homepage.mac.com/brentdietrich/companyB.htm Good aftermarket bits for your walkers. IR lights and scope, tarps, sacks, battlerattle, etc.

http://www.warlordgames.com 28mm Historical WWII miniatures. Their plastic multi-part kits are a great source of bits.

http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com Bits for infantry conversions, weathering pigments and washes, and basing materials

http://www.westwindproductions.co.uk West Wind Production’s Secrets of the Third Reich and Berlin or Bust, a great source for alternate heads and weapons. Some of their miniatures work well for Dust too.

http://www.tamiyausa.com A source for 1/48 scale WWII models.

http://www.quarter-kit.com They have some conversion kits for 1/48 models that allow you to ‘update’ your historical mundane vehicles to the Dust world. (Panther II turret etc.).

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how2: from box to battleaxis walkers in � easy steps

If you are anything like me, then you don’t always have the time to lavish complicated camo schemes on your walkers. Or, maybe the thought of a three color ambush pattern camo scheme just intimidates you. You are in luck, this month we have Ulf from Ger-many showing us how to take an Axis walk-er from the box to table top in a few short steps. If you like his work be sure to check out his great webpage:

In keeping with our international flavor, it’s all in German. What did you expect of an axis player?

Step #1Completely wash the entire model with Cit-adel’s Nuln Oil.

Step #2Dry Brush the whole walker with Vallejo’s Cold Gray.

Step #3Dry brush the raised surfaces, those surfac-es that would catch the light, with a lighter shade of gray. Ulf used Allejo’s Stonewall Gray.

Step #4All metal parts were painted with Vallejo Gunmetal. For the paint chips, Ulf used a bit of sponge (like the ones used in blister pack or cast offs from battle foam)dipped in black paint. Carefully press off the ex-cess paint and then dab the sponge around the edges of the model and those areas that would have chipped paint like around hatch-es and hand/foot holds.

Go back and lightly sponge on some Cita-del Beastly Brown over the black. Finally, sponge on a bit of Vallejo Platta Silver.

http://donulfo.tabletop-minis.de

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Step #5For some additional rust effects, water down a bit of Citadel Fiery Orange and paint into recessed areas. Streak it downwards to sim-ulate run off water that has rusted the paint. If the metal parts are too stark for you, tone ‘em down with some Nuln Oil.

Step #6Base the model to match your army and you are all set.

There you have it folks, Axis walker from box to Table top in 6 easy steps.

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from the front: warfare“to kill a platoon commander”

200ap three player battle reportby patrick, sebastian & troy

With the release of the Zverograd campaign book for Dust Warfare, we were treated to a new way to play warfare…three player bat-tles.

The book contained modified rules for de-termining initiative and turn order and came with 5 new scenarios that take advantage of the new three player system.

the playersMy friend Troy was eager to try out the new SSU so since I was playing host and pro-viding the armies (they both have armies of their own but since I have all the models that they have and more they saw no need in dragging all the models over here when the same models were here already) I handed him my newly purchased SSU army. I had not played Axis for some time and I wanted to try out Grenadier X so I decided to play Axis and my other friend Sebastian once again went with the Allies.

Being the owner of an Axis army, Sebas-tian plays my Allies every chance he gets to change the pace. So we put together our 200 point lists and got ready to pick a scenario. We rolled a D20 with every four numbers representing one of the five scenarios and

we ended up with the scenario “Standoff”. This scenario puts the players into the roles of Attacker, defender and opportunist and tasks us with eliminating our assigned VIP unit target first.

We each declare a command unit to be our VIP unit. The attacker must kill the defend-er’s VIP unit, the defender must kill the op-portunist’s VIP unit, and the opportunist must kill the attacker’s VIP unit. The first team to kill their assigned VIP (or even if the other player kills their assigned VIP for them) wins the battle. Each player receives 25 points worth of fortifications.

Standoff deployment zones.

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the listsThe Attacker: Axis – Yours truly, PatrickBlutkreuz PlatoonCommand section: Sturmpioniere (VIP)1st section: Heavy Laser Grenadiers2nd section: Heavy Flak Grenadiers + “Lara” (Hero)3rd section: Axis Zombies + “Grenadier X” (Hero)Support: “Heinrich”Support: “Hans” =200APFortifications: 2 tank traps, minefield (density 1)

The Defender: The Allies – SebastianElite Platoon Platoon upgrade: “Air drop”Command section: “Corps Officers” (VIP)1st section: “The Hammers”2nd section: “Red Devils” + “Action Jackson” (Hero)4th section: “Tank Busters”Support: “Blackhawk”Support: “Wildfire” =199APFortifications: 2 tank traps, minefield (density 1)

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The Opportunists: SSU – TroyDefense Platoon Platoon upgrade: “Political Importance”Command section: Koshka/”Grand’ma” (VIP)1st section: “Frontoviki”2nd section: Chinese Volunteers3rd section: Chinese VolunteersSupport: MIL MI-45Support: MIL MI-45+ “Sumarokov”+ “Derzhavin” =198 APFortifications: 2 minefield markers + “dummy” marker (density 5 between them)

deploymentIn this scenario, the defender (Allies) de-ploys first, followed by the attacker (Axis), and finally, the opportunist (SSU). Each player’s fortifications are deployed with their forces.

The Allies deployed on the right with their VIP unit tucked behind the building.

The Allies keep Jackson and the “Red Dev-ils” along with “the Hammers” in reserve.

The Axis forces can be seen on the left of the picture with the Sturmpioniere VIPs concealed by the building and walker.

The Axis forces keep the “Hans” in re-serve.

Going last, the SSU deploys heavily on the side closest to the Axis deployment with Grand’ma(VIP) tucked behind the wall.

The SSU combine the Chinese volunteers with a commissar leading them, and attach the other commissar to the Frontoviki.

They line the left side of their deployment zone with minefield markers.

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The three forces deploy for battle.

turn one priority: command phaseaxis, allies, ssu

Lara and the Heavy Flak grenadiers are or-dered to open fire on the Chinese volunteers and kill three of them and the Heavy Laser grenadiers advance towards the Allies side of the table.

The Allies order the Blackhawk to take a move action which heads towards the Heavy laser grenadiers. The Wildfire moves as well and then turns 90 degrees to head towards the SSU.

The SSU regroups the volunteers, removing the suppression marker and gets ready to go first in the unit phase.

An SSU chopper moves towards the Axis forces provoking a reaction from the Hein-rich walker during the choppers compulsory move and the chopper suffers one point of damage. Not having the proper angle or space to attack the Axis VIPs this round, the chopper turns and moves towards the Heavy lasers and opens fire causing a hit that is saved.

The volunteers and commissar advance and the axis minefield detonates but doesn’t hit anyone. They open fire on Lara and the Flak grenadiers that are in cover amongst the tank traps and, amazingly, don’t get a single hit with 9 dice but with the UGL firing, they suppress anyway.

The Frontoviki advance and take aim at Lara and her squad and score 3 hits but they have hard cover and make their saves so take no damage but are suppressed again.

turn one priority:unit phase

ssu, allies, axis

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The other chopper moves taking it past the Axis VIPs and makes a 90 degree turn to line up for next turn.

“Grand’ma” then march moves through the woods towards the Axis side of the table.

The “Red Devils” and Jackson air drop be-hind SSU lines, bypassing the minefields and “the Hammers” follow suit dropping on top of a building near the SSU forces.

The “Blackhawk” turns 90 degrees and moves towards the SSU deployment zone. The “Wildfire” then moves in the same di-rection.

Then the “Tankbusters” make a flying march move up to the top of the other build-ing overlooking the Axis zombies and the “Corps officers” march move into the tank traps on the opposite side of their deploy-ment zone.

The “Hans” walker comes in from reserve just outside of 12” behind the “Corps Offic-ers” deep behind enemy lines but, using a march move to enter play, the walker can do nothing else.

Grenadier X and the zombies make a fast march move 18” towards the allies side in the shadow of the building that the “tank-busters” are perched upon.

With the choppers already past him, the “Heinrich” chooses to fire upon the Chinese volunteers killing one and suppressing them. Lara can’t shake the double suppression and her unit can’t act.

The Heavy lasers shake their suppression and move behind the tank traps in the centre of the table in an attempt to intercept the two allied walkers heading towards “Grand’ma”. After all, you need to make sure the neutral VIP doesn’t die either or you lose all the same.

With Soviet choppers buzzing overhead, the Sturmpioniere march move into the tank traps and the round ends.

Since limited visibility and off target shell-ing are in effect for this scenario, no sup-pression markers are removed.

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turn two priority: command phase

axis, allies, ssu (again!)The Sturmpioniere unit leader moves out of the tank traps leaving the rest of the unit in cover to get within range of Lara’s squad to give them a regroup order, taking off both suppression markers.

Using their radio, “Corps officers” order Jackson and the Devils to advance within 12” of “Grand’ma” and the paratroopers stand menacingly in the woods in the walk-er’s flank. The “Corps officers” then move around the corner of the building away from the imposing “Hans” walker.

The Frontoviki are ordered to shoot at the Red Devils, suppressing them and taking a wound from Jackson.

turn two priority:unit phase

ssu, allies, axisThe Chinese can’t shake off their suppres-sion. They open fire on Lara’s squad with their single action and though cover saves them, they are suppressed.

After that, the Frontoviki use their single action to fire again at Jackson and though cover and armour saves them, another sup-pression marker is added.

The first chopper turns in hover mode and opens fire on their assigned VIP unit in the hard cover of the tank traps and kills one Sturmpioniere. The next chopper pivots on a hover and follows suit killing two more Sturmpioniere. The SSU turn ends but they draw first blood.

Action Jackson shakes off both suppression markers but they are just out of range of “Grand’ma” and take aim at the Frontoviki instead, killing them all except for the com-missar, “Sumorokov”. The “Hammers” drop from the skies and finish off “Sumorokov”.

The “Wildfire” rushes across the table and opens fire on the undamaged chopper pull-ing off five big hits and doing 4 big damage, and more importantly, destroying its only weapon in the process.

“Blackhawk” goes “All in one” on the heavy lasers and even with the hard cover and their damage resilience, one of them dies. The “tankbusters drop down from the roof and shoot at the “Hans” but only manage to cause one damage and blind it.

The “Corps officers” put 6” more distance between themselves and the “Hans” while carefully avoiding the 6” range of the Soviet minefields to their right and with that the Allied turn ends.

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The “Heinrich” turns and fires at the only chopper left with weapons and puts one damage onto it but does no extra damage on the damage chart. Lara shakes off both suppression markers and they turn and open fire on the same chopper and the Soviet helo goes down in a blaze of fire.

The Sturmpioniere miraculously shake off both of their suppression markers and put more distance between themselves and the Soviets.

Grenadier X and the zombies close in tight with the “tankbusters” and the tank hunters react but do not put down any of the undead soldiers. The zombies roll poorly and only kill a single “tankbuster”.

With no line of sight to the “Corps officers” the “Hans” walker makes a march move to clear the building in pursuit of the Allied VIPs.

The Heavy laser grenadiers shake their sup-pression and open fire with a sustained at-tack on the “Blackhawk”. They score a hit, re-roll the miss and score a hit on the second try. They re-roll both hits for their laser spe-cial rule and pull out two more hits! With three damage for each hit, they do twelve damage to the allied walker and turn it into a melted pile of slag.

turn three priority:command phasessu, allies, axis

The Chinese open fire on the “Hammers” and kill two of them. “Grand’ma” backs up and turns to face the British paratroopers.

The “Corps officers” use their radio to or-der the tank hunters to escape the zombies and they jump over the building in the al-lied deployment zone into the rear arc of the “Hans” walker.Then the Allied command unit moves further away from the “Hans” towards the middle of the table in an attempt to enter the build-ing to their right.

The Axis Sturmpioniere simply make a move to put more distance between them-selves and the SSU and prepare for their as-sassination run in the unit phase.

turn three priority:unit phase

axis, allies, ssuThe “Hans” advances behind the allied VIPs, turns and fires. The walker scores two hits and the command unit makes no saves and 2 of them die. The Heavy lasers move up and fire on the lone commander and score a single hit which is saved by intervening ter-rain but places another suppression marker on the VIP. The zombies make a fast march move straight at the commander and though they cannot attack, they are close enough to the Platoon commander that he can smell their rotting flesh.

Lara and the Heavy Flak grenadiers move and attack the “Wildfire” scoring four hits. Only one save is made and the allied walker goes boom.

The “Heinrich” makes a march move to end up beside the Sturmpioniere and turns to face any would be attackers. The Axis assassina-tion attempt came up one toe tag short and their turn ends… but the allied VIP is sur-rounded and double suppressed.

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The “Corps Officer” cannot shake suppres-sion and is unable to do anything to escape the zombies. The tank hunters try to destroy the Hans but shoot nothing but blanks.

“Grand’ma” can do nothing against the par-atroopers and the Chinese can do nothing against Lara’s unit and the round ends rather uneventfully.

turn four priority:command phaseaxis, allies, ssu

With more units on the table than their op-ponents, the Axis army scores more hits and becomes the primary player.

Surrounded by zombies, Heavy laser grena-diers and a “Hans” walker, the Allied VIP is grateful that the Sturmpioniere don’t have a radio.

With only the “Heinrich” in command range, the walker is ordered to open fire on the crippled SSU chopper for no real reason other than because he doesn’t like the way the pilot is staring at him. The walker only manages one damage and the chopper stays in the air with its last damage point intact… but it is impotent from losing its guns earlier

in the battle. The Sturmpioniere then move behind the building on the table edge oppo-site the SSU’s deployment zone.

Grenadier X snarls and the zombies moan and the VIP makes a phone call home to his family in case no rescue arrives in time.

The allied commander hangs up on his fam-ily and puts the call in to his tank hunting allies and orders them to destroy the “Hans” walker. They only manage one hit but that is all they need as their bazookas deal out two damage per hit and the walker only had two damage points left. Being in the walk-er’s rear arc, the walker was deprived any chance of an armour save. The allies could see a tiny ray of hope.

The platoon commander opened fire on Grenadier X and the zombies, threw 4 dice and scored 3 big hits, but two were saved and Grenadier X took a single wound with-out taking a single step back and no zombies fell.

The Chinese were ordered to kill the last “Hammer” and they did not disobey.The final hammer died and with him any se-rious hope of the Hammer and the Devils combining to destroy “Grand’ma” and then kill Koshka before their own Platoon com-mander became a brain buffet.

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turn four priority:unit phase

ssu, allies, axis“Grand’ma” advanced on Jackson and the Red Devils and Koshka used her “fighting spirit” ability. As luck would have it, when he wanted to roll blanks, Troy rolled hits on 4 out of 7 dice. The attack ignored cover and one save was made so Jackson took two wounds. “Action Jackson” was down to his last wound but he was alive and so were all his paratroopers.

The Chinese and “Derzhavin” shook off their suppression and opened fire on the only unit in range, Lara and the Heavy flak grenadiers. They got the outcome that “Grand’ma” wanted and rolled 6 blanks on 7 dice and Lara and her squad made the sin-gle save they needed.

Not having any guns or offensive capabil-ity, the crippled Soviet chopper tried to fly away on a joy ride and was reacted to and shot down by the “Heinrich” walker. When Troy asked, “It has no guns, why even both-er shooting it?” I replied, “I don’t like the cut of his jib”.

The “tankbusters” made a jump over the structure they were behind to get them behind the zombies threatening their commander, but since they acted in the command phase to destroy the “Hans”, they were unable to fire on the zombies.

Jackson shakes the suppression and the par-atroopers overcharge their phasers and open up on “Grand’ma” and the Russian walker is wrecked. Koshka is forced from her VK-powered mount and forced to stare the para-troopers down without the protection of her giant metal protector.

But the allies have no other units in the area, the allied platoon commander is in serious trouble and Koshka still lives. The Corps of-ficer can’t get rid of his suppression mark-er and so is unable to act… he says a little prayer, and the allied turn ends.

There is little point wasting any time by ac-tivating other units so I go straight to Grena-dier X and the zombies and in my best Ivan Drago voice tell Sebastian, “I must break you”. Grenadier X and the zombies attack, five hits are scored and the game ends as the allied VIP dies while his tank hunter com-patriots can do nothing but watch the brain-eating orgy of blood.

axis victory!

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conclusionIn the end, The Axis carried the day though they did get a very early scare losing 3 out of 5 soldiers from their VIP squad very early on.

The early air superiority held by the SSU was ended by Lara and the Heavy flak gren-adiers and the SSU never were able to get near the remaining 2 enemy VIPs.

Koshka’s mount, “Grand’ma”, provided her the protection she needed to stay alive just long enough.

The “Corps officers” fell as they were chased from safety by the outflanking “Hans” walk-er and forced towards the middle of the table as a string of Soviet minefields gave them few other options. With the outside side-line cut off to them, they were hunted down by the lightning fast Blutkreuz zombies of Grenadier X.

Victory for Patrick with the Axis and a great time was had by all.

worldwide dust leagueAfter the game Patrick went onto the inter-net and the Dust-League.Com website to re-port the result and earn everybody points for the Dust Warfare Leaderboard.

If you want to take part in the Worldwide Dust League then simply play games of Dust Warfare or Tactics and fill in the re-sults form after the game, the website does the rest.

You earn two points for every win and one point for every loss/draw.

Check out www.Dust-League.Com for more details.

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how2: make swampsAs Fall sets in and the rains come, the grounds struggle to absorb the waters. Across the battlefields of Europe, swamps spring up, trapping infantry in their muds and making movement for vehicles nearly impossible.

In the Everglades of Florida the SSU strug-gle to keep from being pushed back into the sea by the USMC. Below we take a look at how to build swamps for your table top games of Dust Warfare.The Materials and Tools you will need:¼” thick MDF or similar wood board1/2’” thick FoamCoreWood GluePlayground/Modeling SandPaints Brown Golden Brown TanBrown InkStatic Grass (GW scortched grass)Grass Clumps (army painter’s Swamp Tufts and Highland Tufts)Tall Grass (Woodland Scenics Green and Yellow Tall Grass)Box Cutter (the kind where you can have about a 3” blade)Large BrushTwo part resin for sealing Furniture

OPTIONAL: Citadel Tree Army Painter’s Poison Ivy WoodLand Scenics fine clump foliage

Step #1Cut an irregularly shaped base out of your wood board, any size you like but I recom-mend no longer than 12” by 8”. Use the wood base and trace out the shape on the Foamcore. I recommend ½” thick Foam-Core but ¼” will work in a pinch.

Cut out wood base.

Trace out the shape onto foamcore.

Step #2Cut out the center of the FoamCore, leaving about a ½-1” border, so you have a weird looking donut. Bevel the inner and out edg-es of the ‘donut’. From the center cutout, shape a few islands to place in the open area of your swamp.

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Bevel the outer AND inner edgesof the border.

Step #3Use some watered down wood glue to glue the islands and border to the base. I use an old large (tank brush?) to spread the glue. Just make sure to clean the brush out when you’re done. Allow to dry overnight. I place a large flat object, an old atlas on top of the swamp and place a couple 5lb. weights on it to keep it from ‘curling’ up as it dries.

Glue it down.

Step #4Once the base is dried, spread a layer of wa-tered down glue all over the swamp. Use a brush as described above. Don’t water the glue down too much. Spread your sand all over the swamp and allow to dry.

Top Tip!:Use playground sand. Buy it from the store, the stuff from the actual playground may have unwanted ‘bonus’ items in it.Step #5Paint the swamp a medium brown color. For this step and the two that follow, I used craft store acrylic paints. No need to use your expensive model paints on such a large surface. You can use whatever colors you want to match your table, these colors match mine and are a pretty neutral choice.

The brown matches Citadel’sCalthan Brown.

Step #6Dry Brush with a golden yellow brown.

This color matches Citadel’s Iyanden.

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Step #7Dry brush the edges but not the recessed area with a tan color.

This color matchesCitadel’s Bleached Bone

Step #8Once again using the large brush and slightly watered down wood glue, paint some patch-es of glue onto the islands and edges of the swamp, sprinkle static grass onto the glue.

I used Citadel’s Scorched Grass

Step #9To prep the tall grass for placement on the swamp, pinch off a clump of grass and cut it in half. Dip the evenly cut section in super glue and allow to dry for about 15 minutes or so. Make as many clumps as you like/have patience for.

Clump of tall grass. An equal amount is hid-den behind my thumb, cut the clump near the thumb.

The cut.

Dab in super glue and allow to dry. Try not to glue your fingers to the grass.

Step #10To place the tall grass on your swamp use a cocktail stick or a pin vice drill bit to poke holes in the FoamCore. Drop a bit of glue into the hole and insert your tall grass clump. This is also a good time to place the Tundra and Swamp clumps onto the edge of the swamp and onto the islands.

Tall Grass and clumps placed.

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Step #11Totally optional. I wanted to add a bit of character to the swamp so I added a sad look-ing tree to the swamp. I painted it up like the trees in this issue’s How2:Fall Forests. I added some clump foliage to the base and a bit of Ivy to a lower branch. The Ivy is from The Army Painter. You can add anything you want here. Spare tank turret? May as well model in a tank that has been sucked into the swamp. Otherwise, put some is-lands and tall grass there.

Step #12Seal your swamp with some dull sealer. Once dry, comes the important and some-what tricky part.Use the two part resin furniture sealer to make the swamp water. Mix it up as per the instructions. Seriously, follow the in-structions on the packaging. Do it outside because you are sure to get some on the rug/counter and your mom/wife/’roommate’ will not be entertained.

When mixing up the resin add a bit of brown ink to the mix. Not too much otherwise it will lose it’s transparent nature. Remember, you can always add more ink but you can’t remove it once it’s in the mix.

Dullcoated and before the resin.

Be sure to let the resin dry fully and that your swamp is on a level surface as it does so.

Final wordIf you think the swamp looks a bit too ‘pond like’ add more of the little islands and reeds. Just remember; you’re going for form AND function. It doesn’t do us much good to have terrain that is pretty but useless. If you do want to make a pond, leave the islands and ‘flair’ out. Use some blue ink with the resin and add some lily pads. You can make great lily pads by hole punching some green construction paper. Set ‘em on your resin when it’s nearly done curing. I usually make swamps difficult terrain for infantry and impassible for walkers. Soft cover for units in the swamp, but no cover for shooting through the swamp.

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The setting sun had turned the cold, winter sky a deep violet, edged in fiery reds and orange. The shadows in the streets, cast by the tall, jagged ruins of the once impres-sive buildings of Zverograd’s commercial district, easily hid the five men in Sergeant Miller’s Assault Squad, as they crouched among the rubble across the street from the site of such recent, violent, death. The north section of the city was cold and dead, abandoned weeks ago by the Russians when the Axis assault rolled through, de-stroying everything in reach. Eleven pairs of eyes stared, unblinking at the fractured, three storey ruin before them, looking in-tently for even a hint of movement.Finally, a low whistle sounded and at that signal a figure dressed in dusty, filthy, winter gear and scraped armor stood from a stoop inhis concealment and ran for the blasted entryway, shotgun held at the ready.Private Malone, Manny to his friends, could hear his own heavy breath like a bellows in his ears in the silence of the deserted streets, and he thought cynically to himself, ‘Point man, I’m always point man! Teach me for beating the Sarge at cards so often!’ The thought caused him to snort with humour as he came to a sliding halt alongside the yawning, blackened doorway leading into what used to be a large department store.

‘Not like its your fault, Manny-boy, the Sarge plays like your gramma!’ Malone took three deep, steadying breaths and then swung into the yawning doorway, disap-pearing into the black interior.

For almost five, tense minutes Sergeant Miller and his men waited in silence across the street. Finally, just as Miller’s anxiety was about to get the better of him, he saw a movement in the black doorway - Malone entered, and a low whistle sounded the all clear. All four men in the the squad got to their feet, looking like rumpled vagabonds covered in dirt and concrete dust, and jogged quickly to the building and ducked inside. Usually, good cover and concealment like this would be greeted with sighs of released tension; being in the open in a hostile battle-field made the center of a soldier’s back itch like crazy! But already the men could smell the sweet-coppery scent of spilled blood, and any sense of safety was fleeting.A very few hours ago the other twenty men of their platoon fought futilely, and died messily, in this dark ruin - leaving only one survivor to witness the gory aftermath. * * *

Across the intersection from the rally point, concealed in a ruined, roofless, third floor office, Specialist Marksman Mario Ramirez watched with a dull foreboding as Miller and his squad disappeared into the building. Ramirez and his spotter, Sloan, had been just a block away when the rest of the pla-toon had been attacked, and the sounds of the frantic shooting and screams had quick-ly called them back to providesupport. As the pair approached the building the last cry

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went silent, so the two of them entered cau-tiously, only to find the men - their fellow soldiers - all dead. And not just dead, but destroyed, ripped apart like rag dolls in the jaws of a vicious dog! The sight and smells had made Ramirez sick all over the ground at his feet, and as he was recovering his partner had moved up to the second floor to look for survivors,. Less than a minute later, Sloan was dead, torn apart, and Ramirez was running as fast as he could in a blind panic!Ramirez felt his face go hot, remembering his terrified flight. Eventually, he regained control of himself, and moved to meet up with Sergeant Miller’s Assault squad, who had been acting as rear guard to distract and way-lay Axis units that had been hunting them all for the last day and a half. Ramirez shook off the memories threatening to bring the gnawing fear back, and turned his keen eyes back to the scope of his Springfield M1 sniper rifle, scanning up and down the north-south rubble-strewn streets for signs of movement. * * *

Miller looked around the entryway in sick-ened disbelief, even though he already had some idea what to expect, both from Ramirez’s graphic description, and his own nightmare memories, he still couldn’t im-agine this much blood! The walls and floor were splashed with a heavy coating of gore, and the torn remains of the squad who had been guarding the entry lay scattered like old cloths all over the large foyer. Miller closed his eyes briefly as he caught sight of his friend, Sergeant Perkins, laying crum-pled at the foot of the stairs leading up to the second floor. He was missing his left arm, and hada twelve inch hole where his stomach used to be. The rest of his squad stood around him, equally as stunned by

the carnage, the sound of Private Pinski puking in the corner loud in the silence. Miller shook himself and gritted his teeth. “Alright! Round up! Ammo and water, check for gear, and look for the LTs radio! Come on men, hussle! The faster we work, the sooner we leave!”

The strength of his barked orders seem to snap everyone out of their shock.“And stay together! Always in sight!” Malone and Kimble set about gathering ammo, while Pinski and Bauer went through torn packs looking for rations and water, and Miller carefully moved the corpses looking for dog tags in the human wreckage. Eve-ryone was silent as they worked fast and methodically, trying not to think about what they were doing. Thankfully, the winter cold had seeped into the ruin like a tomb, keep-ing it below freezing, so the bodies hadn’t started to smell. Soon the entry was clear, and the squad moved to the stairs to head up. This time, the squad set their shotguns at the ready, and went up together, staggered, and covering each other about three or four yards apart.At the top of the single flight of stairs, the floor was a large open space, littered with fallen shelves and broken display cases. Ob-viously this wasthe main sales floor. The

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squad spread out quickly, weapons sweeping the piles and fallen walls. A few lone, naked mannequins, covered in dust, stood mor-bidly still among the wreckage, like ghosts. Near the center of the room, the darker color of blood and torn flesh broke the monochro-matic grey of ash and concrete dust.

The squad quickly approached and discov-ered the unmistakable signs of a violent last stand. There were the shredded remains of the Command squad and Recon squad two, laying back to back, killed where they stood fighting. The floor was heavily littered with brass casings, attesting to the weight of fire they were pouring in all directions. As the men set about searching for supplies, Miller crouched down and took a closer look at the bodies, as he looked for dog tags. First thing he noticed was that not a single AR 1 assault rifle was intact, every one had been bashed to bits, or bent out of shape. The sec-ond thing he saw was that almost every man had died with a combat knife in his hands, which told him the fighting got up close and personal. Miller had finished closing the staring, blank eyes of Lt. Vitelli, his hand full of bloody dog tags, when Kimble whispered”Hey Sarge, you gotta see this,” from near the back wall of the floor.

The Sergeant stood and headed over to Kimble, who was standing in front of a short hall leading off the back of the sales floor. The entry to the hall was riddled with bullet holes. It was obvious that the attack origi-nated here, and the men of the platoon un-leashed a blistering amount of fire right into the oncoming rush. Kimble silently pointed to the back wall, about ten feet down the hall, where a steel fire door had been blown off its hinges revealing a pitch black stair-

well leading down. Miller looked closer and saw the walls around the door were covered in black, oozing gore, and for the first time noticed the stink. Like bleach and gasoline mixed with rotten meat and human waste. Miller’s eyes met Kimble’s, as the Private turned pale and forced a lump down his throat. Kimble had been there, in the retreat from France, the first time the Allies had en-countered the horrible “experimental” sol-diers the Axis only fielded at night. He had heard the screams and tearing of flesh, the unearthly hissing in the dark and confusion. And he had smelled that smell - that horrid, nauseating stench - of a man long dead, but not allowed to rest by unholy “science”.There was no question now, a bad situation had just got worse. * * *

Despite his high level of training, the ex-haustion and the numbness from his fear almost ruined everything! Ramirez didn’t know how long he had been watching the huge machine walking purposefully down the center of the street, but by the time the urgent alarm ringing in the back of his mind finaly made him actually SEE what he was looking at, the Axis Scout walker was only four blocks away! The grey and black cam-ouflaged machine strutted like a hungry bird of prey, its powerful reverse jointed legs stepping high over rubble and wrecked cars, effortlessly crushing anything too small to bother avoiding. Its weapons pods hung heavy with large, powerful rockets, both troop scything fragmentation and tank de-stroying, armor piercing. Its Kraut name was some unpronounceable gobbledy-gook,

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but the Allied soldiers just called it a Hans, and if it got close enough to use those heavy rockets, it could wipe out an entire platoon!Ramirez started to sweat, despite the cold, as he quickly scanned the streets all around. Behind the Hans scout walker, about a block and a half back, the road was crawling with Axis troops! He could even see six of the hulking, armored Heavy Grenadiers. ‘Not good! Not good!’ he rattled in his head. A sound to the north, opposite from the di-rection the Axis approached, drew his at-tention. He slowly swung his scope in that direction, hoping the motion didn’t give him away, even that far away. Three blocks to the north, another group of Axis troops were steadily approaching. This group looked like fast moving lighter infantry, but right behind them stomped two much larger Axis walking tanks! A Panzer 2-A Luther, and a Panzer 2-B Ludwig, the massive machines moving with aggressive speed, despite their size.

Not good! Not good! had become a chant, a mantra under his breath! Ramirez slowly backed away from the window, and then ran as fast as he could down the stairs to the street. Then, muttering a Spanish prayer, he sprinted as fast as he could at a low crouch across the intersection and bolted into the store front, his fear of the place forgotten. * * *

“The radio’s busted up, Sarge, and there’s no sign of the ASOCOM agent we were here to meet”, Malone reported, as the squad gath-ered at the top of the stairs having finished their salvage search. Every man of the pla-toon was accounted for, all dead except Mill-er’s Assault squad and the Sniper, Ramirez. The mood was subdued, and no one talked among themselves.

“What’s our ammo and ration situation?”, Miller asked, grim and focused.“About fifty rounds of 10 gauge shot for each of us - none of the rifles were salvageable, but Pinski got an extra tank for the flameth-rower. A dozen frags, and five extra demo charges”, Bauer snorted in disgust. It was Lt. Vitelli’s “judicious” use of the squad’s demo charges that got them in this mess. Miller shot Bauer a sharp look, and the Pri-vate had the good grace to look away. Miller might agree that Vitelli was an idiot, but you don’t disrespect a dead comrade.“Not as good on rations, only two unbroken canteens, and about a dozen meal packs. It should last us back to our lines, but we’ll be ready for a snack when we get there!”No one laughed at Kimble’s weak joke.

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“Alright, good work, considering. Let’s dis-tribute the gear, and then we can head out and grab Ramirez.”

Miller was just about to take his first step back down to the entry foyer, when a boom from a heavy cannon was immediately fol-lowed by a six foot chunk of the front wall vanishing in a deafening explosion, scatter-ing broken concrete all over the entry! The squad dove for what cover they could reach as a second heavy round smashed in the wall of the second floor above them. As the ring-ing in Miller’s ears subsided, he could make out someone yelling.

“Sergeant! We got company! A lot of com-pany!” The Sniper, Ramirez, shouted as he pulled himself from the pile of rubble in the entry. He had literally just thrown himself into the doorway, thinking he had made it without being seen, when the Ludwig walk-er fired its twin 88s, blasting apart the wall just feet away! Someone muttered, “No shit!” but Miller was too busy to notice. “Report!” The Ser-geant barked, as another round slammed into the sidewalk just outside.

“Two forces, steady approach, north and south, at least reinforced platoon strength!” Ramirez paused as yet another 88 milimeter shell blew a chunk off the buildings facade. “Mixed light and heavy infantry, with com-bat Panzer support!” Miller thought furiously ‘its like they knew where we were going to be!’ He waved the men to the back area of the sales floor, away from the open front wall.“Malone! Check that fire escape in back!

Find us a back door! Ramirez, watch the stairs, they’ll send troops in when they real-ize the shells won’t cut it!” As a couple of minutes went by, and a few more shells spent themselves nois-ily on the concrete walls, Miller set his men in the only cover available, all weap-ons trained on the stairs. After a few sec-onds the explosions stopped, and then the crack of a rifle firing came from the stairs. A second rifle shot rang out, instantly fol-lowed by the hair raising buzz-saw sound of an Axis MG 48 machinegun! Ramirez’s guille-suited shape came running up the stairs as fast as he could go, as he flung him-self under a table and trained his rifle on the stairs.

“Recon squad!” He huffed quietly, winded, “I popped the Sergeant, but there are more squads coming in behind!”

“Steady”, Miller ordered quietly, holding his shotgun to his shoulder. They could hear movement on the steps, and what sounded like a muted conversation.“Steady....” Miller whispered. Just then, a German stick-grenade came sailing up the stairs, spinning, and landed among a man-nequin display, well away from the GIs crouched at the back of the room. Everyone closed their eyes as the grenade went off with a tinny bang, and bits of shrapnel and wooden mannequin rained down all over the place. Before the explosion had finished, a squad of lightly armored Axis troopers came flooding up the stairs, assault rifles and powerful machinegun blazing away! No aiming was done, but enough lead was fly-ing to be dangerous anyway. Miller felt the heated wind as a bullet buzzed past his face too close for comfort.

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“FIRE!” The Sergeant roared, blasting away with his Remington. His squad instantly complied, and soon hot lead and steel shot were flying back and forth, filling the air with cordite stink and deafening sound. Two of the Germans were immediately pitched off their feet, armor and helmet caved in by the heavy shot. The other two, one clutching his machinegun, dove to the sides, taking cover behind the check-out counters. At the top of the stairs, a second squad moved up just enough to lay on their bellies, bracing their assault rifles on the top step and adding even more incoming fire!

Miller racked his last shot, took careful aim, and shot the Axis machine gunner right in the exposed right foot! The man screamed and fell over, dropping his gun and clutching his shredded foot, until another tight clus-ter hit him square in the gas-mask shrouded face, silencing him. As the Sergeant squat-ted to reload, he finaly heard Malone shout-ing from the short hall behind them.“Sergeant! Sarge! Its no good! The build-ing behind collapsed into the alley - door’s blocked!” Malone was firing from the cor-ner, over the squad’s head.

“Shit!” Miller swore,”are you sure? What about the ground floor into the sales floor?”He slid the last shell into his gun and racked a round.Around him, fewer shotguns fired, as the weight of incoming fire forced them to keep their heads down, as the meager cover they had was slowly blasted away. Malone’s gun clicked empty, and his practiced hands quickly reloaded.“No go! The ground floor’s full of rubble.” Miller could see something in Malone’s eyes -a reluctance, like there was something he wasn’t telling.“But, you found a way out.” Miller’s state-ment wasn’t a question, as he realised what Malone didn’t want to suggest.“You could call it that, Sarge.” Malone’s face was bleak.”The stairs keep going down to the sub level, the basement. There’ll be sewer access.” He brought up his Reming-ton and pulled three fast shots.

Miller didn’t like that option. He knew that’s how THEY got in and wiped out his platoon. He spun back to the fire fight, and saw that, under the heavy cover fire, anoth-er Axis recon squad had made it onto this level and hadtaken up position on the right wing. At this rate, the Germans would have a crossfire, and be able to negate the squad’s weakening cover. Indecision tore at Miller’s guts. As an assault squad Sergeant, he liked

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to think he and his boys could chew up nails and spit bullets, but the numbers and fire-power the Axis troops were piling into the storefront was just too much! But if he lead the men into the sewers, into the dark, he might as well put a bullet in them himself, he feared. Just then, Pinski cried out as a German bul-let smacked into his shoulder armor, denting it badly and spinning him to his backside. His cry seemed to encourage the Axis sol-diers, and the fire intensified. A sharp rifle crack accompanied one of the soldiers lay-ing on the steps jerking as his head explod-ed, and he slithered loose limbed back down the stairs. Miller just raised his shotgun to continue firing when a loud, mechanical-whirr-clump! Whirr-clump! reverberated up the stairs. Then, ascending like a titan, a trio of massive Axis Heavy Battle Armor troop-ers armed with twin shielded machineguns slowly stomped their way up the steps!’Well, decision made!’ Miller thought.

“FALL BACK!” he shouted, standing and blasting his shotgun from the hip.”To the stairs! Follow Malone! Move, move, move!”

He and Ramirez poured on the fire, as the rest of the squad broke off one by one and ran for the back door. The Germans sensed their prey escaping and started moving in less cautiously, giving Miller and the Sniper ample targets. Two, then four dropped in quick order, then the Heavy Recon troops pushed forward, and opened up with the twin MG 44s. Miller ran the last few steps to the hall and threw himself into the doorway just ahead of the line of machinegun bullets, slamming painfully into the wall alongside the broken door, landing on his knees. Ram-irez came flying in behind him, but just as he slid to a stop in front of Miller a pair of high speed shots punched into his back and blew out his chest in a spray of blood and bits of lung.

Miller just stared in shock as Ramirez col-lapsed to his knees, then in a burst of rage spun around to sit on his backside and brought his rifle to his shoulder. With blood running from his mouth, he fired two shots as fast as he could work the bolt, and the machinegun fire suddenly stopped. Miller leaned around the corner to drag him back into the doorway, and saw the crumpled body of the lead Heavy Recon trooper, his head mostly gone. Once he got Ramirez through the door, Miller pulled the demo charge from his back, and pinched the fuse at a mere six second delay. With one arm, he hurled the charge as hard as he could out the door, and into the sales room. With the oth-er, he grabbed Ramirez by the collar of his d

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armor, and threw himself tumbling down the steps to land among his squad at the bottom. Above, he could hear surprised shouts from the Germans just before the charge went off. The whole building shook, and a wall of dust and grit exploded from the doorway. A tearing roar of collapsing masonry signalled the complete destruction of the open, central floor of the store as the top two floors rained down onto the first. * * *

Miller knelt next to Specialist Ramirez’s body, draped in his rain poncho. He added the soldiers tag to the growing collection in his pack, and closed his eyes for a moment of respect. The squad had found the access to the city’s modern sewers at the back of the sub-basement and found the lock on the gate already broken, as Miller recovered from the explosion and took care of Rami-rez. The sniper had already died while Miller was setting the fuse. Finishing his goodbye to a tough, brave soldier, Miller rose to his feet on exhausted legs and set his shoulders. ‘Gotta stay strong, for them, for my boys.’

“Alright, men, we showed the Krauts what’s what! I know we’re all tired, but we’ve got tomake some distance from this location be-fore they find another access close by.”The squad were dead on their feet, every one of them half comatose from fatigue and adrenaline burn out, but they all nodded slowly and hefted the heavy packs. “We head west, not strait south as they’ll expect that;five or six blocks.” The Sergeant spoke with a strong, confident tone as he got out his flashlight and flicked it on, shining it into the inky blackness of the under-city entrance. “Then we find a bolt hole to crawl into and get a couple hours rest.” The squad perked up at the idea of rest, and some food, and a sense of resolution re-turned to the set of their jaws. “Malone...” Miller started. “I know, I got point, Sarge.” He muttered. The rest of the squad quietly chuckled, and Miller slapped Malone on the back as he passed into the cold, black, under city. One by one, the squad was swallowed up by the darkness, with Miller bring-ing up the rear. As he passed into the en-trance he just noticed the faint stink of the black gore on the broken gate and the smear of wet, red, blood on the handle.... To be continued......

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how2: trench bases

Hello everyone, this month I would like to do a cool, easy base tutorial and you get a bonus as I’ve recently made a purchase that kind of enhances my Dust experience and ease of bookkeeping.

I modeled my bases after a swampy, dirty, trench style area. I thought this would make the best of a Dust Warfare table, as between the two versions, Warfare is my first game of choice though I do still love Tactics.

With that in mind, I scoured the internet for some good supplies. I wanted something that didn’t look like your run of the mill bal-last + static grass bases. I came across this kit from Secret Weapon:

This gave me great inspiration for my stuff and I ordered a bunch of the kits. When it ar-rived, I figured out what I was going to use.

The planking was a must. I wasn’t going to use the wire, only because it was somewhat fiddly and with the amount of figures I have, it would just take too much time. The ballast I really liked, the particle size was perfect. And then on the static grass, I passed on the one above and went more with a straight green. I wanted it to contrast slightly and not just blend into the basing. Here is your bonus material and will be used in my tutorial because I needed to get some heroes done. I just basically happened along some of these Litko items when I was inter-net browsing. I’ve never used Litko stuff before, but this just seemed too perfect not to use and you get a set of 3 of them for a decent price. What is it? It is the 30mm combat dials that Litko does in 4 different colors:

I’m using these on all of my multiwound, 30mm characters and they make awesome integrated wound counters that are the same size base as the Dust models.

I ordered 2 sets of the green (because I’m an allied player) and once I get them in, I got to work on some heroes. So without further ado, here is our Trench Base tutorial:

now with wound trackers!by Jason mcfarland

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Step 1 – build the combat dial

When you get the combat dials from Litko, you will get them in 4 pieces. You will get the clear numbered dial, the colored top disc, and two rare earth magnets.

The magnets simply go in the center of each dial and then when you put the dial together, they will allow you to spin them but still be able to take them apart if needed.

They do move laterally a bit, so be care-ful when you are spinning the dial. Also, I had one batch that was slightly undercut on the hole of the colored disc, and I ended up breaking one piece trying to get the magnet in there, but that was my only issue. They are pretty cool when put together.

Make sure you get the polarity right when inserting your magnets, so that they come together with the right orientation

Step 2 – basecoat

The colored dial comes in a very glossy acrylic plastic. This does not adhere paint well at all. So I took all of my top discs and basecoated them in a matte black, the paint will give me a rougher surface to work with.

Now, here are two vEry iMPOrTanT details. After you basecoat your color-ed disc, double check your polarity to the numbered disc on last time, the second de-tail making sure your numbers on the clear disc are flipped the right way. You don’t want to terrain the wrong side of the colored disc, and you don’t want your numbers to be backwards. I almost did both!

Step 3 – Lay down your first coat

I am doing a brown base on my bases for my trench look. I used a Delta Ceramcoat medium shade brown for this step.

If you’d like, before you do this, you can green stuff over the center magnet to smooth it out. I didn’t, as the two that you can slightly see it on, you don’t really notice on the table. Let this completely dry.

Editors Note:If you are interested in the Secret Weapon

kit used in this article then check out their

website at:www.secretweaponminiatures.com

and now, back to Jason....

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Step 4 – Plan your planking

At this point, I had to figure out exactly how I wanted each base to look. I try to vary my look for each base to give each troop a bit of variety. For these 4, I decided two would have planking and 2 would be bare ground, one of those bare ground would have some water as well.I use super glue when I lay my planking. Normally for basing, I use a white PVA glue, but you really want these planks to sit and it will allow you to work faster as well to get them to adhere quickly.When laying them, try to alternate your pat-tern, don’t lay them right on each other like a back porch deck, give yourself some spac-ing, give yourself some crooked pieces, etc. This gives it a cool, old, beaten down, look when the base is finished.

Step 5 – Trim your bases

Once your glue is dry, and very dry, you can now trim your base planks up. I use my normal snips that I would use with a plas-tic sprue to do this and just snip each board carefully flush with the base.

I recycle all scraps no matter how long, they can always be used again, so those all go back in my little plastic plank tub. Don’t worry about smoothing up the edges, they look more authentic with a rough cut finish.

Step 6 – Lay your ballast

Now you can go lay your ballast down. I use a paintbrush to lay my PVA glue down in a set pattern. If there are any base sec-tions that I need a water effect, I’m leaving those areas blank of glue.

Then, just lay your glued base upside down in your ballast, blow off the excess, and clean more excess off the sides of the base (don’t forget the little rounded indentation if you’re using the combat dials, you want that nice and clean).

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Step 7 – Final detailsbefore water and static grassThis part, I just finish up a couple small de-tails before I finish the bases up.

I use Citadel Castellan and Catachan green on the spots where I will end up putting the water. This will give an underlay for the wa-ter that will contrast a bit with the ballast, but still keep in the swampy trench theme. So I paint those in a just a couple layers, the lighter color don’t take all the way to the edge of the water section.

My secondary part of this step is to rough up the planks. Take a hobby knife, and hit the tops of the planks randomly slicing off edges, scoring lines in the tops, chipping, gouging, etc. Once this is done, take some Devlan Mud or whatever Citadel is using now (I still have a good amount of Devlan thankfully), and liberally wash the boards.

My technique is to wash the boards with a good amount of wash, and then rubbing the excess off the top to give it an aged, dirty look.

Step 8 – Final details

Last few things I do to finish. First is stat-ic grass. Again, I used a lighter green and just put some patches here and there. Give some to the edges between the planks for some random growth and allow some more aging.

Next, we lay down our water. I have been using the water effect that comes in the Se-cret Weapon basing kit, this seems to be pretty solid stuff. It comes in a water drop-per bottle, so it is ultra easy to apply. You can apply to an edge that doesn’t have bal-last as edging, but you need to be very care-ful and let the edges line allow the water to stop on its own. If you are very careful, you won’t overrun the edge.

Then let dry for quite a long time, though if you are careful, you can superglue the mini on the base at this point if you aren’t putting a foot on the water (though if you want a foot “in” the water, this would be the spot to do that if you’ve made a water effect deep enough.

Step 9 – Finish!

And here is your final look. If you are using the combat dials, as you can see, you made yourself an integrated wound tracker. Once your mini is on the base, if you’d like, you can trim your top edge sides in black or an-other color.

I usually trim it in the same brown that I use as the same that I used to basecoat earlier. You now have some pretty sweet looking bases that were done fairly easy.

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operation: coldsnapcustom campaign for dust tactics

mission 2a: rapid departureThis mission is played if there was a winner in Mission 1 - Down The Hole.The winner of that mission will be the At-tacker in Mission 2A - Rapid Departure.

Both players can choose up to 250AP.

special rules:The player with the most Victory Points at the end of Round 8 will be declared the win-ner of this mission.

Each player has one ammo crate and one tank trap to place anywhere on the board. Please note that tank traps can NOT be placed on any of the Objective squares.

obJectives:The defender receives Victory Points for each enemy unit destroyed.The attacker receives Victory Points x2 for each unit on the Objective squares at the end of Round 8.

If there is a winner at the end of the game then proceed to Mission 3A, with the winner becoming the Attacker.If the game is a draw then proceed to Mis-sion 3B and roll to see who is the Attacker.

Attacker Deployment

Defender Deployment

Objective Square

The underground base was full of supplies and your men grab as much as they can car-ry and the remainder is catalogued as fast as possible so that the “Higher-Ups” can decide if it is worth sending more men and equipment to the base to retrieve more.

Getting in wasn’t easy and you have no doubt that getting out is going to be any eas-ier. The sentries by the entrance to the base are reporting on enemy movement and if you don’t give the order to move out quickly then it will be to late.

It is time to go home to a hot shower and some warm food.

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The underground base is full of supplies and both forces quickly spread out amongst the crates and containers.

It is important to secure the most usefull pieces of equipment stored in the base be-fore the enemy can get them. After that you can start to plan how to flush the opposing army out of the base and catalogue every-thing so that the “Higher-Ups” can decide if it is worth sending more men and equip-ment to the base to retrieve more.

First things first.Time to clear out the base.

mission 2b: grab & runThis mission is played if Mission 1 - Down The Hole ended in a draw.

Roll Dice to see who will be the Attacker in Mission 2B - Grab & Run.

Both players can choose up to 250AP.

special rules:This mission is indoors and for that reason it is not possible to use any Aircraft units.

The buildings on the map are walls that cre-ate rooms. However for easy of play the nor-mal rules apply for cover. This means that the building squares provide soft and hard cover as normal.

The player with the most Victory Points at the end of Round 8 will be declared the win-ner of this mission.

obJectives:Each player reveives one Victory Point for every square he/she has a unit on. This is the only way to score VP.

If there is a winner at the end of the game then proceed to Mission 2A, with the winner becoming the Attacker.If the game is a draw then proceed to Mis-sion 3B and roll to see who is the Attacker.

Attacker Deployment

Defender Deployment

Objective Square

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mission �a: a lift homeThis mission is played if Mission 2A - Rapid Departure had a winner.

The winner of Mission 2A - Rapid Depar-ture, will be the attacker in Mission 3A - A Lift Home.

Both players can choose up to 250AP.

special rules:Both players can place one ammo crate and one tank trap anywhere on the board. Please note that tank traps can NOT be placed in-side buildings.

obJectives:The game keeps going untill only one player has any models left. That player is declared the winner of the game and also the winner of Operation: Coldsnap.

Attacker Deployment

Defender Deployment

Objective Square

You managed to get some of the supplies that you and your men found in the underground base but the cost is getting to high.

It is time to call in a taxi and get out of here as quickly as you can before the enemy at-tack again.

destiny sure has a sick sense of humor. The loacation chosen for your evacuation point turns out to be the same building rooftop as that chosen by the enemy.

So much for going home before you loose any more men. First you will have to fight your way out of here.

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mission �b: night fightingThis mission is played if Mission 2A or 2B ended in a draw.

Roll Dice to see who will be the attacker in Mission 3B - Night Fighting.

Both players can choose up to 120AP.

special rules:This mission takes place during the night and for that reason you can only shoot at infantry if they are within 2 and all walkers/aircraft within 4 squares.

obJectives:The Attacker receives VP for killing enemy units and the Defender will receive VP for each friendly unit left on the board at the end of Round 8.

If there is a winner after 8 rounds then proceed to mision 3A (roll to see who is the attacker).If the game is a draw then proceed to Mission 4.

In order to secure much needed supplies you order a nighttime raid on the enemy camp.

Attacker Deployment

Defender Deployment

mission �: total warThis mission is played if Mission 3B ended in a draw.

Roll Dice to see who will be the at-tacker in Mission 4 - Total War.

Both players can choose up to 250AP.

special rules:This mission takes place during the night and for that reason you can only shoot at infantry if they are within 2 and all walk-ers/aircraft within 4 squares.

obJectives:The game keeps going untill only one player has any models left. That player is declared the winner of the game and also the winner

This mission has gone wrong on so many levels. You didn’t have enough men to take on the enemy and not the right equipment to retrieve the stored wargear from the under-ground base.

You order your men to pack up and head back to base, only to walk straight into the enemy army who had the same idea.

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how2: Quick and effective basingLazuli Miniatures Studio was re-cently asked to rebase two entire Dust Armies for a customer so we decided to put a quick tutorial together explaining how to do it. Basing is not needed for game play but it can greatly enhance the look of your figures. (Note: The figure in this article has been rebased onto a Wargames Factory Base).

Step 1:The first step is to liberally apply wood glue or PVA glue on the base of the model.

Step 2:Next the model is dipped in sand.

For the painting, the first color I used was Reaper Brown Earth; this color is equivalent to Gameswork-shop’s Khemri Brown color or Tamiya JGSDF Brown. The color you use is not too important; I went to a local hardware store and had an entire can of house paint to match my color.

Step 3:The base is dry brushed with Tami-ya Buff (Citadel Bleached Bone, Reaper Yellowed Bone). Dry brushing is a technique that is em-ployed to only touch on the raised parts of a figure giving it a sense of definition. When dry brushing, wipe the majority of the paint off the brush until the brush does not color unless pressure is applied on it. Take the brush and run it over the surface of the sand.h

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Step 4:Next, use PVA or wood glue to mark the areas where you will want grass to be growing. I find 2 or 3 patches if great on a Dust Tactics sized base.

Step 5:Nest, dip the model in static grass, I used Games workshop Scorched Grass, but Army Paint-er, Woodland Scenics and other railroad companies sell the same product.

Step 6:Finally I glued on Woodland Scenic’s Clump Foliage to make the bases appear more three di-mensional.

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from the front: dust tacticsoperation coldsnap - mission 1

floris hussaarts v James mardleWhen I started on Operation Cold-snap the plan was to include one mission in each issue of the Dust Chronicles magazine. Within days of issue #1 being available it became clear that many Dust Tactics players didn’t want to wait for the next issue to be able to play the next part of the campaign.

That, and there was also the fact that each issue is partly dedicated to a certain theme (SSU for the first, Au-tumn and Zombies for this issue). The Coldsnap campaign doesn’t fit with any theme and with the request to complete the campaign, it was agreed to include the reamaining missions in issue #2.

This did create one problem. Each issue was going to have a single mis-sion and now we had a whole bunch of them in one go, apart from the first mission.Simply printing the page again felt like we didn’t have enough content and needed to fill the page so that was not an option.

. . . . Or was it?

When we publish a From The Front battle report, we like to include the details of the mission played. So the only thing we needed to do was play a game of Dust Tactics, take pictures and write down what happened.

So there you have it, not only do you get the remaining missions for the Coldsnap campaign but you also get the first mission again :-)

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page taken from

dust chronicles

issue one

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1. the medvedi - ��ap2. fakyeli - 2�ap�. chinese volunteers - 12ap�. chinese volunteers - 12ap

�. frontoviki - 1�ap�. nikita - �0ap�. airborne transport - �0ap army total: 1��ap

the ssu armycommanded by:floris hussaartsWith the collection of SSU models I have, one thing was clear from the start. It didn’t matter if James was taking Axis or Allies, any walker was going to be a problem.

For this reason my first choice had to be a Nikita, at least that way I could damage any walker as soon as it came into line of sight. To improve my chanches of getting line of sight my second choice was the Medvedi. Not only did this give me an extra pair of eyes for the Nikita nortars but the command squad also gave me access to some cool spe-cial rules to try and bring units back into the game (I tend to get over enthusiastic and get units killed by moving them straight into en-emy fire).

The Fakyeli are the SSU equivelant of the Allied BBQ squad and anybody who has ever played against me knows I love that

unit, also the Molotov Cocktails and Sulfur Thrower whould give me another unit to take on walkers (be it a close range).

I liked the idea of taking another Fakyeli unit but with only 200AP to spend I had to restrain myself and go for cheaper options.The Frontoviki are no good against any of the walkers but are great for taking on any infantry unit (up to range 4).

That left me with enough points to take two units of Chinese Volunteers. These guys are cheap and pack an amazing amount of fire-power against infantry (however, yet again, they can’t take on walkers).

My last unit was always going to be one of the SSU Choppers. One of the Chinese Vol-unteer squads got themselves an impressive ride into battle. (Now I just need to keep them back untill the end of te game and rush them onto the objective.)

All that and 5 points change, not bad.du

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1. lara walter - 21ap2. heavy laser grenadiers - �0ap�. sturmpioniere - 2�ap�. sturmpioniere - 2�ap

�. battle grenadiers - 21ap�. hans (hansel) - 2�ap�. hans (gretel) - 2�ap�. heavy flak grenadiers - 2�ap army total: 1��ap

the axis armycommanded by:James mardleFor this game I had the option between the Axis and the Allies, not really much of an option. The Axis have been my Dust Tactics army from day one, so I was always going to take them. My own army is in storage while I’m moving so while the troop choices I took are the same as in my own force, the models are from the collection of Floris Hussaarts.

I always like to have a named hero leading my army so my first selection was just that. Lara Walter has an insane number of dice when shooting and her Assault skill means I can move her to where she is needed that bit faster. Then there is also the fact she can shoot at the SSU Choppers, a nice bonus.

The Heavy Laser Grenadiers can damage and destroy any target on the ground and backed-up by Lara, the unit will be my main hitting force.

The two units of Sturmpioniere are fast enough to get anywhere on the board as and

when needed. This means I can wait with grabbing the objective until late in the game and not expose them to danger early on.

Seeing that the theme seemed to be “fast moving units” I decided to take a pair of Hans Light walkers. With their Scout spe-cial rule I can get them close to the enemy early in the game and shoot some SSU in-fantry before it gets within range of my own infantry.

A unit of Battle Grenadiers will give me an extra activation and a fair number of dice against both infantry and walkers. I know they aren’t fast or anything but they have goggles and so does the rest of the army, so I’ll make that the second theme.

That left me with 26AP and just as I was going for a third Hans to join “Hansel & Gretel”, I realised that my army was going to strugle against SSU Choppers. I couldn’t expect Lara to do all the work. So the last unit in the force is a unit of Heavy Flak Grenadiers.

1 point left, that can go in the tip jar.

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depoyment

James: Both Floris and myself tend to de-vise a plan before deployment has even started and will try and stick to it.This means that we both deployed our force where we felt they had the most use for this mission and we mostly ignored what our op-ponent was placing where.

Floris deployed his force in two sepereate sections, with the helicopter in the center to be able to get to whatever part of the board it was needed.

In contrast to the two seperate fronts Floris was creating I had the intention of attacking the enemy in force.

To do this I concentrated most of my army around a single deployment area and took advantage of the Fast, Scout and Assault Special Rules most of my units had to get further onto the board and into the nearest building.

I placed two units on the other side of the board to give me some protection on that flank while my troops where advancing to-wards the SSU.

Floris: My cunning plan to advance my Medvedi commannd squad with mechanic behind the Nikita KV47 was undone before the game had even started when I realised that the Hans could kill the walker with a single shot.

Perhaps placing Nikita where I did was not a good idea. Then again, it did have clear line of sight to the objective to bombard it with its mortar.

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round 2

With The Nikita and Hans standing opposite each other, the roll for who was activating first was very important. Luck was with the Axis this time and James wasted no time to move his Hans one square forward and into range to shoot at Nikita.

James: There was no way I was going to let Nikita stay on the board as it was the model with the longest range and capapble of tak-ing out any of my units. However, I had used my luck for the round to win activation and I rolled a MISS symbol.

Floris: I was tempted to activate the Nikita and show the Axis how it’s done. There was no need for it as the other Hans needed to move round the first Hans to get into range and in doing so had to use its entire activa-tion.

Instead I moved all my other units forward and waited till there was nothing else to ac-tivate. After James activated his last unit I fired on the Hans and blew it of the table, without needing re-rolls. If I had known that I could have moved after shooting, never mind, at least I got the first kill.

round �

This time the SSU got the initiative and there was always only one option open to me. Ni-kita took aim at the remaining Hans and like before, did not dissapoint. I did need my re-rolls this time.

James: With both my Hans walkers taken out it was up to the Heavy Laser Grenadiers to remove the Nikita so the objective was safe to move onto. There was no other op-tion than to move the unit out of the build-ing and towards the Nikita (and hope I was activating first next round). This was going to be a big risk and I decided to activate as many units as possible before moving Lara and her men to cut down on the SSU target-ing them as they emerged from hiding.

During this back and forth activating (I’m sure Floris knew what I was planning), Flo-ris made a mistake that I could not believe.

Floris: I got carried away with activating units and waiting for the Laser Grenadiers to emerge that I moved my transport helicopter over the building and onto the objective. As I was moving it, I was thinking about how the Lasers had no way of damaging it and forggot about the unit of Heavy Flak Grena-diers who hadn’t activated yet.

This was a costly mistake as James rolled the nine dice and after some re-rolls from the Sustained Attack got a total of seven hits and the helicopter crashed, taking two of the Fakyeli onboard with it.

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round �

James: At the start of the round it became clear that there was still everything to play for. Both of us still had plenty of units and with both the Hans walkers destroyed and now also the helicopter, the game became about the infantry.

As I won the initiative I felt it only right to show the Heavy Flak Grenadiers how grate-full I was. So I used their first action to re-load and the second to move them towards the objective. The Chinese Volunteers tried to take them out but failed.

This first activation was only a taste of things to come for the rest of the round as I used my Fast moving Sturmpioniere to kill most of the SSU.

The only downside to this round was the fact that Nikita and the remaining Fakyeli managed to cut down my unit of Heavy La-ser Grenadiers. I wanted to keep Lara alive but in the end she had to go as the last Laser Grenadier in the game was fast becoming the only thing capable of damaging Floris his Nikita that was still looming over the ob-jective.

Floris: Despite killing a fair number of the Axis troops I was running out of men and unless I got the initiative the next round the game was over.

round �

Obviously I didn’t get the initiative and the Sturmpioniere aimed all their Panzerfausts at Nikita and blew it up. I still had some units to activate but none of them had more than three models in them so the number of dice I rolled compared to the fire they sus-tained meant that by the end of the round I had nothing left and the Axis managed to get a lone Flak Grenadier onto the objective to win the game.

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next issue:1st of december 2012

examples of vehicles

created using the

creation rules from

rosie’s scrapyard

winter has arrived!

the waking bear part �

how2 articles

and much, much more

dust: adventures

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