dust adventures * dust studio * how 2

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dust chronicles issue 3
editorial
This issue of Dust Chronicles is a bumper
issue! We’ve included enough material to
hopefully keep you reading and playing
throughout the cold nights of the season.
Read on to see some of what this issue contains, or scroll down to the table of contents,
either way, you will enjoy this issue of DC.
Oh yes, you will… And if you don’t, contact us and let us know what needs to be
fixed, added or deleted.
Last issue we introduced Rosie’s Scrapyard,
a system allowing you to build and field vehicles of your own devising. We received a
lot of feedback to this article, turns out, many
of you are as big a treadheads as the authors
and myself. Incorporating the feedback and
newly released vehicle and weapon rules
Rosie returns this month in version 1.1.
In addition, this issue sees the introduction
of experimental platoon structures. Our first
experimental platoons are Armored Platoons, now you’ll be able to field entire armies of walkers and tanks. Just the way it
was always meant to be!
editorial
We’ve included examples of both custom
and historical vehicles for you to use in your
games of Dust Warfare. Of course you are
free to adjust them as you see fit. In fact
we’d love to hear your experiences using
these vehicles. If you are fielding custom
walkers and tanks in your games, snap a pic
and send us it’s profile and we’ll try to include it in the pages of future issues.
Speaking of new ways to play the game, we
at Dust Chronicles are proud to present a
whole new way for you to play Dust. Dust:
Adventures is an RGP written and developed
by Christopher Barnhart and is included
free in this issue of DC for your enjoyment.
You’ll be able to recreate the adventures
from the comic books or explore new facets
of the Dust world as never before.
Submissions
We have received many submissions, many
of which are better than what we were coming 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 elsewhere prior to publishing in Dust Chronicles. Doing so will disqualify it from inclusion, 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 upcoming 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-bystep with accompanying pictures).
If you have ideas for submissions that don’t
‘fit’ the current layout of the magazine submit 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 content of the magazine; please submit
your content 30 days prior to the date of
publishing. The next issue will be February
2013 and so content needs to be submitted
by January 1st.
Submit articles, communications and complaints to [email protected]
Editor-in-chief
Patrick D
Table of contents:
“Chief Engineer”: Patrick Doty
“Component Engineer”: Floris Hussaarts
“Commissioning Engineers”: Jason McFarland, Lee Langston, Ignacio Brizzio, John Sisk,
Roger Gerrish, Rick Ivansek, Michael Stacy, Clement Boen, Christopher Barnhart,
Kenneth RB Chipman, Rob Hearn and Viêt Nguyên
“Design Engineers”: Paolo Parente and Olivier Zamfirescu
Cover Miniatures by: Tabletop Tahir
Names 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 with permission.
This magazine is unofficial and is not endorsed by Fantasy Flight Games Ltd.
We do our best to ensure www. links are correct but do not take responsibillity for the content of web pages
this magazine links to.
Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 02
Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03
Spotted!: Dust Studio Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 04
Dust Community Showcase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09
Tactical Corner: Axis Walkers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
How2: Easy Weathering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
The Waking Bear - Part 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Beyond Dust: Anastyr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26
Step Away From Everything . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30
Dust Warfare New Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33
Tactical Corner: To Kill A Superhero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34
Experimental Rules: Armored Platoons . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Dust On The Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
From The Front: Warfare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Dust Adventures - RPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
How2: Build And Paint The Hunting Dog . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Dust-League.Com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Tactical Corner: Kill It With Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Rosie’s ScrapYard V1.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Rosie’s ScrapYard Vehicle Showcase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Next Issue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
table of contents
dust chronicles - issue 3
spotted!: dust studio tour
For most of us Dust Studio isn’t exactly
round the corner. Yet, I’m sure like us,
you want to know what goes on there.
For this reason we asked our roving reporter, Clement Boen, to investigate what
happens on a typical day in the office.
Clement took time out of her busy day
providing great customer support and
grabbed her camera. Over the next few
pages you can see some of the pictures
she took for us and we are sure you will
be able to spot something you might find
interesting (we certainly did).
The shared vision, demand for quality and consistency of craftsmanship
have united both Vincent Fontaine and
Paolo Parente as artists who dedicate
themselves to producing the most exceptional products possible.
As Dust Studio’s Art Director, Vincent is responsible for the entire look
and feel of the world of Dust Tactics.
Through his color choices, texturing
techniques, camouflage schemes, and
building of model dioramas, Vincent
has grown to be invaluable in realizing
the visual designs found in Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare. He is responsible for painting the master reference
samples of every miniature. Once everyone is satisfied with the final product, Vincent then engineers the processes and painting techniques that will
result in figures that match the standards that have been set in the original.
Of course, this wouldn’t be possible
were it not for a very select group of
miniature painters.
On this page you can see Paolo Parente
looking over the shoulder of Vincent
Fontaine, who is taking pictures of a
Dust model. These pictures will be
used on the Dust-models website, in
the Dust expansion books and on the
cover of Dust packaging.
The second picture on this page shows
the set-up inside Dust Studio where
pictures are taken, rules are tried and
models are storred.
Vincent works with the studio that is
dedicated to painting the Dust Tactics
Premium Edition models. He not only
personally supervises the work that is
done, but he continues to develop and
train those painters in order to continually raise the quality of craftsmanship
to ever higher standards.
On the previous page you can see the
painters hard at work copying the paint
schemes set out by Vincent Fontaine,
the Art Director at Dust Studio.
Apart from Paolo Parente going grey, we noticed something else in these pictures.
Those models could well be the soon to be released Allied planes.
dust chronicles #3
That is all for the Spotted! segment of this issue of Dust Chronicles.
If you have something you want to see featured in Spotted!, then email us with the details and who knows, your gaming club, local store, gaming convention, and anything
else Dust related could end up having its own feature for everybody to see.
www.dust-models.com
dust community showcase
tactical corner:
Panzer Läufer Greift An
by Reichsmarschall Erwin Rommel
Edited for field distribution by Leutnant Manfred Hirtzel
special thanks to Francis Li for getting key info to the front lines
For Kompanieführer’s eyes only. This document contains sensitive information regarding
Axis walkers and their formations. Do not allow
this document to fall into enemy hands under
any circumstances.
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Panzer Aufklärerläufer I-A
“Heinrich”
Combat Role:
tactical corner: axis walkers
Infantry Suppression and Air Defense
10
Developed as a light air defense platform, Heinrich has proven itself time and time again on
the battlefield. Heinrich’s aging 20mm Flakvierling has found renewed usefulness against
enemy helicopters and armored troops. It fields
superior range over other walker systems of its
class, allowing it to easily deny entire sectors to
enemy infantry advancement. Heinrich has also
been equipped with an early warning and radar
system, greatly enhancing its defensive and ambush capabilities.
Heinrich is easily accessible to Commanders,
and is valuable protection from incursions by
air. Depending on the situation and strength of
enemy air support, Heinrich is either best deployed to control fire lanes or escorting other
ground forces. Even in the most challenging of
supply lines, no Commander should do without
this vehicle unless resources have been allocated for a larger air defense platform.
Panzer Aufklärerläufer I-B
“Hermann”
Combat Role:
Walker Support and Pack Hunter
Many Commanders have underestimated the
usefulness of this early attempt at fielding a
Laser Kanone. It’s slow fire time hindered
initial combat successes, and several units
were lost in direct combat when their weapons misfired. While now overshadowed by
the Schwer Laser Werfer that has been assigned in limited numbers to heavy infantry
squads, Hermann’s Kanone still maintains
greater range.
Hermann is best used in tandem with other
walkers to increase its survivability. Some
Commanders have taken to fielding them in
packs, preferring strength in numbers to cut
down stronger walkers. This tactic is made
possible by the relative ease Commanders
have in fielding this mass produced walker.
Others have taken to advancing them alongside larger, more durable walkers. Such tactics take advantage of the natural tendency
of enemy walker pilots and squads to target
the larger unit, allowing Hermann to offer
fire support without being quickly knocked
out by enemy fire.
Panzer Aufklärerläufer KV-47(r)
“Otto”
(Captured Panzer Kampfläufer,
Limited Deployment Available)
Combat Role:
Infantry Support and General Assault
The often desperate situation on the Eastern Front has resulted in many Commanders augmenting their forces with captured
and repurposed enemy walkers. Perhaps the
most common model is the Otto, a captured
soviet KV-47 outfitted the with Panzerfaust
250 weapon system. Although some of the
walker’s armor protection had to be cut down
in order to fit the proper radios and other support
equipment inside, the end result is light enough
to allow pilots quick bursts of speed. Combined
with its greater survivability compared to Hans,
this walker is able to participate in frontal assaults that are too dangerous for other Panzer
Aufklärerläufer.
Panzer Aufklärerläufer I-C
“Hans”
Combat Role:
Infantry Support and
Resource Acquisition
The development of the new Panzerfaust 250
quickly garnered interest as a walker platform,
culminating in the new Hans model aufklärerläufer being fielded during the invasion of Britain. The I-C also implemented a new, individually rotating dual fire system that allowed this
aufklärerläufer to be the first of its class capable
of tracking multiple targets.
Otto should also be used to support advancing
infantry, and Commanders should try to make
the most use of its dual weapons platform to
eliminate both infantry and armored threats.
However Commanders should beware when
fielding this walker, as the loss of one cannot be
easily replaced.
Panzer Kampfläufer II-A
“Luther”
Combat Role:
Urban Combat and
Auxiliary Air Defense
Since its introduction to battle on the streets of
Stalingrad, Luther has single-handedly proven
dust chronicles #3
Hans’ short range and versatile weapons platform makes it best suited for close infantry support, granting cover for advancing squads as
well as valuable fire support. True to its designation, some Commanders have chosen to use it
in a forward role, often securing strategic points
and holding them until reinforcements arrive.
Sometimes its mere presence can disrupt enemy
movements long enough to seize the initiative.
11
the usefulness of the Panzer Kampfläufer program. Designed for versatility, Luther combines
a long range 5cm Flak and a general purpose
Kampfzange. Many Luther Pilots were pulled
from the ranks of pioniere, and many have since
become combat veterans. Luther pilots know
their vehicles better than any man on the battlefield, allowing them to make combat repairs
and pull these walkers back from the brink of
death.
Luther’s versatility can make them a difficult
design to use to their maximal effectiveness,
but few units can match their ability to handle
any target. While it’s rate of fire is slower than
our other autokanones, the 5cm Flak provides
decent damage against infantry, light armor,
and air targets. Luther is best deployed in urban
environments, however, where it can bring its
Kampfzange to bear against the enemy. Luther
has always been strongest when it clears a path
for our men.
Ludwig’s drum magazines are typically loaded
with the same Pzgr. 39 armor piercing rounds
that are commonly used by our Tiger tanks. This
makes it an effective and reliable tank killer, capable of penetrating even the heaviest of armors
at great range. Even in the shadow of our laser
weaponry, the infamous 88 still retains strength
in accuracy and combat reliability. Some battles
have even been lost due to an overreliance on
our wunderwaffe for anti-tank support, a mistake Ludwig easily rectifies. Ludwig must be
fielded with infantry support, however, as the
Pzgr. 39 round fares poorly against infantry targets.
Panzer Kampfläufer II-D
“Lothar”
Combat Role:
Forward Artillery Support
Proper artillery support is a keystone to every
modern military success. However, as battlefields have become more mutable, artillery has
been called upon to become increasingly mobile.
12
Panzer Kampfläufer II-B
“Ludwig”
Combat Role:
Anti-tank
Mounting the venerable 88mm kanone, Ludwig
has been a feared walker upon the battlefield
since its inception in early 1943. Though a respectable four years old now, a lifetime for any
tank, Ludwig’s combat effectiveness has continued strong in the face of our enemies’ technological advancements.
Lothar answers this need by combining twenty 15cm Nebelwerfer rockets with the Panzer
Kampfläufer chassis. It brings firepower equal
to that of two of our panzerwerfer halftracks to
any terrain and combat situation, allowing rapid
delivery of saturation bombardments.
In order to make maximal use of Lothar’s firepower, highly trained Beobachter teams have
been deployed to accompany each unit. Additionally, command section radioman have been
similarly trained to deliver artillery strikes. Due
to the arduous task of reloading the Nebelwerfer batteries, Commanders who can spare the
resources should consider fielding the Lothar in
pairs to allow constant artillery barrage. During
bring themselves back from seemingly critical
damage.
Some Loth pilots have become so skilled with
the use of their Kampfzange that they have been
able to use them to perform repairs on other
walkers. These pilots are only available to certain Commanders, but those who are should not
hesitate to use them as support platforms for
their walkers.
urban engagements, some Commanders have
taken the unusual tactic of using their Lothars
to perform repeated direct fire attacks against
infantry that have fortified themselves in buildings. However, such tactics are often discouraged by High Command, as they place these
valuable walkers in potential danger from antitank platforms or flanking infantry.
Panzer Kampfläufer II-G (Sd.Kfz. 479)
Panzer Kampfläufer II-E
“Loth”
Combat Role:
Urban Support and Infantry Support
Loth is not intended for direct engagements,
however they are frequently called upon to demolish urban obstacles meant to slow our advance. This is especially critical when a breakthrough is dependent upon our Schwer Panzer
kampfläufer, whom often find it difficult to
maneuver. If forced into combat, the Loth must
act aggressively to bring its Kampfzange to
bear. Having come from the ranks of the pioniere, Loth pilots share the Luther’s ability to
Designed purely as a support vehicle intended
for use in high-risk areas, the Bergeluther was
developed to augment the Loth in our Pioniere
units. Designed with more rugged hydraulics in
order to handle the strains of using the Dozer
blade, and piloted by a skilled engineer, the
Bergeluther is an epitome of survivability in
even the harshest of combat zones.
Bergeluther is primarily a engineering and recovery vehicle. It’s heavy dozer blade can
uproot tank traps and fortified emplacements
alike, allowing this vehicle to easily clear a path
for our heavy walkers. The blade is also solid
enough that it can be used to clear minefields
placed to slow our advance. Perhaps it’s greatest strength is as a recovery vehicle, collecting valuable pieces from fallen walkers for our
field mechanics to repair. This reduces the great
strain wartime production has on the Axis, and
therefore mitigates the damage the loss of these
vehicles has on a Commander.
tactical corner
Originally developed in the field by Luther
kampfgruppen as a way of returning damaged
units to the field, Loth has become a staple of
our pioniere. Substituting an extra Kampfzange
in place of the Luther’s Flak, Loth is not intended for direct combat situations. Regardless,
Loth is a respectable foe, the powerful Kampfzange tearing through troop formations and armor alike. Loth pilots who have seen battle are
among the most highly decorated for bravery,
as they are known to charge their walkers into
the enemy.
“Bergeluther”
(Experimental Stages,
Limited Deployment Avaliable)
Combat Role:
Combat Engineering and
Armored Recovery
13
Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer III-A
“Wotan”
Combat Role:
Heavy Tank Hunter
The Axis’ best in laser technology, the Wotan
combines superior range and firepower into a
heavy walker chassis. Wotan is best applied as
a tank hunter, its Schwer Laser Kanonen have
proven to be very effective against enemy armor. Walker Pilots have reported that their
weapons have cut right through heavy walkers
with a good shot. The Wotan should never go
without infantry support, however. The Laser
Kanonen require too much of a charge time to
effectively target infantry, giving enemy antitank squads time to maneuver into position.
Certain models have recently received armor
upgrades, dubbed by troops as the “WotanAR”. While it can be difficult for a Commander
to acquire one of these upgraded Kampfläufers,
in certain situations it should be considered
imperative to do so. Field reports have shown
the increased armor has proven very effective
at protecting the walker’s VK cells from allied
Phaser fire, with many models of the weapon
being unable to damage the Wotan. Units stationed in and around Zverograd have also reported an increased chance of survival against
soviet Sulfur Throwers.
tactical corner:
axis walkers
Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer III-D
“Flammluther”
Combat Role:
Urban Combat and
Clearing Entrenchments
14
Allied Napalm Throwers have long inflicted
heavy casualties on our forces, especially in
tight urban environments. In order to combat the
stalemate in South Britain and ensure success in
the city of Zverograd the Flammluther has been
rushed to the field of battle. Designed with superior armor and firepower over the allied “Hot
Dog”, the Flammluther has become a welcome
sight to besieged Germans and a terror to our enemies. Our forward mechanics have also taken
to modifying the primary hydraulics, allowing
short bursts of speed. These modifications are
time consuming to install, however, and have
been ordered to be limited to Flammluthers.
Flammluthers should always be given covering
fire before advancing, as they are still vulnerable
to infantry anti-tank fire. Once in range, however, the Schwer Flammenwerfer make quick
work of enemy entrenchments and garrisoned
buildings. The Flammluther is a symbol of the
Fatherland’s resolve to be victorious, even if
our enemies force us to reduce their great cities
to ruins.
Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer IV-A
“Jagdluther”
Combat Role:
Anti-tank and Tank Hunter
True to its name, the Jagdluther follows the
doctrine of our Jagdpanzers, sacrificing combat versatility for superior armor and firepower.
Mounting a modification of the 75mm KwK
42 L/70 developed for our panther tanks and
a newly designed hardened glacis plate, the
Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer IV is better armed
and armored than its predecessors.
The Jagdluther’s strength is in its ability to
combat enemy walkers head on, it’s armor thick
enough to deflect all but the largest of armorpiercing shells, while still maintaining higher
maneuverability over our Königsläufers. Early
models lack a machinengewehr mount, however, and are incredibly vulnerable to enemy
infantry. If a Commander can choose to field
them in a long range role, it is preferable to do
so. They’ve also proven to still be vulnerable to
American Napalm Throwers, a combat pairing
Commanders should avoid at all costs.
Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer VI-A
“Königsluther”
Combat Role:
Heavy Anti-tank and Area Denial
Perhaps one of Königsluther’s greatest assets is
the fear it elicits in the enemy. Often a Königsluther Commander need not fire a shot to defeat
the enemy. Areas of open terrain or large streets
provide the Königsluther an immense fire lane
that few enemy Commanders dare enter. In this
manner, control of the battlefield can win the
battle. However, Commanders should not hesitate to use the Königsluther’s kanonen to their
purpose. Exercise caution in urban environemnts, however, as the enemy will undoubtedly try
to outflank the Königsluther. Constant infantry
support is advised to protect these vital assets.
Advancing Königsluthers often also need support of combat engineers to clear obstacles, as
the Königsluther’s immense size makes it difficult to maneuver.
Enemy intelligence scoffed at the Sturmkönig,
however the soldiers who faced this walker
across South Britain do not. While armor had
to be sacrificed in order to give the Sturmkönig
the proper traverse speed to target fast moving
aircraft, our new 128mm Flakvierling provides
devastating firepower against enemy targets.
The redesigned Flak 40 with state of the art autoloaders and recoil control systems has allowed
the Sturmkönig prodigious rates of fire while alternating between its four kanonen, greater than
any other heavy air defense platform. Loaded
with the Sprenggranatpatrone L/4,5 the Sturmkönig is intended for engagements with air
and light ground targets. However, the sheer
firepower released by the 128mm Flakvierling
is enough to cripple even the most heavily armored vehicles.
Commanders are advised to make ample use of
Sturmkönig’s state of the art early warning and
radar system to engage any available targets.
With unparallel traverse speed, this Schwer
Panzer Kampfläufer can deny large areas to enemy air and ground movements. Reports from
batteries paticipating in Operation Cerberus
have shown the power of the Sturmkönig when
faced towards a strategic building, preventing
enemy infantry and walker reinforcements from
striking against our advancing forces. Units
stationed within Zverograd have also inflicted
heavy casualties on soviet helicopters.
dc#3 tactical corner
The very sound of a Königsluther approaching
the battlefield strikes terror in the hearts of our
enemies. Drafted using the 17cm K 18 howitzer as a basis, the resulting 17,3cm FpK is the
strongest anti-tank gun ever created. Design of
the Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer VI was slowed
by the difficulties associated with creating autoloaders for such a massive shell, however the
walker was rapidly fielded on all fronts. Combat reports have found the weapon to be very
accurate, and while the Königsluther’s barrel
length can hamper movement, the weapon’s
high velocity allows our armor-piercing shells
to cut easily through both enemy walkers and
panzers.
Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer VI-B
“Sturmkönig”
Combat Role:
Infantry Suppression,
Vehicle Suppression and
Heavy Air Defense
15
tactical corner:
axis walkers
16
Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer VI-E
“Königslothar”
Combat Role:
Heavy Artillery Support and
Suppressive Bombardment
Although only a few Königslothar have been
deployed to date, their combat effectiveness has
been heavily praised. Designed to overcome the
limitations of the Lothar, Königslothar mounts
thirty 15cm Nebelwerfer rockets, distributed
between two batteries. The increased room
granted by the Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer VI
chassis allows the Königslothar to house a dedicated loading crew in addition to the Batterieoffizier. With the addition of a remote operated
winch and expanded ammunition storage, the
Königslothar is capable of reloading one battery while the other is aimed and fired. Combat reports show the result is devastating, with
constant artillery bombardments proving very
demoralizing to our enemies.
Königslothar’s large size and limited defensive
capability means that this walker should never
be used in direct fire engagements, except only
to route already broken enemy formations. Multiple Beobachter teams or command sections
should be fielded to accompany a Königslothar
to the field, in order to maximize the potential
targets this walker can lay fire upon. Enemies
exposed to fire from a Königslothar may entrench themselves in buildings or bunkers for
fear of artillery bombardment, allowing them to
be picked off or flushed out by our troops.
Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer VI-C
“Prinzluther” (Sd.Kfz. 451/1 Ausf. A)
Combat Role:
Armored Command Vehicle
The increased role of Panzer Kampfläufer in all
theatres of battle has resulted in an increased
need for command vehicles. In order to speed
up design of this crucial vehicle and deploy it
to Southern England and Zverograd, our engineers combined features from multiple existing
sources. To create the new chassis, the latest
halftrack blueprints were combined with the
panzerfunkwagen designs from the early days
of the war. In order to maximize space, it was
chosen to use the Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer
VI walker as a basis for the new chassis. Turrets
from our aging fleet of Sd.Kfz 222 fleet were
used to give the walker a modicum of air and
ground defense. After taking efforts to improve
the armor protection of the walker, and loading
the interior with the latest high-powered radios
and state of the art radar equipment, the first
Prinzluther was born.
The Prinzluther has been a stunning success,
providing much needed protection and support
to our valuable command sections. Our Kommandotrupp find that the walker’s equipment
increases their ability to command troops in
the midst of a chaotic battle, as well as greatly
increasing the speed at which reinforcements
can arrive. In prolonged engagements, the Prinzluther has even been known to become a mobile repair platform and aid station. Since the
Prinzluther’s arrival on the battlefield, Commanders have reported a significant decrease in
the loss of much needed veteran officers.
With the success of the Prinzluther, the armored
transport variant of the Panzer Kampfläufer VI
chassis has been brought into full production.
The Sturmprinz quickly surpassed the Prinzluther in manufacture rates due to the reduced
equipment costs, and is now seeing extensive
use on every front. With less equipment taking
up the interior space, the Sturmprinz is able to
transport and entire squad of Sturmgrenadiere.
The armored shurzen have also been adapted to
allow an additional squad to travel on the exterior of the kampflaufer, alowing them to provide supporting fire for the walker’s advance. In
a similar fashion to its predecessor, the Sturmprinz has requisitioned 30mm flakzwilling turrets from our Kugelblitz light tanks. Although
most of the radio equipment has been removed,
Sturmprinz retained the radar in order to increase the ability to target and intercept aerial
targets with its 30mm kanonen.
Further information on the subject of Axis
Walkers can be found by navigating yourself
to: www.Dust-Models.Com where you can request reinforcements for your army.
december 2012
Sturmprinz is better armed, can carry more
troops, and is more accessible to Commanders
than the Prinzluther. However, it is no longer
suitable as a command vehicle as its predecessor was. Instead, the Sturmprinz should be used
for troop transport, safeguarding out grenadiere
through enemy fire lanes and into the heat of
battle. Already, commanders have used innovative tactics with this new Panzer Kampfläufer,
including the use of scharfschütze teams on the
walker exterior to ward off enemy anti-tank
units, while other commanders have chosen
to capitalize on the maschinengewehre of our
aufklärer sturmgrenadiere. Still others have had
Jagdgrenadiere mount the caseless PaK 75mm
kanone on this walker, granting it an increase in
long range anti-tank firepower. However they
are used, any commander should watch for tank
traps and barricades that may otherwise impede
the advance of these walkers, as every moment
stalled is another German soldier lost.
Schwer Panzer Kampfläufer VI-D
“Strumprinz” (Sd.Kfz. 451/1 Ausf. B)
Combat Role:
Armored Troop Transport
and Air Defense
17
how2: easy weathering
Table Top Tahir is here to give us a quick
and easy weathering guide.
Step four: In order to chip the white paint,
brush some scratches on with dark grey.
Speed weathering:
Step one: Primer your model black.
Step five: Fix your decals in the usual
manner.
Step two: Dry brushing in three steps
from dark grey to a lighter level
Step three: I used Tamiya Masking Tape
to get a white line on the legs and hull.
18
Step six: Use a blister sponge and dab all
edges with Boltgun metal and all white decals with dark grey
Step seven: Paint Dark flesh into recessed
areas, around plates, rivets and anywhere
water will collect and damage the metal.
Use an orange (Macharious Solar Orange)
and paint it into the Dark Flesh areas. Be
sure to leave a border of the Dark Fleash
showing, it adds depth to the rust.
dirty look and to shade the rust. Once dry,
base and seal you model.
how2: easy weathering
Step 8: Use a black wash over all to get a
Now you’re ready for the table top.
19
Deep in the cold, inky blackness of the abandoned service tunnels beneath the ruined streets
of the city once known as the jewel of the Soviet
nation, a ragged shape crouches on the edge of
a raised walkway. The sluggish, partly frozen,
murky water slowly trickling by in the storm
drain running along the center of the tunnel.
If any living thing was nearby to notice, the
stench alone would have convinced them that
only death lingered on in the silent darkness. A
sickening mix of stinging chemicals and rotting
meat, rancid and noxious with fresh decay.
Something was busy being messily dead in the
sewers of Zverograd.
the waking bear part 3
No sounds above the whisper of the flowing water penetrated the darkness. Not even the tick of
tiny claws or the subtle squeaking of the unusually absent sewer rats so common in the under
city. It was a quiet, icy darkness, matching the
images of hell in some classical, disturbed, artist’s imaginations.
20
From a great distance, barely perceptible, a
noise echoed from curved wall to curved wall
down the silent tunnels. Almost vulgar in its violation of the deathly silence. The screeching of
poorly lubricated steel on steel, the quiet clash
of a gate closing...
Abrupt motion disturbed the darkness! Stiffened, translucent lids snapped open, uncovering black, clouded orbs. Slick with mucus, and
alight with a feral, mindless hunger. The only
sound, a single, wet, rasping inhalation and the
dull clink of heavy steel scraping the concrete,
and in a flutter of tattered cloth, the ragged
shape was gone. Moving disturbingly quickly
down the tunnel.
Moments later, four more ragged bundles of rot
and menace, rise from the deepest shadows, and
silently follow....
***
Private Conners winced as the gate closed with
a sharp screech and a clang behind him. Every head in the line of soldiers ahead of him,
snapped around, startled by the noise. Conners
felt his face burn furiously red in the near darkness afforded by the red-light torches each man
carried.
Really, the noise was not loud at all, but in the
unnatural quiet of the under city, and with the
threat of being discovered by the lurking Axis
patrols, any sound was a hanging offence!
Sergeant Miller graced the shame faced private
with his best Drill Instructor glare for a moment,
then silently waved the squad to resume its quiet
march. The squad had been in the surprisingly
well-tended service and drainage tunnels under
the northern commercial district of Zverograd
for hours now. The original plan had been to lay
down a false trail, and find a place to eat and rest
for a few hours. But within the first hour, the
noise of Axis search parties sweeping the tunnels from the south and east, had forced Miller
and his men to flee farther west into progressively, smaller and more maze like feeder tunnels. And the continued exhaustion was starting
to tell in mistakes made.
It had been over two hours since the last signs of
Axis patrols, and Miller figured that if the Germans dont get them, stumbling around in the
dark, bone tired would. Motioning his men to
gather around in a football huddle, the sergeant
pulled his map of the city from his armored
coat.
“Okay men, time for a break” Miller whispered,
shining his red light on the map. A chorus of
quiet sighs welcomed his declaration, “If I remember all those turns we made correctly, we
should be about, here.” His finger stabbed the
map about eight city blocks west, and twelve
blocks south of the building marked as the platoons meeting point, the place where most of
them had died.
Oberleutnant Johan Sammt, 214th Sturmgrenadiers, 4th Platoon, was just getting ready to lead
another fruitless search party into the frozen
bowels of this god forsaken frozen city, in this
god forsaken frozen country! He had to steady
himself as the bitter bile of his frustration almost overflowed!
“We should find another rail line and a platform
ahead, not far, we can bed down for a couple
hours there.” Miller continued, “no lights, no
cooking, though.” He cautioned his boys.
They all nodded and Miller looked from face to
face, noting the tension, and the fatigue but also
the determination and strength. Even the kid,
Pinski, looked older and tougher than he did two
days ago. ‘Now if I can just get them home.’
Miller wondered for the thousandth time.
Miller folded and stowed his map and the squad
moved back into the tunnel, single file, moving
a bit quicker to the promise of rest. As the sergeant hitched up his pack and started walking,
he wondered when the other shoe was going to
hit him in the backside!
***
He and his men were finished; they had nothing
left to give. Two and half days ago, his company was returning from a punishing rotation on
the eastern front of the city, four weeks of hard
fighting, digging snipers and patriotic lunatics
with incendiary bombs out of the ruins of the
industrial centers.
the waking bear
Blocks away, in the rubble strewn streets of
this accursed hell hole of a city, another soldier
fought past exhaustion just as acute.
Just a few blocks from the reserve depot, and
a hot meal and a soft cot, explosions tore the
depot’s storehouses to pieces! As his company
arrived, the depot commander enlisted his commander to help track the Allied saboteurs who
did the damage.
His Hauptmann, always eager to please officers with Bluetkruez ties, “volunteered” the 4th
platoon to hunt the Allied troops down. His men
had just enough time to swap ammo belts, and
the hunt was on!
21
the waking bear
Now, fifty odd hours, and little sleep, later, his
quarry had gone to ground in the sewers. He
shook his head in disgust, and tried to rub the
fatigue from his red eyes as he lead his Command squad to yet another partially ruined subway entrance.
His Hauptmann had radioed earlier in the day
that a platoon of Blutkreuz “Special Operatives” had located the enemy infiltrators, and
was setting to ambush them in a ruined department store, but it seems the ambush was only
partly a success, and an unknown number of Allied troops had bloodied the Blutkreuz platoon’s
nose badly, and escaped into the sewers.
Which is why the Hauptmann was riding Sammt’s platoon so hard to be the ones to smoke
them out and show off in front of the Special
Forces Commander, the creepy officer in the
gas mask. Johan shuddered at the memory of
those emotionless glass eyes.
The voice that answered him had a hollow, emotionless quality, and a dry hiss to it that made
his skin crawl.
“Oberleutnant Johan Sammt. You will pull your
men out of the sewers and regroup at block
point B two twenty nine and await further instructions. You will guard the sewer exits there,
and under no circumstances deploy your men
under the streets. Acknowledge.” The voice had
an unsettling softness, almost a feminine quality, and for a moment, Johan couldn’t speak for
the revulsion he felt.
“Un-understood. Sir” he answered, unconsciously standing to attention. A click, and the
line went dead. Johan handed the headset back
to Stiener and dug his map from his coat. Block
point B 229? He found it to be a water treatment
facility, about fifteen more blocks to the south
and west. A large, open facility, with multiple
entrances into the sewers, all draining into a
large open aquifer.
Just as his squad approached the steps leading into the under city, the radio on the back of
Obergefreiter Stiener squawked to life. Stiener
stopped and listened into his headgear for a moment, Johan’s squad halting with him.
“Oberleutnat, priority call from the Blutkreuz
Hauptmann, sir.” Stiener called out, stepping up
and handing Johan the second headset. Sammt
held it to his ear, making sure the microphone
was at his lips.
22
“Yes, Hauptmann, this is Sammt, over.” He
spoke loudly, surprised at how raspy his voice
had become.
Johan smiled a hunter’s grin. His platoon was to
be the trap, the Special Operatives, the hounds.
Driving the Allied men right into them!
Somewhat reinvigorated, Johan spun to his
men, “Round up the squads. We head straight
to the ambush site. Stiener, radio Karlson and
Metzner to get the Panzers back from the patrol,
we are heading out!”
His men snapped out salutes, and then darted
off to round up the platoon’s scattered men.
***
sitting in the same place when he went to sleep!
The man was indestructible! Pinski realized just
how lucky his squad had been in the last three
days of constant danger, to have survived intact
with everything they had faced. But he couldn’t
help but feel that that good luck had somehow
flowed through Milller’s iron will and fearless
leadership.
Private Pinski used his booted foot to nudge
the huddled form of Malone yet again when his
quiet snores began to gain volume like an oncoming freight train, still distant, but promising
to soon be a mighty roar!
Malone snorted and rolled over, squeezing his
body into a tighter ball in his Ranger issue blanket, his snored quieted.
A hundred yards from the rusty gate, the squad
found an abandoned terminal platform for a connecting city train. Ten feet wide from tiled wall
to track bed ledge, and about forty yards long,
it bore a striking resemblance to the “Tube” stations Pinski had visited in London during his
Ranger training before deployment.
The stairs to the surface had collapsed and filled
in with rubble from the street level above, making it relatively safe from Axis patrols from that
direction. And the only other access points were
the black openings of the train tunnel they arrived through.
Pinski’s mind wandered some as he swept his
own red light around the north tunnel entrance,
his body crying for more rest, a hot meal, just
not to be cold! A rancid, rotten smell began to
tug at his awareness, and with a grimace of distaste, Pinski nudged Malone’s sleeping form
none to gently, “Gollly, Manny! What did you
eat?” he whispered at his snoring squad mate.
Miller’s eyes drifted away from the south tunnel at the sound of Pinski’s quiet voice. He was
just as tired as his men, but couldn’t sleep down
here, so he kept watch while his boys collapsed
around him. He kept going over his choices of
the past thirty six hours, trying to see his mistakes clearly, to learn from them. He couldn’t
wait to get his men back to Allied lines, another
day, day and a half moving through the tunnels to reach the waterfront, and they will be in
friendly territory. A weak smile tugged at his
lips as he realized how much his after action report is going to read like a dime store adventure
novel! ‘Don’t get ahead of yourself, Nathan,’ he
mentally scolded himself, ‘you gotta get them
out of here first.’
story by john sisk
Pinski was sitting on an overturned trash can
on the outer edge of his sleeping squad mates,
keeping second watch for the rest brake.
Without him, we’d have died a few times already! Pinski thought gratefully.
The squad had collapsed in exhaustion as soon as
sergeant Miller had called for a rest break when
they found the station. Milller had to make eating a cold meal an order before the squad could
sleep, and quickly set a watch schedule for the
rest period. They couldn’t linger too long, not
with Axis squads making forays into the tunnels
all over this part of the city!
Pinski silently glanced at his sergeant, sitting
on watch at the other end of the sleeping group,
keeping an eye on the south tunnel entrance in
the low red light from his night-lantern. Pinski
had slept for an hour when Conners had awoken
him for his turn at watch, and Miller had been
23
the waking bear part 3
24
It took him a moment to notice the deep shadows over Private Pinski’s slouched shoulders.
Where the shadows at the mouth of the north
tunnel shifting and moving? Pinski’s youthful
face scrunched in distaste as he took a couple of
heavy sniffs and started to look around for the
real source of the foul odor. Realization burned
the fog of fatigue from Sergeant Miller’s mind,
and he jolted to his feet, hands snatching up his
Remington shotgun from the floor beside him.
“INCOMING!” Miller bellowed as he ran towards the north tunnel, kicking sleeping feet as
he passed his men, “Up! Up! Zombies!”,
Pinski stared open mouthed at the wild eyed
screaming madman that looked just like sergeant Miller as he ran towards him, bringing
his large-bore shotgun up and aiming it right at
him! Suddenly, Manny Malone bolted up from
a deep sleep, nocking Pinski from the trashcan
he used as a perch, sending him sprawling on
the floor next to his stacked gear. Manny’s eyes
were wide open and alight with barely controlled panic. He racked his shotgun and braced
it on the recently vacated can. “Get that damn
flamethrower on!” He roared at the stunned Private.
The rest of the squad was busy tossing off covers and scrambling for their weapons with sleep
induced clumsiness. Pinski had just snapped
out of his shocked daze, and had begun pulling his gear towards himself, when a deafening
blast and bright, white flash, assaulted his ears
and sternum. Malone had just fired his shotgun
a few feet from his head, into the darkened tunnel beyond. Sergeant Miller slid to a halt, standing just behind Malone, and instantly he too
snapped off two, fast, booming shots into the
darkness.
Private Pinskis blood froze in his veins as an
ear piercing, in-human, shriek from the darkness answered the booms of the men’s guns. He
looked wildly over his shoulder, trying to see
what made such a horrid sound, hands fumbling
with the straps to his flamethrower’s tanks.
From the inky blackness beyond the red light
cast by the night lantern, a hunched figure staggered into view. His chest torn open from the
shotgun’s heavy rounds. Pinski had never seen
anything so terrible in his life. The soldier wore
a torn and filthy German uniform, missing a
boot, and his hairless, desiccated, head gave
him the look of an old, old man.
Expecting the soldier to collapse from his obviously mortal wound, Pinski was more than
shocked, to say the least, when the German
crouched like a beast and a wet, ragged laugh
rumbled from it’s shriveled lips. The man leapt
straight at Pinski and Malone, and the young Private had just a moment’s glimpse of the heavy
steel mace-like weapons were a man’s hands
should be, before Malone’s hand on his collar
yanked him bodily back along the concrete, and
out from under the German’s attack.
Both metal fists slammed into the platform floor
right where Pinski had been, exploding gravel
sized chunks of cement and cracking the floor
like glass for a yard all around. The unbelievable strength of the blow rang even louder than
the shotguns in the close confines of the tunnel.
The sergeant stepped in between the beast man
and Malone, who was still dragging the frozen
Pinski and his gear backwards, and fired a blast
point blank into it’s chest. The German berserker flew back into the curved wall and crumpled
to the floor.
Malone shoved his wild eyed face forcefully
into the stunned Private’s face, eyeball to eyeball. “Flamethrower! NOW, kid! Or we’re all
dead!” He yelled over the ringing in Pinskis
ears.
Private Pinski blinked twice and snapped back
into focus, reaching for his weapon and struggling to strap it on as fast as he possibly could.
A non-stop chorus of “Holy hell, holy hell!” accompanying his efforts.
The second wildman threw himself bodily at the
Sergeant, metal mace-hands leading the way.
Miller tried to spin away from the attack, but the
berserker slammed into him, side on. Luckily,
both weapon hands missed, but the slamming
weight of the beast’s momentum carried both
it and Miller to the floor in a crashing heap of
flailing arms and legs and animalistic snapping
teeth!
To be continued....
Just as the Sergeant was racking his weapon to
put another round into the fallen berserker, two
more ragged shapes ran from the shadowed tunnel with shocking speed, right at him! A shotgun blast at Millers side took one of the men
clean off its feet as the now fully awake Private
Conners moved up to assist his Sergeant.
25
beyond dust: anastyr
In this irregular series we go beyond the world of Paolo Parente’s Dust and investigate what else is
out there. The only criteria is that somehow there is a connection to Dust (even if sometimes it is a
flimsy, eyebrow raising connection).
dust chronicles
issue 3
For the first one, the connection is obvious, both ranges have been created by Paolo Parente.
26
On August 24, 2012 Dust Studios announced the release of Paolo Parante’s much anticipated fantasy
line of miniatures Anastyr. The initial offerings include three elements of the Tribe of The White
Eagle: Undrall, Queen of the North, Konrad, Master of Blades, and Skoll The Protector.
styr
beyond dust: ana
The resin chosen by Dust Studios holds details extremely well, but like most resins, is more brittle
than metal alloys commonly used in miniature casting. Care must be taken when handling the sprues
and in removing elements from the runners. The castings show very few mold lines, pin holes, or
other imperfections and are among the very best resin castings that this reviewer has seen. The pieces
fit together well and there is very little work to be done to prepare them for priming. They make
excellent collector’s pieces. Dust Studios has plans for producing the Anastyr line in a high quality
plastic medium that will be more suited for the rough and tumble of the gaming table.
27
dust chronicles #3
The boxed sets for Undrall and Konrad contain the elements needed to assemble both mounted and
unmounted figurines, while the set for Skoll contains two versions of the model each with a unique
head, and weapon plus a pair of very large spiked pauldrons.
Mr. Parente’s shapes reveal a clean bold spirit and his details a deeply felt warm appreciation of the
human form. The sharing of the style and decorative design elements in the miniatures, draw the
viewer into the fantasy iconography of the Tribe of the White Eagle. Primitive symbols of fertility
and reproduction appear in the bulbous decorative elements of the armor, crescent shaped weapon
tips, and Earth Goddess shaped weapon hafts. These combine with images of the spiraling path of
initiation and the skulls of death and transformation.
28
Differences in style in the design elements provide contrast. The skull forms on Konrad’s blades and
the spirals on Skoll’s are more angular as are the relief design elements on Konrad’s helmet, and the
arrow head shape of Skoll’s second sword tip, while the designs on Queen Undralls’ blades are sinuous and serpentine. The feeling of strength and masculinity in these weapons is echoed in the angular
spiral on Konrad’s saddle. The strong shapes and wild movement shown in Konrad and Undraal’s
cloaks show the strong presence of the wind element. Undraal’s feather cloak brings to mind images
of the Goddess Freya and the Valkyries and teases one’s mind into the realms of winged flight, and
through that into the White Eagle Tribe’s namesake, while Konrad’s rough fur cloak complements
the masculine presence of the blademaster.
The ever expanding
range of Anastyr models
is available from:
www.dust-models.com
The potential for the range is amazing, who knows what the future holds for Anastyr. . . .
29
how2: improve
the ssu helicopter
how2: improve
Step aw
ay from e
verything
the ssu helicopter
When I got my first games console, I took the
controller apart to make the casing smaller so
it fit in my hands better. To keep a long story
short, I broke it and I was told to step away from
the Nintendo.
When I got my first house I decided to put a
wooden floor in myself and was going to figure
out how to place it by trying. Long story short,
the floor was warping before the last board was
put down, I was told to step away from the nailgun.
When I got my first . . . . . .
(I think you know where this is going).
Every time I get my hands on something new
I have the urge to “improve” it and my family
now want me to play it SAFE (Stay Away From
Everything). Instead of listening to them I keep
coming up with ways to do things that to me
sound like a good idea at the time but more often than not turn into a major dissaster.
30
The helicopter has two doors at the back for
the troops to disembark from, having the doors
open with a SSU trooper standing in the hold
sounds cool (admit it, you agree).
How hard can it be? The thing is only made
from plastic. My partner saw that look in my
eyes and told me to “Step Away From The
Chopper!” But I haven’t got the greatest track
record of doing what she says and I took a kife
to the helicopter.
The doors have clear lines and this made it a lot
easier to cut where I needed to. At first I tried to
cut the plastic in one go but after half an hour
and only a small line into the first door I decided
to change tactic.
In this series of articles I will be sharing my experience when trying to bring my next briliant
idea to life. Am I doing things how they should
be done? NO! this isn’t going to be a “HOW2”,
if anything it is a HowNot2 so I guess what you
will learn from me is not what to do but what
not to do.
Instead of cutting I started just sliding the knife
accross the model and this gave me a slightly
deeper groove every time I did that. After ten
minutes I was able to push the knife all the way
into the helicopter and now I could actually
make cuts to seperate the doors from the hull.
I was about to start painting my SSU Transport
when I got an idea.
This method also gave me the idea of not removing the doors completely but only making a
groove on the side of the hinges and then bending the doors to have them open. Once I had the
first door open it was easier to get to the second
door and that one only took half the time.
Just over an hour after I started the doors where
open and I was ready to paint the model.
Now I think somebody tried to say: “Step Away
from . . . .” but I was in the zone.
OK, so now you are thinking, “is that it?”
Well, no.
I decided that seeing how the doors where already open, so I could see there was enough
space to put the mechanism into the SSU helicopter, there was no reason not to try.
When I walked back into the living room I noticed my 3 year old had left one of his toys out
and I looked from the SSU helicopter in my
hand to the toy on the floor and back to the SSU
helicopter.
Every other person whould see this:
The first thing I did was drill a hole from the
point where the old blades where connected to
the hull straight into the cargo hold. Seeing how
there was going to be a long metal rod leading
from the “engine” I wanted to make sure it was
all going to line up.
After drilling the hole I found out that there was
no way to angle the metal rod so that it was going to slide into place. So I took the top part
of the helicopter (thinking I should have done
that when I was trying to get the doors open),
took the helicopter blades of the toy and placed
the new engine block into the hold of the SSU
helicopter.
As it turned out, it didn’t fit as well as I expected
and I needed to cut away a fair amount plastic
from the “engine block”.
step away from everything
However, I am not every other person and what
I saw on the floor was this:
31
s.a
.f.
It took some pushing and in the end I had to cut
more parts from the helicopter to get a fit. It all
worked out and my SSU Transport Helicopter
was ready for its first test “flight”.
The blades spin so fast that while on the flight
stand the Helicopter does its best to fall over
and nine out of ten times manages to do so. For
this reason the finished model will have to be
stuck to a standard base. That will also explain
the doors being open, who is going to fly up
high with the doors open, right?
step away from everything
Now Dust Chronicles doesn’t have a way to put
movie clips in the magazine so if you want to
see what the helicopter looks like in action then
check out the Dust Chronicles Facebook page
where the short movie has been uploaded. Find
it here and don’t forget to click Like.
32
There you have it. Just one example of me getting an idea and it snowballing into something
much more involved than planned.
This time it worked out ok. Well apart from my
3 year old wondering where his toy helicopter
has gone (I’m in so much trouble when he is old
enough to go on Facebook and sees the movie).
Join me in Dust Chronicles #4, when I get spraypaint on the livingroom floor.
e.
dust warfare scenario: ambush
In this scenario we will recreate
a classic ‘L’ ambush.
The ambusher is the attacker
and the ambushed is the defender.
Both sides will employ an
equal number of points for their
armies.
Game Length
The game will last 5 rounds
Terrain
Deployment
Players roll 5 dice to determine initial deployment, with the player who scored the most hits
deploying a unit first, and then alternating unit
placement as normal.
The defender must deploy his units within 4’
of the long centerline of the table, beginning at
one short edge and extending 48’ along the long
centerline towards the opposite short table edge.
The defender must endeavor to fit as much of
his force into the deployment area as possible.
Purposefully holding units off board to avoid
the first round ambush is frowned upon and is
considered unsporting.
Any of the defender’s units that do not fit into
the deployment zone must be held in reserve
and deploy onto the table from the 8’ of deployment zone touching the defender’s short table
edge. Allied players may not use the ‘Air Drop’
platoon upgrade in this scenario. Other aerial
reserve deployments are allowed as normal.
The attacker deploys his forces onto the short
table edge opposite the defender’s deployment
zone, to a depth of 12’. The defender may also
choose ONE of the long table edges to deploy
his force onto, to a depth of 12’. All of the attacker’s units must be in or behind a terrain feature that obscures line of sight to the unit. Any
units that are unable to be deployed in such a
manner, must be held in reserve and can be deployed onto the table in subsequent rounds per
the normal reserve rules. The attacker’s reserve
units come onto the table from their deployment
zone table edges.
Initiative
On round 1, do not roll for initiative. Instead,
the attacker begins with one command point and
the defender receives none. The attacker will be
able to take a single action in the COMMAND
phase (triggering the ambush) while the defender will not be able to do anything at all in the
first command phase. This cannot be modified
in any way, by command squads or special rules
etc. In the first UNIT phase the attacker also
goes first, this despite the fact the defender had
no commands (as though he scored all blanks in
the initiative roll). In subsequent rounds, roll
for initiative as normal.
The attacker sets up all the terrain. He may place as much or as little terrain as
he chooses. The terrain can be set up anywhere
on the table so long as it is more than 8’ from
the long centerline of the table.
Victory Conditions
For each unit the defender is able to move off
the table via the attacker’s short table edge, the
defender gains 2 victory points.
For each unit completely destroyed, the attacker
gains 1 victory point.
The player with the most victory points wins the
scenario.
33
Tactical Corner: To Kill a Superhero
by Leutnant Manfred Hirtzel
Laser Grenadiers
One of the few small arms that will penetrate armor 4, this squad may make a sudden comeback
to the game tables with a full strength of 5/1 lasers. Hope for those lasers to kick in, however,
lest they die a gruesome fate under a superhero’s fists, a fate from which they cannot defend
themselves.
Pair with: Sigrid, she’ll add another 1/1 laser
with the same range. Berserk will also help in
landing your shots.
Operation Hades will have already commenced
by the time you are reading this article. With
it comes the first Superhero to the battle, the
glory of the Sino-Soviet Union. Winter Child
will stride powerfully on the battlefield, but he
is just the first of the VK enhanced Supermen to
enter the game.
Winter Child marks the first Armor 4 hero in the
Dust Universe. Combined with his Damage Resilient skill, he makes a challenging foe. While
there are certainly a slew of vehicles that can
outrange and gun down this man, one must remember that Winter Child will debut in the sewers and subway tunnels of Zverograd. Here, vehicles cannot tread, and battles quickly devolve
into deadly close combat. It’s also important to
remember that most small arms cannot harm armor 4 infantrymen, and the flamethrower that
once reigned supreme is pitiful against a single
man. So the question becomes, relying only on
your arsenal of infantry, how do you kill a Superhero?
Axis
Heavy Flak Grenadiers
(when they use Burst)
If you can get this squad to squeeze off Burst
fire, they can roll 6/1 against an armor 4 Superhero. Their combat knives will also provide you
with 3/1, so the squad will go down fighting if
the foe closes on them. They’re far from the best
option, but they can do in a pinch.
Pair with: No one, unless you really need the
extra health. Other than that Lara is practically
useless in this fight.
34
Axis Zombies or Gorillas
These squads are going to take a beating, and
you can pretty much kiss them goodbye (I don’t
recommend that though, because eww). But
with 10/1 and 6/1 in melee dice respectively,
they may do some serious damage as a one hit
wonder.
Pair with: Totenmeister / Markus, these heroes
will add health and another 4/1 in melee dice,
increasing damage and the chances of keeping
that thing busy for another round.
Allies
Tank Busters
Despite being thought of as an Anti-tank unit,
this squad will still deal 6/1 against an armor
4 superhero. If engaged in close combat, you’ll
still have the benefit of 3/1 rocket punches.
Pair with: Ozz 117, for star power (Heroic Attack). He won’t add much damage though.
Devil’s Own or Legio Patria Nostra
These guys were practically made to kill superheroes. 8-bolt-2 phasers represent one of the
strongest weapons against armor 4 infantry in
the game. As if that wasn’t enough, their Knife
& Grenade attack will deal an astounding 9/1 in
close combat.
Pair with: Action Jackson, because MORE
phaser.
They’ll be decent in a fight with 6/1 melee, but
like the gorillas and zombies you can kiss them
goodbye (for real this time).
Pair with: Ozz 117, because this combo makes
star power extra hilarious/infuriating. Just make
sure to use it before you engage in melee.
Red Devils
Phasers are unaffected by the distinction of light
versus heavy infantry. Use this to your advantage. 6-bolt-3 presents a fairly good lineup, on
average doing as much damage as many og the
aforementioned squads, but with a much higher
damage potential. Like many allied heavies,
they also have a hefty 3/1 rocket punch to back
them up.
Pair with: Action Jackson, because more
phaser.
SSU
Winter Child
Sorry SSU, you got the short end of the kill your
own faction stick. Unless you’re interested in
juggling Molotovs in front of an angry bear, a
bear with metal fists and is radioactive, there’s
little you can use to deal significant damage. So
have fun while I debate which one of you is the
evil twin.
(Hint: it’s both of you, you dirty communists).
tactical corner
The Hammers
35
experimental rules
experimental rules:
armored platoons
Admit it, ever since you first saw those wonderful walkers you’ve wanted to field entire platoons of them. I can’t blame you, I’m a treadhead (Walker-head?) at heart. As the Warfare
rules stand right now, there is no way to do that.
So we here at Dust Chronicles present to you
these Experimental Rules: Armored Platoons.
36
As is implied by the ‘Experimental’, these rules
are not official, cannot be used in tournaments
and really shouldn’t be used without your opponent’s consent. We hope to bring you more
Experimental Rules articles in the future and
what we really hope for, is to hear from you, the
community. Let us know what works and what
doesn’t, if something needs a tweak speak. You
can drop us a line at [email protected]
or on Facebook on the Dust Chronicles group.
New Rules:
Platoon Upgrade: Tank Hunters
A platoon that is NOT an Armored Platoon may
take this upgrade. All units in the platoon gain
the Tank Killer Weapons from the Dust Warfare
Rulebook (p.58). The upgrade costs 5 points per
unit and must be applied to all units that have at
least one weapon which can harm an armor 3
vehicle. For instance, Recon Boys and Grim
Reapers would have to take the upgrade but 13
Foxtrot would not.
Tank Commander
This rule applies to the Command Section of all
Armored Platoons.
- The Walker or Tank chosen as the mandatory
command section has the Command Squad rule
(Dust Warfare rulebook page 54).
- The Command vehicle counts as a radioman
(Dust Warfare rulebook page 56).
Note that this applies weather or not your force
is lead by a hero piloted vehicle or a vehicle
without a hero at the controls.
Platoon Structure
Platoons are purchased in the normal manner.
The command and first section being mandatory. However, this is not a combined arms endeavor! Armored Platoons may not be paired
with other platoons, if you are going to have one
Armored Platoon then all Platoons in your army
must be Armored Platoons!
Furthermore, SSU armies may only include KV
Walker lead platoons OR IS Tank lead Platoons
but not both. If you want to combine arms, then
there are perfectly good lists already in the Dust
Warfare: Zverograd and Hades books.
The Platoons:
Command Section (mandatory)
-Any Hero with the Pilot skill and any KV
walker (KV 47 aero walker/KV 3)
OR
-Any Hero with the Pilot skill and any IS Tank.
OR
-Any IS Tank or KV walker. See the ‘Inflexible
Command Structure’ rule below.
1st Section (mandatory)
-Any KV 47 walker (not aero)
OR
-Any IS Tank
2nd Section (optional)
OR
-Any IS Tank
3rd Section (optional)
OR
-Any IS Tank
4th Section (optional)
-KV 3 Heavy Walker
-KV 47 Aero Walker
OR
-Any IS Tank
-MIL MI 47 Ground Attack Helicopter
SSU Armored Platoons have access to
the following Special Order:
Onward Comrades!
This order can be issued once per game in the
command phase to any units that do not already
have a reaction marker. The order does not apply to helicopters or fliers of any sort.
The ordered SSU units may make a 6’ move and
change their facing by 90 degrees. This applies
to all ground units regardless of weather they
are IS Tanks or KVs. All units moved in this
way receive a reaction marker.
SSU Armored Platoons have the following special rule:
Inflexible Command Structure
The command and control of SSU Platoons is
rigid and unbending. To reflect this, an Armored Platoon lead by a KV walker may not
include any IS tanks and an SSU Armored Platoon lead by an IS tank may not take any KV
walkers. You may however take different platoons in the same army.
armored platoons
SSU Armored Platoon
Support (one per two sections)
-SSU Observer Team
-MIL MI 46 Walker Transport
OR
-SSU Observer Team
Platoon Upgrades:
SSU Armored Platoons may use the following
Platoon Upgrades from the Zverograd Rulebook
(page 43) at the costs described there:
Train Support
(As per the Zverograd book page 43.)
Improved Command
Instead of adding a radio equipped model, it
is assumed the individual leading the platoon
is well trained and able to issue multiple commands and has an upgraded communications set
in his vehicle.
37
armored platoons
The Commander of the platoon is able to lean
on his years of experience and talk a walker pilot through a quick field repair.
Allied Armored Platoon
-Any Hero with the Pilot skill and any Walker
OR
-Any Walker
1st section (mandatory)
-Any Walker of the same ‘weight’ as the command tank. i.e if the command tank is a medium walker then your 1st section walker must
also be a medium walker.
-Any walker
-Any walker
-Any walker
-Any walker
-Ranger Observer Team
-Any Allied Flier
Choose a vehicle within command range (or use
the radio) that is suffering an on-going effect
from the Vehicle Damage Table (Dust Warfare
page 44) and/or has lost at least one but not all
of it’s Damage Capacity points. Immediately
remove the on-going effect. This order cannot effect the Ammunition Detonation or Hull
Breach results, that amount of damage is simply
not repairable on the battlefield. In addition,
the ordered vehicle may roll a dice, if a ‘hit’ is
scored, a single Damage Capacity point is restored. The ordered vehicle receives a reaction
marker.
Allied Armored Platoons have the following special rule:
Rosie Donovan
-Rosie Donovan has the ‘Pilot’ skill when taken as part of an Allied Armored Platoon. Her
Tank Head skill applies to the You’re gonna be
alright son! order. Rosie may only pilot a medium walker.
Platoon Upgrades:
Allied Armored Platoons have access to the following Platoon upgrades at the points listed in
the Dust Warfare rulebook page 87:
Additional Resources
experimental rules
Instead of issuing the You’re gonna be alright
son! Order you may call down a Long Tom artillery strike.
38
Air Drop
As per the Dust Warfare rulebook page 87.
Improved Command
Allied Armored Platoons have access
to the following Special Order:
You’re gonna be alright son!
Once per command phase the Command vehicle of the Armored Platoon may issue this order
to a (non-flier) vehicle that has not yet received
an order.
in his vehicle.
Aeronca GB-9 Strike
Preparatory Barrage
-Any Hero and any Walker
OR
-Any Walker
1st Section (mandatory)
-Any Walker
-Any Walker
Axis Armored Platoons have the following special rules:
Sigrid Von Thaler
-Sigrid Von Thaler has the ‘Pilot’ skill when
taken as part of an Axis Armored Platoon. Her
Berserk skill applies to her walker. She may
pilot any medium walker or a Konigsluther.
PanzerGrenadiers
-Any Walker
-Any Axis Flier
-Beobachter Team
If you take a PrinzLuther as your command
vehicle you may also take a Kommadotrupp.
For Sections 1-4 you may take a PrinzLuther
or SturmPrinz. If you do so, you may also take
one of the following squads for each of the PrinzLuther/SturmPrinz walkers at the cost listed in
the Dust Warfare rulebook;
-Battle Grenadiers
-Recon Grenadiers
-Laser Grenadiers
-Heavy Recon Grenadiers
-Heavy Laser Grenadiers
Axis Armored Platoons have access to
the following Special Order:
The squads must be deployed in their transports
at the beginning of the game.
Blitzkrieg!
Platoon Upgrades:
-Any Walker
-Any Walker
This rule functions exactly as per the Dust Warfare rulebook page 116.
Axis Armored Platoon
Axis Armored Platoons have access to the following platoon upgrades at the points listed in
the Dust Warfare rulebook page 115:
in his vehicle.
Nebelwerfer Barrage
Lightning War
armored platoons
Improved Command
39
dust chronicles #3
Example of an
Axis Armored Platoon
1st platoon (recce)
Command Section
-Hans (25)
1st Section
-Heinrich (20)
2nd Section
-Heinrich (20)
3rd Section
-Herman (20)
4th Section
-Herman (20)
Subtotal: 105
2nd platoon (tank destroyer)
Command Section
-Sigrid + Ludwig (60)
1st Section
-Ludwig (40)
2nd Section
-Konigsluther (95)
armored platoons
Total: 300
40
dust on the web
When you browse the internet for websites that
cover Dust Tactics and/or Warfare then you
will come across a large number of results. You
have the official sites like www.dust-game.com,
where you can find premium and unique models
and www.fantasyflightgames.com, the site of
the publisher of both Tactics and Warfare.
Lets get started. With both the Dust Studio and
Fantasy Flight Games having their own website
where news is posted you can easily miss out on
the latest developments. Luckily there are web-
Then there are also websites that cover mainly
Dust news but also create their own content.
Some examples of these are Unit Forward and
Front Towards Enemy and also Fire Broadside.
Not only do they have all the latest in one convenient place but they also provide original articles, like unit reviews and battle reports.
A good way to get noticed in the ever growing
sea of websites is to do something that the other
websites aren’t doing. A good example of this
is BattleTactics.TV. These guys don’t go anywhere without their camera. The movie clips
you can find on the website range from opening
the latest release to building a gaming table out
of your pool-table. Their coverage of GenCon
2012 allowed those of us not able to go a close
up look at upcoming releases.
dust chronicles #3
There are many, many more. The following is
by no means the complete list of Dust related
websites, it is a casual look at some of them.
As a final note, before we dive in, this article is
not an attempt at ordering the websites by how
good they are. So don’t feel upset if your favourite website is not the first one mentioned.
sites that collect news items from all over the
internet, for example Tabletop Gaming News.
This website has the latest on games from all
over the web (useful if your gaming isn’t limited to Dust).
41
dust on the web
Now that there are two games set in the universe
of Paolo Parente’s Dust (ok, there is a third but
getting hold of that is not easy) there are websites who focus on just one or the other Dust
game. Dust-War.Com is one of these websites
and this one covers Dust Warfare. There are
weekly updates, ranging from army list discussions to full-blown articles about armies and the
use of units.
Now this is only a glance at the large amount
of Dust websites out there and what follows
is a list of more websites that cover Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare in one way or another. If
we missed your website out then let us know
and we will include it in the next issue of Dust
Chronicles.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/
groups/303941853917
The official Facebook page for Dust.
http://radiodustinforma.blogspot.com
A Spanish Language Dust resource.
http://darkfuturegaming.blogspot.com/
Gaming blog that covers a variety of game
systems and always worth reading.
http://homepage.mac.com/brentdietrich/companyB.htm
Good aftermarket bits for your walkers. IR
lights and scope, tarps, sacks, battlerattle, etc.
This website also has close links with the Dust
Warfare Army Builder website. This website allows you to build your army without the need
of pens and calculators, having a printer is however a good idea.
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.
42
http://www.tamiyausa.com
A source for 1/48 scale WWII models.
Another good place to find original content are
blogs. These can range from blogs with the emphasis on a local league like the Portland Dust
League Blog or new units and conversions like
the The War Continues - Dust Tactics Blog.
Blogs can be a great place to find ideas for your
own games and conversions and often enable
readers to comment and ask questions .
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.).
www.swdustdevils.com is the home of the Southwest Dust Devils, an alliance of Dust
and Panzerpunk fans centered in the Southwestern United States. Our goal is to promote
Dust Tactics, Dust Warfare, related games and products, and everything Dieselpunk.
To this end, we run Dust demos, tournaments, and special events, as well as gaming
“get-togethers”. Watch the site for more information about the Southwest Dust Devils
as it unfolds and don’t forget to Like our Facebook page, where you can join the members of our community as they discuss all things Dust and Dieselpunk/Panzerpunk.
Gamers, would be dieselpunk scientists, cosplayers, and anyone who enjoys the world
of Dust or dieselpunk in general will find this destination event to be the highlight of
their year!
Dust Day Southwest 2013, “Dust-Up in the Desert”
February 22nd and 23rd, 2013
We’re also proud to share our first major event announcement - Dust Day Southwest
2013, “Dust-Up in the Desert” will be held on February 22nd and 23rd, 2013. We
think you’ll enjoy our host venue - Imperial Outpost Games in Glendale, Arizona and know that you will love our very special guest, Paolo Parente! Make your plans to
join us in February for games, tournaments, prizes, and more. Watch this site for more
information and event news.
Imperial Outpost Games
Address: 4920 Thunderbird Road,
Glendale, AZ 85306, United States
43
from the front: warfare
SITUATION: Florence, Italy - 1947. As part
of the massive Italian Campaign, the Allied 8th
Army pushes into the devastated city of Florence to prepare a staging ground for Operation
Olive II to break the Axis Gothic Line and recapture Italy…
THE PLAYERS: The game is played by
two artists from Lazuli Miniatures Studios, Viet
Nguyen and Lynn Tong. We had just finished
painting up these two magnificent armies for
Roland in Switzerland and were eager to try
them out. Viet commands the Germans while
Lynn plays the Americans.
MPW II-D “Lothar” – “Andrea”
MPW II-B “Luther”- “Yvonne”
Blutkreuz Platoon
Sturmpioniere
Heavy Laser Grenadiers
Heavy Flak Grenadiers
Axis Zombies
HPW VI-A “Königsluther” – “Marie”
MPW II-B “Ludwig” – “Sara”
The game was played at Sci Fi Factory’s Grand
Opening on terrain designed by Lazuli Miniatures Studio.
OBJECTIVE: Eliminate the Enemy (we
modified the rules so that a Hero was worth 2
points and a Heavy was worth 3).
The Allies:
Heroes
DEPLOYMENT: Advancing Lines
Rosie
Bazooka Joe
CONDITIONS: None
Combat Platoon
“The Boss” Ranger Command Squad
“The Gunners” Combat Ranger Squad
“Recon Boys” Recon Ranger Squad
“BBQ Squad” Assault Ranger Squad
MCW M2-B “Hot Dog” – “Valentine”
MCW M2-C “Pounder” – “Dara”
44
Combat Platoon
The Axis:
Heroes
Sigrid Von Thaler
Manfred
Sturmgrenadiere Platoon
Kommandotrupp
Battle Grenadiers
Laser Grenadiers
Recon Grenadiers
Laser Grenadiers
“The Boss” Ranger Command Squad
“The Gunners” Combat Ranger Squad
“Recon Boys” Recon Ranger Squad
“Death Dealers” Ranger Weapon Squad
MCW M2-F “Steel Rain” – “Jenny”
Assault Platoon
“Hell Boys” Ranger Attack Squad
“BBQ Squad” Assault Ranger Squad
HAW M6-A “Punisher” – “Nyranee”
Deployment:
We arranged the board so that the larger buildings faced the outside while the ruins faced inwards making for a killing ground in the center
of the board with light cover scattered in the
ruins and on the streets. Both armies deployed
infantry in the cover of the large buildings while
the tanks were placed in between the buildings
with their cannons covering the streets.
Turn One:
Turn One saw both armies double move
across the streets and taking cover in the
ruins near the center of the board. The
Lothar “Andrea” fires its Nebelwerfer
42s at the American Pounder “Dara” and
manages to score two points of damage.
The Konigluther “Marie” and the Luther
“Yvonne” fire at the advancing Allied infantry but fail to cause any casualties.
The M6 Heavy Walker Punisher
“Nyranee” moves into position to cover the ruins with her powerful Dual
155mm Howitzers while two infantry
squads cover her side in case any German units attempt to flank her. The
Steel Rain “Jenny” awaits orders for
targets safely inside a building.
ALLIES: 0
AXIS: 0
45
from the front:
dust warfare
Turn Two:
In the second turn, walkers exchanged fire while
infantry poured into the ruins. The Axis won Priority and advanced infantry into the ruins without fear of Reactions from the close-range BBQ
Ranger squads. The Konigsluther “Marie” shot
the Hot Dog “Valentine” through the ruins but
only managed to score one point of damage. The
Luther “Yvonne” killed two Rangers. During
the Allied turn the Pounder “Dara” opened with
is 17 Pounder Gun and destroyed the “Yvonne”
in a spectacular explosion. Bazooka Joe’s BBQ
Squad and Hellboys killed one Zombie and two
Laser Grenadiers.
46
Rosie moves her Combat Rangers behind a barricade in the center street, a position that would
prove pivotal to the game.
ALLIES: 1
AXIS: 0
dust chronicles #3
The “Dara” provides covering fire while the
Allied Infantry enter the ruins.
Turn Three:
The Axis Zombies charged Bazooka Joe’s
squad leaving him with one wound and
without a squad. The BBQ Assault Rangers mopped up the Zombies with their
shotguns and flamethrower.
Joe and the Attack Rangers desperately
try to hold off an Axis Zombie assault
while the BBQ Squad arrives from behind
to cleanse the monsters.
from the front
Priority in Turn Three went to the Allies,
“Jenny” fired her 4.2 Rocket at the Konigsluther. With the combined power of
“Nyrane’s” Dual Howizters, the Konigsluther “Marie” took 3 points of damage.
“Marie” turned her attention away from
the Hot Dog “Valentine” and fired back at
“Nyranee” scoring 2 points of damage.
47
48
Sigrid and the Sturmpioneer squad
fight the Combat Rangers.
ALLIES: 2
AXIS: 1
Turn Four:
The Allies won the initiative again
in the fourth turn. The Recon Grenadiers fired at the Allied Command
Squad and kill the mechanic and radioman. The BBQ squad shot at the
Laser Grenadiers and killed four but
not before they reacted and made
casualties of two of the Rangers.
The Ludwig had flanked the Punisher “Nyranee” and scored one point
of damage while the Heavies continued to exchange fire. The Gunners
wiped out Sigrid’s Sturmpioneer but
the Heavy Flak Grenadiers wiped
them out.
On the other side of the board, the
Heavy Laser Grenadiers combined
their Schwer Laswer-Werfers with
the Ludwig’s machine gun and inflicted two casualties on the Allied
Command Squad. “Dara” shoots its 17 Pounder
Gun at the Lothar and does 3 points of damage.
The return fire destroys the Dara.
The Allied squads are faltering under the axis
advance.
ALLIES: 4
AXIS: 4
Turn Five:
The Axis moved first on the 5th turn and finished
what they had started in the previous turn.
The Kommandotrup finished off the BBQ
Squad. The Recon and Battle Grenadiers killed
the Boss Command Squad but lost two soldiers
in the process but the 2nd Command Squad and
the Recon Rangers finished the Heavy Laser
Grenadiers on the other side of the board.
The Axis Kommandotrupp fired at
Bazooka Joe taking his last wound
and putting the Axis in the lead.
The Lothar “Andrea” realizing how
close the “Valentine’s” Naplam
Thrower was to the Konigsluther
fired it’s artillery, but failed to destroy it. The “Valentine” proceeded
to burn the Heavy Flak Grenadiers
turning their armor into a pile of
ash. The Ludwig and the Konigsluther continued to pound away
the Punisher “Nyranee” and finally
neutralized it.
Rosie and the Combat quad train
their Bazookas onto the Konigsluther “Marie”.
49
Marie watches the destruction of
the “Nyranee” from the cupola of
her Heavy Walker.
ALLIES: 6
AXIS: 9
Turn Six:
50
Turn Six was the epic conclusion of
the battle. The Axis won priority again,
the Grenadiers finished the last Allied
Recon Squad on their side of the board.
The “Valentine,” Rosie, and the Combat Rangers focused their Napalm and
Bazookas onto the Konigsluther and finally take it down.
CONCLUSION:
ALLIES: 9
AXIS: 10
The Axis scored a very narrow victory
over the Allies, Florence is theirs. For
now and Operation Olive II has been
delayed for another day.
If you enjoy playing Dust Tactics and/or Dust
Warfare and want to see your battles featured
in a future issue of Dust Chronicles then simply
take some pictures next time you play and who
knows, your victory might be the next “From
The Front”.
There is no need to write an entire article, pictures of soldiers and vehicles often tell the story
all by themselves. Check page 2 for details on
how to submit anything.
51
52
www.panzerpunk.com
www.panzerpunk.com
sue 3
CS Barnhart
dust chronicles is
RPG rules set in the world of
Paolo Parente’s Dust
Written By:
53
The core mechanic of DUST: ADVENTURES is the six sided dice. The game revolves
around dice pools of six sided dice with each dice having one of two possible outcomes,
a hit (which counts as a success) and a miss (which does not count as a success). The six
sided die has two hit results on it and four miss results. If not using proper specialized
DUST dice, treat any roll of a 5 or 6 as a hit and rolls of 1, 2, 3 or 4 as misses. (Dust Dice
Purists may prefer to have the 1 and 6 be hits and 2, 3, 4, and 5 be misses).
Dice are available from www.dust-models.com as well as www.battletactics.tv or can be
custom made by many companies including www.chessex.com. Otherwise you can just use
standard dice as described above.
ATTRIBUTES
When making your dice pool you will default to
the attribute (a statistic or ability that defines a
wide range of possible talents and capabilities)
most related to the action at hand.
For example, the Game Master may require a
character to leap across a chasm as a castle in
Bavaria is collapsing from internal explosions.
The player of the character would default to his
Dexterity (or Strength at GMs discretion) to
form his dice pool. A character that has Dexterity of 3 would roll 3 dice and count the number
of successes he rolls and the compare them to
the difficulty the Game Master assigned to the
leap.
HEROES AND CHUMPS
There are two classification of characters in
Dust: Adventures. The first is the heroic individuals who hold the balance of the world in
their hands, these individuals are called heroes
even if they are not so heroic (evil scientists and
storm trooper commanders for the Axis would
still be classified as heroes, even though in reality they are villains). The second category is
everyone else.
SKILLS
dust adventures - rpg
Attribute dice pools are further augmented by
specialized skills that enhance a character’s capabilities in limited or focused ways.
54
In the above example, the character may add his
dice of the Jumping skill to improve his odds of
making the jump. If the character had 2 dice in
Jumping he would add those dice to his Dexterity of 3 to form a total of 5 dice in his dice pool.
Throughout these rules you will see references
to what heroes can do and what everyone can
do. If the rule refers to heroes only heroes can
benefit or suffer from that rule. By definition,
for this game, heroes are those characters who
started the game with at least one fate point
DICE POOLS
Lastly, heroes always add a bonus die (see
Chance Die below) to resolve actions (but only
for actions, not for resisting damage or inflicting damage or any other role that is not directly
an active skill or attribute use to accomplish a
task). The GM has the final say if you get your
hero die or not.
SGT Hein rolls his 5 dice and gains four misses
and a hit. The hit was on his chance die. He
rerolls his chance die and gets a miss, but since
it is the chance die the first reroll is counted as
a hit, but since it was actually a miss he stops
rerolling it. If he receive a hit on the second roll
he would continue rolling until he rolls a miss.
dust chronicles #3
When calculating a character’s ability to accomplish a task the player or GM must determine
the correct dice pool. This is simply a matter of
adding the numbers together. The first number
of the equation is the character’s corresponding
attribute which then has any skill levels added to
it and is finally augmented (either up or down)
by equipment and other modifiers that the GM
determines are applicable.
Die may be rerolled multiple times until it comes
up as a miss. Each additional hit is added to the
final result of the dice pool roll. The first reroll
of a chance die is automatically considered a hit
even if it comes up a miss for calculating total
hits, but is only rerolled if it actually comes up
a hit.
Example:
Trying to leap over the chasm, SGT Hein of the
55th Signal Command gathers his dice pool.
Hein has a DEX of 2 and a STR of 3, the GM
decides the leap is more a feat of strength and
lets Hein use his STR 3 as the basis. Hein also
has Jumping at 1 for a total of 4 dice.
HOW HARD CAN IT BE?
Every task has a difficulty that the Game Master has to determine, while later sections in the
book (Attributes and Skills, Combat) will aid
and suggest Difficulties, the final Difficulty
Number is determined based on the action and
needs of the story.
The dice pools of Heroes have a special Chance
Die rule. When the Chance Die rule is used one
die is added to the dice pool and is either rolled
separately or with a die of a different color or
another way to distinguish it from the other
dice. This is the Chance Die.
SGT Hein is a hero character, therefore he adds
a bonus die to his pool. This brings his pool to
5 dice (3 for STR, 1 for Jumping and finally 1
Chance Die).
When the Chance Die comes up as a hit it is
rerolled until it comes up as a miss. The Chance
Dice rolls are only needed when the action is
dramatic and important to the plot or story of the
adventure. Bazooka Joe does not need to make
a drive roll to take his jeep from his command
tent to the chow tent when in the field, but he
does need to make rolls when driving the same
jeep, the same distance through a mine field.
In general, an easy task has a Difficulty of 1, a
Hard Task a Difficulty of 2, a Very Hard Task a
Difficulty of 3, and so forth.
The GM has determined that SGT Hein’s leap is
a Very Hard task requiring a difficulty of 3. SGT
Hein rolled and scored 2 hits on his five dice, he
has failed.
THE CHANCE DIE
55
FATE POINTS
EXPERIENCE POINTS
In addition characters are able to spend Experience Points to further alter the result of these
rolls. Experience Points represents a character’s
knowledge, experience and the ability to apply
them to real world events and circumstances.
Players may either horde Experience Points to
later use to permanently increase a skill or even
ability or they may spend them to immediately
gain bonus dice to a dice pool to ensure they
succeed in a task.
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When spending Experience Points a player immediately adds one dice to his dice pool for
each Experience Point spent. These bonus dice
are only good for one roll, one action, but often they are the difference between success and
failure, life and death. A character can spend
no more than 5 Experience Points on any one
action, however he may spend them before the
roll, after the roll or even after he is informed
of the original roll’s success or failure, but all
Experience Points bonus dice do not need to be
rolled at one time. You can add one die initially,
roll your dice pool and be unsatisfied with the
result and then spend two more to find out you
still failed and then decide to spend two more.
Be careful, however, as spending too many Experience Points on bonus dice will slow your
advancement.
Not wanting to plummet to his death, SGT Hein
opts to spend 3 Experience Points to alter his
chances of survival. He scores a bonus hit
on these three dice. Tying his difficulty target
number.
Lastly all characters begin play with up to
two Fate Points and may have a maximum of
up to five Fate Points. Fate Points are special.
They must be spent before the roll is made
and do not alter the dice pool in size at all,
instead they invert the results. When spending a Fate Point Misses are treated as Hits
and Hits as Misses. Fate Points even alter the
effect of bonus dice from Experience Points.
Other than how you read the dice, Fate Point
rolls are treated the same for all other purposes. Fate Points can only be spent on actions
the user performs with the following exception: Anyone can spend a Fate Point to assist
anyone else on a Resistance Roll!
Any character, be it a player character of a
non-player character run by the Game Master,
that has at least one Fate Point is considered a
Hero.
HOW WELL DID I DO?
Usually when a character succeeds at a dice pool
roll it is because he has scored enough hits on his
roll to equal or exceed the difficulty number set
by the rules and adjusted by the Game Master.
This usually means the task at hand is complete;
the character has leapt the chasm and avoided
falling to his doom. However, sometimes an action or task needs more detailed results or takes
longer to achieve. Fixing an engine may take
hours, requiring multiple skill tests to be made.
At other times the number of successes may
determine how far you leapt, how much of the
code you cracked, how well you flew the plane
under the bridge.
In these circumstances the final result must be
tallied and if necessary applied against the difficulty number a second time. Or they may be
added to a bonus to determine how effective the
final result was. Essentially, success is not simply hit or miss.
Once a character has no fate points, Experience
Point bonus dice are treated as normal dice.
SGT Hein gained one hit on the Experience
Points he spent, he is allowed to reroll that dice
and add further hits to his final score. He rolls
a miss and his rerolls end.
Unlike normal Chance Dice,
the first reroll is not considered an automatic hit.
EQUIPMENT
Hits and successes that are higher or lower than
your Difficulty Number are categorized as degrees. If your number of hits is one away from
the Difficulty Number, it is one degree, if it is
higher it is a one degree success, if it is lower,
it is a one degree failure. Certain skills and actions have different results and effects based
on how many degrees of failure or success you
achieve.
e3
Going back to our example:
Scoring 3 hits and needing 3 to make the leap,
SGT Hein has barely succeeded in his action.
He is safe, on the other side of the chasm, for
now. If he had failed by one degree the GM may
give him a second chance to catch the ledge, if
he failed by more he would likely plummet to his
death. If he gained one of more degrees of success he would have clearly landed on the other
side.
Sometimes the result of the action is directly determined by the gear you have. Equipment that
adds a modifier to your skill will be noted as
doing such in their description.
dust chronicles issu
DEGREE OF SUCCESS
Some equipment will have
modifiers that give you bonuses to your successful
rolls meaning if you succeed on your normal ability you will gain additional
successes to improve your
overall performance. Other
types of equipment will give
you bonus dice to roll after
you succeed or even on the
initial roll. However, some skills are equipment
dependent and can’t be used without the same
equipment. After all, you can’t use the firearms
skill without a firearm.
PLAYING WITH FATE
Characters who have at least one Fate Point treat
all bonus dice from Experience Point expenditures as Chance Dice. With the following exception, these dice are treated exactly like normal
Chance Dice: These bonus dice do not create an
automatic hit on the reroll, if they come up as a
miss they are treated as a miss.
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OPPOSING SIDES
The Difficulty of an action that is directly opposed by another character (PC or NPC) is determined based on their skill, attributes and die
rolls.
The defender always wins ties.
dust chronicles is
sue 3
Bazooka Joe is confronted by a Grenadier while
he is tracking a Hans Light Panzer. Joe decides
that if he knocks the Grenadier out Joe can then
get a clear shot at the Hans. Joe has Dexterity
of 3 and 2 in Brawling and he is a Hero for a
total dice pool of 6. He scores 3 hits. Since this
is a melee combat, the difficulty is based on the
target’s Brawling skill for which the Grenadier
has 2 in Dexterity and 1 in Brawl. He rolls and
gets one success. Joe gets in a nice clean hit and
knocks the Grenadier down.
SUSTAINED ACTION
Normally a character has upwards to two actions
he can perform per action round. Usually these
are combinations of move, skill use or attack action, however a character may perform two of
the same actions if he prefers and this is called
a sustained action. A sustained action is determined like any other dice pool, but the character
is allowed to reroll any misses one time.
Characters performing a sustained action are
distracted and focused on their primary action
and this lowers any defensive rolls, perception
rolls and other rolls determined by the Game
Master by 2 dice. However, it will never reduce
a Resistance Roll or Damage Roll.
Bazooka Joe decides he really wants to take the
Hans Light Panzer out of action. He decides
to aim carefully on his action and use the Sustained Action rules. He has Firearms (Grenade
Weapons) at 4, with Dexterity of 3, and he is still
a Hero for a total dice pool of 8. He also used a
Miscellaneous action to aim which the GM has
given him a bonus die for. He rolls his nine dice
and gets 3 hits and 6 misses so he rerolls the 6
misses and gets a result of 2 more hits for a final
result of 5. That Hans is in trouble.
STANDARD ACTION
Each turn a character has two actions. These actions are quite simple, they are Move, Attack,
Skill Use and Miscellaneous. A character can
use two of the same actions in one round but
anytime they do so for an Attack it has to be
resolves as a Sustained Attack and not two individual attacks.
Miscellaneous actions are anything not covered in the rules that a player wants to try. Most
common are focusing a skill and aiming an attack which takes up the entire action but gives a
character a bonus die to his die pool to resolve
his focused skill or aimed attack.
58
The Grenadier is down and now Joe needs to
take out the Hans. He has two actions on his
next turn and lines up his shot, realizing he is
out of range, Joe decides to take a move action
and then use a miscellaneous action to aim.
Immediately afterwards, the Grenadier Joe
punched earlier attacks back. The Grenadier
has Dexterity of 2 and Brawling of 1. Joe has
Dexterity of 3 and Brawling 2 but suffers a 2
penalty on all automatic actions (the only actions Joe can still perform, luckily a parry defense is an automatic action). The Grenadier
scores one normal hit and a hit on the Chance
Die but fails to gain any more hits for a total of
2. Joe scores no hits. Joe might want to spend
some Experience Points!
Characters can only use Sustained Action on actions that involve skills they are trained in.
AUTOMATIC ACTIONS
Automatic actions are those that a character can
perform without sacrificing any of his standard
actions. These include using language skills,
damage rolls, perception rolls, resistance rolls,
defense rolls and anything else that is more a
reaction than an action. The GM has final say if
the use is classified as an Automatic or Standard
Action.
Except in special circumstances (as determined
by the GM) a character cannot use a sustained
action on Automatic Actions.
RESISTANCE ROLLS
The most popular Resistance Roll is against
damage. Each degree of failure on the Resistance Roll for damage results in the target suffering a wound level (see Combat). The total Difficulty Number for a damage Resistance Roll is
calculated using the following formula: Attack’s
Degree of Success + Weapon Modifier.
The Resistance Roll for Damage is made by
rolling your Toughness and adding your Armor
Modifier to it.
The Grenadier has struck Joe squarely in the
chest. The damage is 3 as the Grenadier scored
three hits over Joe’s defense and is unarmed.
Joe has a Toughness of 3 and is wearing Armor
1 gear. He rolls his dice pool and gets no successes, Joe takes 1 wound levels (2 damage, reduced by 1 for his armor) leaving Joe Stunned.
Joe now has a fight on his hands.
g
dust adventures - rp
Finally, the last core rule to understand is the
Resistance Roll. The Resistance Roll is a last
ditch attempt to avoid damage or other negative
effect. The roll is made against the total success
of the initial attack/skill attempt targeted at the
character which can be modified by additional
factors such as gear and circumstance. Much
like the Opposing Sides roll, the original result
is the new Difficulty Number.
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dust chronicles #3
WHO ARE YOU
DUST: ADVENTURES assumes that the players will be playing ASOCOM Rangers. The
basic assumption is that the Axis are the bad guys, while the SSU is at best an estranged
ally and that the men and women of ASOCOM are the heroes. While not every ASOCOM
member or nation is necessarily a heroic, altruistic saint and not every Axis grunt is a vile
evil agent of chaos and destruction, for the purposes of DUST: ADVENTURES the Axis
will play the role of the villain. Future supplements may provide rules for Axis as heroes,
SSU as heroes or even Majestic 12 Player Characters (and maybe even Vrill one day) this
basic set is focusing on the Allies as PCs.
BUILDING A CHARACTER
Every character is defined by six core attributes:
Mobility, Toughness, Reason, Dexterity,
Strength, and Presence. These attributes range
from 1 to 4 in a normal character, with very few
having 0 in any of them and even fewer having
5 in any attribute. The number of the attribute
directly reflects the number of dice in the standard dice pool, before skills are added in.
The standard Allied grunt in the ASOCOM has
2 in each of the six attributes and the average
hero should have 3.
In addition characters are defined by Skills,
Wound Levels, Fate Points, and Experience
Points.
For the record, the average ASOCOM grunt has
0 Fate Points, 3 Experience Points and 10 dice
in skills. They also use standard “non-hero”
Wound Levels.
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Heroes (generally) start with 2 Fate Points, 10
Experience Points and 12 Dice in Skills. They
also have the extra Wound Level of “Flesh
Wound”.
ATTRIBUTES
Your hero will begin with 1 in each of the six attributes. You will gain 12 more points to divide
between them. It costs one point to go from 1
to 2 in an attribute. It costs another point to go
from 2 to 3 (for a total of 2 points). It costs yet
another point to go from 3 to 4 (total of 3 points)
and it costs 2 points to go from 4 to 5 (total of
5 points). Unless the Game Master gives you
extra-special permission you cannot reduce
any attribute to 0, attributes of 0 are purely the
domain of NPCs. (Game Masters, do not give
them approval).
With the Game Master’s approval, however,
you may exchange your fate points for extra attribute dice at an exchange rate or 1 for 1. Doing so, however, will reduce the maximum Fate
Points you can ever have by the same amount as
you exchanged for attribute dice.
Joshua is creating a character he has named
Lucas “Big Dog” Baines, a New York raised
gold gloves boxer drafted to serve in ASOCOM.
He first decides to increase all his attributes to
2, costing him 6 attribute points. He then raises
Strength and Toughness to 3 for an additional
2 points (1 for each). He decides that Lucas is
a tough and muscular man and opts to increase
both Strength and Toughness further to 4 each
(2 more points). He has 2 points left after this
and decides to raise his Presence and Dexterity by 1 each making them both a final of 3. His
final attributes look like this: Mobility 2, Toughness 4, Reason 2, Dexterity 3, Strength 4 and
Presence 3.
SKILLS
Each character begins play with 12 skill points
these can be added to any skill the player wishes
but with no more than +5 to any one skill. All
skills start at 0 and each skill point placed into
the skill increases the skill level by 1.
Skills are usually linked to a particular attribute,
but under certain circumstances different attributes can be used to form the character’s dice
pool: for example Climbing could be done with
Strength, Dexterity, Mobility or Toughness depending on the circumstance.
FATE POINTS
AND EXPERIENCE POINTS
Starting characters have 2 Fate Points (unless
they exchange them for Attributes, see above)
and 10 Experience Points. If they character desires he may skip ahead to the chapter on Advancement and Experience and spend the 10
Experience Points before the first game begins,
but it is recommended that they keep at least 5
Experience Points for adventuring (though not
required).
STARTING GEAR
Some skills are advanced skills and cost twice
the normal price to gain bonuses in. Advanced
skill also cannot benefit from specializations, as
they are in general already specialized. Examples include Berserk, Damage Resilience and
Mighty Blow. Advanced skills are marked with
an (A).
Deciding that Lucas was a prize fighter in the
civilian world, Josh opts to put 4 skill points
into Attack (Brawling), 3 into Attack (Shotgun),
2 into Martial Artist (gaining 1 skill level because it is an Advanced skill), 2 in Attack (Grenade) and 1 into First Aid.
A combat knife is also part of the standard kit,
as are general rations, compass if they have navigation and a medical kit if they have any degree
of medical skills (first aid or medicine). Characters with a 5 or better in the repair skill can
expect to be issued a set of mechanic’s tools.
g
Many skills have a broad area of study under
them, such as Scientist. A specialization is a focus on one of the subgroups of the broad skill,
for example, in Scientist it may be Botany or
Vrill Technology. In Survival this could be
Cold or Desert, in Firearms it could be Pistol
or Submachine Gun. These specializations must
be selected at character generation.
In general ASOCOM characters will start with
Basic Armor (Armor 1), any standard weapon
with which they have 3 or better skill rating in,
but not more than one rifle and one pistol sized
weapon and a max of one special weapon again
based on skill rating of 3 or better (such as flame
thrower, bazooka or other). In addition they can
assume to have one grenade per skill rating in
the grenade skill.
dust adventures - rp
As a member of ASOCOM the character has
his initial gear issued to him based on mission,
role and personal relations with the command
and especially the quartermaster. While Walkers and major weapons of war are a key feature
to the DUST universe, not every adventure and
every character is going to be issued a walker
out of the gate.
Based on his skill list, Lucas begins play with a
shotgun, a medical kit and 2 grenades. In addition the GM agrees to let Lucas start with sap
gloves which they determine are -/1 PEN 2 AP
NA weapons. As a standard troop in ASOCOM
he also starts with Basic Armor.
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LEARNING AND IMPROVING
SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES
Heroes can use Experience Points, accumulated
from completing missions, to learn new skills
and improve old ones. Spending Experience
Points this way may be done only between missions.
In addition to Experience Points the hero needs
experience with the skill, either through training
or by attempting to use the skill and mission. If
there is a significant amount of training involved,
or the hero needs to find a suitable teacher, that
might become an adventure’s focus.
In most cases, the cost of getting a new skill after initial hero creation equals three times the
attribute that relates to the skill. For example,
if a hero wants to learn Navigation after an adventure and he has a Reason die code of 3, the
first die in Navigation costs him nine Experience Points . The hero then has a 1in his Navigation skill, which becomes a 4 when added to
his Reason on standard uses.
The cost of improving most existing skills is
determining in the same way, except that the
number of dice in the skill plus attribute is used
to determine the cost. For example: a hero has
an acrobatics and Mobility total of 4 and wants
to increase it. To raise the total to 5 (Mobility 3,
Acrobatics 2) the hero must spend 12 Experience Points . To increase the skill to 6 after the
next scenario the hero must spend 15 Experience Points.
Skills may only be improved by 1 per completed mission. Advance skills (those marked with
a (A) beside them) cost double to increase.
Attributes are increased in a similar manner,
but the cost is 10 times the numeric value of the
attribute for any attribute up to 4, to increase
an attribute above 4 costs 20 times the numeric
value in Experience Points and one Fate Point.
As with skills, no attribute can be increased by
more than 1 per mission and they can only be
increased in between missions. Only one attribute can be increased at a time.
ATTRIBUTES AND SKILLS
As we saw in the Basic Rules and Character Creation sections, characters are defined by
several categories, the two most important are Attributes and Skills.
62
ATTRIBUTES
All characters, NPCs, creatures and basic encounters are described in six basic attributes.
These attributes are broad area of physical, mental, emotional or spiritual abilities and can represent a wide range of abilities and statistics.
MOBILITY: Mobility represents a character’s
control over their body as a whole, their ability
to move, maneuver, walk and run. A character
with a high Mobility score is athletic and capable of complex movements while in motion.
Gymnasts, swimmers, runners, divers and athletes of all varieties would benefit from a Mobility of 3 or more. Typically used for the skills
of Acrobatics, Athletics, Dodge and Running.
PRESENCE: Presence
DEXTERITY: Dexterity is a character’s ap-
TOUGHNESS: Toughness combines an indi-
vidual’s endurance, stamina and pain threshold
into one overall attribute. A character with a
high Toughness can ignore duress, go extended
times without food and water, is fit for survival
and can sustain larger amounts of damage without concern of serious injury. All ASOCOM
Rangers would benefit from a high Toughness.
Toughness is commonly used with Resistance
Rolls, Survival and general tests of endurance
and resilience.
Remember attributes are presented in a number
format and that number is the number of dice
used in the dice pool when performing an action
related to that attribute.
SUPPRESSION
All characters have a Suppression Score (see
combat). A character’s suppression score is
equal to his number of dice in Presence plus his
skill dice in Willpower plus his current number
of Fate and Experience Points.
Lucas has a Presence of 3 and 10 Experience
Points with 2 Fate Points, giving him a starting
Suppression Score of 15.
plied agility and hand eye coordination and reflexes. A character with a high Dexterity score
has deft and fast hands, accuracy and steady
nerve. Surgeons, pilots and baseball pitchers
would benefit from a high Dexterity. Dexterity
is most often used with Firearms, Brawling and
Driving.
is a combination of attractiveness,
bravery,
loyalty, leadership, charisma, spiritual fortitude
and will power. Officers and NCOs as well as
those who study the supernatural or are in need
of an unusual supply
of courage would benefit the most from a high
Presence score. Presence
is used most often with the Command, Intimidate, Persuasion and the Willpower skills.
STRENGTH: Muscle, mass and the ability
to use it properly is covered by a character’s
Strength. A high Strength directly influences
lifting capability, damage inflicted in close combat, carrying capacity and to a limited degree
a character’s ability to climb, jump and swim.
Boxers, martial artists, weight lifters and construction workers would all display exceptional
strength and it is often used with the Lifting,
Jumping, Grenade and Airborne skills.
REASON: Reason not only covers a charac-
ter’s general intellect and knowledge, but also
covers a character’s mental fortitude and alertness. Scientists, snipers, scouts and officers all
benefit from good Reason scores. Reason is often associated with Perception, Repair, Invent,
Navigation and Knowledge skills.
63
SKILLS
Skills are more refined versions of attributes,
they cover a specific circumstance an attribute
may cover and further enhancing it by adding
their dice pool to that of the attribute.
The following skill descriptions are divided up
by their governing Attribute. The governing attribute for the skill, while at any time the skill
may default to another attribute, this governing
attribute is used for purposes of character advancement and is generally the attribute used
when forming your dice pool.
Skills marked with a (A) are advanced skills
and have special uses that may differ from the
standard use of skills.
GENERAL SUCCESS
As a general rule, a GM may allow any skill
roll that gains at least one HIT to be considered
a General Success, even if it doesn’t beat the
target difficulty. A General Success means the
attempt didn’t outright fail and the character
may try again on the next round. If no HITs are
scored then treat the skill test as a failure.
MOBILITY SKILLS
Agile: Used in conjunction with Mobility to
maneuver around obstacles. A successful test
against terrain difficulty will allow a character to ignore movement penalties. Using Agile
counts as a Move action and not a skill action,
though it cannot be used with any other skills
during the same round. Terrain of an easy level
has a Difficult of 1, medium level is a 2 and hard
level is a 4.
Dodge: Used to determine difficulty of ranged
attacks made against the character. The result
generated is added to the character’s defense
when calculating difficulty to be hit.
Fast (A): The Fast skill allows the character to
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SKILL LEVEL
Skill level is a reference to the actual number
of dice in a skill, not the total Skill + Attribute
dice pool.
SKILL ACTION POINTS
Skill Action Points are bonuses that act identical to Experience Points but can only be used to
augment a certain set of skills and may not be
saved up to increase attributes or skills during
character improvement.
move swiftly. Each skill level in Fast allows the
character to move an extra meter once per round.
No more than 6 bonus meters can be gained in
this manner. The bonus movement can only be
applied to one move action a round, so even if
the character moves twice he can only use this
skill once.
Initiative: Bonus dice added to initiative rolls
in combat.
Martial Arts (A): Used to replace Strength
Damage. When used the character totals up his
skill level between Martial Arts and Mobility
and treat this result as his STR for calculating
strength damage.
Riding: Used to ride various animals, each ani-
mal type is a separate skill. Riding becomes a
character’s default Attribute and Skill for purposes of Dodging when using the Dodge skill
while riding. This use of Riding as Dodge does
not stack with Mobility or Dexterity but is rolled
only at skill level.
Scout (A): A special skill that provides a char-
acter with bonus Skill Action Points that can be
used every adventure but only to augment Hide,
Navigation, Sneak, Survival, and Tracking.
Other skills may be permitted to be augmented
by the GM but at a cost of multiple bonus Skill
Action Points, such as 2 points gaining you a +1
die on First Aid and so forth.
Sneak: Used to avoid detection and remain si-
and aircraft. Each vehicle type is its own skill.
Piloting becomes a character’s default Attribute
and Skill for purposes of Dodging when using
the Dodge skill while Piloting a vehicle. This
use of Piloting as Dodge does not stack with
Mobility or Dexterity but is rolled only at skill
level (See Combat: Vehicles).
Sniper (A): A special skill that gives the shoot-
DEXTERITY SKILLS
Attack: A broad skill that covers all forms of
weapon use, from knives and fists to guns, grenades and walker weapons. Each category is its
own skill.
Driving: Driving is the skill used to drive cars,
trucks, motorcycles and other land vehicles.
Each type is a separate skill. Driving becomes
a character’s default Attribute and Skill for purposes of Dodging when using the Dodge skill
while driving a vehicle. This use of Driving as
Dodge does not stack with Mobility or Dexterity but is rolled only at skill level.
Hide: Used to avoid detection and remain si-
lent while stationary, unlike sneak, hide lasts for
a long and a role may only be needed every hour
or day depending on situation.
er the ability to ignore resistance roll bonuses
for cover and armor, one die of RR bonus can
be ignored per level of Sniper. Alternatively,
the character may use his levels instead to increase suppression by one per skill level used.
The character may mix his effects as he wishes
(for example, a character with Sniper 3 may reduce RR bonus by 2 and increase suppression
by 1).
lent while moving. The Skill roll is made every
round that the Sneak skill is being used.
Piloting: The skill used for piloting walkers
Thievery: A catch all skill for sleight of hand,
picking pockets, opening locks and thieving in
general.
TOUGHNESS
Badass: Badass gives a character a number
of Bonus Action Points equal to the skill level
the character has. These bonus points can only
be spent to resist intimidation or to counter out
Suppression damage on a one for one ration.
Charge (A): A successful charge skill roll
against a difficulty of 2 allows the character to
move twice and still attack in one round.
Damage Resilience (A): Bonus dice added to
Resistance Rolls to avoid damage. This skill is
not normally available to Player Characters.
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DUST ADVENTURES - RPG
Frenzy (A): A special skill that provides a
character with bonus Skill Action Points that
can be used every adventure but only to augment Charge or Attack.
Heroic Stand (A): Heroic Stand gives a char-
acter a number of Bonus Action Points equal
to the skill level the character has. These points
can only be spent on resistance rolls, but these
bonus dice count their misses as hits and hits as
misses.
Survival: Used to find food, shelter and wa-
ter. Generally each Hit is enough to sustain a
character for one day. While multiple Hits can
be split between days and the number of people
sustained.
(For example, Hicks rolls three hits he can sustain himself for three days or three people for
one day or himself for one day and a friend for
two days).
Mighty Blow (A): Each level of Mighty Blow
allows the character to reverse a single die of
damage from Strength Damage treating misses
as hits and hits as misses.
Swimming: Used to tread water, dive and perform actions in water.
Reason
Black Ops (A): A special skill that provides
a character with bonus Skill Action Points that
can be used every adventure but only to augment Initiative, Demolitions, Command, Assault and Radio.
Demolitions: Used to properly employ and
detonate explosives. Also used to disconnect,
disarm and dispose of other explosives.
Strength
Airborne: Used to make airborne jumps into
66
enemy territory. Allows for ease of use of parachutes, jump packs and jet packs as well as repelling and helicopter assaults.
Grappling: Allows the user to use his Strength
for attacks in close combat instead of Dexterity,
in addition, when engaged in a Strength against
Strength opposed test, Grappling lets the character treat one dice per level of skill in Grappling as if a hit is a miss and a miss is a hit, these
dice must be selected before they are rolled.
Jumping: Used to jump, leap, and vault and
otherwise bound over obstacles. In general a
single success allows a character to jump two
meters (length or height) with each additional
success increasing this by one meter.
First Aid: Used to cancel stun (difficulty 0),
reduce Wounded by one level (difficulty 2) and
stabilize incapacitated characters (difficulty 4).
Medicine (A): Used to stabilize dead to inca-
pacitated (within one round of “death”) with a
difficulty of 4. Treats one die of First Aid per
level of Medicine as if hit results were misses
and misses were hits, select these dice before
rolling.
Navigation: Used by characters to chart, plan
and schedule routes to other locations and to
determine direction, distance, elevation and
general location while out in the field. This skill
also covers all aspects of map reading and map
making. Each success allows a character to navigate successfully for one hour.
ness, their ability to notice the out of the ordinary, sense danger, pick up on small details and
search areas for valuable information. Can be
used to oppose the hide and sneak skills.
Radio: Used to properly use, transmit, encode,
decode and communicate with radio systems. A
Radio skilled character can also use his position
to help artillery and indirect weapons fire more
accurately.
Repair: Typically used to fix damaged good,
such as radios, walkers, weapons or other mechanical and electrical devices. The degree of
damage (each “wound level”) increases the difficulty by 1, with a standard difficulty of 1 as
a base. Each additional hit repairs one “wound
level”.
Tank Head (A): Treats one die of Repair per
level of Tank Head as if hits were misses and
misses were hits, nominate these dice before
rolling.
Tracking: This skill is used by characters to
follow trails, identify who or what they are
tracking and estimate time since passing. Each
success allows a character to track successfully
for one hour.
Weapon Systems: Weapon Systems is used
for attack rolls using vehicle mounted weaponry. Skill is specific to particular vehicles.
DUST CHRONICLES ISSUE 3
Perception: Represents a character’s aware-
Scholar: Used to gather or recall data and in-
formation on various subjects. Subjects can be
as broad as Science of History or as narrow as
Biology or American History. The narrower the
field the more bonus dice the GM may enable
a character to roll. A character selects his area
when assigning skill dice to a Scholar skill.
Spotter (A): A spotter can use his dice in the
Spotter skill to allow one adjacent ally to reverse one attack die per skill level of Spotter so
that misses are treated as hits and hits are treated
as misses. These dice must be selected before
rolling. Spotter can also be used to help artillery
and indirect weapons fire more accurately.
Presence
Animal handling: Used by characters to con-
trol, train and interact with animals. Can mimic
Command, Interrogation, Intimidation and Persuasion with animals. This skill may not be used
on Kampfaffen.
Assault (A): Characters can lead an assault
Berserk (A): A special skill that provides a
character with bonus Skill Action Points that
can be used every adventure but only on Initiative, Resistance Rolls and Strength Damage.
DUST ADVENTURES - RPG
toward the enemy alongside a number of allies
equal to the skill level of Assault are permitted
to ignore a number of suppression equal to the
character’s level of Assault. In addition, all assaulting allies ignore all suppression (whether
pre-existing or gained during the round of the
assault) for the one round per skill level in assault. This skill may only be used once per adventure.
For example, Manfred has Presence of 4 and 4
levels in Assault. He can lead 8 allies into combat and ignore 4 points of suppression.
67
Command: A character with command can
use his skill to reduce suppression damage an
ally has suffered (the target recovers one suppression point per hit scored) as well as permits
the commander the ability to motivate and lead
troops in combat.
Interrogation: Opposed by Presence and
Willpower, each extra hit over the difficulty
will reveal one answer the interrogator desires
to know.
Intimidation: Opposed by Presence and Will-
power, each extra hit over the difficulty will
inflict one point of suppression damage on the
target.
Persuasion: Opposed by Presence and Will-
power, each extra hit over the difficulty will
force a target to follow the character’s instructions for one action. If more than one action is
available to the target, he may divide them up
against multiple targets as long as the extra targets have a total Presence + Willpower lower
than the original target.
Willpower: Used to overcome fear, to resist in-
terrogation and intimidation and as a bonus to
suppression score.
COMBAT
In a World at War, fighting, shooting, stabbing and general violence are inevitable: At
some point during your DUST: ADVENTURES missions you are going to have to physically confront your opponents. And while the combat actions are all variations of the
general Game Basics and Attributes and Skills use, special circumstances and rules will be
needed. The following is a basic run down of the rules.
68
INITIATIVE
All fights have an instigator, something that
starts the hostilities and a way to determine
who the aggressor is. But it isn’t all that simple. In DUST: ADVENTURES whenever a
fight breaks out the characters must dice off for
initiative. The winner goes first, with each individual with a lower score going in order after him until the lowest initiative score finishes
the round. A higher initiative holder can always
hold his action and go later in the round, even if
that means stopping someone else in the middle
of their action to perform his own.
Initiative is determined by rolling your Mobility attribute dice pool. If you have the initiative
skill, now is the time to roll those dice as well.
In certain circumstances initiative may default
to Presence (in character interaction) or Reason
(mental showdowns) but in general, for physical actions the standard attribute for initiative is
Mobility.
SIDES
Some GMs may want to speed up play and avoid
all the countless rerolls for multiple participants
tying in initiative rolls. To do so the GM is encouraged to have each side roll initiative and the
highest side has initiative will all its members
going first. Each side rolls 1 dice per member
they have and add in the highest Command skill
in the group.
Other ranges Include:
A) Artillery: cannot fire less than 12 meters
and has a range increment of 36 meters.
C) Close combat attacks: have an effective
range of 1 to 2 meters, cannot benefit from bonuses or penalties based on range increments.
Either they are within 2 meters or you cannot
attack them.
T) Thrown range: range increment is equal to
1 plus the character’s Strength value.
COMBAT DIFFICULTY
Melee combat is done the same way, except the
skill used is either Brawl or Melee Weapon, depending if the target is unarmed or not.
ATTACKING ZERO
Sometimes your difficulty may indeed be 0.
You have an attack difficulty of 0 when you
are attacking someone who is unable to defend
themselves or is unaware of your attack. If you
score no hits you still miss. However, if you
score one or more hits you attack succeeds and
gains bonus hit added to it to calculate damage
or other results.
FULL DEFENSE
Sometimes you just don’t want to get hit. In
these circumstances you can use the Sustained
Action rules for your defense. When doing so
the character can take no other action. You perform this action like any other Sustained Action, rerolling any misses one time.
However in Full Defense you get to add one additional automatic success to your final total.
Rosie decides to use Full Defense to avoid sniper fire. She has a Mobility of 2 and Dodge at 1.
She rolls 4 dice (2 for Mobility, 1 for Dodge and
1 for being a hero) and gets on hit. Since it is a
Full Defense and therefore a Sustained Action,
she rerolls the three misses and gains an additional success. She has a total defense of 3 for
the round (2 from the roll and a bonus of 1 for it
being a Full Defense).
The Difficulty of a Combat Action is always at
least 1 (see Attacking Zero below). Meaning if
you score 0 hits you automatically miss. However, the Difficulty is determined in an opposed
action. If shooting at a target then that target
determines the Difficulty by making a Mobility roll (with Dodge if applicable), the successes the target gets (number of hits) becomes the
Difficulty number. Even if they generate 0 hits
you still need to score at least 1 hit to successfully attack them.
In addition there are other basic range categories, these are Close and Adjacent. Close range
is considered to be anyone within 3 meters of
another character or NPC. Adjacent is targets
that are within C range of each other.
Range
Range in Dust Adventures is done in increments.
Targets that are less than half the distance of the
base increment are easier to hit, giving the attacker a bonus die when attacking. Targets up
to the range listed for a weapon are treated as
normal. For each increment after that the target
is harder to hit and the attacker loses one die.
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dust chronicles: issue 3
HIT THE DIRT
A character can spend an action to Hit the Dirt.
This automatically reduces the character’s suppression score by one but he is considered to be
in soft cover even if no cover is available. Staying in the Hit the Dirt position continues to cost
one action per round, but additional suppression
is not sustained on subsequent rounds (except
from enemy attacks, see below).
After being hit the character must take a Resistance Roll, this is usually his Toughness attribute, but certain circumstances may use other
attributes (like Strength in Grappling, or Presence in character interaction). In general you
need to score the same amount or more hits on
your Resistance Roll then the total damage of
the attack you just suffered. Scoring lower can
result in being stunned, wounded or worse.
In addition, hitting the dirt while you are in soft
cover raises your cover level to hard.
DAMAGE
If you successfully strike your target (generated
more hits than the target did) you are now entering the damage phase of combat. To calculate the damage take your number of extra hits
above your target number (Degrees of Success)
and add them to whatever damage modifier your
attack has. This becomes the Difficulty of the
Resistance Roll the target must make.
Some weapon damage modifiers are automatic, meaning that they are added directly to the
number of Degrees of Success that were scored
on the initial attack, others are additional dice
you roll to see if you get extra damage. For example, a M1 AR adds +2 automatically to your
damage, but a punch adds a number of dice equal
to half your Strength (round down, minimum 0)
to the damage. Damage codes are presented in a
#/# format. The first number is automatic damage modifiers and the second number is dice
damage modifiers.
70
THE RESISTANCE ROLL
Despite her best effort to dodge Rosie is hit by
the sniper who scored a total of 4 hits on his
attack. His damage will be 1 (for the additional
hit above 3) plus his sniper rifle’s damage code
of 2/1. He fails to gain a hit on his 1 damage to
be rolled (the 1 of the 2/1) but gets to add 2 to
the final damage (the 2 of the 2/1) for a total
damage of 3.
RESISTANCE ROLL<DAMAGE DIFFICULTY
0
No effect
1
Stunned
2
Wounded
3Incapacitated
4
Dead
Wounds stack, so if a character is currently
Wounded and suffers a second Wounded result
then he goes to Incapacitated. If an Incapacitated character suffers Wounded or Incapacitated
Result, then the character is dead. Stun results
do not stack other than to increase the time and
penalty of being wounded.
Heroes have a second Wounded level called
Flesh Wound. So their chart looks like this.
RESISTANCE ROLL<DAMAGE DIFFICULTY
0
No effect
1
Stunned
2
Flesh Wound
3
Wounded
4Incapacitated
5
Dead
Therefore heroes can suffer 5 Wound levels,
while normal people can only suffer 4. For game
purposes, a “normal” is a character that started
the mission with no Fate Points and a “Hero” is
a character who began the current mission with
at least 1 Fate Point.
Though characters who have spent their last
Fate Point and have not earned a replacement
one are heroes in the game, they will be treated
as normal if they begin the mission with 0 Fate
Points.
Back to our example:
Suffering 3 points of damage Rosie makes her
Toughness roll of 2 dice and gets 1 hit, reducing
the damage to 2. Since she is a hero she uses the
Hero Damage chart and notes that she has suffered a Flesh Wound.
Vehicles use their own damage chart.
WOUNDS
Stunned: Character suffers a penalty of 1 die
to all actions for one round.
Flesh Wound: Character suffers a penalty of 1
Wounded: The character suffers a penalty of 1
die to all actions until properly treated by someone with the first aid or medicine skill or other
ability.
Incapacitated: The character cannot perform
any actions, and is in all likelihood unconscious
or dying.
Dead: Well, he’s dead Jim!
SUPPRESSION
Each character has a suppression score equal
to his Presence Attribute. This is increased by
+1 for each level of the Willpower skill he has,
as well as +1 per current Experience Point and
Fate Point he still has. When a character is attacked by a ranged weapon he reduces his current suppression score by 1 per each hit the attack scored, multiple attacks in one round will
stack. These hits are counted even if they come
from attacks that miss the character entirely.
If a character’s suppression is reduced to 0 he
is considered suppressed and is reduced to one
action as he is considered to be using the second
action to Hit the Dirt.
A character recovers one suppression every
round he is not in the combat. In addition the
Command skill can be used to reduce suppression.
dice to all actions until the character spends an
action to address the wound, this can be either
make shift first aid or to make some cliché hero
comment i.e. “I aint got time to bleed!” This action requires no dice roll to achieve, just the use
of an action. If near another hero or a character
(PC or NPC, hero or not) who has the first aid or
medicine skill, the other character can spend the
action for the hero with the flesh wound.
In addition to her Flesh Wound, Rosie suffers 4
Suppression damage from the Sniper’s attack,
since he gained four hits on his attack. Rosie
has a Presence of 3 and Willpower skill of 3.
She currently has 2 fate points and 7 experience
points for a total of 15 (3+3+2+7) Suppression,
which she reduces to 11.
As an optional rule a GM can rule any non-hero
character is automatically suppressed after the
first round of combat. This will lead to a lot of
fights with cover and single actions allowing the
heroes to be more heroic as they can take two
actions a round.
It also saves a lot of book keeping for new or
inexperienced players.
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dust chronicles #3
ARMOR
COVER
Armor, much like weapons, adds to a character’s Resistance Roll, and the bonus is automatic not rolled. So armor with Armor Class
+1 automatically gives the character a bonus hit
against damage in addition to any hits rolled on
the Resistance Roll.
Cover is protection sought out by hiding behind
debris, walls and fortified structures. It comes
in four varieties, NONE, SOFT, HARD, and
COMPLETE. Only Hard and Complete affect
close combat.
Double checking her character sheet Rosie’s
player realizes that Rosie is wearing ASOCOM
Flak Armor which has a Armor Class of 2 reducing her damage to 0. However she still suffers the Suppression loss but she is no longer
wounded.
out in the open.
NONE: There is no modifier; the character is
SOFT: Difficulty to hit the target is increased
by 1. It also reduces Suppression damage by 1.
HARD: Difficulty to hit the target is increased
by 3. In close combat the Difficulty is increased
by 1 for the first round only. It also reduces Suppression damage by 2.
COMPLETE: Target cannot be seen and
therefore cannot be hit under most normal circumstances.
ARMOR PIERCING
AND PENTRATION VALUES
Weapons have several values to them aside
from damage, amongst these are Armor Piercing (AP) and Penetration Value (PV).
PV: Penetration Value the maximum AC (Ar-
72
mor Class) the weapon can be used against.
AP: Armor Piercing. The first number is the
highest AC (Armor Class) the AP can affect, the
second number is the amount of AC it ignores.
You Cannot reduce an Armor Class below 0.
Realizing that the German Sniper Rifle has
a AP of 3/2 the GM adjusts Rosie’s damage.
The Sniper Rifle ignores two points of Armor
Class if the Armor Class is 3 or less. This effectively reduces Rosie’s Armor Class to 0. Rosie
will take 2 points of damage after all, moving
her back to a Flesh Wound. She might want to
spend some Experience Points to attempt to reduce that damage!
If Rosie would have been in Soft Cover she
would have still been hit (her Difficulty to be
hit or Defense would have gone up 1 point) but
she would have suffered one less damage (the
Sniper would not have got the degree of success to increase damage) and would have only
lost 3 suppression. If she was in Hard Cover she
would have been completely missed and only
suffered 2 Suppression (4 hits from the Sniper’s
attack, reduced by 2 for Hard Cover).
Strength Damage is applied to all hand to hand
and melee combat attacks (C). It is simply bonus dice rolled to increase final damage when
the target is hit in close combat. The Strength
Damage bonus a character has is equal to half
their Strength score rounded down with a minimum of 0. Characters with a Strength Damage
of 0 will need to rely on weapons and good attack rolls to threaten targets in close combat.
Rhino has a Strength of 4, so he adds -/2 to
all damage from weapons with a range of C.
Markus has a Strength of 6, he adds -/3. A
standard ASOCOM or AXIS grunt is Strength 2,
with a Strength Damage of -/1.
Finally the damage value of Soldier scale attacks on Vehicle scale targets is all treated as
rolled damage, essentially any value before the
/ is added to the value after it.
A MA1 Assault Rifle is normally 2/1 against
Soldier scale, against Vehicle Scale it is -/3.
When Soldiers are attacked by Vehicles they
can reverse the result of their dodge rolls, but
the Vehicles reverse the result of their damage
rolls. In addition the damage value of Vehicle
scale attacks on Soldier scale targets is all treated as automatic damage, essentially any value
after the / is added to the value before it. (a MA1
Assault Rifle is normally 2/1 against Soldier
scale, against Vehicle Scale it is -/3).
STRENGTH DAMAGE
4.2” Rocket System is aVehicle 3/1 weapon,
against Soldier scale targets it is a 4/-.
SCALE
DUST: ADVENTURES is a world of giant robots, angry gorillas, alien technology and tanks.
All kinds of tanks, big tanks, small tanks, medium tanks, walking tanks, possibly even flying
tanks. Therefore DUST: ADVENTURES uses
a special scale rule.
DUST: ADVENTURES deals with three scales,
Soldier, Vehicle and Aircraft.
Soldiers attacking Vehicles reverse the dice
results for attacks, treating hits as misses and
misses at hits. However, unless the weapon or
character has a special skill or trait, you also reverse the result of the Vehicle Resistance Rolls.
Therefore it is easier to hit a Vehicle but harder
to hurt it when a Soldier attacks it. In addition,
additional damage from Soldier scale weapons
attacking Vehicle scale targets are gained for
every 2 degrees of success instead of every one
degree.
4.2” Rocket System is a Vehicle 3/1 weapon,
against Aircraft scale targets it is a -/4.
dust chronicles #3
When attacking the same category of target as
you, use the rules in this book as normal.
When Aircraft are attacked by Soldiers or Vehicles (unless the attacker has some sort of AA
trait) they are permitted to reverse both their
dodge rolls and their Resistance Rolls. However, an Aircraft on the ground or flying very low
is considered a standard Vehicle for these rules.
In addition, additional damage from Soldier
scale weapons or Vehicle scale weapons targeting Aircraft are gained for every 2 degrees of
success instead of every one degree.Finally the
damage value of Soldier scale attacks and Vehicle scale attacksare treated as rolled damage,
essentially any value before the / is added to the
value after it.
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dust adventures
Only equipment and weapons suited for quick
multiple actions may be used several times (up
to the limit of their capabilities) in a round.
Some examples include semi-automatic guns or
items with little or no reload time, like hands or
small melee weapons.
You may never use a Sustained Action on a
Multiple Action.
REACTION
ACTIONS
As mentioned before, characters have two actions they can take per round but only one can
be an attack (exception, see multi-tasking and
Sustained Actions). The other action can be
movement or any skill action.
Multiple Actions
role playing game
Characters may attempt to perform several
tasks in a single round, or, if the action takes
longer than one round to complete, in the same
minimum time period. The more they try to do,
however, the less care and concentration they
can apply to each action. It becomes more difficult to succeed at all of the tasks. Thus, for
most characters, for each action taken beyond
the first, the player must subtract 1 from all skill
or attribute rolls (but not damage, damage resistance, or initiative rolls). Thus, trying to do
four actions in one round gives the character a 3 modifier to each roll. For weapons with Spray,
Auto Fire or Scatter traits the multi-action penalty doesn’t take effect until the character uses
up his allotment of actions (See Weapons).
74
Terrain Type
Craters
Fences Forest/Jungle
Hedges
Hills Barbed Wire Rubble
Stone/Brick Walls Swamp
Tank Obstacles Trenches Vehicle Wreckage Water (Deep) Water (Shallow) Cover
Soft Soft Soft Soft Soft None Soft Hard None Hard Hard Hard Hard Soft Character who has not taken an action yet during a combat round may immediately take a reaction when an opponent takes their action and
that opponent is either A) Targeting the character, B) adjacent to the character or C) unaware
of the character. A reaction is treated like any
other action but counts as two actions therefore
it cannot be a sustained action but may be an attack, a skill use or a move. Naturally a character
without two actions cannot react (already acted
once, is suppressed, and so forth).
MOVE
As a standard action a character can move 6 meters. Special traits and skills may augment this.
A character can do a double move as his full
action and move 12 meters. Movement through
difficult terrain usually reduces a character’s
Move by half. Climbing and Jumping are considered difficult terrain by default and doing so
over terrain that is also identified as difficult
terrain reduces the move by another half, effectively quartering it. Trying to move at full speed
over obstacles is a problem. Use the following
chart to determine full speed difficulties and results.
MOVEMENT DIFFICULTY
Soldier
WALKER WHEELS
1 2
1
1
1
2
1 2
2
1 1
1
1 1
1
3
1
1
1 2
2
2
2
3
2 3
3
1 5
3
2 3
4
1 3
2
2
5
3
1 2
1
TRACKS
1
1
2
0
1
1
1
2
4
5
6
1
2
2
Failure on the piloting/driving/agile test results
in becoming stuck. You may become unstuck
by trying again and again at the same difficulty
+1. Further failures result in a 1/1 damage on
the vehicle of -/1 on a Soldier scale for each degree of failure. This new damage ignores Armor
Class.
VEHICLES
Vehicles use a slightly different combat system.
First, Vehicles track Hull Points for damage and
do not accumulate Suppression. If a Vehicle is
reduced to 0 Hull Points it is destroyed. In addition whenever a Vehicles suffers damage that
is over its Armor Class it may suffer structural
damage. The attacking player rolls one die per
damage sustained and compares it to the chart
below and the Vehicle suffers these further effects.
Blinded: The vehicle’s vision has been com-
When Vehicles suffer damage they apply it
against their Armor Class first. Anything over
that value is damage inflicted on the Vehicle.
The Vehicle then can roll its Toughness to further reduce this damage, but even if this damage
is removed the original value over the Vehicle’s
Armor Class is applied for the structural damage roll.
on fire. As long as the fire is burning, the vehicle suffers 1 Hull Point of damage at the end of
each of its activations (do not roll for this on the
Structural Damage Table). While the vehicle is
on fire, the vehicle will resolve a an additional
1/1 Attack against any Soldier unit it Overruns.
The vehicle must spend an action to put the fire
out. Repair Difficult 1, per round on fire.
HITS
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
EFFECT
No additional effect.
Blinded
External Fire
Weapon Damaged
Drive System Damaged
Ammunition Detonation
Hull Breach
External Fire: Part of the vehicle’s armor is
Weapon Damaged: One weapon may not be
fired until repaired. The vehicle is treated as if it
did not have the weapon, any abilities conferred
by the weapon (such as Repair) are lost. The attacker rolls a Combat Die. On a hit, he chooses
the weapon, on a missthe defender chooses. Repair Difficulty 1.
STRUCTURAL DAMAGE CHART
promised. When taking a Sustained Attack action, the vehicle cannot reroll any Combat Dice
until repaired. Repair difficulty 2.
Drive System Damaged: Thevehicle may not
take Move actions until repaired. Repair Difficulty 3.
Ammunition Detonation: Oneweapon of the
Attacker’s choice isdamaged and may not be
fired until repair (as weapon damaged above).
In addition, allSoldier with a within12 meters
of the vehicle (andany Soldier units embarked
in thevehicle, see “Carry Capacity”) suffer
1/5damage. Repair Difficulty: 3
Hull Breach: There is a massive hole in the
vehicle. It cannot makeany Armor rolls, and all
weapons gain a bonus of -/1 damage against the
vehicle. Repair Difficulty: 6
75
REAR ARMOR
Attacks resolved against the rear of a vehicle
ignore its Armor Class and the vehicle can only
defend with its Toughness.
move back 6 meters twice (two rolls against difficult 3) or a combination of the two (3 meters
and 6 meters with a difficulty of 1 for the first
and 3 for the second) as the pilot sees fit.
PILOTING
Navigate Difficult Terrain: The difficulty is
Dodge: Functions identical to normal dodge
A character can pilot a different category of hull
from the same faction at a 1 dice penalty and
can pilot the same category of hull from a different faction at a 1 dice penalty. Lastly, you
can pilot a different hull from a different faction
at a 2 dice penalty.
Characters use the Pilot skill (or Drive skill)
to control vehicles. While the Drive skill may
cover a wide variety of vehicles (Motorcycles,
Cars, Boats, Scooters) the Pilot skill is defined
by a specific category of vehicle (for example
M1, M2, M6 for Allies, LPW I, MPW II and
HPW VI for Axis). Piloting skill rolls are made
to dodge, pivot, move backwards and navigate
difficult terrain. (The following uses standard
movement for walkers for distances, these would
be different based on vehicles being used).
skill use, however, cannot use Full Defense.
Pivot: Normally a vehicle can only move in
a straight line, unless the character performs a
pivot maneuver which is an action to perform.
A difficulty of 1 for every 45 degree change in
direction the pilot desires. May be sustained up
to 90 degrees, after 90 degrees is becomes a full
action (takes both actions to perform). However, a pilot can pivot 45 degrees for free every
round.
based on speed (3 meters or 6 meters) and type
of terrain. To move 3 meters is a base difficulty
of 0, to move 6 the base difficulty is 1. Easy
level difficult terrain adds 1 to this difficulty,
medium level adds 2 and hard level adds 3 (see
Move above).
For example:
Sigrid has 5 dice in MPW II, she can therefore
pilot the LPW I series and HPW VI series at
4 dice. She can also pilot the Allied Medium
Walkers at 4 dice as it is the same category as
the MPW II (Medium Walker) and she can pilot
all other walkers at 3 dice.
WEAPON SYSTEMS
Characters use the Weapon Systems skill to attack using vehicle weapons. The Weapon System skill is defined by a specific category and
class of vehicle (for example LPW I (A, B or
C), MPW II( A, B, D or E) and HPW VI (A or
B )for Axis).
However, Weapon Systems are very similar and
if you can use one form you can use another
almost as well. If a character is trained to use a
specific vehicle’s weapons he can employ the
weapons of a similar configuration of the same
general type (hull) at a one dice penalty. To use
Move Backwards: A difficulty of 1 to move 3
meters to the rear, difficulty of 3 to move 6 meters. To play it safe a pilot can Sustain Action
these moves. Or he could try to move 3 meters
back twice (two rolls against Difficulty 1) or
76
In addition Overrun causes one suppression
damage per hit on the initial piloting roll and an
additional suppression damage per hit the rolled
damage (but not for automatic damage). Overrun is considered to have the scatter trait.
It requires a move action to perform and this
may be a sustained action.
VEHICLE SPECIAL ABILITIES
The following are the common special abilities
vehicles may have in Dust Adventures.
All in One: This allows a vehicle to fire at full
auto, when it does so it adds 2 dice to attack and
-/2 to damage. This can only be done once per
encounter.
Amphibious: Most natural defenses in Europe
another hull from the same faction the character
suffers a 2 dice penalty. To use a similar category of hull from another faction is a two dice
penalty. Finally to use a different category of
hull from a different faction is a 3 dice penalty.
Sigrid has 6 dice in MPW II-B “Ludwig” Weapon Systems, she can therefore fire all MPW II
series weapons at 5 dice. She can also fire the
LPW I and HPW VI series weapons at 4 dice
as well as the M2 Series of Allied Walkers as
it is the same category as the MPW II (Medium
Walker) and she can fire all other walker weapons at 3 dice.
OVERRUN
Vehicles are large and heavy and usually fast.
Pilots can use land based vehicles to conduct
overruns. To do so they must be able to reach the
target and must pass a piloting skill test against
a difficulty equal to the target’s dodge skill (or
Mobility) roll. Success causes damage equal to
the vehicles Armor/Toughness (where armor is
automatic damage and toughness is rolled).
and the Eastern Front rest upon river lines, and
coastal landings are decisive. This has led to
research into various amphibian technologies
for both vehicles and men. Amphibious units
are sufficiently waterproofed to float and propel
themselves across rivers, lakes, seas, and other
deep bodies of water. Amphibious miniatures
treat areas of water as open terrain for movement purposes.
Carrying Capacity: Some vehicles can carry
passengers. The number listed is the number
of standard troops that can be packed into (or
onto) the vehicle comfortably. And additional
50% may be added but after passing the threshold for comfort the passengers risk extra harm
when attacked.
A vehicle that suffers damage beyond it Armor
Class risks injuring its passengers. For each
point of damage over the vehicle’s Armor Class
all passengers suffer a -/1 damage. If they are
77
overcrowded (more passengers than the vehicle’s Carrying Capacity) the damage is 1/-. Armor cannot be used to reduce this damage, only
Toughness.
It takes a single action to embark or disembark
from a vehicle until the vehicle meets its Carrying Capacity. If the vehicle is overloaded, it
takes two actions to embark or disembark.
Charge: Much like the skill a character would
have, a vehicle with charge can make two move
actions and still perform a close combat attack.
However a vehicle automatically succeeds to
use this skill and does not need to roll.
Dozer Blades: Vehicles outfitted with Dozer
Blades gain a bonus Toughness dice to resist
damage from attacks from the front. Furthermore Dozer Blades gives the vehicles 2 bonus
dice to pilot through difficult terrain and adds
-/1 to overrun damage.
Self Repair: A vehicle with self repair can
make a single die roll if it spends the entire
round doing nothing (counts as two actions, but
does not count as sustained). After the round is
complete they can roll a single die, on a hit result the vehicle recovers a single Hull Point.
Tracks: These were once the most common pro-
pulsion type for tanks. However, tracked tanks
have been gradually overshadowed by walkers
as first the Axis and then the Allies produced
them in ever greater numbers. If a tracked vehicle declares a Move action that begins, moves
through, or ends in difficult terrain, roll a Die
for it. On a roll of Hit the vehicle’s movement is
stopped when it first contacts any terrain.
Wheels: A vehicle with Wheels moves well
78
Fast: Much like the normal skill Fast allows a
vehicle to move at a quicker pace. One movement per round may be made with an extra 6
meters added to it.
Jump: A vehicle with jump can move verti-
cally or horizontally 9 meters, ignoring terrain
that is 9 meters or shorter in height and length.
It counts as a move action.
Scout Vehicle: A scout vehicle is outfitted with
special equipment to perform recon and exploratory operations. A scout vehicle provides a bonus die to all perception, initiative and survival
rolls while in the vehicle (or have access to the
vehicle in the case of survival).
enough across open terrain, but can’t traverse
difficult terrain easily. If a wheeled vehicle declares a Move action that begins, moves through,
or ends in difficult terrain, roll a Die for it. On a
Miss the vehicles movement is stopped when it
first contacts any terrain. A vehicle with Wheels
cannot make a pivot very easily and all difficulties to do so are increased by 1.
WEAPON SPECIAL QUALITIES
bonus of 2 dice added to the attack dice pool
if the character has a chance to use sustained
action on the shot. It represents a better ability
to aim the weapon. Just as any normal dice on
a Sustained Action, these bonus dice can be rerolled one time if they come up a miss.
Anti Aircraft: Weapons with this trait treat
Aircraft as if they were the same scale (Vehicle
vs. Vehicle or Soldier vs. Soldier).
Anti Tank: Weapons with this trait treat Vehicles as if they were the same scale (Vehicle vs.
Vehicle or Soldier vs. Soldier).
act they suffer an additional 3 dice of damage.
Note that this damage must be rolled after the
target is hit and is not an automatic +3 to damage. However, the rolls are treated like they are
Experience Point bonus dice.
Grenade: Grenade weapons that hit a Soldier
target always receive at least a stunned result on
the damage chart regardless of actual damage
inflicted. If the damage inflicted is more severe
the gravest level of the two is used. However
the automatic stun does not stack with previous stun results to upgrade damage to wounded.
Grenades also inflict an additional point of suppression even if the target is unharmed.
Accurate: A weapon that is accurate gains a
Burst: If the target of a Burst weapon has yet to
Indirect Fire: The attacker does not need to
see a target, as long as he has an ally who can
communicate with him that has line of sight on
the target and the proper skill (Spotter or Radio). Line of sight, cover and range bonuses are
based on the observer’s range and sight.
Laser: These weapons are very dangerous. All
damage dice rolled for Laser weapons are rerolled if they come up a hit, extra hits rolled on
these rerolls are added to the damage and are
rerolled again until no hits come up.
Long Range: The weapon cannot target enArtillery: Artillery weapons ignore cover.
emies closer than 12 meters from the user. The
weapon never suffers a bonus to hit based on
range.
Tank killer: Weapons with Tank Killer suffer
Mighty: Weapons with the Mighty ability roll
Area-Effect: Area Effect attacks are applied
against all targets in the target area, even though
only one attack roll is made. In addition they
ignore 1 point of Armor Class and ignore all
cover bonuses.
Auto Fire: Weapons with Auto Fire can fire
an extreme amount of rounds at a target at an
alarming and fast rate. A character using an
Auto Fire weapon can opt to add 1 dice to his
initiative or his attack roll.
damage dice and treat hits as misses and misses
as hits.
no scale penalty to hit or damage any scale of
ground targets (penalties for Aircraft still apply). Furthermore when used against armored
vehicles, it always treats misses as hits and hits
as misses.
79
Overcharge: Weapons that can overcharge can
inflict +2 damage but gain the reload trait immediately after the overcharge is resolved. The
reload trait lasts for the rest of the combat until
the character has a chance to readjust his weapon. Overcharge can only be used once without
readjusting.
Phaser: Phasers are another powerful weapon.
When using a Phaser weapon you ignore cover
and armor.
Pinning: Weapons with Pinning double the
normal amount of suppression they inflict.
Point Blank Bonus: The weapon gains a bo-
nus trait but only against targets within point
blank range.
Rapid Fire: By emptying the clip, a Rapid Fire
weapon can attack up to three targets that are
considered close to each other without multi-
action penalty, but the weapon is emptied and
must be reloaded by spending two actions to do
so (see Reload).
Reload: Weapons with the Reload trait must
spend two actions reloading after being used.
These two actions can be spent in different
rounds if desired.
Scatter: Scatter weapons send multiple projec-
tiles in an area making it easier to make attacks
on multiple targets. The attacker can attack up
to two targets with no multi-action penalty as
long as the two targets are adjacent to one another.
Spray: Spray is similar to Scatter, but is much
more effective. That attacker may select up to
five targets that are considered close and adjacent to one another and attack them all in one
action without a multi-action penalty.
EQUIPMENT
A sci-fi pulp action alternate Post-World War Two setting is bound to have hundreds of
thousands of varieties of specialized weapons, gear, armor and more. To cover every piece
of equipment available during the real World War Two would take dozens of books and
thousands of entries.
To save space and time so we can get to the heart of DUST: ADVENTURES we are only
going to focus on the most common equipment members of ASOCOM and that of their
enemies the AXIS.
80
WEAPONS
As a war game, it is only natural that the universe of Dust is littered with guns and knives
(and grenades and robots). The following is a
listing of common ASOCOM issue weapons.
Each weapon has the following entries available to it.
Name: The name of the weapon.
Range: The distance the weapon can accurate-
ly be used at (see Combat section).
Scale: The category of warfare the weapon is
intended for (see Combat section) followed by
a number indicating the base damage.
PV: Penetration Value the maximum AC (Ar-
mor Class) the weapon can be used against.
AP: Armor Piercing. The first number is the
highest AC (Armor Class) the AP can affect, the
second number is the amount of AC it ignores.
Special: Any special rules or abilities the weapon has (see Combat section).
Scale: Vehicle 1/4
PEN: 4
AP: 3/1
5cm Flak 43
Range: 36 Meters
Anti Aircraft
Scale: Vehicle 2/3
PEN: 4
AP: 2/1
Scale: Vehicle 3/3
PEN: 4
AP: 3/1
12.8cm Flak-Vierling
Range: 36 Meters
Scale: Vehicle 4/2
Anti Aircraft
PEN: 4
AP: 3/2
17.3cm FPK Zwei
Range: 36 Meters
Penetrator
Scale: Vehicle 4/3
PEN: 4
AP: 4/2
20mm Solothurn
Range: 36 Meters
Scale: Soldier 3/1
PEN: 4
AP: 3/2
BlutKreuz
Range: C
Scale: Soldier 3/3
PEN: 4 AP: 4/2
Circular Saw
Range: C
Scale: Soldier 3/2
PEN: 4
AP: 3/1
Combat Knife
Range: C
Scale: Soldier 1/1
PEN: 4 AP: 1/1
Flammenwerfer 40
Range: 6 Meters
Burst, Spray
Scale: Soldier 2/2
PEN: 4 AP: 0
Fliegerfaust
Range: 16 Meters
Anti Aircraft, Burst
Scale: Soldier 2/2
PEN: 4
AP: 2/1
Granatwerfer
Range: 16 Meters
Spray, Indirect Fire
Scale: Vehicle 3/1
PEN: 4 AP: 0
Grenades
Range: 6 Meters
Grenade
Scale: Soldier 1/2
PEN: 4 AP: 3/2
Kampfzange
Range: C
Scale: Vehicle 4/2
PEN: 4 AP: 3/1
Kick & Punch
Range: C Scale: Soldier -/-
PEN: 4 AP: 0
8.8cm Doppel-FPK
Range: 36 Meters
2cm Flak-Vierling
Range: 30 Meters
Anti Aircraft
dust Chronicles issue 3
AXIS WEAPONS
81
Knife
Range:C Scale: Soldier -/1
PEN: 2 AP: 1/1
Laser–Gewehr
Range: 12 Meters
Laser
Scale: Soldier 1/2
PEN: 4 AP: 1/1
Laser–Kanone
Range: 24 Meters
Laser
Scale: Vehicle 2/3
PEN: 4 AP: 3/1
Laser–Pistole B
Range: 12 Meters
Laser
Scale: Soldier -/2
PEN: 4 AP: 2/1
Laser–Werfer
Range: 16 Meters
Laser
Scale: Soldier 1/2
PEN: 4 AP: 2/2
Scale: Soldier 1/1
PEN: 4 AP: 1/1
Scale: Soldier 2/1
PEN: 3 AP: 1/1
MG 44 Zwei
Range: 16 Meters
Scale: Soldier 2/1
Anti Aircraft, Rapid Fire
PEN: 3 AP: 2/1
MG 48
Range: 16 Meters
Anti Aircraft
Scale: Soldier 3/1
PEN: 3 AP: 2/1
Nebelwerfer 42
Range: A Scale: Vehicle 3/2
Artillery, Spray, Reload
PEN: 4 AP: 4/2
Scale: Soldier 1/1
PEN: 4 AP: 3/1
Panzerfaust
Range: 12 Meters
Reload
Scale: Soldier 2/1
PEN: 4 AP: 3/1
Panzerfaust–Werfer
Range: 16 Meters
Tank Killer
Scale: Vehicle 4/2
PEN: 4 AP: 3/2
Scale: Soldier 3/1
PEN: 4 AP: 3/2
Mauser
Range: 6 Meters
MG 44
Range: 16 Meters
Anti Aircraft
82
Panzer Glove
Range: C Panzerschreck
Range: 16 Meters
Schwerer Panzer Glove
Range:C Scale: Soldier 2/1
Sniper Gewehr PSG1
Range: 36 Meters
Scale: Soldier 2/1
Accurate, Pinning
PEN: 4 AP: 2/1
PEN: 4 AP: 3/1
PEN: 3 AP: 3/2
StG 47
Range: 16 Meters
Scale: Soldier 2/-
PEN: 3
AP: 2/1
Unarmed
PEN: 4 AP: 0
Schwer Laser-Werfer
Range: 16 Meters
Scale: Soldier 2/1
Laser
ALLIED WEAPONS
.30 Cal Victory MG
Range: 24 Meters
Scale: Soldier 2/1
Anti Aircraft
.45 Auto Colt Pistol
Range: 6 Meters
Scale: Soldier 1/1
PEN: 3 AP: 2/1
PEN: 3AP: 2/1
PEN: 4AP: 2/1
4.2” Rocket System
Range: A
Reload
Scale: Vehicle 3/1
PEN: 4AP: 4/2
Scale: Vehicle 3/3
PEN: 4AP: 3/1
60W Phaser Gun
Range: 12 Meters
Phaser, Overcharge
Scale: Soldier 2/1
PEN: 4 75mm Howitzer
Range: A
Tank Killer
Scale: Vehicle 3/2
PEN: 4AP: 3/1
17 Pounder Gun
Range: 36 Meters
120W Dual Phaser Gun
Range: 24 Meters
Scale: Soldier 3/1
Phaser, Overcharge
220mm Long Tom
Range: A
Scale: Vehicle 3/2
AP: 3/1
PEN: 4 AP: 3/1
PEN: 4
AP: 2/1
.50 Cal Victory MG
Range: 24 Meters
Scale: Soldier 2/2
Anti Aircraft
83
Aeronca GB-9 Strike
Range: A
Scale: Vehicle 4/1
AP: 0
Demolition Charge
Range: 6 Meters
Scale: Soldier 2/1
PEN: 4 Point Blank Bonus (Anti-Armor), Grenade, Demolition
AP: 3/1
Dual .30 Cal Victory MG
Range: 16 Meters
Scale: Soldier 3/1
Anti Aircraft
PEN: 3 AP: 2/2
Dual .50 Cal Victory MG
Range: 24 Meters
Scale: Soldier 3/1
Anti Aircraft
PEN: 4
AP: 2/2
Dual 155mm Howitzer
Range: 36 Meters
Scale: Vehicle 4/2
Tank Killer
PEN: 4
AP: 4/1
PEN: 4
AP: 4/2
Dynamite
Range: 6 Meters
Scale: Soldier 2/1
PEN: 3 Point Blank Bonus (Anti-Armor), Grenade
AP: 3/1
Fireball Napalm Thrower
Range: 12 Meters
Scale: Vehicle 5/2
Burst, Spray, Tank Killer
PEN: 4 AP: 3/2
Flamethrower
Range: 6 Meters
Burst, Spray
Scale: Soldier 3/1
PEN: 4 AP: 0
Grenade Launcher
Range: 12 Meters
Grenade, Reload
Scale: Soldier 2/1
PEN: 4 AP: 3/2
Grenades
Range: 6 Meters
Grenade
Scale: Soldier 2/1
PEN: 4 AP: 3/2
Hand Flamethrowers
Range: 4 Meters
Scale: Soldier 2/1
Burst, Spray, Pair
PEN: 3 AP: 0
Heavy Rocket Punch
Range:C Scale: Soldier 2/1
Mighty
PEN: 4 AP: 3/2
PEN: 2 AP: 0
Dual Heavy PIAT
Range: 16 Meters
84
PEN: 4
Kitchen Knife
Range:C Scale: Vehicle 4/1
Scale: Soldier 1/1
PEN: 2 M1 Assault Rifle
Range: 16 Meters
Scale: Soldier 2/-
PEN: 3AP: 2/1
M9 Bazooka
Range: 16 Meters
Anti Tank
Scale: Soldier 3/1
PEN: 4 AP: 3/1
M9-D Bazooka
Range: 16 Meters
Anti Tank
Scale: Soldier 3/1
PEN: 4 AP: 3/2
M10 Bazooka
Range: 16 Meters
Anti Tank
Scale: Soldier 2/3
PEN: 4 AP: 3/2
Napalm Thrower
Range: 12 Meters
Scale: Vehicle 2/2
Burst, Spray, Tank Killer
PEN: 4 AP: 3/1
Petard Mortar
Range: 24 Meters
Scale: Vehicle 2/2 PEN: 3
Reload, Indirect Fire, Long Range, Tank Killer
AP: 3/2
Quad .50 Cal Victory MG
Range: 24 Meters
Scale: Soldier 3/2
Anti Aircraft
PEN: 4
AP: 3/2
Rocket Punch
Range:C Mighty
Scale: Soldier 1/1
PEN: 4 AP: 3/1
Shotgun
Range: 6 Meters
Scatter
Scale: Soldier 1/2
PEN: 4 AP: 1/1
Sniper Rifle
Range: 36 Meters
Accurate, Pinning
Scale: Soldier 2/1
PEN: 3 AP: 3/2
UGL
Range: 12 Meters
Grenade, Reload
Scale: Soldier 1/2
PEN: 3AP: 3/2
Unarmed
PEN: 4 AP: 0
Webley Revolver
Range: 6 Meters
Scale: Soldier -/2
PEN: 4 AP: 1/1
AP: 1/1
Scale: Soldier -/1
Knife
Range:C 85
AXIS LIGHT WALKERS
LIGHT PANZER WALKER I-A “HEINRICH”
ARMOR CLASS: 2
TOUGHNESS: 3
MOVE: 6 TYPE: VEHICLE HULL POINTS: 6
BASIC UNIT: 1 LIGHT ASSAULT WALKER
WEAPONS: 2CM FLAK-VIERLING (F)
LIGHT PANZER WALKER I-B “HERMANN”
ARMOR CLASS: 2
TOUGHNESS: 3
WEAPONS: LASER-KANONE (F)
LIGHT PANZER WALKER I-C “HANS”
ARMOR CLASS: 2
TOUGHNESS: 3
WEAPONS: GRANATWERFER (F) AND PANZERFAUST–WERFER (F)
SPECIAL ABILITIES: SCOUT VEHICLE
AXIS MEDIUM WALKERS
86
MPW II-A “LUTHER”
ARMOR CLASS: 3
TOUGHNESS: 3
BASIC UNIT: 1 MEDIUM COMBAT WALKER
WEAPONS: 5CM FLAK 43 (F), KAMPFZANGE (F), AND TURRET MG 44
SPECIAL ABILITIES: CHARGE
MPW II-B “LUDWIG”
ARMOR CLASS: 3
TOUGHNESS: 3
WEAPONS: 8.8CM DOPPEL-FPK (F) AND TURRET MG 44
MPW II-D “LOTHAR”
ARMOR CLASS: 3
TOUGHNESS: 3
WEAPONS: NEBELWERFER 42 (F) AND TURRET MG 44
AXIS HEAVY WALKERS
HPW VI-A “KÖNIGSLUTHER”
ARMOR CLASS: 5
TOUGHNESS: 4
BASIC UNIT: 1 HEAVY ASSAULT WALKER
WEAPONS: 17.3CM FPK ZWEI (F) AND MG 44 ZWEI (F)
HPW VI-B “STURMKÖNIG”
ARMOR CLASS: 5
TOUGHNESS: 4
WEAPONS: 12.8CM FLAK-VIERLING (F) AND MG 44 ZWEI (F)
MPW II-E “LOTH”
ARMOR CLASS: 3
TOUGHNESS: 3
WEAPONS: KAMPFZANGE X 2 (F) AND TURRET MG 44
SPECIAL ABILITIES: CHARGE
ALLIED LIGHT WALKERS
LAW M1-A “WILDFIRE”
ARMOR CLASS: 2
TOUGHNESS: 3
MOVE: 6 TYPE: VEHICLE 3 HULL POINTS: 6
WEAPONS: QUAD .50 CAL VICTORY MG (F)
SPECIAL ABILITIES: FAST
LAW M1-C “HONEY”
ARMOR CLASS: 2
TOUGHNESS: 3
WEAPONS: 120W DUAL PHASER GUN (F)
SPECIAL ABILITIES: FAST
LAW M1-B “BLACKHAWK”
ARMOR CLASS: 2
TOUGHNESS: 3
WEAPONS: DUAL HEAVY PIAT (F)
SPECIAL ABILITIES: ALL IN ONE, FAST
87
ALLIED MEDIUM WALKERS
MCW M2-A “MICKEY”
ARMOR CLASS: 3
TOUGHNESS: 3
WEAPONS: TURRET 75MM HOWITZER, TURRET .50 CAL VICTORY MG,
AND .30 CAL VICTORY MG (F)
SPECIAL ABILITIES: FAST, JUMP, SELF REPAIR
MCW M2-B “HOT DOG”
ARMOR CLASS: 3
TOUGHNESS: 3
WEAPONS: TURRET NAPALM THROWER, TURRET .50 CAL VICTORY MG,
SPECIAL ABILITIES: JUMP
MCW M2-C “POUNDER”
ARMOR CLASS: 3
TOUGHNESS: 3
WEAPONS: TURRET 17 POUNDER GUN, TURRET .50 CAL VICTORY MG,
SPECIAL ABILITIES: JUMP
MCW M2-F “STEEL RAIN”
ARMOR CLASS: 3
TOUGHNESS: 3
WEAPONS: TURRET PETARD
ALLIED HEAVY WALKERS
88
HAW M6-A “PUNISHER”
ARMOR CLASS: 5
TOUGHNESS: 4
WEAPONS: DUAL 155MM HOWITZER (F), TURRET DUAL .50 CAL
VICTORY MG, AND TURRET DUAL .30 CAL VICTORY MG (2)
SPECIAL ABILITIES: DOZER BLADE, CARRY CAPACITY 6
HAW M6-B “FIREBALL”
ARMOR CLASS: 5
TOUGHNESS: 4
WEAPONS: FIREBALL NAPALM THROWER (F), TURRET DUAL .50 CAL
VICTORY MG, AND TURRET DUAL .30 CAL VICTORY MG (2)
SPECIAL ABILITIES: DOZER BLADE, CARRY CAPACITY 6
BASIC FLACK
ASOCOM FLAK
AXIS ARMOR
SSU ARMOR
XM-18-22 SCHWER-STURMGRENADIER
ALIEN ARTIFACT
NONE
AC special
1
2
2
2
3
3
4
0
KITS
Kits are special sets of tools and utensils that aid
a character in the performance of certain skills.
The following are common kits available to soldiers on the warfront.
Mechanical Bag: Tools for repairing and
maintaining vehicles, adds +1 dice to Repair or
Tank Head rolls.
Medical Kit: Medicines, cutting tools, bandages, pain relievers and other items to aid in
the care of the injured and sick, adds +1 dice to
First Aid and Medicine rolls.
Survival Kit: Maps, compasses, rations, infor-
mation guides and additional items designed to
aid a character in survival, adds +1 dice to Survival rolls.
None
None
None
None
May be outfitted with Drop Rig
or Rocket Pack.
Models B and C have Damage Resilience of 2.
Various
None
Radio Kit: Contains codebook, maps, frequen-
cy list, useful how to guides and references for
proper radio procedures and practices (faction
based), adds +1 dice to Radio rolls.
ARMOR
MISCELLANEOUS GEAR
Rocket Pack: Can be affixed to XM-18-22
Aerial Assault Armor by Allied troops. Gives
+3 dice to Jumping and provides the vehicle trait
of Jump to a soldier scale character. In addition
the character’s base move (normally 6 meters)
is doubled (normally to 12 meters).
Drop Rig: A special airborne assault device
that can be attached to XM-18-22 Aerial Assault
Armor. It adds +5 dice to the Airborne skill.
Night Vision Goggles: Reduces penalty of
darkness by 2 dice.
Sniper Kit: Contains scopes, silencers, range
finders and other useful devices for snipers, adds
+1 dice to the first attack rolled while sniping.
dust chronicles #3
89
STURMGRENADIERE
Sturmgrenadiere – “Storm Grenadiers” – form
the backbone of the Axis forces holding Europe
and large swaths of the globe in thrall. They are
hard-bitten, superbly trained veterans of a decade of world warfare that are fanatically loyal
to the ideals of the Thousand Year Reich. Competition to join the Grenadiers is fierce and each
year only the best conscripts are selected for
training at brutal infantry warfare schools like
Bad Tölz or Posen. The instructors at such places specialize in taking freshfaced recruits and
turning them into disciplined, obedient Teutonic warriors with iron in their souls.
Grenadier recruits are trained in a wide variety
of infantry weapons and tactics as their training regime “sifts” each new intake of men.
Over time the body of recruits are allocated to
specialist squad training according to their individual talents. Here recruits might be drilled
in unique tactics, or be given twenty minutes to
dig entrenchments in the field before tanks are
brought in to walk over their positions. Casualties in training are not uncommon but, for the
elite, no sacrifice is too great in the struggle for
greatness.
90
helmet. Sturmgewehr 47 assault rifles are standard issue, along with knives for close-quarters
battle and often – but ironically, not always
– grenades.
BUILDING A STURMGRENADIER
Sturmgrenadiers are built by assembling various packages together. Every Sturmgrenadiere
starts with the Basic Stats Package and adds to
this by selecting one or more Sturmgrenadier
Sub Packages. Normally a Sturmgrenadier has
two packages (Basic Stats Package and one
Sturmgrenadier Sub Package) but special elite
troops may have two or three packages stacked
together.
For example, a Heavy Kommandotrupp Schwer
Officer would have three packages: the Sturmgrenadier Basic Stats Package, the Commander
Sub Package and the Heavy Grenadier package.
The Sturmgrenadier possesses all the skills from
all of his packages, if the same skill is available
more than once they are added together.
However well-trained recruits might think
themselves, the front line troops are their final
tutors, and they are uncompromising masters.
Any front line officer has the right to send a recruit back into training if he finds them unsatisfactory, a fate worse than death for most when
their instructors find out.
A Storm Grenadier’s basic equipment includes
“Sturmgrenadiere Ausf. A,” a rigid body armor
made up of plates covering the chest, back, and
shoulders, in addition to the ubiquitous steel
Johan Strucker is a Heavy Grenadier Commander. Both the Heavy Grenadier package
and the Commander package provide the Willpower skill at 1. Since Johan has both packages
he has Willpower at 2.
A Standard Grenadier has the Sturmgrenadier
Basic Stats package and the Weapon Specialist Sub Package usually focusing on grenades
or panzerfausts.
STURMGRENADIERE BASIC STATS
M: 2 D: 2 T: 2 S: 2 R: 2 P: 2
SKILLS: Attack (Rifle) 1, Attack (Knife) 1,
Survival 1, Navigation 1, First Aid 1 plus at
least one package.
EQUIPMENT: Sturmgrenadiere Ausf. A Axis
Armor, STG 47, Knife and one package.
STURMGRENADIER
SUB PACKAGES
COMMANDER
SKILLS: Command 2, Radio 1, Persuasion 1,
Willpower 1
EQUIPMENT: Radio (Short), Map, Survival
HEAVY GRENADIER
SKILLS: Pilot (Armor) 2, Intimidation 1, Will-
igation 1
EQUIPMENT: Radio (Large), Codes, Maps,
Radio Kit
SERGEANT
SKILLS: Command 1, Navigation 1, First Aid
1, Survival 1, Willpower 1
EQUIPMENT: Combat Knife, Orders, Medical Kit
SCOUT
SKILLS: Hide 1, Sneak 1, Scout 1, and Survive 1 or Navigation 1
EQUIPMENT: Survival Kit, Woodland Suit
SNIPER
SKILLS: Attack (Rifle) 1, Sniper 2
EQUIPMENT: Replace ST 47 with Sniper
Gewehr PSG1, Grenades, Binoculars, Survival
Kit, Woodland Suit
power 1, Repair 1
EQUIPMENT: Schwer-Sturmgrenadier Model B, replace STG 47 with MG 44 Zwei or Fliegerfaust or Schwer Laser-Werfer, and replace
Knife with Combat Knife
MECHANIC
SKILLS: Repair 3, Tank Head 1
EQUIPMENT: Mechanical Bag
MEDIC
SKILLS: First Aid 1, Medicine 2
EQUIPMENT: Medical Kit
PILOT
SKILLS: Pilot (Choose One) 2, Weapon Systems 2, Radio 1
EQUIPMENT: Vehicle
Kit, Code Book, Radio Kit
RADIOMAN
SKILLS: Radio 2, Willpower 1, Repair 1, Nav-
SPOTTER
SKILLS: Spotter 2, Hide 1
EQUIPMENT: Grenades, Binoculars, Survival Kit, Woodland Suit
STURMPIONIERE
SKILLS: Fast 2, Will Power 1
EQUIPMENT:
WEAPON SPECIALIST
SKILLS: Attack (Specialist Weapon) 2, Repair
1, Demolitions 1, Willpower 1
EQUIPMENT: Knife, Specialist Weapon of
choice (usually one of the Laser Gewehr or Laset Werfer or Panzerfaust or Panzerschreck, or
MG 48 or Flammenwerfer 40 or Grenades).
91
BLUTKREUZ APES
(AXIS KAMPFAFFEN)
German scientists began experiments on enhanced apes in the late thirties, ostensibly to
create candidates for Axis rockets. Under the
auspices of the shadowy Blutkreuz Korps the
experiments continued, using newly developed
drugs to create Kampfaffe 001 (nicknamed
“Markus”), the first true “war gorilla”.
Markus and his cohorts proved mentally agile
enough to make useful soldiers in battle, and
have been brutally suborned into the Axis war
effort. The natural speed and strength of war
gorillas is a terrifying thing to behold and is
further enhanced by steel fists – panzer gloves
– that render the apes capable of literally ripping vehicles apart in hand-to-hand combat.
BLUTKREUZ ZOMBIES
(UNTERTOTEN)
These creatures are “resurrected” from fallen
Axis soldiers by the Wiederbelebungsserum.
Less than half of those “treated” retain enough
sentience to recognize their allies and these are
only capable of wielding the simplest weapons.
Nonetheless, these “Untertoten” are hard to kill,
and their presence spreads a morbid fear through
Allied forces. Axis zombies are only deployed
for critical operations as their existence is still
officially denied by higher command.
M: 3 D: 1 T: 3 S: 3 R: 1 P: 2
SKILLS: Attack (Brawl) 3, Fast 4, Intimidation 3, Blutkreuz Zombie
EQUIPMENT: Panzer Gloves (two each)
BLUTKREUZ ZOMBIES: Blutkreuz Zom-
M: 3 D: 2 T: 4 S: 4 R: 1 P: 3
SKILLS: Attack (Brawl) 3, Survival 1, Fast 4,
bies are raised using the Wiederbelebungsserum.
These “Untertoten” gain the following abilities:
1) They ignore all effects of Suppression. 2)The
unit reduces the effectiveness of any cover it is
in, treating Hard cover as Soft cover, and Soft
cover as no cover. 3) Blutkreuz Zombies gain a
free action in the first round of combat or on any
round determined as a surprise. This bonus action does not suffer any multi action penalty and
may only be used for Intimidation. 4) Blutkreuz
Zombies are considered to have the Damage
Resilience skill at 3.
Blutkreuz Ape, Intimidation 3
92
EQUIPMENT: Panzer Gloves (two each)
BLUTKREUZ APE: The Blutkreuz Apes
are spawned in the dreadful laboratories of the
Blutkreuz Korps. These ferocious beasts gain
the following abilities: 1) They ignore all effects of Suppression. 2) Blutkreuz Apes are
immune to Persuasion, Intimidation and Interrogation skill tests from non Blutkreuz Korps
individuals. 3) Blutkreuz Apes act as if they had
the Climb skill at 4. 4) Blutkreuz Apes gain a
free action in the first round of combat or on
any round determined as a surprise. This bonus
action does not suffer any multi action penalty
and may only be used for Intimidation.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Please remember that Dust Adventures is always
growing and evolving as new rules are written
and excisting rules are changed. That is why we
want to hear from you, if you have suggestions
or comments about this RPG then get in touch
with Dust Chronicles.
Updates and expansions to the Dust Adventures
- RPG will be published in future issues of Dust
Chronicles and can be found in the dedicated
section of the dust-chronicles.com website.
m:
d:
t:
s:
r:
p:
skills:
Agile:
Dodge:
Fast (A):
Initiative:
Martial Arts (A):
Riding:
Scout (A):
Sneak:
Attack:
Driving:
Hide:
Piloting:
Sniper (A):
Thievery:
Badass:
Charge (A):
Damage Resilience (A):
Frenzy (A):
Heroic Stand (A):
Wound Level: Fate Points: Experience Points: Survival:
Airborne:
Grappling:
Jumping:
Mighty Blow (A):
Black Ops (A):
Demolitions:
First Aid:
Medicine (A):
Navigation:
Perception:
Radio:
Repair:
Scholar:
Spotter (A):
Tank Head (A):
Tracking:
Weapon Systems:
Animal handling:
Assault (A):
Berserk (A):
Command:
Interrogation:
Intimidation:
Persuasion:
Willpower:
armor: Any character will always
start with a minimum of
Basic Armor (Armor 1).
Combat Knife, general rations,
character sheet
equipment:
The latest version of this Character Sheet
can be found at dust-chronicles.com
name: rank: age:
peace time occupation: 93
how2: hunting dog
:
how2
d
n
a
d
buil
e
th
t
n
i
a
p
Based on the original model
by: Jason Weimer.
In this article we take a look at how to assemble and paint Jason Weimer’s Hunting
Dog. The Hunter is a variant of the Pounder, mounting a smaller gun in exchange for
increased mobility. Its task is to Seek and
Destroy enemy armor, especially the dreaded Konigsluther. By scouting and flanking
the enemy, it maneuvers into the rear arc of
enemy heavies and blasts them where their
armor is weakest. See this issue for Warfare
stats for the Hunting Dog.
Step 1:
To get started we need to do a simple conversion. Use a 1/48 scale M10 tank destroyer
turret to replace the Pounder’s turret. Tamiya
has a great kit; you can find them second hand
for cheap on certain internet auction and discount sites.
94
Sub-assemble the turret as shown and then
primer it and the Pounder’s lower half black.
Once dry, spray several even coats of War Paint
British Armor over all components.
The subassemblies sprayed British Armor Green.
Glue your subassemblies together using plastic
glue. If you end up with any white crusty looking areas, dust the area with more British Armor. Do not glue the turret to the lower hull.
You can paint the areas that are going to be metal black at this stage too, but you will probably
get white onto them so you may as well wait till
later. A lesson I learned the hard way…
Step 2:
Step 3:
Paint watered down black ink into the recessed
areas between armor plates and around rivets to
give the model a bit of depth.
Step 4:
Determine where you will place your decals and
cut out some pieces of masking tape to cover
those areas.
Using a bit of sponge, like the sort you have left
over from Battle Foam trays, use the chipping
technique to dab white paint onto your model.
To chip the paint on, place some white paint
onto a tile and dip the sponge into it. Wipe off
the excess paint and press the sponge onto the
surface of the model.
Step 5:
Remove your masks and apply your decals.
You could apply your decals first and then mask
them but they might pull off when you remove
the tape.
how2: hunting dog
95
Touch up or paint the areas that are going to
be metallic with black.
Step 7:
Rust weathering was accomplished by use of
pigments. I mix a bit of rubbing alcohol and
Secret Weapon pigments (Rust brown first followed by Terracotta Brown). Paint the mix into
those areas that would accumulate rust, like
around armor plates and rivet heads.
Step 6:
how2: hunting dog
Paint your details. To add a bit of interest I
added some of the tools and stowage that came
with the M10 kit. The bags were painted German Camo Beige followed by brown ink and
then German Camo Beige again. The tool handles were painted Calthan brown followed by
Ochre.
96
Step 8:
Paint the metal areas with Boltgun metal and
follow it with a black ink.
Step 9:
Paint your glass Mordian Blue. Add a lighter
stripe towards the bottom and a dot of white
near the top.
Step 10:
Step 11:
how2: hunting dog
Using Stirland Mud, dab a bit onto the lower
parts of the legs and feet.
Base your model to match your army. In this
example I glued sand to the base with wood
glue and then painted it Calthan Brown with a
dry brush of Iyanden Yellow.
The rocks were base coated Chardonite Granite
and dry brushed Codex grey and Fortress grey.
The grass clumps are from The Army Painter
and the snow is from Woodland Scenics. To do
the snow, I painted white onto the base where
the snow was going to go and then applied a
mix of snow flock and PVA glue.
I also very lightly dry brushed some Calthan
brown onto the lower legs, knee guards and any
other lower plates that looked like they needed
some mud.
Once that was all dry, I hit it with Testor’s Dullcote and while it was drying, sprinkled some
more snow flock onto the base.
To use this model in your games of Dust Warfare, see this Issue’s Rosie’s Scrapyard.
The base.
97
win the hunting dog model
used for the how2 article
That’s correct, you can win the actual model
of the Hunting Dog featured in the How2
article in this issue of Dust Chronicles.
All you need to do to be entered into the
prize-draw is email us at the following address: [email protected]
Put “Hunting Dog” as the subject and make
sure it gets to us by the 6th of January 2013.
On the 7th of January 2013 a random winner
will be drawn from all the entries.
The winner will be contacted that same day
to arrange where the Hunting Dog model is
to be posted.
This competition is open to anybody, anywhere except members of staff of Dust
Chronicles.
The boring but important bits:
Members of staff are those people who have
their name on the contents page of issue 3
of Dust Chronicles.
No details will be passed on to third parties and apart from a conformation email
you will not receive any further emails from
Dust Chronicles.
The only person contacted is the winner and
the winner will be announced on the DustChronicles website and also in the February
issue of Dust Chronicles.
This competition is not supported by Fantasy Flight Games Ltd. or Dust Studio Ltd.
Note that entries that do not have “Hunting
Dog” as their subject will not be accepted
and all entries must be in by Sunday the 6th
of January 2013 (UTC-9*).
[email protected]
* UTC-9 means the competition is closed at 9am Monday 7th of January 2013 British time.
98
The total number of games recorded and how
well the armies of Dust are doing can be found
on the Worldwide Results Page.
The current Worldwide League period will run
up to and including Monday the 10th of December 2012. Winning a game will earn you two
League Points and a loss/draw will get you a
single point.
When the current Worldwide League period has
ended we will announce the winner and runner
up for both Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare.
www.dust-league.com
At Dust-League.Com, we keep track of the
games of Dust Tactics and Dust Warfare that
are played all around the world. Anybody can
submit results and at the end of each league period there will be prizes for the winners of both
the Dust Tactics and the Dust Warfare Worldwide League. All you need to do to be part of
the Worldwide League is fill in the League Results Form and we will do the rest.
There are prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for
both game systems.
When you have submitted the result(s) of your
game(s) you can check the Leaderboard for
each game and find out where you are ranked at
the moment.
If you missed out on the current league then
don’t worry, a new Worldwide League will start
in 2013.
99
tactical corner: Kill It With Fire
by Leutnant Manfred Hirtzel
In these cold and bitter months of endless Russian winter, nothing quite warms the heart like
the heat of a flaming jet of napalm. The battles in
the streets of the world’s cities can be especially
brutal, and sometimes you meet that special enemy who deserves nothing less than to die in a
fire. These are the heroes for that situation.
The Unusual Choice:
Recon Grenadiers
When you need fiery death on a budget, combining the everyday low price of Stefan with the
classic Recon Grenadiers can make for a pretty
effective combination. While you should limit
this combo to tight maps where their lack of
Fast won’t be as much of a liability, it still saves
you 11 points over the Sturmpioniere. Besides,
I hear that the Recon Grenadiers have a great
recipe for open-flame bratwurst.
Stefan
burn baby burn!!
The Natural Choice: Sturmpioniere
100
Stefan was the first to learn that the Allies were
on to something when they utilized fiery death
in canister form, and now he’s taught the troops
how it’s done. The Sturmpioniere are not as
powerful in close quarters as their Allied and
SSU counterparts, and this is where Stefan
comes in. For a mere 18 points, making him
one of the cheapest heroes in Dust Tactics, you
can add a second flamethrower to your squad.
This makes them comparable to the dreaded
Hell Boys, the scourge of any Axis commander.
In addition, his assault ability can give your enemies a shock when they’re blitzed by a seemingly out of range unit.
The Chef
The Natural Choice: Hell Boys
No faction can beat the allies in sheer flamekissed cooking power, and this combo seems
like a natural. This unit of four flamethrowers
will char any squad or vehicle that has the audacity to get within range. And Chef Zanicotti
will be more than happy to serve up those freshly
cooked enemies with his impressive skills with
a cooking knife. It will cost you a pretty penny,
however, at a whopping 56 points, and The Chef
is a little frailer than most heroes, which does
not bode well for the return trip from Hell.
The Unusual Choice: BBQ Squad
Now you may be thinking, “Manny, what’s this
about the BBQ squad being an unusual choice?
What’s so unusual about that?”. To this I’ll reply “Are you forgetting your place, Soldat! That
is not how you address a superior officer!” and
then explain. The trick here is to field the BBQ
Squad AND the Hell Boys. By embedding The
Chef in the BBQ squad and reinforcing your
Hell Boys with someone else, your enemy is
going to have a hard time prioritizing targets. It
also spreads out your resources, so that if your
enemy gets lucky against your Hell Boys, you
haven’t lost everything. If you can afford the
immense cost, this will likely prove a deadly
combo to your foes.
Yakov
Ok, so technically the infamous Yakov Pavlov
(of Pavlov’s House fame) carries an acid thrower, which isn’t a flame weapon. But drowning
your enemies in a bath of acid is almost as satisfying, so he gets the pick.
Close combat squads are traditionally hard to
keep alive long enough to reach their target, and
a hero’s health only goes so far. This is only aggravated by the fact that the Fakyeli are Assault
troops, rather than Fast ones. But Yakov is the
most expensive man in the world for a reason,
his 30 points buy you the Legendary Tactician
skill. This makes any squad he’s in, and any adjacent squads as well, increase their cover by
one step, even if they otherwise wouldn’t be
in cover. This is a decided advantage for the
Fakyeli, who will always have soft cover, if not
hard cover, while advancing upon the foes of the
Motherland. And even though his mighty acid
thrower doesn’t ignore cover like the Fakyeli’s
sulfur thrower, it still deals one die per enemy
beneath its spray. And for good measure, Yakov carries a trusty TT-46 pistol with him at all
times.
Alternatively, you may choose to take advantage
of the fact that Legendary Tactician extends to
all adjacent units as well. To do this, combine
him with any squad of strong Soviet stock, such
as the Frontoviki. He’s also good with any of the
Red Guards squads, like Red Thunder or Red
Assault, who carry immense firepower once in
range. Even the Chinese Volunteers can present
an interesting scenario, wherein you utilize their
Agile nature to keep Yakov closest to the center
of your troops. No matter who you field him
with, however, be sure to keep him surrounded
with as many soldiers as you can. That way they
all benefit from his cover boost.
fire
The Natural Choice: Fakyeli
The great thing about Yakov is that his Legendary Tactician skill is so versatile. Combining
him with a squad of snipers or observers can
make a completely open field feel like a reinforced bunker because of these squad’s superior
cover saves. Standing in the middle of a snow
covered plain never felt so good (but definitely
still cold).
tactical corner: kill it with
The Unusual Choice:
Jnetzi, Nabludatyel,
or any front line squad
101
rosie’s scrapyard v1.1
Rosie’s scrapyard v1.1
Rosie’s Scrapyard is an on-going community driven initiative. As new rules
and vehicles come into the Dust Warfare world, and as community members
make suggestions these rules will be revised.
Premise: The objective of Rosie’s scrap yard is to come up with a workable
system to generate 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.
Step 1 Choose hull size, Damage and Armor values
Our 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
DEDICATED TRANSPORT – Min-Max total AP value less than 15
Max combined Damage and Armor value of 5
Dedicated Transports are those vehicles who’s primary function is to transport squads across
the battle field. They must be purchased as a ‘squad upgrade’ much in the same manner as
an extra bazooka can be bought for The Gunners and thus do not count as a platoon section.
Dedicated Transports run the gamut from unarmored jeeps and trucks to lightly armored 1/2
tracks like the sdkfz 251 or M3. Dedicated Transports never count towards VP in any way
and may not contest or claim objectives.
LIGHT - Min-Max total AP value 15 to 29pts
102
MEDIUM – Min-Max AP 30-49pts
HEAVY – Min-Max AP 50-120pts
For light and medium vehicles the two values are simply multiplied together to reach a structure 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:
Dedicated Transport Armor 2 Damage Capacity 2 = 2x2 = 4 AP base cost
Light vehicle Armor 3 Damage Capacity 3 = 3x3 = 9 AP base cost
Medium vehicle Armor 4 Damage Capacity 4 = 4x4 = 16 AP base cost
Heavy vehicle Armor 7 Damage Capacity 10 = (7x10)/2 = 35 AP base cost
Step 2 Determine Speed
The table below indicates the base speed of vehicles of various hull size and mobility types.
Base Speed
Light/
Dedicated Transports
Wheels
7
Half Track
6
Track
5
Biped Walker
6
Multi-leg Walker 4
Medium
5
4
5
6
4
Heavy
3
4
6
If you wish to increase the base speed of your vehicle it will cost the following AP:
Medium
1/8”
1/6”
1/7”
2/8”
1/9”
Heavy
2/6”
2/6”
2/7”
The value before the slash is the AP cost to increase max speed by 1”. The value after the
slash represents the maximum possible speed for that size and type of vehicle.
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”
sue 3
dust chronicles is
Light/
Wheels
1/12”
Half Track
1/8”
Track
1/7”
Biped Walker
1/12”
Multi-leg Walker 1/12”
103
Step 3 Select weaponry
Total weapon mounts by hull size
This is the maximum number of independently targeting weapon systems a hull can mount.
Light 2
Medium 3
Heavy 4
Weapon mount maximums
Twin 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.
Light/
Medium
MGs/HMGs Quad/Twin 2x Quad/2xTwin
Up to 20mm Quad/Twin
2xQuad/1xQuad
Up to 37mm Twin/single
Quad/Twin
Up to 50mm Twin/single
2xTwin/2xSingle
Up to 76.2mm
Single/NA
Twin/Single
Up to 95mm NA
Twin/Single
Up to 128mm
NA
Single/NA
Up to 155mm
NA
NA
Up to 223mm
NA
NA
Artillery
Single/NA
Twin/Single
Napalm Thrower/
Schwer Flammenwerfer Single/NA
Twin/Single
Heavy Naplam Thrower
NA
NA
PIAT / Werfer
Twin/single
Quad/Twin
Light Phaser
Twin/single
Quad/Twin
Heavy Phaser
NA
Twin/single
Laser Kanone
Twin/single
Quad/Twin
Schwer Laser Kanone
NA
Twin/single
104
Expanded Statistics and Weapon Cost Chart
Heavy
4xQuad/4xTwin
3xQuad/4xTwin
2xQuad/2xTwin
2xQuad/2xTwin
Quad/2xSingle
Quad/Twin
2x Twin/Single
Twin/Single
Twin/Single
Quad/Twin
Quad/Twin
Twin/Single
2xQuad/2xTwin
2xQuad/2xTwin
Quad/Twin
2xQuad/2xTwin
Quad/Twin
Choosing weapons is next, AKA the fun part. We’ve created this list with all the weapons in
Dust Warfare 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 an AP formula for weapons after the chart.
105
Creating your own weapons
You 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:
Welcome to Weapons Design 101:
Our original brief was to try and create a design process which would attempt to match
published Rulebook values. So I chose the Pounder as the ‘benchmark’ vehicle. After
costing for vehicle structure it appeared that giving the 17 pdr a value of around 18 AP
seemed about right.
So additional weapons design and costing would be based on their relative values to the
17 pdr taking into account Firepower, Range and Special Weapons Abilities.
Firstly I needed to determine a Firepower value. For each weapon entry in the basic
Rulebook there can be up to 14 separate FP values for each weapon entry plus a range
value in inches, 4 x Anti-Infantry, 7 x Anti-Tank and 3 x Anti-Air. e.g.
As portrayed in the basic Rulebook the majority of these values are written in the example format of 7/1 or 1/3. To determine the firepower value I simply took the larger
value and multiplied it by the smaller so:
7/1 = 7 FP
1/3 = 3 FP
3/2 = 6 FP
For Burst weapon I use the following FP values:
*/1 = 5 FP **/1=10 FP
So reading the entry for the benchmark 17 pdr in the Basic Rulebook I get fourteen
values 8,4,2,2,7,7,6,6,5,5,4,0,0,0
106
Step 1: I add these values together (8+4+2+2+7+7+6+6+5+5+4+0+0+0) = 56
I then multiply this resulting value by 0.009 (yep I know you will need a calculator for
this, but the latest VK powered ones do the trick.)
So in the above example I get a value of 0.504
Next I factor in the weapons maximum range. The 17 pdr has a range of 36”
Step 2: Simply multiply the value derived in Step 1 by the range of the weapon in
inches.. So for the 17 pdr which has a range of 36”.
0.504 * 36 = 18.144 Round this down to 18
Step 3: The total from Step 3 can additionally be modified to take into account any
special weapon abilities. Increase or decrease the Firepower value by the percentage
values listed below. Where the weapon is subject to more than one Special Weapons
Ability add them together.
(the Spray Attribute is already factored into the firepower calculations)
Special Weapons Abilities AP Modifiers
Penetrator
Tank Killer Artillery
Indirect
Burst
Phaser
Laser
Reload
50%
50%
25%
15%
25%
50%
25%
-50%
Other Weapon Creation Examples
Example 1
Ok lets calculate the value of the 17.3cm FpK Zwei
weapon entry in the Basic Rule Book gives values of:
(10 + 5 + 3 + 3 + 11 + 11 + 9 + 9 + 8 + 8 +7+0+0+0) = 84
Multiply 84 by 0.009 = 0.756
Step 2: Multiply the result of Step 1 by the range in inches. 0.756 x 36 = 27.216
Round down to 27
Referring to the Special Weapons Ability table we see that the final fire power value should be increased by 50%.
27 x 1.5 (50% ) gives a final AP value of 40.824 rounded up to give a final cost of 41 AP
sue 3
Step 3: The 17.3cm ‘Zwei’ in the Basic Rulebook has ‘Penetrator Weapons’ ability.
dust chronicles is
Step 1: Determine the Firepower factors of the Anti-Inf, Anti_Tank and Anti-Air. Checking the
Example 2
Lets go to the other end of the spectrum and calculate the cost of a .30 cal MG
Step 1: FP factors from the Basic Rulebook are:
(6+3+1+0+2+1+0+0+0+0+0+1+1+0) = 15
Multiply 15 by 0.009 = 0.135
Step 2: Multiply the result of Step 1 by the range in inches.
0.135 x 16 = 2.16 rounded down to give a final cost of 2
Step 3 can be skipped as the .30 cal MG does not have any Special Weapons Abilities
107
Example 3
The deadly Nebelwerfer 42
Step 1: Firepower factors from the Basic rulebook are:
(10+10+10+10+6+6+6+6+6+6+6+0+0+0) = 82
(A burst value of **/1 is counted as FP = 10)
Multiply 82 by 0.009 = 0.738
Step 2: Multiply the result of Step 1 by the range in inches.
0.738 x 36 = 26.568 round up to to 27.
Step 3: The Nebelwerfer 42 in the Basic Rulebook has the ‘Reload’ and ‘Artillery’ Special
Weapons Ability. Referring to the Special Weapons Ability table we see that the final fire
power value should be increased by 25%. for ‘Artillery’ and reduced by 50% for the ‘Reload’
ability. This gives a net reduction of -25%
27 x 0.75 (-25% ) gives a final AP value of 20.25 rounded to 20
You can apply the above formula to create and cost all manner of fiendish weapons both historical and super-science to dominate the Dust Battlefield
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...
108
Light/
Jump
1% x Speed
Hover
1% x Speed
Flight
2% x Speed
Amphibious
10%
Medium
1% x Speed
5% x Speed
10% x Speed
10%
Heavy
2% x Speed
10% x Speed
20% x Speed
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.
Here is the Pounder Walker:
Step 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
Basic speed of a medium walker is 6” So no additional AP’s are required for Movement.
Examples using Rosie’s Scrapyard Construction rules
Step 3 Add Weapons
The Pounder carries the following weapons.
17 Pdr Gun (turret) = 18pts
50 Cal Mg (turret) =
4pts
30 Cal Mg (f)
=
2pts
This gives a weapons total of 24 Points
Added to the 16 Structure Points gives a sub total of 40 Points
Step 4 Calculate cost of Special Traits
The 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 42 points (this can be compared with the Dust warfare Rulebook value of 40 AP.
109
Next a Panther Tank:
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 tracked vehicle is 5”.
Step 3 Add Weapons
Our Panther carries the following weapons:
7.5cm kwk L/70 (turret) =
18
MG44 (turret)
=
2
MG44 (F)
=
2
This gives a weapon total of 22.
Added to the structure points gives us a sub total of 38 points.
The Panther has Damage Resilient. Looking at the chart we see that the sub total must increase by 10%. Thus 38x10% = 41.8 rounded to 42 points for our Panther.
rosie donovan - asocom
Because the Panther is a tracked vehicle, don’t forget to use the Tracks special rule from the
Dust Warfare Rulebook page 56.
110
Or What about a ‘Truck’
‘Truck’ refers to the ubiquitous ’Deuce and a halfs’ Opelblitz etc. These should be built as
Dedicated Transports.
Multiplying these structure values together we get 2x2 = 4.
Step 2 Calculate cost of Movement Traits
Wheeled Light/Dedicated Transports have a movement of 7”.
Step 3 Add Weapons
N/A
Since our truck is unarmed, our subtotal so far is 4.
Note that all wheeled vehicles should also use the special Wheels rule from the Dust Warfare
Rulebook page 56.
Since this is a dedicated transport, a Death Dealers squad could be upgraded to ride in a
‘Truck’ for a total squad cost of 26 points. For an SSU combined squad, I would recommend
paying the cost of the truck twice. There would be only one model but effectively there are
two squads being upgraded. i.e. Two SSU Battle Squads being lead by The Trediakovsky
and mounted in a ‘Truck’ would cost 14+14+8+6+6=48 points. SSU players, let us know
how this works out for you.
We decided to give our ‘Truck’ a Carry Capacity of 12. Looking at the chart we can see that
for Light/Dedicated Transports we will multiply our subtotal by 5%. 4x5% = 6 AP Total.
There you have it, the updated rules for Rosie’s Scrapyard. Now please understand that we
will keep working away on these to make them better and easier to use. However, this can
only be done with your help. Let us know your experience with the current version (RS v1.1)
by emailing: [email protected]. The more feedback we get the better we can make
these rules.
111
rosie’s vehicle showcase
112
rosie’s scrapyard
vehicle showcase
All the vehicles listed here were made
from the Rosie’s Scrapyard v1.1 article
in this issue. If you have some converted
or historical vehicles you’d like to see in
Dust Chronicles, send their profiles and
pics to ([email protected]) and
we may include them in a future issue.
Panther F Tank
Move: 5” (tracks) Armor: 4
Base Cost: 42
Basic Unit: 1 medium Tank
DC: 4
Weapons: 7.5cm kwk L/70 (turret), MG44 (turret), MG44 (F)
Special Abilities: Damage Resilient, Tracks (DW p.56)
5
4
4
Sherman VC
DC: 4
Base Cost: 36
Weapons: 17 pdr (turret), .30 cal (turret)
Special Abilities: Tracks (DW p.56)
5
4
4
Jagdpanther
Move: 5” (tracks) Type: Vehicle 5
Base Cost: 46
DC: 4
Weapons: 8.8 L/71 (F), MG44 (F)
Special Abilities: Tracks (DW p.56)
5
5
4
113
234/1
Move: 7” (wheels)Armor: 2
Base Cost: 19
Basic Unit: 1 light vehicle
DC: 3
Weapons: 2.0 cm Flak (Turret), MG44 (Turret)
Special Abilities: Wheels (DW p. 56), Agile, Artillery Strike
7
114
2
3
MCW M2-H “HUNTING DOG”
Move: 6” (walker)Armor: 4 DC: 4
Base Cost: 41
Basic Unit: 1 medium Walker
Weapons: US 76mm M1A (Turret), .50 cal (Turret), .30 cal (F)
Special Abilities: Scout Vehicle
6
4
4
MCW M2-C2 “TUSKER”
Move: 6” (walker)Armor: 4 DC: 4
Base Cost: 40
Basic Unit: 1 medium Walker
Weapons: US 90mm T54 (Turret), .30 cal (F)
Special Abilities: Damage Resilient
6
4
4
Move:6” (1/2 tracks) Armor: 2
Base Cost: 8
Basic Unit: 1 light vehicle
DC: 2
Weapons: MG44 (F)
Special Abilities: Carry Capacity: 6, Dedicated Transport (see this Issue’s
Rosie’s Scrapyard), Tracks (DW p.56)
6
2
2
dust chronicles #3
251 Half Track
115
Tiger II (Vk)
116
Base Cost: 65
Basic Unit: 1 Heavy Tank
DC: 5
Weapons: Schwer Laser Kanone Zwei (turret), MG44 (turret)
Special Abilities: Damage Resilient, Tracks (DW p. 56)
5
5
5
sue
1st of february 2013
in the february is
see you next year
!
d
a
r
g
o
r
h
g
u
e
v
z
o
r
h
ur
t
y
a
w
o
t
h
g
i
f
e
w
117

dust adventures * dust studio * how 2

Transcription

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